Coyote Fun

ZZzzzz

I took a nap this afternoon.  It was awesome.  I'm happier now.  Law school needs more naps.  I'm going to bring it up to the strategic planning committee.

Retch

"Hinged on the exigencies of self-preservation, the doctrine of homicidal self-defense emerges from the body of the criminal law as a limited though important exception to legal outlawry of the arena of self-help in the settlement of potentially fatal personal conflicts." (United States v. Peterson)

What terrible writing.  Awful.  I'm going to do laundry.

[Update:  ran out of laundry, finished crim, moved to K's, found this:
"This inartificially drawn contract resulted from the joint efforts of the parties thereto, the plaintiff having contributed its phraseology in seemingly extemporaneous dictation to the defendant who furnished the mechanical skill of reducing it to form on the typewriter."  (Price v. Van Lint)  This just reminds me of the stretching done in UG to reach page minimums.  I'm going to do dishes now.]

Last day of lazy for a while

I'm cooking again.  It's been a while.  My diet had been consisting of fruits which could be eaten with little to no preparation, various frozen items which could microwaved in less than two minutes, ice cold diet coke and Doritos.  Oh, and Oreos...I have a taste for Oreos lately.

I've been holed up in my house (pretending to be) studying.  I think I've gone outside a total of two times in the past week.  It's shameful.  When I finally decided to go shopping for real food, my emergency brake was frozen.  That gave me a little scare and made me realize how helpless I can be out here in the woods.  I got it all straightened (thawed) out and went to the store.

I made a chicken caesar for dinner and some cream cheese wantons for a snack.  I over-cooked the chicken...not used to the electric stove - I miss gas.  The wantons were really good, despite my not knowing how to get them shut entirely.  I also bought some tofu.  Here's the thing, you watch enough Iron Chef and this stuff starts to look good.  I'm determined to make something edible out of it.  If not, I'm pretty sure my dog will eat it...and I'll just got to Arby's.

I'm procrastinating now - should be reading for class tomorrow.  It is amazing how taking a week off makes going back seem horrible.  More horrible than it really ever was.  I have found that some of my most productive moments come when I am procrastinating.  I can get all manner of other tasks accomplished while seeking to avoid reading for class...the other things...the things I put off because I didn't want to do them at all, which now seem like good things to do to avoid reading.  I need to task myself with something I hate more than law school so that I get my reading done while avoiding that other horrible thing. 

WWBD?  I'll write to Blachman, he'll know what I should do.

I fwat I fwaw a wabbit

It's hunting season here.  Someone told me that today.  It sounded so Elmer Fudd-ish, I almost giggled a little.  I've decided to get into the game...err sport.  After all, all these people wandering around in camouflage clothing and day-glo orange vests and hats are making me feel fashionably inferior.  Two things about that - first, camouflage here is so not sexy like it was on the Marine Base.  Second, why the camouflage anyway??  They have to go out of their way to be seen in that orange outer gear (hunters instinctively know not to shoot at anything tacky) - so why not just wear regular clothes underneath? 

So - I think what I will do is pull on some jeans and a turtleneck, lace up my go-fasters and stake out the front yard.  I have lots of deer in the front yard at night.  Or, I HAD a lot...   Anyway, since it is a sport and all, I'm going into this with a sporting attitude.  I'm getting a paintball gun.  You know, they don't even call them guns.  They call them paintball markers.  That is just silly.  It is a mechanical device with a trigger that shoots a projectile out of a barrel.  It's a gun people. 

The good part is, since the deer is not likely to be armed, I can forgo the safety gear altogether and just get down to shooting.  I'm pretty sure when I finally tag one, the deer will look up, shake his little deer head and think - 'Hmmm, well you got me you old son-of-a-bitch.  Ha.  Not as fast as I used to be.  Well, good game.'  Then I'll smile and talk a little deer smack and tell him to walk it off - see ya tomorrow. 

I'm going to use day-glo orange paintballs.  Happy Hunting.

My new TV crush

Move over Martin Freeman.  I was watching Comedy Central Presents the other night - the comic was Demetri Martin.  I had this suspicion that he was a law student, don't ask me why.  Turns out he was - Yale grad, NYU Law drop-out.  It's like we made a connection.  He's a bit of hottie too - in my estimation.  I think this is really what a lot of law school types want to be doing.  So few actually want to be lawyers - but law school is the great white hope of all undeclared graduate students.  Demetri - I feel you, man.  I think we are cosmically linked now.  I really had a moment.  I'm sure you felt it too.

You say you want a revolution

I suppose you've heard by now that the Declaration of Independence is bad for kids.  I'm glad someone finally had the nads to say so.  Our children have been exposed to this "history" stuff for too long now.  It is much easier to live in blissful ignorance when you just create your own "history".  Make it up as you go - be sure to take out anything that might possibly be construed as offensive to someone, somewhere for any reason. 

I hope this starts a positive trend toward exclusion of other materials.  I, for one, find the "history" of Hitler to be repulsive and I hope it gets banned from classrooms soon.  Cambodia was ahead of their time in this arena - banning information on the Khmer Rouge has really helped their students focus on the important parts of "history"...the more pleasant parts.

It need not be said - but California is wrong in so many ways.  The recall election was really a low point for me while living there, but it was just a turning point.  Things can and will get much worse.  Now we have a movement to change the rules for naturalized citizens to become President of the United States.  I guess this trend towards selective history will be helpful in this effort.  After all we don't need to re-write history to gloss over our past indiscretions - we can just erase them from people's minds altogether. 

Perhaps CA can commission a research study to develop that flashy-thing technology from MIB.  Then they can actually create the MIB for the USA so that people will be taught to MYOB.

Critical thinkers - you are on your way out...dinosaurs of a liberal generation, poison for today's youth.  Revolt.  Revolt.  Revolt.

Somewhere in the middle

Someone is leaving law school.  I remember thinking about this during orientation - looking around, wondering who it might be that wouldn't make it all the way to the end.  I knew it wouldn't be me.  Everyone knew it wouldn't be them...but here we are nearly a semester in and someone is already planning to leave.

I can see why - but I wouldn't have thought it of this person.  A friend.  A solid student who seems to be doing OK.  Interests beyond law have driven this person to seek adventure outside the gates.  I think that most people thought as I did - we knew the old tales of how law school would be different - so unlike UG, more demanding, more of a challenge because it won't just come easy for most...we all thought 'not for me'.  I'll be the exception to the rule - after all, I've always been the exception to the rule. 

But here we are and it's all true really.  No, law school isn't hard.  That's a terrible decriptive.  It's challenging - yes, and demanding - yes...but more because it's not something that most can just feel comfortable with.  Over-achiever-meets-mediocrity is not always pretty and some people are having a hard time coming to grips with that.  And then, some are just realizing that even though they thought being a lawyer would be different for them - it's not.  It's really not.  It's the same as it is for everyone.  It's really kind of boring.

Law school is like that - it's boring.  It's not something that most people can't handle.  It's not something that only smart people can do - believe me, there are plenty of people here who disprove that notion.  It's boring.  And long.  And heaps of work (if you do it), and lots of anxiety (if you don't or...really even if you do).  I'm not stressing too much about school.  The more I think about exams the more comfortable I become with mediocrity.  I have resigned the hope of outshining my peers.  Subjectiveness aside, the exams just aren't going to be a good measure of what kind of lawyer I will become...unless I kick ass and then you so know I will rock as an attorney.  They are just the measure of how much time you put in to figuring out how to crack it, learn it, and score. 

Some may end up doing quite well on exams and as attorneys, and there are some that will do neither - but there are many who will fall in between.  When you measure yourself against some of the brightest people around and you fall well within the average - it's not a failure...and it's not a true measure of who you are or how well you will do.  And, I don't think it's just hedging my bets to say so.

Next summer I want a job.  I want a job that shows me what it's really like out there.  I want to know that I can be really good at something and I don't think 4 hours of a Civ Pro exam is going to give me that. 

It could just be that I am delusional - after all, I've been spending a few days now working on my outlines, that last bastion of hope for most of us.  The more I read, the more I analyze, the more I study - the more I realize that exams are not going to be the true measure of my success.  The more I realize how small law school can be.  The more I realize that people who plan to leave may have just figured this out sooner than the rest of us. 

Do I still want to be a lawyer?  It is a question I ask myself from time to time.  For now, the answer remains affirmative, but time may tell a different tale.  I promised myself that law school wouldn't change me - wouldn't change who I am.  The more I am here, the more I think that this is an impossible goal.  To do well, you have to leave a part of yourself behind.  To do otherwise, may be to fail.  At what - I'm not yet sure.

Beautiful Day

I left my jacket in the hotel in Arlington this weekend.  It has my student ID in the pocket.  I need my student ID to buy books and to get into the LS after hours.  Great.

On the radio today -> "Let's check the weather.  It's a great day today.  Scattered showers this morning, high of 55.  More rain tonight.  Scattered showers again in the morning."
A glorious day indeed.

To answer questions from yesterday:

Trash town is a charming little nook on the side of the road with several large dumpsters.  It is where I take my trash.  It's marvelous.

I can actually fit 8 large marshmallows in my mouth at one time.  I start drooling at 4 and gagging at 8.  I think I may be able to do better.  It's good to have these goals lest I feel like I have nothing to live for whilst outlining.

No - I am not currently on any presciption medication, hence the need to sort old the old stuff.  I don't know why, but I keep them until they expire.  In my medicine chest now is Allegra from last spring (which I almost wrote as Viagra...??), Penicillin from a year and a half ago, 800 mg Motrin and some Vicodin.  Pretty suacy huh?

The smell in my carrel was an apple core in the trash in my little closet.  It was pretty rank.

All Day I Will Want to Die

I'm off to LEEWS today.  I can think of 14 ways a Sunday would be better spent:

-Vacuuming under the couch
-Playing dress-up with my cats
-Watching everything in Spanish on my TiVo
-Checking expiration dates on my prescription medication
-Cleaning behind my washer/dryer/fridge/stove
-Reading for next week's class (sure)
-Figuring out where that smell is coming from in my carrel
-Ride the campus DD system (which goes by the county jail and really, come on, now that's kind of amusing)
-Go to trash town
-Unpack my suitcase from my last trip
-Find out how many large marshmallows I can fit in my mouth at one time
-Sweep my chimney
-Read a book or something on how to sweep a chimney
-Ride an innertube down the creek in my backyard

LEEWS has this great guarantee though - someone actually comes and takes your exams and they guarantee A's & B's.  What with my school's B curve as it is, I'm not sure this is a great guarantee but I'm totally down for the pinch hitter part.

Again

I have to go to D.C. - for the fourth time this month. I'm just going to transfer - this is getting ridiculous.

The only thing to lift my spirits is the week off I get for Thanksgiving break.  Since the entire week will be spent studying for exams, it isn't that groovy.  I am sleeping more though - and that is always a good thing.