law school lessons: week 2
Thank heavens for three-day weekends! By the end of last week, I was completely out of motivation to do any reading. So, I just didn’t. And now I’m a tad behind. This is why Barack Obama invented Labor Day, right? I hope he invents another Monday holiday in October because I’m pretty sure I’m gonna need it.
But first, a new feature! Law School Terms of the Week! (applause)
1. administratrix: like a dominatrix, but with a rule book in one hand
2. chattel: a genetically unlikely cross between a French cat and a herd of cows
3. perdurable impetus: an infuriatingly large and long-lasting skin lesion on one’s mouth
This week’s Law School Lessons won’t be broken down by class because I’m feeling a little lazy. Sue me.
I still like Torts the best. The reading is interesting and the lectures are informative and entertaining. That spells W-I-N in my casebook. Professor Torts is still taking volunteers to discuss cases, so I’m probably going to try to get a turn next week. Pretty soon he’ll start cold-calling people who haven’t volunteered, so I’d just like to get my turn over with. Since I like reading Torts so much, I’m way ahead in there. I may not have to read Torts again until next weekend, if I’m lucky. We finished up all the intentional torts and have moved on to privileges and defenses (e.g., consent).
Contracts is quickly becoming my least favorite. It’s a close competition between Contracts and CivPro for that bottom slot, but for now I think Contracts has the edge. Blah, blah, blah, illusory promise, blah, blah, specific performance, blah, blah, blah. I’m pretty sure the abbreviation for Contracts is K for Killmenowpleez. I hope this gets better. I am still highly entertained by Professor Contracts, though. This past week he recommended a book on Contracts by a guy named Chirelstein for help in understanding some of the more complicated cases we’re reading. I ordered it, and I’ll be sure to let you know if it’s really helpful or not.
My number was up in Civil Procedure this week. I got called on, but I got off pretty easy. We were doing a class exercise on the federal legal process as a whole, and she was wanting the entire class to participate but sometimes she’d ask a question and get a classroom full of blank stares. So she got frustrated and decided to call on people, and of course she called on me. She asked me a hypothetical that I had no idea about, so of course I answered incorrectly. Then a classmate tried to chime in and offer help, and he got it wrong, too. She asked me a few more questions, I ended up feeling wholly inadequate and foolish (just like I predicted last week), and then she moved on. After class, several people told me I was so lucky to have gotten called on that day because it was pretty easy. And by easy I mean that I didn’t cry or wet my pants. Also, I have no idea what the hell is going on in this class. I’m as thoroughly confused as I’ve ever been in my whole life. I’m just gonna have to pull a Dory.
Legal Practice is still going swimmingly well (hee hee). We got our first major assignment this week – a closed memo assignment that has to do with a real Texas case involving a monkey stealing plants from a nursery at the behest of his owner. Ka-razy! I just couldn’t love my LP professor any more than I already do, so I’ll refrain from gushing.
We had a mandatory meeting last week about filing our intent to practice law with the bar. Apparently this form is made of gold and encrusted with jewels, because it costs us each $190 just to file the damn thing. Actually, at this point I’m already so numb to spending god-awful amounts of money on law school that I didn’t pay that much attention to the cost, but quite a few of my classmates were seething mad about it. Anyway, what are you gonna do? Not file it? I didn’t think so. Also, they went on and on and on and on about being 100% positive that we disclose everything that might come up on a background check, so that it doesn’t seem like we’re trying to hide anything. I’m talking this lady spent at least half her entire speech on this one point. I get it, I understand that they’re just trying to help, but jeez. I’m now so frightened of forgetting some little detail of my life that I may or may not be hearing voices. And the voices tell me to run away! run away! run away!
Ninja Dog apparently is having issues with my being gone from home all day, because every time I turn around she tries to eat some of my precious highlighters. This week I had to say a sad farewell to my red, dark blue, and purple highlighters. Those colors have been replaced with thin Crayola markers in comparable shades. I’m such a school-supply nerd.
see more Lolcats and funny pictures
Congrats on surviving week two!
I know all too well about lack of motivation to read…
I have take-home finals from my summer classes due on Friday and have basically nothing done. Awesome.
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Hah, I *love* the Finding Nemo reference…in fact, that’s probably the best strategy for dealing with the first month or so of 1L! Makes it all the better when the “aha!” moment comes–and it will! Best of luck
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If there’s anything I’ve learned from this first encounter with law school, it’s that for upper year courses, aside from core courses I think will be helpful later on, I’m going to take anything that is taught by a good professor. If it’s the law of paper maché taught my prof amazing, I’m taking it.
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I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one having loads of fun in K.
You have the right philosophy about Civ. Pro. Russian Roulette. I anticipate I’ll have the same experience in K when my number gets called. So far volunteering has kept the suffering to a minimum.
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The Chirelstein book is really helpful. Good on you for picking it up. Should help you quite a bit.
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Hey ninja! I love your terms from 2nd week! I’ll definitely have to remma them! I’m sad that you don’t like contracts…I hope I will like them when I go to schoo. Torts are amazing..from what I’ve studied they are completely hilarious and fuuuun!!! And don’t worry about ninja dog. He will get used to you leaving. Just give him love whenever you can. Unfortunately I have to leave my dog soon..living in a major city soon. So I’m trying to spend as much time with him as possible! It will be difficult at first but he’ll get used to it. Hope this advice helps! Keep blogging and letting us know about law school! I love your tales of the socratic method!!! Haha. Take care and keep ya head up!!
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My friends and I call those moments when we’re called on ‘code brown’. I unfortunately had to call a code brown last week too
But it sounds like you survived it and it’ll be muche easier the next time!
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It’s Labor Day Weekend. Have a nice day!!
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Yeah, law school sucks just a bit… My Torts Professor cold calls and seems to talk 150 miles per hour… Never know what I should write down, listen to or just ignore… Glad you have a favorite class already. So far, I haven’t gotten there yet…just trying my best to keep up…Just glad it is Friday…
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Concepts and Insights by Chirelstein is fantastic. I discovered fairly quickly in my first year last year that I can’t learn on casebooks alone, thus my camrades and I invested heavily in any and all study aids and found several that worked well. If you ever want to know about certain product lines, etc. let me know. We discovered that all of them are good, but some are better than others depending on the course subject and your learning style.
I feel for you on Civ Pro, I’m taking that this year because as a part-timer, Civ Pro is saved for your second year. I’m loving the hornbook by Friedenthal and Acing Civ Pro (it’s small but it has these amazing checklists that set up exactly how to fully analyze a fact pattern).
Anyways, hang in there, it sounds like you’re holding up fantastically!
Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences, hope you have a fantastic weekend!
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Yeah, law school sucks just a bit… My Torts Professor cold calls and seems to talk 150 miles per hour… Never know what I should write down, listen to or just ignore… Glad you have a favorite class already. So far, I haven't gotten there yet…just trying my best to keep up…Just glad it is Friday……
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