Selfish Crab

Have you heard the old joke about the company exec, the grad student, and the auto mechanic?

It goes like this:

ABC7 News: Feds arrest ten people in meth lab bust

A corporate executive, a Columbia University graduate student and auto mechanics were busted by federal agents for allegedly making methamphetamine in locations as diverse as a penthouse overlooking the United Nations and the repair bay of Potamkin Mitsubishi.

* * *

Others arrested include 28-year-old Mehmetcan Dosem*ci, a graduate student and teaching assistant at Colombia University [sic] who mixed methamphetamine to stay awake for tests.

Graduate student in the History department, no less [source].

# 2006 Nov 30    {Columbia}    1

Video:  Woody Allen interviews Billy Graham.  Charming, intelligent, and respectful, on both sides.  How quaint. [via waxy]

# 2006 Nov 29    {Links}    #

I have been enjoying the friendly emails from our Career Center. To wit:

From: [Mary CareerDirector]
To: crab
Subject: Your NYU Career Fair Registration

Dear Student:

You did not register for the NYU Public Interest Career Fair using your [school].edu address. The instructions sent to you for registration stated specifically:

“For your registration to be approved all students MUST register using their [school].edu address (you will NOT be approved if you register using any other email address).”

This is the only reminder that you will get. Please reregister properly or you will not be able to participate in the Career Fair.

If you have any questions, please contact me.

[Mary CareerDirector]
Director
[ ] School of Law

Aren’t they a cheery bunch?

# 2006 Nov 29    {law school}    #

Flash: Asteroid’s Revenge (”You are an asteroid that’s seen many of your brethen decimated by the evil spaceships in the original asteroid’s game.”)  [via waxy]

# 2006 Nov 29    {Links, nerd}    #

It’s quiet here. My flatmate is gone all week, on anonymous business travels. I have the apartment to myself. I ought to be hosting bacchanal after bacchanal, all intricately-themed and imprudent. At the bare minimum, doing something while nak3d. (ha)

Instead, a blank Word document entitled My Civ Pro Outline stares at me, and
I stare back. The cursor blinks. blinks. blinks. It’s nearly hopping. It’s an athlete during warm-up. Eager, even.

I might be overwhelmed. So many things to do that I have decided to do literally nothing. I suppose tomorrow’s another day. Optimism, I guess.

# 2006 Nov 29    {law school}    3

Here’s the third sentence into today’s assigned Property reading:

So far as the law courts were concerned, the feoffment with livery of seisin created a fee simple absolute in X; the law courts refused to compel the feoffee to uses, X, to hold the land for the benefit of A.

# 2006 Nov 28    {law school}    6

I got my first grade today, for this 2-credit, 8-week [ ] course. Apparently, I am the same quality legal scholar as I was a computer scientist.

I think I’m going to implement a Model-View-Controller design pattern to make myself feel better.

Update: you know what they say about economy of words and the power of brevity? That, friends, is what we in the legal world term a steaming crock of shit. Here’s a law student tip: if the exam prompt specifies an answer of 2,000 words or less, aim for 3,000. Two thousand of ‘em ought to be the right words.

Update #2: Also, always contribute your two cents, no matter how irrelevant your comment. Surely, pure white noise signifies participation.

[EDIT: letting cooler minds temper fiercer language]

# 2006 Nov 27    {law school, nerd}    3

NY Daily News: S&M Clubs, nude parties, pr0n rule at Columbia

Consider the party scene. But it’s no reason to get dressed up. In fact, there’s no reason to get dressed at all: The merrymakers of Morningside Heights host naked parties, lingerie-only parties - and the more bourgeois “clothing-optional parties with naked rooms.”

And taxpayers indirectly foot a chunk of the tab because bond offerings and loans from the state Dormitory Authority and federal Department of Education partially fund the renovation of dorms where naked frolickers muster.

Columbia wouldn’t comment on this use of university space. Lee Bollinger, the school’s $779,673-a-year president and a world-class expert on free speech, wasn’t available.

Great to see a balanced, moderate piece of journalism.

Update: I’m also surprised the Daily News didn’t mention the movie about staxxx they filmed here.

Update #2 (Nov 30): Fox News does a story on the story.  The even-tempered Ann Coulter chimes in.

# 2006 Nov 27    {Columbia, Links}    5

I am quite terrified of the next two weeks.  I added up the hours; it’s not enough.  I need a groundhogs-day.  T-minus 14 days to Exams.

No seriously.  Terrified.
—-

chimerical - adj.  a thing that is hoped for or wished for but in fact is illusory or impossible to achieve

# 2006 Nov 27    {law school}    #

Video: Amateur by Lasse Gjertsen.   Several people’s identical response: “this is awesome.”

# 2006 Nov 26    {Links, nerd}    #

Competitive eaters celebrate 12-minute Thanksgiving in New York:

The contest was presided over by “Hungry” Charles Hardy, himself a former hot-dog eating champion, while a math student from Columbia University was on hand to officiate at the weigh-in. [Emphasis added -Ed.]

Sounds like a great tip that a Bwog writer could follow through with…

# 2006 Nov 25    {Columbia}    3

Can any readers recommend a good pair of bud headphones? The cord on my Sony MDR-EX71SL has worn down to bare copper, as apparently they do.  Something under $50 but if quality comes at a price so be it.

# 2006 Nov 25    {Life}    2

It’s always good to see family, eat heartily, and soak in the ancestral bath of NJ, yet I dread the moments where I face my tenuous link to my heritage. Consider today:

I was at the [crab]ese grocery store. Mom had asked me to pick up a bag of rice and some eggs. I walk up to the storekeeper and ask, in my best [crab]ese, which aisle I could find the “beautiful microphones.”

Read the rest of this entry »

# 2006 Nov 25    {Life}    #

Cornell.edu Redesign Blog. Powered by Wordpress. Savvy.

See also, Resigning Duke.edu.

# 2006 Nov 24    {Columbia, nerd}    #

I like to think of my sport as the scrappy, uppity professional league to your staid, mainstream score-a-thon. My Neutral Milk Hotel to your U2.

The NHL recently inked deals with both Google Video and YouTube, which seems unusually savvy of them. Sardonic Crab would say the NHL has given up on actually airing games on TV and are moving straight to Year 2006 technology.

Anyway, the YouTube-love is just an endorsement of an already-strong online community of hockey bloggers and youtubers, that share videos like this 176 PIM brawl in last night’s Washington-Atlanta game:

Update: (where’s my head today?) And I’m thankful for it!

# 2006 Nov 23    {Life, nerd}    #

Inun-fucking-dated. Thanksgiving = Outlining weekend.

Also, this cat is out of the bag, given for past consideration of theirs. This blog now rests on eggshells.

Is this post insufficient, oh voracious reader?  Maybe some videos of people half-skiing, half-parachuting down the North Face of Eiger (see also) will sate where my tales of legal education do not.

# 2006 Nov 22    {Life, law school}    #

It’s amazing what a person can do in a 300 sq. ft. space for 12 hours without actually doing anything. You can bet it involves a computer. My one victory is that I’ve scrubbed the old college year posts and made them readable. Greatest Hits List next?

I wonder on what I missed out on this wintry Saturday.

# 2006 Nov 19    {Life, meta}    #

So far, a quiet weekend.  Most of the Team is in the Midwest right now, probably attracting the stares of a majority.   I am left to fend for myself, armed with only a tub of cottage cheese and my Torts casebook.  Hopefully by Monday, I’ll poop out an outline.

Much could be written now, but discretion is the name of the game.  At the bare minimum, this should be fun.  (There’s a half-entendre somewhere in there.)

# 2006 Nov 18    {Life, law school}    2