Good Intentions

*pokes head out of ground*

Well. It seems I have a blog here, just languishing. For that,  I apologize. I will make an effort to update it this semester and beyond.

Law school has started. It’s possible I have too much on my plate. This week has already felt 100 years long. Will I make it? Let’s find out.

Well, I’m an intern at the federal courthouse. And let me tell you, it’s pretty damn awesome. We interns strive to strike a fine balance between working on our writing assignment and watching various court proceedings. Unsurprisingly, however, I favor watching court proceedings. Luckily, my judge feels more or less the same way.

I got to see part of a jury trial today, from the jury selection process to the testimony of the first witness. Absolutely fascinating. All of this just solidifies my resolve to be a trial lawyer.

All in all, it’s shaping up to be a great experience.

Conan the O’Brien is on right now. AWESOME. Must watch now.

1L year will be over tomorrow at noon. I just have to get through an Administrative Law final.

I can do this.

I absolutely promise that I will regularly update this blog after finals. Things have been way too hectic recently.

In passing, I’ll mention that my partner and I made it to our moot court competition finals. We were the Appellant, the State of Texas. We lost, but a lot of people believe we got robbed. And there might have been some judicial bias, but whatever. It’s over; we entered the competition on a lark and a whim and had no idea we’d make it so far. It was a hoot.

Moot court definitely isn’t for me, though.

Anyway. I’ll try to see if I can mention what kind of work I’ll be doing at by judicial internship this summer; I don’t want to violate any confidentiality, so I’ll find out.

Stay tuned ’til after finals!

I went to a good college friend’s wedding today. She looked absolutely stunning, and the ceremony was very beautiful. Very touching, really. I didn’t even mind the preacher all that much. It was just a really good time.

The advice of my old ConLaw professor echoed back to me a few times today. On her last day with us in the beginning of March, she gave us some advice: Study hard, and don’t get married young. Now, I’ve sworn to myself that I will not get married until I am financially secure, so maybe I am indirectly following her advice. But it still echoed some today. Now, I’m not judging my two friends at all; I wish them nothing but the best. But that echo…

Back to the old grind on Monday, but that begins the Home Stretch; or, in other words, only 5 weeks or so left until the end of 1L year and the second round of exams. I plan on beginning to study fairly soon. Hopefully I keep myself to that claim.

Ah, Spring Break was just what I needed. I sat around and did nothing. Absolutely nothing. Sweet, sweet nothing.

And now, strangely, I feel refreshed enough to face these last five weeks or so, starting off with this appellate oral argument on Thursday. We’ll see how that goes.

Short post; nothing much to speak on. I’ll drop an update later in the week.

Oh, holy of holies. Spring Break. A full week without thinking about law school. OR IS IT?

I know some people (who shall remain nameless) will probably spend the whole week outlining or something insane. And that IS insane.

I mean, my basic plan is to (perhaps) catch up on reading and (perhaps) start studying for finals. But I am fully aware that there is a strong chance those things will not happen.

In other news, the only thing I must do this week is mock trial practice. Not so bad.

Anyway, fellow law students, it’s time to relax. Just a little.

So instead of finishing my motion to suppress evidence, I’ve decided to blog. Who’s surprised?

I was chatting with a friend today about how cliqueish law school is. It’s high school redux. I’m not particularly pleased about this (and I’m relatively sure that every law student ever blogs about this fact), since I was under the impression I graduated from high school four years ago.

Digression: Four years ago? Holy hell. Time certainly flies. It’s almost been a year since I was in Europe. This is getting scary now.

Anyway, we were remarking on the fact that people will do low things when they want their self-esteem boosted. My goal in law school has been to get in, do my best, fly under the radar of the catty and Type A personalities, learn some stuff, meet some people, and get out. Others are trying to relive their glory days in high school.

It’s time to move on, people. We’re in professional school, and the legal community here is small. People will remember you for years if you rub them the wrong way. Don’t mess this up before you even get a chance to really mess it up (read: in front of a judge).

And now, something a little nerdy.

If you’re curious about strict and loose constructionism, here you are. I’m more of a loose constructionist myself, as I believe the Constitution should adapt to our times, and while the Founders were brilliant, they did not account for the Internet, Blackberries, cars, suicide bombers, or abortions. Among other things.

Orrin Kerr, over at The Volokh Conspiracy (to your right, conveniently), is contending that law student blogs are dead, and we have killed them, you and I. (Not exactly in those words, mind you.)

I’d probably tend to disagree, based on the various links I and others have, most of which are law student blogs. I think a lot of us blog because we need to vent, or we need an outlet that isn’t a memo, or a Socratic method session, or a weak-ass discussion on the Commerce Clause or something. For me, blogging has always been about me, the writer, and not you, the reader. Now, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy having an audience, but I primarily do this for me. It’s my outlet for all the words and thoughts I have in my head.

A number of the comments on Mr. Kerr’s post say that law students are afraid to blog about school because of being reprimanded by either the school or later on by a potential employer. I say, bring it on. If an employer wants to take issue with something I’ve written, the least they could do is ask for an explanation. My school happens to be a state school, with public records, and while I try not to be too specific in my identification of people, it’s a public building and therefore is fair game for my musings.

Other commenters talked about how all of us law student bloggers are either:

1. Whiners, whining about our lives and how hard law school is. To that I say: Eat me. Move along if I whine too much for you.

or,

2. Stupid, and therefore cannot blog substantively about legal issues, so we resort to blogging about “clothes, recipes, and literature.” I’m sure I could attempt at writing something semi-coherent and halfway-interesting about some legal topic, but, as I said, I do this to escape that stuff. If I wanted to write a memo or an appellate brief, I would. If I wanted to write for law review, I’d try out (and I might, I haven’t decided how much I hate myself). If there is some issue I do want to talk about, I will try to couch it in layman’s terms, perhaps sprinkled with some bona fide legal analysis. But really, I just talk about funny happenings and random stuff.

So really, if you don’t like it, caveat emptor, all sales are final, all warranties exclaimed, and this blog is being sold “as is.”