Selfish Crab

“Marcus promised he would drop by the party, and he did.  He is late, but brings beer, so all is forgiven.  A crowd gathers around the television; the main event has started.  Marcus hangs back, hovering around the chip bowl, darting in occassionally.  The party demographic is clear:  church-going bright-line monogamy.  Everyone is an adult.  Marcus is not.  He swallows a Dorito and decides to flirt with someone’s girlfriend.”

# 2009 Jul 11 • From the 'fictive' dept • 1

BARBRI – EXTREME MULTISTATE MAXIMIZER ENHANCER PLUS – 1 by selfish crab.

Nothing beats rolling into a giant convention center to take a 6 hour long multiple choice legal examination.  It appears I am still an idiot savant at bubbling circles: dozing off in the PM session and rushing thru the last 50 questions in 60 minutes did not stop me from scoring above average.

Since graduating in May, I’ve been spending nearly every day studying for the bar exam.¹ BAR/BRI is providing the necessary structure,² but I am taken back at the sheer amount of knowledge/word to memorize.  It’s almost too much.  … Here’s to the payoff.

1. Every attorney must pass a state’s exam to be licensed to practice law in each state.  Some states have reciprocity agreements; New York, one of the hardest jurisdictions, does not.  On Day 1, every state will test on 5 fundamental core subjects in the form of 200 multiple choice questions.  Day 2 consists of essays about that state’s own unique laws and rules.  I am taking NJ and NY.  New Jersey tests the 5 core subjects plus NJ Civil Procedure.   New York tests the 5 core subjects plus 16 other individual subjects.  Any questions? [↩]
2. To prepare, nearly all law students enroll in a prep course, BAR/BRI being the most popular by far.  It costs $3,500, and involves attending “class” every day, in which they play a pre-recorded DVD of a professor summarizing an entire subject within 1-3 days.  Repeat for 16 topics.   The professors range over delightful, practical, hilarious, bat-shit crazy, inexperienced, and unsuitable-to-teach-a-dog-to-piss.  “Fun” is not a wholly inappropriate adjective,  because it is, after all, a massive collective experience (I have bumped into old CU classmates in classs), but it’s unpleasant. [↩]

# 2009 Jul 10 • From the 'law school' dept • #

Let’s face it, photos on Facebook are a rather low-fidelity affair.  Photos are re-compressed into a grainy, blobby mess.   (“Let’s face it”…  somebody stop me).  If you want your newest upload of Flickr photos to appear in your Facebook news feed, here’s how¹:

1. If applicable, uncheck and de-activate the “Hide me from searches?” setting.²
2. Link your account to Facebook, using the link provided under “Extending Flickr“.³
3. At the resulting Facebook page, under user name, enter your screen/vanity name and NOT your URL/user name.   For example, my URL name is “engineer” as taken from http://flickr.com/photos/engineer/, but my vanity/screen name is “selfish crab”.   “selfish crab” is my user name.  ⁴
4. Hit “Update”
5. ???
6. Send me gratuities and your adulation.

NOTE: your mileage may vary because there have been intermittent reports that Facebook is choking on these shared item feeds.

1. It took me two days to figure this out. [↩]
2. Why?  Because otherwise “it won’t find you” [↩]
3. See also, Flickr Help: “Can I automatically update my Facebook when I update my photostream?” [↩]
4. Source: http://www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/87552/#reply578005 [↩]

# 2009 Jul 8 • From the 'nerd' dept • 1

From the announcement of Windows Endgame Day Zero:

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. (emphasis added)

Poor Gnome and KDE dev teams.

It also does not surprise me that, on the same day, Gmail and the other Google Apps have dropped their “beta” status. You can’t sell Windows without Office.

# 2009 Jul 8 • From the 'nerd' dept • 4

Inspired, I used an actuary table to calculate the remaining years of my life, converted that number to an actual date, and created a dashboard widget that ticks off the remaining days I have left on this earth:   17,747.   Looks more like a Boeing model number than my Deadline.   But there it is.  Oops, look at the time, down to 17,746.

It should surprise no one that I write this on the eve of another practice exam, this one simulated to the hilt at the Jacob Javits Center.  Studying for the bar is eating 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes.  The march towards the future continues, frolicking along that yawning chasm between the potential and the actual.

# 2009 Jul 6 • From the 'law school', 'Life' dept • #

eMusic just added the Sony Music catalog to their collection of hodge-podge of independent and little-known label music.  The loyal customer base (those that had no interest in “Big Music”) have been escorted out of their generous grandfathered plans¹, and are unhappy about it.² Nonetheless, eMusic remains one of the better sources for fresh music in regular intervals.

The Amazon MP3 store is another compelling alternative.³  Their Twitter feed is worth checking out: it links to $5 album sales and free track promotions (e.g. you can download a free copy of the Star-Spangled Banner, expiring July 6).

1. e.g. $15/mo. for 65 songs [↩]
2. I myself have been moved to a $12/mo. for 30 songs plan, averaging to $0.40/track. [↩]
3. I like to imagine the music labels desperately giving it away for free, to wrestle marketplace control away from iTunes. [↩]

# 2009 Jul 5 • From the 'Life' dept • #

Bar exam study begins with new vigor. I am on official lockdown. No alcohol, no parties, no fun, with rare exceptions made for out of towners, loved ones, and sanctioned study breaks. See you in August. (but of course the blogging will persist.)

# 2009 Jul 1 • From the 'Life' dept • 1