This is gearing up to be the semester of ultimate free time. I have dropped one class already, taking me to 13 credit hours. I am also going over to the registrar's office tomorrow to ask about taking my On War class Pass/Fail. My reasoning? The only possible negative to doing so is that it might look like I'm taking it really easy this semester If I do, I'm pretty much guilty as charged. At the same time, I don't have to be here at all, so the way I look at it I'm showing intellectual curiosity this semester rather than not working hard. If the looking lazy thing is not an issue for law school apps, I'm going to take it pass/fail, because then it's only downside to taking it for a grade. There's a pretty good chance I wouldn't get an A in the class (large class, subject outside my major, somewhat philosophical bent to the course which isn't my strong suit), and I would prefer to get straight As this semester, even on 9 graded credit hours.
Yesterday was pretty fantastic, as it was the return of my favorite thing on this here Earth, the college football Saturday. The games weren't too great, but there were some interesting notes as it relates to ND football: Michigan stinks (I still think we're going to lose to them, as we might stink more) and USC is really really good (my mind hasn't changed on how that game is going to go either).
The day was actually somewhat quiet for me. Drew and Charles took off on some day trip, and Packy was/is studying constantly for the GRE. My friends off-campus didn't pick up the phone when I called after I realized that Drew and Charles were gone, so I watched the Michigan game (3:30-7) by my lonesome self. Fortunately, Packy pried himself from the test prep and the other guys got back with some Badin girls, so we all watched the night games with the appropriate cold brews.
Sunday at Notre Dame is always quiet, other than the church bells from the basilica. The gym doesn't open until noon, which messes with my preferred morning workout routine, but somehow I deal. (On a tangent: My favorite workout day is Saturday morning. It's always the same messed up neurotic gym freaks like myself who show up when it opens at 9:00 or thereabouts when the place opens while the rest of school is still asleep. One of my favorite feelings at school has been seeing my friends slowly dragging themselves to the shower after having just woken up on a Saturday morning when I've already eaten, read the paper, gone to the gym, showered, and eaten again. Plus I didn't have to deal with a massive hangover. I love being a morning person. Tangent over) So on Sunday mornings I read the NYT Sunday paper, which is pretty time consuming. This morning I also finished off The Wire Season 5.
Allow me to repeat to all four of you who read the blog: get Netflix. Watch the Wire. You will not regret it. I promise.
This afternoon was spent doing... stuff. I don't quite recall exactly how time flies, but it does. I got some homework done, like every other kid on campus. That's what Sundays are for here. That and church, but mass isn't until 10:30PM in Dillon.
As far as law school apps go, I'm going to ask my professors this week or next for recommendations. I've also pretty much set my list for where I am going to apply with my best guess on the outcome:
Yale ("so you're sayin' there's a chance"), Stanford (35%), Harvard (50/50), Columbia and/or NYU (better than even shot), Chicago (75%), U of M (80%), UVA (80%), Duke (90%), and Georgetown. Georgetown waived my application fee, so I figure that's a telling sign, right? Anyhow, I'm not quite sure how I'd rank my preferences right now. I ranked them there based off of the US News and World Report, but I think schools get weighted in my mind based on a couple of important criteria: clerkship placement and, perhaps most importantly, weather. Remember: I'm leaving Northern Indiana's little slice of heaven early because of the cold.
Actually, my odds are completely wrong. What are the chances I get into these schools? It's 50/50.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
Beginning of the year
Wednesday was the first day of classes for me, since I do not have class on most Tuesdays and did not this week. Here is my schedule:
MW 1:30-2:45 On War
MW 3:00-4:15 Tax Policy
Some Tuesdays 3:30-4:45 Peer Advising
W 5:00-6:00 Honors Program Research Colloquium
Whenever I feel like it Senior Thesis
That might look like a lot to the untrained eye. The untrained eye would be dead freaking wrong: essentially, I only have class most weeks on Monday and Wednesday and I do not start class until the afternoon, with no evening classes. Life's hard.
On War is a political science class which examines the causes of war, the effects of war and how and why wars end focusing on the Napoleonic Wars, WWI, WWII, and Iraq II. The class is taught by Sebastian Rosato, who has a ridiculously good teacher score on NDToday, where we can rate our professors (and, damn, that academic record is impressive. If you didn't click on the link: B.A., Cambridge University; M.Phil., Oxford University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago). He's young and British, and in the intro class he was really really funny, which is always good. Also, he's Dan Krcmaric's thesis adviser, and Dan says he's really nice.
The Tax Policy course is taught by my thesis adviser. I think the class is going to be really interesting, because it looks at taxation from an economic perspective and a political perspective. So, yeah, I like my two classes. Again, two classes. This semester is going to be fun.
The Honors colloquium is just every week three people in the Honors Program will get up and talk about their research, where they are, etc. Since I had to be at a meeting halfway through the class, I got first dibs on when to sign up. I figured, ahh, what the hell, and signed up for next week in the first slot. If I don't do what they want, who can blame me? That's the beauty of going first. The only problem is that I'm supposed to talk for 20 minutes. I have no clue what I'm going to say.
Yesterday was a good day. Ran 7 1/4 miles on the treadmill in the morning, finished up the second DVD of the last season of the Wire (only four episodes to go. That makes me sad). After lunch, I took a quick nap, and I was lucky to check my email instead of going to run an errand, because they sent out an email announcing the MSU ticket lottery was from 12-4 on that day. I would have been mighty disappointed to miss the ticket lottery for the one away game I have a realistic shot of going to, considering tickets to UNC are damned near impossible to come by. Hopefully I win (actually, I just checked the winning numbers, and I don't think I won. I have my tickets in my room, but I'm not there right now. Darn).
Then I had a dinner up in the million dollar + donation box with the other peer advisers. The view was awesome, and I should have had my camera to get some nice pictures. I was up there a few years ago with the Reilly weekend, but I had forgotten how great of a view that was.
After running that errand (booze run, of course. What other kind of errand does a college kid run?), I got back to the room at 9PM, and COLLEGE FOOTBALL WAS ON. Oh, it was glorious. I hadn't seen a college football game on television in ages, and it was good. Drew and Charles have a sweet new flatscreen hi-def TV, so we watched South Carolina-NC State, and then watched Obama give his acceptance speech in Hi-Def. So I was super excited all around last night (the Rolling Rocks didn't hurt, of course). We're still one week away from ND football because we have a silly schedule. I can't wait for next weekend. Max is coming to town with another kid from Chapel Hill, so that will be cool that some PD people get to see ND.
MW 1:30-2:45 On War
MW 3:00-4:15 Tax Policy
Some Tuesdays 3:30-4:45 Peer Advising
W 5:00-6:00 Honors Program Research Colloquium
Whenever I feel like it Senior Thesis
That might look like a lot to the untrained eye. The untrained eye would be dead freaking wrong: essentially, I only have class most weeks on Monday and Wednesday and I do not start class until the afternoon, with no evening classes. Life's hard.
On War is a political science class which examines the causes of war, the effects of war and how and why wars end focusing on the Napoleonic Wars, WWI, WWII, and Iraq II. The class is taught by Sebastian Rosato, who has a ridiculously good teacher score on NDToday, where we can rate our professors (and, damn, that academic record is impressive. If you didn't click on the link: B.A., Cambridge University; M.Phil., Oxford University; M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago). He's young and British, and in the intro class he was really really funny, which is always good. Also, he's Dan Krcmaric's thesis adviser, and Dan says he's really nice.
The Tax Policy course is taught by my thesis adviser. I think the class is going to be really interesting, because it looks at taxation from an economic perspective and a political perspective. So, yeah, I like my two classes. Again, two classes. This semester is going to be fun.
The Honors colloquium is just every week three people in the Honors Program will get up and talk about their research, where they are, etc. Since I had to be at a meeting halfway through the class, I got first dibs on when to sign up. I figured, ahh, what the hell, and signed up for next week in the first slot. If I don't do what they want, who can blame me? That's the beauty of going first. The only problem is that I'm supposed to talk for 20 minutes. I have no clue what I'm going to say.
Yesterday was a good day. Ran 7 1/4 miles on the treadmill in the morning, finished up the second DVD of the last season of the Wire (only four episodes to go. That makes me sad). After lunch, I took a quick nap, and I was lucky to check my email instead of going to run an errand, because they sent out an email announcing the MSU ticket lottery was from 12-4 on that day. I would have been mighty disappointed to miss the ticket lottery for the one away game I have a realistic shot of going to, considering tickets to UNC are damned near impossible to come by. Hopefully I win (actually, I just checked the winning numbers, and I don't think I won. I have my tickets in my room, but I'm not there right now. Darn).
Then I had a dinner up in the million dollar + donation box with the other peer advisers. The view was awesome, and I should have had my camera to get some nice pictures. I was up there a few years ago with the Reilly weekend, but I had forgotten how great of a view that was.
After running that errand (booze run, of course. What other kind of errand does a college kid run?), I got back to the room at 9PM, and COLLEGE FOOTBALL WAS ON. Oh, it was glorious. I hadn't seen a college football game on television in ages, and it was good. Drew and Charles have a sweet new flatscreen hi-def TV, so we watched South Carolina-NC State, and then watched Obama give his acceptance speech in Hi-Def. So I was super excited all around last night (the Rolling Rocks didn't hurt, of course). We're still one week away from ND football because we have a silly schedule. I can't wait for next weekend. Max is coming to town with another kid from Chapel Hill, so that will be cool that some PD people get to see ND.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Last night/ today was uneventful. I tried to get my freshman year roommate Charles to fix my computer (from now on when I say "my computer" I mean my mom's computer. My computer has an problem that cannot be easily fixed), as he worked at Redmond this summer for Microsoft. He fiddled around with it, then told me to eject things from the USB ports in a different way than just taking them out (some safe eject thing). It made sense, as I had been using the USB to watch The Wire, as the disk drive on the computer is external with a usb connection. Well, that made me happy, until about an hour later the computer went to blue screen of death again, and I hadn't put anything in the USB drive. So it wasn't that. So I'm back to square one with that.
I was happy to see that there are still free New York Times, Chicago Tribunes, and USA Todays outside the dining halls in the morning, although there were less that normal. They probably cut back because nobody except me has been picking them up for the last two years. Most people my age have two opinions on newspapers: 1)"Who cares about that crap?" or 2)"That crap is old news; don't you use the Internet?". I realize that both are rather valid points. I still read newspapers. What does that say about me?
Enough with the introspection (by the way, here's an easy trick to employ in order to live the unexamined life: in order to not be too introspective I turn questions that could easily be answered with a little thought into rhetorical questions by changing the subject) and on with the rest of the day. Gym trip, followed by lunch, followed by writing a few pages for my thesis, followed by homework reading (preclass homework?!? What do they think we are, students or something?), followed by a picnic dinner out in front of library quad with about 3000 of my closest friends, and then back to the computer lab to "work on my thesis." This "thesis work" has involved surfing the internet a little, rating movies on Netflix a lot, composing a long message to Mike Thompson on facebook, and typing out this blog. Ahhh, college.
I was happy to see that there are still free New York Times, Chicago Tribunes, and USA Todays outside the dining halls in the morning, although there were less that normal. They probably cut back because nobody except me has been picking them up for the last two years. Most people my age have two opinions on newspapers: 1)"Who cares about that crap?" or 2)"That crap is old news; don't you use the Internet?". I realize that both are rather valid points. I still read newspapers. What does that say about me?
Enough with the introspection (by the way, here's an easy trick to employ in order to live the unexamined life: in order to not be too introspective I turn questions that could easily be answered with a little thought into rhetorical questions by changing the subject) and on with the rest of the day. Gym trip, followed by lunch, followed by writing a few pages for my thesis, followed by homework reading (preclass homework?!? What do they think we are, students or something?), followed by a picnic dinner out in front of library quad with about 3000 of my closest friends, and then back to the computer lab to "work on my thesis." This "thesis work" has involved surfing the internet a little, rating movies on Netflix a lot, composing a long message to Mike Thompson on facebook, and typing out this blog. Ahhh, college.
Monday, August 25, 2008
The End as a New Beginning
I have decided to blog once again. I really enjoyed blogging my Rome semester, and I did get some excellent feedback. I took last semester and the summer off as well, mainly because I correctly surmised that my life would be relatively boring after months writing about life in Italy and traveling through Europe.
One key moment that made me think of blogging again was on my birthday I got the neatest gift: my Dad turned my Rome blog into a book, with color pictures and everything! It is cool to look back on the old posts without having to squint at computer screen.
So this summer was relatively uneventful. Instead of applying for jobs last spring I decided that I was going to work on my senior thesis, which is supposed to be two semesters worth of work. I am doing that because I decided to graduate a semester early in December, mainly because I was also deciding at the same time that I wanted to go to law school thanks to my Law and Economics class, and I figured an 8 month break from academics would be a welcome respite. As of this moment I have no clue what I am going to do for that time, but I'll be blogging it (that's part of the transition, I suppose).
The summer was spent like so: one month in Charlotte, highlighted by Tim's graduation and a week at the beach that followed. On June 11 I headed back to South Bend, living in Keough Hall. My 21st birthday was uneventful, because three days later I took the LSAT and I wanted zero distractions. After that, I started working on the thesis, which has morphed from a focus on victimless crime theory to legalization of gambling, and this semester I am going to apply the framework for legalizing gambling to Indiana's decision to legalize a lottery and commercial casinos in the late 80s/early 90s. I spent a little more than a month and a half up in South Bend, with a week break during July 4th up at the Lake with the family. On July 21, I packed up my Keough room and headed up to the lake for what I thought would be a relatively uneventful month.
My parents were there for the first week, and we had a good time. After that, I cleaned up the house, watered the plants, went to the township office for Internet and exercised. That, plus watching episodes of The Wire (which is, beyond a doubt in my mind, the best show in the history of television to this point, and I am not usually one for superlatives), filled a good number of days. All the while, I have the thesis floating around in the back of my mind, because I wanted to write a section of it before I got back to ND. So, by about August 6, I had read a few more things for my thesis, and I had fully outlined the section I wanted to write. Life is good, right? No: two days after I had finished my outline, the screen on my laptop goes black. I didn't panic, but I knew something was up. I start calling around, and I realize that the LCD screen has died, and the computer is out of warranty. At least it wasn't a hard drive issue, because all my files for my senior thesis were on that computer, but I had no way to work on my thesis. So my dad overnights my mom's Dell laptop, and I buy a flashdrive and the nice ladies at the township office let my plug my computer into their monitors so I can upload my thesis files to the flashdrive. So problem solved, apparently.
So when everything looks to be okay again, Uncle Mick, Aunt Julie, and their kids, as well as Grandma and Grandpa show up to the Lakehouse. Since Grandma and Grandpa are leaving within a week, I allowed myself to get distracted from my paper again, because I figured even after they left I'd have 10 or so days up there with my laptop and nothing else to do, because I wasn't going to water those damned flowers any more. So, the day my Grandparents are about to leave, I come back to my laptop after a nice walk, and I can't get it out of what I think is sleep mode. So I reboot it, and it won't load Windows. Dammit. I soon realize that I need a Windows XP disk to solve my problem, and no one has it up in Middle of Nowhere, MI. I think I must have pissed off the Higgins Lake Gods: too much technology for such an unplugged place. Bad computer karma.
So, my Grandparents leave, go down to Owosso, and I'm up a creek without a paddle. Their computer runs on Vista, so I didn't know what to do. While I am at a trial in Roscommon about the roadend, I get a call saying that Grandma and Grandpa do have an XP disk. A minor miracle. So that night I head down to Owosso, hoping to salvage my mom's laptop. The next day, after moving in, I used my Grandparents computer to get instructions on how to solve my problem, and after doing a bunch of confusing techno-babble into the computer, XP loads again! Yay. So, of course, the first thing I want to do is watch an episode of the Wire on the laptop. It works! I am saved. Or so I think. Again, after working out, I come back and the computer is into blue screen of death mode. It just won't load right.
So I spent about 5 days in Owosso eating good food (Grandma cooks way better than I do) and working on my thesis on my Grandparents computer. I didn't get a ton done, mainly because I kept trying to fix my mom's laptop, to no avail. I moved back down to South Bend on Wednesday, and moved into 307 Dillon Hall. I have a beautiful view of South Quad, like I've always wanted. I can see the Dome. I would post pictures, but I forgot to bring the connector cord for my camera, so I should post those shortly.
Anyhow, I was still having computer issues, but I figured I could use some from the computer clusters. Problem was, they weren't opening until today (Monday). So I was again up a creek without a paddle, but at least I had to move in, so that gave me something to do. Moving in has been a slow process, and I just finished everything up yesterday when Packy finally got everything out of storage (a few of my things were in the back, so I couldn't get back to them).
A few days ago, though, I tried to turn on the Dell, and it randomly worked! Magical. Everything seemed okay, and it worked all day, so I was thrilled. The next morning my computer was making weird noises around where the hard drive is, and the screen was black again. It wouldn't turn on. So I went a day without computer. The next day, it worked for a little while, then it started making the noise, and then the computer went into blue screen of death. And today is the next day, and the computer is working fine, as I am typing on it. But when the noise starts, I know what is coming next. I don't know if I should work on my thesis on this computer, but at least I have a flash drive.
Outside of dealing with computer things and moving in, I've had a pretty good time since last Wednesday. I'm back in the flow, exercising at Rolfs like always. It's nice to have the treadmill after so long without one up at the lake, but I am out of shape so I can't run for an hour like normal. I'm working back to it. Also, I had a very pleasant evening with the Sweeneys, who were nice enough to take me out to dinner with Meghan and a friend of hers who is going to study abroad in France, and they also took a bag of my junk home so that I will have a little more space to stick things in the VW when I move out in December and drive back to Charlotte (probably... we'll see). I also helped with the freshman orientation on Saturday because I am taking a Peer Advising class this semester through the First Year of Studies. It's really, really weird seeing these freshmen moving in. I didn't go through that last year with going to Rome, so this is the first time I've really felt older than the new kids on campus. I look older too. It's really odd. Plus, Dan Krcmaric is Michael Reeve's RA. Dear God: we're in charge. How did that happen?
Anyhow, I'll try to update often, as I only have class on Mondays, every other Tuesday, and Wednesdays. I will have to do applications to law school, but that shouldn't preclude this by any stretch of the imagination. Also, if anyone is reading this any wants to know anything about ND life or what I am up to, just fire me an email or leave a comment
One key moment that made me think of blogging again was on my birthday I got the neatest gift: my Dad turned my Rome blog into a book, with color pictures and everything! It is cool to look back on the old posts without having to squint at computer screen.
So this summer was relatively uneventful. Instead of applying for jobs last spring I decided that I was going to work on my senior thesis, which is supposed to be two semesters worth of work. I am doing that because I decided to graduate a semester early in December, mainly because I was also deciding at the same time that I wanted to go to law school thanks to my Law and Economics class, and I figured an 8 month break from academics would be a welcome respite. As of this moment I have no clue what I am going to do for that time, but I'll be blogging it (that's part of the transition, I suppose).
The summer was spent like so: one month in Charlotte, highlighted by Tim's graduation and a week at the beach that followed. On June 11 I headed back to South Bend, living in Keough Hall. My 21st birthday was uneventful, because three days later I took the LSAT and I wanted zero distractions. After that, I started working on the thesis, which has morphed from a focus on victimless crime theory to legalization of gambling, and this semester I am going to apply the framework for legalizing gambling to Indiana's decision to legalize a lottery and commercial casinos in the late 80s/early 90s. I spent a little more than a month and a half up in South Bend, with a week break during July 4th up at the Lake with the family. On July 21, I packed up my Keough room and headed up to the lake for what I thought would be a relatively uneventful month.
My parents were there for the first week, and we had a good time. After that, I cleaned up the house, watered the plants, went to the township office for Internet and exercised. That, plus watching episodes of The Wire (which is, beyond a doubt in my mind, the best show in the history of television to this point, and I am not usually one for superlatives), filled a good number of days. All the while, I have the thesis floating around in the back of my mind, because I wanted to write a section of it before I got back to ND. So, by about August 6, I had read a few more things for my thesis, and I had fully outlined the section I wanted to write. Life is good, right? No: two days after I had finished my outline, the screen on my laptop goes black. I didn't panic, but I knew something was up. I start calling around, and I realize that the LCD screen has died, and the computer is out of warranty. At least it wasn't a hard drive issue, because all my files for my senior thesis were on that computer, but I had no way to work on my thesis. So my dad overnights my mom's Dell laptop, and I buy a flashdrive and the nice ladies at the township office let my plug my computer into their monitors so I can upload my thesis files to the flashdrive. So problem solved, apparently.
So when everything looks to be okay again, Uncle Mick, Aunt Julie, and their kids, as well as Grandma and Grandpa show up to the Lakehouse. Since Grandma and Grandpa are leaving within a week, I allowed myself to get distracted from my paper again, because I figured even after they left I'd have 10 or so days up there with my laptop and nothing else to do, because I wasn't going to water those damned flowers any more. So, the day my Grandparents are about to leave, I come back to my laptop after a nice walk, and I can't get it out of what I think is sleep mode. So I reboot it, and it won't load Windows. Dammit. I soon realize that I need a Windows XP disk to solve my problem, and no one has it up in Middle of Nowhere, MI. I think I must have pissed off the Higgins Lake Gods: too much technology for such an unplugged place. Bad computer karma.
So, my Grandparents leave, go down to Owosso, and I'm up a creek without a paddle. Their computer runs on Vista, so I didn't know what to do. While I am at a trial in Roscommon about the roadend, I get a call saying that Grandma and Grandpa do have an XP disk. A minor miracle. So that night I head down to Owosso, hoping to salvage my mom's laptop. The next day, after moving in, I used my Grandparents computer to get instructions on how to solve my problem, and after doing a bunch of confusing techno-babble into the computer, XP loads again! Yay. So, of course, the first thing I want to do is watch an episode of the Wire on the laptop. It works! I am saved. Or so I think. Again, after working out, I come back and the computer is into blue screen of death mode. It just won't load right.
So I spent about 5 days in Owosso eating good food (Grandma cooks way better than I do) and working on my thesis on my Grandparents computer. I didn't get a ton done, mainly because I kept trying to fix my mom's laptop, to no avail. I moved back down to South Bend on Wednesday, and moved into 307 Dillon Hall. I have a beautiful view of South Quad, like I've always wanted. I can see the Dome. I would post pictures, but I forgot to bring the connector cord for my camera, so I should post those shortly.
Anyhow, I was still having computer issues, but I figured I could use some from the computer clusters. Problem was, they weren't opening until today (Monday). So I was again up a creek without a paddle, but at least I had to move in, so that gave me something to do. Moving in has been a slow process, and I just finished everything up yesterday when Packy finally got everything out of storage (a few of my things were in the back, so I couldn't get back to them).
A few days ago, though, I tried to turn on the Dell, and it randomly worked! Magical. Everything seemed okay, and it worked all day, so I was thrilled. The next morning my computer was making weird noises around where the hard drive is, and the screen was black again. It wouldn't turn on. So I went a day without computer. The next day, it worked for a little while, then it started making the noise, and then the computer went into blue screen of death. And today is the next day, and the computer is working fine, as I am typing on it. But when the noise starts, I know what is coming next. I don't know if I should work on my thesis on this computer, but at least I have a flash drive.
Outside of dealing with computer things and moving in, I've had a pretty good time since last Wednesday. I'm back in the flow, exercising at Rolfs like always. It's nice to have the treadmill after so long without one up at the lake, but I am out of shape so I can't run for an hour like normal. I'm working back to it. Also, I had a very pleasant evening with the Sweeneys, who were nice enough to take me out to dinner with Meghan and a friend of hers who is going to study abroad in France, and they also took a bag of my junk home so that I will have a little more space to stick things in the VW when I move out in December and drive back to Charlotte (probably... we'll see). I also helped with the freshman orientation on Saturday because I am taking a Peer Advising class this semester through the First Year of Studies. It's really, really weird seeing these freshmen moving in. I didn't go through that last year with going to Rome, so this is the first time I've really felt older than the new kids on campus. I look older too. It's really odd. Plus, Dan Krcmaric is Michael Reeve's RA. Dear God: we're in charge. How did that happen?
Anyhow, I'll try to update often, as I only have class on Mondays, every other Tuesday, and Wednesdays. I will have to do applications to law school, but that shouldn't preclude this by any stretch of the imagination. Also, if anyone is reading this any wants to know anything about ND life or what I am up to, just fire me an email or leave a comment
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