Yesterday I completed the long process of running for law review board. I made comment editor, which wasn't my first choice position. In retrospect though, given my grades, less than outgoing personality, and general un-law reviewness, I'm just happy I got a board position at all. Comment editor allows me to work with my fellow students polishing and editing their work. I think it'll be less stressful and maybe less time consuming than a position on the publication side. The best part, the reason why we all ran for board positions, is that you get three of those so valuable ungraded units in the fall!

A Study of Eyes

Eyes are the window to the soul. So here I've got Muffy and C's souls, reduced to data bits on the Internet.

Photos taken with my Fuji F10, macro mode and then cropped with ghetto photo editing software.

Chicago / Northwestern

Took the red-eye to Chicago on Thursday night, which meant arriving at 5am on Friday. Three hours of airport sleep and a McDonald's breakfast while watching CNN (no audio, only closed-captions) later, it was off to the city on an elevated train. Went to the Art Institute of Chicago. There was a special exhibit of Impressionist & Post-Impressionist pieces, so there was a bit of a line:


A guy in a bunny costume followed by a camera crew was heckling passersby, asking them what they would do for a box of Peeps. I would have gone to the store and paid $.59, but these people were willing to make jackasses of themselves for a national TV audience:


After the museum, headed to Millennium Park, which like the museum is on the bank of Lake Michigan. It has this outdoor concert hall, which I thought was a bad Frank Gehry knockoff. Turns out he actually was the designer. I guess he has run out of new ideas:


Millennium park also has a brightly polished mirror sculpture that exists for people to try to take artsy pictures of themselves in. Here is my attempt:


I was starting to run short of time, so I caught the train to Evanston, which is about 10 miles north of Chicago. It is also directly on the lake, and the cold wind blows off the water. The temperature was about 40, but the wind-chill brought it down to 28, and I felt under dressed. Evanston has a Berkeley feel - lots of coffee shops, used bookstores, and a large Whole Foods. Northwestern has the old, back-east school thing going for it:


However Kellogg (named after the Corn Flakes [seriously]) does not have quite the same charm:


What it lacks in charm, it makes up for by being maybe the best school for general management in the world. Also the interior is much snazzier than the concrete bunker outside belies.

It was 5pm by the time my interview was done, so I headed back to the airport for some downtime and more McDonald's. I flew back through Vegas, so I didn't get back to San Diego until after 1am. Here is what the Vegas airport looks like at midnight:

Some Good and Some Bad

The Good
1) My comment on Google and Chinese Internet censorship is getting published! I was really surprised, I didn't write it for publication, but rather to make a law review article as enjoyable as possible for its readers. I guess that ploy worked! You wouldn't know it from this blog, but I do know (some) grammar.

2) I'll be working in DC this summer for the electronic privacy information center. It's a public advocacy group. Freedom of speech on the Internet (subject of my comment and my other paper this semester) comprises a peripheral part of their work. They mostly fight for our right to privacy online. It's still a small field, difficult to enter, but has massive potential.

The Bad

Law school students who make fun of the fact that I took a public interest job, instead of staying in San Diego and making money at some law clerk position. I can't help that I didn't get the summer associate position, and I don't have the connections to dig myself out of that hole. So instead I'm going to work at a place I admire, and try to make the best of this situation. I think it's a lot more productive than focusing on past lost opportunities, or fawning over others' summer associate positions.

The xbox 360 arrived yesterday. We played Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Give me a few years and I'll have the PS3 as well.

My Weekend - Not As Fun

C's post below demonstrates how he's the funniest guy I know. Also, it shows how he doesn't understand the concept of photoblogging.

Here's the part where I post the pictures from my exciting weekend. Except I stayed home. So instead, Yellowcat's second favorite blogging activity - snippets from tragically hilarious (or simply tragic) conversations.

Me: So next weekend I'm going to stay home and make green beer.
Brother: You realize you're not impressing any guys that way.
Me: I don't care about weddings and families, I'm saving myself money by not buying green beer. I can make it myself.
Brother: I think you should really try to do better.
Me: I can't. I like cats.

(on running for law review board)
Me: Does GPA matter?
Guy: It's indicative of analytical ability...(continues on)...
Me: Well I'm not in the top 10% of my class. Or even close.
(shocked silence)

Guy: Ya I really like living here, I've lived here 25 years, it's beautiful.
Me: We got robbed.
Guy: Ya I know it's a great place. Absolutely beautiful.

Checking In from Cornell

I'm back in Ithaca this weekend for a Cornell event. I've now been to upstate New York two weekends in a row, and three weekends in the last month. It's too bad admissions season is in the dead of winter. People here keep trying to sell me on the four-seasons thing, but when I'm only visiting in the season that is especially unpleasant it is a hard sell. No pictures for either of the last weekends - the respective admissions staffs kept us quite busy. Here are the captions of the pictures I would have taken however:

Rochester
Philadelphia Airport, 6 AM - looks like an airport.
Cinnabon!
The plane has propellers?!
Doubletree: The swankest hotel in Rochester.
Team looking worried
Team looking mad
Team looking nervous
More food!
Yes, the shuttles are limos.
What's de-icing?
You mean you lost my bags?

Cornell
Chicago Airport, 5AM - looks like an airport.
Syracuse Airport, Noon - looks like airport. But with WiFi.
My GPS told me that Cornell was here, but it was actually a snowfield 17 miles West of Cornell.
The web told me that this parking building was the place to park, but it was actually a 20 minute walk up a gorge to the B-school.
Yes, the student I stayed with actually owned a house.
Team looking worried
Team looking mad
Team looking nervous
More food!
Rochester has limos. Cornell has beer and their own bowling alley.

some paraphrased quotes this week. Plenty of funny and positive quotes as well, but they concern yours truly, so I'm not going to reproduce them.

Ultra Rich Man: USD students are all very analytical and robotic, I don't know why your school doesn't teach academic theory. I never use it, but I loved thinking about it.

Very Rich Man: You know, the job market's hard, especially if you come from that school. I think your school does a disservice to its students, it's the marketing, most of the students have a very hard time finding employment after they graduate.

Kind of Rich Man: It's an issue that affects more than just the street bum lawyers that you deal with on a daily basis [he assumes my classmates will become street bum lawyers].