Stress Tests

Obama & Company rolled out their stress tests (Disptach, May 7) yesterday for the banking industry. Where do you fall in the stress test category?

Are you like citibank and BOA? Rather than taking the government's (err... public) money to bail yourself out, are you relying on your friends and their outlines for your exam preparation. Are you leaning on the back of your classmates to get through this marathon exam period?

Are you merely looking for some private investment (who isn't)?

Are supporting your friends like Huntington Bank here in Columbus (Dispatch, May 6)? Do you share what you can and strive for community partnership?

Or are finals / stress tests just a waste of resources? Isn't there a better way to evaluate our legal knowledge / evaluate the banks (NYT op-ed, May7)?

Don't stress out too much.

Lent

I was raised Catholic, but do not consider myself religious. My mom's family is particularly religious and I am overcome with guilt when we talk about church. When I was home for Easter I was prepared to share my Lenten sacrifice - blogging.

I last blogged on March 19, about two weeks after the beginning of the Lenten season. Some might say I really didn't sacrifice anything at all because I wasn't doing a good job on the blog int eh first place, and I did not make this sacrifice during the proper time period. Look people, I was following the spirit, not the letter of this Catholic tradition. In the same vein, I think my blogging vacation was a few days short of 40. I am ok with that.

A conversation about this blog might have provoked interesting conversation on a number of levels at Easter Brunch. The family elders, I'm sure, have never seen, or for that matter heard of blogging. The Nextel network commercial hits the nail on the head when they describe how many people are use Twitter on their network and then say something like 40 percent of you watching this commercial have never heard of Twitter. My brother would tell me that he presently manages 17 blogs: world of warcraft winners, snowboarding in northeast Ohio, dominating the wii fit, ect... In this hypothetical conversation I would later find out these are the blogs he looked at this morning - he doesn't actually manage any blogs. My mother and father would act interested and then tell me they will check the blog frequently. Mom would become the blog's biggest reader (not sure what she would be reading).

But none of this happened. No one asked what I gave up for lent.

Lent must have started all over again this weekend. But this time instead of giving up one part of our lives, Moritz expects us to give up everything for the next 16 days to prepare for finals. Really?!? 16 days!?! So here I am with many of my peers in our sweet library staring at the computer screen pretending to be productive. I should be outside enjoying the weather. But then I would feel guilty. My property outline is going nowhere, but I cannot bring myself to leave the library, so here I am blogging and watching the Cavs game on gamecast.

Lent take 2, I hate you.

Bring on the Kontracts

sometimes i wish we did not have wireless in the library. the NCAA tourney just started and i am tempted to check scores every three to five minutes.

just days ago i swore i was not going to fill out a bracket, but i found bracketology a much needed break from tomorrow's contracts exam. did anyone check out president obama's bracket? I am a little disappointed in our president's selections. all of the one, two and three seeds made it to the sweet sixteen along with 2 four and 2 five seeds. come on. pick some upsets. heck, i took cleveland state to the sweet sixteen and have Xavier over Pitt to get to the elite eight (these picks clearly reflect my Ohio bias. but sorry Akron, you didn't make the cut.).

given my post history (or lack thereof) it is abundantly clear that i welcome any distraction from studying contracts. this is not to say i am unprepared but i am done with consideration, cisg, and parol evidence. if you stumble across this blog before the K exam you are clearly unproductive. so go distract someone - i am sure they need it too.

have a great break

Props to PILF

props to the pilf people for pulling off a great event.

i have never been to a live auction but have seen a few on tv (entourage episode where turtle's cousin is able to convince turtle and drama to buy a koufax jersey because he thinks Sandy is going to die). while i was excited to go to the event i was afraid we would be subjected to a real auctioneer all night. listening to a tradational auctioneer on tv is terrible, perhaps even worse in person. thank god greenbaum, berman, merrit, and simmons preformed admirably.

i felt bad for the closer - greenbaum, solely because had to pitch in top of the ninth and the home team was up 10. Everyone leaves a blowout baseball game early. unfortunately greenbaum's audience was a bit thin. you could tell he put some time into his preparation - he had a silk intro for every item.

simmons sounded pretty good but i really wasn't paying attention.

merrit's son bid on a number of items she auctioned (there must be a better word for this). she pleaded with the audience to outbid her son.

was berman good? yes, no, maybe, what do you mean?!? I do know that his "crim law move night for 10" sold for 50 bucks while "hit berman in the face with a pie" went for 100 or more. If only berman got hit with a pie at the auction.

dear readers:

I am sorry I have not posted in a while, but I was busy getting ready for one of the biggest events of my life. Prom. I mean barristers' ball. i had to track down the perfect outfit, find a good date, look for some flowers, and buy my ticket. it was a busy week.

right.

let's take a trip back to high school prom. i did not drink in high school (honest) but i remember thinking prom night took forever. pick up the date, take the photos, show up at the event, mingle awkwardly, wait for dinner, dance awkwardly, go to after-prom, go to after-after-prom. all of that took about 7 hours, and for some reason i think i had fun.

on friday night i went to a pre-party at 6, got home after 2, and the night moved quickly. so i guess it was a good time.

i did run into a few problems:

1. i failed to realize our drink tickets did not cover every drink on the menu until after i bought a round of better than well-vodka martinis. i don't know why i thought the better liquor would be included, but i was hopeful.
2. thanks to SBA's pre-event email i was afraid i might get hit by an errant beer bottle falling from the balcony.

finally, thanks to the five of you who voted in the poll (question: going to the barristers' ball?). the poll is very hard to read, but i think it says two people (40%) voted for each of the following: No way; yes, but my significant other refuses to go because he / she is sick of hanging out with law students; I am taking multiple dates. perhaps most importantly, does anyone else think it is odd that there were 5 votes, 6 responses, and the percent adds up to 120, not 100?

feel free to post your barristers' ball / prom comments.

ps italics = sarcasm

reasonably foreseeable

a friend from another jurisdiction just sent me this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8ABhatAfsA

it is creative, but a bit on the depressing side. while i do not concur with all of the lyrics, i definitely agree with this one: "I bleed reasonableness and jurisdiction".

In fact, earlier this weekend I made a joke about something "reasonably foreseeable", but no one got it. Most likely because of at least one of the following: my jokes are usually only funny in my head; I was the only law school / lawyer type in the group. Woops. you know you have made a bad law school joke in the past week-and-a-half.

On the job... search

I hear a few of my fellow 1Ls have jobs already. Congratulations.

When we started the blog I put up a poll asking if 1Ls have jobs already. I definitely do not have a job, but I am sure I will find one before May. I am at least comforted to know that of the eight people who voted, seven selected "I should be looking for a job?!?"

Good luck on the search.