Oh goodness. It seems like every time I have my Legal Research class (every Wednesday) I have a new problem with my Dean's Fellow. You know, the one who can't pronounce "subsequently" the correct way? Well today it wasn't about that word. She didn't even use that word. We've moved on to a whole new word that she can't say for some bizarre reason. Treatise. Seems pretty simple right? Treat-is (kinda). Well, it's certainly not how she says it: "Treaty." Remember that time that treaty was a different word than treatise? I do. It's all the time. They are spelled differently, mean different things, and are pronounced differently. Or they should be pronounced differently. They were today. And there is no excuse. She said it 3 times while the word "treatise" was up on the powerpoint. Come on! I have no idea what her problem is. She missed the day in 4th grade where the rest of us learned how to pronounce words without sounding like retards? I don't remember that exact lesson plan, but I still know how to pronounce these fairly basic words correctly. It's not even like treatise could be read as 'treaty.' This makes no sense! I did actually try to correct her today. The first time she said "treaty" I looked around to see if anyone else heard it. Apparently no one did (or, more likely, no one was paying attention-I know the guy next to me was checking his fantasy football team; I was checking my fantasy baseball team). The second time she mispronounced it I said "treatise?" discreetly. I was trying to correct her politely. I expected her to say, "Yeah, sorry, that's what I meant, treatise." But she just kept on going, and mispronounced it again. Maybe she didn't hear me. Maybe she didn't understand. But at least I tried. But she's definitely screwed once she gets a job. Sooner or later she is going to mispronounce a commonplace word and everyone is going to tease her mercilessly. Then fire her.
During lunch today I was browsing BDP's facebook info and came across a hilarious Star Wars related quote. I let him know it brightened my day. But it put me in a Star Wars mood. I let my (not so) inner nerd out and discussed Star Wars with some of my classmates who were trying to study. No time for studying. Only talking about Star Wars with me! I came up with a couple of situations where I want to see what would happen:
What would happen if I get cold called in a class and I just look my professor in the eye and say "These are not the droids you are looking for"? What would happen? Would I have to answer the question? Would I get a response?
What if I came to class dressed as an Imperial Stormtrooper? Nothing else weird, acting normally. Just full uniform, helmet, blaster and everything. Could I stay?
What if I went to the White House dressed as an Imperial Stormtrooper and stood guard as if I were in the Secret Service? What do you think the actual Secret Service would do? Even better, if I were President I would make my Secret Service agents dress up as stormtroopers for Halloween. They would love it.
My Star Wars mood gradually moved towards the Cantina song. I played it a few times and managed to get it stuck in everyone's head for the duration of LRW. I'd say that was a success. That song is actually ridiculous. It is preposterously repetitive and addictive. It would be a really bad ring tone...
Michael Moore...not sure how I feel about his new movie. Mostly because I haven't seen it. But what I really mean is I'm not sure if I want to see it. I have a soft spot for him. I know he's a whack-job. But I like "Bowling for Columbine." Yes, he uses crappy ambush techniques. And he's an egomaniac. And Fahrenheit 9/11 is (more than) a little crazy. But for some reason I am interested in what he has to say. It might be the liberal counterpart to why I sometimes watch Fox News. It's part masochism, part interest. I generally agree with Moore's point. Just everything else is a little crappy. From the trailer, Moore showing up on Wall St. with a bull horn attempting to make a citizens arrest is exactly the kind of crap I am talking about. Why you gotta be that guy, Michael Moore? Why do you have to pull douchey stunts to prove your point? Can't you just interview legit people, keep your face off the screen, and make your point without pissing off 9/10ths of America? Apparently not. But I kinda want to see what he's on about this time.
The other movie I can't decide if I want to see is "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell," the Tucker Max movie. I like the book, but it's the kind of stuff I'm not sure will translate well onto the screen. Scratch that. It definitely will not translate well. It's going to be a fratty movie, but I like Tucker Max. Hrmm. Anyone seen it? Advice?
Showing posts with label pronunciation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pronunciation. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Subsequently (part 2)
We were talking about service of process in my Civil Procedure class. It doesn't matter if you don't know what that means. My professor was trying to tease out an answer about why something was not proper service of process. He finally gets the question he was looking for, "What did he say when you gave it to him?" to which my professor, playing the part of the guy in the hypothetical, blurts out three sentences in what sounded like Swedish. The entire class was silent for a moment, then burst into laughter. Why does our professor speak fluent (maybe) Swedish? I have no idea. This moment in Civ Pro was matched only by our discussion of Pennoyer v. Neff when he was asking someone about why the court's reasoning made sense. The student gave some answer and my professor just exploded, "No, it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense." Whoa there Nelly, this is the Supreme Court of the United States of America (SCOTUS) we are talking about here. You can't be yelling and causing a ruckus about it. Well apparently you can, particularly when you happen to be correct and the decision from 1868 is just decided stupidly.
Today I had the dreaded Legal Research class (aka the worst 55 minutes of the week) with my Dean's Fellow who can't speak proper English for one word only. "Sub-see-quently." Well today (in 3rd grade) one of the activities in class was a competitive game about legal citations where we divided into two teams and had to correctly answer the question. Best part, we all got candy!!! (FALSE, the best part would have been putting in my iPod and running out of the room yelling "You eat poop...suckers!" Too bad this didn't happen.) Well I have shared my thoughts on pronunciation of 'subsequently' with my classmates. And when one of them pulled out a citation question for the game, of course it included the word. So my classmate read the question, came to the word, stopped, and very deliberately pronounced it the correct way. Most of the class snickered and looked at me. I threw open my book and started looking for the answer so that I wouldn't look the Dean's Fellow straight in the eye and laugh at her.
In Criminal Law we watched the clip from Pulp Fiction where John Travolta accidentally blows the head off the kid in the back seat of the car. I laughed out loud when it happened. It may have been inappropriate.
On advice from Shaked I went to Starbucks during lunch and got a pumpkin spice latte. And a pumpkin cream cheese muffin. It must be getting towards Fall, when all the good flavored things come out. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin beer. But I don't think that pumpkin by itself tastes very good. Hrm. I should see someone about that. It was actually nice to be at Starbucks studying (with Ryan) rather than at school. I was going to say there were fewer stressed-out, pretentious assholes, but it was Starbucks so never mind.
Yesterday in Legal Writing (oh joy) we tangentially touched upon the rule of lenity. The rule of lenity is basically a 'tie goes to the runner' rule. It says that if a statute can be interpreted two ways then it should be interpreted in the way less harmful to the defendant, or if there is ambiguity as to guilt, like you are teetering on the verge of conviction, then the defendant gets off. After class I was trying to make conversation with the professor (whom it is no secret that I do not love) and I asked if he knew the origin of lenity. He told me he thought it was British common law. I responded (yes, I know this is kind of a pretentious thing to do, but I was actually interested and I don't think that having a wide knowledge base or an education is a negative thing) that I know it dates back at least to the Ancient Greeks. In Aeschylus's Orestia, specifically the third play, The Eumenides, Athena establishes the principle of lenity when judging Orestes at trial. So the origin of the rule goes back at least as far as Aeschylus, who I'm assuming didn't make it up himself since he was a playwright. Of course I was blown off, "Oh, yeah? Great. See you next week." That's predictable and I can't actually fault him for it. But I don't think there is one person at school who actually would be interested in it. That is troubling to me. I am definitely realizing that at school, at least this school, if it's not on an exam it probably isn't going to get much attention. That's sad. There should be more to school than exams and vocational training. Well, of course there is: papers. Oh, great.
Today I had the dreaded Legal Research class (aka the worst 55 minutes of the week) with my Dean's Fellow who can't speak proper English for one word only. "Sub-see-quently." Well today (in 3rd grade) one of the activities in class was a competitive game about legal citations where we divided into two teams and had to correctly answer the question. Best part, we all got candy!!! (FALSE, the best part would have been putting in my iPod and running out of the room yelling "You eat poop...suckers!" Too bad this didn't happen.) Well I have shared my thoughts on pronunciation of 'subsequently' with my classmates. And when one of them pulled out a citation question for the game, of course it included the word. So my classmate read the question, came to the word, stopped, and very deliberately pronounced it the correct way. Most of the class snickered and looked at me. I threw open my book and started looking for the answer so that I wouldn't look the Dean's Fellow straight in the eye and laugh at her.
In Criminal Law we watched the clip from Pulp Fiction where John Travolta accidentally blows the head off the kid in the back seat of the car. I laughed out loud when it happened. It may have been inappropriate.
On advice from Shaked I went to Starbucks during lunch and got a pumpkin spice latte. And a pumpkin cream cheese muffin. It must be getting towards Fall, when all the good flavored things come out. Pumpkin pie. Pumpkin beer. But I don't think that pumpkin by itself tastes very good. Hrm. I should see someone about that. It was actually nice to be at Starbucks studying (with Ryan) rather than at school. I was going to say there were fewer stressed-out, pretentious assholes, but it was Starbucks so never mind.
Yesterday in Legal Writing (oh joy) we tangentially touched upon the rule of lenity. The rule of lenity is basically a 'tie goes to the runner' rule. It says that if a statute can be interpreted two ways then it should be interpreted in the way less harmful to the defendant, or if there is ambiguity as to guilt, like you are teetering on the verge of conviction, then the defendant gets off. After class I was trying to make conversation with the professor (whom it is no secret that I do not love) and I asked if he knew the origin of lenity. He told me he thought it was British common law. I responded (yes, I know this is kind of a pretentious thing to do, but I was actually interested and I don't think that having a wide knowledge base or an education is a negative thing) that I know it dates back at least to the Ancient Greeks. In Aeschylus's Orestia, specifically the third play, The Eumenides, Athena establishes the principle of lenity when judging Orestes at trial. So the origin of the rule goes back at least as far as Aeschylus, who I'm assuming didn't make it up himself since he was a playwright. Of course I was blown off, "Oh, yeah? Great. See you next week." That's predictable and I can't actually fault him for it. But I don't think there is one person at school who actually would be interested in it. That is troubling to me. I am definitely realizing that at school, at least this school, if it's not on an exam it probably isn't going to get much attention. That's sad. There should be more to school than exams and vocational training. Well, of course there is: papers. Oh, great.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Subsequently
Something I forgot from the weekend: On Friday night when Matt and I were coming home from the party we emerged from the Metro to the most beautiful sight ever-a 24 hour Krispy Kreme. Best invention ever when you are a little drunk at 2 am. But it got better. We went in, bought one donut each, and scarfed them down. Then we decided that another donut would not be out of order. So we both went back to order more donuts. I think she was charmed by Matt was winking at her (he was actually blinking back his dried up contact lens), but she just handed us the donuts and told us we were all set. What's the only thing better than drunk donuts? Free drunk donuts!
Forgive me if I have told you this already (Erika), but before Civ Pro started today I was talking with some of my classmates. We got onto the topic of the Dean's Fellow, a third year law student who teaches legal research, that a few of us have. I couldn't help but point out that she doesn't know how to pronounce the word "subsequently." She pronounces it by emphasizing the "e" sound so it sounds like sub-see-quently. Those of us who can speak properly know that you emphasize the "sub" syllable. This girl isn't foreign, she's from Maryland. She just doesn't know how to say subsequently. Yet she uses the word constantly. It really irks me and I always want to correct her. But she is essentially my teacher for a class and I don't really think it would be proper to interject with "Um, I'm pretty sure you are pronouncing that wrong." I am thinking about doing the passive-aggressive method where I just say subsequently in every sentence and I pronounce it correctly until she gets the hint. But that is pretty rude also. As it stands every time she says subsequently (read: every 15 seconds) I stop paying attention and look around to see if anyone else in the class thinks her mispronunciation is ridiculous. I hope that she gets a job in a big law firm, is talking to her boss, and says "subseequently." Her boss is going to look at her and think "Oh great, I just hired a retard." Maybe me correcting her will save her from this fate. Maybe it's funnier if I just let it happen. I'm probably just going to continue to be insanely distracted whenever she opens her mouth.
Subsequently, I went to my Contracts professor's office hours. We didn't really talk about anything particularly relevant to the class. I think I started him off with a question about contracts, but it evolved into a discussion about how lawyers don't write well anymore, how the Supreme Court is so politicized, and how baller Justice Brandeis was. Overall it went over a lot better than my discussion with my Torts professor. Of course this time I avoided telling him the subject he teaches is mostly bullshit, so that made life easier. Contracts is actually growing on me, and I think the professor likes me, so that's a definite plus.
Tonight I went to this frozen yogurt place with Anat and Felizia called Mr. Yogurto or something like that. The yogurt was pretty good, they offer a cornucopia of toppings, and they give discounts for trivia questions. I love trivia. And I won 10% off my next yogurt for answering this question: Name 5 countries that end in the letter "L." It took a little while, but I got them. I like the store, it's like challenge yogurt. They have other things you can do to get discounts. One of them was that you would get a free yogurt if you can stand in tip-toes on one foot with your eyes closed for 15 seconds. You can't do it, I promise you. I tried; I failed.
My chin up bar just came in the mail. Out of shape no more. I feel healthier already.
Forgive me if I have told you this already (Erika), but before Civ Pro started today I was talking with some of my classmates. We got onto the topic of the Dean's Fellow, a third year law student who teaches legal research, that a few of us have. I couldn't help but point out that she doesn't know how to pronounce the word "subsequently." She pronounces it by emphasizing the "e" sound so it sounds like sub-see-quently. Those of us who can speak properly know that you emphasize the "sub" syllable. This girl isn't foreign, she's from Maryland. She just doesn't know how to say subsequently. Yet she uses the word constantly. It really irks me and I always want to correct her. But she is essentially my teacher for a class and I don't really think it would be proper to interject with "Um, I'm pretty sure you are pronouncing that wrong." I am thinking about doing the passive-aggressive method where I just say subsequently in every sentence and I pronounce it correctly until she gets the hint. But that is pretty rude also. As it stands every time she says subsequently (read: every 15 seconds) I stop paying attention and look around to see if anyone else in the class thinks her mispronunciation is ridiculous. I hope that she gets a job in a big law firm, is talking to her boss, and says "subseequently." Her boss is going to look at her and think "Oh great, I just hired a retard." Maybe me correcting her will save her from this fate. Maybe it's funnier if I just let it happen. I'm probably just going to continue to be insanely distracted whenever she opens her mouth.
Subsequently, I went to my Contracts professor's office hours. We didn't really talk about anything particularly relevant to the class. I think I started him off with a question about contracts, but it evolved into a discussion about how lawyers don't write well anymore, how the Supreme Court is so politicized, and how baller Justice Brandeis was. Overall it went over a lot better than my discussion with my Torts professor. Of course this time I avoided telling him the subject he teaches is mostly bullshit, so that made life easier. Contracts is actually growing on me, and I think the professor likes me, so that's a definite plus.
Tonight I went to this frozen yogurt place with Anat and Felizia called Mr. Yogurto or something like that. The yogurt was pretty good, they offer a cornucopia of toppings, and they give discounts for trivia questions. I love trivia. And I won 10% off my next yogurt for answering this question: Name 5 countries that end in the letter "L." It took a little while, but I got them. I like the store, it's like challenge yogurt. They have other things you can do to get discounts. One of them was that you would get a free yogurt if you can stand in tip-toes on one foot with your eyes closed for 15 seconds. You can't do it, I promise you. I tried; I failed.
My chin up bar just came in the mail. Out of shape no more. I feel healthier already.
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