Pre-paper, Post-paper

Before:

And after:

Unfortunately, I don't think these pictures do justice to the level of tidy serenity that existed before I started writing, and then, the level of chaos that existed once the paper was done. It was difficult to navigate the floor, the bed, the desk...

It was, however, incredibly satisfying to put every piece of research I had printed in a neat pile and haul it out of my room, into a temporary resting place on the bookshelf in the living room. I'll have to face it again though, because the topic is interesting enough that it should be paid attention to and polished up. It can, decidedly, wait until exams are done.

Post-Exam, Pre-Paper

Rest the night before an exam is never really satisfying, in spite of the fact that I actually went to bed at 11 p.m. last night. This is me, yawning uncontrollably, after my admin law exam:


Now, I sleep for a 1.5 hours. And then, I write.

Favourite Things, Part IV

It's exam time! How does one survive?

Coffee in the Bodem
(I love it. It's so low tech)

Consuming coffee and tea from my law school mugs

(I found these the first week of law school and I love them)

Strawberry Twizzlers. Yum!

Insight Into Political Events in Canada

My stunningly brilliant and beautiful colleague has repeatedly proven that she has an "amazing ability to see (and explain)" (as another brilliant and beautiful colleague put it) a wide variety of phenomena in this world. Here, her observations on current politics and our political leaders (reprinted with permission):

I like to view the current actions on Parliament Hill as a historical moment wherein Parliament altruistically sacrificed its dignity so that Canadians could work on their own personal issues and family relations problems.

Harper has taught us the age old lessons of natural consequences: "one must sleep in the "confidence vote" bed one makes" and "mean people suck". No one likes them and the friends they have are acquired through fear. Furthermore, all they can do is bad (ie. sending us into a constitutional and unity crisis).

Dion and Layton's actions reinforced the maxim that "one must act like an adult in order to be given adult responsibility". No amount of fist pounding, name calling, and yelling will ever get you what you want.

Bob Rae will soon teach us that the lesson of "never publicly set a limit that you are not willing to follow through on". This lesson will come when he burns down every bridge still open to the Liberal party by insisting on voting down what I think with be a drippingly generous stimulus package because he thinks Harper's an asshole.

Ignatiaf will teach us the well-known lesson of the "quiet child": the kid that makes the least amount of fuss for their parents get the biggest inheritance. His relative silence during this whole debacle will win him the Liberal leadership.

I have to say, I think she's pretty on point on all fronts. I think Harper's an asshole for proroguing. But the time for the coalition has passed, unless Harper is stupid enough to present a vindictive budget, a la economic update of last week, a second time around. Which he won't be. He's a stunningly calculating political tactician (I will give him that) and the only explanation for these events is hubris. And the fact that he's an asshole.

I hope the reason that the meeting between Harper and GG Jean took nearly three hours yesterday is because she was baking him a humble pie and spoonfeeding him every goddamned crumb of it.

TCO Supports a Coalition

You can have your political views. Be Liberal, be Conservative, be NDP, be Green, be BQ.

But don't lie. Harper lied about our Constitution. Not interpreted according to his politics (which are clearly divisive and oppressive, but that's my interpretation). He lied, flat out and bald-, bold-, and bare-faced (depending on which usage you prefer).

I get that pols spin. It's politics. I lie. It's life. But this is too much. Don't f*ck with my Constitution!!

Get thee out, spot!

And by "spot", I mean Harper.

Postcards from the Edge, Sixth in a Series

For a friend:

Handy Advice

"Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. And how else can it be? The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."

Kahlil Gibran, "Joy and Sorrow", The Prophet.

I had bad and sad news this weekend, which has well and truly taken me off guard. I received instructions from a friend this morning to put on my palm to-do list today:


I'm trying, in only moderately successful ways, but I am grateful for those who are checking in. It makes it easier to laugh knowing that I am not alone.

You Know It's the End of the Semester When...

...FCLF knocks on my door at 11:45 p.m. and says, "I'm going to the 7-11...you wanna come?" and I reply, "YEAH!" enthusiastically, resulting in a trip that scores Doritos, Fruit & Nut, two bottles of Coke and $2 worth of penny candy (which is now actually worth five pennies).

It's Brain Junk, Autumn 2008 edition. It's interesting to note that my first post about brain junk occurred on December 17, 2006, which was almost entirely through the first set of 1L exams. It's not even December yet, and already I've resorted to the junk.

The situation is clearly serious.

Favourite Things, Part III, Superhero Edition

It's kind of funny that I'm a future lawyer and yet I'm utterly taken with that icon of vigilantism, the superhero. We're a Justice League family. The four of us are relatively obsessed. I can't explain my hypocrisy on this one. I don't like violent TV for kids, but this is one of the exceptions I'm obviously willing to make.

A while back, we quizzed each other on who our top JLers were. Mine follow. Upon reflection, I realized that my favourites are all Leaguers who do not have superpowers, just their wits about them (and cool gadgets). This probably says something about my character. I'll let you decide what.

Absolute #1:

Batman

The rest are tied:

Huntress

Green Arrow

Favourite Things, Part II

Pointy shoes

Fishnet stockings

Fig and cucumber body butter
(in a pinch this is also a very fine-smelling alternative
to hair pomade for messing up my new haircut,
another one of my favourite things)

Palm, v. 0.0

I wrote my to-do list:


And then I synched it with my cell phone:

Postcards from the Edge, Fifth in a Series

Remember

Last night after yoga, I went to the National War Memorial to view RH Thomson's Vigil 1914-1918. It was quite moving.

I went because I thought I should see, and reflect on what my responsibilities are as a human being and what they will be as a lawyer. Law is an extremely important instrument, especially perhaps in times of war. This is a privileged profession and I take that privilege seriously.

I wouldn't say that I'm a pacifist, but it is safe to say that war is never good. I don't know if I support many of the military actions that are currently ongoing, but that doesn't mean that I don't support the people who do the job. What a job it is.

It occurred to me last night that my cousin is in the military. So, I remembered how close this could be to our family.

It's my last year in Ottawa, so I'm going to take this opportunity to go the service today at the Memorial.


Photo by adam is on flickr used under Creative Commons licence

Postcards from the Edge, Third & Fourth in a Series

Today, one for each kid:

I Stood in Mountain Pose

I stood in mountain pose, with my heart open to the dead.

I watched 525 names of men, lost to the war, for most of an hour.

When I was cold, I opened my heart more and breathed though the loss of them.

I bowed to the dead, known and unknown, and then I walked slowly away.

Postcards from the Edge, Second in a Series

I need to work on my bubble letter penmanship. It's been awhile since I've had cause to draw bubble letters, I guess.

Favourite Things, Part I

A random assortment of things that please me:

The plants I have managed not to kill for 2.5 months.
Also, those little white pots.

These socks, because they have polka dots and they come up above my knees.

My Converse All Star Mary Janes.

Postcards from the Edge, First in a Series

When I was living in Europe the first year that AHC and I started dating, we wrote each other a lot of letters. One of the things that he did that I loved (and still love, to this day) was send me postcards on a very regular basis. Like, sometimes daily. It was awesome.

Recently, I decided to return the favour for AHC and the kids. I'm barely going to be home until I write my last exam on April 30, 2009. Life is not going to be any easier from here on it, until that day. But, maybe getting postcards from here will make it a little easier. Everyone loves getting mail!

There's Good News and There's Bad News

The good news is: He Won!

Boy, the law school was excited today. Professor Sheila McIntyre gave quite a moving endorsement in her opening to today's Greenberg Lecture (I swear, being surrounded by that many feminists always makes me want to cry with joy).

Remember:



See here for the bad news.

So listen, I know I didn't post anything when that robot (and I don't mean that as a compliment) Stephen Harper won (sort of) the Canadian election. It might have been despair. I feel quite sad about the state of democracy in Canada. I hope, as the Onion wrote today, that Canada doesn't have to get "shitty enough" to make social progress happen. But it might.

I have a sneaking suspicious that hope (without making a judgment on the validity of said hope) might start to build here. Personally, for an Obama-level change (and it's going to be an uphill battle every single inch), I think we might need to elect an Aboriginal Prime Minister.

This Might Be A Problem

I was doing research for a paper in my Aboriginal Law class and came upon this telling FAQ page:


Is it just me, or is something wrong with that?


(Apparently you have to click on it to get the full effect. I can size it right for some inexplicable reason.)

Things That I've Been Lately Reading:

• Sun-tzu, The Art of War (edited and translated by John Mumford)
• Margaret Atwood, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
• Joseph Boyden, Born With a Tooth
• Joseph Boyden, Through Black Spruce
• Constance Backhouse, Carnal Crimes: Sexual Assault Law in Canada, 1900-1975
• Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism
  

All of these and more (i.e. textbooks) are on the go. I'm just taking them little bits at a time, because I can't afford the time to read them all at once, but I also feel like I can't put them off to a time when my schedule will be free and clear for reading. Because, when will that be?

Wow!

As I drove back to OT yesterday, I stopped in Bancroft for gas. And I paid less than $1 per litre! I haven't paid less than a dollar in what feels like months. Whether in fact it has been months, or how many months it has actually been, is nebulous.

See, there are good effects of the global economic meltdown. Personally, I am sort of in favour of high gas prices (though I wish it was through taxation which benefits government coffers and not via enriching polluting oil companies), because it better reflects the real environmental costs of fossil fuel use. However, I am sort of doing my part by traveling back country and staying off highways, where high speeds result in both increased emissions and fuel burned (is this different or the same? I'm not exactly sure). Anyway, as a somewhat poor student, I was happy for the reduction in price.

Best Case Today

Bastard v. Smith (1838), 2 Mood. & R. 129.

I'm not kidding. It's a real case.

Angry. White. Female.

See, this happens to me all the time. I say I'm going to start blogging again, and then I get overwhelmed by the kind of sad reality that exists in the world and I can't even put into words my sadness, my anger, my sense of helplessness....

This semester, I am in two difficult classes: the Law of Sexual Assault and Aboriginal Law. One makes me angry based on my gender and one makes me angry based on my race. One for being a victim of my gender, and one a perpetrator of my race.

One of our first readings in the SA class...Okay, aside required: really, I can't bring myself to write "sexual assault" too often, because I now have to think about it so much. I've taken to referring to it as my "Crim" class. I suppose it's a way of neutralizing it, kind of like reforming the law to call it "sexual assault" instead of rape neutralized it within the criminal law. Anyway, one of our first readings was from Andrea Dworking, respected, lionized, hated and despised radical feminist. It was a transcript from a speech she gave at a conference of the National Organization for Changing Men in 1983. I feel these words apply equally to men--as Dworkin intended--as they do to me as a white person:

...everything is a reason not to do something about changing the fact that you do have that power.

Hiding behind guilt, that's my favourite...Oh it's horrible, yes, and I'm so sorry. You have the time to feel guilty. We don't have the time for you to feel guilty. Your guilt is a form of acquiescence in what continues to occur. Your guilt helps keep things the way they are.

...mostly your guilt, your suffering, reduces to: gee, we really feel so bad...And I'm sorry that you feel so bad--so uselessly and stupidly bad--because there is a way in which this really is your tragedy.

...You damn well better believe that you're involved in this tragedy and that it's your tragedy too.

So, that is what I'm thinking about these days. I'm thinking about graduating in 10 months and joining a profession which can perpetuate and perpetrate as well as force change, protect, and do right. Where will I be?

This song has been doing it for me:

Worst. Blogger. Ever!

Apparently it's a good thing that I'm going to be a lawyer because I'd obviously be a dismal failure as a professional blogger.

A ridiculous rain shower just struck, and I have a fairly perfect view from my 22nd floor window. Across in Gatineau, it's blue skies. From here, I don't really need the Weather Network, because I can just watch the weather roll in.

Ah, Gatineau. You know which city Gatineau is across from? That's right. Ottawa.

Here we go again.

I shan't bore with tedious descriptions of the relative disdain I'm feeling (if my mood were a facial expression, it would be a scowl) about being back at it for 3L. I felt moderately better after having lunch with Trixie and TF&C yesterday. Almost the only good thing about 3L is that I've only got 8 months left.

Not that I should be too negative. I picked my classes this year based entirely on what I was interested in (Admin Law excepted) and which profs I wanted . So, there is potential for improvement. And, I would dearly like to enjoy the last 8 months of formal education that I will be subjecting myself to for at least the next, oh, I'd say 5 years.

In 8 months, some of the best friends I've ever had will scatter to the four corners, so I should be grateful that we've got this time together. And I am. It's just kind of a shame that law school is getting in the way.

Now, I just have to hang in there and get through it.

End of 2L Update, Part II

My Constitutional Law II exam begins in 32 minutes. It's a take-home (or download-at-home). In lieu of panic or furious last-minute studying, I'm going to blog. This is either a reflection of supreme confidence in my ability to write something coherent in the next six hours or a reflection of my zen-like acceptance of my fate ("....if you do not understand, things are as they are").


This is a picture of my book, with all sorts of little flags. These are supposed to help me, but I have no idea whether they will. I just think they kind of look pretty and they make me feel better.

I'm listening to the Talking Heads at full blast.

"And you may ask yourself, how did I get I get here....?"

That, my friends, is a story that will take longer than the next 27 minutes...

Good luck.

Self-depricating Humour

Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check ofr a pulse?

A: No.

Q: Did you check for blood pressure?

A: No.

Q: Did you check for breathing?

A: No.

Q: So, then is it possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?

A: No.

Q: How can you be so sure, doctor?

A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.

Q: But could the patient have still been alive nevertheless?

A: It is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere.

That's from some compilation of actual transcripts from cases in the US somewhere. I want to know what that case was about.

Helpful Direction for Law Students Examining Constitutional Questions

From Ward v. Canada (AG) et al. [2002] 1 SCR 569 at para. 17:

"The first task in the pith and substance analysis is to determine the pith and substance...of the law."

Heavens! If it weren't for that insightful direction, I never would have guessed that a pith and substance analysis would involve a determination of the pith and substance of a law.

For Anyone Who Wants to Automate Jurisprudence

"In any event, it ought to be clear that a judge interpreting a federal constitution is no mere automaton--that, on the contrary, he has critical choices to make at different stages of the process."*

That Robots class is following me everywhere I go.

We're surrounded! Head for the hills!


*WR Lederman, "The Balanced interpretation of the federal distribution of legislative powers in Canada" in JE Magnet, Constitutional Law of Canada, vol. 1, 9th ed. (Edmonton: Juriliber, 2007) at 279.

End of 2L Update, Part I

Okay, did I even comment last week about the end of 2L course work? TF&C, what's that quote from T.S. Eliot? "This is the way the world ends; not with a bang, but a whimper" is the way it goes, I think. So went 2L.

After a couple days back at the ranch to see the fam and deal with AHC business stuff (web designers, ads, gentleman's agreements), I returned to O.T. on Saturday for my last full week here. Exam on Friday, move out on Saturday, head back home and crack out a couple of papers.

This year has officially been kind of a mess, and I've had to undergo a bit of an attitude adjustment, summarized here, in order to survive my somewhat logistically ridiculous life choices. In spite of the craziness, I've actually done some work this year that I'm really proud of (a trend which will hopefully continue until April 30). The stuff that was disappointing to me was less about personal failure than about system failure. It's not easy travelling two days a week, trying to meet everyone's needs and give both family and school their due. Top off with selling a house in a crazy market, moving the family, getting the kiddies into a new school AND language, starting a new business...you get the idea.

Exam rituals? I have cleaned my room today. So far not too much junk food, and no pop (soda water, though). It's early going though. Music on shuffle: several Beatles albums, Tragically Hip, Broken Social Scene, Led Zepplin, Bob Marley, Franz Ferdinand. Don't ask me why.

And, today is our wedding anniversary. Lucky number seven. Six years ago on our anniversary, both AHC and I decided to go back to school, me for media and he for culinary management.

Could we have imagined then any of this now?

Please Hold, Someone Will Not Be With You Shortly

On Friday, I hitched a ride back to T.O. with FCLF (French Common Law Friend). We had a rendezvous at the Thrifty on Laurier. I was a few minutes early, so I wandered in and sat down in the waiting area. Now, I wasn't being particularly noisy or anything, but I wasn't in stealth mode either. I sat there close to 10 minutes without seeing even one employee.

FCLF showed up at the appointed meeting time, and we started talking so it is likely that someone heard us (or should have). He waits a minute or so and then wanders over to an open door that apparently leads to the office space.

"Hello? Hello?"

No one comes out. There's no bell, there's no sign indicated someone will be back in five minutes. How do we attract attention? FCLF calls them on his cell phone.

"Hi, I'm standing out front and there's no one here and I have a reservation."

Okay, so then whomever he was speaking to actually put him on hold! We could actually hear the person in the back. I don't know why he was put on hold when he or she could have just said someone would be out in a couple of minutes. But he decided to stay on hold just so we could see how long it took. And it lasted at least three minutes before the utter ridiculousness of it caused FCLF to hang up. At which point someone did actually come out to the front to say that someone else would be with him....when they could find the guy.

THEN, after the relevant guy shows up (another couple of minutes) and starts the reservation, the phone rings and he picks it up without a word to FCLF and proceeds to have a fairly long conversation (in normal time, not so long maybe, but in customer service time when you're ignoring another customer who is right in front of you and whose transaction you've just interrupted, a very long time). This is one of my HUGE customer service pet peeves. And if you have to talk on the phone in the middle of my transaction, you better say "excuse me" before you pick up that phone and then you better apologize when you hang up.

The only good part of that whole encounter was that we got a free upgrade because there were no compact cars available.

Reason, Finally

I am so pleased to see this article in The Toronto Star today, on a new report on homework from the Toronto District School Board. Some of the recommendations include:

• no homework for kindergarten kids
  
• no homework over holidays
• up to grade 2, having homework consist mostly of game playing, discussions or cooking with family
• grade 7 & 8 students should have no more than 1 hour per night of homework combined across all subjects and high school students no more than 2 hours

I'm so happy to see some wisdom on this issue. Our new school has been pretty good on the homework front, but when TG started grade one in Toronto, you may recall some of my trepidation about the expectations laid out by her teacher. This extended to homework, which we invariably only completed fully about half of the time (we had a lot on our plates, and better things to do with our family time). Each week we got a little pink sheet detailing each day's homework (this is mostly fine, the report recommends assigning homework in blocks so parents can plan, but it didn't need to be assigned down to the day) with the ominous reminder at the bottom "Homework will be graded."

TG got a C in homework. Seriously. I just shook my head at that because she couldn't do that work on her own, she needed our help to read the instructions and sometimes more. When the work didn't get done it was very clearly our fault, not hers. The report also says that non-completion shouldn't affect a student's overall grades.

Some of our friends in Toronto are still lamenting the amount of work their kids are getting. I don't blame them. Before we left, TG's teacher told us she was concerned about her switching to full French (from immersion), and was worried she couldn't handle it. This teacher was nice, but I think had entirely unreal expectations of the kids. We got TG's first report card from her new school and she got a bunch of A's and B's. No C's. And no grade for homework.

Earth Hour

We participated in Earth Hour yesterday. I don't think any of our neighbours really did, but we shut off the lights and computers and whatnot and had fun by candlelight with the kiddies and niece and nephew.

Playing Blockus

The boys play with superheroes

The girls play dominoes

The fish observe Earth Hour by turning off their tank light

Fun was had by all.

Internet Problems Revealed, Solved!

A very helpful technician from Bell showed up today to fix our wireline (finally, it only took them three months to figure out it needed to be done). Since we moved in January to our awesome and lovely century home, the internet has been a continuous problem (you can only imagine my horror), either not working at all, or working very slowly or only half working (in spite of the fact that we're in a 6 zone or something). He replaced a bunch of sub-standard wire not fit for internet. He also removed the thing you see above, "the original phone box" which routed the line from the street throughout the house. The very nice tech thinks it was probably installed around the time of the war. And I don't mean the Iraq war, part one or part two.

The fact that the internet worked at all routing through that old technology makes me kind of impressed. We have a brand new, modern phone box encased in grey plastic. It works a lot better, which makes me happy and all, but it's certainly not as pretty or interesting to look at as the original ceramic piece. Another antique for our collection.

Turning (No, Not Turing)

This past weekend I celebrated my naissance by throwing a party for someone else. AHC got hired by the boss/friend of a friend to do a fancy dinner and I went along to help him out because a) it was a Saturday night and being out without the kids is almost a date b) the business is 50% mine so all of my control-freak instincts are completely reasonable and c) AHC is really in his element in this type of setting and I rather enjoy watching him practice his craft and supporting him when I can.

In spite of not really partying for myself, there was undeniable satisfaction in the work. I spent my time making stemware sparkle, setting the table (when in doubt, Emily Post), preparing party favours (AHC's balsamic reduction in little jars for the guests), doing dishes (yes, dishes), helping plate to courses and serve them, and occasionally giving presentation advice (I saved him from making an error in judgment on the Roma tomato & boconcini salad).

What I was doing was labour, an interesting fact given the recent work Trixie and I did on slavery and technology and higher pursuits versus lower pursuits. It's a nice change from school, which, at its worst, is not much more than intellectual wanking. At its best, it's something really interesting and worthwhile, but I have alluded in my recent posts to my sense it's just been a lot of wanking this year. (My perspective changed recently after the presentation Zen I experienced with Trix a week ago. I'm feeling a lot more energetic about the thoughtful pursuits these days). Intellectual fatigue is something much different than the physical fatigue that hits after you've been on your feet for 7 hours labouring. Helping AHC on a few occasions these past few weeks has provided a nice counterpoint to my other life.

So there it is. I turned 30 in someone else's kitchen doing something that we both like to do. (I even have my own whites, which make me feel slightly like a poseur, but AHC assures me I'm just fine.) I'm not one of those people who freaks out about getting older. I still believe that the farther I get away from my adolescence, the better. I will, however, look forward to a time in my life when my birthday won't fall at the end of the semester (no one is in the mood to have fun!).

On a scale of Un to Zen

"If you understand, things are as they are. If you do not understand, things are as they are."

One liner

I have just been reading a number of articles for my Robots class (yes, Robots!), and I was struck by this line from Duncan Kennedy:

"I think their answers to questions like those I have been addressing are just made up out of whole cloth to....scratch the itch of existential dread before the unknowableness of the most important things in life."*

Like, wow. I totally know how that feels, and I think it beautifully puts words to the unease of my current state of mind.


*"Toward A Critical Phenomenology of Judging" in Allan C. Hutchison and Patrick Monahan eds., The Rule of Law:Ideal or Ideology (Toronto: Carswell, 1987).

Stick(er) it to 'em

In an effort to motivate me at school (she's not deaf, obviously she's heard me complaining some this time around), my adorable child has provided me with the above selection of stickers and helpful advice on how to use them to get my work done. She suggests setting a timer and setting a goal for myself in the allotted time. If I am successful, she says I can give myself a sticker to decorate my computer.

When I talk to her at night, she frequently asks me if I got any stickers today. This invariably makes me smile. And because I don't want to a) lie to her and b) disappoint her, I find myself using this system of mild-mannered behaviour modification.

In so many ways, she has truly changed my life.

When Banks Are Our Friend...Sort Of

I have to admit that I sometimes find the invisible ability of banks (and credit card companies) to track our movements a little spooky. One time I used my "emergency" credit card to buy a pair of shoes, in my own city even. There was a message from the bank by the time I got home asking me to call and verify that the purchase was legit. Apparently even the bank's algorithms twigged to the fact that my need for pretty shoes does not, in fact, qualify as an emergency. Apparently it was in my best interest (and theirs) to ensure the safety of my credit.

AHC got a call this morning from our bank saying they suspected his debit card has been hacked and that his account was frozen. In a bizarre bit of luck, I happened to have made a number of large payments via online banking yesterday. One effect of this was that we inadvertently contravened a rule, imposed by the bank, about daily spending limits from the account which we share. AHC tried to make a purchase which failed to be authorized because we had exceeded the spending limit (unbeknownst to him), in spite of the fact that sufficient funds were there. (One can discuss the legitimacy of the banks controlling how much money I want to spend in a day via electronic regulation, but that's for another time.)

The other effect was, of course, saving us from having nearly $1,000 stolen from our account. The daily-limit rule prevented the PIN-thief from getting the money because the bank overruled the withdrawl in spite of the availability of the funds. And their magic algorithms alerted the bank to the unusual pattern of activity which resulted in the freeze on the account.

All that to say, I still have a love-have relationship with the bank. And I'm totallyawed by the computations that must be behind all of it.

"It's time for the news"

Pencil and 1.0mm Staedtler Fibre-tip pens.

I actually understood WTF they were talking about on CPAC when they referred to the extension of the the accelerated capital cost allowance write-off.

Woot.

"What I dream of is an art of balance"

I have a really great colouring book. I bought it for The Girl, but she insisted I bring it with me to Ottawa. I miss my creative self. Time to find her. This is part of enjoying life again. Anyway, each page has a theme or suggestion.

This page's was "Draw something heavy on each side". I felt it was an appropriate start because of the whole clichéd balance issue I'm dealing with (not that that has anything specific to do with what I drew).

The quote in the title is from Matisse. Also apropos.

O Blogging, Where Art Thou?

It's time for me to admit that I have a problem.

And that problem is school-related guilt.

It prevents me from doing things in my life that I enjoy. In fact, it prevents me from enjoying life, which has been a real problem over the past six months. I can't say that I've been enjoying law school much this year and it's had a rather poisonous effect throughout my existence. Life outside of my studies quite "got in the way" this 2L and that put me quite behind in the studies department. My twisted guilt-complex said something like: "you can blog when you're caught up."

So, since November 28, I have not blogged. This blog is not a celebratory post announcing that I am caught up! I am not caught up! Upon reflection, not blogging hasn't really helped my mood any. It hasn't particularly made me more productive either. Only more depressed in the absence of something that I actually like to do.

So that's it. No more torture. No more self-flagellation.

It's time to enjoy life again. Come to think of it, I'd rather like to enjoy law again too. I'm still working on a plan for that one, but I'm open to suggestion.