Gordon on Exams, Part 1 of 4

Exams can be really stressful. Every second you spend away from your studying, you feel like someone else is getting ahead of you. But 18 hours/day can be draining, so you really do need a break. Hence when I recently got my hands on a hilarious article by Professor James D. Gordon, of BYU law school, it provided some much needed comic relief. This article was amusingly published in the prestigious Yale Law Journal back in 1991. The theme of the piece is the silliness of law school; Gordon pokes fun at nearly every aspect of law school life. Though his style can occasionally be a bit over-the-top for my comedic taste, I have to admit I roared as I read through his section on exams. Maybe it just hit a little close to home this week.

In an effort to lighten the mood for all my classmates who read this blog (and hopefully for you others as well), I'm going to post the exam part of the article here in installments over the next couple of days. And since I'm studying for my copyright exam right now, let me make the disclaimer that I'm posting these sections on this blog for fair use purposes; I invite any comments on Professor Gordon's remarks. This is totally academic, not infringement.

Without further ado, I bring you installment #1:

Studies have shown that the best way to learn is to have frequent exams on small amounts of material and to receive lots of feedback from the teacher. Consequently, law school does none of this. Anyone can learn under ideal conditions; law school is supposed to be an intellectual challenge. Therefore, law professors give only one exam, the FINAL EXAM OF THE LIVING DEAD, and they give absolutely no feedback before then. Actually, they give no feedback after then, either, because they don't return the exams to the students. A few students go and look at their exams after they are graded, but this is a complete waste of time, unless they just want to see again what they wrote and have a combat veteran-type flashback of the whole horrific nightmare. The professors never write any comments on the exams. That might permit you to do better next time, which would upset the class ranking.

Another reason that law professors give only one exam is that, basically, they are lazier than three-toed sloths. They teach half as many hours as other professors, are paid twice as much, and get promoted three times as fast. Then, they whine like three-year-olds because they have to grade one exam per class. I mean, this is every single semester, year in and year out. The constant grind is enough to kill a person, I tell you.

Halfway home

Took my second final today. It was a nice short 2-hr exam for my seminar class, "Jury Trials in America: Understanding and Practicing Before a Pure Form of Democracy." Yeah, the title takes longer to write than the final.

No, but seriously, it wasn't too bad. Since we've already had lots of readings, discussions, practice sessions, and papers, the exam was just more of the same. And it was only worth 60% of my grade. That may sound like a lot to my undergraduate readers, but remember that normally in law school, the semester grade is calculated thus:

000% Reading
000% Attendance
100% Final Exam
100% TOTAL

So as you can see, finals are a big deal. So this one was refreshing in some sense. Now I've got two down and two to go. Up next: Copyright.

One final down!

I took my evidence final today. Four hours of hearsay exceptions, character witnesses, expert testimony, conditional relevance, and more! Yikes! Before you ask, I have no idea how I did. In fact, my grade reflects not so much how I did, but how everyone else did. Yay for grading curves!

One down, three to go! Up next: Jury Trials in America.

Holiday Jazz

There's a lot of great internet radio stations out there. I just found a new one that has a bunch of great holiday music, including a really hip Holiday Jazz station. Check it out.

Vocal Point on YouTube

This is a clip of 2005-06 Vocal Point rehearsing for a back-to-school performance early this fall. The song, "He is Born," was written by one of Vocal Point's alumni, Aaron Edson, and honors the birth of Jesus Christ. The group performed this song in their championship-winning ICCA set. I love these guys.

December = Decisions

December 1 is a huge day for second-year law students all around the country. According to National Association for Law Placement standards and official timeline, all offers made by law firms must be accepted or rejected as of December 1. So the 98% of us who are pursuing work in the private sector, mostly at big firms, are now all locked in. We've signed our lives away. All decisions are now made, so we can now ask each other where we're going.

So where am I going?

Weil, Gotshal & Manges [while, gott-shull, and man-jz] is a New York -based law firm with over 1,100 attorneys across the US, Europe, and Asia. I've received and accepted an offer at their New York office for an internship next summer. The internship will last approximately 12 weeks, and will ideally end in a permanent offer of employment for the following fall (post-graduation). Find out more about Weil on the firm's website.

So Rosie and I are headed to Manhattan next summer! Crazy, huh?!

Getting Gigs

After a brief dry spell, I've managed to squeeze out another article on the CASA website about directing groups. Check it out.

Noteworthy on YouTube

The great all-female a cappella sensation has a big concert this coming Saturday night, including the release of their hott debut album, On The Horizon. In honor of Noteworthy, here is an awkward video of them performing at BYU's annual celebration, Friday Night Live. You can hear their greatness through the mismatched video and sound. Check it out:

Thanksgiving in the CLE

Rosa and I had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday with the Parma family in Cleveland. We drove up last Wednesday, eight hours of perfectly uneventful driving. Last year, it was a near blizzard in Cleveland on Thanksgiving. This year, it was near 70 degrees!! And there's still a few orange leaves clinging onto those last few branches. Gotta love the midwest.

We had the actual Thanksgiving meal at Monica's house. They deep fried the turkey! It was my first deep-fried turkey experience, and let me tell you that it's SO GOOOD! It looks exactly like you'd think it would - a turkey sitting in a big vat of very hot oil. It's just like dropping fries into oil at McDonalds. As soon as the turkey hits the oil, it immediately seals off the outside, so all the juices stay in the bird. Soooo delicious. And Rosa made her hit rolls (Mom's recipe). Delicious appetizers, yummy mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, the works! We had a great time visiting with the family.

We got lots of family time in, fun and games, a double-date with Rosie's brother and his wife, and even some candy-making. The biggest hit of the weekend, though, was the newest addition to the Parma clan: Bria.


I've chronicled a bit about her before on the site, but let me just say that she is adorable. Six weeks old, and about as cute as they get. She's got many of her mom's features, but she's got her dad's tan skin tone and thick dark hair. Beautiful.

We woke up early Sunday, and drove back, covering the 8 hour drive in about 9 or 10 hours, thanks to the lovely ridiculous holiday traffic, and several episodes of rubbernecking. But we got back in time for Rosa to play piano during Relief Society and have me teach the Elders Quorum lesson at church. Phwew! We're exhausted, but overall, a fabulous weekend!

And now back to studying...

Watch me morph into Joe Montana

See me morph into Joe Montana

Create your own Celebrity Morph™ on MyHeritage.com

Happy Engage-i-versary!

Rosa and I were engaged two years ago today! It was November 20, 2004, right before the Vocal Point concert. Smartest thing I ever did.

SoJam 2006

Rosa and I spent the weekend at the newest, hottest event for singers. It's called SoJam. Now in its fourth year, SoJam brings together tons of a cappella groups from all over the south. There's a collegiate competition on Friday night. Then Saturday, there's workshops by the pros on everything from marketing to vocal percussion to comedy on stage to recording tips to master classes to you-name-it. The whole weekend culminates in a big pro concert. This year's show featured the Duke Pitchforks (winners of the collegiate competition), moosebutter (hilarious), Boston-based Firedrill!, and SF Bay Area-based Hookslide. My guts hurt from laughter after seeing moosebutter - they're always awesome. And nothing against Hookslide, but Firedrill! brought down the house. UNBELIEVABLE. Every once in a while, after listening to so much crappy a cappella, you hear and see something that reminds you why you fell in love with it in the first place. Incredibly talented singers, and nothing else. So perfect!

Bill Hare, a cappella studio engineer extraordinaire, was on hand with his ever-ready camera, and zapped some good photos of the whole weekend. Check 'em out:

Bill's photos of SoJam

Hear ye, Hear ye

K, so backtrack a few days. Just before Halloween, our neighbors and best buds Greg & Michelle Olson hosted a Murder Mystery party, in honor of the coming hallow's eve. The theme was ancient rome. I was a Roman senator, and Rosa was Cleopatra. My costume was pretty much just a sheet wrapped around me, along with some greenery in my (unfortunately too short) hair. My hair was so short that we couldn't bobby pin it in; eyelash glue didn't work, and neither did our craft wire. So on the fourth and last attempt, we just used packing tape. And it stayed all night! Rosa's costume was almost entirely borrowed from generous Michelle, and I think it very much Cleopatra-ed her up. We all had a GREAT time, and it turned out Michelle did it. Jerk.

Here's a picture of all of us smiling, proving we had a good time:

Brianne and Derek Casper, Michelle and Greg Olson, Stephanie and James Forbes, me and Rosie

Podcast update

Joey and I finished another episode of our "A Cappella Originals Podcast." It's episode 4, baby. If you've got iTunes, just search for "a cappella" and you'll find it. If you're scared of iTunes, you can find it in AAC or mp3 format here.

I thought I was unique

According to this site, there are 22,065 people in the United States with my same first and last name. Try out your name...

Distorted Beauty

This video was extremely eye-opening for me. Click on it.

NYC: Project Runway

Before leaving the city, we couldn't miss the chance to check out the Macy's display, which showcased all the outfits from Rosa's favorite show: Project Runway. For those of you who have seen this show, you understand what a big deal this is. For those of you who aren't into the show, these pictures will be totally meaningless to you. Enjoy.

(This was the week before the finale, when Uli's dress was on display.)

NYC: Ground Zero

We took some time to visit Ground Zero, where they have a beautiful tribute set up, with a timeline of the events of September 11, 2001, along with some breathtaking photos of that day.


Remember that these photos aren't staged. This isn't a movie. It's terribly real.


"One room available for a displaced person."


This one brought us to tears. "O positive."

NYC: Wicked

Finally, here are the promised photos from our trip to New York a week and a half ago. We had a great time.

One of those awkward self-taken photos of us in the audience of the hit broadway show Wicked. The show was stunning.



The set was beautiful, absolutely incredible. This is the map of Oz.


Our crooked picture taken during the show. Just so you can get a glimpse of how beautiful the lighting, costumes, and everything was.


My beautiful wife and regular me after the show in the theater.



The night before we saw the show, Ana Gasteyer from Saturday Night Live took over the starring role. She was hilarious!

More Jetsetting

A couple weekends ago, I stole away to Cincinnati for the weekend. I like that phrase, "stole away." I had so much fun visiting my sister's family! My nephew Kirk is Mr. Runningback extraordinaire (and I think a developing tenor), and I was able to see a couple of his games. Jake and Dani are adorable, and all three of them are such strong kids. J&B are such good parents.

Heck, all my siblings are good parents. I'm nervous to have kids, just because of the high bar they've set! I guess they got it from my parents.

Then Rosa and I spent 6 days in New York City. Unbelievable! Pictures to follow...

Oh, and I've always liked the word "jetsetting."