Goodbye, Hello

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

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

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!!!!

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

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.

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

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

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...

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

This Blog Will End

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

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 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...

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

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

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

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....

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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

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

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

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

Check it out...

Advice for first years

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

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.