Cheesecake anyone?

Tonight was our ward Christmas party. There was a dinner, a program put on by the primary kids, and a dessert contest. We of course (meaning me) decided that we should enter the contest, by making cheesecake bites.


They really were yummy :) AND we won first place. I was very surprised because there were like 15 entries and they all looked good.

(This picture is a little embarrassing. Can you tell that I spent more time on the cheesecake than I did getting ready for the day?)

The prize was a $40 gift card to Target- my favorite place. Yep, it was a pretty exciting night and maybe, just maybe my luck is changing after all...

Changing luck

This past week the Daily Universe, the BYU newspaper, has been doing a daily drawing where you have to fill out a slip and turn it in. It's a super easy process, and therefore tons of people enter it. Everyday 5 people are drawn and win a $50 gift card.
Brandon and I have both faithfully entered everyday, hoping but not expecting to win. On Wednesday morning before my class I grabbed a paper like usual and turned to the page that announced the winners... and guess who won?

(NOT ME!)

Yep, Brandon won. It was very exciting.

Also, earlier in the year he won a drawing from the law school.

I would definitely say that his luck is changing :)

Now, if we could just work on mine...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh wait, this is from Halloween!
So, it's a little late :)

Now, it's beginning to look like Christmas,
expect that there is no snow!

This is our brand new fake tree that we bought for way cheap on black friday.

A few weeks ago Brandon had a huge paper due for one of his law classes. He spent endless hours working on it. I thought these pictures were funny :)

Moving up in the World

Three posts in two days... that's a sure sign that I'm procrastinating. But I could think of a handful of more useless ways to spend my time. Besides, I still have 5 whole days to study for my first final. That's plenty of time, right?

I'm not sure how many people are vain enough to do a Google search on their own name occasionally, but I find it quite amusing. I've been doing it since I was in Jr. High and usually buried in the results I'll find something that is actually about me. If you've never Googled your own name, I highly recommend it. You should at least find your Facebook page somewhere in the results. (And if you want to help your cause, try adding quotes around your name in the search. That will eliminate a bunch of the irrelevant sites that have the parts of your name in two separate places)

Anyway, when we first started this blog, it was nowhere to be found. At one time I went through 10 pages of "Brandon Crowther" results with nothing. But look at me now. This blog is now on page 5! #1 is still a long way off, but I'll save that goal for another day. All you other Brandon Crowthers better watch out. I'm coming for you.


Alternately, if you search for "Christy Crowther" our blog will be right on top. Right above all the information about some dentist in Florida with the same name. Go Christy!


***UPDATE***
This blog is now on the first page when you search for my name. That's what I'm talking about!

Legal Absurdity

Well, while I'm sick and using my time in a very strange way (see previous post), I figure I might as well post again.

Law school is going well for me. I've been very surprised that I can enjoy the nuances and uncertainties of the law. It's fascinating really. And since I haven't had a job to burden my free time, I've had plenty of time to study and actually do the readings (possibly a first in my college experience). But, law school is not all "kicks and giggles." While I really love the subject, I'm not such a fan of the process. Let me explain.

Everything in law school is graded on a curve. Sure, I had plenty of undergraduate classes that claimed to be on a curve, but they weren't really. In almost every case, the professors would only use a curve to inflate grades, never to force an artificial ranking of the students. But that is what law school does. I've heard that Harvard (and perhaps Yale?) have done away with grades and I think that is brilliant. However, BYU argues that if they were to do away with grades the employers would go elsewhere. The big firms apparently like these artificial rankings.

Grades truly aren't my concern. It is being judged on how you do compared to everyone else. The professors/TA's try to comfort students by telling us that we are all brilliant, but then why rank? It seems to be a silly way to extend the adversarial profession into academia. And how accurate can a class rank really be? Let me illustrate.

The only feedback I have so far is in my Property class where we had real midterms that counted towards our grade (every other class is based 100% on the final) and here's how the grades look (I couldn't help but graph it):

Notice that almost everyone in the class has a 90% and above. Now how can you honestly tell me that someone with a 95% is so much better than someone with a 93%? And we're not talking about saying they are marginally better. That 2% drop in grade is a 20% drop in class ranking, where the employer's really look (or so I'm told).

Ironically, in Property we are learning about all of these legal rules that we adopted from the English that are outdated and kept just because of tradition, not because they make sense. And after criticizing the legal system we keep something almost as ridiculous just because it has been around in law schools forever. Let's just cut the stress of intense competition and get to what really matters, learning to practice the law.

Anyway, that's my rant of the day. If you made it this far, thanks for listening.

Oh the things you'll do for Love

Here you go dad. I'm finally going to blog again.

I haven't been feeling so great this week. Fortunately, it is only some sort of physical illness and not the tremendous stress I probably ought to be feeling with finals just around the corner. Even though I probably only have a cold, I have just enough energy to go to classes and then come home and vegetate on the couch watching T.V. Which is exactly what I am doing now.

Christy is up in Salt Lake at some sort of Relief Society thing with her mom and for some reason I felt it was my duty to watch her new favorite show so that she can enjoy it vicariously through me. I wouldn't be embarrassed if I were watching Seinfeld or Jeopardy, but believe it or not, I'm sitting here watching So You Think You Can Dance so that I can fill Christy in later. Oh the things you'll do for Love...

Operation: Fix Lappy

Well, I would say that I haven't blogged for a while because law school has kept me around-the-clock busy. But that's not true. In fact, I don't know that I've ever enjoyed the first month and a half of school so much. And it's not the classes either. It's the free time (which basically means that when I do actually get around to preparing for finals I'm going to be in a heap of trouble, but I'll cross that bridge when I get around to it).

Anyway, I decided I really needed something to do with all this time. Christy, of course, proposed that I get a job (or more specifically, get my old job back). Besides being only a short term option, that would ruin all my fun! So I decided to take up some hobbies instead. And here's what resulted:


Christy's laptop (hereafter referred to as "Lappy"), had been having some issues. Lappy had a hard time realizing he was plugged in - and his condition was deteriorating into full blown dementia. So like any good doctor, I thought I'd have a look inside.

Unfortunately, I haven't been to medical school, so Lappy was taking quite a risk asking for my services. My assistant, Christy, helped me dismantle Lappy and we found the part that was likely the problem. But was it really?

Poor Lappy didn't realize that my surgical record wasn't exactly top-notch. In fact, the last laptop that I worked on ended up with severe sound issues (although the display issue was fixed!). However, after the double bypass surgery, Lappy booted up and much to my surprise he was completely whole (and somehow his sound quality actually improved). Mission accomplished.


And you'd never guess it, but this stupid little part cost $50 to replace. However, it was well worth bringing Lappy back to life.

And I'd love to do it again, so if anyone has a laptop that needs repair, let me know. But make sure that it is terrible enough first that if there were... complications during surgery, it wouldn't be any worse off than it already was. Catch my drift?