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Last Saturday before 2L
it's the last Saturday before school starts (for me), and I really wish it would last forever. I purchased books yesterday to the tune of $430 (that's 8 books). This was after picking up and depositing my "auto refund" check, which means I only had to use first order fake money to pay for the books instead of the second order fake money I've been existing on for a few weeks now.
Tangent: All borrowed money is fake money because it's not really yours; you have to find that money again someday to pay off the loan, so you're not really spending money, you're spending promissory notes. So both school loans and credit cards are fake money; however, school loans are first order fake money because you're getting cash directly from a lender. Credit cards are second order fake money because you don't even get cash, you get nothing except the debt, which, if you're like me, you can then pay off with the cash from your loans. It's all very ugly. Fake money is bad, no matter how you slice it.
But, and so, it's the last Saturday before school starts and I'm sure as hell not opening any of those gold-plated books I bought. instead, I want to try to finish reading The DaVinci Code, and we're also busily preparing for a BBQ we're hosting tonight. One benefit of our new apt. is the deck and grill out back—it would be a shame not to use it! So it'll be BBQ'd chicken, burgers, hot dogs, brats, portobellos, gardenburgers, and smart dogs (never say we don't have enough options), plus grilled corn on the cob, a nice fresh pasta salad, and a tangy BLT salad as well. For desert, L. has whipped up something with homemade pudding, cool whip, cappuccino, and oreos. I'm not sure what it is, but I know I'm going to wish there was more. The evening will end w/a no limit Hold 'Em Poker tournament, with a million dollar first prize. (Kidding about the prize part.)
See why I wish this day would last forever?
Posted 05:05 PM | Comments (4) | 2L life generally
1Ls Get Rolling
In addition to the old faves I mentioned the other day who have started school again, many new 1Ls are now beginning classes . . . or, at least, the exotic rituals known as orientation prior to doing so. The Scoplaw has moved in, shopped, and been clipped by a car already. What's a Scoplaw, you ask? Read the Field Guide to the Scoplaw for all you ever wanted to know, and more! Anyway, it sounds like the Scoplaw's socialization and adjustment to law school (at GULC) is going swimmingly. The same goes for In Limine, also at GULC, is also quickly becoming socialized, but not w/out some invaluable introspection as he tries to find his place in the new crowd of school.
From my limited experience I'll say this: Orientation (and its accompanying parties, nights out, etc.) rewards the outgoing social butterflies, the party animals, and the gunners. A surprisingly large number of law students seem to think they have to try to fit into one of the above categories in order to succeed in law school; however, this is not true. Once things settle down there will be much more room for many more types of personalities and approaches to social interaction. There's no need to think you have to compete with the neon kiddies. (This is not intended as advice to the Scoplaw or In Limine; they both sound like they're fine w/who they are and where they're going to fit into things.)
In addition to the 1Ls just getting underway, Half-Cocked has already started his second year. I'm sure others have started, as well, including all 1Ls at GW. Lucky for me, 2Ls don't start until next monday (just four days away!). I'm so not ready, but that's how these things go. I'm currently trying to figure out how drop/add works so I can nail down my schedule and buy books. Then there's getting a locker, making sure my financial aid comes in (must have September rent!), and probably other things I'm forgetting. The next week should be interesting.
Best wishes to all, and to all a good semester!
Posted 11:11 AM | Comments (3) | law school
Swift Boat Vets for Rewriting History
Now that we've learned that the Bush campaign and Swift Boat Vets for "Truth" share the same attorney, what's next in this debacle? Oh, it looks like a Democratic lawyer is working for both the DNC and MoveOn.org. Great. This is all so ridiculous I've been loathe to comment, but for the record: While the Repubs are wrong to try to smear Kerry just as they did McCain in 2000, they're right that Kerry has made too much of his Vietnam service and should focus more on the rest of his record and his concrete and detailed plans for the future. They're also more or less right that the 527s are fighting hard on both sides. Truth Laid Bear notes that, according to OpenSecrets.org, the 527s on the Democratic side have all the marbles. What's to be done about the 527s? How do we allow people to join together to make their voices heard in a way that we can all agree is good for democracy? Conundrum.
On the other side, Kerry is right that this is a smear campaign (Snopes even says Kerry's medals are all legit), and he's right to fight back on it, but he's wrong to focus so exclusively on it. He's got so much more to run on; squabbling about his war medals is making him look petty and is allowing the Repubs to reduce him to nothing more than that. And why isn't Kerry making a bigger deal out of Bush's war medals?
And yet, the controversy rages. The best overall summary I've heard of what is going on with the Swift Boat Vets comes from Kathleen Hall Jameison who spoke last week on NOW:
We know that human memory is fallible. And anybody can go back in their own past and say, there are times when I was so sure this is what happened. And then I talked to other people who were there, and they didn't remember it the same way. I don't think that the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth had any idea who Kerry was when Kerry was on those boats.
He wasn't Senator Kerry or President Kerry, he was just one more person on the boats. I think they went back and recalled their memories of Kerry when he came and protested the war. And I think they were very angry. They came back and thought they heard him accusing them of atrocities. I think this is the explanation for why it is that they believe that he must not have earned his medals even though the evidence would suggest that he did. In order to make their own internal story coherent about Vietnam, they have to somehow reconcile what they heard as an attack on them, what they heard as allegation of atrocities that they had committed, which is different actually I believe from what Kerry said.
But, nonetheless, what I believe they heard and the ads suggest what they heard. They had to reconcile that with Kerry the hero who earned the medals. I believe to make their own story consistent for themselves they believed he couldn't have earned those medals. Hence, he was a liar then. He was a liar when he protested the war. He must be unfit to be President. I think this is an exploration in the process about human memory requires us to create a consistent story, particularly about people we intensely dislike.
As Lisa Rein noted last week, "The Daily Show"d has pointed out that few if any of the Swift Boat Vets actually served "with" Kerry (as in, going on actual missions with him so they could see how he got his injuries and how he performed in the field), so the best what they're saying now can be is second- or third-hand memory distorted by time. In other words, regardless of their ties to the Bush campaign, the Swift Boat Vets aren't very credible.
Kerry was actually on "The Daily Show" last night, and Stewart put things into perspective immediately:
"That's what I understand, too, but I'm trying to find out what happened," Kerry joked.
All this Vietnam talk has reminded me of an "old" Lou Reed song, Xmas in February. I wonder if there will be songs written like this about the troops serving in Iraq. War, what is it good for? Not for people, that's for sure.
And speaking of the "Daily Show," Monday's episode also had a terrific bit w/Rob Corddey about how utterly worthless the mainstream media have been throughout this campaign, but I can't find it online. The point was that the media just give a "he said/she said" near-verbatim report of what the campaigns are saying w/very little (relatively speaking) investigation as to the value or credibility of each side's claims. They report all right, even if what they're reporting is complete crap. Makes you proud to live in a country w/such a free press, doesn't it?
Posted 02:35 PM | election 2004 tv land
Amazingly Ugly Racers
Hey, look! Another episode of the Amazing Race and another example of Americans Behaving Badly. Maybe that should be the name of this show. If you missed it, there's a pretty good recap here, but the show was all about Colin's anger. He and Christie got a head start on everyone at the beginning of the episode, but their cab got a flat tire and the driver had no spare. Colin basically stole the spare from another team's cab, then refused to pay his driver what he'd agreed to pay. After being threatened with jail, Colin finally paid up, then proceeded to continue blaming Christie for making him have to give in to the demands of the cabbie and the police.
So is it just me, or does Colin have an anger problem? I feel very bad for Christie; she didn't deserve any of the blame for the consequences of Colin's tantrum. She was being the reasonable one, while he was being an insane anger bomb. Sad. Of course, what do we know? Editing means everything, doesn't it?
Even before Colin's craziness in the most recent episode, I've noticed that this season everyone seems more stressed and high strung than in past seasons, and also more aggressively "ugly" (as far as how they treat each other and the people they interact with around the world). Is it a coincidence that this season also seems to be drawing the biggest audience the show has ever had?
Posted 10:56 AM | Comments (2) | tv land
Blawgs Go Bye? And Aggregators...
Cruising through the blogroll, subscribing to feeds where I find them and checking on things before school starts next week and I get buried, I've found several sad gaps and one major hole. First, Dylan Goes to Law School has been dormant for some time—since last January. Veritable Cornucopia has been on hiatus since the beginning of May—has the team decided to call it quits?
The good thing about those sites is they're still online, meaning perhaps their authors will return someday, and even if they don't, their archives are still available for reference. But sadly it appears one of my favorite blawgs from last summer and fall— Liable—has completely disappeared—the domain has expired! Liable, if you're out there, we wish you the best and hope everything is going well for you.
In other (rather random) blogroll news:
- Dave's a gunner.
- Beanie has started her last year of school and it's like high school.
- Lawless Gal is having fun with OCI.
- Cinnamon has started 2L—she gets to watch movies in class! (Hey, does anyone know how to make a LiveJournal feed I can subscribe to?)
- Scherezade says: choose your seat with care. She's right, but I've always chosen kind of haphazardly and it's worked out ok. Not necessarily great, but not bad, either.
- Transmogriflaw has recently switched tracks from law student to mother-to-be. The switch is temporary; she plans to return to school after the baby arrives. This means she won't get her J.D. in 2006, but I'll still always think of her as part of my virtual cohort. Best wishes, Transmogriflaw—keep us posted!
Do you use an aggregator? Which one? How do you use it? Why do you use it? I've played with BlogLines, Net News Wire, Shrook, and PulpFiction. None of them really seem to bring all the speed and convenience that others have raved about, so I feel I must be missing something here...
Posted 12:43 PM | Comments (8) | meta-blogging
Bye Bye Spammies
Atlantic City was kee-razy. No sleep, lots of smoke, lots of bells and whistles, and only a leetle money gone. See it all in the past few days of ambivalent images.
What was superfun was to return home after being gone only two days to find over 100 spam comments on the blogs. Hooray for comment spam! Not. Andbutso, life is good now because MT-Blacklist v2.0e has come to the rescue of idiots like me who upgraded to MT 3.0D for no good reason and destroyed our compatibility with the old (and very effective) version of MT-Blacklist.
If you're running MT 3.0D and you have problems with comment spam, get yourself some Blacklist today. If you're waiting to upgrade to MT 3.1 comes out, you're smart because the new and even more improved Blacklist will be built right into that. I wish I was smart, but I know I'm not; that's why I are in law school.
UPDATE: Blacklist reports it blocked more than 60 attempted spam comments overnight. You gotta love that!
Posted 09:33 PM | meta-blogging
