Well my 'holidays' have well and truly gotten under way. I write 'holidays' although, as it to expected at the stage at which I am at, this is probably the opposite to what it actually is: 'A period in which I need to to work my ass off revising for my final exams'. I shall continue to use 'holidays' as a shorthand though.
I am somewhat on top of my work: well on with writing my dissertation but not so far on as to have begun any revision yet. Aside from my law studies, I have been reading and watching news quite avidly. Its amazing how interesting, uninteresting stories become, when the mind wanders.
The Dems in disarray across the pond has been rather fascinating. Listening to all those various black preachers talk about issues they think a lot about (but know little about) and how this has disrupted the presidential campaign. Good could have come out of it - and it has to an extent - Barack Obama is able to talk about the important issue of race because now he has a problem to solve. Whether he did it well or not is yet to be determined. Overall, I thought his speech was fantastic; especially, its delvierance - on such an emotionally-charged issue it would have been easy to launch into rhetoric whilst paying lip-service to political correctness. I'm glad that he didn't do that. I'm glad that he made mistakes - even the best do. I'm not too glad about his answers to subsequent questions put to him however. I listened to a radio show he talked on and his answers lacked the precision and thoughtfulness that he had diplayed up until then.
The media coverage of all this - the primaries in the US - has been quite varied. Obviously, American news channels are the place to go: CNN international and Fox news. I was watching Sky News the day after what is now knows as 'Super Tuesday II' - when Ohio and Texas voted. Jeremy Thompson was live in Washington. What happens next? He goes live to an Amercian reporter in the LONDON studio. Hahaha...Sky News does make me laugh like that. I mean, whilst I appreciate 24hr news services with their ability to deliver 'breaking news', did Sky News really need to follow Blair (in the air and on the roads) when he made that journey from London to his Sedgefield constituency to announce that he was stepping down as PM? I don't think so. Its not even as if its second best to getting an interview with him on this 'historic' day - its much less than that.
Here is a complete list of things that I need to do in my 'holidays':
- prepare for an assessment for a summer vacation scheme at a city law firm
- send off a mini-pupillage application (yes, I am undecided on my career choice)
- complete my dissertation prior to my next scheduled meeting
- revise, as much as possible, for the 4 final exams of my undergrad degree
- practice answering exam questions under exam conditions
- think critically about what I should do next: LPC, BVC, LLM??
There's probably more but I can't think right now because I feel sick...
Happy Easter to all my blogreaders!
8 comments:
Its amazing how time flies, isn't it? I personally sort of resented bieng in the position that you're in at the moment; I felt I'd worked my butt off since the beginning of term and was more than happy to kill for the smallest of breaks, only to be confronted by yet another mountain of work AND finals! It really is the steepest part of a very steep learning curve, but you sound calm and organised,to say nothing of incredibly on top of things; I have every faith that you will do exceptionally well!!!
I must admit not to following the American Elections as closely as I should have, but the Democratic nomination battle is a fascinating, if costly ( with regard to certainty - the Republicans have their guy pretty much in place) one; perhaps whoever is forced to concede should automatically become the Vice Presidential Candidate, to serve up to the great voting public a " Dream Ticket"
As to your holiday to do list - I think you have more than enough on your plate to get on with! Dont think about them too much, just do them!
A Happy Easter to you, too!!
Thanks for your comment.
Its an interesting point that you make about the so-called 'Dream Ticket'. I don't think its such a good idea though. Both Clinton & Obama hold executive positions as senators in two big states: NY and Illinois. They are better positioned to do so much more there than in the White House as a VP.
The advantage in becoming VP is that after 8 years you are the presumptive nominee for President in the next general; however, I don't think either of their names will be forgotten within that time frame. So if they want to run again: they can.
This is not to even mention the fact that neither of them signed up to be VP in the first place - especially for each other!
I think there is a lot of truth in what former President Bill Clinton said in recent weeks. He said that a Clinton/Obama ticket would be an unstoppable force in November. Which is true as they are both strong in different states.
I'd like to see a Democrat win. But, I wouldn't want to see Obama serve as VP. I think it will harm his chances of being President in the future more than it would harm Clinton's chances in the future. Plus, I'm convinced that he's the only candidate that can give McCain a run for his money in Novemeber; win the White House and bring troops home from Iraq.
Re: my holiday 'to do' list. Yeah, there are some important decisions to be made! Hopefully, at the end of the break, I can say that: I'm well rested; prepared to tackle up-coming exams and know where I am going in the future!
No doubt you will be able to see how I have gotten on in my future blog entries.
That's not a nice list. I do hope that you find enough motivation to do all the things on it!
I'm sorry if you've already mention it on your blog, but what's your dissertation on? I assume, it must be something to do with the employment law? :p
Android,
It will definitely be a miracle if I do manage to complete all things on that list! I feel confident that I'll be able to make a good start on my revision though. I think that for two reasons: firstly, I feel that a lot of the topics that I've covered as part of my course are quite interlinked - so when studying the later ones (i.e. the most recent ones) I have had opportunities to revise concepts from earlier ones (i.e. topics we did a while ago); secondly, I'm in the third year of my law degree now and so I'm at the most experienced place I will be at before having to sit exams. If that makes sense!
Re: motivation. I'm feeling pretty energised at the moment. But then, I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Dissertation deadline is in about 4 weeks and exams will be over in about 8 weeks. Not long at all!
Thanks for asking about my dissertation. I am doing it on a topic in Land Law: cohabitation laws and the need for reform. I am looking at the law governing property (the family home) for unmarried couples.
This area appeals to me because: its continuously developing (there's been recent HoL authorities; lots of CoA cases and two law commission reports in recent times); its study comprises an analysis from many different angles: socio-economic, political and legal. I am undetaking a black-letter approach - as part of which I am concentrating on analysing cases and statutes. And, as I am considering reform, I get to look at what the law is as well as how it could be better.
Sounds really interesting! Have you got much work left on it?
Trying not to appear too sad, I love that area! I love land law in general, but property rights for unmarried couples is just the best.
P.s. I do have a life.
At the moment, its difficult to state conclusively how much work I have got left! There are no areas that I am completely satisfied with. The two difficult most difficult areas that I am analysing are: ways of quantifying the beneficial interest (what are the important factors, relating to the relationship between the parties involved, that the court should take into account?) and how best to reform the area (is there need for legislative intervention or would this be so inadequate as to just increase judicial discretion?)
At the moment I am not too happy with the existing law and I am not too happy with the proposals for reform either. Ideally, I would like to show some thoughtfulness and creativity by proposing valid alternative methods. But, at the moment, I am quite a bit from being able to do that!
It is a really interesting area and I am glad that I chose it. For such an important area of the law, there exists so much controversey and uncertainty, that its quite an ideal topic to write a dissertation on. Its also important to concentrate on primary sources (cases & statutes) because I've found that a lot of academic commentators are so critical that if one were to take their analysis at face value, they would never really understand what the significant problems are and how they could be best solved.
I enjoyed studying Land Law too - I found it to be a more practical and rewarding way of doing Sudoku!
Have you ever written a dissertation or something similar? If so, what did you do it on?
Unfortunately, I was talked out of doing a dissertation by a tutor. I am still regretting it now! Simply because the options I chose instead were pretty difficult and boring, and I only got 1sts for some of them. :S
I was going to do it on wrongful convictions and miscarriages of justice. I might, if I'm really bored in the future, still do like a PhD on it or something... Pity it's not relevant to Chancery in any way.
Talked out of doing a dissertation? How outrageous!
I'm not really sure whether if I was given the option of chosing to do or not to do a dissertation, I would still be doing one now. My preference is definitely for exams rather than any form of coursework. The expectation levels are less than perfect in exams and I take comfort in that!
I have some friends that are doing their dissertations on miscarriages of justice - its quite interesting to hear about what they are writing about. Generally though, thats the case for most areas of criminal law too - there are lots of areas in need of reform and so, there is scope for discussion about proposals and the current law.
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