Stress-induced dreams.

Lately I've been having dreams, on average maybe once every two weeks, about not being able to remember my class schedule and wondering if I haven't been missing a certain class and not doing homework for the entire term. The setting of these dreams is usually something resembling high school or junior high, and the names of teachers are from that time, too (though I will get junior high teachers' names in my high school-based dreams and vice versa). The class I'm missing is usually either history or English, and I always have this nagging feeling that I was supposed to have had some book read, or some paper written, but I just can't remember the teacher telling us the specific requirements, because I can't remember when I last went to class, and I can't remember when or whether I was supposed to even have class.

For example, last night I dreamt of a time kind of like high school, and I was trying to figure out when I was supposed to have English AP and choir practice. And I had the very strong feeling of knowing that I had just gone through the same schedule last week, and why couldn't I remember what I did on Monday? Then reality began to slip in a little -- I thought, "oh yeah, my choir practice is on Monday evenings" -- and then the dream must have shifted.

I won't say I don't subscribe to dream interpretations, but I am more likely to believe the obvious and direct explanations than any deep psychoanalysis. So I'm guessing these dreams mean I'm stressed out about school. Go figure. And that I'm worried about not being able to keep track of everything?

Ironically, the dreams make me more stressed out, because I wake up really thinking I've forgotten to do some history assignment or whatever and I've been missing some class on my schedule. Then I remember that I'm in law school, and I don't have assignments to turn in! :o

The last time I had dreams with a recurring theme, they were about being really really frustrated and not being able to make any sounds when I tried to scream at people or tell them why they were wrong. I guess I'm just so full of negativity like that...

Casebook snark.

So the writers of my trademarks book (Trademarks and Unfair Competition: Law and Policy, by Dinwoodie and Janis, 2nd ed. 2007) had way too much fun writing it. Most of their fun comes in the form of insulting sports teams, which mostly goes over my head, but I seem to have hit upon a treasure trove of groan- and/or chuckle-inducing excerpts today.

[Possibly this is because I have been reading several "Notes and Comments" sections in a row with no cases in between, so it's as if I've read a week's worth of material actually written by the authors. ( Rant about Notes and Comments sections. )

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So here are some fun ones...

Said the [Federal Circuit], "[T]he relationship between cooking classes and kitchen textiles is more akin to the relationship between restaurant services and beer," . . . which is the sort of thing we expect will show up some day as an LSAT question.

Fortunately, LSATs don't have an analogy section. Since most lawyers never took the GRE, I guess the authors must have been thinking of the SAT but blocked out the memory of such a test ever existing.

[OMG, I just snarked a textbook author's snarking of the Federal Circuit's snark. How awesome is that?]

( More... )

So does the fact that I've been able to remember and dig up all these examples of snark -- by linking them to the relevant legal topics -- mean that they actually have pedagogical value? Or does it mean that I'm being way too distracted by them? Can I sue when, during the exam, all I can remember is that the Federal Circuit writes LSAT questions and not that relatedness of goods is a relevant factor in assessing likelihood of confusion?

Well, in any event, I guess I should get back to actually finishing the reading assignment now. ._.