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April 29, 2005
divine angst: bags and more bags
http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/04/bags_and_more_b.html Timbuk II bags are great. I have one, but I found it on closeout from a reseller (in kind of ugly colors) for abotu $30. It's one w/out a built-in laptop sleeve so I use a Marware Sportfolio as a laptop sleeve inside the messenger bag. It's a little pricy, but if you ever find you just want to haul the laptop around outside of your regular bag, the Sportfolio has handles, a shoulder strap, and an external pocket for small items. It all works great. Happy moving!!Posted by mowabb at 11:39 AM
Preaching to the Perverted: Yipe! Skype!
http://www.gulbransen.net/preaching/archives/2005/04/yipe_skype.html Hey, you want to do a Skype podcast? I've been looking for an opportunity to try using Skype to record interviews so you would make a perfect guinea pig, if you're interested. You could explain to me how the heck you're getting through law school while working full time. Oh, and you were going to talk about how you're using Devonthink at some point, which would also be interesting, at least to me, and that's really what this is all about it, isn't it? ;-)Posted by mowabb at 10:14 AM
Ditzy Genius: Exams R Stoopid, Thank God For Slurpees
http://www.ditzygenius.com/archives/2005/04/exams_r_stoopid.html Your title sums it up: Exams *R* Stoopid! I just wanted to second the hatred of multiple choice on law school exams. I always did more or less fine on MC tests prior to law school; that's how I got here, after all -- I know how to fill in the bubbles. But on law school exams, my MC fu has just totally evaporated. If I never see another MC question on a law school exam, it will be too soon. I'm not too worried that this is going to be a problem w/the bar, though, because I think it's all about how you study. When I studied for the LSAT (or the GRE or the SAT or ACT or any of the zillions of standardized tests you've already taken in your life), you studied to the test -- I focused on the way the questions were constructed and how to eliminate answers for each question type, etc. I did fine on those tests, and I'm sure (ok, I hope) I'll do the same for the bar exam. The problem w/law school exams is I just don't prepare properly for the MC. I think really preparing for MC, for me, requires mastering nuances that aren't required for essay tests. MC questions often force you to choose between two options that are only very subtly different from each other, so if you don't know the fine detail of the law on that issue, you just have to guess. Essay tests, on the other hand, generally ask larger questions about larger issues that don't force you to make such fine distinctions. I'm a big picture guy, so give me the essay any day. I also ramble a lot. Good luck with those finals! MC or no, we all know you'll be setting the curve!Posted by mowabb at 10:01 AM
Will Work for Favorable Dicta: Dear Satan,
http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/04/dear-satan.html Yikes! I hope they're just playing tough facade here and you'll still get aid. If you're talking federal aid, I can't imagine that it's too late. Sure there's a “priority deadline,” but that's just for show. If it's aid from the school, well, like I said, I hope they're just being typical “I work in a bureaucracy and I'm miserable so if I can make someone else miserable, too, that makes me happier.” If that's what they're doing, it sucks, but it's just a game and you'll win (get aid) in the end. Fingers crossed for you....Posted by mowabb at 09:44 AM
April 26, 2005
divine angst: summer reading
http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/04/summer_reading.html Here's a list of several books you won't want to read this summer. But I do think OneL is worthwhile, and Brush w/the Law is just plain fun (or I thought so, anyway). But yeah, indulging in just whatever makes you happy is a great idea; you'll have plenty of time to focus on law reading later.Posted by mowabb at 02:25 PM
April 25, 2005
Mackenzie's Weblog: Back!
http://www.macknzie.net/blog/archives/2005_04.html#000339 Congrats on getting your computer working again. I'm kind of a Dell hata, but it does sound like they treated you right here. So what's the best restaurant in town these days? When I lived there, there weren't too many choices but The Overland and Jeffrey's were generally pretty great. I liked the brewpub that was open on, um, 3rd street (or was it 2nd street) for a while, kind of near the Fireside. I thought I heard that was gone, though. And it wasn't a place for great food, necessarily, but then, that's not generally why you go to a brewpub...Posted by mowabb at 05:18 PM
April 24, 2005
thisdarkqualm » The Beautiful Sound of Ethical Compromise
http://thisdarkqualm.com/index.php?p=171 How can anything that seems so good be bad? ;-)Posted by mowabb at 01:43 PM
April 23, 2005
Ditzy Genius: DVD-A-Thon
http://www.ditzygenius.com/archives/2005/04/dvdathon.html I so feel you. I really should be panicked, but I've had crap luck getting myself to focus on this studying thing. It's like a skill I just never learned. Sad. Here's hoping tomorrow goes better for both of us!Posted by mowabb at 11:38 PM
spasticrobot: Bianchi Milano 120
http://spasticrobot.typepad.com/spasticrobot/2005/04/bianchi_milano_.html That's a sweet looking ride. I have the 2002 Milano (only 7 speed Nexus hub) and it's been great, but I wouldn't want to put in too many serious biking hours on it. I mean, it's a great bike, but if you're really going to put in hours, you can do better. The Milano makes a great city bike -- short rides, lots of traffic, stop and go, frequent shfting stuff. It's perfect for that, although, after three years of what I wouldn't consider overly rigorous use the rear end (the Nexus hub) is making some very unpleasant grinding noises. I have no idea what that means.... Anyway, enjoy your bike -- it's a great machine! p.s.: This random comment is just from someone who googled “Bianchi Milano” and you happened to be in the top three results.Posted by mowabb at 03:16 PM
Three Years of Hell to Become the Devil: Ethics Question
http://www.threeyearsofhell.com/archive/003268.php I got the same email (probably it's the same one, anyway). I don't care about the money as an ethical thing (if you disclose that you might get paid for posting the link, where's the ethical problem?), but I agree w/Anonymous that the money has to be coming from somewhere and I don't think that's something I want to support. If the money doesn't come from sales of personal information, it sounds like it may come from big firms trying to improve their ability to suck up the best talent from American law schools. Helping with that project in any way is about the last thing I'd want to do, regardless of how much they offered to pay.Posted by mowabb at 08:45 AM
divine angst: oh crap:
http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/04/oh_crap.html Suggestion: Buy a bunch of same-size boxes at Office Depot or someplace like that. Why buy boxes, you ask? A couple reasons: 1) If you have a bunch of boxes all the same size you can pack your truck *much* more easily. They also make it easier to store unopened boxes in closets or elsewhere. 2) If you're moving a couple of times in the near future (and you are), getting good boxes will pay off. The boxes you buy set up easily and then, when you've finished your first move, you can collapse them again and pile them under your bed or something. Then, in a month or three when you're ready to move again, look! you've got boxes! Is it worth the expense? I dunno, but it has worked well for us in our, um three moves in the last two years.Posted by mowabb at 07:34 AM
April 22, 2005
divine angst: cool but
http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/04/cool_but.html Beyond its uncooperative behavior w/Safari I'm having trouble seeing how the benefits of this new feature outweigh the risks. I can't think of a time I wanted/needed to remember a search I did in the past -- if I do a search and find what I was looking for, I either bookmark it or otherwise save the info I find, precisely so I won't need to do the search again. So where's the value? And the risk is just that this information will be subpoenaed when users get prosecuted for crimes. ;-)Posted by mowabb at 07:12 AM
April 20, 2005
LuminousVoid » Finals
http://luminousvoid.net/archives/41/finals I hope you'll post your “Art of Lawyering” paper here or somewhere -- I'd love to read it. Part of me really hates this new schedule b/c I had a hard enough time staying caught up w/everything before and now that there's more packed into each week it's just that much harder. But another part of me can't complain about basically being finished with classes and finals by the first week of May.Posted by mowabb at 06:35 PM
April 19, 2005
The Neutral Zone Trap: Oh.My.God.
http://emcpan.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_emcpan_archive.html#111360068629848467 Is your middle name really Laramie? If so, that is so cool. If not, I never believed you anyway. ;-)Posted by mowabb at 10:58 PM
Sui Generis: More waiting angst
http://suigeneris1.blogspot.com/2005/04/more-waiting-angst.html You're such a trooper. So do you think waitlists are a good thing, or would you have preferred a definitive answer from those schools over this waiting game? Oh, and have you seen this?Posted by mowabb at 08:55 PM
CrimLaw: Sacrifices:
http://crimlaw.blogspot.com/2005/04/sacrifices.html Your dedication to the pursuit of justice here is truly fantastic. ;-) But I'm a little unclear about why you have clients housed all the way up in Alexandria. Is this a federal case?Posted by mowabb at 08:22 PM
Preaching to the Perverted: Free Government Ringtones!
http://www.gulbransen.net/preaching/archives/2005/04/free_government.html I do not even know how to respond to that. What kid is going to put a “smoking dope is so bad for you!” quiz up on his/her website? Wait. A majority of today's teens think the 1st Amendment goes too far. That means a majority of today's teens are mutants, or possibly aliens. Perhaps this new species of human lookalikes enjoys making its websites into propaganda tools for the gubment.Posted by mowabb at 02:38 PM
April 17, 2005
Will Work for Favorable Dicta: There's this one particular harbour...
http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/04/theres-this-one-particular-harbour.html Moot shmoot. You'll rock the courtroom with your command of the law. And if you don't, there's always beer. Sure, good appellate arguments can make law (and earn loads of favorable dicta), but beer is cheaper, and, well, it's good. Those shots of the coast are awesome. They remind me of the time I hiked the “lost coast” of Northern California w/my then girlfriend. Three days of no one but us and mile after mile (about 15 miles in total, I think) of breathtaking beauty like that captured in your pics. Talk about solitude and peace and blowing out the cobwebs from your brain. Man, what I would give for another hike like that about now...Posted by mowabb at 09:31 PM
April 16, 2005
prettytypewriters » Congrats Jeff:
http://www.prettytypewriters.com/bloggy/index.php?p=76
Please give Jeff and Carin my congratulations! Yeah, I could email them, but that would be so, um, friendly-like, and I’m so bad at that. Andy C. was actually in town this week so we went out on the 14th and drank something of a toast to Jeff’s defense and job. It’s so amazing to think about really. It seems like just yesterday we were all chirping little birdies in that BTW class where Andy was one of our bosses, and now we’re partly scattered to the winds and Jeff is done and moving and…. Time is the trippiest drug.
Posted by mowabb at 08:31 PM
April 10, 2005
WonL: The Numbers Game
http://wonl.blogspot.com/2005/04/numbers-gamea-team-i-decline-to-join.html
You're right about the merry-go-round and all the stupid numbers/credentials/distinctions games. I do think some legal employers play them, though; they went to law school, too, and that's how they learned the system so they perpetuate it that way. Obviously, that doesn't mean the rest of us have to play it, and as more of us reject it, perhaps the system itself will begin to change.
Your points here are implicit in the critique of legal education being developed over at Law School Can Be Different. They're talking more theoretically, I think, but your practical experience could add a lot to what they're doing.
Posted by mowabb at 07:35 AM
April 09, 2005
Arbitrary & Capricious: Professional courtesy to fellow underachievers
http://skellywright.blogspot.com/2005/04/professional-courtesy-to-fellow.html
Yeah. And if you don't make journal or moot court you might as well drop out now 'cause you're already the most miserable failure ever. Yup.
Related: WonL has a pretty good post on this sort of thing...
Posted by mowabb at 09:23 PM
Woman of the law: Welcome to the Monkey House
http://womanofthelaw.blogspot.com/2005/04/welcome-to-monkey-house.html
How about a BlawgCoop blog for $5/year!? I'd be happy to get you set up w/a test site (using either Wordpress or Movable Type) so you can see if you'd like it. (Movable Type is the software on which Typepad is based.) Categories, images, no more blogger outages, being part of a great little community of happy law-related bloggers, and cheap, too! What could be better?
I'm esp. eager for you to do this b/c I want to read every entry in your “What they don't tell you about PD jobs” category. I bet I'm not the only one....
Posted by mowabb at 02:16 PM
Alaskablawg: Retainer Fees
http://alaskablawg.typepad.com/alaskablawg/2005/03/retainer_fees.html
Thanks for the tip! I'll be sure to remember it for my upcoming Professional Responsibility final. ;-)
Posted by mowabb at 01:30 PM
buzzwords: Monica Wins a Trial!
http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/001580.html
Congratulations! I continue to be in awe of the experience you're having and how well you're doing with the massive challenges they're throwing at you. Picking a jury!? Opening and closing in a *real case*!? Crossing witnesses? It's just all so incredible, and you won!!! I'm also extremely impressed w/the amount of time and attention your supervising attorney is giving you -- helping you work out your closing for four hours? You just couldn't pay money for that kind of help and training. Dude, you're a lawyer already and you still have a year left of law school? Whatever you end up doing after this, your opponents had better watch out, is all I'm thinking. You rock!
Posted by mowabb at 01:25 PM
Avoiding Billable Hours: Validation
http://avoidingbillablehours.blogspot.com/2005/04/validation.html
Yes, congratulations! Validation of this kind is doubly good -- not only do you get to feel good about what you're doing, but you can also pay your rent while you're doing it!
Tony: If you're not going to get paid to work a legal job this summer you might be able to get credit instead. I think that's what I'm going to do...
Posted by mowabb at 12:14 PM
prettytypewriters » Computer Seizures
http://www.prettytypewriters.com/bloggy/index.php?p=72
Current count on my iBook: 23 windows open, including 22 different tabs open w/in three different Safari windows. This is pretty standard operating procedure around mac land.
You knew I wouldn’t be able to resist showing my mac’s superiority, right?
Posted by mowabb at 12:09 PM
prettytypewriters » Apple Field Trip
http://www.prettytypewriters.com/bloggy/index.php?p=70
I’m sure your penance will be most pleasureable. ;-)
I have decided you need a digital camera, or if you have one, I have decided that you must take and post more pictures. For example, wouldn’t it be fun to share pics of the new Esquire and of the cheering and jeering there during the big game?
Of course, my decisions aren’t really very persuasive. Just ask L. ;-)
Posted by mowabb at 12:04 PM
divine angst: come back, joy!
http://divineangst.blawgcoop.com/archives/2005/04/come_back_joy.html
I had to sell my house to go to law school, too, and it was a very sad thing, actually. I mean, I was excited to get such a good price, but I was also very sad to leave the place in someone else's hands and to think that I may never own another place again. It was a tiny little shack, but it was mine. Oh, and facing the prospect of paying rent after owning? Suck. But these are the things we do.
The plus side of selling is that you're free of those ownership obligations. And renting means you get to worry less if things break or fall into disrepair, which is good...
Posted by mowabb at 10:36 AM
April 08, 2005
Samples Connection: Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince
http://samplesconnection.blogspot.com/2005/03/harry-potter-half-blood-prince.html
My plan would be not to buy the book or let myself even touch a copy until I had finished the bar. Instead of thinking of this as bad timing, you could think of it as the perfect timing b/c now you have an excellent incentive to take those last 10 days before the bar seriously and do well on the exam. Once you've passed w/flying colors, what better reward could there be than to relax w/the new Harry Potter w/out a single care in the world?
Posted by mowabb at 07:44 AM
April 07, 2005
Uncle Davey gets a new MP3 player...?
http://davetravel.scripting.com/2005/04/05#a839
Just FYI, I think some confusion might have been created above when “mcdordad” explained how to do a hard reset of the iPod. My understanding is that you don't have to plug the iPod into a powered firewire port (which Dave's sony doesn't have); you just have to plug the iPod into *power* -- the wall outlet will work fine.
Dave: If you're just going to throw your iPod out, I'll take it. If I had the money for a new portable audio device, I'd probably go with one of the above options w/more features, but I'd also be willing to risk $30 to see if your iPod would work w/a new battery or something.... ;-)
I agree that the iPod is sadly bereft of features and tends to steer users in one direction w/iTunes, ACC, etc, but isn't it important to remember the context in which it exists? There was really no viable online music business prior to the iTunes music store, and in order to make that work, Apple had to sell its soul to the RIAA to get rights to sell the music. The soul-selling came w/the DRM and the perceived “lock in.” So from where I sit, I have to wonder how much choice Apple had. At the time, it was Hollywood's way or no way, so Apple decided to try it Hollywood's way. Now people are over the coolness of being able to download any song they want (which they've found isn't true since the selection is limited) in about one minute for less than a buck each. Remember what a cool thing that was when it first started? But we're over it, so now we're asking whether Apple's Faustian bargain w/Hollywood -- a bargain that basically allowed Apple to create a proof-of-concept for a successful online music business -- was worth it. I'm certainly not qualified to say. I'm just saying that it doesn't seem like Apple's so powerful and free to do whatever it wants in this space, so maybe Apple shouldn't get so much of the blame and the ire. Yeah, Apple has the bestselling portable music player, but couldn't Hollywood shut down a lot of Apple's mojo in a heartbeat if it wanted to end its sales agreements for the iTMS? It seems like Apple's been walking a fine line between pissing off Hollywood and pissing off users. I hope it's able to start move that line toward the users soon...
Posted by mowabb at 08:06 AM
April 04, 2005
Falconred Goes to Law School :: Life Outside School:
http://www.falconred.net/archives/2005_03.html#000221
Great shots! Do you have a Flickr stream or have you thought about starting a photoblog? Posting the images here works great, too, obviously, but I was just wondering.
Sounds like life in the big city is treating you very well!
Posted by mowabb at 06:32 AM
Will Work for Favorable Dicta: It's 2am, do you know where your appellate brief is?
http://favorabledicta.blogspot.com/2005/04/its-2am-do-you-know-where-your.html
Thank you for this reminder of why I am so done with competitions in law school. Yech. But good luck to you. The actual competition part can be kind of fun (it's all that preparation that kills you) and it almost always feels great when it's over.
Posted by mowabb at 06:26 AM
prettytypewriters » Go Illini!
http://www.prettytypewriters.com/bloggy/index.php?p=69
I’m with you. I wish they’d “retire” the Chief so I could cheer for the Illini more wholeheartedly, but, well, go illini.
Any new Chief developments, or is it still just one of those constant campus controversies?
Posted by mowabb at 05:49 AM
April 03, 2005
idlegrasshopper:
http://idlegrasshopper.blogspot.com/2005/03/ahhh.html
A little bit embarrassed about being a little bit excited is a little bit weird, except that I understand because, well, who wants to admit being excited about a law school class? Then again, CrimLaw rocks, so chuck the embarrassment and just have fun.
Oh, but those people who stand left on the escalator? I want to scream!!! I suffered silently for a while, but my practice now is to be as pushy as I can make myself be in asking them to get out of the way. Most of the time a simple “excuse me” works, but not when there's like an entire planeload of tourists on the escalator w/their luggage. At that point, you just have to sigh and listen to them talk about how long this escalator is while in your head you're thinking, “yeah, and you just wasted two minutes of my life; thanks!”
Posted by mowabb at 02:22 PM
Blawg Review - the carnival of the blawgs and law blog reviews by legal bloggers
http://blawgreview.blogspot.com/2005/03/do-you-blawg.html
FYI: I tried to create a complete list of the blogs/bloggers mentioned in the article here. I don't know what you're talking about with all this “which other bloggers should have been mentioned?” stuff. I mean, my blog is mentioned, so it's got to be a great article, right? ;-)
Posted by mowabb at 01:08 PM
April 02, 2005
The Yin Blog: SciFi's “Battlestar Galactica”: “Kobol's Last Gleaming, Part 2” (season finale)
http://yin.typepad.com/the_yin_blog/2005/04/scifis_battlest.html
BSG is some of the best tv I have ever seen, but if Adama dies, the show is over for me. (And I know if you read around the web for all the spoilers you can find out whether Adama lives, but why would you want to do that?) Would they replace Adama w/ Ty? He's pretty good, but no, I don't think so. So yeah, an amazing season, many irons in the plot fire for the second season to pick up on, and I heard a rumor it may be doing so well that NBC (which I guess owns the Sci-Fi Channel, or they're owned by the same parent, or whatever) might run the second season in prime time to get an even larger audience. Cool.
Posted by mowabb at 05:20 PM
April 01, 2005
buzzwords :: March 31, 2005:
http://tonguebutnodoor.net/monica/archives/001576.html
Congratulations on the trial! I'm still just speechless about how awesome this internship sounds. You're getting experience many many law students (like me) can only dream about -- and in an incredible part of the world, to boot. I can't wait to read your posts about it, but it's good to hear that life is coming before blogging. I dream of those days.... ;-)
Posted by mowabb at 11:01 AM
a Public Defender: Did you have a public defender or a lawyer?
http://publicdefender.typepad.com/public_defender_blog/2005/03/did_you_have_a_.html
Oh, you mean public defenders *are* lawyers? Gee, you learn something every day! ;-)
I was lucky last summer when I worked in a PD office b/c in that jurisdiction the word on the street is that if you get in trouble, try to get a PD. The people in the community know that the public defenders provide the best defense available, and if you spend any time in court, you quickly see why -- the private defense attorneys are largely incompetent. Some of them seem pretty clueless about court procedure and they always seem rushed and confused rather than calm and confident in court like the PDs. It's an awesome thing to see, actually. You should send Senator Newton to visit our courthouse for a few days and see if he changes his tune.
Curious: With what party is Sen. Newton affiliated?
p.s.: Congrats on the new site -- it looks great!
Posted by mowabb at 09:17 AM