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These new digs need some major spiffing. Unfortunately, I’m in the middle of writing a lengthy research paper due tomorrow and have one more final. After that, I can plunge into a new blog template – probably linkware until I have time to get creative.
The blogroll will be moved over soon and updated.
The archives are going to be a massive project. There is no way to import entries from Movable Type to Blogger. I have my archives saved into an xml file. I haven’t decided if I’m going to enter them all by hand, copy and paste sections into different categorized posts, or what.
The final motion is done for legal writing. I’m turning it in this morning which marks my final legal writing duty until January. Oh, the bliss.
This one was a bitch. I was still in the throes of a chest cold while I struggled with it all weekend. I wore jammies, I didn’t shower until I stunk, and I ate ice cream for dinner at least once. I also went through all of the stages of grief. On Saturday I was paralyzed in panic and fear. I kept reading, reading, reading and all the cases were just big jumbles of confusion and unanswered questions. I’m proud to say I only emailed the prof once. I resisted the urge to track him down and visit him at his home clad in jammies. I also resisted the urge to either (a) not turn anything in for my final; or (b) quit law school.
Finally on Saturday evening I’d had enough. I slammed the haphazard stack of research on the table and pronounced all research done. I’d work with what I had and wing it where necessary. I forced myself to open up a blank page and started the grueling process of putting together the statement of facts with irritating cites to documents every sentence.
And amazingly I felt better immediately. The lawyer I worked for has always told me that when I fell lost to just start writing. And it works every time, although I often forget her advice until I’ve worked myself into a frenzy.
The brief finished at 14 pages. It pretty much sucks in my estimation. The arguments don’t flow and the organization is a bit wacky. But it is done. Done! My ugly little stepchild of a brief is either going to jump the curve or sink.
Yesterday I was whining with a fellow student. Of course, we checked with each other to see where we were at in our respective struggles. I told her I finished my brief, that it was crap, and I was going to put together the other junk that goes with it (motion, declaration, order). She said she does the “other junk” first and then briefs. She mentioned she was going to start her brief at noon.
I was stunned, but kept my poker face. She was starting her brief the day before it was due! And she wasn’t even nervous! I assume she has some magical outline and all her cases neatly organized into said outline. I do know that she had a bunch of synthesized cases up on her laptop screen a few weeks ago, so she did have jump on the rest of us. Unfortunately, I don’t work that way. I usually have scattered notes, chicken scratch outlines and a teetering pile of cases when I start writing. I wish I could say I’ll change my ways, but the forecast says no.
After work today I start my long weekend of relaxation and outlining. Then one more week of classes followed by the loathesome finals.
I’m still stuck with this chest cold which is causing everything to blow out of proportion. Yesterday was a nightmare.
I have my final motion and brief due for legal writing Tuesday at 10:00 a.m. sharp. And it’s a ballbreaker. Imagine writing a brief for a summary judgment on federal and state civil rights violations. Did you weep a little? I am.
Yesterday I got stuck in what I call Research Sludge. I had piles and piles of cases printed out from Westlaw to read through. Of course, I had started reading them previously, but yesterday was down and dirty. The more I read, the more out of control the briefing became in my mind. Everything was scattered, everything brought up new questions in my mind, I was imploding. And to top it off, I was feeling sicker by the minute. This led to FEAR. I was never going to get this sucker done. Could I get an extension? Unlikely. It’s a chest cold and procrastination – this does not lead to an extension. I was screwed, screwed, and more screwed.
Finally at about 8:00 p.m. I made the decision. No more research. No more bumbling. Just start writing and work with what I have on deck. Facts that I really wish I had are not going to fall out of the sky. They. Aren’t. There. Just go with it already.
So I started writing and putting myself through the agonizing Statement of Facts with string citations to exhibits after every freakin’ sentence. But I’m feeling much better. This sucker is going to be written TODAY dammit. It may not be brilliant. It may completely miss the boat. But it will be DONE. And when it is done, I have one day of classes and one day of work next week. Then it’s off for a nice long weekend of relaxation and outlining. The final legal writing assignment will be behind me and may it burn in Hell.
Yesterday I discovered that my fellow 2Ls were in the same boat as me with their final motion due next week. Apparently I’m not the only one with a pile of research I haven’t read and nary a keystroke on a blank page. I came across a few in the library between classes with furrowed brows and clenched teeth.
And it relaxed me.
There’s something about not being the only one who put off the inevitable final motion. I’m comforted in the knowledge that while I slave away over the weekend putting together a motion I should have done last week, my comrades are right there with me. We’ll all be miserable. I’m not alone.
The chest cold is slowly working it’s way out of my system. The prospect of getting this damn writing project done and then heading into a very long weekend is what gets me through the day.
I thought I’d dust off the blog just to prove I am, in fact, alive and kicking.
Things have been busy at both school and work. So far this week I’ve enjoyed the thrill of not having a pending paper due in LRW. Alas, that will all end at 1:00 p.m. today when we get our new assignment.
I broke down and bought commercial briefs for Contracts and Con Law. Our contracts prof is a stereotypical contracts prof. She has a wicked dry wit. And she’s tricky. I’m never entirely sure which cases she is placing the most importance on. Since I’m not briefing, I thought I’d better get a canned brief to assist with the old outline.
And Con Law. Egads. Case after case after case and each case changes with the times. The dissents are as long as (or longer) than the majority opinion IF there is a majority opinion. Solution – commercial brief for the outline.
I cannot wait for this term to be over. My schedule is not conducive to having a life. Hell, it’s barely conducive for fitting in 20 hours of work per week. I’m looking forward to having at least a small shot of arranging my schedule to my liking next year.
Although it would be nice to get some credits out of the way during the summers and have a luxurious 3rd year, I’ve decided to take the summers off. First, I need the money from full time work. Second, I need the break.
Finally, I cannot rave enough about my new IPod. During my between-class breaks, I plug in the IPod and tune out the world in the library while I read. It’s nice, especially since on more than one occasion I’ve been irritated by some students who think they are in the lounge as opposed to the library. Since I abhor tattling, I certainly don’t report them. Now I can ignore them while the music of my choice flows through my ears.
That’s my new mantra as I work on my first LRW project of the semester. Last semester I researched in a frenzied manner, “hurry, hurry, hurry get to the answer, hurry, hurry, hurry!” As a result, my research was spotty and my papers were disjointed.
Not this time bucko. I’m immersing myself in learning about the topic and then diving into the statutes and case law. Just because I have a gut feeling of where to find the primary authority, doesn’t mean I need to jump right to it all willy-nilly.
Last night I got a little too excited about diving into secondary sources and printed out an entire freakin’ chapter of CJS. Let’s not do that again ‘kay?
More importantly, Trent Reznor has finally announced the release date of his new album. The release date happens exactly on the day between my Contracts final and Con Law final. Thank you Mr. Reznor for having the courtesy of checking my Outlook calendar and picking a perfect date for the new release. Now, make sure you schedule the concert in my town on my summer break. That’s a good boy.
And finally, RIP Johnny Carson.
The open memo was turned in at noon today. I think I did better than most of my fellow students in keeping the stress-load down. I looked around class yesterday and everyone looked like hell. Contact lenses have been abandoned en masse. Attire is rumpled, bloodshot eyes, scraggly hair, and some even smelled! I heard two girls talking about pulling all-nighters to get their memos done. Egads!
As usual I do not feel my memo was the perfection it could have been. There’s never enough time. I focused on format, format, format. I hope I didn’t miss anything glaring in my research. But it’s done, time to move on.
Tomorrow I’m hoping to take tomorrow off law school obsession while I put together Thanksgiving dinner. I went to the grocery store and seriously damaged my debit card buying the stuff. I heard my card audibly groan as I slid it through. It’s just J and I for dinner since the extended families are located elsewhere. Usually I go “elsewhere” but this year I have to stay home snuggled up to case books and supplements burning up the laptop.
My frantic emailing with my mother has begun. How do I make the stuffing? How much of this and that do you use? Etc. Meanwhile, poor mom is trying to put together Thanksgiving on her end while her bratty daughter pummels her with questions.
I finally got my LWR project done. The draft is complete and just needs some tweaking tonight. I have to step away from it for awhile and look at it with “new eyes.”
My trip to MT really put me behind the ball on the paper. But, I’ve survived and the trip was so worth it for my sanity. I’m horribly behind on my reading, but it’s not insurmountable. I’ll be caught up over the weekend.
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I will be in the law library every weekend. Oh well, I guess that’s where law students belong!
I’ve been reading around discussion boards and blogs seeing reactions from pre-1Ls getting their LSAT scores. It’s funny to see most people stressing over scores that were higher than mine! My scores were very, very average. I suck at math-like word problems. I can manipulate parties and fact scenarios and plug them into the rules, but I cannot deal with five orchestra groups, restrictions, and figuring out if A plays before O, when will C play? Gack.
And a really bold confession: I did not prepare for the LSAT. I bought the usual study guides, glanced through them and pretty much put them aside. I knew no amount of preparation would help my brain work out those math/word problems. So, I basically punted. And it worked. My score was average, my GPA was high and I got into the school of my choice (the only choice really based on my reluctance to re-locate). I also got a decent scholarship award to offset the ridiculous cost of law school.
I would never recommend anyone wing it on the LSAT like I did. But, it got me where I wanted to go.
This is outlining weekend. I have a midterm in Criminal in a little over a week. My Civ Pro notes are out of control. I’m considering flow charts for Civ Pro.
I turned in the horrendous writing assignment. It wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. But it’s done. Over. Next. My synthesis assignment came back dripping with red ink. There’s enough red ink to justify a chat with the prof. I’m not too concerned. It’s all fixable. Fortunately, we have just a research assignment this week and no writing. The research will require some digging. Tomorrow.
I brazenly took the night off last night and watched a movie-Donnie Dark. It was quite unsettling. I’m not sure it was a wise choice. Plus I’ve combined it with an Anne Rice novel. I’m starting the Mayfair series. My recent experience with overwhelming boredom convinced me I needed to find something to read that wasn’t law school related. Of course, it’s bedtime reading. The days of recreational reading during the day are over!
I’m aware that my header graphic is floating over the margin. I’ll worry about that later!
I spent five useless, pointless, mind-numbing hours in the library yesterday. I have a stack of useless, pointless, mind-numbing printouts of encyclopedia articles and treatise junk. When I left, the project was still hours from completion. After a night’s sleep, I decided to commit myself to churning out a piece of garbage. I’m going to hit the practice guides at the office, rack up photocopy charges on my employee account and bring this disaster to an end. I will never use this lumbering research method ever again in my life. I resent the fact I was ever exposed to this drivel.
In my frustration, I headed over to typoGenerator and made this for my LWR prof:
My case reading suffered as a result of this useless, pointless, mind-numbing exercise in futility. Have you ever tried to do your Civ Pro reading in a bad mood? I don’t recommend it.
