Total Serious Happy Thread

[Prudence]

So, for those of you playing at home, I have an interview in Las Cruces on 2 September and in Denver on 8 September. Both sound like great opportunities. They are both with federal magistrate judges, which most applicants apparently consider not as prestigious, but I'm all through with that "prestige" stuff. I don't want other people to judge me based on my school, and I won't judge judges based on their perceived rank. In fact, for litigation practice, most of the action is likely before the magistrate anyhow. So if you want the edge on what you'll REALLY be doing as a litigator, that's the place to be. So, that's where I should be, so my future students will have a better teacher. I could probably get an appellate clerkship with a Washington state court, but I really wanted to be in the federal system, and frankly the state courts pay maybe half of what the fed court does - and federal pay is the same regardless of how "prestigious" the assignment is.

[Morrigoon]

I know some folks that just moved to Denver and are loving it so far

[Gemini Cricket]

Just got back from my callback. Well, I'd cast me. But the competition is fierce. So, we'll see.

[mousepod]

Go Pru! Go GC!

[innerSpaceman]

Rah Rah, also Rooting for You Both!

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Hey, whaddaya know, Orange County allows online traffic school now! Yay!

Originally Posted by BarTopDancer

WOOHOO!

Will you have a review for us anytime soon?

Well I'm done. As for a review - I suppose it depends on your perspective. From the perspective of whether the experience was a valuable one that taught me to be a better, safer driver, I give it a 0. From the perspective of whether it let me fulfill the court-ordered requirement in the most effortless, brainless way possible where I didn't have to sit in a classroom on a Saturday morning with a bunch of unhappy people who don't want to be there a good portion of which would have been dumb enough to drive me bonkers, it gets a 10.

There was a big list of sites to choose from, I chose "inandouttrafficschool.com" because it was the 2nd one on the list and the first one didn't seem to be working right. The process was as follows - there were 6 or 8 lessons (I've already forgotten), each being a long page of text. You're supposed to read the text, then click to the next page where there's an 8 question multiple choice test. If you don't get 100% on the test it brings you back to the study material to read again. Of course, if you aren't a moron, you copy and paste the study material into another program and use search to pass the test. After you do all the lessons you take a final exam which is 25 questions randomly selected from the questions you just answered, you need to get 20 or more right.

They even let you do online ID verification (for a fee) by asking you questions about info off your credit report (questions about your residence history, bank accounts, etc.). Beats going to a notary where you pay about the same fee anyway. The whole process took maybe 30 minutes and I just received the "your case has been dismissed" email.

[Andrew]

That almost exactly mirrors my experience with online traffic school. It seems to be more about the inconvenience aspect (i.e. "we can waste your time and make you do stupid stuff because the alternative is points on your license") than actual learning.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Andrew

That almost exactly mirrors my experience with online traffic school. It seems to be more about the inconvenience aspect (i.e. "we can waste your time and make you do stupid stuff because the alternative is points on your license") than actual learning.

There was a survey at the end asking me to rate the experience. I was torn. On the one hand, it galls me how utterly useless the whole process is. Whether online or in person no one learns a damned thing from this charade. So in that regard I wanted to rate the course low because I really would prefer if, you know, they actually taught sh*tty drivers something of value. On the other hand, I do not consider myself one of those sh*tty drivers and all things considered I was glad that I had the option of just breezing through this bit of kabuki so I wanted to rate it highly.

I figured that in the end, if you've got enough of a brain to have done it the way I did, then no amount of instruction is going to affect you as a driver as clearly you're smart enough to apply some reason to a situation and any bad driving you do is likely out of choice rather than ignorance. And conversely one could argue that those most in need of learning this stuff aren't likely to figure out how to get through the tests easily, forcing them to actually look at the provided info to learn the answers and hopefully some of it will stick. Hopefully.

Yes, I know how elitist that all sounded.

As a side note, did you know that backing up is ALWAYS DANGEROUS!! Always!!!!

[Gemini Cricket]

I was cast as George in the Drowsy Chaperone.
I'm doing my happy dance!

Oddly enough, he was one of the bigger parts I didn't audition for. But the director said I could handle it.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Hooray!