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Mike's Journal
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Below are the 40 most recent journal entries recorded in the "vandelay8" journal:[<< Previous 40 entries]
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10:41 pm
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Need ideas for travel
I need some recommendations for travel ideas.
Here's the situation: my clerkship ends at the end of July. I won't really need to start working again until mid to late October (although at some point I will probably have to move apartments). I will have plenty of money to travel.
My tentative list includes, in no particular order:
U.S./North America - Seattle, Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, Vancouver, Hawaii.
International: London, Paris, Prague, Japan, Thailand, Holland, Italy (especially Venice).
Obviously I can't do all of these. Maybe I can't do more than 2 or 3. I don't know.
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12:09 am
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History does repeat itself I guess
1970 - Senator Roman Hruska, defending an allegedly-mediocre Nixon nominee to the Supreme Court (who was eventually defeated):
"Even if he is mediocre," Mr. Hruska said, "there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they, and a little chance?"
This quote is rightly considered one of the classic "bloopers" in modern Senate history.
2005 - former Senator Dan Coats, defending an allegedly-mediocre Bush nominee to the Supreme Court (who, at least at this point, is still a favorite to be confirmed):
"If great intellectual powerhouse is a qualification to be a member of the court and represent the American people and the wishes of the American people and to interpret the Constitution, then I think we have a court so skewed on the intellectual side that we may not be getting representation of America as a whole," Mr. Coats said in a CNN interview.
Greenspan is retiring soon, I can't wait to see who Bush nominates for that post (perhaps his CPA, or his stockbroker?) I think "America as a whole" could use some more representation in monetary policy.
Here's another good one from the same article: "She definitely has to establish herself," Mr. Specter said, adding, "It's become even more emphatic in my mind as to her need to bone up on constitutional law." Here's a good place to start.
That reminds me, I was kicking ass on Constitutional Law practice questions this summer in my bar review course. Maybe I should be on the Supreme Court.
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01:56 pm
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What are we getting out of the space program?
Headline from the year 2018: Congratulations, you've just accomplished something that was already done 50 years ago!
Why do I get the feeling that the manned space program is basically a jobs program for scientists and government bureaucrats? This is distinct from unmanned efforts - we seem to be getting good stuff from projects like the Cassini probe and the Hubble Telescope.
So my question is, why don't we spend more money on unmanned probes, and less on these grandiose manned missions that don't seem to have much to do with science? Just for example, few if any reputable scientists see much scientific value for the space station, yet it eats up a large portion of NASA's budget. But then again, the space station serves as the only remaining mission justifying a budget for the ultra-fragile, 1960's technology, death trap space shuttles.
And wy do we need a moon base, anyway? If the rationale is as a staging point for a Mars mission, that's just stupid, because its a colossal waste of energy to land on the Moon and then have to expend fuel to blast off again. Why not just go directly from Earth? So what, are we going to grow crops on the Moon? Is there oil? Do we need a platform to shoot a "laser" at Earth?
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01:07 am
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We have a security breach in New Orleans!
I submit for your consideration, Cindy Sheehan's latest semi-literate ravings. It's definitely worth a read, it raises a ton of questions (mostly about her sanity and level of educational attainment). She was recounting details of her bus tour's recent trip to New Orleans. One of her (many) complaints in this post is that the troops in N.O are behaving like an occupying army instead of being there to help.
My question is, if things are so repressive down there, how the HELl did the military let Sheehan's magical mystery tour just waltz in there to get their photo-ops? It sounds to me like we need to send more troops to make sure such a security breach doesn't happen again......
P.S. Occasionally I post sarcastic and (I hope) witty comments to blog posts on the Huffington Post (you wouldn't believe the bilge they pump out there, it's really hilarious stuff). I tried to post a comment to Sheehan's post but it was password-protected. What a surprise.
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11:11 pm
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good N.O. article
http://www.slate.com/id/2125810/
I think this is what Speaker Hastert would have said, if he had two brain cells to rub together. A lot of excellent points here. It really would be a shame if they just re-created the city the way it was.
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02:40 am
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New Orleans
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04brooks.html?ei=5090&en=37eeb8918dbb6e2e&ex=1283486400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
(This guy is of a neo-conservative bent). I totally agree with this column, but I really don't know which way the politics will cut. I suspect that, as usual, the response to an utter failure of government will be .... more government. That's the direction that history usually flows.
I was very impressed to see the frantic spin war going on between the Bush Administration and the Louisiana authorities (read today's Post and NY Times to see what I'm talking about). The Bushies today launched a fairly coordinated effort to pin the blame on Blanco and Nagin for losing control of the city so easily to the crackheads and gang members, who impeded rescue efforts and otherwise did so much to contribute to the anarchy (good to see the Administration's spin doctors, at least, are operating at full capacity). The Louisiana authorities responded with clever leaks showing how the feds were trying to usurp the governor's and mayor's authority (what authority? that fucking bitch governor is going around crying and whining for six days and doing nothing useful, Bush even had to tell her to order an evacuation before the hurricane, and the mayor didn't even seem to try to keep order when the hurricane hit, ceding the city to the crackheads without a fight). It doesn't matter who is right - there are still bodies rotting in the water and people starving to death on an interstate in 100-degree heat, and the authorites (at all levels) are ALREADY manuvering to pin as much blame as possible on others, as if this was some run-of-the mill Washington scandal. I really don't know what to say about this.
I think Bush's presidency is pretty much over. I have no idea whether FEMA and the military moved "too slow" or were too disorganized (and most of the people tossing around blame don't either because they don't know the whole picture), but Bush and some of his people really put on a clinic on how to make it look like you don't give a shit that 20,000 people are drowning or starving to death. E.g Sec. Rice, who was in New York shopping for shoes and taking in a Broadway show (well, there goes her hopes to ever be President). I think after this, Bush's activity will be pretty much confined to replacing Rehnquist (hopefully he'll make another good nomination like Michael McConnell, but I'm not holding my breath, I'm sure he'll just put his crony Gonzales, a mediocrity as a lawyer, on the bench), and then he'll sit in the White House and run out the clock. And the next Republican nominee will probably have to be someone completely unconnected to Washington and thus not tarred by this catastrophe (Guiliani being the obvious choice).
And I can't say I'd be heartbroken if the Democrats won the next election. I voted for Bush in 2000 thinking he'd be a good Reaganite conservative. Well as Cosmo Kramer would say, I was WAY OFF! Since the tax cut in 2001, pretty much every domestic initiative of his has been a piece of shit. (The roll of dishonor includes No Child Left Behind, Sarbanes Oxley, campaign finance reform, prescription drug legislation, steel tariffs, an obscene farm subsidies bill, an almost-as-obscene transporation bill, an energy bill laden with corporate welfare that contains nothing useful such as ANWR drilling, and an endless succession of bloated appropriations bills). I do think that his foreign policy has promise, but I don't think that it will survive him no matter who is elected, because I don't think he's done a very good job of explaining the overarching theories behind it to the American people, and the focus on Iraq has obscured the legitimate successes (such as building closer ties with India, defanging Libya, etc.) Also, it is becoming clear that the nation doesn't have enough endurance for any sort of extended engagement in foreign countries. (The nation hung in there for a while on Iraq, but I think the steady stream of defeatist slanted news from the media is finally taking its toll, judging by the now-rapidly deteriorating poll numbers).
And the worst part about the past week is that we have now found out that, on the signature issue of Bush's presidency, the war on terror and homeland security, absolutely NOTHING has been accomplished since 9/11. What happened in New Orleans is a fairly good simulation of what would happen if a nuclear or biological attack were launched on a major city. (The conditions in N.O. were in fact less challenging than a WMD attack, because we had a day or two warning in this case which allowed 80% of the people in the area to evacuate). You can make all the excuses you want (and we've already heard a lifetime's worth from FEMA, Bush, Chertoff, Blanco, Nagin etc.) but the fact is that Bush was supposed to have been working on this shit for the last four years. We even created a huge new bureaucracy, adding billions of dollars worth of overhead and enduring years of awkward infighting and adjustment between disparate agencies, and what the fuck did we get for all that? Nothing, apparently. So I guess if a dirty bomb goes off in Manhattan, I can get locked in Madison Square Garden for six days with no food or water by a bunch of National Guardsmen who aren't receiving orders from anyone, while 15 different agencies fight over who is in charge. Something to look forward to, I suppose.
I've just about had it with defending Republicans in general and the Administration in particular. For years I've defended Bush against many of my friends who always considered him a fraud and made vicious attacks on him. Even as Bush and the so-called GOP Congress continued to betray my small-government beliefs, I still would defend him against the Michael Moore bullshit and so forth (the attitude being, "well, at least he's a good foreign policy president" and "well, I have such contempt for his opponents that I support him by default"). But little did I know that Republicans saw homeland security as a campaign slogan as opposed to something they actually had to work on in real life. Fine, I admit it, Bush is a fraud.
This is not to say that I think things would have been better if Kerry was President, or that any Democrat would do better. Most of the leading Democrats provoke nothing but a sneer of contempt from me; they have nothing constructive to offer and they haven't had a new idea since the 1960's. I don't take back anything I've ever said about them, and I think when the history of the New Orleans disaster is written, there will be plenty of blame for them too. All I'm saying is that this week was the final nail in the coffin of my belief in the Republican party as anything worth believing in or expending any energy to support.
I've always believed in a federal government that only tries to do a few things, but does them well and efficiently. Instead, over the last seventy years we've built a government that tries to do five million different things, and does most of them very badly. If you want to see the end result, go visit the Superdome.
P.S. How about that fucking idiot Hastert? Telling a local newspaper that N.O. should be bulldozed and why bother to rebuild it?!!?! I know what he was trying to say, and I can't say I even necessarily disagree, but that has to be the most ill-timed gratuitous comment by a politician I've ever heard! I think there should be some kind of law preventing House members from speaking in public. I'm telling you, I can count on about 2 hands the number of House members who make any kind of sense when not speaking from a script. Most of them got elected, anyway, because they were the Rotary Club President of Bunghole, Nebraska or something equivalent - its not exactly a rigorous screening process. (That's one reason why I liked my old boss - he knew his limitations so he didn't give that many speeches or interviews).
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01:06 am
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NFL Football Preview
I used to spend a lot of time on these back when I worked on the Hill with nothing to do. Ah, the memories. (Playoff teams in bold)
NFC East: PHI 12-4; WAS 7-9; DAL 6-10; NYG 5-11
NFC North: MIN 12-4; GB 8-8; DET 6-10; CHI 4-12
NFC South: ATL 12-4; CAR 8-8; NO 7-9; TB 5-11
NFC West: ARI 10-6; STL 9-7; SEA 5-11; SF 2-14
AFC East: NE 14-2; NYJ 10-6; BUF 8-8; MIA 4-12
AFC North: PIT 12-4; BAL 12-4; CIN 6-10; CLE 2-14
AFC South: IND 12-4; JAX 9-7; HOU 7-9; TEN 3-13
AFC West: KC 12-4; DEN 9-7; OAK 9-7; SD 9-7
Hmm, there seems to be an imbalance towards the AFC. Well, the NFC sucked last year, so maybe that's not unexpected. It's also weird that I have all 4 teams in the AFC West with winning records. I'm pretty sure that's because they each get to play against the NFC East with its 3 putrid teams. For example, I don't see the Skins beating any of those teams except maybe Oakland. (Interesting schedule quirk - Norv and Marty come into FedEx Field on consecutive weeks! I bet their teams will be fairly well prepared for those games don't you think?)
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02:50 pm
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Something to look forward to...
One of my minor enjoyments is reading scathing reviews of horrible movies or TV shows. It really brings out the best in critics, to get to compete with each other to come up with the funniest, most biting lines to denigrate the movie they are reviewing. So, with Deuce Bigalow, European Gigolo coming out this weekend, I have some great reading material. (Rotten Tomatoes reports that a whoping 3% of the reviews they've tracked are positive. Wow! This could be a solid hour or two of hilarity to work through all these reviews)
Update: more great reading material.
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09:21 pm
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more tournament frustration
I played in a $5 tournament (with rebuys and add-ons) on Party today. I finished 14th out of 1460 ($189 minus the $16 I invested). Once again though, it isn't really that great. First was $5,300!!!!!!!!!!!
Unlike the last fiasco where I got unlucky, this time I think I did make some mistakes towards the end, including my bust-out hand where I reraised a button raiser and a SB reraiser from the BB with AKo and, somewhat predictably given the tight players involved, ran into the SB's AA. The SB in that last hand was a total jagoff, he "thought" for like 20 seconds before calling with his AA, and then he and his posse of railbirds started talking shit. Wow, real classy. Try pulling that in a real cardroom, asshole.
The basic problem is that I generally have no respect for the typical Party player (especially when I "slum" in a $5 or $10 buyin tourney or in $2-4 limit), and so I am vulnerable to players who don't totally suck. Sometimes its impossible to distinguish the donkeys and the decent players....until its too late. When it got down to about 30 players, the play became considerably tighter and more rational, and I didn't adjust at all. I didn't do enough stealing and bluffing, and at the same time I made some loose calls of all-ins (one of them worked out though - I called off like 1/3 of my chips in the BB with A-5 against an all-in with A-K - the board was x-x-x-x-5!). End result was that I gradually lost altitude until I donked off my whole stack when I still had ok chips.
I also had a fun 2-hour session in 3-6 limit. Playing 3 tables, I lost like $100 in 30 minutes, then went on a huge rush and at one point was up $160. Then in the last 30 minutes I somehow ended up -$20 for the day. Well, it was real....real reminiscent of a root canal.
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07:13 pm
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Ted Leonsis is a donkey
Even small market NHL teams are signing proven veterans.
I don't mind rebuilding with youth, and we do have a ton of good prospects by all accounts (I saw one report that ranked our farm system #1 in the league), but why not pick up at least a couple of veterans now that salaries have been deflated? For example, why not try to resign Gonchar? If Pittsburgh of all teams can afford him, we can sure as hell have afforded him!
It's almost enough to make me become a Devils fan. I do live in Jersey now, after all. The DEVILS! THE DEVILLLLLLLLLLS!
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08:56 pm
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On second thought Judge Roberts sucks
I just remembered that Judge Roberts partially overturned an opinion that I worked on extensively when I was an intern for a federal judge in 2003. I still think that my judge was right and this unanimous 3-judge panel was wrong. Judge Roberts may be a brilliant legal mind but I knew better even as a first-year law student.
I have fond memories of this case anyway because the part of the opinion not reached by the D.C. Circuit gave me my idea for my law review comment, to be published next month.
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06:50 pm
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Party Poker $350K guaranteed, $95K for 1st.
I finished well out of the money (776 out of 2284). I played pretty well but I just didn't get much to work with, in terms of cards or steal opportunities.
I don't think the level of play was particularly high, but I doubt I'll play in another one of these anytime soon. I certainly can't justify plunking down $215 to enter direct, and you can't count on winning satellites on a regular basis. Oh well., it was fun.
My bust out hand was probably a slight mistake on my part, I should've gone all-in preflop. Flat-calling the open-raise works better if I am in the SB and can go all-in first after the flop. Here, it's just kind of pointless because I'm committed to the hand no matter what, with only 9BBs left. Technically, I did get my money in with the best of it (she had 10 outs).
The other player in this hand was a total donkey BTW.
( Read more... )
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11:27 pm
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Bar Exam Day 2 report
Multistate (40% of the exam) seemed to go very smoothly. Out of 200 questions I was very confident of about 100-110 answers, reasonably confident of about another 40, and for all the rest I narrowed it down to 2 choices. So, being conservative:
100 "confident" - get 90 of those: 90
40 "reasonably confident" - get 25 of those: 115
60 "50/50 toss-ups" - get 30 of those: 145
125-130 is an average passing score on the Multistate in New York. (And remember, I'm being conservative; I think a 150-160 is very possible).
So, overall I'm reasonably confident that I passed the exam, so hopefully I won't have to go back to Albany in February. We'll see.....
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04:54 pm
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Bar Exam Day 1 Report
I just finished Day 1 and I'm cautiously optimistic. Today was 60% of the exam and it included the New York portion which I was most concerned about. My trial runs on the essays had been rather borderline. But today went pretty well I think:
Essay 1 (corporations, contracts, ethics) - pretty good
Essay 2 (criminal law, procedure) - excellent
Essay 3 (domestic relations, new york practice) - I did ok, not great, but I'll get some points. (Must keep in mind that 5 out of 10 points per essay is considered passing).
NY Multiple Choice (50 questions, 10% of exam) - ok, these were a bit brutal. But believe it or not a passing score on this part is 25/50! I estimate I got somewhere between 25-35 right so I should be ok (I was sure of about 15-20 out of them, and as for the rest in virtually every case I could narrow it down to 2 possibilities).
BREAK
Essay 4 (torts, evidence) - good to excellent
Essay 5 (wills) - pretty good.
Multistate Performance Test (10% of exam). This is a "real-world"-ish exercise where they try to test you on performing some sort of real-world skills. This year was to write a persuasive letter on behalf of a client to a government agency (they give you all the factual and legal material that you work with). I think I did SPECTACULAR on this - I made intelligent use of all the material they gave me, my letter was perfectly organized and well-written (especially for only having 90 minutes).
So overall it's hard to see how I am not on course to pass. And tomorrow is the Multistate (200 multiple choice questions, 40% of the exam). I've done very well on the 1,400 practice questions I've taken, so I expect to crush this part. I feel like Lance Armstrong about to head into the mountain stages....
P.S. - there are an amazing amount of blind people in Albany. I've seen like 6 of them which is astounding considering how little time I've spent on the streets here. It reminds me of the times when the blind organizations would have their annual D.C. convention, and there's be tons of blind people walking around Capitol Hill with their sticks. It used to infuriate me because I was too oafish to avoid tripping over their walking sticks numerous times. In fact, I think I tripped over a blind person's stick three separate times in one day. (No, I'm not blaming them at all, obviously when a sighted person runs into a blind person it's totally the sighted person's fault).
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04:47 pm
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NHL update
"Next Gretzky" will go to Pittsburgh Penguins.
This is rather unfortunate for the league - even with Mario Lemeiux this franchise has been circling the drain for years - Pittsburgh is a dying city and I think before long it won't have any professional teams other than the Steelers. Sidney Crosby is supposedly the best prospect to come along in ages (Gretzky says he'll be the next Gretzky), but it would've been much better for the league if he went to the Rangers or Blackhawks. This never would have happened if David Stern was the commissioner - he rigged the lottery in 1985 so Ewing would go to the Knicks, after all.
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10:47 pm
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What ever happened to Heath Shuler?
Heath Shuler to run for Congress- in North Carolina??!!!
I really don't understand why Shuler would run for Congress in N.C. instead of Tennessee (I realize that he's apparently a N.C. resident, but still). Shuler is still a god in Tennessee as far as I know - and sports success can carry you a long way in politics. For example, Tom Osborne has no trouble getting elected to Congress in Nebraska, despite the fact that he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground (I know this from first and second-hand observation, BTW). But what cachet does Shuler have in North Carolina? There, he's just some guy who spouts unoriginal blather about "working to find real solutions to the real problems facing our families" and ending partisanship in Washington. (The person who ends partisanship in Washington should immediately turn to several much easier tasks, such as inventing faster-than-light space travel, designing a sustainable cold-fusion reactor, and producing mathematical proof that there is a God).
Somewhat surprisingly, the incumbent, a veteran Republican and a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, only got 55% of the vote in 2004. So I suppose that it's at least conceivable that we'll get to see if Shuler sucks as much at being a congressman as he did at being an NFL quarterback.
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10:25 pm
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Hoboken
Arrived today. IKEA furniture is a lot harder to assemble than I remember. What an infuriating day, but at least I'm here.
One week until bar exam - time to focus like a laser beam (after wasting this day).
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07:55 pm
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does anyone own an XBOX?
The reason I ask is that I've apparently just won this game by finishing 71st in this World Series of Poker fantasy pool. I'm not planning to buy an XBox anytime soon, and I wouldn't have much interest in playing this game even if I did, so if anyone wants a free XBox game let me know.
If I could've just managed 65th I could've gotten some Oakley sunglasses. That would actually have been useful. (1st prize was a $10,000 entry into a future poker tournament of your choice; 2nd prize was 3 free nights at Wynn Las Vegas).
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11:20 am
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Kwame is GONE
Brown to Lakers for Caron Butler and Chucky Atkins.
Caron Butler is a solid player (although I'm a little concerned that he basically plays the same position as Jamison). Then again, I think that Kwame to Lakers for a bag of basketballs would also be a great trade for the Wizards. Of course, with the Wizards' luck, he'll immediately become a superstar. I think there is a little danger of that (Jermaine O'Neal took 4 years to get his head out of his ass too). But I can't think of any NBA superstar who ever acted the way he did during last year's playoffs. If he had pulled that stomach virus shit on the Lakers last year, Kobe would've put his foot so far up Kwame's ass that Kwame's ass would be entitled to its own Nike endorsement deal.
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06:43 pm
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bar exam update
I think I'm in good shape on the Multistate half of the exam (200 multiple choice questions covering Contracts, Property, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Torts and Evidence). Here are my results from the practice exam BARBRI administered last week:
BAR/BRI OVERALL SCORE
Raw Score: You answered 136 correctly out of 200, which equals 68% correct.
National Rank: Your score was higher than 94% of the students taking the exam.
I still need some work on some of the New York specific subjects (trusts, wills, NY practice and corporations, ethics), but overall I think I'm in great shape.
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02:55 pm
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gotta play the rush
Poker is a lot of fun when you're constantly hitting cards and not taking very many bad beats, which describes my experience for the last couple of weeks or so. For example: I've been doing great 4-tabling the $3/6 limit hold-em games, so I decided to get my feet wet in $5/10 (only one table though). Here is the VERY FIRST HAND I played in $5/10:
( Read more... )
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09:51 pm
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don't believe what you see on TV, example #133,284
Admiral Stockdale, Ross Perot's 1992 running mate, dies.
Like most people, I remember this guy from his admittedly weirdo 1992 debate performance against Gore and Quayle. I vaguely remembered being told that he was a Vietnam hero. I had no idea as to the extent of his heroism (below is from his Wikipedia entry - follow the link to his official website for a somewhat fuller version):
"He was held as a prisoner of war in the Hoa Lo prison for the next seven years. Locked in leg irons in a bath stall, he was routinely tortured and beaten. When told by his captors that he was to be paraded in public, Stockdale slit his scalp with a razor to purposely disfigure himself so that his captors could not use him as propaganda. When Stockdale heard that other prisoners were dying under the torture, he slit his wrists and told them that he preferred death to submission . . . Stockdale was released as a prisoner of war in 1973. He received the Medal of Honor in 1976 . . . Debilitated by his captivity and mistreatment, Stockdale could hardly walk or even stand upright upon his return to the US. The Navy, out of respect for his courage, kept him on the active list, steadily promoting him over the next few years before permitting him to retire as a vice admiral."
I'm somewhat ashamed that most Americans (probably including myself, although I was only 14 then and I don't remember exactly what my impression was) judged this guy based on one stupid debate. I forget who said that the camera is the great falsifier of reality, but truer words were never spoken, as evidenced by the fact that it fooled us (at least for one night) into thinking that this man was in any way inferior to AL GORE and DAN QUAYLE?!!!???!!? What, are you fucking kidding me? Quayle and Gore should have been made to fall to their knees and thank Adm. Stockdale for being allowed to be on the same stage as him!
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02:27 am
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unsent e-mail
I just wrote out this e-mail to the dumbasses who slandered me as a felon. I use the word "slander" advisedly - I believe that what they did to me (tell the apartment manager that I'm a felon) technically qualifies as defamation. (Although, I vaguely remember that there is a Supreme Court case that provides a safe harbor for this sort of thing, and in any case there was no damage because the error was corrected and I'm still moving into the apartment).
Taking a page out of Abraham Lincoln's book, I haven't sent this yet. (He used to write really nasty letters to people, and then rip them up or put them in his desk drawer - the act of writing them was a good release but he was smart enough not to actually send them). But I thought it was witty enough to be worth posting for your (possible) amusement.
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Dear Saferent, Inc:
I just wanted to thank you for falsely informing your client, Hudson Park Apartments in Hoboken, NJ, that I am a felon. I really appreciate being told that I can't rent an apartment because I had committed some unspecified "crime against the government". It made for a rather stressful 30 minutes until the building manager called his contact at Saferent and determined that you cretins were confusing me with a totally different Michael Kennedy. (The fact that the felon had a different middle name was sort of a giveaway).
In the future, let me suggest the following: before you slander an applicant by informing your client that the applicant is a felon, you might want to stop for 2 seconds and verify that the criminal record you found actually corresponds to the applicant. Off the top of my head, I can think of several virtually foolproof methods to accomplish this: 1) make sure that you have the right middle name 2) make sure you have the right social security number 3) make sure you have the right date of birth; 4) more generally, make sure that ANY GODDAMN PIECE OF INFORMATION in the record is the same as what is on the application.
Wait, I said that these methods are “foolproof”, but that isn’t the question – the real question is, are they “Saferent-proof?” This is apparently a much, much, higher standard to meet than merely “foolproof”. But never mind, I'm sure that it's much more efficient for you to find a felony conviction for a Michael Kennedy, assume that there is only one person named Michael Kennedy in the entire world, and blithely report to your client that my application is declined.
Everyone makes mistakes, but the mistake you apparently made today was so stupid and obvious that I wonder how any of your employees manage to dress themselves each morning. I know that the American education system is in precipitous decline, but surely it is still possible to find people to do data entry who read above a 2nd-grade level? You need not even confine yourselves to America – you could just outsource the jobs to India like everyone else.
And I shudder to think that reputable companies rely on you imbeciles to process their background checks. If this is your normal level of accuracy, then I expect that your clients’ buildings are teeming with burglars, child molesters and (most troubling of all) people with poor credit!
-Michael N. Kennedy (note the "N" - I wouldn't want you to confuse me with some felon. Oh, wait...).
P.S. Your website is really lame. Although it was impressive that most of the words on the page formed complete sentences - you must have hired an outside company to develop the site for you.
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04:25 pm
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Appalling incident today
Well I almost lost my apartment today. I got a call from the leasing office manager, informing me that my application was declined by the company that does their background checks . . . . . . because I am a FELON! Since I couldn't remember when I had been convicted of a felony (the government has to tell you when they do that, right?), I got a little agitated (ok, I got a lot agitated - I really don't have time to look for another apartment right now). The manager told me that there was nothing he could do on his end, and that accordingly I had to clear it up with the background check service (Saferent, Inc). I imagine that the building's background check service works like Equifax with retailers and checks - the retailer has to agree not to accept any check that Equifax says is suspect and has no discretion over the matter under the contract.
Anyway, after calling Saferent 100,000 times and not getting through, I left a voicemail with the manager and said I couldn't get through but that I would keep trying. In response to my seemingly (and actually) pointless voicemail, the manager was nice enough to call his own contact at Saferent, and they soon determined that the felon in question had a completely different middle name.; For some reason I felt relieved to hear that I'm not a felon, even though I already knew I wasn't a felon. Weird. (Honest people, I'm not a felon, trust me).
Another reason why I am so irritated is that this is the second time in the last few months that something like this has happened to me (for people too lazy to read the earlier blog entry linked earlier in the sentence, one of my credit reports suddenly showed that I had a $12K delinquent Discover Card balance). I have a very common last name and so it is very easy for the morons who do data entry for all of these companies to corrupt my records with references to other people named Michael Kennedy, who apparently are particularly prone to committing serious crimes and running up gigantic credit card bills. Maybe it would help if I changed my name. Is "Max Power" available.....
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09:28 pm
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tournaments are for suckers (like me)
I just finished wasting 4 hours of my life playing a $11 tournament on Party Poker. 952 runners, paying 100. I finished 12th. This sounds really impressive until you consider the pay scale:
100th: $14
12th: $76
3rd: $750
2nd: $1,100
1st: $2,100
The maddening thing is that I had decent chips with 12 people left, after making an great call with 6-6 on a J-5-2 flop (my opponent put me all in on the flop with KQ). But then I had the misfortune of picking up QQ on the button, where I proceeded to get all-in with a slightly bigger stack with AQ. Ace on the flop and that's it for me. 3 out of 4 times with that matchup, I'll be at or near the chip lead. Unfortunately this is the 4th and instead I'm sitting here fuming (also fuming because I didn't expect to play this long and now I'm going to have to stay up late to finish my bar study).
No more tournaments for me, that's for damn sure. I don't know if my true expectation 4-tabling 3/6 limit is $60/hour but it's sure a hell of a lot higher than $15/hour. OTOH, the level of play in these tournaments is beyond awful - my EV in a tournament like this HAS to be at least 2x or 3x the buy-in (that would still only $22 or $33 though - nothing to write home about, which is why I shouldn't waste any more time with them).
Here's a key hand, which gave me the chip lead and allowed me to run over the table for a while during a period where I wasn't getting cards:
***** Hand History for Game 2247631406 *****
1000/2000 TourneyTexasHTGameTable (NL) (Tournament 13317002) - Wed Jun 22 19:47:26 EDT 2005
Table Multi-Table(370297) Table 4 (Real Money) -- Seat 9 is the button
Total number of players : 10
Seat 1: DippyDizzel (7289)
Seat 2: angelfever (8237)
Seat 3: ILOVEPEPSI (13644)
Seat 4: HardcoreUFOs (6920)
Seat 5: assman45 (3288)
Seat 6: HENCKEN1 (25317)
Seat 7: QueenOKings (3500)
Seat 8: vandelay8 (18228)
Seat 9: jimbo007 (3016)
Seat 10: mdows (4031)
mdows posts small blind (500)
DippyDizzel posts big blind (1000)
** Dealing down cards **
Dealt to vandelay8 [ Qh, Kd ]
angelfever folds.
vandelay8: the cards aren't going to change
ILOVEPEPSI folds.
HardcoreUFOs folds.
assman45 folds.
HENCKEN1 raises (2000) to 2000
QueenOKings folds.
vandelay8 raises (5000) to 5000
(BACKGROUND HERE - HENCKEN1 fancied himself the table bully at this point and had been open-raising at least 40% of the hands - I was waiting for a chance to play a pot with him in position).
jimbo007 folds.
mdows calls (3531)
mdows is all-In.
DippyDizzel folds.
HENCKEN1 calls (3000)
** Dealing Flop ** : [ 2h, 8d, 2c ]
HENCKEN1 checks.
vandelay8 checks.
(I know, I know, I should've bet here. The more I think about it the dumber I think it was to give up the lead in the hand I paid 5000 chips to acquire).
** Dealing Turn ** : [ Ts ]
HENCKEN1 bets (1000)
vandelay8 calls (1000)
(The pot at this point is 16,000 (13,000 main pot and the rest in a side pot). A little more background here, I played a pot with HENCKEN1 earlier where I had Qd Jd against what turned out to be AK. The flop had 3 rags but two diamonds, and he bet like 1/7 the pot all the way to the river, where I missed and folded, and felt sick that I could've easily moved him off his hand.)
** Dealing River ** : [ Qd ]
HENCKEN1 bets (6000)
Good news and bad news. I hit my hand, but now he finally wakes up and bets 6000 into a 16000 pot. If I call and lose here I have 6000, which is a desperate short stack of 6BB. If I call I'm the chip leader (and also I keep in mind that I'm playing to win $2,100, not $14 or $76). Suppressing my sick feeling that I let him hit AQ, I thought for about 20 seconds and then called. (In the real world, this is a much easier call I think, but in the bizarro Party Poker world people love to make tiny bets to "sucker" people into pots when they are holding the nuts - which is why I was so worried).
vandelay8 calls (6000)
** Summary **
Main Pot: 13093 | Side Pot 1: 15938
Board: [ 2h 8d 2c Ts Qd ]
HENCKEN1 balance 13317, lost 12000 [ Jc Ks ] [ a pair of twos -- Ks,Qd,Jc,2h,2c ]
vandelay8 balance 35259, bet 12000, collected 29031, net +17031 [ Qh Kd ] [ two pairs, queens and twos -- Kd,Qh,Qd,2h,2c ]
mdows balance 0, lost 4031 [ Kc Ad ] [ a pair of twos with ace kicker -- Ad,Kc,Qd,2h,2cAd(kicker card).
The lesson here - if you're going to bluff, BLUFF! Who the hell is going to fold anything when you're giving them 16/1 pot odds? If he made that 6,000 bet on the turn my cards would've been in the muck instantly (which is why my flop check was kind of dumb).
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12:35 am
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summertime and the living is easy
So basically my life for the last three weeks (and for the foreseeable future) has been studying for the bar exam, with periodic study breaks for poker. As I get closer to the bar, and more nervous about passing it, my studying periods have gotten longer and the poker periods have gotten shorter. That's really too bad though, because since about late May I've been on my best rush to date (+$2,500). I've finally succumbed to the grind of limit holdem, and I've been murdering the 2-4 and 3-6 games (if anything, the 3-6 games have more fish than the 2-4!). I haven't totally given up on the sit-and-goes, but I've realized that those are pretty much a sucker game, especially on Party with the short stacks and short levels, where much of a good player's edge is neutralized. (Also, if I actually get far in a 2 or 3-table tournament it takes like 90 minutes to finish and my study schedule is more suited to 30-60 minute breaks. With cash games I can come and go as I please).
My bar study is going ok - I'm not quite where I want to be in some subjects but I can tell I'm improving. I'll know better where I stand by July 4, after we take an entire practice exam. I think I'm in much better shape on the multistate than the essay portion - my multistate questions correct percentage is already at 62% - which they say is at the low end of the passing range. But since I don't really have a firm grasp of the material I'm having trouble spotting issues on essays where they don't give you 4 choices.
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11:51 pm
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The Clintons Part II
This is probably the first time I've ever been on the Clintons' side, but I have to admit that these allegations of an unnamed source are unbelievably gutless. If you can't make allegations like this openly and stand behind them (the way Juanita Broaddrick did) then for the love of god, shut the fuck up! I realize that in Washington it is quite common to knife your enemies through such methods, but this guy is accusing someone of rape! Is there any "line" left at all, or do people just feel free to throw around any old accusation, anonymously of course, without stopping to think of the damage they cause to real human beings (like, for example, Chelsea Clinton)?
Of course, once this book hits the stores (already #11 on Amazon and its not even out yet), and this story is picked up by the Mainstream Media, the obvious spin will be that it is "yet another partisan hit job by the vast right-wing conspiracy." This in turn will preemptively discredit legitimate attacks on Hillary's character and ethics down the road (cue Hillary shaking her head sadly on the Today show in 2007....."first they accused my husband of rape, and now they accuse us of accepting cash and favors for pardons way back in 2001. Katie, its just the same old tired tactics from the mean-spirited far right......")
It doesn't help when a leading conservative blog runs ads for the book on its site while condemning the rape allegations. Their explanation: "We accepted the ad, of course, before we knew anything about the content of the book. More generally, our policy has been not to undertake to investigate or vouch for the products and services that are advertised here, but rather to accept any advertising that is not offensive on its face. Consistent with that policy, we presumably would have accepted the ad even if we had known that the book contained content of which we disapprove." I'm sure the average American is smart enough to comprehend such fine distinctions (is there an emoticon for sarcasm? There really should be).
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09:55 pm
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Overkill?
Somewhat strangely, BAR/BRI's lecturer for Constitutional Law the last couple of days was Erwin Chemerinsky, an extremely prominent constitutional law scholar (I don't think "rankings" really mean much in this field, but my sense is that most would consider him in the top 10 or 20 scholars in his field in the nation). To have someone of his distinction lecturing for two days on what is essentially the kindergarten version of constitutional law seems roughly equivalent to having Pavarotti sing in the shower.
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01:08 pm
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Nats fever
I got my first look at the Nats last night - I had a seat in the upper deck in dead-center field. It was a very interesting vantage point. Going to RFK is a very retro experience, sort of like what going to a game in 1977 must have been like (even the music was out of date!). After all, RFK is the 6th or 7th oldest stadium still in use in the major leagues (I couldn't find an authoritative list, but from a cursory look at this data I think 6th or 7th is about right). It's also not the greatest neighborhood - there is NOTHING to do before or after the game (as unfortunately I discovered the hard way because my friends who had the tickets were late and didn't show up until the 3rd inning.
For all that it was a great experience, especially since the Nats won AGAIN! It was typical Nats baseball - great pitching and just enough offense. I'm still a skeptic because I think eventually the superior talent of the other teams (especially the Marlins and Phillies) will win out, but who knows?
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06:09 pm
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Too early to dream about....
A Nats-Orioles World Series? Now that would be off the hook. I would run over my grandmother to buy a ticket to a game at RFK if that went down. Unfortunately I think the Orioles are for real as long as they stay healthy. Their pitching really seems to have come together in a way it didn't last year.
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08:46 pm
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welcome to hoboken
My new home in Hoboken (starting July 1).
I am really pysched about this (just got the call from the roommates tonight and I'll be signing papers this week). I saw 5 places yesterday and this is BY FAR the best situation out of the 5. The roommates are nice (they are B-school students at NYU), the commute to work shouldn't be more than 30 minutes door-to-door, I really like Hoboken as a place to live from what I've seen of it, and the building is incredible value (my share of the rent is $1,075) for the money, especially compared to the Manhattan shitholes I saw. I mean, I love Manhattan and all, but why live there if you can have a nicer place for less money right across the river.
I do lose the "I'm cool because I live in Manhattan" equity though. It remains to be seen how much this will cost me on the social scene, but I have a hard time believing that it is worth $400-800/month.
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10:03 am
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Does the NFL test for crack?
Ricky Williams holding out for more money????!!!!
What possible leverage does this idiot have? He's been out for a year, his ex-teammates probably hate his guts, he already owes the Dolphins over 8 million, AND oh by the way the Dolphins just drafted a RB with the #2 PICK IN THE WHOLE DRAFT! If I were the Dolphins I'd give him two choices - play for whatever the fuck we tell you to play for, or pay us the $8.5 million you stole from us.
Although on second thought I guess there's never any harm in asking. If the Dolphins are stupid enough to give into Williams, they deserve what they get.
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03:27 am
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the Clintons
Does anyone else find the first few paras of this article creepy?
The president gazed intently at poll data and then turned to his wife. "Women," he announced, "want to know why you stayed with me."
There was an awkward pause among the group of political operatives. But Hillary Clinton did not seem embarrassed. Instead, a half-smile crossed her face. "Yes," she responded, "I've been wondering that myself."
Jabbing the air for emphasis, Bill Clinton gave his answer: "Because you're a sticker! That's what people need to know -- you're a sticker. You stick at the things you care about."
Now THIS is focus - an intensely embarrassing personal problem that due to the president's stupidity was aired in full view of the world, but their main concern is how to spin it for voters in some Senate race??!!!!!
Anyone who underestimates Hillary or thinks she can't win is a fool (and until relatively recently I included myself in this group). Anyone who doubts her should examine her 2000 Senate race (where she CRUSHED a reasonably strong GOP candidate). She didn't just rely on star power - she went upstate and wore out a lot of shoe leather meeting voters in many, many backwater New York towns (areas which, by the way, are not particularly liberal or naturally disposed to like her). For someone moving to a brand new state, she sure immersed herself in New York issues very quickly, and I think the voters appreciated it.
It would almost be worth it to see Hillary elected if we also get to see Bill Clinton become the first male First Lady. I can't think of a more fitting demise for him.
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08:27 am
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brief Revenge of the Sith review
I went to see Sith the other day. It wasn't bad, although Hayden Christansen still hasn't learned how to act (either that or it's just Lucas' awful dialogue that makes him sound like a whiny bitch all the time). I didn't at all buy the believability of anakin's transformation into evil, but I tried to enjoy the movie for what it was. I'm also amazed that the guy who played the chancellor/emperor is still alive - Return of the Jedi was 22 years ago and that guy looked to be at death's door even then!
But then that night I went home and popped in my dad's Return of the King DVD, and it became impossible for me to overlook the complete failure of the prequel trilogy. I think it is very fair to compare the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Star Wars - at a certain level of generality they are the same genre (3-movie epic based in a fantasy world; struggle between good and evil; state-of-the-art special effects). Sit down and watch the Lord of the Rings, and you'll realize that in every possible aspect (acting, plot, dialogue, characters, even special effects), LOTR is so far beyond Star Wars that it's a joke.
The most striking thing for me is that I always found it completely impossible to give a rat's ass about any of the characters in Star Wars (least of all Anakin). I don't know anyone who has developed any kind of affinity for these characters (putting aside the 5 year olds who loved Jar Jar). Most people who tolerated Phantom or Clones did so because the battle scenes were kind of cool, or simply out of residual goodwill for the old movies (and the natural desire to see how the prequel will add texture to the old movies). The only two memorable characters from the prequel were a) Yoda, a holdover from the old trilogy and b) Jar Jar, who was memorable in a negative way - most viewers wanted to have drawn and quartered. By contrast, the characters in LOTR are inherently very easy to root for (despite the fact that some of them aren't even human). The original Tolkien source material is extremely rich in this regard, and the cinematic adaption did a good job of getting across each character's central qualities, anxieties and flaws.
Even in the special effects, I think LOTR comes out ahead, both technically and substantively in using special effects to add to the story, as opposed to using them to distract the viewer from the weak plot and bad acting. Try watching the climactic battle scenes in Return of the King and tell me that the comparable scenes in star wars pack anything approaching the dramatic impact (in particular, the charge of the Rohirrim in Return of the King could be one of the most impressive battle scenes ever put on film, even though a lot of it was computer generated). By contrast, I often found the action scenes in star wars to be too busy (for example, the first battle in Sith becomes sort of a blur - there is apparently a kind of law of diminishing returns that takes effect when you pack the 500th battling starship into your shot).
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02:33 am
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my jerk moment of the day
On the GW campus today, some guy wearing a PILG shirt with a clipboard asked me if "I had time for the Arctic Wilderness". As I walked by, I said in a pleasant tone of voice, "well, I think we should drill the hell out of it. We really need more oil." He seemed a little flustered
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02:14 am
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love that bitter Mariners-Padres rivalry
I was just watching the Sportscenter people make fun of some of the pointless interleague matchups going on this weekend (e.g. Mariners-Padres and that midseason classic, the Tigers vs. Diamondbacks). I don't know what they want from the schedule-makers - its not their fault that those franchises suck.
Maybe they could pare down interleague play though - just have one or at most two series a year. Then you can have your Subway Series and Cubs-White Sox but keep the other nonsense to a minimum, and also you can prevent warping the wild-card races by giving some teams with easy interleague slates an unfair advantage. Has anyone looked into whether wild-card races have been decided because the winning team got to play a bunch of games against doormates in the other league?
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01:35 pm
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Best Shows on Television Part II - Mad Money (CNBC)
I didn't intend to blog again today, but a show just came on that I HAVE to recommend to everyone. I was half-watching CNBC and at 6:00 this show came on called Mad Money with Jim Cramer. This is quite possibly the weirdest financial show I've ever seen. I really doubt I can do it justice with a verbal description.
Picture a balding guy with a goatee, wearing a shirt and tie with the sleeves rolled up. He's pacing around the stage alternately looking at the flooir and staring into space, and the camera follows him around. He spends half the time screaming his opinions at the audience (e.g. "COMMODITIES ARE DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!" "LOWES' EARNING REPORT TODAY SUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"), and the other half talking to the audience like they are simpletons. He also mixes in weird sound effects during his harangues, such as a bell, the chink of a cash register, and someone screaming.
Then he starts taking phone calls, and screams at the callers (not in a mean way though, he's just very energetic). Like I said, I can't do it justice, you just have to watch it.
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12:53 pm
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put the big bills on the outside
I cashed in my WestlawRewards points a few weeks ago (they give you points for every hour you research on there, and you can buy stuff with the points). The points I accumulated through three years of hard work were enough to buy - a money clip! Glad to see the blood, sweat and tears of law school can lead to such tangible gains.
This is a real sea change for me - I've been a "wallet guy" for pretty much my whole life, more out of laziness than anything else. When the money clip arrived in the mail today, it caused me to take stock and realize that my wallet lifestyle was OUT OF CONTROL! Read this list of the contents of my wallet (as of yesterday):
Drivers License
DiscoverCard
Visa card
ATM card
2 Metro farecards (worth a total of $1.50 between them)
One MTA (NYC) farecard (I think it has one trip left on it)
One CTA (Chicago) U-Pass (expires on 5/16)
4 stamps
Target giftcard
Borders giftcard
AAA card (not that I own a car)
Health insurance card
Nordstrom gift card
Blackjack strategy card (which I deployed last time I was in Vegas and lost $160 - thanks a lot!)
Starbucks gift card
another Nordstrom gift card
Social Security card (issued in 1978 - its falling apart, and it should be in a safer place anyway)
Delta Airlines SkyMiles card (I haven't flown Delta since about 2001).
$60 cash
3 ATM receipts that I haven't recorded in my checkbook yet
As you can see, the arrival of this money clip is possibly the greatest thing that's happened to me in years. If there is ever anyone who needs a "wallet diet", it's me!
Relevant Seinfeld quote:
Kramer: Nobody carries a wallet anymore. All you need is a few cards and your money. You put the big bills on the outside.
Jerry: That's a five.
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12:19 pm
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good news and bad news
well the good news is I just had my best poker day since January (+$310).
the bad news is that I'm still slightly down for May. I lost like $370 in 5 days and then I didn't play for a few days during graduation week.
I always seem to rebound strongly after taking a couple of days off, something I do often after a day where I get buried (my worst day ever is -$290, also back in January - I played a little higher back then).
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03:01 am
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Best Shows on Television Part I - Pimp My Ride (MTV)
(First in an occasional series. Explanation of the series - one of the few things I accomplished this school year, as a byproduct of my boredom, weather-related lethargy and insomnia, is that I watched A LOT of television (by contrast to last summer, where I didn't have a TV in my apartment). What I learned is that, contrary to what many think, this could very easily be the golden age of television. Now that the tyranny of the brain-dead networks has been forever shattered by cable, there are so many more great options, and there are hidden gems all over the proverbial dial to appeal to any conceivable taste. The "big 4" networks are creatively bankrupt, but who needs them anyway? They'll die off once they've finished squandering the accumulated value of their brand names (I think a lot of people turn to NBC, ABC, CBS out of habit more than anything else).
I find Pimp my Ride to be a very uplifting, if straightforward, show. There is nothing more heartening than watching some sad sack get their car upgraded. They reveal the new car, the person squeals with joy and hugs Xhibit, the body shop people smile, clap and cheer - it's just generally a great atmosphere, especially since they usually pick kids who have some hardship in their lives (e.g. driving their POS car to a job to help out their family). I also like the host, who cracks amusing jokes about the shit cars he encounters without going overboard about it (I never minded good-natured ribbing about my cars, but I did get touchy if people got too nasty about it, and I'm glad to see that Xhibit understands the need for a little diplomacy). I'm not familiar with his music, but he is a smooth and entertaining host.
I also have more than the usual affinity for this show because, as noted in a previous post, all three cars I've owned in my life would be definite candidates for pimping. I would have loved to see what they could have done with, for example, my old Plymouth Turismo. (Speaking of the Turismo, check out this mental defective's shrine to his Turismo. Mine was a 1983 and light blue, but this site gives you a general idea of what it looked like.
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