If people tell you that law school work is a piece of cake, they’re lying. There’s reading. Tons and tons of reading.
But Teenie Me says she’s got it down. She read the first week’s worth of homework over the weekend.
Yeah. She’s a gunner.
Teenie Me is super ambitious. On the first day of orientation at The Blawgirl’s law school, the dean of students stated that there could be only one No. 1 student. Yup. Law school is kind of like Highlander, only without the kilts and big ass swords.
Teenie Me aims to be that student and has already threatened The Blawgirl, stating that she will hide case books toward finals.
The photo at the left was taken last week, even before the The Blawgirl had gotten her mile high stack of casebooks and supplements.
Head on over to The Shark to read about The Blawgirl’s first day of law school orientation!
One of my favorite things to do when I was younger was watch design shows, especially the ones that had episodes that discussed how to deliver a one-two punch of functionality and form in a small space. From those shows, I learned that in small spaces – and especially in studio apartments – you need to define areas based on their functions.
Apparently, doing so will make even a teensy space feel big.
Keeping this in mind, I made a list of the things I wanted to do in my apartment, and planned the space accordingly. I wanted a place to chill/read magazines/watch TV. I definitely wanted a place specifically for sleep, and not a futon sofa. I needed storage for my books and clothes. And I definitely needed a nice place to study and blawg.
As a result, the living area was divided into three corresponding spaces: a place to study, a place to sleep and a place to watch TV/catch up on the Jon and Kate tabloid fiasco. Take a look. (Note: sketch is not to scale)
Moving involved two days. The first day was devoted to putting stuff in the already-existing shelf space. Day two involved bringing in the bigger pieces of furniture. And thanks to The Boyfriend, my mom, dad and brother, things got moved in fairly quickly. Here are the results! (Click through the mosaic to get to my “Moving In” photoset on Flickr for more details on what went into the space!)
I’m not sure exactly what law school will bring when I get started at orientation next Wednesday. I won’t get my schedule until then. I don’t know what to expect of the teachers I get. I don’t know if I’m going to kill myself over the work load.
The only thing I do know for certain is I’m going to be well caffeinated during the course of the next year.
That’s because there is no shortage of coffee houses in the general vicinity of the Chapman University School of Law, which I live just a block and a half from. On a recent walk to the local library, I passed by at least half a dozen coffee shops and even more restaurants that serve specialty coffee drinks.
Add those to the coffee maker I have at home, and you have a jittery Blawgirl. Hurrah!
Searched for “cafe” around Old Town Orange (Calif.) in Google Maps:
Photo: I Can Has Cheezburger
Teenie me is like me only smaller. Much, much smaller.
In all other regards, we are strikingly similar.
We both wear glasses on occasion. We both have an affinity for messenger-type, cross-shoulder bags. We both love ginormous dogs. We both love chocolate, cheese and the TV show “Chuck”. We both think penguins – or “pengins” as Teenie calls them – have an evil, secret plan to take over the world.
Oh, and we both despise men who pop their collars, except European men because they can’t help it: They’re European. They come out of the womb equipped with Speedos and weird-ass shirts.
I first met Teenie Me several years ago at Anime Expo, where she was just chilling at a booth making snide remarks at all the girls dressed in Sailor Moon outfits who probably shouldn’t be wearing mini skirts and the gross amount of man boobs on display. I appreciated her candor and decided to adopt her then and there.
We’ve been inseparable ever since.
You can see where Teenie’s been so far on my Flickr photostream, and you can continue to follow her adventures here as she follows me into law school.
After a bajillion and a half trips to Target, three local Goodwillls, Walmart, Ross Dress for Less and Marshall’s, and after sanding, priming and painting at least three pieces of old furniture, I have finally settled into the humble abode I will be calling home for, hopefully, the next three years.
And although humble is an apt term for my little studio apartment, I love finally having a bathroom, kitchen and living quarters all to myself.
No more knocking on the walls or floors to ask family members and their friends to please cease their crappy music and unimportant-yet-lengthy conversations because I have to work early the next morning. No more going to the kitchen or to the bathroom in my PJs to find a stranger wandering through the fridge or coming out of the loo. No more sitting on the bathroom seat and immediately sitting up because of some mysterious wet spot. *shudder*
I’m free!
Well, at least for the next week and a half until law school orientation starts. After that, I’ll be married to law school, who will be a bitch of a roommate.
The closest I’ve ever come to going to a circus was on the frequent childhood “family trips” to Las Vegas, when my parents would hand me and my brothers $20 to go play in the arcade. Between two boys and one girl – and despite the keen money management of said little girl – the cash lasted all of 10 minutes. After that, one of our parents or other responsible adult would take us out to the Midway Stage where we would be dazzled by any number of free circus acts while sitting on sticky benches next to the warm bodies of other tourists who may or may not have showered that morning.
This probably explains why the circus I remember from my childhood smells of stale popcorn, the mysterious sticky stuff on those Midway Stage benches, cigarette smoke, McDonald’s french fries and just a touch of body odor.
This also probably explains why today I found the eau de barnyard and exhaust that greeted me as I approached the Ringling Bros. Circus train cars so refreshing.
Unlike the stale, musty odors of the circus I remember, this smelled like life, like the wonderment of youth, like the promise of childhood joy under the big top … and, yeah, like poo.
Visit my Flickr photostream to see/download the elephant photos!
UPDATE: See more video of the elephants walking here!
Because I sat at the helm of my community college and university newspapers once upon a time, stuff like this tends to grind my gears.
According to the Orange County Register, the principal of Orange High School in Orange, Calif., stopped the distribution of a student magazine because it had a “gang-looking” tattoo on the cover and because of a Top 10 list of things to do before graduation that included a clothing-optional swim in the school pool.
I understand where maybe the Top 10 list could be seen as encouraging students to break school rules. But even when students volunteered to tear out those pages the principal still refused distribution because of the tattoo.
Was the principal wrong in doing this? I think so. But what do the legal guys have to say?
From the O.C. Register’s article :
“California has the strongest set of laws protecting student speech and student publications in the nation, said Frank LoMonte, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center.
State law allows school administrators to restrict student speech that is obscene, libelous or slanderous. They can also prohibit material that creates a ‘clear and present danger’ of inciting students to break the law, violate school regulations, or cause ‘substantial disruption’ of school operations.
That may apply to the Top Ten list, with its suggestions to skinny dip and skip school. But LoMonte said a judge might consider the list to be nothing more than satire, and therefore no real threat to school operations.
The tattoo cover and story appear to be ‘well within the protection’ of California law, LoMonte said. The magazine, he said, was ‘not promoting tattooing any more than informing people about a rash of fires is promoting arson.’ “
Luckily for the students, they have a wealth of resources now if they still want to continue publication, albeit in another medium.
If I were in the student editors’ position, as a “frak you” to the principal, I would take the PDFs for the magazine and publish them online through a site like Issuu, then invite members of the school community to comment on it through Facebook, MySpace or Twitter.
It won’t erase what the principal did, but at least the students would get a chance to showcase their work.
Read the story and take a look at photos of the magazine here.
The case is also highlighted at the The Student Press Law Center, the National Coalition Against Censorship, the California First Amendment Coalition and the Citizen Media Law Project.
Photo: zalgon / Flickr
In The Shark Attack, the Blawgirl brings you a list of links to blog posts published at The Shark, a blawg written by and for law students.
Holy crap! Just realized I haven’t posted one of these in several weeks. Here’s a rundown of stories written by the Blawgirl published at The Shark. Chompy, chomp.
- Don’t count on those loan forgiveness programs. You know that plan you have? You know. The one to go to law school in order to help people, and to not worry about student loan debt because, hey, those public service loan forgiveness programs will help you. Yeah. Turns out those might not be as reliable as you think.
- ABA’s accreditation review process may signal that it’s finally heeding criticism. Earlier this month, the American Bar Association announced that it was planning to overhaul its law school accreditation process. But what exactly are some of the ills that its critics hope it fixes? Clickety, click to find out.
- UC Irvine, continuing a possibly overly-rosy view of the itself, thinks its timing is good! Is the California budget crisis going to affect the fledgling UC Irvine School of Law? Not really, according to school officials.
- Law school: busy hating on your pretty little mac. I am in love with my Mac. Apparently, law schools are still in the courtship, will-they-won’t-they phase.
- Perspective: the secret to law school success? I’ve read tons of blogs and wee bits of advice from current and former law students. My favorite bit of advice so far comes from a brain doctor and a lawyer lady who take a step back from picking at the small things and take a look at the bigger picture.
- Craigslist “attorney” trying to recruit young things. The latest Craigslist cautionary tale comes to you from The OC, where a dude posing as an attorney tried to recruit law students for his law firm. In a perfect world, this dude would probably never work in this town again. In reality, he’ll probably get a movie made about him. Starring Leo. Directed by Spielberg. Which I’ll probably watch.
- Law schools slow to hop on Web 2.0 train. While media scramble to out-Twitter other Twits, law schools have been slow to incorporate social media into their websites.
- Save an annoyed boyfriend, hug a lawyer. Sometimes that angry person just needs a hug. Law students and lawyers are no exception.
- Great news for those indebted: new federal loan programs. If you currently have or are planning on taking on huge student loans, a new federal program effective July 1 can help you deal with the debt. Some borrowers can even have their student debt forgiven after 10 years if they work in public service jobs. Not bad.
- Much ado about Yoo: Padilla’s civil suit rages on. Tenured UC Berkeley law professor and torture memo writer John Yoo is in trouble again. This time, a convicted terrorist is bringing a civil suit against Yoo for Yoo’s role in memos that he say authorized his torture while in custody. A judge, who was appointed by Dubya, gave the green light for the case to continue.
Photo: Richard Ling / Flickr
It’s a difficult and sometimes dangerous world out there for journalists. While those here in the states face distrust from the public and disdain from pundits, those abroad often face the terror of tyrannical regimes that don’t believe in the freedom of the press and that would do anything in their power to suppress an idea contrary to their agendas.
Just this past year we’ve seen Sri Lankan editor Lasantha Wickramatunga gunned down, U.S. journalist Roxana Saberi detained and tried in Iran, and, more recently, Current TV freelance reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee tried and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.
It’s infuriating that the North Korean regime chose to pursue legal action against these Americans on vague grounds, but what’s even more maddening is how little we’ve heard from Current TV or Al Gore, who founded the independent news network.
Ever since the beginning of the ordeal, Al Gore and Current TV have been very quiet about the goings on in the Hermit Kingdom. The network also reportedly took down stories and videos about the two journalists on its own Web site.
Further, according to New York Times blogger Brian Stelter, the “two women’s profiles were scrubbed of any reference to the detainments.”
Stelter further reports that:
“It is not unusual for news organizations to adopt a silent stance when their journalists are detained or otherwise endangered overseas. News outlets often choose not to comment as they work aggressively behind the scenes for the release of their employees. But the public nature of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee’s detainments have put additional pressure on Current to comment about the case.”
If Current TV commented about the case yesterday, I would have said the statement was long overdue. As it stands, even with the news media outlets covering the case more extensively than they’ve done since the beginning of Ms. Lee and Ms. Ling’s detentions, Current TV has not said a word.
It may not be unusual for news organizations to be silent on their journalists’ detentions, but doing so is downright irresponsible. News organizations have a responsibility not just to their public to cover a story without bias, they also have a responsibility to their reporters who often put themselves in harm’s way to get their stories.
By remaining silent, Current TV has failed on both fronts.
Image: @LiberateLaura
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