Posting slow down

All I would be doing is to complain about exams, so posts will slow down.

Haiku

Swooping overhead
Terrorizing days and dreams.
Cicada? No! Finals.

School is...

Over for some people and beginning for the 1Ls. The 3Ls had their graduation dinner thing and the 1Ls are just starting to crack their books.

I'm so far behind in every class that there may be no recovery. Perhaps we should all join together and not study for finals. Eh? Eh?

Back to Contracts.

Bigelow Moot Court

Bigelow Moot Court was an interesting experience. I think I learned something - think before you speak. But not for too long. And not too hard. And not too complex of thoughts, at least not so complex you can't say them clearly.

The professor judges were an interesting experience. Most students said good things about Stone especially. Strauss and Strahilevitz were supposed to be tough. And Samaha is said to be just brutal. Samaha would make people talk themselves in circles.

It was nice to see that the judges disagreed on points of specific performance. Two would say "That was a good idea to use those words," and then the next would say "I disagree, that wording was awful."

Will I ever do moot court again? I'm not sure. I had a good enough time, but I never want to see a brief again, and I typically don't subject myself to writing 30 pages on something that has no practical use. What would a utilitarian have to say about Moot Court? I'm sure Law & Econ folk must despise the wasted effort.

UChicago Faculty Blog

http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/

The faculty blog is not something I read often. It's not that I don't find the topics interesting; it's that I don't have the energy. As 2L year draws ever nearer, I can't imagine how I used to have the energy to do all the things I did. Hobbies: gone. Interests: none. Favorite Books: Dukeminier on Property, Anything by Emmanuel.

Maybe life will change 2L year to something remniscient of what it once was. Maybe I'll pull out my college resume to see what I used to consider my interests.

But until then, I shall not be reading the faculty blog.

Amount of Work

I don't know about most people, but the level of work I've been doing recently is patheticaly low. The amount of work I should be doing is excruciatingly high. This may have something to do with burnout, but I suspect its much more about the LRW brief.

Talking to some 2Ls, they seem to think most 1Ls are in this same boat. The level of unpreparedness for finals this quarter is going to be embarassing. Hopefully, the curve is going to fix some of the problems I have with what unpreparedness entails.

It also doesn't help when some professors assign more reading than can possibly be done well. It's tough to know what to cut, and I'm not terribly happy with professors that don't respect the fact that I have 3 other classes.

I think it's high time we apply behavioral economics to law school and reduce the workload and expectation level. That would make my life easier, and that is what is most important, right?

0L: Should you buy a copy of Black's Law Dictionary?

I've found my copy of Black's portable edition useful. The others seem to be a bit cumbersome, especially since you can look words up through Lexis or WestLaw. Also, it's not like they're using too many crazy legal words or anything. The need to look things up in the dictionary goes down considerably after the first month.

Oral Arguments

Oral Arguments begin today.

Also, it's insanely hot in Regents.

Briefs Returned

Most of the briefs were returned.

Woohoo.

Law School Prom

Prom finally happened. That lowers the number of things to be stressed about. But it really shouldn't have been something to stress about. Selling it as prom is a hard call. Prom implies dates, stress, and high school. Not many people brought dates. Not many of us were great at high school. I was incredible, of course. Not selling it as a prom would just be a formal, and those are not as cool as prom.

Food was OK (they were really betting on the "presentation is half the battle" theory of cooking), open bar was nice, so on and so forth. Everyone drank too much and thus wasted the entire weekend, a few weeks before exams start. At least everyone is in the same position, I'm sure there's some term like "reciprocity" that I ought to know that would describe this well. I guess I like the curve sometimes. Ask me again in a few weeks.

However, we can't forget that the practice moot court rounds start this week. Great.

Law School Idol; Pizza

I was hoping Helmholz would be a bit more cruel, but other than that it was pretty entertaining.

On a related note, please stop serving Pizza Capri. I don't care if it's cheaper, or whatever. All I know is that I came to Chicago with one chief goal: pizza. Eduardo's, Giordano's, Leona's, something please. Give me an apostrophe and I'm happy. Pizza Capri is the Cici's of Chicago pizza.

That goes for you too Federalist Society.

Hornbooks, Commercial Outlines and the Like

So far, hornbooks have been an invaluable expenditure. But not because they have any value as far as learning the law goes. No, they're worth it because they let me sleep better. They make me feel better about exams. Most of them have been bought on someone else's recommendation, and then tossed aside. Others actually have some value. Some seemed useful my first quarter, and now I read them and get nothing.

Here's what I recommend for UChicago:
Understanding Property - great, all around
Understanding Torts - more useful first quarter when I was confused about everything
Civ Pro E&E - useful for jurisdiction stuff, especially on the brief
Understanding Crim - good for trying to figure out if you actually ever learn anything in crim (answer: very little)
Emmanuel's - only useful when keyed to the book, and then, invaluable

Not recommended:
Gilbert's on Property, by Dukeminer - got nothing out of this. A super outline of all of property, written like the common law was codified. Not useful for my purposes. Understanding Property gives ambiguities and conflicting cases, as well as minor discusison of such issues. No such luck here.
Torts E&E - didn't find this useful, barely looked through it. Understanding answered my questions more clearly.
BarBri Outline - not sure why I have this, I've gotten nothing out of it.

I haven't bought many others, or I don't know enough about them to give any advice one way or the other

Today's Link

http://barelylegalblog.blogspot.com/

Barely Legal is one of the best cynical law blogs. They no longer post, but read the older posts.

Not everyone is so displeased with law school, but many are.

I'm not. I like it.