Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in dodgers_pwn's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, March 1st, 2012
1:26 am	Well, I gave it the best shot I had. For my own sanity, I will pretend like it wouldn't have made a difference if I had taken that shot a year ago. (Swing at his changeup?)
Sunday, February 5th, 2012
12:16 pm	I don't believe that there are women who find Pitbull attractive. I don't even think I could be convinced by a well-reasoned argument to that end. (6 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
12:42 am	What do you do when you have feelings for a girl, a close friend? What about when, half the time you're around her, she makes you really angry? (2 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
12:55 am	Does anyone know how to deal with acting nervous and jittery in social situations? I recently discovered that I was horrible at eye contact. Like, really really bad. And now that I think about it, it makes total sense and I never really realized it. It's difficult to realize you're doing something in a social setting because it's not like you can go back and check the film and adjust your gameplan for the next social setting. But it's a big problem, mainly because around friends it makes me look aloof; around business associates it makes me look disinterested; and around dates it makes me look nervous. All of which are pretty much the worst thing ever. So yeah. Any suggestions about my eye contact problem? (inb4 "just look at the fucking person." Admittedly, that's probably the best advice.) (5 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Sunday, January 22nd, 2012
9:18 pm	I did a whole lot of nothing this week, mostly by myself, and I think it was ok. Yeah, I can do this. I'm gonna go through a lot of whiskey though.... (Swing at his changeup?)
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
10:00 pm	I'm totally in love with DC. If I could, I'd move here on Tuesday. (Swing at his changeup?)
Friday, December 23rd, 2011
1:21 am	It's time to admit that I have no interest in growing old. Subject line presented without further comment. (Swing at his changeup?)
Sunday, September 25th, 2011
9:43 pm	Success. (Swing at his changeup?)
Friday, September 23rd, 2011
9:19 pm	Cupcakes play for keeps, man. Well, one of the challenges of moving is of course leaving your old friends and not getting to see them very often. And frankly, despite all the social networking options, you never can stay in touch with people unless you're both willing to be on gchat or AIM perpetually. So I have tried to brainstorm creative ways to stay in touch, and I would like to share one that is coming up this weekend: Skype dinner party. The idea is pretty simple: a few friends and I arrange to get on skype at a specific time, and we'll each cook a set of pre-selected courses, talk about each other's progress, eat (obviously), and otherwise have a nice evening similar to what we might have enjoyed when we were all together. It is scheduled for tomorrow and the menu is as follows: Appetizer/side: Bacon & Chedder biscuits (Bonnie's choice) http://theshoeboxkitchen.wordpress.com/2011/01/09/bacon-cheddar-biscuits/ Not much to them, you fry some bacon, and then bake the biscuits in the remaining fat, while throwing the bacon and some cheese into the biscuit batter. There's no way this comes out any other way besides delicious. Main course: Beef Bourguignon (my choice) http://www.barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=562 This classic French peasant dish involves sauteing filets of beef into a pan loaded with dry red wine, spices, and veggies. While not altogether complex, the beef will be tricky to cook, especially for someone like me who has never actually cooked steak in a pan before. Becky, unfortunately, will cook something with chicken instead because she doesn't think she can afford the beef. Dessert: Butterbeer Cupcakes (Becky's choice) http://www.cakeandallie.com/2011/07/butterbeer-cupcakes/ My friend Cait is coming over with a lot of baking ingredients which I don't currently have (baking soda/powder, vanilla extract), as well as a cupcake pan, which is totally saving me on this one. Otherwise, I would have opted to cook something else. The recipe calls for butterscotch ganache, which I will attempt to make. It also calls for homemade frosting, but I will just buy it because this is enough effort as it is. Ideally, I cook enough for three people (myself, Cait, and her fiance, who will not attend but will get to enjoy the leftovers), with plenty leftover to enjoy. Also, ideally I cook well enough that I will actually WANT the leftovers. And in case you're thinking, oh I'm just getting Cait to come over to help me, she can't cook either. My prediction is that the biscuits come out great, the beef gets overcooked and is not horrible but mediocre, and that the cupcakes don't really taste like anything special. I also predict that Becky, Bonnie, and I will all wish we had done this a long time ago. (2 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
6:37 pm	They really should have Tony Montana drive the boat at the Universal Studios "Jaws" ride. Typically I'll make pandora stations based on a handful of artists, to get some specificity and such.Today, I decided that I was going to make a station revolving solely around the Shaft theme song. This decision is by far the best one I have made in the last 18 months. And while I'm here, I'll elaborate. (New pandora page looks fantastic, btw) --- For those that do not remember or are only recently following, I had quite a few law school options. The last three choices were Illinois, George Washington U in DC, and Case Western U in Cleveland (which is where my brother lives). A number of considerations were abound; Illinois was the highest rank, but in the most remote of locations, and they offered me 20K per year. George Washington had a lot of cache and was also highly ranked, and in a great location, but would be the most expensive, as DC has an extremely high standard of living and they were only offering 15K per year. Case would have given me 33K per year, I would have been closest to home, and I would've lived with my brother which would have made things a lot easier, but it was ranked the lowest of the three. I considered the people I knew in each of the 3 places, how far I would be from home (and how far I wanted to be), the job markets I'd enter, cost, ranking, favorability of surroundings, ability to get a job, just about everything. I ended up picking Illinois because not only were they highly ranked (21 at the time of offer, compared to the lower 20s for GW and the 50s for Case), but they were giving me a substantial amount of money, near a great market, even if Champaign isn't the most happening town in the world. But make no mistake, the ranking advantage was a determining factor; without it, I'm not writing this from my apartment in Savoy, IL. While I'm not going to go into big shot law, at least not initially, law school prestige is a really big deal. So even though my grades aren't what I thought they might be (and even though I don't really care that much about them at this point), I was happy knowing that I was paying a high-but-not-crazy price to go to a prestigious school. Well, I was until about a week ago. Lately, law schools are getting in trouble for misrepresentation, mainly for employment stats. A few are getting sued for intentionally lying about how many graduates get jobs, stuff like that. Illinois hasn't been attacked, and I don't really care either way; I know the job market sucks and I expect those numbers to be inflated. But Illinois just got in trouble for something different; inflating the median LSAT and undergrad GPA scores of recent classes. Monday, they released the real numbers: the GPA difference wasn't significant (3.70 down from 3.81), but the LSAT difference was huge. Being reported at 168, it was 163, which is probably worth 20 percentiles on the test. 168 is a typical median for a high 20s school (Illinois is at 23 presently), but 163 is a lot more typical of a school in the 40s, 50s. And without being overly dramatic, I would not be attending Illinois if they had reported a median LSAT of 163 and were ranked accordingly. They're investigating the situation and firing an associate dean, but it's all BS. You won't convince me that it was just an associate dean's doing or that it was done accidentally. I know lawyers are bad at math, but finding a median in a set of 150 students would take me 5 minutes tops.....in 7th grade. So not only are the updated stats going to cause Illinois to plummet in the rankings, but nothing puts a gold star on your resume quite like a degree from a school known for dishonesty (lets face it, Illinois as a state doesn't have a sterling reputation for honesty as it is). Heck, this is only a few years after the career services department at Illinois had to get swept out for trading favors with Rod Blagojevich (namely, we will admit the retarded kids of Illinois Democrats in exchange for you finding big shot jobs for our retarded graduates). The worst part of this is that, at least I would have been well suited for a lucrative job as a Mafia lawyer, but they don't even have those anymore. (2 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Monday, July 11th, 2011
10:36 pm	No Strings Attached I found myself a new favorite whisky this weekend when I was at Seven Saints with my buddy Alex. I like Seven Saints because it's a classy bar with a huge liquor list, but they also serve pretty good food. I also feel like their neo-Romantic decor really comes through well and stands in positive contrast to the other Champaign establishments. I don't usually drink whisky straight. I'm a big whisky fan but I'm usually cutting it with some sort of pop or mix because I'm kind of a bitch sometimes. Whisky straight takes a while to sip. I don't usually like to commit to a drink that long. I also haven't really tried a lot of different whiskies, so I don't know what I would prefer straight. If I just drank Jack straight, I'd look silly. Jamesons is always an option but, meh. So I go to Seven Saints and Alex orders a glass of Rogue Dead Guy Whiskey. Figuring that we'll be there a while, I peruse the liquor binder and notice that Canadian whiskys are considerably cheaper. Forty Creek Barrel Select was featured, and its description of vanilla, honey, and a smooth finish. I look to the unbelievably attractive waitress and ask her about it in a cheap gambit to start a conversation. After she brags about the owner's taste for whisky and assures me that no whisky would be featured if he didn't like it, I took the plunge. The fact that I'm writing this should suggest to you that the effort was a success. The waitress actually gave it to me neat when I requested it on the rocks, but I don't blame her. She was swamped by a sudden, odd "Danger Zone" bar crawl full of old people, and I think she did me a favor anyway. It is indeed my new favorite whisky, and I went to Friar Tuck's tonight to grab a fifth of my own, for the low price of $23.99 (point of comparison: Jack is $21.99). Enjoying it now on the rocks, neat is definitely the way to go. Note for the future. At least, whisky discovery was a success. I didn't really have much luck with the waitress; in case you couldn't guess. The subject line has nothing to do with the post, FYI. (Swing at his changeup?)
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
11:02 pm	The best dilemmas are the ones that pop up completely at random. (Swing at his changeup?)
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
12:21 pm	In one year of law school, I have been invited to go to the strip club twice, in middle-of-nowhere Illinois of all places. I may have to respectfully decline this second invitation. Although, perhaps I can just go and order some pizza. (4 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Friday, June 17th, 2011
12:52 am	Writer's Block: Practically amazing If you could have a power that helps you with day-to-day living, like the ability to always get a seat on the bus, what would choose, and why? View 1083 Answers If that's a power that significantly impacts your day-to-day living, there is something wrong with your day-to-day living. I'd like to be able to fly. Talk about impacting your daily life. Have to stand on the bus sometimes, and your solution is to just sit on the bus? FUCK THE BUS! Ain't gonna have to use mass transit when you're flying all up and down like a BOSS. Man, I could fly around, no boring ass walks to the law school where all I do is think aloud for 15 minutes and drive myself crazy. No buying gas or changing oil or dropping quarters to park. I'd probs keep my car around though, go to the grocery store and such. (Swing at his changeup?)
Saturday, June 11th, 2011
12:46 am	I may not be able to grow a mustache right now, and it's about time I accept the fact that I may never be able to grow a mustache. However, there's no reason to let that stop me from growing an epic beard. And so that's what I did. Cousin's wedding tonight? That was my beard's coming out party. I may post a picture at some point. (Swing at his changeup?)
Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
10:36 pm	Pfft. John Hancock. It's Herbie Hancock. So, I was feeling pretty down for the beginning of the summer. Crap semester, didn't really feel good about my future, couldn't drag up any motivation to do work, the usual. I was sitting here today when I found out grades where out two days early, and while I didn't want to go look, the overwhelming feeling of dread just wasn't going to leave until I checked and confirmed what I knew. That all of the bullshit I put up with this semester, putting off work, not studying enough, hating life was going to result in a couple B-s and a C. So, lets just get it over with.... Wait, I did BETTER than 1st semester?! WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!! *Happy dance* *excitedly text and post about it* This might just be the motivation I need to spring into some serious work next year. Still not sure how I managed to do better in a semester where I did hardly any work, compared to the semester where I worked way harder than in previous years, but whatever. Maybe from this baseline I can add more work and actually get GOOD grades, rather than varying degrees of mediocre? But I'm not gonna get ahead of myself. For now, I'm just relieved. (Swing at his changeup?)
Monday, May 9th, 2011
12:36 am	The Constitution, on this hypothesis, is a mere thing of wax in the hands of the Judiciary... which they may twist and shape into any form they please.” -- Thomas Jefferson And in 13 hours, I have an exam on this very twisting and shaping. Because this exam is open book and open note, and because previous students have posted outlines to share with future classes, and also because I hate Constitutional Law and paid zero attention all year, I am hoping to pass this thing with a compilation of said outlines and a brief overview and highlighting of the textbook. As a result, I have in my hands a mega outline of 150 motherfucking pages. Also, because I have procrastinated so long, I didn't really leave myself enough time to do a careful reading of the whole material, and only got through the 1st half (Regulation of Commerce, War Powers, Spending Power, and Judicial Jurisdiction, mainly), skipping such exciting areas as Due Process Violations and Equal Protection (General Bill of Rights jurisprudence is not covered on the exam). So, if I get essay questions about commerce, I will probably dominate this shit. And if I get questions about discrimination, I will cling desperately to the Outline of Considerable Girth, in the hopes that it can save me. I will let you all know how this effort goes. In the meantime, I am off to watch To Catch a Predator (which, you may not know, is my favorite show). (Swing at his changeup?)
Thursday, May 5th, 2011
11:39 pm	TELL ME WHATS NEXT ALIEN SEX So, we can all agree that Kanye's second verse in E.T. is the worst verse ever rapped in the history of the evolution of hearing, right? I mean, if you don't agree you're going to need to comment and defend that opinion because I just cannot handle it. I understand that rappers just jump into pop songs just to get paid, and are mailing in the verses. And I'm not expecting him to put as much effort into it as he did in Graduation or MBDTF, which are fantastic albums. But, good God. I don't know if there's enough money in the world that would let you look at yourself in the mirror, knowing that you sang this in a song and tried to sell it. I present for your judgement: (2 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011
10:30 pm	I guess this is why they won't let him be a Marine JAG So, my beloved roommate John and I have this running joke--also running with his friends and really anyone else who associates with him--that John is incapable of finishing anything. This mainly refers to food, but I suppose there's some meta commentary about his subsequent dropping out of law school. But that's not fair. Simply put, John cannot kill his food. I have to kill it for him. If we were in a state of nature he'd have to follow a honey badger around. This typically leads to humorously annoying results; namely, he'll leave literally two ounces of milk in the fridge and leave the mostly empty gallon in the fridge so I don't realize we're out and don't go out and buy more milk so then I pour some cereal and then I go get the milk and realize I have one spoonful's worth of milk. I'm sure you can imagine my reaction being humorous in a zany sitcom kind of way with a laugh track and all. This also cropped up once when a bunch of us went out for chinese and John came nowhere close to finishing and I had to come in and close out the dish, as though I were the Mariano Rivera of Kung Pao Chicken. However, today's experience may take the cake (not actually involving any cake though). I remembered we had a huge bag of pizza rolls in our freezer, so I went to go make some. Opened the bag. John did not kill the pizza rolls. There are two left. John left TWO pizza rolls in the freezer. WTF AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH TWO PIZZA ROLLS?!?! So I'm eating frozen egg rolls instead. Thankfully, I had other late night unhealthy frozen toaster oven snack options involving some kind of roll. (2 strikeouts for Lima |Swing at his changeup?)
Tuesday, April 26th, 2011
12:49 am	Sooooo, roommate John just walked into my room with some fantastic news. He was lined up to be a Marine JAG, and as it turns out, he's not really lined up to do anything. Now he's probably dropping out. So you know, law school wasn't hard enough or anything. Now my best friend here is gonna leave and I have to scramble to find a place and get new roommates and.....yeahh.........2011 fucking sucks. Thanks a lot. (Swing at his changeup?)