Sybil health risks

I've learned of all new ways that Sybil could have killed us (other than Bills attempts to burn that mother down). For the downstairs our cute little Floppers could apparently have harbored a number of diseases including one that is considered to have the possibly of being used as a bio-terrorism weapon. This particular agent is in rabbits and according to our crazy lecturer "never touch a slow moving rabbit" hahah soooo there you have it. As for the upstairs sybilites aside from the "gas leak" we were daily subjected to (thanks Jake) we also have learned a TON of infections that can kill or get you real sick from drinking unpasteurized milk so yeah. Ok thought i would share some nerdiness for you all.

Thanks to all of you for the support of getting me out to the summer reunion. I finish up class on June 11th, so that weekend would work great or really any other weekend until mid August with the exception of june 18th and 25th weekends where I am confined to Columbus so hopefully we can find one of those weekends that works out.

In other visit news, Jake are you still up for me to come out sometime next week? Ann Arborites (and nathan and duke if you are looking for a weekend extravaganza), two weekends from now (aka the weekend of the 10th) ill be back in Ann Arbor and I'm hopefully brining Jake with me from Chicago. I have Alexandra's formal on Friday BUT would be up for a post party and wild times for Saturday as well. Soo Bill and Sluis rest up your livers, and Nathan and Duke book your tickets!

Hi, Friends.

Being the last one to post I wanted to make amends by including a picture, and thus 1,000 extra words, which my neighbor took outside our building (and I doubt anyone other than Duke would recognize my car, but if you look closely you can see the Prelude creepin in the background). Cville has been gorgeous ever since the last of the snow melted, or at least most of it did, and lately I've been reading on my balcony, which is cool. It's not as good as the Sybil porch, but at least nobody vomits on my furniture without my consent (to my knowledge).

Life here at UVA does in fact involve a certain amount of softball and beer.
The softball: at the moment, I'm taking part in my second softball season (1st one mandatory, 2nd one optional--I still can't swing a bat to save my life), which is always a good time, except when some people get crazy competitive, but they're shunned.
The beer: the law school public interest organization sponsors a beer pong tournament fundraiser (lost in the second round to a pair of egregious elbows-rule violators) and the powers-that-be (I'm actually not sure who) taps a half barrel in the courtyard every Thursday at 3pm. More than a few prospective students seem scared/confused by this, but, considering that the law school is full of normal people, and not the collar-popping, plaid-short wearing UVA undergrads, it's just kinda nice to have something to offset the stress inherent in the law school (Thunderdome) experience, and it isn't (usually) a giant frat party.

For those of you unfamiliar with the law school setup (which may be none of you), our grades depend almost exclusively on our final exams, which are graded on a strict curve against our classmates/peers/friends. And hiring firms basically care only about your grades. So, it is what it is (citation). We also have things like Journals, which are essentially an extracurricular (therefore mattering about .05% in your job search), the tryouts for which involve a grueling 72-hour weekend of fixing citations and reading more pages of case opinions than I usually read in two weeks. Due to the economy, almost every 1L tried out. But spots are limited. Today, they posted the names of the people that made it on, so those whose names absent could be publicly shamed by omission.* That's why law school is the Thunderdome.

I myself am motivated to get decent grades primarily so that I can stay bearded through job interviews. If I'm anywhere near borderline, I don't think I have the stones to keep the beard. In other news, my sister recently got engaged. Her fiance is a good guy, and she's happy about it, so I'm happy, too. My parents are laid back about this sort of thing, but I can't help but feel like some attention just shifted to me. Strange times. In other other news, I'll be staying in Charlottesville this summer working as a research assistant for one of my professors. I'm pleased since Cville should be beautiful in the summer, I get paid something, and DC is within reach on weekends.**

Also, in the last email I received, Floppers..(and I quote) "...seems to be warming up well to our family. I was most concerned that the cat would try to eat him for supper but instead Floppers follows the cat, who seems to be afraid of him, around the house. Hannah has built him a large bunny condo which he seems to really enjoy. If we leave the door open, he will frequently come sit in it for a rest.
We have lots of lettuce, clover, dandelion, and carrot. We bought him a bale of timothy grass hay from the farmer's co-op. He seems to like it here and we have been enjoying him too."
Picture (and open invitation to visit him at their house 45 min outside of DC) included:













*I was not shamed, fortunately.
**Ann Arbor should also be within reach, so I'll do my best to be there in June (?).

Hailing from Dirty District

Gents, Players, Sybilites,

First, some congratulatory remarks and a warning:

Sluis - Well done on Berkley! And well done on finding a state with more relaxed marijuana rules than Michigan.

Jake - Congrats on single-handedly bringing down your firm. Joking of course, that SUCKS. Please search the east coast for your next nest, as it will bring us closer together.

Bill - A preemptive congratulations on Grand Rapids winning the Google Fiber Broadband Network and your family saying goodbye to the stone age. And good job finding a summer internship that involves no money.

James - I'm glad your up for Ohio resident status, as you can now make changes from the inside. And seeing as you're in the library more than ever before, I'm glad you're living near the hospital.

Nathan - Stop taking my girlfriend on romantic law class dates. Any word on your summer whereabouts?

D.C. update: I'm still living with my parents. I'm half considering living with them the rest of my life because not paying rent is clutch, but more likely I'll be moving out this summer and getting a pad in the city. As you probably heard, the winter here was a bitch and I am somehow incapable of escaping the midwest lake effect. We got pounded with a few feet of snow, effectively shutting down the city for a week and giving me time brush up on rushing attack. Not too much to report on the j.o.b. other than it is what it is and I enjoy having my own office. Zoe's doing great at Columbia and digging the New York scene. Just celebrated my little bro's 4th birthday yesterday, circus theme. I sucked down way too much helium and had to lie down for bit.

Hannah and I are doing great, and she's picking a law school this month. Her choices are Georgetown, Duke and Michigan (ha) and she hopes to get into UVA. She visited Nathan a couple weekends ago and really loved the school. Last weekend she visited Durham and really liked the whole package so I may be competing with another Duke for the next 3 years.

I'm headed to Hawaii in a few weeks with the lady for her cousin's wedding. A ten day trip that I've been counting down to for a long time. And speaking of counting down, I'm psyched for a reunion this summer, and I agree that getting James there is a MUST. Let's get that talk going again soon so we can all make plans.

Next one to visit me gets a lean pocket and hug, so book your flights.

Much love,

Dutch

St. Patty's Day Med School Style

Before I begin I must say Bill blog email updates is the best idea you have had since you decided to let Suz build up the confidence to develop a relationship with you by falling backwards in an Old Schoolesque 'youre my boy Blue' style (minus the death thing) in an incident now referred to as 'the tackle' soooo thanks.

I have just learned what med school St. Patty's Day is all about. If you're a first year like myself we wake up mad early (kinda like last year) but there are no lines or beer, just respiratory infections to cover with a lecturer whose idea of a joke involves the overestimation of the swine flu epidemic. This goes on for 3 wonderful hours, and fortunately in my 20 minute preparation for class and dash out the door i have remembered that it is St. Patty's Day and I need to wear green because people are decked out. Remember in grade school how you used to get super dressed up for school because this was the most likely place people would see you out? Yeah its like that again. I may add there was a classmate of mine dressed as a leprechaun who managed to crack the same joke about leprosy infection in said costume on at least 3 separate occasions. The rest of the day has been spent at the normal library hot spots for me. If you think I spent too much time at the library in undergrad, I've reached new lows on that front here. I apparently study at one library long enough that some asian kid who I didn't know felt comfortable enough to ask me if I could help him with his calculus homework (aren't you the asian one?). In other discouraging moments, the security guard at the late night library know me by name and no longer asks to see my ID when he checks everyone else's. This would be nice if it wasn't followed by the looks of horror when said security guard says oh thats ok James and people realize the sad existence that my med school life (or lack thereof) is.

I've been told that 2nd year gets better, but today was unconvincing. I had to watch my housemate's stuff at the library while they ran over to the hospital to practice two things I never want to be involved in, a male genital exam complete with urethral discharge and oh wait the digital rectal prostate exam. I also do have my question about how desperate for cash and/or twisted you have to be to allow some 50 med students per day stick their fingers in places that

are strictly exit only, but thats probably meant for another post.

Ok in all seriousness though things are interesting here. I got off to a bit of a rough start and am now finally getting settled (if that is what you would call it) into med school pace/life. Its been a relief living with other UofMers and being able to share my disgust of all things Ohio State with them. In related news, if you have not yet seen this, please take the time to visit www.universityofmichiganrejects.com. Our schedule is actually pretty nice as far as med schools go and we are only in class for 3 hours a day (and the library the rest of it) and we have all our exams on the same day so the weekends after are completely free. Im living super close to class/the hospital (as in about a block and a half) and as some of you have seen now have the cutest stafforshire bull terrier mix as a house pet. This summer it looks like ill be staying in columbus to do a research project at the med school on the effects of splenectomy on spinal cord injury and inflammation which should be fun/interesting. And also give me weekends and nights off (which means i would love visitors or might be coming to you kiddies). Unfortunately this also means at the end of the summer i will be eligible to become an Ohioan :(.

Ok im going to stop trying to write the longest post on sybil blog ever and leave that task up to Naynay. I'm really glad we got this going again and cant wait to hear more about whats going on for everybody.

James

Well Done

Thanks for upping everyone on the email notifications, Billy. I'll get a real post up asap, I'm super busy with plant-microbe interactions and the like. And I'm all for last minute Sybil brackets.

-D

A Very Sluis Update

Dear Sybilites,

Well done Billy Boy with resurrecting the blog. Good to hear things are going well, and congratulations to you and Suz for taking it to the next level. And sorry to hear about the job loss Jakey, though I am glad that you might be in AA soon. I should have a fair bit of free time on my hands, and you know you’ve got a place to sleep when you’re here.

As for me, I’ve been doing interviews for pretty much all of February. Starting at the end of January, I went out to Berkeley, had tons of fun, met tons of super smart people, and generally got my ego deflated into nothingness. Shit was real. Obviously the place was beautiful, the department was competitive while friendly, and everyone was on top of their stuff. Next was Michigan, then Minnesota, and finally Cornell. Cornell was the only other real place of note, as they had more people specializing in plant-microbe interactions, a field that I’m particularly interested in. They also had just about the nicest faculty you’ve ever met, so I was particularly reluctant to turn them down, but alas, I’m California bound. Overall, interviews were cool as my first real introduction to the scientific community.

Now that that’s over with, I’ve been concentrating back on my job, which is going swimmingly. Research is picking up overall; I should be outlining my first manuscript in the next couple weeks, and we should be submitting our last set of samples for microarray analysis in about a month for the other major project I’m doing. The way it’s looking, I should get a couple first-author publications, and be listed on a couple others, which is very cool. Beyond that, I’ve got plans to study up on some statistics/bioinformatics in preparation for grad school, and to identify what labs I want to rotate in at Berkeley.

The rest of my time is spent dicking around on my guitar, and riding my bike. Seeing as how I’ll be living in one of the nicest areas on the planet for road biking, I plan to be ready when I get there. I’m fairly seriously considering biking out to D.C. and back sometime in the spring or summer. This would depend on whether I can take enough time off work and still get done all the stuff I want to finish before going off to Cali. This, in turn, depends on whether I can convince some other entering students to move to Berkeley early and go backpacking/have fun for a few weeks before classes. Anyway, input from Naynay and Dutchess would be appreciated, as far as when you’ll be in D.C., and if there are any events that would be fun to plan around.

I miss you all terribly, and hope that everyone can make it back to Ann Arbor sometime in June, or whenever we decide is best. One thing that I’d like to point out, since James wasn’t able to make last summer’s reunion, I think we should try extra hard to accommodate him.

XOXOXOXO,

Sluisy

PS: Robot Unicorn Attack is maybe the greatest thing the internet has ever produced. Make sure to have the sound on, though you should probably use headphones.

My Update

Hello Fellas,

I think the idea of email notification is brilliant. I checked through the settings and I think you set it up for us all when you enabled the email notification but I could be wrong. Trade regulation in LA huh? Could be some big money in that. You'll be done paying off your loans in no time.

On my front things in Chicago are certainly interesting. 2 weeks ago my company basically went under, fired 30 of the 45 employees, including myself and basically all the top talent. Don't worry I'm not including myself in the top talent. They basically kept enough people to wind the company down and kept people who didn't have enough leverage to just get up and leave when they saw the company going down. Anyways, I've basically been just bumming around Chicago, getting my job search on yet again. I'm thinking of heading to Ann Arbor soon with all the free time I have. I was gonna come for st. patties day but unfortunately (or actually fortunately) I have an interview the day before and the day after. So maybe in a week or so.

I'm pumped the weather is getting nicer. If anyone feels like visiting I'll be here doing mostly nothing so c'mon down. I might also head back to ny for a couple weeks sometime soon. So if your in that neck of the woods you can visit me there. Everyone POST, i don't know whats going on in your lives. Good work Bill.

Sybil love,

Jake

Yo

Hello Sybil Nation:

No one has posted on the blog in quite some time and I for one think it's pretty embarrassing that Weasen's house can have a more successful blog than the great Sybil house. I was talking to Jake recently and we both had little idea what was going on in other people's lives, although admittedly part of this is our own fault for being sucky at keeping in touch.

I've adjusted the blog so that (hopefully) it emails everyone when someone comments on a post and when I post anything. I think each of you will have to go into your settings and make it so that it does the same when you post too. I think if we get notifications in our email like with facebook it'll be easier to keep it running since no one ever thinks to check the actual blog.

As for me....

Doing the second semester of law school thingy. Other than my Constitutional Law class school is pretty boring. I get by with watching my USA shows on Hulu and more Pistons games than they deserve considering their crappy record. UM sports have been an abomination and a huge source of anger and depression and Evan Turner's prayer didn't surprise me one bit. I've also begun to teach myself Greek in my spare time because I'm a nerd and I needed something to do during class when the teachers go off on tangents. Sorry James it's ancient Greek, but maybe I'll transition over to modern Greek once I have a better handle on it.

This summer I'm working for a federal judge in Grand Rapids, making $0 an hour. Wooo debt! Hopefully it looks good on my resume and makes me a better lawyer in the long run. At least living at home will help me save some costs. Of course, we have our big interviews at the end of the summer to determine our jobs next summer and maybe when we graduate. Scary to be deciding so much about my future so soon. Still don't know where I want to be or what kind of law I want to do but yeah, maybe I'll get it all figured out by then. Right now I'm thinking Antitrust Law and Trade Regulation in LA, although that'll probably change next week.

Other than that, not much going on. My oldest brother Adam (not Ben) is getting married at the end of the summer which will be fun. Just got back a week ago from spending half of spring break in LA with suzy q and the family which was a lot of fun and great weather. Things are still going well on that front. If I haven't told you, we're going to live together next year between AA and Detroit. It just makes sense since we're both bored living by ourselves and I'll still only be 20 minutes from AA.

That's all I got for now. I'd love to hear how y'all are doing and what's new with you. Also, Sybil NCAA bracket????

Silly P