Portrait of the Artist as a Young Geek

I've been very busy dealing with two developments, which explains why I haven't been posting much lately.

The first is law school applications. You may remember I was looking into this a couple years ago, but law school's obviously not something you commit to on a whim... and okay, I was basically stalling on the decision. But this year, I'm definitely applying. That means collecting all the information I need, writing a good personal statement, getting recommendations, and finding money for the application fees. Preferably by the end of October, so I get in on early enrollment for all schools concerned.

The second and more complicated task is finding a new place to live by October 1st. I've basically outgrown my current room (it was pretty crowded when I first moved in and is only getting worse); that plus the sudden introduction of two dogs as of a month or so ago, and the relocation of our department 15 miles south to Irvine (my primary reason for choosing this location was its proximity to the office), has led me to decide it's time to move on. The trick is finding something that is both large enough and within my price range... given Irvine housing prices, I'll may need some divine help for this one. There are a couple options that seem promising, though (if somewhat more than I wanted to spend) and a third that I'll be checking on Monday. Fingers crossed.

Just got a call from Pam (my ex-boss the lawyer), who got the news regarding my conquest of the LSAT... and who now wants me to apply to all the law schools; hurry hurry hurry!

I told her the deadlines for most of the applications were in two months or less; that includes transcripts, letters of recommendation (which NEVER come when you want them), essays (which I'll want to make several drafts for), etc etc. Some law schools are already sending out their initial wave of acceptance letters. Everything in the training book (which got me this far) suggests that if I haven't started the application process by September, best to wait until the next year. And I haven't even decided where I want to apply yet; Stanford's definitely going to be on my list, and with my score I think I've got a good shot at it, but beyond that I'm clueless.

She says, yeah, that's why you need to hurry.

...no, seriously. Pam, I appreciate that you're trying to encourage me, and I'm thankful that you pointed me in this direction in the first place, but right now I'm employed full-time, which means a) no rush needed, b) don't really have the time TO rush (not if I want to keep my sanity, anyway), and c) the longer I wait, the more of a college nest-egg I'll have built. I'll start compiling a list of schools to apply to, but I'd rather do this right than do this fast.

Remember when I said I'd be happy if I completed three out of four puzzles in the logic games section? Well, I'm happy.

Not as happy as I could have been; I took too long on the reading comprehension and wound up not answering the last three questions, which I never did on the practice exams. (Well, to be more accurate, I answered, I just didn't read the questions. You don't get penalized for guessing wrong on the LSAT, so anyone looking at my answer sheet will see Bs down the line in a couple places.) Still, completing 18 logic game questions as opposed to my usual 12 more than makes up for it. Unless my wrong answer rate was distinctly worse than usual, I'm in the 90th percentile no problem, and 95th is not a long shot.

We also, thankfully, had a relaxed proctor, who was experienced enough at running these things to handle it without confusion and even break with procedure a little when he knew it would be more efficient without loss of effectiveness. He also wasn't afraid to joke around a bit to relax us.

Only real downer was that we finished at 1:30pm... and I was still there four hours later. I know the cell phone numbers of precisely three people in the area and they're all coworkers, which means they were spending the entire day moving stuff into the new office. (Yes, we've got a new office; more on that later when I'm not exhausted.) So Brian's hooking up the server and Allen's keeping things organized and I don't know what Hacker was doing, but he was busy too, so none of them were free for hours. I should feel lucky, I suppose, that I had a good excuse not to be there (then again, the work might have counted toward my paycheck, so maybe not). I should also feel lucky that Brian was able to get me there in the first place, for which I am grateful, even if I did bribe him with breakfast at Coco's. And I should feel lucky I brought reading material, which kept me occupied for four hours in an empty college building.

Went home, ate, then rewarded myself with Serenity. (That, too, will come when I'm less exhausted.) Tomorrow I also intend to take off. The book says to spend the next couple days relaxing, as I've earned it. The book is wise.

A friend helped me pick up a full time position at a circuit board manufacturer last Friday. It was officially temporary -- only for a few days -- but they're already keeping me through to the end of the week, which seems like a good sign that they might be keeping me even longer. Certainly it was enough to make Pam, who can't afford to match either the hours or the pay rate, panic that she'd lost me as an assistant for good. On the other hand, it's largely trained monkey work: right now I've been mostly just running one of the machines, feeding half-finished boards through, making sure nothing jams, and delivering the results to the next room for further processing. But it's a living...

Except now I got another offer from a college buddy down south who wants to bring me on as a QA guy. This is another temp position, but it'll last considerably longer (at least to the end of the year) and, like the circuit board job, looks like it could develop into something more permanent. Pays a little less, but is more the kind of work I've been interested in, and should they keep me around, I'll likely get a decent raise. And it'll look more impressive on a resume even if it doesn't work out. But it involves packing up and moving 350 miles south on relatively short notice (if only the bare essentials until I'm sure I'll still be there in January).

And either way, Pam is going to be cheezed. ^^;