First Bad Dream

This past Sunday night I dreamed about the criminal law exam.  It was not a pleasant experience.

It was fifty multiple choice questions (actual exam will be essay questions) in an hour (actual exam will be up to four hours).  I knew basically nothing.  I think I answered two questions.  For whatever reason, I wasn’t even guessing at the other questions.  And the subject matter was all over the place.  One question was what a set of control jets on the Apollo moon mission did.  There was a diagram.  This was one of the two questions I answered because I could figure out which way the jets in question would rotate the capsule.

In a way, it was a fitting start to the next exam.  It’s two weeks from yesterday, so there’s still plenty of time to prepare.  But from where I am right now, I think it’s going to be rough.

Another Day at the Office

The scene after the Michigan game yesterday was strange in its unimpressiveness.  In a blink of an eye, the stadium was practically empty.  No one tried to rush the field.  In fact, the crowd started filing out with time still left in the third quarter.  After singing “Carmen Ohio,” the victorious players vanished to their locker room.  The OSUMB didn’t even take the field after the game; instead they just lined up and marched out.  The scoreboard had a graphic of six Big Ten championship trophies frozen on it.  For whatever reason, the public address system played “Sweet Caroline.”  I wasn’t sure if that was in celebration, or a polite hint that the show was over.  I kept waiting for an usher to come up and ask me to leave as the stadium was now closed.

Before the game, assuming the right outcome, I had planned to linger and savor the moment.  It seems I was one of the few who decided to do that.  Maybe it was the cold weather.  Maybe it was the routine nature, which is hard to deny given the uncompetitive nature of the game that had just ended, that is was the seventh victory in a row against Michigan, and that a sixth straight conference championship had also been won.  Whatever it was, the crowd seemed as excited as if they had just watched a MAC team come to Ohio Stadium for the sole purpose of losing so that the home team could collect the profit from a home game.  It is a sad state of affairs for Michigan when they have as much cachet to opposing fans as Akron, Kent State, or Bowling Green.

But still, I lingered.  Watching my first Michigan game in person in Ohio Stadium, and seeing my team triumph, I saw no reason not to linger and savor the moment.  Beating Michigan, winning conference championships: I pray these never become routine to me.

Two Questions

I was looking at the front page of the Cleveland Plain Dealer when the start of an article caught my eye:

A Cleveland police detective testified about Payne’s connection to two cocaine sales during his November 2008 trial. The officer was about to leave the witness stand when a judge stepped in.

“Have you, detective, ever observed Mr. Payne engage in any illegal activity?” Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Joan Synenberg asked.

“No,” Detective Maria Matos said.

“Do you have any evidence that Mr. Payne was involved in either of the drug transactions on Aug. 11 or Aug. 13?”

“No,” Matos said again.

Minutes later, Synenberg tossed the drug charges. Payne was a free man.

Wow.  Two questions of my own came to mind.  Why did the defense attorney not ask these questions?  What was the county prosecutor even basing this case on?  Apparently Payne loaned $20 to a man who then sold cocaine to an undercover police officer; the loan was repaid with money from the police.  That’s what the case for a potential two year prison sentence was based on.

Of Exam Software Glitches

As you might recall, I suffered a software glitch when trying to submit my contracts exam.  While I couldn’t find my contracts professor, I did run across my criminal law professor, and she told me what to do.

Yesterday, the day after the exam, at the start of criminal law the professor asked us how the contracts exam went.  She then I asked if anyone had told us what to do if we have a problem with the exam software.  “Ah ha!” I thought, “She’s probably asking this because of me.”  Luckily the class responded in the negative, that we had not been told.  I wasn’t the only one.

Caught in the Middle

Interesting thoughts on how the cost of litigation can impact meritous outcomes.

“You Kids Get Off My Lawn”

Tonight, an annual tradition continues as students will be jumping into Mirror Lake ahead of the Michigan game.  Last summer, I thought, “Of course I’m going to do that!  How could I miss it?” 

I still remember going through the fountain at Purdue.  I was a freshman, and I think it was probably the weekend before classes even started.  So I understand the importance of campus tradition.

But it’s cold out.  Cold and wet usually don’t mix well.  And it’s late.  And way back on campus.  Then I’d have to get back to my place, all wet.  The water’s awfully murky.  Something about jumping into shallow bodies of what that you can’t see the bottom of doesn’t seem safe to me.  Not to mention the layer of leaves that sort of shows up through the murk.  I’m sure those are awfully slippery.  Especially when the lake is full of students.  Students who may well have taken certain precautions to fight of the cold.  Which leads to concerns about ammonia spikes in the water.  And why there might need to be student reps to lead people back to dorms.

Yes, I am now old.

Reflections On A Contract Exam

So that’s what a contracts midterm exam is like.  I feel ok about it.  No curve balls or anything.  The only bad point was when I tried to upload my exam.

Up popped an error message that the network connection was lost.  “Uh oh, that’s not good,” I thought, “I should probably go find the professor.”  Except I wasn’t sure where he was.  I vaguely remember his office was 301.  Or 201.  I tried 301 first.  That wasn’t it.  So I tried 201.  He wasn’t there.  Now, I realize as I was searching for him, he could well have been back in the computer exam room, the hand writing exam room, on the third floor in general, or even in the men’s room.  I imagined myself wandering the building searching for him.  That would have been ok, I had an hour until the exam was over, but I really didn’t want to do that.  Luckily, I ran into another of my professors who told me who to talk to.  They said to just pack up and bring my laptop to them.  Fortunately, when I got back to the computer exam room, whatever the problem was had fixed itself, and I could just upload it.  So it all worked out.

Thinking about the exam, I found it a bit silly that thirty hours of class time were summed up in just a handful of questions.  Granted, one of them was quite through, but for a couple of others we were limited to a relatively few number of characters (including spaces and punctuation), and for the fourth, it was a one word answer.  Seems it would have to be graded as right or wrong; I can’t help but wonder what impact that would have on the exam.  But, still, thirty hours, four questions.  It seemed a bit silly to me.  But I have learned that when I ask why something is done the way it is for law school, the answer has always been because that’s the way it’s done for law school.

Soon enough it will be next year and I’ll learn how I did.  Until then, I’m just going with my ok feeling.

With the contracts exam out of the way, I can turn my attention other things: Thanksgiving, the Michigan game, more exams in a couple of weeks.

Contracts, Contracts, Contracts! Update

Studying is done.  I’m feeling good about the exam.  Just waiting to take it at 11:00 am.

Eye of the Beholder

It may have been ugly at times, in fact it was ugly at times, but yesterday’s game between Ohio State and Iowa was also a thing of beauty.  Two teams, trading punches, neither one having more than a one score lead.  The longest play by either team was 26 yards, Ohio State accomplishing it through the air and Iowa on the ground.  The two teams kept throwing themselves at each other, round after round, answering score for score, play for play, hit for hit.  This was no spread offense, no defense, free for all.  It was a classic Big Ten game.

And now it’s Michigan week.

Weekend Study Resolutions, Presented by Contracts, Contracts, Contracts!

Monday’s the contracts exam.  The time between now and then, with the exception of a little college football late Saturday afternoon, is for studying for them.

Study for contracts exam: Outline is done and I’ve been strategizing how to attack the problems on the exam.  I just need to practice that.  My plan is to run through CALI sample problems, review the relevant parts of my Barbri first year outline book, and I think Barbri might have some online stuff too.  I feel like I’ve got a decent understanding of the material; like I said, I just need to practice using that understanding.  And I’ll also be reviewing flashcards again and again to keep reinforcing that understanding.