Thursday, August 31, 2006
This really is a beta
I transfered my blog to Blogger's new beta system for it's enhanced functionality (RSS feeds, post labels, easy customability). But, along with the nifty new features come at least a few problems. I've already hit one: I tried to move the Links section of the sidebar to the top of the sidebar, but the system won't let me save the change.
First post!
Welcome. In just a few weeks I will start as student of the University of Chicago Law School.
I am not anonymous; My name is Alex Parker. I thought long and hard about whether or not to post anonymously. Anthony Rickey's post on anonymity influenced my decision and is a very helpful read for any law students thinking of blogging. [1] In my case, blogging anonymously is made even less practical by the simple fact that the University of Chicago Law School uses the quarter system and thus operates on a very different schedule than most other law schools. While I don't think that it's entirely unique among law schools in its use of the quarter system (in fact, Stanford's law school is transitioning to the quarter system), it's one of a very few law schools that does. Knowing that I'm a 1L at such a school would make me much less anonymous.
Secondly, one of my goals for this blog is to offer a glimpse of the UChicago Law School to potential students, and to do so I must advertise the fact that I attend that school. When I first began researching law schools, I knew nothing at all about the University of Chicago. I'm now very excited to have the opportunity to attend the law school there. However, I learned most of what first interested me about the law school by reading a couple of online forums, an option of which not everyone is going to want to avail him- or herself. Beyond the forums, I found the best way to learn about any particular law school was to read student blogs. My posts here will be heavily self-moderated (I'm not anonymous, after all!), so what makes it onto the page will be some very small facets of my thoughts and experiences about the school (see again Anthony Rickey's post on anonymity), but I hope to make this blog a little useful in this regard.
Also, I'm somewhat knowledgeable about the way the internet works, and while I'm relatively confident that I could make it at least difficult for a determined, net-skilled person to track down my identity, I'd just as soon not bother.
In the few weeks before school starts, in addition to moving, I plan on sprucing this blog up, adding links, and perhaps further customizing the aesthetics.
[1]: Anthony Rickey, just before closing down his Columbia Law Student blog, made two posts full of advice to 1Ls starting blogs. Advice, Part II. They're great.
I am not anonymous; My name is Alex Parker. I thought long and hard about whether or not to post anonymously. Anthony Rickey's post on anonymity influenced my decision and is a very helpful read for any law students thinking of blogging. [1] In my case, blogging anonymously is made even less practical by the simple fact that the University of Chicago Law School uses the quarter system and thus operates on a very different schedule than most other law schools. While I don't think that it's entirely unique among law schools in its use of the quarter system (in fact, Stanford's law school is transitioning to the quarter system), it's one of a very few law schools that does. Knowing that I'm a 1L at such a school would make me much less anonymous.
Secondly, one of my goals for this blog is to offer a glimpse of the UChicago Law School to potential students, and to do so I must advertise the fact that I attend that school. When I first began researching law schools, I knew nothing at all about the University of Chicago. I'm now very excited to have the opportunity to attend the law school there. However, I learned most of what first interested me about the law school by reading a couple of online forums, an option of which not everyone is going to want to avail him- or herself. Beyond the forums, I found the best way to learn about any particular law school was to read student blogs. My posts here will be heavily self-moderated (I'm not anonymous, after all!), so what makes it onto the page will be some very small facets of my thoughts and experiences about the school (see again Anthony Rickey's post on anonymity), but I hope to make this blog a little useful in this regard.
Also, I'm somewhat knowledgeable about the way the internet works, and while I'm relatively confident that I could make it at least difficult for a determined, net-skilled person to track down my identity, I'd just as soon not bother.
In the few weeks before school starts, in addition to moving, I plan on sprucing this blog up, adding links, and perhaps further customizing the aesthetics.
[1]: Anthony Rickey, just before closing down his Columbia Law Student blog, made two posts full of advice to 1Ls starting blogs. Advice, Part II. They're great.
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