I was getting food at the grocery store today when I overheard a conversation between the Hispanic cashier and a customer who didn't look Hispanic, but who was speaking to her in Spanish. They were talking relatively slowly (which makes sense if the second woman wasn't a native speaker) so I was able to make everything out. The conversation while she checked-out the guy in front of me went something like this:
Guy: Oh, please don't use plastic bags, I brought my own. I have them right here.
Cashier (to woman): Look at this mariposa (butterfly, a euphemism for 'gay'). What's wrong with these bags? He's gotta bring his own?
Customer: A lot of the guys around here are faldas (skirts, maybe another euphemism for 'gay'?) it's really annoying. Grow some balls! No good men for my daughter since they're all taking each other!
I live near Dupont, so the women should be used to them by now. Besides, does she really want her daughter with a guy who's pretending she had a dick? Anyways, by this point he was done and gone and it was my turn.
Customer: Look at this kid, he's way too young to be wearing a suit. What's he doing?
Cashier: These kids in suits get younger ever year. Especially the white ones.
Sigh...
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
What does it say about me as a person that...
1) The haircut I got today cost me $23, which makes it one of the most expensive haircuts I've ever had.
2) That is what I choose to write about in my first post in over 8 months.
The last one will hopefully be remedied with more frequent updates.
2) That is what I choose to write about in my first post in over 8 months.
The last one will hopefully be remedied with more frequent updates.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Conservatism?
I'm definitely going to write more about this election and about how I've been seeing it, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share a really interesting piece I was sent this morning. Take a look at it if you've got a chance.
And yes, this is in large part posted because of my man-crush on Alexander Hamilton...
And yes, this is in large part posted because of my man-crush on Alexander Hamilton...
Monday, October 13, 2008
More Personal than Usual
I've been feeling weird the last week or two and I haven't quite been able to figure out why. No, this is not the start to a 'your body and you' post or my way of telling you guys I have cancer, I don't mean 'feeling weird' in that sense. I mean that I've been in a strange mood lately and the source was unclear; I've felt restless, uneasy, unfulfilled. I mean, things have been, for the most part, going really well for me since the beginning of the semester and I'd been really enjoying my life here overall until recently, so what changed?
I'll admit, I'm not 100% sure, but I've been thinking about it a lot and I have a theory. It takes a lot to explain it, though, so bear with me. I think the problem is one of mindset; based on everything I'd heard and read that my life would consist of 1) law school 2) things required for subsistence and 3) the occasional distraction that would keep me sane. It was pretty clear that 1 would dominate, 2 was necessary and 3 would come in where it could but couldn't be counted on. This was all based not only on the stereotypes, but also what I'd seen in my sister and other friends doing their 1L year and my own thoughts about what I had in front of me. There was a part of me that also thought that I needed to scare myself into discipline so that my last (few) semester(s) at Yale didn't prevent me from doing the work I needed to do.
Well, I seem to have miscalculated. I don't know whether it's because I sufficiently scared myself to get back my work-ethic of old, because all those years of reading and paying attention to the law gave me a leg-up or what, but I'm really not working as hard as I'd have expected to and I seem to be doing just fine. It's not that there isn't a lot of work to do (probably more than I've had in a long time) or that I'm not feeling the pressures and the stresses of law school, it just doesn't all add up to what I thought. I like the work and I'm not skimping by any means, and since I feel comfortable with what we're covering in class and finals are a long ways away, I find it hard to justify putting more effort at this point.
Think of it this way; I've got, at most, 4 hours of class in a given day. Add in an average of 8 hours of sleep, two hours for things like eating and errands and that leaves 10 hours for work and those 'distractions.' Today, just as and example, I had a total of about 4 hours of work for my classes and that's about average. So what the hell am I supposed to do with those other 6 hours a day, to say nothing of the Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays I don't have class or work assigned?
My original plan of filling it with things like watching sports, exercising, wasting time online and hanging out with friends hasn't been cutting it so far. Those kinds of pursuits were always designed as fillers, distractions, and when you spend hours and hours a day on meaningless distractions, you feel unfulfilled and like you're doing something wrong. "How can I have so much free time when I was supposed to be working my ass off? Something must be wrong. I must have something to do. But I...don't."
I know I'm only two months in, but I'm beginning to feel like the basic assumptions I've built my 1L plan on are not justified. This is the plan that told me I wouldn't have time for other priorities, be they extracurricular, romantic, whatever, that told me to go ahead and get a dog since I was (obviously!) going to be spending all my time in my apartment studying. I'm thinking that it might be time to reconsider that plan. If only I knew what that meant...
I'll admit, I'm not 100% sure, but I've been thinking about it a lot and I have a theory. It takes a lot to explain it, though, so bear with me. I think the problem is one of mindset; based on everything I'd heard and read that my life would consist of 1) law school 2) things required for subsistence and 3) the occasional distraction that would keep me sane. It was pretty clear that 1 would dominate, 2 was necessary and 3 would come in where it could but couldn't be counted on. This was all based not only on the stereotypes, but also what I'd seen in my sister and other friends doing their 1L year and my own thoughts about what I had in front of me. There was a part of me that also thought that I needed to scare myself into discipline so that my last (few) semester(s) at Yale didn't prevent me from doing the work I needed to do.
Well, I seem to have miscalculated. I don't know whether it's because I sufficiently scared myself to get back my work-ethic of old, because all those years of reading and paying attention to the law gave me a leg-up or what, but I'm really not working as hard as I'd have expected to and I seem to be doing just fine. It's not that there isn't a lot of work to do (probably more than I've had in a long time) or that I'm not feeling the pressures and the stresses of law school, it just doesn't all add up to what I thought. I like the work and I'm not skimping by any means, and since I feel comfortable with what we're covering in class and finals are a long ways away, I find it hard to justify putting more effort at this point.
Think of it this way; I've got, at most, 4 hours of class in a given day. Add in an average of 8 hours of sleep, two hours for things like eating and errands and that leaves 10 hours for work and those 'distractions.' Today, just as and example, I had a total of about 4 hours of work for my classes and that's about average. So what the hell am I supposed to do with those other 6 hours a day, to say nothing of the Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays I don't have class or work assigned?
My original plan of filling it with things like watching sports, exercising, wasting time online and hanging out with friends hasn't been cutting it so far. Those kinds of pursuits were always designed as fillers, distractions, and when you spend hours and hours a day on meaningless distractions, you feel unfulfilled and like you're doing something wrong. "How can I have so much free time when I was supposed to be working my ass off? Something must be wrong. I must have something to do. But I...don't."
I know I'm only two months in, but I'm beginning to feel like the basic assumptions I've built my 1L plan on are not justified. This is the plan that told me I wouldn't have time for other priorities, be they extracurricular, romantic, whatever, that told me to go ahead and get a dog since I was (obviously!) going to be spending all my time in my apartment studying. I'm thinking that it might be time to reconsider that plan. If only I knew what that meant...
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Look, I'm all about loyalty...I'm going wherever they value loyalty the most
So, there's this big battle going on for the hearts-and-minds of the legal profession between the two big legal research firms, LexisNexis and Westlaw. Westlaw has the historic advantage and it's preferred by most practicing lawyers, but it's not at all a run-away. As the two have moved into the digital age and more and more of legal research is being done online (apparently now 90% of it is), the gap is narrowing.
As you can imagine, the most fertile ground for this fight is law students, who don't have an established preference for one or the other and we're poor. So, they bribe us to use their service by offering 'rewards points' that can be redeemed for stuff like DVDs, purses and, if you get enough, big things like vacuums and TVs. For doing nothing! Insanity. You can earn these points by taking 'tutorials' that teach you how to do various things through their system (and, in turn, get to know theirs better than the other guy's) or just from using it; every day you log in and search for a case, you get some points.
As you can imagine, I have become quite the points-whore. I've gone through and done just about everything I can for the damn things and it's already paying off; last week I cashed in points from Lexis to get two DVDs, Field of Dreams and Silence of the Lambs. I know people who are saving them up to get the big things, but I'm way too impatient for that...
Since Lexis, as the underdog, is more eager to throw points at us, I've spent more time on their site and am more comfortable with their format and organization. I don't think it's really going to matter in the end because I'm not planning on going to a firm and I almost certainly won't ever be making the decision about whose system to spend a firm's money on, but it's nice to know that my loyalty is that cheap to buy. :-)
As you can imagine, the most fertile ground for this fight is law students, who don't have an established preference for one or the other and we're poor. So, they bribe us to use their service by offering 'rewards points' that can be redeemed for stuff like DVDs, purses and, if you get enough, big things like vacuums and TVs. For doing nothing! Insanity. You can earn these points by taking 'tutorials' that teach you how to do various things through their system (and, in turn, get to know theirs better than the other guy's) or just from using it; every day you log in and search for a case, you get some points.
As you can imagine, I have become quite the points-whore. I've gone through and done just about everything I can for the damn things and it's already paying off; last week I cashed in points from Lexis to get two DVDs, Field of Dreams and Silence of the Lambs. I know people who are saving them up to get the big things, but I'm way too impatient for that...
Since Lexis, as the underdog, is more eager to throw points at us, I've spent more time on their site and am more comfortable with their format and organization. I don't think it's really going to matter in the end because I'm not planning on going to a firm and I almost certainly won't ever be making the decision about whose system to spend a firm's money on, but it's nice to know that my loyalty is that cheap to buy. :-)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
My professor just said 'blowjob' in class
And no, it was not a quote, he was just tired of saying "oral sex" I guess...
This is not out of the ordinary; this professor, the one I have for criminal law, JJ Prescott, definitely enjoys himself in class, having fun not just with terminology but also with his examples and hypotheticals. Here are a few examples:
"Let's say I really hate you and I want you dead. So I make a paper airplane out of my syllabus here and throw it at you while saying 'grrrr, I hate you!' and by some miracle, it hits you in the jugular and you bleed out and die. Did I commit murder?"
"So what if I took out an machinegun and was like 'Hey guys, wanna see how fast I can shoot out all these windows?' and I happen to kill a couple of you. An let's say I didn't *want* to kill you, let's say I liked all you guys. In this hypothetical, I like all of you guys, not in real life."
"So, for no apparent reason, I’m wearing a tie today. I wasn’t going to say anything and see if any of you said something, but then I got nervous and decided I had to say something. It’s just...it’s a shirt-and-tie set my wife got me, so I thought I should wear them together. I hope you guys don't mind.”
On the first day of class, he told us the following story of what another professor said about him during class: "This is a lot like some common sex-offense cases you might study. And speaking of sex-offenders, have any of you met Professor Prescott?" His work is primarily on sex offenses.
In trying to question the 'kill/let-die' distinction, he compared removing a feeding tube and respirator to having a 'Kill Lucas' (a guy in the class) button. "If you take him off life support, you gotta go in there, you gotta grab him and yank the tube out, you've gotta undo all those IV lines and pull out the needles, etc. I just *ding* tap my button. That 'omission' is a real workout, but killing Lucas is not the way to a slim-and-trim figure. I didn't even burn a tic-tac!"
I like law school!
This is not out of the ordinary; this professor, the one I have for criminal law, JJ Prescott, definitely enjoys himself in class, having fun not just with terminology but also with his examples and hypotheticals. Here are a few examples:
"Let's say I really hate you and I want you dead. So I make a paper airplane out of my syllabus here and throw it at you while saying 'grrrr, I hate you!' and by some miracle, it hits you in the jugular and you bleed out and die. Did I commit murder?"
"So what if I took out an machinegun and was like 'Hey guys, wanna see how fast I can shoot out all these windows?' and I happen to kill a couple of you. An let's say I didn't *want* to kill you, let's say I liked all you guys. In this hypothetical, I like all of you guys, not in real life."
"So, for no apparent reason, I’m wearing a tie today. I wasn’t going to say anything and see if any of you said something, but then I got nervous and decided I had to say something. It’s just...it’s a shirt-and-tie set my wife got me, so I thought I should wear them together. I hope you guys don't mind.”
On the first day of class, he told us the following story of what another professor said about him during class: "This is a lot like some common sex-offense cases you might study. And speaking of sex-offenders, have any of you met Professor Prescott?" His work is primarily on sex offenses.
In trying to question the 'kill/let-die' distinction, he compared removing a feeding tube and respirator to having a 'Kill Lucas' (a guy in the class) button. "If you take him off life support, you gotta go in there, you gotta grab him and yank the tube out, you've gotta undo all those IV lines and pull out the needles, etc. I just *ding* tap my button. That 'omission' is a real workout, but killing Lucas is not the way to a slim-and-trim figure. I didn't even burn a tic-tac!"
I like law school!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
This is a largely pointless post
There's someone completely zonked out in front of me in the library and has been for the last 15 minutes. I'm not sure she's in my class that starts in 10 minutes, but I think she might be. Should I wake her up?
Nah, I don't think I will...
Also, I have to dress up as a celebrity for a party on Saturday. Any suggestions?
Nah, I don't think I will...
Also, I have to dress up as a celebrity for a party on Saturday. Any suggestions?
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