day 2

No, I will not give a daily summary for every day of law school. After a few weeks, the days will become a lot more monotonous and mundane and ... well, I don't know that there's room to get busier. Life is insane right now.

Today was kind of a crappy day. Biffed my three interviews, I think. Doesn't matter what the other person thinks. I felt crappy coming out of them, and it affected my mood for the rest of the afternoon / evening. I hate the way I obsess about these things.

But then my evening picked up. There might be 20,000 undergrads, but I have one favorite, and he is back where he should be.

I'm prepping my the job fair tomorrow and interviewing these firms has been the most laborious endeavor EVER. Homework? What homework? I'm not doing any b/c I am not going to class tomorrow and don't have any on Friday. I hope to tackle that pile of laundry before it tackles me...

day 1: complete
My abbreviated schedule for today: interview, interview, class, swim class, interview, interview, class. Started at 9am, finished at 5:45. Hit up a reception at school for some snacks and an end-of-day aperitif. Mmmm. Then my classmate's wife came to school to pick her up. (Oh, you read that sentence right, my friends. If you haven't caught on yet, I do live in Massachusetts.) And I got to see their brand new squiggly squishy adorable tasty yummy baby. And then they went home, which is exactly how babies in my life should be (i.e. going home with other people).

You know, my interviews today, not so bad. Two I would say were ok, and two were eh. (I tend to be conservative with my adjectives when it comes to things like this.) But all better than most of my interviews in the spring. And, dare I say it, I had FUN. FUN WAS HAD BY ME! I had the same attitude after moot court. I was all scared and then I ended up having fun. The interviewers are real people too, many of them are alums of my school. And all my interviewers were chatty interesting people. It was nice to start off my first interview with a dude who talked for about 15 minutes, blew sunshine up my ass about my resume, and then gave me a post-it cube. Seriously. Sunshine up butt and office products. Could the day get better?

I think a big part of my confidence was wearing my power suit. And by power suit, I mean it was really expensive. I think I look good in it. If you missed me in it, don't worry, you have the next two days and then next Tuesday and Wednesday to catch me in it. But the shoes. Oh the shoes. Ouch. I could barely stand up when I got home at 7pm tonight. Ouch. I'm such a sellout.

On a final note of summary ... my swim class kinda sucks. Have you ever seen the start of the Iron Man triathalon, or any triathalon for that matter? You know how the mass of people all take off at the start and go nuts and the water looks like it's full of hungry piranha feeding on many fat cows? That's about what my swim class looked like today, as we were swimming in the diving well, all 4700 of us in 5 lanes. When I told the instructor my time, though, she was impressed (that a fat cow like me could swim at even a moderate pace). I took the class with her all of last year, so she kind of knows me. I think the class will get better. We're supposed to move to the main pool next week, and people tend to stop coming (last semester, that was me).

Ok, that's it for now. I'm almost done researching my firms for my interviews tomorrow, and then I have this pesky little thing called homework...

undergrads make my tummy hurt
The T ride from hell: getting packed in like sardines with baseball fans. They get off. Then the freshmen get on b/c they're all going to convocation or something. Like 5000 of them. Thankfully some of them walked. They get off. Then everyone and their mother was at the grocery store and they get on. A trip that was maybe 2 miles took 35 minutes. So wrong.

I have interviews tomorrow. I'm so nervous. I'm canning answers, prepping documents, learning about the firms. If the firm has 8 names in its name, do I have to remember them all? I haven't finished my homework, but that's because I HAVE INTERVIEWS TOMORROW. They make me so nervous. Oh, did I say that already? I know that by the end of this whole ordeal, I will have some good interviews and some awful interviews and some where it's just eh. And probably, by the end, I'll have dry cleaned my suit several times and become numb to the whole ordeal. That's ok. I'll get through it. I just get so nervous beforehand, but I know I'll be alright once I get down to it. So get down to it already! Let me get on with my life!

Here's a quandary: How soon after meeting someone are you allowed to add them as your friend on friendster or facebook?

if ever you had doubts, a different type of quiz
http://www.psych.uncc.edu/pagoolka/TypeAB.html for determining type A/B personality.

FINALLY! A happy(ish) story!

French Quarter holdouts create 'tribes'

By Allen G. Breed, Associated Press Writer | September 4, 2005

NEW ORLEANS --In the absence of information and outside assistance, groups of rich and poor banded together in the French Quarter, forming "tribes" and dividing up the labor.

As some went down to the river to do the wash, others remained behind to protect property. In a bar, a bartender put near-perfect stitches into the torn ear of a robbery victim.

While mold and contagion grew in the muck that engulfed most of the city, something else sprouted in this most decadent of American neighborhoods -- humanity.

"Some people became animals," Vasilioas Tryphonas said Sunday morning as he sipped a hot beer in Johnny White's Sports Bar on Bourbon Street. "We became more civilized."

While hundreds of thousands fled the below-sea-level city before the storm, many refused to leave the Vieux Carre, or old quarter. Built on some of the highest ground around and equipped with underground power lines, residents considered it about the safest place to be.

Katrina blew off roof slates and knocked down some already-unstable buildings but otherwise left the 18th and 19th century homes with their trademark iron balconies intact. Even without water and power, most preferred it to the squalor and death in the emergency shelters set up at the Superdome and Convention Center.

But what had at first been a refuge soon became an ornate prison.

Police came through commandeering drivable vehicles and siphoning gas. Officials took over a hotel and ejected the guests.

An officer pumped his shotgun at a group trying to return to their hotel on Chartres Street.

"This is our block," he said, pointing the gun down a side street. "Go that way."

Jack Jones, a retired oil rig worker, bought a huge generator and stocked up on gasoline. But after hearing automatic gunfire on the next block one night, he became too afraid to use it -- for fear of drawing attention.

Still, he continues to boil his clothes in vinegar and dip water out of neighbors' pools for toilet flushing and bathing.

"They may have to shoot me to get me out of here," he said. "I'm much better off here than anyplace they might take me."

Many in outlying areas consider the Quarter a playground for the rich and complain that the place gets special attention.

Yes, wealthy people feasted on steak and quaffed warm champagne in the days after the storm. But many who stayed behind were the working poor -- residents of the cramped spaces above the restaurants and shops.

Tired of waiting for trucks to come with food and water, residents turned to each other.

Johnny White's is famous for never closing, even during a hurricane. The doors don't even have locks.

Since the storm, it has become more than a bar. Along with the warm beer and shots, the bartenders passed out scrounged military Meals Ready to Eat and bottled water to the people who drive the mule carts, bus the tables and hawk the T-shirts that keep the Quarter's economy humming.

"It's our community center," said Marcie Ramsey, 33, whom Katrina promoted from graveyard shift bartender to acting manager.

For some, the bar has also become a hospital.

Tryphonas, who restores buildings in the Quarter, left the neighborhood briefly Saturday. Someone hit him in the head with a 2-by-4 and stole his last $5.

When Tryphonas showed up at Johnny White's with his left ear split in two, Joseph Bellomy -- a customer pressed into service as a bartender -- put a wooden spoon between Tryphonas' teeth and used a needle and thread to sew it up. Military medics who later looked at Bellomy's handiwork decided to simply bandage the ear.

"That's my savior," Tryphonas said, raising his beer in salute to the former Air Force medical assistant.

A few blocks away, a dozen people in three houses got together and divided the labor. One group went to the Mississippi River to haul water, one cooked, one washed the dishes.

"We're the tribe of 12," 76-year-old Carolyn Krack said as she sat on the sidewalk with a cup of coffee, a packet of cigarettes and a box of pralines.

The tribe, whose members included a doctor, a merchant and a store clerk, improvised survival tactics. Krack, for example, brushed her dentures with antibacterial dish soap.

It had been a tribe of 13, but a member died Wednesday of a drug overdose. After some negotiating, the police carried the body out on the trunk of a car.

The neighbors knew the man only as Jersey.

Tribe member Dave Rabalais, a clothing store owner, said he thinks the authorities could restore utilities to the Quarter. But he knows that would only bring "resentment and the riffraff."

"The French Quarter is the blood line of New Orleans," he said. "They can't let anything happen to this."

On Sunday, the tribe of 12 became a tribe of eight.

Four white tour buses rolled into the Quarter under Humvee escort. National Guardsmen told residents they had one hour to gather their belongings and get a ride out. Four of the tribe members decided to leave.

"Hallelujah!" Teresa Lawson shouted as she dragged her suitcase down the road. "Thank you, Jesus!"

For Mark Rowland, the leaving was bittersweet.

"I'm heart-broken to leave the city that I love," Rowland said as he sat in the air-conditioned splendor of the bus. "It didn't have to be this way."

I'm sure to have nightmares tonight

Rehnquist is dead.

Hundreds of New Orleans police officers are walking off the force, not showing up to work. There are reports of suicide.

And with that, I'm off to bed. I guess that's what I get for reading nytimes.com before I go to bed.

Le sigh.

befuddlement

I forget how to be a law student. How do I brief cases again? Crap. Forget it. I'm going to bed.

help

My law school and university at large are opening their doors to local students who attend Tulane. I believe the quote in the press release used the words "sister university". I hear that there may be a school, ahem, across the river that is dragging its feet to do the same. In times of chaos, let education and civilization go on as best they can.

.
My mom's younger sister's husband died. My uncle. It was a motorcycle accident. They live in Taiwan. I've never met him, or don't remember meeting him. Memo to everyone: NEVER EVER EVER GET A MOTORCYCLE. PLEASE.

(P.S. Dear God: Are you done?)

81% pure

The not-anonymous blogger behind anonymous lawyer has written a law school purity test. That's my score up there. This is the test down here:

Score one point for a "yes" answer to each of the following:

I. The Basics

1. Have you ever taken the LSAT?
2. ...more than once?
3. ...more than twice?
4. Have you ever filled out a law school application form?
5. ...more than five of them?
6. ...more than ten?
7. ...more than twenty?
8. Have you ever stepped foot on a law school campus?
9. ...taken a tour?
10. ...asked a question specifically about the library?
11. Are or were you ever a law school student?
12. ...at an accredited university?
13. ...at more than one law school?
14. ...at the same time?

II. Classes

15. Have you ever missed a class?
16. ...more than half the classes in a semester?
17. ...all the classes in the semester but you still took the exam?
18. ...did you pass?
19. Have you ever chosen a class for an academically-impure reason?
20. ...like what time it met?
21. ...or what kind of exam it had?
22. Have you taken a class with the title "Law and..." ?
23. ...did you choose it because it sounded easy?
24. Do you know what the socratic method is?
25. ...have you ever been called on?
26. ...when you hadn't done the reading?
27. ...and you faked in pretty well anyway?
28. Have you ever cheated on a law school exam?
29. ...by using prohibited materials, like the Internet?
30. ...by consulting a live human being?
31. ...by obtaining a copy of the exam beforehand?
32. ...was it a legal ethics or professional responsibility exam?
33. ...did you get caught?
34. Do you know what a "gunner" is?
35. ...have you ever been one?
36. Have you ever gone down to talk to a professor at the end of a class?
37. ...more times than not?
38. Have you ever gone to office hours?
39. ...specifically to suck up to the professor?
40. Have you ever volunteered to be the student who hands in the course evaluations?
41. ...or some other similarly unnecessary duty just to curry favor?

III. Interpersonal Academic Relations

42. Have you ever borrowed notes from a classmate?
43. ...and not returned the favor when he or she asked?
44. Have you ever deliberately changed ("dumb-ified") your notes when a classmate asked for them?
45. Have you ever stolen a book from the library?
46. ...ripped pages out of a book in the library?
47. ...hidden a book somewhere it didn't belong to keep other people from finding it?
48. ...checked the book out and ignored the recall notice?
49. ...checked the book out on someone else's card and ignored the recall notice?
50. Have you ever given someone a wrong answer to a question on purpose?
51. Have you ever been part of a study group?
52. ...did you organize the study group?
53. ...did you ever kick someone else out for not pulling his or her weight?
54. ...did you just do it to get someone else's outline?
55. ...did they do better than you anyway in the class?
56. ...did you ever have a meeting that lasted more than 12 hours straight?
57. ...more than 24 hours?

IV. Interpersonal Non-Academic Relations

58. Have you ever gone on a date with a fellow law student?
59. ...in your section?
60. Have you ever made out in the library?
61. ...in a classroom?
62. ...during class?
63. ...while being called on by a professor?
64. Have you ever made out with a professor?
65. ...in a dorm room?
66. ...the week before the exam with the express intent of finding out the questions?
67. ...did it work?

V. Dorky Things To Do

68. Have you ever used Lexis or Westlaw?
69. Have you ever bought anything with Lexis or Westlaw points?
70. ...something really cool, like a TV?
71. Have you ever won a Lexis or Westlaw contest?
72. Have you ever taken any extra Lexis or Westlaw training just to win points?
73. ...just for fun?
74. Did you sign up for Bar-Bri as a 1L?
75. ...did you go to any of their 1L "review" lectures?
76. Did you buy any pre-law-school books before law school?
77. ...more than five?
78. ...were any of them "study guides" like "Getting to Maybe" ?
79. Have you ever listened to any law-school-related cassette tapes?
80. ...are you too embarassed to admit it to anyone?

VI. The Recruiting Process

81. Have you ever interviewed with a law firm?
82. ...more than fifty of them?
83. Did you ever get a callback?
84. On your callback, did the firm pay for your flight and/or hotel?
85. ...did you bill them for meals?
86. ...meals your friends ate?
87. ...meals no one ate but you just wanted the money?
88. Did you ever get an offer?
89. ...more than five?
90. Did you make the firm wait before you accepted just because you could?
91. ...more than two firms?
92. Did you lie on your resume?
93. ...on your transcript?
94. ...about something serious?
95. ...did you get caught?

VII. Finally...

96. Have you ever worked for a law firm?
97. ...did you like it?
98. ...did you love it?
99. ...is there nothing else you'd rather do in the world?
100. ...but you'll be a lawyer anyway? :)

Count up the number of "yes" answers and subtract from 100. This is your law school purity percentage.

80%-100% -- Are you sure you're a law student?
60%-80% -- Nothing to be ashamed of
40%-60% -- I hear white-collar prison isn't too bad
0% - 40% -- I want you to be my defense attorney

(Can also be found here.)

I wonder what my score will be next year...