First of all Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a good 2009 and is anticipating all the action 2010 has in store. This coming year is going to be a big one for me. I will be starting my experiences in England as well as law school in the fall. Two major events in my life and I cannot wait to start them.

I leave for England in 28 days and I have begun thinking about all the things I need to do before I leave as well as all the items I need to take with me. I have to be able to fit everything that I need in a suitcase. I will be there for around 5 months so this can become quite confusing when deciding what I want to pack.

Meanwhile this winter break is about to kill me. Last semester I never really saw past finals week. Now that they are over, I have nothing to do. I find myself waking up with no ambition or initiative to go do anything. Which is confusing because I want to do something-there is just nothing to do. I always have to be working on something or whatever. So this break has largely consisted of playing the piano and music. Which is all good, don’t get me wrong. But I need some variety in my life. The next 28 days will be slow but then life is bound to pick up. Once I leave, I probably won’t stop until June, which is exactly how I like my life. If this blog was uninteresting I’m sorry. It should just prove my restlessness and cabin fever that winter brings.

“Most people are just about as happy as they make their minds up to be.”-A. Lincoln

Done! My finals are over and I am all moved out. This is a good thing. I feel good grade wise about this past semester. My grades should be posted by this Tuesday.

I went to St Louis this week to take care of some business. One of the meetings I had was at the Department of Homeland Security. They had to make sure that I wasn’t a terrorist before they would allow me to live in England. The experience was full of confusion… Let me explain.

First of all the address to the office I needed to report to was 1222 Spruce Street, St. Louis Mo. Room 1.208. OK the address is good until Room 1.208. Who has fractions of floors? How am I supposed to find this? –Anyways I just asked an employee of the building and she showed me the way. When I found my destination I waited for around an hour before a woman from Homeland Security came for me. She took my fingerprints and asked me a bunch of questions about my involvement in terrorist activities. Ok, if I was a terrorist- which I’m not- why would I admit this to the department? I realized when I left the building that this was the system in which we were living under. A couple questions and some fingerprints are all you need. I’m not complaining I am just shocked.  I thought there would be a much more in depth investigation. I guess if I had a criminal history it would have taken a little longer. The guy in front of me was out of jail on bail, and he was trying to go to Mexico. His appointment took a little longer. J

But other than that life is so much slower at home. I don’t really like it. This is the first week I have not had class since January of this year. I believe January 20^th to be exact. Summer class started immediately after spring semester, and ended the week before fall semester. So I feel a little useless this week, although there is not really much I can do.

I went Christmas shopping today for the first time. It wasn’t too bad but it really takes me a long time to get in the shopping mood. I really don’t like the whole shopping experience.  I drove all the way to Peoria just to buy a couple things and then I gave up.

Christmas it should be a good time however. I’m looking forward to the food.

That is all.

So considering I just got a comment on a previous post that I need to blog more, I am going to blog. I realize I have neglected this page for about three weeks and I am sorry. This semester is a tough one and whenever I am able to take a break I do.

Note: It is 4:21 a.m. and due to my ridiculous sleeping habits and insomnia it’s difficult for me to keep a good sleeping schedule. It’s that little part of life that I got the short end of the stick on.

Last week was Thanksgiving break and it was good to go home and see family and friends. I feel like I have the traditional American Thanksgiving. This break was a little different with a 25 credit hour semester. I tried to write as many final papers for my classes as I could. I think I wrote about 60 pages total, which was rough.  Along with that, My LSAT is December 5^th, which is next weekend! I have four books sitting on my desk that I just stopped writing to stare at them thinking: “I should really open those babies” and “After I write this blog I am going to have to read myself to sleep.” The LSAT is a weird test in the first place. It doesn’t test what you know; it more concentrated on how you think about what you know. Make sense? In other words, the test is not factual; it’s a test of critical thinking, logic, comprehension, analytical reasoning and argumentation.

At first glance it seems like several of the areas the LSAT tests are common sense, at least that’s what I thought. Although you would be surprised how hard several of those concepts can be.

See what I mean? Like the video said, “It’s easy to miss something you are not looking for.” Even though it’s not a picture perfect representation of an LSAT question, it does utilize the concepts of thinking outside of the box, and looking at the big picture.

Also I have begun to narrow my law school choices. This is a good thing considering it costs about $50 a school to apply. There is a stack of law school brochures next to my desk that I thumb through when I should be doing something else. I will make the big decision and immediately blog about it. Because I know that the world is just dying to know where Tyler Martin of Green Valley, Illinois is going to school.

One of the greatest pleasures in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

Ok. Its blog time. This past week has been another busy yet productive one. The weight of classes and final grades is beginning to get tougher. I always try to live up to my expectations of myself which doesn’t always happen but I like to make the effort.

I went to a law school fair at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign last Wednesday and it was extremely productive. Luckily almost all of the law schools that I have been interested in attended the event. After attending the fair I have a better understanding of what my future entails. There is a good chance that I will not be attending law school in this state, which I have an open mind about.

I wouldn’t mind discussing the law schools that I am applying too, but I have a single problem with this. In order to know if you go into a school or not a person needs to apply. If you don’t get in then people will always act like you have taken some serious hit to your ego. This applies to internships, jobs, acceptance into programs, officer or high ranking positions and so on. For some reason people get all uppity about it.  I’m not wining or complaining that’s just the facts. So therefore I only discuss the schools I apply to with a few people. I believe that everyone wants different things out of life. Some want to get married, have children, move far away or travel. I believe in supporting the people you care about in whatever decision they choose to make, as long as the decision isn’t negative. A bad attitude is contagious and sets unnecessary limitations on people’s aspirations.  My decision to come to UIS was a great one. Initially I expected to have a little different of a college experience that what I have now, but things sure have changed for the better.

The LSAT (Law School Admissions Test) is slowly approaching as well (Dec. 5^th). I am begging to study for it and I have bought several books to help me. The test is an examination of your ability to think critically and analyze what is put in front of you.  I’m not going to go much farther into that because I’m guessing that 94.52% don’t want to read about standardized testing.

Also I believe I should discuss some music stuff since it takes up about 94.52% of my free time. I really do listen to just about anything. I was raised on country and I still love it very much today. Although ever since I began working at a Willett’s Winery and Cellar in Manito Illinois (Shout Out!) I have discovered the angelic harmonies of jazz and blues. Recently Michael Bublé has released his new CD “Crazy Love” and I have been listening to it ever since. The man kills me. I love interpretations of standards and he is by far the best today in my opinion. Before Bublé I was a big Sinatra fan, which I still am.

It’s hard for me to write about music since there is some much of it that I enjoy, I feel like if I write about any one artist in particular I am ignoring all the rest.  The Beatles, Norah Jones, Michael Bublé, John Mayer, Billy Joel, Elton John and Frank Sinatra are my favorites. Although I don’t restrict myself to just those artists, I just find myself listening to them the most.

I play the Piano to work out many of those musical frustrations that creep up on me throughout the week. It is by far the best stress reliever I found to date.  I could continue on about these musical issues, but I believe I will wrap this one up.

“The bad news is time flies, the good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Althsuler

So first of all I would like to thank the guy that stole the parking tag out of my car last week. It was a real favor. And then I would like to thank the UIS police for giving me a ticket for not having a parking tag. It was a real favor.

No really that happened to me last week and I refuse to pay the ticket. I already had to buy a new $60 parking pass. I have to go up in front of an appeals board Friday, I am sure they will understand. This is one of those things you have to get use to when you move from a town of 750 people.  I never lock my car when I am at home, mostly because there is never anything of value in it.

I just realized this past week that I am currently in the 8^th week of school, and I am over half way done with this semester. Wow, this semester has gone by quick.  I miss the warm weather and the joys of summer. I’m don’t really like winter that much. I find that it just makes things harder and I don’t need my life to be any more complicated, no one does.

Speaking of complication here is my class schedule for anyone interested in Legal Studies as a major.

Constitutional Law

Legal Research and Citation

Law and Inequality

Lawyers of Power

Law and Society

Law, Film and Popular Culture

Law Enforcement Challenges: Terrorism

Legal Research and Citation is starting to become overwhelming. Citing the law is probably one of the most difficult concepts to get. See below:

“H.R. Subcomm. on Cts., Internet & Intel. Prop. Of the Comm. Of Jud., Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal Judgeship and Reorganization Act of 2003, 103 Cong. 6 (October 21, 2003)”

or

“13A Cal. Jur. 3d Consumer and Borrower Protection Law §§ 156-157 (2004)”

Those might not seem that bad but they can get extremely complicated and overwhelming. Especially when you have to get into the law stacks in the library. I couldn’t count the number of times I have gotten lost between stacks of tan books with gold binding that all look the same. I love my major and I understand that citation is important but I will be happy when I understand citation to the full extent so I don’t have to learn it anymore.

I also am in process of setting up my classes next semester. It is kind of difficult to choose which classes I want to take while studying in England. They offer several classes on American law and politics. I am looking into a class called The American President which will examine all prior U.S. presidents and their relations with the U.K. I might also take a class with my friend Maggie studying the American Revolution from the English perspective.

But I am managing to have a little more fun with friends on campus. I surprisingly don’t have that much homework this weekend so I should be able to get out of my room at times. I am going to try and blog more, I hope to do at least one a week. I know it will pick up when I get to England because I will have many more experiences to share.

This is my friend Erin Glogovsky.

This past week was Homecoming week at UIS. Between classes students could participate in the many events planned by the Student Activities Committee. Here are some pictures of the homecoming game.

We are contemplating marriage. (kidding)

Kelli being a B.A.

Randy, Maggie, Lindsey, Tyler

Chris Rajcic

Maggie and Chris

Tyler, Lindsey, Randy

Michelle Felix!

Soccer Team

We were cold so we cooperated.

Fireworks

Fireworks

So this is it. I’m a blogger. Where do I start? Well, considering I have never done this before this entry maybe awkward, inadequate or stupid. Anyways, here we go..

First of all I believe it would be appropriate to talk a little bit about my college career thus far. I started completing classes at a community college between my junior and senior year of high school. The following summer (2008) I also took gen-ed classes that would give me a jump start on my college education. I always encourage my friends to do this, because it helped me out immensely when I got to college. Since the beginning of my freshman year at UIS I have continuously been taking classes. Needless to say academically I am very ambitious, although these endeavors come with a price. At times the workload can get to be too much and I have sacrificed a lot of my social life to complete as much as I have. I figure that you have to decide what you want out of life and work like hell to live up to your expectations. But I’m not here to preach to anyone, I just feel that these facts are crucial to my life and I imagine that several of my blogs this semester will in some way mention homework and the taxing stress and business that comes along with taking 25 credit hours.

I am currently preparing for several life changing events. In four months I will be leaving the states for a temporary residency in England. I am beginning to get a little bit anxious for I know that my day of departure is going to sneak up on me. My friend Maggie Kopacz and I will be leaving sometime towards the end of January. I’m not really sure exactly what to expect. I have talked to several people from home that have studied abroad, one of which was about 45 minutes from where I am going! I really don’t like the feeling of not being in control of my life, and the idea of living in another country and not knowing what to expect gets to me. I have never even been out of the country! I’m sure that everything will work out; it just bothers me when I don’t know all the details.

Anyways, I think this is where I start wrapping it up. I’ll post other random thoughts and comments. I’m still familiarizing myself with this website. I will eventually get some media forms up here. (Sound, Pictures, Polls etc.)

Adios.