Seven weeks down... seven to go

Hey we're at the halfway point for this semester! Let's play 20 questions to determine my screwedness at this important time:

1. Is reading week over? Yes.

2. Did you get a lot of reading done during reading week? No.

3. Did you get any reading done during reading week? No.

4. Did you get anything done during reading week? I organized my socks.

5. Is there anything due this week? Yes.

6. Is it a 12 to 15 page memo for US law? Yes.

7. Are you finished? No.

8. Are you close to being finished? No.

9. Have you caught up in the secured transactions readings? No.

10. Will you be caught up in the readings by the end of the week? No.

11. By the end of the month? That's next Tuesday. No.

12. Are you caught up in the readings for any class? No.

13. Have you started either of the civil litigation assignments that are due on March 2? No.

14. Are there any factors that would excuse your lack of preparedness in any way? No.

15. Are you finished the things you're supposed to be doing for Pro Bono? No.

16. Do you have a meeting on Tuesday morning to present your findings for this unfinished Pro Bono work? Yes.

17. Is seven weeks enough time to get caught up in your classes and ready for exams? No.

18. With all this stuff to do are you still going to watch Grey's Anatomy in 25 minutes? Yes.

19. Is it looking like you're completely screwed? Um... yeah I guess it is...

20. Are you going to pull it off at the last minute? Of course.

A day at the beach...

Well actually it was only about 57 minutes at the beach. But we took some goofy pictures. Here's my friend Jean drinking some water...

Hot! And here's me...

Hot huh? Yeah and here's some beach...

And some ocean...


And here's Nancy Grace. She didn't come with us, but it would have been so cool if she had.

Six weeks down... eight to go.

That title is somewhat misleading... there are really only seven weeks of classes left because there's no school coming up this week. Yep, reading break it be, and reading I shall try and do. Here's this week's low down:

Secured transactions: If I don't catch up on the readings during reading break I'm screwed with a capital S. On day 1 the debtor gives a security interest to secured party 2, who on day 2 assigns it to secured party 1. On day 3 secured party 2 gives it to secured party 4, but meanwhile on day 2.5 debtor 1 sells the goods to debtor 2, who lost them in a bet on day 3.5. On day 5 debtor 3 gives a security interest to secured party 8, on day 6 he gives one to secured party 4, and on day 9 debtor 3 both gives an interest to secured party 5 and then sells the goods to debtor 4.2, who didn't have any notice, for a set of stake knives and a crack pipe, and we find out that secured parties 3, 5, 43 and 8 perfected their interests. Who has priority? Somebody... please... help... me...

Corporations: Okay okay okay... there are shareholders and a board of directors. I get it already...

US Law: This week I found out the first memo is due a week from Monday. 12 to 15 pages. I better get on it. For those people not in law school, a legal memo is where you get a fact scenario and you have to say (1) what the legal issues are, (2) where the law stands on the issues, and (3) the parties' prospects of success. Articling students and new lawyers write a lot of these. Fun...

Civil litigation: I liked civil lit this week, which surprised me a lot. If this continues I fully plan on doing the readings.

Commercial transcations: It's been a week of progress. I now know that this class concerns the Sale of Goods Act.

Um... why is it so dry out there?

I'm not sure what this means but yesterday it didn't rain. And it doesn't look like it's going to rain today either. The heavy grey rain clouds have been replaced by white fluffy clouds which float between patches of an empty blue void. And there's an unfamiliar yellow orb up there making everything really bright. Strange, but you know what? I like it. The world's a happier place, people are smiling, I hate my neighbours a little bit less, and I can almost bring myself to start studying. Almost. A couple more days of this and I'll be able to do anything. Well, except get a summer job. I don't seem to be capable of that...

Don't get me wrong about the rain though - As someone born and raised in the Vancouver area I'm pretty used to it. Generally it's not even on my radar until long past the point where non-Vancouverites have started complaining that it's never going to stop. But something happened when I went to Vegas a couple weeks ago: I remembered the sun. The plane, shortly after takeoff, lifted above the cloud cover and there was nothing but blue sky and sun above. The cabin lit up and I looked around, realizing that I hadn't been anywhere flooded with sunlight in a very very long time. It was great, and it lasted the whole weekend while I was in Vegas.

Then I came home. Happy happy happy blue sky until we started our descent into Vancouver and then the grey came back... and the rain. So now, a couple weeks later, I'm pretty happy to see the sun again. It's supposed to last for a while, which is good because we deserve about eight months of no rain now... but in Vancouver it would only need to be sunny for about two weeks before you'd start to hear people saying "we could use some rain."

Five weeks down... nine to go.

Weird. I don't know how five weeks have gone by already. I know I haven't been to five weeks worth of classes. Here's the low-down:

Secured transactions: Getting a bit nuts. Need to do more reading.
US Law: It's ok. I can handle it.
Civil litigation: Boring but doable.
Corporations: Need... to... do... some... reading.
Commercial transactions: Um... still not sure what this class is about.

I was in Vegas from January 19th to 22nd... for the most part my pictures sucked but here are a couple that were okay... starting with New York New York. 

This picture shows what is probably my favorite thing about Vegas: Eveything lights up, even the McDonald's signs. 

This is a big lion outside the MGM... 

And here's a broader shot showing a bit more... 

It's hard to convey in a picture how busy the strip is on a Saturday night. And of course in the one decent picture I took there were hardly any cars coming one way and the sidewalk looks half empty. But it was really busy. 

I like freeways. Generally I can spend more time staring at cars and freeways then I spend looking at all the other flashier stuff. 

Taking pictures from the top of the Stratosphere, while a good idea in theory, didn't produce the best pictures from my camera... but here's the strip. The view was great at night but there was NO chance I was getting a decent picture then. 

And one last shot from the top...