Discovered

March 17, 2005

I had a troubled day yesterday, filled with last minute attempts to right some administrative battleships that just had to send themselves to the bottom of the ocean.

Yesterday was deadline day.

The deadlines are pretty clear:

Deadlines
* March 16th – complete application with LSDAS report, LSAT scores and letters of recommendation. No file is reviewed until it is complete.

Well, yesterday was the 16th, and just about everything that I could tend to was in on time.

Just about.

I followed the instructions, yessireebob I did. I didn't read the FAQ or some of the other stuff that I'm sure that other applicants did in this application process, but I did exactly as I was told.

I paid my money to the "transcript collection folks," all hundred and twenty bucks or so, then registered for the LSAT test, and paid another hundred plus bucks, then send the forty bucks in with my official application to law school.

I figured that the web site that collected all those transcripts and then forwarded them on to the law school, did just that. Collected em.

Well, they kind of collect them.

The first hint of trouble came just over a week ago when I bought one of those books on "How to write a winning business/law school personal essay."

Uh huh

As I skimmed through one of the two choices before me I saw a couple of words leap off the page.

"When you request your transcripts, be sure to follow up with the schools to make sure they are sent."

What do you mean when I request my transcripts. Didn't I just pay someone a hundred bucks to do that?

Nope.

I paid someone to collect the data, AFTER I requested the transcripts.

Oh *&%!

So a week ago Monday I faxed requests along with fed x account numbers to try and get the stuff off to the collection folks on time. Sure enough, after a week, one of the 3 still couldn't find their ass with both hands and the errant transcript had not made it out the door till the end of the week.

So this Monday I'm checking the one "collected" report that was sent on to the law school and I notice that one of the 3 years of my undergraduate study is missing. Granted, I was out of the country, but my school took all the credits and accepted them.

Insert flurry of phone calls here and finally LSAC folks, when asked about the missing data insert a Woops, and a UH OH.

Woops that they didn't report the 40 credit hours and UH OH that they didn't post a warning of an unacknowledged transcript into my record.

"Don't you know that you are supposed to put down EVERY school you ever attended. Your file is not going to be complete till you have that transcript."

Yippie

I find the New York office of the University and talk to the office of academic affairs. "Can I fax you a request along with my fed-x account number and a credit card?"

Nope

NOPE! WTF do you mean by NOPE?

We can only take a check.

For 10 dollars?

Yep.

Frick and frack. Oh, and if you don't have a fed-x account number, it will take at least 3-4 weeks to get here from Israel. For about 50 bucks though, if you have the account, the transcript should be here by next Tuesday.

I called fed-x and reactivated my account. My assistant asked me, "What do people do who don't have access to the resources you do."

"Plan ahead," I offered as I sealed up the next day envelope with the 10 dollar check inside.

Well, all I can say is that it will be what it will be. At the end of it all I was kind of irked that my file was not complete by the deadline and I've carried around a kind of morose spirit since yesterday.

Then came the phone call today.

Hey, NSR, it's Mandel.

No way, Mandel? Don't tell me that it's on.

It's on!

Hmmmm

Let's see. I almost wrote about this back in late January, because it appeared that I had been "discovered" again, and this time it was for real. It's pretty obvious that none of my images ever made it into the digital photography travel book, but out of the blue came a request from a major event planning organization to buy the rights to a one time use of one of my pictures.

We talked in January and then I met with the designer in February but then sure enough, the project got put on hold.

Today it's back, and the clock ticketh.

What's happening is that a charity is throwing a black tie party in the spring for Detroit's version of the Donald. Since our Donald built a whole bunch of buildings that kind of define the skyline of Detroit, the party planners went out on the web looking for images of the Detroit skyline.

Wait, I remember this, didn't you do a skyline photo shoot thing last summer.

Anyway, the deal is done, not lots of money, but the most I've ever gotten for a print, and I get an invite to the party and credit on the back of the invite as the photographer.

And it's kind of curious that the call came on the day after my administrative "issues" with the law school thing. After all, it was Mandel who said to me back in February, "Hey man, what you doin with this finance and numbers thing? Your eyes light up when you work on the pictures. You need to go where you heart is."

Maybe Mandel, but ya still gotta eat.

But, I also got back my first test photos this week so that soon I'll have another couple of "sales" to my credit, as soon as I can work out the differences in color between the monitor and the finished print.

The rose I posted back for Valentines day however, is to die for.

I'm pleased.