Back to my koka-kona addiction

Coca-cola's latest marketing gimmick is to print its name in a different language on the side of each coke can to highlight its status as a worldwide partner in the Olympics. My current case of coke is the Russian version: Koka-Kona. Yes, my caffeine addiction is back in full swing -- and it's only day 2 of my bar review course! It's almost entertaining to see how quickly my kitchen counter can fill up with empty coke cans to be deposited in the recycling bins out front.

So far, I'm both impressed with bar/bri and incredibly frustrated with it. The video-lecture courses began with Evidence, a course I (luckily) took during law school. The material seems so straightforward and much easier to grasp than when I studied it in law school. Bar/bri provides these worksheets that allow you to follow along with the video lecture and essentially fill in the blanks. Definitely helps keep me focused during the lectures. It also makes me wonder why I spent an entire semester learning evidence if you can learn all the important parts of the Federal Rules of Evidence in two days (the third day of evidence lectures apparently teaches the distinctions between the federal rules and the california evidence code). I suppose that when you're just learning the black letter law, it's a lot easier to grasp . . .

I am, however, not particularly thrilled with the corny jokes and "cute" mispronounciations that the video lecturers seem to love. I'm sure bar/bri wants to make it more entertaining than simply providing a series of boring, monotone straightforward lectures but I don't know how patient I'm going to be if I have to sit through hour upon hour of nerdy law humor each day for the next two months. I also do not need to be taught how a lanyard works, thank you very much.

So far, it seems like a lot more work than I anticipated as well. Although I had heard that July becomes a massive cram-session, I was under the impression that during June you still had time to socialize, relax, and have fun. It is now 10:21 pm and I still have not finished my assignments for tomorrow. The only breaks I took today were to run a few errands (post office and purchase of index cards and post-it notes), eat lunch, and make/eat dinner. If the work only increases in July, I think my caffeine intake is going to have to quadruple next month . . . and I will, once again, live the insomniac's life. I kind of miss being an insomniac, though, so maybe that won't be such a terrible thing. Or maybe I'm just doing something wrong . . .

My original plan was to try to take one day off a week from studying, at least in the month of June (I was planning on Sundays). At the moment, this plan looks like it is need of serious adjustment because looking ahead through the paced-program bar/bri suggests, I will definitely not be able to get the review, practice ("simulated") essays, and torts mini-review (all scheduled for Sunday) done by Saturday night. Though throughout law school I was never one for shortcuts, I find myself desperate to figure them now. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it, though, and will enjoy bar/bri a bit more next week. (Well, as enjoyable as bar review can be, at any rate.)

Back to making more evidence flashcards and drinking coke!