A Little IP Action

Lewis and Clark's own Joe Miller has joined madisonian.net, a "blog about law, society and technology."

I came to madisonian.net for its "Get ready for law school" series of posts and stayed for the IP action. If you like IP law you'll probably like it over there. Check it out.

Any Takers?

My blog is worth $16,371.66.
How much is your blog worth?

(Thanks LawMom!)

lsac.org

I got a visit from someone at lsac.org this morning. Can you imagine how freaked out you would have been if someone from LSAC had visited your blog during the admissions process?

On a related note, I've been getting a lot of traffic from "I hate the LSAT" and similar again. Were the October scores just released? I remember around this time last year someone told me that the "hardest part about law school is getting in." They were wrong! At least in my case. Far and away the hardest thing for me about law school is dealing with the socratic method. What if the LSAT was administered with the socratic method? Now that would be hard.

Grades

My thoughts on my future first semester law school grades:

It's a win-win-win situation, really.

Scenario #1: I do well. Super! Pat me on the head, tell me I'm a "good student" and all is right in the world.

Scenario #2: My performance is mediocre. Fine. It won't kill me. It's an "opportunity to improve" next semester.

Scenario #3: Utter failure. Okay, so no more law school. Is that such a bad thing?

To Women In Law School:

To women in law school (or anyone who wishes to answer):

What would you say to a male classmate who said to you (seemingly out of the blue): "I don't know how girls make it through law school. They are so catty, and only want to talk about soap operas."?

Assignment

To Self:

Repeat as needed, at least once per day:

I will not get swept up into the pre-finals frenzy of anxiety.

Happy Outer Space Treaty Day!

It was on this date in 1967 when the General Assembly adopted the "Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies," otherwise known as the Outer Space Treaty.

Article I of the Treaty tells us:

The exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries, irrespective of their degree of economic or scientific development, and shall be the province of all mankind.

Outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall be free for exploration and use by all States without discrimination of any kind, on a basis of equality and in accordance with international law, and there shall be free access to all areas of celestial bodies.

There shall be freedom of scientific investigation in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and States shall facilitate and encourage international co-operation in such investigation.

And Article IX tell us in part:

States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose.

As of January 1, 2005 98 countries, including the US, have ratified the Treaty and another 27 have signed.

Happy Sputnik Day!

It was on this day in 1957 when the first artificial satellite, Sputnik-1, was launched.

Listen to Sputnik-1 telemetry! How cool is that?

Why the Hell Not?

A New Measure of Well-Being From a Happy Little Kingdom

"In 1972, concerned about the problems afflicting other developing countries that focused only on economic growth, Bhutan's newly crowned leader, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, decided to make his nation's priority not its G.D.P. but its G.N.H., or gross national happiness."

"Around the world, a growing number of economists, social scientists, corporate leaders and bureaucrats are trying to develop measurements that take into account not just the flow of money but also access to health care, free time with family, conservation of natural resources and other noneconomic factors."

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."
-- Dale Carnegie

World Space Week

"The purpose of the week is to celebrate annually, at the international level, the contribution that space science and technology can make to the betterment of the human condition."

Yes, A Post About The Weather

I love this weather!

I've been a little disappointed by the lack of rain since we moved here. I've been starting to wonder where all these people who warned us against moving here because of "all the rain" got their faulty intel.

I really hope that this is representative of "Winter in Portland."

Do You Know What Day It Is?

It's Serenity Day! Finally!

Come on, SciFi channel - Don't you want to make new episodes? You know you want to...

A Most Excellent Public Interest Law Post

I encourage everyone to read ambimb's great post "Reality Testing Law School Debt and the Public Interest Career"

I can't tell you how many times I've been told that I'll "never find a job in Environmental Law", and "never be able to pay off my school debt in Environmental Law." Inevitably the advice giver will tell me about the "tons of people they know who wanted to do Environmental Law but are now unemployed or trash collectors." Okay, I exaggerated the last part but these comments are a very common occurrence. I'm not sure if the commenters expect me to thank them and immediately start looking into business law or what, but their Debbie Downer remarks haven't beat me yet.

Dare to dream, right?

Polite Rant

When person A smiles politely at person B it is good manners for person B to smile back. It is not polite for person B to just sort of glare and look away. It makes person A feel bad.

Extracurriculars

While I am so not a "joiner" I've found that just getting a little bit involved at law school has helped me to keep what little perspective I had left. There are lots of choices here at L&C - it seems like there is a group for everything. So I went to a few meetings and this is what I ended up going with:

Northwest Environmental Defense Center - From what I can tell this is an extremely active group. Lots of people involved in lots of projects - and even a lot for the 1Ls to do. The group is so active, in fact, that it is broken down into two subgroups: Air & Water and Land & Wildlife. I ended up getting a little project from the Air & Water side. So far getting involved with NEDC has been the best decision I've made since arriving here at L&C.

Lewis & Clark Docent - I signed up for a regular shift taking prospective students around the school. I love talking about the admissions process and about L&C so I guess it's a good gig for me.

Animal Law Review Source Checker - I'm not exactly sure what a "source checker" does, but I'm in anyway. I think I'll learn a lot and will probably get to meet people that I have interests in common with.

So that is what I'm doing when I'm not doing things related to class. I know you were wondering!

& Haiku

I used to hate the
ampersand. It seemed too short.
Now I think it's fine.

Advice

I have received this advice from many different sources, including some very wonderful people. But I didn't really get it until now, since I am of course a seasoned 1L at this point (HA!)

The advice? Don't talk to anyone about anything related to class.

That includes: how much reading you've done, how you're reading it, how you're briefing it, how long it takes you to read a case, how long it takes you to read a page, how long it takes you to read a paragraph, how many words you look up in Black's, what supplements you've purchased, what supplements you think are awesome, what supplements you think suck, how many hours a day you study, how many weekend hours you don't spend studying, how worried you are about exams, how much you "get it", and how much you don't "get it"

This list is in no way complete. I'm guilty of most of them, but I recognize the wrongness of my ways and pledge to be better.

Back to...something or other. Maybe I'm studying, maybe I'm not. You don't know.

Desire For "Fine"

Some days I come home thinking, "I love law school! This is super!" then the next day I will end up sobbing on the couch for no reason other than the anxiety of dealing with the Socratic Method Fear for even one more day.

I can't wait until my answer to "How was your day?" is just: "Fine."

Better Late Than Never...

Happy Birthday Kristine!

Craftier Everyday

Reading over at Craftier Everyday brings back the good old 0L days. My only advice to you, CE: Stay away from the boards. You know what I'm talking about. Oh, and also, on the LSAT: Pick the correct letter as often as you can.

Good luck!