Yesterday the Red Cross came to VLS to take blood from the students and local residents of South Royalton. In the past I’ve avoided giving blood because I didn’t meet the minimum weight requirement and I am terrified of needles. Yesterday I decided to suck it up and donate because each person who gives blood potentially saves three lives. I’d like to say that the images of small children and ailing people held me through, but in actuality it was a pretty rough process for me. I was shaking as I completed the history, luckily the Dr. taking my history had a great sense of humor and put me as much at ease as was possible given the situation.

When it was finally crunch time, I got onto my lawn chair, and turned my head away while another volunteer tried to keep me distracted by talking horror movies with me. I was nearly done when I got dizzy, and apparently as soon as you mention that word to the volunteers, you’re immediately considered a near faint situation, and they promptly lay you back and place a fan blowing cool air in your face. So I didn’t quite sail through the process, but I finished and filled a bag of blood, which she afterwards let me see and feel (it was so warm!). I think it’s great that VLS brings things like the blood drive or flu shots to our campus. I felt a sense of accomplishment for doing something good for people, and it can’t hurt that it’s sure to bring me some good juju come finals.

Yesterday Vermont Law School hosted the 12th annual conference on Litigating Regulatory Takings Challenges to Land Use and Environmental Regulations. That’s sort of a mouthful, but a takings claim is one where a private property owner says that the government has essentially taken the property without properly compensating the individual. Essentially, the person is claiming that the government regulation placed so great a burden on the individual that it was like the functional equivalent of eminent domain, and therefore the individual is entitled to compensation for the lost property. That might even be more of a mouthful, but if you aren’t sure what a taking is, you can go to the Regulatory Taking entry on Wikipedia for more information.

The conference was excellent. I went for the entire day, and listened closely to all but one of the sessions. Each of the speakers was well prepared, and spoke eloquently about his or her subject. I was surprised that I was as interested as I was, but the subject matter was really fascinating. It probably also helps that I was able to follow along because we’ve been talking about takings in two of my classes — Land Use and Water Law — so I knew nearly every case that was referenced. That was a nice feeling, especially since I haven’t even finished one semester, and I was able to understand nearly all of the presentations at the conference.

It was also neat to see so many experts come all the way to South Royalton, VT for the conference. Most notably, Joseph Sax, who authored my water law textbook and many other books, was there. His talk was one of the most inspiring. He talked about rising sea levels that will come about as a result of global warming, and how this will impact beachfront private property owners. Takings challenges are largely about private property rights, and he said that it was important to realize that the public is also a property owner, with rights just as legitimate and important as private individuals. There are those who fiercely protect private property rights, and I felt like his was a really important point that is often overlooked.

Anyways, it was a really neat thing to have such an important group of people come to VLS for this conference that directly related to two of my classes. I’m so glad VLS made the effort to make it happen, since it seems that conferences like these are normally at bigger schools located in bigger cities. And, I’m excited to talk with my professors about some of the issues raised during the discussions.

It seems like a great number of MELPs have applied for the PMF. I admit that I am one of those MELPs as well. The competition last year was significant, as we were told by Abby Armstong in Career Services. The applicant pool will only be larger this coming year with the unemployment rates as high as they are. Two applicants were selected and made it through the rigorous interview process from VLS last year. Its hard to predict what my odds are in relation to anyone else. Abby also said that some students she anticipated to be chosen were not. That too throws a wrench in trying to guess what the program administrators will be looking for. As a favorite motto of my father’s, you can’t win if you don’t play. I agree with the other bloggers. Apply to the PMF program. Keep in mind though that you only have one chance to do so for each graduate degree, so make sure you put in your best effort with the application.

As for those make up classes. They certainly are a trojan horse. Make ups are not worth the extra time you initially receive when the class is canceled. I have had two make ups already for one class and have another this afternoon for a different class. I am anticipating three more that will be split between two other classes. Its already November 4th. Time is ticking and with the holiday and finals are quickly approaching it only means that much more work crammed into a small amount of available time. The best advice I can give and hopefully follow myself, is not to procrastinate. Do the outlines, do the research, and begin writing drafts of the papers while you aren’t stressed. Meltdowns take away from your productivity. Also, they just aren’t any fun in general.

For cancelled classes. In the last two weeks, I’ve had about 5 of my classes cancelled due to sick professors, conferences, and last minute events. Because the ABA requires a certain number of hours per course, this means make-up classes to make sure we meet our hour requirements. It’s also the season for illness – I was one of the lucky students who received the free flu vaccines that were offered on campus a few weeks back. I haven’t been sick since the first weeks of school (all the stress from moving and starting a new school of course). All the same I’m taking precautionary measures like drinking plenty of tea, trying to get on a regular sleep schedule, and cooking with superfoods like kale.

I cannot believe it’s already November. Still no snow – I’m so excited for it, though all the native Vermonters keep telling me we will have it soon enough, and I’ll be wishing for these 40 degree days in no time. We’ll see about that

Midterms are finally over as well, for some reason I had a sort of drawn out “midterms week”, but it’s done. We had a period last week where we could adjust our spring schedules, which we had set upon arriving in August. I chose to keep mine as it was – I’m looking forward to the Watershed Management class especially, since I was living next to an area where the surrounding watershed drained into – a local estuary back home in CA.

I’ve been thinking about what to do with my summer schedule. Since I’ll have fulfilled all my requirements except for the units, I’m debating about doing an internship somewhere else. I love living in South Royalton – it’s been quite an experience – but I don’t plan to stay here after graduation, so a transition to an internship elsewhere might be a good move. So much to think about. Time to make an appointment for the Career Services office. Speaking of which, I wanted to second the recommendation made by another MELP blogger about applying for the PMF. I definitely sent in an application – the government is a great place to work out of school, it’s valuable experience, not to mention good benefits. I’d definitely suggest applying for it next year because it never hurts to create options for yourself.

About a month ago I sat down with someone in Career Services to talk over the options I had. I wanted to utilize both my BS and eventually MS degrees. My BS is in Occupational Safety and Environmental Health, basically OSHA, EPA, ergonomics, safety management, etc… can fit under that major. The MELP also has some similarities since we go over specific EPA acts, such as CERCLA, Clean Water, and Clean Air. So my idea is to go into Brownfield Redevelopment areas and work as an Environmental Consultant doing the testing for hazardous materials that might be located on the ground. I would also complete the Environmental Impact Assessments.

Now that is one option… Another option is to complete a Presidential Management Fellowship (PMF) with the Federal Government. I would seriously considering applying for this fellowship. Even if you are picked as a finalist you still do not have to go through the program, but if you want to work in a Federal Government Agency, this is your way in. My other options are to work in a company doing general occupational safety tasks, maybe with an emphasis on Environmental; going to Oregon State to complete obtain my PhD; or stay at VLS and complete my JD.

I know that this seems early to think about, but what can I say, I am eager to get back out in the workplace. I would start looking for your ‘perfect’ job now and sitting down with Career Services to talk about the possibility of volunteering or completing an internship in the Spring or Summer semesters. This is another reason why I did start early.

Suggestions… Find your ‘perfect’ job and look at the tasks and responsibilities that you will be asked to complete.  Bring these with you to your Career Services visit.  I would also suggest making a folder of all of these ‘perfect’ jobs and just keeping adding to it.  These jobs descriptions will help Career Services know where you want to go and how you want to use your degree.  It is okay to go there with no clue, but try to think about what excites you about this degree and how that translates into a job.

Last Thoughts… Think about what you would like to do and find your ‘perfect’ job description(s).  Think about volunteering or completing an internship.  Apply for the PMF.  You have options and just do not stick with one, have backups.

The dodgeball event for Oktoberfest has just ended. My team, Swan Flu, was ranked second after yesterday’s events of cake eating and digital scavenger hunting. The last event of the series is a costume contest tonight at Crossroads. It should be a good turn out as long as the weather holds.

To recap, Oktoberfest is an annual competition organized by the SBA. There are 3 days of events that begin on Thursday and end with the party at Crossroads. The events this year include: kickball, trivia, cake eating, scavenger hunt, chili making, kids costumes, dodgeball, and a costume contest. There may be one or two others. Each team can have up to 20 players. You get more points for Professors that participate and partners. We have Professer Robertson and Professor McCann both playing for our team and have been pretty great about trying to make it to events.

Apparently there is also a Winterfest competition and possibly another spring event. Its nice to see the student body has some annual traditions. There are 17 teams at the moment. A good portion of 1Ls have memos due and decided not to participate. I think some of them were able to manage their time so they could participate but, others played it safe since they weren’t sure. Once I learned what it was I decided I could participate in at least some of the events. Since there is really only once chance to participate if I complete the MELP next summer, it seemed like an event worth making time for. It definitely has been. I highly recommend it to anyone that likes to part of school activities. Its also a great way to see and meet people outside of the MELP program which is never a bad thing.

Happy Halloween!

for Halloween my mom is dressing as Sarah Palin. AGAIN

I had some midterms, or rather some papers due as a midterm. the good news is that i survived it. I made it. and truth be told, i called my mom. I called her. and she was glad, I know that makes me a mama’s boy. but heck, they are helping to pay for this whole endevor, so i think she has a right to know. I love my mom. just to keep it real, i love my mom and I love the support to help me in my cause to fight the good fight. In sometime last week we learned about land variance. and then we had a memo on that. still waiting to hear on that one. but its all good.

This past Friday, VLS presented the first Douglas Costle Chair lecture. William Rodgers, the first Douglas Costle Chair Visiting Professor delivered the lecture to a room filled with students, professors, and members of the public.

The lecture was one of the funniest I’ve been to in quite some time. I found myself laughing regulalry, along with most of the audience. Prof. Rodgers identified 5 major problems with the environmental laws of the 1970s. To illustrate each problem, he used examples from history of other bad ideas that exemplified each problem. For example, to demonstrate the problem of a double-edged sword, he told us about the Davy Crockett Nuclear Bazooka, a weapon designed to launch a nuclear warhead a mere 400-600 meters. For the problem of complexity, he told us about Smell-O-Vision, which was an idea to release various odors during a movie that corresponded to the images on the screen. Apparently the odors were often mistimed, too strong, or too faint (leading to lots of loud sniffing noises), and the idea promptly failed.

It was probably a good thing that the majority of the lecture was so light-hearted because the message at the end wasn’t all that uplifting. Essentially, Prof. Rodgers said, there are even more serious environmental challenges facing the world today, and that it was up to the upcoming generation (read: the students at VLS) to meet those challenges. Prof. Rodgers said that with the major tasks ahead of us, the least he and his colleagues could do was to share with us what they had learned. Though that’s certainly nice of them, I couldn’t help but feel that it was a little unfair and a lot overwhelming. It was sort of like being handed responsibility for making peace on earth, and someone saying, “Oh, by the way, I find it really helps if you smile at people.” Gee, thanks.

Maybe it was a good wake-up for me — I’ve been feeling less aggressively passionate about environmental issues, mostly because that seems like a recipe for burnout and eventual failure. But it also has to do with the fact that I feel we now have an Administration that seems likely to make progress on these issues. That alone has probably made me feel that the situation is less dire, but I should be careful not to let it lead to complacency.

Anyways, the lecture was a welcome departure from the more intense and academic classroom discussions. I think the best piece of advice, though not explicitly given, was that it’s important to keep things light, not take yourself too seriously, and to laugh. It certainly makes any task seem less burdensome, and it just makes you feel good.

Its just about 11:45am on Thursday. I’m on the second floor of the Chase Center taking a mental breather while I can. This is a tough week as far as scheduling and work load goes. Definitely no time to get Wednesday Wings at 5 Olde with the roommates kind of a week.

Despite the nice break I had a few weeks ago in my Land Use class having 2 classes canceled, I’m dealing with their make ups this week. That means double the reading. Awesome. The professor knows its a challenging feat to get through though. For our make up on Tuesday she brought in homemade apple pie and a few other desserts to share with the class. It definitely helped alleviate some of the pain of having double meetings in the same day for one course. Also a plus is that the professor is taking a slightly different approach and incorporating guest speakers and a case study activity to change the pace. This was also very nice on her part. However, its still double to workload for one class which ultimately factors into time allotment for other coursework. It gets done but, doesn’t leave time for much else.

This third week of October has come quickly. Registration for Oktoberfest teams has begun, outlines for research papers are due, closed memo assignment deadline is rapidly approaching, Homebrew Ultimate Frisbee tournament and the big Rugby tournaments are both this weekend, as well as conferences and keynote lectures are happening. Talk about time management. How can I do it all and get some sleep? Power naps, as I learned in undergrad, are my best friend. I could use one now actually.

On a lighter note. The weather has been warmer the last few days and today we have bright blue sky to enjoy the remaining foliage with.