A buddy in all my classes leaned over to to me in Torts today and said, "I wish this was like Survivor and we could vote people off the island."
My response: "I've got a few people in mind who'd get my vote."
It's funny how when he nodded I knew with certainty that we were thinking of the same person.
Maybe we should make an alliance.
Absolutely, I do.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Exhaustion
I knew there would be a lot of reading in law school. I really did, but holy crap, I'm exhausted. I feel like my brain is waking up from a very long hibernation, in which analytical thought was not necessary at all. It's like this intense pleasure-pain; I practically elated in class because we're learning so much and it's (mostly) really interesting, but my head hurts from all the thinking.
I think I'm going to have to rethink my study schedule. I'm going to need to do more reading on the weekends to get ahead for the rest of the week so that Tuesday and Wednesday nights in particular are not this brutal -- especially since I have to function for all three classes on Thursdays. I can't imagine having all this reading to do, plus writing the memo that we have coming up in a few weeks, unless I make some kind of change.
That said, I seem to be understanding the readings pretty well; with the exception of Civil Procedure and one dreadful case this morning on personal jurisdiction, I seem to be grasping the concepts. I also think I have a good method for organizing my notes from the readings and my notes from class, and how to combine them to make them useful for studying later on. Microsoft OneNote is my savior.
I think I'm also going to try to go to a writing workshop on legal writing on Friday morning. I don't really need an extra thing to do, but if I learned one thing in undergrad, it's how important writing is. Legal writing is a drastically different kind of writing, so I want to get whatever help I can. It's been a long time since I've had any real writing to do (since I put such little effort in my library school papers).
Okay, this blog has gotten much too serious, but I'm too tired to even try to bring any wit to the table, so I'm just going to sign off and go to bed.
I think I'm going to have to rethink my study schedule. I'm going to need to do more reading on the weekends to get ahead for the rest of the week so that Tuesday and Wednesday nights in particular are not this brutal -- especially since I have to function for all three classes on Thursdays. I can't imagine having all this reading to do, plus writing the memo that we have coming up in a few weeks, unless I make some kind of change.
That said, I seem to be understanding the readings pretty well; with the exception of Civil Procedure and one dreadful case this morning on personal jurisdiction, I seem to be grasping the concepts. I also think I have a good method for organizing my notes from the readings and my notes from class, and how to combine them to make them useful for studying later on. Microsoft OneNote is my savior.
I think I'm also going to try to go to a writing workshop on legal writing on Friday morning. I don't really need an extra thing to do, but if I learned one thing in undergrad, it's how important writing is. Legal writing is a drastically different kind of writing, so I want to get whatever help I can. It's been a long time since I've had any real writing to do (since I put such little effort in my library school papers).
Okay, this blog has gotten much too serious, but I'm too tired to even try to bring any wit to the table, so I'm just going to sign off and go to bed.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Law Camp Survival and then Some
Well, I have officially done it. And it is: moved to Law School Town, USA, survived Law School orientation (including the first brief and the first memo and watching two other kids in our "law firm" conduct the first client interview -- that third task was really a hardship).
I'm not going to pretend that orientation was exactly pleasant, at least not the first few days. Being the oh-so-perky people person that I am, you can only imagine how please I was to have to make small talk with strangers for several days.
Another thing to make Wednesday even more enjoyable is when the woman instructing us on doing case briefs decided to showcase the "Socratic" method on us by calling on me. I suppose I stumbled through an answer well enough, but it took at least a month off my life to her "Ms. me" called.
Luckily, Wednesday evening was kind of the turning point. Our law firm senior partner (aka, our professor) knew the key to loosening us up: garbage can frisbee and beer pong in the law school lobby. Well, technically, our law firm was supposed to be meeting in one of the classrooms, but it was locked, so we moved our par-tay to the lobby. By the end of the night, we'd all kind of bonded, which made it significantly easier to find someone to sit next to during orientation on Thursday and Friday.
I spent a large portion of the weekend reading for my first classes in Torts, Criminal Law, and Civil Procedure, probably from about 9am to 4 on Saturday and 11 to 3 on Sunday. I'm told we'll get quicker as the semester goes on, so I'll hold my breath for that day to come. I've had all three classes so far, and all the professors are pretty engaging. I really enjoyed Torts and Criminal Law today, but I am currently procrastinating reading Pennoyer v. Neff for Civ Pro. I've been working on it for over an hour and only gotten through like 6 pages. The professor said it was probably the most difficult 1L case, but I can't help wondering if it'll be like this every night for Civ Pro. It doesn't help that I keep finding things to distract me; the Torts and Crim Law readings hold my attention much better.
Well, I suppose I better returned to Civil Procedure: A Contemporary Approach. If you're suffering from insomnia, you might want to check it out, too.
(Speaking of books, but this time one that won't put you asleep, I just started reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, at the suggestion of a pal. Fair warning: they are children's books, but I'll be damned if they don't capture the imagination, especially if you're an Ancient Greek nerd like me.)
I'm not going to pretend that orientation was exactly pleasant, at least not the first few days. Being the oh-so-perky people person that I am, you can only imagine how please I was to have to make small talk with strangers for several days.
Another thing to make Wednesday even more enjoyable is when the woman instructing us on doing case briefs decided to showcase the "Socratic" method on us by calling on me. I suppose I stumbled through an answer well enough, but it took at least a month off my life to her "Ms. me" called.
Luckily, Wednesday evening was kind of the turning point. Our law firm senior partner (aka, our professor) knew the key to loosening us up: garbage can frisbee and beer pong in the law school lobby. Well, technically, our law firm was supposed to be meeting in one of the classrooms, but it was locked, so we moved our par-tay to the lobby. By the end of the night, we'd all kind of bonded, which made it significantly easier to find someone to sit next to during orientation on Thursday and Friday.
I spent a large portion of the weekend reading for my first classes in Torts, Criminal Law, and Civil Procedure, probably from about 9am to 4 on Saturday and 11 to 3 on Sunday. I'm told we'll get quicker as the semester goes on, so I'll hold my breath for that day to come. I've had all three classes so far, and all the professors are pretty engaging. I really enjoyed Torts and Criminal Law today, but I am currently procrastinating reading Pennoyer v. Neff for Civ Pro. I've been working on it for over an hour and only gotten through like 6 pages. The professor said it was probably the most difficult 1L case, but I can't help wondering if it'll be like this every night for Civ Pro. It doesn't help that I keep finding things to distract me; the Torts and Crim Law readings hold my attention much better.
Well, I suppose I better returned to Civil Procedure: A Contemporary Approach. If you're suffering from insomnia, you might want to check it out, too.
(Speaking of books, but this time one that won't put you asleep, I just started reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, at the suggestion of a pal. Fair warning: they are children's books, but I'll be damned if they don't capture the imagination, especially if you're an Ancient Greek nerd like me.)
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