"In vacant or in pensive mood..." I am: Bekah; 24; Law Student / Favorite Things: Carbs (so there!), Johnny Damon, Smiling at babies, Grilled cheese, Comfortable silence / Favorite Supreme Court Justice: Brennan / Favorite Wilson: Owen by an inch / Today's Special: Song: Elliott Smith, "Bled White"; Quote: "You know, there's like a butt-load of gangs at this school. This one gang kept wanting me to join because I'm pretty good with a bowstaff." Please love me: mmbekah@yahoo.com


February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 September 2005

 
Timing is Everything

Several weeks ago, I was told that being on law review would help me develop my time management skills. After getting my first assignment, I wanted to impale the people who told me that with my red pen and then bury them with Post-It notes to finish the job. How, I wondered, could I possibly manage my time if I just don't have any?

But when I turned in the first part of that assignment yesterday, I sat back and looked at the past several days and noticed that I really had been remarkably productive. In addition to working the previously described obscene hours over the weekend, I managed to do all of my reading for class, start two outlines, clean and reorganize my closet, do laundry, change my sheets, send out several packages/letters, etc. to friends, apply to a few law firms/organizations, dress in real clothes for the majority of the week (as opposed to scrubs and a t-shirt), cook an actual dinner (one night), pack my lunch, and shave my legs. This is more than I would usually get done all semester. I also noticed something when I was drying my hair this morning. As I was using the drier, I observed that the cord was about to knock an object (a product of some kind...I love products) off of my bathroom cabinet. Instead of doing what I would usually do (which would be to hold out hope for the endangered object and go on with my business, at which time the object would certainly fall/break/make a mess), I stopped, turned off the drier, removed the object to a safe location, straightened up the top of the shelf, and then resumed the drying. This may not seem at all remarkable to you, but I know myself. And I know that something is afoot.

Note: I realize that I'm writing about law review a lot. Please know that I am absolutely NOT one of those people who feels the need mention law review gratuitously. I think it's pretty obvious that I'm not in that category--I know as well as anyone that I don't really fit in. I only write about it here because, honestly, it is sometimes the only thing going on in my life. Yeah, I know, I can hear the violins now...

Damage Control

My friends just told me about some 1L who has started a law blog that includes his name, where he's from, and the name of his school. Even though he generously provides all of this info to the entire world, he apparently doesn't feel the need to hold back on trash-talking everyone and basically being an unpleasant person. As a result of this, he has already shocked and incensed a lot of people. Now, I haven't seen his site personally, and I'm not planning on finding out where it is, but the whole situation does raise some problematic issues about the internet, (like privacy, immediacy, easy transmission of info, etc). I didn't really think about any of that stuff when I started this site. I started writing on the internet because I wanted to write, not because I wanted to contribute to any online forum or anything. I don't mention the name of my school, largely because I don't want to get anyone mad at me. But because my friends know about my site, other people (aside from friends and family) could conceivably know who and where I am by now. It's a little disconcerting. That being said, I don't think I've written anything that would get people mad at me, or that compromises my moral or ethical duties towards peoples' privacy, etc. (possibly excepting the cavemen below...although their reading comprehension levels are questionable at best, so I'm not too concerned).

I guess I want this to be fair notice for everybody who reads this site: I'm going to be a little bit more careful about what I say, because the last thing I want to do is detrimentally implicate anyone else by writing about my personal experiences. I usually make any less-than-nice comments pretty unspecific anyway, but now I'm going to be even more cautious. Mmm...warm and fuzzy.

One more thing. In addition to privacy issues, I think writing online is kind of risky in terms of the writers' control over use of her written expression. I'm not saying that I've said anything brilliant enough for people to want to plaigiarize my work (although some of my astute and mature comments about the evils of Starbucks are Pulitzer-worthy, I'm sure), but I've definitely caught my friends unconsciously quoting my own material back to me. When it happens, I never really know what to say except, "Yeah, exactly! That's what I'm talking about." Well, it actually is exactly what I'm talking about, and it's published, and it's copyrighted. At least my expression is copyrighted; the actual ideas, however, are not. So I guess you can feel free to steal all of my thoughts and fulfill my goal of world domination. Godspeed.

posted by Bekah at 3:09 PM :: |