Every bike I’ve ever had in my life prior to 2009 has been stolen. From my own backyard, time after time, locked or unlocked. People LOVE to steal bikes. Sometimes it’s because they don’t like you but most of the time bike thieves don’t know or care who they’re stealing from. They need parts or a quick way to get downtown for free. If your bike is nearby and relatively easy to steal, it’s getting swiped. That’s why I think the Brits over in Cambridge (borrowing an idea from Canada) …

My momma keeps asking me for money and I’m pissed. For the past several months, my mother has called me up and asked me to send her some money for various things ranging from minutes for her pre-paid cell phone to cash for cigarettes. It’s gotten to the point where I see her name pop up on my phone and I sigh loudly, my shoulders slump, and I get upset. “What you want now?” That’s my standard greeting for my mother these days. This is stress that I really don’t …

The internet is abuzz on this first anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death, much like it was a year ago when he died. We can all recall how the chatter online nearly shut down the internet as people hurried to find out exactly what happened, whether it was true or not, and then came together to comfort one another, remembering their friend.
I say friend but Michael is easily considered like family to many. You would think MJ tucked them in at night, helped them celebrate their highest of highs and was …

I realized today that people just don’t care about fire alarms anymore. I was at my bar review course just a minute before we were scheduled to start a riveting lecture on Real Property when a strange honking sound and flashing lights went off. It was a fire alarm and not having heard it before in that particular building, everyone kind of stood still with a puzzled look on our faces until it sunk in. OH! FIRE! No wait, it was more like oh… fire? Meh. It was only one …

I’m going to be bitching in this post. You’ve been forewarned.
34 days (839 hours or 5,0367 minutes) until the July Bar Exam. This is the worst.
It’s not like it cannot be done. Obviously it can be done or else there wouldn’t be a grillion lawyers walking around out there. It’s not even about whether I am personally capable of doing it because I am. Besides, the bar isn’t about how smart you are or how good of a lawyer you’ll be, it’s about how much you can memorize. Therein lies the …

So where are we now? There are 46 days (that’s 11o4 hours or 66269 minutes) and a number of seconds until I sit for the NYS Bar Exam. Three weeks into Barbri, several subjects down (Torts, Agency/Partnership, NY Practice, Constitutional Law) and currently reviewing Contracts/Sales. It hasn’t gotten any easier and I expected that to be the case regarding the material. The closer to exam day we get, the more material we’re going to have to hold in our heads at once. Working on the essays and the NY portion …

I’ve always been a supporter of the NAACP, sort of. I’ve never been a paid member of the organization, nor have I ever joined a campus or local chapter. I haven’t participated in NAACP functions or actions. I mean, I’m a pretty functioning Negro doing my part every day to advance colored people so I think I’ve done something. I’m a supporter in theory because I’ve always believed in the mission of the NAACP and I have great respect for the organization’s historical impact. I’ve even come to the defense of …

It’s an 80+ degree day in New York City. Today I am wearing a dress. The dress is blue and white, reminiscent of that nautical theme that’s been popular lately; it’s got a bubble hem, is sleeveless, and has a cowl-neck. The dress is not tight but not voluminous either and the hem reaches about 3 inches above my knee (I literally just measured it). On most other people in my office, this dress would be simply “cute.” On myself, however, I wonder whether it’s pushing the boundaries of office …

I have a lot of questions for this world: I want to know why we are here on Earth. How many stars are in the sky? Is Blanket really Michael’s child? How do you stop the largest environmental disaster in US history? What I do not need to know is whether Black and Hispanic people can swim and why? Alas, researchers from the University of Memphis, commissioned by USA Swimming, have “discovered” that “nearly 70% of African American children and 58% of Hispanic children have low or no swim ability, …

There are 59 days, 11 hours, 40 minutes and 23 seconds until I sit for the New York State Bar Examination.

Until then, I will spend every day studying. This is normally a difficult and stressful time for anyone preparing for the bar but I feel like I’m running the race with gorilla on my back. Whereas it’s suggested that those studying for the bar spend 5-8 hours each day (not including the 4hours of lecture 5 days/week) practicing test questions, revising notes and soaking in the material, I am at …

They almost got me.
The day after Rima Fakih took the Miss USA crown, posts went up and news features condemning Fakih for being a stripper. I must admit, I was upset. Fakih’s win was pretty awesome – a Lebanese, immigrant woman from Michigan who supports insurance coverage of contraception and likes pizza. I didn’t want her to mess it up with some shitty stripper pics. The media got me. With headlines like, “Rima Fakih, Miss USA, Caught In Pole Dancing Scandal,” and “Miss USA’s Pole Dancing Past Revealed,” had me …

If you’ve been paying any attention to the news surrounding Elena Kagan’s possible confirmation to the Supreme Court, then you’re probably familiar with the “vapid and hollow charade” quote from “Confirmation Messes, Old and New,” Kagan’s essay for the University of Chicago Law Review commenting on SCOTUS confirmation hearings and questions asked of nominees to the Court. Here’s another quote you don’t see making the media rounds as much:
[F]ocusing the confirmation process on moral character (even in conjunction with legal ability) would prove a terrible error. For one thing, such …