The Future (woooooooooo)

Hello friends.

After that summer (that summer!), a long absence was warranted. From the bar exam we at TR helped our favored human become homeless, then became homeless ourselves, then took our homeless selves cavorting around this glorious world. Colorado and Chicago, Spain and Morocco--all are familiar to us now.

Big things are in store, big things. We are moving our lives forward! We are progressing! Things are happening! People, take this to the streets and sing!

And what next?

Why do you ask such questions, love.

The hardest part

It's so goddamn boring.

In other news:
(1) I like snacks.
(2) A federal judge just gave AZ a well-deserved smackdown for denying gay couples state employee health benefits. Fuck you, Jan Brewer.
(3) AscenDance has a great chance of winning America's Got Talent.
(4) If I were at all unsure before about the dangers of sitting in front of a computer day-in and day-out, my current unfortunate back and shoulder pain has me convinced. Really, it's probably healthier to be a construction worker than a lawyer at this point.
(5) Would it be a waste at this point to just go be a personal shopper/life coach? That sounds like fun.

6.8 billion... and one.

Congrats to Adam & Andrea, proud parents of a new baby boy. Welcome to the world, little one.

My life

I've been camped out in my house this week catching up (slowly) on bar studying. My life has become, shall we say, streamlined. Welcome.


1. Work.

Lecture, notes, lucky stones, earphones, sweater, raspberries.


2. Play.

Remote, flowers, home-cooked meal, postbar trip planning.


3. Sleep.

Comfy comfy comfy bed.

A quick breath

So I graduated. I can has J.D.? Indeed, it's on my desk, holding up the 2010 class photo and sitting on the 40 forms I need to mail in, like, yesterday.

Family was in town, things were predictably insane, and one lovely residual from the weekend--my best friend of 16 years (or is it 17?)--is still in town until late Sunday night. I'm trying to cram in as much bar studying as I can in between trips to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Muir Woods, the Russian River, and In & Out Burger. It's not much. I am so behind. Next week is going to, like. blow.

xoxo,
Gossip Girlsai

Poopapotamus

Way behind in bar prep
+
Graduation arrangements
+
Expired passport
+
Messy house
=
Grumpypants Saisai.

At least I have a schweeeeeet outfit for Saturday. Like wise women say: when you look better, you feel better.

Vegas, detox, stone fruits, postbar

This past weekend was the 3L trip to Vegas. I could probably write a whole essay on My First Vegas but instead I'll just say: I spent a lot of time lounging by the pool with a tasty margarita, exclusive clubs are pretty much stupid, I love my friends, rascals rule, and when you order curry at a Thai restaurant you should specify how spicy you like it even if the waiter doesn't ask.

Of course, after such a trip I need to detox. So after getting back home (and sleeping 6 hours in the middle of the day) I went immediately to the grocery store and stocked up on fruits, veggies, sourdough, and brown rice. Yes I know sourdough isn't a stock detox food but honestly I'm in the Bay area for like two more months and I'm eating as much of it as possible until I pop. Moving on....

And as if buying groceries--one of my favorite things in the world--wasn't enough to get my heart going all aflutter, I was greeted at le Whole Foods by a huge pile of stone fruits! Peaches are back! Apricots! Nectarines!!! Oh man, I've been waiting for stone fruit season for six months and I can't wait to eat, eat, eat as many pieces of fruit as possible.

And so finally, as if there weren't enough exciting things in this post to keep you entertained, the post-bar trip is taking shape. Come August we'll be seeing Saisai take over Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and (whew) Chicago. So fun!

Help: cellphone service providers in DC

Hi all you DC kids,

So my phone, while hanging on to life by a thread, is now about 90% unusable. I'm a Verizon customer and I remember it worked fine in DC. But I've also been coveting the iPhone and am thinking of switching to AT&T to get it. How's AT&T service in DC? All you iPhone users out there in the District, is your service alright? Is your 3G usable? Do your calls drop all the time?

I've got to get a new phone early next week. Drop your thoughts in the comments and if they're super helpful you might even win a prize.

Thank you millions!

Love,
saisai

Mental health day

The past couple of weeks have been a little hectic. My house is a complete mess. Do you remember that saying about a clear desk being the sign of a clear mind? It's true enough for living spaces too. And now that I've made my legal studies presentation (moderate success), it's time for a day off to get my ducks in order. Of course, the laundry/folding/tub-scrubbing is interrupted by patches of TV/reading/blogging. It's the 21st century after all.

UPDATE: A side effect of such days is the insomnia that inevitably follows them. 4:21am and still awake! Antitrust'll be fun in the morning--er, in 5.5 hours.

Blog not dead

It's been a busy few weeks. I had a few papers due (lots of writing this term--updates ahead) and generally just lots of life in a way I hadn't been having for a while. Plus, I've been reading more, and whenever that happens I get exposed to so many choice quotes that I can't pick which ones to post. It's a tough life, I know.

Since we're on this freaky quarter system, I have finals (!) coming up in a couple of weeks. Then the winter quarter will be over and the spring one will start and I get to do it all over again, while studying for the bar exam and, you know, not going insane, generally. Good times ahead.

So, dear readers, don't abandon us yet! Things always pick up when I have tons of stuff to procrastinate on, and with exams and the MPRE coming up shortly, there's no lack of opportunity.

A new year

So. 2010. Two thousand and ten. This is the year that I can say "ten years ago" and be referring entirely to the 21st century. Le wow.

Resolutions? Well, sorta. Starting tomorrow I'm back in the gym, (mostly) CrossFitting. And after reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, well, I feel inspired, but to do what? I want to make a change, but I can't articulate a goal. So far--all four days, or at least two of them--I've been trying to buy only organic foods, and only "local-ish," meaning California and nearby states. I'm making as many of my own meals as possible, with allowances for social meals. I have some early thoughts on manufacturing a personal food culture to pass down, but that needs to hibernate a bit longer in my mind. Ideally I'd like to be "opted-out" of the industrial food system, but I have doubts that's even possible in--good grief--2010.

And yours?

Ya so I'm on vacation

Just FYI. See you in the new year, bitches!

Help me plan a vacation

Hello my four readers,

I'm gathering ideas. Thinking about going somewhere special for Thanksgiving week (weekend before to weekend after, roughly). Leaning toward Europe, but that seems to be a bit pricey. Can't seem to find a good deal. Any of you been traveling lately? How'd you find your flights and hotels? Did you splurge or go budget? Is there a specific website you'd recommend? Help a girl out, yo!

Love you dearly,
saisai

UPDATE: We decided on the Florida Keys. Snorkeling, fishing, and Ernest Hemingway, here we come!

Take back the goddamn beep

From the NYTimes (hat tip to one of my favoritest people, J.K.) David Pogue wants to start a movement:

Over the past week, in The New York Times and on my blog, I’ve been ranting about one particularly blatant money-grab by American cellphone carriers: the mandatory 15-second voicemail instructions.

Suppose you call my cell to leave me a message. First you hear my own voice: “Hi, it’s David Pogue. Leave a message, and I’ll get back to you”–and THEN you hear a 15-second canned carrier message.

* Sprint: “[Phone number] is not available right now. Please leave a detailed message after the tone. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press pound for more options.”

* Verizon: “At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press 5. (Beep)”

* AT&T: “To page this person, press five now. At the tone, please record your message. When you are finished, you may hang up, or press one for more options.”

* T-Mobile: “Record your message after the tone. To send a numeric page, press five. When you are finished recording, hang up, or for delivery options, press pound.”

(You hear a similar message when you call in to hear your own messages. “You. Have. 15. Messages. To listen to your messages, press 1.” WHY ELSE WOULD I BE CALLING?)

I, the voicemailbox owner, cannot turn off this additional greeting message. You, the caller, can bypass it, but only if you know the secret keypress–and it’s different for each carrier. So you’d have to know which cellphone carrier I use, and that of every person you’ll ever call; in other words, this trick is no solution.

[UPDATE: Apple iPhone owners don't hear these instructions--Apple insisted that AT&T remove them. And Sprint already DOES let you turn off the instructions message, although it's a buried, multi-step procedure, which you can read in the comments below.]

These messages are outrageous for two reasons. First, they waste your time. Good heavens: it’s 2009. WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AT THE BEEP.

Do we really need to be told to hang up when we’re finished!? Would anyone, ever, want to “send a numeric page?” Who still carries a pager, for heaven’s sake? Or what about “leave a callback number?” We can SEE the callback number right on our phones!

Second, we’re PAYING for these messages. These little 15-second waits add up–bigtime. If Verizon’s 70 million customers leave or check messages twice a weekday, Verizon rakes in about $620 million a year. That’s your money. And your time: three hours of your time a year, just sitting there listening to the same message over and over again every year.

In 2007, I spoke at an international cellular conference in Italy. The big buzzword was ARPU–Average Revenue Per User. The seminars all had titles like, “Maximizing ARPU In a Digital Age.” And yes, several attendees (cell executives) admitted to me, point-blank, that the voicemail instructions exist primarily to make you use up airtime, thereby maximizing ARPU.

Right now, the carriers continue to enjoy their billion-dollar scam only because we’re not organized enough to do anything about it. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to sit there, waiting to leave your message, listening to a speech recorded by a third-grade teacher on Ambien.

Let’s push back, and hard. We want those time-wasting, money-leaking messages eliminated, or at least made optional.

I asked my Twitter followers for help coming up with a war cry, a slogan, to identify this campaign. They came up with some good ones:

“Where’s the Beep?”

“Let it Beep”

“We Know. Let’s Go.”

“Lose the Wait”

“My Voicemail, My Recording”

“Hell, no, we won’t hold!”

My favorite, though, is the one that sounds like a call to action: “Take Back the Beep.”

And here’s how we’re going to do it.

We’re going to descend, en masse, on our carriers. Send them a complaint, politely but firmly. Together, we’ll send them a LOT of complaints.

If enough of us make our unhappiness known, I’ll bet they’ll change.

I’ve told each of the four major carriers that they’ll be hearing from us. They’ve told us where to send the messages:

* Verizon: Post a complaint here.

* AT&T: Send e-mail to customerissues@attnews.us.

* Sprint: Post a complaint here.

* T-Mobile: Post a complaint here.

Three of the four carriers are just directing us to their general Web forums. Smells like a cop-out, I know.

Yet all four carriers promise that they’ll read and consider our posts. And we have two things going for us.

First, I have a feeling that the volume of complaints will be too big for them to ignore. To that end, I hope you’ll pass these instructions along, blog them, Twitter them, and spread the word. (Gizmodo, Engadget, Consumerist, and others have agreed to help out.) And I hope you’ll take the time to complain yourself. Do it now, before you forget.

Second, we’ll all be watching. I’ll be reporting on the carriers’ responses. If they ignore us, we’ll shame them. If they respond, we’ll celebrate them.

Either way, it’s time to rise up. It’s time for this crass, time-wasting money-grab to end for good.

What has two thumbs and got paid today?

This girl. Right here.

Le uh oh

I have a rule: whenever my gmail inbox breaks 3,000 emails, I have to spend a chunk of time cleaning it out. I always try to get it below 2,000 on those days. They follow each other too quickly.

Just now I checked my email, and I'm at 2,999.

Le uh oh indeed.

Oh, the poignancy of T-Rex

"We'd all be a heck of a lot more productive if work was as entertaining as--you know, entertainment! In particular, I'd be a lot better off if learning [evidence] was as relentlessly entertaining as learning, I don't know . . .

. . . about the sexual histories of my friends and acquaintances, PERHAPS??"


The way this comic mirrors my life is stunning, and frightening.

Oh, and the strawberries!

You might be curious what happened to that mass of strawberries I bought the other week. (Might be? Of course you're curious! You've been waiting for this your whole life!)

It was actually kind of dumb. A lot of the strawberries went soft and overripe before I got a chance to do anything of substance with them. (Though I did eat at least two pints with just whipped cream. A lot of whipped cream. Yum.) I only had about a pint left to work with. So, I took the easy way out: I baked a cake out of a box in two layers, frosted the whole thing with frosting out of a can, and put cut strawberries in between the layers and on top of the cake. It was tasty, but that's about all I could say for it. I think my classmates enjoyed it, and it looked kinda pretty.

I really don't think baking is my forte. But some time this summer, we will attempt no-knead bread.

Better late than never: the dish

I promised pictures of my walk by the Dish, and here they are.

First things first, here's Dish One:


And here's Dish Two:


The view from the path is really pretty incredible. My photos don't really do it justice.


I climbed this craggly old oak tree.


It was a gorgeous day, and it's been pretty perfect weather every since. So I'm looking forward to going 'round that way again--it makes for better procrastination than Project Runway, fo sho.

Sick day

Oof. This life of hard livin' is catching up to me. You should see the stuff coming out of my nose. It's hot.