Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Something wicked this way comes

And I don't mean wicked as in evil. I mean wicked as in excellent.

Dear readers, you may be in shock if my blawg is a new feature of your daily life. But my more established readers will not be surprised.

EXAMS ARE COMING!!!

I like exams. I like revision, suffice to be said. I have been spending some time this week going over what needs to be done in terms of revision, and putting together a revision timetable. And I must say I'm very excited!

The pre-Christmas mock examinations went very well (78% upwards well, in fact some papers very much upwards!) and this has erased some of the horror from last year's exam hell of my first two papers.


In other news - someone suggested a money-making idea in the form of publishing my blawg as advice to budding lawyers. I always have fancied being a published author but I can't see who would want to a) publish something I wrote and pay me money or b) buy it!

But secretly I've already been designing the cover of course...

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Now that Law School is back in session and rapidly approaching its end, the time has come to consider my next steps. In other words, think of something respectable, yet fun to do before I start my surely-glittering career at Big Law Firm. I have some ideas, most of which take place outside the confines of the United Kingdom, however I have encountered the age old problem - somehow I will need to fund my escapades.

I have some money. Not very much. Big Law Firm has paid me a nice little grant for law school and Mr. Bank Manager has been kind enough to provide some extra. However, I now wish I had asked for a little MORE extra. I feel it may be too late and in any case I doubt that "I need to extend my loan by £4000 to fund jet-setting around the world for a few months after Law School" is simply not going to fly with him.

Obviously some of the time between Law School and Law Firm will need to be spent working. However, having carried out some preliminary calculations, I would have to earn a rather unlikely hourly wage to have sufficient capital to go securely from June to my start date in early 2009. This hourly wage could of course be obtained through somewhat underhand methods, but despite my career choice as a lawyer, I still have some morals left. And I would hate to be struck off before I even qualify for soliciting of a completely different kind.

The biggest problem is rent. Namely paying it. If I didn't have to pay rent all would be well. I have to manage 13 months rent until my first paycheck. I have enough money to do that at present, but once I've done it, there will not be a great deal left unless I cut out luxuries such as food, electricity and travelling to Law School. So subletting looks like the most viable option, which unfortunately cuts out a lot of my flexibility on how to spend my time.

The crux of this post is this. I need to make some money. A part-time job is of course the most likely option, but I would need to find one that earned me significantly more than the minimum wage in order to be able to spend the very small available part of my time at work. So I turn to you, dear readers. Any other ideas? LEGITIMATE ones only, please.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

Susie's back... back again...

Happy New Year, one and all! I hope you are all sufficiently well fed and rested, ready for new challenges.

My holiday at home with Mum and Dad Law School was lovely, thanks for asking.

This year has so far not started so well though. But here are some thoughts to get you going.

1. Isn't it amazing how failure in one sphere of your life can have a completely debilitating impact on your self-esteem in all other areas? As much as one tries to be rational about such things, it is sometimes quite hard to pigeonhole one area of life from others. Let us say, hypothetically, you failed your driving test. This could easily lead to some, albeit temporary, sentiment, that you are also stupid and will fail all your exams.* Currently I'm experiencing some self-doubt of this kind. I'm a rational person and I know it's not a permanent state of affairs, and I know that this said failure does not imply inadequacy in other areas but it SUCKS!

2. The above has led me to further consider the fact that I'm not really very good at anything. I'm above average in some things, but I'm not really great at anything. This probably is true of most people, but it is rather irritating. It would be nice to have something at which I am just really really good. I realise this is my competitive streak rearing its ugly head again but it's been so quiet recently!

3. This leads me to my final point which is to tell you that Competitive Susie lost out in the end, and Logical Susie powered through with the outlining. The mocks went somewhat ok, of course results will only arrive next week and at that point we shall see how well she fared.

Apologies for the somewhat negative and philosophical stance to this post, the year has started disappointingly thus I have decided to pass on the (lack of) joy to you, dear readers, and hope this will have a cathartic effect on the near future at least!



*FAOD I passed my driving test eight years ago, this is just an illustrative example.