1L Nerves and the Disease It Might Really Be

It happened all of a sudden, one minute I was a laid back stressfree undergrad and then one brief summer later I’m heading into 1L. And at first I thought that the sweats, night terrors, hallucinations, inability to take care of myself (well to be honest, I’ve almost always had this symptom), anxiety, nervousness, and difficulty waking up at 6:00AM to get to work were all normal; but apperantly WebMD thinks I may be sick. Very very sick.  

Some of the things it thinks I have (in order of least to most hilarious) are:

• Cocaine abuse, methamphetamine use, and worst of all excessive caffeine use. That’ s right drinking too much coffee has the same side-effects as cocaine abuse, or you know just plain-old run-of-the-mill methamphetamine use. This reminds me of an old coworker who put a tea bag every morning into his coffee and then wondered why he felt jittery.
• Hyperthyroidism (I appologize in advance to actual sufferers of this disease). If this goes untreated it can lead to a condition called “thyroid storm,” which if you ask me sounds like the most awesome medical condition possible/a powerful video game move (Causes fevers upto 106 degrees before causing death):
  

  Dramatization of Thyroid Storm

•  AND… Drum Roll Please … … … Mad Cow Disease. Amazzzing! To my fellow Boston Legal fans: I am one step closer to being Denny Crane; and to those who think I have terrible memory: ”I’m not forgetful, I’ve got mad cow.”

See I knew it wasn’t nerves. I am Justin Anisman, false modesty is not a problem of mine. I don’t get nervous. …it’s…it’s… just a 2-hit Mad Cow / Thyroid Storm combo. Free lunch to the first person to find a picture of that. 

edit* Picture Found: 

My Office Setup -or- How I plan to Get Things Done

So it’s 5:30 PM on Saturday and how better to be spending one of my last weekends of summer than alone in my new London apartment, moving in and building furniture. Well now that I think of it there are probably a hundred things better I could be doing. Yet here I am, with a filing cabinet half built and half a dozen posters to go up on the walls. Not to mention my broken TV :(.

That said, I figured I’d write a small post about the things in my office, which I hope will allow me to work productively and stay focused throughout the year. Now when I set about buying things for my office, there were several things I kept in mind: first, I imagined that a lot of the work involved in law school is reading, so therefore I wanted my office to have a place where I could read comfortably; second, I knew that I would also have to be writing a lot of outlines and briefs, so I needed somewhere I could do that; third, I knew that I would likely be printing several hundred pages of cases and summaries throughout the term. My office, therefore, I made sure, allows for all three of these important activities.

Here it is my Office Setup (from biggest to smallest):

• 45inch wide bookshelf (floor to ceiling)
• L shaped desk (big enough to hold my computer, keyboard, mouse, and several Law Books at the same time)
• Super comfortable reclining Lazy-Boy-type chair (for reading)
• 1×4 drawer filing cabinet (filled with the always stylish manila folders)
• 21.5″ iMac (my baby)
• Ergonomic and very comfortable 5-legged desk chair
• Wireless HP Ink-Jet Printer
• Two Floor Lamps with 150 watt bulbs (to keep the room bright)
• Standard ‘inbox’ (to keep all my bills/receipts/random paper
• Cupthinggy (I know… how very descriptive) to hold pens/ruler/misc.
• 4-month whiteboard wall calender.

And… that’s it really. I’ve tried to keep the “things” in my office down to a bare minimum. The less stuff going on in here, the less likely it is that I will get distracted. This way, I know, that my office is for work and work only. It’s not the place I go when I want to relax and it’s not the place I go to have fun. Office = work and study.  I feel like someone should pat me on the head and say good boy after this.

The best part of this whole room has to be my reading chair. Though, to be honest, it barely fits inside it. I think by giving myself a spot where I can get comfortable and just muck through the virtually endless readings, I am setting myself up for success. 

Well that’s all for know I guess. Let me know in the comments how you set-up your home-office/ how you would set up your dream office.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”

Well so here it is my first real and official post on this blog and I thought what’s a better way to start it off than with the most famous lawyer quote since 1593, courtesy of Shakespeare.

Before I delve any further into my madness specifics, I’d like this first post to really outline the general purpose of this blog and my goals for it. In order to do that, however, it’s probably important to provide some context.

Some Context

Disclaimer: I have this uncontrollable and overwhelming urge to over prepare and given that this summer I had an incredible experience working at a massive bay street law firm (which will remain nameless), I had quite the opportunity to indulge in this matter.

That being said, I’ve read several books discussing what it’s like in 1L and what to expect of Law School altogether. Furthermore, I’ve literally had summerlong discussions with senior partners, summer law interns, articling students, law graduates who intend to practice and those who don’t, law students who have just finished 1L and those like me who are just about to begin. While all these conversations have gotten me excited and scared the crap our of me taught me a lot, with only a few weeks to go I’ve stopped trying to learn about what Law School’s going to be like and started preparing for it.

In doing so, I’ve come across many sites full of advice, tools, tips and tricks, as well as real life experiences. The most influential probably being Legally Blogged, a blog written by a newly graduated UWO student Chris Crighton. In following his example, we arrive at the purpose of this blog.

The Purpose of This Law Blog

haha oblong law blog sounds funny. The purpose of this blog is two fold:

First, it is my goal to document my time and experience at law school because I have really bad memory and tend to forget even the most important eventsin order to help prospective students decide if law school is right for them, provide a working commentary on Law School, and to connect with all the current law students or graduates who’ve undergone or are undergoing this same thing.

Second, I hope to provide details on not only what law school is like and the experiences it contains, but the how. I intend to list and describe the tools I use to succeed, what does and does not work for me, what I’d recommend to both do and not do, and any other general tips and advice I feel ought to be shared. While I understand some of you may think I’m nuts, along this line of reasoning: law school is competitive and in order for you to do well other need to do poorly; I simply cannot accept that as the truth. I believe that in helping others, I am helping myself and I nothing not even law school can make me think otherwise.

So now you know, why I started this blog, whether you care is another question entirely I hope that as the weeks go by it develops into something that at least somewhat accomplishes these lofty aforementioned goals I’ve laid out. 

JustinAnisman.com is up and running

Well today is the day: officially www.JustinAnisman.com is up and running. Now all that’s left are a few minor updates and style changes.

*Edit: August 13, 2010 – Out with the old, in with the new; which pretty much means goodbye old ugly dark graphic design showcase and in with new pretty bright law school blog.