Give me more

Ah, the goodies. So much bait to go for in law school. Everywhere I turn, someone is trying to give me something for free. The two primary online "law libraries (Lexis and Westlaw)" are constantly having demo sessions at the school to teach you how to make better use of online research using their tools. They even goes as far as to give us points for each case/statute search we perform using their tool. These points are kinda like Coke rewards. You redeem them for a bunch of random crap. They offer free books, study aids, blockbuster rentals, beer, cars, planes...you name it, they got it. As my research professor correctly assesses, "They offer you guys the crack for free while you're in law school hoping you become a fiend. Then when you get out into actual practice, they sit back and laugh as you pay 150 bucks per search. Once you're hooked, you're screwed. That's why you need to learn how to research the stacks as well." Hmmm...Could there be a reason the law school is constantly offering free beer?

Another one of these money-sucking ho-bag companies is the Bar Review folks. They offer discounts if you sign up for the $1500 dollar course as a 1L. Each year thereafter, they tack on an additional 100 bucks.

Two posts for the price of one...or something like that

Ha, this is funny. Therefore I decided to publish 2 posts tonight. Actually this is just an observation of my site statistics...

Referring URL		http://blogsearch.go...ring=d&sa=N&start=30
Search Engine		blogsearch.google.com
Search Words		vasectomy
Visit Entry Page		http://sixfigurevaca...09/torts-review.html
Visit Exit Page		http://sixfigurevaca...09/torts-review.html

Poems

Many say that engineers are cut out for law school better than students with business and arts backgrounds. I concur. Among the many things that I'll eventually touch on to support my view, tonight I choose to discuss legal research and writing.

Let's start with the research. To support your case, you must find previous case law similar to the topic at hand. As time goes by, the common law evolves and judicial decisions tend to shift from earlier years. You start with cases that are binding on your case. Cases decided under the same jurisdiction will have precedent. Other jurisdictions can be very persuasive, but Judge Billy Bob from Arkansas ain't gonna tell ya wut ta do when it comes to cases decided in New York. Engineering is much the same. You perform your research to determine which mathematical theories and/or previous solutions will govern and/or guide you to the solution of your problem. You build on these theories, possibly creating new ones, to advance the state of the art. For lack of a better example, Gear Head theories produced by Mechanical Engineers will not likely be binding on the development of theories in electromagnetic fields. However, their methods may provide some insight.<--Ok, so maybe not; but you get where I'm coming from. Do you really need to know the ending of fantasy novel to write your own? This is why the arts folks are busy playing catch-up in the first year of law school.

Legal writing is another area in which engineers have the upper-hand. Of course, this only applies to the 1.5% of engineers that can actually construct a coherent sentence. For those who can, however, the process in legal writing is the same. On the other hand, English and history majors write fairytale-like documents. They don't present the meat of document until the end. Instead they feed you full of a bunch of B.S. and then randomly slap on a conclusion when they run out of ideas to blabber about. In the law, you state the conclusion from the get-go working backward to support your view. Engineering is similar...we know the problem we're trying to solve; now let's figure out how to get there. We're not going to hold you in suspense and then all of sudden tell you Mr. Potter fall off his magic carpet. We'll give you the solution and then present how we arrived there. He fell off of the carpet. It can be shown that this was due to a few too many cheeseburgers.

Then again, this is just how I see things. Power to the N3rDz.

Torts review

To rehash what we've learned so far in Torts, I will give short examples of each intentional tort. This is beneficial to me as well as you. By writing this, I help myself study what's been discussed so far. By reading this, you essentially go to law school for free. In the end, we're all happy.

Battery--I intentionally beat you with my bat and make you cry like a little sissy. My intent was to cause harm and severe harm was caused. I've committed a battery.

Assault--I intentionally make you think that I'm going to beat you with my bat and make you think that you're gonna be in severe pain...and I'm capable of doing so. I've committed an assault.

False Imprisonment--After I beat you with my bat, I toss you inside my fenced-in yard. I hire snipers to make sure you don't get out. You're under the assumption that if you leave, you'll be shot. I've committed false imprisonment.

Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress--Your mother watches me beat you with the bat. I'm aware of this and keep chuckling as I do so. Your mother had emotional breakdowns which led to a blood cot in her big left toe. I'm now liable for action under IIED.

Trespass to Land--I walk onto your land, but I thought it was my own. Who cares? I still had the intent to walk on the land. I've trespassed on your land. Now, if I shoved Johnny onto your land, he has not trespassed. However, I still have trespassed due to transfer of intent through the actor.

Trespass to Chattel--A bunch of people would like to beat you up because you're a moron. You own a bear for self protection. I kick the bear in his huevos. The bear can no longer protect you for a period of 3 weeks due to my action. I have trespassed on your chattel.

Conversion--After all of these verbal beatings I've placed on you, you now are in the hospital. I sneak into the hospital, take your records, alter them for you to undergo a vasectomy, and replace them. You are now shooting blanks due to the converted documents. I'm liable for conversion.

Lesson finished. Time to go onto another subject...

Easy now kids

I've had a few people say, "You haven't posted anything this week." I've been really busy with loads of reading, a research assignment, and a legal memorandum which I've yet to start on. I do have a few interesting tidbits to share when I get around to it. For today though, I'd like to assign you the reading of the Jena 6 story taking place in the small town of Jena, LA. Go grab it from your favorite news source and then come back to see what I have to say about it.

For those of you that are too lazy to read it for yourselves, let me explain. Apparently, Jena is a small town with a bit of racial tension. What do you expect though? It's the South and there are still those who firmly believe that the South will rise again.

Here's the short and sweet version with a few possible misstatements on my part. Go read it for yourself since my synopsis is most likely incorrect and missing some facts. At Jena High School, the white kids sat under a tree dubbed "The White Tree." The black kids sat on some bleachers elsewhere. One day, a black kid sarcastically asked the principal if he could sit under "The White Tree." The principal stated that anyone can sit anywhere. The following day, some black kids sat under "The White Tree." Shortly thereafter, three nooses were hung in the tree. The white kids responsible for the act were suspended for a few days. Racial tensions increased and fights ensued. Some days later, a white kid involved in the beating up of a black kid was bragging about the incident. The "Jena 6" (a group of black students) as they are so called, knocked his dick in dirt so-to-speak. Now the Jena 6 are being charged with attempted murder, battery, etc.

Now, of course, you have every activist group known to man rallying at the hearings. Al Sharpton and his followers are protesting racism. PETA is whining about the abuse of the tree and microorganisms that live in it. MADD is stopping by to make sure no one's leaving the rally drunk. Da, da, da, da, da...you get the point. My biggest issue with this is that rallying is stupid. I don't care who you are or why you are rallying; it's stupid. What good ioes it do? As unfortunate as it may be, it's not going to affect the outcome of trial. Even if the judges in Jena are racists and throw the book at the kids, an appeal to a higher court will solve those issues. In my opinion, those who rally are just talking the talk. Talkers aren't leaders, so why listen to them? My opinions are swayed by those who actually walk the walk. Letting your balls hang low goes a long way in my book. So if you're going to get involved, then do something meaningful. Rallying is not meaningful; people get the point already. The reason why I mention this story is because several of my law school classmates have been attending these rallies and going around soliciting attendance to others. Leave me out of it. I don't get involved in this nonsense. I'm here to study the law, not to rally. If I wanted to learn to rally, I'd become a hippie.

The Chair

I don't really have anything worthwhile to whine about this evening. I'm exhausted and ready to get to bed. I do however want to discuss my chair. First off, I'm paying thousands and thousands of dollars to go to law school. One would think, the tuition would include a chair that didn't cause my tail end to ache. Some rooms have lazy-boy-like comfort, while ours reflects that of metal bleachers in the nose bleed section. My main concern is that of my rear end falling asleep. Although it'd be amusing, I'd rather not pass gas in a non-volitional manner. The humiliation may prove to be too much to overcome. I gotta cut this short. I'm off to get some sleep.

Now you see it, now you don't

The weekends are too short. I decided to dedicate Friday night as a "No study" night. To get away from the whole law school thing, I went on a pub crawl with some friends. I woke up late on Saturday, drank plenty of water, studied a bit, watched the Trojans gain a few first place votes back from the Purple and Gold, and unexpectedly ended up at a putt-putt venue later that night. I'm no Tiger Woods, so I'll stick to artificial turf. Today, however, it was time to hit the books. I got up early, studied a lot, studied some more, and next thing I know...it's midnight. The weekend just vanished. Luckily, my reading for the week is near complete. Time to hit the sack.

The views change

I would like to steer away from the norm this evening and discuss my thoughts on higher education as well as career choices.

College kids--a breed of individuals, although in denial, attempting to delay their start to a real life.

Yep, that's still me. However, my title is somewhat fancier now: Senior Principal Vice President-like college kid. I'm higher up on the totem pole. I've graduated past the "Let's party tonight, struggle through classes tomorrow, and party again the following night." With that being said, my view on the typical fraternity/sorority college kid has somewhat become tainted. I've lived the Gung-Ho fraternity life as an undergrad and while it was fun, it's now just a thing of the past. I made it through the graduate degree, so why now would I want to continue? Most people get to this stage, settle down with a significant other, and start living the family life. For me, it's about the advancement of opportunity for putting myself in a lush position with hopes of becoming a wealthy individual. Screw the white picket fence. Sure along the way, I will alter my stance and switch gears into family mode. For now, however, I want to live like a rock star...monetarily that is--fancy house, fast cars, and lots of disposable income. They say money doesn't buy happiness. To that I partially say, B.S. (not the degree type). It is my perception that money amplifies the happiness. In synthesis, I conclude that money does buy happiness, but only in a sense. It is for these reasons, that I believe the advancement of my education will deliver success. So, what's next after law school? Well, of a course a good job, but don't think that I abandoned the dream of being called Doc.

St-st-udddderrrinn'

Usually, I have no problem knocking down questions thrown at me in class. However, for some strange reason, I have this issue in Torts. And what makes the issue worse is that Torts seems, at least so far, to be the easiest to comprehend. On the contrary, the nature of the court decisions in Torts seems to be much more subjective than the cases from my other classes. Here's the deal...
If my Torts professor randomly asks a question, I am more than capable of issuing a solid response. The problem arises with his method of attack. Unlike the other classes where the probability of a particular person getting called on is equal to his/her peers, my Torts professor assigns "On-Call" groups. Each "On-Call" group is assigned a particular section of the material to be discussed in class. So, it may be a couple of weeks in between each time that my "On-Call" group is singled out. During the next class session, my group is On-Call. There seems to be some awkwardness in my nervous system when my group is On-Call. After looking around at other members in my group, I've noticed that I'm not the only one. I tend to tap my pencil, bounce my feet up and down, thumb through my papers, and a lot of other weird crap when I'm On-Call. In addition, I seem to stumble over my first couple of words before settling down and delivering my response. This only occurs when I'm On-Call. I can't quite figure it out.
My buddy jokingly mentioned bringing in a bottle of Bourbon and distributing it amongst my fellow peers before class. That would obviously ease the tension, but then we'd all doze off. This law school thing sure seems to throw me into a strange mental state at times. I'm beginning to see transformations in character and thought process. It's a good thing, but at the same time it's very different than anything else that I've experienced.

Additional phase

Remember that three-phase weekend plan that I mentioned earlier this week? Well, now begins the "Drink a little" phase. Tonight, however, I first intend on adding an "Exercise a little" phase. Luckily for me, the "Bar review" is only twelve blocks away. Therefore, I will embark on a short stroll to the bar. I'm anticipating that this additional phase will help burn the calories packed on from those 12 oz. curls. Hopefully, the end result will be a set of six-pack abs, but that's being a little optimistic. Free beer with my fellow law school brethren. Hopefully, it's worth the strenuous physical activity that I'm about to undertake. Time to run.

Blah, blah, blah

Oh those that talk...It's amazing how some can just jaw away not knowing how much everyone else wants to whack 'em where it counts. If I'm going to be punctual in my class attendance, it should be worth my time, right? Here's the deal...We're sitting in class discussing Torts, Contracts, Property, etc. and it never fails that some douche-nozzle decides to bring up an issue relating to his/her own life experience. "Well, I was doing this. Does this constitute a Tort?" Who cares? I'm trying to learn the law. I don't care about you're boring life. It's detracting from my gaining of knowledge. My life is much more interesting, but you don't hear me jabbering away about how I fell out a bus going down the interstate. Not to mention the fact that I'm still here. I think some of these people just like to hear themselves talk. Enough with that, on to cooler crap...

The SBA is having its second "Bar Review" Friday night at the Balcony Bar. It's the perfect opportunity to get acquainted with the law school hotties. Count me in. Speaking of hotties, I think my neighbor likes to lean the other direction. That's a disappointment.

Gotta get some rest. I'll fill you in later.

Mo' money

In Contracts, we've been discussing the recovery of damages awarded for breach of contract during the last 2 weeks. It's still unclear to me as to why we'd study damages before defining the actual breach, but apparently there is some reason to this madness. The professor claims that we will better understand Contract theory if we are already educated in the various types of recovery. In the introductory cases, the breach is clearly stated so it seems somewhat easy. The damages, however, are quite the contrary. At times, the damages awarded seem to confuse the crap out of me and everyone else for that matter. Today, the professor introduced a scenario in which he was the bridge builder that just breached a contract with us being representatives of the City contracting him to build the bridge. He wasn't too clear in his example as he brought up the same old question, "Now what kind of damages does this seem to reflect?" No one answered. He proclaimed, "You're all sitting here staring at me as if I'm too fat to build the bridge. Your damn skippy. You'd be stupid to hire me as a bridge builder, but that's not the question. So, let me pose the question again..." This time several people answered at once with everyone producing a different answer. Luckily he didn't have to squint his eyes in disgust as he typically does. Class was over. We were off the hook. Sometimes the clock works in your favor.

Pick your poison

Drink a little, sleep a little, study a lot. That describes my weekend life. The weekends now suck. The professors use the weekend to pour on additional assignments. They firmly believe that weekends in law school shall be used to study the law. Did I think law school was going to be easy? No, but I thought I'd still have a social life. The substance of the material is not at all difficult other than looking up of every sixth word in the legal dictionary. The big issue is TIME. There exists not enough time in the day to perfect the study of law. If you throw work during the week into the equation, it breaks down like this: TIME - WORK = LESS TIME. I envy those who can afford to devote the whole week to the study of law. This weekend was the opening weekend for college football. Of the 16,734 games played, I saw one in its entirety. And that's only because it was played during the late night "Drink a little" phase. The rest of the weekend was devoted to "study a lot." Now that it's getting late, I think you can conclude which phase comes next. Zzz Zzz Zzz!!!