Real Women Don't Pump Gas

A Stich in Haste take a look at the NJ self-serve gas ban from an economic perspective. As a resident of New Jersey, I have a different perspective: I don't want to pump my own gas. I don't want to get out of the car when it's cold and rainy. I don't want to risk splashing gas on my clothes. I don't want to have to walk inside the convenience store to pay if I want to pay in cash. I think the no-self-serve rule is great, because I'm lazy! I'm always careful to never leave the state without a full tank of gas.

Am I A Bad Liberal?

I enjoy hugging trees just as much as the next hippie (ok, maybe not quite) but I don't think there's anything wrong with oil companies making huge profits. As they sometimes attempt to point out, if we don't like it, we can directly reduce their profits by buying less oil.

Laptops in Class

I have no insightful comments about the issue of laptop use in class. But I do have an observation/anecdote:
I am in a "seminar" class with 14 students. On Monday we were having student presentations; one student standing in front of the class talking, the other 13 sitting in a semi-circle listening. There was no need to take notes, we were just listening and discussing.
One guy in the class had his laptop on, and was playing solitaire throughout the presentations. I'm not criticizing him; I was busy doodling, and probably not paying much more attention than him. I'm just wondering about... I'm not sure how to put it... his lack of subtlety, I guess. Since there was absolutely no reason to be taking notes, there was no reason for anyone to be using laptops. I think that if I were the professor, I would have been looking at him and wondering "what the hell is he doing with the laptop?" And I think most professors are smart enough to know, without looking at the screen, that he was playing games or surfing the web. So, basically, he was openly playing solitaire in a class of 14 people.
I guess I just always thought that law school etiquette required students to make a reasonable effort to pretend that we're paying attention in class. For example, when IM-ing, we should try to look like we're actually taking notes. I think that any sort of laptop use at a time when there's no reason to be using one is a violation of that rule.

My Appalling Lack of Time Management Skills

One of my professors has a policy that lets people "make up" classes that they've missed by writing 500-word discussions of the reading assignment for that class. So, naturally, I skipped lots of classes and planned to do all the make-up assignments at the end of the semester. This morning I thought to myself "hmm, I wonder when all those make-up assignments are due?" So I checked, and of course, they're due tomorrow. But I'm not worried - I have 12 hours to finish!

SNL

Remember the last time Saturday Night Live was funny? I bet you do, and I bet it was when you were in the 11th grade. It was funny when I was in the 11th grade, and then it started to suck. I bet there are kids in the 11th grade right now who think that SNL is actually funny, right now, and in a few years they'll be saying "hey, remember when Seth Myers was on SNL? Those were the best years. To bad it started to suck after that." I think that's kind of tragic.

Hello Kitty!

Today at a meeting of the Law Journal editorial board, we were discussing having some journal outings - parties at bars, baseball games, that sort of thing - so that we could all bond and get to know the other members of the journal. My first and only thought (which I didn't say out loud) was: "But I don't like getting to know other people."

Still not done my paper...

... but let's not dwell on that. I'd rather think about some of the reasons that Alias is one of my favorite TV shows:

• No one has ever given birth while trapped in an elevator on Alias.
• No plot has ever revolved around someone's buddy from 'Nam.
• A multi-racial group of kids from the inner city has never learned an imporant lesson about respecting each others' differences.
• There has never been a "very special episode" ending with a public service announcement.

I thought of all these while watching MacGyver (which is still an awesome show).

But on the other hand, Alias has created its own cliches, which I don't have to wait 20 years to find amusing:

• Almost everyone who is married, is married to a Russian spy.
• No one ever stays dead.
• Marshall's gadgets only work once. (In season one, he invented a device that would read someone's retinal scan using trick sunglasses and create a contact lens that will fool a retinal scanner. In a later season, a bad guy's eyeball has to be popped out of his head.)