| Sony BMG Settlement |
[29 Dec 2005|11:32pm] |
It appears that the New York Sony BMG XCP & MediaMaxx class action is about to settle. As terms of the deal, Sony BMG will agree to the following limitations on the use of copy-protection software until 2008:
- stop manufacturing SONY BMG CDs with XCP and MediaMax software;
- immediately recall all XCP CDs;
- provide software to update and uninstall XCP and MediaMax content protection software from consumers’ computers;
- ensure that ongoing fixes to all SONY BMG content protection software are readily available to consumers;
- implement consumer-oriented changes in operating practices with respect to all CDs with content protection software that SONY BMG manufactures in the next two years;
- waive specified provisions currently contained in XCP and MediaMax software End-User Licensing Agreements ;
- refrain from collecting personal information about users of XCP CDs or MediaMax CDs without their affirmative consent; and
- provide additional settlement benefits to Settlement Class Members including cash payments, "clean" replacement CDs without content protection software, and free music downloads.
It doesn't provide any compensation for those who, like me, found their computers unstable after the XCP tool was installed, and doesn't do anything to help those who don't trust Sony's "Removal Tool and Update" to do what it promises to do. For some reason, I don't understand why I am supposed to trust Sony now, since they are supposed to be compensating me for misleading and lying to me.
Those who wish to pursue their own litigation will need to opt out of the class action. If 1,000 people opt out, it is possible that Sony will back out of the settlement.
I plan to have the necessary forms to either accept or reject the settlement available on my SonySuit.com website in as soon as they are available. Until then, please feel free to read the Motion for Settlement, Affadavit of Elizabeth C. Pritzker in Support of the Motion, Memorandum of Law in Support of the Settlement, and the Proposed Hearing Order.
I also suggest you check out the articles at ArsTechnica, Washington Post, Red Herring, Michael Geist, and Sunbelt Software. You can also discuss this settlement at ArsTechnica.
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| Bored at work |
[30 Jul 2004|02:41pm] |
It is amazing the kind of stuff I find on the internet when I'm waiting on something at work. Right now, it's a recompile of some software I put together to make PDF's. And right now, this sounds like it could be fun, with the right group of friends.
http://www.cuddleparty.com/
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| My Journal Is Moving |
[27 Apr 2004|11:53am] |
One of the limitations I ran into before I started hosting my site on this new server was that the old Sleekcom machines didn’t have PHP or MySQL set up. Now that I’m hosting my sites at CiHost, and have complete control over the machine, I can pretty much do whatever pleases me.
And that’s good, because I had become fed up with my ASP/Access journal system and gone to LiveJournal. LJ has some nice things and was easy to use, but was down more than a $20 hooker.
So now, the entire site is once again under my control. I’m using a journaling program called WordPress, which has some of the features of Movable Type that I like without the lousy software design skills and security holes.
As an added bonus, all of the posts that were previously spread across three different systems including LJ, ASP, and static HTML are now part of this one system so you can easily find them all.
To get to my new entries, drop by http://www.marklyon.org. They're all right there, including the ones you'll find here.
Soon, I'll be implementing an RSS-based friends page, so you'll still be able to see the great posts by my friends who still use LJ.
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| If I had not slowed down, I would be dead now |
[21 Apr 2004|10:39pm] |
I work late. It’s a function of working full time and going to school full time. I leave work around 8pm. Work is 30 miles away, by interstate, from my college dorm room in Clinton.
Tonight, I stopped to get a new audio book from the place I rent them. I then hopped on I-20 and headed Eastbound, back toward home. I set the cruise on 75, and cranked up the new Grisham novel.
About seven miles from Clinton, I came up on a flatbed eighteen-wheeler traveling in the slow lane with me. He, though, was going under 70, and I started catching up to him quickly. I tapped my brake to dump my cruise and waited for the Werner regular box-style eighteen-wheeler in the left lane to complete passing him before moving into the fast lane.
Just as the passing truck got in front, I saw a flash to the right of the truck in front of me. He stood on my brakes, and I headed for the side of the road.
I saw a red vehicle that I later learned was a Mitsubishi Lancer from Florida flipping over and coming to a rest on the side of the road a few hundred feet in front of me. I hopped out of my car and ran for the car, seeing liquid streaming from the trunk of the upturned vehicle. Before I could get there, one occupant had gotten out and another guy, who I later found out was the driver of the passing truck was helping to extract the girl who was driving.
She was bleeding from a bump on her head, and the passenger from something stuck in his leg. I was certain they’d be dead. I quickly got on the phone and called the cops.
As other people came to help, we managed to get both of them sitting down where they were safe, and one of the helpers started trying to find the occupant’s cell phones in the car since they didn’t know their mother’s phone number. The guy and girl in the car said they weren’t related, and both had a phone loose somewhere in the car.
Once the cops showed up, I told him what I thought I had seen, someone following too closely behind the first truck who tried to cut over and managed to clip the flatbed truck with her rear end. But, after looking around and seeing the skid marks, I realize they hadn’t been closely following the passing truck but had been going westbound, on the other side of the two-lane interstate.
The driver had cut in front of someone or over steered while changing lanes, flipped all the way across the median, and then popped in front of the passing truck, which smacked their rear and sent them onto the far side of the road! I never saw the headlights, just the car as it appeared to the right of the truck in front of me.
And the bad thing is, if I hadn’t have decided to wait on the Werner truck to pass, I’d have been the one smacking into the car or running into the back of one of the eighteen-wheelers.
Both of the passengers luckily had their seatbelts on.
People: be smart. Slow down, and buckle up. It could save your life.
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| Almost done with school |
[21 Apr 2004|06:43pm] |
I have now completed the last major thing necessary for me to be done with my classes, except for exams. I appear to be exempt from my Political Science class, since I’ve got an ‘A’ already, but I may have to take the final in my Biology and Calculus classes. I would, of course, quite prefer not needing to take either of these exams but it appears I will be left with little other choice.
The major thing that I needed to do today was my Biology “Plants and People” presentation. It was on Capsicum peppers, that wonderfully delightful family that includes Pimentos, Bell Peppers, and Jalapeños. I was supposed to have two other members in my group, Amy and Candis, but Candis didn’t make it to class. Afterward, I found out that she was incredibly sick.
The final in this class is not going to be terrible, just annoyingly difficult. The professor seems to enjoy multiple choice questions with multiple correct answers, and lots of diagrams. Neither of these two methods really utilizes any skill I’m very good at, since I detest regurgitating information only because it needs to be chunked up for a 30 question exam. I’d much rather take a test which allows me to actually learn something in the process, and apply it to my daily life.
The Calculus class, on the other hand, actually has taught me some things that I didn’t really know before, and which I can actually use. Not well, mind you, or I’d be exempt from the final but well enough that if I’m faced with one of set of real-world problems I won’t say “forget that” and Google for some answer to the problem, but be able to work it out for myself.
I also finally learned and now understand some of the neat algebra stuff I should have learned back in Jr. High. Things like FOIL and square roots. I wish I’d had a better math background coming into college, since that would have helped a lot. But, the A Beka Books we used at my school were more interested in telling us about God than about Math.
A little God is a good thing, but a little more math would have been much better.
I’m a bit worried about that final, since I don’t really have a complete grasp of what will be covered in the test, especially some of the stuff we did last night. But, I’ll keep plugging and chugging through more problems until hopefully it starts to make sense.
I graduate May 8, and before then I must have a place to live. That is not a good thing since I am still waiting on Brooklyn to call and tell me their decision, and I’m therefore afraid to sign a nice long lease and buy furniture. I think that I will try and find a hotel that offers monthly rentals for a reasonable amount of money and live there through the summer, since there is a possibility that Brooklyn could wait until the day before classes start to call and ask if I’d like to come fill a vacant seat.
And, of course, I’m also waning a bit on my desire to go to Brooklyn as each day passes. I’m still not highly motivated to go to MC, but going ahead and choosing them would be simpler. Long term, though, I know Brooklyn would be the best choice and would make me much happier in the short term. I just wish they’d hurry up and call.
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| Syndication |
[17 Apr 2004|12:51pm] |
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I hopefully will be syndicated on lawschooldiscussion.org, a site sharing content from law students all over the country. If you like my law school posts, jump on over and check out the rest of their contributing sites.
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| Chicago-Kent (IIT) sucks at the admissions game |
[16 Apr 2004|02:58pm] |
Well, no sense in worrying over what to say to Chicago-Kent. They put off even looking at my file until every other school had sent me an answer; a splendid plan to make money with little effort.
From my perspective, it seems that Chicago accepted my application, and the associated $50 fee, without any intention of providing me an answer in a timely manner. It is as if they planned on keeping applicants such as myself waiting in order to justify taking the fees, but are not performing any of the work those fees should cover.
I did everything they asked in order to ensure I had a complete file but they have chosen not to evaluate it until incredibly late in the admissions season. By luring people like me, who they have no intention of seriously reviewing, they increase their rankings in US News and World Report (USNWR). To keep up the charade, they sit on our apps until they've filled their classes with more desirable students.
After what must have been an excruciating 23 days of "carefully reviewing my file" (read: properly aging it in our cellar) after mailing me the "we're now reviewing your file" postcard, they write to advise me that my application has been denied.
Not a bad racket they've got going. I put $50 in, they generate $0.58 in postage and use maybe 10 minutes of someone's time. Carlton Sheets and the rest of those "Get Rich Quick" guys should quit buying real estate on credit cards and look into running a law school admissions office.
I'm still, however, waiting for the bold admissions dean who doesn't end their rejection letter with the standard "wishes for future success". Chicago does, however, "commend [my] many accomplishments as well as [my] strong desire to enter law school this fall".
How heartwarming.
I want my $50 back.
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| BOOM! |
[16 Apr 2004|09:11am] |
I had a test this morning, at 8 am. I studied until about midnight, and then got into bed. And was quickly back awake as someone tried with all their effort to get into my room. At 3 am.
They were actually trying to kick my door down. I was wondering if the RIAA might be paying me a visit. But they'd certainly knock first.
So I tried to open the door and find out what was going on. The lock was jammed and wouldn't open.
After about ten minutes of working, I got it to unlock. There was nobody in the hall. But the door across from mine kept opening and closing a bit. So, I left my door open and called security.
The guy from across the hall came out and said "Hey man, you wanna know who did that?" and then pointed as a guy ran out of the room attached to his and went upstairs. The guy talking to me was drunk off his ass.
Security came, and they're sorting out who is responsible. But, in the meantime, I can't lock my room or actually close my door. I can pull it shut, but it's not really closed.
They're supposed to come fix that soon, but knowing our maintenance people, it'll probably wait until the summer.
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| Yes, I abused my "unlimited" rental car mileage |
[11 Apr 2004|12:01am] |
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The Task
As most of you know, this past Thursday I left for Minneapolis, Minnesota to
go see my doctor over at Mayo/Fairview. He's been working on my knee, and
after some x-rays revealed that the screws holding it together had shattered, he
needed to take a look. Since I've got a stack of free Northwest airline
tickets, I ordered up a flight and got time off work. Unfortunately, one
of the limitations of the free ticket is that I can't arrive and leave the same
day. The first flight back with an open seat was on Saturday, so I loaded
up Travelocity and got me a cheap hotel room and a rental car.
Enterprise
allows drivers under 25 to rent with a small fee, and I managed to score a Ford
focus for just $80 from Thu - Sat.
My flight got in early, so instead of having to rush to the doctor's office,
I was able to pick up my car and find some lunch. As I got to the rental
counter, the guys there just told me the terminal had been evacuated due to a
fire. If I'd not gotten in early, I'd have been unable to land and would
have missed my appointment. Talk about good timing. So, I hopped
into my nice new blue Ford, and headed for the Dr.'s office, looking for some
lunch. I found Davanni's, a pizza joint just a block away from the office.
Once I got into the office, I was told the doctor was two hours behind.
They wanted to take some X-Rays of their own, since they weren't happy with the
ones I'd had FedEx'ed up from Mississippi. I got to spent an hour being
irradiated. My testicles now glow.
Afterward, they sent me back out to the lobby to wait on the doctor.
The office was very nice, but very busy. There were about 50 patients
still waiting for the different doctors in the clinic, and it seemed like they
were going to see everyone else before they got to me. I spent time
watching the fish in the tank and flirting with a cute receptionist who refused
to let me take a photograph of her once I told her I'd put it online for you
dirty bastards.
After an hour or so of being examined by the doctor and several interns, they
decided that I'm just too far away for them to effectively care for.
Basically, they brushed me off, and told me to find another doctor. They
claim they'll be in touch next week to help me find someone nearby. When I
left, the office was closed, and nobody had the thingy to validate my parking
with, so I wound up paying $20 to park, which was even more disappointing.
I now had an entire day with nothing to do, and after being rejected by the U of
MN Law School, I had no reason to go there, which had originally been my
plan.
So, I went in search of my hotel. I eventually found it, and discovered
it wasn't a hotel, but a suite. A nice suite at that. At only $32.70
a night, I wasn't going to complain at all. The only problem was that
Travelocity didn't note the presence of a data port in the room. I left my
laptop at home, so I had high speed internet, and nothing to use it with.
I kicked myself for that. But, I didn't want to deal with the "Laptop
Nazi" at the airport.
The Decision
Now, with an entire day and nothing to do, and unlimited miles within the
state of Minnesota, I decided to visit the top four tourist attractions in the
state. The number one, attraction, The Mall of
America, I quickly decided
against, however, due to later events. Besides, it's just a mall. A
big mall with a theme park inside, well yes, but it's just a bunch of
stores. A whole lot of stores. If you're ever up that way, and have
money you'd like to spend, go there. And, try the new roller
coaster. And the club on the top floor.
Minnesota's 2nd Most Popular Tourist Attraction
As soon as I got out of bed (at a leisurely 10 am), I hopped in my ride and
headed south from the city. I was soon outside the sprawl, enjoying
rolling hills filled with fields. It seemed almost like my home in
Mississippi, only that we don't put our farms on hills. We have a nice
flat Delta for that.
Soon, I started to see signs directing me to my first destination. Cabela's, the largest sporting goods store you'll lever see. This place is
massive.
I checked out the two big exhibits, their monument to land animals and their
tribute to underwater life. The land animals have ceased to live, but the
fish were all swimmy. My digital likes things that are still, and with
lots of light. Needless to say it didn't appreciate fast-moving
fish. But, one of their handy salespeople gave me some tips on how to get
the settings on my camera to work a little bit better in the dark. He also
almost convinced me to drop a grand on a Digital
SLR. He didn't have to
try hard, since I'd love a real digital camera, but I knew to run when he
started offering to finance it. That's the last thing I need to do.
I noticed they'd conveniently located the aisles of ammo near the deer side
of the mountainous exhibit.
The fish were great. There was a "tunnel of tanks" and then
some exterior tanks that opened out into the store. The place was packed,
and all the kids were captivated by the fish.
With my manly hunting instincts now rekindled, I went in search of some
food. Luckily, they had a nice steakhouse in the store. I had a nice
venison stew and a huge slab of bass for lunch. Dr. Atkins would love this
place.
Minnesota's 3rd Most Popular Tourist Attraction
Oddly enough, the next most popular attraction is nearly an hour and a half
away from Minneapolis in the city of Austin. Located in this small
community, there is a meat packing plant that helped us win the war.
Today, they're best known for that lovable canned product of miracles, SPAM! The diverse history and mystique of this product has led literally
tens of people to make this drive every single day and see the entire story
behind the Hormel Foods product. From the embezzlement that would make
Enron and WorldCom's problems pale to the impact this product paid in feeding
our troops overseas, the SPAM museum is truly a gem.
The people here truly love their product. Even that architects who
designed the building threw in little subtle tributes to the product and its
sources.
The trip started with a historical adventure. They had reenactments of
all sorts of history, and even the original switchboard from the factory's
offices retooled to let you listen in on simulated conversations about the
historical goings on. I decided to monitor some calls. Now, I finally understand the operator's place in the community back in those
days. They could listen in to anything!
There was then a small play, congratulating the meat product for saving the
company during their hard times. They also then had a monument for the
factory workers who'd gone to fight and given the ultimate sacrifice for our
freedom. They also had examples of their marketing through time.
Of course, I had to find out about the history of that lovable package of
SPAM.
The museum was interactive, and one exhibit that really had people having a
good time was the Hands-on SPAM factory, where you can compete to create the
fastest can of SPAM. These girls tried to beat me. They both did.
But what the girls didn't know is that there was an exhibit of uniforms, both
past and present. I stole a helmet, in hopes that it would help boost my
canning speed. Once again, the girls beat me.
This product is truly worldwide, and truly good. One problem with the
museum, however, is that they don't try and actually get you to have some of the
delicious spiced ham (where SPAM gets it's name, for SPiced HAm). They do
have a gift store, though, with SPAM available for sale and also lots of great
merchandise.
Minnesota's 4th Most Popular Tourist Attraction
I then rushed back to the city to make it to the Ellingson Car
Museum.
There, I got to see lots of vehicles that made me drool.
Lots of the cars were for sale. But several weren't. I think
you'll realize why: they belong to Batman,
Marty
McFly, Seve
Urkle, and George
Jetson!
They even had a cool Amphicar, ready for a trip to the beach!
And, they had the car I wanted to take home, a 1940 Cadillac 7 passenger
formal sedan, at the take-it-home-today price of $32,950.
They also were building a new land racer, attempting to beat the land speed
record. They need sponsors and workers if anyone would like to help out!
Tucked in a corner, they had some old test equipment. They also had one
of the greatest gaming consoles ever made, the Magnavox Odyssey
300.
Terrorists, Alert!
On my way back to the hotel, I drive past two buildings on I-494, that I feel
I must alert the terrorists to. If, for instance, a terrorist was to find
some nuclear material and decide to take out part of middle America, please
place your bomb equidistant between these two buildings. That's
right. Best Buy and PeopleSoft are just a couple of miles apart.
Dinner With An Arsian
I then got a phone call from HydraShok (formerly Counterstrike) who wanted to
know if I'd had dinner. I hadn't so after a bit of driving found his house
and went with him and his brother to have dinner, some BBQ at a pretty nice
place not far from their house. We had a great time talking shop and
trying to get his bother up to speed on exactly what Ars is all about.
Once we got done, we went back to his place for a few minutes and managed to
snap a couple of photos. For those of you not aware of this fact, he and
his brother are quite tall. I'm not a midget, I promise!
The Result
Saturday morning, I made my way back to the airport and dropped off the car.
When I picked it up, the trip odometer read 0. The rental-car guys
demanded to see the photos.
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| Was she trying to tell me to ask her out, or not? |
[07 Apr 2004|12:14am] |
Tonight, I dropped by the lobby while my laundry was washing.
A girl I've been interested in since Freshman year was there, hanging out with some other of my friends. I gave her a hug, and it lasted a bit longer than her hugs have in the past.
I sat to talk, find out what's been going on with her. She's just recently broken up with a friend of mine that I don't see too much. He's always talked about her to me, but always said they were friends. I didn't know they were dating. In fact, I think I once told him that I was interested in her. He didn't mention even then that he was dating her, just told me she was a great girl.
So we chatted a bit, and then she started telling me about a guy she's just met several hours away. She says they're talking online and stuff.
And I'm not entirely sure where that leaves me. If I wasn't going on a trip this weekend (Minneapolis to get my knee examined) I'd have asked her out. But, was she telling me about the new guy to let me know she's not available, or that I needed to act fast to have a chance before he makes his move?
I think I'm going to anyway. She's worth risking a little rejection.
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| I'm forming a nonprofit! |
[31 Mar 2004|04:49pm] |
Well, after lots of kicking ideas around, I've finally taken the plunge and named my new 527 organization "The Conservative Issue Fund" and registered the domain names issuefund.org and issuefund.com. We'll be able to solicit donations in any amount from any source for the purpose of educating the voting public, and getting out the vote.
Friday, I'll be the first contributor and give the fund enough cash to open a checking account and get all the legal paperwork filed with the Secretary of State and IRS.
It looks like I'll have to do detailed reporting for the Secretary of State, but can perhaps not if I can focus on the "education" aspect and not the "influence" aspect. If I stay away from the magic words, I can also avoid getting involved with the Federal Elections Commission.
I'm kind of excited. I made a temp page today for the site, and got the server-side stuff setup. Now, it's time to start collecting names and sending out contacts in an attempt to build donations.
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| Miserable Failure |
[22 Mar 2004|04:25pm] |
Before my New York trip, I was supposed to have taken a calculus exam, since the test was being given in my night class the evening I arrived in NYC.
I forgot, completely. I've since had spring break for a week.
So, about 8 am today, I walk into the building,and realize "hey, I was supposed to have taken a test two weeks ago." I rushed to see the prof, he told em to take it after I got out of classes this morning.
I sat down, and it didn't make any sense. I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do with the problems on the front page, so I did the back, then did the front. I'm certain I got about 1/2 right on the front.
But then I looked at the back before I turned it in, and something didn't work with those business problems. It was a bunch of cots, and prices, and such. Not hard stuff, but the numbers were wrong somewhere. I must have not needed to have taken the derivative of that and instead just put it all over x, because that will give me the average.
Which was exactly the wrong thing to do, because I needed the marginal, but it gave me nice numbers that made more sense.
So I'm fucked. Great. The one class I really *have* to pass to graduate I fuck up in. Wonderful. And to think, there is only one more test in that class.
The big problem is that I completely suck at Calculus. It doesn't make sense to me, and I make too many stupid mistakes that fuck me over because I never really learned any math to begin with. Simple things like factoring are enough to trip me up and leave me a mumbling heap wanting nothing more than to burn down the school.
It was ok when I was just doing bad and was going to get a C or something, but I totally bombed that test, and now I'm going to be doing good to even pass.
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| My Trip to New York |
[15 Mar 2004|02:59pm] |
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As most of you know, I recently returned from New
York City. I went because I'd been deferred
by Brooklyn Law School,
and really needed to make up my mind about the school. If offered a seat,
even if it was in the night section, would I take it? Since the school was
willing to give me only 48
hours after extending an offer, I decided to time to visit was now.
 I
used one of my free Northwest tickets, and got
a cheap room at the Hostelling International
- New York. The hostel was in Manhattan, on Amsterdam, one block away
from the 103rd and
Broadway subway stop.
I, of course, didn't know this precise tidbit,
so I got off the M60
bus from LaGuardia and
walked way too many blocks from Columbia
to the Hostel. Once I finally arrived, I was quite tired, but happy to be
in a new place. The hostel was clean and was a good place to say. I
shared a room with three other visitors to the city, A guy from Germany,
his internet girlfriend from the
Midwest, and an Irish chick. We also had several other roommates that
stayed for only one day.
The German guy, his girlfriend, a random Asian chick from the Hostel's
library, and I all went out to see Times Square my second night there. I
took lots of photos.
My new friends got tired of walking, and we weren't yet ready for dinner, so
we went to go see a movie in the largest
movie theater I've ever seen. It was directly under the MTV
building.
After the movie, we went and had dinner at the Bubba
Gump Shrimp Co., a theme restaurant focused on the movie Forest
Gump.I had stuffed shrimp, it was very good.
I had fun zipping about the city on the subway. It was lots of fun to
not have to drive. One problem with the arrangement, though, is that I am
leery of putting my ability to get where I need to go in someone
else's hands. What if they decide not to go to work? What if
there's no
electricity? Could my liver survive if I know I don't have to drive
home?
One neat thing about the subway are the random
performances you get to check into. I think this type of thing would
become my Sunday afternoon
entertainment, either riding around listening to them or taking my tuba to a
station and playing for the passers-by.
I also liked looking for interesting
things in the subway stations. Things like antennas and good cable
management.
One place I went alone was to the WTC
site. I almost lost a friend there, but he managed to get out.
Everyone else he was in a meeting with died. I have lots
of photos, but I'll post a few of the ones that really stuck out.
For those of you who are interested, you can check out my entire
photo album of the trip.
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| Yet another rejection |
[15 Mar 2004|11:29am] |
I'm starting to become discouraged about my chances of getting into a decent law school. So far, I've been admitted to one, deferred by another, and rejected by 3. I can't check my mail for another week, thanks to this lousy "spring break" holiday wherein the administration found it somehow necessary to kick all the students off campus and to tell the post office workers that nobody needed their mail for a week.
 But now, I'm at the 50% mark, and I've made it into exactly one school. After carefully examining the remaining schools, I don't think my chances of admission are that great. MC is the absolute bottom of the law school totem pole, and the rest are at least a bit higher than Brooklyn. If Brooklyn's best answer was "we're going to hold off for a while" then I'm pretty sure Chicago and the other higher schools will have something similar to say to me, if that.
The rejection I just got from Minnesota, though, is quite disappointing. I am going to be visiting next month to get my knee looked t, and hoped to drop by the law school. Now, there's no need for that.
I applied for several international openings within my company today. If the best I can pull off is MC, then I am going to take a long hard look at my future. I really don't want to spend another three years dealing with all of the same issues I've dealt with over the past four, and nobody has been able to definitively say that I won't.
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| Rejection #2 and New York Indecisiveness |
[01 Mar 2004|01:26pm] |
Well, in today's update I have heard from 4 of my 11 schools. I'm quickly approaching the 50% mark, and based on the information I've gathered from others, I should hear from all of them by the end of the week. As a whole, today's news was disappointing. I was rejected by George Washington, and not accepted, but not rejected, but not wait-listed at Brooklyn. I find the last bit of news quite unsatisfactory.
 Many of the schools to which I've applied are really "reach schools" for me. If even one of them says yes, then I'll consider that a tremendous win. I'd even be thrilled to be wait-listed and later dropped from the. One such institution is George Washington.
Their rejection letter, authored by JoSie Shelby-Wilson, the Director of Admissions, was of very poor quality. When presented with the need to tell over 11,510 applicants that she will not be seeing them next year, she chose to say the admissions director equivalent of "It's not you, it's me." Her weakly worded letter of rejection smacks of insincerity and makes me feel as if my records weren't even examined. For the $70 fee I submitted to them, I expected a little more.
 Brooklyn, on the other hand, made the decision to go out of their way to let me know that they've made no decision of any kind on my file (other than, I guess, the decision to defer me), but to let me know that I'm now, if still in consideration, only going to have a decent shot at their night section. This tactic is quite disturbing, because I actually thought Brooklyn was the school I would wind up at, and the school I was most excited about attending.
With the possible deferment of a decision by them for several months, I fear I may not be able to choose them even if they do eventually admit me. The pressures surrounding my current job, and the other schools which will almost certainly require me to accept or reject their offers by 1 April may lead me to abandon my hopes of going to school in New York.
So, today I'm saddened. I'm beginning to worry that the only school I'll be admitted to is Mississippi College School of Law. It's a decent school, but I really would prefer to be elsewhere.
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| Acceptance #1 |
[27 Feb 2004|12:03pm] |
In my second decision by a law school, I have been accepted to the Mississippi College School of Law.
 This is the same college I attend now, and is actually where I've taken many of my paralegal classes. MC is very much my safety school, and it appears I chose my safety school wisely, since I got in during the first round of decisions. Many of the other people I know who applied here haven't heard back yet.
The only problem is that I am not exactly certain if MC is the place I want to go. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's not. I really need to get away from here for a while, find somewhere that I can focus on school and myself. I also don't know about sending more money back to my college. They've mistreated me thus far, and I don't want to support them further.
I've got until 1 April to make my decision on them. At that point, I must put in my seat deposit.
So, hopefully I'll hear from the other schools before then.
Two down, nine to go (I applied to Ole Miss last week after an admissions lady there called and asked why I'd not sent my stuff).
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| Rejection #1 |
[23 Feb 2004|07:59pm] |
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I just received my first decision from a law school. I was rejected from Boston College Law School.  Dear Mr. Lyon:
I am sorry to inform you that the Committee on Admissions has denied your application for admission to the Fall 2004 entering class at Boston College Law School. The committee, composed of faculty, students, and administrators, reviews thoroughly all aspects of a candidate's file. These include objective factors such as your academic records and LSAT score(s) as well as other measures for potential success such as your reference letters and writing samples. Also, we are constrained by the limited number of seats in the first year class for which we expect to receive over 8,000 applications. Ultimately, we realize that many people denied admission to Boston College Law School will go on to lead successful professional lives. I wish you the best in your pursuit of a legal education and regret our decision could not have been a favorable one for you. Sincerely,
Elizabeth A. Rosselot
Assistant Dean for Admissions and Financial Aid I have nine schools remaining. So far, I've not heard from any of the others. BC is one of the top schools from my list, one of my "reach" schools, and it's now obvious that I reached a bit too far. I'm disappointed but not discouraged.
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| Democrats? |
[18 Feb 2004|08:24pm] |
I just got a call from the President of the Mississippi Democratic Party inviting me to the party caucus at my local polling place at 10 am this Saturday.
"Only you can decide the direction our party will go", he said.
As a Republican, I'm glad to know I have such an influence. Perhaps I'll go and check this out. Maybe I could win Mississipi for Dean. He's not backed out completely.
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