took the long road home

i never considered my new digs to be a move to the tropics, and hey, it is not. but on the other hand, i cannot recall the last time i voluntarily took a thirty-odd block walk in january. i don't have any reference as to whether this is a mild winter for the city; i guess i could ask around. but there has not really been anything i would classify as a proper snowfall. i did miss a few weeks in the middle of winter though, and didn't really bother to check and see what the weather was like while i was not around. the point is that the walk, as usual, was a good thing. really helped to clear the head. i was in a pretty foul mood leaving school today.
things started out with me walking into a rumor mill dedicated solely to producing the single rumor (very specialized operation, you see) that our only class today was canceled. while i find it annoying to hear people toss around any idea that has no basis i am aware of, this goes double when i am unshakably certain that there is no basis. no email, no sign on the classroom door, nothing. to make matters worse, a full four people who never talk to me stopped to ask if i had heard class was canceled, 'cause, you know, they heard it from somebody, and heard some other people talking about it. after the fourth one the only thing that could have pissed me off more was if they had against all odds been correct. fortunately, they were not. unfortunately, i had spent a good amount of time yesterday preparing the three cases for today, and we spent the first third of class on a case i thought we had wrapped up at the previous session, and the rest of the time went towards considering only the first of the three assigned for today, approached in a way inconsistent with and unrewarding towards how i had studied the case for the most part. also, about halfway through, i noticed that a large portion of the class was all dressed up "professional" like. big interview day today! the overheard sentiment was that if you didn't have your ducks in a row and your panties in a bunch today, you're just shit out of luck, because this is the one day where anyone who is going to get a good job for the summer is going to start down that road. kiss my fucking ass, my only regret is that i didn't bring a bottle of shiraz to placate me and spill on your $800 suit. have i mentioned my distaste for my peers? two of them who also don't normally speak to me stopped by to express their frustration that their unofficial transcripts did not yet bear demarcation indicating their distinguished class participation. what ever will they do if they don't have it when every law firm within ten miles from their home interviews them? they did, after all, compile a list and mail a career services-approved resume to each and every one of them. i would really hate to see their rampant douchebaggery go unrewarded. a friend and i conferred and decided that if we were hiring associates, we would see their note and be fully aware that they were one of THOSE PEOPLE who can't shut the fuck up and emits a cloud of smug every time they speak, whether they are making an irrelevant and asinine contribution or answering the boringly obvious questions we're subjected to on a daily basis, and thus not hire them. the thing is, the kind of people who get to be in charge of hiring at law firms are probably were the exact same motherfucker when they were in law school, and are thrilled to take in an eager protege. after all, the only real purpose law school grades (and thus the majority of the entire process of "legal education" itself) serve is to identify the people who are most willing to ask how high when told to jump, the sort who will unquestioningly eat sleep and breathe whatever they are told to do. and honestly, they'll fit in the best at the big firm with the fat salary. have fun with your mercedes and your meaningless lifetime. the world is a better place now that you swung that contract between those two multinational corporations, i know i was hoping the rich could maybe get a little richer. usually i try not to throw around generalizations and take on a fuck you you're so corporate attitude, because the world is a nuanced place, but sitting here knowing that my life will be just fine and i have tons of options while i watch all these other people scurry around trying to find all the right hoops and jump through them gracelessly fills me with nothing but disgust and derision, because i have a front row seat. i bear witness toward something more mindless than watching last night's episode of a network sitcom on a cell phone in an escalade stuck in highway traffic while sipping starbucks listening to top forty on a speaker system as underutilized as marvin in hitch hiker's. so yeah, i kind of didn't mind the walk. it was sunny, if a little brisk.
the walk was actually was precipitated by the sacrifice of my free transfer to go get coffee with a compatriot i don't spend enough time with (due in some part to my apprehension about getting to where she lives - shady south philly). she and i had a pretty good talk, and her approach to things is really inspiring. i find it immensely comforting that someone who always seems to be pretty with it in class and leads a pretty righteous and socially responsible lifestyle (she does a lot for food not bombs, and is generally what i would call a good person) hasn't made any more inroads into the employment bullshit than i have, but has tons of ideas about what to do instead. she also shares my deep-seated distaste for the public interest clique and their insufferable self-righteousness in spite of their palpable lack of results. they just congratulate themselves and each other for not making a bunch of money while doing something nominally responsible. neither she nor i know how we're going to work any of this crap out, but i walked away feeling like hey, fuck 'em. no one but you can stop you from doing what you want to do about it. that just leaves a personal translation to be desired, but step one was knowing that it was possible.
so, other than law school, oh wait, i spent all day on it. the nice thing about this semester is that things are mostly more discrete and concrete. criminal law was impossible to pin down, despite being well-taught. it is subject to innumerable mutations across state lines and over time. torts was hopelessly bad, owing to materials and really lousy teaching. contracts was the only thing that really went well, because of defined focus and an atmosphere lacking the abject terror that permeated the criminal classroom. now, constitutional law has a direct reference point for everything, property is incredibly integrated, ip is covering something i care about, and civ pro at least, well, that kind of sucks i guess, but we'll see where it goes. the only enduring thorn in my side is legal writing. prof is an asshole, always setting you up to knock you down (two drafts in: okay, here's what you people SHOULD be doing, nevermind what i told you was right before) , just plain rude and unhelpful at turns, and focused more than anything else on the elephant in the room of my life known as "real job". the most annoying aspect is that it is all being filtered through what one unproven commodity (my so-called educator) thinks it should mean. she's not exactly a published authority on the subject, but that does not prevent her from exerting a lasting impact on students' perceptions and prospects. the whole crapshoot is easily revealed by talking to people with other profs. although, at the end of the day, i guess no one is really going to be able to give an acceptable justification for things being the way they are in legal practice. why do we do it this way? tradition. why should we follow tradition? it is what judges expect. why do they expect it? that is the way they learned it; the way it has been done before, also called tradition. i want to call it a tautology, but i guess the extra step just makes it circular. but i guess my response is just as bad: don't go to law school. why? it sucks and is a giant crock of shit. why? because it is law school. the difference is that what i have to say is helpful in some way. if you were thinking about law school. cause i know you were, given the glowing endorsements you've read here. it is cheaper and just as effective to get trashed at your favorite watering hole and telling people to go fuck themselves without knowing why you're advising such a course of action.
i'm sorry if you read this. it was kind of self-indulgent, but it was all i had, and i wanted to write something to keep me occupied. what is a blog if not an opportunity for venting and distraction?