jump to navigation

Gearing up for the IL Bar Exam in Feb 2009 September 5, 2008

Posted by atharkhan in : IL Bar Prep, Personal , add a comment

The Illinois Bar application requires even more information than the Moral Character application in California. These days, I am trying to compile all this information to be able to register for the upcoming exam in February 2009. Hopefully, this will all be done in the next two or three weeks leaving only the exam to focus on.

Settling In September 5, 2008

Posted by atharkhan in : Personal , add a comment

I’ve been in Chicago for about a week and things are finally beginning to fall into place. We have an apartment and the household stuff has been delivered. Because we’re living in a very small apartment instead of the place we were originally counting on, we will have to dispose of a lot of our things. So, over the next few days, we’ll have to list them on Craigslist. If you are interested in items such as a chaise lounge (patio chair), bicycle, bbq grill, couches, etc., let us know.

Mathematical Secret to a Happy Marriage? August 27, 2008

Posted by atharkhan in : Personal , 1 comment so far

I’ve been married for a few days and already the tech-nerd in me wants to “engineer” this relationship for “optimal” output. I believe that any relationship sets its course at its outset and that is why I was trying to figure out what type of behavior increases the chances of happiness.

So, I set out searching (I can’t bring myself to say “Googling”) to figure out what makes for a happy marriage. As it turns out, psychologist John Gottman and applied mathematicians James Murray and Kristin Swanson at the Relationship Research Institute at the University of Washington in Seattle have set forth a mathematical model that can predict the success or failure of a marriage with 94% accuracy. (Here’s a link to the story at BBC).

To make their predictions, the team videotapes a married couple’s conversation about an area of marital contention. Then, they quantify the ratio of positive to negative interactions during this conversation. The higher the ratio, the better the marriage. Where the ratio falls below 5:1, the marriage could be doomed.

I found this to be very interesting. Do you think there is any merit to this theory? What do you think I can do to ensure a happy and long lasting marriage?