Check #2

And #5 for that matter. Either he's posting under a pseudonym elsewhere or I've found Brian's long lost brother.

Do I Know Someone In Norway?

A summer abroad student perhaps?

Not Quite The MPRE

From Trini (who really should be posting this herself but I think she likes the idea that it's me who is posting it):

This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally.

The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous.

You are in Florida, Miami to be specific. There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding. This is a flood of biblical proportions. You are a photojournalist working for a major newspaper, and you're caught in the middle of this epic disaster.

The situation is nearly hopeless. You're trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses and people swirling around you, some disappearing under the water. Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury.

Suddenly you see a man floundering in the water. He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris. You move closer . . somehow the man looks familiar. You suddenly realize who it is.

It's George W. Bush!

At the same time you notice that the raging waters are about to take him under ... forever. You have two options--you can save the life of G.W. Bush or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the world's most powerful men.

So here's the question, and please give an honest answer:

Would you select high contrast color film, or would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?

Seeing that I link to conservative humor, I thought I should give equal time to the other side.

Random AIM Conversation

yaz: But my friend's sister said blah blah blah [that's how good of a listener I am on AIM]
Bruin7089: Friend's sister cute?
yaz: Not really
yaz: Her friend is cute though
Bruin7089: So the friend's sister's friend is cute?
yaz: Yes
Bruin7089: Which makes my friend's friend's sister's friend cute?
Bruin7089: Is that too tenuous of a link?
yaz: No
Bruin7089: So when am I getting introduced?

Quote This

"Don't let this [my enjoyment of the So Cal weather as I tried to study the FDCPA] get in the way of blogging." - Prof. Horwitz

Random AIM Conversation

Bruin7089: Your dad would talk about pussy over casserole?
yaz: Yes
yaz: More re which patients were difficult and that type of shit

Law School Pet Peeve #3

Spending a half hour of class time discussing the dicta of a case and then ten minutes on the rule of law from the three page case.

CA Community Property Class

After sitting through three classes of CA Community Property with Prof. Polin, I'm convinced that Prof. Goodman must be some sort of axe murderer of those who incorrectly brief a case in his class. How else to explain the consensus among the student body that Prof. Polin is the preferred professor to take for the course?

Quote This

"Yeah right, Brian has no gaydar." - Steve

It's Kinda Like Law School

No, I'm not saying that those who get ahead cheated. Just that you think you do what you have to do and you're not exactly rewarded.

Quote This!

Marriage is for suckers.

- Trini

All My Grades Are In

And I'll be back next year. Just barely. More on my grades tomorrow.

Quote This

"I was a punter. It wasn't like I was an actual football player." - Darin Erstad

I Am Saddened

Quote This

Everyone who has blogged could say the following.

"I now have a permanent record of my stupid thoughts and ideas on the Internet." - Prof. Daniel Solove

I Have Glimpsed My Future

Looks Like I Belong To The Wrong Political Party

AND MORE:

Yes, you heard that right. Howard Dean is accusing Republicans of being white. We most assuredly are not jiving you: Howard Dean--scion of Park Avenue, former governor of Vermont, a state that is 96.8% people of pallor--is faulting Republicans for being white, even though he himself is whiter than an albino polar bear with dandruff.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

Rachael Ray

She annoys me. And not just because I have a hard time spelling her first name or she has an irritating voice and way of speaking but also because I don't have $40 a day to spend on food.

Law School Pet Peeve #2

Professors who don't stay on schedule, especially when they have a syllabus that reads "Read 35 - 40 pages per class." Two classes in and we're on page 55. Does that mean I'm supposed to read up to page 95 for the next class or read up to page 120?

Funny

"I hope no one looks down on Sen. Kerry because of his mediocre college grades," said Mr. Bush. "In America, even if you're not the sharpest pencil in the box, you can still grow up to be the president."

Debtor-Creditor Relations Class

If it didn't immediately follow the class that puts me in a bad mood it would be a really enjoyable class. As it is, it just delays my trip back home by two hours.

Law School Pet Peeve

Reading assignments on the class syllabus that tell you to read 35 - 40 pages per class. For some reason I can't follow that simple instruction. And it pisses me off.

Mine Is Faster Than Yours

Has to be since mine usually have a longer distance to travel.

CA Community Property Class

It's interminable. It's like Rolnick to the fifth power or something. We don't just go over every fact of the case, we analyze each line of the case. And we came of it?

• I learned about the tracing principle - separate property begets separate property and community property begets community property.
• I learned that both a prenup and a transmutation cannot encourage a divorce.
• I learned that a prenup must be entered into voluntarily and that it's generally a good idea to have both parties to a prenup represented by counsel.

Of course I'm a terrible student so I probably missed a lot of whatever she droned on and on about. On the bright side I caught a little bit of Kung Fu Hustle on Steve's laptop. Looks good.

SWLAW Residency Requirement

So I know a guy who will have enough credits earned to graduate after the completion of the Fall 2006 semester. Which means he would have busted his ass for two and a half years fitting in three years worth of study into that time. It was planned that way so he could graduate a semester early and prepare to take the February bar exam. The thing is, is that he doesn't meet the residency requirement. From the SWLAW student handbook:

APPENDIX A -- RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS
American Bar Association
Standards for the Approval of Law Schools
Standard 304

Pursuant to ABA Standard 304(c):
To receive residence study credit for an academic semester, a full-time student must be enrolled in a schedule requiring a minimum of ten (10) class hours a week and must receive credit for at least nine (9) class hours.... If a student is not enrolled in or fails to receive credit for the minimum number of hours specified in this subsection, he or she may receive residence credit only in the ratio that the hours enrolled in or in which credit was received, as the case may be, bear to the minimum specified.

1. Full-Time Students (Day Division)
a. Fall and Spring Semester
Day division students require six residency units in order to graduate. A residency unit is earned by enrolling in at least ten (10) units and passing at least nine (9) units in an academic semester. Typically, a full-time student will enroll in at least ten (10) units for six semesters, thereby earning six (6) residency units.

b. Summer Session
A maximum of one-half of one residency unit may be earned in the summer session. A full-time student who is enrolled in and passes at least five (5) units in the summer will receive one-half of one residency unit. Therefore, two summers may be substituted for one semester in the regular academic year.

c. Pro-Ratio Rule
A student who registers for fewer units than specified above will receive proportional residency credit and accordingly must plan to attend school longer in order to graduate.

Having only taken 4 units during the summer of 2004, the guy comes out to acquiring one-tenth of a residency unit short, which means he would have to at least attend the following Spring semester as a part-time student and take one more unit.

If that doesn't suck enough consider that the ABA has changed its residency requirement which reads as ABA Standard 304(b):

A law school shall require, as a condition for graduation, successful completion of a course of study in residence of not fewer than 58,000 minutes of instruction time, except as otherwise provided. At least 45,000 of these minutes shall be by attendance in regularly scheduled class sessions at the law school.

ABA Standard 304(c) now reads as:

(c) A law school shall require that the course of study for the J.D. degree be completed no sooner than 24 months and not longer than 84 months after a student has commenced law study at the law school or a law school from which the school has accepted transfer credit.

Of course SWLAW was told about this but apparently they're adhering to the student handbook rule which is pursuant to a now obsolete ABA standard.

Over/Under at 120

A law professor was able to reverse engineer how U.S. News & World Report determines their law school rankings. Consequently, he determined that Penn may have been overrated (more on the stats here. Of course with this ability - and of greater interest to me - he can also determine the ranking number of third and fourth tiered law schools. Alas, he has decided to not go that route. Which may not be such a bad thing as one commentor put it:

My dad (a college teacher) once grumbled that the change from "A,B,C" grading to "A,A-,B+,B,B-,C+,C" (at UIUC circa 1981) was meant to make the question of cutoffs less worth quibbling about, but of course tripled the number of students who were one point below the cutoff; and each complained as loudly as before.

The schools in Tier 3 can all tell themselves they're near the top of Tier 3. Rank them and you take away that private consolation, making at least half of them more likely to complain.

Does anyone at SWLAW console themselves in that manner?