I outline, therefore I am

Ok, so classes are over, all my papers are turned in (you'll note that I said "turned in" as opposed to "finished" which is not to say that I turned in papers that were incomplete, but let's just say the editing process was not as thorough as I would have liked), but I feel like I've forgotten something...

Oh right, EXAMS.

That's right folks, we're in the home stretch here. My first year of law school is almost over; all that stands between me and a glorious summer of indentured servitude (err, I mean a glorious summer of unpaid interning) are the rest of my exams. This whole exam extravaganza actually started yesterday when I took the first and shortest of my five exams, which involved two hours and fifteen minutes of... well, writing madly about Civil Procedure. The four I have remaining are Property Law (4 hour test), Criminal Law (3 hour test), Constitutional Law (somewhere between 3 and 4 hours of tests), and Drink Until I Forget Everything I've Learned About Law (stamina test)... none of which should be quite as bad as the first.

Anyway, like so many of my previous posts, this one is being written as yet another way to avoid doing what I SHOULD be doing, which at the moment is studying for my property exam (which begins in just under 32 hours). Right, so I thought I would take a moment to comment on the most common way that we law students prepare for our exams: we OUTLINE *evocative onomatopoeia*. We take an entire semester's worth of cases and notes (which for property is about 80 single-spaced pages, but I'm kind of a light note-taker) and condense them down into something more useful and accessible... or at least shorter. The theory here is that the process of going over each subject and case, figuring out which bits are most important, coherantly condensing those bits, and retyping it into a new document will refamiliarize you with the information. Funny thing is that it actually works.

Of course, there is a great deal of variety in how people outline *evocative onomatopoeia*. There are those who write them throughout the semester, setting aside time each week and slowly building a beautiful and elegant summary of each subject while it is still fresh in their minds and then further condensing and refining their understanding until what remains is no longer a mere summary but rather a synergistic work of art between creator and creation; a harmonious blend of mnemonic cues and graceful, color-coded and earmarked organization. Then there are those who spend the whole semester cradled in sloth's gentle embrace; skimming through the material, writing half-assed briefs and taking half-assed notes that are just detailed enough to allow them to give a moderately intelligent answer if called upon by the professor, who then frantically piece together chickenscratched margin notes with the half-finished sentences in their class notes in a vain attempt to figure out exactly what the hell they were supposed to have learned over the past four months. For 50 points, who can guess which category I fall into? [*Answer below]

Anyway, I should probably get back to it. There should be more posts once I get out of school. Really.

But before I do, there is one other thing that I should probably mention. Some of you already know this, but for those of you who don't: I officially have a girlfriend. We've only been seeing each other for about a month, so a truely objective long-term projection is not yet possible (why yes, I have spent the whole day reading legalese, why do you ask?), but it has been an extremely nice month and I think I can reasonably say that the signs are very good. I'm not going to say too much in this oh so public forum (not that there are more than 20 of you out there who read this thing), but let's just say that she at least seems completely sane (dating me notwithstanding), that we have a terrifying amount in common, spend a lot of time laughing, and really get on quite well together. I always look forward to spending time with her and the whole thing just feels... well... comfortable. And I mean the "mmm, this feels nice and I'm completely at ease being myself" sort of comfortable as opposed to the boring "maintain the status quo" variety.

Oh, and last but not least, here's the latest installment of "how far behind is Erik now?" Well, I've managed to flee from a bunch of really pissy Nazgul, have crossed the Great East Road, and am wandering through the thickets on the south side. I've come 255 miles since I started keeping track back in January, which means that I just might make it to Rivendell before the end of the summer.

[*Answer from above: actually I fall somewhere in between. I read pretty thoroughly and take pretty good notes, but I don't so much as think about outlining before the second to last week of class.]