Previously Unpublished

I shouldn’t be writing this blog right now. It’s past 1 AM and I am supposed to be finishing up a publication project for the law school paper. We have to upload tomorrow morning and although I greatly enjoy this small pasttime from normal law school book-study, one night per month, I stay up until the wee hours trying to sling things together because all the contributors are of course doing things last minute as well.

I’m actually doing pretty well tonight, given that in the past I have stayed up to 4 or 5 and once all night getting this done. I’m getting better at the layout stuff and I built a network of other editors to help me with the actual proofreading so it has only taken me 9 hours so far today plus an hour or two here and there prior to today. Anyway, I only have two more things to do before I put this baby to bed until late morning when I’ll give it all one more read-through before upload to the printer.

Earlier tonight, I had a great music conversation with an old roommate who goes to law school out of state. We were talking about how great the Beatles were and for net-discussion ambiance I put on Abbey Road. What a great album; reminded me a lot of college when I truly began to appreciate the later Beatles albums. So, as I settling into the last leg of this marathon editing session, I’ll begin with “Come Together” and no matter what, when “The End” transitions to “Her Majesty,” I’ll leave. I used to do this for term papers in college - though then I often played the album 3 or 4 times.

-jd

Three times today as I walked across the law school’s main hall, I witnessed law students giving each other the high five. I’m not sure what to make of this phenomenon or how I feel about it. My first reaction was that it was sort of out of place in the normally dreary, dismal law school existence that most students seem to experience. I guess it seems that the high five is something of an awkward motivator on most occasions outside of rooting on your favorite team in a sports bar or tipsy on the law school softball field.

But then, I could be wrong. The students seemed genuinely excited and their action seemed appropriate somehow even though my first thought was to be as repulsed as I was at the mock-communication being made by the bench stander pretending to have a level conversation with friends last week while really preaching from on high. Over the course of the day, I have reconsidered. Perhaps they are mimmicking something in pop culture that I missed, or the mannerism of a popular professor. Maybe law firms do this as a way to show excitement where before there might have been hugging to celebrate a court victory (can’t be too careful with sexual harrassment nowadays).

As for law students engaging in such activity, why not, I mean how else are people supposed to show comraderie and affection outside of bar review-style hook-ups? Anyway, the high five was sort of out of the ordinary, but I’ve decided that it was appropriate. Who made me the hiring partner, right?

-jd

I’ve complained a lot about parking at the law school over the last year or so on this blog and I do it even more frequently in real life. However, parking at home has always been somewhat of a luxury. At the first apartment I had after moving to this city for law school, I paid a well-spent extra $50 a month to have my own garage and when my roommate and I picked a new apartment closer to school, we made sure to find a place that had ample parking for friends to stop by. During 2L, parking at our complex was abundant and life was good. Moreover, there was plenty of visitor parking for when we had people over.

Then about three months ago, the visitor spaces on our side of the apartment complex began to be taken up on a regular basis, all day and night. It was a noticable problem because cars that didn’t have a sticker would be towed if they weren’t in the visitor area; my girlfriend’s, for example, if she couldn’t get a space in visitor. It was ridiculous really, considering how many spaces used to be available. Part of the problem was clearly due to the gated complex next door where those residents would park at our visitor lot or even brazenly in resident parking without a sticker, and then walk over to their complex. Nothing was ever done about it - except for one glorious night of towing - and so for the most part, the gated complex people see it as a free-for-all. However, today my roommate and I observed another substantial part of the problem.

As I was coming back from the law school, I immediately noticed an opening in visitor parking (it stood out because it happens so rarely and I usually take them if I see them to save for Ticket if she might stop over after work). Then, as I came around a corner, I saw a car pulled out and perpendicular to the other visitor spaces and another car that had clearly just pulled out of the newly vacant spot was sort of idling and I realized it was waiting to make sure I didn’t take the spot since he inched towards it, about to pull back in. I know he had just come out of the space because the car had a sticker placed on it by management warning it would be towed (as did a couple of other cars; a new strategy apparently by the owners after all the recent complaints).

Well, this seemed suspicious, so I hung around my mailbox after parking in resident parking just to see what was up, plus I wanted to read the notices on the cars once the idling car left. Well, instead of leaving right away, the guy driving the idling car gets out and pulls in the new, perpendicular car into the vacant space. That bastard! I thought: he’s switching out cars in our visitor lot, probably from the place next door and he just wants to make it look like he is changing cars so he won’t be towed. I went right to my apartment to write a letter to management. Then, I walk back out to get the license number and he’s back with a different car and is making a second switch with another car that has a notice as well. I run back in and report this to my roomie and two friends who came over with him in his car because they couldn’t park. The four of us went out and confronted the guy (safety in numbers). We exchanged curse words and I wrote down the license numbers and we reported them to management.

Just as the guy predicted, management sort of tried to wiggle out of the situation and wouldn’t tow him out of fear he might actually be a resident and his lease allows him to park there. They gave us a copy of the parking agreement and essentially challenged us to find legal reason that would allow the cars to be towed. As we walked back to the clogged visitor parking area to get the car makes, the guy was back and had more tough words for us. Shit, didn’t want to cause trouble, but damn, it’s also annoying as all hell to never have visitor parking - it almost seemed for a minute like management really was in cahoots with this guy as he claimed. Fortunately management did say they would tow if the cars they ticketed were still there within 24 hours.

Anyway, ten minutes later, the guy was back again with a buddy and they moved three of the cars out of the lot. Now, for the first time in two months, there are three open spaces. D’oh, okay only two now. So, not sure what will happen, if tomorrow it will be back to business as usual since the cars might have only moved temporarily to avoid towing or if bullets will fly through our windows for snitching on whatever these guys had going on (fortunately we live further into the middle of the complex and away from the visitor area, so we can hopefully remain anonymous parking monitors…we just want our parking back, maybe the car swappers can find somewhere else to park that won’t care about enforcing).

Now, I’ll just ignore parking for the next year and maybe buy a bike. It would be cheaper all around, anyway.

-jd

I can’t believe it. I am so determined to cash in on my Westlaw points before checking out of law school that I have placed reminders to play the trivia games everyday in my new agenda - I can already get 10 DVDs with my points. Now this.

I played almost every dat that I was at my internship over the Fall semester and it became pretty clear that the correct answer whenever there was an “all of the above” choice was, well that. So today with a question about comparing lemon laws (which were coincidentally mentioned in my Rights of the Consumer class today), I just defaulted to “d” when in fact, the answer was actually “c.” I should have known that although multiple choice strategy usually says to go for the all-encompassing answer, your initial gut instinct should trump that and I did initially think “c.”

Oh well. I just can’t believe I missed a basic trivia question on Westlaw. Indeed.

-jd

Our law school, like many, has a lottery to determine who is allowed to have priority in choosing classes each semester. It is stupid, it sucks, and I have lost the lottery 3 out of the 4 semester in which I have had a choice in my electives as denoted by not getting my 1st and 2nd choices in 3 out of 4 semesters. However, despite much ranting and raving on my part over the evils of the registrar’s office, I have managed to almost always eventually get into at least one of my top choices or to broker a compromise. Thus, this semester when the only selection I could secure was a large-lecture hall bar course as my third choice, I secretly figured that everything would work out enough to hammer out a decent final schedule.

Well, it worked and it didn’t. Despite starting the first week of school waitlisted in 8 classes with only the bar course secure, I am one mark on an attendance sheet away from having secured a space in any of those 8 classes I want. The problem is that I want most of them, having put my interest in business off until now, and unfortunately I am trying to stay part-time to save $$$ and even if I weren’t a number of the classes overlap. Decisions, decisions. Here is a vague overview of my options (the names have been changed to protect, well, me):

Business Extravaganza: Taught by a professor I’ve already had who is in the running for my favorite all-time. It was my first choice originally and covers a wide range of business transactions in an interactive manner with students working in teams to construct a final “deal.” Now that I’m in (as of an hour ago), it seems like a lot of work and I’m afraid the actual name o f the class will not convey to employers the range of subjects covered since it sounds off-the-cuff.

Business Practicum: In many ways, this class seems like Corporations II and has a lot of overlap with Business Extravaganza except you methodically got through all the drafting of documents required for a corporation to establish itself. It seems like it will be more methodical and less sexy than Business Extravaganza, but a solid foundation. Like Extravaganza, it involves a final presentation and long paper in lieu of an exam. It was my original number 2, though I viewed it as an alternative to Extravaganza when I signed up. Oh and we have to buy the prof’s book for $$$.

The Bar Course: Well, I see three reasons to take this course: the prof seems great, like he could rival the Extravaganza prof for best all-time. The course is on the bar and the bar is fast approaching. I also think I could potentially be interested in the type of law for which this course is a foundation. On the down side, the course is on T/Th and all my other courses are on M/W, thus it would be difficult for me to get a part-time law clerk job during the semester. Plus, taking this course for 3 units (I knew I should have taken the 2 unit one in the Fall) pushes me into full-time status if I take 3 business courses.

The Rights of the Consumer: This was a last minute add-on when it seemed as though I might not get some of the other ones and it is quickly growing on me. It covers topics not normally covered at our school like banking and privacy and disclosure that interest me a lot. It is a seminar and has a paper or exam option and the professor has groupies so I assume she’s cool. It seems sort of like a lot of work, but in a good way since it will be interesting and if I took it with the other two business courses above, I’d have three where the curve is not in effect and the bar course where I have a good shot at an A (last minute GPA boosts all around, I hope). On the down side, it’s in the middle of the day also potentially blocking a job.

Mergers and Acquisitions: When I first told people I was considering law school, this is what I told them I wanted to do. I was familiar with all the cool lingo such as green mail, poison pills, hostile takeovers, etc. from an undergrad business law book and based on the first lecture today, it is just as sexy as I thought it would be. The professor, along with the Extravaganza prof, is considered a leader in his field, and it shows. He was great. The problem is that it sort of puts me into full time territory by 1. adding another class and 2. by cancelling my 1 unit seminar that was helping to keep me a part-time student since they meet at the same time on the three days of the seminar, thus I can’t have both anyway. However, until I found out I got into Consumer and Extravaganza after lunch, I walked to Ticket’s house thinking I would be doing M & A.

Bankruptcy: Extravaganza conflicts with this class and it is too bad because I always saw this as the natural compliment to M & A since if you can build corporations and then help them fall apart, as a lawyer you would be set for employment no matter what happened to the economy. I have interned in a bankruptcy context and although I used to think that would suffice for experience, I think it would help to have taken the course if I ever really want to go into the field since it is sort of a niche thing. Also, creditor/debtor law is sort of a pet interest of mine making this interesting, but at the same time Rights of the Consumer would cover what I’m interested in almost more closely. In fact, this very blog entry just made me realize that.

The 1-Unit Int’l Law Business Practices: Basically explores the law of a different country ever y semester as it pertains to business law. This semester is a good one and I have friends in the course. Of and each of the above are 3 units, this is 1 unit and I need 10 to graduate. Oh, and you have to be at 11 or lower to be part time. So I would take any of the above over this class, but since none of the above are 2 units and I want as much business on my resume as possible, I feel obliged to take it. I could take a night class on Executive Crimes that is business and 2 units, but it conflicts with both Extravaganza and Bankruptcy and essentially I would take either of those first, so it is really either do this class (and by default, not M & A) or else go full-time.

So yeah. Very boring post. Only good for me when I look back and ponder what my grades might have been if I had only gone with a different combo. The main dilemmas, now that I’ve written this all out are that: Despite wanting to get the most out of my time with an amazing faculty (note many of the above classes are priorities because of the professor), it seems a waste of money to jump to full time just to get an extra unit in there. I also would like a clerking job for the experience, the money, and the connections and all these classes (assuming I am taking Bar Course no matter what) are in the middle of the day M-Th and thus are not conducive to a work schedule. Oh, and it’s my last semester of school probably ever so I want to take interesting classes and also not have to work too hard, though the latter is secondary to being in interesting classes.

The result at this moment, since I’ll probably have to decide by tomorrow, is that M & A and Bankruptcy are out due to conflicts (plus both Extravaganza and Practicum cover M & A a little). That leaves Extravaganza, Practicum, Bar Course, Consumer, & 1-Unit. I could take all 5 and still only have 1 final. However, I’d still be a full-time student. I should probably get rid of either Extravaganza or Practicum in that case since they overlap the most. I guess that means I’ll have to decide tonight after I attend Extravaganza for the first time.

Hot damn this is a long post. It’s a great insight into how I think though, not that anyone should really care. Okay, time to read for my 6th class of the week. It’s only 7 pages, I think.

-jd

Eh, so it’s the first day of my last semester and despite the fact that I really enjoy being a law student - because let’s face it, it’s not a difficult life overall once you get the hang of things, I have already found more than a handful of things to complain about. I’ve found a lot of things to complain about recently despite the fact that life is going pretty well overall and so perhaps it’s just that law student types find things to complain about out of habit. Anyway, to spare my friends and family from my grief, I’ll try my best to limit my insights to this blog. Hopefully it’ll be a little funny, as law student often are.

First of all, parking. This is actually a complaint from yesterday when school was not yet in session and still the parking lot by the law school was full. What gives? How is there supposed to be parking for students during the semester when there isn’t any on a holiday? I got to school this morning at 8:00 AM for a morning class (guess I have to start preparing for professional life) and a big sign greets me welcoming some convention-goers basically for the month of January. Our school seems to perpetually host conventions that sap our parking - why don’t we just make a new structure for the convention-goers to park in?

Second, the bench-standers. I’ve noticed this before, but for some reason it stood out today: people, usually guys, stand on top of the benches in front of the law school when talking in a group, usually holding an apple, coffee, or juicy juice. Who do these guys think they are? It’s like they are sub-consciously (or not) projecting their superiority onto the rest of us. It looks really bad, like they are talking down to their friends and colleagues. I’m not sure why anyone would do that and well, early in the morning it sort of struck a nerve.

Third, the sage-nodders. In one of my classes today, the professor basically gave his background and also talked about a speaker series he was hosting and in particular pointed out one speaker and asked if anyone in the class knew who he was. Out of 20 or so students, about 5 hands shot straight up and another dozen or so heads nodded sagely as if they were old friends with the bloke and moreover, had had in-depth discussion about him recently. The guy was no doubt a well-known specialist, but no way did all those student know who he was. I googled him since I was so shocked I had never heard of him and sure enough, the first two names to come up are not even the guy in question. Not even the most famous guy with that name. I absolutely have done this head-nodding thing myself in the past, pretending to have camaraderie with a professor, but it was annoying as hell to look around the room and see it in action.

Okay, this post is about to get annoying long itself. I’ve got to figure out my schedule anyway before the registrar closes. That’ll probably be my next post. Oh…no, no. It’ll be the bookstore.

-jd

Since my last post, on the first day of my last winter break from school - significant since this is the last day of my last winter break - I have become a You Tube Whore. I hadn’t really caught on to the phenom prior to this past December and well, I’d say I spend a good half hour a day at least, looking at various music video, comedy skits, miscellaneous stuff that other blogs reference. Usually it’s just mindless crap, a habit I’ll certainly have to ween myself of before beginning my bar study. However, until then, I will point out that I learned something about tampons today that I did not know before: when they become engorged, they apparently come apart into two wings to help absorb moisture. I can honestly say I hadn’t given it much thought before, but now I know.

How did I come across a tampon insertion video on You Tube? Well, I was reminded of a favorite SNL Digital Short that I had seen in the fall called “Dick in a Box” and featuring Justin Timberlake. It was hilarious; and I highly recommended heading on over to You Tube and searching for it. I followed this up by watching Timberlake discuss it on a clip from the Tonight Show. This interview with Jay reminded me of another Digital Short called “Lazy Sunday” which featured Andy Samberg and Chris Parnell rapping about the Chronic (What?) Cles of Narnia. After that, I watched a parody of “Lazy Sunday” by some newscasters somewhere in the midwest. After that video, for whatever reason, You Tube recommended two amateur tampon instruction videos - don’t worry, they weren’t graphic, but rather used stuffed animals and sink water.

It was a great break. I look forward to doing my first round of readings this afternoon for my 8 wait list classes (yes, I am a 3L in his last semester and have only one actual class that I got into - the business classes are popular at our school, plus I lost the lottery). Cheers.

-jd