Dying Young

Rapper Francis Magalona passes away

We can't help but feel deeply sad every time someone who is young and so full of life suddenly dies. It reminds us how fragile life can be and that we should be grateful for every day that we live healthy and out of danger.

It also stresses the need for us to be more conscious of our body as we grow older. We may appear to be fit, but we don't really know what's going on inside our body. With regard our health, it is always safer to be concerned than to just assume we are okay.

Death is certain to happen, but we owe it to those people who love and depend on us for whatever reason to make sure it does not come to us at the time least expected.

Legal Gobbledygook

I am a student of law.

I actually first studied law in 2001 for just a year and continued only in 2008. Now I felt like a freshman all over again, though not the type who is taking studies too seriously. Not to say that I find studying law quite easy that I do not see the need to be serious in my studies. In fact, I find it really hard. It's just that studying frustrates me a bit because law books are so difficult to read and digest.

Mind you I love reading. It's my most favorite past-time next to writing and singing (hehe). I read newspapers, magazine, novels, non-fiction, trivia bits, even product labels and billboard signs. But law books, I have to force myself to read them. I usually feel the urge only when I'm due for recitation or it's near the exam period.

I tried to find a good reason why I am not very much interested in reading law books. They are too text-heavy. They are voluminous. They are monotonous. These reasons simply won't stand as arguments in the classroom, much more in court.

Then I realized what makes reading law books unappealing for me is the syntax - particularly on sentence structure. The law has its own language and it is not plain English. Strunk & White surely will have a hell of a time editing codal provisions, jurisprudence, and legal textbooks if they try to make them as reader-friendly as any mainstream publications. Legal speak ignores rules on the use of a comma or simple sentence construction or sometimes grammar. That is also why it is open to so many interpretations.

Should I blame the authors then if I mess up during recitation or if I fail my exams? Or should I call for a reform in the way legal resources are written. (Maybe a good proposition.)

Nah, am just trying to justify my laziness here. I should know I'm in for difficult times when I decided to enrol in law school.

Excuses denied.