497

497 views in 2.5 short weeks. huzzah!
In other news, uni is awfully busy at the moment.Therefore I was justified in spending half of Saturday uploading Dad's music onto my computer for some study playlisting.

Included on the list:
1. Babs Streisand
2. Edith Piaf
3. The Righteous Brothers
4. Creedence Clearwater Revival
5. Dusty Springfield
6. Dean Martin
7. Kate Cebrano (strange way to end the list? have seen her perform at many a catering event and she's pretty rocking in a middle age demographic kind of way)

Yes these classics all belong in my Dad's collection. He has the quite diverse... ahem effeminate taste in music. Also, didn't it work out nicely that each artist has a black and white photo on google for me to poach. Sources down the bottom (lawstudentlame). What questionable inclusions are on your playlists? Angus? Pip? Kate? Han?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Essential_Barbra_Streisand.jpg
http://natashadarlingstylist.blogspot.com.au/2011/04/edith-piaf.html
http://www.righteousbrothers.com/
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/creedence_clearwater_revival
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/dusty-springfield-p5503
http://ilovedinomartin.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/whos-your-little-who-zis-dean-martin.html
http://www.gardenofunearthlydelights.com.au/website2010/shows/show45.html

An older chap's best friend

Sasha's idea of a good time.

Walking our two dogs in the park this morning I met an elderly man who had a jack russell. For one reason or another he proceeded to tell me that the dog was his best friend. In the last few years he had lost his wife, a couple of sons and his previous jack russell. He is turning 80 this year and his dog is all he has left.

The dog was saved from the pound "he just spoke to me and told me to take him home". He sleeps next to the man and follows him around. The chap next to us at the park said "dogs are a man's best friend. You can't loose an argument with a dog". Well who am I to argue with that.

Ballarat

Ballararatat you do yourself proud in this gloomy weather

Happy 92nd Birthday Grandpa!

Grandpa Jack, lamington cake, mum-made coffees, dogz, ledge-ripened tomatoes

Elevator down

This is grey Melbourne through a large corporate/academic window.

Every lunch time for the next few weeks different firms from across Melbourne will present seminars about why we should work for them. They also conduct mock interviews to prep you for the clerkships interview process. Good bye lunch. The clerkship process is the most dreaded time of the year. Applications begin in the holidays. Exams are in just over one month. This will be my 9th semester of uni assessment. It's getting cold in Melbourne again and people in the law school are starting to fret and it's contagious. Not helpful, and not worth it- but contagious nevertheless. I think the best move for me next year may be exchange. Another year at the same university with the same assessment and the same elevator up and down to the library may just kill me. Which isn't very calm-like.

Public Holiday

I am now that person who takes photos of food. And blogs about it. I spent the day cafe hopping with my admin books.

Many would say Clare, why blog about your silly little day and post meaningless pictures of food? To that I say, good point. I tend to become obsessed with things in short and intense bursts. I learn everything I can about the subject and cram it all in, because I don't know when I will just as suddenly be over said subject. This happened when I quit sugar completely for a month and read for hours about all the dangers of the white poison. Then easter happened.

I became equally obsessed with Mormonism. Have no interest in becoming a Mormon- they're just weirdly fascinating. Now a bit meh. Same with my blog. So fun for a while. Now it is a little challenge to post something, anything everyday. Just some routine, in a good way.

Posting means getting a little break from studying, or watching Modern Family when I should be studying, or thinking about how much I should be studying. As the days roll over I should be doing more studs and less everything else. But I think back to exam prep in previous years and I feel sick with how much effort is required for seemingly so little reward. Supposedly it will all be alright in the end. Just feels a tad like high school when people kept saying "wait until you're in the real world" when we obviously were already. Still feels like I'm not quite there yet. Still studying. Stuck in a study funk. Surely will blow over. Yes?

Autumn weather, quite rightly

Its finally legit autumn weather. Shame ASOS sandals decided to arrive today.

More and more time spent in the library as of late, en masse library study is actually pretty ok at this time of year, if you can get a seat. The end of this sad little post. Off to get pizza pre tute. 

Monday night mind

Monday night:

What I'm learning
(the old test for self-defence in Victoria under the common law)

Viro propositions:
1. It is for the jury to consider whether the accused killed the deceased and reasonably believed that an unlawful attack which threatened death or serious bodily harm
2. If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was no reasonable belief by the accused of such an act no question of self defence arises
3. If the jury is not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was no such reasonable belief by the accused it must then consider whether the force in fact used by the accused was reasonably proportionate to the danger which he believed he faced.
4 .If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that there was no such reasonable belief by the accused, it must then consider whether the force in fact used by he accused was reasonably proportionate it should acquit
5. If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that more force was used, then its verdict should be either manslaughter of murder, that depending upon the answer to the question by the jury: did the accused believe that the force was used was reasonably proportionate to the danger he faces?
6. If the jury is satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did not have such a belief the verdict will be murder. If it is not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did not have that belief the verdict will be manslaughter.

     But really what I'm thinking about is these.

And this is playing over and over in my head.

Law student fail.

Blogging v Future Career

Needed this muchly when I woke up this morning.

Had planned last week to trek down to a Geelong football match with Sister and Boy. This is kind of a big deal for me as I don't tend to be very patient with team sports of any kind. I feel like they drag on a bit. A lot. Anyhow, we drove to Geelong for the game as it started off in the most beautiful way.

About fifteen minutes in I was doing admin law readings and it was overcast and showery.

Apparently this was rude of me to not appreciate the talent on the field. 

So I went in search of hot chips. 

Actually, it was a pretty nice way to spend Sunday afternoon.

As far as these things go.

Probably won't ever be as dedicated as this little guy though.

NOW 

Just a quick word about blogging. 

I am currently a bit unsure about the whole thing. On the plus side it is a good way to make me appreciate the nice things about my days. I now look for small beautiful snippets to blog home about. Turns out- they're everywhere. Who knew! 

On the down side I'm not certain that "as a law student" it is very appropriate to be a Blogger. We are supposed to be impartial creatures acting without prejudice or opinion. We are advised to have our social networking sites locked. We are cautioned about having any information available about us that may be taken negatively by a potential employer. So now I'm deciding whether posting small bits and bobs about my otherwise insignificant days is of any consequences to future employers. I'm not sure it is. But I could be wrong and this could be the beginning of the end of my future career. And I had such high hopes!

But for now, I think I will keep the blog. I will however, respect the wishes of those who, for their own reasons Do Not Wish to Be Named or photographed on this small site. Friends and significant others will rename unnamed, as no one else asked to be flaunted on the WWW by me.

When I eventually reach the inevitable stage of applying for clerkships (intern-ish placements in law) I may just wipe this from space. Probably a copy of it will exist somewhere in the internet abyss but not to be found with ease. Like all of the photos from my high school computer. 

For the meantime Clinging On to Calm can now be found via google. Genius. As always, feel free to comment on anything at all.

Happy Saturday

Law Ball

Last night was law ball. I'm still recovering.  Clutching blue gatorade and some luke-warm porridge, lovingly prepared by someone not going through the multiple stages of recovery. My feet are in an unusual amount of pain. And I even swapped from ridic-high shoes to wedges. Sincerely hope I didn't cause some sort of unintentional tort in those monsters.

It was the most fun night. I was on a ladies only table and we were a bit crazy. See photo of posing with mini chillies (which for whatever reason I seem to keep in my purse). I got to catch up with some people I haven't hung out with in far too long, which made realise that next time maybe shouldn't be so long. Good intentions.

I have class in an hour. This seems overly optimistic. After all, I went to a class yesterday that most people skipped to begin ball prep. Therefore I deserve... unlikely my lecturer will appreciate this logic.

How was your Thursday night? Get up to anything exciting some place else in the world?

The descent:

PreBallWednesday

Failed bike scheme, bbq lunch, line for pop up coffee, lady tools for law ball

Law Ball is tomorrow night

Have a good day now!

The Hidden Secrets of Success

Well thank god for this. Now I know.

Today we were issued several small booklets created by the law school and designed stop 

STOP DEPRESSION IN IT'S TRACKS. They include tips and tricks of the trade to get you feeling ace about life again.

This year my uni has made a concerted effort to create awareness about the dangers of the stressful life lawyers lead. Pfft I hear you say- with all that money and those corner offices- what's not to love!

Sadly however there have actually been heaps of studies on the high rates of severe depression among lawyers. Its a naturally competitive environment with crazy hours. A lot of firms bill associates and junior lawyers in 6 min blocks which doesn't generally encourage bonding over the water cooler. Of course the content most lawyers are dealing with is also fairly intense and involves working with or against people at their worst point in life. Sign me up!

This lawyers with depression thing seems to start early. There are more and more students seeing psychologists for stress related issues from first year onwards and the drop out rate in law school is fairly high (don't know exact numbers as hard to tell who drops out before the census date).

Anyway, this isn't a rant about showing lawyers of the land some love. Its just another small reason why focussing on things that make me happy and hopefully stress-free is pretty important with this ye old profession I seem to have chosen.

Also have heard job hunting is fairly heinous so may as well find peace with being a student for ever.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/black-dog-gnaws-at-profession/story-e6frg97x-1111117523222

Charlie the Grown

Charlie is just six months old but he's an old soul. Very chilled. Yet to bark. Ever. Mum concerned that he's NQR.

Do you think its ok he doesn't bark yet?