Electile Dysfunction?

I've done some poking around using an electoral votes map (and man are there a lot out there; I'm using CQ's Scenario Builder), and taking past results into account along with national sentiment and the relative strength of both teams, I've come up with a slightly better prediction than my last.

McCain by a nose (274-264) or Obama by a fairly hefty margin (284-254). I came to this number after making a few educated guesses about the swing states this fall: giving New Hampshire and New Mexico to Obama, although their margins are razor-thin; giving Florida to McCain because the 2000 election is still on many minds, in both parties; and leaving Ohio up in the air. Like 2004, I believe Ohio's votes will determine the winner in the end.

The questions, then, are: how much of the 2004 landscape can Obama's campaign capture, how much will McCain gain from former Hillary supporters, and how much will Ron Paul be able to pull away from McCain?

If Paul has the same impact on this election as Nader had on the last two, then it could easily go to Obama. If, however, Paul's supporters recognize that McCain is closer to their interests than Obama, then it could go to McCain. Likewise, if enough former Hillary supporters defect to McCain (a possibility which is far from remote, given McCain's relatively moderate stance on social issues and the undeniable fact that some of them have been dying to vote for a woman since 1984), it could eat into Obama's hold on a few electoral votes.

Like the last two elections, this one will be exceptionally tight (and potentially very bitter for either side if their preferred candidate loses). Don't expect to see a lot of national unity coming out of this one.

Thoughts on the RNC, Day 1.

Kris and I decided to be well away from St. Paul for most of the day, and so headed down to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival with our friend R. It was a fun day, full of costumes and weaponry, and a fat man in a t-shirt and shorts, sporting...fairy wings. 

Oh yeah. Talk about advertising your preference.

Anyway. It was a hot and dusty day, but fun all around. Driving home, however, was less than pleasant.

Kris and I carpooled with R from her place in Burnsville down to Shakopee, then obviously had to drive back to St. Paul later. This was largely uneventful, except for two things: a motorcade and a couple of road closures.

We were tooling along (under the speed limit, even) the Crosstown when suddenly we see two State Troopers along the shoulder. Shortly thereafter, a third Trooper came into view...then two large SUVs with Maryland plates, and a couple other police vehicles of some sort or another. None of the law enforcement vehicles had their lights flashing.

Next thing I know, yet another Trooper has passed one of the local police cars behind me and moved up onto my tail, honking his horn and pointing to the right that I should move over. My first instinct is to think, "what the hell...?" followed by, "uh, no, I don't have to." After some prodding by Kris, I reluctantly moved onto the shoulder, wondering if the Trooper was going to try to pull me over for some trumped up offense. To general surprise, the Trooper passed me by...and about five seconds later the lot of them (probably about five or six in all) had their lights flashing. About. Bloody. Time.

I'm all for obeying law enforcement when they act according to their mandate, but it was by no means apparent at first that this was a motorcade that needed both lanes of traffic. The first Troopers, as well as the Maryland-plated SUVs, and all but two other Troopers, passed me (and three other cars in my lane) on the left without incident. It wasn't until that last Trooper acted like, well, a jackass that they decided it was completely necessary to occupy the entire highway. 

If the Trooper had lit his lights from the beginning of this issue, then there would have been no question: I had to move. The fact that he rode my tail, honked his horn, and gestured to me to move over--like a few jackasses I've dealt with on the highway during rush hour--made me think at first that he was abusing his authority. Actually, I still think it; there's just no way for me to report him.

I feel for my friends in DC; this must be at least a weekly occurrence for you guys.

On an unrelated note, Kris and I were watching the news and saw a report that an anarchist group smashed windows and were otherwise violent and uncivil for their first day of protest of the RNC. Y'know, I'm a big fan of free speech...but frankly, protests (in general) strike me as an exercise in futility. Yeah, you might get attention for a cause, but a) you aren't going to change the minds of the people attending the convention; b) breaking store windows and trying to start a riot won't make you any friends with the locals; and c) I'm a fan of reasoned argument rather than chants and slogans. If all you have is a sign on a stick and a silly rhyme, go home and re-evaluate your life.

I'm just glad not to live or work down by the Excel Center. Minnesota nice does not extend to people who trash our homes and businesses. And for another matter, traffic is going to suck this week.

Veeps!

I tend to shy away from politics here, which is why I've mentioned politically-charged issues all of twice on this blog. That said, now that both major parties' candidates have named their running mates, I think a bit of analysis is due.

For starters, McCain's choice of a woman candidate sends a message to those Hillary supporters who don't want to vote for Obama: while Obama might not be willing to name a woman running mate, McCain is. On the same token, it sends a message to the media: admit it, Republicans are ready for a woman VP / potential C-i-C, just as long as it isn't HRC.

Secondly, Obama's choice of Biden may help bolster his "experience" issues, but the fact remains that neither of them have Executive experience; Biden has spent his entire political career in the Senate, as has Obama (including his time in the Illinois legislature). McCain doesn't have any Executive experience either, but his choice of a state governor as VP helps mitigate that lack of experience (even if, as is rightly pointed out, Palin was only elected two years ago). On top of that, Obama's choice of a Washington insider (Biden's three+ decades) is in direct opposition to his mantra of "change," while McCain's dark horse pick is perfectly in line with his maverick image.

In some respects, McCain would have been better served by choosing a VP with more experience, such as Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (ok, I might be a little biased here, seeing as I'm from MN), but I think it was a good call not to go with a former primary opponent like Gov. Romney. Note that Obama didn't choose his biggest rival (Clinton), but did choose a former opponent in the primaries. Snubbing Clinton was not a good move, in my opinion, as she holds a lot more weight in the Democratic party than Biden does. For that matter, let's face it: you didn't expect the Republicans to choose a woman VP candidate and the Democrats to choose the old, white guy VP candidate, did you?

This year's presidential election will be close, that's a given, but I think there are surprises left to show up before November. I have to admit I'm a bit surprized by both candidates' choices, but I think McCain's choice was probably the smarter of the two.

I'll give my full prediction for this election cycle after looking at the electoral votes, but here's a filler: McCain by a nose. If I'm right, you heard it here first. If I'm wrong, well...eh, that's nothing new.

Law students and lawyers really do have a reputation, don't they?

When the iPhone 3G was released, accompanying it was the 2.0 version of the firmware, available for both the original iPhone and the iPod Touch. Always looking for ways to make my devices more useful, I downloaded the new software--which made my iPod Touch finally able to connect to the law school's wireless network, for a start. I also started downloading applications from the App Store the same day.

Earlier today, out of curiosity I decided to do a search on the App Store for applications related to "Law." Not surprisingly, the ABA Journal application (basically a rss reader for ABAJ articles) showed up, along with applications for keeping track of billable hours and time cards, even one to show how much meetings cost every minute they last. No real surprise there. 

On the other hand, a couple funny, slightly unexpected (but hilarious) ones showed up, too:

Drunkulator (a tool for estimating your Blood Alcohol Content on the go, for entertainment purposes only); and

Bram Stoker's Dracula (the e-book version, intended for the reader application also sold in the App Store).

Yep. The App Store certainly has the legal profession pegged.

I'm a 2L; that guy's just a tool.

Classes have begun, my new job begins tomorrow (I must be crazy to have a full class schedule and my max of 20 hours of work per week, but this way I have a bit less debt to pay), and wedding planning takes up the rest of my free time (sneaking in time here and there to, uh, actually hang out with my fiancee), so Heaven knows if or when I'll be able to post entries to this thing. There's some good material so far this semester, though, so we'll see if this stuff finds its way into the day to be posted.

I do have to say, though: I got spoiled by my section last year. Seldom was there any of the backbiting or other crap you often hear about when people talk about law school; my section was pretty chill, and we didn't really have much in the way of gunners or others who intentionally tried to claw their way to the front of the curve by screwing over their classmates. (Yeah, I might have thought to have identified a couple of them, but they turned out pretty cool in the end--just goes to show that 1Ls rarely know as much as they think they do.) So far this semester, many of the people in my 1L section have ended up in my 2L classes, which is nice: we help each other out, and generally have a good sense of humor. It's good to go into Evidence on the first day, have someone mention an episode of MacGyver that had been briefly discussed in Civ Pro last year, and have everyone from our old section laugh appreciatively. (What better way to show an example of juror misconduct than with a guy in a leather jacket and mullet?)

That said, I believe we've concretely identified one gunner in one of my classes. The guy had his hand up for every other question, gave more information than the professor asked for, and did it in such a know-it-all tone that it was evident even to Evidence Prof. Others of us might have tried to suck up to the rest of the class (when asked if he would prefer to draw a jury pool from his fellow law students or from average folks on the street, one guy chose his peers, saying, "Well, we're all smart and good-looking people...."), but at least it drew a few laughs instead of silent condemnation. 

I have to say, though, that given Evidence Prof's inclination to using the Socratic Method and blanket ban on laptops in class, it might be nice to let the gunner take over on occasion (though it's likely that he'll get to be so annoying that some of us might speak up just to shut him up). If nothing else, it could make for good blogging.

We'll see.

Oof

I just got home from my first karate class since late May, and man, am I exhausted. My head is still slightly spinning, my heart is still pounding, my legs ache...in short: I'm pooped. It was really, really silly to start up with an hour and a half of hard training after two months plus of absence.

I keep telling myself: "Never again. Never again will I go so long without training, or at least doing something to keep more in shape." Nevermind that I don't keep up on the running that Kris and I were supposed to do together (for the record, she's been too busy with work to do it either, so there's a small part of my excuse), and spend entirely too much time in front of a computer....

Two weeks before heading on into the 2L shed, I have one assignment already (Ethics) and hope to have the rest of them within the next week. Not that I've ever been good about keeping up to date on my work, mind, especially with the on-going job hunt for something to keep me afloat during school, but it'd be nice to know what I have to look forward to. Other than the large, steaming pile of work we're sure to be assigned, that is.

Ok, on that note...I'm going to shower and have a beer. I could use the muscle relaxant.

On tying Gordian knots.

When Kris and I got engaged, we knew it was only a matter of time before we got bombarded with, "how are the wedding plans going?" and other like questions. We decided to put up a new blog for the two of us, complete with a picture and our real names...and then limited it pretty much to family and people who will be in the wedding itself.

I don't mean to leave people out of the loop, but I can only talk about wedding stuff for so long before it feels like my head is in a vice. No matter how much it might be one of the biggest time-sinks in my life at the moment, I can only talk about it so much before it becomes more than I want to deal with.

I love Kris. She's beyond great, has been very patient with me any my quirky sense of humor (take a guy who loves puns and put him in a torts class, and you have a dangerous combination...though Tiramisu torte is delicious!), and is the one person I can see myself with for the rest of my life. If I don't want to talk about wedding planning, it isn't because I don't want to marry her--far from it. The minutiae involved in planning for this thing, though, just isn't my thing.

We've got a lot of the big things figured out: date, ceremony and reception venues, officiant (ok, that's in progress, but we have a couple options if necessary), the wedding party, most of the guest list, and some of the music. The littler things, though, are in progress...and really, with a lot of it, I could care less.

Take invitations, for example. If there was only one style of invitation out there, I would be fine with it--and we'd be done with it now. Sadly, scrapbooking fanatics have all but destroyed any chance of simplicity in that regard, and I've been subjected to Kris asking me (fairly regularly), "what do you think of this one?"

Blagh.

When it comes to things that impact me directly, like the style of tuxedo, the flavor of cake, or the photographer, then yeah--I want a voice in the discussion. If it's something that doesn't directly affect me in some way, like the invitations or what kind of flowers the bridesmaids will be carrying, then asking my opinion will only muddy things up. It isn't that I don't like Kris's tastes in these things, I just. don't. care.

The wedding topic will probably come up periodically between now and next June, but I don't plan on turning this blog into a wedding blog from the groom's perspective. For one thing, if I start talking about the minutiae of the wedding plans, it'll probably devolve into a critique of the wedding industry and the impact Martha Stewart and her ilk have had on it. For another, I'm probably just a little too apathetic about a lot of the process for many blog entries on the topic to be interesting.

Ask me about Minnesota Statute Chapter 517, though, and I can probably make that interesting enough....

Tagged again

I originally wrote this up back in December, a couple days before my fall Civ Pro final. I only have a week left of summer session, and four or five weeks after that until Fall semester begins, so I think I'm going to put this up...now that I have my Civ Pro grade from the spring. I mean, seriously, how hard is it for a professor to, I dunno, get our grades in by the deadline? Then again, I've said it before: if law professors were good with deadlines, they'd actually be practicing attorneys instead of law professors. But I digress.





It's finals time, I have a little more than a day to study for Civ Pro, and I still don't feel like anything better than a C- is in the cards for that particular exam. What better thing to do now than play a blogger game? Exactly. Besides, I've had my head stuck in nothing but procedure for the last four days so a study break would be good.

The Rules:

1) Put your iTunes or other music player on Shuffle
2) For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3) YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER WHAT(this is in capital letters, so it must be very serious. No hiding your showtunes, folks!)

After you’ve answered all of the questions, tag 5 other people and then let them know they’ve been tagged to do the meme themselves!

1) IF SOMEONE SAYS “IS THIS OKAY” YOU SAY? Sexy Plexi -- Jack Johnson

2) WHAT WOULD BEST DESCRIBE YOUR PERSONALITY? Crazy -- Gnarls Barkley (Ha! Sanity is over-rated; I'm in law school, am I not?)

3) WHAT DO YOU LIKE IN A GUY/GIRL? Scandal Walk -- George Gershwin (Does this mean that I like scandalous walks? Or ragtime piano?)

4) HOW DO YOU FEEL TODAY? I've Got a Dark Alley and a Bad Idea That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth (Summer Song) -- Fall Out Boy (Between Kris having a bad cold and threatening to pass it on to me, and having a final in less than 48 hours, today could be better...but it certainly could be worse, too.)

5) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE? Karma Police -- Radiohead (Haha--I saw a comic once who said he believed in Karma, and would occasionally punch people in the face at random and ask, "What did you do to deserve that?")

6) WHAT IS YOUR MOTTO? Valentine's Day -- Linkin Park (I hate V-Day; how does that work?)

7) WHAT DO YOUR FRIENDS THINK OF YOU? I Might Be Wrong -- Radiohead (Does that mean they think they might be wrong? Or do they think I might be wrong?)

8) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR PARENTS? Come On Come On -- JET ("Got my hands in your pockets, I'll take what I need" seems to work for when I was younger, but I'm not nearly the leech I was years ago. I love my folks, they rock.)

9) WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT VERY OFTEN? Drowning Man -- U2 (Maybe that won't be the case during break?)

10) WHAT IS 2+2? Time of Your Life -- Green Day (Heh.)

11) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR BEST FRIEND? And So It Goes -- Billy Joel (Is this because I don't have a "best" friend, per se?)

12) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE PERSON YOU LIKE? I Thought About You -- Frank Sinatra (Yeah, I tend to think about my lovely girlfriend quite often.)

13) WHAT IS YOUR LIFE STORY? Movin' Out -- Billy Joel ("You oughta know by now...")

14) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? For Whom the Bell Tolls -- Apocalyptica (Yeah, defendants better listen up: the bell tolls for thee. At least, if I'm prosecuting, that is.)

15) WHAT DO YOU THINK WHEN YOU SEE THE PERSON YOU LIKE? Wish You Were Here -- Radiohead cover (Nevermind we don't live terribly far from each other, unlike one couple I know who live 2+ hours apart and only see each other on the weekends.)

16) WHAT DO YOUR PARENTS THINK OF YOU? Proudest Monkey -- Dave Matthews Band (Hahahaha....)

17) WHAT WILL YOU DANCE TO AT YOUR WEDDING? Romeo and Juliet -- Everclear (Umm...probably not.)

18) WHAT WILL THEY PLAY AT YOUR FUNERAL? You Sexy Thing -- Hot Chocolate (Live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse. Right.)

19) WHAT IS YOUR HOBBY/INTEREST? Life By The Drop -- Stevie Ray Vaughan (Maybe this is because I'm a law student, and lawyers have such a high rate of alcoholism?)

20) WHAT IS YOUR BIGGEST SECRET? Stomping at the Savoy -- Benny Goodman Orchestra (I admit it--I like Big Band swing music.)

21) WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR FRIENDS? Sweet Emotion -- Aerosmith (What can I say? I love my friends.)

I'm supposed to tag people, but you know what? If there isn't a provision for consequences should I not tag anyone, I'm not going to do it. What, is someone going to sue me for specific performance?

Tempus Fugit

Wow, I have really been away from the blog thing for a long time. No posts since March? And nothing between then and January? Bad Ric. No biscuit.

The truth is, I got lazy during winter break so I didn't post almost at all during then; after that, legal writing kicked my ass and kept me so busy I thought my nose might wear a channel in the grindstone. It isn't like there wasn't anything to write about; I just didn't feel the motivation.

My personal blog (which I used for keeping in touch with friends) met the same fate, until recently when I decided just to close shop entirely there. It's like my tv-watching habits; there just isn't enough time in the day to do it all, so something had to give. I'm going to miss being able to watch The Simpsons regularly....

On the other hand, other new and interesting things have cropped up to keep things busy other than schoolwork. Kris and I got engaged earlier this month, looking at getting married sometime next summer. I'm taking a summer course, and working entirely too little (but at least I like what I do, so that's something), so walking into the 2L shed this fall shouldn't be too much of a shock to the system after a summer off.

Things have been busy, but I think I'm going to keep this blog "active" for the time being. At least, I'm not going to nuke it any time soon. Maybe if time permits, I'll be able to get back into commenting on others' blogs and otherwise get back into the community.

One can only hope.

On Spears.

I'm a big fan of How I Met Your Mother, but most unfortunately my apartment doesn't get CBS if it's a cloudy day. Consequently, when Kris and I watched the morning news today while getting ready for work / class, it came as a surprise to find a big deal made of Britney Spears having a guest spot on one of my favorite shows.

From the way the reporters were going on about Britney's "comedic timing," and how she's "reinventing herself," I figured the guest role must have been pretty significant, perhaps one of the potentials for the focus of the plot. Given that there were a couple hours between classes today, I watched the episode online at cbs.com.

After watching the little over 20-minute episode, I gotta say--what the hell is the big deal about Britney Spears?! The role was a bit part, little more than a minor plot device. Seriously, that role could have been played by any other actress and it would have been just as good. If Britney was the reason for the improved ratings for last night's episode, I weep for the sitcom-watching public.

I have to wonder about the people who watched that show simply for the gimick of Britney Spears being in an episode. If they got an introduction to the show and decided they liked it, then...ok. If they watched strictly and simply because Britney was in it, and never watch again, then...that's just sad.

I can't guarantee that I'm back to posting regularly, but I'll do my best between looking for a job and prepping the last few weeks before finals. Legal writing is keeping me almost unnecessarily busy, and the motivation to do anything writing-related is lacking, but we'll see what topics end up getting put into the blog.

In the mean time, be excellent to each other.

Is that smoke? And why are my pants so hot?

Yeah, yeah...I'm a dirty liar for promising more posts and then disappearing for most of four weeks. I'd say "sue me" right there, but then again my readership tends to be law students and lawyers (as far as I can tell), so...yeah. Anyway.

Break was good. It's amazing how busy you can get when you don't have any real work to do (aside from the temp job, of course), but all in all it was nice not to have my head stuck in books for three weeks. It was a little weird to feel the impulse to study after finishing finals (some habits are just hard to break), but that was satisfied by researching recipes for Christmas dinner. Damn was that a good meal.

For the few of you who still read, and the even fewer of you who may be considering law school in the future, here are a few Dos and Don'ts for your first semester break:

DO: Celebrate the end of finals with your friends, because they're all just as glad to be done with it as you are (no matter how much they may be your competition when the curve is drawn)

DO: proceed to get hammered, especially if your last final was a beast and / or the most emotionally draining experience in your life (note: take a cab or have a DD, you'll need it)

DON'T: talk about finals with your friends. It may be the most readily available topic at hand, but if you start discussing issues and defenses with people who don't want to think about it any more, you're going to look like a douche. Especially if you bring up issues from the final that the others didn't notice.

DO: sleep in as much as practical.

DON'T: forget to drink a glass of water for every drink you had the night before (alternately, insert your preferred hangover cure here).

DON'T: think about law school if at all possible; avoid the subject entirely (especially with non-law types) with your family. Jokes about your options should you fail out don't go over so well with people who don't understand the law school experience.

DO: spend as much time as possible with your family / significant other, because once the semester starts you aren't going to get to see them nearly as much.

DON'T: forget to order your family's / significant other's Christmas gifts until shortly before the big event. Expedited shipping the week before December 24th isn't cheap.

DO: check your email periodically, especially if you get any amount of spam.

DON'T: also take that time to look for whether or not your grades are posted yet. They aren't.

DO: look for the deadlines for grades to be posted. See? They won't be up until then. Trust me.

DO: go to the bar the Friday before classes resume, even if only to catch up with people you haven't seen in most of four weeks.

DO: send a drink to your professor if you and your friends see him/her at the bar. While it probably won't have any impact on your grades, it is nice when the professor buys your table a round in response.

Almost done

My last final ends in less than 23 hours and the take-home final is due in less than 24 hours. Naturally, I'm not presently studying for the one and haven't quite finished the other (though it's close...I can almost taste it...). I guess I'm at the point now where I don't care about curves or grades, just that it be over and that I pass. Not failing out of law school would be good; being able to relax and not think about law-related stuff at least until January would be excellent.

I'll be back with more posts later this week, including the meme that VerbalD tagged for me. For now, I think it's time to get back to these essay questions I can't technically discuss in public yet. [It's so very tempting to talk about the hypo in the second question because there's a flaw in it that I don't think our professor noticed. I'm afraid to poke at it much, though; I could potentially gain points for noticing the flaw in the question and creatively dealing with it, but that could just as easily piss him off and cause me to lose points because of it. Bah.]

Meh. Back to work, I guess.

What was the point...

...of those little loop tags that shirt manufacturers used to (still?) put on the back of shirts? I've never figured that one out, and it will probably bother me for years to come.

Yes, dear happy few of you who still visit and read, I am both (a): still alive and (b): still in law school, which is probably why (a) seems so unlikely lately. Having been tagged by a certain fellow 1L, I find myself drawn away from finals prepping (only a week left! Aah!) to participate in a little meme.

The Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules.
3. Share seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag up to seven people at the end of the post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that you tagged them.

1. I have an unhealthy love of modern / jazz covers of classic symphonies, concertos, etc. For example: Apocalyptica's rendition of Grieg's "Hall of the Mountain King," or The Brian Setzer Orchestra's "For Lisa" (An Adaptation of Beethoven's "Fur Elise"). You are highly encouraged to go out and buy either album (Apocalyptica's Cult and / or Brian Setzer's Wolfgang's Big Night Out). They're both available on iTunes. Do it now, then finish reading the entry. No, seriously. Go do it now.

2. When I was young and getting a real feel for using computers, I absolutely hated the Macintosh. I now own a MacBook Pro, three iPods, an iPod HiFi, and a plethora of music from iTunes. Hypocrisy? Nah--Apple stopped sucking. I just wish I'd bought APL stock when it was still $14 a share.

3. My BA is in Political Science and History, but if I'd gone to a school with a good linguistics program I probably would have ended up with that (at least as a minor). I excelled in the history portion of my undergraduate Grammar and Language course when I was still an English major, and have been told that I have an affinity for languages and accents (even if my Spanish has gone a few years without any real practice).

4. Speaking of linguistics, one of my favorite words in Old English is "hwæt" ("what" / "hey" / "listen" etc.) It's just fun to say. I'm presently re-reading Beowulf in a dual-language edition because OE is just that cool.

5. I was given a plush "Death with Big Pointy Teeth" (aka the Killer Rabbit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail) for my 27th birthday. Kris thinks it's creepy and won't let me bring it into her house; I think it's cute and cuddly. As long as the mouth stays velcro-ed shut, that is.

6. I used to write a respectable amount of poetry. Law school hasn't entirely killed that, but I haven't gotten a coherent stanza or two onto paper since this summer. I blame the FRCP.

7. I weighed 235 lbs. in mid-August. That dropped about 20 lbs. by late September and I've hovered around 215 lbs. since. This is without significantly changing my diet or exercise routine other than walking to and from the law school at least a couple times a day (around 2 miles total). I can only guess that upping my exercise level would drop further weight from my frame; pity I can't even afford the student rate at the nearest dojo....

That about does it for now, I think. I'll only tag two people here: Jen and Angela. Enjoy!

No, it is not pronounced "parole."

We started discussing the parol evidence rule in Contracts this week. I gotta say, I'm liking that rule so far. For one thing, one can just look at the terms of the contract and go from there; for another, I've used that rule to my advantage in the past. In fact, the story that follows is one of the encounters which solidified the idea in my head that I was meant to go to law school.

I've mentioned before that I was a member of Undergraduate Institution's concert choir throughout my time there. My freshman year, the choir took their annual concert tour to the east coast, starting off in Boston and traveling up and down much of the New England coast, ending in Washington, DC, before heading back home. Whenever we had a hotel stay, I made a point of checking out that display of tourism brochures they usually have in the lobby. Actually, I usually do that anyway. Sometimes you can get pretty good coupons, or schedules of local events, or other nifty deals. In any case, when we were in New York I grabbed a flier for a free gift at the Hard Rock Cafe. The flier read something along the lines of, "Present this for a free gift with a purchase of $20 or more," at the NYC Hard Rock. Since I was already planning on getting souvenirs there anyway, and figured that lunch plus a t-shirt or two was easily $20 or better, I pocketed the flier and made a point of bringing it with me when we had free time.

Later on, when we went to DC, I grabbed a similar flier at the hotel. This one was nearly identical to the one I picked up in NYC, except nowhere on it did it give a minimum purchase amount. When I got to the DC Hard Rock, I went into the gift shop and approached the counter. The cashier asked if he could help me. "I'll have a shot glass and whatever this gets me," I said as I laid the flier on the counter in front of me (knowing that the "free gift" was probably a calendar, seeing as that is what I got in New York).
"That requires a purchase of $20 or more," the guy responded.
"No it doesn't."
"Yes it does."
"No, it doesn't. Nowhere on that thing does it say anything about a minimum purchase." The cashier gave me a dirty look, picked up the flier and looked at it on both sides, then walked over to a woman whom I can only presume was his manager. After a short, inaudible conversation between the two of them, the guy tore up the card, glared at me again, then took a calendar from a stack behind him and set it next to my not-yet-purchased shot glass.

I realize that the contract hadn't really been concluded until I paid the money, but still--this, boys and girls, is why we proof read before we send things to the printers. Otherwise, some punk 19-year-old, in town with his college choir, will talk you out of a $2 calendar and you'll lose $15+ worth of sales.

I mean, honestly--DC is chock full of lawyers; you'd think they would have caught that earlier.

Sleep? Whassat?

The day after my last post, I got a huge surge of motivation. I figured, dammit, I have never scored that badly on any examination in my life, so I'm going to take steps to make sure I never do again. I am not going to allow myself to fail out of law school after only one semester. Leaving this early in the game would just be silly, especially after all the crap I've gone through to get here. That, and damned if I'm going to give up on something I know I can do. Quitting when the game is still winnable is for losers. Someone once said, "If you decide to fight, decide to win." I realize now that by not reading the material, I was giving up. No more. I might be behind, but progress is being slowly made there. Even if it means not getting to hang out with Kris anywhere near as often as I'd like.

We had a partial memo due last Friday morning. Seeing as it was due at 10:00am Friday morning, I did what any sensible student would do: I procrastinated until about 7:00 Thursday evening. Even then, I didn't start making any real headway on the memo until after 10 that night, finishing the fool thing around 5:30 or so. Strangely, after the 2 1/2 hours of sleep I got between finishing the assignment and heading to class, I didn't really feel terribly tired. The vodka and red bull I had after class that afternoon with most of the rest of my section didn't hurt, either. The strange thing, though, was the fact that I couldn't get to sleep when I went to bed around midnight that night.

The thing about all-nighters in my experience (having pulled more than my share throughout undergrad) is that they really mess your sleep schedule up for the next week or so. After finally falling asleep around 1am Saturday morning, I slept until noon or so and then proceeded to follow much the same pattern the next two days. This even involved sleeping through two alarms, getting up briefly to kill a third, and falling back onto my bed...and sleeping through Civ Pro. Oops! Fortunately, I have a class very early tomorrow morning (I still don't entirely understand the logic behind having one 8am class every other Thursday), so I should be able to force myself to get moving after this alarm goes off. I should note that Roommate, who had to suffer through my snooze-button-hitting all through our last year of undergrad, is a genius and a saint for getting me that thing. So what if we don't live together any more? He knows me better than I know myself sometimes.

Speaking of painfully annoying (yet effective!) alarm clocks, I should probably get to sleep soon. Oh, good, the Tylenol PM is finally kicking in....

I'm not dead...though I may as well be.

Wow, over a month since my last post. Is that dust I see on the blog? I had no idea html could develop dust bunnies....

So, what happened? Civil Procedure and Contracts happened. I've been slacking the last few weeks, only getting about half as much reading done as I really should be (yes, I know, some of you out there are thinking, "he still reads? Why on Earth would he do the reading?"). That doesn't mean I haven't spent a good deal of time being busier than sin, though, which somewhat explains my prolonged absence. Another reason is the fact that the only time I really have in which I could update regularly happens to be when I'm in class...something I refuse to do until I'm fully ready to reveal my identity to the world (or, more specifically, my section).

We had another quiz in Contracts today. The good: it's a wake-up call as to areas in which I'm weak and need to improve, and I can work with that. The bad: those areas are rather broad and I have a lot of work ahead of me between now and finals.

The ugly: my score was significantly behind the curve. As in, Holy $#!7 significantly behind the curve.

It's taking a lot of effort not to start doing shots right now. Hey! Maybe that will help Civ Pro and Contracts make a bit more sense! (Actually, for the record I think I'm starting to understand Civ Pro a little better...getting my hands on the hornbook has certainly helped a lot!)

I think I'll go to bed now and dream of ways I can salvage my grade. Pity I made the decision that law really is the only thing I can see myself doing anything with long-term...it makes dropping out so much less of an option.

On the Con of...tracts.

We had a quiz in Contracts today. Pro: I did better than my 2L mentor did on his first quiz for Contracts Prof last year. Con: it's week 3 and we've already started building the curve.

Let the inter-student competition within my section commence.

iWant iWant iWant

Two months ago, Apple released the much-hyped iPhone and I wanted to buy it, but couldn't justify it.

Yesterday, Apple unveiled a whole new line of iPods (refreshed Shuffles, redesigned Nanos and Video iPods, and the iPhone's half-brother), and I gotta say--I'm tempted again. I could do without the iPod Shuffle and have no need for a new Nano (I've got the trusty Nan0 Me, after all), and simply don't have enough media to necessitate getting one of the 80 or 160GB Classics...but the iPod Touch is a much more difficult device to turn down.

Multi-touch user interface. Wi-Fi internet access. Possibly a calendar to which I could add events on-the-fly (not sure about that one but I believe it's a feature of the iPhone...). Not to mention music, videos (I could check a TikiBar TV recipe whenever needed!), and the ability to check out various songs on the iTunes store--without lugging my laptop everywhere--all on a little device that could fit in the palm of my hand....

Wow. If it weren't for the fact that I simply can't afford to drop $300 on anything but the essentials, I might have to avoid the Apple store after the end of the month in order to not buy one when it's actually released. Nevermind that I'd order it online in order to get the free laser engraving....

It's effectively an iPhone without the drawback of being affiliated with AT&T. I want one.

On the Pro of Civ....

Y'know the "Galactic Wars" episode of The Simpsons, where the characters go into the movie expecting sci-fi/fantasy action and special effects, only to be bored to tears by hours of rules and procedure? Right now, my brain is in that movie theater, wishing it would end so I could move on to something more entertaining. I'd even welcome another facts summary for legal writing. Or some kind of mild hilarity like Van Camp v. McAfoos (seriously, suing a 3-year-old? In the words of Jayne Cobb, "How does that get fun?"). I still have about 30 pages left to read for tomorrow (in theory...it's possible [read: I hope] Civ Pro Prof won't make it all the way to those cases) and I'm already sick of demurrers and improper complaints. Ugh. While Civ Pro Prof is reasonably cool (albeit a bit hard to follow during class sometimes), Civ Pro itself...may very well be a spawn of the Devil. The jury is still out on that one, so to speak.

Ugh. The chime just rang and my break is up; back to that god-awful casebook....

Week 1: impressions

One week into the semester and I think I've got an idea of what some of this little thing called law school will be like.

Firstly: torts is actually kinda fun, partly because our professor is hilarious, partly because we're doing a lot more case-based work than in my other classes. Torts Prof also looks a little bit like Rudy Giuliani, only a little younger and fitter. The only problem so far: I've identified two of the gunners in our section, and one of them sits right in front of me for the rest of the semester (so help us God). Fortunately, Torts Prof has a fair amount of focus when dealing with this particular gunner; unfortunately, at some point this will probably widen to the point where I'll get hit by a stray shell.

The same might not yet be true of CivPro Prof and Contracts Prof, but then again, we haven't got our seats assigned for those classes. Here's hoping for a little more buffer space in those classes.

I realize that these opinions will probably change over the course of my 1L year, but presently: Torts is kinda fun, Contracts would be better if the text was less voluminous (seriously: it's only six chapters long, we only have four of those chapters yet, and it's almost as big as my torts and Civ Pro books combined), and Civ Pro is the bane of my existence. I'll withhold judgment about legal writing for the time being; we have work due soon.

Secondly: coming from the relatively small setting that is Undergraduate Institution, being in a section of 70-odd people for every class is mildly perturbing. So far, I've met all of five people well enough to learn names and get to know each other. Fortunately, Bar review is set for 8 tonight, so I may take a study break for a couple hours and try to get to know a few more people around school. Unfortunately, I'm not yet on the email list to find out where the next one after tonight is. This will need to be remedied.

On that note: I have things to finish now if I'm going to be taking some time off later tonight for Bar review.

Man, being a good student is a lot of work; no wonder I was a slacker all through undergrad.