like a fish needs a bicycle...

and... it's official

that's right. done with my first semester of law school. (!!!)

please direct all questions to my publicist. no pictures, please. :)

no, but seriously... it's all over and i'm so glad. and i'm really grateful to everyone who said prayers for me. thank you.

so i'm hoping i'll feel more normal now. these past 2 weeks have been so awful. each day has dragged on and on, each hour has passed so slowly. i've had an upset stomach for days, i haven't slept through the night in over a week. i've been having bad dreams and i've been haunted by case names and legal terms, no matter what i'm doing or where i'm going.

but i think it's all over now. i'm going to sleep soundly tonight. and tomorrow i'm going to see the sights of new york that i haven't get gotten to see this whole semester, which should be awesome. and starting saturday, i'm going back to texas, and i'm going to just enjoy relaxing and being with people i love. this might just be the best winter break ever -- even if it is only 2 weeks long...

statistics

so i've mentioned before how the dominant culture in law school is that of the white male. lest my observation be met with skepticism, here's a page with a few numbers on whiteness in law school. interesting, huh?

do you speak engrish?

so i've just discovered another gem on the world wide web, courtesy of my fabulous roommate, sarah. check it out, kids: engrish.com

after my first exam, this was just what i needed. here are a few from today that made me laugh so hard my stomach hurt:

sick to my stomach

just look here.

a lesson from the streets of new york

i've discovered that it really bothers me to see numerous dogs wearing cuter sweaters than i'm wearing.

this, too, shall pass?

civil procedure is sucking my will to live.

my first exam is a week from tomorrow.

help.

lifestyles of the rich and famous

working on my contracts outline at the tea spot tonight, i could distinctly hear a conversation from across the shop. it wasn't a conversation that sat well with me. on some level, it was probably because the "conversation" was dominated by an individual with an extremely loud and irritating voice (at one point, i had to walk across the room and ask her to lower her voice out of consideration for everyone else).

but more than that, it was the subject that was being discussed. for several minutes, i heard emphatic, judgmental comments about david duchovny, jessica simpson, and other celebrities and their personal lives. it just seemed so harsh and unpleasant. i felt violated by being forced to hear it.

hearing that conversation, i was reminded of a magazine i saw in the drugstore earlier today. the cover had a picture of angelina jolie and a picture of jennifer aniston next to each other, and the headline read "who's hotter right now?" seeing it made me cringe.

i've long wondered why america is so celebrity-obsessed. i don't know that i'll ever understand the insatiable curiosity about random people we don't know. but it's more than curiosity that bothers me -- it's the shameless intrusion, judgmentalism, gossip, backbiting, and general sense of entitlement when it comes to other people's lives.

really, i feel so sorry for celebrities. though some of them may perhaps seek attention, it seems that most of them are just trying to live their lives, and they can't help the incessant stalking that they're subjected to on a daily basis. we as humans all make mistakes. but these people's mistakes (everything from unsuccessful marriages to unfortunate fashion choices) are aired out in public -- proliferated, reproduced, magnified, reverberated... i can't imagine how awful that would be. i would never want to be the target of that kind of merciless voyeurism, to have my every word, my every move, and every aspect of physcial apperance dissected and preyed upon. i seriously wonder what that does to an individual's self-esteem and self-image... it can't be good.

some people say celebrities deserve it. that that's the price they pay for being rich. that's what they get for being famous. i disagree. no one should be forcefully subjected to that. they're humans too. even if they want to be in the public eye, they still have souls. speaking ill of them hurts them and it hurts those who do it to them. it's not healthy, and it's a waste of everyone's time, energy, and social interaction.

there are so many urgent, important things in the world to talk about. and besides those things, there are many things to talk about that aren't urgent or important, but that also aren't petty, harmful, and disunifying. why can't people talk about things in these 2 categories? why must they always talk about celebrities? why must they tirelessly invade the privacy and peace of people they don't even know? why haven't we as a society evolved past this?