Previously Unpublished

We did the Wills lecture the other day and the girl sitting next to me leaned over to see how I had spelled penitent as in the clergyperson-penitent confidential relationship that is recognized under the common law and that creates a presumption of undue influence at the time of the execution of a will. At the break, probably because she was embarrassed at having to see how to spell a not overwhelmingly difficult word, she made a comment about how that is not a word we use everyday.

My retort: “I was raised Catholic.”

Her response: “Oh…yeah…makes sense…me too.”

My conclusion is that I’m in bar prep because of my heretical nature and she is here because of her indifference. Where bar prep equals a place with fire and brimstone. I fell asleep watching The Sixth Sense the other night and so now my big question is: “When did I die?”

-jd

P.S. Can’t really find too much fault with the girl’s lack of spelling acumen since in front of a lot of people today I spelled Evidence with an “s” instead of a “c” at the end.

That would probably cost me some points on an essay.

This post is just a link to my profile at Technorati so that I can claim this blog as its author. It is really a pure form of procrastination from Bar Exam studying since I saw in my sitemeter that some people found this blog through that website. I thought I might get more readers if I could put up tag words about the blog (so they can be better informed about the wonderful process of becoming a lawyer).

So here it goes:

Technorati Profile

-jd

Rockstar energy drink should probably be more aptly named “Bar Star” given how many students I see partaking in the beverage. I’m starting to think it might have a larger market share than even Starbuck when it comes to bar takers and now I’m here to say that I too have become an addict.

It began innocently enough when I was feeling tired and went to the student store to get an energy drink. I had meant to pick up a Starbucks Double Shot, but they were out and so I thought I’d have a look at the Red Bull type drinks. I don’t like Red Bull itself unless it is mixed with Vodka, but then I remembered that I had seen a lot of students drinking Rockstar and lo and behold they had one bright orange can that said Rockstar: Juiced (making you think that it gave you energy while also providing important daily nutrients). I paid up and brought my new-found friend up to my carrel and opened it up. Damn that stuff is good. It is not too carbonated. It tastes sweet (probably thanks to 1000 mg of taurine, whatever that is - oh wait, apparently that’s the energy component). I’m hooked. I need to find where I can buy this stuff in bulk.

I also noticed that on one side of the can, there is a list of 20 cities from around the world that would probably be considered “jet set” cities. I’ve been to 10 of them, so I guess that I’m half a rock star. My day job is to study for the Bar.

-jd

I’m a guy and that was the first thought that struck me upon walking out of the law library not less than 10 minutes ago. The weather outside is exquisite. Probably one of the top 5-10 days I have ever seen in my life (acknowledging that my judgment is probably skewed by the number of hours I have been indoors since this ordeal began.)

What was especially striking was that I was feeling pretty good about the day so far and wasn’t particularly overcome with stress or frustration. Suddenly, when I walked out the door, it just hit me how incredible life was beyond simulated little scenarios in book after book of hypothetical problems. The sun was radiant, the breeze was blowing just enough, the temperature was perfectly tailored for every nuance my body could demand. About the only things that would make it better would be to 1) have freedom from this damn test 2) have Ticket back here playing with her niece in the background and making her laugh 3) have a job secured that adequately meets my stratospheric monthly loan payments (bastards are already, ALREADY calling me about undergrad loans that were deferred and don’t believe I can remain deferred under economic hardship unless I show I signed up with unemployment) and affords me a modest life where I can BBQ every now and again 3) be BBQing steak, ribs, and shrimp while 4) drinking a cold, dark beer as 5) fireworks go off in the distance, 6) suntan oil wafts in the air, 7) a baseball game is on the television within viewing range of said BBQ, and family and friends are all coming over in half an hour to just hang out.

Or I’d just like to bask in this perfect day for maybe half an hour without a care in the world. But no, this is Bar time and if I deviate for one minute, one minute, I’ll fail. Just kidding. It is an amazing day and I enjoyed my five minutes, but now time to go back and just look forward to next summer. (Damn they’ve brainwashed me!)

-jd

Went to the first day of the Simulated MBE review session and then left by the second break because 1) I wasn’t feeling well and 2) the advice didn’t seem to be all that more helpful for me than just reading the answers would be. The woman giving the lecture was an independent contractor and although she was nice enough, it sort of gave me the impression that even BarBri thought the sessions were optional. Her two best tips (1) ranking the difficult questions to pre-determine the order you should return to them if you have extra time and 2) using a hierarchy to handle torts questions), I either was already doing or else learned in PMBR. Plus I’m more of a visual learner anyway (probably because I reserve listening for pleasure purposes such as music).

Anyway, so although it seemed as though it would be better for me to complete my flashcards for all the MBEs, then pick out the questions in each subject I got wrong, read those sample answers, and then pull out the flashcards for extra review that pertained to those problem areas - all on my own pace - I still feel guilty about leaving because she made a comment in the beginning about how all those who didn’t show up were not going to pass. Damn her! I know she is just doing her job by making those who did show up feel better and she is an independent contractor so she needs to sell herself, but for the whole first segment I debated whether I would fail if I left. Especially since she said she had important tips to offer at the end of each day that would give us different approaches and extra options beyond BarBri (I like having options).

However, in the end, after it seemed clear I should be studying at the library and was only sitting in lecture debating with myself over whether she had said anything in the last half hour that would either cause me to pass or fail based on my knowledge or lack thereof of her words, I decided to leave. I just did what she told us to do: I looked at this part of the paced program, didn’t put any difficult checkmark by it, and then moved on.

-jd

Before I delve into my aforementioned series of posts on baseball as it relates to studying for the Bar Exam, I think I’ll pay tribute to another favorite relaxant of mine: music. Certain songs are already becoming etched into my subconscious as defining this time in my life. Among those, the following seem especially ironic and appropriate:

1. Brain Damage. A gem from Pink Floyd that actually features what sounds like a madman laughing in the background in the middle of the song. I had somehow never really listened to this song until the first day I was driving home after BarBri. Favorite line: “The lunatic is in my head.” Where lunatic equals the bar examiners.

2. Afternoon Delight (Anchorman Soundtrack Edition). I’ve always liked this song (and movie), especially with the voiceover that describes the song as being about daytime lovemaking (the naughty type). Anyway, this beauty appeared on the iPod’s shuffle list while driving back to the lecture center after lunch to start the second half of the Simulated MBE. I’ll be playing this song as I drive to the actual Bar since of course that will be such a delightful time (though maybe I shouldn’t ruin the song?)

3. Imagine. This classic song by the late, great Beatle John, came on the radio while I was waiting in traffic to leave the testing center. You know the line that goes, “imagine no possessions, I wonder if you can”? It dawned on me that John was even more of a genius than I had previouslyt realized because without possessions, there would be no property law and thus that subject would no longer be on the Bar Exam. Damn you Mark David Chapman! I hope you rot in hell! (Oh wait, in Imagine, there is no hell below us. Well, maybe you’ll drop your soap in the shower.)

In other news, the MBE was exhausting so when I went shopping later, it seemed like a good time to find out what organic wine tasted like. It works great, I’ll describe what it tastes like some other time.

-jd

This entry will be introducing what I imagine will be a whole slew of baseball related posts showing how the national pastime helps pad my way as I endeavor to pass the Bar Exam this summer (disregard reference to football and possibly kick-boxing in this link.) With my girlfriend out of the country and most of my friends gone haywire over this test thing we’ve got coming up, baseball has been about the only other constant in my life recently besides BarBri (Though Ticket does give me pointers over the phone nearly everyday.) Anyway, I think my religion-like reliance on the sport will be clear in a number of upcoming posts that I’ve already scratched out on note cards in between trying to make flashcard after flashcard on Remedies.

Normally, my solace via baseball comes in the form of how the World Champion St. Louis Cardinals are doing, my fantasy baseball team, or an occasional game or glance through the box scores. However, sometimes humor during this dark time comes from a source that may otherwise be least expected. Tonight I was down on not producing as many billable hours at the library as I had hoped given it was an off day from BarBri and I had certain goals that I thought I could attain. Well, once I did get home after putting in as many hours as possible given my late arrival and a number of breaks, I saw this quote attributed to Ichiro Suzuki who is a star outfielder from Japan who now plays for the Seattle Mariners:

In response to a question about Tiger Woods’ athleticism, Ichiro said, “Tiger is a great golfer, but … when you say athlete, I think of Carl Lewis. When you talk about (golfers or race-car drivers), I don’t want to see them run. It’s the same if you were to meet a beautiful girl and go bowling. If she’s an ugly bowler, you are going to be disappointed.”

Huh?! As the writer of the Sports Illustrated article from which this came from said, “Something had to be lost in translation in that last one.” That was just so out there that I forgot all about my Bar woes and decided to open a bottle of wine to have with my BBQ chicken (which I’m preparing on my BBQ at 10:30 PM because I’m not going to let the Bar take away my summer completely).

-jd

So my multi-state scores have stayed relatively the same since I did the introductory tests in PMBR through today when I finished a complete day’s worth of BarBri mixed questions (200 total). To remove anxiety or confidence from anyone else’s relative perception of where that places them, let’s just say I’m somewhere between 50% and my personal goal of 80% correct (and no it’s not 51% or 79%). I score about the same on Torts and Con Law, lose a couple questions in Contracts, gain a couple correct in Property, and then do about 10% below my average in Crimes and about 10% about my average in Evidence. This is basically how’s it’s been for a month except that it used to be a differential of 20% below my average in Crimes and 20% above average my average in Evidence. I have begun to think that everything I’m doing must be pointless.

Then, it occurred to me this afternoon while making flashcards for Civil Procedure, that maybe I can make an analogy to working out at the gym. When you go to the gym, at least if you’re just starting to get into the habit, it can often be discouraging because it seems as though you don’t lose any weight. In fact, sometimes you may even start to gain some weight. But in the long run, you will eventually start to look more toned and feel better despite not actually dropping pounds. The reason is because you are indeed burning away fat, but once the fat starts to go away, muscle will begin to form and the muscle weighs more than the fat. Thus, the improvement is not that noticeable if you just base your perception on the scale because the new muscle is just replacing the old fat.

To continue the analogy, I really was just getting lucky on my scores in the beginning with sloppy and uncertain knowledge and now I’m burning it away and getting the same stuff right only now with confident knowledge. Not sure that makes complete sense, but I’m going with it.

-jd

My twin brothers graduated high school earlier this week and so I took another day off of BarBri. That sounds like I take a lot of days off when really I’ve only missed two days - both for immediate family graduations. We actually didn’t have any assigned BarBri homework because it was an all day class and I went to part of it in the morning, so there wasn’t all that much to make up. Well, except that we’re supposed to be studying between 5.5 and 8 hours on top of the BarBri lectures. I am woefully behind in my endeavor. Actually, not from BarBri’s perspective so much as from my own since when I do work, I put in at least 5 hours (did I say 5.5 above?). See, four weeks in (five including PMBR) I feel that I understand what I have to do to be satisfied that I tried my best and that I am as prepared as possible while still maintaining sanity. Ticket told me before she left to go far, far away that I should use this blog to record my exact thoughts during this time. I assume she meant my ups and downs. So this is what went through my mind as I was traveling back to the old home town for the graduation.

First, I thought, “Holy crap! the twins’ graduation seemed so far away when PMBR started which means that the Bar is really close because that also seemed very far away at one point.” Then I calmed myself by thinking that I have done most of what BarBri has told me to do.

Then I panicked because I rarely, if ever, do the PMBR questions. On the other hand, at least half my classmates didn’t even do PMBR so the little I do is icing on the cake. Plus I resolved to start doing PMBR now that we no longer get specific MBE subject assignments.

At this point, I listened to the MP3s I made of the first essay workshop that I had missed to go to my sister’s graduation a couple of weeks ago. No, that was three weeks ago. Crap! No, two. No, three. I couldn’t remember and really didn’t want to.

Basically, it all came down to feeling guilty that I hadn’t yet made flashcards for all the MBE subjects. In fact, I’ve only made half and those don’t include the marathon subjects of Property and Contracts although it does include Con Law. See, I feel that having flashcards that I’ve made is a big key to learning the material not only for the MBE subjects, but also for getting down the specific wordings for all the rules that I’ll need on the essays. With flashcards, I can go over them anywhere to review, plus when I do PMBR and miss questions, I can flag trouble areas by making a more select stack of “problem area” flashcards. I’m fixated on this as a big key, along with practicing full essays and not getting too excited over the performance test. Plus Ticket and Jack made them and they passed. Plus I got my highest grade in law school in the only class that I made flashcards for (as opposed to reading those yellow pre-made flashcards which only worked for me with Evidence).

So it was a guilty drive because I haven’t made flashcards in two weeks. I could have been looking them over while they were reading off the names of the 500 or so students that graduated this year from my alma mater. Then I saw my family, had a great time watching my youngest siblings finish high school, and I was over it. Plus I still have plenty of time to make flashcards since the library just extended its hours for summer school!

-jd

The other day I had the first sort of, you know, freak out. We did the first performance test assignment and despite relative success on the essays, I crumbled somewhat down the stretch. Actually a lot. I went in thinking that this would be the easiest part of the Bar for me and in the end it just about manhandled me. I was doing fair to middling on the MBE questions, the essays I seemed to be doing well on despite occasional cheats to get the wording of rules rights, and so I thought that my cool, calm demeanor thus far would extend to the last segment that had yet to be revealed in all its glory. However, by the end of the test, I had just one thing in mind: Star Wars.

Realizing the true nature of the completed Bar exam in all its length and glory was staggering. It was of the magnitude of some of the more monumental epiphanies in the greatest space saga of all time. Finally seeing the full power of the test from both the multiple choice side and both parts of the writing side was like being told by Emperor Palpatine in Jedi (the best of the trilogy), “Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battlestation!”

Or perhaps more poignantly, the Bar was saying “JD, I’m your daddy! I mean, I am your father.” I want my mommy!

Anyway, it is also possible that the freak out was attributable to other causes, extraneous to the Bar Exam. I’ve been pretty tired lately. Oh, and my girlfriend is going on a tropical vacation halfway around the world for two weeks and then she’s moving far, far away (Actually, I’m thrilled that she gets to go since she had to go through this bar craziness last year and now’s her only chance to vacation. I just wanted to get the line in about her moving “far, far away” because it’s another dorky Star Wars reference.)

-jd