It's been a while

Wow. It has been more than a month (1 month and 1 day) since I've posted. Sorry dear readers (reader?). Five classes, two jobs, two writing projects, and snowocalypse has kept me very occupied. I have time now because I just submitted another project and have time to kill before Civ Pro.

So what have I been up to?

Well, for one thing, a lot of my time was spent trying to find a job for the summer. Just when I thought law school was hard, the whole damn thing got harder. I should preface this with saying that I've never really had to bend over backwards to find a good job. With a good transcript coupled with a good degree, a great economy, and sheer luck, it was just never that hard to find anything. I listened to my boyfriend when he was going through his job search, and it sounded painful. (He was doing this a year later, when the economy tanked). Lucky me, I got to live through the pain. This year was painful. I submitted what feels like hundreds of applications. I was keeping track in a OneNote notebook before I just gave up trying. I was committing sins left and right too. I think after a while I subconsciously stopped caring.

I went to the career fair, which was a waste of time (or so I thought). If you ever want to really feel bad, go to a career fair and then get told 40 times "You can submit online." Why go if you can't hand them a resume and spent 30 seconds telling them about how great you are?

I finally applied for clinic, interviewed at 11PM. If the interview was any longer than 2 minutes and 5 questions, I probably would have bombed that.

So, pessimism aside, my Career Fair experience was not all useless. I will post my helpful hints soon. Funny, I only call them helpful now because I saw some result.

Speaking of careers, I finally started an internship. This was a result of the online networking post. Pretty bad assed. Must say, I freaking love it there. Real law experience is nothing like law school.

In academia work, I've been doing pretty well. I didn't fail last semester, but there is definitely room for improvement. That is my goal. I have been doing well on the improvement too. I've already noticed that I am doing better on my writing projects.

I've also realized how I learn. I am not a "read a week ahead" sort of person. I got a week ahead during the snow storm and that burned me, badly. I got called on in CivPro and completely bombed it. I fumbled my way through the answer because I was trying to recall the rule that I read a week ago. I can say that after that slow motion train wreck, I improved my study habits and learned the damn rules (of Civil Procedure).

This semester I've thrown out E&E and brought in Hornbooks. Why? Well, Hornbooks are E&Es, without the cutsey names in the examples. It is straight black letter law.

Traditional outlining has been traded out too (with the exception of crim law- something I still don't know how to deal with). Civ Pro requires more of a mapping out process. How do the rules relate to each other? What step comes next in a law suit? Why do it this way? When should you do it that way? I've adjusted accordingly. Also, on my contracts exam I did pretty well with my "how to" guides. Especially on the "issue spotter" tests, these things are awesome.

Next week (in three hours after my make up class), starts my spring break. I am excited to share the that library is open. I am also disgusted that the library being open is exciting. Well, hopefully I will get my ass in line and get some good outlining done.

Course Supplements

When I was just beginning law school (as in last month), all I heard people talk about were which supplements they bought or which ones the upperclassmen recommended. So my thoughts at first were "maybe I should get some" then it because "hell, I understand this, I'm fine" which then reverted back to "well, I should get supplements or else I am going to horribly fail." I've since calmed down (a little), but still I've gone through some supplements and here are a few reviews:

• Gilbert's Contracts CDs- I've checked these out from the library, ripped them to my computer, and listen to them as I walk to and from school everyday (ok, sometimes I just listen to music too). It is an extremely basic overview, but it is great because Epstein (the lecturer from SMU) will say "you are likely to see a fact pattern such as ... ." This is definitely something to allow you to become familiar with terms.
• Examples and Explanations- I've used both the torts and the contracts one. Contracts works great. I love it. Because of this I now understand the mailbox rule. Torts had to grow on me, especially since the first thing I looked for wasn't even in there (conversion). Still, I've heard from people who have taken my professor that this is a good supplement to read.
• Hornbooks- even though they are old as sin, I think they're extremely worthwhile in getting a quick overview on a topic.

Also, I don't recommend buy supplements. They are expensive and can probably be found at your library. Our library has a few behind the reserve desk, so I've never had a problem getting one.