Friday, December 16, 2011

Fun Time is Over

"Fun time is over.  And I guess it's enough.  But just for the record, it was a little too rough."
-'Til Tuesday "Sleeping and Waking"

(NB:  'Til Tuesday's "Welcome Home" album?  Freakin' awesome.)

Okay, exam season is over. I can do things like spend a half hour watching a Beatles documentary with my son, now. Won't know grades for a few weeks, probably. As one prof pointed out, he's grading about 300 essays. It just takes a while to plow through all that.

I just can't say one way or another. For the most part, I got most of the stuff I should have onto the paper. Just not always in the way I should have.

For example: on one question, I categorized a death-bed gift as an intevivos gift (an unconditional gift given during life) and not as a gift in causa mortis (a gift given in anticipation of impending death, conditional upon actual death). The reason I categorized it this way was that the donative intent was simply that it be a gift.  When the donor then survived, he did not want the gift back (as you would if it were a gift in causa mortis).

The optimal answer would have included something like, "donative intent is demonstrated by the fact that, upon survival, the donor did not want the gift back."

Instead, I said something to the effect of, "the gift was given without conditon with the words 'this is yours'." Then, in the next paragraph discussing bailment, I said, "Because it is an intervivos gift, and not a gift in causa mortis, the donor does not want the chattel back,"

So, it's in there, but not in the most optimal way.  Is it wrong?  Yeah, maybe.  Is it right?  Yeah, maybe.  Is it something in between?  Yeah, probably. 

Another example? In my torts exam, there was an action for wrongful death. What I did, which wasn't really right, wasn't really wrong, was to first discuss the underlying torts. I discussed battery (it wasn't). Then discussed negligence (it was.) Then discussed actions for wrongful death and the fact that damages are nuanced a wrongful death action.

The optimal answer would have been to discuss wrongful death based on the underlying torts. So, it's all in there, just in the wrong order / format. Basically instead of:  "Discuss Battery.  Discuss Negligence.  Discuss Wrongful Death", it should have been:  "Discuss wrongful death and the underlying tort."

This seems like a distinction without a difference, but this is one of those gigantic differences between b-school and law school.  B-school is all about decision making tools and it is driven by the "it".  Find "it".  Everything is driven by "it".  You don't have to find a perfect answer.  You need to find a justifiable business answer that you can move your organization towards.  If you make money?  You got the right answer.  Here's your bigass bonus.  Do it again next year.

Law?  Law is war with words.  The 90% right answer loses to the 91% right answer.  So, attorneys almost never arrive at "it".  They arrive at a 95% right solution, then obsess about the possibility that their opponent might find a 96% right solution.  Nothing is ever right or wrong.  It's always a shade of maybe.  You just pray that your maybe is better than the other guy's maybe.  (This, of course, refers to cases that go to trial.  Most of the time, the law provides a pretty definite answer, and the matter never reaches trial.  In law school, though, everything we study is based on decisions at trial.)

In another case, on a 30 minute bar style essay, I forgot to mention consideration in a contract. The prof had hammered that point nearly every day since the class began. It wasn't that I forgot it, per se. It's that time ran out and I didn't have enough time to go back and check if I was missing anything. That'll be a gigantic point deduction, I'm sure. I did discuss a lot more issues than most people probably did, but missed one of the biggest ones.

It's just hard to compose a great answer in 30 minutes or 60 minutes, or sometimes even in 90 minutes.  Figure a 650 word bar-style essay in 30 minutes?  If you could do that and still truly produce high quality work, you could write 30 novels in a year.  It's just hard to get all that in there, that quickly. 

So, at this point, all I can say is, I haven't got a freakin' clue how I did.  I feel good enough about my exams that I'll be stunned if I have to repeat any classes, but beyond that, no guesses, really.  If you told me I got a C, I wouldn't be shocked.  If you told me I got an A, I might be overjoyed, but not shocked. 

My worst grade will come in Legal Research and Writing, I'm sure.  I can get my memo back, with a point tally, today.  Since I'm going back to sell back my books, I'll go ahead and get it.  That won't tell me my grade, per se.  On Monday, though, the grades for LRW should be posted.

Beyond that, most of the profs have indicated that we should be looking for our grades closer to the January 7th, than sooner. 

Funny how expectations have dropped.  I started off hoping for a top class rank and transfer to U of M.  Then, devolved to hoping for maybe a top 10% class rank.  Then, hoping for a 3.3 so I can keep my scholarship.  Then, hoping for mostly Bs.  Then, just praying I do well enough that I don't have to repeat any classes.

I would like to get a law degree, but won't be doing this if I have to repeat classes.  It's just not that important to me. 

There are, absolutely, some brilliant people in this class, though.  Much smarter than anything I remember.  It is somewhat taking me back to my days at the Weatherhead School at CWRU.  I'd go in there thinking I was smart and was going to work my balls off, and would end up getting a B in Quantitative Methods, behind a gaggle of engineers.  I think it's going to be largely the same experience, here. 

I do worry that perhaps I'm just not as sharp as I once was.  Motorcycle accidents, age, whatever.  I'm probably not working with as much mental horsepower as I once was.  Who knows.

I just don't know what I could have done, with one exception, to do better.  I knew the law pretty well.  My performance wasn't really due to lack of preparation.  Perhaps a really good study group would have helped.  Who knows.  There are just some realities about my situation, with family and all, that make it tough for me to do that sort of thing. 

Anyway, last law post until the grades start coming in.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Property Mnemonics

Requirements for Adverse Possession:

Let's say you want adverse possession of an ax you found on the cusp of the arctice cirle railway:

"Ax ON Artcic Cirlce Railway cusp"

A X:  Entry must be Actual with Exclusive Possession
O N:  Open and Notorious
A C R:  which is Adverse Under a Claim of Right,
C U S P:  Continuous and Uninterrupted for the Statuatory Period


Rights of Owners?  Think of the movie, "My Cousin Vinne".  All aspiring lawyers should be able to recite every line in this movie from memory.  Especially when the Judge asks about "Two Utes?"

So, remember, 2 UTE

or U U T E

Use
Usefruct
Transferrability
Exclusion

A Bailment transfers right of ownership to one who is not the owner.

Bailment creates R7O.  Or ROOOOOOO
Right
Of
Ownership
tO
One
whO is
nOt the
Owner

Duties and Standards of Negligence for Bailments

BEE
MOO
BSG

Bee.  Moo.  Battle Star Gallactica.

If the Bailment benefits the bailee, he must use extreme care and is liable even for slight negligence.
If the bailment is of mutual benefit, bailee must use ordinary care and is liable for ordinary negligence.
If the bailment benefits the bailor, bailee must use slight care and is liable for gross negligence.

Easier to visualize in a grid. 

Along the top row, put:  Benefits - Standard of Care - Liable For
Second Row:  Bailee - Extreme Care - Even slight negligence (to avoid confusing this with Bailor, think "Bee".  Bailee.)
Third Row:  Mutual - Ordinary Care - Ordinary Negligence
Fourth Row:  Bailor - Slight Care - Gross Negligence
(No real way to memorize this, but contrast with Bailee:  Slight care is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Extreme care.  Gross Negligence is at the opposite end from Slight Negligence.)


The Four Unities of a Joint Tenancy With Right of Survivorship

TIP IT

Time
Interest
Possession
Instrument/Title


The Five Unities for a Tenancy by Entirety:

Same, but add "Marriage".

Tip Tim?

Time
Interst
Possession
Title/Interest

Marriage

Requirements to Acquire by Finding? 

We found an IED under our APC.  It was an APC IED.

IED APC

Intent to Exert Dominion
Assert Physical Control

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Halftime in the Finals Game!

Today I finished my Civ Pro exam.  My two worst subjects:  Contracts and Civ Pro, are behind me.  My two better subjects:  Property and Torts, are ahead.

One more week and the semester is over.  Nothing left but the cryin' when grades come in.

I made at least one dumb mistake on the Contracts exam that is probably big enough to keep me out of the best grades on the test.  Other than that, I felt okay with it. 

Today, I did well on the essays for Civ Pro, but I got annihilated on the multiple-choice questions.  Probably did bad enough that regardless of my essays, I'm hosed for a good grade in there, too.

On the bright side, I don't feel like I did poorly enough in either class to have to repeat it.  A C- or lower means you have to take the class again. 

Taking a little break with my son.  We went to his school book sale for a few minutes, then off for ice cream.  I'll probably get started a little with Torts tonight.  That's the 4 credit hour class.  Worth it to try and do as well as possible.

I'm really enjoying taking exams.  This is bittersweet, though.  Once the grades come in, the period of self-delusion will be over.  We'll have our grades, we'll know our relative place in the scheme of things.  1L grades are largely destiny and first semester grades are huge.  Still, after everything is said and done, I want to know how I did.  It'll be nice to have some actual grades.

Friday, December 2, 2011

First Day of Crunchtime Down...

Well, I'm finished with my first day of Crunchtime.  I think I know my Contracts outline, now.  Will reinforce it over the next 3 days.  The Contracts final is on Tuesday.  I also tightened up my Civ Pro outline.  I will be working on it this weekend, too, but a little less than Contracts.  I pretty much have 2 days to prepare for the Civ Pro exam after the Contracts exam.

Feeling good about Contracts.  As always, work to do on Civ Pro. 

I'm already feeling a little edgy and a little stressed.  It dawned on me that law school is easy until final exams time.  You don't have to do anything until final exam time.  If you want, you can sleep in every class and surf the internet.  It's only on the exams that you really have something to do, then it's learning 4 months worth of stuff in every class for winner take all exams.

I still feel pretty good.  If I get straight Cs, so be it.  I'll keep trudging along so long as I don't have to repeat any classes.

I am starting to feel bad that I've been neglecting my business.  We'll finish the year at $400,000 in revenues, give or take.  That's not a bad year, but it sure isn't a good one.  We should really be recovering back to our old sales volumes of $850,000 or so.  I know I need to spend more time there.  It's just hard to do the way they structure 1L classes.  They do it so that you pretty much are in school 5 days a week for a big chunk of the day.

2L will be a lot better.  My plan is still to try and take all my classes on 2 days a week.  Outside of class, I need to work on my business.  I've enjoyed this little escape from reality, but I need to get back to things.  Of course, this may very well mean that I won't be able to look for part-time law work, but I've always known that going to law school at this point in my life would involve compromise.

Oh well.  One thing at a time.  I have to get through these next two weeks of finals.  After that, I'll have all sorts of time to deal with things.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Wrapping up the First Semester

This will probably be my last post for a few weeks.  Taking the night off, but about to step into the buzz-saw.  Finals start on Tuesday. 

I should probably have studied over the Thanksgiving break and I did do some law in a flash cards.  However, I'm glad I took my son to Disney.  It is one of the few chances he gets to see his Arizona cousins.  Plus, I am trying to do this law school thing without him having to suffer for it. 

My sump pump died the other night, but thankfully I have two of them.  The other one, though, was already broken.  I was able to take parts from both units and put together one fully functioning unit.  I was going to pay a plumber to put in new ones, but I'll probably just do that myself.  Trouble is, we just had massive rains and the stores all sell out of sump pumps when that happens.  The plumbers are always swamped replacing sump pumps, too.  People don't test their sump pumps.  At least most people don't, including me.  They only find out they're broken when they need them and they don't work.

Anyway, I've got one functioning unit that should hold me over for the next few days until the stores get a few new ones in.  I was going to have a plumber replace them, but I think with any luck, I can replace the broken one in about an hour.  So, I'll probably tackle the project myself.  I'll buy two, though.  One spare for when the one I rigged eventually dies.  The thing looks a zillion years old and it's put together from two units that had each previously failed.

I'm glad that this semester is ending.  It's been a fantastic escape from reality.  I plan on finishing up my 1L year as a full-time student, regardless of what happens in the coming year.  However, in the Spring, I'm going to evaluate things and might change course.

If my grades are really good and I can keep my scholarship, I'll probably just continue to go full-time.  If I lose my scholarship, I may still go full-time if I can schedule all my classes two days a week.  (For instance, if I can get them all done on Tuesday and Thursday.)  If not, I may drop back to part-time.

That's a long ways off, though.  In the mean time I just need to be ready for exams.

I'm getting there.  Wish I had more time, but everybody else probably does, too.  Won't really know much until the grades come back.

2011 is coming to a close and I'm in much better shape than I was a year ago.  Not a great year, but better than 2010.  If I can make it past 2012, in 2013, a lot of installment debt (both personal and business) will be paid off.  2014, the same story.  By the time 2014 ends, the difference in monthly debt-service, alone, will be almost $4 grand.  Life will be a lot different then.

I also need to refocus on rebuilding my business.  This past semester has been a thoroughly enjoyable and much-needed escape from reality, but it's time to put my shoulder back to it and get this company back on track. 

So a lot of upside on the horizon.  More than ever, I'm sure that I need to continue to own my own business and continue to look for diversification opportunities, and to build my law practice over time.

So, lots of good things if I can just survive 2012.  The mayans say we're all done for in 2012, anyway.  However, 2013 is when things really start to change and by the end of 2014, if I can get through law school and retire all this debt, my life should be monumentally better than it is now.

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Okay, Civ Pro Outline is Done... ready to move forward

I finally have a workable outline for Civ Pro.  You hear law students talk a great deal about their outlines, which are basically summaries of all the law they had to learn in a course.  They can range from maybe as few as 10 pages to as many as 200.  Depends on the student and how much they feel they need in the outline versus how much they feel they already know by heart.  It basically serves as your study guide for final exams.  In theory, if you know your outline, you know all the law you need to know to do well on your final, which is the only graded assignment in most classes.

Civ Pro gave me a lot of trouble, but only because I might as well have been cranking a music box and making a monkey dance all semester.  Really, I just didn't have a clue.  Once you understand the framework, it's not so bad, but it's like they taught all the elements and then at the end, you're just supposed to understand how they all work.

Sort of like if you took a class on the anatomy of an elephant without ever having seen one (or any similar animal) before.  Maybe one day, they start with what an eye is.  The next day they describe the hooves.  The next day they describe the ears.  They finally get done describing all the parts, but what is it?  Does it look like a kangaroo?  A babboon?  What was missing from Civ Pro was an explanation of what the thing looks like from the macro-level.  Literally, the class consisted of the rules.  Every day, we'd learn a handful of rules with an overall theme of, say, "discovery". 

Now, I have an outline.  Now, after sitting in the class for over 3 months, I finally feel like I can START to learn the material.  Time is ticking away, though.

This was, by far, the worst of my subjects.  That's why I tackled the outline first.  I honestly think that in my other classes, putting together my outline might be a 2 or 3 hour task.  This one?  All told, I probably have 20 hours into it and I still don't know it.  I just have it all mapped out.

I also probably could have done 3 outlines in the time I spent, but I kept starting, stopping, stepping back, trying to find a better integrating perspective, going back to something I'd worked on previously.  This was a mess.  Not sure how I could have done better other than getting a good commercial outline on day one and using it.  Who knows.  I doubt I'd have used it, though.  I needed the looming spectre of a final exam to make me sit down and try to internalize all this.

Contracts is the next one.  It's not going to be easy, but I have a good outline, there.  Just need to learn it.  Love the prof.  Love his method for teaching it.  Both the prof and the method are a little crazy, but then, so am I. 

The outline for Property will be not too bad.  A few holes to fill in for the outline, but the subject is straghtforward.

Torts, that's been by far my easiest class.

Spent the weekend going through LEEWS again and kicking myself for not doing this before my final memo.  It would have given me what I needed to address all the shortcomings that I know are in that thing.  If I get a B on it, I'll be amazed.

Now, though, the time crunch is on.  I can literally count the remaining full days I have to study.  I have Wednesday, but a chunk of that day will be spent getting things in order for the trip to Disney I'm taking Logan on.

I'll have time to study on the plane out and the plane back.  I might have some time to study in the park.  I'm thinking of just taking my law in a flash cards to study while waiting in lines.  Thursday and Friday it's just me and him in at Disneyland.  Saturday, the family will be there.  Might see if I can fob him off on one of them and find a place to sit down and study.  I'd still be in the park and still sorta move with the swarm, but might not wait in line for rides if he has somebody else he can wait with.  Then, Sunday, return trip.  Again, time to study on planes and during layovers.

After that, school on Monday and Tuesday, then the semester is over.  5 days off (Wed thru Monday) and then the Contracts final.  A day off and the Civ Pro final.  4 days off then the Property final and 1 day off and the Torts final.

Generally speaking, the finals will go from hardest to easiest for me.  That gives me almost two week's worth of full days off plus whatever studying I can do over Thanksgiving break.  (Probably just law in a flash.)  Full days of studying generally involve a lot fewer hours than I'd like.  I wish I could get in maybe 12 or 14 hours, but in reality, it almost always ends up being only 4-6.  Usually closer to 4.

Right now, I have it mapped out that I'll use 5 or 4.5 days to keep blasting out Civ Pro.  3 or 3.5 to tie down Contracts.  3 for Property.  2 for Torts.  Combined with studying after school a little here and there, studying on vacation, I think that should be able to get me through this.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

2 more weeks to finals

This week is half done.  After this, two more weeks and finals start.  On Friday, I have a citation quiz and that's it for legal research and writing.  I'll have 3 day weekends for the rest of the year. 
At this point, if I had to put numbers to it, I'm 70% ready for Torts.  60% for Property.  40% for Contracts.  30% for Civ Pro.

I now know what I need to do to prepare for Civ Pro.  Contracts, although I'm stronger at the moment, I'm less sure how to get to where I need to be for the final.

The fact that Law School is going to be a series of compromises is really coming to roost, here.  Days when I don't have my son, I can get in like 5 or 6 hours of studying in the evenings.  Days when I have him, I'm lucky to knock out a half hour or hour.  It's not that he ties me up at all.  It's just that between feeding him, taking him to practice (and he ALWAYS has a practice to be taken to), unwinding a little bit, there just isn't much time left over.

In the grand scheme of things, though, being a father is still job #1.  It is the integrating value of my life.  Everything else needs to fit into that.  It's the most fun, most rewarding, most satisfying thing I've ever done and I fully intend to enjoy every minute of it.  I may have 2.5 years of law school left, but I have only about 7 more years with my boy.  In theory, I could do law school some other time in my life.  However, once Logan is moved out, he's gone.  After that, I hope he'll always be part of my life, but not like this.

I need to study pretty much every available minute of this coming weekend.  I'm going to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving and will try to haul books around Disneyland with me, but I doubt I'll get much quality studying in.  I'll do what I can.

I have a lot of work to do and with just a little less than three weeks to my first exam, I'm running out of time.  Sorta regretting committing to Disney this year, but see previous note regarding raising a kid.

I also don't want to make it sound like I'm making an excuse for performance in Law School.  It would be easier without other committments, but no way do I think I wasn't given ample chance to perform to my potential.  I just pray, pray, that I get to the next semester without having to repeat any classes.

I think at this point, just spitballin', that if I have to repeat a course, that's going to be game-over.  I want this, but don't want it that bad.  So, that gives me all the more incentive to just do the best I can.  Trouble is, you have to repeat any class that you get less than a C in, which means a C- is as good as an F. 

Also, this is making me think about my life.  Midlife really is hitting me.  I'll be in my late 40s when I finish (that's putting it charitably.)  If I spend 5 years learning the ropes from somebody else, that'll put me in my mid 50s when I'm ready to hang out a shingle.  Of course, I could hang out a shingle sooner and may have to if nobody will hire me.  Still, learning the ropes under somebody else is the way it's supposed to be done. 

Anyway, that's all for another day.  Right now, I need to be ready for the citation quiz on Friday (it shouldn't be that bad, but it is 20% of our grade).  Then, I need to study my balls off to learn Civ Pro and Contracts, and fill in the gaps on Torts and Property.

I'm starting to feel stretched a little thin...  The crunch is on full-tilt-boogie.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Civ Pro, Richmond, Pleading and Practice...

If you're reading this, you're in my P&P section.  I was totally lost until today when I started cramming for the practice exam tomorrow.  Seriously, I didn't have a clue as to what I needed to study.

Sat down and waded through the material and it all makes sense today.  That outline that was going around the central table in the lobby today is a little sketchy.  Use it, but double check everything. 

Still, that was a little bit inspiring because it seemed to show that the material can be learned.  It was encouraging.

As I dug into it, I was mostly reviewing all the powerpoints and comparing them to the syllabus.  Only got about halfway through.

I feel like I finally understand what's going in on the class, now.  I still have a long way to go, but for the first time, I know where to start and what I need to study.

I really couldn't care less about the practice test tomorrow.  No grade = who cares.  However, just these past few hours of cramming gave me a roadmap of what I need to do to get there on this subject.  This was the only class where I was just flat-out lost and now I feel a lot better.  




1.  If you're using the E&E, Pleading and Practice is sections III thru VI.  That's like 400 pages, though.  I'd only go through the sections I needed some more clarity on.  It also doesn't match up very well with the course outline and/or all the other outlines I see out there.  (Didn't read those pages, but did read the first part of the book on Jurisdiction and lord, it's a drag.  I'm not looking forward to Civ Pro II in 2L year.)  I guess you can always use the examples to act as practice test questions, though.  The E&Es are always good for that.

2.  Be careful on the outline that got e-mailed out today (you know who you are... if you have to ask, it wasn't you).  Found a few sections where I don't trust the rules they reference.

3.  The sections to focus on in the Themsis Law School Essentials is pp. 38 thru 92.  Honestly, this thing looked like it was taken directly from the syllabus.

4.  The part of the Kaplan 1L Edge Program to focus on is pp. 363 thru 389.  Tighter summary, but you pretty much have to know the material already for it to make sense. 

5.  As always, you can use the syllabus and match the numbers on the right to the notes/ppt downloads.  Didn't help me.  I think that's why I was so lost up until now.  However, doing this, along with checking another source or two worked great.  I only got halfway through, though.  This is pretty time-intensive.

6.  Haven't gone through Law in a Flash:  got bad reviews from some folks.  However if you want to try, use the Part II box, and get the pleading cards out of the Part I box.  (Cards 421 thru 493).
7.  Not sure how much of Legalines Civ Pro I'm going to do.  It's basically Section VII on, so almost 200 pages.  I want to make sure I hit all the black letter law, though.  I'll at least skim it and focus on the law, maybe not so much the cases. 

8.  If you don't want to go through all that, either because of time or expense, like the syllabus says, you can use the Understanding Civil Procedure Book and go through chapters 8 thru 12. 

Happy hunting, guys.  Not too worried about anything that's not-graded, but close enough to crunchtime to start getting religion.  I know this comes too late to help for the practice test, but I feel pretty confident this will get me through the final.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Closing In...

Turned in the final memo today.  It amazes me that I could spend so much time on the thing and still come down to the wire on it.  I was making corrections up until the minute it was due.

I don't feel that good about it.  If I got a C on it, I wouldn't be surprised.  It's done now, though, so no need to obsess.

What makes this paper different is that it needs to be structured with all the arguments, according to IREAC, which is a version of IRAC.  (Issue, Rule, Application and Conclusion.  IREAC adds "explanation".)

That seems straightforward, but it gets tough when the issue doesn't break down neatly.  I also had trouble stuffing cases into my issues.  It's all done now, but it was harder than I thought.  Sort of kicking myself, but what can be done?

Also, the other factor is that the paper is competitively graded.  So, it's not enough to do well.  To get a good grade, you have to do well relative to the rest of the class.  There will be enough people with good papers to fill out the top of the curve.  Right now, I'd be happy as a clam if I could swing a B in the class.  I guess we'll just wait and see.  Worst-case, I just need a grade higher than C-, or else I'd have to repeat the class, and I honestly would probably just drop out of law school before I'd repeat any classes.

Now's the big crunch for finals, which are three weeks away.  I'm going through LEEWS again and starting to work whole-hog on my outlines.  Gonna start hitting the crunchtime books and do at least a few example problems every day. 

When you're young, the semesters never really seem to end.  Seems like when you're old, time always passes faster than you'd like though, and that's true for me this semester.  I feel like 3 weeks isn't enough time.

I'm still basically relaxed, though.  Unlike most of my classmates, I don't need this in order to earn a living.  Don't get me wrong.  I really want a law degree.  I really want to be an attorney.  However, if it didn't happen, I'd be fine.  I'd find a way to get by.

I do love being a student, though.  Like most experiences of youth (for instance, love), being a student is wasted on the young.  I really enjoy being around all the twentysomethings.  They don't seem to mind an old guy in their midst too much. 

I did get a little discouraged with my property mid-term, and I'm afraid I got even more discouraged when I turned in my final memo.  However, I am trying to remind myself that I can still get As in 4 of my classes, even if my memo stank.  I know what I need to do.  It's just a question of finding enough time to do it.

This semester is going to be over before you know it.  My goals are getting a bit more realistic as far as what I want to do with my law degree.  In fact, they're going all the way back to what I had intended originally.  I want to have a small practice where I handle PI, and maybe Labor and/or Family Law.  Maybe bankruptcies in this economy.

We'll just have to see how this goes.  I waited so long to go to Law School, it's hard to believe that in about a month, I'll have my first semester grades.  Fortunately for me, although I'm an obsessively introspective person in many regards, when it comes to chosing a goal and pursuing it, I really don't have many moments of doubt about whether I want to continue.  (Of course, my first C- may change that.)

Every once in a while, though, I sit back and think how cool it is that I'm actually in law school.  Lawyers get a bad rap and law school doesn't get the respect it deserves.  (I can say this as a former dispenser of this disrespect.)  However, being an attorney is still a big fat deal and graduating from law school is not something that just anybody can do. 

It'll be a heck of a thing when I graduate.  I'll be the first attorney in my family.  (Including extended family.  Far as I know there aren't any other Strebler attorneys in the US.)

Friday, November 11, 2011

Property Mid-Term Results

Finally got my property mid-term results.  This is essentially the only feedback we're going to get on how we're doing until our report cards.  (I suppose there's an outside chance that we might get our grades in Legal Research and Writing a little earlier than that, but probably not much.)

Of course, thus endeth our season of self-delusion.  The tough thing about Law School is not so much that you have to master the material, but that your grades depend on how well you are doing relative to your peers.  The much discussed "class rank" is everything in LS, specifically because you are constantly assessed relative to your peers.

Everybody who came here either thought, "I've always been an academic winner and I'll be a winner, here", or "I haven't done so well in the past, but that's because I wasn't giving it my best, and I'm going to give it my best, here" or maybe "I have good skills, but have always been able to out-work everybody and have always been successful because of it."

Regardless of what folks may think of lawyers, law schools really are filled with some smart people.  A top class rank depends on being smart, and hardworking and not just learning the material, but learning how to answer law school type exams which are a different animal than the types of exams people are used to.

Anyway, so how did I do?  Looked it up and was in the 2nd quartile in results.  Towards the top, but still far enough from the best scores in the class to know I won't be booking anything with these smart muthas all around me. 

This does put me in the range of people who might end up with a good enough GPA to keep a scholarship, though.  The school just lowered my scholly renewal requirement to 3.2 from 3.3.  So, if I can manage an A in just one class per semester, I'll scoot by.  Of course, that's hard to do.  Means you really kicked ass in the class relative to your classmates.

The prof said something sort of interesting.  It goes along with what I saw when I was in b-school.  By about the middle of 2L year, most students sort of accept their place in the class ranking.  The stop trying to think of, "gee, what can I do to get better grades?" and start thinking in terms of, "how little work can I do and still get the same grades?"

The mid-term is only 30% of our grade in the class, and I did well enough that it is basically a non-factor for my final grade.  I can ace the final and get a good grade in the class, and I could bomb the final and still bomb the class.  The mid-term won't do much for or against me.

So, it's intense here.  Everybody is going at it full-blast and nobody has resigned themselves to anything, yet.  Tough to stand out with this crowd. 

All in all, not happy with the results of the mid-term, but not unhappy, either.  I had hoped to do better, but it's going to take a little more.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

First Blood... Mid-term in Property

Today was our first real graded work of the semester.  We had a mid-term in property over Estates and Future Interests.  It will only be 30% of our grade in that class.  So, I guess it's possible to bomb it and still do well in the class, overall.

I think I did adequately prepare for the thing.  Strategized everything well.  Went into the test with everything I need.  I also usually test well.  However, I usually don't do well on ultra-detailed stuff and that's kinda what this was.  Most attorneys can remember learning things like the Doctrine of Worthier Title, the Rule in Shelley's Case, and the Rule Against Perpituities.  They're sort of like a tough logic problem that you apply to various estate grants.

So, how did I do?  I don't think I messed anything up.  I knew the material.  If I missed something, it was missing details in the question.  Trouble with that is, I wouldn't know that until/unless somebody else pointed it out to me.  I just won't know how I did until I get the results back.

Part of it also, is that it depends not just on how I do, but how everyone else does, too, since this is graded on a curve.  I really don't think I flunked, but I could realistically see getting the thing back with anywhere from a C to an A on it and I wouldn't be shocked. 

No rest for the wicked, though.  I need to plunge into my Memo, which is basically the bulk of my grade in Legal Research and Writing. 

No class tomorrow, though.  I am looking forward to a few days away from school.  I just got my schedule for the Spring and it blows.  Classes all 5 days a week, including a 3 hour, 20 minute gap two days a week. 

Next Fall, though, I'm busting my butt to try and get all my classes squeezed into two days a week.  I also hope they have an interesting elective that only meets once a week on Tuesday nights.

Oh well.  I'm tired, but need to complete a citation workshop before I turn in to bed.  Should only take 20 minutes or so. 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Crunch Time

Halfway through week 9 and it's officially crunch time.  I got my final memo materials today.  That's basically the final exam for my legal research and writing class.  It's 70% of the grade.  Need to get a good grade on it to get a good grade in the class.

Also, in property, our midterm is next Thursday.  It's just on estates and future interests.

I'm still sorta exhausted from the trip to Texas.  I'm pursuing a transfer to the IRR, which means I won't be an drilling reservist anymore.  I hate to do it.  My military service was one of the aspects of my life I was most proud about.  However, I lost money every drill because I was travelling to Texas at my own expense. 

The other big problem was that this left nobody to watch my son if his mom had to work.  So, although I really hate the idea, my military career is over.  I never intended to stick around for retirement.  Just wanted to be here to deploy if the troop levels got thin.  These days, they're lowering headcount.  I may as well make their job easier.

Not sure how smoothly the transfer will go.  I've come to distrust military administration, but with any luck, by Christmas or so, the whole situation will be resolved.

Logan's football season ends this weekend.  That is happening at just the right time.  I need to hunker down with the books and having 2 hours worth of football practice most nights was more than I should probably have dealt with.  I just felt that it wasn't fair to the head coach not to get help and although a few other dads showed up here and there, and one in particular showed up pretty regularly, most practices, they really did need my help.  Probably could have survived without it, but 10 year olds need a lot of guidance.

I'm still tired and sleep deprived from my trip.  I'm also probably ever so slightly behind at school.  Starting next week, though, I should have more than enough time to catch up.  I'm eager, yet somewhat anxious about next week's mid-term.  That and the memo are the only graded assignments I'll have until the final exams.

Things just got serious. 

Monday, October 3, 2011

Halfway There

This is week seven, pretty much after tomorrow, I'm at the midpoint of the semester.  I turned in my first memo, which will not be graded, but will be critiqued.  It is basically the first assignment I've turned in this semester.  The prof is meeting with us throughout the next couple of weeks to provide feedback on how we did.

So far, so good.  I do wish I weren't coming here five days a week but I think that's something they do deliberately to 1Ls.  This will be much smoother next year when I'm only here 2 or 4 days a week. 

I still have so much work to do on my outlines.  It's not that I'm falling behind at all.  I just wish I were a little further ahead and more on top of things.

I go to Fort Worth for drill at the end of next week.  I don't think I'll be able to attend either the November or December drill.  November drill will be right before the big memo is due for legal writing.  That's 70% of the grade for the course.  December drill is right in the middle of final exams.  Again, no way. 

I'll have to talk it over with my commander and XO this weekend.  It may very well be that I can't do Navy reserve and law school, both.  If push comes to shove, it'll suck, but I'll stick with law school.  I never really intended to stick it out in the reserves and retire.

In the mean time, I'm really tired.  3 more weeks of Logan's football season.  So, there's an end in sight, there.  However, baseball Fall workouts have started.  I hope they don't do more than one day a week of that.  Those usually end sometime at the end of October or the beginning of November.  However, in the Spring, right after New Year, the indoor baseball workouts start.

I really don't want to be that involved with Logan's baseball team, since things will be ramping up just in time for Spring final exams, but it doesn't look like the parents for that team are very involved at all.

Just taking it a day at a time, a week at a time.  Time is flying by.  I have no doubt I can finish law school.  At this point, though, I have no idea beyond that. 

Just gotta grunt it out and do it.  I'm not really in a different boat than my classmates, except that my time is a bit more constrained.  We'll see what's what when the first semester grades are posted.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Still Standing

We're entering the middle weeks of the semester.  The newness has worn off and things have settled into a routine.  I still don't feel overwhelmed, but I still need to do more work on this stuff.

This weekend, I have an ungraded paper to finish.  I could use the critique because the next one will be graded and will comprise almost all of my grade in the class.

For the first time in my life, I'm going to start brown-bagging my lunch.  There just aren't enough places to eat around the law school.  There are quite a few within a 10 minute walk, but that means a 20 minute round-trip where I could be reading.  I've had Jimmy Johns deliver quite a few lunches and that works okay, but I have to be on the lookout for the delivery person instead of diving whole hog into my reading.

Next few weeks will be a test of a different kind.  I have drill for the Navy.  I won't drill near final exam time, but other than that, it'll be fair game.  I'll see if this puts an unreasonable burden on my studies.  I'm hoping it doesn't.  Service to my country is still a huge part of who I am. 

I am pretty sure they deliberately schedule 5 days a week of classes for 1Ls as part of discouraging us from getting any sort of part-time job.  I really am looking forward to 2L and beyond, though.  Worst case, I think I'll have a 4 day week, and I really will bend over backwards to get all my classes in either Monday / Wednesday or Tuesday / Thursday.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Feeling on top of it

Funny how 1L is as much psychological as it is academic.  Most of the time, I feel pretty good about things, but recently, I've had moments where I feel like I'm not where I should be.  Today, I feel pretty good.  Still have work to do, but I think I know what it needs to be.

Torts, LR&W, and Property, I understand and know where I need to go.  Civ Pro and Contracts have been less so, but the picture is getting increasingly clearer. 

Tonight is my night without Logan.  So, I'll have the whole night to work on schoolwork.  I have an outline due for a paper on LRW, but I'm about 1/3 finished with the whole thing.  I'll be able to knock out an outline pretty quickly.  Other than that, just reading assignments in Civ Pro and Torts and my work for the week is basically done.

I need to do a better job this weekend of working on my outlines.  Last weekend I didn't do much.  Fortunately, the workload wasn't that bad.  So, a day of effort on Sunday kept me current.

2 weeks from today, we'll be at the midpoint of the semester.  Halfway done.  We really have absorbed a lot of material.  In Torts, it's like the entire semester is a review.  Going through the E&E was totally worth it.  I just wish I had done that in some other classes.  Right now, I have the unenviable task of trying to go through them as the semester is progressing. 

Not that big of a deal, but time management is the real key to all this.

I also am longing for 2L year where I'll have more control over my schedule.  I don't care if I have to take Maritime and Admiralty Law, but I'm going to do everything I can to take all my classes two days a week.  If not, at the least, it doesn't look like 2Ls and 3Ls have many/any Friday classes.

Also, Logan will reach the halfway point of his football season this weekend.  I volunteered to help out a little bit when I wasn't busy, but other than the head coach, I'm the only coach who shows up on a regular basis.  The other guys want to be involved, but have job conflicts (they work rotating shift type jobs.)  Also, our main defensive coach (great guy, BTW), just had knee surgery.  I doubt he'll be able to do much with the team for a while.

So, I'm pretty much committed to being a coach for the team, which is something I really wanted to avoid.  However, in 3 more weeks, the season will be over and I can hunker down for the rest of the semester to open up a biggo can on the finals.

I really, really need to work on my outlines.

I have drill for the Navy here coming up.  I will be going in October and November.  I'm sure that's not going to be great, but serving in the military is such a large part of who I am, I feel like I should try and keep this going as long as possible.  It won't be so bad in 2L and 3L year when I have better control of my schedule.  So, I'll be reading in airports and doing what I can to stay current these next couple of months.  The December drill is right during finals.  I'll have to reschedule that for the Summer.

Of course, you're not supposed to be working during 1L year if you're a full-timer and I'm pushing it on that.  Navy reserve is technically work.  Coaching is taking up a chunk of time every week.  Plus, having to be at the biz every once in a while. 

I honestly don't think it's that hard to graduate from Law School.  What's hard is graduating with a good gpa.  However, ultimately, my first and most realistic goal is to hang out my shingle and practice family law or PI law here, locally, and neither of those really require you to have a good gpa. 

My hair was getting sorta shaggy and needed a cut.  So, I took out the clippers and then actually shaved my head bald.  I've done the clippers before, but this is the first time I've shaved it.  Until they come out with more effective hair-growth prescriptions, my hair doesn't look good, anyway.  Not sure the bald look is better, but I doubt it's worse.  It's easier to maintain, though.  I just don't have time for hair right now.

Finally, I had been eating badly and not-exercising enough these past two weeks.  Time to get back on the wagon.  Back to turkey bacon and oatmeal for breakfast.  No more potato chips and french fries.  I gotta take care of myself, both to prevent a heart attack in my 40s, and to keep my energy level up.

Tuesdays and Thursdays are tough days.  The first class isn't until 10:10, but it lasts until 4:50.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Schedule Coolness

Was just thinking that Logan's football season only lasts six more weeks.  That's good because right about then is when I need to start totally going hermit to prepare for finals.  No matter what, I won't be taking any role in his basketball team. 

Also, I was thinking about whether I'd need to go part-time after my 1L year is over.  However, I was just looking at the class schedules for 2Ls and 3Ls, and things are pretty encouraging.  Might be difficult to get all my classes just two days a week, but it wouldn't be impossible.  Worst-case, it looks almost certain that I'd have a three-day weekend every week. 

So, that's something to look forward to once 2L is over.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Start of Week 6

Tomorrow is the start of week 6.  There are 15 weeks in the semester, not including finals.  I'm 1/3 of the way done.  Unfortunately, this is sort of like running a marathon (in a lot of ways.)  At the halfway point of a marathon, you aren't really halfway done.  Pretty much 20% of your effort in a marathon gets you to around mile 18.  The other 80% is what you need to get you the last 8 miles.

Same with law school.  Since almost all the grade is based on finals and nothing more, you can coast along for a while, oblivious to the iceberg about to sink your ship.  The real work will come in the month or so before finals as the outlines are finalized and the studying for the final exams begins.

I went into this thinking I could manage law school in the unproductive slack time of my life.  That, I was pretty much right about.  I had enough slack time to do law school.

What I didn't count on were the following:

1.  I really, really enjoyed the unproductive slack time in my life.  Not just for myself, but in terms of being able to do activities with my son.

2.  Law school has some aspects where the schedule isn't flexible.  You do it when you have to do it, not when you would have otherwise had slack time.  This has put a strain on a few things.  Nothing too bad, but it's noticeable.

3.  I have no doubt I have enough time to finish law school.  Do I have enough time to get great grades?  Right now, I feel like I don't, but who knows.  I feel like I need to do more. I'm current with all my reading and assignments.  I just wish I had more time to work on my outlines and some other stuff.

One way or another, I intend to finish 1L as a full-time student.  After 1L?  Not sure at that point.  I could continue as a full-timer or drop back to part-time.  A little of it depends on whether I keep my scholarship.

I need something like a 3.3 to keep my scholarship, but as law students know, that's not easy in law school.  The curve is pretty daunting.  It basically equates to being in the top third or quarter of your class.  However, "your class" consists of some pretty smart people.

If I lose my scholarship, I may just decide to go part-time.  That would be easier on my schedule.  It would also mean dragging this out for another year.

The other thing, which is how I'm leaning at the moment, is to try and do whatever I can to schedule all my classes just two days a week.  Yes, that would equate to one murderous schedule that basically lasts from 8 to 8, but it also means I would have 5 days off per week.  (Yeah, granted, 5 days off when you're in law school means 5 days of studying.)

It's not the work I can do at home that makes this tough.  It's attending all the classes.  The more I can compact my schedule, the better.

In the mean time, so far, so good.  I'm still current with everything.  Of course, my personal opinion is that staying current with everything is usually just good enough to get you a C.  I need to work on my outlines and start exam-prepping.  Still haven't quite found time for that.

I'm a little ahead in LR&W, and we're getting to where we're doing actual writing.  So, it's slowly getting to where it isn't quite the total bane of my existence anymore.  I don't mind it so much.  We submit our first memo next week.  It isn't graded, but I'll be interested in the feedback.

In the mean time, just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Boy Loves the Gridiron

Bambino continues to do well at football.  He blasted his knee back open over the weekend, but we put the skateboard knee pad on it and he had a good practice.

The coach is making some adjustments.  Logan is now starting at fullback in the I-formation and halfback in the jumbo package.  The coach is also putting together a long-yardage formation with Logan at QB. 

They ran a few plays and Logan was drilling people on the numbers.  He really has gained a lot of arm strength over the past year.

This is going to be a little more involved for him.  He loves football.  Told me yesterday that it was by far his favorite sport.  I think of all the sports he plays, he shows the most talent at baseball, but the pacing of baseball is tough for a little kid to appreciate.

He's doing pretty well at football, too, though.  I think if he keeps this up, he could stand a shot at QB1 next year.  Just depends.  At this age, everything depends on how they grow and progress.

Uggghhhh...

Today was the first day I felt sort of lost in a class.  I'm going to have to memorize a bunch of numbers for civil procedure rules, as well as the rules.  Other than that, I am willing to bet that most of the class is more lost than I am based on participation in class today. 

Though I did notice that one girl in class (super smart one) is grasping the material much better than I am, too.

Just gotta hang in there.  Soon as I post this, I'm gonna knock out some reading and go to bed.

I need more sleep.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

End of Week 4: Getting the Hang

I'm about a quarter of the way through the semester, and I'm getting the hang of this.

Today, I should be able to finish up all my reading for the week and begin working on my outlines. 

Really, I figure this whole thing boils down to 3 tasks:

1.  Staying current with the material.
2.  Preparing great outlines, especially my 1-page summary outlines for each class
3.  Getting the test-taking down.

Right now, I've been doing a good job of #1.  I think I've only showed up to class once having not-read the material in advance.  I know this sounds really odd, but it can be difficult just knowing what you're supposed to read for the next class.  Every prof gives the reading assignments differently.

Some of them (the more organized ones), have all the reading for the entire semester laid out in their syllabus.  That's the easy ones to stay current with.

Others will post the assignment on the class web-site.  The class web-site, unfortunately, can be in one of three (and maybe more) places, depending on the prof.  It can be either on our UT account, on the Lexis class web-site or the Westlaw class web-site.  Or they e-mail our reading assignments to us.

The third category tells us at the end of class what to prepare for the next class.  I need a better method for this.  I had been making a note in my class notes, but that didn't work very well.  (That was how I missed a reading assignment for class.)  I switched to posting any assignments to the top of the notes page and making a note in my day planner.  That works a little better, but still is problematic.  I think I just need to have a separate file on my computer for "assignments due" when they're not specified in any of the other methods and work it that way.

Today, I'll be able to start my outlines.  I know what my torts outline is going to look like.  Property?  I think I've got that one figured out, too.  Contracts?  I may need to visit the prof because he invented his own tool called "Davis Boxes" which others have said practically substitutes for the class outline.  I'm already pretty far along on POICTARACO.

That leaves Civ Pro, which I'm maybe 30% clear on what the outline will look like.  Our school teaches it backwards from the way most schools do:  we learn pleading first and venue in a subsequent semester.

I hope to have the outlines substantially done sometime in October with just minor tweaking from then on out.  This would leave all of November for test practice. 

My 5th class is Legal Research and Writing (aka, "the bane of my existence.")  We've got the first of our two papers due.  This one is not-graded.  My initial reaction was, "Oh, great, ungraded homework.  Like I don't have enough to do already."  Now, though, I'm eager to have them look at what I can do to see where I need to improve for the second, graded paper. 

LR&W is a mutha.  The other classes?  You can stay current on the reading in anywhere from 1 to 4 hours a week.  (4 hours is extreme, too.  Most don't involve that much reading and the one class that does, doesn't involve that much every week so far.)  LR&W?  Including class time?  Probably takes up 15 hours a week. 

I can't wait to be done with it.  I realize it's all necessary.  They're making me practice things I would not practice, otherwise.  However, it's a muthafargin' black hole of study hours.  To add insult to injury, it's only a 2 credit hour class. 

So far, a few aspects of my life are fraying a little bit. 

I'm still managing to make time to be with my son.  That's not so bad, actually.  I'm still helping coach his football team.  (Total workload there is maybe 16 hours a week.)  I'm still available to him in the evenings.  I might start having him sleep over at his mom's house, though, so she can have him in the mornings.  That'll free up my mornings and give him more time with her.  Her work schedule has changed.  She sees a little less of him, now, because she has fewer days off.

Exercise has been a diaster.  I was making good progress until recently, but did no workouts last week at all.  I also probably need to drop my gym membership.  I barely have time to bathe.  Getting to the gym is out of the question.  I can still hit the weights at the biz, though.  So, that's not a big deal. 

I need to start just taking 25 minute exercise breaks.  Taking an hour away from the books, then taking a shower, for a total of 90 minutes away, is just not a good idea.  However, taking 25 minutes away from the books a few times a day is probably actually beneficial.  So, I need to just nail 25 minutes on the rower or dreadmill every few hours to clear my mind and pump up my energy level.

My diet has been absurd.  I think I'm going to start going to an all-oatmeal for breakfast routine.  The rest of the day?  Who the hell knows.  I'll figure it out as I go.

My time at the biz?  I just need to be there studying in my office a lot more. 

The end result of all this?  I'm going to be getting a lot less sleep.  So far, I'm doing well, physically, but we'll see how long I can keep this up.

If I do well on 1L grades, I will try to get an internship with the SEC or CFTC this Summer.  It'll be unpaid for 10 weeks.  So, it'll be a big hairy deal, but I think it'd be worth it.

In my typical "go big or go home" fashion, if I don't manage that, I'll probably end up reverting back to plan B, which is to set up a PI practice here, locally.

And that's all there is to say about that at the end of week 4.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Keeping up, but need to amp it up

So far, I've been keeping up in classes.  This weekend, I need to make some major strides on getting ahead.  I still want to cover some topics in the E&Es, especially in Contracts.  Maybe a little in Civ Pro.

I also need to get jammin' on my outlines.

Strange, from day to day, my psychology changes.  A couple days ago, I was starting to feel a little bit lost.  Today, I feel right on top of it.  I'm remembering case names off the top of my head.  I feel like the material is all right at hand, mentally.

I think half the difficulty with law school is dealing with your own neuroses.  Law school attracts a certain type of neurotic personality.  The kind of person who frets the small stuff. 

I also have been thinking more about career.  If I do decide on a legal career, I'm reverting back to my original idea of working in PI.  Every area of the law is fascinating in its own way.  Right now, I think I have two main career possibilities.  PI, here, locally, and working securities law in DC or maybe Chicago. 

Those are the two strong ones.  The third one would be working intellectual property in software licensing. 

I've still got a lot of time to work on this, but this whole thing comes at you sort fast.  The deadline for 1Ls to apply for that SEC internship in the Summer is in February, for instance. 

People's fates start to be defined here, not so much in the first year, but in a huge way by the end of the second year. 

Anyway, so far, so good.  I've got a big research project coming down the pike.  The nice thing about my legal research class is that it basically concludes early.  All of our graded work will be done by mid-November.  It'll be nice to actually have grades on things to know how I'm doing.

In the mean time, this will be weekend of outlines, once I finish up all my assigned reading and research.

Logan has a football game Saturday morning, but after that, I'm basically going to be parentis non praesens (yeah, my Latin sucks ass) this weekend.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

First Day of Anxiety

Today was really my first day of Anxiety.  It happened when I heard two rumors.  The first rumor I heard was that my Torts Prof only gave 3 As last semester. 

I guess that's possible.  On a forced curve, he should give about 5, but if he had an unusually bad crop of papers, maybe he gave fewer than the max allowed.

The second was that my Legal Research and Writing Prof gave everybody Cs.

Now, my rational self is saying that this is all BS and is probably as valid as most rumors, which is to say, a smattering of truth, surrounded by a sea of BS that produces no good information at all, but maximum shock value.

However, my emotional self got a little spooked.

Honestly, I suspect that the root of those rumors would be that only 3 people got an A that somebody knew of or that it seemed like "everybody" got a C based on an informal survey of people in the class.  Who knows.

I also suspect that the folks who got really good grades probably had a high percentage of the types of people who would keep their lips sealed about it.

Still, right now, I'm starting to come to the realization that I need to do a lot more work.  I'm not doing enough.  I'm keeping up with the reading, but personally, I think that's only good enough to get you a C, or if you're lucky, a low B.  I need to do better.

A lot of it is time.  I volunteered to help with Logan's football team "when I could", but that's turning into an everyday thing.  It never ceases to amaze me how not-involved most parents are.  I just can't split and leave the coaching to the head coach when he'd be the only guy there.  That's too much to ask of him. 

I also need to get a lot more productive with my time.  Need to fill up the slack time during the day.  That means using lunches, and spare hours here and there to study. 

I'm not really behind, but I know I have to put in more work if I hope to do better than most of the class.  It's not a disaster if I finish with middling grades, but that's not my goal right now.  After 1L Fall grades come out, I may adjust my course, but in the mean time, I would like to see how well I can do at this.

I am positive that I will finish 1L year as a full-time student.  Beyond that, though?  I'm leaving all options on the table, including perhaps dropping back to part-time status.  I wouldn't say that the time involved in this is excessive, but it is considerable and it's putting a real cramp on a lot of things I used to do.  That's something to consider later.  In the mean time, I need to finish up some reading and go to bed. 

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Productive Weekend

Well, did no schoolwork on Saturday other than an exercise for Legal Research.  I was in the library a long time, but half that time I was watching the OSU/Toledo game or getting lunch.  Started reading sunday at noon.  At about 9:30, I called it quits.  I still have reading to do for Torts and Legal Writing and Research, but I think I can do all that during my downtime tomorrow.  I have a training class at 9:00 a.m, but nothing after that until 1:00.  That should be more than enough time to knock out all the rest of my reading for the week.

Which should also free me up to start working on my outlines.  Now, I know I've mentioned this before, but heyzeus marimba, there's a lot of books in law school.  I tried hauling all my books at once, once, and I had to use an Army large rucksack with frame to hold it all.  It was a chunk of books.

One of my classes has just one book.  The others have either 3 or 4.  Legal research and writing has a half dozen or more.  I also avoided buying any recommended books unless the prof was referring to them a lot.

I wish I could keep all these, but frankly, when the semester ends, I'll be selling back anything I don't have next semester.  These suckers are more than a grand, new.  If I can get back $400 or so, that's a pretty big chunk of change.

I am finding that I actually enjoy reading the cases.  I never really liked fiction very much.  I like finding out what happens in the real world.  These cases are like little novels.  Dude receives a painting from his Dad as a gift.  Dad dies.  Stepmom challenges the gift in court.

These are all important episodes in human interaction and I really enjoy finding out how the courts rule and why. 

Like most people, I used to get disgusted / outraged at some of the verdicts I'd hear coming out of cases.  Sometimes the popular media portrays the law as one huge, capricious bunch of freeloaders prospering off the efforts of good, decent people.

Even in the most eggregious cases, though, I'm finding that there was some sound logic behind the decision.  You don't always like the outcome, but the process remains relatively consistent.

Anyway, looking forward to putting some work into my outlines this week.  After this week, it'll be 4 weeks done, 11 to go to finals.  The semester will basically be a quarter done. 

I feel like I have a good handle on things, but working on the outlines will help me feel better.  We've really covered a lot of material.  Law school has a reputation of being a "drink from the fire hose" experience.

Still, so long as I stay current with the reading and can devote some time every week to my outlines, I think everything will be fine.  So far, so good.

Little Bit of Everything

Law school continues to click right along.  3 weeks done, 12 to go.  Next week, more than a quarter of the semester will be in the bag.  Time to really start cranking on my outlines.

I've decided that in class, I'm only going to raise my hand under two circumstances:

1.  Nobody else has their hand up and the prof is asking for a volunteer.
2.  If I genuinely need clarification on something.

The reason for #1 is that if a prof asks for volunteers and doesn't get one, they pick somebody at random.  I'm finding that a lot of folks aren't preparing for class and they end up being embarassed when they get called on.  So, I'll try and answer questions I can to prevent an awkward moment for a classmate.

The reason for #2 is pretty straightforward.  Sometimes I really need help understanding something, or more likely, I need help knowing what the prof wants.

An example the other day is that we were studying negligence, which is generally defined as reasonable conduct under the circumstances.  (There's more to the definition, but keeping it simple for this illustration.)  The case was one where somebody was driving the wrong way down a street.  A driver saw the guy, then crossed over to the left, into oncoming traffic in the other lane.

The question was whether the guy's conduct was reasonable given the circumstances.

My question to the prof was, "is it possible that somebody's conduct can be not-reasonable, but also not-unreasonable?"

The idea being that crossing over the center line into oncoming traffic was stupid, but that faced with an emergency, he didn't have time to react and think clearly.

The prof clarified that for torts, it's either reasonable or not.  There's not a third category in-between.

Now, the reason I bring up raising hands is that the class is already identifying the gunners and the other classmates freakin' hate them.  I'm trying really, really hard not to be my usual Arnold Horshack self and end up as one of the guys the class hates.

So, self-discipline:  I will not drink a big-gulp immediately prior to class, and I will not raise my hand except in the two circumstances above.

I also note that although I could be working more on my outlines, I'm keeping up perfectly well with school and yet not destroying the rest of my life.  I'm still getting to the biz on a regular basis.  I'm still spending time with my son and helping a little bit with his football team.  I'm still catching a movie or two with my brother and his girlfriend every week.

Law school does put a crimp on things, for sure, but frankly, it's really like having a job.  You can still do a lot of activities in life, you just can't do all of them right away.  I got pretty spoiled these past few years given the amount of slack time in my schedule.

Now, time to start studying.  I only have one shot at this semester.  Better make it count.  Need to free up a little more time to start cranking on outlines here, soon.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Law School Observations, 3 weeks in

With 12 weeks to go in the semester, I feel like I've established a rhythm.

My theory when starting this was that I could do it in the wasted leisure time of my life.  That's mostly, but not entirely true in practice. 

The time I have to spend in class really does put a crimp on my other activities.  I'll just have to play this one by ear. 

1L isn't that flexible and although the schedules are pretty convenient, they take up almost the entirety of the working day.  I have Monday mornings off.  Friday afternoons off, and other than that, the best I can manage is an hour here or there during the work-day to pursue activities that can only be done during the work day.

On the other hand, I am still watching movies.  Still able to participate to a large degree in my son's sports activities. 

So, it's a lot of work, but it could be worse.

Things should get a little better here, soon.  We should be hiring a full-time office person for the business.  That person acts as the business admin, but also as my personal assistant.  Yes, I'll be a student with a personal assistant. 

This will relieve me of my already minimal duties at the biz.  Somebody else will be able to handle all the bookkeeping entries, pay the bills, etc.  So, I'll be back to the workload I had when I spent at least a little bit of every day either on the driving range or on the course at the golf club. 

I also noticed this week that some of the other students are already falling behind / blowing off work.  In one of my classes, the prof called on 3 people in a row to give us the facts of the case we were supposed to brief.  All 3 had not done the work.

The trick in law school is not just to master the material and pass the bar.  80-90% of the folks who finish law school can manage that.  (This, of course, doesn't take full account of the 20-30% who drop out during or after 1L.)

The trick is that you need to outperform your peers for your grade.  There is a forced curve.

In B-school, if you could master the material to an A level of mastery, you got an A.  If the entire class got As, the prof probably wasn't bothered.  It didn't work out that way.  I think most people got Bs.  Some people got Cs, but more people got As than Cs in every class.

So, to get good grades, you have to outperform your fellow students.  Law school is competitive by its very nature.

I've been on the lookout for the folks who will fill out the left side of the curve, and generally, it's hard to find them.  The kids in my class all seem pretty smart.

Every now and then, though, somebody will give a very unmistakable indication that they're going to be the part of the class that is having difficulty with just maintaining the minimal GPA.  Bless their souls, but you can probably get into law school with an average intellect if you managed to get a degree and did okay on the LSAT.  That, of course, doesn't mean it'll be easy if you chose to do that.

Hearing about classmates who are falling behind?  I know you shouldn't take joy in other people's troubles, but right now, my main concern is having the time to put together good outlines and practice for exams.  I can't imagine trying to make up ground on reading I was supposed to have done as well.

Of course, at this point, nothing proves anything.  It'll all boil down to how well we apply things on the final exams.

In the mean time, though, during week 1, it seemed like everybody else was brilliant.  Now, I'm starting to see that maybe not all of them are.  Near as I can figure, I will need to be in about the top third to maintain my scholarship.  I'd like to do better than that.  However, that's just speculation at this point.

I have met a couple of other students who are parents.  Not so many others who are my age, but I feel a connection with the ones who are parents.  We have a set of challenges that a young, unencumbered student won't have to worry about.

Also, at some point, maybe during Christmas Break, I need to revisit why I'm doing this and what I hope to accomplish.  I would love to do an internship with the SEC over the Summer and try to get a job with them after graduation.  However, the internship would mean time away from my son.  Working for the SEC would happen just as he's going to High School.

Sometimes you just have to make choices.  At the current time, I'm leaning towards the idea that the important thing is to be with him until he flies the coop.  I suspect I may have deep regrets if I miss out on his last few years at home.

Now, a job in Cleveland, Columbus, Chicago, Detroit, etc., wouldn't be so bad.  Those are all 4 hours or less from my house.  I could spend weekends here.  However, DC?  That's basically airline distance.  So, maybe I need to focus on available jobs in the immediate midwest. 

I also feel pretty good because I feel like I'm getting into the rhythm of this.  I'm actually gaining energy and hitting the books harder and more efficiently as I go through this.  It's been a long time since I'f been a student, my one semester of Arabic notwithstanding.

So, in the mean time, no use talking about law school.  Time to get back to doing it.  I'll be in the library this weekend doing another workbook project for Legal Research and Writing, but then, thank god, there won't be any more workbook assignments from that workbook anymore.  That workbook has been the bane of my existence for the first month of Law School.

The semester is starting to gain momentum.  3 weeks are done.  12 to go.  After next week, we'll have basically completed our first month, with just two and a half more to go.  Then, finals.  Then, crying or jubilation.

So far, if I had to give my life a report card, it would be:

Family:  A-.  Basically doing the stuff I need to do.  Minimal negative impact on time with son, but noticeable.

Business:  B-.  Keeping up.  Haven't really missed anything, but we'll see.  Less time than usual, but I'm able to do as much or more than I did prior to starting law school.

Fitness:  C.  Not failing, but room for substantial improvement.  Probably working out 3 times a week versus 4 or 5 prior to.  Need to get better at finding the time for fitness. 

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

3rd week begins...

I can't believe it's September already. 

Week three started today.  I'm still adjusting to the new sleep schedule.  I'm still current with my reading, but need to set aside some time to work on my outlines.

So far, not too bad.  The classes are still interesting. 

Time to get into a rhythm that will carry me through the semester.

The nice thing about being old is that time really flies when you're old.  The not-so-nice thing about being old is that time flies. 

Anyway, just trying to keep up.  Can't wait to take those finals and see how I do.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Couple interesting developments today...

Met briefly with my faculty advisor because his specialty is Intellectual Property.  I wanted to hear what he had to say vis a vis working in IT IP, but without being Patent Bar qualified.

He basically confirmed what I had been hoping:  that they hire a lot of IP lawyers in the Bay Area and that they specifically look for people with computer backgrounds for the jobs.

He did advise getting qualified to sit for the patent bar, though.  The general gist being that some firms may be big enough that you work just on IT related IP stuff, but midsized firms and smaller probably want somebody who can be an IP generalist.  He even mentioned a prior student who had gone to MIT for undergrad and ended up doing copyright work.

I mentioned my off-the wall idea of taking the required undergrad courses.  He didn't think that was off the wall at all. 

I could qualify to sit for the patent bar under Category B, Option Two.  Because I already have 8 credit hours in Chemistry, all I would need is another 24 hours in biology, botany, microbiology, or molecular biology. 

Getting those credits probably won't be that tough, but it'll be tough to do while I'm in law school. 

I'll just have to wait and see.  I could also just see if I could get on in IT IP and if I don't, then so be it.  Personally, the idea of working on copyright and trademark stuff doesn't interest me at all.

The other interesting thing is that I was talking to one of my classmates, and she's attending on full-ride because she applied with a 4.0 and 173 LSAT.  I heard once that you can never plan on being #1 in your class because there will always be a few inexplicably mutant intellects in there.  I've heard this person's contributions to class and she is going to wail, I think.

Anyway, at this point, I'm still somewhat interested in learning more about securities law and IP law (related to IT.)  Those are two careers I'd probably make major life changes for.  If I stay here, unless I were to luck into some major offer with a local firm, I'm still thinking family or PI.

Today was one intense day.  I had to go to Lexis training at 9:00, then class until lunch.  We had a mandatory career services function through lunch.  Then, classes until 4:50.  Then, I worked in the Library until about 7:30.

I still have a little bit of reading to do tonight, but am just taking a little downtime to relax, first.

I had originally hoped to work out a little bit today, but I think I'm just going to turn in early. 

Still, I'm current with my reading and assignments.  However, the work involved in this is a lot more than I had anticipated.  I really underestimated how much work would be involved.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Enough Studying for One Day

I got all my assignments done in 3 of my classes.  I just have one class tomorrow and I don't have the boy.  So, I will be more than ready for my long day of classes on Tuesday.

I wasn't particularly good about reading this weekend.  I didn't do anything on Saturday and I ended up not-starting today until almost noon.

Went to watch my son's baseball tryout and that took 3 hours.  I did take one of my case books with me, though, and was able to do all my required reading while I sat around and watched.

I think parts of this will get easier as the semester keeps going.  I'm still adjusting to being a full-time student.  It's been a long time.  Like maybe more than 20 years. 

Once I get into a good rhythm with this, that'll help.

There are some things I need to do in addition to the required stuff, though.  Mostly, I need to get cracking on my outlines.  It's not that I'm behind on that.  I haven't even started my second week.  It's just that I know that is hanging over me.

Also, Civ Pro is much more interesting than the E&E I ended up quitting.  Thing is, it's sort of divided into two sections.  There's pleading, which is what we're doing in school right now.  Then, there's all the jurisdictional / venue stuff, which I was reading in the E&E, but which we won't cover until next semester.

I saw that Toledo sort of teaches them in the opposite order than most places.  We do the pleading stuff, first. 

The E&E is arranged the other way around.  So, when next semester starts, I'll have a leg up.

Speaking of E&Es, I should have been more diligent about finishing them all up.  The Civ Pro one was like pulling teeth, though.  God, what dry dreck.

I did finish the torts E&E and it's awesome.  I'm already familiar with everything we're covering in class.  I'm sure there'll be some little spins here and there, but it's great to basically be doing the material for the second time.

Thing is, I don't see how I'll have time to do any additional reading on top of what I'm already doing.  Though, I wouldn't necessarily rule it out.  I think it'd help a lot.

It's only 9:30, and I could probably finish up the assignments for the last of my non-lab classes, but I only have class for an hour and a half tomorrow, with the rest of the day wide-open and no kid for the day.  I can wrap up the rest of my work easily.

This is a marathon, not a sprint.  A 4 month marathon.  So, I'm trying to include a lot of fitness activities and some relaxing downtime (whenever practical and possible.)  For instance, yesterday, I didn't get much done because I hung out with my son all morning and ended up going to his tryout, then seeing a movie with my brother later in the day.  It was an all-fun, no-law day.

I think for sporting events, especially baseball (which he does a lot of because he plays travel ball), I need to bring a book, though.  Losing a few hours of study-time is not a luxury I can really afford.

It didn't bite me this weekend, but they're still taking it easy on us before ratcheting things up.

I'm still hoping I can do all this by making productive use of the vast swaths of time that I previously just flat-out wasted.  It is already impacting the amount of time I spend with my boy, though.  Nothing too major and I don't think he notices it, but I do.

So, ready for the week.  Will probably have all my reading done by noon tomorrow and will probably have all my assignments done by the evening.

That just leaves one day's worth of torts to read, but that never really takes long.

I also wonder if doing the entire week's reading, as I did this week and last, is a good idea, because some of these cases get stale if I read them on Sunday and they don't go over them until Thursday.  Figuring all that out will be part of the fine-tuning process.

So, week 2 starts and I'm still current with all the work.

One week at a time, one task at a time.  Though to execute my law school strategy, I am going to need to create a little more time for a few dark arts projects.  (The E&Es are one of them.)


Friday, August 26, 2011

Law School First Week Verdict: Big Ass Bag of Awesome

Okay, the first week is done and I have to say, Law School is awesome.

I know that part of this is that bizarre enthusiasm that old people bring when they come back to school at an age where they really shouldn't.  I feel like I really got an extra shot at something and I'm really glad for the opportunity.  I don't have to do this.  I have an education and a way to earn a living already.

The thing I like about this is that the subject is fascinating.  It is a bit astonishing that something that impacts our day-to-day life in so many ways is something I'm so utterly ignorant of.  So, the education, even if I never practice law, is worth it.

Every day, I have an "ah-ha!" moment, where something clicks and I understand something that I truly, truly had no idea of, before. 

I heard somebody say that law school should be fun, and based on my previous education (largely computer and business-related), I thought, "yeah, whatever, Sparky.  Education is to be endured, not enjoyed."

Now, that wasn't always true.  Some subjects, I really enjoyed.  I almost always liked my Marketing classes, for instance.  Marketing, like law, is an attempt to apply a science to the realities of everyday human existence.

Anyway, back to the reasons for law school awesomeness.  One of them is that, although the class is probably 65% male, of the women who are here, it seems like fully half of them are supermodel thin.  And the other half are almost all attractive. 

Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm a pathetic old man.  Deal with it.  Obviously, if this were really my main concern, I'd be clawing people's eyes out to get into the college of nursing.  Probably better job and earnings prospects there, too.

The neatest thing about all this is the energy of a university.  I really like the University of Toledo.  I know the name "Toledo" doesn't exactly conjur up images of a great place to spend your youth, but after having been on this campus, I'd recommend it to anybody.  The campus is beautiful.  Toledo is a nice-sized town:  big enough you can get anything you want.  Not so big that we have big city problems.  (For instance, if there are gangs here, I've never seen any evidence of them.  Also, rush-hour traffic, here, is virtually non-existant.  My brother moved her a few years ago, and that was one of the first things he noticed.  "There's no traffic here.")

It has revived my interest in perhaps doing something that would lead to a professorship somewhere, at some time.  Who knows when or where.  I'm not that sanguine about getting a degree in the Ph.D. program here in Manufacturing Technology.  So, where and when I get a Ph.D. is largely up in the air.  The clock is ticking and perhaps this is something I just won't be able to do.

Also, I'm glad I made the choice of University of Toledo Law.  I obviously haven't studied law anywhere else, but the profs here are awesome.  They're really making the material interesting.  The students are friendly.  Overall, I think this is a great environment.

I've heard people say that some majors are better than others for going into Law School.  Various people say their major taught them critical reasoning skills, superior language skills, whatever.  I'm going to throw my hat in the ring on this one.  I'll say that Information Systems is at least as good an academic discipline as any other and perhaps a lot better than most.

I remember once talking to a law student about "code".  Of course, I was talking about computer code.  She was puzzled and we talked past each other for a few minutes until she realized that she was thinking about the legal code.  The reality is that computer code and the legal code are very, very, very similar.

If this, then that.  If this and this and this, then that.  Computer code and legal code are a set of formalized rules.  You apply them to a situation and that's how you get your result.  If you don't like the result, you need to apply different code.

I have heard others say that the best preparation for law school is the hard sciences, like physics, chemistry, etc.  I think that may be true.  However, part of it is that you have to be extremely smart just to pass in subjects like that with a minimum grade. 

The other part, though, is that the thinking is very structured.  You're learning rules, rules, rules and then applying them to the real world to see what happens.

At this point, I'm getting very interested in both Securities law and Intellectual Property Law.  I wish my undergrad education were sufficient for me to qualify for the Patent Bar.  It doesn't.  However, because I already have 8 hours of Chemistry, I could qualify if I took 24 hours of various science classes.  (Subjects like Biology and Botany qualify, yet information technology classes don't.  Go figure.)

I guess the bright side is that I could take all those classes at a community college.  The downside is that this would represent one year of full-time study or probably two years of part-time study.  At this point, I'm not looking for ways to prolong my education.

I figured the more I got into this, the more I'd be aware of what various options are in the law, and it would change my goals.  I think that's really true.

In the mean time, I'm current on all my reading and assignments, but there's going to be some work involved this weekend.  I will try to stay current during the week, but with the biz, helping coach my son's football team, etc., the weeks are pretty full.  I also need to get my sleep schedule more regularized.  I stayed up way too late a couple nights this week. 

Workouts continue to be something I need to squeeze in here and there.  I hope to hit it at least 4 days a week.  So far, I'm on a good trajectory fitness and weight-wise.  Need to keep that going.

So, with one week down, I'm one week closer to final exams.  I feel pretty good so far.  I'm not learning huge chunks of information.  My pre-law studies have generally given me the bulk of the material.  I'm spending most lectures learning what the prof wants to see and how things are structured in the prof's mind. 

Also, the best advice I ever got was not to spend too much time briefing the cases.  2L and 3L students seldom seem to create a formal brief for each case.  I've been book-briefing, and it's been more than enough.  I have even heard people say to skim, not read each case.  I've been actually reading them and generally I retain enough that I can participate in class.

I also need to ratchet down my participation in class.  I knew this was going to be a problem, but I'm gonna start looking like a gunner if I don't tone things down.  It's just the nature of my personality, and probably just a sign of general insecurity that I will sometimes try to show everybody that I know a lot about X, Y or Z.  I am trying only to contribute when nobody else is raising their hand, or the point I'm asking about isn't an obvious one.

So far, so great.  I'm treating this as a one-semester adventure at this point.  The rest of the roadmap won't be clear until I have my Fall 1L grades.  So, everything at this point is focused on Fall exams.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Week Almost Over

The week is almost over.  I only have one session of Research tomorrow, then weekend.  I really need the weekends to get ahead on my reading, etc.  So far, so good. 

I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I'm enjoying classes, though.  This has been fun so far.  I'm still adjusting to the schedule and trying to figure it all out. 

This is taking more time than I initially thought.  At this point, I really can't say much about anything.  I think I've got two mid-terms and I will have writing assignments throughout, but I won't have any idea how I'm doing until the first set of exams.

I just need to keep working on the outlines.

I was current enough, though, that I watched a movie yesterday.  I also missed Logan's Wednesday football practice, but was able to go today. 

Tomorrow, I have some catching up to do at the biz.  However, this is my weekend without the boy.  I'll do my best to be productive. 

I need to run both days, and mow the lawn, too.  It'll be a full schedule.

In any event, attending class is a blast.  I should have done this a long time ago.  Pretty soon, one week down, 15 more to go.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Long Day...

Just had my first Legal Research and Writing class.  It took forever today.  The class wasn't that bad.  However, we got an assigment that is due on Friday.

Other sections got different due-dates on this one, probably to avoid having all 130 1Ls clogging up the library all at once trying to access the same handful of volumes in the exercises.  Some didn't seem to have to get this done until late next week.

I ended up staying in the library until almost 8:00.  The assignment took me about 4 hours, total.  This will be, hands-down, my least favorite class.

I LOVE the way Law School classes are taught.  Generally, there's only a final exam, or maybe a mid-term (worth about 30%) and a final.  It's up to you to stay current with the material and show up to the exam ready.

I have strengths and weaknesses like anybody, but three of my academic strengths are:

Logical ability
Ability to write
Ability to do well on a test

I won't delve into the weaknesses just yet, but suffice to say the strengths should give me at least a fighting chance at a good grade.

Research and Writing is more like an undergrad class, though.  Lots of assignments.  To top it all off, I'm pretty sure a lot of them aren't graded.  Maybe sort of check-mark graded to see if you did them, but not much more beyond that.

The nice thing is that the big paper in this class is due in early/mid November.  So, this class actually wraps up early.  Instead of a 4 month course, this one is really more like 3. 

Well, it is what it is.  I need to try and pull down an A in this class just like all the others.

I was in the library so long, I wasn't able to help coach my son's football team.  That was a stretch to begin with.  They asked for dads to help coach, and I told them I'd help when I could, but couldn't always be there.  The way things are shaping up, I'll be lucky to be able to help once or twice a week.

Time management is going to be tough.  One of the reasons I dislike Research and Writing so much is that so much of the work needs to be done at the school, in the library.  If I have a mound of reading to do, that's not a biggie.  I can do it at home and still be here for my son. 

I do envy the 2Ls and 3Ls.  It looks like the school does what it can to let them take their classes all before noon so they can head off to their internships and part-time jobs.  If I get to that point, my life may get simpler.

Until then, one day at a time, one week at a time.  I need to double check my reading assignments for tomorrow.  I think I may have a chapter or two to read before I go to bed.