I think I have a note topic picked out. I want to title the note in a glib manner which I am certain will get me yelled at by my notes editor. I want to call it "Here's A Bad Idea: Humanitarian Intervention after Natural Disasters." Maybe I'll even write it in a way that doesn't make people want to gouge their eyes out rather than read it all.
I had a networking meeting with a big-shot lawyer today. He was very nice to me, but he told me something unbelievable. Immediately after law school he worked as an associate at a prominent Chicago firm for two years. He left the firm to go work as legislative counsel to a senator and got a pay increase. The Senate paid him more than the private firm, but, as he said, "Private firms took care of that in a hurry."
That's all I will say about the stressful black hole that is the job search. However, I will say that Justice Scalia, despite being a brilliant legal mind, is kind of homophobic. In a dissent from the Court opinion striking down an anti-homosexual sodomy law he wrote:
"Today's opinion is the product of a Court, which is the product of a law-profession culture, that has largely signed on to the so-called homosexual agenda, by which I mean the agenda promoted by some homosexual activists directed at eliminating the moral opprobrium that has traditionally attached to homosexual conduct."
Despite his use of the word opprobrium, which I admittedly had to look up (it means the disgrace or the reproach incurred by conduct considered outrageously shameful...and some law clerk must have been pretty smug when he suggested it), and despite my cherry picking of a quotation, that's pretty ridiculous. While it comes in the context of a legal argument, that legal argument is essentially that many people dislike homosexuals and want to discriminate against them, and that we should let them through state legislatures because their rights are not historically fundamental in our society. Anyone want to remind Justice Scalia about the treatment of African-Americans in this country in the nineteenth century? Or want to discuss Equal Protection? (Justice O'Connor did!)
Can I give my old laptop a viking funeral on the Potomac?
How important is exercise really? What if I ate pecan sandies instead of running?
As per my suggestion related to a case we read in Corporations, I now believe that the Pope should turn the Catholic Church into a gigantic Chuck E Cheese. Think about the size of the ball pits that would produce!
There are some athletes where all I want to do is damage their personal property to get back at them for messing up so badly.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
What Kind of Week It Has Been
Wow, I feel like I've been very busy. The aphorism about law school is "First year they scare you to death; second year they work you to death; third year they bore you to death." While I would hesitate to categorize my first year as being scared to death (it was more of a death by cynicism), the second year is adhering to the cliche so far. For example, I had a meeting this evening at 7, and I have class tomorrow at 7:45. Yes, 7:45 in the morning. I get 12 hours and 45 minutes to do law school-related things which do not require my physical presence at school. And to sleep (what a joke). And to update my blog, clearly the best way to use my time!
The thing about 7:45 am class is that it is kind of like getting thrown into a pool. Getting up and getting to class really sucks at first, but after a little while you adjust. And you shouldn't eat for 30 minutes beforehand. It does give me motivation to be productive all morning since I'll already be awake.
It just occurs to me that there was a book I was supposed to purchase and read for this class. Apparently that slipped my mind, whoops. So did paying my cable bill. Think RCN will notice?
Overheard in DC: "I still think it's weird when I am referred to as a woman" - said by a female in her mid-20's whose physical appearance suggested a sex-change, but likely actually talking about growing up and having that conversation about being a 'real adult.'
The new gunner in Con Law is keeping at it. Yesterday he asked a question that was clearly designed to make the professor aware that he had studied the history of British common law. Today he asked a question that was clearly designed to make the professor aware that he had read another constitutional law case that was not discussed in our class. He seems to be a "look-how-smart-I-am" gunner. Oh, the things that you know, gunner. Oh, the eyes you do not see rolling behind you every time you speak. You might know about Loving v. Virginia, but you do not know about social cues.
The thing about 7:45 am class is that it is kind of like getting thrown into a pool. Getting up and getting to class really sucks at first, but after a little while you adjust. And you shouldn't eat for 30 minutes beforehand. It does give me motivation to be productive all morning since I'll already be awake.
It just occurs to me that there was a book I was supposed to purchase and read for this class. Apparently that slipped my mind, whoops. So did paying my cable bill. Think RCN will notice?
Overheard in DC: "I still think it's weird when I am referred to as a woman" - said by a female in her mid-20's whose physical appearance suggested a sex-change, but likely actually talking about growing up and having that conversation about being a 'real adult.'
The new gunner in Con Law is keeping at it. Yesterday he asked a question that was clearly designed to make the professor aware that he had studied the history of British common law. Today he asked a question that was clearly designed to make the professor aware that he had read another constitutional law case that was not discussed in our class. He seems to be a "look-how-smart-I-am" gunner. Oh, the things that you know, gunner. Oh, the eyes you do not see rolling behind you every time you speak. You might know about Loving v. Virginia, but you do not know about social cues.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Did that actually just happen? moment
For some reason discussing abortion in any context brings out the absolute worst in people. Today in Con Law it brought out the worst in gunners. We were discussing Roe v. Wade. (At the beginning of class I turned around and desperately asked the girl behind me what the case was about. Thankfully, she understood my sarcasm.) After discussing the legal reasoning behind the case and talking about how it fits into substantive due process jurisprudence, my professor opened up the floor a bit and started asking questions. Cue the crazies. First, one kid pontificated on the personal politics of the nine Supreme Court justices. We all know and no one wants to hear it. Shut up. Then, in response to a hypothetical designed to tease out our thoughts about the inherent conflict between the right to life and the right to autonomy, a classmate of mine offered a counter-hypothetical: "What if they ground up the babies into a powder and fed it to the mothers which would enhance their lives for 18 years." That's when I sat up straight in my chair and looked around with my mouth hanging open to see who else realized that this was the craziest thing ever. It was a "Did that just actually happen???" moment. Even if I explained the full context here it wouldn't make a difference. That's just a ridiculous thing to say. It almost makes me miss Racist-Civ-Pro kid.
This evening I had an Alternative Dispute Resolution Board meeting. It was a waste of an hour of my life. This comes a whole day after being asked about ADR Board at an interview and candidly expressing my feeling that it was a wholly arbitrary (and capricious) and largely useless membership. I was selected from a client counseling competition - how do you assign objective measure to how good a client counselor someone is? I guess there is a way...but the people who were judging certainly were no more trained than I. In retrospect I am not sure this was the best thing to say during an interview...maybe it's this kind of thing which prevents me from getting a job. Hope not! I still remain desperate and perhaps rethinking law school.
I keep getting distracted by nearby conversations during Boggle and losing to Reza. That's right, I blame the nearby conversations.
This evening I had an Alternative Dispute Resolution Board meeting. It was a waste of an hour of my life. This comes a whole day after being asked about ADR Board at an interview and candidly expressing my feeling that it was a wholly arbitrary (and capricious) and largely useless membership. I was selected from a client counseling competition - how do you assign objective measure to how good a client counselor someone is? I guess there is a way...but the people who were judging certainly were no more trained than I. In retrospect I am not sure this was the best thing to say during an interview...maybe it's this kind of thing which prevents me from getting a job. Hope not! I still remain desperate and perhaps rethinking law school.
I keep getting distracted by nearby conversations during Boggle and losing to Reza. That's right, I blame the nearby conversations.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Wisher
Shaked and, to a lesser extent, Missy and Braver came to visit this weekend. We did a lot of things around the city. Friday's dinner became somewhat of a fiasco right away, so you knew it would be a good weekend. A bunch of us had dinner at an Asian restaurant. While placing her order, Shaked asked for her dish without rice. The waiter instructed her to give her rice to her friend, to which she responded that he should just not bring her any rice. Well, as it turned out he brought a bowl of rice and put it in front of her. I was sitting across from her and, having been informed of the exchange, took her rice. As the bowl was still in my hand, the waiter whisked by and scooped it up from out of my hand. What?! Is this a joke? How rude can you be? It was a prickly situation, and the end of dinner consisted of the waiter standing immediately next to the table indiscreetly attempting to get us out of there as quickly as possible. Remember, gratuity was included! But that isn't supposed to mean that the service is atrocious. At least the food was good and Shaked and I did not get into a physical altercation with this gentleman. We proceeded to a hot chocolate shop where the machine which makes their hot chocolate was broken. Shaked was disappointed. Everyone else got milkshakes. The evening ended watching Disney's Hercules at Rachel's with Jason and Missy. We wanted to play Werewolves, but couldn't garner enough interest.
Sidenote: Missy claimed that I have an hourglass-shaped body. I would like to dispute that claim here and now. I have nothing approaching an hourglass shape, and I'm not sure what exactly it says about Missy that she thinks otherwise. Rachel and Shaked agree with me! Missy is, as always, an odd one.
The next morning we reconvened for brunch and Shaked fulfilled her desire for hot chocolate. Also, Rachel fulfilled her desire to get Diet Coke spilled on her head by making sudden movements as the waiter brought Missy more soda. After the spill on Rachel's head, Missy selflessly said "Don't worry, my dress is fine." We went to VegFest where I made disparaging remarks about PETA and vegetarians. Par for the course. Shaked and I then proceeded to Georgetown and, on a whim, rented a kayak. Because this was not a planned nautical adventure, we were both wearing jeans which were immediately drenched in water from the Potomac. After kayaking (it was my first time!), we walked back through Georgetown to Trader Joes and did some quality wet-jean food shopping. I will also note that in one of my less-proud moments I may or may not have hit Shaked on the head with a kayak paddle. Not hard, but still. Karma caught up with me, however, and gave me a sunburn.
Later that evening, after we visited the National Portrait Gallery, Shaked and I met up with Gavi and Jason at Damien's party. We were just dropping by for a few minutes, but in that limited amount of time I managed to make a girl hate me. Admittedly, I was being snobby, but she was being stubborn. And she was ugly. It was about burglaries - how bad can I really feel? Alright, it was my fault. Mea culpa; I was wrong, and I instigated. But still...I don't care. Then we went to U Street to meet up with Alena and her friends and I nearly fell asleep on the walk home.
On Sunday, Shaked and I went to Eastern Market, saw Jackson Pollack (actually he was named Jackson Collins, I believe, but we both heard incorrectly at first), lots of amusing posters (the CIA recruiting women: "We are looking for a few good women"), and a creepy looking women telling fortunes. On the way back we went past the Capitol and ran into the 9/12 Tea Party rally. Wow, that was interesting. I don't think we successfully blended in among the crowd. Shaked took to counting non-white people. She pointed out a grand total of two. There were tens of thousands of people there. It was an interesting, amusing, scary experience. Shaked decided it was time to leave when we saw a man holding a sign saying something to the effect of "We won't burn the Koran when they won't burn the American flag," and I wholeheartedly agreed to leave. I kept wanting to talk to the people there to ask them what their conception of a proper government was. Do they have ideas to create jobs? Why do they feel that Congress' taxes are unfair? I half wanted to engage in a legitimate political dialogue with them, but there were too many of them and I was definitely a little scared. No visible guns though! Or racist or sexist signs, so I cannot legitimize those rumors. Oh tea baggers, you silly gooses (geese, would really be correct). I love that half the movement is just dressing up in American flag paraphernalia.
The rest of Sunday included meeting Rachel at the zoo where I had no shame in being afraid of snakes, doing minimal amounts of actual "work," and meeting up with lots of people for dinner. At dinner Jason and I had an accidental date - sharing a pizza and a carafe of wine. Gavi loved it. Monday brought classes (thumbs down) and Shaked's departure (thumbs much further down). It was great to see the visiting Shaked, Missy, and Braver. Now I have to face the harsh reality of school for which I have not done any work for three days. Oops. It was worth it though. Now if only I could find a job, a note topic, and some motivation...
Sidenote: Missy claimed that I have an hourglass-shaped body. I would like to dispute that claim here and now. I have nothing approaching an hourglass shape, and I'm not sure what exactly it says about Missy that she thinks otherwise. Rachel and Shaked agree with me! Missy is, as always, an odd one.
The next morning we reconvened for brunch and Shaked fulfilled her desire for hot chocolate. Also, Rachel fulfilled her desire to get Diet Coke spilled on her head by making sudden movements as the waiter brought Missy more soda. After the spill on Rachel's head, Missy selflessly said "Don't worry, my dress is fine." We went to VegFest where I made disparaging remarks about PETA and vegetarians. Par for the course. Shaked and I then proceeded to Georgetown and, on a whim, rented a kayak. Because this was not a planned nautical adventure, we were both wearing jeans which were immediately drenched in water from the Potomac. After kayaking (it was my first time!), we walked back through Georgetown to Trader Joes and did some quality wet-jean food shopping. I will also note that in one of my less-proud moments I may or may not have hit Shaked on the head with a kayak paddle. Not hard, but still. Karma caught up with me, however, and gave me a sunburn.
Later that evening, after we visited the National Portrait Gallery, Shaked and I met up with Gavi and Jason at Damien's party. We were just dropping by for a few minutes, but in that limited amount of time I managed to make a girl hate me. Admittedly, I was being snobby, but she was being stubborn. And she was ugly. It was about burglaries - how bad can I really feel? Alright, it was my fault. Mea culpa; I was wrong, and I instigated. But still...I don't care. Then we went to U Street to meet up with Alena and her friends and I nearly fell asleep on the walk home.
On Sunday, Shaked and I went to Eastern Market, saw Jackson Pollack (actually he was named Jackson Collins, I believe, but we both heard incorrectly at first), lots of amusing posters (the CIA recruiting women: "We are looking for a few good women"), and a creepy looking women telling fortunes. On the way back we went past the Capitol and ran into the 9/12 Tea Party rally. Wow, that was interesting. I don't think we successfully blended in among the crowd. Shaked took to counting non-white people. She pointed out a grand total of two. There were tens of thousands of people there. It was an interesting, amusing, scary experience. Shaked decided it was time to leave when we saw a man holding a sign saying something to the effect of "We won't burn the Koran when they won't burn the American flag," and I wholeheartedly agreed to leave. I kept wanting to talk to the people there to ask them what their conception of a proper government was. Do they have ideas to create jobs? Why do they feel that Congress' taxes are unfair? I half wanted to engage in a legitimate political dialogue with them, but there were too many of them and I was definitely a little scared. No visible guns though! Or racist or sexist signs, so I cannot legitimize those rumors. Oh tea baggers, you silly gooses (geese, would really be correct). I love that half the movement is just dressing up in American flag paraphernalia.
The rest of Sunday included meeting Rachel at the zoo where I had no shame in being afraid of snakes, doing minimal amounts of actual "work," and meeting up with lots of people for dinner. At dinner Jason and I had an accidental date - sharing a pizza and a carafe of wine. Gavi loved it. Monday brought classes (thumbs down) and Shaked's departure (thumbs much further down). It was great to see the visiting Shaked, Missy, and Braver. Now I have to face the harsh reality of school for which I have not done any work for three days. Oops. It was worth it though. Now if only I could find a job, a note topic, and some motivation...
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
King Henry V, 3:1
Returning to law school reminds me of Shakespeare a bit:
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead."
I am beginning to be reminded of the grinding, stressful aspects of school. I guess it really is not that bad, but it certainly is no romp in the park.
Today in Corporations my professor got a student who had previously volunteered to eat bovril on a cinnamon-raisin bagel. Bovril is a British beef extract, more popular in the nineteenth century. Sounds delicious. He then proceeded to grill another student about the 1975 Baltimore Orioles and discuss the propensity of sailors towards drinking. Overall, I'd give today's class a 9.5.
Tomorrow morning I have class at 7:45 am for journal. The theme will be "RISE AND SHINE ISN'T LIFE GREAT IN THE MORNING AND DON'T YOU LOVE BEING ALIVE AT THIS TIME OF DAY??" Speaking of which, I should go to sleep.
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead."
I am beginning to be reminded of the grinding, stressful aspects of school. I guess it really is not that bad, but it certainly is no romp in the park.
Today in Corporations my professor got a student who had previously volunteered to eat bovril on a cinnamon-raisin bagel. Bovril is a British beef extract, more popular in the nineteenth century. Sounds delicious. He then proceeded to grill another student about the 1975 Baltimore Orioles and discuss the propensity of sailors towards drinking. Overall, I'd give today's class a 9.5.
Tomorrow morning I have class at 7:45 am for journal. The theme will be "RISE AND SHINE ISN'T LIFE GREAT IN THE MORNING AND DON'T YOU LOVE BEING ALIVE AT THIS TIME OF DAY??" Speaking of which, I should go to sleep.
Monday, September 6, 2010
Welcome to your college frat party
Last night I hung out with Damien and some of his friends. Among them was a girl named Courtney (I think). She was a medical school student from Tampa and seemed nice enough. Somewhere in the middle of dinner she started talking politics and about how bad Obama has been. "Why," I asked her, "has Obama been so bad? He sure isn't perfect, but he passed financial reform, health care reform..." That's when the lights and buzzers went off, I said the magic words. She started tearing into health care reform, talking about how insurance companies are increasing their premiums and hospitals will cherry-pick patients. Honestly, I do not have the requisite knowledge to debate her on this, and I do not know the finer points of health care reform. I do, however, know that insurance companies and hospitals acting against patient interests is nothing new nor is it the fault of the Obama administration. I also know that when she told me "Every doctor in Florida thinks it is terrible," she is probably incorrect. Doctors cannot agree whether its a virus or food poisoning, so it would be miraculous to get every doctor in the very populous state of Florida to agree on a political opinion. Alright, she doesn't like health care reform. We'll see if it works or not, I guess.
Then she got worse.
This girl said she does not understand why anyone votes on social issues ("I mean, I love gay people, but it just isn't that important"). When pushed a bit on it, she responded that politicians don't make decisions on social issues, it's all the judicial system. "What about that Civil Rights Act? That was legislative. And DOMA?" I asked her. She had no response. I wonder why she did not have a proper retort? Could it be that she is entirely incorrect, does not know history, and has no idea about how American government works? Yes, many decisions on "social issues" come from the courts (Prop 8 ruling, just to think of one off the front page). But legislators and even executives have a huge impact and are constitutionally empowered to act on the issues. Also, to say that social issues do not matter sounds pretty flimsy coming from a privileged, white, Christian medical school student.
Another bright spot of the conversation was her statement, "I don't understand why so many Jews vote Democrat. It isn't in their interest." When asked to clarify she advanced the position that Jews are well-off to rich. It would be wholly unnecessary to dismantle her statements premise by premise. They are ignorant, incorrect, and borderline offensive, to be generous. In the midst of this discussion (which, by the way, included four or five people, not only Courtney and me), Damien's friend Sam tried to mention that many Jews have altruistic instincts because Jews have themselves been the victims of poor circumstances on a few occasions. Courtney's eyes glazed over and she simply could not understand the idea that someone could not always act in their own economic interest.
Other topics of conversation which betrayed her ignorance included why rebuilding is necessary and we can't just up and leave Afghanistan at the drop of a hat, why President Obama did not create the federal deficit, and why we live in a welfare state (because there are...welfare programs?). A lot went on in a short period of time. I laughed; I cried; I stopped talking and let other people handle it.
Then we went to a party thrown by some law school people. A house-warming party of sorts. It did get very warm in the house, perhaps due to the heat given off by the 200 or so people inside. It was every frat party I ever went to in college, but 80s-themed despite not playing 80s music. Not my favorite. Maybe 80s music would have helped. The big difference between this and a frat party was that when the cops came I was not worried in the slightest. We had 200 law students there, surely someone would be able to talk the police into leaving us alone. As it turns out, that was my friend Pat, who did so in a belly shirt and green spandex shorts.
Then she got worse.
This girl said she does not understand why anyone votes on social issues ("I mean, I love gay people, but it just isn't that important"). When pushed a bit on it, she responded that politicians don't make decisions on social issues, it's all the judicial system. "What about that Civil Rights Act? That was legislative. And DOMA?" I asked her. She had no response. I wonder why she did not have a proper retort? Could it be that she is entirely incorrect, does not know history, and has no idea about how American government works? Yes, many decisions on "social issues" come from the courts (Prop 8 ruling, just to think of one off the front page). But legislators and even executives have a huge impact and are constitutionally empowered to act on the issues. Also, to say that social issues do not matter sounds pretty flimsy coming from a privileged, white, Christian medical school student.
Another bright spot of the conversation was her statement, "I don't understand why so many Jews vote Democrat. It isn't in their interest." When asked to clarify she advanced the position that Jews are well-off to rich. It would be wholly unnecessary to dismantle her statements premise by premise. They are ignorant, incorrect, and borderline offensive, to be generous. In the midst of this discussion (which, by the way, included four or five people, not only Courtney and me), Damien's friend Sam tried to mention that many Jews have altruistic instincts because Jews have themselves been the victims of poor circumstances on a few occasions. Courtney's eyes glazed over and she simply could not understand the idea that someone could not always act in their own economic interest.
Other topics of conversation which betrayed her ignorance included why rebuilding is necessary and we can't just up and leave Afghanistan at the drop of a hat, why President Obama did not create the federal deficit, and why we live in a welfare state (because there are...welfare programs?). A lot went on in a short period of time. I laughed; I cried; I stopped talking and let other people handle it.
Then we went to a party thrown by some law school people. A house-warming party of sorts. It did get very warm in the house, perhaps due to the heat given off by the 200 or so people inside. It was every frat party I ever went to in college, but 80s-themed despite not playing 80s music. Not my favorite. Maybe 80s music would have helped. The big difference between this and a frat party was that when the cops came I was not worried in the slightest. We had 200 law students there, surely someone would be able to talk the police into leaving us alone. As it turns out, that was my friend Pat, who did so in a belly shirt and green spandex shorts.
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Everybody's Free (To Forget to Wear Sunscreen)
Yesterday was pretty fantastic. I spent the majority of the day at Jen and Anthony's rooftop pool. I got yelled at for trying to read for Corporations and write a cover letter. All told, I think I was there hanging out with various people, swimming, and throwing around a football (which ultimately took a 12 story fall into the parking lot and was never heard from again) for about six hours. I guess this is that "relaxing" stuff that people talk about. Being white and responsible, I sprayed my torso and arms with sunscreen. SPF 30, baby. I did not anticipate being in the sun for as long as I was and thus forgot all about my legs and feet. So now I have a nice little sunburn on my knees and the tops of my feet. Wearing socks is slightly painful these days (just like watching the Sox - hey-yo). Now, back to work. Actually, some back to work is fun, like reading Griswold v. Connecticut. Maybe Shaked will be the only one who agrees with me, but I enjoy reading that case.
Notwithstanding Griswold, there are still tolls from school. Currently, I have to think of a note topic (a note is basically a piece of scholarly writing akin to a thesis, though shorter than a full-fledged thesis). I wonder if my journal will accept a tragicomedy in two acts about the American embargo against trade with Cuba. I doubt it, so I am forced to find alternatives. Any ideas for fun topics related to international law?
Four day weekend!
Notwithstanding Griswold, there are still tolls from school. Currently, I have to think of a note topic (a note is basically a piece of scholarly writing akin to a thesis, though shorter than a full-fledged thesis). I wonder if my journal will accept a tragicomedy in two acts about the American embargo against trade with Cuba. I doubt it, so I am forced to find alternatives. Any ideas for fun topics related to international law?
Four day weekend!
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