"This is Madness!"

So, I'm drawing ever nearer to having real, actual content to comment on. Which is good, because I feel like every time I wander over here to post of late, I have nothing more to say other than "things are just like they were a few days ago. Getting more stuff. Yay!"

As it is, this is very possibly true, but I figure I ought to come up with something to say: after all most of you who see this are friends and family whom I've convinced can follow my progress by logging on here, and if I don't post you may very well think I might've kicked the bucket before setting foot in class--sort of a preemptive strike. Nevertheless, in my latest haitus I've experienced enough that I can now bring you, oh faithful reader (unless this is your first time, in which I say, "you, oh soon to be faithful reader") my brilliant comments on the obvious.

Concerning the Bar Exam
On most of the blogs that I read concerning (ex-)law students much older and wiser than me, there have been steady streams of posts regarding the Bar Exam. Unfortunately for whatever laziness instincts I may still have left by the time I get to it, if I wasn't convinced before, I now know this: You absolutely have to take a prep course (BarBri) to prepare for the exam. Not doing so hovers between stupidity and suicide, with a heavy bias towards the latter.

Over the past few weeks/months, I've watched these poor, funny, lively students devolve into ravenous, insane were-students, who do nothing other than study, and when time allows, lash out at those around them due to the stress of studying. Luckily, some have been kind enough to develop and send on warnings to those who cannot possibly comprehend the gravity of the test that they are about to take.

I have to say, I find it hard not to believe them. As the truisms go, going to law school teaches you "how to think" not "how to lawyer." Unfortunately, the Bar (what little I actually know about it) seems to be squarely focused on the latter, which means when it comes time to sit down to take the test which will determine if you've just spent approx. $200,000+interest of your future earnings and 3 years of your past life for absolutely nothing. Unfortunately, professional school pricing is based on your expected income post graduation with a license. And $250,000ish isn't exactly the kind of money you can earn with a lemonade stand. If it were, then I'd be going to Wharton's executive education program for lemonade stand CEOs and learning how I can squeeze every last dime of profit out of the lemons.

I've always done well at standardized tests. Indeed, I've actually come to think of them as fun amusements. Sure I may not want to have to be up early on a Saturday to take the SAT for 6 hours, but if I had to, at least I might as well enjoy the parts that weren't too bad. The same went for the LSAT, which was a test made in heaven for me, as it required absolutely zero knowledge of any subject, just the ability to logic your way to an answer and read passages hand picked to be racially sensitive and politically neutral and fill in little dots.

Up until this point, I've never taken an actual class for any kind of standardized tests, but I think my luck has run out, concerning the Bar. Even though some of you might say my ego is uncontrollable, unstoppable, and incredibly charming, even I can't see myself going through, what, 3 days of testing without having spent a long, long time making sure I knew what was going to be asked. Even though I didn't do any more preparation for the SAT than just show up (and take the PSAT when offered at school), I bowed to reason and bought a book of logic games to practice on and about one year's tuition worth of practice tests from LSAC. Looks like I have to give in to the Man, and pay for an expensive prep class after all. Unless some nice employer will do it for me.

On OGI (On Grounds Interviewing)
On TLS, there has been talk about the mysterious methods of UVA's OGI. On some level, I have to say that it's a bit weird to hear people using new acronyms for OCR (On Campus Recruiting), which has been branded so deeply into the heart of all Whartonites. OCR was that magical time of year when juniors (for internships) and seniors (for full time jobs) went everywhere around Huntsman Hall in suits, simultaneously trying to walk about like they owned the place (which is, of course, a lie--Jon M Huntsman owns the place, and our collective souls), and trying to hold themselves together after getting slammed with interview prep and ridiculously time consuming group projects. Nearly everyone did OCR, but with the change in the winds of the economy, people found themselves suffering and facing circumstances which they certainly didn't anticipate when they were reading the "$80,000 median starting salary for graduating seniors, plus bonuses" in the brochure.

Now, it's OGI. Different initials, but same end goal: Be one of those mythical people who actually sets the median where the brochure says it is. After reading that helpful current student's post, OGI looks to be more of a strange, job related, strategy game. There's all the bidding and accepting and such. It looks incredibly fun and mind boggling at the same time. After all, who you bid on is almost certainly an major determinant of who you can get a job with: a firm you don't bid on won't give you an interview. After seeing all of that, I can see why law students wind up being a little crazy.

On A Different Subject All Together
INCEPTION WAS AMAZING. YOU SHOULD ALL SEE IT NOW.

More to come soon.