The T-Shirt Says It All

The Just-sit-there-and-act-like-you-know-what's-going-on approach seems to be working so far at the law school. Of course, I haven’t been called on yet to do a case or to answer a question. It’s going to happen sometime, and the results should be quite entertaining. It is encouraging to see other students be called on and completely blow it. Sometimes I think it is impossible to give a right answer, like in Rogerson’s class. No matter how you answer, he’ll keep on asking questions until you make a fool out of yourself.

Last night and this morning, I read and tried to brief the assigned materials for Intellectual Property (a class in which we are already behind) and Business Associations. It took me eight hours! When I arrived in class, and we covered the material, it seemed as if I had never encountered it before. I’m flipping pages like “where are we?” I am not the only one, however, and I find that amusing. The other students have already gone through their first year of law school—the hardest year and supposedly the one that teaches you how to “think like a lawyer.” I don’t think any of us are thinking like lawyers; we’re thinking like a bunch of third graders who don't know their spelling words and are hoping the teacher won’t call on us.

I am surprised at how interested I am in the Trademark information we are covering in Intellectual Property. It is likely because we are talking about the results of companies trying to psychologically entice consumers. The mental/psychological appeal of names and colors of packaging becomes even more interesting when you see the companies fighting over who had the name or design on their product first. Of course, having a professor attempting to teach the course who seems to be in love with her own voice can result in making the material very boring.

The worst thing about Professor Matthews is that she walks around the room during class. She looks over the shoulders of students to see what they are writing or what is on their laptops. I don’t think it is any of her damn business what we write down or type, especially when she’s obviously checking to see if we are playing FreeCell or surfing the net. We are not children. If I bring my laptop to start taking notes, I’m thinking about setting up a huge screen saver with something ridiculous to see how she would react. I could always use the phrase that is on the t-shirts the Student Bar Association is currently selling for $12 each:

THE WORST EXPERIENCE I'VE EVER HAD
IS BETTER THAN ANY DAY IN LAW SCHOOL

I think it says a lot about your law school when the student body representatives make t-shirts with a slogan about how much it sucks. You should see how fast the t-shirts are selling and how many people are wearing them.

Professor Rogerson continued with his rampage again today in Business Associations. The level of stress in that classroom is suffocating. Highlighter Guy sitting next to me looks like he is about to wet himself. Michele just keeps typing away, on what, I am not sure. It is nice, however, that when I make smart ass comments under my breath, she and Highlighter Guy always seem to laugh really loud.

When I got home this afternoon, I watched Oprah and tried to read Criminal Procedure. I’m preparing myself for Tarkington to call on me tomorrow and for me to crash and burn in embarrassment when I don’t know the answer. Plan B is to chicken out and not even try. As much as I want to be fair to Amy, I may end up saying, “I’m sorry, I’m unprepared,” and just sacrifice two points on her final grade. In regards to the Twinkie Experiment, I think I am behaving exactly as Amy would if she wasn’t prepared to answer a question when he called on her.

When all else fails, say nothing and do even less. I declare that our official moto for the Twinkie Experiment. Maybe we should make t-shirts.