Law School Days: Second Semester, Second Year

Subjects/Units/Teachers:

1. Civil Procedure- 4 units; Justice Lorenzo Relova
2. Administrative Law- 2 units; Atty. Emmanuel De Dios
3. Taxation I- 3 units; Atty. Leonides Balmeo
4. Corporation Law- 4 units; Dean Cesar Villanueva
5. Public International Law- 2 units; Atty. Mel Sta. Maria
6. Theology and the Law- 2 units; The late Fr. Vitaliano Gorospe, S.J.
7. Agency- 1 unit; Atty. Jose Quimson

General Highlights:

1. More of Dean Villanueva’s “mind-boggling” lectures/recitations.

2. You only get to recite once in Atty. Quimson’s class so make it count. I learned this the hard way.

3. Atty. Mel Sta. Maria’s “metanoia” from a terror to a friendly teacher will manifest itself here.

4. Atty. De Dios had this “hot seat” approach to his classes. This person designated in the hot seat would answer for people who could not answer or answered wrong. First, he would ask for volunteers. If there are non, he will designate one by drawing. I forgot the advantage or disadvantage (grade-wise) of being in the hot seat.

5. Our Theolgy and the Law class was basically a trip to Mt. Banahaw. It was a very good spritual experience but really did not have any relationship with law school life.

6. The accountants had a field day in taxation. The rest of us didn’t.

Personal Highlights:

1. This was the semester with the most effect on my fledging love life. My girlfriend would setlle back in Bacolod. Imagine a long distance relationship without text messages, instant messages, no time to write snail mail and very limited long-distance phone calls. Now you’d understand why this relationship would eventually be doomed.

2. Suffered my first bout with high blood pressure. Shot up to 160/120. This happened when I got the news my girlfriend’s decision to go back to Bacolod. My mother took my to my present cardiologist where he put me on 24-hour blood pressure monitoring. I even wore that darn contraption to school.

3. Since this was the height of the power crisis, they waived the dress code. That was the only good point of that semester, aside from my start in the law school choir.

4. Result: another inclusion in the Dean’s List.

Pressure

“It’s just the one thing I wonder about.

What thing?

Pressure.

It changes everything. Pressure. Some people, you squeeze them, they focus.

Others fold.

Can you summon your talent at will? Can you deliver on a deadline?

Can you sleep at night?

When do we talk about money?”

– Kevin Lomax and John Milton dialogue
From The Devil’s Advocate grabbed from this site

Actually got a lot of work done today. Major work for a hearing tomorrow. Finally out of the rut, professionally speaking.

Still gloomy on the personal and financial front, though. But hey, life must go on. Those things just had to be done, I guess.

Maybe, I’ll be back to regular programing tomorrow.

Maybe.

Timing

Some things I learned today about timing:

1. You don’t use fertilizers in the summer because it’s harvest time.

2. You should resign your post the moment you see something wrong or before some wrong happens. Resigning at any other time dilutes your credibility.

3. Time your exits perfectly, lest you be accused of hiding something or be held holding the bag.

Sorry for the short post. Still not in the mood… still bad timing…

Relieved… but still dissappointed

Still disappointed by the way everything is turning out, on both the personal and “national” fronts.

But on the personal level, Bea and I went to her school today to pick up her report card. The grades, more or less, stayed the same. Went up in some subjects, went down in others. Still relieved because at least, she still above-average and not on remedial. I know she has the ability but she lacks focus (which is a lot to ask from her, considering her age and what’s she has been through). Hey, I’m not blaming her. It’s just a thought.

Still waiting for the day that may not come….

I actually have a lot of things to do but feeling a little lethargic. We have no plans for this long weekend, except maybe catch up on paperwork. Bea has a lot of studying to do also.

I was planning two things to blog about: the second semester of my second year in law school and probably a blog-lecture on immunity. But that may be possible if I get out of this depression/dry/lethargic spell.

Anyway, I have to go. It’s a Saturday and there’s choir. Finished my video game (a very rare occurrence). So I guess it’s the proverbial nose back to the grindstone tomorrow and the day after that.

Disappointed…

Could not bear to blog yesterday because I was disappointed.

Disappointed in various ways:

1. Disappointed because that so-called “big day” never came. I wasted an entire week waiting for it, only to turn out that I was just waiting for Godot.

2. Disappointed at Garci for his insincerity. He knew all along he was wanted by the Congressional committees. He could not even question the very process that he now claims he was informed about. He cannot claim to have not have watched television or not have even owned a cellular phone. His face is plastered all over television, newspapers and even blogs.

We Filipinos have this belief that if you don’t say anything or evade an issue, you have something to hide. His silence has said a lot for him simply because that was the only thing we had.

Also, had he been truly sincere in claiming innocence, he would have defended himself at the very first instance. His belated reaction to all of what happened reeks of afterthough…

Of course he can hide in technicalities, just as he physically hid himself these past months. The bottom line for a subpoena is basic due process, so the one being called knows that he is being called. He simply cannot sincerely claim ignorance of what has happened to this country these past few months, unless he was in a coma for the past few months.

3. Disappointed that it’s Christmas and funds have not come in yet. Kiss that iPod goodbye…

So I did the escapist route yesterday.

No, I did not drink a single drop of a favorite German beverage. I don’t drink alone anymore (I used to a lot, how pathetic!). I just played this particular video game all day.

Have to go now.

How Convenient!

Dana Carvey‘s beloved persona, the Church Lady from Saturday Night Live

Well isn’t that special?

Garci returning and willing to talk only if all the persons involved (including opposition people) are investigated as well?

The timing is sooooooo convenient.

Everyone else gets the heat but the main character involved gets away because the impeachment is over and immunity has set in?

Life can be so unfair!

Nothing…

My supposed-to-be-big day fizzled out. It’s rescheduled to tomorrow.

So I just bought component video cables for the new TV and home theatre system and did some more tweaking. Now I learned the difference between S-Video (the cable I used yesterday) and Component Video. Since both the new TV and the home theatre system has component video capability, I decided to give it a go.

When I finished, I watched some DVDs (all legal, of course) to test it. It was a good decision.

Getting a headache now.

Wanted to blog about recent events, especially the so-called return of Garci from somewhere is was not supposed to gave gone in the first place. But the headache is holding me back… It’s futile to blog now, just as it is futile to rant about his alleged misdeeds.

Maybe later…

Setting Up

Just finished setting up my mom’s home theatre system and I’m a little tired.

But I had a meeting that morning (of course, I had to work, you know). Anyway, they delivered the unit at around 2:00 p.m. The delivery boys asked if I want to call the dealer to have the thing set up but I declined. Setting the thing up is part of the fun.

There’s a bonus. Since the home theatre system has an AM/FM tuner, I got my mom’s old mini-component stereo. Now I don’t have to buy two things (a home theatre system and a CD player/mini-component for my room) and the only thing’s missing in the picture is my future iPod.

I’ll blog later because I need to rest. I have a big day tomorrow.

Display Units

As I told you yesterday, I went to an appliance store with my mother yesterday so she could purchase the big-screen television she has wanted to buy since a year ago.

Don’t get me wrong. Unlike me, she can afford to buy whatever she wants. And she has way more discipline than I have when it comes to delaying gratification.

After making comparisons with other brands, we decided to stick with the TV we bought since it has the best picture quality and has a reputation for longevity, though the other brands have a lot of freebies. In fact, another brand offered both a home theatre and another 29″ TV if we bought it.

The TV we bought had a promo where you add P5,000.00 and you get a home theatre unit worth P20,000.00. My mom decided to avail of that, too.

We made a substantial deposit (more than half) and the problem was, a brand-new unit would only be available on the first week of December.

While we could wait that long, they were offering us the display unit. They took it out of the box for a week and but never turned on, as they claimed.

Hesitating, we jokingly implied that we would look at another appliance store there to see if they have an available unit. They took it seriously.

Of course they don’t want let the sale go. So they made an offer we could not possibly refuse: accept the display unit and and home theatre is free.

They’ll deliver the thing tomorrow afternoon. Good thing I only have a short meeting tomorrow so I can receive it and spend the rest of the day setting it up. My mother already moved stuff around her room to acommodate it.

For this Saturday…

This is the plan:

1. Play a lot of PS2 games I recently acquired;
2. Grocery shopping;
3. Help my mom buy the big screen TV she always wanted;
4. Choir; and
5. Watch Bukas-Palad’s God of Silence concert (or what’s left of it) after the mass.

There’s an amusing story about that TV but I’ll just tell you that tomorrow.

Time to shower before going to church…