Saturday, December 25, 2004

Wrongful death and maritime law

So...a real tragedy has occurred on this day. My uncle is a captain of some sort of barge, and early on in the wee hours of the day a terrible accident took place. Apparently, his barge moved alongside too close to a small fishing vessel, and overturned it in its wake, causing the death of 5 men on that fishing vessel. Even though my uncle was not the one actually piloting at that time, we know there's probably some issue of vicarious liability, although there is that strange twist of maritime law. Right now my uncle has been taken into custody, and we don't know what's going to happen to him.

So when I heard this, the first thing I thought of was how could my uncle avoid liability? I am very sorry that there are 5 men who died in such a sad way, but my uncle is family, and comes first. At first, I was thinking it really didn't look good for him. I asked my dad where the accident took place, whether it was close to shore or far out, since we know that different laws govern such occurrences based on where in the waters they happened. As of yet, we don't know.

But then my dad revealed something very important. The fishing vessel was trawling for anchovies, which are out-of-season right now, which means it's illegal to be fishing for them. Therefore, the next question is, did they have their lights on? If they didn't, there is a strong possibility my uncle will be absolved completely. Obviously, given the fact that the fishers knew what they were doing was illegal, it seems very likely that they didn't have their lights on since they wouldn't want to be caught. This would also explain how on earth the barge ever got so close to the fishing vessel in the first place. My uncle is very well-known in the community, and there are always offers for jobs of other vessels given to him, since he is very well-respected. Up till now, he's had an excellent record, with no blemishes. Even if he gets off the hook this time, he will turn 60 this year, and he will never be allowed to captain another vessel again. Regardless of the outcome, his career is finished.

When I've read all those other cases in school, it never occurred to me that anything like that could ever happen to me or my family. Suddenly it all seems too real. These are real people, not some stupid question on a final.

I will pray for those who lost their lives in such an unfortunate accident on Christmas day.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Bored Smored

Alright...is it just me or what, because I can't seem to relax at all? I keep flitting from activity to activity without being able to keep my mind on anything for very long. I brought a book home to read while I'm here, but the very thought of moving my eyes across yet more printed words makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Alas, will I become like my attorneys, who told me they didn't read anything for fun for 10 years after law school?

So why is it, when I had no time or business going shopping or running errands during the school semester that I found a million things to do, but now that I have all the time in the world I want to lay around and stare at the wall?

I can't even seem to keep my focus on a movie for long enough. I end up just taking naps all the time, plus sleeping like 10 hours every night. Maybe the lack of sleep from the semester is catching up with me.

Holiday cheer

A light-hearted tale for this busy time of year...

When four of Santa's elves got sick, and the trainee elves did not produce the toys
as fast as the regular ones, Santa was beginning to feel the pressure of being behind
schedule.

Then Mrs. Claus told Santa her mom was coming to visit. This stressed Santa even more.

When he went to harness the reindeer, he found that 3 of them were about to give birth and 2 of them had jumped the fence and were out, heaven knows where. More stress.

Then when he began to load the sleigh one of the boards cracked, and the toy bag fell to the ground and scattered the toys.

So, frustrated, Santa went into the house for a cup of apple cider and a shot of rum. When he went to the cupboard, he discovered that the elves had hidden the
liqour, and there was nothing to drink. In his frustration, he accidentally dropped
the cider pot, and it broke into a thousand pieces all over the kitchen floor. He
went to get the broom and found that mice had eaten the straw end of the
broom.

Just then, the doorbell rang, and irritable Santa trudged to the door. He opened
the door, and there was a little angel with a great big Christmas tree. The angel
said, very cheerfully, "Merry Christmas, Santa. Isn't is a lovely day? I have a
beautiful tree for you. Where would you like to me to stick it?"

And so began the tradition of the little angel on top of the Christmas tree!

Sunday, December 19, 2004

The hazards of travel

Ok, so I flew out to visit a friend on Saturday before I go home for the holidays. On the first leg of the flight, it was late getting off the ground, causing me to be late for the connecting flight. That was ok, since the connecting flight was delayed too, although I had a rough minute there when I was worried the plane had departed without me. It was delayed for 1.5 hours. But that wasn't the worst of it, nuh-uh.

There was this heinous little brat girl sitting directly behind me on the second leg of the flight, constantly kicking my chair and screaming at the top of my lungs. Lord knows that I wanted to kick someone and scream at the top of my lungs, especially when I had to endure it for 3 hours (turning around and glaring did nothing). At one point the little girl even said, "Oh she has pretty hair!" and then she grabbed my hair. At this point, I'm realizing that the stupid mom would probably let her daughter get away with murder, because she says, "Shhh, honey, don't let the lady notice what you did." I'm thinking, uh, excuse me??? Your brat kid just mauled my scalp, and you think there was a remote possibility that I didn't notice that? Good god. I think I hate children. I know all of you will think that I'm some kind of monster for saying that, but I am so sick of people letting their ill-mannered children get away with all this crap. Whatever happened to teaching your children to be polite? To say thank-you? To not go around grabbing things, especially not the hair of strangers??? What comes to mind is an episode of Sex and the City, where Samantha has a confrontation with a woman and her brat kid in a restaurant. I guess I don't really hate children, I just hate the stupid parents who think that their kids are always wonderful and can never do anything wrong. Give me a fucking break.

Saturday, December 18, 2004

It's Over Now

I still can't believe that we finally finished our first semester at law school. It seems like yesterday that I was just arriving to school. It's as if I blinked, and it was already a month in, another blink, and classes were finishing, and blink, finals are over. Looking back now I feel as if I haven't really been all there. The whole experience has been the most intense one of my life and yet the most disembodied also. They should really slap a warning label on law schools: "Caution - contents under extreme pressure."

Anyway, I have to say that the law school knows how to get it on when it lets loose. The drinking started at 4pm, where a bunch of upper classmen waylaid us innocent 1Ls and plied us with beer. Then we went out to dinner, and drank some more. At the end of the day, a bunch of us ended up at Brother's, as did the rest of the law school, and then drank even more. I only wish I had my camera last night because this was truly a unique experience.

For some reason, a song by REM is running through my head: "..it's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine."

Thursday, December 16, 2004

Catch me if you can

Here are the top 5 cheat stories I've seen my friends involved in...

5) You know how some people take the PSAT in high school? This is also the test that qualifies you for National Merit Scholarships if you do well enough. I myself was only a Nationally Commended Scholar because my score fell 2 points short of the minimum criteria. Anyway, it was well known that two of my friends (they were gf and bf) were sitting right next to each other during that exam, and that the guy cheated off the girl on it. As a result, they got the same selection index score. I always thought it was kind of unfair that someone got a National Merit Scholarship from cheating and I fell two points short on my own steam. Eh, bygones.

4) I once saw two people blatantly cheating off each other's midterms in a class during my junior year in undergrad. They were tapping each other's feet and pointing at certain questions on their exams, and obviously copying each other's answers. However, these two people did get caught by the professor when he graded their essay answers. It was especially noticeable apparently since they copied each other's grammatical mistakes.

3) Another high school story: senior year, AP biology. The teacher was gone on a doctor's appointment on the day of a test, so the substitute teacher administered the test. According to what the students said, the guy came in from the beginning announcing that he didn't care what they did and if they wanted to look in their books that was fine with him. One of my friends took it into his head to go one step better: he went into the teacher's desk, found the answer key, and wrote all 50 answers on the board. The entire class cheated as one, which was really stupid, since it was fairly obvious that many people who normally got 40/100 suddenly got 85/100. The other stupid thing was that they didn't seem to consider that someone would rat on em, in a class of 35. Everyone knows there are always 1 or 2 who crack under the pressure of their consciences and go sobbing to the teacher. That particular friend got kicked out of every school society he was a member of, and the school started some kind of proceeding against him. All I know is that he suddenly stopped appearing at school for a while.

2) One of my best friends wasn't doing too hot in her Spanish class in undergrad, so she traded finals with one of her other friends. He took her Spanish final for her, and she took his bio final for him. Doesn't seem like a fair trade-off does it? But she's a bio whiz, so it waasn't too hard for her.

1) Another one of my best friends. He's never taken a computer science class before, but he knows a lot of stuff just from having tinkered around with computers for fun. One of his friends was failing a computer science class, and begged my friend for help. No questions asked, my friend went and sat in on the final and took it for the guy. The result: he scored the highest grade on the final in the entire class of 376 people. The guy never got caught, which I thought was amazing, because I think it looks at least somewhat suspicious that someone goes from semi-failing grades to the highest score on the final.

Note: I wonder at the laxness of the security during law school finals. Someone could come in and take a final for someone else, since they don't even check your ids, and no one knows all the other people in the class, so who would realize if there was a stranger in their midst?

The light at the end of the tunnel

I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel...can you?

Just one more final to go, and then we'll all be free until January 10. I kinda want to just kick back and start vacation now. There's gonna be some serious partying tomorrow, and I think everyone should post where some hot spots are gonna be.

Update on the property cheat: I heard that the school takes this kind of matter very seriously, and may even send the outline to be fingerprinted. Maybe they'll catch the culprit after all?

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Tips and all that

Ok, so a lot of people were asking me what did I do if I hadn't studied for property the night before the test? I don't really know. I do know that I spent two hours on the phone with my sister until 2am listening to her rant about tipping people at Starbucks. I have to admit, she does have a point. All they do is stick the cup under the coffee nozzle and then hand it to you before looking pointedly at the tip jar that's right in front of you. So I said, if you're that unhappy about it, just don't tip. Her reply to that was she felt peer-pressured into tipping, because the bitch auditor-controller she gets coffee with always tips at least a dollar. This sounds like something out of Seinfeld, right? So my sister shells out the $5 for the coffee and then another $1 for a tip, which pretty much costs as much as a lunch.

I love the stories she tells me about the auditor-controller. She's the easiest person to hate. More stories on her coming up later.

Anyway, yesterday's final really took it out of me. I was so exhausted afterwards. Btw, did people hear about the copy of a property outline that was found in the men's room yesterday? I can't believe someone would cheat on the final. If I have to suffer through the damn final blindly then so should everyone else. There's no telling that they'll ever figure out who did it, since we all know how stellar the security is. Plus, I heard some people saying that they were contemplating making everyone take the final again. F*ck that, I say. Why should we all have to pay for someone else's wrongdoing?

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Cramming doesn't do it for me

Alright, so I was sitting in the library trying to cram in those last little tidbits of information right before the final, and I fell asleep. How is everyone studying so diligently? Every time I tried to sit down and study, a million other things distracted me, or I'd end up wanting to take a nap. This will teach me a lesson: next semester I'm not waiting to study until the day before the final. I bet you all are happy to hear this, since I'm obviously not going to be at the top of the curve. I'll be happy to be in the upper half of the class as far as grades go, and I think even shooting for that is being optimistic.

Monday, December 13, 2004

BTW

I dunno who's with me, but yesterday I gathered up my criminal law textbook and am now ready for a toasty roasty bonfire for it. I can't believe we had to buy this godawful Robinson textbook, and now that Bibas has made up his mind not to use this book next year, we're stuck with a massive crapload of Robinson's stupid essays. If I don't do a bonfire, I'm taking it over to a friend's house and feeding their fireplace...free kindling for them, and they'll be getting more use out of it than I ever did. I think I studied more out of the Dressler book than anything.

#42 ?

What did people think the answer to 42) was? I put d). The only problem: does the falcon count as a type of "netting" ? I doubt it, but what does anyone else think?

More property practice problems

Ok, I said c) for #1 b/c this is one of those exceptions that Kurtz went over in class: the "dying without issue" exception. I at first wanted to say d), but there is no right of re-entry specified in the instrument. Anyway, since this is before 1500, under the indefinite failure of construction p.56 in the green book, I think the answer to #1 is c).

Anyone else with questions? I'm more than happy to share what I think the answers are.

Practice property exam

Alright, I've gone through the practice exam several times, and there are questions that I still cannot resolve on my own. What did people get for #1 and 38? I put c) for #1, and a) for #38. Is it just me, or are some of these questions really hard?

Saturday, December 11, 2004

Boo to 7.5 hour finals!

I really don't think giving us a final that takes 7.5 hours long is a good idea. I felt so harassed that I didn't even want to take the time to eat lunch. I finally ended up heading down to the canteen and eating because I felt faint, and bolted a slice of meatload, mashed potatoes, and green beans in 15 minutes flat. If I had choked on my food, I wonder if I could have sued Bibas for NIED? I know many people didn't even do that. I also didn't bother going out to the parking lot to feed my meter because I thought taking 10 minutes away from my test time was too much. I hate how psychotic law school makes us. I know one guy hadn't showered in days because of finals. YUCK. I made sure not to sit anywhere close to him while I was working on my final; who wants to have their olfactory senses assaulted so brutally at a time when your concentration matters the most?

Thursday, December 09, 2004

Take 2!

Alright, who's ready for the crim final tomorrow? I'm not, but I don't care anymore. There are other pressing concerns on my mind right now. At this point, I think that trying to study now for crim is too little, too late. So I'm just going to make the best of it and try to roll with the punches tomorrow. I figure as long as I know the broad over-arching concepts, I should at least be able to pass.

Who's up for poker night tomorrow?

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

Onward ho

Woke up this morning...felt really disoriented from sleeping too much. Well, too much for me: 7 hours. Now I feel groggy and semi-drugged. I need to study for crim today, especially since it's my worst subject. Somehow, I do not feel very concerned about it, maybe because it's a take-home final? Anyway, all I can say is that I survived torts! Yesterday, I had to quash the urge to scream "I SURVIVED TORTS!" every time someone asked me how I was doing, or if I was ok, etc. I still feel the remnants of feeling really really drained but strangely wired at the same time. Now if I could just get my eye to stop twitching.

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Passed the first run of the gauntlet

WHOO HOO!

I probably didn't get an A, but at least I can comfortably rely on some form of a B on the final. I don't know what got me the most about the torts final: all the prima facie cases, memorizing all the majority/minority rules, or the fact that it was the first real final to endure. I'm pretty sure the multiple choice wasn't that great for me, but I hope that my essay portion was better. Lord knows I bullshitted enough, hopefully it's enough to get a good grade. I swear, half the time your grade depends on how well you bullshit as a combination with just enough of the substantive law to back it up with.

I should have studied tonight, but I felt like taking it off and having a little fun. I ended up vegging out with some friends and watching the high school reunion tv show. It was pretty good! I love how mind-numbing reality tv shows are, they're my secret addiction...along with Britney Spears. Shhhh!

Monday, December 06, 2004

On the verge of losing my test virginity

Oh joy....my first law school exam ever! Alright, maybe not the first one, but this is the first graded one, so this is the first one that matters, for all intents and purposes.

I take a short break right now to blog from deep in the bowels of the library, to torture myself with the multi-state bar exam questions on torts. Who knew I could feel so stupid in so short a time?

Good luck to everyone tomorrow (but not too much good luck, since I don't want to be at the bottom of the curve :) )

Sunday, December 05, 2004

Bless the Canadians

For this, I take back everything mean I've said about the Canadians. Plus, I like Brian Boitano :)




Bush Gets Arrested

Thursday, December 02, 2004

The secret lives of our teachers

Sometimes I really wonder about our professors' various backgrounds. Some of them have really crazy stories to tell. Take Prof. Cain for instance. She was in the circus. It really doesn't get weirder than that. How many people do you know who can say that? I don't think I've ever even known anyone who knew someone who'd been in the circus.

Today, I was really wondering what Bibas's previous life was like. He seems to be a geeky Matthew Broderick at turns, with occasional glimpses of a bad ass in there. Or maybe he's just repressed. Yesterday at his movie thing he referred to some people he'd known in the past as "pussies" because apparently they didn't do something he felt they should have. Then today, he said "X into Y. Wait, rather Y into X." And he had the most wicked grin on his face. I feel kinda sorry for him, he seems a little young to be so staid and prudish all of the time. I'd like to see him go out in a more social setting, and see if he loosens up at all. Then again, he does have a missus who probably wouldn't appreciate her man hitting up the bars with students, many of whom would most likely be female.

Birthday Extravaganza!!!!

For all you people looking for a last chance to blow off some steam right before finals, here's the 411. There's going to be a get-together for Mandy and Ariane at Third Base (Fieldhouse) around 8pm Friday night. You know these girls are special cuz they're saying those three little words: drinks on me. It's going to be free booze, a chance to meet people if you haven't met them already, and a birthday celebration all rolled into one. If you haven't gone out all semester, now is the chance!

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

Just breathe

Woosah....

Ok, we're officially into our last week before finals. I really don't know what to do at this point. I almost feel that there is so much to study that I don't know where to start because it is so overwhelming. Every minute seems so precious to me that I even begrudge the time I spend sleeping. I feel hard-pressed to not run around like some chicken with its head cut off trying to study everything at once. I will be so relieved when the Contracts final is over. You know there is going to be some serious drinking on the 17th and on.

What's weird is that I just want finals to be over, but at the same time I feel sad that classes are over. I felt genuine regret when we clapped for Professor Love today. I know I'll be taking one of her classes in the future because I think she's an excellent teacher. I also think Cain was a great Intro teacher to have too. Oddly, I didn't really feel all that sad when property was over, I just felt more relieved than anything.

I wish there was some way I could skip around in time, so that I could skip our farewells to our teachers, skip ahead to finals, and then skip ahead to home.

Ok...must study before law night. Is there even law night tonight?