Not so rockin'

Remember how I thought my appellate brief rocked & that it would save me from my dismal oral argument, well my adjunct just emailed us our briefs back with his comments & he skewered me yet again! He thought my analysis was conclusory and shallow. Wah! I give up. Seems I cannot win with this guy so let's keep it moving.

I truly enjoy my Gender & the Law class but for some reason I am unable to think critically on issues that the prof raises. This is like an undergraduate class where there's lots of theory & you just put your 'regular' thinking cap on to analyse feminists' take on different issues. Sounds easy enough but for me it's been a struggle. I much rather rules-based classes (most law classes are) where all I do is apply the rules to the matter at hand. Thank goodness it's a take-home exam. I'll need all the time I can get to get over my inability to think like I used to in undergrad. And here I was thinking I was getting smarter. Not so sure anymore.

5000 Calories

is the average number of calories that a person consumes over Thanksgiving. That would be me. I had a few friends over yesterday & we had a potluck thanksgiving so there was lots of good food, dessert, & wine. Dinner was about 6pm & from there we just relaxed & had a good ol' time. Since we were still up & chatting at 6am this morning, we decided to brave the crowds & hit the mall. The mall turned out to be rather empty which was surprising but appreciated. Mostly just browsed but we did buy a few things though I think the bargains will get better as christmas draws closer.

Plug for McDonalds: Their coffee is fantastic!

Week in Review

Went to church this morning with some friends. The singing was fab & so was the sermon. The parking though was autrocious but the church activities more than made up for it.

I had an interview this past Friday. My last interviewer was a total cynic. His boss was supposed to be the original interviewer but he had other things to do so he had this guy do it. He turned out to be the most interesting of all the people I interviewed with. It started out somewhat shaky since he had these 5 cookie cutter questions the office had given him to ask, "well let's get this crap out of the way & then we can start the real interview..." After that, we had about a 30 minute conversation on what we'd both done in the past. He'd been practicing law for about 30 years so he had alot of war stories to tell.

My oral argument for my appellate advocacy class was rough. We had 3 judges including my adjunct, who does appellate work in employment law & this was what my case was about. So anytime I answered a question, he'd have a ton of followup questions which I didn't seem to answer to his satisfaction, "...Counsel are you telling this Court that..." The rest of the judges just sat there & let him have at it. My opponent wasn't given as hard a time which I thought was unfair on very many levels. This oral part is 20% of the grade & the brief 80%. I thought my brief rocked so hopefully it'll save the day.

Go Bucks!

Rose Bowl here we come!

Update: Who needs the Rose Bowl when you can get the BCS Title game?!

No School Tomorrow....

thanks to Veterans Day. Got lots done around the house today. I took down some old vertical blinds in the kitchen & put up some drapes. Drapes in the kitchen you ask? Yup. They give the kitchen a very nice country feel to it. Then I went down to the basement & got out my christmas decorations. I usually put them up after Thanksgiving, but since I had all this time on my hands, I figured why the hell not. So got that done & everything looks lovely. Let's hope tomorrow will be just as productive to make up for all the non-studying today.

Ho Hum

This is straight off the Democratic Candidates Debate. Hillary Clinton gets on my nerves royally! She can't give a straight answer if her life depended on it. I love Dennis Kucinich & Joe Biden. Kucinich believes in UFO's & he cops to that. Ask Sen. Biden what he'd do with the toys coming from China & he says "as President I'll shut them down, all of them." No double talk just telling it how they see it. Seems straight answers only come from those who have no shot at winning.

Ask Hillary if the sky is blue & she'll answer "it depends." JUST ANSWER THE DOGGONE QUESTIONS! Enough politics already. Let us know where you stand instead of worrying about how the republicans will use your answers today to attack you tomorrow.

Goat Political Move of the Week

New York has passed a law that will give illegal immigrants drivers' licenses. This is all fine and dandy except that these licenses will be clearly marked to show that they are not valid federal IDs. In other words, everyone they show that D.L. to will know that they are illegal immigrants! This is where New Yorkers hard earned tax dollars are going towards: paying these politicians to pass idiotic laws that further put illegal immigrants in the cross-hairs of the police department ergo the BCIS. I think it'd be even more idiotic if an illegal immigrant went and got one of these driver's license. They can't show these when applying for a job because the employer will know they aren't authorized to work & if they get pulled over they can't show this license because the police will haul them to the nearest detention center faster than they can say hasta la vista. Way I see it, this is a conspiracy to get these folks out of the shadows & back to their countries. Literally.

Vigilant Neighbors

Friday morning, about 3am, I was at home watching episodes of Bionic Woman on the web. Then I heard a crashing sound. Wasn't very loud, just loud enough for me to turn off all the lights, run upstairs & look out the window to see if my car was getting broken into. No way I'd have heard it was I asleep. Anywayz, turns out I was looking out the wrong side of the house. I noticed a swirl of lights filtering in through my drapes on the front end of my house. So I ran to the window, peeked out & noticed about 3 police cars. So I threw on a jacket & went outside to see what was going on.

Guess who was standing outside?! The ENTIRE neighborhood!! Don't these people have jobs to go to in the morning?! Turns out a drunk driver flipped his car & that was the crashing noise I heard. But I guess my neighbors are a little more proactive than I am. Me, I carefully assess the situation....from a distance....& then proceed with caution. Them, they jump into the fray & damn the consequences. Turns out as soon as they heard the noise, they went outside to help the drunken driver get out of his flipped car & called the police. Makes me all warm & fuzzy knowing that my neighbors don't sleep at night. Neighborhood Watch at its finest.

Update: Jim the appliance guy came out yesterday & fixed my washer. Turns out it was the door sensor and not the timer. Jim wanted to make sure that it was the timer before he went out & got one so he tested everything else he could think of & sure enough, the door sensor turned out to be the culprit. It ended up costing about $100 less than it would've cost had it been the timer. Gotta love Jim & craigslist.

Bitching & Moaning!

All things water are going wrong in my life right now. Sunday I loaded up my washer & went on about my business. Came back to put the laundry in the dryer & found my clothes still swimming in water. Fished them out hoping this would fix the drainage problem but that didn't help. So I went to craigslist & found Jim the appliance guy. Jim comes out to my place today (I've been lucky no one from craigslist has turned out to be an ax murderer) & diagnoses the problem to be a bad timer. Long story short, $150 for the timer + $50 for labor. Jim says to get back to him in the morning with a decision on whether he's going to be installing the new timer or whether I'll be ditching my washer & getting another one (used of course). Hmm.

School has become a mo fo. Journal stuff is due this coming Monday. I'll be spending my whole weekend (night & day) in the library poring over the most boring article I've ever read. Then an outline of my student note is due in a couple of weeks. I haven't began doing any type of research for that but I'm sure I can whip up something the night before. Unlike most of my fellow journal staff members, I am not trying to get published (but would be totally stoked if they picked my article for publishing). I'm just going to make a good faith effort to get the darn thing done so I don't get thrown off the Journal.

Then I'll be spending all of next week on my Appellate Advocacy brief that's due Nov. 3. I would have called in work this week & next if I didn't have my car & washer falling apart on me. Then we have to make oral arguments, in front of a panel of judges, after turning in the brief, the week of Nov. 6. We had practice arguments this week, with 3L's acting as judges. I thought I killed my opponent & happily surprised myself that I wasn't nervous at all. Let's hope that carries over for my real argument. Classes have kinda sorta taken a back seat since I have all this other stuff to get done. I read as much as I can over the weekend & what I can't get to...oh well. I'm thinking about dressing up as "Sleeping Beauty" for halloween. It falls on Wed next week so maybe I can sleep through all my classes. Think my professors will get it?

Then the weather is not helping out. It's been pouring for the past 3 days. Gloomy nasty weather. Can't wait for thanksgiving break. To give thanks & to catch some zzzzzzz!

Nothingness

Remember my quandry about getting the washers of my car working, well after some soul-searching, I decided to go with Tuffy. I took my car there for an oil change about a month ago (I had a great coupon) & loved the manager of the shop. Fast forward to today. They took my car back & after about 20 minutes, here goes the Manager: "Come on back & I'll show you what we're dealing with."

Turns out the mechanic I had originally taken my car to to try & figure out the washer problem, had cut the airbag wires & connected them to the wires running to the washers & I was lucky that the airbags hadn't deployed while I was driving. So Tuffy had to fix that mess before they could begin trying to figure out why the washers weren't working. What did this mean? $$$. So I gave them the go-ahead but only to fix the wiring problem. An hour later, the manager came back & I'm like oh snap here we go again. "Well I don't know how to explain this but my guy rewired your car back to how it should be & guess what, your washers are working! I can't explain how that happened but it did." So $135 later, my car is wired up properly & the washers are back in business. Good times.

I'm really enjoying my new job. My work mates are great & the one person I truly disliked quit last week. Doesn't get better than that. And the work is great too. It's fairly busy but when we have downtime, we can do our school work or surf the web. Not to mention we don't have to dress up. Like McDonald's I'm lovin' it.

Stephen Colbert will be on Meet the Press this Sunday. You have to catch that. It's bound to be hilarious now that he's in the running for the Presidency.

Public Service Announcement

Click here to see if your wireless phone service qualifies for a discount, either through your employer or through your school. I am an existing AT&T wireless subscriber & still got a 20% monthly discount through my school. Definitely worth checking into. Enjoy!

Fall Break

Yipee! School is out until Oct 15.

Quandry

My car's washer fluid is not coming out when I pull the lever to clean the windshield. So I went to a nearby mechanic at the local gas station (yeah I know....what was I thinking) & he told me he thought he knew what the problem was. $95 dollars & 4 hours later, he couldn't find the problem since he ran out of time but told me to bring the car back. So I asked the question that begged to be asked, " . . . are you going to charge me for additional labor to continue trying to figure out the problem?" Yup. Now what's a girl to do? Do I cut my losses & go to the dealer; do I ignore the problem since it doesn't affect the running of my car; or do I take it back to Dufus the mechanic since he said he was close to isolating the problem? Hmmm.

Call-Back Interview

Yesterday: It was about a 3 hour drive to where I was interviewing. Got to the hotel the firm put me up at & it was fabulous. Just lovely. The recruitment coordinator even got me a goodie bag full of little knick knacks about the city that I found sitting in the hotel room. Then had dinner with two attorneys & it was surprisingly nice after which they took me on a brief tour of the city.

Today: Interviewed with 10 attorneys in half hour intervals. I guess it was payback for the really nice hotel room they put me up in. They got their money back in spades. I would be surprised if I got an offer from this firm since the question I got asked constantly is why I was interested in the city. I got the feeling my answer was a little too flimsy for their taste. Firms want the 2L's for the most part to come back & work for them permanently after they graduate. They don't want to pay them beaucoup d'argent for the summer to never see them again. That would be me. The city was nice but I can't see myself there beyond one summer.

Why A's Continue to Elude Me

Bourne Ultimatum: Loved it. Highly recommend but you have to catch it at the theatres to get the full effect of all the non-stop action. It's too bad that's the end of the Bourne trilogy. Finally got to watch "The Lookout" which was good but it didn't quite live up to the hype.

Newport Harbor: Another MTV reality show. Had never seen it before until last Sat when I caught a marathon of past episodes. Good thing the season is just about over because I'm hooked.

Kid Nation: The CBS reality show about kids living unsupervised in the middle of nowhere premiered today. It was interesting to see how much more rational & thoughtful kids are compared to grown-ups. Not must-see tv but catch it if you can. We can all learn a few lessons from these little tykes.

Next Week: Fall season line-up begins! I caught a few episodes of Criminal Minds this summer & does that show take the cake for having the most realistic creeps or what?! Love the story lines but I watch all the murder scenes with my eyes closed. Way to vivid for my taste. But I'm afraid I have to add it to my ever-growing list of must-see tv which is (in no particular order):

-24
-House
-Criminal Minds
-Grey's Anatomy (might boycott since Preston Burke is no more but I've yet to decide)
-All the new dramas - have to watch them at least once. Hopefully I'll hate them all so I can have time to study.

Small Legal World

So I'm riding in the elevator in school today with this girl & we begin to chat. She tells me she's glad her classes are over for the week but she's bummed out that she has to work Thu & Fri. Here's our conversation:

Me: So where do you work?
Her: At XYZ.
Me: What?! (my big mouth continues) I had applied to work there & received an offer but I called & quit on my starting day.
Her: (with her eyes wide open) You must be ...... (insert my name here)!!! They had sent us all these emails about you starting, & to be nice to you, & to show you the ropes, & then they sent us an email saying were no longer coming.
Me: (thinking...why did I have to open my big mouth) OMG...I feel so bad. I didn't know they had made such a big deal about it.
Her: Oh yeah they did....it's a very formal work environment & be glad you quit. The industry is very complicated so the research is very hard & everyone is so proper that you cannot do anything without having to fill out forms, sending out emails..... (she's been working there since May).
Me: .....(we continued to gossip about the place). It's a small legal world indeed.

I digress: I received a call for a call-back interview scheduled for next week! Woo hoo! This is a firm I interviewed with at one of the job fairs I attended. Will share all the gory details after the fact.

6 Years Later....

71,720-78,296 Iraqi Civilians Killed

27,767 American Troops Injured

3,774 American Troops Killed

298 Coalition Troops Killed

2,974 Killed on 9/11

OBL...Still at Large

Raw Deal

As we enjoy the game of football every Sunday, let's not forget what a violent sport this is. Kevin Everett of the Buffalo Bills will probably never walk again after receiving a catastrophic neck injury due to a head-on collision with another player yesterday. Even though these men assume the risk that comes with playing this sport, it's still saddening when an event such as this happens. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

Things Annoying Me Today

1. Why did Dell install Adobe Reader 7 on my desktop knowing that it did not support Vista? I've been trying to open pdf files for the past two weeks unsuccessfully & it wasn't until I pulled up Adobe on wiki when I found out what the problem was. Had to download Adobe 8 which only took a few minutes but it's the fact that Dell knew (I know they did) but still installed an incompatible version. I'll be shooting them an email of disgust shortly.

2. Why is it that my lights go off or flicker every hour on the hour when it rains? I love my new place but this is driving me nuts!! When I went outside to investigate, I noticed that the power lines sag & seem lower to the ground than they are supposed to be. Why not call the electric company to come fix the problem, you ask? Well, the lights do not stay out long enough for me to call them so until that happens, I'm stuck resetting my radio, stove, & microwave clocks as well as rebooting the cable box everytime it rains. Ugh.

3. Why is it I cannot seem to get going on my appellate brief? A draft is due this Wednesday but it's proving tougher than I thought it would. My group has been given a case that is pending before the Supreme Court. We are to write a brief supporting the petitioner's side, Fedex, which was sued in 2002 by plaintiffs alleging the company was discriminating against them on the basis of age, in violation of the ADEA. The 2nd Circuit Ct of Appeals ruled against them & we are appealing to the Supreme Court to resolve the key issue in this case - whether an "intake questionnaire" (i.q.) suffices as a formal charge of discrimination. I got the raw deal on this one because I have to write a brief supporting Fedex which is arguing that the i.q. does not suffice as a formal charge. I think it does but what do I know?! It's going to be a long week.

On a happier note: Disney on Broadway's "The Lion King" is making a stop right here in Columbus! Finally. So when will Mufasa grace us with his presence: Aug 28-Sep 28, 2008!!!! WTF?!