That's It

So, I've left law school.

It was great going through this process, from the LSAT to first semester with all of you. I want to wish all of my blogger 1L buddies the best of luck on final exams.

As for this blog - I'm going to keep it up, after a brief hiatus, with a name change.

War and the Environment

Today is the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. Such an important topic, and one that doesn't get nearly enough attention - at least until years after the "war or armed conflict" is over.

I was enrolled in a class called "War and the Environment" for one of my last semesters at undergrad. It was cancelled the first day of the term and I had to scramble around looking for another class that would satisfy my major requirement.

It turns out the teacher who was supposed to teach the class was being let go. This teacher was a favorite of many students and since we were living in the Ward Churchill era there were rumors flying about conspiracies. The most widely spread rumor (And who knows? Maybe it was true.) was the teacher was let go because she had done research on some large corporations' (read: major university benefactors) environmentally unsound business practices a little too well.

There were protests of course, but since there were just so many things to protest at the school at that time they were sort of lost in the crowd, I think. They did show up outside of my department's graduation ceremony with the prerequisite electrical tape covering their mouths and quarter page flyers demanding justice. I'm not sure what they thought the graduating parents were going to do with this information. Still - more power to 'em.

Anyway, had I actually taken the class I would probaby have a lot more specific things to say about the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict. It's pretty obvious that the environment gets lost in the shuffle of the policies behind armed conflict - both those presented to the public and those that aren't. And since "the enemy" is usually so far away the environmental impacts of war are easy to overlook.

Fair and Balanced

I post a lot about what I don't like about law school, so in the interests of full disclosure, balanced Why Law reporting and making this blawg (are law students allowed to call them blawgs?) more positive I will tell you that I DO like the writing. I like the memo part of legal writing class, and I like writing out the answers to practice exam questions.

Speaking of, I got one of these practice exam questions returned this morning and it had some very nice things to say to me about my performance. This made me happy. Today I am glad I made it to November!

Since When Is This Okay?

In the past twelve hours or so I have heard (not read, but actually heard, in person) people make two sexist remarks, three racist remarks and one remark against homosexuals. The two sexist remarks were against women, the racist remarks were against Hispanics and Mexicans, and the homosexual remark was against gay men.

Since when is this behavior appropriate? Especially at school?

November!

I have almost quit law school 1,715 times in the last 2 months. Each time I decided to stay I told myself if I could just make it to November everything would be okay. Well, here it is November 1 and I'm still here, so I guess everything is going to be okay.

I've made my appointment with Career Services and I've been looking over the internship/summer study abroad research I've done in my "spare time." Thinking about summer possibilities makes the idea of finishing 1L much more bearable.

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!