Outlines and Study for Finals

Okay, so my Torts outline is probably too long, but I'm working with what I got at this point. My Contracts outline is GREAT! My contracts professor is so cool. "OOOO, I'll become a suit-filer!" You had to be there. Let's just say I've never had a professor who was such a talented guitar player and entertainer!

Civil Procedure is open notes and open book. There is a measure of comfort in that, but the standard is way high for that one.

Property. We'll see how that goes.

I think I understand what the professors will be testing us on. The issue is whether I'll remember all the nuances of the various concepts. For instance, in Torts, the essay question will most likely be about negligence and we'll have to write about duty, breach, cause in fact, proximate cause and damages. But, I'm sure our professor will throw some glitch in that will help the curve work. On the other hand, he'll want us to analyze every issue, so it's not like we'll be able to say there was no duty because that would mean we wouldn't need to analyze the other areas of a negligence claim. (That no duty thing would be a good counterargument.) I'm rambling, but my point is that the professors want us to show our understanding of certain principles, so that's why I'm almost positive the Torts essay will include negligence somehow.

I have an idea what the other classes will test us on in the essays. I started to write it all out, but I guess I'll keep my ideas to myself on that one. In any event, it's pretty obvious in each class what the essays will likely be about.

Memo Madness

It was difficult, but I got my memo within the page limits. I thought I started working on it early enough, but I wish I had another day to look at it.

Now I can focus on my doctrinal courses and prepare for finals. Torts is first on Monday, Dec. 5, Civil Procedure, Dec. 9, Property, Dec. 12, and Contracts, December 15. As my friend Kim Kossie would say, "Those who know the words of prayer, pray for me."

For the first time in the entire semester, I did not prepare for Contracts. That memo had me so strung out. I like Contracts, so I will definitely read the cases instead of relying on briefs. I'm disappointed because I'd gotten into the practice of doing all my contracts reading over the weekend. I don't know why it bothers me since we only have one more set of reading to do. Oh, well.

Draft One Complete

I finally finished my first draft. I'd hoped to get it completed last night. Now I'll continue to edit it until it reaches "memo perfection." I actually found an example from the class that helped me better organize my arguments. It's a shame I didn't connect all those class assignments to my memo writing. If I had paid more attention, maybe I would have done better on memo 2.

In any event, I feel like I've accomplished something. Now I just have to get it within the page limits. My professor requires a 15-page limit, but some of the other writing professors are more lenient apparently.

Memo Fatigue

I'm plugging away at memo 3. I didn't meet my goal to have a completed draft by Friday. I think I'll have a draft today and be able to edit tonight and tomorrow. It's due Monday at 1:30 p.m. Even though it's a difficult process, I 'm enjoying it because every sentence is a challenge to analyze and write clearly.

When I get the urge to go off on a tangent of poetic prose, I may free flow write or think for a while until I get some phrase that was trying to burst forth. If the phrase fits, I use it. If it doesn't, I have to discard it as useless.

Writing is difficult. This stuff ain't easy.

Bogged Down

I find myself wasting way too much time surfing the net or just day dreaming. My brain must be on some kind of protest. Tonight, I'm going to try a change of location and see if that works. Even though my mind doesn't want to process any more information, I can't opt out of studying because there's just too much work to do.

The schedule for this week is helpful because we don't have our writing class on Wednesday or our Torts class on Friday. That leaves Friday totally free and I hope to get a lot of work done then. I'll probably use most of the extra time to work on memo 3.

People

One of my first college type experiences was when I went to the "Honors Colloquium" at UT while I was still in high school. I think this was UT's way of getting some of the top students in the state together to recruit as many as possible to UT. I had done pretty well on the PSAT and was targeted by a bunch of schools, but no school recruited me like UT did.

Well at the honors colloquium, we had plenty of time in the schedule to socialize, and at one point a bunch of students ended up in a small room, I think it was a dorm room in Jester and it was pretty crowded. I was talking to the person next to me and paused to let them get a word in when I realized that everyone in the room was talking at one time. No one was really listening at all.

My best friend and I have a saying, "I talk a lot because I have something to say." I contrast this saying with the grandma wit, "Ever wonder why God gave you two ears and one mouth?" As much as I like to talk, I'm trying to learn to listen more. I find that my classmates have pretty neat stories of their own to tell. Before my first year is over, I want to find the student who seems to be the most different than I am and get them to tell me their story.