Just some ideas:
Just some ideas:
I spent the past two weeks packing my big-honking golf umbrella, printing out offensive amounts of paper in the library, and screaming along to “Big Fun” in my car.
Week #10 was a lopsided week because my Thursday-Friday class was moved to Tuesday and Wednesday. This meant that on that Wednesday I had all of my classes1 including legal writing.
For Wednesday, we had abnormally large reading assignments for CivPro and Corporations, and of course, that was the day that spring briefs were due.
So most of the class spoke in grunts and scowled at anyone who was insufferably cheery. Grr.2
I was up most of Tuesday evening and went to bed immediately after school on Wednesday. I pretty sure I flew home. I slept for about 15 hours. It was amazing. I smile every time I think about it.
I spent Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at work, making up hours that I didn’t put in at the beginning of the week.
That weekend Stella and I went to the 90’s and watched the drag shows. Nina D’Angelo came out in a fat suit and gave a Cher performance. Stella and I were seated in the audience. Obese Cher got off the stage and sat on our laps. Yes, it was a hot mess. And yes, there’s video footage.
When Stella and I got home we saw that some of our housemates had trashed the living room and kitchen:
We were NOT amused.3 Lets forget that happened. Ugh.
Week #11 started with my first oral argument. My opponent and I had the same concept of the assignment, so there was no bloodletting or surprises. It was a fun experience, although I somehow managed to wear a blue-black suit top with my very-black slacks. This is how I get my reputation for keeping it classy…4
Last Monday’s oral argument was our “practice” argument. The real one is next week, and my suit will match. I promise.
This past week was somewhat unproductive because I violated the sanctity of my sleep schedule. If I miss even a few hours of sleep, I get into a zombie-like state after 5pm. Lack of sleep is a self-perpetuating thing because when I am tired I am more likely to stay up unnecessarily instead of going to bed…which means I’m tired the next day and…yeah.
I reconciled with my bed this weekend. A full 8-hours is non-negotiable for the next few weeks.
1 8am – Legal Writing, 9am Civpro, 11am Corps, 1:25 Crimlaw, 2:20 Property. 4pm – a comfort McFlurry then bed time.
2Crabby to put it mildly. Half of us couldn’t make eye contact with the obnoxious guy from Crimlaw. I’m surprised that no one raised their hand and ask for a gag order: “CAN WE JUST HAVE HIM NOT TALK FOR ONE CLASS PERIOD?”
3 The mess wasn’t completely cleaned up for a few days. This was the topic of much griping around the house. It was an interesting social study too. Turns out that mostly the minorities and women in the house were pissed off about it. Some of us noted that…
4 If that wasn’t bad enough, the suit jacket and pants had two different types of pinstripes! My room wasn’t well lit enough for me to catch the mistake before I got to school. (Yes. I literally got dressed in the dark…)It was one of those fashion mistakes that wasn’t glaring, but really irks everyone who notices it. But given how many students have no concept of appropriate formal wear, it wasn’t a big deal.
4 Yes, I know I just said “when I’m tired, I stay up.” That may sound stupid, but it’s true. I stay up so late because I’m vegging in front of a computer or book…
It took a little while1 but I finally moved No634 to an independent host. The experience reminded me a lot of my greymatter days in middle school.2
The difference between wordpress.com to an independent host is akin to renting an apartment vs. owning a house. When you own a house you can do whatever you want.3 It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do things…and I’ve spent the past few hours figuring things out.
There were a few surprises:
I’m happy with the move and redesign. Although, I’m done fixing things for now.
1 Forever, actually. Mentally, I was this kid.
2 Read: Long nights of diet coke and coding. GreyMatter is early CGI-based blogging software, similar to WordPress.
3 Obviously, anything that’s legal. Even the new host has rules (no warez sites, porn, etc.)
4 So don’t scream at me thinking that I unlinked you. Thanks. If I actually left your link out, please contact me.
5 This was tedious. For example, the search box involves 4 separate images. I also had to go into the CSS and change all of the color codes. Bleh. I think I’m the only person caught messing with CSS at the neighborhood Gay Cafe…
“Value added” is one of the buzz phrases caked all over twitter. I didn’t understand what exactly value added meant until I read this post:
Around the blawgosphere, I’ve noticed that many blawgers are posting about stories and decision, providing quotes or descriptions, and then moving to the next story. What happened to the analysis? Have blawgers decided that it’s enough to be another aggregator of news on a particular area of the law, without adding any value to their posts? So it seems.
These are good blawgers, people who have brought much to the discussion that has made us better, more thoughtful and intelligent lawyers, who are now doing as little as possible to keep up their posts without adding anything beyond the basic information. That’s not good enough.
And it’s so true. Original content (and analysis) is why we love blogs (Dooce, Above the Law, Teasingly Diverse, Go Fug Yourself, etc. etc. etc.) So, in the spirit of “adding value”, I’m adding some commentary to the Mornin’ category, and writing more.
The decision to write more occurred to me a few days ago while reading But No Thanks: I thought, “Wow, I haven’t written anything is good in a hot minute…” or ever. Close enough.
So in addition to 30 days of video blogs, expect more written blogs too. It’s Value Added Month!
How to tell when your significant other thinks you blog too much:
Jamie: “Are you going to blog about how I made you go on an awkward double date with two of my ex’s that I’m trying to hook up?”
(two hours later)
Jamie: “You’re going to blog about this aren’t you?”
(at the end of the night)
Jamie: “DONT BLOG ABOUT THIS!”
(right now, as he’s reading this over my shoulder)
Jamie: “I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T GOING TO BLOG ABOUT THIS!”
…blog about what dear?
I gave up.
From now on I’m reading my favorite 54-or-so blogs through bloglines. So sorry if I don’t notice your new layout.
There are some blogs I didn’t bother subscribing to, like (Fug, Michelle, or Greta) simply because they update too much. It’s easier to just to those sites individually.
We’ll see how this RSS thing works!
Most people at my law school have facebook. Very few law students use twitter, tumblr, or a maintain a blog.
I’ve tried to explain twitter to other law students and they think it’s absurd. But now I have the New York Times on my side. Think of Twitter as Facebook status updates taken to the next level:
So, besides getting horribly lost while driving… Momversation is the procrastination tool of choice today.
No, I’m not expecting a baby or anything. It’s just the entertainment that is Dooce & friends.
One of the topics discussed is ‘real friends vs. online friends.’ I think it’s fairly pertinent to the blawg world, especially since I’m now facebook friends with several blawgers.
Quickly,
Darrell restricted access to his social networking profiles and blog archive in preparation for law school.
I thought this was excessive at the time, but I found myself doing the same thing today.
I never thought I would have to:
You’d think this would keep me out of e-trouble right?
But it wasn’t the blog that got me into trouble: It was twitter.
I use a twitter program called Twirl. It looks like a little instant message box on my desktop.
The short of it: twitter/twirl updates my facebook status among other things. I ticked someone off and they dug through my facebook status archive to fish for some dirt, printed it out, and gave it to my supervisor.
Who does this?
The tweets were taken out of context and I didn’t name individuals (nor say anything crazy), so I didn’t get into trouble. It was still horribly awkward explaining less-than-rosy tweets to a supervisor. I was asked to trash the tweets.
A friend experienced an extreme version of the online-work problem last semester: He had to meet with a departmental head because a professor went through his myspace account and printed out a comment someone made on my friend’s profile.
A comment.
Heck, It wasn’t even his comment!
Yes the comment was stupid, but it wasn’t profane, hateful, or related to school or work. But my friend had to edit his profile and take the comment down.
Who has time to police myspace comments? I don’t. My myspace, which had absolutely nothing remotely controversial on it, is now private.
What about facebook, which started this mess? My facebook account is now private even to students at my school. I also unfriended over 400 people (I had around 650 friends at UMiami before and now I have less than 200.)
My blog? Well, chalk one up for the malicious ones, because I’m not willing to get dooced for free speech.
I then went through my main blog and thought about how a malicious person could spin entries. I found myself deleting and censoring a lot of completely innocent things and hated doing it.
I enjoy publishing and think that online transparency is important. It grilled my cheese to censor things that are obviously less controversial than a donut commercial just because some nameless malicious person could spin them.
Self-publication (via wordpress/twitter/myspace, etc.) helps me stay in contact with friends and can also be helpful to others. I’ve found several blogs (Divine Angst, Boy in Suit, Fight the Hypo, among others) very informative as a 0L, and hope that this blog can be a resource to another 0L in the future. I just hope I don’t end up editing the life out of everything I post now…
And about those pesky twitter updates? They are still public, but the “funny” ones are deleted. I shant twitter anything I wouldn’t chat with Mr. Ratzinger about…well, okay, that’s a uh, high standard, but eh, how about not twittering anything I wouldn’t mind discussing on The Factor ?
How To Succeed in Law School was extremely helpful. I learned how to brief cases and accepted that Socratic method means that the teacher always wins (sort of like a Casino).
I’ll reread the book (and Getting to Maybe) in Minnesota. Both books make feel that I won’t be as blind-sided by the experience. I’m excited.
Oh, and Law School Discussion is hilarious. There was a post about whether blogging in law school is a good idea. Most people didn’t think so: the argument is that you’re likely to say something stupid and make people think you’re a douchebag.
There’s always a percentage of the class that hates the nicest person in the room. I am not suggesting that I’m that “nicest guy” – but I doubt blogging is going to make me a pariah or offend any future employers.
I’m sure there are plenty of other ways to do that – just not here.
No controversies on this blog.
I’ve moved around a lot (countries, states, and social circles) and blog “to keep in touch” with former friends/acquaintances that care to look me up.
The vast majority of people who read my blog are people who I no longer have daily contact with, but who know who I am.
I plan on keeping my general “what I did today” blog throughout law school, but I’m wondering if that’s such a keen idea for this blog. I couldn’t have great categories like “professor son of a bitch.”
This week eletronics failed me: I lost my phone, broke my mp3 player, ran into a card-eating ATM, and sent my laptop to Gatewayland for repair.
I also lived in the library for the better part of the week: 6 papers and one group project. Yes. Indeed.
The website, and twitter have new designs. I kept it simple since the the last design was a bit gaudy.
