I Fought the Law and the Law Won

If I ever express the desire to go into law school, someone take a gun and shoot me.

Seriously.

I have been working here at the law school for almost a year. What did I learn?

1) How to waste my time on the Internet.
2) How to use audio/visual equipment. Which was really fun.
3) Bettered my skills with "smart" podiums - a good thing, since I will be the sort of presenter in the future that is NOT clueless.
4) How do deal with office politics and deal with lecturer's arrogant crap.

And most importantly...

5) That most law students are cocky arrogant idiots and that it gets worse the higher you go up in US News and World Report's rankings.

Fordham is ranked I believe in the top 30 (?) and dealing with them for programs already piss me off. Since I was one of the "children" next door, I was supposed to be pre-programmed to hate the "precious law students." As a former admissions tour guide, I actually said that "Yes, the law school is right next door, its a really great program, we have a 3-3 program for undergrads and as undergrads we can use their facilities, but none of us ever do because the law students are rather terriorial." I never got reprimanded for it because like a proper tour guide, I told the truth and the "reality that is FCLC" that the prospectives student wanted to hear, with the shine and sparkle that admissions officers and parents wanted to hear.

The Law school is the jewel in Fordham's crown, hence they are treated like spoilt princes and princesses. And some of them milk it. I do know a few of the law students that I met personally and for programs and some are very nice. There are, unfortunately that think they are gods because they are going to have a law degree after 3 years. Might I just add that most people who go for law degrees never actually become lawyers, because they fail to pass the bar or are just "burnt out"?

They are the ones that get a library that has WINDOWS and pretty chairs - you know, the ergonomical ones that cost about $1000 a pop? I actually commited the travesty that is entering-the-law-school library and sat in one of them. But this was after their finals, so I didn't have to suffer from the dirty looks that are across their faces if I dropped a pen on the floor. Quinn Library - the one for FCLC, GBA, GED, GSS and FCLS (everyone else that is) looks like a factory and has wierd lighting. New, really cute furniture, but no bloody windows. The "rest of us" will not have a library with windows until the incoming FCLC class of 2039 crosses Columbus Avenue for the first time.

My job is fun, but there are some times that I want to take that gavel and smash it into someone's head.

What was the breaking point for me was working for a PMBR Bar Exam law review in McNally a few weeks ago. Personally, its rather ludicrous to pay "all this money" for this degree and then you need to take MORE classes just to pass the bar exam because apparently, whatever you learned in law school isn't enough to pass the bar exam to become a "real" lawyer!

So they had a three day course, two days of which I had to run. The lecturer was like a law student on LSD although she was a former prosecutor in Philly. She made me run around like crazy - asking for extension cords (can't do it - fire hazard but then I see 10 of them within 15 minutes), portable podiums (after I told her I can't move the main one and that I can't take the one out of the classrooms - she took TWO out) and wanting a table (I told her I would get it for her but me getting it down will make noise, the "precious law students" were taking a test so is it ok if I can do it after the break? NO, she made me drag a table down that I am not supposed to! A heavy table, weak arms and a fear of stairs is not a good combination.).

Earlier, my coworker told me that one of the law students unfolded a table in the back to plug in her laptop since it was uncharged. She told the student that she couldn't do that because its a fire hazard, but the student didn't care! Gave my coworker a dirty look. Fine, and when you unfolded that table I wished you broke your leg. It would have served her right, although she would have probably sued the law school. They think they could break the rules just because they pay 40 grand a year. Unfortuantely, most of American college students think that they cn get away with murder and get whatever they want (even that A grade) because they pay "so much money" for it. I do come from a selfish generation.

I feel sooooo bad for my boss and any future coworkers. This fall they are changing the Atrium - where we hold luncheons and registration for events - into a student lounge with couches because the law students don't have a "proper lounge." Boo hoo to them. So now they have to move the furniture every time there is an event and try to keep the law students from stealing the food - it's ok to do it after the event when there are leftovers, but not before. It's going to make the school look bad. All for the sake of pacifying the royalty.

So the law school wins. They are even going to be the first ones to get a new building in the re-development plan of the campus. Frankly, I think they should add one of the 35-story towers first because it makes more space for the other schools as a whole. But no, the law school come first, because it is a "cash cow."

But on a lighter note, I decided to post a new picture of my future toy:

It is the Apple MacBook. I am going to make the conversion from PC to Mac. Strike up the choir, I am going to leave the world of Windows behind!

I say future because it is a belated graduation gift. In high school I got the Sony VAIO R505, one of the first "skinny laptops" and apprently, one of the most popular computers in 2001-2002. I got it simply because it looked pretty and I didn't know any better. After countless reboots, a crashed hard drive and subsequent replacement, overseas travel clocking in at over 30,000 miles (Greece: 2 plane rides, London: 6 plane rides) a broken cd-burner and over 1500 songs on iTunes, not to mention 4 years worth of college papers, outlines, and bumps and scratches, eating dinner as I type my papers and watching Sex and the City DVD's on it, its time to throw in the motherboard.

It looks like its been through WW3. The keyboard has faded where the heels of my palms rested, the A and S keys are almost gone, the screen is always dusty and it really ,really, battered - like there are nicks in it. And did I mention that the battery went kaput? Like it decided to not work anymore, so may laptop is nothing more now than a tiny PC since it awlays has to be plugged in. Microsoft Word freezes, and slowly my other programs are freezing on me as well.

Still, it WAS a purple laptop. I didn't want a standard, gray or black IBM/Dell.

The black Apple is really shiny, as Cat would put it, but its not worth it price wise to spend another $200 for a black casing. I'm getting the white (2.0 gHz), and using that $200 to upgrade the memory to 2GB.

Now if only there were cute laptop cases to go with it. I never used my old laptop case because it was this ugly office-looking industrial black. I would like kelly green. Or black, but with polka dots.

Yeah, I am very picky.