Musings of a Random Law Student

stolen from lisa...

2006-09-08T13:42:00.000-04:00

Since I *do* still read Lisa's page, I stole her quiz and took it myself. I wonder if my results would have been different before living in Oklahoma or NYC?

Your Linguistic Profile:

75% General American English

10% Upper Midwestern

10% Yankee

0% Dixie

0% Midwestern

What Kind of American English Do You Speak?

"Paving the way for future missions and beyond!"

2006-07-08T14:06:00.000-04:00

In an attempt to keep from throwing myself out the window during this hell on earth (otherwise known as studying for the bar), I was looking at some old Onion articles and came across this one. Now maybe it's just the fact that I've been studying contracts for 16 of the past 24 hours and my grasp on sanity is really starting to slip, but I laughed like I haven't laughed in years. Take a look, and remember, it's all in good fun. Godspeed, Discovery :)

I <3 NY

2006-06-16T12:08:00.000-04:00

I noticed the other day that I've been de-linked from Lisa's page, so I guess that's a sign it's time for an update. Not that Lisa will ever see it since she's given up on me *tear*

I could write about all the stuff that's been going on in my life (finals, graduation, studying for the bar, planning a trip to Italy), but that all is pretty dull (except for the trip to Italy - woohoo!!!), so instead I'll write about two things that happened recently that reminded me why New York isn't quite as awful as everyone thinks it is:

The other day my husband, in a well intentioned attempt to bring the mail to me while I was at school, accidentally lost a card that was sent to me from my grandparents. He lost the card in the worst of all possible places: the subway. I figured at best it would be swept up with the newspapers and other garbage that people leave behind. At worst someone would take it and attempt to cash the graduation gift that was contained in the card. Much to my surprise, less than a week later it showed up in our mailbox, double post-marked. Apparently some kind soul picked it up on the subway and dropped it in the mail, and (even stranger) the post office decided to deliver it again.

This morning, I had a somewhat similar experience. I was getting off the bus, hurrying to the subway, when my metrocard (i.e. the ticket to my sole means of transportation) fell out of my pocket. In my sleep-deprived haze I didn't notice this and kept walking. Nearly a block later a woman caught up with me and asked me if I had dropped my metrocard. I turned around to find a lady who could barely walk hobbling after me as fast as she could, holding the card. She handed it to me and hobbled on her way. I know it's a simple thing, but I was so touched that these people took the time to get me my card back. Generally, we in New York like to do our best to ignore the 8 million people that surround us on a daily basis. Despite our best efforts, though, it appears there is still a little humanity left. And for that I am thankful. I feel like the city has loved me twice now, and I suddenly feel inclined to love the city back.

Is that snow?!

2006-04-05T11:12:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting in my federal courts class on April 5th, and looking outside I see what appears to be snow falling from the sky. Absolutely unacceptable. It is spring, and I will accept nothing else.

It was 75 degrees a couple of days ago. This isn't fair.

WoW

2005-12-30T20:33:00.000-05:00

So I've finally taken the plunge and started playing World of Warcraft. I am amazed at how instantly addicting this game is. Last time I looked the clock said it was 11:30 a.m. Now it's 8:30 p.m. I don't think I've blinked in the past 9 hours. How the hell did that happen? One guy today was talking about how he had been playing for 5 days straight without sleep. I heard about some guy in Japan who played until he died. I foresee problems when I have to go back to classes, not to mention the fact that I absolutely have to work on my moot court stuff over break. And my clients - they haven't gone away either.

For those who are familiar with WoW and care, I'm a night elf hunter named Faelwyn (which roughly means "fair/just lady" in Sindarian). I got my pet today (a cat, of course), but I haven't figured out how to name it. If anyone out there knows how to do that (ahem...Lisa), I'd be very grateful if you would let me know.

I hear the game calling my name....

23 Hours

2005-12-19T10:26:00.000-05:00

Time: 10:30 a.m.
Word Count: 2,997!
Words excised: 2,853
Drafts: 5ish
Status: Submitted
Semester: Complete

Bedtime.

18 hours

2005-12-19T05:38:00.000-05:00

Time: 5:30 a.m.
Word Count: 3,096
Number of drafts: 4
Light at end of the tunnel: visible

Naptime.

16 hours

2005-12-19T03:16:00.000-05:00

Time: 3:15 a.m.
Word count: 4,223 (1,223 over limit)
Mental status: dazed
Mouse activity in the kitchen: reduced

We're approaching the 16th hour. I keep waiting for a second wind. I think maybe I used that up around 4:00 this afternoon. Why oh why did I go to law school?

14 hours

2005-12-19T01:29:00.000-05:00

Time: 1:30 a.m.
Mental status: weary, disheartened
Eyesight: blurring
Grade outlook: not good

So I'm 14 hours in to my 24 hour monster of a final exam. It took me 11 hours to get the first draft done. 11 hours. And I type pretty damn fast. Unfortunately, said first draft was approximately 2,800 words over the 3,000-word limit. Not good. So the past 3 hours have been spent excising huge chunks of my masterpiece. I'm afraid I'm taking out all of the substantive content and leaving vague generalizations that will get me nothing. But I don't know what else to do. The more specific I am, the less space I have to answer the rest of the questions. And these are broad damn questions, let me tell you.

I want to cry.

Overheard in New York

2005-12-16T20:07:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite websites as of late is overheardinnewyork.com. As the name suggests, they post quotes or conversation snippets that people overhear in the city. Some of them are funny because they're out of context, some of them because they're so obscene (*why* would you say that in public!), and some because they demonstrate the general idiocy of the world at large. I thought I'd share with you all a good (clean) quote from yesterday that is making me chuckle through this time of finals-woe:

Guy #1: You're useless...you keep getting dysentery.
Guy #2: Maybe you're just a lousy trail leader.
Girl: At least he doesn't drown every time we cross a river.
Guy #1: Hey, you caulk the wagon, you take some chances.

--79th Street 1 station

Yeah :)

Life update

2005-12-09T13:40:00.000-05:00

I realize it's been a while since my last post, but I didn't realize how bad things had gotten until I saw that the link to my blog had been taken off my friend Lisa's website. Ouch.

Anyway, for those who care, my life in recent months has consisted of defending all my crazy-ass clients, running the NYU Mediation Organization, teaching people the law of evidence, learning constitutional law, taking the MPRE, and, perhaps most importantly, becoming obsessed with the baby panda at the DC zoo.

In summary, it hasn't been the greatest semester ever for the reasons listed above as well as things too personal to publish on the internet. But I'm still here, and if you want to talk I'm just a phonecall, email, or trip to New York away. Or you could just un-link me and forget I ever existed. It's all up to you.

Just in case you were wondering...

2005-09-19T13:39:00.000-04:00

From cnn.com:

Only four names remain on this year's National Hurricane Center list of storm designations: Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma.

If those are exhausted, storms will be named in order from the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so on.

Do you ever feel like the earth is really trying to get rid of us? I do.

:(

2005-08-08T10:36:00.000-04:00

viewer discretion advised

2005-07-25T13:42:00.000-04:00

Last night I was sitting at home, watching my usual mindless Sunday night Fox TV lineup, when the following warning came on the screen: "This episode contains discussion of same-sex marriage. Viewer discretion is advised." I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I mean, I know this is Fox, and my expectations for Fox are pretty damn low. But have we degenerated so far as a society that people are actually demanding warnings before they hear different viewpoints on a particular issue? What's next? "Warning, this television show suggests independent thought -- avert your ears or you might start thinking for yourself too!" The thing that upsets me the most is that if the show had only been espousing the conservative view of the issue (i.e. making fun of same sex marriage), I suspect there would have been no warning whatsoever. But because other views were being expressed, a warning was required to make sure sensitive little minds weren't accidentally exposed to differing views on an issue. There was nothing graphic or obscene about the manner in which the issue was discussed. The warning was not content-based -- it was viewpoint-based. I know, I know... it's Fox. And I shouldn't let Fox get to me. But I'm afraid this is just the start of worse things to come.

wise words

2005-07-08T13:26:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to come up with some thoughts about the London bombings, but then I was reading my friend's blog and saw a quote that sums up everything I'm thinking much more eloquently than I ever could. So, with apologies for stealing a quote and not really adding anything to the discussion, here are some words of wisdom that I wish those in power today would really consider:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence, merely increases hate. . . . Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

My thoughts are with the families of the victims and people all over the world whose lives have been unraveled by both hatred and hatred in return.

Catgarookey!

2005-06-07T17:29:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Fark, behold the elusive catgrookey -- a newly discovered species that is a cross between a cat, kangaroo and monkey. No, seriously, this is what the "reporters" at the Sun Online came up with after they received reports of a mysterious animal described as "2ft high, with a long ringed tail and 'the gait of a monkey'" and "'cat-like' with a yellow and black tail with a white tip." Wow. Just, wow.

High adventure that soothes the soul

2005-06-01T11:30:00.000-04:00

Over Memorial Day weekend I took a trip to West Virginia with my good friends Stevie, Jessica, and Michelle. It was so fantastic to get out of the city and see trees and stars again. (Of course it was fantastic to see my friends again as well). On Saturday we went horseback riding for 3 1/2 hours. It was tons of fun, but I still can't sit down. Ouch. Sunday was an all day rafting trip down the New River. We had a wonderful guide, Turntable Larry (or Terry -- we're not sure which). He kept us from drowning and made sure we all went overboard a couple of times (except for Stevie who held on to the cooler and hid in the middle of the boat). Unfortunately there are no pictures of the horseback riding since the camera is now lying somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia, but other parts of the trip are well documented here.

I know some of my friends have recently felt the need to get out of the soul-killing city, so to them especially I highly recommend taking a WV rafting trip. Just take a weekend off and do it -- I promise your life will be waiting for you when you get back (if you decide to come back at all).

Dumb Laws

2005-05-25T09:57:00.000-04:00

I came across this site today. I *highly* recommend it if you are in need of a laugh. Oklahoma has some particularly good ones (check out the Ada-specific one, Meredith). Just a sampling of my favorites so far:

It is illegal to have the hind legs of farm animals in your boots. - OK

One-armed piano players must perform for free. - IA

The "Ice Cream Man" and his truck are banned. - Indianola, IA

Horses are forbidden to eat fire hydrants. - Marshalltown, IA

A person may not cross state lines with a duck atop his head. - MN

And quite similarly...

Citizens may not enter Wisconsin with a chicken on their head. - MN

A fine of $25 can be levied for flirting. This old law specifically prohibits men from turning around on any city street and looking "at a woman in that way." A second conviction for a crime of this magnitude calls for the violating male to be forced to wear a "pair of horse-blinders" wherever and whenever he goes outside for a stroll. - NY

Women may go topless in public, providing it is not being used as a business. - NY

and yet...

It is illegal for a woman to be on the street wearing "body hugging clothing." - NY

The scary thing is that someone must have done each of these things for it to be declared illegal. I'm particularly interested to know why the Ice Cream Man and his truck are banned from Indianola. I bet there's a good story there.

And yes, these laws are all still on the books.

The Nuclear Option

2005-05-24T13:43:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to ramble on about the filibuster issue, since anyone who knows me (and if you don't know me, why are you reading this?) knows that I would never support the nuclear option. But I came across this today on Wikipedia and it made me chuckle:

In 2005, some Republican senators led by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN), responding to the Democratic threat of filibustering some judicial nominees of President George W. Bush to prevent a vote on the nomination, floated the idea of a rules change that would eliminate filibusters on judicial nominees. They originally called this plan the nuclear option, which they later changed to constitutional option. Opponents of the plan continue to use the term nuclear option.

Seriously. Do these guys only have one trick up their collective sleeve? Any time they want to pass legislation that takes a crap on the American public, they just give it a patriotic, upright, I-bleed-red-white-and-blue type name, and suddenly everything is just fine. And it gives them such lovely soundbites. "You don't support the PATRIOT Act? Well, then, you're unpatriotic". "You don't support the constitutional option? Well then you clearly don't support the constitution." Flawless logic. The sad thing is, it seems to work. Are the majority of Americans really that dumb? I'd like to say no, but I'm not seeing any evidence to the contrary.

I hate NYU Law

2005-04-27T21:12:00.000-04:00

This latest sentiment toward NYU Law has nothing to do with my least-favorite Supreme Court justice, but rather with the final exam I have to take in less than 48 hours. Just to give you a flavor of what I'm dealing with here:

In order to remove this impediment to the election of shareholder nominees [the SEC propoeses] to amend the bona fide nominee rule to provide that the requirement that a nominee consent to be named in the proxy statement would not prevent a person soliciting in support of shareholder nominees who, if elected, would constitute a minority of the board of directors, from providing shareholders an opportunity to vote for the company nominees, provided that company's candidates are clearly distinguished as such...

Do you know what that means? I sure don't. Why oh why can't administrative agencies ever say anything in ordinary words and sentences? Sentences! For the love of God, use a period occasionally.

Sorry, rant over. Back to studying...

I love NYU Law

2005-04-14T21:10:00.000-04:00

A couple days ago Justice Scalia gave a talk here at NYU Law School, and during a Q & A session one of my classmates asked Scalia if he sodomizes his wife. Scalia responded that the question didn't dignify an answer, which is interesting considering that he is willing to ask the same question of the American public and make it a crime if anyone should answer in the affirmative. Although the question has sparked controversy both within the law school and without (see the Fark.com conversation here), I personally don't feel that it was that inappropriate of a question. It certainly made a point. And it certainly could have been asked in a ruder manner. As far as I'm concerned, as long as Mr. Scalia feels he has a right to inquire into the bedroom practices of private citizens, any private citizen has the same right with respect to him.

John Paul II

2005-04-02T16:55:00.000-05:00

A picture from happier days.

RIP, you will be missed.

the mystery of human sympathy

2005-03-26T20:58:00.000-05:00

Against my wishes and better judgment, I've allowed myself to get sucked in to the craziness surrounding this Terri Schiavo case, and I just need to give my two cents... I find it mystifying that people would devote weeks of their lives to save the "life" of someone whose brain is spinal fluid, but can't be bothered to give a few dollars to save the lives of the thousands of people who starve to death every day. Unlike the Mrs. Schiavo, there are tens of thousands of people out there right now who are unlucky enough to consciously suffer through starvation. They endure a fate worse than most of us can imagine. Yet we don't care enough to even let it cross our minds on a day to day basis. Maybe it's like my husband speculates -- these people fighting to save Terri's life only do so because they have someone to fight against (namely the people who want to let her go). Maybe it's because we can readily imagine a scenario where we want to live but can't communicate that fact to anyone else, but wrapping our minds around the horror of mass starvation is just too much to deal with. Maybe it's as mundane as the fact that this is what the media chose to make important this week. Probably a combination of all of the above. But this shows that we really are capable of helping our fellow humans in a meaningful way, if only given the proper motivation to feel sympathy.

OK, I've had my say. Angry backlash in 3... 2... 1....

Forgetfulness

2005-03-26T13:02:00.000-05:00

I had really forgotten that I even created this blog until my good friend Meredith mentioned that she had created a blog of her own. So, after searching the scary depths of my mind trying to figure out what I might have used for my username and password, I finally found my way back here.

I give up.

2004-12-19T22:12:00.000-05:00

So I'm finally creating a blog of my very own. Because I know all my friends are just dying to hear my innermost thoughts. Actually, I'm hoping this will be a good way for all my friends to avoid hear my innermost thoughts (unless they want to). And it's a good way to procrastinate, which every law student knows is the key to success in the legal profession.