It has quickly approached the end of the day of studying for le exam de bar (I too have been caught up in tour madness). I'm not to sure that I accomplished much other then yet again displaying my temper and complete lack of regard for the fine folks at barbri (what does that stand for anyways?) and PMBR. Today the PMBR book called me one of Pavlov's Dogs because "I went right for the obvious trick". I don't know about the rest of you, but it doesn't take a BA in Russian to realize that being called a dog, much less one that salavates at the sound of a bell, is something that a company should be calling a person who is paying for their services. Especially if you are paying for their services in the hope of being admitted to a profession that has all to lately found new and better reasons to sue people for less then that.
It is now offical that the bar exam has forced me to put cycling on the back burner. Just as bar the season is reaching its peak I'm restricted to my least. I know, I know, priorities right. I sacrifice a little right now for a lot in the future. It just sucks to have to admit it to yourself. Over the last week I was able to say to myself that I was getting ready for the Bensenville race or just flat tired from something, but now...now I cannot lie to myself any more. I have to take it for a fact that I am not resting for a race over Labor Day, but in fact just taking time to study for this damn test.
I find myself disagreeing with these so called model answers way too often. It's not that I disagree with the law but they way they are applying the law. The thing that makes me mad is that they (the writers) are the ones that get to claim to be the model answer. They have the final word. I can only imagine the jackass at the office writing the model answer. They are probably as cool a person as internet fantasy sports writers. Am I too critical of these people? Or am I just the only person who cares at all? I think the latter.
I just don't want to do this anymore. Just give me the exam.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Internet Sports Writers
While I was waiting for my microwave pizza to warm today I decided to take a look at my trusty online news website. I was instantly attracted to a story about my beloved Cubs and started to look over some other news from the sporting world. Then I say a sports writer's blog and clicked on it. After reading that 'stuff' I have come to the conclusion that people who write these blogs have never once gotten laid. I've always been amazed by so-called sports writers who critique athletes who participate in a sport that they could never dream of doing themselves. Some critique teachers with the old saying that "if you cannot do teach", well I'd like to point out that at least teachers do something. Sports writers do absolutely nothing at all and any sports writer who thinks that they actually do something...why don't you hand them a ball, running shoes or in the latest critique of Lance a bike.
My disdain for critical sports writers is almost equal to my disdain for those who participate in fantasy sports like they are the real deal. While I do not understand fantasy sports (I personally think it's the ultimate expression of laziness in the world and a hobby for fat men) I do not understand those who live for the experience. I noticed while taking a break yesterday that fantasy leagues were starting for the NFL, hell most of the players in the NFL don't know what team they ae playing for yet!!! There are a few weeks left of summer. Please take that time and go out and do something with your lives. Maybe actually join a park district football league and be a real athlete!?!
On top of that, there are sports writers who specialize in writing blogs for people who play fantasy sports. I find more use in used kleenex then I do for these writers. What in the name of all that is holy are they doing with their lives. I can only imagine the shame that they must feel when they go to high school reunions or out to bars to pick-up women (because women are just too smart to find this to be a profession for themsevles). If I was one of them, I would just lie and say that I did anything else...even being a crack-whore. Please end this.
My disdain for critical sports writers is almost equal to my disdain for those who participate in fantasy sports like they are the real deal. While I do not understand fantasy sports (I personally think it's the ultimate expression of laziness in the world and a hobby for fat men) I do not understand those who live for the experience. I noticed while taking a break yesterday that fantasy leagues were starting for the NFL, hell most of the players in the NFL don't know what team they ae playing for yet!!! There are a few weeks left of summer. Please take that time and go out and do something with your lives. Maybe actually join a park district football league and be a real athlete!?!
On top of that, there are sports writers who specialize in writing blogs for people who play fantasy sports. I find more use in used kleenex then I do for these writers. What in the name of all that is holy are they doing with their lives. I can only imagine the shame that they must feel when they go to high school reunions or out to bars to pick-up women (because women are just too smart to find this to be a profession for themsevles). If I was one of them, I would just lie and say that I did anything else...even being a crack-whore. Please end this.
The Lost Summer
For something close to 26 years I've been told that the summer is the time to have fun and relax. It was the time to get out and about and visit people . Yet this summer I had about 2 weeks of summer and then a lock down. I thought I was pretty good at keeping things low key and responding to pressure, but even my supposed skills are being put to the test here.
People talked, ok my granparents talked, about how it was like during the Depression and WWII. How even though that was one of the toughest times of their lives it was also one of the most rewarding times of their lives. They would say how important it was to have people going through a common struggle and the bonds that it created. Said better, the joint suffering of an entire population brought that population closer together. It made it so that you would have to rely on other people in order to survive. It made communities.
The bar exam just seems to be dividing communities. Made this is the unique characteristics of Chicago, but it seems to be dividing people more and more. I remember that back in law school (as if it was soo long ago) we would actually work together and prepare for exams in pairs or threes. Now, people seem to be using deception and misdirection as if it was the old law school days-- you know the ones that people write about in badly written books intended to scare students. I really yearn for the helping hands of my old buddies down in the dirty south.
People talked, ok my granparents talked, about how it was like during the Depression and WWII. How even though that was one of the toughest times of their lives it was also one of the most rewarding times of their lives. They would say how important it was to have people going through a common struggle and the bonds that it created. Said better, the joint suffering of an entire population brought that population closer together. It made it so that you would have to rely on other people in order to survive. It made communities.
The bar exam just seems to be dividing communities. Made this is the unique characteristics of Chicago, but it seems to be dividing people more and more. I remember that back in law school (as if it was soo long ago) we would actually work together and prepare for exams in pairs or threes. Now, people seem to be using deception and misdirection as if it was the old law school days-- you know the ones that people write about in badly written books intended to scare students. I really yearn for the helping hands of my old buddies down in the dirty south.
Back on the Bike
After 48 hours off the bike I decided it was time to get back on the bike and try to sweat off the embarr-arse-ment of dehydrating in a race that I could have placed in. I did the normal easy route down and around the block (ok a little beyond the end of the block but not much further). Amazingly I passed a girl in a VW with the top down. She stopped at a stop light and I rolled up next to her pausing for a second before I ran the red light (seriously why do I even bother paying attention to the law?) The top was down on her VW and the sun was beating in except she might have been the most pale thing ever. I don't think that she has seen the sun all summer. She must really be studying hard for the bar exam!!! It is sad to think that, this was really my first thought.
I'm solidly convinced that the people who write the model essay answers in my book are not very popular people. I have a feeling that they were not the people that I would have hung out with in college or even now. They are those people who would always have the hand up in class and were trying to impress their fellow law school mates with their knowledge of the rule against-who-could-care-less. We had our fair share of those gunners in class.
My barbri class was full of them. Including little miss I went to an Ivy League law school. Just cause you went to such a school doesn't mean that you are free to be a nasty and disgusting human being. I mean honestly, you still need to shower and wear clothes that were made for you and not for you 300 pound overweight boyfriend. Honestly, Chicago is the place where people come who want to get away from people like that. Just cause your blood is blue doesn't mean that people here don't expect you to wear a blue collar and get your work on. So come to class, sit down and shut up. No one here cares about your life or what is happening in SoHo (hell I don't even know where that really is...nor do I care). Oh and need I forget to tell you that I paid less in 3 years of law school as an out-of-state student then you did in one semester and guess what...I still have the same job that you have. So in 2045 when you are still paying off your loans and I am retired on my boat in the mediterranean think about that.
That is what I love about Chicago. I mean it's cold and rush hour blows but people are so down to earth, well everyone except for a few people from the northside, but they are not invited into my ever-shrinking-circle of friends. The entire philosophy of the new world just flowed so well into Chicago's theory. Some places out east still care about who your father was and what you did before you were even born. Not here, here all that matters is who you are. You work hard and you earn hard. Your lazy or aristocratic and I guarantee you that there'll be someone out there who will knock you down to where you belong...on the bottom. I guess the bottom-line is, if you want to succeed and you've got a strong back and good work ethic come to Chicago. Otherwise the train back to New York leaves from Union Station and I suggest you get on it.
I'm solidly convinced that the people who write the model essay answers in my book are not very popular people. I have a feeling that they were not the people that I would have hung out with in college or even now. They are those people who would always have the hand up in class and were trying to impress their fellow law school mates with their knowledge of the rule against-who-could-care-less. We had our fair share of those gunners in class.
My barbri class was full of them. Including little miss I went to an Ivy League law school. Just cause you went to such a school doesn't mean that you are free to be a nasty and disgusting human being. I mean honestly, you still need to shower and wear clothes that were made for you and not for you 300 pound overweight boyfriend. Honestly, Chicago is the place where people come who want to get away from people like that. Just cause your blood is blue doesn't mean that people here don't expect you to wear a blue collar and get your work on. So come to class, sit down and shut up. No one here cares about your life or what is happening in SoHo (hell I don't even know where that really is...nor do I care). Oh and need I forget to tell you that I paid less in 3 years of law school as an out-of-state student then you did in one semester and guess what...I still have the same job that you have. So in 2045 when you are still paying off your loans and I am retired on my boat in the mediterranean think about that.
That is what I love about Chicago. I mean it's cold and rush hour blows but people are so down to earth, well everyone except for a few people from the northside, but they are not invited into my ever-shrinking-circle of friends. The entire philosophy of the new world just flowed so well into Chicago's theory. Some places out east still care about who your father was and what you did before you were even born. Not here, here all that matters is who you are. You work hard and you earn hard. Your lazy or aristocratic and I guarantee you that there'll be someone out there who will knock you down to where you belong...on the bottom. I guess the bottom-line is, if you want to succeed and you've got a strong back and good work ethic come to Chicago. Otherwise the train back to New York leaves from Union Station and I suggest you get on it.
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Sufferings of the Bar
I am firmly convinced that sometime a long time ago the bar exam was something that was fun and frivolous. It was something that people didn't stress over, lose sleep over, or wake up in cold sweats over. It has become the monster that it is because someone broke what any high school or undergrad students knows to be the cardinal rule...they cared too much.
I remember that back in undergrad it was the ultimate in cool points to not care about what you are doing. Just like it was also cool to be dead broke (something which argueably continues into law school) or to drive the most beat-up old car (in my case a 82 Ford Grenada Station Wagon). The person in undergrad who did the least, drank the most and still made Cs in class was the guy or girl that you wanted to hang out with.
Then, all-of-a-sudden, we decided that life post-LSAT was totally different. People started caring about their grades. They started studying really really hard for finals and actually prepared for class. I know that this threw me completely when I started law school. I have always been of the opinion that if we just all agreed to not try then law school and the bar exam would be easier. But everyone knows that there would be that one person out there who would violate this rule. That one jerk who wants to try hard would study and study and study and make the rest of us all look bad. I really feel that the first bar exam offer was the loss of our innocence. Maybe it was the second bar exam, you know the one after the first person failed the first exam.
Whenever it occurred it has really caused us all a lot of problems and issues. I wish I could say that I don't care and that I am going to continue along like I was in undergrad. But that is not the case at all. Now that I'm approaching the umpteenth millionth hour of studying for this exam I just wish it didn't have to happen at all. This might be the only time in my life that I wish I lived in Wisconsin.
I remember that back in undergrad it was the ultimate in cool points to not care about what you are doing. Just like it was also cool to be dead broke (something which argueably continues into law school) or to drive the most beat-up old car (in my case a 82 Ford Grenada Station Wagon). The person in undergrad who did the least, drank the most and still made Cs in class was the guy or girl that you wanted to hang out with.
Then, all-of-a-sudden, we decided that life post-LSAT was totally different. People started caring about their grades. They started studying really really hard for finals and actually prepared for class. I know that this threw me completely when I started law school. I have always been of the opinion that if we just all agreed to not try then law school and the bar exam would be easier. But everyone knows that there would be that one person out there who would violate this rule. That one jerk who wants to try hard would study and study and study and make the rest of us all look bad. I really feel that the first bar exam offer was the loss of our innocence. Maybe it was the second bar exam, you know the one after the first person failed the first exam.
Whenever it occurred it has really caused us all a lot of problems and issues. I wish I could say that I don't care and that I am going to continue along like I was in undergrad. But that is not the case at all. Now that I'm approaching the umpteenth millionth hour of studying for this exam I just wish it didn't have to happen at all. This might be the only time in my life that I wish I lived in Wisconsin.
Monday, July 18, 2005
Apology to the Wonderful Spectators at Bensenville
Yesterday was the annual Bensenville addition to Wisconsin's super week cycling classic (aptly raced in a Chicago suburb). After debating all morning about whether or not I wanted to go I decided to pack up the car and go for the race. The following is my deep and sincere apology to all those that watched my pathethic performance. Honestly, how was I supposed to know that it was going to be soo hot up on the northside of Chicago. I just assumed since the races were so close to Canada it was going to be moderate in temperature.
It was a beautiful course and in a beautiful area of the city, unfortunately it was just too hot for little old me. I know, I'm supposed to be tough because I train in Mississippi most of the year, but I just dehydrated like a grape in the Arizona sun. Therefore, I now vow to never again race my bike after being stupid and not drinking large sums of water. Also, I resolve not to race my bike again until I take the bar exam. I want to also apologize to all those other cyclists who I might of cut off during the race. I'm sorry but I just know for a fact that you should know to move out of the way for me when I'm diving into a corner at 25 mph. It's not like I can control myself at that speed anyways.
It was a beautiful course and in a beautiful area of the city, unfortunately it was just too hot for little old me. I know, I'm supposed to be tough because I train in Mississippi most of the year, but I just dehydrated like a grape in the Arizona sun. Therefore, I now vow to never again race my bike after being stupid and not drinking large sums of water. Also, I resolve not to race my bike again until I take the bar exam. I want to also apologize to all those other cyclists who I might of cut off during the race. I'm sorry but I just know for a fact that you should know to move out of the way for me when I'm diving into a corner at 25 mph. It's not like I can control myself at that speed anyways.
Introduction
To get all up-to-date as quickly as possible on my world. I am currently studying for the bar exam. Studying really isn't the right phrase to describe it anymore. I'm obsessing over the bar exam. A million questions might fly through the minds of the "normal" person (those capable of realizing that summer is the time to have fun not to worry about whether or not the person running in front of your car is protected by a statute thereby eradicating their own negligence or those who don't realize the fun in riding a bike until you cannot walk), and it is my hope that this humble writing will start to cure any misconceptions that people might have about my breed of humans.
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