harrier jet

Remember that pepsi comericial from a long time ago showing all the stuff you can get with pepsi points, and at the end it says "harrier jet- 7,000,000 pepsi points" or somthing like that? You can watch it here. So if you bought say a 2 liter bottle of pepsi you'd get some number of points which were redeemable for merchandise, like a pepsi sweatshirt or hat. There was also an option of mailing pepsi and actually paying 10 cents per point, if you just really wanted the merchandise but didn't want to drink all that soda. Today we read a case where a guy got together money from a couple of venture capitalists and bought the 7,000,000 points for $700,000, thinking he would cash them in for the harrier which would retail for something like $15 million. Not a bad return. It turns out that jets are a little harder to get than that, and the court said that the commercial didn't constitute an enforceable offer, so he didn't get the one. I just want to know what he did with all those extra pepsi points afterward.

swank

Last night I went to a swanky party. I mean, it was a church thing, but it was about as swanky as any church thing has ever been. It was on the roof of a 50 story building in midtown. The building was super nice and luxurious and all, but the cool thing was the view. All the city skyline on one side, then the river and the huge houses on the shore on the other side. It was hard to hold conversations with people because I was so set on staring off into the distance. I'll probably never live in a place like that because I don't think I could justify the cost, so I'm glad I at least got to check it out for a night.

On a related note; church here is different. I've been here for six weeks and I've only seen my bishop once, and certainly never spoken with him. There are a lot of people, and everyone is nice, but the social scene is hard to navigate. One thing is that there aren't that many guys in the ward. The ratio is something like 3 to 1 girls to guys. It's a lot different from home where going to church was just like hanging out for three hours with my guy friends. Here I feel like I'm at a fashion show. Also, I'm definitely one of the younger people there. I guess that's just part of being here though. None of this is to say that church isn't enjoyable here. It's great, and some of the talks have been really powerful. But its a big change from the comfortable solano ward that i'm used to.

legal history

So it turns out that Solano County is a bit famous, or at the part of interstate 80 that runs through it is. Let me explain. In 1978 a guy had a tire blow out on his motorcycle causing him to wreck. He sued the tire company, who then sued the company that sold them the part that caused the blow out. The case made it to the Supreme Court and into my reading for this week as we learned about the rules for specific jurisdiction in my civil procedure class. It's actually a pretty important case. If you want to read about it, and see what sort of stuff takes up most of my time, click here. I was pretty excited to see the reference to home.

so many things

There are a lot of things to write about today.

First, and most important, my older sister had a baby today. He came a couple of weeks early, but he's happily right on weight at 8 lbs and .5 ounces. i'm pretty excited to be even more an uncle than i was before, but it's also sad that i won't get to see the first few years so closely as i did with the first two kids. hopefully he won't hold it against me.

On another happy note, I spent last weekend in Utah and had a really nice time. honestly i wish i could have stayed. The weather was unexpectedly cold and rainy, which was perfect for hot chocolates, but not so good for much else. I did a few important things though, like buying a big winter coat and eating a brownie sunday at leatherby's. Also, i took a few beautiful pictures. It felt so good to smell mountain air and to get around in a car rather than on the subway. The friend who I stayed with got married in the SLC temple two days after I left, and i was glad to get to catch up with him a bit and everything. All in all, i really needed a little vacation for several reasons, and this was exactly what i wanted.

When I got back to New York, I got the news that I have probably the coolest dad around. Through a friend from work he somehow got me a pair of tickets to go see The Who play at Madison square garden on tuesday. I'm not sure exactly how this happened, but these were the best tickets I've ever had to any show. We were right on the floor, maybe 30 yards from the stage. My dad's friend was there that night and was able to sneak me a backstage pass for a bit so I could go check out all the equipment and i even walked around on stage for a bit just before the band went on. The music and the show were awesome, and pete townsend still knows how to rock out pretty hard, even though he's old. The only downside is that two showers later i still smell like smoke, and also that i paid something like $10 for a hotdog and a soda.

School is fun. It's just busy enough to keep me inside and reading for most evenings, but not so busy that I feel like I can't keep up. Really, the schedule they have me on is pretty much ideal as far as structuring my life so that I have time to work out each day, do a bunch of reading, and also spend some time on scriptures each night. i guess when i write it out it sounds really simple and not so exciting, but it's basically exactly how i would structure my time if i ruled the world. except of course that i would also include designated ice cream time.

School

So, I think now I will explain some things about school. This might be really boring, so don't read it if you don't like boring things.

It turns out that the first three weeks that I spent out here were just for fun. It was a pass/not pass orientation type class, where the only goal was to learn how to take your other clases. We read somewhere between five and six hundred pages and we don't have to remember any of it, which is both a relief and a frustration. Now we've just finished out first week of classes where we will get actual grades. I have three classes- contracts, torts, and civil procedure- and one semi-class called a legal practice workshop that is pas/not pass. And no class on fridays. I'm not sure what I'll think in a month or two, but right now it seems like my workload it really light. I only have fifteen pages of reading to do for the whole weekend, which, judging by the course sylabi, looks like it will be about average most nights, or maybe slightly less than average.

So, not only am I getting all the reading done, but I've had time to do other things. This was my biggest workout week since june, and now my feet hurt in a satisfying way. I also went to Boston and jumped in a freezing cold lake (oh and I found out today that the Harvard rejection letter just arrived, finishing off my 11 month application process). I also have plans to watch the Cal football game tomorrow. So, right now at least, law school is pretty awesome. But I may have just jinxed myself on that one. Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'll write more soon.

someone linked to my blog!?

Sweet. While browsing the internet today i found this. It turns out my good friend started a blog and didn't tell me about it, but he did link to me so it's all cool. Anyway, he is getting married, and that is pretty great news. Congrats Klobe-man.