| yawn |
[05 Feb 2008|07:35am] |
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music |
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bob dylan: lily, rosemary and the jack of hearts |
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ugh, why am I awake at 7:30 in the morning? oh yea, because I have stupid 8am class.
Nice to see the GINATS pull it out in the Superbowl. When Eli slipped out of that sack and threw the ball that David Tyree caught against his helmet, I could tell that NY was going to win that game. Glad to see the Dolphins are the sole residents of Perfectville still. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dva51HEXgAI
In other news, school is busy. This Friday is the midpoint of my law school career. You mean I have to do all this again?
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| annoying things |
[30 Nov 2007|10:48pm] |
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music |
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tapes 'n tapes: 10 gallon ascots |
] |
My macbook power cord has died, which is apparently a common occurrence. It still sorta works if I finagle with it a bit. I guess tomorrow I will go to the nearby Apple store and try to hassle them into replacing it for free because it is a defective product. I will then probably drop $80 for a new one after they refuse to give it to me for free.
Speaking of annoying Mac things, ever since I installed Leopard last week, Apple Mail has said my inbox has over 4 billion emails. Right now the count is 4,294,966,763 messages. Somehow, I doubt. There are really only about 40 emails in my inbox. I think this is probably linked to the death of my logic board, since Mail has been weird ever since then, just not this crazy post-Leopard weirdness. Before it was just randomly resending and rereceiving old emails, which it still does sometimes.
I am supposed to send in my edited draft of my article tonight, but I've been out of commission most of the day with a raging headache of death. Maybe I can polish it off now. I need to get this article crap out of the way for the next two weeks while I prepare for final exams. I have two ridiculously difficult exams coming up. here's a sample of the sort of question I might have to answer:
"Briefly describe the way(s) in which the decision in Michigan v. Long rests on principles that are in tension with the principles on which the decision in Railroad Commission of Texas v. Pullman Company was based."
Hahaha, briefly describe...Although I guess most briefly, Michigan v. Long encourages federal courts to assume that state court decisions that are ambiguously based on either state or federal law are in fact based on federal law, while Pullman generally tells federal courts to defer to state courts when it is possible to resolve a case on state law grounds and avoid interpreting federal (usually constitutional) law. I wonder if that is too brief.
The hard part of that sort of question, for those of you less familiar with the niceties of US federal court procedures, is that it asks you to compare the underlying theories behind two important cases from very different parts of the syllabus. Also, Michigan v. Long is in tension with just about everything, but I don't think the answer "because Mich. v. Long is poorly reasoned and in tension with everything" would get many points (unless Justice Stevens were grading the exam! he'd probably give that an A+.)
Anyway, look, it's almost December!
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| two for the show |
[11 Nov 2007|10:14pm] |
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music |
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Mogwai: Helicon I |
] |
life has been super busy. I had the mock trial competition last week. I lost in the quarterfinals to my roommate, who went on to win it all. That said, I gave an awesome closing statement. For ten minutes I was in complete control of the room. It was transcendental.
I'm writing my article for the law review. I need to finish my first draft soon. It's fun to write but takes so long. Ten thousand words is a lot to write, and I have so much ground to cover that I get frustrated by how long it takes to write. I want to speed through and get to the end, but things must be done in order.
Liz and I have been finding time to see each other between our busy schedules, and it's nice. She's going out of town to stay with her family for a month starting next week. I will miss her, but it feels good to miss someone, sometimes.
We have a ping pong table in our house, and it's been fun to play regularly. I am the weakest player in our house, but the competition is improving my game rapidly.
Sometimes it's fun to look back on your life, and where you've been. The combination of every little event is so improbable, yet taken together, this string of improbabilities forms your life.
The inexorable descent into winter has come to Seattle. Short days and clouds.
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| oh man |
[01 Aug 2007|04:02pm] |
I am going to be extremely busy for the foreseeable future.
I flew in to Las Vegas airport the other night. The nighttime view of the strip is a sight to see, although more than anything the whole spectacle just seems like a huge waste of energy. The gigantic pyramid light alone surely requires ridiculous amounts of pollution to generate that wattage.
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| a thought and a hello |
[02 Jul 2007|01:06am] |
backwards.
I met Nicky and Joe today for dinner and strolling. I'm sick and when i laugh I cough, so it was hard to be as lively as I might otherwise be, but it was good times. There might be some sort of photographic proof, here or there.
Also, I get annoyed when people quote figurative texts for their literal meaning. This happens a lot with song lyrics, poetry, and whatnot, since such writing generally means something other than it says, even if it also means what it literally says. The use of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" as a patriotic "love America" song is a good example.
But what gets me even more is The Who's song "Won't Get Fooled Again." People repeatedly mention that song to suggest that through the wisdom gained from error we will not repeat our past mistakes. Yet the song really is saying that "yes, we will get fooled over and over and over, just like we always have." The overall thrust is somewhat the same: deriding our past mistakes. However, the song doesn't have the hopeful meaning many people ascribe to it.
When I saw Barack Obama speak here in Seattle a month ago, one of the songs broadcast to the crowd before beginning the speech was "Won't Get Fooled Again." I laughed and wondered if Obama (or more likely the local planners) were making a subversively subtle joke that Obama is just more of the same. Somehow I doubt they did.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing. One, perhaps the main, purpose of art/poetry/music is for the artist to say the socially unacceptable by literally saying the socially acceptable. Art is just code. Of course, all communication is code. Some of it is just more easily decipherable than others.
The joke of it all concerning "Won't Get Fooled Again" is that the lyrics aren't even that subtle. Lesson for life: make sure you understand the message of sources you quote.
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| superfly TNT |
[04 Jun 2007|09:35pm] |
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music |
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rolling stones: let it bleed |
] |
one down, two more to go. it went well. i knew what to talk about and talked about it, so that's a good sign.
i have to write my crim exam on wednesday by hand. so that will be a challenge. but back in the day that's all we had!
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| ooh |
[04 Jun 2007|11:56am] |
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what time is it? exam time!
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| oh man |
[15 May 2007|11:27pm] |
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so this week is our huge first year moot court competition. my roommate and I just advanced to the quarter finals. I'm really excited. Three weeks of class and then finals are on the horizon as well. Super busy right now. Once this competition finishes this week, it will be a nice ride to exams. Third straight night or oral arguments Wednesday evening.
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| blame Canada |
[27 Mar 2007|11:15pm] |
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music |
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arcad fire: keep the car running |
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Did you know that when the US first formed in 1777 during the revolutionary war, as part of the Articles of Confederation, we offered Canada the chance to join the US? Apparently by the time the Constitution got written ten years later our northern neighbors had politely declined the invitation.
Just think, I bet the electoral votes for BC and ON and all would not have gone to Bush. Therefore the presidency of GW Bush is Canada's fault. I bet slavery would have died a lot sooner too.
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| oh man |
[25 Mar 2007|09:09pm] |
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classes start up again tomorrow. so tonight i prepped for another quarter of law school by going to see the new TMNT movie. It wasn't too bad.
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| don't praise the machine |
[17 Mar 2007|10:52pm] |
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music |
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thom yorke: cymbal rush |
] |
exams are over. think i did well. fantasy draft tomorrow. need to get my car towed to a repair shop tomorrow as well. ironically enough the city is cleaning my street on Monday and they are towing all cars still parked on it at 8am. good timing, I guess.
I was glad to see Dave Bush hyped on a fantasy baseball site today. The Braves actually have some bullpen options, too. NL East will be interesting this year.
Happy St Patrick's Day. In celebration I am cleaning my room. Those clowns in Congress, what a bunch of clowns. How does he keep up with the news?!
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| ahhhhhh |
[14 Mar 2007|08:00pm] |
four and one quarter hour beast of a torts exam is finally over. it was tough but manageable. last quarter when i finished my torts midterm I felt a rush of adrenaline, but this time I just feel exhausted. Have to wait to see how I did, but I feel good about my efforts. and the last question was a debate essay on tort reform, so at least the exam ended with a familiar topic.
now i just have a two hour contracts exam at 8:30 friday morning. the hardest part of it will be getting up in time to take it. the humongous first hurdle of law school is almost done.
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| one down |
[13 Mar 2007|01:31am] |
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music |
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mahler: symphony no. 4 |
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well I think I kicked ass on the Civ Pro exam, but I won't know for sure until i get my grade back in a month. But there were no real surprises and no issues that I noticed but didn't discuss.
Now on to Wednesday's torts exam, which will be a bear.
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| the customer is always right |
[12 Mar 2007|12:10am] |
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music |
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rolling stones: gimme shelter |
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tomorrow is the first big day. 3.5 hour civil procedure exam, and what I get on the exam is what I get in the class.
If you like pressure, there's a party to be had.
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| exam season |
[03 Mar 2007|06:32pm] |
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music |
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bob dylan: cold irons bound |
] |
one week of classes left before the big exams. i finished my contracts reading for the course today. The book inexplicably ends, after a long chapter on various types of damages available in contract suits, with three pages about arbitration procedures. Talk about a random little coda.
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| strange |
[02 Mar 2007|08:01pm] |
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so I don't own a tv and thus I rarely catch a glimpse of tv news. but today i was in a local establishment for lunch. they had CNN on and I look up and it's "BUS CRASH IN ATLANTA" so I'm like "hey now!" It turns out the bus drove off the center ramp of the Northside Drive exit on I-75, which is my old exit. I used to get off the highway right there every day. I'd always wondered if anyone ever drove up the center ramp to the bridge going really fast and plunged off. The answer is now yes. This CNN article has a helpful animation link.
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| look |
[19 Feb 2007|07:35pm] |
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music |
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tapes 'n tapes: 10 gallon ascots |
] |
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| i am a hero |
[17 Feb 2007|10:43pm] |
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music |
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Wolf Parade: You Are a Runner and I am My Father's Son |
] |
Seattle classifieds on livejournal: a blue van, a church group, a golden retriever, and American Express.
Law school is strange because there is so much work that you intentionally reduce your distractions. But then with your distractions gone you find yourself with extra time because there's only so much time you can spend on school. You have extra time but it seems so pointless to try to do anything of substance because you'll just end up doing it half-assedly. So you end up sitting around being bored.*
I got the highest grade in my class on my last essay, which is good because now it means I can potentially get an A in the class. It's really hard to get A's in law school because everyone is pretty smart and there's always a couple people in each class whose sole existence is to get an A in that class to the exclusion of all other aspects of life. When you try to do well in every class you're running four races against people who are only running one.
*I suppose most people would be more bored reading 50 pages about the mechanics of summary judgment than they would be sitting and staring at a wall for five hours, but most people don't choose to study the law.
PS: whenever I update this thing I keep hitting Apple-S after every sentence or two and then I feel dumb. That's what spending days writing evil legal briefs in Word will do to you.
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| happy valentines day |
[14 Feb 2007|12:29am] |
There's this really long book that almost nobody reads. Throughout the end of World War II a Russian officer named Tchitcherine runs about Europe, without success, trying to find his German-African half brother Enzian, whom he has never met. In the closing moments of the novel Tchitcherine, recently blinded by his fellow Russian officers, sits on the side of a road crying. Enzian happens to walk by but Tchitcherine cannot see him.
My summary doesn't quite do it justice, but when I reach those pages I am shaken to the core. I look out to see who else has been moved to tears by these images, and I see nobody. But if you had, and you walked by me on the street, would I even know what we shared? Would you even know I was looking?
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