Travel Plans - Santiago, Chile

Currently I travel a lot, as in over 89,000 miles in the last 12 months or over 145,000 miles in the last 15 months. This time last year I went to Paris, Butte, Phoenix, Richland and LA (twice) all in the months of September and October. This year I'll rack up San Diego, Portland, Berkeley, Santiago Chile and St. Louis in the same two month period and that's after turning down 3 trips. This will of course no longer be sustainable once I'm in school so I'm taking advantage of it while I can. I hope to travel to India, Las Vegas, Chicago, LA and England before relinquishing my volunteer work and settling down into law school. By that time I should have enough frequent flyer miles to go just about anywhere and bring hubby along. Poor hubby, he's only gone with me on one trip to Boston for a week. Probably better off because as glamorous as all of this travel sounds, I'm really there to work and I rarely see more than the airport and the hotel meeting room. I'll fly out after work on Friday get in Saturday morning for a Saturday meeting and fly right back home afterwards. For a person who doesn't sleep on planes that is rough.

I try to have one trip that is about a week long twice a year and save my vacation time for those. I basically pick the most interesting meeting I've got coming up and then extend my travel plans at that destination, getting two days of hotel and the airfare for free. Last fall it was Paris, this spring it was Boston, and this fall it will be Santiago, Chile. I'm pretty excited about this. Excited and intimidated. When I went to Paris I had 8 hours of Pimsluer CD lessons under my belt. Thankfully I've got a pretty solid grounding in languages and this translated to being able to roughly navigate through Paris and get non-English cab drivers to take me where I want to go. It also helps that French and Russian have a lot of cognates so my vocabulary was artificially higher than it would have otherwise been. Spanish though, um yeah, I don't know Spanish at all. I fully intend on using at least part of my 34 hours of travel time that will be spent getting there learning a little Spanish, but I suspect it won't be enough. Thankfully two of my friends who are Spanish will be coming and hopefully their European Spanish will be enough to get me by during the times we're together.

This trip is creeping up very fast. I just booked my tickets today and the trip is in like 2.5 weeks. I don't know what there is to do there or anything. I'll have two days before the meeting to play tourist so I guess I'll be packing my guidebook and backpack along with my suit and laptop. If anybody has any suggestions for Latin-American travel, I'd be happy to hear them. I haven't even had time to do a good Google search for travel blogs to Chile yet.

LSAT....Finished...Again

I started off awfully. I didn't get to the last game. I hate LSATs that start off with games. I was off my pace and read the clock wrong, thinking I had 10 minutes left when the 5 minute warning caught me by surprise. It was all up from there though. I finished every other section before the 5 minute warning and was able to go back and look at my unsure answers. The experimental section was reading, hardly surprising since they are getting started developing a pool of questions which have comparative reading in them. The writing sample was more one-sided than last time. That's about all I can disclose, unlike my fellow test takers. I for one took the warning seriously that we aren't to discuss the test until it has been disclosed by LSAC. Others began gabbing in the restrooms as soon as we hit the break. It was also interesting to me that out of the 13 people signed up to take the test at my location only 6 bothered to show up. That's a lot of money to take a test if you're not going to show up. If I get all the questions I answered right and missed only the ones in the games section that I didn't get to and assuming that I get none of them right purely by bubbling in a D to fill the space that leaves me with a maximum score of 172 using the conversion table from the December 2006 administration. Of course people keep getting better at the test so that conversion may not be reliable. I really doubt that I got all of the questions that I got to correct. I average -4 on those sections. That would put me at a total of -9/-4/-4/-4=-21 or 163, a mere 3 point gain. Anything can happen of course, for all I know the final 9 questions of logic games could all have had a correct answer of D and I could have rocked the test, doubt it. Oh well, sigh, no 180 for me, wasn't expecting it anyways.

LSAT isn't everything though. I need to do my personal statements, get my recommendations and request my transcripts. This is my to do list for the next 2 weeks. So until October 20th at 10 am EST I get to live in blissful ignorance. Ack, no, did I get off on my bubble sheet by one, did I skip over an important point on the writing section, no, no, must not think about the stupid test. I have a 160, I can't do worse than that.

Top 15 or Don't Bother?

The news for law schools lately has been bleak. Seems to be the message is, Top 15 school or don't bother.

Law School Personal Statement Tips

Once all this LSAT business is over I'll be turning my attention to applications. I saw this link on Ann Levine's blog linking over to the University of Chicago's tips and tricks page. It's a good set of tips to keep in mind when writing a personal statement.

http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/adayinthelife/2007/09/tips-tricks-1-t.html

LSAT Angst (2)

Less than a week to go before the LSAT. I spent most of this past week in bed sick and chiding myself for not studying. Today, in celebration of the fact that I can string a multi-syllabic sentences together again I took a practice test. I first chalked the 162 up to the fact that I'm still recuperating and require Cold Tylenol just to get off of the sofa. Now that excuse isn't working and I'm starting to freak out. My dedicated studying was paying off, I finished all the game questions with time to spare and only missed 3 questions. My reading is staying at a steady -5 questions, but my pace has improved so I'm getting through it all on time. If I had maintained my average -4 each on the logic reasoning I would have actually improved my score by several questions, instead I had a -3/-7 split. This is frustrating. Where is this -7 suddenly coming from? Stress, stress. I need to miss less questions, stay on time and keep track of what row I'm bubbling in. This is all too much!

What to do with old LSAT tests

Once I'm done with all of this LSAT prep, I'll be guilty of killing more than a few pieces of paper. I started out trying to take the tests based on PDFs of the tests, but decided that wasn't really authentic and switched to printing them out. My printer doesn't do double sided so I've really been going through a lot of paper lately. I stumbled across this fact today: Recycling a 3-foot-high stack of newspapers can save one whole tree. I'll have saved a tree or two by the time this is over. Those of you with LSAT tests, law school notes or outlines, junk-mail, etc. should definitely consider recycling it all when it comes time to purge.

Breakfast of LSAT Champions

We just had a coffee run at my office. I asked for the largest soy mocha possible. All the other folks in my office are traditional engineering types who think that coffee comes in two types, caf and decaf and that decaf is really like white chocolate, not really chocolate at all. When the designated coffee fetcher came back with the order he told me with amazement, "Did you know there are 4 shots of espresso in that?!" Yeah, why do you think I ordered it. So now I'm sitting here enjoying the goodness that is a combo cranberry scone and soy mocha breakfast and contemplating why I'm so tired as to require said nourishment. Well, it probably has something to do with the fact that I stayed up until 11:30 last night doing LSAT games. I got so frustrated that I enlisted hubby's help. He had never seen an LSAT game before and threw up his hands with disgust claiming them to be impossible. But, after I showed him my way of diagramming rules and breaking it down he turned out to be pretty helpful. Basically I discovered that I need to figure out what rules can be derived from the rules in the question and not forget to apply everything that I know. I also need to make sure what the question is asking me. For instance, I got two wrong because I answered "Which of the following can be true?" instead of "Which of the following cannot be true?" Simple mistake, but it makes all the difference.

I also went to my school's law school forum. We aren't a big destination for law school recruiters. There were a dozen or so schools there though and I got to personally talk to all of the recruiters at schools I was interested in, all 1 of them. Sorry, you're not getting me to apply to Golden Gate University. They are on probation aren't they? Also, hubby would never survive in California, too many people. If that is what the LSAC Forum is going to be like, I'll pass. I don't need to fly to New York to collect brochures. I'm still looking for advice on whether these are worthwhile. I've received no comments yet.

iPhone Software Unlock

It was only a matter of time before a software unlock for the iPhone was available. I'm just glad that in the spirit of community based application development, they've decided to release the unlock for free.

Rough Day for Prime Ministers

Russia tests 'dad of all bombs' - similar to a nuke without harming the environment...great

Putin, in a surprise dissolves Russian government

Ok, so after seeing these headlines I had to did a bit deeper. U.S. news tends to like sensationalist headlines. This necessitated a forray with my Russian dictionary and a search of non-US/UK sources, but in the end did provide a slightly different spin on things.

Putin didn't just dissolve the Russian government. Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov resigned ‘due to upcoming political events,’ he wasn't dismissed. While we cannot know if Putin asked him to resign in order to prevent him from being seen as Putin's choice to succeed him next spring, it's not like Putin just dissolved the government. In Russia, whenever the PM steps down the government is automatically dissolved. The real surprise to me was that Russian President Vladimir Putin nominated the head of the country's financial regulator, Viktor Zubkov, for the post of prime minister. This guy is a political nobody and is not really a clear choice for succession to the presidency. Well, that is unless Putin intends to put a puppet in place for a term and then return to office, effectively becoming a rotational president for life. If that is the intention then this appointment makes total sense. Putin is wildly popular among Russians, having brought stability and relative prosperity after his predecessor, Boris Yeltsin. As a result, many Russian's don't want him to leave office, despite what the constitution says. With former colleagues describing Zubkov with words like, "He did not generate ideas. He was someone who carried out instructions.", if Putin is looking for a yes man to succeed him for a few years, maintain the current status of things, etc. his announcement might not be so surprising after all.

And now the Japanese Prime Minister is gone too? Wow! Rough day for prime minsters world wide. We'll see if Gordon Brown lasts the night.
Japan's prime minister in shock resignation

Mini Clubman Cooper S

If this car came to the U.S., I might just have to learn how to drive stick.

Are LSAC Forums Useful?

I have a business trip coming up the week after the New York LSAC forum. It turns out that its only $20.00 more expensive to leave the Friday before my Monday meeting and spend Saturday and Sunday in New York attending the LSAC forum. This would still necessitate cab fees and of course a hotel for two nights. Are these worth it? Also, would going to the one in New York, even though I'm primarily interested in West Coast +DC schools be worth it, or would the LA forum be better, even though I'd have to pay for the whole trip?

Weekend LSAT Results

Results of weekend of LSAT taking, improvement of score by 4 points to 164. Still not where I want to be. I did miss 4 less questions in the reading based on suggestions by my helpful readers so that is good. I did however still miss 8 games questions, mostly due to being rushed and stupid on the last game. I need to get faster at these! I think I'll start doing a bunch of really old LSAT games sections, rather than just whole tests until I see some improvement in this area.

LSAT Countdown Week 1

Hubby has Army Reserve drill this weekend so I have the whole house to myself. On top of catching up with laundry and other household chores I have a big stack of LSAT tests to take. This weekend I will try and get through 3. I will then use the Logic Reasoning Bible and Logic Games Bibles to analyze the ones that I get wrong. We'll see if it improves my score. *sigh* Sounds like a stellar weekend is ahead of me, but it needs to get done.

Biodegradable laptop

Combining two of my favorite things, cool tech gear and environmentalism has historically been almost impossible. It has taken a lot of effort to make sure that every piece of technology my family casts off is reused or recycled and not taken to the landfill. We recycle our batteries and laptops, freecycle our monitors and printers and generally try not to upgrade as soon as we get the itch for something new. When it finally comes time to buy my *gasp* 2nd cell phone ever, we'll also take advantage of our ability to donate our old ones. But here is a product that won't force me into feeling guilt when it meets its inevitable doom of obsolescence, a biodegradable laptop made from plastic from cornstarch rather than petroleum. It will go away over the course of a few months in the landfill while real plastic will take decades. I'll still have to do something about it's guts, but at least the chassis will be gone. I really hope we start to see more items like this in the US. We throw away millions of tons of technology every year.

iPod Envy?

As a electrical engineer and a geek, I'm usually one of the first to know when something new is coming out technology wise. I was reading GeoHot's blog while he was still trying to unlock the iPhone, way before he was on the news or driving his new Nissan 350Z. Today was no different. When the new iPods were announced I got the news from someone live-blogging the announcement and had to wait for hours to see anything on the Apple website or CNN. That said, I'm also one of the last to jump on a technology bandwagon. I won't be upgrading to a N-class wireless router until my G-class dies, even if the N is newer and better. I held onto my last 3 laptops for 3 years apiece, resisting the annual upgrade urges and until last Christmas when hubby bought me my 80gb Video iPod, I was content with my 1GB shuffle.

Today's announcement changes nothing. AT&T doesn't have service in Alaska so I couldn't use an iPhone, the iTouch is just an iPhone sans phone and thats just stupid when I already have both an iPod and a laptop. The iPod classic is a cheaper and slightly redesigned Video iPod. Now instead of getting 80GB, I could get 160GB for the same price. Considering that my current iPod is still less than half full, I don't feel the need to upgrade. The nano, um, that thing is ugly, it looks like somebody sat on it. I'd also be terribly upset to send the current shuffle through the washing machine on accident if I left it clipped to my running clothes. I'd much rather have my current shuffle. It is the perfect size for exercising and I can use it as a USB key. One device, two uses. So while a whole bunch of people are probably upset that they just bought the iPhone and it has now dropped $200 in price or that their $349 80GB Video iPod from last year could have been 160GB if they'd waited a year, I for one am content. I have what I need and I refuse to subscribe to iPod envy.

Update: For those of you who have the iPod envy and are thinking about getting a new iPod try trading in your old iPod for cash towards your new one. You'll more easily justify switching from your 80GB Video to the iTouch if you have $210 in your pocket.

I'm a D List Blogger

To be an A-List Celebrity in Hollywood, it’s all about the amount of Vanity Fair, GQ, and People Magazine covers you can score. To be an A-List Bloglebrity on the Internet, it’s all about the amount of link love you can score. If it weren't for the show "My Life on the D List" I wouldn't worry about it. Perhaps I could shoot for C-list within the next year. Hmm...must come up with interesting content. But Legal Andrew has only been around a year and he's a B-List blogger, perhaps if I try harder? Dilbert the blog is an A-list blogger, but um yeah, he is probably popular for other reasons.

Bag of Crap

The things people will buy amaze me. When I saw that Woot.com had sold over $100k worth of this it just amazed me. Here is the ad in total:

Bag O’ Crap XXI

Wait, wait, why are you clicking that button? Don't click! You don't want this junk. Seriously, clicking that I WANT ONE button is a one-way ticket to disappointment and shame. You'll cram a few useless clumps of consumer flotsam into your life, be out like eight bucks, and for what? For what? What is the sound of one hand crapping?
If you must proceed, CHECK THIS OUT. Somebody misunderstands this concept every time, so please READ THE BIG PRINT:

1. WHEN YOU ORDER THIS ITEM, YOU’RE ORDERING ONE (1) BAG WITH up to THREE (3) PIECES OF CRAP IN IT.
2. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SELECTING THE QUANTITY: THREE WHEN YOU ORDER.
3. YOU WILL WASTE FREIGHT IF YOU ORDER FEWER THAN THREE. And you’ll get less crap. Wait, why is that bad again? Do you people really need more crap?

You’re only getting one bag, no matter what. The order quantity you select is the number of crappy items we’ll put in your bag. Select THREE. Later, you’ll enjoy the satisfaction of taunting the surprisingly large number of less observant Wooters who ordered less than THREE.
As usual, we promise nothing about the quality or the desirability of these bags or their contents, except to promise that their quality will be low and their desirability will be non-existent. The best quantity you could possibly order would be ZERO.

THE HOLY CRAP COMMANDMENTS v2.0:

I. Thou shalt expect nothing beyond one bag of some kind and your chosen quantity of crappy items (which should be THREE).
II. Thou shalt not whine and complain when some people’s crap turns out to be nicer than yours.
III. Thou shalt take a moment to consider whether you might be better off just not buying this crap.
IV. Thou shalt not order just one crap and blame it on anything but your own inattention.
V. To paraphrase Stephen Stills, shalt thou not get the crap you want, want the crap you get.
The crap will be shipped via SmartPost, the crappiest shipping method available to us.

"Holiday" Weekend?

Aside from the geese making all sorts of racket as they catch up on a summers worth of conversation as they fly over my house at night on their way south, I really do like this time of year. There is still sunlight out when I get home from work. If you're not from a northern climate you can't understand how depressing it is to have the sun rise after you go to work and set before you get into your car at night. I also like the fact that I can wear cute fall sweaters without roasting under the office heaters which will be turned on in a couple of weeks. I always find it strange that they blast me with AC all summer and roast me with the heaters all winter. Why can't they turn the thermostat to 70 and leave it alone! There is no need for 75 in winter and 65 in summer. Said sweaters are also not yet covered up by heavier parkas and other layers. This is the perfect in between time when I can actually enjoy my cute fall clothes. They are much better than summer clothes, which always fit me wrong. I'd much rather wear a cashmere sweater and cute khakis than skirts and tank tops.

But Labor Day really does signal the beginning of the end for me. I better enjoy it while I can because by this time next month all of the leaves will have fallen and there will be snow on the ground. Don't believe me? I'll post pictures. Speaking of labor day, why does the phrase 3-day-weekend suddenly inspire people to get projects done? More than likely they will only work hard 1 out of the 3 days and they could just do that on a normal weekend. Oh well, I may as well join them and have weekend plans. I'm not doing any labor day shopping as I don't really need anything and no matter how good a deal it is it's not a good deal if I don't need it.

1. I am putting all of the left-over garage sale items on Craigslist, Freecycle, or donating them
2. I will take two full LSATs, one timed and one untimed
3. I will submit the stack of health care stuff to insurance and finally get reimbursed
4. I will try and clean the house, find more stuff to get rid of and repeat #1
5. I will spend at least one out of the three days out of doors, because by this time next month there will be snow on the ground and I should enjoy it while I can
6. I will attempt to kick hubby's but fencing, or at least maintain respectable form

Do Magazines Count?

I complained a couple of days back about Americans not reading enough. If I don't count anything other than traditionally bound books I still read about a book a month or more, but if you add in magazines its probably far higher. Lately though, hubby has been eyeing my ever-growing periodicals stack with suspicion, and I don’t blame him. How did someone whose life so fully revolves around the Web end up with so many subscriptions to print magazines? Well, I guess the real answer is I am only paying for two of them (the rest were free from airline miles or surveys I took) and I can't turn down free stuff. The other thing being that until recently I wouldn't cut pages out of magazines, instead saving the entire glossy for a one page article I liked. Kind of falls in line with my phobia of highlighting in textbooks.

That said, he has a point. I realized that having an entire 3 cubic feet of magazines in my living room is a bit much. Then I discovered during our garage sale that he had sneakily ferreted an entire book box worth of these glossies out to the garage and was hoping to ditch them before I noticed. I am now going through and finally cutting out pages of exercises that I want to add to my workout binder and clipping recipes and cute clothes. As a result I feel productive having gone through quite a lot of junk, wasteful at the amount of trees that met their death on the way to my PO Box, out of shape thanks to all of the great workouts I could be but am not doing and hungry as a result of all of the aforementioned recipes I've clipped. Little by little I'm getting rid of reams of glossy paper and I solemnly vow that I will only subscribe to magazines that I would pay for had they not been free.

10 Till Dinner (4)

Turkey burgers cooked on a George Forman with melted cheddar cheese, tomato fresh out of the garden and fresh picked lettuce. Total cooking time, including preheating George Foreman is about 10 minutes. Add to that some store-bought potato salad, some baked beans that you cook in the microwave and between two people you can easily do barbecue in under 10 minutes.

Of course, in my household no meal is complete without something sweet. I am usually content with a large mug of tea and an ounce of dark chocolate. I justify the measly 60 calories easily by telling myself about all of the anti-oxidant goodness that I'll be getting out of it. I can even justify this time wise as making tea takes no time at all and I know that I'll need both tea and chocolate in law school for comfort and caffeine sanity.

But every once in awhile I get in a baking mood. My latest one resulted in not just one, but two cakes, one chocolate and one white, both with dark chocolate frosting. One was consumed at our post garage sale barbecue by hubby's guy friends on Sunday and the other is stored safely in my freezer awaiting a suitable social occasion to instantly have impressive looking dessert. With a ready to go dessert of perfectly moist wonderful white cake topped with homemade dark fudge frosting, why do I suddenly feel the cream cheese in my fridge calling to me saying, "You have all the ingredients for chocolate-crusted, ganache-coated cheesecake with cubes of brownies inside. It was so good last time you made it and even though you swore you wouldn't make it again until hubby's birthday, as it is just too caloricially sinful, there will be lots of other people around to help you eat it, so you don't have to feel bad."? *sigh* I won't have time for this type of cooking law school, so I better take advantage of time while I have it.

LSAT Registration

Registration...done. Money...gone. Ouch! This better be worth it!

LSAT Timing...Again

I took my weekend LSAT yesterday, forcing myself to finish each section and not let questions go unanswered, guessing on the toughies and moving on. My reading and games scores that I was so worried about went up! Bad news was that I kept up that pace finishing 5 minutes early on each logical reasoning section and was too brain dead to go back to all of my starred questions that I wasn't sure about. Sure enough, I got them wrong, making my score of 158 pretty similar to my score of slowly but steadily answering and running out of time on two sections. So, I need to keep the pace up on reading and logic games and go back to taking my time on logical reasoning, using ALL of my time to check my answers on the toughies in those sections. Hopefully when I do that I will have a net score increase. I will attempt to do another practice test tonight keeping that in mind and if my score improves I'll be registering for the test by the deadline of, ack...tomorrow!

Touche to the Tushy

I'm sore, I'm bruised and I haven't felt better in a long time. Last night hubby and I finally dug out our fencing gear after a long year of laziness and hauled ourselves down to the local fencing salle. Off and on since senior year of high-school I've fenced. When I met hubby I made him take ballroom dance and fencing, he made me take Aikido. He can still jump over 4 people and roll to a perfect fighting stance while I dropped Aikido after a few weeks, neither of us can dance very well, but we can both fence decently. I rediscovered a lot of muscles that I forgot that I had and realized that I need to retrain my reflexes or get used to bruises, but it was a blast. Some couples have marriage counseling, we have fencing. You aren't supposed to talk when fencing according to the ettiquette, but a lot get's communicated anyway through grunts yells, exhulted screams, etc. I would highly recommend it for both exercise and a way to relieve stress. We'll definitely have to keep this up this year. Although, people at work think hubby beats me now because I've begun showing up with mysterious bruises on my arms. Oh well.

Why Fence?

Fencing is a fun sociable alternative to the gym.

Energetic all over body work out.

New fencers are always very welcome.

Compete as an individual fencer or in a team.

Innovative sport with three exciting disciplines.

No experience necessary to get started.

Great stress buster.

*From Salle Paul Website

Law Firms for Women

I have a feeling some of these firms will be seeing applications from me. I'm not a mother now, but I hope to be one in the future and I would never pursue a career that I thought would eliminate that option. That is why I was heartened to see that this month, August 2007, Working Mother published its first list of "Best Law Firms for Women." I was kind of surprised to see two or three of them on the list, but I'm glad to see that their reputations aren't as tough in all possible lights.

THE 2007 WORKING MOTHER & FLEX-TIME LAWYERS BEST LAW FIRMS FOR WOMEN

Alston & Bird (Atlanta, GA)
Armstrong Teasdale (St. Louis, MO)
Arnold & Porter (Washington, DC)
Baker & Daniels (Indianapolis, IN)
Baker & McKenzie (Chicago, IL)
Bingham McCutchen (Boston, MA)
Blackwell Sanders (Kansas City, MO)
Bryan Cave (St. Louis, MO)
Chapman and Cutler (Chicago, IL)
Covington & Burling (Washington, DC)
Cravath, Swaine & Moore (New York, NY)
Debevoise & Plimpton (New York, NY)
Dickstein Shapiro (Washington, DC)
DLA Piper US (New York, NY)
Dorsey & Whitney (Minneapolis, MN)
Duane Morris (Philadelphia, PA)
Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott (Pittsburgh, PA)
Farella Braun + Martel (San Francisco, CA)
Foley & Lardner (Milwaukee, WI)
Folger Levin & Kahn (San Francisco, CA)
Gibbons P.C. (Newark, NJ)
Heller Ehrman (San Francisco, CA)
Hogan & Hartson (Washington, DC)
Holland & Knight (New York, NY)
Howrey (Washington, DC)
Hunton & Williams (Richmond, VA)
Ice Miller (Indianapolis, IN)
Katten Muchin Rosenman (Chicago, IL)
King & Spalding (Atlanta, GA)
Kirkland & Ellis (Chicago, IL)
Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis (Pittsburgh, PA)
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel (New York, NY)
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips (Los Angeles, CA)
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw (Chicago, IL)
McDermott Will & Emery (Chicago, IL)
McGuireWoods (Richmond, VA)
Miller & Chevalier Chartered (Washington, DC)
Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo (Boston, MA)
Morrison & Foerster (San Francisco, CA)
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe (New York, NY)
Patton Boggs (Washington, DC)
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison (New York, NY)
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman (New York, NY)
Reed Smith (Pittsburgh, PA)
Sidley Austin (Chicago, IL)
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (New York, NY)
Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal (Chicago, IL)
White & Case (New York, NY)
WilmerHale (Washington, DC)
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice (Winston-Salem, NC)

Read this!

One in four Americans read NO books last year!

That's just plain sad and a real indictment against our society that we aren't challenging our minds. Think of all the literature that you had to read in school. Should this process stop merely because you aren't being forced to read. Sure, you probably didn't like all of it, but now you get to choose what you read.

LSAT Tips (2)

This weekend was spent in a combination of recipe experimentation, house cleaning and LSAT preparation. I took a complete LSAT, timed by my proctor hubby (much better than the real thing) and scored a 162. I didn't get to 12 questions. I went back and did them after I was done with the test, go them all right and scored a 171. So yeah, my timing is bad. At least I know that in the last 7 months my score hasn't really decreased since I took the real thing. However, if I'm going to go through this thing again, I better be practicing at a higher score than last time around. As Ann Levine says on her blog, a score of 5-8 points off of your practice tests is probably right for you. I agree with her, and I am working towards bringing my practice scores higher.

LSAT Tip #4 - When studying and practicing for the LSAT, it's really important to keep track of your pace. Practicing finishing faster than what you will be allowed on test day might even give you time to go back to those tough questions. Which brings me to:

LSAT Tip #5 - All LSAT questions are not created equal. Some are actually harder than others. Missing 5 questions at the end of the test that you didn't have time for is worse than skipping one tough question and getting those 5 right with the extra time. You need to learn to resist the temptation to stick with a "tough" question until you're sure your response is correct. I am used to working through a test. I can get the questions right most of the time if I just keep working through them, but that will get me a lower score ultimately. It's a timed test for a reason.

LSAT Tip #6 - Sometimes questions are just that simple. Don't read too much into it if you think that the first answer is right. You're instincts are pretty good and if you've been right on your practice tests, they are probably worth trusting. Don't let the actual test paralyze you into over-analyzing, wasting time or changing a right answer to a wrong one after reading the question 2-3 times.

My analytical reasoning practice is going great. I'm always finishing on time or early and missing only 2-3 questions per section. My reading, yeah, not so hot. I didn't even get to the last reading. Or I did read it, but had no time for the questions. Not sure what to do about that. I also didn't get to the last game so even though I got all of the previous game questions right, I missed another 5 questions because I didn't get to that game. I did make sure to fill in all of my bubbles to get random points for unanswered questions (apparently D had no random chance in 12 unanswered questions, go figure), but I would really like to be finishing closer to time on these two sections. If anybody has any hints for speeding up, that would be appreciated.

Plastic Bags are Ugly Anyway

It's fashionable to be green if you have one of these cool bags from Envirosax. Each holds two regular plastic bags worth of groceries and can be used over and over again. Each person on Earth goes through 552 grocery and shopping bags per year. Imagine how many that is if you average it out only considering people that actually have access to those bags (dropping the folks in Djibouti, etc.). I couldn't believe that statistic so I did a little calculation. We grocery shop about every 2 weeks and bring home about 15 bags. That's 390 bags for grocery shopping. We also have another 5 bags a week probably on incidental stuff, "Oh I forgot the cream cheese, etc." That's another 260 bags for a total of 650 for two people or 325 each! Silly grocery store clerks would put 10 items in 8 bags if I let them, plus they double bag anything that includes a can. I always reuse my bags as trash bags in the bathroom or take them back to the grocery store for recycling by the food bank, but probably that means they are used a maximum of twice before they make it to the landfill. Unfortunately the world is now sold out of the iconic "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" bag and I'm not about to pay $60.00+ on Ebay to get one. If only the shipping was cheaper on these Envirosax I'd definitely pick up a set. They are so cute. I especially like the Flora series although the other styles are great too.

School Supply Lust

I walked into my local grocery store last night to get some digital photos developed and pick up ingredients for my chocolate marble brownie cheesecake. After dropping off the pictures to be processed I had turned my attention to the important task of gathering ingredients when I made the mistake of leaving the food section. I was confronted with my arch-nemesis of the Fall season...school supplies. I have no explanation why, but I love gazing at orderly rows of new unmarked binders, notebooks, freshly sharpened pencils, crayons, organizers, tabbies, ah, the list goes on and on. This year was going to be my year to indulge. I was going to go on a rampage, setting up my law school office with highlighters, tabbies, maybe even a new laptop. Alas, with the decision to wait another year, I have no such justification to buy. I still have plenty of half full mechanical pencils, pens that aren't quite dry, highlighters in at least two colors and a laptop that is only slowly dying, not in dire need of replacement. I stood there with a look of wistful regret on my face in front of a row of spiral bound notebooks as my husband walked up to me: "Honey, the cream cheese is this way. Are you ok?" Yes, I'm ok, but I am lusting after these post-it notes. Tonight I will assuage my desire for school supplies with another forray into increasingly complicated cooking experiments. This Saturday it was a braided nut bread, last night it was fish curry, last week a chocolate cake and this week will be my first ever attempt at a cheesecake. I won't have time for dinners which take hours to cook or having people over for dessert just so I can try a new recipe once I'm in law school so I guess I should enjoy it while I can. Hubby's guy friends certainly aren't objecting to the constant outpouring of culinary hospitality from our house. Hmm...perhaps I could buy some recipe cards and a nice pen to transcribe our more successful attempts. I would be justified doing that...right?

Blawg Student Directory

Clever WoT has updated the law school student blog directory. I've found a lot of my favorite law school bloggers this way and I'm glad to see the major update. I'm still a 0L so I don't count yet. Hmm...something to aspire to.

Law School Reading

Starting to study for my Mass Media Law final. I am now more than familiar with the first amendment, prior restraint, libel, invasion of privacy, the freedom of information act, protection of news sources, copyright, and the regulation of obscene and other erotic material. Keeping it all straight though is proving to be another matter. Between now and the 17th I need to finish 382 pages of reading, at least 36 of which I need to finish tonight. *sigh* I guess this is good preparation for law school reading. I am finding it difficult to focus though. I end up glazing over and rereading paragraphs over and over without really absorbing things. Yesterday I was halfway through my reading when I startled back awake. It had been 20 minutes. As an undergraduate I didn't really read my textbooks cover-to-cover. I went to lectures, took notes, read the portions of the textbook relevant to the homework and copied a running list of equations onto my exam cheat sheet. For my non-engineering classes I pretty much hunted through the books, reading the parts rel event to the homework. The only thorough reading I did was in language classes or Russian literature classes. This whole law school studying is going to be tough. I'm going to have to learn a whole new way of studying. Does anybody have any suggestions for upping my reading retention or how to get more out of it?

1L Cooking - 10 Till Dinner (3)

Linguine with Shrimp and Pesto

Boil 12 oz linguine, reserving 1 cup cooking water before draining. Meanwhile toast 1⁄4 cup pine nuts in large nonstick skillet over medium heat; remove. Heat 1 tsp oil in same skillet. Add 1 lb large peeled shrimp and 1⁄2 tsp ground cumin; sauté over medium-high heat 2 minutes or until shrimp are cooked through. Add 2 diced large plum tomatoes, a 6-oz tub refrigerated basil pesto and 1⁄4 cup chopped parsley; toss until hot. Remove from heat. Toss with drained pasta and reserved cooking water as needed. Serve with grated Parmesan.

I promise the next post will not be pasta based. But really, pasta dishes are quick!

I'm Schroeder

Another quiz procrastinationWhich Peanuts Character Are You?

You are Schroeder. You are brilliant, ambitious, and brooding; you tackle tasks with extreme focus. People don't always interest you as much as other pursuits, though, so you can come off as aloof. Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Why Didn't a Law Firm Think of This?

On one hand you have Google who's Buses Help Its Workers Beat the Rush - New York Times. This helps save the environment, shorten commute times and destress workers. On the other hand you have Facebook, the social networking site, who instead of making it easier for employees to live far from work makes it easier for them to live nearby by offering a $600 monthly housing subsidy for those who live within a mile of the company’s Palo Alto headquarters. Apparently this incentive is enough that it's actually driving rent prices near Facebook headquarters up as workers try to live nearby. Perhaps the company was thinking they were helping to save the environment by encouraging employees to walk to work.

Now why didn't a law firm think of this? They can say they are caring about the environment when really what they are thinking is that having all of your employees live nearby will make them more available to you/clients. Of course if a law firm did this it would have to pay more per month than $600.00.

My Latte Talks?

Ack, Bexy is feeding my quiz addiction. Not sure I'm never moody, but the rest seems accurate. Hmm...I've been at work 30 minutes and I'm already taking quizzes. Maybe I need some coffee to help me focus.

What Your Latte Says About You

When it comes to what you like, you have your own unique tastes. And people don't really understand them. You are a very serious person. You don't have time for silly antics. Intense and energetic, you aren't completely happy unless you are bouncing off the walls. You're addicted to caffeine. There's no denying it. You are responsible, mature, and truly an adult. You're occasionally playful, but you find it hard to be carefree. You are dramatic and intense, but you are never moody.

What Does Your Latte Say About You?

Looks Like My Weight Will Be Changing Soon

I agree with Anastasia. I wouldn't trust a quiz that doesn't involve inputting your height and age before determining your ideal weight. Perhaps I would have a lower ideal weight if I hadn't admitted to eating dessert most days.

You Should Weigh 155

If you weigh less than this, you either have a fast metabolism or are about to gain weight. If you weigh more than this, you may be losing a few pounds soon!

How Much Do You Weigh?

L.J.T. in Love

Having been married for 3 years now I haven't had a chance to practice my love style in a new relationship for awhile, but it seems to be fairly accurate considering we were engaged before we'd even gone out on our first official date.

You Are 73% Passionate, 27% Compassionate

You are very passionate, especially when it comes to love. In fact, it's sometimes difficult for you to tell between love and lust. You jump in head first, and figure things out later... usually when it's all over!

Is Your Love Style Passionate or Compassionate?

Where Should I Live?

American Cities That Best Fit You:

65% San Francisco 55% San Diego 55% Seattle 55% Washington, DC 50% Austin

Which American Cities Best Fit You?

Strange Quiz

You scored as Friedrich Nietzsche, Well you're an egotistical maniac, and you are so very iconoclastic that you probably are currently lost in a post-modern Jupiter, I mean jungle of self-definition. Don't let it get you down though, someday, through a willful onslaught of reinterpretation of dated forms and ideas, you will strike on something that passes as remotely new, and people WILL be into it on the basis of how hip it is alone. Also, the average espresso drinker looks up to you. Friedrich Nietzsche 92% Dante Alighieri 67% Miyamoto Musashi 67% Jesus Christ 67% C.G. Jung 58% Sigmund Freud 42% O.J. Simpson 42% Stephen Hawking 42% Steven Morrissey 33% Mother Teresa 33% Adolf Hitler 25% Elvis Presley 17% Charles Manson 8% Hugh Hefner 8% What Pseudo Historical Figure Best Suits You? created with QuizFarm.com

Found through Anastasia. This quiz asks some strange question and I'm not sure that I like the options of people.

Hat tip to "think like a woman. act like a man."

Check out Anastasia's posts on Choosing a Law School based on: Location, School Specifics, and Finances/Career Opportunities. I found her semi-fictional blawg on the ABA website. Good stuff. I like reading blawgs that are well written.

1L Cooking - 10 Till Dinner (2)

In my continued attempt to prove that eating a real meal while in law school is possible I've been building up my collection of 10 minute meals. Here's the latest:

Fettuccine with Vodka Sauce and Asparagus

Boil 12 oz fettuccine, adding 1 lb asparagus, cut bite-size, 5 minutes before pasta will be done and reserving 1 cup cooking water before draining. Meanwhile heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add a chopped small onion; sauté 5 minutes until soft. Add 1 pt grape tomatoes, 1 cup vodka sauce, 1⁄2 tsp salt, and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer and cook 1 minute or until tomatoes soften. Toss with drained pasta and asparagus, 2 Tbsp chopped parsley and reserved cooking water as needed. Serve with grated Parmesan.

I'm Alaska

You're Alaska!

You're big, bulky, and extremely wild. At the same time, you're rather
cold and standoffish, even a loner of sorts. Taming you may be one of the last great
quests of the people who do manage to find you or even seek you out. So many of them
just want to plunder you for what you have of value, but there are a few, the ones
who will stick with you, that truly value your rugged remoteness. As long as no one
is spilling stuff on you, you are truly beautiful.


Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

LSAT Angst

I remember you LSAT. I remember: how you consumed my life 205 minutes at a time, how your five sections blurred together and how the essay tested my will to stay and not just leave, how I hated proctors who clicked their pencils and chugged their sodas, scratched themselves and generally made annoying noises for all 205 minutes. I remember how it wasn't really 205 minutes. Despite the fact that 5*35+30=205. Instead you employed self absorbed proctors to drone at us and treat us like we were kindergartners who needed to be warned to take advantage of bathroom breaks, to not eat salty snacks during the break as they would make us thirst and that by no means would liquids be allowed other than during the break and that we shouldn't even have them then as they did not want us using the bathrooms. Instead of treating us like the adults we are and allowing us to plan our time according to our own pace you insisted on your proctor minions informing us every so often how little time remained by scratching the time remaining onto the chalkboard in a manner similar to a knife on a wet stone, slowly and with deliberate precision. Yes, LSAT, I hate you. Not because you tested me under timed conditions, something I have never enjoyed. Not because you forced me to learn how to do logic puzzles, a skill not necessary for 1L test taking. Not even because you charge me to take a test. I hate you because you force me to share a room with a bunch of people who, when placed under high stress or in the proctors cases high levels of boredom, make the most annoying fidgety noises which I just can't stand! Hubby has graciously volunteered to be in the room during all of my practice LSATs to help with timing and supply his usual amount of popping, cracking, scratching and fidgeting noises that he would normally get fussed at for making. He is looking forward to it. Um, yeah, I'm not. I want to go back to my study pattern of iPod + solitary confinement equals memory retention, but yeah, that didn't work so hot for me last time. Today is the beginning of my LSAT prep round two. Wish me luck. Hubby could probably use some too. He doesn't have anonymity protecting him and he's enjoying himself way too much. I have been very tempted to lob something at him.

ASU Money

Ironically, today I received a grant to attend ASU. Too late to attend, after withdrawing...stinks. The lady was apparently on vacation when I requested it and just now is checking her requests. Nice that she had money for me, shame I can't take it. I sent her an e-mail saying I look forward to applying next year. I really hope I didn't screw up. I gave up the best schedule ever and now money to boot. *sigh* I guess it wouldn't have done me too much good. I have to maintain a minimum GPA for the grant and with Hubby gearing up for deployed I wouldn't be focusing as much on school.

Saving for Law School $50 at a Time (2)

We got our electricity bill today. After one month of keeping our electronics on switched surge protectors and being mindful of turning off our lights when we aren't in the room, we have reduced our bill from $99 to $66. Everything else has stayed the same. The weather has been similar. We're doing the same amount of laundry and we're home about the same amount. So the only explanation we have for the 3kWh/day difference in our usage is the fact that we're actually mindfully using less. So now we have a 30% savings to the environment and our pocket book. If this keeps up I might be able to buy a book or two for law school next year on our electricity savings alone. Can't wait till the fuel oil bill comes to see if our thermostat adjustments have made any difference.

Earth Day 2007 Pics

I don't know if anybody cares, but I've finally got around to downloading the pictures off of the camera from back in April when we went on the Spring migration canoeing trip. Our Clear Water canoe trip out near Delta, Alaska was the start of our plan to be more active and outdoorsy together. I'll have to post on our backpacking trip soon, once I've finished recovering. You can see how close we were to the moose. It was an awesome trip.

No ASU Deferral

No deferral from ASU is their final word, apparently because I was admitted off of the waitlist, which I understand. Oh well, would have been nice to have a plan for next year already. It's a done deal now, no school for this year and my slot goes to some other anxious person. I'll have to reapply in September. Although, they did say that they might be able to give me an application fee waiver, so it will only cost $12.00. Small comfort. No official word on whether I'm off of the George Mason wait list. Although I don't think I could take their offer at this point anyway. Too close to even get airline tickets probably.

So the new plan for the year, as far as law related things goes, includes:

• Retaking LSAT
• Applying early decision to schools, since ASU didn't give me a deferral
• Studying for and taking Patent Bar Exam
• Paying off undergraduate student loans
• Taking as many free law related classes as possible (Benefit of free tuition to University employees, whoops, now you know where I work, oh well.)
• Saving money for move and law school

Wish me luck! I'll try and post interesting things for those of you who care about the above. I'll just be one of the longer Pre-L bloggers out there.

1L Cooking - 10 till dinner (1)

No matter how bad things get I guarantee you will have 10 minutes every day that won't be consumed with law school or reading. Cooking for me is a destressing activity. It is also something that hubby and I enjoy doing together. Assuming that we have a clean enough kitchen to cook in and ingredients for our standard fare on hand the time we spend cooking is actually pretty important to our mental health. We can talk while we prepare dinner and we don't feel like we're taking time away from other things because, hey, we all have to eat right? As much as I prefer to cook things as close to their natural form as possible, precooked meat and packaged veggies save a lot of precious time and if you choose carefully have almost identical nutritional facts.

So here's an easy 10-minute recipe for you.

Boil 12 oz. pasta of your choice. Meanwhile in a nonstick skillet saute for 2 minutes:

2 T. olive oil

9 oz. bag of fresh California stir-fry vegetables

10 oz. pkg of cooked chicken strips

Add 1 T. chopped garlic and cook another minute. Stir in 1 cup of chicken broth. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 3 minutes. Toss with pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Serves 4, or 2 with lunch leftovers that cost way less than eating out. Relatively healthy too. Original inspiration can be found here. We actually haven't modified this one too much except for we occasionally use canned chicken broth instead of bouillon.

Saving for Law School $50 at a Time

Watch your power bill. As an electrical engineer I play with a lot of cool toys at work, most of which I can't explain to other people. But, the Kill-a-watt meter is another matter. I can explain it to anybody, even those who don't want to know like my personal heater loving work buddies who keep their heaters running all summer long because the office AC is a tad to high for them and they don't want to through a cardigan on over their cute summer clothes. Even they understand how this tool works when I use it to show them how much their heater is contributing to the overall electric bill, not to mention the environment.

This energy meter measures electricity usage and calculates electricity expenses by the day, week, month, or year. I took it home and plugged into the outlet that my TV, DVD player, cable modem and wireless router are plugged into. I was stunned to find out that these appliances consume 10% of my electricity bill every month, even when turned off and I'm not using them! I can save 10% just by turning off the power strip on these things when not using them, amazing! Over 1 month that's $9.00, over the next year that's over $100.00. I also feel more environmentally friendly by reducing my power consumption. I am also going to unplug my paper shredder, PC computer, microwave, toaster and other appliances which I don't use daily and see how much my power bill goes down.

Cable tv $49.99 a month, nothing interesting on when I want it. Blockbuster by mail $17.99 a month for 3 discs at a time with unlimited in store exchanges. I can watch an entire season of my shows at once rather than wasting time with commercials or money with cable. I can choose when I want to watch shows without needing a DVR and I won't be sucked into pointless shows that happen to be on. Savings $32 x 12 months = $384.00/year You'll save even more if you are actually in law school without a hubby who watches tv and can go without tv entirely. Also, while you're on the phone with your cable company getting rid of your movie channels you should see if you can combine your services and save money. I was able to combine my cable internet, cable tv and land line and save enough that the cable internet was basically free. Some companies even let you combine your cell phone bill as well.

Make your credit card pay you. If you are the type who is able to pay your balance in full every month get a card who pays you a cash reward. If you know that you're going to be paying for a trip home to see the family every year a mileage reward card might make sense to you. Otherwise, while you're in law school a mileage card probably doesn't make too much sense. Instead get a card that offers cash back. The American Express Blue Cash card offers up to 5.00% back on everyday purchases and 1.5% on everything else after the first $6,500 dollars spent. It offers slightly lower percentages back before you hit $6,500. If you spend a less per year you can check into the Capitol One card which offers 1% back from day one and a 25% bonus at the end of the year. Also, ask your school if they take credit cards for your tuition bill. You might be giving yourself a discount on tuition, however slight. Just make sure you pay it off at the end of the month. In other words, wait until your loans have dispersed into your savings account before paying with your card. It won't save you any money if you are paying late fees and interest every month. We used our airline miles to pay for our law school visit trip last year, saved $1,300 in airfare. This year we'll be using our cash rewards card to save up for moving expenses. This isn't the time to be getting Victoria's Secret rewards which will only do you good if you continue purchasing more stuff. Store credit cards probably aren't your best option at this point.

Contribute to abundance, if you no longer need something , pass it on. Join your local freecycle group on yahoo. You can get rid of your things in an environmentally friendly manner and score things that you really need from others. I've been able to get rid of an old computer monitor this way that would have ended up in the garbage otherwise and the person who received it saved at least $50.00 over buying one.

Some of the best money savers are also environment savers. In my community the bus is free during the winter months. Taking the bus in the winter and biking in the summer saves me $40-$60 a month in gas.

Don't spend any $5.00 bill that comes your way. I saw this tip in Women's Day magazine, one of those Mommy magazines in Dr.'s offices. Apparently the lady who sent in this tip did it for five months leading up to a vacation and saved $485. Might not work for me though as I usually use credit cards to get airline miles. I rarely have cash as it tends to burn a hole in my pocket.

Now I want to point out something else, how $50.00 grows. If you save $50.00, even with no interest at all:

$50/month after 6 months is $300, after 1 year is $600 and after 3 years that's $1,8000
$50/week after 6 months is $1,300, after 1 year is $2,600 and after 3 years you'll have a J.D. and $7,800

That should put a dent in some of your student loan interest.

1L Instant Destress

In honor of all of my fellow Pre-L bloggers who will soon be stressing out in law school I will endeavor to give you a few tools. I have been a practitioner of yoga for about 2 years now, although quite unfaithfully at times. I can always tell when I've fallen off of my yoga habit. My whole body feels more tense, I sleep worse at night and I'm less flexible by far. Throughout my time as an undergraduate I never took less than 20 credits and in one semester I topped out at 28. Crazy I know, but I was determined to get both a BA and a BS in just 5 years. So I've had to develop ways to deal with school stress. Yoga and tea are my mainstay anti-stress tools. Here are a few more which all take under 2 minutes apiece:

Silence is golden - Distractions whether they be a radio, a blowing fan, or your chatty neighbors all stimulate your senses. Take some time to turn off and disconnect from stimuli. Give all of your senses a break.

Worry notebook - If you're stressing out and staring at the ceiling at 2 am, facing the prospect of class the following morning because of worries, roll over and jot down whatever to-dos or other worries are bugging you. This helps to free your mind and let you go to sleep.

Get moving - Exercise is a great destressor. Whether you are doing chair yoga in between your cite checks at the library or a full on workout at your gym you'll get happy endorphins, increased oxygen flow and possibly combat the 1L repeat of the freshman 15.

Breathe - Yoga teaches you to be conscious of your breath. One of my favorite yoga techniques is one I thought was completely silly when I first tried it. In order to develop breath consciousness, cover one nostril with your thumb, keeping your first and second fingers straight in the air. Inhale through the other nostril. Then close the other nostril with your first two fingers, uncover the first nostril and exhale through that. Continue a few times, switching back and forth. Breathing like this through alternate nostrils makes you concentrate on inhaling and exhaling, which distracts you from stressful thoughts, while the increased oxygen calms you.

Nurture yourself with literature - I know the last thing you're going to want to do is read, but reading something well written and intriguing will slow you down as you take time to read and adsorb it. When you do this you will begin to breathe more deeply without thinking about it. Don't think best sellers list here, think classic literature or poetry. Poetry is especially good because it has a certain rhythm to it.

Scheduling

I just received the most beautiful school schedule ever. I was assigned to the only section without 8:30am classes.

Contracts 1:30PM - 3:25PM Mo & 3:00PM - 4:25PM TuTh
Torts 3:30PM - 5:25PM MoWe
Civil Procedure 10:00AM - 11:55AM WeFr
Legal Method & Writing 1:30PM - 2:25PM WeFr
Dean's Session on Study & Practice of Law 10:30AM - 11:55AM TuTh

And you know what I'm going to do? I'm about to call the law school and say that I won't be enrolling this year. I have plane tickets to go and the most beautiful school schedule ever and yet I'm not going. I have to wait until next year. Life simply got in the way.

We made every attempt to take the emotions out of this decision by quantifying it. Like the engineers that we are, we made spreadsheets calculating the 5 year and 10 year economic impacts of law school depending on whether I go to Schools A through J. It makes more financial sense to give up a year of engineers salary and go now because I'll get a year of lawyer salary at the end of law school sooner. It also makes more sense financially to go to a state school like University of Washington or Arizona State University than it does to go to Georgetown or Seattle University...no surprise.

So why on Earth am I doing this? Well there is the matter of the Patent Bar which I want to take and which I will have no time to study for while in law school. Then there is the fact that I have an entire household worth of stuff that I have to figure out how to move and pay to move ($5k, at least). And despite my attempts at getting financial aid all I got were loans. Then there is the Army, sitting there like a dementor out of a Harry Potter book, sucking all of the happiness out of every plan we make for our future. I have no security. I grasp at rumors and try to make the best decisions that I can based on them, only to have orders changed and rumors swept away. We were planning on October. He was going to get me all settled at school, come home and move our things in September and then stay with his parents waiting for the orders. It is now looking like Hubby won't be deployed until the new year and I just can't deal with a long distance relationship leading up to a year long deployment combined with the stresses of moving and 1L all in one semester.

If he isn't going to leave until January or February or March, then I would rather have him leave, followed by me knowing where I'm going to school, moving over the summer with plenty of time and doing 1L fall with him still gone. After the completion of 1L first semester in January or February or March he would get back and then we could get on with our lives from there. The hardest part of law school would be over without him to distract me from school and with law school to distract me from worrying about him.

There aren't any really big BAD reasons that I should go this year. I bet that any schools that I got into this year I'll get into next year again. If I retake my LSAT I might even get into a few schools that I didn't get into this year. I'll have more savings to cushion the financial blow. I'll have my patent bar under my belt so I'll be more employable.

Why am I trying so hard to justify this to myself? Maybe it's in my personality to pursue everything. I never say "no." I'm always the first one to volunteer. Once I set my mind on something I want, I pursue it immediately whether it is changing apartments, buying a car, getting engaged, anything. I'm not one to delay gratification of a future goal either. I'm very futuristic. This is hard for me. I know the "pros" list was longer than the "cons" list, but I'll always worry that I'm giving up more than the most awesome schedule in the world. I know I want to go to law school. I'm not doing this because I am bored or couldn't "hack" engineering. I am genuinely interested for many reasons and have a long list of why this will help me with my future goals. I take the debt load seriously. I'm ready. But I'm going to wait. *sigh* I guess I should probably call them and make some other applicant on the waiting lists day. I'm penning law school in my schedule for 2008 and Army you can just be damned if you think you're delaying me again.

Moggy is a purrfect mother to feathery family

Ridiculously cute story of a mama cat adopting some baby ducks.......a small break in all the bad news out there.

read more | digg story

Harry Potter Moratoriam

In honor of all of the poor law school graduates out there who are studying for the bar exam rather than running out and reading their copy of Harry Potter 7 this weekend I am declaring a Pre-L ban on all spoiler posting. I won't be posting any details, spoilers or even commenting on whether I thought it was a good book. For those of you who aren't Potter fans, ignore this post, for those of you who are, be kind and don't blog about Potter until after the July bar exam is over. Let's show our solidarity for those who are going before us. Soon enough we'll be in their shoes, stressing over the bar and wishing we had time for a little light reading. And in an extra special display for my sympathy for all of you bar exam takers I will not be reading my pre-ordered copy until Sunday. I am going camping.

New Tent

Here is our new tent. It took us 3 weeks to decide on and visits to 5 different stores. Ultimately it came down to this one as it met all of our criteria. I wanted to be able to watch the stars if we were ever somewhere warm and dry enough to leave the rain fly off. We wanted two doors so we wouldn't have to disturb one another if nature called and plenty of room in the tent to play cards if we get weathered in. Not thrilled with the color, but as I learned when I bought my sleeping bag, color doesn't matter as much as design when it comes to camping equipment. Buy what works for you. The tent is an Asp 2 if anybody is curious. I'll report back later on how it works out. We're going backpacking for the first time this weekend.

Russia to Stop Counter-Terrorism Cooperation with Britain

I know, I know, I'm probably the only one who cares, but why isn't this story on CNN at all? Why am I getting all of my news on this issue from BBC? For those of you who don't regularly troll the web for all stories involving Russian relations you should know that in response to the UK's demand that Russia extradite Alexander Lugovoi, a former KGB intelligence officer accused of murdering Kremlin-critic Alexander Litvinenko last year in London the UK has expelled 4 Russian diplomats. Now Russia has responded by making an in kind demand that says four British diplomats must leave Russia within 10 days. Moscow will also stop issuing visas to British government officials. Now Russia is upping the ante by also suspending their bilateral cooperation in the struggle against terrorism. In what was a in kind response Russia has now upped their response, something sure to damage UK-Russian relations even further. Not less than a month after Putin and Bush were glad handing at the family retreat they have withdrawn from a major arms treaty and now this. *sigh* Does not bode well. Perhaps this is because Putin, like Bush, is a president on the way out of office. Both will be replaced within the next year. Maybe this is his way of making some political and diplomatic points that he feels are important. Oh, oh, I was wrong, CNN Does have the story. Buried in their world section. Instead I get to learn how the Sopranos has 15 Emmy nominations and how a dog ate nearly 1k in cash as top headline news on the main page. *sigh* I hate US news sometimes.

3 Rainbows

Yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary. After work we took our bikes and rode to the botanical gardens, something we've been meaning to visit ever since we were dating. We then rode to the sports store and bought a tent. Phase 3 of our transformation of me into an outdoorsy person is a two day one night backpacking and camping trip. Phase 1 (canoeing) and Phase 2 (day hiking) went pretty well, so we'll hope for the best. I have surprised myself by enjoying all of our outdoorsy time together so far. A day and night away with no facilities hopefully won't strain things too much. After the tent buying we rode home, cleaned up and went out to dinner. I ordered the same food as we had served at our rehearsal dinner and we talked as we watched the river flow by. All in all it wasn't a night on the town champagne and roses kind of anniversary, but it was very us and very good. We saw saw one rainbow on our bike ride, one in the garden and another on the drive home from dinner. Three rainbows for our third anniversary, a very good sign.

Aurora Palette - Recreate the Northern Lights at home

Sorry folks, this isn't what it looks like. I live in Fairbanks Alaska which basically means that I see the Northern Lights/Aurora Borealis throughout the winter. This is a chessy gimick. Cool idea though, especially for those lonesome for the real thing.

AK License Plates

Makes people think when they drive by you!

Strange, our state is so small that I've actually seen quite a few of these driving around. I used to live near the school that the CHOCLT license plate drove her kids to. The Anchorage Daily News has a whole website for them, but here are my favorites.

Who wouldn't want to say this to their fellow drivers occasionally?

Showing their support for life's most important dessert

As read in the rear-view mirror "Smiley," cool huh?

Anonymity

I waiver on the issue of anonymity. For awhile there, I seriously thought that I should just come out, post photos of myself (for family to check out), use my real name and list my location and school. I am now swinging back the other direction in the pendulum. If people have been reading my blog they can probably guess where I'm going, in fact I pretty much know myself, but I don't want to make it easy for folks either. Just so you all aren't 100% sure, I do still have 4 offers on the table and 2 more that I've officially rejected.

I guess I don't have David's guts. I got into blawgs by first reading Suasponte. While it wasn't too hard to figure out ultimately that she attended the University of Chicago by her restaurant choices and other hints, she did make it so that people who don't personally know her won't be able to just google her and find her blog. That is kind of the level I'm shooting for. I don't mind if folks who know me know that this is my blawg. I'm not intending to pull a Jeremy Blachman, but I won't be swinging the other direction and posting photos up the kazoo of other people without their permission. I don't want others voyeuristically using this blog like an extension of facebook. To that end those of you using bloglines might be confused as to why a couple of my old posts have reappeared. They have been redacted...for now.

Information Fasting

TechChris is going on an information diet. This made me realize that without even trying I went on an information fast from last Wednesday to Sunday. While we were on our trip we decided not to bring laptops, not to check our e-mail (even when we had the chance) and only use our cell-phones for emergencies. Ultimately both phones died and we spent a blissful 5 days totally disconnected. When I returned I had 8 actual e-mails that required a response and 64 blog-lines to read. Nothing fell apart, the world kept going and I felt strangely recharged. I did not waste hours of my day watching tv. We did catch a special on the history channel on the history of barbecue technology which was interesting and didn't fry to many brain cells. Instead, I spent time in the outdoors, talking with my husband and enjoying good food and a good book. We should all take information fasts from time to time. In the meantime, take Chris' idea and go on an information diet. You'll be amazed how much more time you have in your day. Hmmm... maybe I'll be able to restart my thwarted Couch to 5k running plan.

Valdez Trip

Whew, that was a lot of driving. Here's our route. But, the trip was beautiful and well worth it.

We went from Fairbanks to Copper Center Lodge on the 4th where we stopped for the night at the historic lodge. Apparently back in the day they created lodges that were about a day's travel apart so that travelers could stop for the night. With the advent of cars and a more developed train system many of these lodges have closed, but those that remain have a lot of historic charm. We stopped there for the night, had dinner and then took a walk together to look at the area and watch some of the locals try to blow themselves up with fireworks.

The next day (5th) we visited the Cooper Center museum, which was basically a small collection of leftover paraphernalia from the gold rush era. The historic photographs and maps were interesting to hubby who is a big history buff. I was content to look at the old miner's cabins and wonder how people had their whole lives year after year in spaces smaller than my first dorm room.

After stopping at The Fishing Widow coffee place for my mocha and hubby's hot cocoa we hit the road again and drove the rest of the way down to Valdez, down through the mountains and past the waterfalls to our hotel. On the way down stopped for a short hike up to Worthington Glacier. After getting into Valdez we stopped at our hotel and then went to lunch at the Valdez classic Mike's Palace. I remember this place from when I was a little girl. My parents would always order the cheese pizza and I would sit at the counter and watch the Italian family make the food. All of the people who worked there were family and during the summer the extended family would come from Italy to work at the restaurant, or that is my recollection. I remember one of the guys that worked there giving me a little bowl of peperoni to put on my cheese pizza. Strange, the memories that stick with you from when you were a kid. Not much has changed, the same family still owns the place and the pizza is still great. I will say though that a large pizza is too large for two people, even when one of them is a 6'2" hungry man who has been driving and hiking all day.

Next we went to see the Valdez Museum which I also remember from my childhood. Actually I remember only one thing from the museum, the fur fish. Until I went back as an adult I believed that the fur fish was real. Alas, like so many childhood fantasies, the fur fish is not real. By reading the caption this is now obvious. In addition to the fur fish the museum also boasts the following: archives, maps, photographs, newspapers, an exhibit on the Pipeline Construction, an exhibit on the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, an exhibit on the World Extreme Skiing Championships and several exhibits on the gold rush and Valdez as an all-American town up until the Good Friday earthquake wiped it out.

The next morning we took a Stan Stephens cruise through Prince William Sound for a 9.5 hour tour. We saw every type of wildlife advertised on the brochures, except for the mountain goats and bears. All of the white specks that I saw turned out to be snow when viewed through the spotting glasses. Mountain goats are now beasts which have now reached mythical status in my book. All throughout my growing up years in Alaska my Mom would insist that she saw Dall Sheep or Mountain Goats on the mountain, but I can't actually remember ever seeing one. I've seen plenty of them mounted on walls, but until I see one myself I have relegated all Alaskan sheep and goats to mythical status, like unicorns or fur fish.

But, to make up for it we saw 5 humpback whales, 29 baby seals, 107 (before I lost count) sea otters, too many sea lions to count, an eagle's nest, arctic terns, puffins, dall porpoises and so many others. On the drive we also saw moose, eagles and squirrels in addition to lots of beautiful fire weed and other wildflowers. Oh yeah, and the typical nature stuff: mountains, glaciers, forests and the like.The cruise was well worth the money, especially with the 10% off for Alaskan residents.

The rest of the trip was pretty laid back, we drove from Valdez to Palmer to visit my parents, went tent shopping at REI (still haven't found one, although I did get a sleeping bag) and then drove back through Denali Park to Fairbanks on Sunday. A lot of beautiful scenic driving and over 500 songs later on the ipod we arrived safe and sound home to two cats who wanted a lot of attention. Once I upload the rest of the photos on Flickr I'll have to add a slide show. There is a limit to how patient I am in uploading through blogger.

Happy Endings

As I posted here and here back in April and June, BBC reporter Alan Johnston was abducted on March 12th by the Army of Islam, a shadowy militant group dominated by Gaza's powerful Dugmush clan. Today, after 114 days of captivity he was freed. It is so rare in this world for things to turn out well and I can only say that I am happy. Happy for him, his family and all those around the world who have been watching this situation.

Bush commutes Libby's prison sentence

Oh my goodness, if this doesn't assure a democratic president in 2008 I don't know what will. This is going to tick off a lot of people. People said that Paris Hilton received an excessive sentence, but Arnold didn't pardon her or commute her sentence. Scooter Libby gets an "excessive sentence" and the President takes it upon himself to deal with the matter. Hmm...makes me think he was actually doing the administration's bidding as some have thought. Either way, I smell a rat!

Your Skin Isn't the Only Thing That Needs Sun Protection

I mentioned back in February that my eyes need a baby prescription, mostly when I'm in large lecture halls, movie theaters, or while driving. I'm perfectly OK without glasses, but if I want crystal clear perfect vision I could probably use a little help. My eyes are like the difference between antenna and cable, perfectly viewable vs. crystal clear. Only those who've had cable would know the difference. This past Friday marked the end of the fiscal year at my work. This meant, not only that there was a lot of scrambling around to spend all of the money that would go away at the end of the year, but that I also needed to wipe out the remainder of my Flexible Spending Account. Basically an FSA is an amount of money deducted, pre-tax, from your paycheck that you can then spend on medical or childcare expenses. I had $500.00 put into it so that I could pay my deductible tax free. Thankfully I required almost no hospital or medical visits this year so I didn't meet my deductible. I didn't even have to see the Dr. to get my annual allergy prescription and was able to make due with Claritin-D. Unfortunately 5 boxes of Claritin D only amounts to $45.00, so I was about to lose the remainder of the funds that I had set aside. Use it or lose it. Then I thought to myself, hmm... if I'm going to be somewhere warmer possibly, I'll need a pair of sunglasses to wear while driving. So I went out and bought prescription sunglasses. Boom, there went the remainder of the FSA money and I'll have nice new Coach sunglasses with RX in them to try and not lose. Must not lose, way too expensive to replace, especially as I will not have a lovely FSA account next year if I'm in school. Hmm...I'm still typing "if" and I'm still saying "if." I really mean "when," but switching to saying "when" is scary. It's so decisive.

Things You Don't See in The Lower 48

The bear appeared to be chasing the wolf in slow motion with the wolf waiting for the bear to catch up, then it would sprint ahead. After about 15 minutes the bear gave up and went another direction. Definitely something you probably don't see on the side of the highway in CA. I'll miss Alaska.

In other news I made the Law-School Roundup, cool! I was wondering if there were other Pre-L bloggers out there, looks like there are. Or at least for another 6 weeks, then we'll all be 1L bloggers and I'll be able to lament the lack again.