Question

If not for the possibility of a happy ending, should guys be getting massages?

I Need Me Just One Of These To Pay Off My Loans

Looking For A Place To Stay?

Stay away from LA or at least from asking for a place to stay on Craigslist. Seriously.

Post #3001

Forgot about the little milestone last post. Oh well, onward to the more important 5,000th post.

What SWLAW Grads Do With Their JD...

In their spare time.

I Heart March

The MPRE Revisited

In preparation/procrastination for tomorrow's MPRE, I've been getting quite a few hits today for searches like this. The answer:

Each jurisdiction has established its particular passing score, which in California is and has been since inception of the MPRE in the early 1980's, a scaled score of 79 or approximately 28 to 32 correct responses to the fifty items that originally comprised the examination.

We're talking 56% - 64% correct answers to pass. For most questions on the MPRE, one can get it down to two possible answers, with the hard part being the reasoning for why it's ethical or not. That's 50% right there. Anyway, good luck to all of you taking it tomorrow.

Brian Should Be A Judge

Man Hands

Using steriods I can understand (he's a complete ass), but dating a chick with those hands? What the fuck was Bonds thinking?

Most Expensive Meal I've Ever Paid For: Or Going To Eventually Pay For Over A Period Of Thirty Years Plus Time Of Forebearance

$102,600 for half of a chipotle chicken wrap, a chocolate chip cookie, and a can of Coke. Technically, the meal was my "free lunch" for attending the financial aid exit interview session today. I also got a "free" pen, pencil, and three stress balls in the shape of a white man's head. I was only supposed to have gotten one of the stress balls. I sure showed them.

I go cry into my tear stained pillow now, gripping and regripping one of the stress balls.

Very Funny

Random AIM Conversation

Bruin7089: i found the perfect quote for you
yazzie: Lets hear it
Bruin7089: "When you are taught to think like a lawyer, you expect the worst, so you can defend against it."
yazzie: haha, that is me
Bruin7089: so how long have you been a lawyer for yazzie?
yazzie: Ever since my glory days ended in middle school
Bruin7089: middle school?
Bruin7089: most people point to high school
Bruin7089: or college
yazzie: I was a pimp in middle school
Bruin7089: did you even know what to do with a girl back then?
yazzie: Fuck yeah
yazzie: Hold hands and kiss

Someone Told Me Waitresses Are The Way To Go

Lawyers should never marry other lawyers, This is called inbreeding, from which comes idiot children -- and more lawyers.
-- David Wayne in the 1949 Tracy-Hepburn film, "Adam's Rib"

There is a fundamental question about having a life in the law, one that often is thought about but seldom voiced out loud: Should two lawyers mate? Or for that matter date?

We're talking about conflicts-free lawyers romancing lawyers here. Different firms, different practice areas, different cities perhaps: Single female transactions lawyer in major Houston firm, 33, with interests in jazz, Rolfing and tort reform seeks Dallas insurance defense lawyer, age 35-40, who enjoys lobbying, quail hunting and cuddling while reading the dissenting opinions of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

...

"Lawyers tend to be attracted to lawyers for three reasons," Puhn says. "Similar personality traits, shared histories and shared interests." Since people seek whatever they like about themselves in others, adds Puhn, "There is a natural tendency for lawyers to find lawyers in the natural mix of other people." [Ed. note: I thought the attraction was shared income tax brackets. I'm talking about other people's perception of course. I'm not that shallow.]

So what are these self-selecting traits that attract lawyer to lawyer? Says Puhn: "Being a lawyer signals that you are detail-oriented, solution-oriented, have a pragmatic world view and are able to engage in complex conversations with a communication style that seeks to explain and hear things with evidence and logic." [Ed. note: I hate it everytime lawyers are characterized or stereotyped, especially since I never seem to fit any of them. It's more than enough to make me think I'm trying - everyone in my position is just trying until we pass that little thing euphemistically called 'the bar' - to enter the wrong profession. I'm insecure like that.]

But in the wrong relationship, couldn't that mean being attracted to an anal retentive, heartless bastard who is such a control freak he won't believe a word you say without demanding strict proof thereof? [Ed. note: Boy, I sure do hope so for my sake.]

A jerk can be a jerk no matter the profession, Puhn says.... [Ed. note: There just happens to be a lot more found in this particular profession.]

And between lawyers, that information suggests "a shared history and shared interests," she adds. If someone says to a date, "Oh, I am a lawyer too," both reason that they have been through the hell of law school, sat for the bar exam and possibly worked impossibly long hours at a big firm. "It's comforting to be with someone who understands where you have been," Puhn says. [Ed. note: Huh? Don't most of us want to get away from most people from law school? By the way, I'm not talking about any of you SWLAW folkreading this. And who wants to be reminded of taking the bar? As for working impossibly long hours at a firm, wouldn't the attraction be to someone working at your firm so that you could have a quickie in the conference room, which is not what this article is talking about?]

But some law professors find little comfort in law school or its memories. Rather they see it as the dysfunctional playpen where baby lawyers cut their competitive teeth. "Relationships are collaborative, they are not competitive," says Lawrence Krieger, a clinical professor of law at Florida State University College of Law. "We are trained to be objective and analytical often to the exclusion of feelings, intuition and the interpersonal self. When you are taught to think like a lawyer, you expect the worst, so you can defend against it." [Ed. note: Two things come to mind; it's good to know what law professors really think about law school and us law students and that last sentence explains a lot about Brian.]

Puhn also cautions against being all-lawyer, all-the-time, bringing the courtroom into the bedroom. "There is a natural process of discovery that lawyers engage in, but that doesn't mean someone has to win and someone has to lose," she says.

So basically, lawyers look to other lawyers because the similarities fulfill the desire to be understood but two-lawyer relationships are difficult. I think we all know what the answer is here. Lawyers should mate outside of their profession while cheat on their mate from within the profession. It's that simple people.

Maybe I am detail-oriented, solution-oriented, with a pragmatic world view after all. There is hope for me yet.

It's Only Funny Because She's Not Paralyzed

Easily the funniest thing seen on tv this weekend. The article is pretty damn funny too.