I've been AWOL lately, for 'productive' reasons of course. Somehow I ended up with a ridiculous amount of assessment all due in one week. On top of that I'm currently on "holidays" but somehow have to write a ridiculously long and boring essay for administrative law. This essay is, of course, worth a large percentage of my grade so I am, quite frankly, stressed out of my mind!


I have been a good little law student while offline, but I just want to plug one of my favourite blawgs at the moment: Law and the Multiverse. It's hilarious, quirky and is just full of awesome!


Law and the Multiverse looks at the "hypothetical legal ramifications of comic book tropes, characters, and powers". So you can just see how awesome it is! I got into a discussion recently with someone regarding a Batgirl comic where Batgirl  was called a murderer after she arrived to save the day but the badguy ended up killing someone anyway. Long story short, we had a gigantic conversation about where she would stand legally. Nerdy as it may be, I found it to be fun and, surprisingly, a good legal workout. 


I'm rather new to comics and not a huge fan but Law and the Multiverse has entertained me for quite some time! I definitely recommend you check it out! It's not Australian so obviously the laws differ, but the general idea is the same.  It's entertaining, thought-provoking and educational! 

Essay Competitions.... ultimate procrastination!

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I'm currently looking at a few essay competitions that end in December. I've printed out all the information for both and have started doing some rudimentary research. I know what you're thinking "Oh that's great that you're getting started early". The truth is, however, that I really shouldn't have started yet. Why? Oh just a little thing called Assessable Essays. Yes, I have been writing essays for competitions instead of working on my university essays.

Now it makes sense, in a way, that I should be starting now. Looking at my assessment planner for the remainder of the semester, it makes sense that I should do them now or not at all. Let's be honest, once I finish my exams I won't want to be writing essays!  As such I figure that writing an essay is better than watching endless movies or wasting time on Facebook. Whether or not this is true will be revealed soon enough!

Speaking of Facebook, I've started using it again. I went for 2 months or so without  using it and wasting my time but I relapsed!

Lawyer Jokes

We all love them, right?

The senior partner replied in haste,

"Appeal immediately."

"You're a cheat!" shouted the attorney to his opponent.

"And you're a liar!" bellowed the opposition.

Banging his gavel loudly,  the judge

interjected, "Now that both attorneys 

have been identified for the record, 

let's get on with the case."

Confessions of a Law School Stationery Addict

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I have a problem. I have a stationery fetish. It started slowly, having multiple coloured pens in my pencil case but I'm starting to think it has gone too far.

I have highlighters in almost every colour, at least two or three of most and a giant container of paperclips (which I don't use). I have at least 60 biros (no joke), which I rarely use, mainly just for exams. I have so many post-its and tabs, at least 12 different tabs labelled with things from 'To Do' to 'Whatever'. I have at least 15 Sharpies in black alone, and I don't even want to know how many coloured ones I have.

Like I said, I have alot of stationery. I'm fairly sure I could get through the rest of my degree without buying more!

I've read somewhere that law students seem to have a universal obsession with highlighters. I observed the extent of this in a recent english class when I observed that there were only two students that highlighted in their texts: another law student and I. I'm not sure whether the other students just don't like highlighters or if they wanted to resell the book later on. Either way, it seems fairly common among law students... right?

In the first week of this semester I made a giant semester planner with all my due dates, public holidays and the like. Even though I've had the planner on my wall for a few weeks I haven't really looked at it until yesterday when I was trying to make plans for the mid-semester break.

It appears that I have 3 pieces of assessment (weighted 20%, 30% and 40%) due within 4 days! The next week I have another piece worth 50%. This frustrates me no end as I won't be able to start most of them until closer to the due dates.

I miss first year with the law course co-ordinators communicating with each other to ensure that we didn't have too much assessment due at anyone time. Foolishly I thought this pattern would continue!

In the meantime I'm working on two essays for some competitions (The Governor-General's Undergraduate Essay Competition and Australian Legal History Competition). Neither are due until December but I know that once exams are out I will want nothing to do with libraries, research or essays. I figure it is 'productive procrastination'; I'm not wasting time on Facebook or YouTube but achieving something, albiet something only semi-important.

On that note I'm off to sleep. It seems that I have managed to become semi-nocturnal in little under a week after keeping normal hours for over six months. This must not continue and I must get back into the swing of things. First thing tomorrow I'm hitting the gym... maybe.

Studying in the library: Yay or Nay?

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So even though it's fairly early in the semester and exams are so far away they can't even be seen with a telescope, I started to wonder about studying in libraries. Early last semester I studied and worked in the libraries quite a bit, but as the semester drew on and it got harder to find a desk I stopped using the library as much.

Now when I think about it, I worked much more effectively in the libraries than in my dorm room, most of the time anyway. If I took just one lot of work I got it done quickly, but I usually took books for a few subjects. I didn't work in the Law Library at my univeristy very much, mainly because there was a library that was 24 hours a day and filled with just desks. It was always easier to find somewhere to work there. It makes me wonder though, is studying in the library better?

Various articles (here) and bloggers (here and here) suggest it is good to study in a library because of the quiet, the access to information and distance from distraction, among other reasons. 

What are your personal preferences?

Playing Catchup?

It's inevitable that at some point in your studies you'll get behind and need to play catch up. If it's ever happened, you know how stressful it can be. It starts when one day you decide that you don't need to go to your class or run out of time to work on the assigned readings. You think to yourself 'Oh it's okay, I'll just catch up tomorrow', but it never happens! It's an endless cycle. If you miss one lecture it becomes more difficult to understand what is happening at the next. So how do you catch up without totally depriving yourself of sleep?

Step One:
Try and make a list of all the readings you need to do, questions you need to answer and lectures you need to listen to. Making a list will undoubtedly scare you into getting started.


Step Two:
JUST GET STARTED! The sooner you start, the easier it is and the less you'll have to do. The last thing you want is to be trying to catch up on 6 weeks of work before exams!


Step Three:
Grab a book, some pens and notepaper and head to a library. Take only what you need for one subject or you'll get so distracted that you will flit from one subject to another and won't get anything achieved.

Step Four:
Make yourself a promise. "If I finish reading and taking notes on those three Crim Law chapters I'll go to the movies!" It doesn't have to be something big or showy, something little works well.

Step Five:
If you have to catch up on listening to lecture recordings it is okay to listen to them faster then full speed, in fact, preferable. Some people work on listening at 2x speed but I personally stick to 1.3to1.4x. I find any faster and it is extremely difficult to take notes. Play around and see what works for you! You can speed up and slow down speeds in Quicktime, Windows Media Player, iTunes and VLC and I'm sure it works in other applications.

Step Six:
If you're desperate it is okay if you don't do all of the readings. While it's preferable that you do, the most important thing at this point is to get back on track.

I'm sad to say I'm playing catch-up at the moment. I know, however, that if I apply myself I can be back on track in no time! They say that a full-time law student should spend 40 hours per week, including class time. If you have a schedule you can find the time to catch up! The worst thing to do is to not start!