'if only they knew how real this life really gets'

I whipped out my tape measure this morning to size up that nipple hair of mine. It's a little over 2 inches long. I think with enough training, discipline and a daily regiment of not cutting it, I have a real shot.

This afternoon, I'm journeying to southeast Philadelphia to UPS to pick up my DSL modem from Verizon. That means I should be online this evening. If I'm not, I'll scream. Loudly. I can't take these computer labs anymore — the lack of preferences, privacy concerns, scarcity. It will be so nice to be able to check e-mail from the comfort of my own home again.

My professor for the Contitution and Judicial Process is a prosecutor in Delaware County. He usually grades our weekly papers, which are due Tuesday, before class on Thursday night, but he didn't have time this week. His excuse? He was in federal court all week.

I'm going to digress here. I remember from the mountain of college brochures I received in high school that many of them were proud to boast that 85, 90, 98 percent of their professors have PhDs. It sounded like a great idea at the time, and many students bought it. I'm glad, however, that I came to Drexel University. My political science course on law is not taught by someone with a PhD in political science who's read up on legal theory; it's taught by a lawyer, a prosecutor. When he taught us the structure of the federal and Pennsylvania courts, he was speaking about places he's presented cases, not places he's read about. The software engineering course required for the computer science major is taught by a software engineer, a consultant who's overseen multi-terabyte databases and legacy software decades old — but who only holds a master's degree. Why wouldn't you want to learn about a profession from someone who excells at it?

This Saturday, Atmosphere is performing at the Trocadero. They're a hip-hop group from Minneapolis. You might have heard their hit single last year, "Trying to Find a Balance." You can read their bios from MTV, VH1 and Rolling Stone. Tickets are only $19. If you'd like to join me, please give me a call or e-mail me.