Me: “I think you totally facebook stalk me.” Jamie: “No, I just know what my boyfriend’s up to.” Me: “That’s your spin on it?” Jamie: “I didn’t go to school for PR.”

There’s way too much class discussion. I had the same issue with Constitutional [...]]]> The first week of 2nd semester is over. Vöt! Here’s a rundown of the courses:

Criminal law: Theory, theory, theory. It feels like a criminal justice class at a community college. No cases yet. Just half-page snippets of punishment theory…rehabilitation, retribution, yada-ya.

There’s way too much class discussion. I had the same issue with Constitutional Law last semester… I prefer the Socratic method because it focuses the discussion. When professors ask for volunteers in law school you get the same 5 people speaking all the time, and a fair amount of irrelevant and unproductive comments. I’ll give this class a few more weeks before it becomes my official blog-reading time.

Corporations: The reading is remarkably quick and interesting. Class is okay, but the professor tends to stick with a single student for 20 minute blocks. It’s not exactly grilling because our professor is really nice, although he does stutter when he makes a joke.

The professor made us buy this 3-inch-thick book of statutes and restatements. I’m returning it. There’s no way I’m carrying that brick of a book around and I look up everything on Westlaw anyway…

Property: The first day of Property I sit down and my classmates on either side of me start talking about how awesome the case was.

Me: “What case?”

Oh, apparently there was a reading assignment. Hah. Silly me. I’m starting off with a bang…

The supposedly awesome-case was about whaling with exploding bullets. Basically, back in the day they shot the whales with these bullet-bombs, watched them sink, and recovered them whenever the whale floated back up. This could take days. So, when someone else found the whale and sold it…well, that’s when we got a case for our casebook.

The only carry-over class from last semester is Civil Procedure, which is still my favorite. I like the predictability and efficiency of Civil Procedure. There’s a schedule, there are no irrelevant discussions or tangents.

No fluff means that I don’t have to wonder what’s important for the exam. I had some classes last year where only a handful of the classes were useful for the final…whereas in Civil Procedure everything is important. Professor V doesn’t waste our time.

Welcome Back 1L Students!

As you get back into the swing of things for Spring semester, this is a quick reminder that our 1L Lecture Series kicks off Monday. I’ll be joined by 2L and 3L students and the Career and Professional Development Center for a brief presentation on “Putting Your Grades in Context.” Our goal is to offer concrete ways to learn from and improve upon your Fall semester performance, and to help you understand what your grades mean – and don’t mean – for your professional development.

Best wishes, and have a great weekend.
- The dean

I think the grade delay is a retention ploy. Most of the 1L blawgers seem to have their grades…I really want to know where I stand so I can figure out who to ask for recommendations and what scholarships and jobs are realistic for me.

Anyhoot, I’m ending the week by seeing a somewhat-gory, but totally awesome movie with Jamie. Vöt.

Bemidji is a resort town in Northern Minnesota where Jamie went to college. Bemidji State University looks like a grotty, oversized high school.

The university is on the shore of lake Bemidji. The lake is frozen over and dotted with fish houses.

Driving [...]]]> Jamie and I spent the weekend in Bemidji.

Bemidji is a resort town in Northern Minnesota where Jamie went to college. Bemidji State University looks like a grotty, oversized high school.

The university is on the shore of lake Bemidji. The lake is frozen over and dotted with fish houses.

Driving on the lake quickly lost its appeal. We were convinced that the ice would crack and we would drown…and it would be our fault for… well, driving on a lake. Who does that?

The next bar was full of undergrads. There were two jukebox Nazis who played 14 songs using the “play now” feature. I think they blew $20 on that jukebox. They did play Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and our favorite Peaches song so I forgave them.

We played photo hunt as a group of five. It’s really easy to get the high score when you have that many people.

The best moment of bar #2 was when two very blond, very tan girls busted in wearing mini-skirts. They shook the snow from their stilettos and stumbled into the back of the bar. No frost was too deep to keep these girls from being tanned and (almost) naked!

We ended the night at Bemidji’s local hiphop club called Bada Bing.

Bada Bing was tragic. There was skinny, painfully dorky DJ. The DJ was accompanied by Cartman, his morbidly obese sidekick. Cartman stood on the stage and flailed about while shouting “yeah yeah! Oh oh oh!” We saw way too much of Cartman’s belly.

And hers:

That would be mean, but the girl in the middle was so obnoxiously drunk that she spat in my face while asking me to dance. “CMON! CMON! SHOW ME HOW TO POP LOCK AND…”

Today, Jamie took me on a tour of Bemidji State University. We also saw the wonders of the Paul Bunyan Mall . K-Mart is an anchor store. Yep.

Out of revenge, I dragged asked Jamie to go to Wal-Mart with me. Jamie hadn’t been in a Wal-Mart in 7 years, which is unacceptable. He loves Wal-Mart. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Sunday night we saw Marley & Me. The plot? Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson get married and have kids. The comic relief is their troublesome dog, Marley.

The best line in the movie was delivered by the 6-year-old behind us:

Kid: “They have sex a lot.”

I laughed so hard that I had tears in my eyes.