Thursday 15 May 2008

Feeling like Sex

Procrastination has taken a new turn with me. It used to be things like surfing the Internet, reading an interesting news article, going on facebook etc - not now though. Obviously, with imminent exams, I have to be a little more creative. When I'm not studying or revising, I need to be conserving my brain energy, usually until the evening, which seems to be my peak time for getting work done.

This week and last, I have been spending most mornings doing different things. All very, very unusual. After I have finished reading the Times each morning, I have been doing the crossword, the three Sudoku puzzles and the other word puzzles. All tolled, that's a good 2-3 hours of procrastination. I'm hoping that whilst doing these tasks, I am still engaging my brain - keeping it warmed up - because, it is, after all, a muscle, like any other.

In revising for Jurisprudence, I have been thinking a lot about sex. Too much about it, in fact. I think I am seeing the world now in terms of sex - Freud could not do better. The reason for this, of course, is that the jurists that I am reading about can't stop talking about it; so I can't stop thinking about it. I am sure that its affecting my hormones too - it can't be good - I want to go back to my old self.

Anyway, the reason that I am posting now is that I've got my first exam in a few hours and, in trying to prepare for it, I decided to play Snake. After about my 6th go, I managed to achieve the respectable score of 176 on level: WORM. Can anyone, hand on heart, say they can beat that? I'd love to hear if you could. Until later, best get on with preparing for my exam...

6 comments:

Android said...

Jurisprudence, sex..? You lost me there! Too much revision?

Playing snake, blogging? :O You should be ashamed of your self, Lackie ;)

Good luck for the exam! :)

Lacklustre Lawyer said...

Hi Android,

Yes, too much damn revision! Its those damn feminists, innit? Moaning about the need for the law to demonstrate equality between men and women, because it doesn't at the moment apparently. We've had God-knows-how-many pieces of employment legislation with the words 'Equal' this, 'Sex' that, that I have lost count. Why isn't that enough?

No; I've been reading about feminist interpretations of our criminal law. Apparently, our rape laws are too biased in favour of the male - especially the issue of consent, and lack thereof. Well, it doesn't seem much like that to me. In fact, it seems very straightforward: if you can prove there has been no consent; if you can prove there was penetration of this-that-and-the-other, then you're home and dry. But, no, its not good enough for the feminists. Damn them! Damn them all!

Ah, yes, Snake. Such a fantastic way to while-away the hours. I've been looking into a few other games too - you know, the shoot'em up types - bloody fantastic.

If that all seems rather testosterone-fuelled, I should draw your attention once again to my previous statement that: my hormone-balance has been severely affected by revising for this exam.
Hopefully it will come in useful before and during the exam and then immediately go back to the old Lacklustre Lawyer proportions.

Thanks for the Good Luck - I really need it!

Android said...

Meh... My highest score was 82! This game is annoying.

Feminists... When are they going to get a life.

Rape is ambiguous though. It all seems to be straight forward on paper, but in real life the conviction rate is something like 47%! Plus only 12% of rapes are pursued in courts, because let's face it - being cross-examined by the defendant's rigorous barrister in a courtroom full of people must be terrifying. Plus the date rape. According to the law, as soon as you say 'No', there is no consent. But how can you convince a jury, when the defendant argues that she was leading him on, was asking for it blah blah. ;D Rant over.

How did your exam go?

Lacklustre Lawyer said...

Android,

82? That sucks, Android. What's annoying about the game - its great!

I think I performed pretty average in my exam - not excellent, not terrible. As is usually the case with the first in a series of exams, it took a while for me to get my bearings right. This wasn't helped by the fact that the most important knowledge that I needed to use was material that I had just crammed into my head during a sleepless night and weary morning.

The questions that I answered were pretty board too - it asked about so much. My plan just consisted of some small unconnected details that I remembered - so my answers weren't that well structured.

At the end of the three hours, I just wanted to collapse in a heap. Some of my answers were better than others. My first answer was the worst - very incoherent; I'd dread to think what I got on that one. Of my remaining three answers, I decided to save the best till last - so hopefully the examiners will close my exam script without much recollection of my first answer - I can dream!

Re: Rape - those are interesting figures that I haven't come across before. I was a aware of the problems in this area, but I had no idea the problem was that severe. Whether there has been a rape or not, is really difficult to decide, where the parties are intoxicated out of their heads too! That one seems to be the more common scenario, unfortunately.

Mel said...

I can understand the relevance of gender to something like rape law, and even things like murder and defences (provocation isn't a female friendly defence because it doesn't correspond to the 'slow-burn' way that women respond to stresses, and they don't have the same physical strength as men to be able to rely on the 'heat of the moment picked up an axe' mitigation...).

But I remember reading feminist interpretations of International law. Which is sexist because...notions of statehood are aggressive and masculine?! And the UN is a male environment? What are we meant to do...sit around and hold hands, singing kumbaya?!

Suffice to say, I wasn't convinced!

Good luck with further exams!

Lacklustre Lawyer said...

Hi Mel,

Interesting you should mention the example of international law. I decided not to do any reading on feminist interpretations of international - it seemed like a non-starter. From what you say, it sounds like I was right!

Its interesting what you say about provocation. I agree with what you say but I think there are more obvious instances of gender bias in rape law and murder than that one.

Thanks too for your best wishes.