What I Think

Goodbye, Hello

2008-05-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

I'm cheating. It's not really May 24, 2008. It's not even close to that date. But... I wanted to wrap this up nice and neat, and the plan was to post my last post on that date.

So let's pretend it's May 24. So much to look forward to. Like summer... unfortunately it's going to rain until mid-July, but still. I'm resisting about three tangents right now. One involves good summer tv shows, another involves what I did last summer... but that's not the point of this post.

The point of this post is to say goodbye and hello, in that order. So we'll start with the goodbye. This blog was an outlet for me while I was in law school and then while I was articling. An outlet that I used sometimes more frequently and sometimes hardly ever (like the past year). Still, it served its purpose and I enjoyed it. That said, it's purpose was limited to chronicling my last years of pre-lawyerness. Those years are officially over today (but not really today), and with that, I say goodbye to this blog as well.

Thanks for reading, if you read.

Now to the hello part. I'm a lawyer who likes to write. Problem is, all the writing I do these days is at the office, and while it is creative in the sense that I'm using words to accomplish specific goals, it's not creative in a personally fulfilling sort of way. So, I'm thinking another blog is in order. Another outlet - but this time a little different. The office can be a stressful place, and there's so much law around all the time. To be a real outlet - and an escape from stress, work, law, etc. - there have to be some blog ground rules. They are:

1. No law talk. Ever.
2. No office talk.
3. Nothing deep.
4. No politics or religion.

So with that covered, check out my new blog

RUNNING FROM THE LAW

I'm not going to say I'll post more often. I think we all know how that one usually works out. But check it out, and maybe I'll surprise you.

I don't have a good sign off line. I tried to think of something good, but nothing came. How bout....

Later Players! No... that's stupid...

The End

2008-05-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

That's it - It's over. After four years of undergrad, three years of law school and one year of articles, the word "student" is no longer part of my title, description, or related to me in any way. Maybe that's not forever, but for now it feels pretty good.

Becoming a lawyer - and I mean the exact moment that I transitioned from non-lawyer to lawyer - was anticlimactic. I stopped being an articled student when May 21 ended, but the courthouse ceremony where I would swear an oath before a judge wasn't until the 23rd, so when I went to the office on May 22, I was in a twilight zone type place. Happily, people finish articling on a date before the courthouse ceremony date all the time, so I had been sent an oath at the office that, when read, would activate the special lawyer making magic of the universe.

So, I went to the office on May 22nd and waited for the partner who was going to read me the oath to have a free minute. Eventually he came into my office, read the oath, I said yes, and the deal was done. I don't think I got out of my chair...

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Still, it was a pretty great feeling. And looking back at my first half year of being a lawyer (yeah I'm typing from the future - see the post above) I feel like the decision to become a lawyer was the best one I've made. I'm happy about the areas I've decided to practice in, and I'm happy with my firm. I've got a ten year plan, and right now things are falling into place.

I mentioned the courthouse ceremony - that was May 23rd, and that was where it all really sunk in. The ceremony was at the courthouse downtown, and I with about 150 other people (in two different ceremonies) stood in front of a judge and took the oath. The ceremony was great - it really felt like the end of a journey. And that, my friends, is it.

Me waiting to go down the stairs before the ceremony

Me signing the register

Almost Over

2008-05-21T20:58:00.000-07:00

As I start this post, I've got 3 hours and 3 minutes before I finish my articling year. That might not be completely accurate - I technically finished articling when I left the office today. But I'm not eligible to take the oath to become a lawyer until midnight, so that's how I've set the countdown.

I started this blog in September 2005. So almost 3 years ago... I used to post pretty religiously, but lately not much at all. Actually, I'm a pretty crappy blogger lately. Weird, because this is the year I have to pay real money if I don't post enough. I was supposed to post 104 times this year and so far I'm at.... 8 posts? Maybe less.

Still, i have to make 104 or I owe my friend 150 bucks. I still say no problem. But enough about that...

The plan was to shut this blog down when I became a lawyer because this represented a certain time in my life: Law school and articling. I wanted a clean break with all that and I figured I could start a new blog while leaving this one.... dormant. Or something.

But now I don't know if I want to do that. So I'm going to take a poll... I'll go by the majority of votes I get by Sunday at noon, so just leave 'em in the comments section (I'll be surprised if I get even one....).

And about finishing articles, THANK GOD IT'S OVER. Now I can get on with life....

Finally!!!!

2008-05-01T22:04:00.000-07:00

A few days ago Rogers finally announced they're bringing the iPhone to Canada. I don't like Rogers, but I want an iPhone. I'm going to ditch my old phone and get one right away, which means transferring my number from Bell and probably paying to get out of my old contract. But if Rogers has found a way to get the iPhone while still scamming their customers out of every last possible penny, I might be pissed off enough not to get it. So I'm waiting for the details... and if it's reasonable I'm all over it. I'll keep you posted.

April: Hello and Goodbye

2008-04-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

So this is my first post in April and probably my last, cause it's 9:46pm on the last day of the month. Remember that New Year's bet with my friend that I had to post 104 blog entries in 2008? I'm not doing so good on that.

What I am making some progress on is finish up my articles. Not that I really have to do anything to accomplish that, other than go to work every day and watch time pass. But... in a few hours it'll be May, and at the end of May I'll finally be a real lawyer.

And then this blog is done. I should have finished it up last year when I was posting more so it would go out on a high note, instead of just kind of fizzling away. Hmmm maybe I should post more in May. Yeah I say that all the time.

But maybe I will...

I can still control people with my mind.

2008-03-06T12:48:00.001-08:00

Remember when I made the girl who lived upstairs from me move a few years back? No you probably don't. Okay here it is:

She was noisy, and we lived in a massive old house in the city that had been converted into a bunch of apartments. I was on the second floor and she was in the attic. When I say she was noisy, I mean she was really noisy. She would turn up the volume on her stereo so loud she wouldn't be able to hear me POUNDING on her door. Seriously.

So one day I was at my computer desk and I hear this banging coming from up there. It went on for a couple seconds but it was loud and annoying, like pretty much everything she did. I looked up at the ceiling and thought (actually I kind of yelled in my head - you know how it is): WHY DOESN'T SHE JUST MOVE?!

Then she stopped and I forgot about her. Later that day I was going out to my car, which was parked in the back so I had to go through the laundry room. I saw her there and said hi, and asked her what was up, and she says "I'm moving!". So I said to her "What? Really? Why?"

Okay this is the good part. She says something like: "I was on a stool banging in a nail to hang a picture this morning and I stopped and just decided I should move."

That, my friends, is how it went down.

The mind control thing didn't go off without any problems though. First, she didn't end up going anywhere for a few more months. And when she did move, she didn't go very far. Actually she didn't even leave the building. She moved from the apartment above me to the apartment below me, where she sat and chain smoked 18 hours a day. And the person who moved in to her old apartment upstairs was, arguably, even noisier than she was. So I moved.

Yeah. Me. I moved. But the apartment I had after that was the best one I ever lived in, so it wasn't a bad thing.

And now, when I really needed them, my mind control powers seem to be back up and running.

My roommate and I have been thinking about moving for a while, because we want to live closer to work, and for me, I want to live closer to the city. Our landlord had told me that if we wanted to break the lease he wouldn't charge us any money. But still, I felt bad about doing it, so I was holding off. Dallas (my roommate) and I had agreed to May 1st so I was thinking I would have to tell him soon.

A few days ago I was getting ready for work and I was thinking about the whole situation. I decided that what would be best would be if he had to move back in for some reason and kick us out.

Then I went to the office. And about 10:30 that morning I noticed I had a voicemail on my cell phone. It was my landlord. He and his girlfriend broke up. He needs to move back into his place. He's hoping May 1st will give us enough time to find something else.

This isn't made up. It's mind control, plain and simple.

My powers only seem to work for moving related matters. But still, if you want to make someone move, let me know.

In the meantime, I have to find a place to live. Dallas and I already agreed on the city and neighborhood. So now we just have to find something decent.

I'll keep you posted.

Leap Day

2008-02-29T20:17:00.000-08:00

February 29th. Only a few hours til March.

Aaaaaaaand it's my first post of the month. I know how insanely lame that is. But I make no apologies. All I can say is that one of these days I'm going to start posting a lot. That you can count on - because if I don't post 104 times in 2008, I owe my friend Eddy $100 bucks.

I'm not saying I won't be posting twice a day starting at some point in November, but I can say that, by December 31st of this year there will be 104 posts for 2008 on this blog or whatever new blog I start.

Predictive text word of the day

2008-01-27T09:22:00.000-08:00

My phone's predictive text program is.... not great. It's okay, but it's definitely not great. I mean, most the time it gives me the words I'm putting in there. It doesn't have the less common names of people or cities, which isn't surprising. What is surprising, though, is the more common words it misses and the alternative words it offers me.

Like the word "goodnight." All one word? Two words? I try to put it in there as all one word when I'm saying goodnight by text. When I first tried it, this is what it offered me instead:

Goodn4giv.

I never say goodn4giv.

There were other choices: Goodnighu; Goodnighv; Goodnigh8...

...but no Goodnight.

Trying to stay awake on a Friday night...

2008-01-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

Friday. 8:30pm. I'm at home, trying to think of something to say, with the sounds of Funky Cold Medina coming to me from the livingroom. Not by choice. It's important to say that. I mean about the music. When I came into the bedroom to do something on the computer I turned the TV to the 80s station. Aaaaaaand it blows. But I'm too lazy to change it, because then I'd have to get up.

I left for the office this morning at 6:15am. For me, that's amazing. Unheard of to the point where, before today, it hasn't ever happened. But if I don't put in some serious office time, I'm going to be insanely behind. And I'm helping prepare for a trial next week so that's taking up a lot of time. And it's the reason why I'm going in tomorrow. The thing about that though, is that tomorrow's Saturday. This is something else that's never happened. I mean, Saturday has happened, but not with me at the office.

Compared to the firms my friends work at though, it sounds like I've got it pretty good. For them weekend work is the norm, and this is my first Saturday in the office since I started articling last May.

This post is so boring I can barely read over it to make sure it makes sense.

Video of the Day

2008-01-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

This Blog Will End

2008-01-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

It will. Of this I am certain.

In May I'm starting a new stage in my life - a stage where, for the first time in this century, I will be in no way associated with the word student. That calls for big blog changes.

So when I finish articles, this blog finishes... uh... getting new posts. There has to be a better way of saying that. Hmm...

But relax. I'm going to stay true to my new years resolution/bet and post at least 104 times in 2008. How? To represent this new and final stage in my life I'm going to be launching a... wait for it... a

NEW BLOG

This blog will take me into the new frontier, letting me make a clean break with student life and containing it all in one nice, neat package right here on these pages. And I probably won't wait til May to launch the new blog - it's going to be a transition thing. Like changing aquarium water. You have to do it a bit at a time.

Stay tuned.

Ahhh and before I go, some of you might not understand what the hell I'm talking about with the student thing, especially since I graduated law school last year. Well in BC (and the rest of Canada) we have this thing after law school called the articling year. During the year we have to pass the bar exam and put in about 10 months working at a law firm. Articled students "help" lawyers. And it might seem like real legal work, and there might be a paycheck involved, but at the end of the day articled students are still STUDENTS. I'm still a student.

'til May 22nd.

The Pact

2008-01-12T16:39:00.000-08:00

Continuing a fine tradition of doing stupid things, I made a pact with a few friends last week not to have any alcohol til September 1st. We all have some fitness related goals this year, and we figured no alcohol was a good way to get started. Remember Dry '05? Yeah it's that all over again. Good times.

Because that might not have been dumb enough, I made a further pact with myself to exist on lean meats, fruits and vegetabes, healthy fats, protein powder, and to stay away from flour and refined sugar for six weeks.

Alcohol I can live without. But no pizza for 6 weeks? I don't see how that's possible. I might not do it for 6 weeks - a few weeks of insanity followed by a reasable eating plan with a cheat meal every once and a while would probably be okay. Meh... we'll see how it goes.

At least that last pact was with myself and there's no penalty for changing the plan. But seriously, why do I do this crap?

Oh yeah... best shape ever by July 31st!!!

I'll keep you posted.

2007 = Done

2007-12-31T21:41:00.000-08:00

2007 has been a CRAP year for blog posting. I'll admit that right now. But hey, it's going to get better. I made some new years resolutions and one of them was to have at least 104 posts in 2008. If I don't I have to give my friend $100... maybe $150... can't remember. Anyway it's written down at home - we figured there should be a financial penalty for failed resolutions this year. So be it.

I'm in LA for new years. We went to Catalina today. It was great.

But we drank beer all day. And now... I'm... tired...

Must stay up til midnight... what time is it?

Groan.

Happy New Years.

I made it...

2007-11-30T21:18:00.000-08:00

With hours to spare, I've posted something on my blog in November, so as to avoid the first postless month. One of these days I'm going to start posting more, and... uhhhh..... okay okay forget it. Who believes that anymore? Nobody. But I'll show you... I'll show you all...

One of these days...

Thank You For Your Patience

2007-10-16T19:48:00.001-07:00

I hear that a lot lately. My trip to LA this weekend involved a traffic delay getting to the airport (which made me miss my original flight), a luggage delay at the other end, and a plane delay on my return flight. It’s written on signs. It comes out of intercoms. It’s spoken by smiling airline staff.

Thank you for your patience.

I have no patience. Don’t thank me, because I don’t have it. I don’t. It’s like thanking someone for holding the door open who hasn’t, isn’t, and will never hold the door open.

They should thank us for holding in our rage. That would make a lot more sense.

Thank you for holding in your rage.

I like that a lot better.

You Might Recognize this Jacket from the Hit TV Show Entourage

2007-10-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

I uttered that phrase many, many times yesterday. We went to “It’s a Wrap” in LA, which is a production wardrobe sales store. Basically the studios buy brand name clothes for their productions, then when they don’t need them anymore they sell them to this store, which in turn sells ‘em to us. There are labels on all the clothes that say what production they came from.

So I got this Adidas track jacket that was worn on Entourage. You know what this means – Now I have to watch every episode of Entourage until I find my jacket. But that’s okay. It’s a good show.

The last day of September... the first post in September

2007-09-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy month. I haven't posted anything. I'm a bad, bad blogger. But in October, things are going to change....

Ramdom stuff....

2007-08-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today is my birthday. The big 3-3. Not that big a deal as far as bithdays go. The next BIG birthday I'll have will be... uh... no I'm not going to think about that. Anyway, it's my birthday. I googled the phrase "33 year old," to see what other 33 year olds are doing out there, and the sense I get is that everyone is really.... grown up.

And speaking of growing up, I am officially and completely NO LONGER A STUDENT. Well, my title at work is articling student, but I now hold a job and get paid. About 2 weeks ago I got the letter saying I passed the bar, so worries in that department are o-v-e-r.

Aaaaaaaand I moved this weekend. Now I live in Abbotsford. Yeah, Abbotsford. Not Vancouver, but Abbotsford. Interesting. It's going to be an adjustment. Hmm.... that's such an automatic thing to say. "It's going to be an adjustment." People have said that to me so much, I'm basically just repeating it now everytime I tell someone I moved here. "I moved to Abbotsford. It's going to be an adjustment."

I really am going to miss the city. I mean, I really, really am going to miss the city. But, there are advantages to living out here too. Less traffic. Short commute to work. A wayyy nice place for less rent. In suite washer/dryer. Dishwasher. Big on Burgers.

Speaking of Big on Burgers, if you live anywhere NEAR Abbotsford and eat meat, you should check out Big on Burgers. It's on South Fraser Way in Clearbrook and they make what are probably the best burgers I've ever had. Seriously, they do. You'll have to wait a couple minutes because they make them fresh when you order, but it's worth it.

And speaking of hamburgers, I need to get my ass to the gym. It's been a long time. I've been trying to do some running, but that's my only exercise lately. It pretty much blows, because I'm feeling like a big ol' slug these days. I think I should make some birthday resolutions to motivate myself. I want to do something big this year, in the physical/athletic sense. Any ideas? Does anybody still read this blog?

Okay I have to get out of bed. I have an apartment full of stuff we randomly threw in here yesterday... good times.

3 days to go...

2007-07-24T18:06:00.000-07:00

Less than 3 days til it's all over. We had the first bar exam today, and that covered commercial law, company law, real estate, and estates... not too bad overall. Could have been worse!

So Friday at noon is the date and time it all comes screeching to a halt. Then a weekend of... whatever comes my way... before heading to the office at 8am Monday.

I never did do that bar course countdown.... seems a bit pointless now. Maybe I'll do a countdown to the end of articles. They end next May 22nd.... how many days is that?

I'm too lazy and brain dead to figure that out right now.... but catch me next week. The much anticipated blog overhaul is coming.

Serioulsy. One of these days... seriously. Wait - I'm not promising to do that next week. Just to be clear on that...

Less than 3 weeks

2007-07-08T22:26:00.000-07:00

Yep, three weeks from now I'll be a free man. I know I've said it before, but this time it's true. There are two bar exams at the end of the course, and the last one is on the 27th.

After that I'm a regular working guy.

Can't wait....

This Week in '89

2007-07-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

Check this out - the top ten songs this week in 1989. And they have You Tube videos of all of 'em...

Click Here

Laundry Time

2007-07-04T08:11:00.001-07:00

I hate doing laundry so I leave it as long as I can. I can usually get by for about two weeks, but there always comes a time when I realize I can't put it off any longer.

And for me that time comes on the day I have to wear my silk Scooby-Doo boxer shorts. That's my underwear of last resort. Yeah it's silk, and as far as fabrics go, silk is pretty soft. But there's no give right? I mean, it's silk. There's no give. Whoever thought silk would make good underwear was on crack.

Wearing my silk Scooby-Doo boxer shorts all day gives me the motivation I need to do laundry when I get home.

In tuna news, I had another can today. This time it was lemon and pepper. It was so much better than the teriyaki, and it didn't look like cat food. I noticed there was no picture of a fork on the label. I think they have to put the fork on the teriyaki lable because, when you open it, you have questions. Lemmon and pepper is the best yet.

And happy 4th of July to the Americans out there!

Kid Video

2007-07-03T23:03:00.000-07:00

Oh MAN I loved this show when I was a kid... but it does look a bit dated now. Definitely from the 80s!

The quality on the video isn't that great, and by the end the audio doesn't totally match the video, but check it out...

Don't judge me.

Long Weekend of Studying

2007-07-02T20:07:00.000-07:00

It's Monday night and I just realized I haven't left the apartment since Friday at noon. So lame...

And I don't know what to blog about because nothing has happened since my last post. But I'm still feeling a bit guilty for not posting anything for a month.

I saw a show on TLC last night about primordial dwarfism. Interesting...

Ok. I have an assessment due tomorrow. That's one of those things where if we fail, we fail the whole course. Good times...

Happy Canada Day

2007-07-01T20:23:00.001-07:00

Again, I spent the day studying. I got a lot done, but I need to do a lot more. Feelin' okay now though.

I had tuna today. Have you seen those little cans of tuna at the supermarket that are mixed with stuff? You just eat it right out of the can. I bought one lemon pepper, 2 teriyaki, a Thai chilli, and some other ones I don't really remember right now.

So I tried out one of the teriyaki ones. I opened it up, looked at it, and my first thought was "how is this not cat food?" Seriously, that's what I thought, word for word. It looked like Fancy Feast, it smelled like Fancy Feast, it had the same little tin can as Fancy Feast... I didn't think I'd be able to get it down. And I read the label on the tin very, very carefully about three times.

While it didn't specifically deny that it was cat food, it did present itself as designed for human consumption. There was even a picture of a fork diggin' in to it. And cats don't use forks, so...

This was actually a part of my thought process. "Cats don't use forks. This is for humans."

But you know... it tasted good. I mean, if that's what cat food tastes like then I don't feel that sorry for them. Not totally sure if I'm going to buy teriyaki next time, but I'll let you know.

You care right? Tell me you care.

Oh yeah, happy Canada Day.

3rd Post in June...

2007-06-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

So this probably isn't the least-blogged month ever. There probably aren't any months less blogged than this, but there are probably a couple other 3 post months out there.

Hey check this out - Go to the music store in iTunes, type in "bachelor's pad" in the search bar, and then look at the bachelor's pad compilation under iTunes Essentials. So good... I already bought the first 30 songs.

I spent the day today studying. I could tell you about it, but I don't have any reason to bore you to death. Basically there was a lot of note typing and indexing. Enough said...

Mediation

2007-06-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

On Thursday and Friday we did a unit on mediation. It's a light reading unit, which is good because it followed corporations and commercial law, which were both heavy reading units. Aaaaand we're starting with family law next week - more heavy reading. This'll be my first exposure to family law because I didn't take it in law school. I was going to take it in the second semester of third year, but it was on Mondays at 9am. This would have ruined my 3 and a half day weekend, so I dropped it.

Mediation is fairly interesting. I took a course on dispute resolution in my second year of law school, and it's something I think I'd be happy doing. But... it could be a problem for me dealing with people who are fighting day in and day out. I'd probably go all Rodney King on them (can't we all just get along?) and ruin my reputation.

So, it's Friday night, and I'm all psyched up to do a bunch of work this weekend. I'm a little behind... not much, but a little. If I don't catch up this weekend, I'm not going to catch up because there's not enough time.

Wish me luck.

Checking In

2007-06-28T22:07:00.000-07:00

If I'm going to have a blog I should probably post something once in a while. And it's been a long time, so I figured this would be a good time....

The last month has been insanely insane. And by that, I mean crazy. I'm just finishing up week 6 of the bar course, and 4 weeks from tomorrow is the last bar exam - there are 2 - one on Tuesday of week 10 and the other on Friday of week 10.

Aside from the bar exams, there are 4 assessments we have to complete - if we fail one of those we could fail the whole thing. Yeah, there's some pressure there. The 4 assessments are distributed somewhat unevenly throughout the 10 weeks. The first one isn't until week 6 - so we just had it Monday. The next one is Tuesday (good thing it's too rainy to have Canada Day fireworks).

The whole experience actually hasn't been too bad. The reading is intense - and keeping up with it pretty much sucks up every evening. But there's good stuff too - I've met a lot of great people, and I know some people from law school so it's good hanging out with them. There are 6 people from my original first year small group in this session...

Ok well I'm going to keep this post short. I always think of posts as something that takes a long time. If I can limit it to 5 minutes, maybe I'll do it more. Well see... anyway things should get back to 'normal' after the bar course is over.

Catching Up

2007-05-31T13:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, yeah, I know... it's been a long time since I posted anything. And this post isn't going to be a big one. Just saying hi, saying I'm alive, and all that.

I have a lot of pictures to post. I'll do that one of these days...

Speaking of pictures, I dropped my camera a few weeks ago and it stopped working. I took it into the repair place and paid 50 bucks for them to send it to Toronto. Excessive? Yeah I think so too.

So I heard back from them yesterday, and apparently it's so broken it's not worth fixing. Lame... I dropped it on a dirt path on the side of a mountain. Ok maybe there were a few rocks... but broken beyone repair? Lame... so I have to buy a new camera.

One major excuse for my long absense is the bar course. I'm going to call it the bar course so everyone who's not a lawyer or tying to become one knows what I'm talking about. It's a lot of work. A lot of work... More on that later.

I'm going to do something with this blog one of these days. I'm not in law school anymore so the heading is dated... but a new heading takes time.... hmm.....

Paris Hilton quote of the week. When she was reporting for her jail time:

"I'm really scared but I'm ready to do this... And I hope that I'm an example to other young people."

I hope she's not. I really really hope she's not.

Hawk Release

2007-05-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

Check it out...

Advice for first years

2007-05-08T12:06:00.000-07:00

I know I blogged about my exams and all that, but I feel like I need to do one last post about law school before I move on and start blogging about my articling year (starting May 22nd).

So with that in mind, this post is dedicated to things I have learned in law school that aren’t the law. This is for anyone getting ready to go to law school, and more specifically anyone who’s getting ready to go to law school at UBC.

1. Break Situation: Some profs manage their time a lot better than others do. I’m not trying to come down on anybody here: Teaching law students is a hard job. But some of them get behind and then get to urge to catch up by blowing through break time. There is an offer out there you have to watch out for. A prof might say this: “Would you rather have a break now or skip the break and leave a bit early today?” This is a trap. Do not go with the latter option. There are a few people in every class who try to speak for everybody, and these people always seem to like the latter option. Try to resist. Chances are you’ll miss your break and hey, you’re not going anywhere early.

I’m not saying this is always the case, but in my experience that is what usually happens. You have to know the prof. Some can be trusted with this. Most can’t. Beware.

2. Food Situation: As I’ve said before, Candida’s is not a particularly well-stocked eatery. It is possible to find good food there, but there are a few things you need to know. If you’re heading there after 1:30 looking for a sandwich, it’s not gonna happen. All the good stuff is gone by 1:00 most days. Proceed directly to the SUB. Also there is no ATM in the law building. I don’t know why. Although Candida will probably spot you a cup of coffee, it might get awkward asking her to spot you a full meal. Again, proceed to the SUB.

If Candida’s is closed (it closes at 3), there are vending machines in the interaction area. The change machine has been broken for two years. Either that or it’s newly broken every time I’ve tried to use it. So bring change or go to the SUB. And don’t expect to find anything in those machines that resembles healthy eating. If you want healthy, head over to the lower level of the SUB. There’s a good sandwich place and those can be made up all nice and healthy.

3. Bathroom Situation: This one is for the guys. Watch out for the sink furthest to the right in the lower level bathroom (where the lockers are). If you turn the knob what might seem like a reasonable amount, water will shoot out at a very unreasonable rate, and some may or may not hit the front of your pants. If you have to use that sink, use extreme caution.

4. Laptop Situation: I don’t know exactly how many students bring laptops to class these days, but it could be as high as 80 percent. Some classrooms have power at every seat, but a lot don’t. If your battery can’t handle it, either get there early or bring a power cord. I used to bring a power cord in second year before I got my new battery, and it was so so so useful. Power cords are great.

And sometimes a bit scary. I don’t pretend to know a lot about electricity, but I’m fairly certain a standard power outlet wasn’t meant to have four power cords coming out of it with twenty laptops plugged in. But I haven’t seen any fires, so maybe it’s okay.

Ok well that’s my fairly useless advice to new law students. I guess there’s a lot of stuff to be said about grades and jobs and all that, but you’re going to have too many people talking to you about that as it is, so I’ll leave it alone (don’t believe the hype!!).

And what are the chances that any first years are even going to read this? Did I write this for nothing? I probably did.

Seriously though, it’s hard to believe it’s finally over. I still think one of the hardest parts about law school is getting in, but there is a whole lot of studying that needs to be done if you want to survive. And first year really is a trip, but completely doable. Again: Don’t believe the hype.

Thanks to everyone out there who made law school a great experience!! This includes law friends, and profs, as well as non-law friends and family that have supported me over the past three years. And to those profs out there who might have made it a little less great than it could have been, thanks for giving me something to complain about!

I’m not going to miss going out to UBC most days, but I am going to miss three day weekends and the ability to take a personal day whenever it seemed warranted. And it seemed warranted with even the weakest, lamest of excuses (I’m good with myself that way).

Okay, next stop PLTC and the articling year. You think you’ve seen complaining on this blog so far? Just wait...

Back to Vancouver... for a day

2007-05-07T14:45:00.000-07:00

I’m on the plane heading back to Vancouver right now, trying to kill time because I tried napping and I couldn’t do it. I don’t mind flying: Although I generally hate heights, I don’t have any problem with airplanes and I even love roller coasters. I guess it’s a highly selective and specialized fear.

Because dams are another story altogether. I met up with Matt for a few days last week in Vegas and we went out to the Hoover Dam. Very cool, but also very terrifying. It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a dam, and it kinda reminded me of the last time. My parents took me to the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State when I was about nine and I cried til they took me off of it. I didn’t actually weep uncontrollably this time, but I wasn’t getting close to the edge either.

Ok… two hours of flight time left. What to talk about now…

I also met up with Karen, Megan, Ange, and Clair (who I used to go to law school with) and we hung out a bit. The first night I was there we went to the Folies Bergere, which was a total blast and a great way to get a taste of old Vegas. The next day I didn’t see them during the day, but that night I went over to their hotel room at about 1:30am for a drink or two before heading out to a club in the hotel. Ok well that was the plan. In reality one or two drinks turned into many, many, drinks and I think we finally made it downstairs at 4am or something crazy like that. I didn’t even make the club: Just played some quarter slots and called it a night.

Matt and I went to see Mamma Mia while we were there, which was awesome. His friend Clark is in the show and we had great seats. Really, really great seats. I would highly recommend seeing that show if you’re going to Vegas anytime soon.

As I said before, I forgot my stupid camera cable so I haven’t been able to download any pictures. This really turned out to be a pain in the ass because I’ve had to worry about having enough memory to hold everything. Not too hard with pictures, but I’ve been shooting some videos too and that eats up memory pretty fast.

And SPEAKING of video, I have a really really great one to post as soon as I get off this plane. My friend Alex volunteers at a bird sanctuary and yesterday he took me along to release some birds that were ready to go back into the wild. After spending an hour or so in a couple huge cages full of hawks (and a couple turkey vultures), we drove around releasing nine hawks in different neighborhoods around LA. I got lots of pictures but I also got a video of him releasing a red tailed hawk right under the Hollywood sign. Amazing.

Ok pretty soon this is going to turn into one of those really long posts that people see and think “this post is too long to read.” Do people do that? I think some do. I do. Sometimes… Anyway, I have one more LA story that needs to be told before I finish up.

The first night I got there we were out at a bar having a couple drinks. I was up at the bar ordering a drink and I looked to my right. It was Michelle Stafford. Ordering a drink. Seriously. I had to look at her like three times to confirm because it was just too good to be true. I can’t think of many famous people I’d want to meet more than I wanted to meet Michelle Stafford. In case someone out there reading this doesn’t watch Young and the Restless (crazy to think but apparently some people don’t), she plays Phyllis on the show.

Anyway I was a mess. I could barely order my drink. My friend Jack was a bit more collected – he went right over to her and started talking to her and THEN he introduced me. I don’t even remember what I said but I do remember that she was really cool. Warm, friendly, and all that.

Ok enough. But seriously, Michelle Stafford. She was on my 2006 list of 76 favorite things. Crappily, I did not have my camera.

But I do have a lot of pictures of other stuff, and I’ll post them soon. No promises as to exactly when, but soon.

Stay tuned.

No pictures... but a good excuse

2007-05-02T17:06:00.000-07:00

I didn't bring the cable I need to download pictures from my camera. I grabbed a cable that looked like the right one before I left, but it turns out the cable I have is to connect my phone to the computer. And they're slightly different sizes, so...

No pictures. But I'm taking lots, and I'll post some of 'em when I get back.

Vegas has been great. Tomorrow - back to LA.

Life after finals....

2007-05-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning at 7:41. Which pretty much sucks, because I have nothing to do this morning and I stayed up til 1:30 thinking I could sleep in. But I guess I’m getting used to being up at that time, so I woke up early. While sucking badly in the lack of sleep department, waking up early has given me a chance to post something on the ol’ blog. I’m fairly sure I haven’t done that since the day of my last final so it’s probably time for an update.

I think I’ve talked enough about finals. My last one was last Thursday and Friday afternoon I got on a plane and came down to LA. I’ve been hanging out, seeing friends, having some beers, watching the playoffs, and basically doing as little as possible. Yesterday I drove out to Palm Springs to have dinner with some friends and then stayed out here at my parents’ time share. Today I’m going to Vegas to meet my friend Matt and some people from school. I’ll be there til Thursday and then either stay in Palm Springs again Thursday night or go back to LA (depending on someone else’s schedule!). Aaaaand I was supposed to go back to Vancouver Friday but I changed my ticket so now I don’t have to go back til Monday.

It’s so great having nothing to do until May 22nd. This is the last time I’m going to have a big random chunk of time off. I know I complain about school, but there are perks. Definitely perks…

My post-California phone bill is going to be insanity. And by insanity, I mean CRAZY insanity. I’ve been trying to limit my phone time but man, that bill is going to be rough. Not that my phone bill is ever what it’s supposed to be. With the plan and all the extras it should be about 58 bucks a month, and I’m nowhere near that most months. You know trouble’s a brewin’ when they send you the bill in a business size envelope, and that happens a little too often these days.

Okay well it’s time to roll out of bed and grab some food. I’ll try to post some pics in Vegas.

5 Down: Administrative Law

2007-04-26T13:39:00.000-07:00

What would make this class easier: I don't even know where to start. More legislation? More guidance from the Supreme Court? What would really make this class easier is if they abolished all tribunal and boards and made everybody go to court for everything. The justice system would collapse, but this class would be a lot easier.

The exam: 4 questions - we had to pick three of 'em - 3 hour exam

Worth: 100% of the final grade.

I don't get that stressed about exams. I hate all the studying, but I'm pretty relaxed when I'm doing it and I'm not really nervous on test day. Admin was a massive exception. Last night around midnight I become convinced that I couldn't pass this test. Really, really convinced. Happily after thinking that the next few pages of what I was reading cleared a lot of things up and I got over it. But I have to admit, I had some serious concerns. And this morning when they were passing out the exams, I was nervous.

And now that I've seen the exam, it's clear that the nervousness and self-doubt was completely justified. Question 1? Insanity. Some people I know looked at question 1 and decided to do it last after they'd built up their confidence. Not me: I jumped right into it. And 45 minutes into the exam I became convinced that what I was writing about had nothing to do with the question. Not a good feeling, but by the end of the question the panic had been replaced with a general feeling of incompetence, so I'd call that an inprovement. The next two questions were a lot better; I seemed to have a better idea of what I was talking about. At least I thought so.

Overall? Tough to say. Definitely in the vicinity of trainwreck, but not complete carnage. I'd call it a derailment at slow speed with some injuries but no fatalities. In other words, it could have been worse.

What I need to say is this: Admin law is the source of all evil.

Next exam: That is IT for law school. As of noon today (ok 12:15 with reading time) I am no longer a law student. And I have no more exams. Unless you count the bar exam at the end of July. But I'll be getting paid for that, so...

Gut feeling: No way - I'm not even thinking about the bar exam yet. That would lead to insanity.

4 Down: Professional Responsibility

2007-04-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

What would make this class easier: If there were no ethical standards guiding lawyers [insert lawyer jokes here]. Seriously though, it's surprising how easy it is for lawyers to get in trouble.

The exam: 4 questions, 5 pages. It was a 2 hour exam, and like usual 2 hours felt like about 30 minutes.

Worth: 100% of the final grade.

The exam wasn't that bad. The questions were about lawyers and clients behaving badly and we had to advise on what they should do using the Professional Conduct Handbook and the case law. More than most law school finals, there was a lot of opportunity to ramble on about abstract principles. So kind of like a history exam.

I took way too long on the first question (this happens to me often). The exam started at 9 and I finished question 1 (of 4 roughly equally weighted questions) at 9:50. Question 2 at 10:15. Question 3 at 10:45. Question 4 at 11. My answer for question 4 isn't going to net me a lot of points, but overall I should do okay.

Next exam: Administrative law tomorrow at 9am

Gut feeling: Thinking about the exam is, in itself, a gut feeling. A freshly-sucker-punched-in-the-gut feeling. But you know what? After this it's ALL OVER. So how bad can it be. Trainwreck? Pronbably. Just have to pass...

3 Down: Immigration Law

2007-04-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

What would make this class easier: If people didn't immigrate to Canada ever.

The exam: 2 questions, 2 hours. One about a family class sponsorship and one about a refugee claim.

Worth: There were options for this class: 3 hour exam worth 100 percent, 2 hour exam worth 66 percent and one assignment, or 1 hour exam worth 33 percent and two assignments. I took the 2 hour exam and did one assignment in February.

They had two rooms: 1 hour and 2 hour exam people in one room, and 3 hour exam people in the other room. After an hour the guy says "ok 1 hour people pens down and clear out quietly for the 2 hour people because they're still writing." So everybody in the room except me gets up to leave.

Basically I sat in a classroom by myself for the last half of the exam. Strange feeling? Yes. But it went pretty well. I'd have to say I think so far I've done the best in immigration. Probably a good thing because I want to practice in that area at some point. Although I want to practice in wills and estates too, and I'm pretty sure I sucked on that one.

Next exam: Professional Responsibility on Wednesday

Gut feeling: No clue. I think it will be ok? It's only a 2 credit course, but there was a crapload of reading to do. Then again, I didn't do it. Hm... I've got a really good CAN.

I'm not doin so good Pearl...

2007-04-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Click the link to see the video:

The Landlord

I embedded the video into the blog for a couple days, but the automatic start is too annoying

2 Down: Succession

2007-04-18T13:01:00.000-07:00

What would make this class easier: If people didn't die.

The exam: 2 questions that were really really long. The exam was 7 pages long - each question was worth 50 marks.

Worth: 100% of the final grade

Yesterday when I was thinking about today's succession exam, I was pretty confident. I'm glad I didn't know then what I know now. It's not that the exam was that hard in terms of subject matter. It was just... well... hard to finish. Each question was about 3 pages long, and the pages were full of scenarios, developments, etc. in the lives of fictional people who had really screwed up wills. My job? Sort it all out!

I'm fairly confident that if I sorted it out in real life the way I sorted it out on the exam there would be complaints to the Law Society, possible disciplinary action, and massive payouts from my professional liability insurance. Happily, in real life I'd have more than an hour and a half to work on each problem.

I think I probably did okay on the exam. But in law school, you never can tell. I don't think I aced it, but I don't think it was a complete trainwreck either.

Next exam: Immigration on Friday morning.

Gut feeling: I should probably be a lot more worried about this exam than I am. But with the rest of today to study and all day tomorrow, I don't think it'll be that bad.

1 Down: International Trade Law

2007-04-17T12:05:00.000-07:00

What would make this class easier: If there was no WTO or NAFTA, because we spent pretty much the whole term talking about that.

No. Wait... If there was no WTO or NAFTA every country would have to negotiate individual trade agreements with everybody they wanted to trade with. International trade law would be a mess, and most importantly, so would the exam. Ok I take it back. We'll keep the WTO and NAFTA. For now.

The exam: 2 questions - 1 long fact pattern worth 60 marks, the other, which was made up of about 11 short answer questions, was worth 40 marks. 2 hours long.

Worth: 100% of the final grade

This exam was just like the April 2005 exam. I mean, literally, it was just like it. I haven't checked yet, but i'm pretty sure most of the 11 short answer questions in part 2 were taken from the 2005 exam. It was so similar I had a moment of... something... where I thought something had gone very wrong and I had just been handed a copy of an old exam instead of the current exam. But then I checked the front page: April 2007.

The first question was pretty close to the 2005 exam too... I took way, way too long on the first one, but made up time at the end by making my short answers really short.

Next exam: Succession tomorrow morning.

Gut feeling: Not a trainwreck. I've already spent two days studying. But there's a lot of studying to be done today.

No updates

2007-04-16T02:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok I know I haven't been updating like I promised, and I have a good reason: I thought daily updates would be a good way to make sure I made a lot of progress. Seeing it written down would be a good thing. Now I know that if I was to give daily updates, it would be almost impossible to live in denial. So I'm not doing it.

But, it HAS been a while, so here's where I'm at:

Burnt out.

But more specifically, here's where I'm at:

I've been studying for succession and international trade, and I think I could pretty much finish off either one of 'em without too much more studying. This is the exam schedule:

Tuesday the 17th: International trade law
Wednesday the 18th: Succession
Friday the 20th: Immigration law
Wednesday the 25: Professional responsibility
Thursday the 26: Administrative law

Tuesday's not a problem, Wednesday probably isn't a problem, Friday could be tough, because all my studying has to be Wednesday after 12:00 and Thursday. The good thing is Immigration is a short exam... I'm only doing a day and a half of studying for professional responsibility, but it's only a 2 credit course so I won't need more than that (in theory). Administrative law. Problem. 3 days of studying. That might not be enough. Problem. Admin = torture.

That's the update. I don't know when the next one will be. Maybe a quick one after the international trade final. Maybe.

The promised update

2007-04-10T00:51:00.000-07:00

And it will be a quick one:

Finals: It's not good, but it's easily doable. I've got all the CAN's I need, I've got some good notes... for some of the coures.... so I'm not too worried.

Phone: Found it! In the car.... thanks for the emails, phone calls, and cards of support.

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

2007-04-08T16:44:00.000-07:00

THE GOOD

A friend of mine was over on Friday night and I was telling him about my dvd player and how great it was because I had had it since 1999 and I'd never had a problem with it. We were watching DVD's at the time. 30 minutes later the DVD player decided to never work again.

So yesterday I went out to Best Buy to get another DVD player. And I was pretty proud of the fact that I didn't blow the budget - although I had been tempted to get a Blu-Ray player, because I figure that's what everybody's going to have in a few years anyway, I went with the economical HDMI player for 99 bucks. The guy said it was the best one they had if you just want to play DVD's, so it all worked out.

But then I bought the tv. 37 inch high definition LCD. And I had to get a high definition cable box, so I went with the PVR (which is really cool so far). Okay so it wasn't a cheap trip. But really, we all know that tv is pretty much all I've got going on in life, so I should have a nice one right?

And with a no interest payment plan, it's not going to be that bad....

THE BAD

I can't find my stupid phone. I think I might have lost it, which is ridiculous because I just got it. I really don't want to buy a new one. Like, I really, really don't. If I have to, I'm not going to do anything dramatic like set myself on fire (as I almost did yesterday when the Maple Leafs beat Montreal, thereby securing themselves a place in the playoffs), but I'm really not going to be happy about it. Actually that's not true about the playoffs. They're not in. But I thought they were. So I almost set myself on fire for nothing...

Aaaaaand I told my grandma I'd call her today to check up on her (because my parents are in England), so I'm looking like the negligent grandson at this point too.

Hey maybe it's in the car.... hmm

THE UGLY

Finals. I need to study a lot. And by a lot, I mean a lot. From now on I'm going to post a study update every day. Usually I don't make blog promises, because I never keep them, but I think this trainwreck needs to be documented.

Stay tuned....

Breaking News: Darren Gets Second Friend

2007-04-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

April 1, 2007

Vancouver, BC: Darren added a friend to his myspace profile on Sunday, when Matt accepted a friend request he had sent out the night before. This brings his total number of friends to two, and means the awkward and ungrammatical statement: "Darren has 1 friends" will no longer be displayed on his profile.

A brief ceremony has been planned for Sunday evening to mark the occasion. Darren is especially proud of this achievement, taking a break from his busy tv-watching schedule to provide the following statement:

"I'm really stoked. And to think I've only been on myspace for 2 and a half years. That's just slightly less than 1 friend a year. Not too shabby."

A third friend request was also sent out on Saturday evening, but no response had been received at press time on Sunday.

Dead Phone

2007-03-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

I went out for dinner last night with a group of people I go to law school with (soon I'll be able to say WENT to law school with). The evening, which was to be the last night of my cell phone's life, started out great with dinner at Raga on Broadway. The food was great, the company was great, etc. etc. Dinner ended around 7 or 7:30 and a small group of us ended up at Earls for post-dinner drinks.

At some point during the night I was standing at the sink in the bathroom and I got a text message or something so I opened it up (it's a flip phone) and turned to leave. The phone slipped out of my hand and landed on the hard tile floor, which really shouldn't be that big a deal because it's not like I haven't dropped it on tile, pavement, hardwood, or any other number of hard surfaces in the two years I've had it. But I guess this was one more fall than the poor little guy could handle, because when I picked it up the screen was dead. The light was on, but there was no display on the inside or the little outside window of the flip part.

Basically, the phone was broken. I got back to the table and tried turning it off and on about 5 times, pressing a lot of buttons, shaking it a bit, but nothing worked. Then I decided, and this seemed like a really good idea at the time, that it probably just needed to be smashed into the corner of the table a couple times. One jolt had broken it, so it seemed logical that a couple more hard jolts would fix it right up.

So that's when it really broke. I guess I maybe hit it a little harder than I should have, because when I was finished the phone looked like this:

As you can see the phone was pretty banged up new damage aside. I know that crack wasn't there after the bathroom fall, but I'm not sure when the side button made its exit. Anyway, I murdered my phone. I could tell it had power because the keypad lit up, but aside from that the screen was dead.

And I have to say, I'm pretty attached to my phone. So much so that when I woke up (read came to) this morning, I was acutely aware that something important was missing from my life. The first thing I did was head on down to the Bell Mobility store on Robson with my murdered phone to figure out what to do with it.

I really didn't expect much in the way of fixing the old phone, and even before last night's developments I'd wanted a new one. But I was hoping they could at least pull the numbers off my address book (Bell doesn't use SIM cards). Anyway, turns out they couldn't, so if I had your number before, it's fairly safe to assume I don't have it now. If you could email it to me that would be great. You can text it too, but put your name in there because a text from 778-123-4567 that just says "here's my number" doesn't help me out a lot.

So back to the phone. Contrary to what might seem fair and reasonable, my warranty did not cover my attempts at repairing the phone. It didn't matter because the warranty had expired anyway. But when the Bell guy was setting up my new phone he said (and later reiterated): "The warranty on this phone does not cover smashing it against things." Noted.

I ended up with a Motorola KRZR phone, which I have to say is pretty cool. It plays MP3's, can take pictures and video with sound, and lets me back up my address book to the computer. I can also take any song I have on my computer and turn it into a ringtone, so I've been doing that today instead of studying.

Check it out...

So hopefully I can get 2 years out of this one too. Because really, 2 years is pretty good. I was just getting to the point where people were saying "your phone sucks you need a new one," so it happened at the right time.

Alright it's time to study some... uh.... stuff. Tomorrow is April. That means exam season is here, so look for more blogging than usual as I think of things to do to avoid hitting the books.

Law Prom Pics

2007-03-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

We had our class of '07 grad dinner and dance last Friday at the Four Seasons downtown. After spending a week procrastinating I'm finally posting some pics.

Some of the pics were blurry because the lighting was low, but here's what I got. Email me if you want a full size copy of any of 'em.

I'd put captions on but do you really need to read what I have to say about each one? Nah...

4 weeks and counting...

2007-03-14T19:07:00.000-07:00

Four weeks from tomorrow is the last day of classes. I can't wait. Even though 2 of my finals are going to be painful. Very, very painful.

Administrative law is killing me. Killing me. Here's how a typical lecture goes:

The cases say the law on this issue is A, B, and C. We think this is a lie. We don't understand it. Nobody does. Just try to know everything so you can argue something. We don't know what standards apply in any given situation. But it will be on the exam.

Uhh... help?!

Professional responsibility: It's probably hilarious that I would be worried about this exam. But in my defense, it's hard to get anything from the classes. We just sit around in groups and talk about problems that we don't get the answers for. I should probably buy the materials and do some of the readings...

Immigration: I like immigration. It's one of only 2 courses this term that is somewhat interesting. And I'm exercising my assignment options so the exam is only going to be an hour. The other class I'm fairly interested in is...

Succession: Wills and estates. 3 hour exam. I haven't done a lot of the reading, but it shouldn't be too bad.

International trade law: It's boring. I get bored when I'm there. Quickly... and it's stuff that I should in theory find interesting. But I have a hard time getting through it. Happily it's fairly easy stuff, so I'll be able to pull it together...

So I wouldn't say things are looking any worse this term than any other term. And, for March 14, I'm probably a lot less stressed than I have been by this point in other semesters. Probably has something to do with me not having any papers...

We had our grad dinner and banquet on Friday and I've got some pictures to post... I'd do it now but I'm in class and the pictures are on my desktop. So... I'll do it later. Maybe tonight? Hard to say... soon though.

It might not rain Thursday...

2007-03-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

I know, it's hard to believe. But it's true. The Weather Network is forecasting clouds for Thursday, but no rain.

They probably messed up, and it really will rain on Thursday, but right now it's pretty cool to think that some time within the next week it will stop raining for a few hours.

Fingers crossed...

How is it March??

2007-03-07T18:48:00.000-08:00

I haven't been blogging a lot lately. Partly because I haven't had time, mostly because I'm lazy. There's been a lot going on...

I moved last Monday. You know, moving really sucks. Badly. It took 3 days to get everything packed up and cleaned and then one day to move and another couple days to unpack and get everything set up. I had help with the actual move - which is great because I couldn't have done it myself.

I'll take some pictures of my new place one of these days... I've got some messy pictures the day I moved in. I'll post those first. But not now because I'm in class.

I'm in Admin law... too boring to even talk about. Let me just say this: I should have taken it last year. Or not at all. But it's good to have if I want to practice immigration law.

What else...

I got sick last week... I'm pretty sure it was food poisoning. It came on suddenly at about 2:30am and left just as suddenly about 24 hours later. I'll spare ya the gory details but it was pretty bad. And my stomach turns when I think about baked ravioli with meatballs (the last thing I ate before it happened). It'll be a long time before I eat pasta. Or meatballs.

Only 5 weeks of class left after this week. I CAN'T WAIT. I'm not even worried about finals this term (catch me in a month) and I don't have any papers. I'm just putting in time...

Our grad dinner is on Friday, which I may or may not be going to. I saw an email about it sometime around reading break but I hadn't talked to anybody and didn't know who was going. Well, apparently everybody is going so now I'm trying to get a ticket. I should know by tomorrow. If I do go, there'll be pictures.

And speaking of reading break, I stretched this year's week-long break into 19 days. That's a personal record. I can't take all the credit though... half my classes were canceled the week after reading break. As for me, I was moving, then I missed that day because I was sick, and I missed the day before reading break because I was doing something for my immigration law class. But yeah, 19 days. Not bad.

Motivation

2007-02-21T17:16:00.000-08:00

People get motivation in a lot of different ways. Take me for example. I sat around for about 10 days not worrying too much about the fact that I didn't have a moving date. I was going to phone the building manager at the new apartment to find out when I could move in, but I kept putting it off.

First I started thinking I should find out because I need to know when to start packing things up. I need to make sure I've got enough time.

That's a good reason to find out, but all it resulted in was a mental note that I should, at some point, make the call and find out.

Then, as the days went by, people started suggesting that if I left it too late, I wouldn't be able to get a moving truck.

Yeah, another good reason. The move would suck without a truck, and it would suck badly. Still, the thought of moving everything in my car and maybe my parents' van did not motivate me to make the call.

Then, lying in bed a couple mornings ago, I had another thought: "If I don't figure this out soon, the cable company might be booked up and my cable/internet won't get hooked up the day I move in."

That's when I panicked.

Everything got done: I get the apartment Sunday at 2pm, I'll have the truck Monday morning, and, happily, the cable/internet is going to be hooked up Monday sometime between noon and 2pm.

Whew.....

Moving

2007-02-15T15:01:00.000-08:00

I found a new place - about 5 blocks from where I am now, and I'll be moving at some point between the 25th and the 28th. Probably the 26th. I'm pretty happy with the new place. It's a different shape than the place I have now, but that's okay.

GOOD THINGS

Balcony - It's big enough for a table, chairs, and a hibachi. I don't have a balcony now, so this is good...

Top floor - So no noise from noisy people upstairs. Also it's a real building (now I live in an old house that was converted into apartments) so the walls are thicker.

Newer building - Better appliances. Better cabinets.

More storage space: My apartment now isn't that bad for storage space, but this has more.

Bigger bathroom - The bathroom I have now is really small. Ever wonder why I don't post bathroom pics on the blog? Ok well there are a few reasons, but it's partly because the bathroom is too small to fit a camera in there.

It faces the road - not the alley. This is good for a lot of reasons.

BAD THINGS

Still no dishwasher, in suite washer/dryer, or elevator. I don't have any of things now, so it's not that big a deal...

No parking spot. The apartment is on 12th and it's HARD to get parking. This is the one really bad thing about this place. The manager said he's going to give me the next spot that comes up. In the meantime I'm renting a spot from a building a couple doors down - for 70 bucks a month.

There could be a noise problem because the bedroom window is at the front and 12th avenue is crazy busy. But I sleep with a fan on anyway, so it probably doesn't matter.

So... there are a lot more good things than bad things. I'll take some pictures after I move in.

And BY THE WAY.... check out the new 'last exam' countdown on the sidebar. Nice huh?

Uh oh...

2007-02-14T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what is going on in my admin law class. And to think the exam starts in 70 days, 15 hours, and 29 minutes. I should do some reading...

Cheese fondue a bust - literally

2007-02-11T12:19:00.000-08:00

I got this fondue set for Christmas. So last night I had a few friends over to watch the hockey game and we made some cheese fondue. Fun right? Yeah, until it broke into about 5 pieces. We were trying to figure out if we did something wrong but I don't think we did. In a word - defective. But we had a great time and the Canucks won, so it wasn't a total bust.

Making it...

Eating it...

Tragedy...

But we kept eating it anyway, because most of it was so thick it didn't seep through the cracks.

Lost redeemed... maybe

2007-02-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Ok I know I've complained about Lost a lot in the past, but I have to say that last night's episode went a long way towards winning me back. I'm not going to throw out ALL the problems I have with the show after seeing one good episode, but if the rest of the season is like that they'll be pretty much redeemed. This article on EW.com pretty much sums it up for me.

And speaking of tv...

Big big BIG night tonight. Survivor is back, and there are new episodes of the Office, Earl, Grey's Anatomy, and ER. Also I'm taping Deal or No Deal Canada. I don't usually make a point of watching that show, but I do want to see the Canadian version at least once, just to see if Howie does anything differently.

I got my grad photo proofs in the mail today. Another reminder that law school is almost over. 76 days, 18 hours, and 33 minutes til I put my pen down on my last final. Which is admin. Early prediction: Admin is going to be the worst one.... by far.

What's goin' on in February...

2007-02-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

This term is going to last forever. The last day of classes isn't til April 12th, which is a full 2 and one third months from now. So all you people out there who are worried about finals? Don't worry, it's going to be forever.

Reading break though... that's coming up real quick. Only 2 more weeks of class and then we get a week off. And during that week I'm going to catch up on all my reading. Hahahahahahahaaha. No seriously I'll probably just take it easy and enjoy the second-to-last break I'm going to get as a student (the other break is between the last exam on April 26 and the beginning of PLTC on May 22).

Aaaaaand I'm moving on March 1st. I gave my notice last week and I'm pretty sure the guy who saw my apartment last week took it, so there's no backing out now. It's good though. Even though I haven't found a place yet. And prices have gone up a lot so I'm probably going to have to pay a lot more. And there doesn't seem to be much out there. Really though, It's good. All good... uh.. yeah...

At least I'll be far away from smokey and the heel walker...

76 Things I Like 2006

2007-01-31T21:00:00.000-08:00

I should probably say that I haven't read over the 2005 lists in about a year. So I wasn't copying...

1. Pizza with pepperoni, ground beef, feta, hot peppers, extra cheese
2. Arrested Development
3. Playing my guitar (I don't play it well)
4. The desert
5. Salt and vinegar potato chips
6. Going to the gym
7. Getting home from the gym
8. Barry White
9. The Office
10. Cheese (not Gorgonzola)
11. White Spot burgers
12. Vancouver
13. Skyscrapers
14. Wine (white or red, but white a bit better)
15. R&B music
16. Summer
17. Ferrets
18. The Young and the Restless (seriously)
19. Nanaimo bars
20. 70s disaster movies

21. Milk chocolate
22. Meeting goals
23. Skiing
24. Hot tubs
25. Sergio Mendez and the Brazil 66
26. Modernist architecture
27. Palm Springs
28. Having a car
29. Grilled chicken sandwiches from Savory Island in West Van
30. Being in shape
31. BMW
32. Stephen King
33. The house in the 1968 movie The Party (with Peter Sellers)
34. Falling asleep knowing the alarm clock isn't set
35. Golden retrievers
36. When it's HOT out
37. White Chocolate
38. Michelle Stafford
39. Heated seats in cars
40. Joy from My Name is Earl

41. Succession law
42. Daylight savings time
43. The Onion
44. Old pictures of people or places I know
45. Rose flavor ice cream
46. Simple, repetitive tasks
47. Chocolate bars with pretzels inside them
48. Fridays (for obvious reasons)
49. The prepackaged cheeseburgers from 7-11 and Mac's (so good)
50. The North Shore
51. Good Service
52. Income
53. Family Guy
54. The Canucks
55. High definition TV's
56. Deferred interest high definition TV payment plans...
57. Wreck Beach
58. Kits Beach
59. Christmas
60. Monopoly

61. The alphabet
62. Water
63. Halloween (the day)
64. Halloween (the movie)
65. Labs (dogs, not science)
66. Taking pictures
67. Saturdays (cheat day)
68. My iPod
69. Dishwashers
70. Medical shows (Grey's Anatomy, House, ER)
71. Alternative fuels
72. Road trips
73. Amusement parks
74. Immigration law
75. Classes that end early
76. 12:00pm, April 26, 2007

75 Things I Don't LIke 2006

2007-01-31T17:00:00.000-08:00

I know it's January, but these are the lists from 2006. I didn't get 'em done in time to post in December....

1. My cell phone bill
2. Mushrooms
3. Ostriches
4. Crows
5. Seagulls
6. Any non-standard meat
7. Annoying neighbours
8. The Apprentice
9. Hangovers
10. Plain potato chips
11. Dark chocolate
12. A professor I'm thinking of right now...
13. Stress
14. Extremism
15. Intolerance (except for the intolerance of hatred... that's fine)
16. The 300 or 400 bucks it costs to fix my laptop twice a year
17. Doing laundry
18. Paper cuts
19. Scorpions
20. Olives

21. The Hills Have Eyes (remake)
22. Hostel
23. Being hungry
24. Martini's Pizza (on Broadway)
25. Double standards
26. Taking the bus
27. Winter
28. Dating
29. Skipping the gym
30. Stopping for gas (unless snacks are involved)
31. Getting splashed by cars
32. Bad service (see #24)
33. Insomnia
34. Driving in the rain at night
35. Ingrown toenails
36. Being single
37. Being cold
38. Having a cold
39. Wednesdays (they're bad this term)
40. Scrabble

41. Administrative law
42. The Curtis building
43. Going through the border to the United States
44. Going through the border to Canada
45. Being asked to explain a case in class. Or being asked anything...
46. The Grudge II
47. Wanting a nap but having no time
48. The day before any final or paper is due
49. Fast lane slow drivers
50. How ABC canceled Invasion without wrapping up the story
51. Being behind in my readings all the time
52. People who don't forgive stupid crap
53. When it gets dark at 4:14 in the afternoon
54. Allergies
55. Thursdays (just the school part - the TV part is good)
56. When profs don't end class on time
57. Pushy people
58. Windows Live Messenger
59. Losing a debate
60. When cats attack

61. Most country music
62. Washing dishes
63. Waking up to an alarm clock
64. Rush hour (which lasts from 2 until 7 in Vancouver)
65. The cost of plane tickets
66. Dirty cars
67. When nothing happens on Lost
68. Not finishing books
69. Cold hands/cold feet
70. Reruns/rescheduling of tv shows
71. Acne. I hate this a lot. Especially bacne.
72. Cliffhangers!!
73. Being late for class
74. Craving food I can't have
75. Trying to think up 75 things I don't like

Another week...

2007-01-23T12:43:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday, 12:44pm. In half an hour I have to leave for my first class of week 3. Yeah, week 3 already. I'm getting seriously behind on readings. Week 3 is the time when I either have to catch up or just be hopelessly behind for the rest of the term. Because really, after week 3 it's too late to catch up from the beginning. Every term up to now, I've taken the second option.

This term though I'm taking succession and immigration law and I want to practice in those areas so I should probably do the readings. By the way, I haven't missed any classes yet this term. Week 3 with no classes missed? I'm pretty sure that's a record.

I've pretty much got one foot out the door though (I'm talking about school here), and that makes it fairly hard to do anything. I'm thinking about PLTC, which I'm hopefully doing in May, June, and July. I haven't heard from them yet... but I should know by Febrary 15th which session I made it into.

Have I talked about the PLTC yet? Uh... does anyone care? Ok well it's the Pre Law Training Course. To be a lawyer in BC you have to have a law degree, take the 10-week PLTC course, which includes the BC bar exam, and complete 9 months of articling. So... the degree is almost finished (92 days, 23 hours, and 7 minutes til I finish my last exam). I have my articles set up, which I'm starting in May. The only thing I'm waiting for now is to find out which PLTC session I'm in. There are 3 offered every year: One starts in May, one in September, and one in February. I want May.

The GOOD part is that we get paid for PLTC and articles by our firms - So only a couple more months til I have actual income... wow.... getting paid... I think I remember what that's like.

Weekend Update

2007-01-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

Ok so it's been another week and a bit since I've posted anything. Here's what's going on:

I think I'm almost sure that I'm probably going to seriously think about moving on March 1st. I have another 10 days to decide because I have to give my notice by February 1st if I'm going to do it.

I miss Survivor. Which is surprising, because I've been over that show for a couple years now. But Thursday nights aren't the same without it. I still think that race segregation thing last time was lame though.

Speaking of CBS reality shows, I miss the Amazing Race too. I don't even know when it's starting up again... but I'm guessing sometime in February like Survivor.

What I don't miss is the Apprentice. I stopped watching it half way through last season because I came to the conclusion after one episode that I didn't like Donald Trump enough to be someone who watched his show and contributed to his ratings.

One TV show I'm REALLY going to miss is Arrested Development. I know it was canceled a while back but I only just starting watching it and last night I finished the first season. One word: Genius.

I was talking about some lists... what I like and what I don't like... basically my own (to use a lame yearbook phrase) what's hot what's not lists for 2006. I started them before new years but I still have to finish them. I have to think like I'm still in December though, because I can't put anything in that I've discovered I like or don't like since (that'll be on the 2007 list). December... the holidays... no classes...

And speaking of classes, week 2 is done. Done like dinner. But I'm behind on a lot of reading already. So predictable...

I went to Cypress yesterday with a friend of mine. I was going to start learning how to snowboard (seriously I came really close this time) but decided to ski instead. Why? Because if I started snowboarding it would have sucked for my friend because I would have spent the whole day on the bunny hill. So I'm going to go up one day on my own and take a lesson. But yeah, yesterday I took my camera up there and took these pictures....

New Years, Grades, and Stuff Like That

2007-01-11T17:16:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything in a while, so here's what's going on:

The first week of my last term (ever) is almost over. This term I've got administrative law, professional responsibility, succession (the law of wills and estates), immigration law, and international trade law. I was going to take family law instead of international trade law, but it was on Mondays. A five day week? No thanks. By the way I'm going to be putting down the pen on my last exam in 104 days, 17 hours, and 26 minutes.

And speaking of classes, it's grades night! The posting date for last term's grades is tomorrow, January 12, but that really means they're going to be online tonight at midnight. Fun? Not really. But I'm pretty sure I passed everything. I'll let you know.

The laptop continues to suck money out of my wallet: 300 bucks this week to replace the bearings on the fan and fix a power problem. I spend about 700 bucks a year on the laptop. When I forked over the 300 bucks to fix it, I decided that next time it breaks down, I'm going to break down and buy a new one. So now today I notice the U doesn't really work. It works a bit... which is obvious, because I keep typing it. But it's sticky, and it's getting worse. Seriously, if the U goes, I'm getting a new laptop. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

I got myself into a whole mess of trouble with that telepathy mind control thing. Sure, it got that noisy girl upstairs to move, but she moved downstairs, where she smokes like a chimney. And it all comes through the vents. Also, the woman who moved in upstairs slams thing. Yeah, she slams things a lot. So... I think I'm going to move. That's right, the result of my telepathy mind control experiement is that I myself am now moving. Something clearly went wrong. But does this mean I can control myself with my mind? Hmm... maybe that's not such an accomplishment.

I haven't posted anything since new years, so happy new years. I have some resolutions this year:

1. Best shape ever by June 30th
2. Learn to play the guitar
3. Learn to dance. Yeah I'm serious.
4. Write something this year.

More on these later.

Also, It's time for my "what I like" and "what I don't like" lists for 2006. Actually it's past time for these lists, because it's now 2007. But nonetheless, I've started them and I'll post them when they're done.

Well, it worked. Kind of.

2006-12-28T11:25:00.000-08:00

My mind control thing on my neighbour finally worked for real. She is, as I sit writing this, dragging her stuff down the stairs (in the noisest possible way). Yep, she's moving. So it kind of worked. I say kind of because she's not actually leaving the building. She's moving to another apartment, which is underneath me and over a bit. I've never heard any noise from the apartments under me so I'm pretty sure the walls are thick.

I'll keep you posted.

Did I say Merry Christmas?

2006-12-26T23:25:00.000-08:00

No, I didn't. I meant to, but I didn't. So Merry Christmas, from me and Twisted Sister...

Watch your kids

2006-12-24T21:35:00.000-08:00

I was in a bookstore today doing some last minute Christmas shopping, and I saw a sign they had posted in one corner of the store:

Your children are valuable to us. Do not leave them unattended.

What kind of freaky-ass sign is that? Seriously. I get that they don't want anybody kidnapped in their store, but what's up with the wording? It sounds more like a threat to me, like "Don't leave your children unattended because they are valuable to us." In other words, if you don't watch 'em carefully, we'll get 'em.

And why are children so valuable to them? It's a bookstore. I mean, I could understand if it was a chimney cleaning service or an air-duct cleaning service. Children are practically built for that kind of work. But a bookstore? It makes no sense. Maybe their little fingers are good for putting the bindings together or something...

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

2006-12-17T16:19:00.000-08:00

My last exam was yesterday. It wasn't that bad. So now I'm free til January 8th. And after this post I'm not talking about school on this blog until that day. Uh... that might be a lie.

I said something a few days ago about almost making the woman upstairs move out by sending telepathic commands, and I figured I should explain. Because I didn't know I could control people with my mind, but clearly this is what happened.

Last new year's eve I was watching some tv and getting ready to head out to my parents' house in the valley. She'd been thudding around up there all morning and it was slightly annoying but below the radar for the most part. Then the banging started. Loud banging like she was doing something with a hammer. I looked up at the ceiling and thought (real hard) "I WISH SHE WOULD JUST MOVE" in her direction. The banging eventually stopped and I forgot about her for a while.

THEN, a while later I was down taking out the recycling. I walked through the laundry room and she was in there doing laundry. We said some stuff, and eventually she says "I'm moving!" And I'm like... uh seriously? And then she says "Yeah I was up on a stool hanging a picture this morning (the banging I heard!!) when it just came to me that it was time to move. So I'm giving my notice and moving out on January 31st."

Amazing right? That thought came to her while she was hammering, which is the exact time I was telling her to move in my head.

Anyway I figured I'd done it so I didn't think about it anymore. Apparently she didn't get around to telling the landlord til January 3rd and he was all "no dice" for January 31st. So she was going to give her notice for the end of February but then she "changed her mind." Translation: I stopped sending telepathic instructions and she regained her free will. Too bad.

I was just looking over my schedule for January and I have classes every day next term. As in, Monday to Friday. Ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I have to do something about that...

The eve of destruction...

2006-12-15T18:21:00.000-08:00

Ok maybe that's a little dramatic. But I can't make myself study for my real estate exam tomorrow. I won't lie to you, I'm pretty dadgum sick of studying. Yeah I said dadgum... some guy said it on Intervention about 25 times last Sunday and I can't get it out of my head.

But back to my lack of conentration... the last final is always the worst. So close, and so ready to stop studying. I've been hitting the books on and off all day, but I keep finding reasons to stop. And the girl who lives above me is making me crazy. She comes home and it's all about the noise. She walks on her heals so I always hear her thudding around up there. She drops crap on the floor for extra thud-value. She plays music with the volume on maximum, either forgetting or not caring that she lives in a building with thin walls (I suspect the latter). Then her boyfriend comes over and the bed starts sqeaking. Loudly. Last year I almost forced her to move telepathically. It was working, but then I thought I'd won so I stopped sending thoughts up there and she stayed.

But my problem today isn't all her fault... my concentration is shot anyway. I mean, I could be studying instead of sitting here blogging. I'm going to get in another 8 hours studying tonight... starting now. I'll have this final over with by noon tomorrow, and then I'm not thinking about school for 3 weeks. 3 happy, happy weeks.

It didn't suck that bad...

2006-12-14T20:23:00.000-08:00

I'm talking about this morning's trusts exam. I mean, it sucked, sure, but it didn't suck that bad. Let's put it this way: It could have been a lot worse.

I didn't know what to expect when I walked in there this morning. Mostly because it's the first time this prof has taught the course so there were no past exams online. My class notes were bad, and I realized 2 days ago that I needed something better if I was going to have a decent shot at it. So I went online, and thanks to www.michaeldew.com I got my hands on the best trusts CAN ever... 12 pages with everything on it. For you non law students out there, CAN is an acronym for condensed annotated notes. Basically it's an outline of the course that students make by going to lectures and reading cases. They get passed down every year, people add their own stuff, pass them on, etc. etc. So I got this 12 page super CAN, and between that, my notes, and the casebook, the exam wasn't that bad.

4 down, 1 to go: Real estate is the last one, on Saturday at 9am. I've got a crapload of studying to do between now and then, but 39 hours and 25 minutes from now I'm a free man. And that's a good feeling...

And here's a countdown to the end of my last exam in April: 132 days, 15 hours, 22 minutes.

It's getting closer....

I'm back... almost

2006-12-13T08:09:00.000-08:00

I didn't want a month to go by without posting anything, so here's an update:

1. Comparative constitutional law: DONE
2. Federalism: DONE
3. Evidence: DONE
4. Trusts: Somebody shoot me
5. Real estate: Barely on the radar

My trusts final is tomorrow from 9 til noon. After that I'll have til 9am Saturday morning to study for my real estate final. It's not looking good: I still have about 5 days of studying I need to do for trusts, but only 24 hours and 47 minutes to do it in.

Surprisingly, my closed-book evidence final was ok. I thought it was going to be a lot more painful than it was. But my two papers in federalism and comparative constitutional law were a lot more painful than I thought they'd be. No more papers ever though. Next term is all finals.

Tomorrow's going to suck badly. Wish me luck...

Take anything you want!

2006-11-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

I've watched this about 8 times. One word: Bizarre. Thanks Matt.

3 weeks?!

2006-11-09T11:30:00.001-08:00

How did this happen?? 3 weeks of class left and I still have to do pretty much everything. This blog is a sad testament to my inability to accomplish anything. In September and October it's all "yeah I've got plenty of time, no worries, it'll all get done." But then nothing gets done and now... on November 9... things are bad. How bad? I've got 3 weeks to research and write 2 papers (30-35 pages each) and get 70 percent of my studying done for evidence. And evidence is closed book.

So I need to get started. I'm getting started now. Right now... after I finish this post. And there's a lot of tv I need to watch tonight. So I need to do that too.

Insanity. What kind of employee am I going to be?

"You need that by 3 TODAY? But you're only giving it to me now and I've already been at the office for 4 hours today. How about... Monday? Oh actually I'm taking Monday off to clean up my apartment. And I'm going to the gym on Tuesday morning. So... how about Tuesday afternoon-ish?"

"Your Honour, I'd like to request an adjournment. I know the trial begins today but it's Friday, and with all the good Thursday night tv last night I didn't get a chance to prepare my case. In the alternative to a postponement, my client's case really does speak for itself doesn't it?"

Does that work in the real world? Probably not. Damn.

C.H.I.P.'s

2006-11-02T15:05:00.000-08:00

I figured I'd keep up the theme of 70s tv shows another week. I loved this show when I was a kid. Loved it.

A few things about Halloween...

2006-10-31T15:04:00.000-08:00

Halloween really is the most terrifying day of the year for me. But not because of evil spirits floating around in the middle of the night (you can get rid of those with a few well-placed pumpkins and turnips). The terrifying thing about Halloween is that it's the last day of October. That means tomorrow is November 1st, which is exactly 1 month from the last day of classes. I have to admit to a lot less stress this year in general. But I've got a month to finish 2 papers and get almost all my studying done for 1 of my finals.

And yeah, it's completely my fault. Fine. I get that. It happens every year and I always finish everything up. So I'm not worried I won't finish. The scary part is that I know what I'm in for in the next month and 16 days (my last final is December 16th). And it's not good.

The other thing about Halloween is the movie franchise. I know you remember how much I like the movies from my list of favorite things a year ago (almost time for a new one). But I only like Halloween I, II, and H2O. The other ones? To me they don't exist. That includes Halloween III, IV, V, VI and especially Halloween: Resurrection (which really is Halloween VIII).

It's because I, II, and H20 formed their own story without having to see any of the other ones. Which is good, because I didn't like a lot of stuff that happened in the other ones. H20, I thought, provided a good ending to the story. Then in 2002 they made Ressurection and we find out the ending we thought we had in H20 wasn't really what we thought it was. Ridiculous. Also most the movie has Michael Myers stalking people he's not even related to. Lame.

But... there's another Halloween movie coming out in time for Halloween 2007 and that one I'm excited about. That's because it's a retelling/prequel of the original story. Yep, it's a bit of both. I don't know how far it goes... if we get to the end of the sequel or just the original (they both happen on the same night)... but I've got a good feeling about it. I just wish it was out for this Hallween.

Anyway here's the pumpkin I carved. I live in an apartment and don't get trick-or-treaters but I carved one anyway. I'm using my old camera to take the picture because I still don't have my "new" one back yet.

Space: 1999

2006-10-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Remember this show? It's what they thought 1999 would look like in 1975. Pretty accurate from what I remember.

The theme music rocks. Too bad 2006 doesn't sound more like 1975.

Why Lost Sucks

2006-10-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

Nothing ever really happens. They show big things on the previews, but then those big things turn out to be not so big things and then they end with another big cliffhanger and promise big things next week. Seriously, the whole second season could have happened in 3 episodes.

If you've never watched it I'll sum up the whole series in 4 sentences:

Plane crashes on island where a lot of strange stuff happens. Survivors discover "others" living nearby who prefer to kidnap and spy on them rather than make friends with them. They find an underground hatch that hints at some long abandoned energy program, and eventually the hatch blows up. The mysterious "others" finally capture 3 of the main characters at the end of season 2 and nothing else has happened.

This has taken 2 years. The reason people watch it is because of the promise that eventually things are going to happen. We always think they will because they're just so convincing about it. But they lie. Last night's episode:

The "others" put Sawyer on a table and do something to him. When he wakes up they tell him they've put a pacemaker in and if his heart rate goes above 140 it'll blow up his heart. So throughout the whole episode he's trying to keep his heart rate down. Finally at the end they tell him they were lying. So he didn't really have one.

This guy starts beating the crap out of Sawyer while asking Kate "do you love him? do you love him?" which was kind of weird but that's what he was asking and finally she screams "yes I love him!!" and the guy stops beating on him. I guess this is important because they try to set it up so we never really know who she likes. So wow, ok, now we know she loves Sawyer. But... closer to the end of the episode she tells him she didn't mean it. So she doesn't really love him. Or does she? We still don't know.

Sun was confronted by some woman... one of the others... about 2 episodes ago and she shot the woman and really it seemed like the woman was dead. So last night we see her being rushed back to the others' camp and guess what? She's not dead - just badly wounded. So they get Jack to try and save her, because he's a doctor, and he can't. She dies. So now she's dead, like we assumed she was before we found out she wasn't.

Ok so what happened last night? Sawyer was told he had a pacemaker but he didn't. Nothing there. A woman is dead but we thought she was dead anyway. We don't know who Kate likes. We thought we did for a while, but now we don't again.

So nothing really happened. And at the end? BIG previews for next week with the promise "The next 2 episodes are going to change everything!" I think they've said that before. Zzzzzzzz....

You're probably wondering why I watch a show I clearly dislike so much. Well, last night was the last straw - it's going back to DVD status. I think part of the reason I thought the first season was so good is because I watched it on DVD all at once so the weekly cliffhangers weren't as annoying. So next summer I'll finish the season on DVD and hopefully something will happen. But probably not.

I seem to be hating on a lot of tv lately. I'm not even going to start on Grey's Anatomy because I've got stuff to do today. But the only show on tv I like this year as much as I liked last year is The Office. And now that Lost is out of the picture, Thursday night's are all I've got left.

One night of tv a week = not bad.

It was 3

2006-10-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

When I was talking about that pain in my side yesterday I left out an important possibility: That it would stay the same. So I have to revise the list of possibilities:

1. It will get worse
2. It will get better
3. It will stay the same

And it was 3. I woke up this morning and there was no change. So I went to the gym and there were no problems with that. I still don't know what it is, but I think I'm probably going to live. It still hurts when I stretch, but no big deal.

So today is Wednesday, the most evil day of the week. By far. I only have 3 classes but they're spread out from 9am to 9pm. After Wednesdays done it usually feels like the week's getting close to being done. 2 classes Thursdays, 1 class Friday (that ends at 10:20am), then nothing til Tuesday morning.

As much as I want to finish school and start working, I know I'll miss that a lot. So I'm trying to appreciate it... and speaking of finishing school, it's been a long time since I've done the countdown - so here's where we're at:

189 days, 23 hours, and 58 minutes!

The pop of impending doom...

2006-10-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

I was at the gym today doing leg extensions. This week I'm switching from a longer set/less weight based workout to a short set/heavier weight program. So I got through 3 sets of heavy weight leg extentions with no problem and started the 4th set. By that time my legs were tired... and by tired I mean tired. I was straining a lot - especially because I work at a 2/3 tempo (2 seconds up 3 seconds down) so every rep by that point is slow and painful.

So about the 4th rep in on the last set, about halfway up, I was really straining and I felt a pop. At least I think that's the right word. It could be described as a shift... a burst... maybe even a splat. But whatever it was, it happened just below the ribcage on the left side. I have no idea what would pop, shift, burst, or splat in that area... but whatever it was, it was weird.

It felt a bit strange for a few minutes after but then it went away. The problem is... as the hours go by... it's starting to ache. They way I see it, this'll go one of two ways by tomorrow morning:

1. It will get better
2. It will get worse

My money's on 1, but that's mostly because I don't want it to be 2. So we'll see how it goes.

Stupid evil camera....

2006-10-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

Time to complain about my camera again. This is the camera I ordered in May and got in.... I don't know the end of June or the beginning of July or something. It broke... I've blogged about this before. Lines accross the screen and all that. So because I got it through air miles I only have a manufacturer's warranty.

I gave it to them at the end of August and I got a call from them 2 weeks ago saying they sent the camera to... somewhere... and this place said there was a 4 week wait on the part they needed to fix it. So I should get it back sometime around.... October 20th.

So if you notice there are NO PICTURES on this blog lately it's because I don't have a camera. Actually I've still got my old camera, so... yeah.

Thursday!

2006-09-28T11:30:00.000-07:00

It's Thursday and you know what that means -

The Office
My Name is Earl
Survivor
Grey's Anatomy
ER

That's a lot of TV in one night, but you have to expect a lot of TV on Thursdays. It most definitely doesn't leave any room for studying, but that's ok because this is my official night off. I do have unofficial nights off, but this is the official one.

The Office: This is my favorite show on TV right now, and I bought seasons 1 and 2 on dvd this past summer. The season 3 opener last Thursday was hilarious, with Oscar telling HR guy Tobe he's gay. Tobe tells Michael, who handles it like he does any other issue: Ineptly. He makes mistake after mistake, and every time he tries to cover for his last mistake things get a little worse.

My Name is Earl: Any Earl episode that has a lot of Joy is going to be funny. So last week's premier, which was all about Joy, was one of the best yet. Even without Joy the show is funny, but she brings it to a whole new level of funniness.

Survivor: I might be over this show. I don't know yet. I don't really see the value in segregating people by race and making them compete, but then again I don't see the value in segregation by sex either. Except maybe for ratings value... Either way, Survivor is starting to seem a little tired. It premiered in the summer of 2000, which is a longggg time ago. Still, I watch... and I have to admit to being entertained by a lot of it.

Grey's Anatomy: One of the things I liked best about this show when it premiered in 2005 was its focus on the way new doctors respond to patients and other hospital-related issues. Yeah we learned about them and their relationships as well, but the best part was watching them adapt to treating patients and the dog-eat-dog world of hospital politics. At the time I thought ER was putting way too much emphasis on the personal relationships and too little emphasis on ER type situations. Last week's premier make me worry about Grey's Anatomy. Dramatic flashbacks. Izzie in her prom dress. George and Dr. Sheppard locked in a room discussing life and love. Blech... The one good storyline was the baby in a dumpster. I want more like that.

ER: I don't love ER, but I think it's pretty ok. It's something to do at 10pm, which is too late to start studying and too early to go to bed. I like the characters and most the storylines. I don't really have anything else to say about it...

This term is one third over...

2006-09-27T09:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've said anything about my classes. This is supposed to be a law school based blog, so maybe I should say something.

The first month is just about finished. Today is September 27 so... in 4 days it'll be October. That's Sunday. It's interesting to me that one third of the term is over (classes finish this term on December 1st), because I've probably done about 1/20 of the work. If that.

But this is day 3 post-rut, and I'm catching up. I know you're on the edge of your seat to hear about my classes, so I won't make you wait any longer:

Trusts. Interesting course, lots of reading. Unfortunately I missed this class last week... uh... twice... so I have some extra reading to do.

Federalism. Looks at how the constitution divides power between the federal and provincial governments and what happens when federal and provincial laws conflict. I'm finding this course and my comparative constitutional law course the most interesting. I guess that means I'm interested in constitutional law...

Comparative constitutional law. This course is great. It compares the constitutions of Canada and the United States and it's taught by videoconference from Penn State. There are 24 students in the class, with 12 being at UBC and 12 at Penn State. The prof is also at Penn State, but we can all see and hear each other because of the video conferencing. He teaches the class using the Socratic method, meaning he calls on people and asks them a series of questions. So basically I study like I'm getting ready for an exam before every class.

Evidence. This is probably one of the most important courses in law school. It covers... wait for it... evidence! We look at what is admissible and what isn't, jury charges, presentation strategies, etc.

Real estate transactions. This is my Wednesday night course. I usually don't like night courses, which run from 6 til 9. Happily, the prof is great and usually lets us go by 8. And he brings cookies, even though there are like 50 people in the class. We're basically learning what lawyers do for all the money they get in real estate conveyancing. Interesting.

Most my profs are pretty good this term. There aren't any absolute train wrecks yet, although there's a potential train wreck in the making. One prof I've got... slow with a capital S. We spend the whole class on a case or two, going through every paragraph and deciding whether it adds anything to the case. The problem is, after spending so long dissecting a case it's hard to know exactly what we're supposed to take from it. Because when it's exam time, we don't go into detail about cases - we just give a basic point or two.

How slow is this prof? Ok well the reading list is 8 pages long. After one third of the term we are about 4/5 of the way down the FIRST page. So by the end of this week we'll probably be finished the first page. 7 pages to go.

As bad as this is, it's not as bad as last term. I had one prof who was actually removed from the course part way through the term because of being unable to teach it. I had 2 courses with this prof, who wasn't removed from the other course. We didn't get an outline until the last month of the course, and at that point we got a 5 page single-spaced list of terms and cases we had to know for the final. Brutal? Yes.

Not wanting to sound too negative, I've got 2 profs this term who are really great, and another 2 who are pretty damn good. Pretty damn good isn't as good as really great, but it's still a lot better then mediocre or good, and it's not even on the same planet as bad.

Yeah I know I'm a negligent blogger...

2006-09-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

So this is the beginning of fall term week four. I know it's Tuesday, but I don't have class on Mondays so this is really the beginning.

Which is an apt time for a blog posting, because the theme this week is beginnings. As in, beginning to get out of this rut I've been in for the last few weeks, beginning to do some readings, beginning to get back to the gym every day, beginning to work on a few side projects I've got going on, etc.

Maybe even beginning to become a regular blogger again. I was looking back over the last year in terms of the ol' blog, and I have to say I'm a huge slacker now compared to the first 9 months. But I'm not making any blog-related promises because I don't keep them and the unkept promise is then here for all to see. So no blog promises. I should post the California pictures at some point though...

So what is a rut? I looked at Merriam-Webster online and got a few definitions:

1. An annually recurrent state of sexual excitement in the male deer.
2. a) A track worn by a wheel or by habitual passage. b) A groove in which something runs.
3. A usual or fixed practice; especially : A monotonous routine.

The first two aren't really what I was thinking of. The third one would be closer. I don't think I dealt with the transition between summer ending and classes starting that well, so I took a bit of a mental vacation. Meaning... I haven't got a lot done and there's been a recurrence of some past resolved issues. Ok but now I'm dealing with it. In fact it's pretty much dealt with. Starting today. Ok actually it started yesterday. So this is day 2.

Babies: A Mystery

2006-09-09T00:10:00.000-07:00

I was on my way to class the other day, on the corner of Pine and 12th. I was waiting for a clear spot to turn right, and while I was waiting a woman walked in front of me with an infant-filled stroller. The sound coming out of the stroller was nothing less than spectacular. Seriously, if I hadn't actually seen the source, I might have thought it was an air raid siren.

I looked at the woman walking this child and thought "wow, that must really, really suck." After they crossed I turned right onto 12th and forgot about them. But not for long.

Traffic was really slow on 12th and I ended up waiting at the end of the next block for a long time. How long? Long enough to hear a faint cry and then listen as it got louder and louder and became the same air raid sirenesque howl that I had heard before.

The infant, amazingly enough, had been keeping this racket up for at least two blocks, and I'm sure I didn't catch the beginning or the end of the show. The woman was still walking with the same vacant look on her face, which I barely caught before I drove away again.

This time traffic was a lot better and I didn't see them again. But it really made me think about babies and what interesting creatures they are. How much energy and vocal strength does it take to do what this baby was doing? Seriously. Think about it. Or better yet, measure out three city blocks. Then, start walking slowly from start to finish, and scream at the top of your lungs the whole time. I think that would be tough. Yet, babies do it all the time.

It also reminded me of another baby I'd seen the day before in the IGA parking lot. A woman was lifting her kid out of a shopping cart and attempting to secure it in some kind of car seat, and the baby in question had gone stiff as a board. The back was arched, the arms and legs were extended straight, and the vocal cords were on overdrive. This kid was clearly upset about something.

That was obvious. My question though, was why the upsetting turn of events had caused the baby to go stiff like that. I've seen babies and toddlers do it before, and it must mean something. I mean, on an instinctive level, why do kids go into that board-like position when they don't want to be moved/placed somewhere? Clearly it's an evolutionary defense machanism. I have two theories as to why this might have been helpful in nature:

It makes them heavier. This might cause the parent/predator/whoever, to either be unable to carry the weight or decide that the child/prey isn't worth the effort to carry away.

Makes them seem bigger. This would be akin to a cat arching its back when cornered. This might make the parent/predator reassess the situation and think "ok maybe I've bitten off more than I can chew here. I better back off."

Either way, it's interesting...

Is it 2024 already?

2006-09-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Last night I dreamt it was my 50th birthday. August 26, 2024. Except I don't think I was really in the future. It was more like I just woke up this morning and realized "wow so today is my 50th birthday." I remember thinking "what happened to my 30s and 40s?"

The disturbing thing about the dream wasn't the idea of being 50 - it was that somehow I had gone from 32 to 50 so quickly. In my dream I remembered something I had read once about time seeming to go faster as you get older, and I thought yeah, I guess they're right about that.

But still, I thought, it didn't seem to take any time at all and that's just nuts. My next conclusion was that if 32 to 50 can pass by so quickly, then 50 to 70, or 70 to 90 can go by even faster (because, as I was thinking, time seems to speed up as we get older). The last thing I remember about the dream was thinking that if that was true, I've probably got about another ten seconds before I hit 90 and it's all over.

The dream wasn't scary - I think I was more disappointed than anything. But happily, I woke up this morning, still 32.

I guess this would be a good time to say something profound. And I would, if this were one of those emails that gets all sappy with lots of pictures of kittens and puppies, and lots of poems and heart-warming maxims. You know, those emails that say, "if you care about love and kittens, send this to 20 people that are important to you," but also warn you that if you don't, killer ghost Nazis will come for you in the night and tear your arms off.

Yeah, if this were one of those emails, I'd be saying something profound right now. But it's not. It's a blog. So I'll just talk about those other dreams where you realize it's a dream and then you can do anything, like fly or turn invisible. Those are the best. They don't happen often, but when they do, they're really cool.

September 1: The Beginning of the End

2006-09-01T21:47:00.000-07:00

Summer's over. Yeah I know, it doesn't officially end until the 21st or something like that. But seriously, once September 1st and Labour Day weekend are here, summer as we know it is dead. But you know what? It's okay. Why? Not because the weather will turn cold and it'll rain for eight months. That's not okay at all. It's good because it means I can get my last year of school... or let's just say my last eight months of school... over with.

It's hard to believe this is my last year of school, and in exactly 236 days, 14 hours and 18 minutes I'll be putting down my pen after finishing my last final. Of course I'll still have the bar exam to look foward to, but I'm not going to start worrying about that yet.

I'm not trying to say I dislike law school. Actually, there are a lot of things I really like about it, like days without classes, the social side of it, and hell, the learnin's not so bad either. It's just time to move on and get finished with being a student.

So I guess you're on the edge of your seat wondering what I'm taking this year. I don't blame you, cause it's pretty exciting. I listed the courses a while back, but for anyone who might have missed them (haha anyone... I've got like 2 readers), here's a recap:

Administrative law
Family law
Trusts
Evidence
Federalism
Comparative constitutional law
Immigration law
Succession
Real estate transactions
Professional responsibility

The prof for the comparative constitutional class already emailed 107 pages of reading to have done for the first class... half the students in that class are at Penn State and the American Bar Association says their semester has to be 14 weeks... and ours is only 12... so I guess we have to catch up with them - hence the 107 pages of summertime reading, which I'm going to do because this year I'm going to stay caught up. Yeah right.... I think I've said that before.

A Public Affair

2006-08-23T18:47:00.001-07:00

These guys are hilarious. I think all Jessica Simpson videos should have to be like this.

Thanks Julie!

Snakes = good. Camera = bad. BBQ = great.

2006-08-22T18:46:00.000-07:00

I saw Snakes on a Plane Friday night, and it was pretty okay. I mean, it wasn't the best movie ever (like Halloween), but it was worth the 10 bucks or whatever it cost to see it. And yeah, it was a little cheesy in some parts, but it needs to be. I mean, with a name like Snakes on a Plane, you have to have some cheesiness. I don't have a movie rating scale, but if i did, I'd give it enough stars so it would be at the good range... slightly more entertaining than average, but not excellent. I hope this helps.

In other news, my camera's broken. There are little lines on the screen that look like interference. Sounds like an LCD problem, but when I take a picture the lines are actually on the picture. The camera didn't do too well in Palm Springs last week because of the heat. It would only last about five minutes outside before all the pictures were a mess of overexposed crap. After I'd cool it down by going indoors for a while it would be good, but then I took it to a BBQ at Lisa and Buddie's place on Saturday night and it started having some serious issues. Remember, this is the camera I waited, and waited, and waited for, and then drove to Richmond from West Vancouver in rush hour to pick up. Now I have to send it off to Pentax to get it fixed. Luckily I've got my other camera. But I really hope it doesn't end up in Richmond again.

My friend Matt had a pretty decent experience with getting his camera fixed under a manufacturer's warranty, so I hoping this turns out the same way...

And speaking of the BBQ, I had a great time - thanks for inviting me Lisa! It was really great to see you and everyone else. And thanks for posting some pics on your blog. Because of my camera issues none of the ones I took are postable, so I appreciate it. And even though my eyes are closed in that one picture, you can tell I'm having a good time. So thanks again!

What to say...

2006-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

Lately I haven't posted a lot of stuff on the ol' blog. Mostly because I haven't had any time, partly because I'm blogging at work so much that I'm sick of it by the time I get home, but also because I haven't had a lot to say.

But a while back, a friend of mine reminded me of something important. He said, "I've been thinking about starting a blog, but didn't think I had anything to say. But now, after reading your blog, I realize I don't need to have anything to say."

Good point. It reminded me that I started this blog to post pictures and pretty much just talk about nothing. So... the idea is post more, say less.

Ready... set... go...

It has a wireless connection... yesssssss

2006-08-09T01:46:00.000-07:00

Every night around 10 o’clock I get a little sleepy. So when I landed in San Francisco tonight at 9:45, I was both pumped and… a little sleepy. I’m in California til Saturday - not for any good reason, but just to get away for a couple days. Actually, I’m headed for Palm Springs, so my stop in San Francisco was only a layover. I’ve traveled a lot, and mostly on my own, but I still fall prey to the same mistakes that used to make us roll our eyes behind the passengers’ backs when I worked on cruise ships. Like when we were landing in San Francisco, I had my iPod on full blast and completely missed the directions they gave for people continuing on to LA. When I got out into the terminal there were no United staff, and it was only then that I realized that I didn’t have that long to catch my connection, and I had no idea where to go. And it wasn’t a simple matter of finding the gate - which, by the way, wasn’t printed on the boarding pass.

After talking to three different people I figured it out – I had to go to a gate, catch a shuttle to another terminal, find another gate, and then board the plane. Happily, I didn’t make any more mistakes, and neither did United… so I got there on time. Now I’m on United flight 633 to LA, and eventually I’ll be going to Palm Springs. I had planned on renting a car and driving out to Palm Springs tonight. The problem with that is this need for sleep thing I’ve got. So although the idea of driving out to the desert in the middle of the night sounds fun, I’m probably going to find a cheap place to crash for the night after I get the car.

How cheap? Not too cheap. It might even have a wireless internet connection. And if it does, you’ll see the posting time on this entry as sometime between midnight and two. If it doesn’t, the posting time will be sometime tomorrow afternoon. And if it doesn’t, I’m going to start going into withdrawals, so I hope it does.

Either way, I’m going to try and get a lot of pictures over the next few days, and of course I’ll keep you up to date on what I’m doing. Yeah right. That’s what I think I’m going to do, but these things have a way of not happening. The most likely thing is that you’ll see a big post with stories and pictures after I get back to Vancouver. But hey, maybe I’ll surprise myself…

Fireworks

2006-08-06T11:04:00.000-07:00

This year I made it to a record breaking two fireworks displays - Czech Republic on Wednesday and Mexico last night. Mexico completely rocked - easily the best fireoworks I've seen in a long time. The Czech Republic was good too and I got some video, so...

Interviews and Fireworks

2006-07-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ok well first things first... I got an articling position. Actually, that should read I GOT AN ARTICLING POSITION. I interviewed at the firm on Tuesday, went out for lunch with them, went on a tour of their other office on Wednesday, and they made the offer Thursday. It's what I was looking for in terms of work environment (laid back) and articling program structure (hands on).

So when they made the offer on Thursday morning I had already decided I'd take it if they offered... so I said yes right away. It's out of the city but they matched the going Vancouver salary, which I hadn't exptected, so I'm pretty happy about that too. They're full service and I'll be able to specialize in what I want... uh... when I know what that might be. Actually, I know one thing I want... I want third year to be over, and it hasn't even started.

But... that's crazy talk. I should relax and enjoy my last year of school and stop thinking about graduation. So that's what I'm going to do. Starting now.

Wait. It's time for a last exam countdown: 270 days, 20 hours and 43 minutes.

Ok. Starting now.

Now, about the fireworks. I'm going tonight, because I haven't actually gone to see them in a long time. For the non Vancouverites out there, every summer there's a competition in Vancouver where 3 countries put on displays in English Bay, which can be seen from the West End, Kits, Point Grey, and the North Shore. Maybe other places too but yeah, you get the point.

They're HUGE, and not to be missed. Except I miss them pretty much every year. Why? Because they cause millions (okay thousands) of people to crowd into the downtown and South Granville areas and some (just a few) of these people are crazy. I mean bottle-thowing car-tipping window-smashing crazy. Ok, maybe that's not totally fair... there haven't been a lot of problems in the last few years and 99 percent of the people who go don't cause any trouble. But the fireworks still bring out enough people and traffic jams to make me think going isn't worth it.

But tonight, I'm going. I think. Either tonight or Wednesday for sure. So I'll take some pictures. I have a plan to walk out to the middle of the Granville Street Bridge and set up my tripod. I know, Burrard is closer, but it'll be too crowded.

I did kind of see them last year from the balcony of the studio I was living in... but I missed most of them because of the buildings that were in the way.... and I do always feel slightly guilty about not going, because I want to see if I can get some good pictures.

I'll keep you posted on that...

Random Pictures...

2006-07-28T14:21:00.000-07:00

Taken in the last couple weeks...

Between the Burrard and Granville Street Bridge looking at the west end and Yaletown

Same thing, but only the Burrard bridge in this one... it was a lot brighter outside than it looks. And it was really hot...

Vanier park about 3 seconds after sunset. I had another one 3 seconds before sunset, but it wasn't good.

Another post sunset pic from Vanier Park...

Aaaaaaaand more Vanier Park.....

A church... St. Augustine's I think... I can't remember exactly where, but it was around Maple and 6th.

I had to go to Ashcroft a few weeks ago... This is it, the whole town.

I have relatives there, and this is the view from the back of their house.

On the way home we saw this lake, which I think might be Logan Lake. I don't know WHAT was up with it, but as you can see, something is clearly wrong here.

There was also steam or something coming off parts of it...

These pics aren't in any kind of order. A few weeks ago I helped out with a tea ceremony... so this is the ceremony.

Playland... I don't remember what day is was, but definitely early July.

As you can see, it wasn't busy at all. Well... this was in the morning. It got a lot busier in the afternoon...

Standard amusement park midway type things...

The Hellevator... I don't know what happened to this picture. Anyway I was on this ride about a million times... ok maybe not quite a million, but lots.

The Drop Zone. We paid extra to go on this one. There are people in this picture, but you can barely see them. They're suspended on a line that is attached to the front A-Frame part and pulled back by another line attached to the back pole. I hope that made sense. Anyway if you look at the back pole (which looks like it's in the middle), they're towards the top.

So here they are a couple of seconds later... when the back line releases they fall and swing forward like a pendulum.. this ride was great, but not as good as the Revelation. I've got a video of that I can post later...

And this ride... what's it called? I can't remember.

Hot!

2006-07-22T23:04:00.000-07:00

It's been really hot the last few days, and when it gets hot, it's even hotter in my apartment. How hot does it get in my apartment? Look what it did to my candle:

This candle used to stand up straight. Notice how it didn't just fall over... it actually melted into the other candle holder. Neat. By the way I'm not complaining about any of this. I love summer. I don't want it to end. Ever. Seriously. I hate it when I hear people say we could use rain. You know what? We've had enough. Now let's have sun. At least til Halloween, then we'll talk about some rain maybe.

Still Alive...

2006-07-14T23:39:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting that much lately... even though I've got a lot of stuff to say. I think because I have to blog a lot at work I'm all blogged out by the time I get home. So here's a quick update....

I registered for six of my third year classes and I'm going to register for the other four on Friday. Here's the third year line up, and read carefully because I'm going to be spending a lot of time complaining about these classes in the next nine months:

Trusts
Succession
Federalism
Evidence
Comparative Constitutional Law
Professional Responsibility
Administrative Law
Family Law
Real Estate Law
Immigration Law

I'm also learning how to deal with rejection. Actually, it might be more accurate to say I'm learning how to ignore rejection. I get letters every day from firms that say a lot of nice stuff which pretty much translates to "Take off! We reject you!" I average about two letters a day. Today, though, I was out at my parents all day. One good thing about that, I thought, was that it would be a rejection-free day. So I check my email, and some firm had emailed me a rejection letter. It's a good thing I can see the humour in all this. Besides, the rejection is probably good for me. Builds character and all that...

And it's not like I'm totally interviewless... I had one a couple weeks ago and I've got another one coming up on the 25th. And really, all I need is one position. So the rejection letters don't matter if I just get one.

Ok well enough about that.... I'm putting in an extra day at the museum this week, and that day is tomorrow. And that day will start early.... so goodnight...

Victoria

2006-07-07T10:33:00.000-07:00

I went to Victoria for an articling interview last week. I didn't get the position, but it's ok. I don't think I was that convincing that I want to live in Victoria. Anyway here are some pics... taken with the old camera. And part of the time something was spilt on the lens so... yeah that kinda sucks. Anyway here they are...

Finally a real picture of my car...

And another one...

And thanks to this little connector thing I bought, I can listen to my ipod in the car...

This is a horse... they play up the old British feel of Victoria with a lot of British looking stuff.

The Empress hotel has been a famous Victoria landmark for millions of years.

This is where BC's Legislative Assembly works their magic. The building was built in 1897 and at the time it was the tallest building north of San Francisco. Hm... So I guess that means taller than anything in Seattle, Portland, or Vancouver. Or anywhere else. Hm... anyway, that's what the webpage says. It was also the first building in Canada to have electric lights.

I got there way early so I drove around a bit. This is somewhere close to the city... Beacon Hill Park maybe? Not sure... but it was pretty.

Same place, looking... uh.... the other direction...

After the interview I made a b-line for the ferry. Ok actually I took a wrong turn and ended up making a b-line for Duncan. But eventually I figured it out and turned around and then I made a b-line for the ferry. But... my detour had cost me about 20 minutes and I missed the 2 o'clock ferry by five minutes. So I had to wait for the 3 o'clock ferry... This isn't actually a picture of the ferry, but it IS a picture of the terminal taken by me FROM the ferry.

There are about a million little islands between the mainland and Vancouver Island. I don't know what any of them are called and I've never been to any of them, but I always wonder what the peoople live on them do. Do they have cars? Electricity? Anything other than the bare essentials necessary to eke out a living? Probably. Still, I wonder...

These people have a lighthouse and a flag. So they probably have some other good stuff too...

I don't think anybody lives on this one. I like it though...

By the way, the new camera takes great video BUT the clips are way too big to do anything with. I took a video that was 2 minutes and 30 seconds long.... 170 megs!!! If someone knows how to resize video please let me know, because I don't seem to be able to do it. And no, I don't have a mac :(

And I'm THROUGH posting little pics on the left and right side of the screen and trying to position them with the text. It's impossible.

Finally!

2006-06-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

Remember a couple weeks ago when I was waiting for my camera? Ok I finally got a call from Purolator the other day saying they had my camera at their office in Richmond because I wasn't home when they delivered it so now I had to pick it up. I was so happy I didn't care that picking it up meant driving from West Vancouver to Richmond at 5:30pm on the day before a long weekend. They closed at 7:30 so I had plenty of time.

Well, thanks to a very busy Lion's Gate Bridge and an accident on the Oak Street Bridge, which made Granville a parking lot between 41st and 71st, I made it to the Purolator office at 7:05. I didn't even care it took me that long.

So I picked it up and I'm not the proud owner of a Pentax Optio T10, which may or may not take great pictures (I don't know yet), but I do know it's got a microphone and a sweet 3.5 inch LCD display.... about twice the size of the display on my old camera.

This is it.... I put my watch in there to show the size... it's pretty small, at least compared to my old camera.

And here's the LCD... it's powered on in this pic so it's showing... uh.... the sofa and a speaker I guess...

After I picked it up I went to the Richmond Fitness World and then took a couple pictures a couple blocks away from the gym. And I don't know Richmond that well but I'm pretty sure this is the Dunsmuir bridge. And whatever bridge it is, this is a little offshoot of the north arm of the Fraser River, just before it hits the ocean. It was almost dark and the battery wasn't charged so I didn't have time to figure out night mode, but yeah, these are the first two pics.... there will be a lot more coming in the next... while. I wanted to say the next few days, but that probably won't happen. Maybe it will. I don't know.

I hate birds

2006-06-25T21:21:00.000-07:00

I do. I hate 'em. Why? It's a long story, and it all started last week when I got a car and a job. Here's the short version:

The Job: I got a call from the museum I've worked at for the past few summers and they asked me to come back. Which is GREAT because I was starting to need something to do, and the money doesn't hurt either. It's not a law related job, but I'm going to have a lot of law related jobs starting next year and this gives me one more chance to use my history degree. Kind of. Even though I'm not really using it in my actual work, museums are all about history. So that's indirect use of my history degree I think.

The Car: I sold my truck two years ago, which was the summer before I started law school. The plan was to wait til I was finished school and then buy another car. But I couldn't wait that long. I've lived without one for 2 years, and I can't do it anymore. It's actually not bad living without a car in Vancouver, but it seems like I have to leave the city for something every week, and that's when not having a car sucks. So I got a new Mazda 3, and I haven't taken any pictures of it yet but it looks exactly like this, except it's red:

So now I've got a car and a job. Ok back to the birds... I hate them because I park my car at the museum, and they literally bomb the crap out of it. I'm not totally sure why they do it, but they're the same museum birds that tried to kill me last summer. Ok I don't know if they were actually trying to kill me, but they started swooping at me one day in a Hitchcockesque kind of way. And now they're dive bombing my car.

Seriously. I parked it at the museum Wednesday without a speck of dirt on it. When I came out at lunch it was covered. Covered, as in about ten big splatters that looked like some of those birds had explosive diarrhea. I had to take it through the car wash after work and pay eight bucks to get it all cleaned up. It hasn't been that bad since, but this afternoon they'd been at it again.

I'm parking behind the building from now on. This means war.

Catching up...

2006-06-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

The thing about blogging is, when I have time to do it, I have nothing to say. I guess that's because I'm doing nothing and hence I have time. When stuff starts happening, I don't have time and the blog suffers. That's just the way it is. But here's an attempt to start catching up on what's going on with me these days...

My parents bought a new 50 inch LCD high def TV a couple weeks ago... a move inspired by the world cup. And although I experienced blinding jealousy for a while, they gave me their old TV, so it all worked out pretty okay for me too. Their *old* TV, by the way, is only 6 months old. So compared to MY old TV, which was about 12 years old, this TV is brand spanking new.

Surprisingly though, one new TV brought with it a lot of change. The original plan was simple:

1. Remove original TV
2. Replace with new TV
3. View programming

Easy right? Well, I ran into problems at 1. I had a TV stand for my old TV, which was a lot smaller than the one I was getting. So I measured the stand and realized the new TV would be hanging off a couple inches in each direction. Not a good idea, especially in that corner of the room where the floor slopes a bit... the thought of the TV going face first into the corner of the coffee table was not good, so I decided to get a new stand.

So I went to Ikea and got a new stand. I figured I should get something that holds all the other equipment too, so I could ditch the 80s stereo cabinet that had been holding everything. I got it home, built it... which is the best part about buying furniture at Ikea... and moved it into place...

Where it came out so far I was only left with about an inch of clearance between the TV stand and the coffee table. Bad bad bad bad bad. So that pretty much messed up the rest of the day, and I think every piece of furniture in the livingroom was against every wall in the livingroom at some point. Big mess. Sometime during the whole debacle I realized that before I got the new stand, I had had the maximum amount of furniture I could have in a room that big. The new TV stand with its extra couple inches of depth threw everything into chaos and basically sent the camel into a body cast. That's right, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. The mess was monumental, comparable only to the day I moved in. Seriousy, it took me that whole day and part of the next to get everything cleaned up.

And one new TV basically made the livingroom go from this...

To this...

So yeah, a lot of work, but all worth it. And the coffee table? Now it's the TV stand in the bedroom that also holds the fan and the video games.

By the way, I sleep with a fan on every night. All year long. Is that normal? The noise drowns out other tenants, cars, and pretty much everything else...

Still No Camera

2006-06-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

So... a week later... and still no camera. I phoned the day after it was supposed to get here and they told me it was going to be another 2 weeks because they were out of stock. Weak, I know. So I'm still waiting...

5:44

2006-06-12T17:47:00.000-07:00

5:44. No camera. I'm a lot less impressed with their delivery prediction now.

3:52

2006-06-12T15:55:00.000-07:00

still.... no.... camera...

2:46...

2006-06-12T14:49:00.000-07:00

2:46... still no camera...

where's my camera where's my camera where's my camera

2006-06-12T13:32:00.000-07:00

I used my airmiles to order a new digital camera four weeks ago today. They said to allow for three to four weeks delivery time and I did. I allowed three, and as of today, I've allowed four. But there's been a bit of impatience along the way... I phoned them last week, just to check up on it. They said it would be delivered today, and I was kind of impressed by that. I would expect them to know the dispatch date, but the delivery date? Impressive. Well... it's 1:31 and the camera still isn't here, so I'll wait for a buzz before getting too impressed.

I didn't even go to the gym this morning because I didn't want to miss them. And, because my chances of making it to the gym decrease dramatically after about noon, it's unlikely I'll be going at all now... but missing the gym will be worth it if the camera gets here today. And they said it would right? Yeah... not worried yet.