Forgot this. Sunscreen, what the hell is going on?? I put on SPF 30 before going out in the sun today. I put it on my face and arms. Now my face and arms are burned. What happened?? Where were you on that one?? Why did I put on sunscreen if I was just going to get burned? I know I'm pretty pale, but it's not like I didn't make a solid effort to avoid this. I didn't just put a dab on, I lathered it on there. Usually the sun is my enemy. On this one, I'm pinning the blame on sunscreen. Epic fail.
Also, I played with Jen's chinchillas today. They are cute. She called them "noble" creates. I don't think she knows what noble means. Chinchillas can't get wet. If they do their fur can get moldy and they'll die. Chinchillas also cannot be exposed to much heat. If they do they'll have a stroke and die. So heat and water, two extremely common things, cause death in chinchillas. Evolution didn't think this one out too well. Maybe this is evidence against evolution...where's Fox News to break this story?
I think it is impossible to give a correct, non-self-referential definition of "indefinable." I just blew your mind.
It would be ironic if hell was a constant staged reading Sartre's "No Exit" with a bunch of other people.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Aquaman
Rather than doing anything productive after class today, I went with Reza and Jen to the National Mall and the Tidal Basin to see the cherry blossoms. I did see the cherry blossoms, also lots of tourists. And no one would accept my challenge of $5 to jump into the Tidal Basin. Wussies. Also the girl recklessly climbing the tree didn't even fall out of it into the water for my amusement. However, I did get to see the presidential motorcade (!!!!!!) and Marine One (!!!!!). The motorcade was pretty gangster. They shut down the entire street for about ten minutes before it came, they wouldn't even let pedestrians walk. Then a lot of police, secret service, and the two limos. It was awesome. I said what up to B-Rock. Then an hour later we got the three identical helicopters swooping over the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial. It was so patriotic looking that a bald eagle probably was born at that very moment.
The POTUS-cade (or at least the important part of it):
This morning in the shower I thought that I could be Aquaman, but only in the shower. Just like the real Aquaman, my powers would be useless in the rest of the world. (And I use the term "real" loosely - I am aware Aquaman is actually fictional, and if he weren't I'd ask him to poke around Loch Ness to tell me what's really going on down there.)
The "shuffle" setting on my iTunes really wants me to listen to Toots and the Maytals apparently. I have five songs by them, and they keep coming up, out of over 5,000 songs to choose from. What is going on here?
Last night at bar review everyone gave me funny looks because I was drinking wine. I had to explain to so many people why I wasn't drinking beer and I ended up looking a little pretentious - being the only person in the entire bar with a wine glass. I should have worn a beret and carried a book about art. If you were wondering, the reason is Passover.
The POTUS-cade (or at least the important part of it):
This morning in the shower I thought that I could be Aquaman, but only in the shower. Just like the real Aquaman, my powers would be useless in the rest of the world. (And I use the term "real" loosely - I am aware Aquaman is actually fictional, and if he weren't I'd ask him to poke around Loch Ness to tell me what's really going on down there.)
The "shuffle" setting on my iTunes really wants me to listen to Toots and the Maytals apparently. I have five songs by them, and they keep coming up, out of over 5,000 songs to choose from. What is going on here?
Last night at bar review everyone gave me funny looks because I was drinking wine. I had to explain to so many people why I wasn't drinking beer and I ended up looking a little pretentious - being the only person in the entire bar with a wine glass. I should have worn a beret and carried a book about art. If you were wondering, the reason is Passover.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Go Down Moses
Had a nice little 6 person seder tonight with some friends from school. It was very informal, for example the photocopied haggadah mentioned the parting of the "Reed" Sea, and I'm not sure it mentioned the burning bush at all. Was Moses ever named? I can't remember. But it was still nice for the ritual and tradition of it, particularly since I was a little bummed that I couldn't go home for the regular seder at my mom's house, full of Veuve Clicquot.
Two people in the elevator think I'm a drug addict. They were discussing what people do when they get old. I am assuming they were talking about a grandmother or some relative. The girl said "go to exercise class twice a day." The elevator door opened and I said "Heroin. That's what they do." Then walked out. I'd call that a good first impression.
I need to get to sleep earlier. It's my new goal. That and winning at the game of life. But that second one is more of a long-term thing. A marathon, rather than a sprint. Sprint sucks, I'm glad I have AT&T. Now I'm free associating; time to sleep for real.
John Denver did some things.
Also, before I forget (and this is actually sincere), I want to thank everyone I've improv-ed with and improv itself. Improv has helped me so much in law school, particularly getting on ADR Board and (more saliently) Moot Court Board. The competitions, and many aspects of school, are heavily reliant on thinking on your feet, giving snappy responses, and going with the flow of an unpredictable situation - all skills that improv helps immensely in developing. Who knew something so fun would be so useful? I totally lucked out in this regard.
Two people in the elevator think I'm a drug addict. They were discussing what people do when they get old. I am assuming they were talking about a grandmother or some relative. The girl said "go to exercise class twice a day." The elevator door opened and I said "Heroin. That's what they do." Then walked out. I'd call that a good first impression.
I need to get to sleep earlier. It's my new goal. That and winning at the game of life. But that second one is more of a long-term thing. A marathon, rather than a sprint. Sprint sucks, I'm glad I have AT&T. Now I'm free associating; time to sleep for real.
John Denver did some things.
Also, before I forget (and this is actually sincere), I want to thank everyone I've improv-ed with and improv itself. Improv has helped me so much in law school, particularly getting on ADR Board and (more saliently) Moot Court Board. The competitions, and many aspects of school, are heavily reliant on thinking on your feet, giving snappy responses, and going with the flow of an unpredictable situation - all skills that improv helps immensely in developing. Who knew something so fun would be so useful? I totally lucked out in this regard.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Another Convert; I Win
I woke up this morning feeling somewhat dissimilar to P-Diddy. Perhaps that's because I woke up before 8 am despite the fact that it was Sunday morning. Ugh. Round 3 of moot court was slated for 9:30. I got to school at 8:45, did a mock argument with Tracy for a warm up, then did my actual argument. I didn't think it went incredibly. Not as good as yesterday. Plus I had an extremely petulant judge who would not quit with his abrasive questioning. He interrupted my answer to another judge's question to ask me some inane question. Multiple times. There were three judges, one asked me maybe 2 questions, the second about 3 questions, and this one probably 17 questions. Many of the questions were completely preposterous and irrelevant. He did the same thing to my opposing counsel, who also felt he was more than a tad overbearing. I thought maybe it was supposed to be this way because it's the final round of the competition and it's supposed to be more difficult. Nope, turns out he's just a self-important jerk. In the feedback portion (after the arguments are over) he was the only judge who felt the need to introduce himself and tell us that he was a 3L in charge of some clinic. He's kind of a big deal, I was very impressed. Nope. I was far more impressed that I didn't lash out at him during my argument: "Your honor, that question is completely off topic, inapplicable to the facts of this case, and was delivered with a smug hint of superiority which neither I, my opposing counsel, or your fellow judges appreciate." Wouldn't that have been great? Instead I stood there, sucked it up, and dealt with it. Apparently I dealt with it well enough - I made moot court board. Woo, another thing to throw on my resume. I can also now represent my school in external moot court competitions should I so choose - not likely.
A lot of my friends made it to the third round but did not ultimately make board. I felt bad for them, they put in a lot of work and I'm sure they did really well. It's ultimately such a subjective judgment. In this regard, announcing your accomplishments on facebook is a pretty tacky thing to do, and one which is certain not to win you any friends. We all see that your name is on the list, you don't have to rub it in everyone's face.
The most gratifying part about the competition turned out to be winning my individual oral arguments by implication. Opposing counsel from the second round didn't make it to the third round and opposing counsel from the third round didn't make board. Does that mean I won? I think it does. I win! Competition! Yes, the meaning of life is proving that you are better than your competitor. That and happiness (note: probably not the actual meaning of life, this is mere speculation, but if someone tells me what the actual meaning of life is I'll post it here). Oh yeah. Now that I don't have a sport to be constantly competitive about this is how I get my competitive kicks. Sad, really. Law school, you disgust me.
Speaking of disgusting, four of my friends foolishly participated in the Golden Monkey challenge last night. One finished, but didn't remember it. Two remembered everything but didn't finish. One did not come close to finishing or remembering. Who really won? Well depending on how you look at it, I think Reza won (he finished but didn't remember). Reza came over this morning feeling and smelling awful. It was after I came back from my oral argument. He chose to lie down on the floor, despite offering him my bed to lay down on. But it was productive for him, he's about one episode away from being hooked on the West Wing thanks to yours truly. He got a big kick out of Sam being unable to discuss the Roosevelt Room (which is actually named after both Teddy and Franklin), and of the President's entrance in the Pilot (go figure). Another convert is coming.
I can't stop listening to Flogging Molly. Fantastic.
Goodbye bread! I'll miss you for the next week or so. You too, rice, you were always a good friend. It's not you, it's Passover. That stupid Pharaoh kept changing his mind. It's his fault. He should have just been decisive, and either let the Hebrews go or not. And if you let them go, then give them some time to let the dough rise. As it happened I'm pretty glad he let them go; the outcome worked out pretty well...kind of (there's apparently some sort of ongoing conflict in the Middle East). I'm no bible scholar though. For a more complete understanding of Passover I'll have to refer people to the Rugrats, Prince of Egypt, or the Ten Commandments. Or the bible, but that thing is cumbersome at times and not written in contemporary English.
Fun fact that I just made up about the Exodus story: the burning bush was an early allegory for STDs and served as an early caution to use birth control.
A lot of my friends made it to the third round but did not ultimately make board. I felt bad for them, they put in a lot of work and I'm sure they did really well. It's ultimately such a subjective judgment. In this regard, announcing your accomplishments on facebook is a pretty tacky thing to do, and one which is certain not to win you any friends. We all see that your name is on the list, you don't have to rub it in everyone's face.
The most gratifying part about the competition turned out to be winning my individual oral arguments by implication. Opposing counsel from the second round didn't make it to the third round and opposing counsel from the third round didn't make board. Does that mean I won? I think it does. I win! Competition! Yes, the meaning of life is proving that you are better than your competitor. That and happiness (note: probably not the actual meaning of life, this is mere speculation, but if someone tells me what the actual meaning of life is I'll post it here). Oh yeah. Now that I don't have a sport to be constantly competitive about this is how I get my competitive kicks. Sad, really. Law school, you disgust me.
Speaking of disgusting, four of my friends foolishly participated in the Golden Monkey challenge last night. One finished, but didn't remember it. Two remembered everything but didn't finish. One did not come close to finishing or remembering. Who really won? Well depending on how you look at it, I think Reza won (he finished but didn't remember). Reza came over this morning feeling and smelling awful. It was after I came back from my oral argument. He chose to lie down on the floor, despite offering him my bed to lay down on. But it was productive for him, he's about one episode away from being hooked on the West Wing thanks to yours truly. He got a big kick out of Sam being unable to discuss the Roosevelt Room (which is actually named after both Teddy and Franklin), and of the President's entrance in the Pilot (go figure). Another convert is coming.
I can't stop listening to Flogging Molly. Fantastic.
Goodbye bread! I'll miss you for the next week or so. You too, rice, you were always a good friend. It's not you, it's Passover. That stupid Pharaoh kept changing his mind. It's his fault. He should have just been decisive, and either let the Hebrews go or not. And if you let them go, then give them some time to let the dough rise. As it happened I'm pretty glad he let them go; the outcome worked out pretty well...kind of (there's apparently some sort of ongoing conflict in the Middle East). I'm no bible scholar though. For a more complete understanding of Passover I'll have to refer people to the Rugrats, Prince of Egypt, or the Ten Commandments. Or the bible, but that thing is cumbersome at times and not written in contemporary English.
Fun fact that I just made up about the Exodus story: the burning bush was an early allegory for STDs and served as an early caution to use birth control.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Laziness v. Aspirations
Where has this week gone? Unclear. It was pretty erroneous. Life is erroneous.
The highlight has to be the auction at school on Thursday night. It was to raise money for summer funding for some program - something resembling a good cause. Most of the "items" were a variation on dinner with a professor. A wine-tasting for 6 with my Civ Pro professor went for $1200. Why? He's a popular professor and to give you an idea, one nickname of his is The Silver Fox. Wine from his personal wine cellar. He has a wine cellar? Of course he does, he has everything you could ever want in this world. It's sickening. I'm sure his wine cellar is right next to the stable where he keeps the Pegasus he rides to school everyday. Anyway, the auction was hilarious. I wisely abstained from even bidding on anything, but it was tough. The organizers were handing out free beer and pizza. In order to get more beer all you had to do was raise your beer and catch the eye of one of the roving beer distributors. Free beer brought to you. This caused a lot of people to get inappropriately drunk. Additionally it led to a spirit of recklessness in bidding on auction items. Chants, cheers, and boos were quickly instituted and many bidding wars ensued. The peer pressure in that room was overwhelming. It was enough to make me want to bid on crap that I clearly did not want/need/couldn't afford. Mostly sniper training.
Friday afternoon the people advancing to Round 2 of the Moot Court Competition were announced. I was on the list. Friday night the argument times were posted. 1PM Saturday. Gee, thanks for letting me know so far in advance. My suit is not clean, I am not motivated, and I haven't even thought about this problem in a week. I thought it was all over. Well time to suit up and dive back in. A lot of people who advanced expressed regret over doing so. In the constant battle between laziness and aspirations, laziness seems to be winning.
I am all about "Africa" by Toto. What an incredibly awful song!
The highlight has to be the auction at school on Thursday night. It was to raise money for summer funding for some program - something resembling a good cause. Most of the "items" were a variation on dinner with a professor. A wine-tasting for 6 with my Civ Pro professor went for $1200. Why? He's a popular professor and to give you an idea, one nickname of his is The Silver Fox. Wine from his personal wine cellar. He has a wine cellar? Of course he does, he has everything you could ever want in this world. It's sickening. I'm sure his wine cellar is right next to the stable where he keeps the Pegasus he rides to school everyday. Anyway, the auction was hilarious. I wisely abstained from even bidding on anything, but it was tough. The organizers were handing out free beer and pizza. In order to get more beer all you had to do was raise your beer and catch the eye of one of the roving beer distributors. Free beer brought to you. This caused a lot of people to get inappropriately drunk. Additionally it led to a spirit of recklessness in bidding on auction items. Chants, cheers, and boos were quickly instituted and many bidding wars ensued. The peer pressure in that room was overwhelming. It was enough to make me want to bid on crap that I clearly did not want/need/couldn't afford. Mostly sniper training.
Friday afternoon the people advancing to Round 2 of the Moot Court Competition were announced. I was on the list. Friday night the argument times were posted. 1PM Saturday. Gee, thanks for letting me know so far in advance. My suit is not clean, I am not motivated, and I haven't even thought about this problem in a week. I thought it was all over. Well time to suit up and dive back in. A lot of people who advanced expressed regret over doing so. In the constant battle between laziness and aspirations, laziness seems to be winning.
I am all about "Africa" by Toto. What an incredibly awful song!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Are you there LRW, it's me, Will
Morning post! What a rarity. It's because I actually went to sleep at a reasonable time last night and woke up before I had a class to sprint to this morning. My reading for today is actually done; some of my reading for tomorrow is even done. I have ample time to browse the news and sip a cup of coffee. What's going on here? Oh, LRW is basically over - that godforsaken class. Exquisite.
LRW ended for all intensive purposes on Saturday morning around 10:45 when I walked out of my oral argument, looking very sharp in my suit if I do say so myself. Being a very classy gentleman, I congratulated opposing counsel on a good argument (which it truly was), straightened my tie, and did the black power fist in the air to show solidarity with my brothers and sisters who lined the halls of DC Superior Court, waiting for their oral arguments to commence. I think my own oral argument was pretty good, but who really knows? And who cares? Not me, it's over!
In celebration I met up with Rebecca and Vanessa, who was in town, and we ended up walking from the Smithsonian metro stop all the way to Arlington National Cemetery. That's a long walk. But it was fantastic - the day was glorious and did I mention that LRW was over. On the way we stopped by the Washington monument, WWII memorial, and Lincoln memorial. Arlington, which I had never been to, was pretty incredible. It is absolutely huge. I went and saw the Kennedys - John, Bobby, and Teddy. Sad face. Needless to say I love the Kennedys (I have a picture of those three on my wall) and I find them a fascinating family, so I was happy to get to pay my respects. And I was respectful. Unlike the people who were shouting into their phones or posing for pictures despite the signs asking for quiet and respect. Come on people. The worst was someone who had to explain to his friend who Teddy Kennedy was as they were stepping up to see the grave. "President Kennedy's brother. He died, like, recently." "Who? When?" There are ten million nasty things I can say about that, but what it really left me with is the idea that many people in this country do not have enough of a sense of history or a respect for the past. And here's one mean comment: Read a freaking book people - one that isn't Harry Potter!
I don't know what this says about me, but this was my ending thought, which I said to Vanessa, upon leaving Arlington: Wow, this place would make a crazy good zombie army. If I were a necromancer, I'd totally come here.
Probably too much Diablo 2 in my past. But there I was always a barbarian...
Sunday, the first full day without LRW, was largely consumed by a Passover themed scavenger hunt around Dupont Circle. The 10 clues, each of which led us to a new location, were of course plague-themed. Wow. Despite how this may sound and how bad you are judging right now, it was actually a lot of fun. My team did not win. But we also did not lose. Most importantly we didn't make ourselves look like a bunch of hyper-competitive JAPs (I'm looking at you team of girls who screamed at your teammates to run everywhere, made rude comments to my team, and wore incredibly tight and unfortunately revealing spandex). Then beers, frozen yogurt, and college basketball. So really, who won here?
I mean it was no Scavenger Hunt (I didn't get banned from IHOP, fight off capture, or throw tea bags into Boston Harbor), but it was still fun.
LRW ended for all intensive purposes on Saturday morning around 10:45 when I walked out of my oral argument, looking very sharp in my suit if I do say so myself. Being a very classy gentleman, I congratulated opposing counsel on a good argument (which it truly was), straightened my tie, and did the black power fist in the air to show solidarity with my brothers and sisters who lined the halls of DC Superior Court, waiting for their oral arguments to commence. I think my own oral argument was pretty good, but who really knows? And who cares? Not me, it's over!
In celebration I met up with Rebecca and Vanessa, who was in town, and we ended up walking from the Smithsonian metro stop all the way to Arlington National Cemetery. That's a long walk. But it was fantastic - the day was glorious and did I mention that LRW was over. On the way we stopped by the Washington monument, WWII memorial, and Lincoln memorial. Arlington, which I had never been to, was pretty incredible. It is absolutely huge. I went and saw the Kennedys - John, Bobby, and Teddy. Sad face. Needless to say I love the Kennedys (I have a picture of those three on my wall) and I find them a fascinating family, so I was happy to get to pay my respects. And I was respectful. Unlike the people who were shouting into their phones or posing for pictures despite the signs asking for quiet and respect. Come on people. The worst was someone who had to explain to his friend who Teddy Kennedy was as they were stepping up to see the grave. "President Kennedy's brother. He died, like, recently." "Who? When?" There are ten million nasty things I can say about that, but what it really left me with is the idea that many people in this country do not have enough of a sense of history or a respect for the past. And here's one mean comment: Read a freaking book people - one that isn't Harry Potter!
I don't know what this says about me, but this was my ending thought, which I said to Vanessa, upon leaving Arlington: Wow, this place would make a crazy good zombie army. If I were a necromancer, I'd totally come here.
Probably too much Diablo 2 in my past. But there I was always a barbarian...
Sunday, the first full day without LRW, was largely consumed by a Passover themed scavenger hunt around Dupont Circle. The 10 clues, each of which led us to a new location, were of course plague-themed. Wow. Despite how this may sound and how bad you are judging right now, it was actually a lot of fun. My team did not win. But we also did not lose. Most importantly we didn't make ourselves look like a bunch of hyper-competitive JAPs (I'm looking at you team of girls who screamed at your teammates to run everywhere, made rude comments to my team, and wore incredibly tight and unfortunately revealing spandex). Then beers, frozen yogurt, and college basketball. So really, who won here?
I mean it was no Scavenger Hunt (I didn't get banned from IHOP, fight off capture, or throw tea bags into Boston Harbor), but it was still fun.
Friday, March 19, 2010
What A Crazy Friday Night
Live from DC...it's Friday night! And I am sitting at home reading my opposing counsel's brief and looking up cases on LexisNexis. Why? Because I have oral arguments tomorrow morning. Thus, I am not going to Barrister's Ball (law school prom), nor am I going anywhere else tonight except to sleep (if I'm lucky and my body feels like cooperating). I am a huge winner.
Problem: opposing counsel's brief is...well...how do I say this politely...poor. There are punctuation errors, spelling errors (my favorite was leaving the "e" off "rationale"), organization problems, and statements that are just plain wrong. It's all very distracting and makes the brief hard to follow and difficult to rebut. I only have 15 minutes of oral argument - how am I supposed to point out all of her factual errors and make my own case while responding to questions from the judges? It's going to be a balancing act. Hopefully her oral argument will be a little less...incorrect than her brief. I'm really not trying to be mean here; the brief really just has misleading/incorrect information. I personally like opposing counsel. We'll see how it goes over tomorrow morning.
I do not have enough quarters to do laundry. My closet tells me this is going to be a huge problem very soon.
My Contracts professor describing a party breaching a contract: "He pulled out and disappeared." I laughed a little because I am immature. But not as immature as the people who laugh when my Property professor talks about testators and dying intestate. (Testate means leaving a valid will. Fun fact, which I did not know until this week.)
Good news: apparently the interview went well - I got the job! Very exciting.
More good news: my mom was in town for business tonight and I went out to dinner with her. It was nice to see her. It was also nice to eat steak. Of course, I learned from my lesson at the Brazilian restaurant in January and only had one plate of meat. Six was too many. Nakul knows.
Problem: opposing counsel's brief is...well...how do I say this politely...poor. There are punctuation errors, spelling errors (my favorite was leaving the "e" off "rationale"), organization problems, and statements that are just plain wrong. It's all very distracting and makes the brief hard to follow and difficult to rebut. I only have 15 minutes of oral argument - how am I supposed to point out all of her factual errors and make my own case while responding to questions from the judges? It's going to be a balancing act. Hopefully her oral argument will be a little less...incorrect than her brief. I'm really not trying to be mean here; the brief really just has misleading/incorrect information. I personally like opposing counsel. We'll see how it goes over tomorrow morning.
I do not have enough quarters to do laundry. My closet tells me this is going to be a huge problem very soon.
My Contracts professor describing a party breaching a contract: "He pulled out and disappeared." I laughed a little because I am immature. But not as immature as the people who laugh when my Property professor talks about testators and dying intestate. (Testate means leaving a valid will. Fun fact, which I did not know until this week.)
Good news: apparently the interview went well - I got the job! Very exciting.
More good news: my mom was in town for business tonight and I went out to dinner with her. It was nice to see her. It was also nice to eat steak. Of course, I learned from my lesson at the Brazilian restaurant in January and only had one plate of meat. Six was too many. Nakul knows.
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