Month: December 2007

Copyright Final Exam

I’m about to take my Copyright Final. It’s a three-hour essay examination. I’m stoked. OK, not really. But, for the first time in my law school experience, we’re allowed to write an in-class exam on our laptops.

It will be interesting to see how this goes. We can only use Microsoft Word and we can’t use any of the drop-down menus, spellcheck, etc. I think we can use bold, italics, and underline.

We had the option to choose to write in a bluebook. Several people chose this, but I’m not sure why. Either (1) they don’t have a laptop or (2) they’re weary of a new and different testing experience.

I say, “bring it on.”

Bring it on!

A Few Things About Me

A few things to note about this picture*:

(1) It was taken in my one-bedroom apartment in Rosselyn, VA. I paid way too much for the apartment.

(2) You can see golf clubs in the picture. I like to golf.

(3) The University of Michigan hat you can see, I no longer have.

(4) I’ve had that TV since my freshman year in college. I still use it.

(5) It was difficult to glue eyes on the wooden man. In fact, they fell off shortly thereafter. Sad, I know.

(6) The out-of-focus picture is of my hometown.
*Update 2009: Picture of wooden artist doll.

Studying for Business Associations

I’m studying for my Business Associations final next Tuesday. We’ve covered four general areas:

1. Agency
2. Partnership
3. Corporations
4. Securities

My outline for 1 – 3 is 27 pages long; it’s 40 pages long for Securities, but I haven’t cut that down yet.

Fun fun fun fun fun fun.

Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?

Mike Lewis wonders why his old blogging buddies have quit or opted for other less demanding sites like Facebook, MySpace, and, dare we say, tumblr. My comments in response to his post and why I think people are smart to move aware from “heavy corporate” blogs towards “social light” blogs:

I’ve started using Tumblr. The ability to reblog other’s posts and track who has reblogged my posts is a refreshing new approach to “commenting.”

No longer are we forced to scatter our thoughts across various unconnected websites. Comments, by default, put the commenter at the service of the author.

The downside to Tumblr seems to be its propensity towards encouraging cliques. It’s almost like public email.

MySpace and Facebook seem too diluted for anyone who actually wants to be heard.

Blogging seems old and linear. No amount of plugins can save it in the long run. It’s only a matter of time before more is expected from the medium.

Last Day Of Class

Today is my last day of class for this semester. I’m actually sitting in it right now. It’s Evidence and we’re talking about the admissibility of scientific evidence.

I can’t wait for exams to be over in a week and a half. Studying for them will be fine, but I’m burnt out on reading for classes. In law school you rarely feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you’re required to do – at least after you get into a rhythm. What you don’t realize is that you’re constantly studying or thinking about studying. The reading assignments are relentless.

I’ve been fortunate to not have writing assignments this semester. This is a polar opposite from how I felt about midterms and exams in undergrad (I majored in Economics). Back then I loved courses that required me to write papers instead of taking exams. I preferred to have time to think through the papers and felt that writing them gave me a deeper understanding of both the principles I was applying and the topic the paper was based on.

Legal writing is different. It’s a chore. It’s mechanical. It’s dull. However, it is clear. If I had to write an term paper for an Econ class today, it would be better organized and make clearer points (I hope). At least, those would be goals of mine.

All of my exams this semester are in-class and two or three hours long. Most are a mix of essay, short answer, and multiple choice. Professors do this because they want to provide a mock-Bar Exam experience.

I don’t care much about the format. Multiple choice are easily my least favorite because they are the easiest to mess-up. Professors can dupe you easily, which is annoying. The pro for MC is that it requires the test taker to know exactly what they are looking for. Precision is good, however difficult to obtain under test-taking conditions. An essay on the other hand allows a little more leeway for the writer and places the burden of precision on the professor, who must grade precisely and consistently.

Anyway, I can’t wait for the semester to be over. I’ll be halfway through law school. At times, it has seemed to pass slowly, but overall it has been a fast year-and-a-half.

Avoiding the Salvation Army

I avoided a Salvation Army donation bell-ringer for the first time tonight. I passed the old man in his knit hat on the way in. He wasn’t ringing the bell. He didn’t say hello. But neither of those facts are why I didn’t give. I just didn’t have any change on me and I didn’t want to deal with saying, “Sorry, I don’t have any change,” so I went out the far exit.