August 28, 2003

Law School Rant Numeros Cinco y Seises

Before I go do my reading ahead of time like a good little A-type who expects to thoroughly enjoy vacation, I must rant.

#5:

The lack of a campus is going to really annoy me by the end of the semester. What am I talking about, forget December, it already annoys me. For a school of our size, the "campus" is severely lacking in locations to study with varying levels of noise. Actually, it's just severely lacking in real estate, period. Back to the study locale rant: I have tried several of the more chill study rooms, as my LWR TA referred to them. Trust me, the only thing chill is the apparent ice-cold personality of the silent students working dilligently in those rooms. I just want a place to plop down, eat my lunch, do some reading, maybe chat a bit... you know, a space to call my own for a few hours between class. In the study rooms, I feel as if I'd be drawn and quartered for chewing too loudly. And, I'm not that classy. I just might chew too loudly... you know?

If they didn't want me to kill time between classes at school, the least they could have done was place the classes sequentially in my day. Then I could read/study/what-not at home. But no.... they pick your schedule when you are a 1-L, and they force you to spend big chunks of time between classes with nothing to do except study. Presumably this is for the student who have negative will power. The campus is a great deterrent to negative will power: well... I could waste time, but then I'd have to look at the non-existant campus. Or, I could go outside to the dismal weather and unsavory neighborhood. I guess I could just do my reading. On the floor in the middle of this hallway, since there's no other free space where I can make any noise and study concurrently.

#6:

OCI is a great thing. I'm glad that 2Ls and 3Ls get to interview on campus. But when your school is dealing with the issue explained above, and the room for OCI contains one of the bathrooms that you regularly frequent... well, let's just say, it stinks of poor planning. How can they get away with cordoning off the bathrooms when they set the location for interviews? How is this legal?
Black stilletto boots?

Ms. Cute Loud, your shoes are divine!

It was verified by a school-sanctioned publication of sorts that Professor Young is indeed a teaching virgin.

And, in other news, I must abscond to read ahead, for I plan on leaving for a holiday weekend on a lake with E's parents, and I don't intend on taking a single law school book with me. Just me, E, E's parents, a couple of E's friends, some good wine, good food, more good wine, a lake, the sun, and nothin' else. Ahhhh....

August 27, 2003

The Players

Mesdammes et Messieurs, the cast has been chosen. This semester's drama will play out with the following notable characters, among others:

[redacted]

Professor Early:
First class of the day, several days a week, and this professor is rip-roaring-ready-to-go. On Civil Procedure. Forgive me if this does not seem like the most exciting way to start my day. Forgive me as well if I'm not able to offer much in the way of character development on PE. I'm just not awake at that hour. I will say, however, that he does seem to like it when he can show off his spatial memory of the New York Times layout from the morning, and ask some eager student to read the article "second from the bottom right on the front page." An interesting teaching tool...

Professor Young:
We're convinced it's his first law school teaching gig. He's trying to be intimidating, but he's stumbling over his own words. He ambles around the point for the entire lecture without clearly pointing to it. This is a cause of much consternation amongst my section-mates. The general consensus is that this one's a loose cannon when it comes to grades and exams. How people can form opinions about cannons and their aim this early in the year is beyond me. But hey, I'm just documenting...

Professor Together:
More than anything, this woman just seems to have everything figured out. She's got the random number generator on her side for calling on people. She has already learned the names of some of the people in the section. She runs the lecture in a way that keeps people leaning forward to hear what she will say next (I'm not making this up). She's a snappy dresser. She's got the microphone on and without static before class starts. Her class, more than any other, is the one where I overhear people saying things like, "I think I may raise my hand next time," or, "I was going to volunteer to answer the hypo, but she didn't see me."

Fortunately, the majority of the other players are fun, nice, intelligent, and not annoying. This means that they don't get their own character descriptions, and will probably be referred to by "student a" and "student b." This is a good thing. I'm happy to have so many normal people to work with. Not a screenwriter's dream, but it definitely makes my experience more enjoyable.




August 26, 2003

Best Referral, Hands Down

Ass Biting Fun

How I ended up as this search result, I'll never know. I thought I was going to great lengths to avoid using terms like "ass." Apparently, I was not vigilant enough. Oh well. Fuck it. I'm going to cuss like crazy.
First of many misperceptions

So, the day with 2 hours of class, should, in theory be the easiest.

But what if the classes are early and you've gotten over the novelty of socratic classes. And, you have a problem with falling asleep in class. And, what if the day following the 2-hour class day you have many classes, so much of what appears to be your spare time for 2-hour day should actually be spent reading. Oh, and what if you assumed that after 2 hours of sleep-inducing class you could take a 2 hour lunch with a friend who works near school and follow it up with a leisurely walk down the embarcadero in the sun. (the sun, people. Perhaps you do not realize what a rarity a sunny and non-windy day is...) And then, what if, when you got home, you talked your love into going on a bike ride for an hour. And then of course, there was dinner, which you take quite seriously--you're not about to let anything distract you from good conversation and food for dinner.

Well, if all of the above things were true, you most certainly shouldn't be blogging right now. You have fallen into the oft-warned trap of not managing your time correctly. Duh... ain't school grand?

Tune in tomorrow for a full cast of characters. That's right, nick-named professors, obnoxious section-mates, comments on 2Ls and 3Ls, tricks to stay awake...

August 25, 2003

Excellent start

It's Monday. At 6:30 AM, I arrived at the golf course (armed with bug repellant, a lesson learned from the last early morning game) played 9 holes and came home. I still have several hours before my first class today and I'm done with all of the reading that is due today. I think I'll take E to work in a few minutes and then head off to school (which is air-conditioned) in order to escape the heat at home. Oh, yeah, I'm also going to school early because I want to study (raaaiiiigghhhttt....).

I am happy to see that like me, Dylan plans on taking his SO more seriously than law school. I'm also happy to see the back up on this position from Beanie and JCA. I feel lucky to have my priorities straight enough to know that E is more important to me than my {gasp} career.

August 23, 2003

The kids finally kissed and made up

The title of the article says it all: Germany and Italy--Friends Again.
Latest in the SCO debacle

Bruce Perens posted an analysis of SCO's power point presentation on the alleged "copied code" in Linux from System V Unix.

Looks like the case is pretty weak and SCO is out to repeat the AT&T-BSD battle. It's not even interesting unless you are a Unix historian...
Tech Update

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that WIPO canceled a previously scheduled meeting on open source due to lobbying from the BSA and the USPTO. Particularly frustrating is this quote:

Lois Boland, director of international relations for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, said that open-source software runs counter to the mission of WIPO, which is to promote intellectual-property rights.

"To hold a meeting which has as its purpose to disclaim or waive such rights seems to us to be contrary to the goals of WIPO," she said.


It is unfortunate that we have reached a situation where philanthropy is not considered a use of rights and rather a disclaimer or waiver of rights. Donating to the public good with a requirement that the donation stay in the public good is protection of intellectual property rights. It's just not the kind of protection that makes the BSA or the USPTO any money.

August 21, 2003

First Day of School

Went how I expected. There were some classes. Some discussion of cases and philosophy. The professors seem smart and passionate. My fellow students seem to range from smart but freaked out into 14 colours of high-lighters to just plain high and relaxed. I'm somewhere in the middle. May I manage to stay there...

I made the mistake of trying to carry my rolling bag on my shoulders today after class, when I'd packed the books for all of my Friday classes due to the assigned reading. It hurt my neck and shoulders in a way that made me tempted to shrug, be tough, and keep it up. I suppose I bought the rolling bag for a reason--the reason being that I'm stupid about heavy sh*t. May I remember my stupidity and use the wheels...



August 20, 2003

Still Glowing

Yup. This law school thing seems to rock like crazy right now. The whole "Wednesday off" after Monday and Tuesday of orientation before classes on Thursday thing... yeah, it's treating me quite well. I drove E to work, drove to Costco, where they informed me that my lowly gold-star membership meant that I had to wait 'til after 11 AM to shop. So, I dropped off some of our stuff at the dry-cleaners, watched The Paper Chase, and finally returned to Costco, where they'd come to their senses and decided I could shop, so I stocked up. I also went shopping to buy new running shoes (the last pair had maybe 30 miles left in them), spent some time on my golf game (bought a new driver!), ate delicious south Indian fast food for lunch (delicious fast food, impossible, you say? Idly Podi from Madras Cafe, I say). I also read, highlighted, thought about, etc. the required reading for property, and prepared a delicious dinner of browned shallots and garlic over proscuitto-stuffed and proscuitto-wrapped basil-chicken (oh, yeah, points for me, and really, is there ever such a thing as too much prosciutto?). So, basically, I'm enjoying the life of a law student. I'm not complaining yet. So far, it's great.

Other than that, I have nothing to add except that I tried to babble to E. about the required case for property and, well, it wasn't very well received. Somehow, I think I'm going to have to keep my babbling about law to a minimum around the house. This is probably a good thing.

August 19, 2003

Not Related to Law School (yet)

Word of the day (thanks to E--now I just have to think of the appropriate insult that recruits it): barratry.


bar·ra·try ( P ) Pronunciation Key (br-tr)
n. pl. bar·ra·tries

1. The offense of persistently instigating lawsuits, typically groundless ones.
2. An unlawful breach of duty on the part of a ship's master or crew resulting in injury to the ship's owner.
3. Sale or purchase of positions in church or state.


The L-dog posted a link to an interview about blogs with Joe Trippi, campaign advisor for Howard Dean. This quote hit home for me:

Our biggest hurdle is getting people over the disbelief that they can make a difference. And the one place where I think people are starting to get over that disbelief is on the Internet: because the sense of community they're getting when they go onto a blog, or when they participate in responding to something like the FCC, more and more people every day are starting to realize, "Hey wait a minute, we do have the power to do something here." They saw it with the FCC and how Congress reacted. I think people are seeing it in our campaign too.


Why did this hit home? Because I'm used to being on the fringes. I always write my congress-critters and senators about things that upset me. I think this may be one of the first times that I was part of a mass swelling of support for something that actually changed. Even though I heard about Congress's (do I really need that last s? Strunk and White says I do, who am I to argue?) position on Media consolidation, I assumed it was because it was good law. It never occurred to me that Congress took their position as a result of constituent feedback.

So maybe the hurdle is to make people realize they can make a difference. I'm proud that I did something that mattered this time around. May I continue to do so...
Brain Dump

So, first, happy 1-year birthday to effinchamp--his photos have made many of my days.

Second, I left orientation after two sessions today. I probably could have skipped the entire day. I don't do well with baby-steps. I also don't quite get the idea of a mock class... why wouldn't we just start real classes? I'm sure there are plenty of people who received quite a bit of useful information from the orientation sessions I missed, and I'm happy that they did because I was able to put that time to use by taking a gorgeous drive down highway 1, stopping at a small farm and buying fresh heirloom tomatoes, spending time at a beach for the second time this week, and then coming home in time to get in a 2-hour work out, all before 7 pm.

Third, at the risk of sounding spoiled, arrogant, and all the other negative adjectives usually attributed to law students, I'm not certain that I buy into the 1L-is-the-hardest-thing-you-will-ever-do dogma. Sure, classes haven't started, and I'm speaking way out of turn. Maybe the whole "learning to think like a lawyer" transformation will be painful as fsck. If and when I'm wrong, I'll take it back and let you know just how wrong I was. But, given the information that I have so far, I'd be withholding the truth if I didn't share that I'm not convinced that this year is going to be close to hell:


  1. 14 hours a week of classes
  2. several tolerable (even pleasant) and non-competitive section-mates
  3. 62 pages of reading by friday
  4. professors who are better communicators than the majority of my engineering and science instructors


Even if the reading is increased 10-fold, it's still only 30 hours of reading in addition to class. That's plenty of spare time in my week for a social schedule, working on my golf game, and a good solid workout program. When discussing my confusion over the 1L hell with a friend (a brilliant engineer, who is disdainful of lawyers, and well, just about everyone else as well), he pointed out that the average law student probably needs 20 hours per week of reality TV, which can really cramp the studying schedule. I laughed. I also hope he's right. It would be wonderful if this year was actually easier than life on the outside as long as I'm as disciplined as I was in my career. Somehow, given the testimony of the people who've gone before me, I'm not certain I'll be so lucky. But, I can hope...



August 18, 2003

It started well

A sunny day. A rarity. An auspicious start, as one of the (seemingly infinite) speakers claimed. The sessions, as I previously mentioned, were mainly boring, long, and full of vocal repetition of the information contained in the handouts.

Quote of the day:

There is absolutely no reason why I need to be sober for this. - a sage in my section, on law school orientation

I made fast friends with at least two people in my section. Given my general people pickiness, I couldn't help but be impressed. Should be interesting to see how long the morning-after glow lasts. All in all, I came home quite happy (perhaps the champagne reception had something to do with that...) with the people and professors that will be taking up the majority of my time this year. I even managed to wait through the lines for ID card photos and books without any major mishaps or idiotic comments to post to the blog (bummer 'bout that...).



Whaa?

Lovely night for acid reflux. Woke up and now can't sleep. I'm fairly certain it has more to do with the wine and food than stress over orientation. At least I hope it's the food. I so don't want to be a stereotypical law student who's stressed before school even begins.

Either way, I should be back asleep in a few minutes after the Zantac kicks in. Lame.

August 17, 2003

Gorgeous Weekend

Friday: wasting the day away in catch-up conversation with a good friend, followed by a delicious dinner prepared by a stay-at-home mom. I want a stay at home mom. Man, that dinner was good. And their house, it was so clean...

Saturday: lounging on the beach all day, reading, conversation, making new friends, frisbee with the dog, and a friend's party at night.

Sunday: wasting more time with a different friend, two movies, slow-roasted tomatoes (8 hours in the oven, E is a culinary genius!), a few chores, and a delicious dinner including prosciutto, romano, and basil stuffed chicken and a bottle of Diciannove (which is amazing, and reasonably priced, what's not to love?). Seriously, Diciannove it's easily one of the best value blends available in California today. If you find it, try it.

Tomorrow's the beginning of the law school thing, which is exciting, but I'm sure I'll sleep just fine after the meal and wine. Here's to hoping I wake up in time...

August 15, 2003

The Next 5 Months

So, at the risk of being ridiculously wrong...I am going to go out on a limb and say,
"Woo Hoo!!!!"
"I am so in love with my school schedule."

14 hours of class:

Torts
Legal Writing and Research
Civ Pro
Property

Yes, a big chunk of information to learn. But, 14 hours of class? And nothing before 9:40 AM? My schedule is so open to my own implementation. The possibilities have me giddy. I'm sure the reality will be less wonderful. But, for tonight, I'm ecstatic. Compared to the 65-70 hours per week I was putting in at the end of my internship this summer, going to law school seems like a fabulous idea.

update: I forgot Cotnracts. But it's still only 14 hours per week.
Last Day of Freedom

Slept in. Surfed the web. Now I'm off to the pool and then an afternoon and dinner with a friend I haven't seen in 6 months. Not a bad way to spend the day.

Oh, and the cold retreated.

Law School Rant No. Cuatro?

The web site. It appears that one of the faculty members secured their 5th grader a "Learn HTML in a summer" project, which became the school's web site. It doesn't work in most browsers, it's ugly, the menus often don't display. I'm certain the fifth grader is now a 7th grader with HTML experience and is ashamed of her work. I'm also certain that my school can no longer afford her going rate. So, IT maintains the site with an apathy that is palpable while surfing. I can only hope that they make good on their promise to post our section assignments and schedules today. You see... I'm very excited to start school. {laugh} Yup, I'm a geek. Always have been. At least I no longer have the HUGE coke-bottle glasses with large plastic rims that I was forced to wear when I was in 5th grade. Contacts are a good thing.

August 13, 2003

Latest SCO news

SCO has terminated Sequent's Unix License. I've never heard of anyone actually using Sequent Unix (Dynix/ptx). Doubt it's really a problem for IBM, they'll probably just brush it off like all of the other SCO annoyances.

On the mend

Slowly. I don't want to make any sudden movements. In fact, I don't want to move at all.

Check out the Google logo today. It's Al's Birthday.

August 12, 2003

Mutiny!

My body let the virii take over, or at least, I've lost control of my nose and head. I can only hope the rest of my body will fight back and eventually reclaim the vessel.

Last night, I was hot, cold, and full of snot--sometimes all at the same time. So, I couldn't get in bed until 2 AM, and then I just tossed and turned until I removed myself from the bed for E's sake. I watched the rest of Primary Colors at 4 AM when I moved to the couch for good. At 7 AM, I woke again, incapable of sleep, and watched The Accused. I fell back asleep at 9:00, to wake at 10:00, and watch Some Like It Hot. This is not exactly what I had planned for my week of blissful freedom. I only get 3 netflix at a time. Not to mention that this is particularly devastating to my ideal work out schedule. You know, that week of working out would have magically been able to transform my body into a lean, mean, law student machine--envy of all in my section. But, now that I'm just not healthy enough to pull it off...well, I might as well give up and stick to my existing wardrobe and body type. Too bad, the awe-inspiring physique would have been fun.

All in all, I suppose it's not that bad. Sure, I feel like a**, but 3 movies in 24 hours is pretty indulgent. And, I did manage to clear a few chores off the list yesterday before the assault was in full effect. Given that I HATE being sick when I should be working, I guess if I had to be sick, this is the best option. So, today will consist of me trying to take care of more chores, which require physical effort, and realizing that I am just too weak to handle them. At that point, I will curl up on the couch with The Left Hand of Darkness and finally finish making my way through The SFRA Science Fiction Short Story Anthology. It's not a bad way to spend a day at all... hiding from chores and devouring brain candy in preparation for the weeks of substance I'll be reading very shortly. It's almost nice to have an excuse to put off the chores. Of course, I think I'd rather my nose stop dripping and my head stopped pounding, but I suppose I can pound liquids and vitamins in hope of that for tomorrow.

Wish me a speedy recovery, I may not be so cheery 'bout this whole thing tomorrow.

August 11, 2003

Ahhh...

The vacation consisted of 7 wineries and 2 days of nothing but good food, wine, gorgeous countryside and conversation with friends. I'm very relaxed.

If you ever happen to be looking for a restaurant in downtown Paso Robles (Say, for example, if you are taking the 101 from the San Francisco Bay Area to Santa Barbara), YOU MUST GO TO ALLORO. The food was superb. I decided not to have risotto ai frutti di mare (my standby) in favor of gnocchi piemontese, which was divine in two ways: one, the gnocchi was perfectly formed and consistently light; two, the sauce was a drool-inspiring balanced combination of strong mushrooms, tomatoes, cream, and several herbs. The risotto, ordered by one of my friends, came in a gargantuan dish, and it was just as good if not better than my gnocchi, both in al dente consistency and in balance of fresh seafood/shelfish with the lighter flavors of tomato, wine, and herbs. The two other diners in our party had homemade spinach ravioli and they raved as much as the rest of us. Tiramisu was excellent, as was the after diner coffee.

The food was amazing, but more importantly, this restaurant that we chose by rock-scissors-paper turned out to have a wine list that has received the "one of the best wine lists in the world" award from The Wine Spectator. Mind you, a good wine list in my estimation includes values--good wine that costs very little and is only appreciated by people who happen to be adventurous enough to try it despite its lack of prestige and popularity. So the best part about Alloro according to me? They had enough variety and quality on their wine list that I was able to order a bright and cheery Valpolicella from Veneto and a clean, fruity white Fruili (pinot grigio) for a total of $40. Two bottles of excellent wine, in California, at a nice restaurant, for under $40? I was in Heaven. Fruili, in particular is wine that I love to buy in Italy for EU 8-10. Several times, I have asked, where could find this value wine in the US. Always, the response was a laugh, and "Beviamo tutti qui, in Italia." (We drink it all here, in Italy) Apparently, a few bottles make it to Alloro. Go try some.

In blogland, blogger gave the archives back, so I guess I won't migrate to MT this week. I also managed to get comments up on the site, via Haloscan. Very easy instructions and script generator. If you're looking for a friendly comments host, I recommend 'em. If you're solvent, I recommend donating.

This week promises to be full of sleeping in, catching up with friends before I disappear into the black hole of school, working out, taking care of chores, more good food, drinking some of the wine from the trip, and, of course, more relaxing. Monday, my new life begins.

August 8, 2003

Audi

So...almost...done. It's a fabulous feeling. I haven't had a vacation where I was honestly free from professional commitments for well over a year. And boy, am I looking forward to it.

I just want to leave and start my vacation immediately, but alas, I'm waiting on feedback and an IDS from my admin. I will be signing documents and sending them out the door on the very last minutes of my time here. At least I know I'm useful.

I think while I wait for stuff to come back to my desk, I'll go get my admin a thank you card.

Things are warming up

IBM and Novell finally got annoyed, grabbed arms, and started retorting their own version of "Red Rover, Red Rover, let SCO come on over."

Another article has this snippet, and I couldn't agree more.


Unlike SCO, IBM has been very careful not to make inflammatory statements. So when IBM fires a broadside it is a very carefully prepared action, which will be very carefully executed," said Gary Barnett, principal consultant at Ovum. "If SCO is wrong, IBM is absolutely right to ask for compensation."

"IBM has more patents than anyone, and more money and more lawyers than SCO. SCO will be bled dry before it can make its case," he added.


SCO seems quite like the spoiled schoolyard brats who whine and threaten when they aren't getting their way, but really, they don't have much in the way of toughness, so it's all idle threats. Good thing IBM is on the side of the GPL, I would not want the players to be reversed.

August 7, 2003

Will be Missed

RIP to the "other" sua sponte, antillico, learned foot, bloody nub, et. al. over at Open and Notorious.

I'm gonna miss 'em. Most of us law blogging types are just too damn boring, conservative, scared, or old-in-the-soul, to live and write with the flava of those chicks.

Here's to hoping their submit an honest review of your law school effort gains momentum. It's a much needed resource. I'll be posting one of these frustrated weeks in the near future, no doubt.
Uggghhh...

Several months ago, I sent a letter to both of my Senators regarding Maher "Mike" Hawash, and his detainment as a material witness.

Yesterday, he plead guilty to one charge of conspiring to contribute services to the Taliban. His plea agreement details his actions.

I, like many people, am irate at the fact that Mr. Hawash, an American citizen, was held for 5 weeks, without charge. More information on the material witness statute and several other articles are available at the Free Mike Hawash Links Page.

What has me the most upset? The government has overstepped their bounds, but, they did it in the case of someone who plead quilty. I fear that his guilty plea will go far in silencing the people who should be arguing with the government's actions on principal.

I don't subscribe to the theories that he was coerced or tortured by the government. He plead guilty. But just because he plead guilty after the fact does not mean that he should have been denied his rights of habeus corpus beforehand.

I can only hope that this type of investigation and holding of American Citizens in direct opposition to the Constitution will be a checkered past we've overcome in the very near future.

August 6, 2003

Cartoon California

Wee....

How can you not feel a sense of childhood when confronted with a reality like this? (link to calblog--awesome coverage of the CA governor madness) The government system is NOT functioning according to plan. It's alice in wonderland time, kids.

And, as I said before, I'm not actually all that upset about the fact that Arnold'll most likely be governor of this fine, hilarious state at some point in my lifetime.

In fact, I think I may even vote for him.



August 5, 2003

SCO's blackmail

Give us $699 now for a single processor machine and we won't sue you later. After October 15th, it'll be $1399.

SCO Group's contention is that it needs to collect fees from users for its intellectual property because vendors such as IBM and Red Hat Inc. don't indemnify their customers against intellectual-property infringements contained in the Linux kernel. "There's a shell game going on here about legal Linux liability," McBride said. "The rock is showing up under the shell of the end user. Vendors have shifted liability to their customers. IBM and Red Hat have painted a Linux liability target on the backs of their customers."

Or maybe, you can't win picking on people your own size, so you're picking on the little guy.

Obviously, the comments are raging on slashdot.
Useful Patent Links

So, I've spent quite a bit of time on PAIR at the USPTO.

And, I've used IPDL at the World Intellectual Property Organization (note that both of the previous links have the cool country code of "int").

But, today, I discovered http://ep.espacenet.com/, which is a free search engine where I was able to find abstracts for my EP, GB, and WO patents all in one pop.

August 4, 2003

No time to talk

Finished the shots today (adult polio vaccine, apparently the childhood one doesn't count), so I suppose they have to let me show up now.

4 days of work left. Too much work to count.

Very much looking forward to my mini-vacation in central california wine country. But, that's not 'til Friday, after I've finished all my work (I hope, I hope, I hope). Back to my reading. Eyes front.

August 1, 2003

Poke, Poke

Law School Rant No. tres:

My law school wants records of my immunization since birth. And a physical. And a medical history.

But, I'm opting out of the school's insurance, I have my own doctor, and I don't want to give up any of my private medical information. Not to mention the fact that I wasn't too stoked to take my healthy self to the doctor for a cheesy check-up that required the following:

1. Breast/Prostate exam (Wha???? This is actually the main cause of this rant. I don't get it. Aren't most law students in their 20's? Aren't these tests for cancer? Why don't they require other cancer tests? You know, a head scan? Lung scan? I just don't get it.)
2. Immunization records for Measles, Mumps and Rubella (Fine, I think this is a bit silly for anyone born and educated in the US, since it was required in order to enter grade school, but fine. I can respect this one. It's just a pain to bother my mom and ask her to find the records.)
3. Hepatitis A and B immunization records? (Oh, so I don't accidentally donate or accept untested blood from a fellow student? Or perhaps they are going to post Hep A/B infection rates somewhere on campus so that if you want to hook up, you can check the list first. Of course, there's no other STDs on the list, so I'm not quite certain how useful this would be. What could possibly be the logic here?)
4. Tetanus booster within the last 10 years. (Okay, so this is a good idea for your health. But does the school have a habit of leaving rusty needles on the floor? Perhaps the desks bite gunners who move too quickly? I think I'm grumpy about this one because I hadn't had a booster in 10 years, so now I have a very sore left arm. Damn.)
5. 4 vials of blood drawn for various immunity tests and 1 sub-cutaneous injection for the TB test.

The arbitrary choice of immunization and infection tests gives credence to the often-cited theory that grades are just random. Sure, there's some stuff that makes sense, but at least half of it is absolutely silly.

Also, I can now say that the pain of law school has commenced. It is currently residing in 3 poked holes in my arms.