Serif Shooting

 

Came across this gem via Digg last week which I found worryingly amusing.  I’m putting my currently distorted sense of humour down to the stress and tedium that is LL.M revision.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Michael.  :-/

One exam down – one to go

This morning saw me take the first of my two exams on the LLM - company law. Despite the exam room being incredibly hot, the exam itself was ‘textbook’ with barely a curve ball thrown at us throughout the entire paper. In fact, two of the three questions I answered on the corporate veil and directors’ duties respectively, were incredibly similar to the practice essays we had done throughout the year. Our tutor had informed us that attempting those practice questions would stand us in very good stead and she certainly wasn’t kidding! Thank God I duly completed both and looked them over yesterday as part of my revision.

Despite prepping my statute book with the requisite plethora of page markers, I reflected on leaving the exam that I didn’t refer to it once. Still, I rarely thumbed through a statute book during all of my exams as an undergrad either. If you’ve revised properly, I’ve always said that statute books are more like security blankets for law students; you don’t really need one but you’re comforted that it’s by your side. Under pressure of exams, law students are sometimes prone to ‘tizzies’ when that section number obstinately evades them.

I’ve been understandably focussing on revision of late (and had booked the entire week off of work, though that was at the time when BOTH of my exams were scheduled for this week). That said, it hasn’t been all work, as my girlfriend and I ventured out on one of our (increasingly rare) trips over the Bank Holiday weekend, engaging in a little retail therapy and checking out the movie ‘Angels and Demons’ - amongst other things. Having just finished the book, my girlfriend spent the rest of the day bemoaning the inaccuracies and inconsistencies between the book and film, concluding as is so often the case, that the book was infinitely better. She isn’t much of a lover of fiction but that was one book that she barely put down.

Anyhoo, while I won’t be back to regular posting for another 10 days or so – my competition law exam is on June 9^th – I thought I’d generously brief the blawgosphere with a Law Actually update. I’ve always feared the competition law exam and I’m praying there won’t be any curve balls in that paper either.  Until the next time, then.

Try not to miss me too much! :p

Oh, I almost forgot: for the first time in my life I also had to ask for extra paper in the exam.  How the hell did that happen?  Has my handwriting suddenly swollen or have answer booklets gotton thinner?

My Legal Space – Revision Edition

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a legal space picture so here’s my latest. Although I’m currently in the midst of revision, it should be noted that my desk has seen a slight improvement in tidiness from the last time.

Note an abundance of page-marking sticky notes on the monitor base – a sure sign that it’s revision season.

When Word Verification Turns Nasty

So there I was last night, entering a comment on someone’s blog (who uses Blogger’s word verification to help keep pesky spammers at bay) when this insult pops up:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The irony was I had showered that morning. :p

Yet More Fun with Keywords

Despite my supposed ‘break’ from blawging for the exam season, I thought it was high time I provided another selection of keywords that certain visitors have used to surf their way over to Law Actually.  There are some real brarmers in there:  

“people suing dum resons” – This visitor was from the states. Perhaps s/he should have looked closer to home for examples.

“career prospects after llb” – I would say ‘varied’. Next?

“microsoft songsmith any good” – No, no it’s not.

“microsoft songsmith why is it so good” It’s not. I thought we just established that.

“little's law assignment” Is that as opposed to ‘big’s law assignment’?

“cloud computing law jurisprudence” – You what?!?

“i lost my respect at wes' house of ribs” Yeah, we’ve all lost our self respect buddy. And the phrase is: “I lost my self respect at wes’ rib house”. Just so we’re clear.

“legal space amount for people at a desk” Room for an average sized notepad, can of mountain dew and a stapler. Next?

“wtf is calibri” It’s a font, dear. Just a font.

“macbook air for law school” – Go and get one then, you show-off!

“clean washing machine gunk left on ipod” – Oh, eewww!

“is law school worth the cost” – Err, ask me another.

“as a foreigner would you do the lpc or bvc” Oh you’re just winding me up now.

“i am a law lecturer with lpc biography”  Are you now?!

“hot lass law student” Oh really?

“hoe many lpc students don't get a training contract” Hoe many? An awful lot.

“noise at night who to call in uk” Ghostbusters? Just a guess.

“law grads difficulty finding training contracts” – oh really! Has it taken this long for the penny to drop?

“lawactualy” – oh, do me a favour!

“you tube training contract” – Ok, this can’t be good on a number of levels.

“i want a dictaphone to record my univeristy lectures” Do you? That’s nice!

“i can't afford my bvc” – Put your begging bowl away please.

“why my writing is sloppy”  Because you don't make enough effort?

“tape has snapped dictaphone tape help” Yikes.

“domain names funnies” www.heehee-haahaa.com?

It’s good to see the dudes at Pinsent Masons using a wide variety of research materials in this day and age. So whichever PM employee spent 10 minutes reading my Google Maps Streetview Silliness post, I hope you liked it. Leave a comment next time, eh? ;-)

Brief Hiatus – Courtesy of the Exam Season

Yes, it’s that time of year, again, and much as I would love to carry on blogging with full vigour, I feel compelled to focus on revision for my two exams: company law and competition law. Happily, the dreaded exam season only has 3 and a bit weeks left to run, with my final exam on June 9^th.

This hiatus is particularly ill-timed, though, as there is a wealth of potentially bloggable material out there at the moment:

- Lawyers protest over ‘Tesco Law’ as it takes one further step towards reality. Oh yes!

- The findings of Lord Justice Jackson’s report on the status and future of civil litigation. As the Times reports, somewhat predictably, the prognosis isn’t exactly one of unmitigated good health. The article made some interesting suggestions for reform as regards lawyers’ success fees and alternative payment structures as well as suggestions in response to the broader problems that ensue from contingency fee arrangements, particularly in respect of personal injury cases.

- The EU fining Intel for competition law infringements. Actually, if I’m honest, competition law and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms right now, so I doubt I would have blogged about this anyway.

- I had intended to post a ‘revision procedure’ post, based on my tried and trusted methods. That might still emerge at some point but quite when, God alone knows.

Despite this heads-up re. the hiatus, I might still throw up one or two posts in the next 3 weeks, but I wouldn’t count on it. I’m relying heavily on caffeine to see my through these 3 weeks and need all the help I can get, particularly as far as competition law is concerned. Wish me luck!

iTunes costs a lot; Zune Pass costs a little. You do the math

From Engadget 11/05/09:

We've been wondering when we'd see the next Laptop Hunters ad from Microsoft, but it looks like the company's throwing a change-up: its latest 30-second spot features Wes Moss, Certified Financial Planner, explaining that iTunes "costs a lot" while Zune Pass "costs a little." The argument, of course, is that at a buck a song (or more), filling up your iPod costs way more than the $15 / month cost of the Zune subscription service.

The eagle-eyed amongst you might have recognised that Wes Moss, Certified Financial Planner, is a contestant from series 2 of The Apprentice that aired a few years ago. By ‘the Apprentice’ I mean the US version with Donald Trump - you know, the ‘real’ Apprentice …. the one actually worth watching. Wes, as I recall, didn’t fair too well in Trump’s boardroom who was fired about mid way through the series. But not before he had chance to show off his driving ‘skills’ at the wheel of a small lorry, who manoeuvred it through the backstreets of New York as if it were a dodgem car.

For what it’s worth, I have never actually bought anything via the iTunes store, though I do use it to automatically download new podcasts for my iPod, which form the majority of the content I consume while commuting. I have a large enough music collection for my needs and certainly don’t consider myself rich enough to be downloading en masse from the iTunes store. Equally, if I were a Zune user, I’m not sure I’d be rushing to sign up for this monthly-subscription based account - as engadget point out:

“most people have plenty of music from all kinds of sources already, and an additional monthly bill in the current economy doesn't seem all too appealing”.

Quite right. But “all kinds of sources” strikes me as a touch euphemistic. I’m reading those words primarily as meaning ‘bit torrent’ and other dubious sources.  ;-)