What is this feeling of freedom?

So Amanda and I finished our finals on Wednesday.  And glory be, we remembered what it was like to have freedom again!  Hallelejujah, and all those other wonderful praises!  Oh man.  Law school finals were very rough.  I can honestly say that I have never been that stressed during a test before.  And that was the interesting thing- I was only stressed during the actual test.  While studying and building up to the test I was totally fine.  I told myself I would be ok with whatever grade I got, that it would all be groovy.  And then during the actual test, holy cow I was frantic and stressed and panicked.  So hopefully that doesn't reflect too poorly in my grades.  I told Amanda that I definitely didn't do the best of anyone, but I also definitely didn't do the worst.  So I'm thinking I'll lope somewhere along in the middle of the pack.  Amanda's finals were a little rough on her too- she stressed more before finals than I did for sure.  In her own words, her performance was "lackluster"- but immediately after saying that she said lackluster is her favorite word, so take that with a grain of salt.

So now we're back to that glorious position of having free time.  Its pretty funny though- even when you think you aren't going to be doing anything, things just kinda sneak up on you.  We've been pretty busy since finals ended.  Of course, when I say busy, I mean busy with skiing, Christmas parties, shopping, eating out.  Pretty stress free, for the most part.  I've also been applying to a lot of externships.  In law school its not only your grades that matter.  It also matters where you extern.  Amanda is dead set on moving back to San Diego, so I've been trying to find externships around there.  I've applied for probably 15, and I plan on applying for several more.  Its hard because I'm still not sure what type of law I want to go into.  There are so many things that sound interesting, and I can't quite set my mind on one.  Eventually I'm sure I'll decide one way or the other.

Lately (read the last few days) I've been obsessing over guns.  I've always enjoyed shooting them.  At home, we have an old Tekerov pistol and a shotgun that I would take out with my buddies a few times a year and shoot.  I always had a blast doing that.  And recently, I went with a few law school buddies to go shooting, and the gun fever once again manifested itself.  I've been researching a ton, and I've got a few ideas.

This bad boy is the one I think I want to start with.  The reason being?  It's super cheap- you can usually find a new one for under $150.  Its a Hi-Point C9, shooting 9mm in a stock 8 round mag.  Ha, I sound super cool saying that.  The reviews about it are pretty good.  They say it feels a little cheap and heavy, which is expected, but that it fires great and retains its accuracy over a long period of time, which is awesome.  So this will probably be the one I start with, because I want to eventually get a concealed carry permit.  Here's the other one I'm thinking about getting.

This ones a Russian Mosin Nagant, that shoots big ole bullets.  This is one that my buddy Garrett has, and that I've been able to shoot a few times.  Super fun, super accurate.  The only thing thats a bummer is that its a bolt action, meaning you have to reload it every time.  This is a super cheap gun though, and well put together.  This is another one on my short list.  Finally, the last one I want to purchase.

This ones a Maverik 88 pump shotgun, made by Mossberg, who apparently are pretty well known in the gun world.  This again is pretty cheap but has pretty good reviews.  I'm probably going to wait a while on getting this one though.  The reason is that I'm terrible at clay pigeon shooting.  When I went with my buddy a few days ago, I couldn't hit a single one!  Super frustrating, but shotguns are fun to shoot regardless, and eventually I'll get one of these.

So that is my recent obsession.  Guns are really fun, as long as they are handled with the degree of care warranted something capable of killing.  This is especially true as you think about the horrible recent shootings.  My heart just goes out to those families.  I feel such rage and such sadness at the same time.  I'm reminded of the passage in the Book of Mormon where Alma says that God lets the innocent suffer so that the wicked may be proven guilty and so punished, or something like that.  Its times like these that I do feel incredibly grateful to know that God has a plan for us beyond this life, and that those little children are up in heaven with the angels right now.

If I don't post soon, then Merry Christmas!

Lahh Skeewl.

This is David writing on the far side of 2 whole months of law school.  And what a 2 months it has been.  OBJECTION, Your Honor!  Leading the witness!

I digress...

It was much fun, much fun to finally be able to start law school.  After all the hype, after all the admonitions, after all the repetitive lawyer jokes (Hint: no one likes lawyers), I was ready to get my booty on to bigger and better things.  I was ready to become an analytical machine, tackling the greatest legal problems that minds had to offer, bringing a sense of freedom, and justice to the galaxy!

And then I attended class.

Now don't get me wrong- I really enjoy my classes for the most part.  But holy moley, any delusions of grandeur go right out the door the first time the teacher calls on you.  I was first called on in Torts (not the sweet delicious pastries), and while I'd read about that curious sensation of having all the blood in your body rush to your face, I'd never before experienced it.  http://tinyurl.com/asdvn6u.  Luckily it was totally fine, I knew the answer all right, and it was over before it started.  I was called on a few times in other classes (and am still called "Mr. Beety" by one of my teachers) but the first time was the roughest.

Law school is interesting.  There are a lot of different views that are out there about what it actually is.  Probably one of the more prevalent ones was aptly stated by a 3L the other day: "You don't come to law school to get an education, you come to get a job".  Which really is true.  Aside from actual classes, everything is geared towards getting employment.  And to be honest, I really don't like that.  The way it generally works out is your 1st summer you extern at one or two places.  Then in the fall of your second year, several firms come and interview you, and many times you get your job based off of this.  I think that any hiring practice that recruits someone when they're only 1/3 of the way through their education is silly.  But that's just mean.  Many folks seem to think if it ain't broke, find the elements of the negligence claim and see if they really breached the duty.  If you know what I mean.

So I'm enjoying law school and Amanda is doing really well like usual in her ME classes.

And how about this big news eh?

No longer a trilogy, no longer a six-ology (?), but we get to see even more new movies come out!  As the resident Star Wars nerd, several people have asked me how I feel about bad boy Georgie selling those rights to Disney.  I have mixed views.  On one hand, ITS STAR WARS FOR GOODNESS SAKE.  Anything that has to do with Star Wars can't be wrong (in the spirit of full disclosure, the Star Wars Christmas special was terrible.  If you haven't seen it- please don't).  I would love to have some more movies, see some more planets, and watch some more dudes do backflips over each other while swinging lightsabers.


(On the other hand)

They could very well butcher this.  They could make these movies into box office failures.  I feel that their acquisition of Pixar has brought out some sloppy movies.  DC and Marvel, I'm still on the fence.  But either way, I'll hope for the best- and you know I'll be at the midnight premiere in costume!

And so I end my somewhat senseless rant.  This was posted in response to positive peer pressure from an unnamed brother-in-law, but I'm glad I was able to do it.  With so little time to journal (and so little desire to), this helps serve as an outlet where I can get out some of whats going on in life.

Till next time...

Gradumating!

Well, here I am, David, one take home final away from graduation.  I've already got a summer job lined up.  And ironically, I'm working at a job that I'm actually making less at than I did at the job I had in college!  I was working at the Bookstore, in the posh job of Sales Associate in the computer department, and riding high at 9.75 an hour.  Now I'm calling people and trying to get them to meet with their insurance agent, at 7.50 an hour. Well, they say that a bachelor's degree is the new High school diploma.  Guess I'm starting to agree with them.  After all, I did major in psychology...

The gay seal doesn't really care for my psychology degree very much.  But he'll get whats coming to him once I become a big bad lawyer, and I can sue for discrimination in internet memes.

Amanda however, has had a ton of good experience this year with a lot of practical stuff.  In mechanical engineering, you don't only learn about things but you actually do them.  She learned how to program, and made a basic calculator, she programmed a robot to rescue a toy, and her magnum opus was the pipsqueak engine that she and her team built.  

Amanda's Pipsqueak Engine

It's really cool, because they bought that material, and machined all of it themselves.  They essentially had several blocks of aluminum, steel and bronze, and they created that little machine.  I think it is really, really cool.  One day Amanda is going to change the world, and I'm glad I get to be around when that happens!

Tough Decisions

Amanda and I are definitely at a crossroads in our life.  Let me explain.

I took the LSAT last summer and did reasonably well.  I also have a reasonably good GPA.  These factors have combined to get me some reasonably good acceptance to some reasonably good law schools.  Sound reasonable?  What that's boiled down to so far is that I've got into the U law school- ranked 41, pretty good, good placement, and the Thomas Jefferson School of Law, not ranked, fairly bad, not great placement.  Why even mention TJSL?  Did I mention it is in San Diego, that I have a full tuition scholarship there, that it is in San Diego, that I will probably graduate near the top of my class, that it is in San Diego, that Amanda and I want to live in San Diego, and that it is in San Diego?  It makes for a very tough decision, because I would probably secure a good job out of the U as long as I did well in school.  However, both Amanda and I have decided we don't want to live in UT, mostly because of this



But also because of this



Argue for it how you will, we just would rather live in San Diego.  In all fairness, a lot of it is coming from Amanda.  I would definitely rather live in California, of course.  But I don't want to live out of UT quite so bad.  I think its the cold.  She just has a hard time staying warm.

And so that's where our lives are at right now.  Its a tough decision just because it will probably affect us for a long time based on where we decide to go to law school.  But until then.

Every Day I'm Picturing

Fo' real though.  Have you ever seen those videos on YouTube where people take a picture every day for a year, and its pretty cool?  Well Amanda has decided that we are going to do that all of our lives.  We might miss a day here or there, but I think its going to be fun.  And of course, when she says all of our lives I'm really assuming it will probably be a few months.  But either way it'll be fun to give it a whirl.  She does make us use the same position every time.  Her on the left holding the camera, me on the right.  She looks beautiful in every picture, but I have to make up these faces so no one will realize what a great deal I'm getting in this marriage business.  Please see a few examples below.

So thats our idea for adventure this time around.

Speaking of adventures, aren't TV shows excellent?  Amanda and I have this habit of getting each other addicted to fun TV shows.  It started with me watching Modern Family in front of her.  Well, she just had to watch that.  Then she watched Vampire Diaries, and well it just wouldn't do for me not to watch that.  Our most current is Glee, which we are watching on Netflix (thanks Nat and Jon).  We both have our own too though.  Amanda loves Pretty Little Liars, and thats just one that I can't get into.  For myself, Downton Abbey has become the second pivot point of my life.  School has long since taken a distant 12th place on my list of important things to do.

And school- oh school.  Law school is the next big ticket for our future family, and we've heard some good news.  I was recently informed I was accepted at the University of Utah's law school!  While BYU will probably still be our #1 choice, the U is a very close second.  That was awesome news that we got recently.  Other than that, our lives continue on.  Happiness surrounds us, and we hope it always will.

Time for the next episode....

New Years Resolution #1: Make a Resolution

Spending our first New Years together was a ton o' fun.  We pretty much had 2 weeks of vacation together at la casa of the abuela of Amanda.  And after an entire week of being apart, we sure needed it!  Meeting all the fam was a blast, and having that many relatives together is always super great.  Grandma Marilyn got each of the boys a remote control helicopter.  Everything went fine until the first time Jason took it for a spin.  On his first try, he managed to break off one of the landing gear.  Thats ok- its funner to try and land it on one.  Jason and Dana got us some sweet presents, including this awesome pair of matching monkey sock onesie pajamas.

Don't be jelly.  Thats internet lingo for jealous, for all you oldies out there.

New Years Eve was pretty fun.  Dason (Dana and Jason) and Natalion (Natalie and Jon) and us all played some Taboo.  Amanda got mad at us for being bad guessers, then Natalie got mad cause Amanda was mad (does pregnancy really excuse everything?  Wish I was a girl...)  However, Jon and I worked our magic, and got the ladies back together so we could all celebrate New Year's eve in style.  The Roberts family came back up, and after we convinced Amanda that counting down from 30 would be much too long, we welcomed in the New Year.

Oh, don't worry.  Jason always looks like that.

And now school begins again.  It always feels like you're barely done with finals before you're already starting on the next semester's load of work.  Wish us luck ya'all.