A couple of pieces of news today. Let’s keep it short and sweet with the awesome bulleted list format:

• So, remember that time when I tried to do 100 pushups and ended up puking on the streets of San Francisco’s financial district in the middle of the day? It was like, a month ago or something. Anyway, I did it today. 100 pushups in an hour, no vomit, plus several sets of planks and several minutes of aerobic jumping.
• My LSAT score is in. I walked away with a 169. I wanted to break 170 (and did on most of my practice tests leading up to the real test), so I’m a little disappointed, but not overly so. I’m not getting into Harvard, Stanford or Yale, but I’m got an honest shot at anything else. Maybe a long shot in some cases, but I’m not out of the running yet.
  • I got a perfect score on logic games, though, which was my biggest struggle when I first started. 4 questions I missed because I’d narrowed it down to two choices and guessed the wrong one, so luck wasn’t on my side. I missed another question because I’m pretty sure I had the right answer, but marked the wrong bubble on the scantron.
  • Ironically, reading comprehension was my weak area, accounting for half of the 10 questions I missed - 3 coming from a single passage. This is ironic because I once scored a perfect score on the reading portions of the ACT, and I was therefor correspondingly cocky about it. I spent the least time prepping for reading comp because I thought I had it in the bag.
• I was relating to Jen the story of the stupid volunteer buttons I redesigned at work 4 times to get an okay from the “design by committee/micromanaging” team from hell just before my LSAT scores came in. I was starting to beat myself up about not doing as well as I could have on the LSAT and Jen relied, “Remember the buttons. Are you changing the world making buttons? Or are you impacting peoples’ lives being their lawyer?” I’ve made a cute little sign for my cubicle wall that says “Remember the Buttons” with all 4 design incarnations lined up next to each other. What a pointless waste of my time and talent.
• We got dismissed from work early today for the holiday weekend. I think I’ll make a trip to Borderlands to see if I can’t convince them to take back some of the books I purchased from them and earn some money. If I do earn a few bucks, I might indulge on a movie. I’m thinking of seeing Hancock (yes, I know everyone hates it, but… superhero!).

Posted: July 3rd, 2008 under law school, personal, work.
Comments: none

I think yesterday’s LSAT went well. It was a grueling 6 hours, but if I missed any questions it’s from misreading a detail rather than a complete failure to understand what they were driving at. I even finished the logic games with enough time to double check some previous answers where I made educated guesses because I was concerned about time. Although there’s no way I can be 100% sure, I think I know which section was the experimental (non-scored) one. I hope I’m right, because I’m a little more confident about the other section. At any rate, I feel like I scored a 170 or better… but I won’t know until sometime around July 7.

The test itself was crazy. They divided test-takers into a couple of rooms and I got stuck with Super-Proctor, the guy who was running around making sure everything was okay in all the rooms prior to the start of the test, and an old man who seemed easily confused. As a result, I’m pretty sure my room was the last one to get started. They didn’t finish checking everyone in until after 1 and then took forever to actually start walking us through the opening stuff. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as it seemed at the time. When they tell you to be there no later than 12:30 (and plenty of us arrived at 11:30), then keep you waiting in suspense until almost 2, it’s a little intense.

I brought in glitter-covered pencils for the test (which I tested before hand and found to be very easily sharpened, had great erasers, and the lead didn’t break often) and as I was setting up, one of the other test-takers noticed them. He asked if I wanted to borrow one of his pencils instead, and I replied (in my queeniest voice) “How do you expect me to sparkle without my glitter?”

Anyway, after it was all over, I met up with David and his friend, Megan, and Jesse at The Red Door in downtown SLC where I had many martinis. We ended up eating dinner at an Italian restaurant after finding the Thai place we wanted closed for the night. It was great seeing my friends and there was a lot of laughter and great conversation to help me unwind.

In a few minutes, I’m taking the rugrats to see Kung Fu Panda along with plenty of adult supervision (Grandma, Jasmine, Jeanne and Jordan).

One last thought: I’ve been listening to In The Heights- winner of the best new musical Tony award - for the last couple of days and while I wasn’t originally very impressed, it has definitely grown on me. I’m glad it won, even though it beat out Xanadu. On the other hand, I’ve never cared for South Pacific, so I’m skeptical of all the awards it took home.

Posted: June 17th, 2008 under law school, personal.
Comments: 3

So I did really well on my last LSAT diagnostic in Saturday - missing only 10 questions on the whole exam. 3 were missed because I ran out of time on a section, 1 was missed because I accidentally circled the wrong answer choice in my workbook, and 3 were missed because I made a silly reading error on a reading comprehension passage. Because of that, I’ve now decided to shoot for a perfect score on the LSAT. As Jennifer said, “Hooray for unrealistic expectations of perfection!”

I realized one of the things I needed was a way to self-proctor the practice tests. Egg timers are annoying and not really representative of the process, following a watch left me distracted by constant double checking that I’d written down the right start and stop time, and setting up multiple alarms on my phone (at 5 minutes left and at the end of the section) took too much time between sections. So today I set up three different MP3 files to put on my iPod for timing myself. Each of the MP3 files includes exactly 35 minutes from start to stop and a five minute warning.

LSAT Proctor in silence - start, 5 minutes, and stop messages only

LSAT Proctor with distractions - start, 5 minutes, and stop messages, with hushed voices, sounds of pencils on paper, coughing, etc.

LSAT Proctor with music - start, 5 minutes, and stop message with a selection of music I currently enjoy listening to (useful for studying in unrealistically loud environments where the music can drown out the noise)

Last night, Jennifer made me an offer that’s really hard to turn down. I don’t want to say too much until I’ve thought about it, and I won’t make any decisions until after I take the test, but it would involve a big change over the next year.

Posted: May 20th, 2008 under law school.
Comments: 1

Well, I booked my New York trip today. I’ll be in NYC September 17-24 this fall. I also put in my vacation request at work which better be approved because I’ve already reserved the flight and hotel. I’m pretty proud of myself, too. I’m using flight reward points to fly (although I have to fly into Long Island’s Islip Airport and take the train into Manhattan) and staying at a cute hostel in Chelsea (where I got a private room for a week at the rate you’d pay for a single night in some NYC hotels), so it’s not going to cost me a fortune. In fact, I’m estimating that I could do a “bare minimums” trip for less money that I have in my savings account right now.

Of course, I’m going to splurge on a few things while I’m there. In fact, I’ll probably try and see 3 or 4 shows while I’m there - depending on how many other things I want to do. During the weekdays, of course, I’ll be visiting law school campuses I’m hoping to get in to.

Generally, though, I’m just excited that I’m able to do things like this (take vacations I want to take) for the first time in my life. After last year’s epic 24 hours visit, I’ve been anxious to make another (longer) trip to the city and now I have the chance.

The best part is, Jennifer and Jacob are going to try and plan to be in New York that weekend, too, so I’ll get a chance to see them just before Jen’s birthday.

I’m especially having fun making a private google map with all my confirmation info, appointments, and destinations entered in.

Posted: May 9th, 2008 under NYC, law school, personal.
Comments: none

Well, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to blog this or not, but frankly, I’m floating on air. After 4 weeks of classes, we took our second diagnostic/practice LSAT test today. A few hours later our scores were posted on the class website.

I’ve improved. A lot. (Relatively speaking, of course… a small point jump makes a huge ranking jump on the LSAT)

Basically, if you look at the lowest GPA and lowest LSAT score from different schools over the last 6 years, there are only 15 (out of almost 200 ranked schools) whose minimum standards are outside my reach on the basis of today’s score. And I’ve still got 8 weeks to get better. When you add to that the fact that I have a pretty interesting background, I’m feeling really positive about law school right now.

Anyway, I’m not going to get sloppy or cocky, after taking the rest of the day off after the test, it’s back to work tomorrow so I can catch up on the homework I’m falling behind in.

I rewarded myself by watching Little Miss Sunshine, which I’ve never watched despite the fact that it was one of the big buzz films from the year I worked at Sundance. I’m glad I waited, without all the hype, I was able to enjoy it without being overly critical.

Posted: April 19th, 2008 under law school, movies.
Comments: 3

{click to embiggen}

Yup, that pretty much describes my week when not at work, except for tonight.

Posted: April 12th, 2008 under law school, webcomic.
Comments: none

The first night of my LSAT class went well, I think. We took a timed exam to establish a baseline for our progress. I think I did okay. The logic games were the last section, though, and they continue to be my toughest section. Coming at the very end of the 3.5 hour exam didn’t help. I completely ran out of time before getting to the easiest game (it looked complicated when I first skimmed the section).

Anyway, I should know my score tomorrow. You know that scene in Legally Blonde where the nerdy sorority sister tells Elle she needs a score of “at least” 174? Well, that God-like level of testing skill (a perfect score is 180) is my goal. It may be unrealistic, but damn if I’m not going to try.

There are about 40 people in my class and I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest. A distracting number of really cute guys, too. The guy sitting right in front of me looked like a young Patrick Wilson. Luckily, my ability to focus on the exan rather than the blonde hairs on the back of his neck were up to par.

I’m still loving my new phone. Today I left my camera and iPod at home, carrying only one packet gadget with me.

If you’re interested in the horrifying story of Oregon State Senator Gary George, who inspired today’s strip, visit Just Out for the interview. George also strongly suggests that violence against gays is a natural reaction when we queer folk “cross the line” by being out and visible.

“Here’s what I’m saying, I think we’re seeing a backlash, in other words if you push me too hard don’t be surprised if I react. Gays will tend to react violently if people are oppressive toward them. If gays are oppressive toward straights, then you’ll see a violent backlash. You’re going to have a point where these groups develop and say I’m tired of these special privileges.”

p.s. I feel like I ought to apologize for the NC-17 image embedded in the strip’s final panel. I’m not going to, but I feel as though I should.

Posted: March 18th, 2008 under law school, webcomic.
Comments: none

Today I took the afternoon off to attend the LSAC Law School Forum. First off, in the 20 months I’ve lived here, I’ve never bothered to check out Grace Cathedral. The forum was held at the Masonic Temple right across from Grace, so I got to spend a few minutes admiring the church before the programs began.

I got a chance to meet with almost every school on my current list of application-getters. The conversations were helpful and enlightening. In part because I’d already done enough basic research to spend my time asking practical questions rather than generic stuff. From my various readings, I know that sometimes admissions officers will remember a candidate from the forums and it can help (or hinder) in getting an “iffy” application approved. I don’t plan to have “iffy” application materials, but I’m not going to miss any opportunity to give myself an advantage. I treated every interaction as though it were a job interview.

You know, I already feel much better about Law School. 80% of the potential students I talked to were confused, sloppily dressed, asking rote questions without paying attention to what the people in front of them had asked, or generally looked overwhelmed and unprepared. In the workshop sessions I attended, people were asking questions that could be answered by any book on law school applications or numerous websites. Meanwhile, I wore my suit and tie, asked questions that showed I’d already done some research and given the subject some thought, and focused on making eye contact and appropriate body language. One admissions officer even went so far as to tell me that without seeing my LSAT, he’d peg me as a “strong” candidate for their school based on my resume alone (as long as my essay indicated the same level of writing competence a background in journalism and communications would suggest).

After the long afternoon was over, I called Mom to check in. She already knew some of my latest news because my nosey sisters keep reading my blog. (Kidding! But I am going to worry about sister-filtering content if I ever have sex again.) No new deaths or births to report this week, but both might be announced by the end of next month.

Posted: February 25th, 2008 under Mi Familia, law school.
Comments: none

Okay, I admit, I’ve had a very lazy President’s Day. When the weather is nice and we get a day off work, I always feel a little guilty when I spend the day in my pajamas doing nothing special. When I first moved to San Francisco, I loved days like this for the opportunity to explore the city, window shop, go to the gym, or just sit in the park and read. For the last few months, however, I’ve slipped into homebody mode.

It’s not fair to say I’ve done nothing today. I spent much of today studying for the LSAT and prepping materials for my law school applications. I found out that I waited too long to register for the LSAT - all the locations within 100 miles of San Francisco are full. So I registered for the test at the University of Utah. I guess that means a mid-summer trip home. Pros: no wait list, no work distractions, excuse to travel home. Cons: family distractions, spending money on travel, taking the test with neurotic Utah students. Oh well, at least I’ve taken this step.

I’m in love with the book Planet Law School II. I’ve now read about 10 books on applying to law school and the law school experience. This is the first that offers believable and practical advice I can get behind. Unlike all the other books, which feature challenging “are you sure you really want to go to law school? It’s gonna suck” sections, this one has made me realize how sure I am about it and why.

Posted: February 18th, 2008 under law school.
Comments: 2

Interesting story I ran across on CALI’s Pre-Law Blog. Apparently, a student is being punished for using hateful anti-gay comments in a professor evaluation.

Brian Beck, a landscape architecture major from Gordon, was found in violation of three University [of Georgia] Code of Conduct regulations in a decision announced last week by University Judiciary. Beck was found in violation of the code due to:

• Disruption of the teaching evaluation process
• On grounds of multiplicity
• Harassment based on presumed knowledge of the associate professor’s sexual orientation

As someone looking at going back into education environment, it’s startling to learn that the evaluation process for professors isn’t as anonymous as most of us would assume, and that there can be consequences for not taking it seriously and/or violating honor/ethics code standards.

Read more »

Posted: January 31st, 2008 under law school, queer rights.
Comments: none