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February 17, 2005

Survivor Palau 1

Ed. note: The following contains spoilers of the new Survivor. If you don't want to read spoilers, don't click “more.” And even if you don't care about spoilers, I'm certain you have better things to do than read about an episode of Survivor, anyway. Another “season” of Survivor began tonight—the 10th episode. Will it be worth watching? Let's see.... First we learn about Wrold War II and see some bits of wreckage from the big WWII battles that were fought here. Then it really starts with a terrific bit of symbolism: The boat filled with 20 people slowly paddles its way to shore where one immunity necklace is waiting for the first woman ashore, and another for the first man ashore. The two most impatient people (I think) leap off the boat, thinking they are tough and fast and can do better on their own than they can by cooperating with the group. Of course, the two jumpers almost immediately get left in the dust as the boat speeds on toward shore. This is why “reality tv” is awesome—you couldn't script human folly any more precisely. Jolanda eats a grasshopper. Why? Is that little grasshopper really going to make the difference on the first challenge? Oh, she's a lawyer. Coby immediately starts trying to make alliances and plot the first person voted out. Why? Does he want to be the first person voted out? Oh, he's a hairdresser. Koala Jeff (or is he Old War Battle Jeff now?) shows up and says they're going to get rid of two people immediately. Yikes! Ian and Jolanda get to choose teams, just like in gradeschool for kickball, boy-girl, boy-girl. Oops, but then their picks get to pick, just to mix things up even more. The field narrows and Crazy Wanda is one of the first to go. I now owe L. $5 b/c she bet Wanda would be off the show before the hour was up and she's been proven correct in the first 15 minutes. (Note to self: L. is never wrong!) Sad music enhances the melodrama, and some of the remaining survivors cry over losing “friends” they just met two hours ago. Yes, your lives are hard. Boo hoo. We get blue and brown buffs and everyone is all tribal now, except that they're going to continue to share the same beach. Whasup w/that? Tears from those picked last, while we get some reflection about the makeup up of the tribes and what their chances will be based on age, athletic ability, and number of nose rings per capita. Oh, and how many models. There are lots of “models” and “actors” here, so the vogueing challenge is going to be hard fought, for sure. Challenge! Military items, obstacle course, canoes, paddling and flags and racing to shore! Hooray! Immunity back up for grabs and the immunity idol is revealed. Covet covet. Lots of googley-eyed coveting going on. The big challenge is: “Do we take the food and water, or just the fire?” The H-team votes for just the fire, and the O-team falls behind bringing food and water. They'll be cold, but well-fed? Paddle paddle the canoes, tongues hanging out with exhaustion as H-team cruises to an easy victory. H-team wins immunity and gets to keep its fire. Ah-oh. Tribes have to split up. H-team chooses to head to the new beach. Was this a good decision? Um, well, first we have to tip over our canoe and dump our reward on the bottom of the ocean floor. Excellent. O-team decides to vote off the tattoos, which sucks, because I like tattoos. But then Jolanda starts bossing everyone around and effectively paints a big fat target on her back, so, um, who will it be? I know you're on the edge of your seat. I am. But my anxiety is spiced with the sound of the snare drum that they've added to the usual Survivor soundtrack to remind us that we're on Palau and there were big battles here during World War II! Oh, wait, we're at tribal (council, that is, but all the cool kids just call it “tribal”). Jeff schools the team on brains v. braun, Jolanda says she wants to be team dictator but not really, and tattoos says her head is on the chopping block. Vote vote votey vote, putting the little papers in an old ammo box because, did we mention there were big battles here during world war II? Oh and the snares! Tappa tappa tappa. The drama! Edge of seat, private! Votes are being read. Tattoos. Jo. Tattoos. Jo. Who will it be who will it be? Tattoos does some mental calculations, the tide shifts, and Jo's gotta go. Sadness all around. Koala Jeff gives a little lesson about making decisions and flying right, and that's it. So yeah, it's another Survivor. I have to watch, but now you don't. See you next week. Maybe. UPDATE: See also Changing the Rules of Survivor on Crooked Timber.

Posted 09:15 PM | tv land


GW Summer Stipends

Reader “brett” writes:
Hey ai, lurking gw prospective student here. Two quick questions: is there a lot of competition for those summer stipends (the 5k ones) - would a 1L have a shot at one? Also, how does the “ask-a-student” program on the gw admissions site work - are these students hand-picked trolls or random honest students?
I wish I had more to tell you, Brett. First, the summer stipends are pretty competitive, but I have no idea how many people apply and don't get anything. I get the impression that the big variables are whether the funding committee thinks your job is worthwhile (and they seem pretty liberal on that), but also whether you've shown some commitment to public interest law. If it looks like you're just taking a public interest job b/c you couldn't land a firm job and you're going to go to a firm ASAP, I think the funding committee is not as happy about that. I knew several 1Ls who got the $5k grants. A good way to ensure that you're one of them is to spend as much time as you can in your first year working for the EJF or some other public interest-type student organization so that you'll have some good stuff on your resume that shows your commitment to this type of work. You could also volunteer for pro bono legal stuff, or perhaps you're entering law school with a good public service and/or volunteering background so you've already demonstrated that commitment. All of those things will help. The ask-a-student thing I don't know much about. I don't recall using it when I was deciding whether to go to GW, and that's the only time I've heard of it. That suggests to me that the people who participate are self-selected or more hand-picked (b/c otherwise I would have seen some notice for volunteers around the school sometime in the last two years). That's just a guess though, I really don't know. Generally, I will confirm what you probably already know: GW is very concerned about its rank and giving prospective students a good impression, so it's very unlikely to leave that to any schmo who is enrolled. I imagine this is true of any law school. During this decision process, take everything you hear from GW or any other school with some serious salt—they want your money, and once you're locked in, they'll be much less responsive to you. This doesn't mean everything is awful once you accept and begin attending, only that as you make your decisions you should try to filter out the sunshine being blown up your skirt from the more substantive things that really are important: Cost, courses offered, professors you think you'll like (read their publications to see if they're working on anything you'd like), courses offered (e.g., I wanted to learn about labor law and many smaller schools don't regularly offer courses in that area, but GW does), location (considering especially where you'd like to work after you graduate), and whether they support macs. Oh, wait, that last one may only be important to me. ;-) For more insight on GW, I highly recommend you also consult others on this list of GW-related blawgs, but esp. Life, Law, Libido (written by GW grads who were very pleased w/their GW experiences), Extreme Indifference to Human Life (who is now apparently running for student body president), Luminous Void, and Idlegrasshopper. The more perspectives you get, the better decision you'll make. Note: I'm always trying to find other GW bloggers, largely for this reason—so that when people like Brett are looking for info about the school they'll have plenty of perspectives. If you're a GW student w/a blog, please say “hi” so I can add you to the list and send mountains of traffic (little tiny mountains; mountains that would look large if you were a flea) to your site. UPDATE: I just glanced at the above again and realized I forgot to include WonL on the list of highly-recommended GW bloggers to query about life at GW, and she should have been top of the list! I'm very sorry for the oversight. Partly in response to this post she has posted some thoughts on her experience thus far.

Posted 06:48 AM | Comments (3) | law school


Perpetratin' ta be a lawya

Thanks to LawRah for leading me to Gizoogle, I bring you the first paragraph of yesterday's post translated into foshizzle:
I’m in law school, although you may not always be able ta tell fizzle tha content here fo' real. Often, I rap `bout bustin' but law school, whizzich is coz I often thiznink `bout anyth'n but law school, n I sometizzles brotha if I should takes thizzat as a sizzay: Is this really sum-m sum-m I should be doing if I’d so often spend mah time doing sum-m sum-m else? But schoo` is not practice, so I dismiss tha question. In mah spare time (what’s that?) I’m perpetratin' ta read Should You Really Be A Lawya?. Perhaps that should be filed in tha “better late thizzay neva category,” but I do W-to-tha-izzish I’d read this book before frontin' on somewhere near $100k in debt. * To those of you who is going crazy wit anxiety before even start'n law school, I say: Go buy this book or chizzeck it out from yo local library keep'n it real yo. Read it . Keep'n it gangsta dogg. Challenge yoself ta give it tha time n rizzy considerizzles it suggests you devote ta tha question of its title . Boo-Yaa!. You’ll . Boo-Yaa!. be glad you dizzay n this will be an excellent use of this interstice between perpetratin' n actually going ta law school.
I'm perpetratin' ta read now so I can be a lawya fo' real yo. Word.

Posted 05:43 AM | Comments (1) | life generally


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