Law Students

a disjointed post-HOPE update

Posted on July 18, 2010
HOPE is over.i'm exhausted, mentally and physically. i guess i always am, after a con, but i'm not used to this kind of exhaustion. by the last day of the con, my ability to socialize was basically zero. of course, i fought my way through it today and tried to be as social as possible, because the fact remains that cons are the only time i can see most of my friends who don't live anywhere near me...

an academic mess

Posted on July 12, 2010
kenneth howell, an adjunct professor at the university of illinois, was recently dismissed from his post. the news-gazette published the contents of two emails: an email written by a student who complained, and an email written by professor howell to the class...

kick me while i'm down, why don't you?

Posted on July 11, 2010
my wallet disappeared this afternoon. i had it at brunch. i had it to get on the bus after brunch. but, sometime after that, it disappeared. i have two theories: either it fell out of my pocket in the restroom at Union Station, or i was pickpocketed in the crushing crowd by the Megabus stop...

News Grad Students Can Use

Posted on July 03, 2010
dear graduate students,if you really loved me, you'd enter the PhD Challenge. the task is simple...get the phrase "i smoke crack rocks" into the final version of your peer-reviewed academic paper.the best part? you don't even have to be a crack smoker to enter!love,mep...

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yes, my life is awesome.

Posted on July 02, 2010
i've been delinquent on posting here...but really, most of what i do anymore is work and sleep.that's not such a bad thing, really. i'm a month into my job, and i absolutely love it. first of all...hello! they're paying me to play with computers, and it's just as much fun as i thought it would be! i'm learning a ton, and even though some projects get kind of frustrating, i always end up learning something in the end, and i feel a real sense of accomplishment if i help iron out something messy...

my kingdom for...

Posted on June 29, 2010
the hell with a good night's sleep.the hell with an okay night's sleep.is it too much to ask to get a marginally decent night of sleep around here? apparently so, because i don't remember the last time i slept anything but poorly.this is not helping.

)-:|3

Posted on June 22, 2010
dear security guard,i walked into the data centre this morning. of course, it's not the location i normally work in, so i had an authorization code instead of a badge. it took me a minute or two to get it, because it was on my phone, and my phone was off...

News Crack Smokers Can Use: June 13, 2010

Posted on June 13, 2010
dear crack smokers,i know you think crack is the bee's knees, and you enjoy smoking it at any opportunity. you may even like it so much that you become a crack evangelist...trying to convince everyone you know that crack makes you feel awesome, and that they should try it...

intent never makes a sound

Posted on June 13, 2010
i heard this song for the first time a few days ago, and was shocked at how well it described the mood i've been in lately.**********"reclusion"by anberlinthere's someone inside me that softly kills everyone aroundthey don't know they're dead to me cause intent never makes a soundall along they found i strangled lovers who've learned from slower handswith these eleven minutes i could teach you what i amyou're sicksick as all the secrets that you denysins like skeletons are so very hard to hideyou're sicksick as all the secrets that you denysins like skeletons are so very hard to hidethere's an art in seclusionproduction in depressionif a stranger turns up missing this song is my confessiontell the tales of the trail of deadlovers learn from slower handslosing self in myselfinner demons make demandsyou're sicksick as all the secrets that you denysins like skeletons are so very hard to hideyou're sicksick as all the secrets that you denysins like skeletons are so very hard to hideyou're suffocating meso very hard to breathemy mask is growing heavy but i've forgotten who's beneathyou're sicksick as all the secrets that you denysins like skeletons are so very hard to hideyou're sicksick as all the secrets that you denysins like skeletons are so very hard to hide

DEMF, HOPE, WORK.

Posted on June 02, 2010
i am all over the place tonight. my brain is bouncing around at a mile a minute, and i'm not quite sure how much sleep i'll actually get tonight.****i've pretty much recovered from DEMF this weekend. it was worth being there for, but not in the way i expected...

Mister Coke

Posted on June 01, 2010
i know this is the last refuge of the persecuted crack smoker, but every so often something so silly comes up that doesn't relate to crack that i still find it worth mentioning. this is one of those times.if your name is Mr. Coke, don't grow up to be a drug lord...

ohai.

Posted on May 26, 2010
last night i went to pub quiz at Globe for the first time in a very, very long time. i love that pub quiz...it's difficult, and the quizmaster is awesome. my team ended up placing in second, thanks in part to my awesome ability to remember the lyrics to "the sign" by ace of base...

real life News Crack Smokers Can Use

Posted on May 22, 2010
good news: i passed my ham radio technician test! :D that means, as soon as my name has been put in the FCC database, i'll be licensed for amateur radio. yay!the test was pretty easy, really...i recognized almost all the questions that were on it, and i passed it with flying colours...

ham radio test

Posted on May 22, 2010
i should be asleep, but i'm not quite tired yet.i should be asleep, since i'm getting up at 6am tomorrow to go take my ham radio technician exam. it's something that i've seen people having fun with and been curious about trying for a while...but, of course, you can't really do a whole lot with radios until you're licensed to transmit...

what, me employed?

Posted on May 20, 2010
A JOB.I HAZ ONE!yes, that's right! :D i just found out today that i got the data centre tech job that i have been interviewing for...i'll be starting in early june, when i get back from DEMF. i had done three rounds of interviews for it...a phone interview back in late april, a first in-person interview the day before scav, and a second in-person interview this past friday...

scav!

Posted on May 16, 2010
last weekend was the University of Chicago Scavenger Hunt. despite the fact that i graduated six years ago, and the fact that lately i've been far more inclined to bitch about my postsecondary educational ventures than to laud them, i still love the scavhunt with every fibre of my being, and i still participate eagerly in it...

walk like a penguin

Posted on May 02, 2010
penguicon has wound down, and i am winding down with it. i'm sitting at i3Detroit, sipping tasty bourbon, and feeling good.penguicon was definitely not like the cons i'm used to attending. i go to cons all the time, but they're always hacker cons. they have a specifically technical focus, and are full of a rather specific kind of geek, the hacker...

of course...

Posted on April 28, 2010
of course the sound on my computer decides to stop working the week i'm supposed to be giving a talk about music projects.i can't figure out what's wrong. i've been googling and troubleshooting like crazy, and my sound is still borked. i have no idea what i did to cause this...

boobquake!

Posted on April 26, 2010
take that, forces of patriarchy and sex-negativity!

career strife

Posted on April 25, 2010
the difference between entering the legal field and the information technology field is a stark one. if you're entering the legal field, you're not expected to know jack. if you're entering IT, you are. plain and simple.this made getting my foot in the door when i was in law school easy...

arduino != iPhone.

Posted on April 21, 2010
this morning, i made the mistake of going to the rat shack. like any electronics hobbyist after about 1995, i know that radio shack is full of fail when it comes to electronics. sure, there was once a day where you could actually go there and talk to people who knew about radio components, but those days are long gone...

notarecap

Posted on April 20, 2010
i spent this past weekend at notacon 7. i am still recovering, but i want to say a few words about it before it starts to get fuzzy.first of all, a big thank you to all of you who came to my talk, and to all of you who played Whose Slide Is It Anyway, Notacon Trivia, or Know Your Notacon Presenters...

strippers and dirty magazines!

Posted on April 15, 2010
if you're coming to notacon this weekend, niteshad has organized Strippers and Dirty Magazines! after the con has wound down on sunday, there will be an excursion to a shooting range for anyone who wants to go. detailed information about it [time, place, rules, permitted and disallowed firearms and ammunition] is all on this site...

last entry meant something. this one is just me complaining.

Posted on April 10, 2010
i should be doing something productive to prepare for notacon.unfortunately, the only thing i've done that's the least bit productive in that regard is buy bleach and hair dye to fix my hair before the con. that's a step. but, i've done nothing else...

on guns, shooters, and my attitudes

Posted on April 07, 2010
last week i shot a gun for the first time, and i liked it.the me of up to a couple of years ago would be absolutely disgusted to look into the future to see that i would ever do such a thing, much less enjoy it. i have no regrets about it. however, it has taken a long process of me forming, assessing, and reassessing my views on guns in order for me to get there...

so soon?

Posted on April 05, 2010
a week and a half until i leave for notacon.i've got most of my stuff ready for that, but i still can't believe it's right around the corner. eek!

a year.

Posted on April 01, 2010
it was a year ago yesterday when i lost my job at the law firm.as frustrating as it is, in a lot of respects, to still not have a job...i'm so much happier than i was a year ago. going to that job was frustrating. i wasn't enjoying it. i was starting to come to the realisation at that point in time that i didn't want to be an attorney anymore...

don't get your panties in a bunch, Mare.

Posted on March 20, 2010
from Mayor Daley's twitter feed this morning:"Census forms went out this week. Please complete and return yours today to make sure that Chicago gets our fair share of federal funding."...something tells me that whether or not i fill out my census form, Chicago is going to get buckets and buckets of federal cash money coming its way, most of which will in rather short order line the pockets of Daley and his friends.

a MUD-dy proposition

Posted on March 19, 2010
i am at flourish, an open-source software conference at UIC. after logging on to the UIC guest wireless system, an acceptable use policy pops up. this acceptable use policy contains the following text:You are expected to refrain from engaging in deliberate wasteful practices such as multi-user dungeons (MUDs), sending chain letters through electronic mail, printing unnecessary output, printing multiple copies of files, performing unnecessary computations, generating excessive network traffic, or unnecessarily holding public PCs or dial-up phone lines for long periods of time when others are waiting for these resources...

the dreams in which i'm dying are the best i've ever had.

Posted on March 09, 2010

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