The Rogers News

Category: Our Experiences

Tales of my life as told by me.

  • Preparing for My iPhone

    I ordered an iPhone and it should arrive on Friday. I’ve been working feverishly (relatively speaking – it is holiday break) to prepare my sync-able data for the iPhone.

    I beefed up my Address Book, which included downloading v-cards from LinkedIn and categorizing people in groups – high school, college, law school, Ruckus, K12, and family.

    I also exported my bookmarks from FireFox, my preferred browser, trimmed them down to the most used, and imported them into Safari.

    It’s not clear how the iPhone mail.app works, so I haven’t done much with my email.

    What excites me most about the iPhone is the compactness of it. Not only is the device itself slim, but it will eliminate the need for me to carry a cell phone, camera, iPod, and laptop.

    I’m very excited, and again, as with the Wii, horribly delinquent with my technology purchase.

  • Wii for Me

    I got a Wii for Christmas. It has reignited my long-lost passion for video games. The only reason for this is the high level of interactivity. It is impossible to not be immersed in the game you’re playing. Even bowling is incredible.

    Yes, these comments are stale – the Wii came out over one year ago. But, this is my first chance to play and, well, I’m a believer.

    I own the following games:

    • Super Mario Galaxy – Fun and frustrating.
    • Tiger Woods 2008 – My current favorite, although even on the hardest setting it’s still pretty easy for me.
    • Wii Sports and Wii Play – Bowling and Tennis are a couple family favorites. A little different than sitting around a table playing cards. Nice to break a sweat.

  • My Year In Cities: 2007

    Here is a list of the cities in which I spent one or more nights in 2007. I visited the cities marked with asterisks more than once on non-consecutive occasions.

    United States

    * Chicago, IL*
    * Edmond, OK
    * Herndon, VA
    * Hilton Head Island, SC
    * Ishpeming, MI*
    * Lansing, MI
    * Newark, NJ
    * New York, NY
    * Niagara Falls, NY
    * Park City, UT
    * Portland, ME
    * Raleigh, SC
    * Richmond, VA
    * Traverse City, MI*

    International

    * Beijing, China*
    * Shanghai, China
    * Toronto, Ontario
    * Xi’an, China

  • 1st Post From iPod Touch

    Merry Christmas!!!

    We’re done opening gifts AND eating breakfast already. A few of my favorites include:

    iPod Touch – unexpected
    Diana camera – old skool
    Cleveland sandwedge – I’m a golf nut

  • Law School Is Half Over

    The end of my Evidence final came at 11:28am today. I am now chronologically halfway done with law school. (I think I’m a bit ahead credits-wise.) So, time to review my life.

    Making the decision to go to law school was one of the hardest choices of my life. It didn’t seem like it at the time, but when I look at the time-line of my application process, it spans years and takes a few pit stops.

    I took two years off after graduating from the University of Michigan in 2004. During those years I worked for two start-ups. The first, Ruckus, was a blast and forever changed my expectations for what I want out of a job – both good and bad. I was able to be creative and had very few limitations, but the down side of that was semi-chaos that left me anxious and beat at the end of the day. The second was K12, a start-up that was further along. It was more “corporate,” but still had a newness to it.

    It wasn’t a complete coincidence that both Ruckus and K12 were education related. Ruckus provided digital entertainment to college kids (a slogan I’ll never forget) and K12 is a virtual curriculum. The people that helped me into those companies felt strongly about the importance of education and expanding education.

    I can’t say with certainty what 1.5 years of law school has given me. There have been plenty of highs and lows. I’ve been to China to study, something I never took the time to do in undergrad. The coursework is becoming more interesting and application of it comes with more ease.

    What I still lack is the notion of how to bring together prior experience, my undergrad studies and what I’m learning in law school. And then, once it’s together is some loose metaphysical ball secured with mental twine and spare post-it notes, how to apply it.

    I look forward to figuring that out. Meanwhile, I have a month-long break before I start in on Law School: Part Deux.

  • Movies I Saw in 2007

    My top seven movies of 2007:

    1. 30 Days of Night
    2. No Country for Old Men
    3. Superbad
    4. Juno
    5. Grindhouse
    6. The Darjeeling Limited
    7. Stardust

    Update: Let me explain my selections. I don’t really like horror movies. I was surprised by “30 Days of Night.” It scared me and thoroughly entertained me. As far as walking out of the theater having been entertained, that movie left me satisfied. I would not watch it again, however.

    “No Country for Old Men” was very well done. I loved the use of silence throughout the movie. It made me feel ashamed to be digging through my Skittles at times. (Yeah, I was that guy.)

    “Superbad” and “Juno,” both featuring Michael Cera among many other amazing actors, are two movies I would like to own. I could re-watch both of them today, next week, or in a year and know I would still like them.

    “Grindhouse” and “The Darjeeling Limited” are stylistically significant movies that came out of 2007. Neither was broad enough to come close to being my favorite movie of the year, but each was well done and deserved the anticipation they received.

    “Stardust” was interesting and fun, and thus, is on my list.

    Chronological list of movies I watched in 2007:

    1. Smokin’ Aces
    2. Music and Lyrics
    3. The Number 23
    4. Reno 911!: Miami
    5. Grindhouse
    6. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters
    7. Distrubia
    8. Fracture
    9. Waitress
    10. Spider-Man 3
    11. Knocked Up
    12. Evan Almighty
    13. Live Free or Die Hard
    14. Ratatouille
    15. License to Wed
    16. Transformers
    17. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
    18. Stardust
    19. Superbad
    20. Halloween
    21. Into the Wild
    22. The Darjeeling Limited
    23. Lars and the Real Girl
    24. 30 Days of Night
    25. Dan in Real Life
    26. No Country for Old Men
    27. The Mist
    28. Juno

    I also rented 57 movies on Netflix.

  • Copyright Final Exam

    I’m about to take my Copyright Final. It’s a three-hour essay examination. I’m stoked. OK, not really. But, for the first time in my law school experience, we’re allowed to write an in-class exam on our laptops.

    It will be interesting to see how this goes. We can only use Microsoft Word and we can’t use any of the drop-down menus, spellcheck, etc. I think we can use bold, italics, and underline.

    We had the option to choose to write in a bluebook. Several people chose this, but I’m not sure why. Either (1) they don’t have a laptop or (2) they’re weary of a new and different testing experience.

    I say, “bring it on.”

    Bring it on!