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I got a call last night from my spouse. "I want you to look something up." This isn't an abnormal request in my household. My mother's been known to call me up with requests or questions to look up. The next line made me slightly ill. "Find out what to do when you get soda in a laptop." Seems the MBA group meeting went slightly awry and a glass of soda was spilled. Oh, and that there was class the next day...and there was a paper that needed to be submitted on the hard drive. I really didn't have to make a leap to figure out how it would feel to have your computer out of order, while I haven't had water in the components, it's a cold sinking feeling. So we sprung into action last night, broke out the precision screwdrivers, broke out the isopropal alcohol, q-tips and towels and went to work. We thought we were on to something. We got the whole unit apart. We found the magic screws that held the keyboard in place. I whisked away each little drip of soda in keys. The spouse felt good about it. So did I. We put all the components back in place and hit the power switch. We saw power for a moment and heard it immediately power off. And nothing. Other battery? Nothing. Sadly we gave up and headed off to bed. The spouse gave it another valiant attempt in the morning before going to class. Nothing, though the status lights were blinking in some sort of strange code. Lunch came around and I got a call to find out what the tech line was. Before finally giving in to the idea that bigger powers were necessary, the spouse gave it one more try. And it worked. Half the cover panels are lying on the kitchen table, but the laptop booted up like a champ. Now mind you the laptop itself was not on the kitchen table but rather a few miles from home. Nor were there any screws actually holding the unit together, but who cares, it works! Hooray!
Something odd happened this semester. Something that has never happened before here. Unlike the standard of, "Oops we're running out of time to cover this material so we're going to go at triple speed these last few days" we're instead getting, "Since we seemed to have covered this material faster than I expected, I'm not holding any classes next week." This is jaw dropping news in one class let alone 3. You wonder what caused this. You wonder if it's some sort of internal professor rebellion against the one day reading period. One of my professors even brought that up. All I know is, two of my classes end today. One ended Tuesday. Depending on how another goes today, I may only have one class next week. Perhaps it's a sign that I really ought to be studying my ass off.
After posting yesterday about two iPods, I felt mildly disconcerted about how self-absorbed it sounded. How bourgeois am I to need two iPods? I then thought perhaps I needed to explain myself. When I got the first iPod back in December, it became a permanent fixture in my household. The spouse ripped every CD we had in order to make a full collection of music. Ever since we've been fighting over the sucker. The spouse studies and wants to use it. I take it to school because I want to use it. We listen to music in the house by hooking it up to the stereo and blasting all sorts of strange music into the neighborhood. We are quickly coming to a big problem. Facing this summer I'm studying for the Bar. My iPod is going to be almost permanently affixed to my head. Hell, I'm even ripping the PMBR CDs to the sucker. This is one iPod too few for my household. Therefore a solution was needed. And since we're both students, one of whom does not have a job, dropping the cash on another at this stage is not an option. Therefore Beanie had to be a diligent researcher and get all the Westlaw Trivia questions correct in order to get the big points to get another. I thought I was going to run out of time. If I had wanted another 20G one I would have. But this will work out nicely. Music soothes the savage beast and all that.
I often think of things to blog while I'm in my car driving to school. For instance, this morning I had half an entry written in my head about Audis. (Short version: I'm never owning a black Audi A4. And for those of you who do...if you're going to run me, you best not be driving a standard shift.) When I get to school I find the ideas that I had too mundane and think about something else. This morning I bring you an announcement. For those of you who collect Westlaw points, they've dropped the amount of points it takes to get an Apple iPod Mini. And yes, I did order one when I found out. What a way to burn the remainder of my points. And yes, this is the second iPod I've gotten thanks to Westlaw. Of course I opened a magazine over the weekend and saw the new Creative Zen player and said, "Oooh...that's cool." But mine were free, and how can you look a free iPod in the mouth?
A week and two days before the end of classes. Do you even keep reading at this point? I should know by now, right? I have a couple giant outlines and I think it's time to bust them out and study hard. This can be done. No panic attacks, I can sleep at night, and it's not snowing here. Life is pretty good.
Seems sometime about 5pm last evening the standard SBA meeting somehow became a forum with the Dean. Seeing as I had been home for hours I didn't feel the need to burn even more gas in order to participate. Hearing the fallout, I almost wish I had gone. Key word being almost, since I don't normally seek out confrontations, they make me uncomfortable for all involved. Supposedly the discussion revolved around graduation plans. Seeing as how until 2 days ago we didn't know who our speaker was, the Dean was questioned at length regarding this decision. He in turn informed the group that it was a secret decision about which he could not speak. What did they do, elect a Pope? This wasn't a conclave, it was a graduation speaker. Also, it was stated that as a class we're seen as a lost cause as far as alumni fundraising is concerned and that we'll be treated as such. I say we make this a self fulfilling prophecy. The Dean on the whole has treated our class as the ugly stepchild, and these comments have proven as much. Just give me the floppy hat, the correct robes and the damn degree and let me get out of here. (Yeah...last year's class? They had undergrad robes because the school screwed up.)
I'll come right out and say it. I don't have a job yet. This causes me no end of angst and fear. I'm currently working on a new resume that actually resembles something the rest of the world understands. Our Career Planning gave us all cookie cutter resumes which doesn't give any of us a way to stand apart. When I went to an alumni resume building workshop, the advisor there told me that I need an objective. Sure, that's easy enough, right? Nope. It's like asking a small child what they want to be when they grow up. The ego can't take much more of this. I did however get a job posting for a legal secretary today though. Talk about gut punched...can't get a job that's commensurate with my experience, but hey do you want to be a secretary who needs an associate's degree?
It's the beginning of the end for us 3Ls. Today the schedules came out for next semester. We don't even get to see it. Muttering heard everywhere about how all the classes conflict, people coming back to teach that haven't been seen in ages, and some of the course/professor combos are downright maddening. Being the sage worldly class that we are, we offer up words of wisdom, words of warning, sighs of relief. No creation of spreadsheets, no politicking to get certain courses offered, just a sense of completion. Except there isn't. Not with what we face ahead. Instead it seems like just a sense of nervous stasis. The path is plotted out ahead, but I'm just along for the ride.
It was a beautiful day in the neighborhood. I needed to do my reading. The spouse had reading to do. Being forward thinking people, we procrastinated last weekend and put together a brand new picnic table and 9' umbrella. So we broke out the iPod, a headphone splitter, grabbed the highlighters and the books and headed outdoors. Close to an hour and a half later, the Crim Pro reading is done and I have a lovely sunburn on my left arm. How I pay for my art...
The conflict between bar review and personal events has already begun, and I haven't even paid for my review yet. I did get a bill the other day, and it said that they take credit cards. My luck, they won't take Discover. C'mon cashback bonus! So, I can't go to the BBQ because of PMBR, can't swing a graduation party because the review starts before graduation, and can really begin to kiss my life away now. It's only 100 or so days...only 101 days more.
I think I have a cold. There was a small possibility that it was allergies, but unless the allergies have the way to make you feel like you've been hit by a brick wall and that you're walking through wet sand, it's a cold. This makes my already present crankiness even worse. And oh hey, when you're driving through the school parking lot, why don't you try using the aisles instead of freeform driving. If I weren't sick I'd kick your ass for nearly hitting me. Hell, maybe I'll just go and cough on your door handles.
Somewhere along the line I totally ignored the fact that this blog had a birthday. Just over a week ago this blog turned two. I realized that this needed to be marked in a major way. So I bring you, Screaming Bean version 2.0. Now with more beans! Enjoy...and anyone who can help me make my archive beany too, feel free to drop me a line.
The news is rife with reports about gas prices spiraling ever higher. People wince at the thought of filling their tanks. Yesterday, the spouse and I spotted what we hope is not a new insidious trend. Driving by a local station, the prices are pretty decent for today's standards and we normally stop there if we're in the neighborhood. Spouse jumps out and I hear muttering. Seems that while the prices on the sign were lower, those prices were only for cash purchases. The prices for credit were six cents higher. I was outraged. I yelled to cancel the sale. Spouse got back in the vehicle and we left. You're telling me it costs these gas companies six cents a gallon to process a credit transaction? And you thought the drive-offs were bad before...force people to pay cash for gas. Hell, I don't normally carry that kind of cash on me. Tell me that this isn't the new scam...
Spring has truly sprung. It's not the flowers, or daylight savings time that gave it away...it's the peepers. Those of you in the big city might not know what I'm talking about, but any where there's a small pond or watery area, when it gets just warm enough out you can hear the peepers. I heard them for the first time this season last night. And yes, it did make me happy. Keep on peepin!
I've pulled myself back from the brink. Everyone had told me I was nuts for taking five courses, and in my mediocre overacheiving way I didn't believe them. So what if Crim Pro has 40+ pages a night...and 4 chapters a week in Commercial Law, and State Practice...yeah I can take it. Oh yeah, I decided to take Securities Regulation too. What was I thinking? The self-induced panic attacks were not helping my knowledge of anything, let alone all of it. So I did what I should have in the beginning, made one of them an audit. I really didn't have the heart to drop anything, and with Securities I feel like I'm getting valuable information and a small working knowledge about how stocks work. So now I get to stay. I promised to keep doing the reading too. Heck, did you know that the company that created Teddy Ruxpin also created Lazer Tag? Me neither...of course the business crashed and burned spectacularly and that's why they were in the book. But yes, I have removed one of the albatrosses and I think I can swim again. I'll keep an eye out for rogue waves.
Seems that the US is tightening border security and that Americans will have to show passports to get back into the country from Mexico and Canada by 2008. On the surface I would say, "Great idea! This is a sound security concept." Of course having now done the Canada/US thing twice I have to say this: "Why don't you actually follow the regulations you have now!" This tightening of security implies that they are actually checking identification documents now. This isn't true. I came in via airplane from Halifax into Logan Airport back in the early 90's. I was waved through with one question about where I was born. Pick a city in the Northeastern US that the officer should have heard of and you would have been okay. Fast forward to last month. Once again we didn't even have to show a driver's license let alone a passport. I've gotten more hard hitting questions try to board a plane to Orlando. So, hurry up and get your passports before the prices go up and you too will be okay to come back from Canada. Do you feel secure yet?
Survived the Ball on Saturday night. It had its good points, like the semi-intoxicated friend who told me to "Rock on!" and making fun of the people who really thought they were going to the prom. (Opera gloves, corsages...you get the picture.) It did have a distinct frat party vibe though. Dancing in a postage stamp size dance floor, getting drinks spilled on you, getting to know intimate details of other people's anatomy other than your date...not so cool. Still, I can say I went, and I can say that some of my fellow classmates missed their calling...can I say lap dancer?
Today I took the important step of printing out the Bar application. I was able to actually fill it out too. I'm good like that. Now, I just need a big honking cashier's check, find me a notary and bop on over to the post office. While I'm actually a notary, finding a fellow student who is also one is a challenge. Maybe this is how I'm supposed to fund my education, notarize everyone's Bar applications! So for those of you who know me, feel free to stop by and I'll set you up...for an exorbitant fee.
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