Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson is a superstar - a superstar professor and litigator. He's my Crim law prof. Jackson's pushing for prison condition reforms in Canada, and has successfully represented many "dangerous" prisoners: the "balcony rapist" from Toronto, for example, who served 20 years in prison. Interestingly for us, these people - who were just released from prison - are coming to speak to our class in the next couple of weeks. We'll have their cases read before class, to know what to ask them.

Michael Jackson's publications can be found on his website: http://www.justicebehindthewalls.net/

Orientation, classes, and free law firm paraphernalia

First day was quite overwhelming, both in the sheer amount of information poured on us and in the mound of physical objects we're supposed to take home. Information came in the form of speeches, mini-lectures, and advice from upper-year students, and of course, the 20 lb. box of case papers for our courses. The physical objects I mentioned were useful and thoughtful gifts from various law firms - though somewhat redundant (we got about four water bottles or mugs) - but I guess they couldn't really coordinate their donations.

New school, new laptop

Concluding that my 15.4" notebook is too unwieldy to lug around to every class, I ordered a Vostro 1400 from Dell Small Business this Monday. I was afraid the notebook wouldn't be delivered on time, as Inspirons from Dell Home usually take 2-3 weeks from PO to delivery, but DSB surprised me with a swift 1-week turnaround. I'm loving the deal: pretty cheap, 2 pounds lighter than my 15.4-incher, and a high-res screen. Here's the specs:

Vostro 1400
14.1" WXGA+ 1440x900 LCD (glossy)
Intel Celeron M 540 @1.86GHz (single core Merom)
1.5GB DDR2 SDRAM @667 MHz
80GB 5400 rpm HDD
Intel GMA X3100 integrated graphics
Intel 4965 wireless a/g/n
24x CD Burner/DVD combo drive
56 WHr 6-cell battery

After a few calls, including some very polite negotiation with a CSR, I got the above for $699. I'm pretty satisfied.

Heading to 1L soon

I'm headed to UBC law school in September. But I have yet to choose between several career paths. One takes me into public service, where I hope I eventually end up being a judge or justice of the peace. Another route leads to BigLaw(tm), where the money is. Trouble is I'd have to sell my life (and soul) to the law firm, at least until I make partner. The third path is public interest law. I don't have a strong conviction for any cause right now though, and the pay isn't great, so mostly likely I won't be doing public interest.

But who knows? Every law student I've talked to has said law school changes people, and that it's the most significant experience in their lives. So I'll stand at a crossroads right now, and let my law school experience guide me down the right path. The only thing I'm sure of now is that I want to go on exchange to Japan.

Arena 1v2! and more PvP screenshots

I'm Fultram, true story. (and other screenshots)

Skinner, the elegant UI mod.

Gruul down!

It's been a while...

Since I last posted five months ago, I've passionately played my priest Averre on Exodar and ventured into Serpentshrine Cavern, Magtheridon's Lair, Karazhan and Gruul's Lair. My, shadow priests really melt faces!

This is from my guild's latest Prince Malchezaar kill!















Next one is the last AV I did.

The Next Generation, or The Saga Continues...

The adventures of Aeacos, Averre, Illucinara, Fultram and Kobal began in Exodar yesterday. Join them!

The Crusade that is Burning

I've decided to be a paladin for the expansion, specifically, a DPS-oriented one. Here are the builds I'm favouring -- and I'm all open for suggestions. Tentatively, this will be my spec:

Ret/Prot

The Mandelbrot set

I'm doing a project on this flamboyant set for PMATH 370. It's interesting and yields eye candy when the numbers are crunched. I'll put up a link to my project website once it's done! Update: here it is!

So it's 11:10 pm now. Alan comes in and says "I will take a shower sir." I counter with "see you tomorrow!"

Behold: the thing that reads a lot!

Lately, I've been watching Gilmore Girls to get re-acquainted with my feminine side. I've discovered that I can relate to the show on many levels. Its protagonist Rory reminds me of myself before I got my first computer. Like her, I was "the thing that reads a lot," consuming both fiction and non-fiction, novels and magazines, scientific journals and poetry. Actually, not much poetry, but hey, the point is I read a lot. Nowadays I don't read much save course material (shamefully not much of that either) and the news every week or so.

I have to start reading more, especially since I'm set for law school. So starting Christmas break I'm going to read lots. Rory's collection will be a good place to start.

Choices

Choice is a great thing to have. The liberty to make decisions is often taken for granted in our society. Yet choice can also be as a burden, a pressure on one's shoulders. When I'm presented with difficult choices, like most people I tend to weigh the pros and cons of each choice:

So the game today is Pick Your Ideal Law School, and on the table I have two great universities from Canada and the HYSCCN clique from the south. I haven't been accepted to many places yet so I'm being a little preemptive. Oh well.

Toronto
Pro: reputation, Bay St. placements, faculty
Con: weather, "competitiveness"

UBC
Pro: location, curriculum, and there's a rez with tatami flooring
Con: it's far away, biglaw placement

Harvard
Pro: reputation, students, faculty, NY placements
Con: lots of US history (this goes for all US schools though), cost (this too)

Yale
Pro: reputation, reputation, faculty, students
Con: low chance of getting in, cost

Stanford
Pro: campus, students
Con: cost

Columbia
Pro: NY placements
Con: cost

Chicago
Pro: don't know much about Chicago actually
Con:

NYU
Pro: New York
Con: New York

This goes to show I have much research to do before I can start deciding.

End of term draft

During a break from studying I drafted Time Spiral online with Alan. Unfortunately we both lost, but when I tested my new G/W token deck against five of Alan's draft decks, it performed 2-0, 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, and 2-0. So it's surprisingly good -- and it recovers from bad hands gracefully. Its main weakness is evasion creatures, but it features cards like Aether Web in the sideboard to recover.

Oh and this is the first time I've used my sideboard to great effect! So here's the decklist.

17 Lands
11 Forest
6 Plains

15 Creatures
1 Durkwood Baloth
1 Greenseeker
2 Herd Gnarr
1 Savage Thallid
1 Spike Feeder
1 Sporesower Thallid
1 Thallid Germinator
2 Thallid Shell-Dweller
1 Amrou Seekers
1 Castle Raptors
2 Icatian Crier
1 Outrider en-Kor

8 Other spells
1 Mwonvuli Acid-Moss
1 Tromp the Domains
1 Strength in Numbers
1 Thrill of the Hunt
1 Fortify
1 Griffin Guide
1 Pentarch Ward
1 Temporal Isolation

Cards of note in my sideboard are Chronosavant, Pull from Eternity, Primal Forcemage, Phantom Wurm, Havenwood Wurm and Aether Web.

The deck's main strength is its synergy: Outrider/Shell-Dweller, tokens/Fortify, tokens/Tromp, tokens/Strength in Numbers, Icatian Crier/Herd Gnarr, Thallids/Herd Gnarr, tokens/Primal Forcemage, and so on are game-winning combos. Herd Gnarr became 14/14 flying trample once, and Tromp and Fortify have each made a life total drop below -18.

Yet Alan's decks weren't pushovers -- not even close. If he has time he may post his decklists for all to see: some contain a questionable number of bombs...

It's that time of the term again

Finals. I usually love finals: it's free time if one has been somewhat diligent throughout the term. Except I haven't. So this is going to be an arduous battle.

Darn law school applications.

Alan's Birthday Draft Decklist

Drafting hasn't been fun for me since Coldsnap was released. But today's draft was very fulfilling -- I drafted a "suspendful", interactive deck; it's fun to play. I should test it against my old decks...

16 Lands
9 Island
7 Mountain

14 Creatures
1 Giant Oyster
1 Stormcloud Djinn
2 Coral Trickster
1 Slipstream Serpent
2 Spiketail Drakeling
1 Brine Elemental
1 Viscerid Deepwalker
1 Errant Ephemeron
1 Crookclaw Transmuter
1 Greater Gargadon
1 Keldon Halberdier
1 Firemaw Kavu

10 Other spells
1 Fire Whip
1 Sudden Shock
1 Ignite Memories
1 Word of Seizing
2 Orcish Cannonade
1 Grapeshot
1 Clockspinning
1 Snapback
1 Foriysian Totem

Back to Blogging

Now that I'm done with applications and most of my midterms, it's time to return to blogging and visiting blogs regularly!

I've spent the past few weeks working on admissions essays for each law school. It's been a long, demotivating process at times, but ultimately it was a rewarding journey of self-discovery. Surprisingly, my midterms have been pretty stellar throughout this period. Maybe I can grab a 95% average this term? O.o

Tentative priest build

14/0/47

Month of applications

October is the month for applications to Ontario law schools. I'm thinking of applying to U of T, and maybe UBC and some U.S. law schools. Hmm, I need to think of some stuff to put on my essays and I hope my LSAT score turns out good.

For now, it's time to catch up on a lot of school work!...

Unofficial Transcript

Let's see what I've done over the last four years. It's been mostly school and Japan.

I came to Waterloo in Fall 2002 majoring in PC & video games with a minor in dining out.

Snes 106: Introduction to Final Fantasy 6, Mario RPG and Zelda
Plaza 120: Plaza restaurants
WC3 101: Introductory Warcraft III
WC3 100: Warcraft III: Single player, Multiplayer, and Mods (double credit)

I'm cutting out a few terms because I'm lazy.

In 2B I changed my major to World of Warcraft and took a couple electives.

Wow 102: Introduction to World of Warcraft
Wow 134: Class selection (to which the answer is "Paladin")
Wow 138: Why Stormrage is Down: Semi-Real Analysis
Drift 135: Introduction to Driving sideways
Draft 136: Drafting in Racing games and Magic: the Gathering

I took another school term right after to get interviews for Epson.

Winter 2005

Dungeon 235: Introduction to Instances
Econ 239: Gold farming and Inflation
Raid 330: An Overview of Raiding
Group 336: Introductory Group Theory
Drift 486: Advanced sideways driving in PGR2
Pld 389: The Third Life

Then I went to Japan for a year.

Spring 2006
Pld 399: Being Immune
Guild 340: Militis Justica
Raid 454: Molten Core, Zul'Gurub and Ahn'Qiraj
Draft 380: Online drafting
Magic 338: Magic's rules and interesting cards
Socio 250: Badminton, Bubble Tea and Card games