I'm still here and buried under tons of paper

It's been a bit since I posted, so the fast catch up is: the Civ Pro midterm sucked. In some ways. Happily, I think that I was able to answer most of the questions reasonably well. Unhappily or happily (I guess it depends on what you do with it) the exam was 90% of the material we either 1) read but didn't discuss or 2) spent one class on. The whole 5 weeks of personal jurisdiction... nope, not on the test. Grrr! Luckily, I had spent some time on my own on the other material, or I would have been screwed. It's not graded though. So whateveh. Oh, and the other big thing that I learned is that when she says there are 5 questions to answer in an hour. That's not what is really going on. It's 5 main questiion each with 3-6 specific subquestions... you start doing the math on that and you realize that you are doing well to get more than 2 sentences down per answer. jeez louise. So it is. Now I know what to expect in December.

The research paper is done and turned in. Now I'm writing the memo to go with it, realizing that my research was only half-baked. And if I have to sit through another "lawyer panel" of attys who tell me that "after your class rank, your writing and research grade are the most important, and if they suck, well quit now" I'm going to scream.

The memo is sheer torture. Not because of the writing. I like the writing. It's the "there's no way in hell that we can win this case" factor in the writing that is killing me. I keep going back to my research and adding new research because I'm convinced that there's got to be some case somewhere that will help us out. Sigh.

On a brighter side. We're coming down the home stretch. 6 more weeks and I won't have to be scared of the unknown any longer. Honestly, that's the test of this semester more than anything... you have your first everything, first embarrassing socratic moment, first memos, first tests, etc... 2nd semester has got to be easier because you know how to brief and how to answer questions.

So cheers!

procrastination and re-fueling.

So, here it is. The last day of my fall break. The break that was not ever really intended to be a break. Because it isn't a break when you get a research assignment in your last class before break and it's due when you get back. Sigh. Yeah, I know I'm in law school, and I have work to do on break; I just was hoping for a somewhat lighter load. So cheers to a week without classes and a pedicure, but that's about the only nice thing I can say.

I've done all the research for this damnable project, now I just have to write it up, and surprisingly, I am uninspired. Gah. I'm tired and don't feel like trying that hard. Which is really terrible, I know. I haven't even started my Civ Pro outline yet, and I've got a midterm next week. Sigh.

It's not that my enthusiasm for school is waning. It's not. I'm just already getting a little worn down and this week hasn't been the refueling kind of week that I had hoped for. Sigh. Which leads me to half-assed work and procrastination. I think my peers would laugh if I suggested that I was even remotely a terrible procrastinator. It's just because I haven't let myself do it until about a week ago. But now I am.

The hardest thing about procrastinating is stopping. really. the whole thing is a big cycle. You procrastinate, then crank something out in half the time it should have taken, but you are more intense, then you're tired and don't want to do anything for a few days... and before you know it, you're procrastinating the next work item. Sigh. Vicious, vicious cycle.

Here's my pledge: no screwing around until I get that paper done today. Then I can do something fun for 2 hours. Then I have to work on Civ Pro outline for 3 hours... and so on and so forth. Rewards. I'm all about rewards.

Cheers!