Seattle Public Library

The new downtown Seattle Public Library received a lot of media attention when it opened up, so after spending an hour in Pike's Market I thought I would see what all the fuss was about. The outside looks pretty cool...

...and there are some interesting vantage points inside...

But overall I wasn't impressed. The library didn't seem to have that many books. Maybe this is because the central library serves as a distribution center for branch libraries throughout the city, or maybe it is because so much is online now. There was a wide open room with about 200 computer screens in a row, each being watched by a glass-eyed "researcher" not paying attention to anything but the monitor and certainly NOT surfing for free porn. For a moment I felt like I was back in Civil Procedure. Also, the color scheme was a little weird:

welcome to my bordello

The Red Floor didn't seem to have a purpose except perhaps to host a few conference rooms, and once you got into the stacks neon yellow/puke green escalators took you from floor to floor but then you had to take an elevator or stairs to get back down. Speaking of floors, even though the library just opened, one of the floors was closed since the floor surface had to be refinished. I guess that in all the weirdness the builders forgot to protect it from foot traffic scuffs.

I was most disappointed in the 1/3 of a shelf of Portuguese books in the foreign language section. I have more on my bookshelf.

Where I Am Not

Today has been and remains painful. 59 practice questions reminded me why Contracts was my worst subject in law school, and I'm about to dive into the reading for tomorrow's class on "Commercial Paper." If you are like me, your initial reaction may be "what the fuck is that." After reading the first sentence of the assignment, I am happy to fill in our mutual gap in knowledge with the extent of my own: commercial paper (e.g. checks and promissory notes) is governed by Article 3. A thrilling hour and a half awaits after this post.

But first, I will blog a bit about my awesome trip to Seattle two weeks ago. This is a picture I took near the summit of Dog "Mountain" in the Columbia Gorge on the border of Washington and Oregon. My friend and I went up and down in the space of 3.5 hours, 1.5 hours less than the time said to be necessary by the park and guide books. And my friend hiked in flip flops, being the bad-ass villageois she is. We continued our fine tradition of speed hiking yet still enjoying nature that we developed on the Inca Trail, which we completed a day early. Maybe other people are just slow.

Cameroon's gift to the world

It seems as if AIDS is not the American Invention to Discourage Sex or some virus concocted by the CIA to kill off Africans. Rather, scientists at the University of Alabama - Birmingham have confirmed that the HIV virus originated in wild chimpanzees in Cameroon. I've read several other stories hypothesizing this, but the article published in this Friday's "Science" is the first to genetically trace the primate version of HIV in the wild. To do this, the scientists collected 1,300 samples of fresh chimp shit.

It is suspected that "someone in rural Cameroon was bitten by a chimp or was cut while butchering one and became infected with the ape virus." If only chimps weren't so tasty.

Intensive preparation

After hours of tedious Bar/Bri reading for tomorrow's Criminal Procedure III class, I've decided to take some time to prepare for what is really important: this weekend's opening of X-Men: The Last Stand. Nevermind that I've seen the first two X-Men dozens of times, I'm watching them again so that I can have a full appreciation for the story line of the next installment. I've read some preliminary reviews and they aren't great, but who cares. I already have my ticket, and two hours of explosions and mutant powers is exactly what I will need after Friday's 8-hour double session on Contracts.

Blech.

40 lbs of books

This is the hell that is in store for me this summer. Some random observations:

If I am paying out the ass to learn everything I need to know to pass the bar, why is there a separate workshop on Texas Procedure and Evidence that is not included in the price? Both of those subjects are covered.

Why is the center in north Austin, a 20 minute drive from where I live? Nothing available on campus?

On Thursday, I jokingly asked if people had started studying for the bar, you know, so they could get a head start. Two people said yes.

Spare change

Where do unused Westlaw points go? I didn't have enough for anything cool in the catalog, so I redeemed what I had for the greatest number of mediocre movies that I will soon own only because they are free. But I still had 125 points leftover, not enough for anything, not even a coffee giftcard. I think Westlaw should set up one of those giant spare change wishing wells for foreign currency you see in some airports to collect all the unused points from graduating law students the world over. The accumulated points could be redeemed for helpful study aids for this fall's entering class of refugee law students fleeing the horrors of the Working World.

My pre-bar vacation to the Pacific Northwest has been good. I bummed around Seattle on Friday, went to Portland on Saturday, hiked a mountain in the Columbia gorge on Sunday, and biked along Puget Sound yesterday. I'm going to check out a museum this morning and will probably sit in a park and read this afternoon.

mini-vacation

I'm off to the land of Starbuck's coffee, Grey's Anatomy, 70 degree weather, mountains, and bitchy friends from the Peace Corps. I might stop by Microsoft and tell them how much I hate the .mup driver, which seems to be what killed my computer. My efforts at resurrection have so far been unsuccessful.

An open letter to Dell

FUCK YOU!!!!

Your piece of crap computers are intentionally designed to last for less than three years, and your evil assembly minions in Malaysia installed malicious code three years ago that caused my Dell Inspiron 500m to crash and die at the most inconvenient moment, like when I am writing the LAST question to my LAST final that happens to be a painful 24 hour take home exam.

Fortunately for me, I learned from my years in a country where just about everything is broken to take precautions. I previously backed up the first two questions onto webspace and only lost about a page and a half of work. Still, that is about an hour and a half worth of crap that must be re-shat.

I am extremely bitter that your fucking piece of shit $1500 "computer" crashed on me and forced me to come to the law school at 11 PM and spend the wee hours in the clinic. I am also bitter that many of my files from this past semester are probably irreparably lost. I may try to salvage the hard drive, but things don't look good when you are repeatedly told to press Ctr+Alt+Delete to reboot. The money that I would have to spend on a new computer will instead be spent hunting down the previously mentioned Malaysia assembly minions in Malaysia this August, and when I get a job and a paycheck I will be shopping for an iBook.

For my suffering this evening, I should get at least an A- on my exam. And you know what? I am DONE with law school.

Three down, eight to go

I'm not referring to final exams. If I were, I would probably shoot myself. I am referring to ABC's genious decision to place full episodes from four of this season's shows online for free. Because I was in Belém last semester, I missed 11 shows of Alias. And now, thanks to ABC, I am able to catch up on this season's happenings instead of studying for my final final.

Speaking of which, I should probably just take it already. I've convinced myself that I understand the material; this may be just another sign of denial. The prof thinks he is doing us a favor by giving a 24 hour open book take home, but this really means that I will have an entire day to flip through the text and my notes not to find the answer and then type 10 pages of gibberish.

Surplussage

This morning I completed enough credits to receive my JD. The fed courts exam wasn't that bad. I wrote in complete sentences and remembered a few case names, so that should be good enough for a C. That means that I didn't fail, earned the 4 credits for the course, and have accrued 87 credit hours, 1 more than required for the degree. Rejoice?

Not quite. I'm not done yet. I still have a 24 hour take home that I'll probably take home on Tuesday, Monday if I am feeling ambitious. My motivation to study is right at about zero. I had a nice, law-free afternoon. I checked out the new Blanton Museum, had lunch, took a satisfying nap, and then went to the gym.