Aborted Pancakes

A Pancake Day recipe (which we successfully made the first couple of attempts to make actual pancakes):

Requires:
Pancake stuff
Students

1. Attempt to make pancakes.
2. Fail.
3. Keep moving the pancakey mess that should have been a pancake around until it all looks vaguely cooked.
4. Drench in syrup (or jam for authenticity) and eat.

I will leave it to your imagination why they are called aborted pancakes...

Work Timetable - Weeks 3 and 4

Ah, weeks 3 and 4. At the end of these I mooted in a university-wide competition...and did not make it past the group stage, alas. Still, we were beaten by third years and it was good experience.

Week 3

Day - Subject - Type - Time

Sun - Admin - Textbook - 3h 40mins
Sun Total - 3h 40mins

Mon - Trusts - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Textbook - 4h
Mon Total - 7h

Tue - Juris - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Textbook - 1h
- Admin - Cases - 2h 30mins
Tue Total - 4h 30mins

Wed - Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Cases - 5h 15mins
- Admin - Article - 1h 35mins
Wed Total - 7h 50mins

Thur - Juris - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Trusts - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Class - 1h
- Land - Textbook - 2h 45mins
Thur Total - 6h 45mins

Fri - Admin - Tutorial - 1h
- Admin - Essay - 2h 30mins
- Land - Textbook - 3h 20mins
Fri Total - 6h 50mins

Sat - Land - Textbook - 4h
Sat Total - 4h

Week 4

Day - Subject - Type - Time

Sun - Land - Textbook - 4h 10mins
- Land - Cases - 2h
Sun Total - 6h 10mins

Mon - Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Cases - 4h 55mins
- Land - Essay - 1h 55mins
Mon Total - 8h 50mins

Tue - Juris - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Cases - 4h 55mins
Tue Total - 5h 55mins

Wed - Land - Tutorial - 1h
- Admin - Article - 25mins
- Admin - Cases - 4h 5mins
Wed Total - 5h 30mins

Thur - Juris - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Trusts - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Articles - 5h 30mins
- Admin - Cases - 2h 50mins
- Admin - Essay - 2h 5mins
Thur Total - 13h 25mins

Fri - Admin - Tutorial - 1h
Fri Total - 1h

Totals:

Admin Week 3 - 18h (+2h 30mins Essay)
Land Week 2 - 21h 10mins (+1h 55mins Essay)
Admin Week 4 - 17h 45mins (+2h 5mins Essay)
Week 3 Total - 40h 35mins
Week 4 Total - 40h 50mins

You Know You're a Law Student When...

Just a few. More when I think of them.

You know you're a law student when...

* You start pronouncing 'v' as 'and' in normal life. (This has happened perhaps irreperably to me. I saw a poster for Alien v Predator in a friend's room and mentioned it, unconsciously making the substitution. Luckily no-one was paying attention!)

* You start saying 'per' as a shorthand for 'as said by' or 'as evidenced by.' (A friend and I were discussing an essay and he made a point 'per our last tutorial.' I constantly back up arguments with 'per [insert academic / lecturer's name].') 'Per Lord Denning' becomes synonymous with 'this is a dodgy point of law.'

* On the subject of his lordship, your heart sinks automatically when you start reading a judgement which should be able to clarify a tricky point of law, only to find it prefaced by 'Lord Denning MR:' By the end of the estimed Master of the Rolls' summary of the facts, you have worked out who is going to win by who is presented in the positive light.

* More generally, your face lights up or sinks depending on which lawlord is making the leading judgement. (For me it's a beaming smile for Lord Millett, a slightly uncertain frown for Lord Browne-Wilkinson, an indulgent glance for Lord Diplock and an angry scowl for Lord Hoffmann).

* You start analysing events in terms of the interesting legal questions they bring up.

* You enjoy saying things like 'I am the law!' A lot.

Um...maybe it's just me.

Work Timetable - Weeks 1 and 2

It's a long time overdue, but that's the way it is at the moment. My other collection, in Tort, earned me a 67 mark so no problem there. I just have to work on memorising cases, as I seem to have the theory sorted. From below, I'm sure you can see just what my Thursdays are like!

Week 1

Day - Subject - Type - Time

Mon - Trusts - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Articles - 6h
Mon Total - 9h

Tue - Juris - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Article - 2h 20mins
Tue Total - 3h 20mins

Wed - Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Article - 3h 55mins
- Admin - Textbook - 1h 35mins
Wed Total - 6h 30mins

Thur - Juris - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Trusts - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Class - 1h
- Admin - Articles - 3h 25mins
- Admin - Textbook - 2h 45mins
- Admin - Cases - 1h 15mins
- Admin - Essay - 2h 10mins
Thur Total - 14h 35mins

Fri - Admin - Tutorial - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Textbook - 2h 20mins
Fri Total - 4h 20mins

Sat - Land - Textbook - 1h 30mins
Sat Total - 1h 30mins

Week 2

Day - Subject - Type - Time

Sun - Land - Textbook - 3h 10mins
Sun Total - 3h 10mins

Mon - Trusts - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Textbook - 4h 15mins
- Land - Cases - 3h 30mins
- Land - Articles - 1h 20mins
- Land - Essay - 1h 40mins
Mon Total - 13h 45mins

Tue - Land - Cases - 3h 5mins
- Admin - Articles - 3h 15mins
Tue Total - 6h 20mins

Wed - Admin - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Tutorial - 1h
- Admin - Articles - 2h 55mins
- Admin - Textbook - 4h 45mins
Wed Total - 9h 40mins

Thur - Juris - Lecture - 1h
- Land - Lecture - 1h
- Trusts - Lecture - 1h
- Admin - Class - 1h
- Admin - Textbook - 2h 50mins
- Admin - Cases - 4h 30mins
- Admin - Article - 1h
- Admin - Essay - 2h 20mins
Thur Total - 14h 40mins

Fri - Admin - Class - 1h
Fri Total - 1h

Totals:

Admin Week 1 - 21h 15mins (+2h 10mins Essay)
Land Week 1 - 19h 10mins (+1h 40mins Essay)
Admin Week 2 - 19h 15mins (+2h 20mins Essay)
Week 1 Total - 39h 15mins
Week 2 Total - 48h 35mins

The Cartoons

It has to be done. I'll post more on the whole Mohammed cartoons controversy later but for now, they must be posted. Not because I necessarily agree with the messages conveyed. But people have died because of these images, and a political crisis has dominated. I believe people should know what the images in question are, at the very least. I had hoped the mainstream media would print them, as it would and should with other images causing this kind of controversy (whether aimed at muslims, christians, jews, atheists, whatever). As this has not happened however, here they are:

Image removed at the request of my parents. They were scared for my safety upon posting it.

Individual images are available here. Scroll down past the first set for clearer ones.

Work Timetable - Holiday and Week 0

Apologies to those who would prefer I desist with these posts. At least from now on I'll be doing two weeks in one, which should reduce the clutter somewhat. I have now received back my Trusts collection with a healthy 68 mark. Very pleasing indeed! Where a number is used after a subject it refers to the reading list week in which that topic appeared.

Holiday

Week - Subject - Type - Time

Week 2 - Contract 5 - Textbook - 1h 50mins
- Contract 8 - Textbook - 3h 45mins
Week 2 Total - 5h 35mins

Week 3 - Land Intro - Textbook - 2h 15mins
Week 3 Total - 2h 15mins

Week 4 - Land Intro - Textbook - 5h 35mins
Week 4 Total - 5h 35mins

Week 5 - Land Intro - Textbook - 1h 50mins
- Land Intro - Cases - 45mins
- Contract 8 - Textbook - 30mins
- Tort 1 - Revision - 2h 30mins
- Tort 2 - Revision - 3h 50mins
Week 5 Total - 9h 25mins

Week 0

Day - Subject - Type - Time

Mon - Tort 3 - Revision - 2h 30mins
- Tort 4 - Revision - 2h 15mins
Mon Total - 4h 45mins

Tue - Tort 4 - Revision - 15mins
- Tort 5 - Revision - 3h 30mins
- Tort 8 - Revision - 2h 30mins
- Trusts 1 - Revision - 1h 10mins
Tue Total - 7h 25mins

Wed - Trusts 2 - Revision - 2h 30mins
- Trusts 3 - Revision - 3h 5mins
Wed Total - 5h 35mins

Thur - Trusts 4 - Revision - 2h 30mins
- Trusts 6 - Revision - 1h 30mins
- Trusts 7 - Revision - 1h 5mins
- Tort - Revision - 30mins
Thur Total - 5h 35mins

Fri - Tort - Exam - 3h
- Trusts - Revision - 1h
- Trusts - Exam - 3h
Fri Total - 7h

Totals:

Land Intro - 10h 25mins
Tort Revision - 17h 50mins (+3h Exam)
Trusts Revision - 12h 50mins (+3h Exam)
Holiday Total - 22h 50mins
Week 0 Total - 30h 20mins

Kennedy's End

And so Charles Kennedy resigns as Lib Dem leader. I am very relieved, as I was worried that he would be unopposed in the leadership contest, and now someone will have to stand. I just hope for the sake of the party that the next person is someone with the drive to take them further.

I have been disillusioned with Kennedy for many months now. The General Election campaign showed a terrible lethargy on his part convincing me that he had to go. To be blunt, up against the appalling alternatives of Tony's Blair's Labour and Michael Howard's Conservatives, we should have done better than we did.

To give credit where it is due, this shake up is, I feel, mostly down to a very unlikely source - David Cameron, the new Tory leader. I've been reasonably familiar with the guy for years, as he is my home MP. I favoured him as Tory leader, even though I always knew that his election would make a Tory victory much more likely. He has an energy to him and policies which have made me feel quite jealous - if only we had someone like that leading the Lib Dems!

the repercussions have been clear. Spurred on by this new, dynamic opposition leader, Blair's probable successor Gordon Brown has been desperately signalling that he will be different from Blair, offering real checks on Government policy rather than Blair's "divine right" style. Whether that will be enough to make the public forget his disastrous misplanning of the economy remains to be seen. Meanwhile, the Lib Dem MPs have realised that Kennedy needed to walk, lest the party lose all credibility whatsoever. And so we have movement and intrigue in all three parties.

What we need is a strong voice, certainly. However, we also need something more. The biggest criticism of the Lib Dems is that we do not have any steadfast policy goals. It is time for that to end. We need to know what we stand for, and to put that forward at every opportunity. We need to stop making naive pronouncements and show the country that we have grown up. We need to make the United Kingdom proud to be a liberal democracy, and we need to earn our way back into mainstream politics.

We have the potential to be the party of the future. I just hope we take it.

Christmas and Culture Wars

An issue which has been coming up in a major way in the USA but much less over here is the "Happy Holidays" question, and I'd like to explain my thoughts on the matter. The question is, to oversimplify wildly, whether it is better to wish "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." It may sound like a very small matter, but it is a raging debate across the pond.

The problem in America is that a number of big retail chains have put up posters with the latter on rather than the former. A section of the public there, mainly the religious right, have taken this as the latest assault in the "War on Christmas" (I seriously get the impression that Americans simply love to call campaigns wars).

The reason that the stores are doing this is because not only Christmas is celebrated at this time of year. Hannukah and the Winter Solstice are also celebrated in what is known as the holiday season, often instead of the Christian Christmas. "Happy Holidays" is seen as more inclusive, including all of these as well as non-believers and others (like Jehovah's Witnesses) who do not celebrate Christmas. It is seen as extending the message out to as many people as possible.

The religious right, predictably, sees this as an assault on Christmas, watering down the Christian-ness of the season. It is part of an intense dissatisfaction with the way that the season has become more popular and less religious. I am going to explain why I think the controversy has not spread to the UK, and why the secularisation of the season is a good thing.

As an atheist, it is hardly surprising to find me on this side. Nevertheless, it is worth me explaining something. I have no problem with religious people of whatever persuasion celebrating their holy days (within legal and ethical limits of course - no blood soaked sacrifices if can be avoided!). I do however see a certain spoilt attitude in the way certain people want to have their cake and eat it - enjoying the season in their own way while preventing others from doing so in their own. Unsurprisingly, I'm in the "live and let live" category.

Why is the controversy miniscule here? The first answer may be that we simply seem less enthusiastic about religion-based culture wars here. People are more likely to face controversies like abortion based on facts and realities, rather than resorting to holy edicts. Perhaps that is because despite the historic ties between the state and the Church of England, far more people here (religious or non) prefer the law to be secular. Therefore, even when it comes to non-legal issues like this, there is much less enthusiasm for turning an issue into a religious conflict.

Secondly though, I believe that we think of Christmas in a different way here too. In the USA, Christmas generally seems to refer to the Christian holiday. Here, I think people are much more inclined to think of it as the season as a whole. "Merry Christmas" evokes warm feelings of family, togetherness, decorations and presents. (On a side note, people often criticise the last of these as materialistic, but I think this misses the social role that giving presents has. It bonds people together. I certainly feel that even a worthless or uninteresting present from a friend can be worth a lot more than no present at all.)

What do I mean by this different way of seeing Christmas? Well, in one US report I read, one non-Christian said that while not in any way being offended by a sign saying "Merry Christmas," it felt somewhat like being wished "Happy Birthday" when it was the wisher's, and not the listener's, birthday. While the listener appreciates that there is a celebration, they do not see its relevance to them. This makes a lot of sense, but I do not think it applies here. More likely, someone here will just see the phrasing as a generic expression of goodwill.

The thing is that *both* sides in the US see it as refering to the specifically Christian holiday. Clearly those who prefer "Happy Holidays" see it as more inclusive (and let's get real, the retail chains in question are going to want no part in any "War on Christmas" - they just want to appeal to more people). Those against it also must feel that "Merry Christmas" refers specifically to the Christian holiday, otherwise they would not bother fighting the new wording. They are determined to keep the general greeting refering to the Christian tradition, and that just shows that their motivation is to keep that as the primary (perhaps only) message heard over the holiday season. Refusing to accept "Happy Holidays" is, in a way, trying to hide the existence of other traditions which might want to celebrate.

In the UK on the other hand, I think people are perfectly aware that Christmas time is far more than the celebration of a Christian holiday.

And I think it is perfectly right that it should be. Christmas essentially originated as a Christian holiday pasted on top of the pagan holiday of Saturnalia, from which we get such traditions as present giving. I can honestly say that I have never heard a pagan (and I have known one or two) angrily demanding that the season be kept pagan. Since aspects like present giving were not even Christian in origin, it would be absurd to restrict them to Christians only. The season was special long before Christmas arose.

Even if this had not been true, other religious holidays take place at the same time (and non-religious holidays like Kwanzaa). There is no reason Christmas should hold the season captive beyond the fact that there are more Christians than members of other religions.

And what of us non-religious folk? One might argue that even if Christians get their Christmas, Jews their Hannukah etc, then there is no place for celebration for those without a religion. I think this is misguided. Even within one religion, there might be a thousand different ways to celebrate the season, including taking the best elements from other traditions (like the present-giving, all those centuries ago). There is no reason why the non-religious should not be allowed to celebrate the season as they see fit, equally borrowing those bits of other traditions as they see fit. I see no reason why every family and community should not have a time of the year to celebrate, in whatever way they see fit. It is the very best of multiculturalism, and it is a celebration of being human.

So let those who desire celebrate Christmas time religiously, others celebrate it secularly, and let's not squabble about who 'owns' the season. And if retailers in the USA wish to encompass all these diverse celebrations, then that is good sense. Over here, I think we may already have gone a step further. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays folks, and have a jolly good New Year.

Term Timetable Summary

Because I haven't beaten this to death already...

Trusts Week 1 - 20h
Tort Week 5 - 22h 5mins (+1h 10mins Essay)
Trusts Week 2 - 20h 55mins (+2h 30mins Essay)
Trusts Week 3 - 20h 15mins (+2h 40mins Essay)
Tort Week 6 - 21h 35mins (+1h 5mins Presentation)
Trusts Week 4 - 18h 40mins (+3h Essay)
Trusts Week 5 - 20h 40mins (+1h 30mins Presentation)
Tort Week 7 - 16h 40mins (+5 to 10h over Summer)
Trusts Week 6 - 16h (+2h 20mins Essay)
Trusts Week 7 - 15h 5mins (+2h 20mins Essay)
Tort Week 8 - 18h 45mins (+1h 25mins Essay)
Trusts Week 8 - 25h 20mins

Week 1 Total - 34h 55mins
Week 2 Total - 41h 20mins
Week 3 Total - 47h 15mins
Week 4 Total - 46h 45mins
Week 5 Total - 35h 15mins
Week 6 Total - 40h 55mins
Week 7 Total - 39h 50mins
Week 8 Total - 36h 10mins

Term Total - 322h 25mins

Work Timetable - Week 8

Term is over, and I am somewhat exhausted. Twelve reading lists and many, many lectures. I feel I've done well this term, but I will be using the holiday to very much consolidate what I know and fill in gaps!

Week 8

Day - Subject - Type - Time

Sun - Tort - Cases / Articles - 1h 25mins
- Tort - Essay - 1h 25mins
Sun Total - 2h 50mins

Mon - Tort - Lecture - 1h
- Tort - Class - 2h
- Trusts - Introductory Textbook - 1h 10mins
- Trusts - Textbook - 2h
Mon Total - 6h 10mins

Tue - Trusts - Textbook - 6h 10mins
Tue Total - 6h 10mins

Wed - Trusts - Textbook - 7h
- Trusts - Cases - 1h
Wed Total - 8h

Thur - Contract - Lecture - 1h
- Tort - Lecture - 1h
- Trusts - Cases - 7h 30mins
- Trusts - Revision - 30mins
Thur Total - 10h

Fri - Land - Lecture - 1h
- Trusts - Tutorial - 1h
- Trusts - Lecture - 1h
Fri Total - 3h

Sat - Finished

Totals:

Tort Week 8 - 18h 45mins (+1h 25mins Essay)
Trusts Week 8 - 25h 20mins
Week Total - 36h 10mins