Halfway there...

Well, I'm halfway through my law school prep course. It's run by a company called Law Preview and is rather well taught. There's a professor that teaches at Yale, another from Emory, another from USC, and others from well known universities. These are actual law professors teaching these classes, not graduate students, or former students of the program. We've been through torts, contracts, and property thus far.

You're there for 8 hours a day for a week, so it's mentally draining, then you go back to your hotel room and study for 3 hours for the next day of class, but it's worth it. What I'm learning here will be invaluable to me in law school. We study cases, doctrines, issues, and rationales for applying the law the way it is. They actually tell you in plain English what some of this stuff means.

The hardest class for me thus far was property today. Everyone in that class seemed to be struggling with it. The subject is extremely complex and very difficult to deal with, but we pulled through. Tomorrow I have civil procedure and constitutional law, then we get a take home mock exam to work on. Friday is criminal law and exam taking strategies, and Saturday is legal research and writing. They also give you tips on how to succeed in law school and will provide you with a calendar and schedule on day by day breakdowns of your first year of law school and how to allocate your time.

The conclusion I've reached thus far is that working during my 1L year is simply not going to happen. I'm probably going to have to quit once the semester gets into full swing. I'm looking at 12 hours of law school (4 hours class, 8 hours homework) per day if I want to finish in the top 10% of my class. I will not sacrifice future earning potential for present earning potential of a couple hundred bucks per week. True, I will be living entirely off debt, but I think in the long run it will pay off. The only thing that concerns me greatly is health insurance. it's going to cost me like $138 per month for medical and another $17 for dental. The coverage is very good coverage, but comes with a $1000 deductible. I could pay $28 more per month, but this stuff adds up quick. I'm sure I'll find some way to swing it.

Shameless Plug for an Anime Series...

I hadn't been much into anime lately. I was more a fan of some of the older school stuff, and still am to an extent. The only semi-new stuff I liked was Love Hina and the two Onegai series. However, I recently learned that a series was made based on my favorite anime and manga of all time, Ah My Goddess. Excited to see if it could live up to the quality of the OAV and the movie I bought the first two discs of the series.

First let me say that the original OAV and the movie are not the same as the manga. They have very little relationship to the manga. I found both to be rather well done and was very impressed with both. That being said, the series tries to follow the manga canon and does a pretty good job of it from what I've seen.

For those of you who aren't in the know, Ah My Goddess (Ah! Megamisama for you otaku), is a romantic comedy (more focus on the romance part) about a college student who is so unlucky that he gets a visit from Belldandy, a goddess from the goddess relief office to grant him one wish. Since he doesn't have a girlfriend, he wishes that Belldandy would stay with him forever. She grants the wish, and all sorts of interesting things happen thereafter. It originally started as a manga in 1988 and is still running to this day, 18 years later.

Now, as to why I like the series so much. One word: Belldandy. The writers did a great job of making her the embodiment of the "perfect woman". She represents a woman that doesn't exist on earth, but that every guy would kill for. She's sweet, gentle, kind, funny, innocent, drop dead gorgeous (for an anime character that is), and she always puts everybody else's needs before her own. Dare I say I've fallen in love with a woman that doesn't exist? The series is a lot of fun to watch, as one could imagine, especially when her sisters start showing up, then things become very interesting. If the rest of it is anything like the manga, it will also have some dramatic moments, some sad moments, and plenty of excitement.

In short, if you like romance or romantic comedies and you like anime, this is an absolute MUST SEE. If you just like anime, but don't care what it's about, you should see it anyway. If you've never seen anime before and you like RCs or romance, make this the first anime you see. You won't be disappointed. Do yourself a favor as well, watch it in the original Japanese with subtitles. I know some people hate reading subtitles, but I was not at all impressed with the American voice actors for the characters. Me and dubs do not mix well at all, except in Ranma and Tenchi Muyo.

Briefed my first case today...

Well, it's part of this law school prep course I'm taking. It's in Atlanta, GA from June 26-July 1. It is an intensive, 8 hour per day course that teaches you lots of fun stuff about the various areas of law covered by first year law school students.

I had to read a 2 page decision called Lonergan vs. Scolnick and write a brief on it. They actually walk you through the briefing process, so it's pretty painless. Still, after reading that case, it has become obvious that reading and understanding legal opinions will not be as easy as I anticipated.

It's very easy to misinterpret the issue that the court is deciding on, or at least hard to home in on the precise question being answered. In any case, I'm sure the process will get a little easier as time goes on. I'm just not used to briefing cases yet. Anyway, I still have plenty more reading to do, but I'm looking forward to moving on and trying my hand at understanding these cases.

Update on things...

Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I tend to do this in spurts as time becomes available. My last course requires a lot of time for reading the assigned chapters. Cost accounting is a fairly interesting subject, but when you have 2 weeks to read 9 chapters (roughly 250 pages), and you're working 40 hours a week, life becomes difficult.

I got a 149 out of 150 on my first exam and I'll have the results of my second one on Tuesday. My third exam is a week from this Tuesday, and my final exam a week after that. It's all starting to wind down now, and I, for one, am thankful to be done. Still, I have plenty of stuff to keep me busy over the summer.

I already mentioned I'm getting LASIK on July 6, but I'm also looking to attend a law school prep course either August 7-12 or June 26-July 1 in either Pennsylvania or Georgia respectively. I've been told this can be a great way to put me at the head of my class, so I don't look like I have no idea what's going on the first day I get to law school. It's a bit pricey, as is the hotel room for 6 nights, but I feel it's worth it if it helps me do well in law school. In law school, it's all about the numbers, and any advantage I can get ethically, I will use.