Sign of the Times

So today I was my favorite class. In this class, I participate alot because it seems like my fellow classmates do not do the assigned reading (on most days) but yours truly is always ontop of the material. So the professor decided to go into this long drawn out hypothetical and then he had some followup questions. When he got done, he turned towards me and asked, "so what are your thoughts?" I responded that I didn't really have any thoughts. He then responded, "you must have thoughts!" This pissed me off because I'm always participating & the one time I didn't respond to a question, he stayed on my back. So I responded, "I don't have anything to say and don't have any thoughts!" Then I turned to the rest of the class & asked, "do y'all have any thoughts?" What I really wanted to say was "WTF, when I say I don't have any thoughts, keep it moving."

Three years of cold-calling & having to come up with answers has become very old. The part of my brain that houses b.s. answers completely refuses to cooperate.

Movies

Liked these movies:
-Slumdog Millionaire
-Defiance (really liked it)
-Changeling
-Taken
-The Reader
-Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
-Pride & Glory (really liked it)
-Eagle Eye
-Righteous Kill

Avoid or wait till out on DVD:
-Revolutionary Road
-The International

I HATE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY & EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR!!!

Just needed to get that off my chest

Yay!!!

No school today because of the horrid weather! I had such a hectic day ahead that I am practically giddy at this news.

The weather started getting crazy yesterday afternoon around 3:30pm. I had driven down to the courthouse & was scheduled to be there from about 1-3pm. In my infinite wisdom, I decided to drive even though I knew snow was coming - I usually take the bus - but I figured I'd be done before the snow started coming down. However, didn't get to leave until 5pm. By that time it was raining snow - you actually needed an umbrella to be able to withstand it. So, after taking 30 minutes to get out of the garage where I'd parked, I got on the downtown roads & only made it a block before deciding it was too treacherous to attempt to make it home. So I ditched my car in yet another garage & made my way to a bus stop. Will attempt to retrieve my car whenever this shitty weather eases up.

BTW, I did not fail my secured transactions exam like I had feared! Did much better than expected which makes me think I got someone else's grade - but let's keep that between us.

History is Here!!!

This has got to be the coldest week I've experienced in years. Temps are constantly sub zero & it has snowed daily to top it off. I took the bus all of last week (except Friday) since driving was very treacherous. On one of my bus trips, a foreign student I had a class with last semester came & sat next to me. We had never spoken before & since I was hooded up I didn't think he'd recognize me. Next thing you know, "excuse me were you in my class last semester?" That started off the conversation & soon we were chatting like old charms. Told me his life story. The gist being he'd been in Ohio for a year, didn't have any friends to hang out with, & didn't get to go anywhere since he didn't have a car. Being the nice person that I am, I offered to be his tour guide once the weather warmed up. I'm thinking if this lawyering thing doesn't pan out, I'll become a therapist. Can't tell you how much people like telling me their life stories to the point where I get uncomfortable.

I've had all my classes at least once & I like them all. Two classes are with professors I had last semester & the clinic has started off splendidly. I was afraid that I'd hate a class which would've meant dropping it & having to rework my schedule which is no small feat since it also affects my work schedule. Work also began decently. Just picked up where I left off last semester & my co-worker is also back which makes it even more fun. Will be working about 17 hrs/week.

OK - I probably shouldn't even be writing about this but I found a website that streams movies online for free (no downloads required)!!! I was googling something yesterday & mistakenly stumbled upon the site. So far I've watched: Slumdog Millionaire, Taken, & Defiance and they were all really good. Take that AMC theatres . . . at least for now till the website gets shut down for hosting copyrighted material.

Final Semester!!!!

Back to the grind tomorrow for my final semester in school. Sooo excited but not so excited at the same time. School sucks but law school sucks even more. The reading is horrendous, the exams are even more horrendous, but leading a student life simply cannot be beat - no serious job, getting home at 2pm, hanging out with friends, etc. So all that will be coming to an end in a quick 5 months. Semi-sad but such is life.

My hectic schedule last semester will benefit me this semester. I need 10 credits to graduate so I'll be taking only a clinic & 2 seminars then my journal credits will make up for the rest. Clinics are very labor intensive but seminars are not so hopefully they will balance out. Rest of the time I'll be working in the same position I was last semester.

The new season of "24" starts in a few minutes so let me get situated.

Until next year . . .

Worser & Worsest

This has got to be the worst week ever. Just received my gas bill & it's a whoppin' $144!!! The reason this is so outrageous is that I barely turned on my heat last month - nada. But, these idiots estimated my bill based on last year's use. Technically, I could go to my meter, read it, then call them up with an actual reading. However, a little run outside my house yesterday did not reveal where the darn meter was. It is FRIGID outside so I'll attempt another detective run in a few days but if I don't find the meter, I'll have to pay this autrocious figure. Pisses me off.

Then we receive an email from one of my professors saying that a paper that was due on Friday, is now due on Friday in his office before 4pm! I was planning to submit it to him on Fri at 11:59pm via email but now we have this change of plan. Those 8 hours make a huge difference. I'm just now getting done with paper #1 & so I don't think I'll be able to research & write paper #2 between now & Fri at 4pm. Even I have my limits.

What I wouldn't give for today to be Saturday!

Update: Despite my hysterics, everything turned out okay. Bill got paid & paper got done before the deadline.

Update 2: I just got my gas bill for January & I received a credit of $25! Yay!!!

Secured Transactions

This freaking exam lived up to each & every expectation & then some. So here's how the exam was broken down:

3 hrs & all essays:
Que 1: 55 points (90 minutes)
Que 2: 15 points (30 minutes)
Que 3: 15 points (30 minutes)
Que 4: 15 points (30 minutes)

For the most part, I always start with the shorter questions & then tackle the long ones last. The long essay questions are usually very convoluted & I always end up taking too much time on them. So today was no different. Started with the shorter essays. I thought they were semi-decent because I had a clue as to what was going on in all of them. However, I misread one question and ended up having to redo it which took about an extra 20 minutes. That meant I had about 70 minutes to tackle que 1. No biggie . . . that was until I read the essay. I read it & freaked out!!! I mean literally. Couldn't make head or tail of what was going on at all!!! It was divided into sub-parts, 1(a), (b), (c), & (d). Fact pattern for (a) was about 2 pages long. Fact pattern for (b) was about a paragraph long - it built up from (a)'s facts but you were only to consider (b)'s facts, & the same happened for (c) and (d). Now I had about 30 minutes left to answer these four subparts & nothing was clicking as to how to answer them. The moral of this story: hoping, wishing, & praying I don't fail!

Just in case you are wondering why I didn't drop this class: We have one week after classes start to drop a class. After that, you cannot withdraw unless you want an "F." So in the first week, there is no way to figure out how hard a class is going to be since it's only introductory material. They butter you up & then lay it on you. To top it all off, I have two papers to write before Fri before I'm done for the semester. Don't you just envy my life right now?!

On a lighter note, my judicial externship ended last week. On the last day, I turned in my final draft for the Judge to review, edit, & enter the judgment. So yesterday in the mail, I received my edited draft with this message from the Judge, "This was really, really, excellent!" It was a 21 page draft opinion & she had made only minimal edits to it before it was filed with the court. I was totally stoked. All that research & wading through mountains of evidence was no fun at all but it paid off. Too bad this class is graded pass/fail.

Secured Transactions is hands down the hardest class I've ever had the misery of taking! The exam is on Monday & I'm desperately trying to make sense of it all with no luck. Misery. Pure unadulterated misery. I'm staring dead ahead at an "F" if my notes don't start making sense in the next few hours.

On to my next sob story. My car is acting up again. At idle, it'll warm up like normal. But as soon as I start driving, the temperature gauge drops down to "C" & remains that way until I idle the car again. So I stopped by the mechanic yesterday & told him the problem. He seemed to know what the problem was I told me to return today. Then guess what, the darn car will not repeat the problem again. The heat is working like a charm & doesn't drop when I start driving. WTF?

The aww moment of the year!!!

Not So Black Friday

I usually go to slickdeals.net to find out what the latest deals are. On Mon night, someone on slick deals listed that Best Buy had an HP laptop & printer combo listed for $278.99. Everyone on the slick deals forum thought that this was a black friday item which was mistakenly posted on the BB website but they all were going to try their luck the next morning. So who was I to be left out of this action? The next morning, I decided to skip my 10am class & go to BB instead to see if I could snag this deal before they became aware of their mistake.

So with my printout in hand, I made a mad dash to BB hoping to run into a fresh-of-the-street teenage salesperson. Guess who ended up asking me if he could help me? The freakin' store manager! Isn't being holed up in an office and not out on the floor one of the perks of being a manager? Well the short of it is, the only way I was going to get this laptop for that price was to come back on black Fri at 5am & duke it out with the rest of the masses. Keep in mind BB only had 12 of them in stock at this location. Turns out because of the slick deals posting, people began lining up at BB's everywhere & soon the stores got wind of the mistake. But some folks were able to get the laptop for that price before BB realized their mistake & corrected the price. Me, not so lucky.

So I began telling everyone who'd listen how I was going to line up at BB on black Fri at midnight in hopes of getting this deal. That's when everyone began wishing me luck because apparently BB lines begin forming on thanksgiving morning (and I mean 1am-ish)! Who're these people with no lives spoiling it for the rest of us?! Talk about a plan fizzler. But if my laptop holds up until next year, I shall be back with a vengeance for the next laptop deal - camping tent, heating lamp, food, a bat to beat off those trying to cut in line, friends to attack the store from all angles, etc. I shall not be deterred!

P.S. I did make my 10am class since I didn't end up spending as much time at the store as I had anticipated...you know, the salesperson didn't go back to get the merchandise, didn't get to ring it up, didn't try to sell me warranty, nothing. Instead, all I got was, "sorry it was a mistake bye bye."

Presidential Matters!

We have a new president-elect . . . Barack Obama!!! This country couldn't have chosen a more qualified person to lead us out of the mess that his predecessor has left.

I have a new love - facebook! It's sooo addictive. After years of refusing to cave in to peer pressure, I finally joined because my friends would take pictures but they'd post them on FB. So the only way I was going to see them was to join. I did & haven't looked back. Writing on peoples' walls has become the highlight of my electronic day.

I tried to outsmart the system but the system outsmarted me. At the start of this semester, I needed 26 credits to graduate. So I devised a master plan . . . take 16 credits this semester & leave only 8 for an easy-breezy last semester (I get 2 credits for journal work). So I've been killing myself juggling a gazillion things for the past 3 months & then I was talking to a friend about my very smart plan. This was his response, "sounds like a great idea but I'm pretty sure the school requires us to be full-time students." WHAT?! Moral of this story, yours truly has to take 12 credits next semester so as to be a full-time student. They don't care that I'll be over my graduation requirements . . . noooo . . . "the rules are the rules." I'm still super salty over this whole situation. All that hustling & strategery for nothing.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Heater Revisited

Last year I told y'all about buying a heater in an effort to bring down my gas bill. Turned out the heater didn't do what it was supposed to do. Was very surprised by this because everyone on Amazon had raved it warms up rooms in no time. But when it got down to 30 degrees a few nights ago, I decided to break out the ol' heater to give it another try. It has a thermostat so I cranked it up to the maximum which is something I hadn't done before. The heater now works like a champ. The room warms up very fast & the heat emitted is not dry at all. I absolutely love this heater now. Let's hope I'll still love it when my electric bill comes.

What's annoying me today: Why does Cindy McSame feel it necessary to stand right behind her husband so that she's always captured in the picture? All she does is stupidly nod & smile in agreement with McSame even when he has freudian slips. Maybe it's time you moved off to the side Cindy. Don't confirm for us what we already know.

Colin Powell Endorses Senator Obama

Thought the lead up to his endorsement of Barack Obama was fantastic! The highlight was when he addressed the Obama-is-a-muslim talk by the GOP. . . "What if he was?" Finally someone with the balls to stand up for muslims in this country. Based on this endorsement speech, his presentation at the U.N. for why the U.S. should invade Iraq is fast becoming a very hazy memory!

Movie Reviews

"Body of Lies" - The plot was good but the ending was horrendous. Skip it!

"Traitor" - Interesting . . . but you'll feel like you've seen it before. OK.

Obama Rally

Barack was in Columbus for a rally this afternoon & yours truly was front & center. People were very fired up. However, even though the venue was in a park, it was rather small for the crowd that showed up. They had roped off a large section of the park for security purposes so everyone was forced into one area. But the atmosphere & weather was fantastic so all was forgiven. The highlight though was when we were leaving. A truck was stuck in traffic right by the venue & guess what was printed all over it . . . "McCain/Palin!" The people on the streets of downtown Columbus went bananas. We started chanting, "O-ba-ma"..."O-ba-ma." People even started honking their horns to the beat of our chants. The poor guy driving the truck took it all in stride. Was waving & smiling at us the entire time. It was great! Obama/Biden '08.

Free cable t.v.!

I was telling my brother-in-law about how I had disconnected my cable. He asked me if my t.v. was still able to receive the local channels - NBC, CBS, FOX, ABC. Told him I'd tried but got no reception. Then he asked me the 'duh' question of the day. . . "have you connected the cable wire to your t.v.?" Long story short, I am now happily receiving 80+ crystal clear channels of cable t.v. for free!

Fall Break!

It's about time. No school or work for one week. I tried making it through the v.p. debate last night but kept muting out Palin. She's was just too cutesy for me with all her winking, joe six pack, & hockey mom references. The thought of going through this kind of nonsense for the next 4 years is . . . indescribable. Obama/Biden '08!