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I'm sick of the last post Steve put up about the Tudors. I have absolutely no intention of reviewing the episode and am sick of seeing the picture every time I go on our site, so I decided that I had to write something to cover it up (sorry Steve, you can blog about the Tudors). The problem is I don't have anything to blog about. So I will just take this time to complain about law school.

I didn't mind it until this quarter - so until about a month ago. But all of the sudden, I don't have time to do anything but work, and the quality of the work I do is substandard. I don't understand why the assignments are so looong. Well, partly I do: this is law school, it is supposed to be hard and time consuming; they are trying to simulate time-crunches that we will have in practice; why should a professor have to modify his assignment just because another professor went out of control on assignments that week; etc. But, on the other hand, do they really think we are learning?

I spent the entire weekend doing nothing but sitting on the couch, hunched over the computer, writing and researching. I understand that in any school or program students will have to write and it will take a long time. And that would be OK, except it hasn't ended! I have to have a conference on my paper (and come prepared with ways that I plan to change the paper, which I just wrote), substantially improve the paper, prepare a binder of the cases I've used on the paper to prepare for my oral argument, further investigate the issues from my paper for my oral argument, come up with questions that opposing counsel will likely have trouble answering so we can have a lightening round in class (come on!), read tons of useless articles that could really be condensed into one paragraph, et al. And that is all for one class, this week. I also have to read about 40 pages a night for each class (which doesn't sound like much, but in legal reading it is!) which takes 2 - 3 hours per class. Today, by the time I got to the last half of each 40-page assignment, I was just trying to get it done, instead of getting it done right.

What is the thought process behind this? There is a limit to what people can retain, and a limit on how much work you should do per credit! Isn't is a better pedagogy to assign a little less so that we actually understand and retain the material than to assign the entire book in one night so we only get a cursory understanding of the issue (but with expectations that we thoroughly know the issues)? I'm not saying that we should cut down on the substance of the class - we can still get through each subject, but instead of four cases per each little element of every issue, maybe two will work. And the worst part is that the majority of the time we get so behind in class because of this overburdensome assignment structure that we are discussing cases in class from 2-3 classes ago! So I hunched over my computer for hours the night before for nothing, and have to re-read all the cases in addition to reading the cases assigned for the next class.

I'll end this by saying that I think my problem is just arising from a coincidental maelstrom of assignments. It's really not all that horrible, and I think it will start to get better next week. But I hope I'm not called on to discuss the reading tomorrow!

Tudors Season 2

As we reported a few weeks ago, the season 2 premeire of the Tudors is tonight, but has been available with Comcast On Demand for the past few weeks.

This is a good thing for us, because Des has been sequestered in the living room for the past week working on her brief for her legal methods class. So, basically, now that the cable finally works, I can't watch it. Consequently, no Tudors for us tonight, but we already saw it. We'll post a review as soon as Des is done her paper.

-S

funny, but depressing...

I've been working this whole weekend on a paper that is 100% of my grade for one of my classes (speaking of grades, I got my last quarter grades finally, and am happy to report that I far exceeded the 1.91 GPA that I dreamed I got!), and the first draft is due Monday. It's not fun. But as I was finishing up for the night, I looked around me and had to laugh. My work area is ridiculous. I have an office, but for some reason I've been kicking Steve out of the living room and working there. So here is a picture of the amazing organization I display while writing and researching. And I'm not cleaning up until I'm done!



-D

Sexy Drinks and Home Invasions

This week's Top Chef episode wasn't any good.

It started out with a good idea - invading homes to find what you can. Steve and I actually already had this idea for a show, but Top Chef really messed it up. In our version, each chef would pick a house and cook some sort of gourmet entree based on what was there, be it a foodie kitchen or not. Of course I'm sure the judges would make sure that something could be made in each kitchen, but in this episode I got the impression that Top Chef gave each house money to stock up before the raid. What fun is that? You need to work with what the people really have on hand.

While we're on the subject, my other cooking show idea: me, Steve, Jess Sum, and Danny-Boy try to recreate cooking show meals using a regular kitchen and without having much, if any, training. I think it would be interesting to see if real people in a real, non-studio, kitchen could pull off the recipes. So Bravo or Food Network, if you are reading this, let me know and we'll talk.

So besides the botched idea, the block party concept was also no good. I don't watch this to see pasta salad and mini-hamburgers. I know they have to vary the episodes so we're not seeing the same things every time, but I don't see how picnic food is relevant to winning $100,000 from the Glad family of products toward opening your own restaurant and the title of Top Chef (by the way, that prize sucks! $100,000?!).

Two final points. First, for Jess Mac - Mark wore Hyde glasses! Second, Nikki needs to go. I am sick of her stupid hats and excuses for her ruined dishes (mac & cheese dried out and turd-like mushrooms).

-D

My early prediction looked good again as Richard won immunity during quickfire for his jicama taco, but I was disappointed not to see much of the kiwi this week.

The show was kind of boring until the end when the very confident red team found out they lost the elimination challenge. The tensions and bravado flared up like the match in the old hemorhoid commercials. Sadly, I think we all saw Erik's departure coming from a mile a way. All his food looked like crap, even if I am a little nervous that he'll seek me out and kill me for saying so. Zoe would have left, I'm sure, if Bravo didn't have the disclaimer at the end of the show that allows elimination decisions to be governed by the network-breaking up the lesbian couple so soon wouldn't be good for the ratings.

The funny thing about Stephanie picking up her second win was that when she described her contribution to the team, it sounded like she was an appendix.

I think the show needs some work right now. Part of the problem is that there are no awards for winning the elimination challenges as there had been in the past. The quick fire provides more of an incentive because the winner gets immunity. In the elimination challenge, all you have to do is not come in last place.

-S

The Ardmorons Top Chef Archive