Posted by TDot on Nov 20, 2011 in
Fail I’ve already lost my exam number… that I just picked up on Thursday.
And apparently over the past month I completely forgot to notify my grandparents at any time that I’m coming to visit for Thanksgiving in a few days, so now Thanksgiving dinner is being held elsewhere 
I swear I’d lose my head if it wasn’t physically attached to my body. I’m ready for this semester to end already!…
Have a great upcoming week y’all, and GOOD LUCK to everyone trying to make it through the end of the semester alongside me! 
Tags: #fml, 3L, ::headdesk::, Nan & Pops
Posted by TDot on Oct 11, 2011 in
Fail “The best laid schemes of mice and men,” Robert Burns wrote a couple centuries ago, “go often askew[.]”
That pretty much sums up today
One thing I left out of yesterday’s update on life was that I missed AppAd last Monday to get repairs made to my car, a paid-off-but-aging-rapidly Ford Focus that I’ve driven across the State of North Carolina several times over. My cursed tire was flat again for reasons unknown so I headed in to the repair shop, got the tire fixed (gratis), and decided to get the usual pre-winter maintenance done as well: oil change, tire rotation and alignment, coolant flush, and so on.
Sure it came out to a few hundred dollars, but I thought to msyelf “At least this car won’t need any more maintenance until Spring semester.”
Ha. Hahahaha. Ha.
So today’s Election Day in the Bull City, I leave the apartment a little earlier than usual with the plan to go vote before class… and notice the car feels funny. When you’ve been driving the same vehicle for nearly a decade, you can just tell when something’s wrong. And sure enough when I get to the next stoplight the battery warning light comes on to tell me something’s awry with the electrical system.
Rather than turning right to go to the polls, I turn left to go to the repair shop again. A few minutes after turning my key over to them I learn that the refurb’d alternator I had installed back in 2008 picked today to stop working 
And unlike my old 1987 Mazda pickup truck (the first vehicle I had), today’s cars are manufactured by machines that cram parts so @#$%ing tight that it’s damn near impossible to service yourself and takes repair shops a few hours to fix things too. My Focus is actually intentionally designed so the only way you can really replace the alternator is by machine-lowering the entire engine block a few inches 
So I’m at the mercy of the repair folks, shell out more $$$, and head on my way 3 hours later.
In time to completely miss both Tax and Employment Discrimination, less than 24 hours after promising Prof Tax I’d be in class on-time and caught-up…
Over the past just-over-a-month I’ve now spent in excess of $1500 on auto repairs: getting the cursed tire fixed 3x, replacing some part that holds some other belt in place, last Monday’s maintenance, and then this stuff today. That not only totally wipes out my savings account that barely endured what is already my most expensive semester of all time, it also erases the $700 I had set aside for my NC bar application due January 1st
And just to add insult to injury? I was late getting out of Sales & Secured Transactions tonight so I couldn’t even make it to the polls before they closed, making this the first election I’ve missed since I started voting 12 years ago
Needless to say your friendly neighborhood blawger’s in a bitter @#$%ing mood. Heading to bed with the knowledge tomorrow will inevitably be a better day — have a good night y’all! 
Tags: #fml, 3L, ::headdesk::, AppAd, Employment Discrimination, Money Money Money, Prof Tax, Sales, Tax
Posted by TDot on Aug 22, 2011 in
Fail Right as I was about to scrawl down an entry about how excited I was for the first day of 3L year and how awesome today went, life decided to throw some lulz my way
From the “be-happy-with-the-blessings-in-your-life-instead-of-complaining-about-minor-annoyances-on-teh-intarwebz” file, we have this:
This is the kind of sh*t that makes less-mentally-stable people think the CIA is out to get them...
Yes, ladies and gentlemen: that’s a flat tire.
And not just any flat tire, mind you, but the exact same now-flat tire I just fixed barely a month ago
I got my car in 2002, and can recall only 2 flat tires before moving to Durham (and both were the result of the car getting hit).
But since starting at NCCU Law in August 2009, I’ve now had 3 “nailed” tires in 2 years — the first at the intersection a couple blocks from my apartment complex en route to our 1L Mary Wright Closing Argument competition, the second one last month at the intersection at my apartment complex, and now this one earlier tonight in the parking lot at NCCU.
My car evidently thinks nails in the street are a grave safety hazard, and so it’s determined to roll over every single one it can in the name of preserving public health…
At least I’m slowly approaching my lifetime goal of reaching NASCAR-esque speeds in how quickly I can change a flat tire?
Tags: 3L, ::headdesk::, Money Money Money, NCCU Law
Posted by TDot on May 23, 2011 in
The 3L Life For whatever reason, Mondays are the red-headed stepchildren of the week. I always thought it was an ill-deserved reputation; after all, Monday signals the start of the work week and all the cool stuff that happens when people work on doing cool stuff.
The popular perception of Mondays
Besides, if nothing else it means you can start making money again for another 5 days 
But, every now and then, I can see why people hate Mondays…
- I’ll be volunteering as a counselor for NCCU Law‘s Legal Eagle Law Camp, where 2Ls and 3Ls spend a week teaching 7th-11th graders about our legal system. The volunteers can either get paid or get course credit, and I opted for the 1-credit over the $$$… only to discover that getting the course credit will entail assignments on the side and 3 extra class meetings on either Wednesdays or Thursdays
- Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, since there was an open spot in my Thursday schedule. Except that my USPTO class has now randomly been moved from Tuesdays — where it was scheduled in our course registration system, and around which I’ve planned my summer work and travel schedules — to Thursdays. (A change that just got announced when? Today.)
- And I still don’t have any Spring 2L grades…
- Aside from the academic drama, I also somehow managed to sprain my left thumb this weekend. The pain got bad enough that I decided to go buy one of those immobilizer things you can find at just about any big box or department or drug store in the country (theoretically). So I go to the Super Target closest to my house to save gas, just to discover they only sell them in Small/Medium sizes instead of a one-size-fits-most style
They suggest the Walgreen’s that’s on the way home to my apartment… which I visit, and which is out of them entirely. By the time I’m done the Rite Aid up the street is now closed. The closest Walmart is out-of-stock too. So I end up having to drive to a Walmart in a neighboring county until I can finally get my hands on one, wasting more gas than if I had just gone there in the first place and burning an hour of my life in the process. 
- And the whole trek takes just long enough that, by the time I get close to my apartment, there’s a car accident blocking both westbound lanes of Fayetteville Street nearest to the apartment complex — the only portion of roadway that can be used to get into the complex, since there’s a median with trees blocking the entrance from the eastbound lanes ::headdesk::
Yes, I realize things could be worse; that could have been me in the car accident, or I could have broken my thumb instead of spraining it (or I could have all my grades but they turn out to be F’s ).
But I’m still adding Mondays to my list of things to avoid in the future…
Hope Monday went better for the rest of y’all out there — have a good night!
Tags: #fml, 2L, 3L, ::headdesk::, Legal Eagle Law Camp, NCCU Law, USPTO
Posted by TDot on May 4, 2011 in
Fail …if you’re going to write down the wrong time for your last 2L final exam, at least make sure the time that you write down is before the actual exam time and not after it.
That is all.
Tags: #fml, 2L, ::headdesk::, CrimPro
Posted by TDot on Jan 10, 2011 in
The 2L Life Good evening y’all!
First day of the my 2L Spring semester was today, and I’ve got a feeling this is going to be one rollercoaster of a semester. As one might expect from some of my past entries, it wouldn’t be the first day of class without a mini-disaster of some kind
Usually my car doesn’t like to start up in the cold weather, so I get up early and crank it until it starts, then sit there until it warms up, then leave for class. Well this morning it started on the second try (which was weird) so I let it warm up and headed to class a bit earlier than usual… and no sooner do I get into the inner lane of the major thoroughfare outside my apartment, in the middle of morning rush hour traffic, when the whole car just randomly dies.
No gas. No brakes. No steering. Nada.
Luckily for me I wasn’t going that fast and coast to a stop, so with cars barreling down on me I frantically hit the hazard lights switch, open the door and jump out of the car to start flagging other drivers to go around. I eventually get the car to start again and make my way to school…
…but not before I’m solidly late for Trial Practice class
In hindsight it was probably a good thing though, because the first day of class was about as exciting as watching grass grow. It covered the basic mechanics and stages of a trial from voir dire through final judgment, stuff I had already picked up between my past professional experience and spending last year on the 1L trial team.
But the class is taught by a judge though and is practically-oriented (all future classes involve different pairs of us going through different parts of the trial) so I’m hoping the excitement level will crank up soon
Then I talked with Professor FRE about the Evidence exam and found out I deserved the grade I got, but for totally different reasons than I expected. I’ll save the details on that for the grade rundown once I get all of mine in (still missing 3 ).
And then I had Business Associations, which will have me terrified for at least the near-term future. Prof Ks (who also teaches BA) got his timeslots mixed up and was late for class, and for whatever reason I decided to do the responsible student thing and go get him — then got rewarded by being the first person called on to brief a case
I feel like I held my own so there’s an ever-so-slim I might actually do well with the material this year, but let’s just say I’m glad the class period only lasted about 50 minutes
While I was in class I got a handful of emails from my internship, including docs I need to get reviewed ASAP. The schedule was posted for my tutoring gig so I’ve gotta get rolling on that. Plus there’s a 15-minute closing argument to write for trial team practice tomorrow night, and somewhere between now and then need to read about 80 pages for BA and Criminal Procedure ::headdesk::
The only real upside to today? We’re currently in the middle of a snow + freezing rain + ice storm, so morning classes got canceled 
Expect me to have no hair left by the end of the semester But hopefully it’ll be some fun 
Tags: 2L, ::headdesk::, BALaw, CrimPro, Evidence, Judge TP, Prof FRE, Prof Ks, Trial Practice, Trial Team
Posted by TDot on Jan 7, 2011 in
Fail Got my Evidence grade today.
The good vibes from ZombieLaw were a trap
Nothing like totally laying an egg in a course on something I’m supposed to master if I want to become a competent DA… ::smh::
::headdesk::
Tags: 2L, ::headdesk::, Evidence, Exams, Law Grades
Posted by TDot on Oct 27, 2010 in
The 2L Life Good evening y’all!
This morning was class registration day for the 2Ls at the N.C. Central University School of Law, meaning all of us were up at the crack-o’-dawn with fingers curled over the keyboard frantically refreshing a TWEN page around 8:00am.
Different from undergrad, where we got our PIN numbers weeks in advance and our custom-built registration system was inaccessible until a certain day/time, the Banner registration system at NCCU is up for everyone and instead the PIN numbers get automatically posted at 8am via the Registrar’s TWEN page. So folks have realized the most efficient way to snag classes involves a bit of computer know-how:
- Look them up in Banner in one browser window
- Click the “Register” button (which takes you to the PIN screen)
- Then in another browser window open the Registrar’s TWEN page
- Hit refresh until the PIN spreadsheet link appears
- Open the attachment within TWEN as an HTML preview
- Use Ctrl/Cmd+F to find your Banner ID
- Highlight and then copy your PIN
- Alt/Cmd+Tab to go to the other browser window with Banner in it
- Then paste the PIN in the box and click “Register”.
The whole process from start to finish takes maybe 5 seconds at most.
And people have gotten very good at it…
Last time around that included me. It’s why my Fall 2010 schedule only included 1 elective, as I tried to knock out as many required courses as possible so I could spend 3L year learning interesting stuff.
But this morning I made a fatal mistake
After opening the PIN window and clicking the spreadsheet attachment, I accidentally clicked the “Download spreadsheet” link instead of the “Open as HTML preview” option. In the less-than-3-seconds it took me to (i) realize wtf I had done, (ii) frantically click back to the browser, and (iii) open the HTML preview instead, I had given up priceless registration time.
By 8:00:xx, three of the classes I had planned on taking were filled 
So now my 2L Spring schedule is an inverse of the 2L Fall schedule: only 1 required course this time around, with a boatload of electives to go with it.
< 3 seconds == near-total schedule change
Business Associations is the required course and will be taught by Professor Ks. After my poor showing in both semesters of Contracts last year I’m a little terrified of taking another class with him, but every 3L I’ve talked to has told me he’s better than our other BA professor so I’m gonna try again ::fingers crossed::
Trial Practice I isn’t required but just about everybody takes it, given NCCU Law’s reputation in North Carolina for producing top-rate trial attorneys. I haven’t had this professor before so I have no clue how that’s going to turn out. If I’m lucky enough to make it onto one of our trial teams I’ll be using the class to prep for competition.
Scientific Evidence is taught by Professor DVLaw, which is actually the only reason I’m taking it because I hate pre-9am classes It goes into deeper and more-practical detail on some of the CSI-esque forensics that lawyers see in a courtroom nowadays (DNA, emails, digital photos, etc) which should be cool to learn. But the main motivator is the professor: like MDG she’s tough on the workload and grading, but you leave her classes actually knowing stuff and how to apply it.
Criminal Procedure is a prerequisite for both our Criminal Prosecution and Criminal Defense clinics that folks can take their 3rd year, so I signed up for it now instead of taking Taxation like the vast majority of 2Ls. The downside is that I’ll be stuck taking both Tax and Sales & Secured Transactions during 3L Fall — too many #s in one semester for my taste — but it should give me a leg up in snagging an ADA-ship after graduation. It’s taught by Professor CrimLaw so at the very least it should be entertaining
And then Appellate Advocacy I is my throwaway class. The Professor teaching it is the same guy who runs the Criminal Prosecution Clinic during 3L, and it’s a required course if for some reason I decide to try Moot Court in my 3rd year despite my total lack of current interest. Most of the 3Ls have told me taking App Ad and Trial Practice in the same semester is suicidal, so I’m fully prepared to drop it and take it next year if it gets too burdensome.
So that’s what next semester is going to look like I’m excited!
And the crazy part? I only register for classes 2 more times before becoming an attorney…
—===—
From the schedule-related archives:
Tags: 2L, ::headdesk::, Class Schedules, MDG, NC State, NCCU Law, Prof CrimLaw, Prof DVLaw, Prof Ks, Tips
Posted by TDot on Aug 15, 2010 in
Site Stats What do “nom nom nom”, “::headdesk::”, and “#fml” all have in common?
Lots of people looking for nom-ing bunnies...
They’re all internet memes I’ve been using here on law:/dev/null for months now… and they’ve turned into a real headache when it comes to site maintenance
I first noticed something was amiss when the blog got hit by a massive wave of spam comments back on July 11th. The pageview spike was so massive I had to leave out that entire day when updating these bar charts, otherwise the “Pageviews per Day” bar would be about 50% higher than it is now.
To highlight the spike, I created a new chart below graphing the number of spam comments against the number of unique IP addresses we had in a given month (higher bars == more spam comments per capita).
As I spent the next couple weeks re-acquainting myself with .htaccess directives for this spam prevention entry, I noticed something else odd in the log files: we had a trio of referrer URLs showing megabytes upon megabytes of data being transferred but with -0- corresponding pageviews. After poking around I realized the bunny picture from this old Contracts entry was being hotlinked all over the place for reasons I couldn’t figure out.
So I logged in to Google’s Webmaster Tools for the first time in months, and figured out what was going on — over 15,000+ searches on 30 different variations of “om nom nom”
July brought lots of spam...
Apparently when I switched how WordPress sets post URLs last month (from the old numeric “?p=1234″ to the current setup), the search index for that Contracts entry went up high enough that the bunny picture became the #1 result for anyone doing a Google search with “nom nom” in it.
Not the entire entry of course. Just the bunny pic.
Things have calmed down a bit now that I’ve started banning spambots and limiting the hotlinks. My guess is traffic will go back to a more-linear growth pattern for August. We’ll see what happens
***
On the search query front, we had a bunch of duplicate searches but also some fresh ones. Here are 20 of the 100+ unique search terms that brought folks here in July:
- chazz clevinger: worked with me as the Vice President of Legislative & Public Affairs for UNCASG two years ago. I haven’t kept in touch with him much since law school started, but he did good work for the students of North Carolina.
- nc dmv 30 day tag for insurance lapse: cost me $63, and I didn’t even need one
- nccu lsat score evening program: for 2009-10, was 151 for the evening program, with the 25th percentile folks at 148 and the 75th percentile folks at 155 according to the class profile.
- blackberry messenger group nccu school of law ’11: exists, but I’m not a part of it since I’m in the Class of 2012 Hit up one of the 3Ls for more info.
- tdot surplus vehicles: HA! I wish I had surplus vehicles…
- does duquesne law school give midterms?: I don’t know about Duquesne Law, but NCCU Law does
- letter demanding payment from ex girlfriend: is probably not going to accomplish much of anything…
- negative things about nccu law: vary depending on who you ask. I’m a huge NCCU Law fan, and my only real complaint is that the wi-fi can be spotty in certain areas of the building (like the Great Hall and the Fishbowl). Hopefully they improved that over the summer.
- 2010 11 tuition north carolina: is unfortunately still going up by almost $1K at several universities, since state legislators decided to balance the budget on the backs of students
- nccu law fall 2010 class calendar: can be found on the Law School Registrar’s TWEN page, or downloaded from the NCCU Law “Academics” page.
- nccu school of law’s grading curve: follows a strict-C median, which I happen to enthusiastically support
- mary wright 1l advocacy competition: takes place every Spring semester for 1L students. You can watch the video of my 3rd place performance here.
- daryl wade unc: is probably not the same guy as Daryl Wade, the former Student Body President at UNC School of the Arts who served as Vice Chairman of the UNCASG Council of Student Body Presidents last year. I’m sure the other Daryl Wade is still cool though… even if he goes to UNCCH
- are 1l’s included in the 30 day delay for financial aid?: For the vast majority of 1Ls, no. This was actually one of the questions we had at my 1L Orientation last year, so you’re not alone in wondering
- what percentage of nccu law school are white law students?: roughly 35-40% each class year. Another 45-50% are black, and the remaining 10-20% are spread across other races. We’re routinely ranked among the most diverse student bodies in the country.
- nccu minority scholarships for white law students: “No, officer…”
- nccu law fall 2010 book list: can be found above the academic calendar on the NCCU Law “Academics” page.
- acpi:system state: could signal a dead motherboard Take it to get looked at ASAP.
- which computer apple or pc for law students: Apple. Hands down. Trust me.
Definitely a different mix of search results getting here this month…
***
And finally, here are the Top 5 most-viewed posts for the month of July 2010, quite a bit different from past Top 5s due to the new indexing changes:
- On avoiding contract enforcement: Mmm Ks nom nom nom (02/16/10)
- On inexpensive résumé websites: Things TDot Likes: Persona Non Obscura (12/08/09)
- On post-1L class ranks: Learning what I already knew (07/12/10)
- On having a shadow: Spreading the (Law School) Gospel (02/17/10)
- On saving money: TDot’s Tips: Tips for the pre-L’s on $$$ (05/29/10)
*THANK YOU* as always to each of you for your continued support of us here at law:/dev/null!
—===—
Past Site Stats entries:
Tags: #fml, 1L, 2L, ::headdesk::, Blawg Love, Damned Lies and Statistics, Duquesne Law, Exams, I ♥ Apple, Ks, Law Grades, Mary Wright 1L Closing Argument Competition, Money Money Money, NCCU Law, Tech Talk, The Curve, Tips, Tuition & Fees, UNCASG
Posted by TDot on Jul 22, 2010 in
The 2L Life I know over the last few days the entries here at law:/dev/null have had a distinctly anti-government flavor, and for that I apologize dear readers. These are supposed to be musings of a computer scientist “turned law student” and not of one turned into a political pundit
Apparently the Law School Gods agreed, because they made sure to provide material for today’s entry
I’ve mentioned in a few previous entries that I’m volunteering with the Alternative Dispute Resolution clinic at the NC Central University School of Law. The course requirements include mediating about a dozen cases in Wake County District Court, creation of sample documents used by mediators in the field like Agreements to Mediate, a presentation on an ADR topic of interest (mine was plea bargaining), and 3 separate papers critiquing how some of those dozen-ish cases were actually mediated.
And amid my structureless boredom of summer, I completely forgot about the critiques
So Professor ADR sent me an email wondering where they were. And I gave serious consideration to crafting some kind of plausible excuse to justify my failure. But the truth is I forgot, so I sheepishly confessed my sin in a response email and pleaded for mercy.
The professor’s response: “Well, you get points for candor at least.”
I guess it’s better than nothing
Tags: 2L, ::headdesk::, ADR, NCCU Law, Prof ADR
