A word on Twilight November 23, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: Bad idea, Rants
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Its fine when teenage girls are into it.
However I overheard a young lady, an attractive young lady, say “New Moon was great, if only I could find my Edward…..” That’s a problem. How did you not get irradiated with enough reality to realize that vampires are SUPPOSED TO DRINK BLOOD?
Now maybe the movie is good. Maybe the books are good. I highly doubt that, but whatever, I’m no judge of books for teens. But when the books start giving girls my age Quixotic visions, I tend to get a little worried.
Le Freak (out) c’est chic. November 22, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Finals, 1L Hell, Literature, Rants
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So the freak-out has officially begun. The weekends, become the source of all 1Ls maladies. Imagine: an excuse for some to get to the library at 9am, and not leave until midnight, only to repeat the process again on Sunday. I can’t say I’m one of those people.
…..granted, I’m not too much better, I just never cross the 10+ hour study threshold.
So what does the Invisible Man start to do? He reads something else… anything else not related to THE LAW. In this case I managed to start a new book, The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa. It always helps to read about a brutal dictatorship in the Dominican Republic when I need to re-evaluate where I stand in life with finals.
Good Place to Think November 13, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: Good idea, NYC, Places, Scenic
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If you need to think, take the ferry to Staten Island, and back.
It’s free, the view is amazing (Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, Lower Manhattan, Williamsburg Bridge) and the ferry won’t be too crowded when it’s not rush hour.
Just bring a book though, waiting for the next ferry could take up to a half an hour on a lazy saturday or sunday afternoon.
Pedagogy of Endurance November 11, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Hell, Class, Gymnasium
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I started swimming again. I figured I’d follow the lead of Hart from The Paper Chase. So I decided not to go to the local gym, Cole, and hike up 10 blocks to the monstrosity that is PALLADIUM. The name just makes it sound like something on the periodic table.
I DIGRESS,
As I was swimming, around halfway through my workout, I started to feel very tired. I wanted to stop and catch a breather. I realized this was the perfect law school metaphor (good thing about swimming is you have no sound other then the water to distract your thoughts). I realized that after continuing my strength, and energy level seemed to return.
I do, and I assume everyone, has a WALL. As Sartre The wall is what we need to get beyond. I feel that, at least at so-called top law schools, we never needed to surpass our wall to do well. It just came naturally. That’s not what law school is meant to do. Law school is meant to push you past wherever your wall is.
That’s why we get so much work, that’s why the professors are so hard on us, and that’s why we’re meant to feel stupid and broken down. We’re supposed to freak out! It’s the only way to get us to sit at a higher intellectual valence (I’ve got chemistry on the mind today). It’s rough being forced to expand your thinking, and I think this is what makes legal teaching so fascinating and yet hard to understand.
This thought is incomplete, but I will flesh out the idea more in the following days. Thoughts?
Pre-L Advice from the Not-Too-Wise November 9, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Finals, Bad idea, Pre-1L
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Hi there prospective law students!
In this rare segment the Invisible Man is offering you a rare insight into the psychology of an unwise law student.
Today the operative operating principle, is PANIC! Seriously. To quote Gil Scott-Heron ‘Why wait for 1984? You can panic now, and avoid the wait.’ As this most wise sentence would indicate, your best bet is to start panicking early and often in law school.
It’s like winterizing your house (is it any coincidence finals happen on the eve of winter?), you need to start worrying early on, so that when the snow finally does come, you don’t end up feeling cold.
Despite the tricky weather in Manhattan as of late (it’s been rather warm), I’m starting to wish I had started winterizing my mental house earlier.
So contrary to the advice I was prone to give in college to those I would tutor (“The #1 Rule of College is don’t panic. The #2 rule is when in doubt, refer back to rule #1.”) The holding in this case is panic early, and panic often, because it sucks to be panicking when everyone else is cooler than Vanilla Ice.
Its Just Begun November 8, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Finals, 1L Hell, Bad idea, Library
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There was a sign outside the Vanderbilt Hall bathroom that was recently put up that says “No Smoking.” Who smokes in a bathroom?
I walked in, and the bathroom reeked of cigarettes. Damn, kids can’t even walk ten more feet outside and smoke? It’s not even cold yet!
Speaking Unsolicited November 5, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Hell, Bad idea, Class
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Prospective law students, make sure the Prof knows your name at the beginning of the semester. I had the unfortunate problem of letting my timidity get the better of me to start, and now only one of my substantive class Professor’s knows my name!
I had the distinct pleasure to notice today a number of people raise their hands in Professor Bleu’s class. Prof. B has a certain group of people who will normally get called on. We’ll call them the talkies.
The talkies are generally a consistent group from class to class. I’d say they make up perhaps 20 to 40% of the people in my section. The thing is Prof. Bleu seems to hate going outside this group of people.
Case in point, a person in class today raised his hand leaned forward on his desk, and kept it up for at least three or four minutes waiting to be called on. Eventually the teacher called on someone near the back, one of the talkies, on the other corner of the room. This wouldn’t be so bad if the guy who raised his hand first wasn’t sitting in the front row!
Rant: Cold Calling November 4, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Hell, Class, Ice-Cold Calls, Rants
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What is up with this irrational fear of cold-calling? Yes it sucks, but I don’t understand why everyone flips out or feels the need to dodge it (ie getting a heart-attack).
I guess it connects back to the fear of public speaking, yeah we all are afraid of making a fool out of ourselves, but barring a few VERY traditional law professors no one is trying to be mean. Hell, ‘Perini’ still teaches 1Ls here at NYU, and even he has no malicious intent when he cold calls.
I could keep going, but I have to read for Professor Blacke’s class.
On a final note, I think all my profs finally know me by name. That’s something of an accomplishment I suppose.
Excuse me while I panic November 2, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Hell, Bad idea, Library, NYC
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Just like having a quarter mid life crisis, I feel like every 1L is entitled to there mid-semester crisis. I’m in the middle of mine.
I had the worst night drinking since I’ve lived in New York…. even though it’s not as bad as say the 3L FROM HLS WHO BURNED DOWN A 9-11 MEMORIAL…. but bad none-the-less.
Law School > Sanity October 7, 2009
Posted by invisiblemannakedcity in Uncategorized.Tags: 1L Hell, Class, Literature
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I just got a good google search that directed to my blog:
“Answers to Invisible Man Study Guide.” That has a special place in my heart, because when I read that study guide it was the first time I really started to understand literary analysis. I can’t really offer you the answers to those questions, because as far as I recall they were heavily opinionated in nature.
ANYHOW…..
I would give you my day, but I find little moments can illustrate these things much better.
I needed to pee relieve myself for the past 4 hours, but I went into what I like to call a ’study coma.’ I just emerged from it, and realized I still have a physical body to take care of.
The one good thing about law school work, is that even if it’s boring, it still takes all of your concentration to do. I find myself listening to music far less, watching far less TV, and not having much of a desire to read fiction. It’s not all bad though, at least I’m not a lawyer yet!
