That's just how I feel, okay? DEAL WITH IT!
Stupid memo. Stupid legal writing. Stupid common-law marriage laws. Stupid law school. Stupid cold. Stupid family dinners. Stupid eating too much. Stupid going back to working on paper. Stupid Sunday nights. Stupid Monday mornings. Stupid stupid stupid!
There, I feel better. Oh wait, no, still have like 80% of the paper to go. Better get to it.
Stupid common law marriage.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Why I am wearing purple.
Today we wear purple to make a statement of support and love for all those who felt they had no other option but to end their life; for those who were tormented to the breaking point. Why were they bullied? Because they were gay, lesbian, bisexual or trans-gender. Because our country refuses to acknowledge that even if you don't agree with these people, they are in fact, PEOPLE. Just like anyone else, and they deserve the same rights and respect as any other person. LGBTs are not criminals. They are not insane. They are not "bad people." They are our brothers, sisters, friends and neighbors and they deserve our love.
Today I wear purple to show the conservative community I come from that I am not going to be silent in the face of intolerance. I will equally love and support all people and defend the rights of all.
My thoughts are with those who've lost loved ones in this fight and those who have been faced with the ugliness of hate and misunderstanding. You are not alone, you have allies.
Today I wear purple to show the conservative community I come from that I am not going to be silent in the face of intolerance. I will equally love and support all people and defend the rights of all.
My thoughts are with those who've lost loved ones in this fight and those who have been faced with the ugliness of hate and misunderstanding. You are not alone, you have allies.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Fall Continuation
Because it's not a break. Nope. No Fall Break. No Thanksgiving Break. No Christmas Break. They told us, and by God they were right.
I put more hours into studying this past week/weekends than I have the whole semester. Usually 10-12 hour days. All to meet the goal of getting outlines established up to our current place in the syllabus. I didn't even bother doing a Torts outline, but I started using the flashcards. Since my teacher does 400 questions in 4 hours all multiple choice and true or false, I've reconsidered my position on this. But I didn't have time. The flashcards helped immensely (to the point that I am now on the ones relevant to the cases we're reading tomorrow) but my prof has a few idiosyncrasies. For example, if he hates/loves a particular judge, he will ask a question like "T/F Learned Hand would agree that there is no such thing as gross negligence, only negligence." So you better be sure that I'll be using my class notes heavily to study. Tricky tricky. I think on the substantive points I'll be golden. My only concern are little nit-picky things like that.
It's especially tricky because there was a judge who thought that, but it wasn't Learned Hand, it was Baron Rolfe. See? Nit-picky.
I'm sort of looking forward to it, in my weird nerdy way. Closed-everything, 400 questions (leaving 36 seconds per question)? Sounds like a challenge!!
I did alright working on my CivPro outline. I'm not fully caught-up, but I got a great jump on it and I know the format I'm going to use.
Contracts was... well awful. I got something made, and when I went to a study group I found it less than helpful. I need to cross-reference things better. But, I do think making it helped and I really liked the supplements I got. I made a flowchart, using a red light/green light sort of format. For example, you first need to establish "Is there a contract?" So that's a green box. Then when you get to the end of that analysis, your conclusion is a red stop sign. Then you move to the next question which relates to the terms of the contract, again a green box. And so on. It helps me visually and I enjoyed making it. It helped me get in the zone of working through all the possible scenarios.
I am concerned about being allowed to use it on the exam. I did use a supplement to make it, often using exact language for the questions. However, I spent hours and hours working on it and trying to make it my own. And, the questions are pretty universal, so I don't see a need to re-word them. I may show it to him and ask if it's okay to use it. He basically said we can use anything we want as long as we don't bring in the supplement or just use someone else's outline from the previous year. I guess we'll see! Either way, I will use it to study with and that helps a lot.
As for Methods, I did preliminary research for my memo. I should have done a lot more than that, but the fact is I just DID NOT WANT TO. I got a good list of cases and I'll make the case plan tomorrow night. It's due Tuesday. I think I know enough about research to not be worried (my TA recommended I not wait until the last minute, but that was so we could call with any questions if we got stuck.) I'm not worried about that so I feel fine procrastinating.
Things are getting crazy.
I went to a few great parties over the break and made some new friends. It was great getting to know classmates who aren't in my section, because we don't really know each other exists. It's like grade school all over again. Next semester they shake things up. Lola and I will only have Methods together, which breaks my heart. But, a few of the new friends I made this weekend will have most classes with me, so I know I have a friend-base there already.
Looking forward to next weekend. Getting back in the habit of waking up is going to be rough.
I put more hours into studying this past week/weekends than I have the whole semester. Usually 10-12 hour days. All to meet the goal of getting outlines established up to our current place in the syllabus. I didn't even bother doing a Torts outline, but I started using the flashcards. Since my teacher does 400 questions in 4 hours all multiple choice and true or false, I've reconsidered my position on this. But I didn't have time. The flashcards helped immensely (to the point that I am now on the ones relevant to the cases we're reading tomorrow) but my prof has a few idiosyncrasies. For example, if he hates/loves a particular judge, he will ask a question like "T/F Learned Hand would agree that there is no such thing as gross negligence, only negligence." So you better be sure that I'll be using my class notes heavily to study. Tricky tricky. I think on the substantive points I'll be golden. My only concern are little nit-picky things like that.
It's especially tricky because there was a judge who thought that, but it wasn't Learned Hand, it was Baron Rolfe. See? Nit-picky.
I'm sort of looking forward to it, in my weird nerdy way. Closed-everything, 400 questions (leaving 36 seconds per question)? Sounds like a challenge!!
I did alright working on my CivPro outline. I'm not fully caught-up, but I got a great jump on it and I know the format I'm going to use.
Contracts was... well awful. I got something made, and when I went to a study group I found it less than helpful. I need to cross-reference things better. But, I do think making it helped and I really liked the supplements I got. I made a flowchart, using a red light/green light sort of format. For example, you first need to establish "Is there a contract?" So that's a green box. Then when you get to the end of that analysis, your conclusion is a red stop sign. Then you move to the next question which relates to the terms of the contract, again a green box. And so on. It helps me visually and I enjoyed making it. It helped me get in the zone of working through all the possible scenarios.
I am concerned about being allowed to use it on the exam. I did use a supplement to make it, often using exact language for the questions. However, I spent hours and hours working on it and trying to make it my own. And, the questions are pretty universal, so I don't see a need to re-word them. I may show it to him and ask if it's okay to use it. He basically said we can use anything we want as long as we don't bring in the supplement or just use someone else's outline from the previous year. I guess we'll see! Either way, I will use it to study with and that helps a lot.
As for Methods, I did preliminary research for my memo. I should have done a lot more than that, but the fact is I just DID NOT WANT TO. I got a good list of cases and I'll make the case plan tomorrow night. It's due Tuesday. I think I know enough about research to not be worried (my TA recommended I not wait until the last minute, but that was so we could call with any questions if we got stuck.) I'm not worried about that so I feel fine procrastinating.
Things are getting crazy.
I went to a few great parties over the break and made some new friends. It was great getting to know classmates who aren't in my section, because we don't really know each other exists. It's like grade school all over again. Next semester they shake things up. Lola and I will only have Methods together, which breaks my heart. But, a few of the new friends I made this weekend will have most classes with me, so I know I have a friend-base there already.
Looking forward to next weekend. Getting back in the habit of waking up is going to be rough.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Knee Deep In...Well YOU Know
Sorry for the lack of post. I try to shoot for a minimum of one per week. The thing is, I HAD NO IDEA, ya'll. Not a clue. Nope, totally thought this whole outlining thing would be SO easy. I was even excited! What IS wrong with me??
Never in my life have I sat at my desk staring at a blinking cursor completely unable to write anything. Never! I'm usually overwhelmed with all of the ideas tumbling out of me onto the keyboard. It gets messy, normally.
Here are my problems.
First, at my Methods professor's recommendations, I surrounded myself with my books, syllabus, supplements, and a few commercial outlines for a particular subject. Then, after making a blood sacrifice to a dark god, all those items would magically combine into the glorious if not somewhat ethereal OutLine. Yeah, not so much. What format do I take? I was thinking use the syllabus and then alter it with material from the commercial outlines. Then plug in holdings/issues to the cases on the syllabus. Then make some sort of a synthesized rule. But the commercial outlines don't even acknowledge cases really, they just give you the overall rule, which is SUPER helpful, except I have a feeling my profs are going to refer to cases or want us to (they've said as much) and there is just no way I can put BOTH in there. If I do, the thing will be 200 pages long instead of the 40 or so I was aiming for.
HELP ME. THE POST-ITS ARE STARTING TO REBEL. I DON'T LIKE THE WAY THAT OLD EMANUEL DUDE IS LOOKING AT ME. I'VE BITTEN OFF ALL MY NAILS. OH LOOK, I DROPPED A CHEET-OH. I WONDER HOW LONG IT'S BEEN THERE. NOM NOM NOM. WHAT?!?!
Okay so it isn't THAT bad. But still, not being able to write is a discomfort I am not used to. Not to mention I still have The Memo That Shall Not Be Named to write before Fall Break is over. And the voices are getting louder.
Never in my life have I sat at my desk staring at a blinking cursor completely unable to write anything. Never! I'm usually overwhelmed with all of the ideas tumbling out of me onto the keyboard. It gets messy, normally.
Here are my problems.
First, at my Methods professor's recommendations, I surrounded myself with my books, syllabus, supplements, and a few commercial outlines for a particular subject. Then, after making a blood sacrifice to a dark god, all those items would magically combine into the glorious if not somewhat ethereal OutLine. Yeah, not so much. What format do I take? I was thinking use the syllabus and then alter it with material from the commercial outlines. Then plug in holdings/issues to the cases on the syllabus. Then make some sort of a synthesized rule. But the commercial outlines don't even acknowledge cases really, they just give you the overall rule, which is SUPER helpful, except I have a feeling my profs are going to refer to cases or want us to (they've said as much) and there is just no way I can put BOTH in there. If I do, the thing will be 200 pages long instead of the 40 or so I was aiming for.
HELP ME. THE POST-ITS ARE STARTING TO REBEL. I DON'T LIKE THE WAY THAT OLD EMANUEL DUDE IS LOOKING AT ME. I'VE BITTEN OFF ALL MY NAILS. OH LOOK, I DROPPED A CHEET-OH. I WONDER HOW LONG IT'S BEEN THERE. NOM NOM NOM. WHAT?!?!
Okay so it isn't THAT bad. But still, not being able to write is a discomfort I am not used to. Not to mention I still have The Memo That Shall Not Be Named to write before Fall Break is over. And the voices are getting louder.
Friday, October 1, 2010
Everybody's Workin' for the Weekend
This week has been rough. My memo took way more effort than I thought it would, but the good news is I got it back today with minimal notes. I'll probably be able to fix the errors and polish it a bit pretty easily, maybe an hour or so. We also have to put in the issues and quick-answers, which I've never done before. Hopefully it will be as easy as it sounds.
I keep meaning to go visit professors during office hours. Everyone keeps saying it is so helpful and they are really willing to offer advice on their own classes as well as law school in general. Outlining is making me semi-nervous. I'm starting to get the hang of CivPro (I think) and today in contracts I finally gave an argument my professor liked. Other than near the end I sort of tapered off with "the bank is just trying to cover their rear ends." He liked the rest of it though.
Torts is scary but fun, as always. I got some flash cards and I am going to start learning those Monday. I got my personal website (mostly) finished and published. I have a few more things to do on it but at least it's up if a potential employer Googles me. All in all I am giving myself enough time to have fun but still get reading done.
Today after contracts a friend came up and gave me a hug. He said I had his vote for top 10% of the class because I am "Soooo smart." *tear* I really needed that today.
I keep meaning to go visit professors during office hours. Everyone keeps saying it is so helpful and they are really willing to offer advice on their own classes as well as law school in general. Outlining is making me semi-nervous. I'm starting to get the hang of CivPro (I think) and today in contracts I finally gave an argument my professor liked. Other than near the end I sort of tapered off with "the bank is just trying to cover their rear ends." He liked the rest of it though.
Torts is scary but fun, as always. I got some flash cards and I am going to start learning those Monday. I got my personal website (mostly) finished and published. I have a few more things to do on it but at least it's up if a potential employer Googles me. All in all I am giving myself enough time to have fun but still get reading done.
Today after contracts a friend came up and gave me a hug. He said I had his vote for top 10% of the class because I am "Soooo smart." *tear* I really needed that today.
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