Law School and Life

I have always been reluctant to blog.  Anciently, only the learned and powerful would write and therefore prevent the ignorant and stupid from communicating their damaging thoughts to the world.  Though I would say that I relate more to the learned and powerful than the ignorant and stupid, I nevertheless felt that I should resist the urge to blog.  But just as my personal ban against the movie Titanic for breaking Star Wars: A New Hope's box office record did nothing to stop the stone from rolling, people continued to blog.

And now I am married.  I have become destined to blog, or at least contribute to my wife's blog.  We've already watched Lost and now we are blogging.  Before you know it Morgan will want to cut her hair really short.

I am about a month into my first semester of law school.  I haven't dropped out and don't plan to.  It is interesting but a lot of work.  This is how a typical day goes.

6:00 am - Wake up and go to the gym and work out for about an hour
7:00 am - Breakfast, get ready, go to school
8:00 am - Start stuyding
4:30-6:00 pm (Depending on the Day) - Finish studying.  I take a 40 minute-ish break for lunch, and have somewhere between 2-4 hours of class instruction per day.
Eat dinner with Morgan.  Netflix or institute, or a movie to finish the day.
10:00 pm - Asleep

Textbooks are about 1400 pages long and full of cases.  I'm taking four classes (Torts, Property, Civil Procedure, and Lawyering Skills).  I lucked out on teachers; I've got all good teachers and there were plenty of horrible teachers I could have had.  Some days are good, some are bad.  Some classes make sense, some classes don't.  Some days I have to read a lot, other days I don't.

Some of the nuggets of knowledge that I have learned in Law School so far

1) Courts will generally not allow plaintiffs to sue for damages against Satan because of lack of personal jurisdiction.
2) A six year old child can form the intent to cause harm when he moves a chair out from a woman who is about to sit down, and therefore can be liable for $11,000 in damages.
3) The trunk monkey in the famous mock commercial (look it up on YouTube) would be privileged to commit battery but the monkey's justification would end as soon as he threw the thief off the bridge.
4) It's important to be a bona-fide purchaser

I know.  Random.

I also prosecuted some people who were appealing their parking tickets for the KU Parking and Traffic Office.  For a week I had to investigate the evidence, get statements from the parking office and the appelles, read lots of rules and regulations, and read previous and binding cases.  I had two separate cases, and one of the appeals was denied and the other one was granted.  I felt kind of relieved because I felt the person who ended up getting their ticket appealed really should not have gotten a ticket, so in the end I felt justice was served.  The judges in these courts are upperclassmen at the Law School.  After it they give advice and critiques to the lawyers.  Probably the funniest moment was when one judge said that we both needed to be professional and treat it like the real thing, and then a moment later said, "It's important that you actually physically sign each piece of evidence because people could really f**k you over."  Really professional.

So that is my life now.  I also started playing Fantasy Football.  Despite its "jock" appearance, it is just like any sort of nerd RPG game.  And the same nerd strategies transfer over.  I would say that I'm doing pretty well in the league.  If only Jamaal Charles didn't tear his ACL.

Overall I do enjoy school.  And I love being married.  And writing this was not as horrible as I thought it would be.