Umm...Friking WOW!!

In the try outs for the different moots (outside of the just the uni comps) I only ticked the box for one HUGE moot beacuase 'hey, can't hurt'. I honestly believed there was 0, Zero, Nill, Null, None, Zip chance of being considered for that particular moot. I can't believe it. I have been nominated to represent my Uni in the Jessup Moot. The Ganddaddy of international moots.

I am so excited right this second, however I am well aware I have some seriously crappy times ahead with this moot...

Exams:

Property Law A
I think I did OK. Only time will tell.

Equity
Loved the subject, the exam was pretty good. again only time will tell

Other Subject
This subject was multipule choice, need I say more?

Can't sit still, what an amazing opportunity - Obiter

Exam time stress

I am up to my ass in exam prep.

So I am just going to repost one of my articles from Survivelaw.com, beucase I am just that lazy and there are a few people who read the blog but not the site (odd that). This post cracked 1,750 'likes'. THANKS GUYS!!!!

Here’s some handy advice for those unfortunate enough to live with a law student during exam time. Admit it, we’re not the friendliest when assessment crunch time is bearing down on us!
Coffee
Always ensure there is coffee in the house, particularly at this time of the semester. Be warned if at 4am in the morning Your Law Student (YLS) goes to make a coffee and there is none left, they may decide to carry out multiple acts of battery (law student for ‘mess you up’) on you while you’re asleep. Drink the last tiny bit of milk at your own risk.

Silence
As you would have witnessed, we like quiet while we study. If you have come from the other side of the house, opened the door and said, ‘don’t mean to bother you’, then clearly you did mean to bother us. Get lost. Now expect to be assaulted with colourful verbal abuse. Oh, and our textbooks are weapons of mass bludgeoning.

Tears
YLS is under immense pressure. Yes Ps get degrees, but if you want YLS to be a highly paid lawyer (as they no doubt do) only the best marks will suffice. So naturally they will be cramming 3 months of legal content into their tired and overworked brain. At this point if YLS makes a comment about anything, just agree. YLS is facing serious doubts about their intelligence and their reasons for going to law school.

Don’t make it worse for them by arguing, because ‘damn it they are law students and know what they are talking about’ (even if they have no idea). Usually YLS will rise to your challenge; during exam time anything that may be taken as an attack on their intelligence may very well be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. You don’t really want to have to clean that mess up, do you?

Was this advice a little too late? Have you upset YLS?
Don’t stress, one quick way to make them happy is to buy them some stationery! Ever noticed how YLS’s desk looks like a rainbow had a hard night then threw up all over the desk? There are highlighters, post-it notes and sticky tabs of every size and colour. This is because stationery makes us happy. As an aside, a birthday party thrown at Office Works would be awesome, like a law student equivalent of a child’s McDonald’s party. Toss some fluoro stationery in their direction and you are likely to be forgiven.

A Massive thanks to my editor who turns my ramble in somthing worth reading (mostly). Also click here to read more of my stuff. I try to write once a week, explaining why I am posting so little lately

Mooting and 'Brain Gold'

Today was the semi-finals of the Jr Moot, we lost. To get to the semi-finals we beat 16 other teams. I feel O.K about this. Still a bit pissy I did not make it to the finals but at least we made it past the first round unlike last year.

Both in the first round and in the semi-final I got the same feedback - SLOW DOWN. I am quite sure until the day I die I will be told to 'slow down', I keep trying it's just my slow is most peoples fast. Again I was told I have great 'presence in the court room' whatever that means (probably because I am tall and broad), in both rounds I was told I was the best 'mooter' in the room... so why am I not at the finals...? On the bright side this time I did not forget co-councils name only worked off bullet points and knew the law/facts pretty bloody well.

I may say never again, a bit like when you go on a bender and wake up feeling like rat shit but just like drinking when the opportunity presents again I will grab it with both hands. The past 8 days have been a freaking nightmare I lived and breathed the cases, all the chefs at work knew hoe sections 7 and 8 of the Criminal Code worked by the end of last week just from listening to me talk to myself. My house is falling apart because I did not care about the stack of dishes a mile high (to be fair I gave up on house work in about week 5 - we are in week 11), there are dust bunnies the size of your fist rolling around the place as I type.

Mr Ovum and I are in the middle of a fight. I never ever let him proof anything I write. Ever. As part of the exchange process I have to write a one page essay, this is the first essay he has had any say in, in over two years. It does not end well as he is 100% confident anything that comes from his brain in gold, I have coined it as 'Brain Gold'. When I mention 'Brain Gold' it just gets worse. But to hell with it, I am a reasonably successful third year law student, when I put my mind to it my view is just as valid as his... and this is where the fight starts. To be fair I have had months to do this and I am doing it the night before it is due, this just stresses the poor man out.

Time to do some word smithing - Obiter Ovum

I did this to myslef. I did this to myself. I did this to myself

The moot problem came out. It just had to be a criminal case didn't it?! Torts I could ace, Contracts I would deal with, Property I would survive but Criminal, that is just cruel.

I have a love hate relationship with the criminal code, it has been like that since first semester last year. On the other hand this time I actually care about the issues and I am probably learning a whole lot more about the issues than I did in a very, very superficial way when I was actually getting marked on the subject.

When I read the problem I had little panic attacks that went a little like this.

Good Law Student Obiter: This is great, see a problem get overwhelmed then work your way through it bit by bit. What a great experience.

Bad Law Student Obiter: SH*T! what have you done? you have all this work to do without this crap to add to it. Anyhow your barely smart enough to bluff your way through classes, what do you think is going to happen when your under the spot light being quizzed on stuff your too dense to wrap your head around?

Good Law Student Obiter: Well on the weekend you read an entire book on mooting skills. Between the book and what you learned last time it has to be better. You will be more prepared and under control. GO TEAM!

Bad Law Student Obiter: Just shut the hell up! do you know what you got yourself into? Remember last year? First question from the bench 'what is conversion' and you honestly had no idea...none. Your screwed.

Good Law Student Obiter: Rah, Rah, Rah GO TEAM! Because of last year you will never forget that conversion is the dealing with goods in a manner inconsistent with the rights of the true owner!

Bad Law Student: Misery loves wine, drink red bull then have a wine.


Kinda a bit pissy, definitely a lot hypo right now - Stoopid cases on common purpose need to be understood if I am not going to publicly humiliate myself... again.

Reflection and poorly thought out rant

My campus backs onto wonderful botanic gardens that also connect to the city, as an apprentice chef I remember sitting in the gardens gazing at the massive buildings in awe of the whole thing tainted with just a little bit of jealousy and sadness that I was not and I thought, would never be smart enough to be a part of it.

Today I took a walk through the gardens and I remembered those feelings, they are not so dissimilar to the inadequacy I still get from time to time still. Maybe, just maybe they are not always justified? Nope still feel like an imposter.

On a different note: Culture clash, when is it OK to impose the new culture on the immigrant?

The Story.

I work with some wonderful Indian women, they subscribe to a religion that imposes very, very strict moral codes. That’s all very well and good. In the past 3 years they have grown soo much, carving out an identity that works with their culture and the freedoms enjoyed here, there are some exceptions.
One lady came into work with a slight rash on her neck, one of the other staff members and myself asked if it was a hicky (knowing full well it probably was not). After explaining what a hicky is (she went bright red) she giggled and we all continued on with our work. The next day she came in all bruised up because she had jokingly told her fiancé it was a hicky, he then slapped her so hard she fell to the floor. This is OK as far as she was concerned, this man has hit her on number of occasions that we know of for things such as holding his hand (they are not permitted ANY contact before marriage), and even cutting her hair.

It is never OK to hit a spouse. I cannot look at this man without seething about the low creature he must be to hit this sweet lady.

Australia like many western cultures is dealing with spousal abuse, it happens and we know it does, there are campaigns working on raising awareness of the problem. I would like to sit her down with the other staff member (we are all close friends and meet outside work) and try to explain to her this behaviour is not acceptable, but I feel like I would be crossing a line and offend her, not what I want to do.

In the same veign, the burqa was recently banned in France.

This disgusts me. In some circumstances, such as when driving or entering a bank I think it is justified, the law should not cater to a group for religious reasons and the safety of others should not be put at risk for it. But the government should not impose on an individual’s right to worship.

Stopping religious violence is different to forcing individuals to conform to the majority. Yes it is oppressive to women and I do not agree with women having to submit to the patricidal rule, but I do think people who want to, should have the freedom to worship in whatever way they see fit as long as no harm is caused to others. The move France has made is cultural discrimination on a huge scale. What if Catholics were banned from attending worship in a western country – imagine the backlash.

If I has more time I would do a much better thought out and supported post, but I don’t so all you get is an emotional half-baked rant.


Off to the next mental flogging that is commercial property law – Obiter.

To Moot or not to Moot?

Chances are I will be mooting in a few weeks time, only this time I intend to not forget co-councils name...

Because I am lazy and sub-headings negate the need for actual thought and effort here goes:


Property Law A:
The content of this subject is very, very new. We are learning how to apply the Personal Property Securities Act 2009, that comes into force in October 2011. As you can imagine there is very little in the way of helpful text books, it is just a case of sitting down with the relevant sections and focusing so hard you get a nose bleed. 6 pages of notes later and I might be able to bumble my way through a question.

Equity
All going well, however there was a change to the subject plan and this week and I did tute work for next week. This means I am sitting in a tute with no idea what is going on, as tute participation is weighted in marks I was not deterred from having a crack at the answers (power point slides and half baked noted on the lap top screen)it got to the point where the tutor made the comment 'In Equity any action can be boiled down to un-consionability'. To be fair, when he asked a question and no body answers, after long periodnof silence is when I offer my 1c (2c would be giving myself far too much credit).

Other Degree Subjects
Last week I had to do another literature review, I hate lit reviews. So bloody much. The other subject is an even bigger joke, 7 1,000 essays (now if you have between 4-6 questions to answer, that's not an essay right?) and one 3,000 word essay at the end (which will be an actual essay). What exactly is the incentive to show up to lectures and tutes? None.

The Cackle Berry
I hate being a chef. The idea of cooking for the rest of my life makes me immensely sad. My new Sous Chef (has the job because I declined) attempted to make my life miserable and get me fired. Jokes on him, now the Head Chef wants him gone ASAP.

On the bright side at the very most I have under 400 shifts left in a commercial. Yes that is more than a year but it is far less than a life time.


Property Law assessment needs my attention - Obiter

P.S will have another Survivelaw.com article soon, just have severe writers block

When will I get my life back?

The answer .. at least 11 more weeks, then I go back to Lucifer's Corner Office ... that still does not feel like getting my life back.

On the bright side my self induced pity party was over just as fast as it started.

Lately it feels like I am getting to the swing of this whole law thing. Still spending hours upon hours in the library however these hours are more and more productive. This is of course only if I don't spend too much time in transit telling myself I study better at uni/home (depending on where I am at the time).

One of my good friends is a super high achiever, gets the kind of marks that most of us only wish we could (granted they are still learning the fine art of being smart without being a smartypants). Somehow the conversation came around to stress and how it impacts each of us. It was interesting hearing how this high achiever felt much the same as the rest of us did, it really drove home how we really are all in the same boat.

Today I turned in my equity assessment. This assessment was group work orientated, I can not believe what a dream is was to work with those students. We also had to write a reflective summary about how we dealt with conflict. I think we may have 'missed out' on an intended learning experience by having dedicated group.

Pot is only on simmer right now, but I can see the hand ready to crank it up to boil - Obiter