M.S.E.L. Students Blog

So today I went to the academic success seminar, which was all about course outlines.  I must admit, I had a kinda hard time understanding some of the details of the discussion.  The reason for that is because it was really geared toward JD students.  I think they even forgot to invite the MSEL students to the first such seminar.  Sometimes it seems that we’re only an afterthought.  Sometimes.  Not always.  At least one professor who has MSEL students along with 2Ls and 3Ls will go out of her way to be extra helpful to the MSELs.  So that’s nice.  Both of my classes have only MSEL students, which I like.  I guess I should enjoy it while I can, ’cause next semester or so I may have to start putting up with the JDs!

And now for something completely different.

Thanks to Professor Firestone, a few key phrases are now permanently carved into my memory:

“Adversely Affected or Aggrieved by Agency Action”

“Major Federal Action Significantly Affecting the Quality of the Human Environment”

“Finding Of No Significant Impact”

If you (hypothetical reader who is, hypothetically, considering applying to Vermont Law School) come here and take Environmental Law with Prof. Firestone, these phrases will soon be etched in your brain as well.

And now for something completely different.

Did you know…

Earth is the densest planet in the solar system.  Saturn is the least dense.

The average temperature on Venus is a whopping 867 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s higher than the maximum temperature on Mercury, despite a much greater distance from the sun.  Why?  Greenhouse gas!  Let’s not let that happen to Earth.

So I decided to take a journey outside of the East Randolph to South Royalton limits.  Where did my journey take me? To Middlebury, Vermont with the Fighting Swans, the VLS Rugby Team.  I traveled to Middlebury College to watch our rugby team beat Middleberry with a score of about 50 to 10.  Middlebury was an amazingly beautiful town with many architecturally pleasing buildings, large trees, a campus that fits in with the surrounding town and it was surrounded by a scenic view that can be seen when traveling around Vermont during this time of the year.  The campus overlooked the mountains which were covered with combinations of red, yellow and orange so it provided me with serenity while I watched the game between VLS and Middlebury on the game field.  The day also provided us with clear blue skies, temperatures in the low 80s and a sun that provided me with the tan I now have today. 

Watching the game intently, I was trying to figure out how the game was played since I have only seen it played two times previously.  I found that I could actually concentrate on the game instead of being distracted by the keg, VLS students walking about or the 20 dogs that were at the previous two rugby games held at VLS.  In watching the game, I realized how talented the players were and how much pain they put themselves through and how they rely on others to support them through every move they make.  During rugby someone always seems to go to the hospital, or at least the games I have seen.  Today was my day to help out someone in need.  The guy I traveled to Middlebury with had a Middlebury player run into him and land on his leg, which caused him to limp to the sidelines.  After the Middlebury trainer looked at his foot, they decided it would be best to go to the hospital to check out his foot.  So what did the hospital say?  His Achilles tendon was torn!  He has surgery tomorrow at Dartmouth to stitch it back together, but all that we could do was help him to the car and go to the pharmacy for his pain medication.  He seemed to be taking the pain better than I would be, but after the events of the day, we traveled home to the beloved town of SoRo.  It was an exciting day for my usual Sunday afternoons, but I am glad that I got to see the Vermont countryside and have a little time away from studying.

Austin, Texas

Home to the first Whole Foods Market and more than 300 days of sunshine a year (and you thought this city was all about the music) Austin spreads out among 205 parks, 14 nature preserves, and 25 greenbelts. Talk about green. The city plans to meet 20 percent of its energy needs with renewable energy and energy efficiency by 2020. Factor in county laws protecting the region’s natural watershed from development, a recycling center that dates back to 1970, a dozen outdoor farmer’s markets, city buses that offer free rides on ‘high ozone’ days and an innovative “pay-as-you-throw” trash collection program that rewards residents for being less wasteful and Austin easily earns a spot on the Green List.

Burlington, Vermont

In this small city on Lake Champlain, community pride and responsibility drive the urge to be green. More than one-third of all energy used in the city comes from renewable resources, an impressive statistic in chilly New England. Burlington laws don’t allow the use of pesticides on public parks, land or waterways. Challenged by their local leaders to come up with environmental priorities and solutions to existing problems, residents formed an extensive network of citizen-based groups that take on everything from environmental programs to clean up toxic sites to watchdog groups to monitor pollution in Lake Champlain. With local agriculture a mainstay of the region, schools are switching to locally- and organically-grown foods. The idea of sustainability is becoming part of the school curriculum so, as Burlington’s children grow and take their places in the community — any community — they can take a greener way of thinking along with them.

San Francisco, California

To the superlatives the City by the Bay has acquired over the decades — steepest, foggiest, most expensive — add greenest. With bus, subway and ferry services that reach throughout the Bay Area, avid bikers and devoted car poolers, San Francisco has a good track record for getting people out of their cars. In fact, more than half the city’s residents use public or alternative transportation to get to work. With Golden Gate Park, the newly-decommissioned Presidio, beaches, extensive bike paths and access to the Pacific and the Bay, the city has an abundance of recreational options. Prevailing winds from the water help keep pollution at bay. The city is also a leader in green building, with more than 20 building projects registered for official green certification. And city residents are willing to tax themselves. Voters said yes to allowing the city to sell $100 million in revenue bonds to support renewable energy.

http://promo.realestate.yahoo.com/the_top_ten_greenest_cities.html

(1)  VLS is in the most beautiful place in the whole world.  It’s surrounded by forested mountains and quaint New England villages and pastures, right on the bank of a river.  It’s beautiful enough at any time of year; now imagine it with the fall colors that Vermont is famous for.  Autumn began officially yesterday, but it has been gradually manifesting in the local trees for the past month or so.  The past couple of days have been sunny, and it’s so beautiful already (and not even peak season yet!) that I can hardly stand it.

Even night is pretty.  Yesterday around 8pm or so I was driving home from a meeting of the VLS group BASIC (Brothers and Sisters in Christ) — a wonderful group of lovely people that I’m glad to have joined — and there was an almost full moon reflected in the river below.  I’m not sure I’ve ever made the drive at night before, but I know it will be a regular occurrence before the semester’s end.  Up here in the Arctic Circle the sun sets pretty early in the winter, and the mountains probably make it seem even earlier than it would be otherwise.  (Okay, so we’re not really in the Arctic Circle, and I hope that comment didn’t scare anyone off!  In fact, South Royalton is closer to the Equator than to the North Pole, at a balmy latitude of only 43.82 degrees north.)  My latest class doesn’t let out until about 5:30.  By then it will have been dark for a long time come December.  It may even be dark by the time my first class ends, around 2pm.

I don’t mind, though (of course, I say that now when we still have ~12 hours of daylight every day!).  This truly is the most beautiful spot on earth, and the people of VLS are so nice and so supportive, I can’t imagine being anyplace else.  I could even imagine making the decision to go to law school solely for the opportunity to be at VLS.  (And for the record, nobody’s paying me to say that.  It’s my honest-to-goodness opinion.)

(2)  My writing professor is awesome.  I love her.  (Please don’t read anything inappropriate into the word “love.”  I don’t even swing that way, although sometimes I wish I did, but now I’m digressing again.)  She seems to be rather resistant to grading our assignments.  I think I heard her say that she doesn’t believe in grading or judging people’s writing, and I really appreciate that attitude.  But she does give us lots of helpful feedback.  So it’s totally non-intimidating, being able to submit an assignment and receive feedback without having to worry about it ruining our grade.  I understand that she is going to grade our major assignments (two memos, neither of which has been completed yet) — I guess she has to grade us somehow, on something — but it’s really great to be able to learn legal writing in such a non-threatening way as we prepare to write those major assignments.  And she’s really helpful and even gave us her home phone number so we can call her whenever we have questions.  Now if you’re not yet sold on how cool she is, get this:  Today she brought us apple cider and doughnut holes.  And she thanked us for all our hard work.  (In my opinion we should be thanking her for her hard work teaching us.)  As one of the students pointed out, that’s not what they told us law professors would be like!  (I hope the professor doesn’t read this post that I’ve written about her… how embarrassing would that be… I’m not trying to butter her up, really, I’m not, it’s just… you know… part of life at VLS that I thought I’d mention in writing a blog post.  Or something.  But yeah.  She’s great.)

Well, it’s almost time for my next class, so I’d better scoot.

Cheers,
Sally

Saturday, September 22nd, 2007, 8:30 pm EDT: 

The new season of Boston Legal starts in 73 hours.

(I’m not a complete plug-in-drug addict, but I really love that show.)

Denny Crane!

I think I mentioned before that my top cause is energy.  Well, today I just got to eat my heart out.  First VLS hosted an event with no fewer than four energy buffs discussing the topic (with a free lunch again — who says there’s no such thing?), and then at Dartmouth there was a fascinating seminar on climate change and policy (with coffee/tea and desserts).

Of course I made the journey to SoRo for the energy discussion.  Unfortunately I had written down the wrong time in my planner — for whatever reason, either because I was misinformed or inattentive, I had it listed as 12:00 - 1:30, but it was actually 12:45 - 2:00.  So I got there early, and hadn’t even brought any study materials to make productive use of my time.  But I was just in time to rifle through the free course packets being given away by the bookstore, and help myself to several that looked interesting.  Maybe in the future I’ll take one of those courses, and maybe the course materials will be the same.  That’ll save a few dollars.  Every little bit helps when you’re a starving student.  (As if VLS would let us starve, with those frequent free lunches!)

Speaking of future courses, I’m still not sure what I’m going to take in the spring, or even how many credits I’m going to attempt.  I’d really like to take the energy writing course, but I don’t (yet) have the prerequisite under my belt.  One of the disadvantages of being a part-time student is that you can’t necessarily jump right into the courses that you’re really interested in… if you’re taking just one or two at a time, you gotta decide when to take what.  I’m not by nature a patient person, but I guess this means I get a longer time to look forward to the classes that made me decide to come here in the first place.

There are, of course, some advantages to part-time study as well.  One of these days maybe I’ll write a post on the pros and cons of my relatively unusual arrangement (out of roughly thirty MSEL students, only two or three of us are part-timers).  But not now.  What was I yammering about?  Oh yeah; energy.

In my opinion this is an exciting era to be involved in energy-related pursuits.  Although there is a potential crisis looming, one that threatens not only future generations but current ones as well, I remain somewhat optimistic that humanity will pull through.  I don’t think there’s a silver bullet, and I think most people don’t think there is; our salvation lies not in wind or solar or biomass or wave power or improved efficiency, but perhaps in all of the above, each contributing a fraction of our total need.  (Hey, maybe it’s good if we don’t put all our proverbial eggs in one basket.)  Anyway, it is exciting to think that I am a witness to mankind’s transition from insatiable plundering of the earth’s limited natural resources (fossil fuels) to a lifestyle of responsible and sustainable existence.  I even dare to hope that we can do it without sacrificing too much in the way of our beloved creature comforts.

But despite my optimism, there’s some comfort in living in a northern part of the country that’s not at sea level. 

Later.
Sally

(Opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.)

Rising at 6:30am, out the door by 7:45am, parking the car by 8:10am, studying until 9:45am, class until 11:10am- this is my routine on Tuesday and Thursday of this week.  My roommate who usually has class at 8:30am drives himself, but his radiator hose became disconnected and will not be fixed until Thursday afternoon.  Needless to say, I have been busy and running around most of the week.  With all this running around, I found that I needed to have some ‘alone time’ or time for myself.  So I got my hair cut for the first time in four months which is a long time for me.  But I felt so much better after I did that, very refreshed and ready for the next challenge.  Well, my next challenge was last night.  I went to the Environmental Law Society (ELS) meeting in hopes that I would be voted as the MSEL Representative.  I was very nervous for some reason to stand up in front of the room full of ELS members, but I did it!  I got up, said a few words and then slumped down into my chair.  I only needed to say a few words about who I was since I already received the position due to the lack of involvement or desire of the MSELs to run for the position.  But for some reason, standing in front of that crowd made me very nervous.  I have facilitated workshops, spoken on the Michigan Senate Floor, received awards and given presentations before, but I had never felt like I did last night when I stood up to talk about myself in front of my fellow peers.  It felt good when it was over and I drove home talking to my long distance boyfriend telling him of the days activities and my good news.  Most days after all my activities and classes I relax by talking to those that mean the most to me and ‘chilling out’ to prevent myself for stressing too much like it seems some students are doing over classes, work and extracurricular activities, but I also used to stress out way too much so I am trying to prevent myself from doing that. 

Last night, on the recommendation from a friend, I watched the 1970s movie The Paper Chase.  Lo and behold, the professor today asks in Energy Policy: “Who here has read or seen The Paper Chase?” I, in a brave but stupid move, enthusiastically assert that not only have I seen it! I saw it last night! I, in my enthusiastic daze, did not fully anticipate where this was heading.  Now, let me enlighten you, because I hadn’t heard of this movie either.  The Paper Chase is about students at Harvard Law School and their relationship with a very difficult and unforgiving professor.  This does not sound promising for class.  As I sit second row, center (I used to sit front row center but felt like a putz and moved up one row), and right in the line of sight of the Professor, which was combined with my childly enthusiastic assertion that I had recently seen the movie, I was CHOSEN.  The chosen one for this particular experiment.  And the experiment was: let’s play The Paper Chase! And by play I mean live it.  I had also foolishly asserted to my friend last night that my life was already like this movie (I assure you that it is not…if it was I wouldn’t have time to watch the movie or write in this blog or sleep).  Now I really had the opportunity to live this movie (although our professor is FAR from the infamous Kingsfield of the book/movie/tv series). 

The method starts out the same: What is the case? What is this case about?  And so the Socratic Method proceeds through the case and the dissents.

The beginning of this story is more interesting than the outcome.  I am watching Vertigo tonight and am a bit frightening of the implications this has for any classes tomorrow.

Maybe I’ll write a short post for once…. 

The other night I was working on a case synthesis exercise that was due on Monday in my writing class, and I actually found myself thinking “this is fun!”

That doesn’t mean it was easy (or that I did well on it).  The assignments usually aren’t especially easy, at least not for me.  I’m finding the experience of law school quite humbling, in fact, but also interesting and, yes, fun.  Not to mention educational, which really is the main point, I guess.

I’m still adjusting to law school, which is very different from my undergraduate studies in science and engineering.  But I think I’ll catch on, sooner or later.  At any rate, I’m having a good time and am glad to be here.

Sally

I have been engaged in an epic battle with a fly.  This fly has decided that he (or she) would like to live in my apartment.  No thank you, I already have a roommate.  Now this fly has outsmarted me on every turn (thank you Emory education).  I have chased it around my apartment with everything, including a spatula.  Alas, he still remains.  He even watched the Emmys with me tonight, and we shared a good giggle about Al Gore’s Emmy win and the multiple “foibles of Bush” montages.  I marched out (relatively) early this morning to invest in fly paper.  I even discussed it with the person at the register (with whom I have weekly conversations about the weather and he continues to give me good advice/scare the hell out of me) and he said that the fly paper would definitley do the trick.  To no avail.  Mr. Fly has outsmarted me yet again.  I’ll give him a warm place to stay again tonight. After all, it is 30 degrees outside.