Good News and the Weather

This entry was going to be headlined by the weather (more on that in a minute) but over the last 24 hours, I’ve gotten some great news. First, I got back Memo 1 late yesterday afternoon.  I ended up with a 10.5/12.  All I did was look at the score. I did see lots of red ink, but I don’t have the heart yet to go through all that red ink.  I will prior to starting on Memo 2, if not in the next few days.  I’m happy though with a 10.5.  It was good practice for formulating legal arguments and for dealing with legal citations in a writing situation. The legal citation practice especially was good, since legal citations are a serious pain in the butt.  It was a B paper, something I’m pleased with.  I decided early on that I wasn’t interested in killing myself just to get the A.  It’s VERY difficult to get A’s in law school to start with, and still not the easiest thing in the world to get a B.  My goal is to have a 3.0 GPA.  While it’ll take hard work, it’s definitely do-able.

The other piece of really good news deals with my Torts mid-term from Oct 1st.  A few notes about the midterm before I tell you my score.  First, while my professor did grade the midterms, they don’t count towards our grade in class.  Our only grade in class is the final exam.  Second, the exam was 10 multiple choice questions followed by a fact pattern. As part of that fact pattern, we were given a series of events, with one of the actors coming to our firm as a client.  We had to evaluate the possible intentional tort claims he can file and the ones that may be filed against him.  Third, rather than going into specific letter grades, she gave us numbers.  4 = A, A-, B+, or B……..3 = B- or C+…….2 = C, C-, or D…..1 = F.  Going into the exam, I wanted to get a 4.  When I left the exam, I figured I’d gotten a 3.  It wasn’t terribly difficult, but I felt I ran out of time. As it turned out, I found more torts to argue about than the professor was intending, and found the ones she wanted me to find.  I also successfully pointed out enough of the ones she wanted in addition to the defenses to them. I also got 9/10 on the multiple choice section. Given that, I got a 4 on the exam!!! “ 🙂  I’m exactly where I want to be, at least with regards to intentional torts. That makes me feel better about the final, since negligence will be a bit of a pain.  There’s a LOT that goes into a negligence claim in the courts.  Having a good grasp on intentional torts means I can review them and be good to go.  I think intentional torts on the whole are easier to deal with. Granted, there are several intentional torts and several defenses to them, but the case for each tort and each defense is pretty straightforward.  The same cannot be said of a negligence claim.  In a negligence claim,the plaintiff has to prove five things, and there is a multitude of ways to prove each of those five things.   So we have to remember (and understand) the five things, the different ways to prove each of them since there’s no telling what the fact pattern will be and which method of proof we’ll need to use), damages, defenses based on Plaintiff’s conduct, and malpractice tort law.  So given those two grades, I’m in a pretty good mood today.

Prior to getting back the Torts grade, this entry was going to be headlined by the weather.  For those living under a rock for the last 24 hours, the Midwest is dealing with a massive windstorm at the moment.  It’s very large and very strong for a storm system completely over land and that developed over land.  I live in Northern Illinois, between Rockford and Chicago.  On Sunday afternoon, the National Weather service placed us under a High Wind Watch for Tuesday & Wednesday, essentially saying high winds were on the way. At that point, they figured sustained winds of 20-40mph with gusts 55+mph.   Very very early Monday morning, that was upgraded to a High Wind Warning, in effect from 7am CDT Tuesday through 7pm CDT Wednesday.  To give you an idea of how often these kinds of things happen around here – this is my first time under a high wind warning and I’ve been paying close attention to the weather for 10+ years.  This particular storm is setting all kinds of records for minimum pressure, so it truly hasn’t been seen on this scale for a long time.  In any case, the thought was that winds would start to pick up Monday afternoon, the trailing cold front would race through during the early morning hours on Tuesday (accompanied by thunderstorms), the winds would then go crazy, slow down overnight on Tuesday, and then pick up again as we ended up on the back side of the system.  Initially, we were under a high wind warning even during Tuesday night because winds would pick back up to warning criteria on Wednesday. However, they’ve since cut back our warning – it now ends at 8pm cdt tonight. I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up under a wind advisory tomorrow.  Needless to say, it’s fairly windy at the moment.  However, the other main event with this system was the severe weather. By October, severe weather just doesn’t happen around here – we simply don’t get warm and humid enough for it.  And regardless of the time of year, it’s pretty rare to get severe weather overnight because storms here need the fuel that the sun and heat of the day provide.  However, this storm system is so powerful that it made up for those deficiencies.  As a result, I was getting ready to get off my computer after Castle ended last night and imagine my surprise when the National Weather Service sticks us under a Tornado Watch through 6am.  I was definitely grateful then for my weather radio. One of my fears was always that a tornado would come in the middle of the night and I wouldn’t wake up. The weather radio took care of that, since it definitely wakes me up at night.  The storms came through early this morning and thankfully didn’t produce tornadoes where I live, or even a severe thunderstorm warning. However, just as it left me it started producing tornadoes left and right. Crazy weather, that’s for sure!

I got my check from inboxdollars.com yesterday in the mail.  So I’m headed over to the bank in the student center after I’m done here to cash it.  I don’t have much reading to take care of tonight, so that’s good.  After I get done with the reading, I have to head upstairs to the Marshall Gallery, as some of the Delta orders came in. My mom and I ordered long-sleeved t-shirts a few weeks ago that have my college’s logo on them along with College of Law.  Then I’m riding the bus home. After that I need to head to Walgreens for a few things.  After that, it’s back home to deal with Civil Procedure.  Won’t that be fun?? Yuck!

"Life is measured not

by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."