A little bit of law for the lay person

So since the title of the blog has law student in it, I'd share a little about my first week of 2L year. I have classes Tuesday afternoon through Friday morning (no, not like every since hour between then) and that means five courses. Week one was longer than I thought and far more exhausting. But I thought I'd give you a little run down of each.

I'm doing clinic this semester and that means I get to do practical work during the semester. My credit hours dictate that I must do at least 10 hours a week. I'm looking forward to it, even though I'm a little bit nervous about dealing with my own clients. At EEOC I sat in on some charging party intake meetings (well potential charging parties)but I was always with an investigator and I didn't really talk much. I'm sure I'll do fine but it's just a new experience.

In addition to my 10 hours a week of work for clinic, I also have a weekly seminar (which includes a 15-20 page paper) on Tuesdays. It's public interest so I had to read a lot of articles this week about different aspects of public interest work. I'm looking forward to this week's discussion. In general, my professor is nice though I've learned I need to sit closer to him if I want to hear what he says because he speaks rather softly.

I also have Evidence on Wednesday morning (and Friday morning). This and legal writing are my only required courses this semester. Evidence is also my only two-times-a-week class. Going in (after seeing the syllabus) I feared it would be a lot like my criminal law course from last semester. Thankfully, it's not. Our professor is new (and fairly young) and he's very laid back. He assigns a few problems from the casebook and manageable reading each class and he's very open to explaining things if you don't get it. I'll definitely be taking advantage of his office hours most likely following the first graded problem. That is, of course, if I don't do as well as I want. The Federal Rules of Evidence are deceptively complex for short little blurbs in a book.

My other Wednesday class is Alternative Dispute Resolution. I think this course is going to be the most engaging, quite literally. Each week in class, we do role playing (no not in the "what's your safe word" way). We did a couple of smaller exercises in the first class that I liked. I'm not really one to confront conflict. I tend to avoid it. But I'm hoping that through this course, I'll better be able to confront conflict. I'm certain it can help in both my professional and personal lives. We also have a 15 page paper for this course.

My Thursday class is Internet Law. It's not much reading and our professor is pretty laid back too. She assigned only a 6-page paper because it's only a 2-credit course. I'm cool with 6 pages. Plus, I already know my topic. This is one assignment that can be knocked out over a weekend (Prof said as much). The one thing that was a little weird with the first class was she Facebook stalked people, including me. Then again, I thought certain things were set to private if I wasn't friends with them. Guess not. Though she did seem impressed with my writing and that I have an agent and such.

Friday morning comes way too early. 8:00am on a Friday for a class is just cruel. It's legal writing. I know I'm a writer but yeah...legal writing isn't my favorite. At least our assignment this semester is an interesting topic (constitutional law issue). But yeah, I'll have tot get through the two 15 page assignments for this course, plus an oral argument at the end of the semester as well. My professor is nice enough. She's an immigration law attorney which is kind of interesting.

So that's a no-so-short list of my classes for this semester. Overall, good classes, good professors, lots of writing. I should enjoy the fact that I only have 1 actual exam in December. I'll just to forget for the time being that it's at 9:30am on a Monday.

End of Summer a Success!

I promised I would be back this week to let you know how everything went with wrapping up my few fun things before classes began. I managed to do evertyhing.

I read "As Lie the Dead" by Kelly Meding. It's the sequel to a book of hers I picked up at the beginning of the year. I really enjoy the world she's created and she gives you just enough info to know what's happening if you didn't read the first book.

I buckled down on Saturday and got all of my revisions done to Pharaoh. I hae a call with my agent this Friday to discuss our plans for it (other edits, going on submission, that sort of thing). As for what I'll be writing next? Well I'm starting to plan for November. It's probably going to be a middle grade fantasy with a new twist on part of the Arthurian myth. We'll see how it goes.

Merlin has also been blogged. I will post a list of all the recaps over on MOre TV, Please! once Jen posts the last 3 blogs. I really enjoyed the rewatch of series 1. It turns out SyFy picked up series 3 and it will likely air in early 2011. I will try to be good and watch when it airs on this side of the pond.

Speaking of recapping, I think I will be recapping season 1 of Body of Proof this season for MTVP!. I'm quite excited because it means I get to watch more Jeri Ryan and gush over her. I know, I'm kind of sad and pathetic but I'm really hoping it turns out to be a good show. I don't normally do medical dramas but this is more of a crime drama in that the MC (Dana Delaney) is a medical examiner.

Well I need to head off to my first class of the semester! I'm excited to be getting back into the swing of things, even if getting up early has been more difficult this week.

Pre-Semester/Summer wrap-up

So sorry I disappeared for a couple weeks. Not much was happening on the writing front. I had family visiting this past weekend which was fun. This was my last week of work for the summer as well. This weekend and next week I start gearing up for school. I've got all my first assignments for class. Some will probably take longer than others but I'll get them done. All except one of my classes meets once a week. Right now it seems enough time between classes to get things done but that could change when I'm doing 10 hours of clinic work a week.

As for the end of summer, I have a few fun things I'd like to finish before classes begin. I would like to finish blogging Merlin series 1. At this point, I only have 4 episodes left. I just re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I have one more book I'd like to read before classes. I'm hoping to finish revisions on Pharaoh's Link by the 24th as well. It seems I'm well on my way to getting all of my end of summer to-do list done. I'll be back before school starts to let you know how everything went.