Double The Fun!

Two Reasons to Rejoice Today:

1. Being done with my first year of law school! More on this later.

2. Bruins United won 8 out of their 10 contested seats, including my good friend Gabe taking the Presidency and winning EVP for the first time ever. My babies are all grown up.

Time to go celebrate with my fellow "rising 2Ls" and get away from my computer because I can!

In the Criminal Justice System...

You how people always ask how you how you decided to take the educational and career path you did? I always reply Law & Order. Though many people may think I am joking, I am dead (no pun intended) serious. Maybe I would have found the legal path anyway, but I remember thinking how cool lawyers were once my brother forced me to watch Law & Order repeats afterschool on A & E.

Actually, when I first watched the show, I wanted to be a criminal psychologist. I think my dad was a little disconcerted by the thought of me examining the minds of possible criminals. Maybe in comparison, a lawyer sounded like a much better idea.

Anyway, I just thought of that because I'll be wrapping up my first year of law school with criminal law. I've been trying to channel my inner Jack McCoy (Assistant District Attorney on Law & Order), even though my Professor, a former public defender, isn't the biggest fan of prosecutors. His tactics might be ethically dubious but I still love him.

I plan on using tomorrow's test as my one opportunity to pretend to be a criminal lawyer, since I don't plan on being one in real life. That's notice to all my friends/family, don't get in trouble because your one call will be wasted on me.

Celeb Crime & Punishment

Despite coming from LA (more or less), I never cared all that much about celebrity gossip. I have to admit that I read a lot more of it now, but for a very nerdy reason. In addition to seeing the law everywhere I look in my own life, celebrity stories are usually chock full of interesting legal matters. I mean, just look at the Anna Nicole Smith Saga, my legal rhetoric prof who was a family lawyer found a million issues there.

As I was studying for Criminal Law today, one of the topics we addressed early in the semester was judicial equality. Should we ever take into consideration a person's character or potential when giving them sentences? Is there ever reason to treat people in the system differently? This naturally made me think of sentencing in celebrity cases and Paris Hilton.

I think everyone knows by now that Paris Hilton was sentenced to 45 days in a LA County jail for driving when her licensed was suspsended for a DUI. Although today Paris said "I am ready to face the consequences of violating probation...I do not expect to be treated better than anyone else who violated probation. However, my hope is that I will not be treated worse," her lawyers and annoying mother still cry injustice! They say many other celebrities have gotten lesser sentences as well as the opportunity to pay to stay at nicer jails. Petitions have been circulated, urging the Governator to pardon Paris. *rolls eyes* No wonder the rest of the country thinks we're nuts.

What annoys me the most about the argument about being treated unfairly is that her lawyer is comparing her to other celebrities who in most people's minds shouldn't special treatment at all. Out of all people in the world, celebrities have no excuse for their flagrant disregard of the law. Practically speaking, they should be the last people getting DUIs because they have enough money for personal drivers to chaffeur them around when they get wasted.

Plus, they know have papparazi following and thus their chances of getting caught are higher. But they keep doing it because they can, society and the judicial system lets them. First week of crim law we learned that one of the reasons why you punish people is to deter them and others generally.

Though part of me wants celebrities to be held a higher level because they are role models to kids (for better or worse) and they have so many privlidges that really give them no excuse to ever need to break the law, for now I'll just settle for equal justice.

Seeing the Light

With Property done (thank goodness), there's only one final left that stands between me and summer. 3 days until my 3 hour final and my first year of law school will be done. In the words of my roommate "this is where we separate the strong from the weak."

Though she was kind of joking, it's somewhat true. Not that the last final will make or break you, but I think finals in general test how long you can persevere. And while I'm quite exhausted, I'm determined to end strong after I got a little pep talk today from an usual source.

So earlier this semester I went to the eye doctor around the corner because my glasses broke. He was mean and scolded me for not trying hard enough in telling the difference between lens A and B, 1 or 2 (those who have been to eye doctors know what I'm talking about). Despite saying that I was trying because I don't like having poor vision, he didn't believe me and kept saying I wasn't trying hard enough. Long story short, I lucked out and found a new eye doctor down the street.

After my final today I go to new doctor, who already seemed very pleasant when I was making my appointment with him over the phone, and was just as nice in person. After the last doctor, I thought I was going to develop a fear of optometrists and not getting the answers right on the vision test like people have of dentists and getting fillings. However, this doctor was nice, explained exactly what he was doing the whole time, and I even got to do fun eye tests I've never done before like the colorblind and binocular test.

And when we were doing the eye test, I warned him that my eyes were a little tired from staring at a computer screen for four hours straight while taking my property final and he responds, "that's right, you're in law school. Wow, you should be really proud of yourself for how far you've come. You'll one day realize what a tiny percentage of people get to go to law school, and to almost be done with your first year, that's great!"

It was pretty much just the thing I needed to hear at the exact moment when I needed it the most, in this homestretch. I see the light, and thanks to new contacts, I can actually see things without eyeglasses all the time...just in time for summer and my sunglasses.

Actions May Speak Louder...

But the impact of written word can last like a scar from a wound.

It sounds ridiculous, but I shudder every time I heard the word 'lackluster.' Back when I ran for student government, the Daily Bruin endorsed me for IVP but called the three candidates running for the position lackluster. Although the rest of the endorsement was pretty nice, that word will forever be ingrained in my mind. Ask other candidates from years past what the Daily Bruin wrote about them, and most of them will remember exact words, usually the negative ones. Nowadays, the Daily Bruin is generally nicer, which makes me happy. They've been able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of candidates without using unnecessarily scathing language.

Instead of the words of the school newspaper, I feel like the new anxiety to candidates is from the wonderful world wide web. It's one thing to hear insults, it's another to log onto your computer and see anonymous attack ads on Facebook. As a general proponent of positive campaigning, the only thing worse than I could think of than attack ad is an anonymous one. If you have criticism, that's fair but own up to it so that 1) people can actually see if you're a legitimate source, and 2) so the people you're attacking can refute you if necessary. I really can't think of anything more cowardly than lobbing insults behind a veil of anonymity.

The thing with written insults, whether it be on a facebook ad, from a nasty made up screenname, or from an anonymous blog comment (the last two I endured awfully for weeks after I won), is that the words just glare at you. Also, anonymous insults are usually derogatory, racist, unfounded, and for no good reason. Yet you'll just read it over and over, which in my mind has a stronger effect than hearing it over and over in your head. Moreover, spoken word is typically limited to the person you're speaking to, whereas written word can be seen by many.

I guess that's why I have a general policy for my blogging that I won't vent about or try to insult others here, directly or indirectly. I've stumbled across too many things online about myself or my friends to know how much it hurt, and to know how inevitable it will be that the person you write about will somehow find it.

*sigh* First Amendment. I wish people would remember that just because there's freedom of speech, that shouldn't mean that you exercise your freedom to be stupid.

On Notice

Though I don't get to watch the Colbert Report as frequently as I would like to, I still think that Steven Colbert is one of the funniest people on TV. On his show, he'll put people, animals, countries, and other things that he disapproves of "on notice," via a big blue board. Someone showed me this site where you can make your own.

I think my things on notice are pretty self explanatory. Honestly, if you look at baby corn, it's really creepy. And has anything really good come out of Florida? I could have easily put finals as 1-10 though. My motivation has been waning each day and I have two more finals to take this week. So close, but so far.