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.

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.

Everyone, I mean EVERYONE, should watch this video on the Crisis of Credit. Part 1 and then Part 2 below it.

Irresponsible lending and business schools everywhere brought this country to its knees, financially. We reap what we sow.

EDIT: I now realize Jansen over at no. 634 had this up way before I did, so props to him.

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, for your reading pleasure, Things That Annoy Me (in no particular order):

1. People who espouse their opinions in class. This might shock you–I know, it shocked me too–but I am not paying a Brazilian dollars for law school to hear what you think about a given case/issue/current event/theory/constitutional principle/life event/whatever. If I cared any less, I’d be dead. And even then I’d find some way to rise from the dead and care even less than that. In all honesty, I don’t even want to hear your opinions outside of class–I’m looking at you, People Who Talk Too Loudly in the Carrells–but I especially don’t want to hear it in class. Really. Just shut the hell up and continue frantically taking notes.

2. Professors who ask for student opinions in class. Seriously? You care what we think? Shut up and be a pedagogue; I’m not paying you to pretend to teach by asking incredibly open-ended questions to which there are no real answers. I am not taking Random Gunner’s test, I am taking YOUR TEST. So I only care what YOU THINK.

3. Gunners. Shut the hell up. Seriously.

4. Houston drivers. You all suck. Every last one of you. I know epileptic ADD puppies who can drive better than you can. Use your damn signals! Stay in your damn lane! Drive the damned speed limit!

5. UH parking. You suck so much that sometimes I channel Madelyn Kahn in Clue and “flames…from the side of my face, just…flames…” Instead of putting up an overpriced and ugly “graduate student lofts” building, why not pave some of the gravel/useless areas of campus and put up parking lots? Or economize and build some gigantic-ass parking structures, perhaps by greasing the palms of the City of Houston to have them use their eminent domain powers to condemn, oh, I don’t know, the random Chinese food restaurant on campus, or the generic student church (yes, I went there). Just…do something productive, or I swear by Greyskull that I will not be giving you a red cent of my money in 10 years.

That is all for now. I’m sure there will be more. Oh yes, there will be more.

Oh, and I became a year older on the 21st. Happy birthday, to me.

Wow. I want to apologize to my two or three readers for the lack of content. Basically I took exams and then went into hiding.

Speaking of exams, I’m fairly satisfied with how I did. Ahead of the curve in two classes, at the mean in one, behind the mean in the last one. Not so shabby, especially for not doing any outlining. For this semester, I think I will start absorbing commercial outlines earlier–perhaps all through the course.  Also I want to take better notes; fall semester’s were sometimes atrocious. (In Torts, I’d often write, “Whoops, you didn’t write anything for this case.” Yeah, way to go Me, you’re not helping.)

Anyway, break is still going; we’re down to a week left. I’m looking forward to classes, which is probably sadistic. I love Constitutional Law, and I’m really interested in both Criminal Law and Administrative Law–the latter being taught by none other than Sasha Volokh (from The Volokh Conspiracy blog, to your right). Should be a very interesting and demanding semester. I’ll keep my three readers posted.