NUSL Blog: Laurinda

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November 30, 2008

Black Friday Rule

No this isn't an entry about a Flogging Molly song, but about the traditional Black Friday shopping spree most Americans participate in after Thanksgiving. It's a tradition I have avidly followed. Although my family no longer does the insane waking up at 5/6 AM to do the sales, I did spend all Friday shopping. I like to think of it as doing part in injecting needed liquidity in the consumer market.

I was watching the news the day before and they had been saying that consumer shopping was down by 1% and how Black Friday was important to the stores. Therefore, I was really hoping for awesome sales and disappointed not to find them.

I still consider the day a success. I have a new outfit for Chinese New Years. (Note on Chinese New Years, a person should always have something new.)

Posted by Laurinda at 6:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amusing story about finals

Nowadays, most people take their exams on their laptops using a software called SecureExam which locks a user from accessing any of their PC's features. When I was a first year, it was also the first year that they were testing the software. It's never fun being the guinea pig year. I can remember when the software would crash a person's computer and the person would either have to retake the exam or if it crashed early enough, switch to handwritten bluebook.

So the reason that I am writing this now is that I am so glad that is no longer the case. And because last Monday while my class was taking the Intellectual Property final, the fire alarm goes off. Everyone jumped in their seats and looked around to see if we actually had to leave. I think some off us in the classroom would be willing to write the exam through the fire alarm only they made us leave.

Into the freezing cold.

Still, I was worried that if I closed the top of my laptop that SecureExam would freak out. I think someone should ask SecureExam what would happen.

Otherwise, the rest of my finals went without a hitch. I surprisingly think I did well on the bankruptcy and tax final although bankruptcy may be tricky since it was all multiple choice with the options being true, false or maybe and if you select the wrong one you get a point off.

Posted by Laurinda at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 4, 2008

Civil Trial Practice

Hi all,

Last week, I was conned/begged/bribed to be a witness in a class called civil trial practice. I say that in all good fun because it seemed like it. And I joke about conned/bribed. Every quarter, there is a class called civil trial practice. Because Northeastern doesn't have mock trial, this class is its closest semblance.

I was the witness Mary Dixon who lost her husband to suicide/shooting accident. I was suing the big insurance company to try to get what I felt was owed. There were 4 witnesses/volunteer victims and we all had scripts that we had to learn when we were giving testimony. The students in the class were the attorneys and each "trial" had 4 attorneys (two for each side). It was really interesting to do and I got to exercise my intro to acting skills!

Still, its hard to finagle people to do so because well ... it's finals time.

Posted by Laurinda at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

NuCalls

Hi all,

When I was younger (probably 7 or 8) I used to learn mandarin at a local Boston school on Saturdays. Back then (and it is sad that at my age I use that phrase), learning mandarin wasn't as popular as it is now and there weren't as many teachers or schools. Now people hire Chinese nannies so that their babies grow up speaking another language.

Going to school on Saturday was horrible and I cried every time my parents would drive my sister and I there. Eventually, the commute (and probably the complaining) led to my sister and I attending for only a year.

Now as I look back, I really regret that I didn't become literate in Chinese.

(warning for next bit: plug for NUSL/Northeastern in general)

Northeastern offers NUCALLS which is this undergrad club where students teach others languages! I signed up for the Mandarin 1 and Cantonese 1 classes. Although I already speak both, I signed up for the basic classes because I never learned the basics. Sometimes it is a little slow but I still learn new things. Maybe next quarter I will try a harder class.

Posted by Laurinda at 1:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Laurinda, 3L

Black Friday Rule

Amusing story about finals

Civil Trial Practice

NuCalls