Since finals ended last Friday (which feels like a month ago) I have done two things that I  have never, in my life, done before.  I vacuumed my entire apartment, without having spilled anything first, and I scrubbed entire bathroom, including my shower.  I've vacuumed and cleaned bathrooms before, but always because I made a mess of something, and I've certainly never scrubbed a shower.

My  bathroom looks very white right now.  Blindingly white.  I  kind of miss the dank.  I wish I took before and after pictures.  Though  now I probably won't clean it again until after my December finals.  But at least I have the supplies now.

I went on a rampage at Waldbaum's, since I hadn't gone grocery shopping in almost 3 months, and I bought a ridiculous amount of food, but also a bunch of cleaning supplies.

Aside from cleaning my apartment, I've played golf twice (pitch and putt), went to Connecticut once (going again tomorrow night), went to a ridiculous birthday party last night, and I have a fancy event at the W tonight, had casual lunches and dinners with friends, and Sunday I'm going kayaking on Manhasset Bay with a professor and another student.

I also ran into my boss for the summer while I was at school for a meeting and she told me I could roll in around 10am on Monday, wearing jeans and a t-shirt if I wanted.  It's going to be nice.

Politicians are human.  We all say stupid things sometimes.  Anyone who thinks he really believes there are 57 states is an idiot.

If George Dub-ya spent as much time in front of the media as Obama has this past year, There would be an entire book of Bush-isms.  Oh, wait, there have already been several... (click to see the amazon search results) 

1)It's a boy (eventually): Amy found out that she's having a boy. They'll be two years, 9 months apart, but 3 school years apart. Older sister, younger brother. Seems to have worked out well for Amy and I, so that's good. So Keira will have a little brother, very exciting.

2)"Driving" in Queens: I pulled up to a red light yesterday at a very busy intersection, (Queens Boulevard and Hillside Avenue, for anyone familiar). I was in the straight lane, and there was a turning lane to my left. A BMW pulls up next to me in the turning lane, starts creeping forward, then just guns it through a red light at a busy intersection in the middle of the day, because he saw a break in traffic.

People think traffic laws are optional in Queens. the number of lanes on the road are merely a suggestion. In one lane of traffic, you can have people pull up next to you on BOTH sides at a red light if you leave room, and try to get in front of you when it changes. It's not because I'm a slow driver, that people are trying to get around me. They just want to be in front of you because they can. Left turns from the center or right lane are totally acceptable. Double parking on busy roads, completely blocking off lanes is also regular practice. It's really frustrating sometimes. Not so much the guy running the red light, that has no effect on me, but the person trying to make a left turn from the right lane, when I'm in the center is irritating when it's a regular occurrence.

3)Gassy: Along the same lines of driving, I had stopped working for the semester when finals started, so I hadn't gotten gas in over two weeks. I finally filled up my tank yesterday and it cost me $65 with regular.

4)Please Choose the best answer (A-Yes, B-No, C-Maybe, D-I Don't Know, E-No One Knows): Last Thursday, I took the hardest exam I've ever taken; Administrative Law. It's like a completely separate body of law within the law. It was difficult, but I knew what I was doing, and I felt good about it, even though I felt completely drained afterward.  As my first exam (of four) I felt like once that was over, the rest would be a breeze. Wow, was I wrong. The exam I took last night (Professional Responsibility) was ridiculous. I can't even say it was a hard exam, it was a legitimately unfair exam. There was not a single question that I was sure about. The heading of this paragraph was actually one of the sets of multiple choice answers. One of the questions was "[Insert Hypothetical situation] based on Justice Kennedy's dissent in [obscure case we spent 15 minutes on in one class] what would he say about this?", Another question was "In Guy#1 and Guy #2's article, Guy#1 took the stance that..." when it was an article he handed out in class, but we never discussed. And then of course, for any question that was actually about the law, we had to choose the "best" of five answers that were all reasonably correct, or all completely incorrect. At least I could make informed choices on those, but sadly, they were only a small part of the test. Two of the three essays were reasonable, but the first one was more of an evidence essay. Anyone who took evidence already had a serious leg up on that question. This exam did not in any way test our knowledge of Professional Responsibility and ability to practice as ethical lawyers.

I literally kept laughing during the exam. I couldn't help it, this was just such a ridiculous situation. I was actually distracted in the middle of the test for a minute, thinking about whether I'd want to spend the money on a summer class, or attempt 18 credits to make up for the fact that I was clearly failing this one.

Luckily, in the aftermath, everyone else felt the same way. Even some of the best students I know said they were only sure about a couple of the questions. This kind of test is just unfair, because it doesn't reward preparation, it doesn't reward knowledge of the law, it rewards knowing the Professor's opinion, and what he thinks are the noteworthy topics loosely related to this area of law. I have never heard so many students say they were going to write letters to the Deans after an exam.

This exam is going to be a total crap shoot. The person who prepared the most and knew the law the best has an almost equal shot at getting the "A" as the person who prepared the least and was just guessing. Now, how many thousands of dollars did we all just pay for that? (Update:  That single class cost me $4,125)

Two more exams to go still, Thursday and Friday, then I'm done. I wasn't too nervous about these last two, but after assuming that about last night's exam, I don't know what to think anymore.

First semester, first year all the guys in my section stopped shaving during finals, and on the day of our last final, Torts I, we all shaved down to a mustache and called them Tortstaches.

The poor proctors had to deal with what looked like a room full of child molesters.

Anyway... that tradition has stayed alive, and most of us continue to stop shaving during finals, partially because of tradition, partially (mostly) because of laziness.

So this year, I let it grow and I had a faculty meeting yesterday. Rather than break tradition, I just neatened it up for the meeting. Since then I've gotten a tremendous amount of compliments on it, from a lot of girls and one moderately effeminate guy. It's strange though because I generally thought girls didn't like facial hair. So maybe they're just patronizing me, but either way, I'm gonna keep it for a while.



This picture was taken from the webcam I got to talk to Keira between visits, which has generally been working out very well when we do it.

This is the perfect time of year to go running in the morning. Just a tiny bit brisk. You're fine in shorts and a hoodie, but you're not overheating.

Also, it might be the only thing keeping me sane. This was definitely the best part of my day.

Now, I'm off to school again.

As I left school, I thought how today was a good day because I woke up late, I came in late, and I left early.

Then I laughed as I realized I was still there about 12 hours.

It was a sad laugh though.

This has just been such a series of bad decisions.

It's like I can see the train-wreck coming, but I am powerless to stop it.

...except that I'm the one driving.

Yet here I am.

While backpacking, I purchased a tiny little blue umbrella in Amsterdam for 3 euro's.

It was very poorly made with an extremely thin metal frame, I believe aluminum (possibly aluminum foil) and it didn't quite cover enough area above me that it kept anything dry other than my head, shoulders, and maybe upper torso.

It was a piece of crap. It would frequently blow inside out, even in a calm breeze, but it was so convenient, I took it everywhere with me.

It fit in my jacket pocket and was incredibly easy to bring out in the city, or any situation where I was going to be walking a lot. Likewise, it fit perfectly in the small pouch of my school backpack, so if I had to park far away, I always had it with me.

I cared so little about this thing, it was impossible to lose. I couldn't even throw it away, until this weekend.

Friday night was the Mock Trial end of the year party** and I left it at a bar in the financial district called Ulysses. I searched for it when we were leaving, but was unable to find it at 3 in the morning after a long, long night.

I could call the bar and see if they have it... but the subway fare would cost more than the umbrella did (not to mention the hour and a half round trip).

After three years of abuse and ambivalence, my little blue umbrella is finally gone, having diligently served its' purpose. Goodbye lil' buddy and godspeed.

The lame blog posts will probably continue until after exams are over and I have anything else to talk about.

(**The Mock Trial team jokes that they are a drinking team with a mock trial problem. That is not a joke. This was the first night in a looooong time that I was legitimately having a hard time keeping up, and halfway through the night I had to make a (semi-)conscious decision to tone it down for my own sake. The party was an open bar from 7pm - 10pm, and then we went out after and people were still going strong and buying round after round of drinks and shots until 3am... After an open bar!).

Busy busy busy busy busy busy busy busy

recent news:
"Elected" SBA President in another uncontested election
Missed the deadline for the China Fellowship, so that's out
Fancy dinner/dance last Friday, and this coming Friday as well
Appointed Internals Director of the Dispute Resolution Society
Tom and Josh came down for a nice visit, as always
My dress clothes are fitting better, so I think I've lost some weight
Last day of work is April 16th
One month from today is my last final, so, time to lock myself in a room with books and outlines.

Still looking for a job for the summer (my own fault for not being proactive enough). Know anyone who works in the following fields? Trusts and Estates, Alternative Dispute Resolution (civil litigation generally), Government/Administrative Regulation, or Corporate. Those are my specialties, voluntary or not.

And how has no one commented on the adorable pictures of Keira?

Heartless. All of you.

Click on the baby's smiling face to see 6 pictures from Easter in North Carolina





I flew down early Saturday morning and came home Sunday night. A short trip, just like last year, but totally worth it to see Keira, since I only get to see her 2-3 times a year.

Since I'm on spring break, going out on a Monday night wasn't such a crazy idea for me and a few friends.   For the rest of New York, it was a less reasonable idea.  I had to work during the day, so I didn't get to see the parade, but I still got to see the drunken mess that followed.

I went into the city with a friend to meet up with some of his co-workers from his past life, and another friend of ours from school (who we never ended up meeting.  That tends to happen when that person had been celebrating since noon).  We went to an Irish bar called Pat McManus' I think.  Within 10 minutes of walking in, the service stopped while seven men from the parade came in, walked behind the bar, and played five bagpipes, a base drum and a snare drum.  It was a great start to the night since I missed the parade.  Though they were bagpipes, not uillean pipes, it was as close as one could realistically hope for.

We ended up staying there till about 3am, but for a large portion of the night, this girl kept jumping in and out of our group, and here are some snippets of our conversations, as well as our inner monologues (or what I imagine hers was).

Her, in an accent:  I'm Irish, from Ireland!
That will make me popular on St. Patrick's day, and it's been working so far

Me, after listening skeptically for a few minutes:  What part of Ireland are you from?
I can't place your accent

Her:  Ok, I'm actually from South Africa
I can't name one place in Ireland, so I have to come clean

Me: Oh, haha, no worries, we're all Irish today
You are a liar and you are not Irish, even today.

========

Her, opening her sweater jacket to reveal a "kiss me I'm Irish" t-shirt:  You have to kiss me, I'm Irish!
If I offer myself to you, you'll forget that I'm a lying liar that lies.

Me:  "Ok" giving a quick peck on the cheek, practically her ear
I've seen you make out with 5 guys in the 15 minutes I've been here, keep your dirty mouth away from mine.  Also, we've already established you're not Irish

========

Me:  How long have you been here?
You're really drunk, have you been drinking all day?

Her:  Seven Months!
He wants to know more about me!

========

Her, running her hand down my chest: "God, you're sexytall"
I want you to come home with me tonight and do things I will regret tomorrow

Me:  Thank you
No thank you.  Also, sexytall is not a real word.

========

Her, whispering in my ear:  Ok, I'm leaving now
This is your last chance to come home with me

Me:  Have a good night
I hope you make it home ok and that your sketchy looking "friend" doesn't molest you while you're passed out

I can't quite explain why she kept coming back to our group, she was getting a lot more attention from another group of guys, and she could've easily played them off each other for the jealousy factor.  Either way, she made for a conversation piece, ego-boosts aside.  She left relatively early and the night still went on for quite some time, with a few different plot twists.  That's the only one I care to write about though.

I was in Albany all day Tuesday meeting with state senators and assemblymen.  It was an interesting environment to be in the day after Spitzer was caught.

Nothing crazy to report, just that everyone had their opinion, and there were news crews everywhere waiting for him to resign.  The democrats we met with were actually farm more critical of their own man than the republicans.

The two New York Times articles below (courtesy of Amanda) are about performance enhancing drugs in academics.  If you've never heard of this before, it's very, very real. 

Brain Enhancement is Wrong, Right? (March 09, 2008)
The Adderall Advantage  (July 31, 2005)

This is an ongoing fight, particularly in the competitive environment of law school. 

There are really only two arguments in the two articles that downplay the use of these drugs.  The first article talks about how you shouldn't compare adderall usage to steroids in sports, because the competitive nature of academia is secondary to the learning.   That is complete bullshit. 

Law school, at least in the tier 2 schools, is not about learning, it's about getting the best grades to get you the best jobs.  In tier 1, everyone gets the good jobs, in tier's 3 and 4, you're either a regional school who is going to get the best jobs in the region anyway, or you're not even trying for the big firms.  Tier 2 (and maybe the tail end of tier 1) is arguably the most competitive.  Only the top 15-20% get the big firm jobs, so the grades you get in your first year mean the difference between starting at $160,000 + bonus, or somewhere in the $40,000-80,000 range.  That may still seem like a lot of money, but when you have close to $200,000 in loans accruing interest, with nothing to show for it but your earning potential, it's really not.

I would argue that performance enhancing drugs are exactly the same in law school as in professional sports.  The payout isn't quite as big, but there's a lot more lawyers than professional athletes.

The second article talks about the actual effects of the drugs, and how they "don't make you smarter" they just allow you to work harder.  So, what... that makes it better?  The only thing I have to say in response to that is: Could the people taking adderall perform just as well without it?  And if so, why are they taking it?

The mediation competition was a lot of fun.  We had two teams entered, and at the end of the two rounds on the first day, Rich (my partner) and I were the clear winners, the only team who won both their rounds, and solid winners in the point ratings as well.  The other St. John's team tied for second place, but lost in the tiebreaker criteria.  So now we just had to come back and do a third.

After day 1 ended, and they gave us the new fact pattern for day 2, we decided to go out for a little while with one of the Roger Williams teams.  The funny part was that Jess and Matt (our other team) had gone against them in the morning, then I randomly started talking to them between rounds, and all six of us ended up eating lunch together.  Then we realized they were our opponents in the second round.  After we won, they invited us out to a beautiful restaurant/bar overlooking the water.  So, as the saying goes "strive mightily, sure, but eat and drink as friends."

We were drunk on victory at that point, and then decided to supplement that by getting drunk on alcohol.  We deserved a little celebration before reading the new packet for Sunday.  We had a great time, and the other team was really a lot of fun.  We got back to the hotel around 9pm, and decided it was time to start working.  So Rich and I had about 15 minutes to glance over it, before Matt, Jess and the Roger Williams team showed up with two bottles of liquor and a case of beer...  

Now, to the average reader, this may seem like patently irresponsible behavior.  And in some ways, it might have been.  But I will say this about mediation/negotiations:  Preparation has been the least helpful aspect to me.  The ability to think on your feet, understand the facts, work off of your opponents, around your opponents and with your opponents is far more important, and Rich and I had done that very well on day one.  Plus, the excessive quantity of alcohol was more for the other four than for Rich and I.  We weren't stupid about it.

So, we passed around the packet, ordered some pizza's and had 6 heads working together from 3 of the top 4 teams.  We had our representation plan finished and printed by Midnight, then got a decent night's sleep.

Round two went spectacularly.  Any reservations we might have had about how we prepared were washed away by the adrenaline of face to face negotiations with these two guys from Quinnipiac.  We met all our goals, we did it firmly but cooperatively, we each played our roles well and... we lost.

Second place in the entire northeast region was a pretty sweet showing for our first time doing a mediation competition

Besides, if we won, we'd have to go to the national competition in Seattle in April.  That would've been fun, but I don't really need any extra work right now.

All in all, it was a great weekend, a successful weekend and a busy weekend.  Now I can check one more thing off my list of what is eating up my time this semester.
   

Three of my classmates and I are in Rhode Island right now for a competition in Representing Clients in Mediation at Roger Williams Law School.  A competitive mediation... figure that one out.  Anyway....

Drive from Queens to Rhode Island was very strange.  I drove clear through the entire state of Connecticut without stopping, which I don't think I've ever done before.

Driving up 95 was also like a tour of my life, as I described the areas to my passenger, even though we couldn't really see anything from the highway.  From friends and family in Greenwich, to parties in Stamford, to living with Amy and Michael in Westport, to everything in college that happened in and around New Haven, and even Mystic Seaport.  Even the story about Jim spitting beef jerky all over the side of his own car the last time I went to Rhode Island.

The only thing missing was Danbury, a significant chunk of my life, but there was still a lot to talk about along the coast.

Well, it's 6:50am right now, I'm waiting for my teammates to get ready (I got up first, since I've been getting up around 6 every day anyway).

Competition starts at 8:30 and goes till 4:30.   If we advance, we do it again tomorrow, if not we go out drinking while the school is paying for our hotel.  If we advance tomorrow, we go to Seattle April 1-2 for the national competition.  As much as I'd like to win, I don't know that I want to take on another competition this semester.  We'll see how it goes though.

Also, congratulations to Bob and Lizzie who just got engaged last night! (Sorry I didn't write back, we were at dinner, then got busy prepping for the competition!)

First  a thank you to Jim for sending me this opinion piece by Mayor Bloomberg:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/opinion/28mike.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

You should read it rather than my summary, but basically  he says that he's not running for president and he talks about how the candidates need to be more realistic about their approach to fixing the problems with this country.  He has been traveling around talking to voters, and one of the conclusions he's come to was that people will appreciate honesty and frankness over being told what the candidates think they want to hear.  Read it for yourself though, that was a bad summary.

Anyway, one of the topics we discussed in my legislation class (which is as much about politics and government as it as actually creating policy and statutes) is third party candidates.

A lot of the time, third party candidates know they have no real shot at winning, and frequently their main purpose is to bring a new perspective to the table, forcing the real candidates to discuss issues that they would otherwise both stay away from.

We talked about Ross Perot, and how his participation in the '92 elections really forced the candidates to talk about... something.... I forget the example she gave in class (and I was too young to remember), but it was something important that Clinton ended up doing, mostly because Perot brought it to the table. 

So Bloomberg could have really done something similar (if it turned out he wasn't a viable candidate), but instead, he writes this article, kind of copping out.  I mean, I SUPPOSE the stress and expense of running for President might have been a drain on him, and it may have taken away from his duties as Mayor of New York City, but still.  An opinion piece in the New York Times is hardly going to force the hand of the real candidates like the threat of losing to a third party would.

Ah, well.  I probably would've supported Bloomberg if he ran, despite being annoyed by this.

For some reason, it invokes a feeling in me not unlike the first time I watched Requiem For a Dream.

Except that it's kind of funny.

http://garfieldminusgarfield.tumblr.com/ 

(Note: If you don't know what this is about, read the previous post)

Ok, so I finally watched all 40 minutes of it.

It was slightly staged, but generally speaking, that's what a class is like.  you have 20-30 pages of reading for each class.  Depending on who the teacher is, anywhere from 1-4 people get called on during class and are expected to know the material as thoroughly as John (Mr. D'Ambrisio) knew it for the 20 minutes in which he was the focal point of the video.  Some teachers ask for volunteers, but the majority will just call on you at random.

Some funny behind the scenes things:

First and foremost, I can't stress enough that class is 90 minutes, and that was a 40 minute video.  There was a lot cut out, 4 or 5 people got called that day.

They filmed two separate sections (taught by the same teacher) and cut in footage of the other section.  I could easily tell because of the faces I saw in the scenes, but it was pretty easy to tell because our room was much brighter, almost a washed-out look, and in the other section the room was darker, more yellow-ish. 

While John was answering questions, the guy next to him was grabbing his leg under the table and trying to make him laugh on camera.

The professor sent out an email to the entire class the night before outlining exactly what we'd be talking about, for the sake of making the class run smoothly on camera and specifically said "Don't ask questions about note #3 on page [whatever], and then one kid asked the question.  I'm surprised it made it into the video, but when the kid asked it, if you looked closely, you could see the people around him all kind of hang their heads in embarrassment.

The opening scene with the teacher walking in and setting up was filmed after the class was over.

That was not our normal classroom.  They chose the newest room in the law school to use for the marketing piece.

If you look at the laptop screens, when they pan around the room, you can see Facebook, espn.com, Instant Messenger or some kind of website in every shot.

If you've ever wondered what it's like to sit in on one of my classes, now you can.  Last year, they recorded one of my classes, Criminal Law, and it was just released on the school website:

http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/graduate/law/prospective/class.stj

Now, I haven't watched it yet, because I lived through it, but it's a 40-minute video of a 90 minute class.... people say a lot of stupid things, and apparently it got edited heavily.

You can see me every time the camera pans from the professor to the wide shot of the students (I had the video playing without sound in class last night, just to take a look).

I will probably write another post with my commentary after I watch it, but for now, you can experience a day in the life of me.  (or really, 40 minutes out of 90 minutes of my life).

So, my friend Chris and I went out last night to a bar in Manhattan that he frequently describes as a meet-market (which he thinks is endlessly clever).  We spent a large portion of the night chatting up this group of girls and ultimately got their phone numbers and then went home.

I doubt I'll ever call this girl, it was just a fun night of drinking and flirting, but this morning, just out of curiosity, I googled her.  Now, all I had to put into google was a first name (a common name), her undergraduate school (a BIG school) and her graduate school (also a big school) and the second page that popped up was her myspace page, which basically told me everything I'd ever need or want to know about this girl.

It was a little unnerving to realize just how easy it was to find out so much about this girl with so little effort and so little starting information.

Let that be a warning to everyone out there: much creepier guys than me can be looking at all your personal information.  I personally use facebook because of the extensive privacy options  (actually, I use it for other reasons, but that's one of the bonuses).  I haven't had a myspace page in close to a year now, but back when I did, their privacy settings were basically all-or-nothing which was frustrating.