Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Midterms

Here at UVA, we have graded midterms that don't count for anything. It's actually a really good system because it lets us take our first law school test without all the stress of our entire grade riding on it.

This is nice because law school tests are different from every other test I've ever taken. Math tests have one right answer. Science tests too. History tests require facts and English tests require bs. A law test is probably closest to being a combination of a History and English test.

You need facts (cases, restatements, etc.) and you also need to bs on a lot of stuff when you're not really sure what's going on. Now, that's also a pretty good way to look at litigation. You have to read the cases, get facts, and then bs them to help your case as best they can.

The one thing I wasn't really expecting was the necessity to talk about what the answer is not. Looking at the practice test my teacher put up online for us, I went through and was able to basically say what each answer was in a sentence. I knew I had to be missing something since people hyperventilate at the thought of law school so I decided to go examine the answers to see what the problem was.

Well, the problem is that you have to explain what each problem is not. Why does this rule not apply? What makes it different from this case? What things would need to be different to have that rule apply? It really was eye-opening.

I haven't seen what I got on my midterm yet, but I felt fairly confident i did Ok.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Comments

Comments are now unmoderated. So I no longer have to approve them so you can now see your writings on teh screen as soon as you write them.

Softball

Some of you may be aware that UVA has a major obsession with softball. I mean, this is hardcore activity at this school. People often claim to care more about softball than about law school. We like to call these people "winners" because I know that I also came to law school just to play softball.

I fail to really understand this obsession with softball. Look, I love playing sports (pickup basketball is my game of choice, but still). Here are reasons that I don't like softball.

1.) The arc required in slow pitch. I understand that some people have a hard time hitting a slow moving object in three dimensional space with a rounded stick. However, those people are usually eight. Normal twenty-somethings can have some sense of depth perception. And, pitching at such an arc actually makes it harder to hit the ball. Sure, the ball is moving slower, but it's dropping severely as it come towards the plate. If you're not good at hitting, you swing at the wrong spot. It's much harder to hit the correct spot than it is to correct the timing on your swing. So the actual result of the rule is contradictory to its intent.

2.) The arbitrary rules for the benefit of girls. I think I'm biased on this because in my neighborhood growing up, the girls all played sports with the guys. And the age relative kids were about equal, regardless of gender. My neighbor (girl) and I were the two oldest kids in the group and we were the best two at the sports and we were about even. When puberty hit, the only sport that I gaiend a real advantage in was basketball, mainly because I was stronger than she was so she couldn't stop me from getting to the basket. In baseball, I could throw a little harder and hit a little farther, but considering our competition and the yard in which we were playing, the difference was minimal.

That's why I think the rules that give benefit to girls are kinda sexist. I mean, if there's a guy who really sucks at softball, we can basically play 10 man infield. However, if it's a girl, the outfield has to be behind this arbitrary line in the outfield that most guys can't even hit the ball past. Also, the girls get more more allowed foul balls and a much larger outfield. If we're granting this much advantage to girls, isn't this just institutional bias indicating that we don't consider girls equal to males?

My neighbor is still better at baseball than some of the guys that play. She's actually probably better than I am at this point. She would shred these rules. Why should we treat her differently just because she doubled up her X chromosomes and is less likely to be colorblind? It's a minor thing, but I think that there's something wrong with it.

3.) Softball captains. Listen, our section voted you to be in charge of setting up games. Just because we have you do that, does not mean you understand the fundamentals of softball better than we do. Some of us may have played baseball, but, surprisingly, the way you field and catch is really quite similar. And no, I will not use both hands to catch a fly ball. This isnt' the last out in the world series. This is a random out in a softball game that means nothing. Whoop de doo. Get over it. Stop yelling at me about it.

4.) The fact that EVERYONE plays. 20 person batting orders suck. I know it's for fun and everything, but sitting around waiting to hit is not fun. In fact, it's boring.

5.) It's softball. The ball is difficult to drive, taking away a lot of the fun and the ball is huge, making it impossible to miss. For those of you keeping track at home, this means lots of nubbers out into the middle of the infield. Softball: Feel the excitement.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Apologies and Congratulations

First, I would like to apologize for the dearth of posts the last couple of weeks. I've been quite busy and sometimes it's difficult to find things to write about that aren't specific to me, thus revealing my secret identity. If some villain pierced my cover, it would render me virtually as an ace detective (10 Schrutebucks to anyone who knows the comic book movie that last sentence references. Leave your guesses in the comments).

Second, congratulations to you. YOu have helped make this blog the most read blog that I write on about Law School (note: So far, I only write on here). I had 5 page views last week. So, if you're reading this, you're getting on the ground floor for an internet phenomenon!