What do you know, a talent show where people actually have talent . . .
Last night was Cabaret, the Law School's annual fundraiser for the public interest grants they award to students seeking, obviously, public interest work. A silent auction was going on in one room for donations from students and the community (I donated 3 roundtrips for running errands, which Rob valiantly but belatedly went to bid on in order to prevent me from actually having to give someone those 3 roundtrips . . . they had already taken the sheet away.) In the main room they were mixing a live auction for donations from professors (dinner w/ the prof, golf w/ the prof, flower arrangements, and so on) with performances by law students. I was quite impressed. There were some excellent dancers, (such as a traditional dance from XinJiang province in China and an Irish step dance) some rather funny musical acts (a hilarious music and dance rendition of a poem a written about a famous Contracts case, a Gilbert and Sullivan rip-off about what it's like to be a 1L - in the tradition of We Didn't Go to Harvard but law school specific), and some quality musical acts (such as Andy on the dulcimer and three guitarists doing a couple pop rock songs). I'm used to the junior high talent shows where the "talent" of the performers is somewhat debatable. This was good!
We had a nice dinner beforehand at ZaZa's too. It's an Italian place down on Cascadilla and 13, and I'm rather proud of myself for picking it because it turned out to be a great venue. Although I actually can't be too proud. Rob heard about it from a coworker and suggested it as a possibility for our Valentine's Day dinner, but we went to Boatyard instead. But we were planning on going to dinner with Kiernan, Duncan, and Desi, and Desi wanted some place better than Applebees, and Kiernan and I wanted someplace cheaper than the Heights. ZaZa's fit the bill perfectly. It had cloth pillars and cloth on the ceiling - an unusual and quite nice atmosphere. It reminded me of something off of Trading Spaces but much classier.
It was a nice dinner, and really nice for Rob to get to meet my friends in a little bit better setting than the semi-formal. He doesn't like occassions where the circumstances dictate that you have to kind of work hard to keep up a conversation - like places where loud music is playing! But it was a nice dinner, and we had no awkward pauses or dull moments at all, as far as I was concerned. Duncan was a "new guy" too, as we had never met Kiernan's new . . . . friend . . . before. He was very interesting and amiable, and all in all it was a nice evening.
Rob and I left Cabaret pretty early - 9:30pm. It went on for hours and then there were after parties, so people didn't get home until 4 and 5 am apparently. I'm vaguely disappointed that I didn't stick it out, but not terribly. I mean you know me the party animal!! You know though I would drink a hell of a lot more if I didn't have to pay for the alcohol. Thus the only time I've been truly drunk was at Brandy and Josh's wedding reception - incidentally that was also one of the few times I've been out drinking and not had to drive home, thus another reason why it's the only time I've really been completely inebriated instead of just having one or two and calling it quits. A law school friend of mine recently tried to tell me that drunk driving wasn't that big a deal and that it's the fault of the local government for not having a good local transportation system. (Talking about Connecticut, not Ithaca.) My suggestion that perhaps then people should just not get that drunk didn't go over so well. ;-)
Anyway, the down side of Cabaret being such a party night was that we only had 5 people at our basketball game today, 3 guys and 2 gals. And the only reason the other female was there was because I called her and offered to drive her to the game if she would come. So w/o subs we played a not so great game, and we lost. It was a tougher team anyway than we've been playing, too - we really could have used the subs. Ah well. C'est la vie.
And now time to return to Contracts.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Friday, February 24, 2006
"I can't believe they made a sequel to that."
I have pretty low standards for movies. I don't expect much out of a movie. But this is horrible. There is exactly one other movie which has been this horrible, and that would be Serving Sara. I mean, okay, granted, when I saw that the made a sequel to "The Prince and Me" my immediate reaction was "You've got to be kidding me."
But I had bought the first one a month or so ago in the $5 bin at Walmart and had been surprised to discover that it was actually pretty good as far as its genre goes, and in fact a little more appealing than most of the teeny bopper romances because the main characters were graduating college and thus were a little more relatable. In fact I've watched it a lot of times in the past month - enough to make me wish I'd sprung for the extra $4 and bought the DVD. (I figured it was going to be not that great, and so was just buying it for the cost of renting it.) So in my attempt to make a quick decision and get home, I said what the heck, it's short and I don't have much time, and rented it.
Wow, was that a disappointment!!! And I mean, I wasn't expecting much - and it still disappointed! Sooooooooooo bad!!!!!! It wasn't even the same chick - Julia Stiles played the lead in the original, and she and Luke Malby actually had chemistry. They got the same guy but literally every other returning character was played by a different actor / actress. I didn't notice right away because they did a really good job on the DVD cover of making it look like Julia Stiles to someone who wasn't really looking particularly closely. I'm sure Stiles took one look at the script though and tossed it - sooooo bad!!! Horrible!!!! Not only cliche lines but utterly cliche, never done well even by expert gags, silly plot holes even for this genre, utterly unconvincing performances - oh sooo bad!!!
*sigh* So my evening was rather a waste. I went to the mall to see if I could find a winter coat on sale, but didn't find one to my satisfaction. My current coat has gotten really dingy and I thought perhaps I could pick one up cheap since it was the end of the season. So then I went to Wegman's for a big grocery trip - still not having had dinner, which perhaps explains why when I finally got to the video store at 9pm I didn't make the best decision. ;-)
About 1/2 an hour in I turned the movie off and put on my shoes to take it back to the video store and ask if they'd let me trade it in for Snow White Tale of Terror (an indy movie I caught one late Friday night last year and liked). But it was late and I figured they would tell me no, since it had been about an hour and a half since I rented the movie. So I just watched it, fastforwarding through some of the more obviously painful parts.
*GROAN* Never, ever, ever will I rent a straight - to - video sequel again . . .
I have pretty low standards for movies. I don't expect much out of a movie. But this is horrible. There is exactly one other movie which has been this horrible, and that would be Serving Sara. I mean, okay, granted, when I saw that the made a sequel to "The Prince and Me" my immediate reaction was "You've got to be kidding me."
But I had bought the first one a month or so ago in the $5 bin at Walmart and had been surprised to discover that it was actually pretty good as far as its genre goes, and in fact a little more appealing than most of the teeny bopper romances because the main characters were graduating college and thus were a little more relatable. In fact I've watched it a lot of times in the past month - enough to make me wish I'd sprung for the extra $4 and bought the DVD. (I figured it was going to be not that great, and so was just buying it for the cost of renting it.) So in my attempt to make a quick decision and get home, I said what the heck, it's short and I don't have much time, and rented it.
Wow, was that a disappointment!!! And I mean, I wasn't expecting much - and it still disappointed! Sooooooooooo bad!!!!!! It wasn't even the same chick - Julia Stiles played the lead in the original, and she and Luke Malby actually had chemistry. They got the same guy but literally every other returning character was played by a different actor / actress. I didn't notice right away because they did a really good job on the DVD cover of making it look like Julia Stiles to someone who wasn't really looking particularly closely. I'm sure Stiles took one look at the script though and tossed it - sooooo bad!!! Horrible!!!! Not only cliche lines but utterly cliche, never done well even by expert gags, silly plot holes even for this genre, utterly unconvincing performances - oh sooo bad!!!
*sigh* So my evening was rather a waste. I went to the mall to see if I could find a winter coat on sale, but didn't find one to my satisfaction. My current coat has gotten really dingy and I thought perhaps I could pick one up cheap since it was the end of the season. So then I went to Wegman's for a big grocery trip - still not having had dinner, which perhaps explains why when I finally got to the video store at 9pm I didn't make the best decision. ;-)
About 1/2 an hour in I turned the movie off and put on my shoes to take it back to the video store and ask if they'd let me trade it in for Snow White Tale of Terror (an indy movie I caught one late Friday night last year and liked). But it was late and I figured they would tell me no, since it had been about an hour and a half since I rented the movie. So I just watched it, fastforwarding through some of the more obviously painful parts.
*GROAN* Never, ever, ever will I rent a straight - to - video sequel again . . .
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
"Show off."
We won our basketball game tonight, to bring us up to a 2-2 record. Whoohoo!!! The first game was really rough, because we had 9 guys and 4 girls there and we just couldn't get it together. But we've had a lot fewer guys every other game - in fact the last couple games, which we won, we only had 3-4 guys there. The women have been holding pretty steady at 3-4. And it's been the same core group showing up to every game, which really helps because we've got a sense now of who does what, how we work together, and so on.
It's been satisfying for me personally as well because for the first time ever in my entire basketball career I feel fairly satisfied with my ballhandling. In no small part that's because this is intramurals and the skill level of the defense isn't so high. And I still make mistakes, obviously. But overall I feel pretty good about it. Tonight there was one particularly sweet move, actually - one of my best passes ever. I was at the top of the key, and somehow the defense had all gotten pulled out wide, and Brian was just hanging out wide open looking for the ball under the hoop, and I dished in to him right over the shoulder of my defender (which was only possible because she was also short and didn't have her hand up in the proper defensive position . . . although I was still dribbling and picked it up quick for the pass, so theoretically she wasn't so out of position. If I'd been just standing looking for a pass she should have had her hands in my face.) Anyway, it really was a beautiful look (in basketball slang that means spotting the open person and dishing it to them) and would have been a beautiful shot, but Brian got a little crazy and tried this show off move that didn't work. That's okay though because we were well ahead at that point and he had the space to try something fun.
It's been really great playing with the basketball team - fun to play, especially now that we're really working together as a team now, nice to have the exercise, and nice to have people to talk basketball with. I don't keep up with the NBA or even the NCAA, not having a TV or time to watch it, so I can't chat up about who's making the playoffs or what not. But Brian, who's in my section and sits next to me in a few classes, used to play highschool ball too (which is not true of a lot of people on the team) and so sometimes we'll start having strategy conversations and so on. It's just fun to have people around who not only know the jargon but really know, first hand, the jargon . . . I can't think how else to say it. It's one thing to be an avid basketball fan and know a full court press when you see one, or a pick, or a back door cut, or whatever, and another thing to have been a player on a real team that knows how those are implemented, and work together, and so on. And it's cool because I'm realizing how much I actually know about the sport - not the players and the teams you see on TV, but actually playing basketball itself. I suppose that sounds stupid because I did play on school teams for seven years after all. But somehow it never really hit home to me until I found somebody at the law school to "talk the talk" about it.
Anyway, it's been a good day overall. Today was also my day to meet w/ Robert (as distinguished from Rob), my language partner. I'm feeling the Chinese come back, too, every time we talk a little bit more. And it was really an interesting conversation today - he pulled out his computer and I got all excited because the keyboard had all this Chinese characters on it, and he was explaining to me how it's used (Taiwan has a different system from the mainland - he's Taiwanese). And then I was explaining to him about QWERTY keyboards and that they're designed to slow down typers and some CS majors use a different arrangement and so on. All in chinese. So it was really a great feeling.
*sigh* unfortunately though I've been ignoring my Contracts reading, and I still have 13 pages of cases to slog through, which will take another hour and half probably, at least.
Ugg.
We won our basketball game tonight, to bring us up to a 2-2 record. Whoohoo!!! The first game was really rough, because we had 9 guys and 4 girls there and we just couldn't get it together. But we've had a lot fewer guys every other game - in fact the last couple games, which we won, we only had 3-4 guys there. The women have been holding pretty steady at 3-4. And it's been the same core group showing up to every game, which really helps because we've got a sense now of who does what, how we work together, and so on.
It's been satisfying for me personally as well because for the first time ever in my entire basketball career I feel fairly satisfied with my ballhandling. In no small part that's because this is intramurals and the skill level of the defense isn't so high. And I still make mistakes, obviously. But overall I feel pretty good about it. Tonight there was one particularly sweet move, actually - one of my best passes ever. I was at the top of the key, and somehow the defense had all gotten pulled out wide, and Brian was just hanging out wide open looking for the ball under the hoop, and I dished in to him right over the shoulder of my defender (which was only possible because she was also short and didn't have her hand up in the proper defensive position . . . although I was still dribbling and picked it up quick for the pass, so theoretically she wasn't so out of position. If I'd been just standing looking for a pass she should have had her hands in my face.) Anyway, it really was a beautiful look (in basketball slang that means spotting the open person and dishing it to them) and would have been a beautiful shot, but Brian got a little crazy and tried this show off move that didn't work. That's okay though because we were well ahead at that point and he had the space to try something fun.
It's been really great playing with the basketball team - fun to play, especially now that we're really working together as a team now, nice to have the exercise, and nice to have people to talk basketball with. I don't keep up with the NBA or even the NCAA, not having a TV or time to watch it, so I can't chat up about who's making the playoffs or what not. But Brian, who's in my section and sits next to me in a few classes, used to play highschool ball too (which is not true of a lot of people on the team) and so sometimes we'll start having strategy conversations and so on. It's just fun to have people around who not only know the jargon but really know, first hand, the jargon . . . I can't think how else to say it. It's one thing to be an avid basketball fan and know a full court press when you see one, or a pick, or a back door cut, or whatever, and another thing to have been a player on a real team that knows how those are implemented, and work together, and so on. And it's cool because I'm realizing how much I actually know about the sport - not the players and the teams you see on TV, but actually playing basketball itself. I suppose that sounds stupid because I did play on school teams for seven years after all. But somehow it never really hit home to me until I found somebody at the law school to "talk the talk" about it.
Anyway, it's been a good day overall. Today was also my day to meet w/ Robert (as distinguished from Rob), my language partner. I'm feeling the Chinese come back, too, every time we talk a little bit more. And it was really an interesting conversation today - he pulled out his computer and I got all excited because the keyboard had all this Chinese characters on it, and he was explaining to me how it's used (Taiwan has a different system from the mainland - he's Taiwanese). And then I was explaining to him about QWERTY keyboards and that they're designed to slow down typers and some CS majors use a different arrangement and so on. All in chinese. So it was really a great feeling.
*sigh* unfortunately though I've been ignoring my Contracts reading, and I still have 13 pages of cases to slog through, which will take another hour and half probably, at least.
Ugg.
Monday, February 20, 2006
"I wouldn't presume to read your mind."
So I got called on in Contracts again today. Summers called on me just a couple weeks ago and really grilled Yosef and I - which is of course what's to be expected. I performed well that day, and I thought "alright, I'm done for the semester" because usually that's the way it works. Luckily I didn't start slacking off though, because yesterday he called on me at the beginning of class, and called on just me for the ENTIRE hour. (Well, in fairness, I volunteered to answer one of his first questions, but he doesn't generally stick w/ people who volunteer unless they haven't been called on before.) Usually he splits it between two people.
Anyway, without realizing it right away or intending to I kind of started getting an attitude with him half way through, when I realized it really was going to be just me for 50 minutes straight. The high point was, I believe, when Summers - who cowrote our text book - asked "Now why do you think Summers and Hillman put this in the casebook?" To which I responded "I wouldn't presume to read your mind." There was also the point where he asked "Now did this just seem really incredibly helpful, did this just make everything clear for you?" and the answer was clearly supposed to be yes, and I said "No not really." He tried to trip me up a couple times, saying the wrong answer in that tone that suggests it's the right answer, but w/o success. He said aloud. "You're not going to let me push you around, are you?" to which I responded "I'm trying not to," and he replied "You're doing a good job."
Anyway, "fiesty" comments aside (as my friend described my responses), I think I did pretty well. People were telling me in the halls "Good job today in contracts."
Honestly, as weird as it sounds, a good portion of the reason I was kind of annoyed with being called on is that it was a little embarrassing to do so well two times in a row being called on. I know that's an arrogant statement - but true, I feel pretty confident about. The last time people were also complementing me in the halls afterward. So I felt like a bit of a show-off the second time around and I didn't really like being put in that position - because it's not like I was going to answer poorly on purpose.
As for the fiesty comments, most of the time I was interjecting them to buy time or try to deflect his questioning when I didn't know the answer right off the bat. Anyway, that was that.
So I got called on in Contracts again today. Summers called on me just a couple weeks ago and really grilled Yosef and I - which is of course what's to be expected. I performed well that day, and I thought "alright, I'm done for the semester" because usually that's the way it works. Luckily I didn't start slacking off though, because yesterday he called on me at the beginning of class, and called on just me for the ENTIRE hour. (Well, in fairness, I volunteered to answer one of his first questions, but he doesn't generally stick w/ people who volunteer unless they haven't been called on before.) Usually he splits it between two people.
Anyway, without realizing it right away or intending to I kind of started getting an attitude with him half way through, when I realized it really was going to be just me for 50 minutes straight. The high point was, I believe, when Summers - who cowrote our text book - asked "Now why do you think Summers and Hillman put this in the casebook?" To which I responded "I wouldn't presume to read your mind." There was also the point where he asked "Now did this just seem really incredibly helpful, did this just make everything clear for you?" and the answer was clearly supposed to be yes, and I said "No not really." He tried to trip me up a couple times, saying the wrong answer in that tone that suggests it's the right answer, but w/o success. He said aloud. "You're not going to let me push you around, are you?" to which I responded "I'm trying not to," and he replied "You're doing a good job."
Anyway, "fiesty" comments aside (as my friend described my responses), I think I did pretty well. People were telling me in the halls "Good job today in contracts."
Honestly, as weird as it sounds, a good portion of the reason I was kind of annoyed with being called on is that it was a little embarrassing to do so well two times in a row being called on. I know that's an arrogant statement - but true, I feel pretty confident about. The last time people were also complementing me in the halls afterward. So I felt like a bit of a show-off the second time around and I didn't really like being put in that position - because it's not like I was going to answer poorly on purpose.
As for the fiesty comments, most of the time I was interjecting them to buy time or try to deflect his questioning when I didn't know the answer right off the bat. Anyway, that was that.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Eating Assorted Chocolates is my version of Russian Roulette
I'm rather picky about what kind of chocolates I don't like. I don't like ones with coconut in them, and I don't like the cream filled ones - doesn't matter what flavor of cream. So basically once I'm done eating the ones that are obviously nutty, I'm taking my chances dipping into them! Still, in this case wasting a few of them won't matter so much - Rob and I got it at Tops for 90 cents. It was marked as 1/2 off, for 4.50 . . . but it rung up as 90 cents!!! Yeesh. I have to wonder if that was some sort of error, but we asked the cashier about it and she was emphatic the machine did not err.
Speaking of money, I found a $5 bill on the floor in the lawschool hallway on Friday. How's that for good luck? Rob was laughing at me for being excited, since it is only $5, but after all, how often do you find a $1 bill on the ground much less a $5?? Normally it's a penny! I asked the people around if it was theirs and nobody claimed it, so taking my Property lesson from last week about finders rules to heart, I pocketed it.
Of course, that wasn't the really big good thing that happened Friday. The really big thing was that I got a job for the summer! I interviewed last week with the professor who teaches immigration law for a research position with him for the summer, and he offered it to me on Friday! I accepted late Friday night before he could revoke - taking my Contract lessons to heart. Although unfortunately since I paid attention in contracts (or rather since I was present in contracts, since this was a main point and it would be hard to not know it by this point) I also know that at the moment this is an unenforceable contract because it's too indefinite - we haven't settled on exact starting date or ending date, although he did say that he doesn't mind if I go to China for three weeks on Cornell's study abroad. One might argue that we also haven't settled my compensation, but not really - he has said several times "at the normal law school research rate", which I'm well aware of. It's a pretty good wage - about as much compensation as any first year will make this summer except the ones who managed to land firm jobs.
The position really seems ideally suited for me though. It's all internet research, and after the first couple weeks the professor said we'll communicate by email rather than meeting in person. So basically I can set my own hours, work in my PJ's, and spend 1/2 the summer in Missouri if I wanted to, since my parents finally got high speed connection this January. It's really cool - I don't know what you call it, but I didn't even realize you could get it . . . they can't get DSL or cable out where they live so the have a wireless internet signal . . . the tech guys said the main limitation was they had to be able to get a line of sight to the water tower in town because that's where the signal broadcasting thingy is.
And on top of all that, I'll still be able to go to China. Which I haven't been officially accepted but I've been assured by the person in charge of hiring decisions that I'll get in, so we'll see. I feel a little guilty about borrowing another few thousand dollars to go to China when it seems like I should be trying to reduce my debt - at least the credit card part of it - but my hefty tax refund this year will wipe out the part of the credit card debt that's still at a high rate and then some, and the rest of it is at a life of the balance 2% deal, which is better than my student loans for sure! So ya know. What's a few more thousand when I'm going to be $100K in debt by the time I'm done w/ law school anyway?
But yes, it's been a good week - topped off in fact by Rob and I going to see Curious George and having dinner at the boatyard for our Valentine celebration. It was a great movie by the way - very funny, and made me want to come right home and give my Curious George doll a big hug and a squeeze. His battery has long since died so he doesn't giggle like he used to, but he's still well loved. ;-)
I'm rather picky about what kind of chocolates I don't like. I don't like ones with coconut in them, and I don't like the cream filled ones - doesn't matter what flavor of cream. So basically once I'm done eating the ones that are obviously nutty, I'm taking my chances dipping into them! Still, in this case wasting a few of them won't matter so much - Rob and I got it at Tops for 90 cents. It was marked as 1/2 off, for 4.50 . . . but it rung up as 90 cents!!! Yeesh. I have to wonder if that was some sort of error, but we asked the cashier about it and she was emphatic the machine did not err.
Speaking of money, I found a $5 bill on the floor in the lawschool hallway on Friday. How's that for good luck? Rob was laughing at me for being excited, since it is only $5, but after all, how often do you find a $1 bill on the ground much less a $5?? Normally it's a penny! I asked the people around if it was theirs and nobody claimed it, so taking my Property lesson from last week about finders rules to heart, I pocketed it.
Of course, that wasn't the really big good thing that happened Friday. The really big thing was that I got a job for the summer! I interviewed last week with the professor who teaches immigration law for a research position with him for the summer, and he offered it to me on Friday! I accepted late Friday night before he could revoke - taking my Contract lessons to heart. Although unfortunately since I paid attention in contracts (or rather since I was present in contracts, since this was a main point and it would be hard to not know it by this point) I also know that at the moment this is an unenforceable contract because it's too indefinite - we haven't settled on exact starting date or ending date, although he did say that he doesn't mind if I go to China for three weeks on Cornell's study abroad. One might argue that we also haven't settled my compensation, but not really - he has said several times "at the normal law school research rate", which I'm well aware of. It's a pretty good wage - about as much compensation as any first year will make this summer except the ones who managed to land firm jobs.
The position really seems ideally suited for me though. It's all internet research, and after the first couple weeks the professor said we'll communicate by email rather than meeting in person. So basically I can set my own hours, work in my PJ's, and spend 1/2 the summer in Missouri if I wanted to, since my parents finally got high speed connection this January. It's really cool - I don't know what you call it, but I didn't even realize you could get it . . . they can't get DSL or cable out where they live so the have a wireless internet signal . . . the tech guys said the main limitation was they had to be able to get a line of sight to the water tower in town because that's where the signal broadcasting thingy is.
And on top of all that, I'll still be able to go to China. Which I haven't been officially accepted but I've been assured by the person in charge of hiring decisions that I'll get in, so we'll see. I feel a little guilty about borrowing another few thousand dollars to go to China when it seems like I should be trying to reduce my debt - at least the credit card part of it - but my hefty tax refund this year will wipe out the part of the credit card debt that's still at a high rate and then some, and the rest of it is at a life of the balance 2% deal, which is better than my student loans for sure! So ya know. What's a few more thousand when I'm going to be $100K in debt by the time I'm done w/ law school anyway?
But yes, it's been a good week - topped off in fact by Rob and I going to see Curious George and having dinner at the boatyard for our Valentine celebration. It was a great movie by the way - very funny, and made me want to come right home and give my Curious George doll a big hug and a squeeze. His battery has long since died so he doesn't giggle like he used to, but he's still well loved. ;-)
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
"That's what he just said."
So here's a little lesson: don't go up to the professor after class with an "interesting" point you want to talk to him about when you haven't really been paying attention to lecture!!
The sad thing is, I knew I hadn't been paying attention to the first half of class, but I genuinely thought I had been paying enough attention the second half (in between writing paragraphs of my memo due Friday) that I caught what was going on in the class discussion. And right at the end the professor said something that interested me. So laddy-dahdy dah, up I go to the professor, and when I say "What about this?", he said "Yes that's what so-and so said and that's why I said . . . " etc. etc. He wasn't mean about it or anything and didn't call me out on not paying attention (not that he needed to at that point) but it was a bit embarrassing.
So I decided the only way to get myself out of it was to just keep talking, because I couldn't let him think that the only reason I had come up there was to make a point that had already been made when I wasn't listening. It's true this is a very Cecelia solution (to keep talking) but in this case I think it was the only plausible way to save anything. It worked reasonably well - at least enough to allow me to gracefully exit!
I'll blame it on my empty stomach. I'm hungry.
So here's a little lesson: don't go up to the professor after class with an "interesting" point you want to talk to him about when you haven't really been paying attention to lecture!!
The sad thing is, I knew I hadn't been paying attention to the first half of class, but I genuinely thought I had been paying enough attention the second half (in between writing paragraphs of my memo due Friday) that I caught what was going on in the class discussion. And right at the end the professor said something that interested me. So laddy-dahdy dah, up I go to the professor, and when I say "What about this?", he said "Yes that's what so-and so said and that's why I said . . . " etc. etc. He wasn't mean about it or anything and didn't call me out on not paying attention (not that he needed to at that point) but it was a bit embarrassing.
So I decided the only way to get myself out of it was to just keep talking, because I couldn't let him think that the only reason I had come up there was to make a point that had already been made when I wasn't listening. It's true this is a very Cecelia solution (to keep talking) but in this case I think it was the only plausible way to save anything. It worked reasonably well - at least enough to allow me to gracefully exit!
I'll blame it on my empty stomach. I'm hungry.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
In Defense of the Law
Or at least of one aspect of it. The following quote in my criminal law book, apparently made by a juror to his fellow jury-members in a criminal case, put it well I think.
"The stiffness of the law is the product of a very serious idea; that the law should be exactly the same for everyone, regardless of who they are - that our 'rule of law' can never bend, because if it did it could be used to reach and get a particualr person, be used to satisfy paricular desires . . . Our legal system didn't end up this way by mistake; there have been decisions made to sacrifice the virtues of flexibility in exchange for absolute equality before the law."
I'm rather liking my Criminal Law class, despite the gruesomeness of the subject matter. (Murder, rape, assault, etc.) I suppose in part it's because I feel like this is something I have a handle on. It's not always simple to decide what is right and wrong, but at least here I'm dealing with familiar concepts, supplemented by legal doctrine explaining why things are the way they are, what the "reasonable doubt" standard really means, and so on.
But life is busy busy busy with interviews and my co-ed basketball team and work, so I'll leave it at that for tonight.
Or at least of one aspect of it. The following quote in my criminal law book, apparently made by a juror to his fellow jury-members in a criminal case, put it well I think.
"The stiffness of the law is the product of a very serious idea; that the law should be exactly the same for everyone, regardless of who they are - that our 'rule of law' can never bend, because if it did it could be used to reach and get a particualr person, be used to satisfy paricular desires . . . Our legal system didn't end up this way by mistake; there have been decisions made to sacrifice the virtues of flexibility in exchange for absolute equality before the law."
I'm rather liking my Criminal Law class, despite the gruesomeness of the subject matter. (Murder, rape, assault, etc.) I suppose in part it's because I feel like this is something I have a handle on. It's not always simple to decide what is right and wrong, but at least here I'm dealing with familiar concepts, supplemented by legal doctrine explaining why things are the way they are, what the "reasonable doubt" standard really means, and so on.
But life is busy busy busy with interviews and my co-ed basketball team and work, so I'll leave it at that for tonight.
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