Oops!

Snubs to Boss (via e-mail): Are we meeting tomorrow or Monday?

Boss (responding 4 hours later): Could we meet at Noon tomorrow?

Snubs: Sure!

D'oh. Why'd I say that? That was just dumb. I probably made Prof. X think I was READY to meet tomorrow by sending that first e-mail. I'm not. Now I have to stay up until 6am again.

The good news: I'm not doing any work tomorrow :)

Screw the Landlord

My landlord just told me I couldn't go month to month at the end of my lease... despite plain language in the lease giving me that option, and the fact that she called me and told me I'd have to stay for a month if I didn't tell her I was moving out.

I didn't even want to fight with her. I just asked if I could stay another month, since she said I may have to anyway on the phone, and was ready to for her to say "you know I'm sorry but we just can't do that." That would've been the end of it. But she said "No, we can't do that, it would destroy my market for this apartment," and I asked her about the clause in the lease. Then she got really pissed, and started yelling legal conclusions (as laymen are wont to do) at a frenetic pace. "That's just for liability purposes," "If you stay you will be violating your lease," "I will go down to the courthouse and evict you on the 31st, and you don't want that on your record," etc. etc. By the end of it I was pissed off and I told her she was flat-out wrong, and that "plain language of the lease disagreed with everything" she said. But apparently she had just "gone down to the 'law office' yesterday," and their "lawyers" (yeah right... I question her ability to afford one, much less have 2-3 on retainer) told her that the clause was ok. It's amazing how often people happen to have "just gone down the 'law office'" and gotten a detailed opinion from an attorney about a specific clause of a contract the DAY BEFORE they get questioned about it. I finally squeezed another week out of her though. Which is a good enough compromise for me. If schools don't let me know by Aug. 2-3, the answer is probably no.

I don't think she knows I'm a law student. I really really wish to God I could take this to the mat and litigate it to death, but if I transfer I won't have time to stick around and do it. This is why I will live vicariously through Heather, who is currently involved in litigation that promises to strike hard at the heart of "the man," and score a fantastic blow for the little people. I'm not even sure if I'm in the right in my situation, although I have a feeling I am(based partly on her reaction... people who are sure of their rights typically don't go batshit crazy when you question them on something). What's frustrating is my total inability to do anything. I can't tell her to go to hell, because I can't afford to stay here and run the issue through the legal system. If I could stay here though, I probably would, because it doesn't even matter if you win... all you have to do is make the other person bleed more.

Hey Mexico:

What the hell is your problem? You actually thought this was appropriate? A month after Fox's remarks re: Mexicans immigrants taking jobs that "not even blacks" want? You couldn't run this by a PR guy?

The Dukes of Hazzard

The tagline may as well be "Come see the last movie Seann William Scott ever makes."

Christ, at least Johnny Knoxville has Jackass to fall back on, and Jessica Simpson has music.

Seann William Scott, what the hell were you thinking? Mark my words, this movie is going to bomb. It's not going to be quite as bad as Gigli, but good God, what did the focus group look like for this movie? It sucks, because I like Stifler Seann William Scott, and while he plays the same character in every movie is one of the most versatile actors of our generation, I think his career is going to take a nose dive after this.

Calling for Your Opinion:

So I've been struggling with the transfer question. I'm applying to the three schools I'd really like to go to. The problem is, I'd really like to stay here as well. By leaving I have to give up a) friendships, b) contacts with profs (including some sweet letters of recommendations), c) LAW REVIEW (this is big for me) d) my class rank (I did VERY well here) e) less debt (I lose my scholarship $$$ if I transfer, and tuition at the schools I'm looking at will run me $15,000 per year more than what I currently pay)

By transferring I get a) to move closer to my family/girlfriend, b) a "brand name" school (and all the attendant employment benefits), c) geographically closer to employers I'm going to want to work.

So dear readers, I seek your input. What would you do?

(of course this is all assumes I will actually GET IN somewhere... and there's a very, very good chance that I won't really have a decision to make)

Why is it so damn hot?

Seriously... It's like 95 degrees. I specifically avoided going to law schools in the south to avoid this situation. I think I'm the sweatiest human being alive. I leave my house, and I soak through my t-shirt by the time I get to my car. It's not like I'm out of shape or anything, I just sweat CONSTANTLY in the heat. I was built for cold. I spent a winter in the upper midwest, and I have to say, -20 is a helluva lot more comfortable for me than 90. You can always put more clothing on when it's cold, but there's only so much you can remove without the law "getting involved."

The Final Lineup:

Given that my class rank was much better than expected, and my main goal for transferring was to get closer to the girlfriend, I decided to limit the applications to the 3 schools that get me closer to her, and that I really really really want to go to... and my fate is in their admissions committees' hands now.

All I have to do tomorrow is send in the transcript for one more school, request ONE more set of undergrad transcripts, and get another dean's cert out.

So now here's the problem: What do I do if I don't hear anything before my lease is up? My lease ends Aug. 1st, and I'm really hoping the landlord will let me stay another month. Actually, I'm really hoping I'll get into a new school before then, but if I don't, and the landlord won't let me stay, I need to move all of my stuff to a friend's house, and crash there for a week or two. I figure if I haven't heard anything by August 15, I'll just suck it up, rent a new apartment, and stay here... cause I can't be homeless for very long.

Bah. So tomorrow... tons of work for Prof. X, and some administrative crap for transferring. I'll forget to eat until 6pm again, and then I'll be faced with my daily dillemma: wash dishes, go hungry, or spend money I don't have at the local burrito place.

Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend

Or in my case... ON the weekend. I've once again done no work over the past two days, and I need to get two more transfer apps out. I bought more reports from LSAC today, and I'll be damned, DAMNED if I don't use them.

P.S. I see blogs with text struck out in it (like a line through the text). Can anyone tell me how to do this? Is it an HTML thing?

Editor's Note:

thanks thank you Heather!

Take the Skinheads Bowling

I saw three skinheads today. I've never seen skinheads in this country before. It was bizarre. They just walked down the street... looking like totally normal guys with shaved heads, doc martins, suspenders, and swastika tattoos. The first thing I thought when I saw them was "Those can't be... are they filming a movie about skinheads?" The second thing I thought was "How do these guys manage to walk around a major city like that and NOT get their asses kicked?" Also high on my list of thoughts: How do these people get jobs? Seriously... who would hire them? You can wear a suit to the interview, but your head is still shaved and you've still got that "aryan brotherhood" tattoo poking out of your collar.

It's unbelievable to think that people like that still exist.

Pavlovian Response

I watched "The Paper Chase" tonight with a friend. I hadn't seen it since the beginning of last summer (when I was finalizing plans for 1L). Having completed my first year of law school, the movie seems... much less realistic. It's more like a bunch of law school themed caricatures. Some people act that way... but if they do it's definitely not as extreme (someone might freak out, but nobody tries to kill themselves, someone may be a gunner, but nobody sits around planning on how they'll make the leap from ordinary student to total tool). It was still pretty cool. I was able to identify people who were similar to movie characters (though like I said, nobody who is nearly as extreme as the characters in the movie), plus the guy got grilled on Hawkins v. McGee (that's the contracts case where the Dr. promised to fix the boy's burned hand with a skin graft, and it didn't work, for those of you who haven't had contracts in a couple of years), which was cool, because I remember reading that case.

One thing I found incredibly interesting was the scene where the students are all walking into the room to take exams. When they sat down and I saw the bluebooks... I actually got an adrenaline rush... like the kind I get before exams. I felt like one of Pavlov's dogs... except instead of salivating I think I crapped myself.

Class Ranks

We got our ranks today. I've definitely graded onto law review, and by a fair margin no less. I was secretly hoping that I'd rank just outside the cutoff. Now the decision to transfer (if I actually get accepted anywhere) has become much, much more complicated.

Google

Ha! I'm now the 7th result on google when you search for "subjective negligence." This rules.

Batman SPOILERS!!!!

I just got back from Batman. That was a damn good movie. The only part I didn't like was his totally under-developped stereotypical "rich guy wanting to do good" father. His dad seemed to contrived... I guess, for lack of a better word. Also, super-rich people don't take public transportation. Ever. Seriously.

The movie was great though. This is like the one Batman movie I've seen where there is actually intimate contact between the villain and the hero, which was pretty dang sweet. This movie is worth seeing in the theater... it could even be worth shelling out the money for an evening showing.

Welcome to Law School: Seek Help.

So... as promised, my OCD stories.

I've always been a somewhat compulsive person. I can't do anything in moderation. I've got a lazy streak a mile wide, but I can really haul ass when it counts (witness my many late nights studying/working for Prof. X). Law school started off as a continuation of that. Things were pretty much fine up until a month before finals.

I have to go through 3 hallway doors to get to the stairwell in my apartment building. Right outside my apartment there is a door, then the elevators, then another door, then a loooong hallway, then a door to the stairwell.

Somehow, I decided that making it to the next door before the door behind me closed was absolutely necessary. So I would leave my apartment, open the first door, walk calmly to the second door, and push that one as far open as it would go. Then I would walk briskly down the long hallway, to make it to the last door before the first one closed. Sometimes I run the last ten steps just to make it.

Once I get into the stair well, I need to make it down two rows of stairs (one complete flight) before the stairwell door closes. I also have to step on every step on my way down. If I can make it down three rows of stairs, I will have good luck in whatever I'm about to do.

This all happened during the month leading up to finals, as the stress started building.

Also, in the month leading up to finals, I decided I would grow a beard, and then shave off a fu manchu moustache, a soul patch, and some monstrous mutton chops (think Wolverine from the X-men) the night before our first final... I figured showing up with such ridiculous facial hair would give a few people (including myself) a much needed laugh before exams. I felt really good about the first exam. So over the course of finals I developed a meticulous shaving ritual, where I tried to mimick exactly what I did the night before the first final. And when I found out that I got good grades... I had to do the same thing second semester.

Also, the night before the first final, I ate at Quiznos. I had a large classic italian sub on wheat, jalapeno chips, and a dr. pepper. Having felt good about the first final... I ate the same thing before every other final... even second semester... despite the fact that I quit eating all meat (except fish) in January.

I've used the same set of earplugs for every final, and I am convinced that they hold magical powers of analysis.

I almost had a meltdown when I found out our exams were in a different room 2nd semester. I wasn't sure where to sit. I sat on the front right side (2nd row back, 4 seats from the end of the row) in all of my finals first semester. 2nd semester however, finals were in the same room our classes were in 1st semester. I was unsure whether I should sit in the same seat I sat in during class, because I did well in the courses last semester, or if I should sit in the same place I did in the other rooms (2nd row up, 4 seats from the edge of the right side of the room) because I did well on exams. I was visibly conflicted, and two of my friends commented on it later.

I decided to go with my traditional "exam" seat (it is after all, the exam that gives you the grade, not the lecture). I got flustered when the transfer student was sitting in "my" seat during the second exam. I was able to calm myself down by assuring myself that "transfer students are good luck... she must be... she got good enough grades to transfer..." (turns out she was... I got an A in that class).

Basically... I don't do ANY of this stuff when it's not near exam time. I think I've always been a little OCD, but stress brings it out more (obviously I can still function though). That's the thing about law school. During exam periods, people's neuroses become more pronounced. Paranoid guy is more paranoid, delusional over-confident guy is more self-assured, and moderately compulsive guy is racing down stairwells like an NFL player doing tire drills so he can hit the third landing before the door shuts.

Teaser:

I just finished work for the day. It's 3:55am. Once again, I brought this on myself. Tomorrow is a day chock full of responsibility and goodness.

10:30am - (bright and early) Meeting with the boss

11:45am - Leave meeting with boss. Check out library book again (it's due tomorrow)

12:10pm - Go tell my landlord I'm not renewing my lease. Laugh when landlord tells me I'll have to pay an extra month's rent for not giving 60 days notice. And that it's "in your lease that you signed." Then tell them "I wanted to stay anyway" because I have no idea if I'll be leaving yet, and would like to delay signing a new lease in this city until mid August if I end up staying here so that I can stay flexible.

12:30pm - Respond to Shell's post re: law school and mental disorders. I have excellent OCD stories. Stay tuned.

Ice Cream

I always buy two pints of Cherry Garcia at the store when it's a 2 for 1 deal. I tell myself I won't eat a whole pint in one sitting. Tonight I find myself sitting at my computer once again, with an empty carton and a slowly expanding waistline.

I think I should send this to my civ pro prof.

Remember the guy who failed the CA bar after one of his exam answers was stolen and his score was "imputed?" Well, he's suing the CBA. I think my civ pro prof would probably just start crying if he read the complaint.

In happier news, two apps went out today. I think I'm only going to apply to three or four schools. I know some people who applied to 7-8. I don't think there are 7-8 I'd really want to go to. I'm pretty damn happy here, and there are only a few really specific schools that can offer me something (mostly location) that the school I'm at can't. I like my friends, I like my profs, and after hearing Heather's stories about her school, I like the way mine is run (at least as far as grades go).

The Arbitrary Nature of First Year Grades

This post over at Two-Timing the Cosmos made me think about law school grades. A common complaint is that grades in law school are arbitary. I think the way law school is set up makes people think this way, but I don't think first year grades are really that arbitrary (Except for my property class. But that was messed up, as it was not a traditional law school exam).

One of the most common arguments used in support of the proposition that first year grades are arbitrary is the "I studied a lot for class X, and didn't study at all for class Y, yet I received a better grade in class Y."

This argument forgets one crucial point about law school: The Curve. The curve doesn't care how much you know. The curve only cares about how much you know relative to the other people in your section.

Example: The first final I took was Contracts. I had two weeks plus Thanksgiving break to study for it. I crammed, and crammed, I had my Farnsworth book committed to memory, and my outline was flawless. I did every practice exam in the library, and half of the ones on the Harvard online exam bank. On game day I was pumped. I went in there, and wrote non-stop for 4 hours, nailing issue after issue. Then came torts, my last final of first semester. I had three days to get ready for it. I didn't know anything. I crammed for 72 hours, finished my outline at 10pm the night before the test, looked at the one practice test the prof gave us, and went to sleep. I went into the test scared, because I knew I didn't know the material that well. I sat down, resigned to take my beating. I wrote for three hours. Then I ran out of things to say. I sat there in panicky silence for about an hour, trying to find more issues. I couldn't. Time was called and that was that.

I got the same grade on both exams, despite my objectively poor performance in torts relative to contracts. The thing is though, everyone performed poorly in torts, because we only had three days to get ready for it. You don't have to beat the exam, you just have to beat your classmates. You can write a crappy exam, so long as theirs are crappier. You can also write an awesome exam, and nail 95% of the issues on it, but if your average classmate gets 97% of the issues, you're still walking away with a C.

You can also "know" more than your classmates and still walk away with an average (or worse) grade. A person in my section knew Crim up and down. He had every common law rule down pat, and knew the MPC cold. On test day, I think (and he agrees) he committed the law school exam version of seppuku: He was conclusory. He knew the material so well, that his conclusions seemed obvious, so he didn't bother explaining how he got there. He stated a conclusion, and didn't leave an analysis to support it. All of his conclusions were technically correct, but he lost all the points for the analysis (which was a majority of the available points).

Another reason I don't think grades are arbitrary is that some people consistently get A's, while others consistently get C's (although this could simply be evidence that grades aren't arbitrary at the margins, but still leaves open the question of whether or not they are for the middle of the pack). If grades were truly arbitrary, everyone would eventually end up with a smattering of a's b's and c's, and regress (or rise) to the median.

So, I don't really think grades are "arbitrary," but I think it's easy to see why people think they are. I DO think that grades are arbitrary in the sense that they don't test what they're supposed to (a student's ability to practice law), they are horrible at that (if there are any readers who have ever had to solve a complicated legal question without access to a law library or a westlaw account in less than 4 hours, please feel free to correct me). But I don't think they're arbitrary in the sense that they're randomly assigned.

All of this is based on my very narrow experience as a 1L. I haven't had uncurved upper level courses yet, or writing intensive courses that aren't blindly graded. Please feel free to correct/add thoughts/throw stones, etc.

Transfer Applications

Man I forgot how damned annoying law school applications are. The applications themselves are actually really simple... it's all the extra crap they want you to send with it, and the specific info they want you to have. I may have to FedEx these too, because I'm cutting it pretty damn close to the deadlines at a lot of places.

Anyway... there is one school that I really want to get into that isn't necessarily a "top" school, but it's close to my family and friends, and though it is not in the top 20 on the US News rankings, it is in the market that I want to be in, and grads to very well for themselves there. They also managed to waitlist me twice despite the fact that I had (according to their website) decent numbers for them. I wonder if there's a vendetta against me, or if my personal statements have been more typo-riddled than this blog. Or maybe I just suck at presenting myself on paper. Whatever it is, I hope I get over it this time, because I'd almost prefer to go there if I can still swindle in-state tuition out of them. Oh man, living in the same city as my girlfriend AND cutting my tuition by 66%? Eh, I almost dare to dream it.

Cigarettes

I quit smoking 9 months ago as of yesterday. I haven't had one since September 17, 2004. Shell's post made me think about it. I quit about a month into my first year of law school, and managed to stick with it all the way to the end, AND managed to do quite well in school at the same time. This was actually an incredibly empowering experience for me.

Stuff I realized while quitting smoking:

1) It actually is addictive, and I actually am addicted to nicotine.
2) An ex-smoker trying to have "one" cigarette is like a recovering alcoholic trying to have "one" beer. You may get away with it the first time, but if you do, you'll do it over, and over, and eventually you'll be a full time junkie again.
3) Life sucks. There's always a reason not to quit, or to give up if you have.
4) People who smoke smell like shit. Yeah, I actually thought I covered it up... but based on the smell coming from every single smoker I meet, I guess I didn't.
5) I saved more than enough money to buy my books this year by not smoking.
6) After about 3 months... it's really *not* that hard, as long as you remember #1 and #2.
7) Non-smoking bars rule. Seriously.

Yeah... I hate smoking. In real life I'm not that preachy, unless someone expresses an interest in quitting. When this happens I launch into the lecture, but I realize how f'ing annoying naggy ex-smokers are when you're a current smoker. So I'll leave you alone, unless you light up in the non-smoking section, or my house, then we got problems.

Hey Remember This Guy?

So sexual harassment e-mailing friend got canned. No surprises there. I just can't believe he sent that e-mail. He's actually a really intelligent guy, so it doesn't make sense. However the story gets better. Apparently the "very pretty" Asian-American girl is actually ROOMMATES with a 1L here. And her roommate was in the same section as the e-mailer. She lodged a complaint the day the e-mail was received, and Friend X got canned. I can't believe that he did this. It's not like one of those situations where you can have any sympathy for him either, he totally deserved it. He's now going to have a nice big gaping hole in his resume and I bet half the hiring partners in the city know about this.

Moral of the story: Don't be a creepy wierdo.

THE POST OF TRIUMPH!!!

To go with the new (and incredibly relevant) tagline, this post is called "The Post of Triumph." I am ecstatic. Class rankings don't come out for another two weeks, but based on last year's rankings... I would be surprised if I weren't in the top ten. Goddammit I'm so happy. I didn't get anything lower than an A- all year, and I've constantly fretted and worried about it. This week I will let myself be happy. This weekend I will apply to transfer. I hope I can go home. I hope I can live near my girlfriend again. I hope...

So obviously the rumor was false. The grades were released without notice at 10:30 tonight. We'll probably get an e-mail tomorrow morning telling us that they'll be up at around "8:30am." This happened last semester as well.

Now... Time to get back to my work. I have a meeting wicked early tomorrow and I've procrastinated like a mofo.

EDIT: Like I promised I would in previous posts: I renounce all credit for my Property grade. That was blind, dumb, filthy luck.

Get your pitchforks and torches.

Rumor has it that one of our profs is still not done grading. This is bad. My school won't release grades until ALL first year grades are ready to be released. The thing is, I may be a schmuck for this, but I actually believe the rumor, and I would not be at all surprised if my grades aren't out tomorrow. However it will enrage most of the law school population (including me). Tomorrow it will have been exactly FORTY days since I took my last final. I still know: NONE of my grades (except legal writing... but I handed in the final paper for that almost 3 months ago).

Perspective

You know, as much as Grade Watch 2k4 has been annoying, it really isn't as bad as it could be. I'm sure Michael Jackson is crapping himself right now. Waiting to see if they jury is going to come back with "Conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment, extortion," Or simply "furnishing alcohol to a minor," that has to be a white knuckle wait. However it turns out for him, I'm sure he'll be hitting the Jesus Juice pretty hard later tonight. Sort of puts my grade worries in perspective.

UPDATE: I guess it's a celebration at Neverland tonight. I paid almost no attention to this trial. I trust that the jury made the right choice. Being a wierdo shouldn't be a crime in this country, and I'll assume they made the right distinction between rapo-molesto and your run of the mill creepy guy. If they didn't get it right... well such is the price we pay for the jury system.

New Tag Line

I decided to change the text at the top. I didn't like the use of the word "rantings," I feel as though this word is overused in the blog world. "Musings" is another overused word. I don't like them because they may have been clever to use at one point, but now they're just so... blah. I can't explain. Certain things are like that. It's like on friendster/facebook profiles when you see someone who has "insert clever/witty statement here." That actually may have been really really cool the first time I saw it, now it makes me think the person is too insecure to trust themselves to come up with something clever. I know I'm not one to judge, after all, I did just remove "ranting" from my blog. I promise never, ever, ever to put something up like that again. If I can't think of what to write, I'll say so in the most direct way possible.

That being said, I'm now taking suggestions for a new header for my blog.

This is where I come to cry.

Or at least it will be on Wednesday. That's the word from our beloved administration on when grades will be released. Wednesday the 15th. You COULD say I have a lot riding on this. But that may be an understatement. Anyway, for some messed up reason we supposedly get our grades on Wednesday, but our class ranks won't be available for two more weeks... What the hell? I imagine that it would be fairly easy to come up with class ranks after everyone's GPA has been computed. Open Excel file. Sort. Done. Unless they're inscribing these things on stone tablets, there is no reason for it to take this long. I don't know. I'm open to being wrong on this, leave a comment if you can think of some reason (other than trying to screw people over who are trying to transfer) that it should take two weeks to get class ranks AFTER grades have come out.

Westlaw Gunner

There's something that no "How to Prepare for Law School" book is ever going to talk about, and that is how to maximize your westlaw and lexis nexis rewards points. The "rewards points" concept is a stupid gimmick created to get law students to become loyal users of either lexis or westlaw. You use them to purchase rewards. You want to be a rewards points gunner. Lexis is actually pretty stingy as far as rewards points goes... generally to get 50 points you have ot do a stupid tutorial thing that takes like 10 minutes. To get 200 you have to do a pain in the ass "Lexercise" and e-mail it to the representative... and of course you get 10 points every day just for logging on and doing a search. Lexis does have one huge advantage over Westlaw, and that is rewards options. The Lexis catalogue is HUGE. Westlaw's is really small in comparison, BUT Westlaw makes up for this by giving you a crapload of points through a little back door I like to call "trivia bonuses."

The trivia game is the single best method to rack up free crap in law school (besides all the free food you get for going to stupid activities meetings and such). Here's how it works: You log on to Westlaw, and do a search. You get ten points for this. You hit the sign off button, and click the "play trivia button on the log off screen." They ask you a ridiculously easy question, you get it right, and you get a "bonus 5 points." Here's the real trick. You log in AGAIN, and you'll get another 10 points for the search, log off and do another trivia question. Now you've got 30 points. Do the same thing the next day, and the day after and the day after.... I know you're thinking "30 points a day, that's ridiculous, I'll never get the espresso machine at that rate." Well my friend, that's where the "trivia bonus" comes in handy. Every 15 questions you answer, you get a trivia bonus. For the first 15 you get a bonus of something like 50. For the second 15 you get a bonus of I believe 100, If you answer 45 trivia questions you get 300, 60, you get 500, and so on and so forth. If you manage to answer 105 questions in a semester, you'll get a 2000 point bonus. That plus all the other bonuses + the 30 points a day (although you top out at 150 points a week from logging on and trivia answers) = you and an i-pod at the end of the semester. It takes all of 10 minutes to do this, and you've only got to remember to do it 3 or 4 days a week...

Don't forget to screw these bastards out of as much free crap as you can while you're a student, because they're going to screw you out of way more than a digital camera and a swiss army watch once you're done with law school.

It's that time of year again!

Entering Students day is this week-end. I'm going to give tours, be on a question-taking panel, etc. I'm really excited. This event last year made me feel a lot better about my school choice. The school I'm at wasn't my first choice, but I think that this school ended up being a better fit for me than my first choice would've been. Entering students day really convinced me that I would be alright here. I met a couple of rising 2Ls who were incredibly nice. One of them gave me all of his outlines, and seemed to really go out of his way to try to help us. The professors seemed really friendly, and the whole event really made me feel welcome and reassured. It changed my whole attitude towards my school, and made me really excited to get started. I think this attitude change really helped me do well this year. Hopefully I can make someone else feel good about the school too.

Hola Amigos!

I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya, but I've been busy as hell. Seriously. The summer has been worse than the school year thus far. I think that might be because I have conditioned myself to think summer = break. Not so this time. That write-on killed me. The thing is, I ran out of steam towards the end and did a really half-assed job of citing everything, so it could all be for naught. Prof. X assumed that I wouldn't have the work done today (I guess it was supposed to be done Thursday), so hopefully I can score some brownie points there, but it does make me want to kick myself for staying up until 6 in the morning getting that stuff done last night.

It's really weird... I feel bad complaining about the 32 hours a week I actually spend working. I have two friends who are working 40 hours a week at two jobs this summer. THAT has to suck. Hat's off to them. Seriously. I couldn't do that.

Unrelated note: I really want to see Cinderella Man. I heard Paul Giametti was spectacular. He may actually be one of the most underrated actors out there.

Second unrelated note: A couple of my more libertarian friends have recently questioned the need for the bar exam. "Why not just let the market take care of incompetent lawyers?" Well, because an incompetent lawyer can really mess up your life, pretty bad. It's really a form of consumer protection. The vast majority of the population are not sophisticated consumers of legal services. They are unable to distinguish between a competent attorney, and This Guy. Here's some background info on this person's story.

Now, I know I might get bashed for being an elitist, but the person who wrote that letter should never, ever, EVER be allowed to represent someone in court. The law is hard, this is why good lawyers are paid hundreds of dollars an hour. This guy is not cut out for it. Lawyers handle other people's money, homes, businesses, family disputes, freedom, and sometimes even their lives. It's not a responsibility that should be entrusted to any schmoe who happens to wander into a courtroom.

Ahhhh, the Weekend Cometh

But... I'm on the final approach. So this will be one of those "working weekends." I probably won't post much until Tuesday. The review write-on is due Monday, and then Tuesday I have a meeting with the boss. I'm really liking this post from Buffalo Wings & Vodka, very good motivation to keep writing. Anyway, I've got to spend a long 4 days researching, writing, and editing. But it'll all work itself out in the end.

MST3K

Mystery Science Theater 3000 was probably the single most underrated television show in history. I watched it all the time when I was 12. After reading Shell's post this afternoon about Batman, it made me want to watch MST3K again, and see if I still like it.

For those who don't know, Mystery Science Theater 3000 is basically a show where the characters sit there and make fun of really bad old movies. Movies such as "Laserblast" and "The Day the Earth Froze" you see the sillouhette of the characters as they talk over the movie. The comments are hilarious.

Thanks to the wonders of internet tv, I was able to watch it. It's still hilarious. Biting sarcasm never gets old.

All this makes me wonder why the show never caught on. It used to be on Comedy Central at Midnight. I may actually consider resubscribing to cable (or at least purchasing a TV) if they brought it back.