M.S.E.L. Students Blog

Today we had our end-of-semester shindig. With a chocolate fountain. Chocolate fountains are always worthy of a mention. As is the sight of Dean J. dancing with a little girl. Dean J. is my hero. She rules.

Today we turned in our final assignment in our research and writing class. I hope ours seems adequately cohesive… not like totally separate things written by three different people and then lumped together. *Sigh*

Classes are over and I have no exams, but I’m not done yet. Still gotta write a paper for ADR. Ugh. Just shoot me now. See, the thing about ADR is, see, I don’t really know how to please the professor. We’ve turned in two short papers already and both times I got, shall I say, less than perfect grades, but not much of an idea of how to do better. On the last one, all the feedback I got was that I should have used a certain word instead of the word I chose for the purpose (although according to the dictionary my word wasn’t totally wrong, even if it wasn’t the best choice). That’s it. (Oh, and use 12 pt. font.) Not to mention that everyone in the class is terrified of being an unwitting plagiarist. Sometimes you have to put quote marks around a single word. Yes, really.

*Sigh* I would have preferred an exam….

Okay so I’m a little behind on my blogging.  And I meant to keep up this semester.

Spring break caused me to get behind.  Or, should I say, further behind.  I lost all my momentum when I had a break!  Aurgh!

For spring break I took a trip, and when I returned to the airport in Manchester (”Manchvegas” as some call it) around –what– 10 or 11pm on the night before classes resumed, I discovered I had a flat tire.  *sigh*  So I pulled over and began rummaging through my trunk for my spare and jack, and started jacking up the car.  It had been a long day and I just wanted to go to bed, but was still a couple hours away from home (assuming I could actually drive).  A line from Robert Frost’s poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening kept running through my thoughts: “And miles to go before I sleep.”

That line haunts me still, as the end of the semester looms mere days away and yet I must complete some pretty major assignments before I am done.

(Now in case you’re thinking “you’re kidding, Sally — you say ’so yeah’ way too much in your blogs,” let me just claim that I do that on purpose to keep the blogging informal, even conversational, and I am actually capable of writing something relatively professional-sounding when necessary.  I think.  But for whatever reason I tend to think that blogging, by its nature, should be fairly colloquial.  That may be an unjustified opinion, but we all have our idiosyncrasies.  But I’m off on a tangent now.  So yeah.)

So I had my oral argument on Tuesday morning.  Oh my goodness.  I could have used an extra day or two to work on my brief, which was due last Friday and probably would have been better if, at the last minute, I’d suddenly been given an extension on the deadline (however, if the deadline had been later to start with, I would have just procrastinated longer to get to work on the brief and it would have ended up just as sucky).  So my brief wasn’t as good as I would have liked, and there were improvements I would have made if time permitted, but I’m still holding out some hope that my brief wasn’t totally horrible either (at least until it is returned to me with a grade that says otherwise).  I like to think that it was relatively coherent and somewhat logical and that I did an acceptably decent job of following the conclusion-rule-application-conclusion format.  I know it could have been better, but maybe it wasn’t bad enough to merit the word “NO” scribbled across the top as the professor’s feedback.  (As an undergraduate I once had a professor who graded some students’ exams that way.  But not mine, of course!  )

Oral argument is quite another matter.  At home, on my couch, thinking about the case and penciling notes on my opposing counsel’s brief and in my notebook, it all makes perfect sense in my mind.  But when I step up to the lectern to explain all this for the judge (professor), somehow my mind doesn’t repeat all the same brilliant (heh) things it told me in the days before.  Yes, I know, I should prepare really good notes, in large bold font for easy reference, in proper order, so I’ll know exactly what to say.  I should, really.  And I meant to.  But in the days leading up to the performance, I found myself unable to work it in due to extenuating factors, I guess.  Or something.  So yeah.  I wasn’t well prepared, and it showed.

Also I felt like a tool getting up to make basically the same arguments that were already written out in my brief.  And I’d never done this sort of thing before, so even if I’d been told what to expect, it was still a new experience.  I seemed to especially have trouble getting back on track after being asked a question.  I liked being asked questions, though.  I really did.  Some questions that I expected didn’t get asked, and some that I didn’t expect, did.  Some I couldn’t answer and I had to say that the information wasn’t in my facts.

So what all this boils down to is that I need to make a habit of preparing myself better before ever speaking in front of anyone about anything of importance, but at least now I have an idea of what the whole oral argument thing is really like — an idea from personal experience, rather than mere description from someone else.  There’s just no substitute for experience.

And my writing, for all its flaws, is much better than my speaking (which isn’t saying much).  So yeah.

It took awhile, but at some point well into January, long after exams were taken and forgotten, our fall semester grades were finally posted.  Ever since then there’s been a lot of controversy over the curve, but that’s not really what I’m blogging about at the moment.  Maybe later; we’ll see.

I took two courses in the fall: Environmental Law (4 credits) and Environmental Writing 1 (2 credits).  I did… uh… not bad.  Earlier, in Term 4 of Summer Session 2007, I took a 2-credit course: Strategic Planning for Sustainable Development.  I did “not bad” in it, too.  (Yeah, the good folks at VLS were nice enough to let me get started a bit early, even though my application and admission were for the fall of 2007.  I liked that summer class.  And I liked the blueberries that were in season on campus at that time.  Yum!)

I say this not to toot my own horn, or to imply that my grades were perfect; I’ll leave it to the reader’s imagination how good “not bad” grades actually are.  I could just as well reveal things about my academic history that I’m not proud of.  As an undergraduate I did okay, but then I attempted graduate school… twice… and it just didn’t work for me.  Without going into too much detail about how bad it was or why, I’ll say that I didn’t exactly shine in my early attempts at graduate studies.  Frustrated and disappointed in myself, I quit trying, took a job, and was out of school for several years.

Then I applied to VLS.  I didn’t relish having to explain my poor past performance, but I hoped that the admissions committee would be understanding and compassionate (after all, everyone goes through rough times in life, right?), and see something in me that would be worthy of another chance.  I guess they did, since I’m here now.  And so far, in the three courses I’ve completed, I’ve done… not bad.  That’s a great feeling.  Redemption!  I am myself again!  (I hope!  [Knocks on wood.]  I tend to have an irrational fear of jinxing good things by discussing them! )

Thank you, VLS, for believing in me, and for giving me the opportunity to succeed and to create a new and better history for myself.

And to those of you out there who don’t have spotless transcripts: don’t let that deter you.  It’s never too late to try again and do better.

Well I’d just opened up this text editor dealie to write another post and yammer on mindlessly about how I was overly cynical and I did, in fact, get into that ADR course (yay!) and how neither of my courses this spring has any exams (yay — I think!) and stuff, but now I have something really worthwhile to share.

This link was just emailed to me by someone who once knew U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer.  Some funny stuff there.  http://www.texasbar.com/saywhat/weblog/

Law is fun.  It really is.

So I’ve been meaning to post more for awhile.  No, really, I mean it.  But I’ve been busy.  No, really, I have.  I spent winter break moving to another town (also in New Hampshire).  I now live even farther away than I did.

I took my Environmental Law final on December 17.  It was something like three hours, as I recall.  I was wise enough to eat a relatively filling breakfast beforehand, so I wasn’t interrupted by hunger during the exam.  Unfortunately, however, I got very thirsty.  I’d thought to take a bottle of water, but didn’t have one ready to go when I was rushing out the door, so… I just suffered through.  I don’t recommend it.  Take water to your three-hour exams.  Better to  have it and not need it, as they say.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get any real feedback on that final.  I’ve had this nagging fear ever since, though, that I made some silly mistake and if I could see the graded exam I’d smack my forehead and think “Oh, I knew that!  What possessed me?”

So as I understand it, Professor Firestone doesn’t give back graded exams.  Darn it.  It always annoys me when professors adopt this policy; as I see it, the exam is part of what I’m paying for, it’s my work, and I’d like to have it.  For future reference, perhaps?  I might forget something some day.  Or for feedback, so I’ll know what I need to brush up on.  After all, I’m paying for an education, not just credit hours and grades.  Getting an exam back can be educational, in my book.

Okay, I’m done griping about that.  I’m over it.  Really, it’s not that big a deal, I guess. 

Now, on to the spring semester…

I still don’t know my spring schedule for sure, but it looks like I’ll be taking the second semester of Environmental Legal Research and Writing, at least.  That’ll be fun.  The first course was very useful.  And I’m waitlisted for an ADR (alternative dispute resolution) course that I’d really like to take, but am not optimistic about getting into.  I guess I get another shot at it next year — that’s one of the advantages of part-time status… taking more than one year means more than one chance at your top-choice classes.  (Oh, did I mention that the semester started today [January 09, 2008]?  But none of the classes I’m taking, or possibly taking, meet before tomorrow.  So yeah.)

Oh, I mustn’t forget to rave about the chocolate fountain.  VLS hosted a holiday party at the end of the fall semester, complete with a chocolate fountain.  Yay!  There’s another advantage to taking more than one year here: multiple holiday parties. 

Cheers!
Sally

Hi!  Did ya miss me?

Yes, I’ve been terribly neglecting blogging lately.  Every day I would think, oh, I’ll write another post soon, but not today… and the next thing I knew, over a month had gone by.  No, I don’t really expect that anyone much missed my posts, but I’ll admit that, back when I was a prospective student, I really enjoyed reading Todd’s posts and I missed them when there weren’t new ones.  Which there haven’t been in awhile.  (What’s this, Todd, you don’t blog anymore just ’cause you’ve graduated or something?!)  So yeah.

School work really caught up with me (ha — as if I were ever ahead of it!).  Since my last post I completed the first of two major memorandum assignments in my writing class (last month) and have the second one due soon.  I’m glad we get another semester of writing in the spring, ’cause I like it.

My other class, Environmental Law, is good too.  I’ve noticed that Professor Firestone always starts at the right side of the chalkboard and works his way to the left.  That reminded me of… me.  Back when I was in college I noticed that I had this inexplicable habit of working from right to left sometimes.  On exams I would start around the middle of the page, go left to right and top to bottom, and then when I ran out of space at the bottom, I would find the space I needed… to the left of what I’d written.  It must have annoyed the graders, and I think at least once I lost a point for my work being so sloppy (or because the grader, to use his own words, “just had to take a point off for something” — I got a 99% on that exam).  I have no idea why I worked that way, but I did notice that I had that habit, for whatever reason.  I seemed to take notes that way, too.  But I don’t so much in law school.  Maybe because of the subject matter: in college I took mostly science, math, engineering, stuff like that, so most of my work involved equations and stuff.  For some reason, writing down English words instead of numbers and formulas inspires me to be more normal, or so it seems.  I don’t know what Professor Firestone’s excuse is. 

Actually he was an engineer before he went to law school, so maybe there’s just something about engineering that does that to people.  But still, engineering is not what he’s teaching us, and usually there isn’t a lot of math in his class.  But on Monday there was some — actual calculus!  That was fun.  (Now, any math-o-phobic prospective students out there: don’t be alarmed.  Prof. F. has assured me that we won’t need calculators on the environmental law exam.)

But getting back to the point: today is Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving!  Take a few moments to be grateful for the good things in your life — it’s healthful to do so.  Among other things, I am thankful for VLS.

Today VLS provided a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, free of charge, for members of the local community — those who are poor or alone or simply wanted to attend.  Even those who couldn’t leave home were provided food, as I understand it.  Isn’t it lovely of the school to do that?  It’s one thing to sit in an ivory tower and proclaim the virtues of community service, giving back, and so on, but it means so much more to actually do a good deed for people right there in your own backyard (practically).  VLS really “walks the talk,” so to speak. 

I especially liked the squash.  It was yummy.  I felt a little rude taking the last piece of chocolate pie (I am of the opinion that an item does not qualify as dessert if it’s not chocolate, and of course traditional Thanksgiving “desserts” don’t meet my exacting standard), but then I discovered that two more chocolate pies materialized afterward.  If only I’d saved room to sample three different chocolate desserts!  Ah, but gluttony is the name of the game on Thanksgiving Day.  Or is it?  Let’s not lose sight of the real point of this inspired holiday — thankfulness.

Thank you, VLS.

First, I want to say how happy I am that this year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to a very worthy individual for very important work — Al Gore (along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) for his consciousness-raising on climate change.  You go, Mr. President!  (Oops, I mean Mr. Should Have Been President ’cause more Americans voted for him than for that other guy, even without a recount in Florida, so obviously he was our preference even if there was a stupid technicality that gave the office to someone We the People didn’t want to represent us.)  (Yes, again, opinions are my own and do not represent those of Vermont Law School!)

Today was the Energy Symposium at Dartmouth.  It was great, although it was a rather long day.  But no, it really was great.  I wouldn’t have minded a little more discussion of wave (and/or tidal) power, which was only briefly acknowledged once or twice (New Hampshire has eighteen miles of coast… not much compared to most coastal states, but it’s something!).  It may be the least developed of the alternative energy possibilities, but I find it very interesting.  But anyway, what we did have in the symposium was definitely interesting too.  I’m glad I went.  (It was a long day, though!)  I might elaborate more, but I’m tired and who can really sum up 11.5 hours (minus break time) of expert discussion on many sub-topics related to one big important topic?  I could definitely never do it justice, even if I tried.

Okay, that’s enough for now.  Need sleep.  Later…

Sally

We have a brief fall break here at VLS, which for me means only one day off from classes.  Unfortunately, I don’t also get a day off from work, even though it is Columbus Day.  By the way, Columbus was evil and it is an abomination to have a holiday in his honor (in all honesty, though, I would be glad to have a day off; I just wouldn’t spend my day off celebrating the Spawn of Satan, aka Christopher Columbus).  Fall, on the other hand, is one of the greatest things in all of Creation and definitely worth celebrating!  Yay, fall break!

More on Columbus — what every American should know but probably wasn’t taught in elementary school:  Christopher Columbus: Hero or Murderer?

Today (Sunday) I went up to the Pumpkin Festival at the Cedar Circle Farm in East Thetford.  It was nice.  Cedar Circle is certified organic and is a lovely farm.  They also had a strawberry festival in the summer that I went to.  I picked my own strawberries and they were yummy, even though I got there late-ish and a lot of people had already picked the biggest and most noticeable berries.  But, yeah, today it was pumpkins.  I had a nice little lunch of potato leek soup (delicious) and pumpkin bread (delicious) and they also gave out samples of carrot ginger soup.  I hate ginger, but in some contexts it’s not so bad.  It worked very well in the soup.  It was delicious.  I gotta learn how to make that.

Rural Vermont may seem like the middle of nowhere to city folks, but there are certainly plenty of nice ways to keep entertained here in the Upper Valley.  Sometimes there are so many things I want to go to, I can’t possibly fit them all in.

Last week, must’ve been Wednesday, VLS had a fascinating lecture on Climate Solutions by Peter Barnes.  Professor Firestone actually let us out of class on time, so I wasn’t late for the lecture.  I’m glad I went.  It was an interesting and thought-provoking discussion.  Peter Barnes advocates a cap-and-rebate system for limiting carbon emissions… what this means basically (I hope I can sum it up in a way that’ll do it justice) is that people who dump carbon into the atmosphere pay to do so, and they pay according to the amount of carbon they dump.  But instead of paying the government in the form of taxes, they pay the owners of the atmosphere — everyone (well I guess it’s like a tax, but the gov’t gives it back to the people instead of keeping it).  Everyone gets a rebate.  So if you use little enough carbon, you profit from the system.  That way it isn’t a burden on the poor who struggle to pay for what little energy they need.

Again, I hope I haven’t totally butchered his plan in my brief recap.  I was sold on the idea.  I would love to see it actually implemented, although I must admit I don’t have a whole lot of faith in the powers that be.  But I hope someone will listen.  Someone with the power to make a difference.  (In a democracy, that should be me, right?  Yet I’m sitting on my butt bitching about how it’s someone else’s job to make change… hmm… well, yeah, I’m not sure how much faith I have left that democracy really works in this country… *sigh*)

This week is the big Dartmouth Energy Symposium.  It might not be too late to register to go — it’s gonna be great!  I’ve been looking forward to it for awhile.  Will keep you posted (probably).  Till then –

Cheers,
Sally

P.S.  As always, opinions expressed are my own.

Like VLS, Dartmouth College (in Hanover, NH, about a half hour’s drive from SoRo) is devoted to the principles of sustainability.  Last week, for example, the college provided a waste-free cookout for the entire school community (thousands of people).  I always appreciate free food, but it was especially gratifying to have such an event with a reduced ecological footprint.  Much of the food was grown nearby.  We used real dishes.  The food scraps and unbleached paper napkins were composted afterward.

In addition to last week’s festivities (it was the first week of the term), Dartmouth makes a significant effort to provide food from area farms in at least one of its dining halls on a regular basis.  The college has its very own working organic farm.  And every Friday this term, the college’s engineering school is hosting a seminar on a topic related to renewable energy, carbon, and/or climate change.  The one-hour seminars begin at 3:30pm on Fridays (with coffee/tea and desserts provided at 3:15) in room 100 of Cummings Hall at Dartmouth.  Please feel free to attend if you are in the area.  The seminars are definitely interesting and worthwhile, in my opinion.  (Yes, everything I write in these posts is my opinion, and not necessarily Vermont Law School’s.  I must remember to say that periodically, mustn’t I?  Maybe I should also say that I’m not speaking for Dartmouth, either; I am employed by the college, but my comments are still my own!)

Anyway, I thought maybe I should say something about all this because (1) Vermont Law School and Dartmouth College offer a joint degree program (MSEL/MBA) as well as occasional opportunities for students of one institution to take classes at the other, and I thought maybe this would be of interest to some (hypothetical) readers, (2) obviously matters of environmental sustainability are of interest to a great many people at Vermont Law School, and (3) Dartmouth’s relative proximity to VLS makes it somewhat relevant to life at VLS and it might not be too far to travel if you wanna go to one of those seminars.  So, yeah.

I’m not very coherent today.  Don’t know if it matters, but I have been having a rather tough time lately… not necessarily with school, but just personal stuff (although that rubs off on school and everything else, doesn’t it?).  I think I’ll pull through, though.  I sure hope so.

On an unrelated topic, I see that my VLS email is already at 36% of its capacity.  How the not-heaven did it get that full in barely a month?!  Maybe I should go through and delete a bunch of stuff… but seriously.  That’s pretty full pretty quickly, and I already do delete most of that junk…