I ate my wafer...

6/30/2006

Mandatory word counts are of the devil.

So, I'm writing a paper. I'm heavilly stressed, depressed, low on sleep, and simultaneously exhausted and overstimulated from the endless gallons of Diet Coke, the cans of Monster Drink and the, at least for me, inordinate amouts of nicotine.

As usual with the law school contrived version of legal writing, I'm struggling to meet the mandatory word count with a topic that simply doesn't require as many words as I'm required to produce. Like virtually every paper I've written in years, I've swiftly written 80% or so of the requirement, only to now face endless hours of scraping and digging to produce the last bit. That last 20%, as usual is taking at least 60% of the time. And, to face the truth of things, the last 20% is completely unnecessary crap, bloated legal phrasing, unnecessary citation, tangental footnotes, and even pointlessly novel arguments that a real court would merely be annoyed at.

If there's any light at all at the end of this particular tunnel it is the hope that someday I'll only have to write what needs to be said, with an upper page limit, not some contrived minimum.

Right, well, enough time wasting, back to the paper hell.

2 Comments:

  • Bob, the ranger is an '88 (2.9/5 speed). I'd love to have that manual.

    By Blogger luke, at 2:49 PM  

  • It may take a while for me to figure out where it is, but you're welcome to it.

    Likewise, if you have any questions, I had an '84 (2.8/C5), but the 2.8 is basically a mechanical lifter/carbed 2.9.

    The only real problem I know of with the 2.9 is that they had some pretty bad head cracking issues before '89 or '90 when they changed casting design. So, whatever you do, DO NOT let it overheat, or you'll nearly certainly crack a head.

    There's good info on the whole 60 degree Colongne engine family here:

    http://www.therangerstation.com/tech_library/index.htm

    Oh, and like all Ford TFI ignitions, it wouldn't kill you too keep a spare ignition module around. They're a pretty high failure rate item, espicially compared to GM HEI components.

    By Blogger Bob, at 11:07 AM  

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