Four weeks down... ten to go

I usually post the countdown on Fridays so I'm not happy that I forgot to do it yesterday. But yesterday I was busy doing.... well... not much... so I couldn't post anything. But really this term I should be posting them on Thursdays anyway because my last class of the week is civil litigation on Thursday nights.

As far as school goes, there's not much to talk about this week... I missed some classes because I was sending out applications. Yeah, more applications. I sent a bunch to Ontario and I'm sending a bunch to small firms here in BC. This is all still in the hopes of procuring some type of law related summer employment. And if I don't find a job in a firm... I don't know how much travelling I'll be able to do because, contrary to the way I spend money on a daily basis, my line of credit is not unlimited. So who knows... I might be a stay at home student for the summer months this year... which wouldn't be that bad.

Vegas pics are coming...

Commercial Trans, Corps, and Civil Lit: The Triumvirate of Evil

The title of this post says it all. Even though people I knew were leaving these classes in droves at the beginning of the semester I wasn't inspired to do the same and now I'm going to pay.

Luckily I have two good classes to help make the experience somewhat better: US law and secured transactions. That's right, secured transactions is one of my good classes. What does that tell you?

Three weeks down... eleven to go

Another week done... but the school week ended on Wednesday this week because I went to Vegas. And I'm still here. More about that later...

Two weeks down... twelve to go

I had a prof that kept the class twenty minutes late this week. Crazy huh? I don't think he realized how much of an outrage that is. I would have left but I figured he'd say something important and then I'd miss it and then it would be on the final.... things have a way of working out that way.

I got my grades back today. Overall my average is up over last year but I still don't seem to be able to write exams THAT well. I did way better on my papers.... I wrote three papers last term. I only have one class with a paper this term so I guess I better figure out this exam thing.

I also got my laptop back today.... seriously I hate it when it's not here. Have I said that before? And this time it works right... no fan that sounds like a jet engine!! So yeah, it's been pretty quiet around here for the last few days without the laptop roaring.... it's made me realize just how loud my neighbors are. Okay actually I knew that before.

So how loud are they? Really really really loud sometimes. Which reminds me of the other thing I take for granted that I haven't talked about yet: Silence from above. Sometimes my neighbor upstairs plays her music so loud I can't hear my own tv. Seriously it's that loud. It's so loud that when I go up there to ask her to turn it down she can't hear me at the door. She lives in a studio, which means she is in the room when I'm knocking. There's no other place she could be. And even though I pound on the door very very loudly she still can't hear me. I have to wait until the pause between songs to knock. Now, if she lived in a 1,500 square foot house I could understand not hearing someone at the door when the music's turned up. But when you live in a 350 square foot studio and you can't hear someone at the door.... which has to be only a few feet away from where you are... that's a problem. So the times when she's NOT doing that... like right now.... I really should appreciate these times more.

Noel no more...

R.I.P. Noel

March 1995 - January 12, 2006

I'm sorry I complained about your hair

My Stupid Laptop....

My stupid laptop is getting fixed again so I'm writing this from an internet cafe where they're charging me by the minute. I don't know how many minutes I'm at but it's 10:04... the first term grades will be posted at midnight... and I'm not staying that long. What a crappy night to be laptopless.

An interesting observation:

Former Bain members in commercial transactions last week: Mike Lee, Megan, Karen, Me, Geoffrey, Colin, Ryan, and Hari.

Former Bain members in commercial transactions this week: Me.

Hmm..... ever get the feeling your the last one on a sinking ship?

One week down... thirteen to go

Let the countdown begin. Again. But this time I'm counting down to summer... which at this point is bascially a big question mark waiting at the end of the term. Why a question mark? Because I don't know what I'm doing for that four month void between classes. This will be my last summer ever as a student... well... it better be. So what to do? My choices are basically this: Get a job at a law firm, travel, or do nothing. It would be good to make some money so over the next few weeks I'm sending out a lot of applications to small firms. I didn't get any offers... um... or interviews... at the big firms when I sent out my applications in the fall. Actually, I only applied at 3, which might not have been the best way to get a job, but I'm sending out a lot more applications this time.

I've already decided that I'm not going to do anything non-law related for the summer... for one thing I'm too old to work at the museum or any other government subsidized summer student position. Yeah, 30 is the maximum age and I passed that little milestone last August. So if I don't get a job at a firm my second choice of a summer activity will be travelling.

I want to go to England to see my relatives... and it would be great to go back to Italy for a while. But I'm going to have to check out the money situation pretty closely because that could get damn expensive fast. So if travelling falls through... I might end up doing surprisingly little. Not that I could ever do absolutely nothing for 4 months. I'd probably do some volunteer work and maybe learn something new... I don't know. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, week one is finished, even though it was only a part week (we started on Wednesday). Here's what I'm taking this term:

1. Secured transactions
2. Commercial transactions
3. US law
4. Civil litigation
5. Corporations I

Pretty exciting huh? Yeah don't be jealous.

The crunchy sound of crunching...

Is there anything more annoying in the world than someone eating something really crunchy in a totally quiet room? During my undergrad I was in a Spanish final and some girl decided to whip out an apple and have a little mid-exam snack. An apple. So in a room where all you could previously hear was pencils hitting paper and the odd sigh, all of sudden there is this BITE CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUCH SLURP CRUNCH CRUNCH SWALLOW... okay maybe the swallowing part didn't make any noise but you get my point. Dirty looks abounded but the eating girl either didn't notice or didn't care.

I don't know, maybe it's just me... is it me? Maybe it is. I have to admit I've always had a major problem with it. I even have to leave the room when the dog starts eating....

Back in class...

Okay so there was no live action posting from the airport on Sunday... why? For one thing, I was late getting there... I still managed to get to the arrivals terminal before Darren did but I only had a couple minutes to spare. Also, that little place where people can have a drink while they're waiting for someone was closed...

So it's already Wednesday and my vacation is over. Two weeks ago today in the same classroom I'm in right now I had my taxation final. I need more time. But hey... what can you do? I have three classes on Wednesdays - corporations, secured transactions, and commercial transaction. My first class was cancelled this morning so now I'm waiting for the second one to start. And I'm really tired today... for some reason I haven't been sleeping that well for the last few weeks. I'm usually tired in the early evening but by the time 10 or 11 comes around I'm wide awake. I went to bed at 11:30 last night and probably got to sleep sometime between 2 and 3.

Which is why my alarm clock almost didn't survive its attempt to wake me up this morning. But I did get up... eventually... and got myself out the door by 8:15. It's too bad that first class was cancelled because I wouldn't have minded the extra sleep but I guess I can't blame the prof.... apparently there was a jumper on the Lions Gate Bridge this morning so everyone had to use the Second Narrows... which pretty much sucks for everyone involved so I'm not going to complain too loudly. But if you're going to jump off a bridge why pick the busiest bridge in the city during the busiest time of day?

But all that aside, I'm going to get some more sleep when I get home... which is probably a bad idea because I might not be tired tonight.... but right now I can't say that I care all that much. Tomorrow is an easy day for me... I've got civil litigation between 5:30 and 7:30 and that's it... so I can sleep in.

Resolutions and all that...

2005 is gone... over.... and my no drinking new years resolution.... aptly called "Dry '05" is officially over as well. Yep, a whole year with no drinking.... crazy but true. 2006 brings three new resolutions and they fall into the typical resolution categories:

1. Check my bank statements and credit cards more carefully... the "responsible" resolution.
2. Be in the best shape ever by the end of the year... the marathon in May should give me a good start on this... this is the "fitness" resolution.
3. Go to 3 concerts in 2006. That would be a lot for me because for some reason I've never really been the concert going type. So that's the "broaden my horizons" resolution.

Resolution 2 is going to be hard to maintain after the marathon because after all the training I'm going to want to veg out and eat bad food for a couple months. But hey... goals are good right... we'll see how it goes. And about that whole Dry '05 resolution... it's time to put that one to bed. So tonight I'm having a few drinks. I have to pick Darren up from the airport at 7... I've got his car... so I'm going to have a drink or two while I wait for him... he'll drop me off at home after... and then I'm going out with some friends. The question is, after not drinking for a year how many drinks will it take before I'm wasted? Being wasted isn't actually my goal, so I'll have to be pretty careful. Up to the end of 2004 I could put 'em back pretty well... but now I have a feeling I'm a bit of a lightweight.

So tonight I'll be coming to you live from Vancouver International Airport where I'll be waiting for Alaska flight 683 from Los Angeles... and having a big 'ol glass of red wine. Yeah, that's right, wine. No more beer, cider, or anything else on the bad list.... just wine and martinis from here on out. And not flavoured martinis either.... I'm talking about real ones. So come back at 7:30pm for airport observations and the first taste of wine in over a year. Well.... this all depends on a wireless connection at the airport, which I'm 98% sure of... but if I can't get online then I'll tell ya about it tomorrow.

A while back I was talking about things I take for granted, and I said I'd discuss some more of those things in future posts. The next one on my list is COMPUTERS THAT WORK PROPERLY. I hate to say it, but my computer sucks. The fan is loud, so when I'm in class taking notes it sounds like a jet engine while the laptops all around me are fairly quiet. There are things I can't do in class, like sign on to MSN. Why? Because if I'm on MSN the fan kicks into extra high gear every time someone messages me. I also have to be carefull about running too many programs at one time because it will overheat and, even though the fan is blowing so hard you can hear it from the Alaskan Panhandle, the computer freaks out and cuts power. So I'm sitting there typing notes... and then *click* it's gone. Mind numbing rage? Yes... yes indeed. There is also a sound problem. Every second time it comes out of hibernation the sound doesn't work so I have to reboot. And then there's the battery. Right now I can get just over an hour on battery power but that decreases by about five minutes a month. I've tried to get the fan and the sound problem fixed but the guy I took it to was pretty useless and my laptop came back in worse condition than I sent it out in.

I remember back when my laptop worked properly... it was such a happy time in my life. Why wasn't I more appreciative of it when it was good to me? Now we fight every day... I go to bed mad... wake up expecting a fight to start any moment and wondering where things went wrong. I think it's too late for a reconciliation.... I want out. Even though we've only been together for a year and a half, I'm going to start shopping around in the summer.

Because really, when the laptop works properly things are good. It sucks sending it out to be fixed, especially if there's a manufacturer's warranty that requires it to be shipped to Abu Dhabi for repair. I would rather just pay because I can't be without it for 6 weeks.... or 4 weeks.... or 2 weeks.... or 5 days. I hate not having a computer.

Okay well enough about that.... next up on my take for granted list is sleep... or maybe it'll be not having a hangover, depending on how I feel tomorrow...