At Home

Mom and Dad have a sweet house.

And, thanks to Sis, infinite diet-coke.

Flying to Atlanta

I'm flying to Georgia today. Plane leaves from Philadelphia at 10:30, arrives 2:30 later in Atlanta.

Yay for Christmas Vacation!

Not eating crap

If you know me, you know that I am a big fan of the foods-of-my-people.

I grow concerned, however, that if I'm going to be in great shape for spring-break, I ought to be repairing the damage wrought by a full semester of late night snacks, eating crap because I was too stressed to properly dine. And, while I did make it on occasion to the gym, I failed at going regularly enough to obtain any consistent results.

Of course, last Christmastime I was also trying to eat better, as well, on the off-chance that I'd wind up on television. Oh Fruits and vegetables, why must you spoil so quickly.

Regardless, I am mightily enjoying having a few days off!

Japanese Emoticons

Check 'em out, here. Curiously, they are different than the US versions.

Word-Geek Moment

(Just a moment? sighs the peanut gallery.)

Check it out, the Merriam-Webster folks have announced the top ten 2005 words of the year:

#1 was integrity.

It's Pink

Other Law Student Experiences.

Finished

Woo-Hoo!

Last Exam for Fall term at 1:30 PM

The Semester is fast drawing to a close. The 3 hour Professional Responsibility exam will be at 1:30 this afternoon. It's an open book test, so that'll be nice. Last night was the Evidence exam, and while it was bad, it wasn't too bad.

Mmmm, I'm looking forward to selling that book back today at 3:30.

I knew going in that this was going to be one of my hardest semesters. And, in fact, this has been the hardest semester since my 1L year back in 02/03. More than once, I've wanted to throw up my hands and say that this is all too much stress, it's not fun, and I feel like crap.

To be sure, there have been delights as well. Once completed, the paper made sense, and while I wrote it I frequently had that shock of recognition when some other author said what I was thinking. Similarly, there was the joy of learning things. Brand new stuff that surprised me and made me think. And my friends have proven, yet again, a superlative blessing.

Dread dappled with joy. One may receive thankfully the last, but still rue the first.

And, for what its worth, the next semester looks far, far better. Just three classes, all of them at night (6 PM or later). Important dates in the 2006 academic calender:

January 9 First day of classes
March 6-10 Spring recess
April 21 Last day of classes
April 27-May 12 Final examinations
May 18 Commencement

And, thank you for all your wishes of luck.

New Definition

Definition: carfully
kahr"-ful-i'
Adj. Definition: Describing the level of attention and caution one employs driving a car full of baby ducks. Not to be confused with "carefully" (the adjective form of careful.)

Delaware and a "fun" fact

1. Over at ProfessorBainbridge there was a post on a topic related to my paper: what's special about Delaware's role as the site of incorporations.
(My paper dealt much with the question of whether a "Delaware" would emerge in Europe. Answer: We don't know yet.)

2. I was looking at Google's answers service, and came across this choice nugget:

Question Presented:

What fraction of Americans over 30 have never been married?
What fraction of American women over 30 have never been married?
What fraction of American men over 30 have never been married?


Answers:

10.9% of American men over 30 have never been married
7.8% of American women over 30 have never been married
or 9.3% of American men and women over 30 have never been married

So it would appear I'm in some rare company.

Blog to Check Out

Davids Medienkritik does a great job of highlighting persistent anti-americanism in German media.

Check out this entry, where he skewers a tendentious cover from Der Spiegel that manages to make the CIA look kinda cool (you know, like in the 60s.)

MPRE Results

I'm on my way to my exam, but I just checked:

I scored a 103!

(which is a minimum passing score high enough for every jurisdiction that uses the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam.)

So I won't have to take it again in March.

PS: This is the link to the MPRE log-in page.

My paper was handed in Monday Night

And I'm still recovering!

I sent a copy on to Mom and Dad (via email) so they could finally read what I've been nattering on about for the past three months.

So for comparative law, I probably won't fail (at least.)

Of course, every few hours, I still think of something I want to add to it. It's weird to suddenly not have to worry about the blasted paper. Well, I can worry about the grade, but I only have to worry about additions or modifications if I do decide to try to improve it for publishing.

Now it's on to the exams for International Law, Professional Responsibility, and Evidence. (Monday, Thursday, and Friday of next week.)

And according to the folks who run the MPRE, the scores ought to be available on-line on Monday, Dec. 12. I'm hopeful I scored well enough to not have to take it again in March.

In Six Hours My Comparative Law Paper will be Finished

My plan is to hit save the final time, and then send the final copy to the Professor tonight at 11:30. After that, I'll forward a couple of vanity copies, and then I'll go home and sleep. Of course, I only have a few days to prepare for exams, but it won't matter. So long as the paper gets credit I will be on track to graduate.

How many channels do I watch?

After reading this article on Slate, it occured to me that I really could figure out how many of the hundreds of channels I get I really watch.

Once a month: Movies on Demand
Fox
CBS
CNN
ABC
NBC
PBS
MTV
VH1
WB
UPN
TBS
Comedy Central
E!
Food
TLC
Discovery Channel
Cartoon Network (Adult Swim)
Weather Channel
CNBC
CSPAN
CSPAN2
Sci-Fi
MSNBC
Fox News
ESPN

I was a little generous, even if I don't regularly watch the channel, I added it if I could ever recall watching it. So I watch more channels than the FCC found was common on average, but not too many.