What's up guys!

[sombrio]

Ya. Ok. I believe you now. Anything else you remember from that night?

Ugh... throwing up in Cooper's bathroom and having it posted... my beautiful mug flipping off the camera... everyone pressuring me to drink more because I failed to explain I was sick before drinking... me trying to defend myself afterward... the less said about that night, the better, really.

Also. What the hell have you been up to for the last 10 years?

Short version: Finished college, went to law school, got strung out, got clean, finished law school, got married, practiced law for about 4 years, decided to quit and become an educator. Also drove my dad's old Audi A4 into the ground after he gave it to me as a graduation present. Do not try to keep a German car going past 200,000 miles! It costs literally as much as a drug habit.

Good times...

[the_edge]

ROD, is that you?

Well the topic creator did post on Friday the 13th lol

[the_edge]

I don't even remember what you did wrong last time.

I dont think ROD could go 3 posts in a thread without turning psycho, so we'll see shortly if its really him

I guess not everyone grew up Pennz SMH

[the_edge]

Guys. It's really me. I expected all kinds of things on rejoining, but being accused of being ROD wasn't one of them!

Come on, seriously, I hated that dick. And he hated me too. If this were ROD pretending to be me, he'd do something to make me look like an asshole, right? I'm not gonna be an asshole. Walrus was right on the money. (Actually, it was looking at Craigslist ads and seeing an old VR6 Jetta that did it.) Just reminiscing about old times and wondering if an old favorite site was still around.

For what it's worth, I'm in Southern California now and getting out of law. :cheers:

I don't know what I can do to convince people that I'm myself, other than using correct grammar and not being an insane asshole. Well, here we go.

Maybe you Canadian fuckers can interrogate me about the time I got drunk at Cooper's place when I was 17 and had a cold and puked all over the driveway and sidewalk after bitching to Raska about my parents.

And not to be faggy or anything, but since someone mentioned it--if it means anything to you guys, you really did mean something to me. I was on AF when I was 17-19. Formative years and relationships and all that, even if it was just exchanging text online. I have some great memories associated with this site.

And I still hoep Toyota scores o[[popints.

Do you still drive a VW? (Just not that VR6 anymore, obviously). How come you're getting out of law? Last time I heard about you you were about to go to law school. Was that Pomona? I'm curious as of why you'd get out of it. What is your plan B?

[the_edge]

I just can't see him coming back after all these years. I mean, automobile forum has been shut down for years and just recently came back up. And he was gone way before the forum of rue and woe. So you're telling me he was checking to see if original AF was up periodically that whole time? I just don't think the real sombrio would care that much and would just move on. plus, rod has been suspiciously absent lately.

And I come back to pennz, miller and you taking a dump on me besides that, wonder why I have been absent?

[the_edge]

I just can't see him coming back after all these years. I mean, automobile forum has been shut down for years and just recently came back up. And he was gone way before the forum of rue and woe. So you're telling me he was checking to see if original AF was up periodically that whole time? I just don't think the real sombrio would care that much and would just move on. plus, rod has been suspiciously absent lately.

I don't know man. I can kind of see it.

All it takes is a little reminiscing, right? See an S2000 drive down the street, and think back to the insane debates on R&T / C&D / AF about Camaros and S2000s and Porsches and Vettes, etc.

Next thing you know you're wondering if AF is still up, takes 2 seconds to do a quick check, and find out that automobileforum has risen from the dead.

That was so much fun LOL. I remember literally raging about people thinking a celica could outrun a firebird

[the_edge]

Ya. Ok. I believe you now. Anything else you remember from that night?

Ugh... throwing up in Cooper's bathroom and having it posted... my beautiful mug flipping off the camera... everyone pressuring me to drink more because I failed to explain I was sick before drinking... me trying to defend myself afterward... the less said about that night, the better, really.

Also. What the hell have you been up to for the last 10 years?

Short version: Finished college, went to law school, got strung out, got clean, finished law school, got married, practiced law for about 4 years, decided to quit and become an educator. Also drove my dad's old Audi A4 into the ground after he gave it to me as a graduation present. Do not try to keep a German car going past 200,000 miles! It costs literally as much as a drug habit.

Good times...

got married? Holy shit. Time flies.

[Pennzoil GT-R]

I just can't see him coming back after all these years. I mean, automobile forum has been shut down for years and just recently came back up. And he was gone way before the forum of rue and woe. So you're telling me he was checking to see if original AF was up periodically that whole time? I just don't think the real sombrio would care that much and would just move on. plus, rod has been suspiciously absent lately.

And I come back to pennz, miller and you taking a dump on me besides that, wonder why I have been absent?

You were sectioned?

[the_edge]

I just can't see him coming back after all these years. I mean, automobile forum has been shut down for years and just recently came back up. And he was gone way before the forum of rue and woe. So you're telling me he was checking to see if original AF was up periodically that whole time? I just don't think the real sombrio would care that much and would just move on. plus, rod has been suspiciously absent lately.

And I come back to pennz, miller and you taking a dump on me besides that, wonder why I have been absent?

You were sectioned?

huh?

[sombrio]

Guys. It's really me. I expected all kinds of things on rejoining, but being accused of being ROD wasn't one of them!

Come on, seriously, I hated that dick. And he hated me too. If this were ROD pretending to be me, he'd do something to make me look like an asshole, right? I'm not gonna be an asshole. Walrus was right on the money. (Actually, it was looking at Craigslist ads and seeing an old VR6 Jetta that did it.) Just reminiscing about old times and wondering if an old favorite site was still around.

For what it's worth, I'm in Southern California now and getting out of law. :cheers:

I don't know what I can do to convince people that I'm myself, other than using correct grammar and not being an insane asshole. Well, here we go.

Maybe you Canadian fuckers can interrogate me about the time I got drunk at Cooper's place when I was 17 and had a cold and puked all over the driveway and sidewalk after bitching to Raska about my parents.

And not to be faggy or anything, but since someone mentioned it--if it means anything to you guys, you really did mean something to me. I was on AF when I was 17-19. Formative years and relationships and all that, even if it was just exchanging text online. I have some great memories associated with this site.

And I still hoep Toyota scores o[[popints.

Do you still drive a VW? (Just not that VR6 anymore, obviously). How come you're getting out of law? Last time I heard about you you were about to go to law school. Was that Pomona? I'm curious as of why you'd get out of it. What is your plan B?

Your post in the other thread described my reasons pretty well. It sounds like you have some familiarity with this issue. I would add that a large part of what makes a "good job," to me, is job security, benefits, and time off, and I don't see law firms offering any of those things. I'm going to try to get into teaching, largely because I've seen how much my wife loves it. She was an economics major in college and had a similar experience with that to what I had with law. Now she's a teacher and loves her job, works 6 hours a day, enjoys great benefits and time off, and to boot, makes more than I made in my first job out of law school. Practicing law is a shit job and to some extent a dying profession. A lot of teachers love their jobs and I enjoy the tutoring I'm doing right now--it's just not enough work or money for me, so I want to try to get a full-time job as a tutor or professor. (I don't have a teaching credential yet so I can't just jump into being a high school teacher, but it might be in the cards down the line if I can stomach paying for another year of school.)

I'm driving a Honda Accord right now (yeah, yeah) and I love it. The reliability is just such a relief compared to my VW/Audi experiences. It's underpowered, but who cares. I kind of want to save up for an old British roadster or some other kind of old, purely-mechanical project car, but we'll see.

[Turbojett]

Cue both Wally and Arthur Dent trying to talk you out of it, but saying how great the experience is, but still trying to talk you out of it. but it's a great experience.

[the_edge]

Guys. It's really me. I expected all kinds of things on rejoining, but being accused of being ROD wasn't one of them!

Come on, seriously, I hated that dick. And he hated me too. If this were ROD pretending to be me, he'd do something to make me look like an asshole, right? I'm not gonna be an asshole. Walrus was right on the money. (Actually, it was looking at Craigslist ads and seeing an old VR6 Jetta that did it.) Just reminiscing about old times and wondering if an old favorite site was still around.

For what it's worth, I'm in Southern California now and getting out of law. :cheers:

I don't know what I can do to convince people that I'm myself, other than using correct grammar and not being an insane asshole. Well, here we go.

Maybe you Canadian fuckers can interrogate me about the time I got drunk at Cooper's place when I was 17 and had a cold and puked all over the driveway and sidewalk after bitching to Raska about my parents.

And not to be faggy or anything, but since someone mentioned it--if it means anything to you guys, you really did mean something to me. I was on AF when I was 17-19. Formative years and relationships and all that, even if it was just exchanging text online. I have some great memories associated with this site.

And I still hoep Toyota scores o[[popints.

Do you still drive a VW? (Just not that VR6 anymore, obviously). How come you're getting out of law? Last time I heard about you you were about to go to law school. Was that Pomona? I'm curious as of why you'd get out of it. What is your plan B?

Your post in the other thread described my reasons pretty well. It sounds like you have some familiarity with this issue. I would add that a large part of what makes a "good job," to me, is job security, benefits, and time off, and I don't see law firms offering any of those things. I'm going to try to get into teaching, largely because I've seen how much my wife loves it. She was an economics major in college and had a similar experience with that to what I had with law. Now she's a teacher and loves her job, works 6 hours a day, enjoys great benefits and time off, and to boot, makes more than I made in my first job out of law school. Practicing law is a shit job and to some extent a dying profession. A lot of teachers love their jobs and I enjoy the tutoring I'm doing right now--it's just not enough work or money for me, so I want to try to get a full-time job as a tutor or professor. (I don't have a teaching credential yet so I can't just jump into being a high school teacher, but it might be in the cards down the line if I can stomach paying for another year of school.)

I'm driving a Honda Accord right now (yeah, yeah) and I love it. The reliability is just such a relief compared to my VW/Audi experiences. It's underpowered, but who cares. I kind of want to save up for an old British roadster or some other kind of old, purely-mechanical project car, but we'll see.

- I do. I worked in Big Law for a while. That situation I described? It actually happened to a colleague!

- RE Job security, sadly I think that's a thing of the past (thanks globalization! thanks big corp! thanks technology!), unless you get into government or work for yourself. Have you thought about becoming in-house counsel for a company? If you have big law experience, which you seem to have, you have a shot at it, some of my friends are in-house and their quality of life is way better!

- RE Law being a dying profession - it is! Unless you're already settled in and stuff. I read an article about it, basically, technology is rendering law work obsolete (discovery is done electronically, algorithms can data mine legal precedents and stuff like that, contract drafting and the like can be automated, you name it), and what is not done via technology is being sent to india, where 2-cents-an-hour resources do a shit job, then send it back to the states where some law firm partner or the like makes an intern review it, then the partner signs it. All that hassle a US Law grad has to go through to get licensed seems a bit of a shaft when the work is done in a foreign country and then "reviewed" by an intern/"summer associate", and in the end the only work an attorney with an actual license does is to sign the document.

- RE Accord - nothing wrong with them. I used to drive from time to time a 2000 accord coupe, the ones that kind of looked like an Acura NSX in the back, with the V6, I loooved it.

[the_edge]

Cue both Wally and Arthur Dent trying to talk you out of it, but saying how great the experience is, but still trying to talk you out of it. but it's a great experience.

The experience is great. School experience, that is. It is truly stimulating and intellectually fulfilling. And you feel you're studying something that will get you somewhere -which is not necessarily the case-. It's the people and job market which sucks now.

[sombrio]

- I do. I worked in Big Law for a while. That situation I described? It actually happened to a colleague!

- RE Job security, sadly I think that's a thing of the past (thanks globalization! thanks big corp! thanks technology!), unless you get into government or work for yourself. Have you thought about becoming in-house counsel for a company? If you have big law experience, which you seem to have, you have a shot at it, some of my friends are in-house and their quality of life is way better!

- RE Law being a dying profession - it is! Unless you're already settled in and stuff. I read an article about it, basically, technology is rendering law work obsolete (discovery is done electronically, algorithms can data mine legal precedents and stuff like that, contract drafting and the like can be automated, you name it), and what is not done via technology is being sent to india, where 2-cents-an-hour resources do a shit job, then send it back to the states where some law firm partner or the like makes an intern review it, then the partner signs it. All that hassle a US Law grad has to go through to get licensed seems a bit of a shaft when the work is done in a foreign country and then "reviewed" by an intern/"summer associate", and in the end the only work an attorney with an actual license does is to sign the document.

- RE Accord - nothing wrong with them. I used to drive from time to time a 2000 accord coupe, the ones that kind of looked like an Acura NSX in the back, with the V6, I loooved it.

Is this ROD or am I terribly mistaken? It seems we've both grown a lot which is pleasing to see. I never made it into BigLaw, not that I sought it out or would have enjoyed it. I was delusional enough to think small firms would be better. They are not. Shame on me for being naive enough to fall for the law school scam. My feelings on that are similar to my feelings about you putting a virus on my computer when I was 18. It was a dick move, but shame on me for falling for it, and whatever else is wrong with me I'm not too far gone to cut my losses.

It's funny that you mention the '00 Accord coupe. My brother in law had a similar Accord, the '00 or '01 V6, and I took a couple of rides in it and loved the car and started feeling vaguely jealous (this was when I was driving my Audi A4) and thinking I'd sure love to have a car like that if I ever got the chance. A couple of months later, the Audi started really going to shit and I had gotten a bonus at the firm and started looking for a more reliable car (I was doing a 70 mile round trip commute at the time which for me in LA was about 2-3 hours a day on the road). I did a ton of research and found that that generation of Accord was cheap and reliable so I just went for it. I love my car so much, it's underpowered, automatic and doesn't have a sunroof but those are about its only faults. I really believe that Japanese 4-cylinders are the most reliable engines ever built. It's a marvel of modern engineering. And the guy I bought my car from had put in an awesome subwoofer and HID lights and all this other little stuff too, without any tasteless or "ricey" bullshit. I really do love it. It's been a year and a couple of months and about 16,000 miles and I honestly haven't had a single problem. What other car can you take from 126,000 miles to 142,000 without a single thing going wrong? I fucking love my Honda.

Now if I can just get a full time teaching job and figure out a way to get a H22 engine in there, I'll be a truly happy man.

[Talon]

the_edge = ROD

It was an alias he used a long time ago to try and fool us into thinking he was someone else... or something. Hence the first post of this thread.

I don't know why ROD would try to hide from us

[thewalrus]

- RE Job security, sadly I think that's a thing of the past (thanks globalization! thanks big corp! thanks technology!), unless you get into government or work for yourself. Have you thought about becoming in-house counsel for a company? If you have big law experience, which you seem to have, you have a shot at it, some of my friends are in-house and their quality of life is way better!

- RE Law being a dying profession - it is! Unless you're already settled in and stuff. I read an article about it, basically, technology is rendering law work obsolete (discovery is done electronically, algorithms can data mine legal precedents and stuff like that, contract drafting and the like can be automated, you name it), and what is not done via technology is being sent to india, where 2-cents-an-hour resources do a shit job, then send it back to the states where some law firm partner or the like makes an intern review it, then the partner signs it. All that hassle a US Law grad has to go through to get licensed seems a bit of a shaft when the work is done in a foreign country and then "reviewed" by an intern/"summer associate", and in the end the only work an attorney with an actual license does is to sign the document.

I'm not sure that I agree that law, as a profession, is dying. There'll always be a need for litigators, small town / file lawyers, and strategic legal advisers who can churn out bespoke opinions in short order. The grunt work will be farmed out - document production, generic legal opinions, precedent creation, etc. While the client interaction and dedicated legal/business service provision will remain here. This goes against the concept of the law as a 'profession' but the law hasn't been a 'profession' as it would have been understood 40, 60, 80 years ago, for a while. If you went into law because you admired Atticus Finch, this isn't the profession for you, anymore. Law firms are starting to become more like big accounting firms - they're starting to offer a whole suite of business advice under the guise of legal advice - sort of a "get your legal / marketing / strategic / accounting advice here!" type stuff. And they're getting bigger, to. I mean, how many major mergers have we seen in the last couple years? One of the biggest Canadian firms was recently swallowed up by some massive Chinese law firm like it was nothing. I give it 10, 15 years and there'll be 5 or 6 major law firms in the world. And then a ton of small firms providing localized advice. Just like accounting. This'll coincide with the spread of self driving cars, and the world will be at truly awful place. At least for us.

[Arthur Dent]

Cue both Wally and Arthur Dent trying to talk you out of it, but saying how great the experience is, but still trying to talk you out of it. but it's a great experience.

What am I talking folks out of? The Brit car experience? Gender re-assignment? Pizza for lunch? On the British car experience there are a couple things ones has to realize before going in. Either a) you are prepared to get your hands dirty and do some minor repairs/maintenance or b) you will pay a lot of money to someone else for upkeep that will never be recovered. And don't depend on it for daily transport. Start with a common model - ie not a Humber Hawk. Try not to buy a really rusty one too. Otherwise go for it. They are simple and offering lots of learning experiences. Just don't assume its a turn key commuter.

[the_edge]

- I do. I worked in Big Law for a while. That situation I described? It actually happened to a colleague!

- RE Job security, sadly I think that's a thing of the past (thanks globalization! thanks big corp! thanks technology!), unless you get into government or work for yourself. Have you thought about becoming in-house counsel for a company? If you have big law experience, which you seem to have, you have a shot at it, some of my friends are in-house and their quality of life is way better!

- RE Law being a dying profession - it is! Unless you're already settled in and stuff. I read an article about it, basically, technology is rendering law work obsolete (discovery is done electronically, algorithms can data mine legal precedents and stuff like that, contract drafting and the like can be automated, you name it), and what is not done via technology is being sent to india, where 2-cents-an-hour resources do a shit job, then send it back to the states where some law firm partner or the like makes an intern review it, then the partner signs it. All that hassle a US Law grad has to go through to get licensed seems a bit of a shaft when the work is done in a foreign country and then "reviewed" by an intern/"summer associate", and in the end the only work an attorney with an actual license does is to sign the document.

- RE Accord - nothing wrong with them. I used to drive from time to time a 2000 accord coupe, the ones that kind of looked like an Acura NSX in the back, with the V6, I loooved it.

Is this ROD or am I terribly mistaken? It seems we've both grown a lot which is pleasing to see. I never made it into BigLaw, not that I sought it out or would have enjoyed it. I was delusional enough to think small firms would be better. They are not. Shame on me for being naive enough to fall for the law school scam. My feelings on that are similar to my feelings about you putting a virus on my computer when I was 18. It was a dick move, but shame on me for falling for it, and whatever else is wrong with me I'm not too far gone to cut my losses.

It's funny that you mention the '00 Accord coupe. My brother in law had a similar Accord, the '00 or '01 V6, and I took a couple of rides in it and loved the car and started feeling vaguely jealous (this was when I was driving my Audi A4) and thinking I'd sure love to have a car like that if I ever got the chance. A couple of months later, the Audi started really going to shit and I had gotten a bonus at the firm and started looking for a more reliable car (I was doing a 70 mile round trip commute at the time which for me in LA was about 2-3 hours a day on the road). I did a ton of research and found that that generation of Accord was cheap and reliable so I just went for it. I love my car so much, it's underpowered, automatic and doesn't have a sunroof but those are about its only faults. I really believe that Japanese 4-cylinders are the most reliable engines ever built. It's a marvel of modern engineering. And the guy I bought my car from had put in an awesome subwoofer and HID lights and all this other little stuff too, without any tasteless or "ricey" bullshit. I really do love it. It's been a year and a couple of months and about 16,000 miles and I honestly haven't had a single problem. What other car can you take from 126,000 miles to 142,000 without a single thing going wrong? I fucking love my Honda.

Now if I can just get a full time teaching job and figure out a way to get a H22 engine in there, I'll be a truly happy man.

Yup yup! It's-a-me, Rodio!

I always thought going to a small firm was where it's at.... but it's not? I'm interested on knowing how it went for you, this is blowing my mind.

I heard there is a way to turbocharge those 4 cylinder engines? I will go and ask my buddy, he used to have a turbocharged accord and it was quite fast.

[the_edge]

the_edge = ROD

It was an alias he used a long time ago to try and fool us into thinking he was someone else... or something. Hence the first post of this thread.

I don't know why ROD would try to hide from us

I totally forgot I changed my name here. It's funny because I was like "hey sombrio wazzup?" but I had a totally different name

As for changing my name... when I moved countries I decided to start anew here, but dunnas had something else in mind . But turns out it worked out great

[the_edge]

- RE Job security, sadly I think that's a thing of the past (thanks globalization! thanks big corp! thanks technology!), unless you get into government or work for yourself. Have you thought about becoming in-house counsel for a company? If you have big law experience, which you seem to have, you have a shot at it, some of my friends are in-house and their quality of life is way better!

- RE Law being a dying profession - it is! Unless you're already settled in and stuff. I read an article about it, basically, technology is rendering law work obsolete (discovery is done electronically, algorithms can data mine legal precedents and stuff like that, contract drafting and the like can be automated, you name it), and what is not done via technology is being sent to india, where 2-cents-an-hour resources do a shit job, then send it back to the states where some law firm partner or the like makes an intern review it, then the partner signs it. All that hassle a US Law grad has to go through to get licensed seems a bit of a shaft when the work is done in a foreign country and then "reviewed" by an intern/"summer associate", and in the end the only work an attorney with an actual license does is to sign the document.

I'm not sure that I agree that law, as a profession, is dying. There'll always be a need for litigators, small town / file lawyers, and strategic legal advisers who can churn out bespoke opinions in short order. The grunt work will be farmed out - document production, generic legal opinions, precedent creation, etc. While the client interaction and dedicated legal/business service provision will remain here. This goes against the concept of the law as a 'profession' but the law hasn't been a 'profession' as it would have been understood 40, 60, 80 years ago, for a while. If you went into law because you admired Atticus Finch, this isn't the profession for you, anymore. Law firms are starting to become more like big accounting firms - they're starting to offer a whole suite of business advice under the guise of legal advice - sort of a "get your legal / marketing / strategic / accounting advice here!" type stuff. And they're getting bigger, to. I mean, how many major mergers have we seen in the last couple years? One of the biggest Canadian firms was recently swallowed up by some massive Chinese law firm like it was nothing. I give it 10, 15 years and there'll be 5 or 6 major law firms in the world. And then a ton of small firms providing localized advice. Just like accounting. This'll coincide with the spread of self driving cars, and the world will be at truly awful place. At least for us.

I think you're right.

The issue is that just like you said, the grunt work will be farmed out (mainly thanks to outsourcing and automation, I feel those 2 things will kill many advanced economies) and all that will be left is the sort of stuff an attorney needs to do face-to-face.

The biggest issue with this (other than the fact that the true intellectual aspect of law will be gone) is that fresh law graduates will have nothing to cut their teeth into. Fresh kids start by drafting contracts, shareholder meeting minutes, generic opinions, etc. No one goes from being a 3L to going to court solo and handling a 3 million dollar case. This means there will be openings.... openings that will read like "lawyer with 5 to 10 years of workers' compensation litigation, manufacturing industry experience and ERISA compliance experience" and no fresh law grad will be able to fill.

This is already happening, or else we'd not see shit like this, and by shit I meant it literally:

http://www.shitlawjobs.com/2012/04/entr ... um=twitter: "A growing Dallas personal injury law firm seeks a licensed attorney with zero to three years experience to handle new client intake. The ideal candidate should the possess the following skills: (1) the ability to handle a heavy volume of potential client inquiries on a daily basis; (2) superior computer skills; (3) a positive and pleasant attitude in dealing with potential clients; (4) a demonstrated ability to meet quotas and firm goals; and (5) possess the ability to work well with others. Interested candidates should forward a resume, cover letter and salary history. Pay depends on experience and starting pay ranges from $11.00-$16.00 hourly. Contract to permanent position."

16 hourly. That's like 32k a year. I've heard of people who earn more cleaning apartments or walking dogs lol