Law Review Hell

Exactly 24 hours before I have to turn this thing in. Let's just say that I slept 5 hours on Monday night, 5 hours on Tuesday night, 2 hours last night, and likely no sleep tonight. And after all this, still not sure whether I have a good product. A case comment is hard as hell.

This is probably the hardest I have ever worked in law school, and ironically, it's not even a part of school!

The upside to all this: it all comes to a crashing halt tomorrow at 3.

Oh, I'm also dogsitting J's black lab mix. She's sleeping on the floor in my apartment right now. Yes, she was distracting, and no, I don't mind because she is so affectionate and cute!

:D dog-walking
:( case comment.

Law Review Competition, Day 4

Got up at noon today and began working only after 2-hour lunch with ABS.

Work was solid though, and wrote part of the case comment that can be done without formulating a thesis. I found the mechanical aspect of writing somewhat soothing, although by dinner, both ABS and I were panicking a little that it's already Monday, we have 3 days left, and still don't have a thesis for the case comment.

Should get back to work now. Hopefully, I will sleep by 2 AM tonight...

:D nice weather, finally
:( too much secondary sources to read

Law Review Competition, Day 3

So, after ONE precious day of freedom, in which I lounged around with ABS and another gay guy from our section, GW, the Law Review competition started on Friday.

ABS and I picked up our competition packets at around 4 in the afternoon with a bunch of friends. In case you're wondering, the legendary packet is about 4 inches thick, and too heavy for me to hold on one hand. It required 3 humungous binders, and almost didn't fit into my bookbag. Such is the back-crushing realities of law school.

After picking up the packet, ABS and I sat in our favorite spot on campus and read the directions. The competition is divided into 2 parts: subciting, and writing a case comment. The subciting part is tedious work: editing and simple bluebooking of a 30-page case comment that has been "doctored" by the editors. Errors abound. Then, we have to write a case comment about a Supreme Court case that was decided last term. Our case is on a very technical aspect of the death penalty. Since I'm not allowed to talk about it, I won't discuss it here. :)

On Friday night, I did very little work, just read the article that we are supposed to subcite for, and the actual case itself.

Yesterday, worked around 6 hours. I did nothing but subciting, and ended up finishing about half of the subciting section. However, didn't touch the case comment part. The case was very complex and I wanted it to swirl around in my mind a little more.

Last night, ABS and I met for dinner. We are strictly bound by the honor code to not talk about the competition, so we didn't. Instead, we made up a schedule and realized that every single day of the next week is going to incredibly full. Think 10-hour days.

Today, I got up too late (around 11) and started working about 1.5 hours later (procrastinated before then, of course.). I started out with case comment (read a few central cases, jotted notes down, etc.), then finished my first round of subciting just around now. Subciting is tedious... there are so many errors, and it involves reading every source closely and making sure the source supports the statement. It's pretty much like normal subciting, except now the errors that we find have point values.

I worked in Starbucks today for 7 hours, sitting there in the center big table (selfishly taking it all up myself!) and drinking first a huge latte and then a big green tea. It was pretty nice. Perhaps I will go back there tomorrow just because it's a nice change of pace.

Around late afternoon, there was a big thunderstorm, which I really liked. People streamed into Starbucks to take cover from the heavy downpour.

Afterwards, there was a single rainbow that shimmed in the sky in a perfect arch. Then, there was another one! I ran outside and took photos with my cell phone. (It's the one time that my camera phone actually had some use!) Since my cell phone camera is crappy, the colors are not as rich and dramtic as it was in real life. But take a look, they are still pretty cool.





:D see photos above.
:( nothing but self-imposed work today!

Done with My 1L Year!

Just finished my property final exam (a 3-hour take-home). Wow, done. I'm done with one 1L year! (At least academically. There's still the week-long Law Review competition that starts on Friday, but I'd rather not think about that right now).

The property final went okay, I thought. The questions seemed straight forward, and I knew my rules and cases reasonably well, and even had the wherewithal to put a bit of humor into my answers.

Contracts this Monday, however, was another story. It was brutal, partly because I hadn't slept the night before. (I thought I was tired enough to go to sleep just on my own, around 11 or so. By the time I realized this was NOT true, it was too late to take a sleeping pill.) So the early part of the 8 hours I was fighting back sleepiness. The later part of the 8 hours I was frantically writng and not having enough time. Was a pretty horrible expereince all around.

However, my experience pretty much accorded with everyone's. And since there's a curve, it's all up in the air.

My experience with contracts was by no means the worst. Apparently, all sorts of mishaps happened on the way to the exam. Two people from my section neer took it. One was suspected by his doctor to have mono. The other one has no explanation thus far. So, these people would apparently have to either make up for the exam in the next few days, or retake contracts next year. Yikes.

Also, a girl drove in from another town (where she was spending the night with her boyfriend), and could not get to the exam until 2.5 hours later because of the flooding.)

THEN, another guy apparently wrote the entire exam in the library (b/c he lived too far awy to go home). THEN, as he was priting, his computer crashed, and the entire file was GONE. He has to retake contracts next year as well, OR retake the contracts exam from the same professor. Either way it's pretty horrible.

Another girl also, for no explanation as far as I could tell, turned in her exam 20 minutes late. Not sure yet what the consequences of THAT is.

Argh, exam season. So much stress and drama. It's finally all over.

:D After 9 days of rain, we finally see the sun today!
:( My summer employer wants yet MORE stuff. I'm seriously worried about them getting the security clearance done on-time.

Things I've Always Wanted to Do In Law School

Taking an eight-hour take-home exam on 0 hours of sleep.

Check.

:D Contracts Exam finished!
:( Why am I still conscious?!

Daaaaaaaaamn...

Am still up outlining for property. Damn we read a lot of cases last semester.

1500 pages! How did the prof sneak that many pages into our syllabus and still remained so popular?!?

Sigh...

Well, tax exam is over. One down, two more to go.

I was not happy after the exam -- felt that there were a lot of things that I could have done better; felt some problems on the exam could have been less tangential; felt that I could have studied harder; felt that the prof could have been less anal;

... but whatever. It's over. Onwards!

:D lavender ice cream
:( question 2 on the tax exam

I Am a Tax Zombie

Spent 10 hours yesterday studying, and will likely spend that much time today. I now know more about tax than I ever knew, which is really not saying much, especially since I'm still figuring out some very very basic concepts.

Sadly, I took a practice exam last night and realized that even with all my newly acquired knowledge, I still don't know nearly enough. So, more studying and exams today.

By tomorrow this time, I will have been done with tax... hopefully forever. Crossing my fingers...

:D Sorry, no :Ds today. The day is one of the dreariest in memory. Rainy, no good food, lots of tax.
:( See above.

How I Procrastinated

- hand-washed 4 pairs of underwear

- did very complicated 4-step cleansing and moisturizing facial I learned from Allure.

- called parents.

- dim sum

- folded clothes

- washed dishes

- bought milk

- lit candles

And finally, here's the all-time winner for absurd procrastination tactics:

- meticulously sorted my humungous bowl of sugar and sugar substitute packets that I accumulated over time from getting travelers from Starbucks, and put them into different containers. There were like about 500 of those, now all neatly stacked in jars.

I also did a (not double-blind, sadly) tasting, and decided that my favorite is the brown cane sugar, followed closely by Equal. I hated Sweet n Low and threw all the packets out.

Top that, I dare you!

:D bean curd with shrimp!
:( tax

From our property class notes:

"Property rights can be best perceived as a bundle of sticks. The stick to keep the dead body in your house does not exist."

"Tennesee: at the forefront of identity rights law, b/c of Elvis impersonators."

Last Day of Class

Had our last contracts class today, and last class ever for our 1L year. A bit of an anticlimax, except for the very memorable 30 seconds where our contracts professor actually WALKED ON HIS HANDS for us. It was pretty cool, and made me like him a lot more. We all applauded and whistled. Law School can be so weird sometimes.

Well, right now I feel too stressed to be sentimental.

It's Friday night and I'm doing TAX. I know, I'm not happy about this, but 1 1/2 weeks more and I'll be done with my 1L year, and the thought scares me.

The student coop outside has a very noisy party, with loud dance music, and people screaming. I guess everyone is happy that school is done and the weather is gorgeous. Summer is in the air today. 80 degrees, sunny skies, and the air smells like flowers and grass. In the afternoon ABS and I sat ourside while I completed my financial aid forms. We had Japanese food in the evening, and afterwards I came home and subjected myself to tax and other people's wild evenings.

They are playing a lot of Madonna songs. This is like the fourth one in an hour, and people are singing it, rather, screaming it together. Man, I hope I wasn't as obnoxious in college, but I probably was.

:D Classes over?
:( Classes over?

Ew

Just got a letter from my summer employer, informing me that they would like "all the summer interns" to start working on May 30th. This is almost a week before the date I thought I was going to start working, and my parents are already planning a trip up to B-Town to hang out with me Memorial Day weekend. I hate to haggle over things like this before I even start working. So, so, so annoying.

:D 72 degrees outside! 'Nuff said.
:( the Internal Revenue Code. 'Nuff said.

6 Days to Tax Exam

And what studying did I do today? Nothing.

I did, however, make up a detailed and extremely busy study schedule for the next two weeks. Let's see if I stick to it.

Today we had our last property class, and yesterday we had our last tax class. I'm a bit sorry that property is over, because I liked the prof, though less in the second half of the semester than the first half. I didn't like tax at all, and gave the prof very low ratings. I just hope that I stuff enough tax into my head in the next few days to do okay on the exam...

AC came over to my apartment to chat about "girl things" today. We talked about relationships, life, career issues, and lots of other things. It was really fun. We had wine and just sat in our chair and chatted. At the end of the evening, we hugged and promised to do this again.

So, I promised myself: real, hardcore studying starting tomorrow!

:D Watching ABS playing his videogames today in his apartment today while trying to work.
:( See title.

:D and :(

Almost forgot. Here are the :D and :( of today:

:D Finally picked up my auction winning items, and found with a pleasant surprise that what they auctioned off as a $50 gift certificate is actually a certificate for a 90-minute Swedish massage, worth... $125. At least according to the spa brochure. The spa looks really nice. At least the brochure looks really nice. And boy do I need a Swedish massage like NOW.

:( My choices for the entire night, and for the foreseeable next two weeks, are: read contracts, outline for contracts, read property, outline for property, read tax, outline for tax, or sleep. And sadly, most of the time I WANT to do the last one. Depressing.

Results

Multi-sections courses lottery results came out this morning during property. Of course no one paid any attention for the second half of the class.

Here are my results:

For con law, I did not get my first choice, the superstar famous con law prof. (His course was also my first choice overall, if you recall). Instead, I got his younger counterpart DL. I was briefly disappointed, then resigned to my fate, then excited because ABS is in my class. I am on the waitlist for the famous prof's class, but I know I can forget about it b/c no one, NO ONE, who is already enrolled in that class will want to drop it. Ah well.

For corps, I got my top choice, the former dean of the law school. However, now I'm feeling ambivalent about him and wondering if I should have gone for the super-nice hippie prof JH, who offers a corps that is extremely critical of corporate rules. The prof that I got will teach straight-up, hardcore corps, so I'll definitely learna ton in his class, whereas JH will teach more theory-oriented critique of corps, so it will be a lot less substance but a lot more interesting. Which one do I prefer? I dunno. I am also on the waitlist for JH's class, so we'll see. Maybe I'll just take a seminar with him instead.

For admin law, I got the famous superstar visiting prof, so I'm really happy about that. Yoohoo. His equally famous wife will also be a visitng prof here and will be teaching a philosophy seminar. I wonder if i should go for that as well.

I also got into the section of evidence that meets during winter term. I'm not as committed to that class and there's a big chance that I will drop it instead. Of course, I just read all about this professor, and he is apparently quite famous, one of a handful of people who graduated summa cum laude from the law school, and who founded the Internet Studies Center at the law school. He sounds like quite an interesting character, and worth getting to know.

I'm on the waitlist for a total of 8 courses.

Now, I just have to figure out the rest the courses for next year, like smaller lectures and seminars. Also, clinicals registration lottery begins tomorrow!

Feminism

I'm finding feminism interesting again. In high school I found it interesting, and loved author like de Beauvoir and Freidan. In college, Women and Gender Studies folks scared me and I found their rhetoric and shrillness tiresome. Many of them also don't seem to be that intelligent or imaginative, and instead just rehash the old jargons that were never that great even when they were new. Most of the "feminists" also seem very angry and unpleasant to be around.

In college I was also in my idealistic phase. I was very interested in literature, philosophy, art,... basically, fields where pleasure and aesthetic appreciation reign paramount. I still believe that those fields are not particularly suited for the feminist critique (although the feminists certainly try). Feminist theory's relentless and insistent need to see nearly everything as a power relationship, or related somehow to the subjugation of women, really turned me off. Feminists seemed like a bunch of humorless bore.

Well, now I'm studying law, and law actually IS about power. From the cases I read, I AM increasingly aware of the imbalance of power and the many male-oriented assumptions that legal doctrines make. And this makes feminist theory relevant to me as it has never been before.

For instance, last semester in crim law, we talked for a bit about how manslaughter, which gives people a lesser sentence for killing someone because there was "provocation", can be seen as condoning the killing of another in the heat of passion -- a very "male" response. This jibes with reality, since the vast majority of people convicted of manslaughter are male. Female, it seems, don't really respond to provocation by killing, but usually by retreating.

There are other examples of this kind of assumptions in crim law. Indeed, what better reflects the assumptions and attitudes abotu women than rape law and domestic violence law? It was very interesting to see how both developed. And I'm sure there are examples like this in torts and contracts and property.

In any event, what I want to say is, I am finding feminist theory, and gender theory, and all that stuff that I couldn't stand when I was doing literature or philosophy or history, interesting again. Law seems like a particular appropriate field for this kind of critique and analysis, since it is after all about the allocation of power. The ultimate question for any law ought to be what the Crits ask: what group does this law favor in society? In fact, now as I type this, I can hardly believe that some would dispute that this is the most important question in law. What is the use of law, except to preserve order and effect positive change in society? And how can you possibly evaluate a law without looking at its results and effects for different groups of people in society?

so, anyway, I am planning to spend my summer reading up on some feminist critique of law. I'm sure I'll have many questions, doubts, and problems with it, just as I do with everything else, but it's a start.

:D Seeing S dance Bollywood styled dances at the International Party tonight.
:( The fact that I'm still not asleep, and the fact that I have a 10:30 class tomorrow morning.