> Recent Entries
> Archive
> Friends
> User Info
> jrenken.com
> previous 20 entries

December 23rd, 2007

02:21 pm I'm officially a lawyer in New Jersey now. ^_^ New York and DC will be pending as soon as I get my applications in, accompanied by large "government revenue opportunity" (i.e. highway robbery) application fees. We've all caught the Christmas Bug to varying degrees, but recovery is going well and it promises to be a peaceful Christmas. (I'd say "quiet," but that would be a lie.) Happy holidays to all! Current Mood: sleepy

(9 comments | Leave a comment)

December 5th, 2007

(Leave a comment)

November 6th, 2007

10:13 pm So! After a long, long absence from LJ, here's a post. I received my J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in June, and took the New York and New Jersey bar exams in July. The results will be out within two weeks; the wait is agonizing, but it takes a while to grade 5,000 words of essay answers from each of 28,000 applicants. I'm still searching for a job, which will hopefully get easier with more effort and once I'm officially pending admission to the bar. There is much bigger news than that, though. My love, jaeai, and I will be married in early December. We share similar (and unusual) senses of humor and intelligence, and our different backgrounds mean that we rarely fail to see all sides of an issue - especially the amusing ones. We complement each other perfectly. The kids are amazing, and although I'm still a little bit scared of being a father, they make it easy! I'm still in awe, and eternally grateful, that we all found each other. ♥ With good news, though, comes bad: my grandmother Ruth passed away on Sunday, at the age of 92. I'm back in San Diego for the moment, helping my parents with the arrangements and the coping. It won't be a fun week, but things will be much happier very soon. I may start keeping up with LJ again, too, but probably not so soon... Current Mood: working

(14 comments | Leave a comment)

September 23rd, 2006

07:28 pm Oof! The past couple of weeks have been more hectic than usual, and I haven't been able to read LJ (let alone post to it) for longer than that. I live, however, and continue plotting to take over the world. As I mentioned the other day, I recently alleged loss of consortium with Baby Jesus. "Loss of consortium" occurs when, due to some wrongful act, you're deprived of a family member's love, affection, and domestic services. If your child is killed in accident where someone was negligent, for example, you'll probably allege loss of consortium. The most common and famous usage, though, is when you and your spouse's sex life has been damaged. (Because of this, loss of consortium - or, at least, its rationale - has been justifiably criticized as archaic and chauvinistic.) Now, for an explanation! This was for a legal writing exercise in which the plaintiff's pastor defamed her, causing her great distress. Because of the defamation, she eventually had to move, leaving her cat (named Baby Jesus) behind. Although I don't think anyone has ever succeeded, there are valid arguments for applying loss of consortium to pets. How could I resist? There are plenty of other funny loss of consortium stories out there. I'm sure "tort reform" advocates would have a field day with many of them. ( Here's another... ) Current Mood: working Current Music: Perry Como - Papa Loves Mambo

(3 comments | Leave a comment)

September 22nd, 2006

03:23 am I am about to submit a complaint alleging, among other causes of action, loss of consortium with Baby Jesus. Explanation hopefully to follow. Current Mood: quixotic Current Music: Enter the Haggis - Down with the Ship

(7 comments | Leave a comment)

May 16th, 2006

02:32 am For those of you who hang out on Sandwich.Net IRC (or otherwise know me) but don't watch sandwichnet: might you be interested in a gathering of crazy people like you and me? Check out sandwichcon!

(9 comments | Leave a comment)

April 21st, 2006

(14 comments | Leave a comment)

November 7th, 2005

08:53 pm - Public service announcement Ladies and gentlemen, if any of you are, have been, or might ever be fans of British comedy, there is finally going to be a US release of Black Books starting early next year. It is the most wonderfully hilarious thing I have ever seen, and most people to whom I've shown it have concurred. You shall buy it or face my wrath. That is all. Current Mood: happy

(3 comments | Leave a comment)

November 6th, 2005

01:28 am - Today's lesson Don't ever, ever ask me to write a column for the student newspaper, because I might actually do it. In other news, I'm reaching that familiar point in the semester when I realize that it would be a good idea to do some exam preparation Real Soon Now...and I'm also thinking of writing a note for the new corporate law journal. Look forward to very few or very many entries in the near future. ^_^ P.S.: baagaa, do you by any chance have an outline for Leaffer's Copyright Law class that I could borrow? Thanks in advance! Current Mood: okay Current Music: MC Chris - Fett's Vette

(7 comments | Leave a comment)

October 20th, 2005

(17 comments | Leave a comment)

September 20th, 2005

08:52 pm - Nobody knows where Alesia is! It's nice to have a fairly light week. I had an extra-long weekend due to some class cancellations, and there's no Copyright Law this week, so today was my only day with more than one class. I'm sort of stumbling along so far this semester, partly due to my usual procrastination, and partly due to bad timing for random stuffhappenings (the link is completely random, but looked interesting). I'm hoping that I can get back to being a step or two ahead, get reading done ahead of time, get enough sleep to pay attention in class, and actually make some outlines. We'll see. The New York Times has a wonderful article on obscenity today. My nearest addictive gourmet market is now carrying wild boar sausages. Not just any wild boar sausages; the label guarantees that they are from 100% feral boars. I can only think of a few explanations. This is some temporary gourmet trend like radicchio, sun-dried tomatoes and "foams;" it's for borderline vegetarians who want something "just a little less cuddly;" or it's targeted towards fans of Asterix. Being in the latter category, I bought some. We shall see. P.S. I've just received a spam for "Tiberius Erectus" brand herbal Viagra. (Google it yourself, if you must.) Is it just me, or does this belong in Life of Brian? Current Mood: hungry Current Music: Kodo - Strobes Nanafushi

(3 comments | Leave a comment)

September 15th, 2005

09:00 am - Vodka gives me very strange dreams. So...yeah. Nicolas Flamel was a pastry chef, and apparently hitting Voldemort square in the face with the Philosopher's Pie was the only thing that would do him in. "To the well-organized mind, cake is but the next great adventure." Somehow, my brain made this whole ridiculous scenario seem dark and foreboding. Key lime was involved. Current Mood: confused

(17 comments | Leave a comment)

September 2nd, 2005

(5 comments | Leave a comment)

August 26th, 2005

01:10 am - Cliff's Notes: Calc's Life I'm still alive! I spent my summer being an intern at The Children's Law Center, a nonprofit law guardian firm here in Brooklyn. They are appointed by the Family Court as a neutral party to represent children who are involved in custody disputes. Although it was sometimes depressing, it was very fulfulling work, and I think I would be willing to practice in the area. (Working in a bay directly across from the social worker's office, however, made it very clear that social work is not the field for me. We did our best to make life a little bit easier for her.) Otakon was big, and it was great to finally meet a bunch of the East Coast Improfanfic crowd. I'm the Technology Secretary for the Student Bar Association (student government) this school year, which should be interesting. The other SBA executive officers are great, and we all get along well. I just returned from spending about four hours helping with the bar crawl, which is a fairly large beginning-of-the-year event. (I'll actually be able to take advantage of the bars in one week. Time flies!) My classes: Accounting for Lawyers, Copyright Law (note to baagaa: with a visiting professor from Indiana), Corporations, Federal Income Tax, and Internet Law. All were carefully chosen for the quality of the professors, so things should go better this semester. I've also managed to leave one of the part-time consulting jobs that dragged over from before law school, and will be leaving the other as soon as I finish about ten hours of programming. This should help. I made a new anti-spam LJ icon. I think that's about it. More posts to come, perhaps! Current Mood: busy

(10 comments | Leave a comment)

June 19th, 2005

04:50 am I haven't updated this journal in approximately forever, although I keep meaning to. Good I finished the first year of law school a month ago, and am not too disappointed with my GPA. I'm now working as an intern at The Children's Law Center, a non-profit firm that acts as the law guardian in many child custody cases in Brooklyn. (The law guardian is appointed by the court to represent the child's best interests.) It's very interesting and fulfulling work, and when it's depressing, it's usually darkly entertaining at the same time (e.g. pathetically unprofessional lawyering). Bad My older sister, Phoebe, passed away several months ago. The rest of the family and I have mostly recovered; this was not unexpected, and I was able to handle it mainly by being insanely busy with studying and not thinking about it. Strange My family's nurturing instincts seem to have gone into overdrive, with the loss of Phoebe and my move across the country. As of two days ago, they now have seven cats. Seven. Or, more precisely, seven cats now have them. Today I helped novaseaker install his new DVD+/-RW drive, and we played some Warcraft III. Then, I saw Howl's Moving Castle - subtitled - followed by a midnight showing of Ghostbusters, after which I went to a 24-hour Turkish kebab place. It was packed, causing not one but two Elisha Cuthbert impersonators to share a table with me. I then proceeded to obtain a cinnamon roll and go massively overboard with hypertext. You normal people can have your drunken revelry; I consider this the best Saturday night ever. ...although, I still have no date. Meme So, the one and only truly amazing katster has assigned me the book meme - slightly truncated because I'm in a hurry. Sorry! ( Meme meme meme. ) Current Mood: quixotic Current Music: Sugarcult - Hate Every Beautiful Day

(4 comments | Leave a comment)

April 14th, 2005

11:22 pm I've been spamming this all over IRC, but I should let you, dear readers, know as well. Here is conservative columnist Cal Thomas. Here is Captain Peacock from "Are You Being Served?". I am not the first to notice this. Proper journal posts to follow soon, perhaps. Current Mood: quixotic Current Music: AC-DC - Highway to Hell

(Leave a comment)

February 23rd, 2005

(8 comments | Leave a comment)

January 18th, 2005

10:41 pm This is closely paraphrased from a conversation I just had. ( NSFW ) And that's how spam is destroying the innocence and the minds of our nation's youth. Current Mood: weird Current Music: Great Big Sea - John Barbour

(5 comments | Leave a comment)

December 6th, 2004

05:58 pm It's about time for an update... Most of this semester has been a long, bloody war between myself and my overwhelming procrastinative instincts. Thus far, they're winning. I am not yet defeated, but I am downtrodden. I just finished a barebones (5.5-page) outline for Criminal Law, the exam for which is in about 18 hours. I am actually very comfortable with most of the material in all of my classes: I did do all of my reading assignments (only a few after the fact), and only missed one class session. This may be lucky, as two courses this semester (Criminal Law and Civil Procedure) would seem to lend themselves to reading from the statutes/rulebook cold, as long as you know what sort of arguments to make. I should have time to make a more complete outline for Torts, and Constitutional Law requires less of an outline than it does a particular state of mind, a great deal of luck, and a low curve. Much to my surprise, my spellchecker did not include the following: accessorial analyses desistance e.g. nonexculpatory personhood It does now - and somehow, I still get invited to parties. For those of you interested in my ranting about the actual law, I'm probably going to be on Radio Free Mars again later tonight, and sporadically for the next couple of weeks. Current Mood: indescribable

(4 comments | Leave a comment)

October 26th, 2004

05:30 pm - What a horrible nightmare. Wait...oh god, I can't move... Terrible, terrible day. - Four and a half hours of sleep. - Unexplained server problems - my absolute least favorite type of server problems. - I'm hearing voices in the background on my phone line. This makes the fifth Verizon trouble ticket on this same issue. - I didn't manage to prepare enough for the class today where I was not only called on, but scheduled to be called on. I'm annoyed both at the circumstances and at myself. - The video card that I ordered for Sourdough still hasn't arrived. I'm still happy, overall, with law school and things in general; just very unhappy indeed about today. Current Mood: lonely

(5 comments | Leave a comment)