Me time...

So, after almost 5 hrs of OA prep I came home, made a meal, and watched all of Cinderella Man with the computer off and the cell in the other room.

BEST DECISION EVER

As it turns out, Cinderella Man may challenge Rudy as the #1 sports movie that makes me cry. To be fair, though, Rudy literally makes tears come down my face...at TWO points in the movie. Cinderella Man just made me glassy eyed for a few minutes and put a lump in my throat. Very few movies can do that to me. What is it about boxing movies with underdogs? Now I haven't seen all the Rocky movies, but is he an underdog in EVERY movie? After Rocky 3, wouldn't he be the favorite? But I digress...

Sports movies really do get the best of me. Field of Dreams, Rudy, Cinderella Man, The Rookie, Million Dollar Baby, etc. In fact, I have blogged before on my favorite sports movies:

(originally posted June 27, 2006)

10) Kingpin - ever wonder about the world of professional bowling? Bill Murray is absolute genius.

9) Dodgeball - "No one makes me bleed my own blood."

8) Million Dollar Baby - caught this one about 10 minutes in on HBO late one night and stayed up to watch the whole thing. Made me want to cheer, scream and cry all within 2 hours.

7) On Any Sunday - if you thought that dirtbikers have it easy just sitting on their bikes, you don't know anything. Mert Lowell is a god.

6) Seabiscuit - see above but replace "dirtbikers" with "jockeys" and "bikes" with "horses." Jeff Bridges is astounding.

5) The Rookie - for people who love underdogs and baseball.

4) Jerry Maguire - a chick flick based on sports, perfect! TONS of cameos and great lines, "I love the black man! Show me the money!"

3) Cinderella Man - just a fantastic movie all around. Great music and Paul Giamatti is superb

2) Field of Dreams - "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Oh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come." This one goes in my top 8 favorite movies, sports or not.

1) Rudy - I cry every time I see this movie, twice. When he gets accepted to Notre Dame and then at the end. I could watch this movie once a week from now until eternity.

*note: I haven't seen Raging Bull, Bull Durham, Tin Cup, all of Rocky (or any sequels), Slapshot or The Natural. I hear that these movies would be on my list if I had seen them.

I just love sports, to quote Dana Carvey on SNL, "the precarious balance between infield and outfield suggests a perfect symmetry: the exhilarating tension between being and becoming." I just LOVE sports! I was thinking about the Jazz game yesterday (as I am wont to do) and I basically attributed the good night that I had to the fact that Carlos Boozer had 41 points and 16 rebounds, making him the first Jazz man to score 40 since Karl Malone did against the Magic back in '03. PLUS it put the Jazz in the playoffs for the first time since.... '03. (there were some other things that made it a good night, but that's for another blog). It really just made me happy. I think I have an unhealthy obsession with sports and with the Jazz in particular, my house keys are Jazz keys for crying out loud!! I have a Jazz shirt on RIGHT NOW!! I have been to a Jazz away game...in Chicago!!

I don't know what happened to this blog, I just wanted to talk about Cinderella Man and how it makes me want to cry...


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened"

I'm 75% done with my 1L year, here are my tips...

For anyone will be going to law school but hasn't started, let me give you a couple of my personal views of the best way to succeed your first year. These tips are the culmination of some successful, and not so successful, attempts at gaining a leg-up on my fellow students:

1. Buy the casebriefs (and make sure they're keyed to your book)
Some people like to do it the old fashioned way, required casebooks only. This is a mistake. As soon as you read your very first case (Pennoyer v. Neff) you'll wish you had a plain-English description of what it is you just read. They are very handy when you have to skip some reading or were too busy singing karaoke and getting drunk the night before to do your reading. They will NOT save you from a Prof who likes to ask follow-up questions, so prepare accordingly. (side-note: I got the casebriefs for my contracts class but they were keyed to a different book. I had to eat the $30 because they're non-returnable)

2. Buy a commerical outline and stick with the same brand-name/publisher.
If you like Gilbert's, stick with it; if you like Emmanuel's stick with it. It's VERY nice to have the same format for all your commercial outlines, it makes it easier to process the information. This is another thing that "purists" think they are too good for. They are dumb. Buy the commercial outline and use it.

3. Don't highlight everything.
If you're going to highlight all but 4 lines of a case, you might as well not highlight anything. Notes in the margins are nice, but don't write a whole freakin paragraph. I used to highlight in 5 different colors (facts, cited cases, important dicta, holding/court, and dissent) I stopped after 5 or 6 weeks because the only really important stuff that you won't be able to remember is the verbatim dicta in the holding and the dissent. You'll remember what the case was about and which way it went (or will remember after skimming it). Spend your time working out the reasoning, not highlighting procedural history.

4. Don't try to sound like a lawyer
You are in your first year, you don't know how to argue with a law professor. Don't try and use big words or attempt to display an advanced knowledge of the case when you just read it 12 hrs earlier. This will make other students hate you and professors cringe when your hand goes up. You can give your opinion of a case when asked, but don't pretend to know more than the judges...you don't.

5. You don't have to like everyone, but be respectful and courteous
There are people here that make me want to scream when they give their opinions, and there are people that I want to strangle every time they open their mouths. But guess what, they probably feel the same way about me, and what makes me the lord of all things right? My closest friends are WILDLY different from me in many many ways, but we get along because the stuff that makes us different is minuscule compared to the stuff that makes us the same. You'd be surprised at what people are like outside of the pressures of class and school. Go out on a limb, be daring, hang out with some of the people that you think are completely opposite of you. You'll likely be surprised at what results.

6. Get involved
I know this sounds like a cliche, but it's worth it. When you join groups and go to events you get to meet people with similar interests. It's also nice, in some cases, to be able to have a break from the LAW every now and then. Go to the SBA events and meet some people, join the Running Club, or the Sports and Entertainment Club; talking about the Superbowl is a nice distraction from talking about res ipsa.

7. Do some non-law activities
Play basketball on Wednesdays, or go bowling on Mondays, or make Thursday night movie night. You will absolutely, without a doubt, need a real break from school at least once a week, and bonus points if it is active (sports, gym, walking, etc). If you don't you will get burned out, guaranteed.

8. Study hard, especially when you don't want to
This is one thing I wish I did more of last semester. When your breaks from studying become 2, 3, 4 hrs long, will you be happy when you end up with a C+? "But at least I got to spend time shopping at OldNavy.com!" If you don't study your hardest, there's no complaining about your grade. You will get exactly what you earn.

That's all for now, I have to do some Con Law reading.....

"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened."

Thank you for NOT flying

I really just hate flying. The cramped seats (I'm 6'1" and over 2 bills...) , the crying children, the pressurized cabin, the lousy treats, the super cold air from the overhead nozzle, the cramped seats, the ridiculous restrictions, the really really ridiculous restrictions, being herded like cattle, jet-lag, being cramped, the obligatory "we could crash into a mountain/ocean" thoughts, the ridiculous safety "training," and, of course, the stupid seats that are too narrow and too close together.

In the last 14 days I have flown 6 times, gone over 8500 miles, and spent 18 hrs in the air. NO ME GUSTA. (granted I went to Hawaii, so it was worth it...)


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened."

Man fur.... I could totally do it

Just need the sunglasses and hair

Aloha!

So mom tells me that this is one of the best beaches in the U.S., according to the Travel Channel. Waikiki was pretty cool, but very touristy, a lot like Southern California. There were stores and beach shops and restaurants. Here in Poipu, there's no skyline, there's no hordes of Japanese tourists, and there's no traffic.

The best part, though, is that I am sitting on the beach (yes, with my computer) and I can order a drink with a little umbrella.


My plans for today are as follows:
- Sit at the beach and blog
- Sit by the pool and listen to Hawaiian music
- Sit IN the pool
- Read
- Eat pineapple
- Get a picture with a hula girl (or 3)


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened."

Blogging for the sake of blogging

I've been told that I don't blog enough, so here goes...

I can't even begin to start talking about how much I hate legal writing right now. My trial court brief was too short, mostly because my brain won't let me put the annoying minutiae everywhere it is supposed to go. My prof, though, likes to have it there to spell everything out. So it hurt my grade on the trial brief and now I have to go back and put it in on my appellate brief, which is killing me on time. Yes, I realize that it is my own fault for not being anal and for having a problem with legal writing as a whole. I am just not a good legal writer....at least not yet. I think there is some grand unifying theory about legal writing that I can't wrap my brain around. CRIPES.

What's crappiest about legal writing right now is that I also have legal research to do, property reading, and election stuff. Not to mention the reading for Friday and the Judge's dinner tomorrow. Fan-freaking-tastic. If I had to put a number on how excited I am for Spring Break, it would come frighteningly close to infinity. Here's why:

1) Legal writing will, for all intents and purposes, be over.
2) Elections will be over (win or, more likely, lose)
3) There is a group of islands about 2400 miles south-west of California that I will be visiting. The climate is tropical and the sun shines every day. I will be taking FULL advantage of the beaches and the warm, soothing weather to re-charge my batteries.


#3 is approximately 98.74% of why I am excited for Spring Break. And I will BE there exactly 2 weeks from right this second...


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened"

I knew there'd be a Police song to describe my feelings....

King of Pain. OK, no, not really...
So Lonely, while more depressing, it fits better.

I made a really good and close friend when I first got here, and I mean from day #1. We dated for 2 months, broke up, then I went home for the holidays. We came back, had some awesome times, thought about getting back together, then she started dating someone else and I went from seeing her every day and hanging out 3-5 times a week, to seeing her almost every day and hanging out 1-2 times per week.

I have more friends now but it will take some time to get to the same level that she and I were at. (Yes, I just ended a sentence with a preposition). I freakin love my friends and they have really been there for me in my time(s) of need, so I don't know why I still feel so lonely. And maybe it's not really loneliness, maybe it's just her and that will take some time to get past, which, in my mind, is sort of a dichotomy. I don't want to fret over her anymore, but at the same time, I don't want her to think that I don't care about her, because I really do. It also doesn't help that my new friends and her don't exactly see eye to eye. I told her yesterday that I missed her, but not in a girlfriend way, just in a laugh-at-the-idiots, going-to-Walmart-on-Sunday-nights sort of way. She said she missed me too, and I believe her. Maybe I just need a new someone...

And why are all my friends girls? I don't really mind, but it would be nice to hang with someone who doesn't have all those girly parts. I guess I didn't make any guy friends last semester because I had her and wasn't really interested in making new friends. (please reference the title of my blog...)

So, to conclude, thank you to my friends, you all kick ass and have saved my ass on numerous occasions! Let's have another shot of Patron!!


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened"

Welcome to The Artic, please enjoy your stay

Weather.com has officially said that tonight will be blizzard conditions. I've never been in a blizzard before, but I am thinking that is a good thing.
Dear Profs [Torts] and [Con Law]: Due to the freak blizzard and my P.O.S. rental car, I will not be attending class at 8 AM and 10 AM, respectively. Please accept my apologies.

Random acts of violence

It's 250 AM and I can't sleep. I wasn't sure why until I decided to hop on the comp for a minute or 2 to see if anyone else was having the same problem, which they weren't. So, I start with the natural progression of websites I go to, myspace, facebook, yahoo, espn, Drudge Report, Cnn...WAIT, there it is, the front page: Gunman Kills 5 at Utah Mall Story. I heard about the story around 10:45 PM before there were many details, just that some guy had gone into Trolley Square with a shotgun. I lived 2 blocks from Trolley Square for 13 months, it's right across the street from my gym, they do country line dancing on Friday nights, I went to the Rodizio Grill on my birthday, I would go to Green Street (a bar) which is at the west end, I ate at the Spaghetti Factory on the top floor, and, as the kicker, my cousin was there tonight.

He's OK, he made it out alive, but he heard gunshots and saw bodies. "'As we were running towards the north side of the building, we looked to our left and there was glass shattered all over the floor next to the escalators. And maybe, it was so quick, but maybe ten bodies lying on the ground,' said witness Clifton Black." I don't know how close he was to being shot or what he really saw, but he's only a year older than me and we were basically best friends growing up and the thought of anyone aiming a gun at him for no earthly reason makes me want to vomit.

So, here I am, at 2:57, unable to sleep, because some whackjob thought he'd commit suicide by cop and take 5 other completely innocent people with him. This is a pretty messed up world we live in. Goodnight, I hope...

The dumbing effect of law skool

I was thinking about why law students are so much like high schoolers and young undergrads. I think the reason it's such a big deal HERE, is that the student "leaders" have treated it that way. When you constantly have free booze in order to draw students, that sounds like a lame undergrad ploy. When the theme to your "prom" is "Candyland," there are 2 more reasons. When the majority of the upperclassmen (and women) basically ignore the underclassmen (and women) there's another reason. I think the high-schooling effect of law school has made it harder for me to break the crappy study habits I had in high school. You'd think that graduate school would be a bit more professional and mature, but you'd be dead wrong.

If people aren't coming to your lame events, giving them free beer doesn't make it a success. If you have a "prom" and give it a lame-ass name, people are going to treat it like it's a high school prom. When the upperclassPEOPLE ignore the underclassPEOPLE, then the school gets fragmented and cliques form, like high school.

The so called "leaders" in this school need to treat school as more than one giant networking and partying scene. You want us to be mature and respectful? How about having a get-together that doesn't involve free beer, isn't designed to kiss professor ass, doesn't require a date (express or implied), and still allows the students to meet and mingle without feeling like they need to impress anyone.

We could get the banquet center again, have a paid bar (or first 2 drinks free), have some REAL music (i.e., light jazz, classical, or anything that won't inspire people to "shake their ass"), provide some light appetizers, and find a way to get people to recognize all their commonalities, rather than all their differences.

Maybe we'll be lucky enough to elect someone whose vision of the SBA and the law school isn't overshadowed by a giant glass of beer.


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened."

Suits?

I LOVE the TV show Scrubs. I don't know why but it always makes me feel better about law school. The inner monologue always has good life advice and a lot of the time seems to apply to MY life. And I probably have a very similar mentality to JD, at least in some respects. I wish, though, it was as easy to not let things get to me as it seems on the show.

I always kinda wished that they made a legal version, and yes, they could call it suits!! (my geekyness shows again). I actually had a Scrubs/Wonder Years inner monologue moment today. I was sitting there listening and chatting, then, at that perfect time, it happened:

"It was right then that I knew that we'd never have anything more than a friendship. And while I knew it was the best thing for both of us, it still hurt a little. The friendship survived everything we went through, and that's all that's left."

I really just look at it as the end of Chapter 1. Let's start Chapter 2!


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened."

Yo quiero calor

I usually love snow. I look forward to it in the fall. It's no longer fall, I want sun and heat. The end.


"Did that blow your mind, because that just happened."