Need a favor!! Help!!

Sorry, hate to be posting here just for asking for help, but law school has consumed my life.

This Saturday I have a mock trial for the final of one of my classes, trial advocacy. I need five people to serve as jurors and just watch and come back with a verdict.

It's this Saturday, from 10am-1:30pm, in San Francisco, near the Civic Center BART, at 198 McAllister St.

I need about five people to volunteer their time. I would be forever indebted.

Buy you coffee, lunch, whatever.

Life is crazy, but here's a picture so you know I'm still alive. For now.

( Yeah, I'm sort of a big deal )

FUUUUKIN' A

Done with my first year of law school. Crazy ride. I'm tired.

Unfortunately for me I don't get to party or rest, as I've got training for my job tomorrow in Fresno. However, that does mean I get to go to Yosemite and play for a little bit, as well as drop by Davis.

Wait. What?

Yep you heard that right ladies and gents, Tommy Two El is coming to Davis for one night of crazy partification! So put your pants on and let's play! I'll be in Davis Thursday night to Friday afternoon. So Thursday night--Sofias? Does that sound ok? If you've got class Friday morning that's your own damn fault, come and play with me!

I'm wearing this shirt today.



Everyone is in death throes because of finals and a black cloud has descended over the library because everyone hates their life. Needless to say I've gotten some interesting responses from some people.

Including the Dean of the school...


...who laughed at me.

This is a law school finals posting.

Why is this song so good?!

Today I accepted the position at the office of the park prosecutor in Yosemite National Park. My job will be mostly responding to motions, conducting discovery, and maybe handling entire cases relating to class B misdemeanors (those with a maximum penalty of 6 months in jail or a $1000 fine). I’m currently searching for housing in El Portal and Midpines. An interesting spot of information I learned today. My future boss in that office will be leaving her position and taking a job at a firm less than a month after I start. Someone who is prepared to fill her spot will replace her, however I might have a lot more responsibility than I bargained for, which is both a blessing and a curse.

For sure, I’m quite excited.

Last night was my oral argument in Moot Court. I had to stand up in front of a panel of three judges and for 15 minutes argue a case. This was my first time in an actual courtroom, and I was nervous as hell. However, things went pretty damn well. Miraculously, after the court’s first question, my anxiety vanished and I impressed my professor, the judges and myself. My opponent was a nervous wreck, and was asked 10 questions by the judges. I did not show any sign of being nervousness, and the judges, believing I could handle it, asked me on the order of 35 questions. I think I did pretty well. I got mostly good comments from them.

This was an appellate hearing, so no questioning of witnesses, no opening and closing statements or anything flashy like that. My opponent (the petitioner) talked for 13 minutes, presenting his side of the case, and responding to the court’s questions. Then I took the stand (as the respondent) for 15 minutes and fielded the court’s questions. Finally, opposing counsel rebutted for 2 minutes. However, since I was answering a judge’s question as my time ran out and went over for approximately one minute, my opponent was given an extra minute to rebut. He was not so happy about that, he wanted out of that courtroom. (The judges even offered him that there are opportunities outside of litigation for lawyers. Ouch!)

The case we were arguing was that brought by the Sheehans regarding the 49ers’ patdown policy at Monster Park. Some info here. The case is actually before the Supreme Court right now, so it will be interesting to see how it comes out.

I’m definitely trying out for the moot court team for next semester, so we’ll see what happens with that. I’ve definitely spurred an interest in litigation.

Going to see an A’s game this Friday.

I’m writing a trip report for my weekend in Red Rocks, so you’ll want to stay tuned for that one. It’s an exciting one!

Holy shit what a ride. Just rolled back in from Red Rocks. Going to shower now. Recover. Expect an extensive trip report reasonably soon. Gotta develop pictures/catch up.

Short version: lots of fun, lots of climbing, lots of scary.

I don't know if any of you watch Eli Stone, but here's a bit of embarrassing information if you do.

I have a crush on Maggie Dekker, the character played by Julie Gonzalo. I like her so much, that it's almost serving as some sort of motivation to do well in school so that I can score a job at a big firm so I can meet someone like her. Writing that out is really pathetic. (Eli Stone can be streamed online at ABC.com, but she's mine, even if she's 4 years older than I am)

I went snowboarding this weekend. Did some double black diamonds at Kirkwood. Some scary shit. Saw some people fall down the sides of mountains--they slid (and yardsaled, ha!) about the length of an entire football field. I did pretty well, though.

Next weekend I'm going to Vegas. Actually, Red Rocks, for the Red Rock Rendezvous, a three-day climbing festival. Should prove very fun. I'll take tons of pictures. After that I will be hitting the books and be a totally hermit.

Maggie Dekker, marry me.

Oh god, I'm leaving for Yosemite tomorrow for interview and climbing until Sunday. Saturday and Sunday the weather is coming. I've got a cheapo Walmart tent that couldn't stand up to winds in Joshua Tree, never mind rain and snow... This could get interesting.

Most hectic spring break ever. And I'm only 2 days in.

On the bus ride to the Oakland Airport, half the people riding with me were talking on their cell phones. The other half (myself included) was visibly annoyed at all these yuppies yammering on about having some meeting or some such with the major or someone. I was tempted to pretend to get a call and loudly pronounce, "hey, can I call you back in 10 minutes? I'm on the bus and there are all these other people talking on their phones."

The plane ride back was uneventful except that someone farted twice and it was GROSS. Not me.

My brother picked up a freebie backpack for me from a forum-friend. It's an Arc'teryx Bora 95. It's fricken HUGE. It fits my 4-degree down sleeping back just in the bottom compartment, which is ridiculous.

A few hours into being home, computer froze. Hmm... my Mac doesn't typically freeze, ever. Reboot - no dice. Uh oh. Harddrive (which Apple calls KBB) clicking noise of doom. Oye. Still under warranty, but Apple doesn't do data recovery. Does anyone have any experience with Mac data recovery that doesn't cost eight million dollars?

I've pretty much lost this semester's notes and 60 gigs of music.

I canceled my Joshua Tree trip because my partner bailed, but now I'm having a better Yosemite trip. I'm driving up with my father on Wednesday, interview Thursday. My father has never been to Yosemite outside of tourist season, and I'm excited to show it to him. I plan to take him to the base of El Capitan, which (if y'all haven't done it) is the coolest thing ever. I recommend everyone go and touch El Capitan. On Friday a climbing buddy is coming up and we're climbing till Sunday, and I'll bum a ride back to SF.

I saw In Burges last night. Pretty good movie. Only old people in the theater with me. They kept talking... "oh is that Bruges?" "oh gosh, how pretty" "did he die?" "why do they make movies like this?" UGH. Like it's some sort of travel documentary? Come-on! I wanted to turn around and say "thanks for talking throughout the entire film." One of these old-people-movie-talkers had the audacity to tell another old-people-movie-talker to shush! Hypocrite.

Ok I guess I'm going to start doing work since I have to figure out how to study without my notes from class. I hate asking people for notes. I love supplements. Not the edible kind. The law-kind.

'nuff said.

May 22

Has anyone worked for the government? I've been looking around at forest service jobs, and I can't understand what all the GS-lingo means. Is there a good site with a Fed-Jobs-For-Dummies kinda thing?

Could I do one of these? All are positions with the Forest Service.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smokejumper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helitack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotshot_crew

They are in order of bad-assness. Most bad-ass at the top.

The impossibility of giving up.

I might be done with this law school thing. For a thousand reasons I feel it's not the right place for me. Perhaps for just now, perhaps for ever. I have no idea what the right place for me is. I have zero motivation to continue. It's a lot of work, and if I'm unsure about the future, I can't do it.

If I were getting money from loans, I could quit and have a debt. It would suck but I'd pay it off eventually. Maybe. That would be nice.

Unfortunately for me my mom is paying the full ride. What this means if I quit I'm not wasting my own money. I'm wasting HER money. Money she works hard to make. When someone has invested greatly in you, you feel trapped. I feel like I can't leave school. She will be angry, I'll feel guilty. That just makes me want to run away.

Additionally, I have this good set of law-friends that I'm supposed to stay with for 3 years. To leave and then come back in a year would be humiliating. To just leave and never come back would mean being the failure of the class. (Or one of them, some have already given up, but they left early in the year before people realized they were there, so to speak.) I like the idea of being in school, I like my peers, the city, the student life. I do find the material interesting, but the work commitment is fucking ridiculous. Especially if I don't know if I want to be doing this when I grow up.

My biggest mistake in my entire life was coming to law school directly out of Davis. How stupid.

My mom was always pressuring me to become a lawyer faster. She needs me to be a lawyer now. I'm not laying the blame on her, but making my parents proud is a big reason I came to law school. An undergrad degree wasn't good enough for me. If you asked me what I wanted to be when I graduated I couldn't have told you. Even though I was already committed to going to law school, being a lawyer probably wouldn't have been the answer. I had a naive notion that I could just get a lawyer background and then work in another industry. Yeah right. The moment you are in law school you are thrust into the legal profession. Career fairs, interviews, workshops, internships, clerkships, so many goddamn legal areas and I don't know what I want to do.

I wrongly assume that everyone knows what they want to do, but it stresses me out thinking I'm the only one piddling around here. I feel like I know the least. Everyone is expecting me to do well and I can't.

I have a big project due tomorrow (and six long hours of class); if I end up doing it, I'll have to stay up all night. If I don't do it, it will be disasterous to my grade this semester. I don't know what to do.

I wish I had someone to talk to, completely spill my guts on, and even tell me what to do. I don't have anyone close enough to do that. This post is only the peak of the iceberg (ok maybe a little more than that). I sent a text message to my mom saying some of these things. Of course she hasn't received it yet. I don't want to talk to her about it. At least not over the phone.

I know what someone (if I had someone close enough) would say. They would say if law school is not right for you, then you should leave. It's not that simple though. Not with my parents. Not with their expectations. I don't know what they would think. My parents are so wrapped up in their own things I feel like we've drifted apart. Monthly my father threatens divorce. More often when I'm at home. My parents don't know what to get me for my birthday or whatever anymore. They don't know what gets me going. They just expect the best out of me.

And where would I go? What would I do? Part of me just wants to go to Argentina or Nepal or New Zealand and just be a local. I'm tired of all the responsibility, all the stress. My life is so disorganized. If I had less to worry out maybe I could think clearly.

If I were in Davis I'd go for a drive or a bike ride. I can't do anything here. If I leave my damn apartment I'm at risk of being stabbed or shot.

Big fuck

EDIT: If I give up now. Then forever I will have started but never finished a law degree. This may or may not be important.

Three years is a long time. No matter how many people tell me it's 'just' three years. Then it's only the rest of my life.

Fuck books and movies like Into the Wild that make me yearn for a simple life.

Law school would be 8,539 times easier if we didn't have to worry about applying for jobs and going to career fairs when we've got hundreds of pages of reading and hundreds of hours of research to do.

MacBook Air.

Most stolen device of 2008?

Ok so party plans are as follows:
You will RSVP to this entry stating that you are coming.
I will put your name on a list. Then will forward this list to Mr. Smith - Owner of Mr. Smith.
You will come to Mr. Smith's between 10PM and 10:59PM on Friday, January 11th, and proceed into the club without paying the $10 cover.
Inside the club, you will drink and dance to your heart's merriment.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mr-smiths-san-francisco

Mr. Smith's is near the corner of Market and 7th.

"You know what I really hate?"

I like the movie Shoot em Up. I dunno why. It's not particularly good, just entertaining. Also, I share pet peeves with Smith. I especially like the signaling part--I've wanted to do that countless times.

Back in SF. For those of you in the area, I'm arranging with the owner of Mr. Smith's to get people on the guestlist and no cover before 11 on Friday night. So save Friday night for drinking and dancing.

Message for the SF Crew:

Of the following four places, which would be the best place to throw a (my) birthday party?

Little Baobab. I can see a Zimmerman review :P. Would come here for dinner first then stay for dancing. Concerned that the music would not be to most people's liking, and that I don't know how to dance other than white-boy-wiggle. Looks cool, though. Easy transportation.

MIGHTY. Good sound system. Go here for just dancing. The Onion will host the party. Need to MUNI or Cab, no BART :(. Cover :(

Mr. Smith's. I've been here a bunch already. I like the dancefloor, but there is a cover. Next door to my apartment. Expensive and weakish drinks.

Bruno's. Been here but not in the dancing area, so can't say much about it. Would get here early for food.

Other options but weaker are:
The Cellar. Been here once, but sober. Was ok, high cover.
Medjool. Was here just before leaving for break, so seems too early to go back.

My party will be on Friday or Saturday the 11th or 12th. Keep your eyes peeled for an entry once I decide on day/place.

So. Opinions?