ASOS order!

This is my first time ordering off ASOS. I needed some more corporate-ish clothes. Praying they all fit.

Picture Essay

At the moment, law school is fucking killing me. 

In the past two weeks, I've had 8 assignments. It is just ridiculous how much work I have. 

Which is why I have not blogged. But I am definitely not complaining - if anything I'm seeing it as an insight into how busy I will probably be when I'm in the profession. 

Trying to make positives out of shitty situations is the only way that I can keep sane. Otherwise, I end up so angry and sad and that is never conducive to getting work done. 

Because I'm clearly masochistic, I have signed up with my friend BP to do mooting. 

So on top of all my other subjects, I am revisiting first year contract law. 

It is fun though, and it is always good getting experience in actually applying the law to real(ish) problems. 

Although it would have probably been more fun to get a criminal question, I am still enjoying grappling with the problem. 

Also, it is a little scary how much I have forgotten in just over 12 months!!

Mandarin essay assignment. 

I was quite proud of this - I've never written so many characters or so many sentences. Generally I didn't do too badly either! My grammar needed some fixing at times, but that's okay because I get so confused with how simple Mandarin grammar is in comparison to English. 

 Being the amazing boyfriend that he is, J told me of a promotion they had at his work - buy 2 TV on DVD and get 1 free. Hello all of Boston Legal. 

This was a bad move on my part, because I can sort of convince myself that watching an ep before bed is "studying".

Yeah, right. 

 

Enormous mugs of tea help.
BP and C bought this for me for my birthday, along with a teapot set too. This mug is almost as big as my head. It is brilliant. It also has this really pretty floral pattern on the inside of one side of the mug.

Nice china is lovely.

 
Delicious-smelling candles are also amazing. This one from Dusk (left) makes my whole house smell like freshly baked cookies! Almost good enough to eat!!
I also finally bought tapered candles for my candelabra. I think the pink candles are really pretty.
J thinks my candelabra is tacky. =(
...But he is a boy. What would he know anyway?

Magazines to get me through long afternoon train rides. 

New stainless steel water bottle!

I have had it with being overcharged for water.

This is the solution to all my problems in life.

(mostly)

 A close work friend of mine got married on the weekend.

The ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was so much fun. It was a traditional Lebanese Maronite wedding - very full of culture.Lots of loud Lebanese music and dancing - such a blast!

And of course, the bride looked gorgeous!!!

Starstruck!

This semester I'm studying Constitutional law. 

Which actually is not as boring or dry as you think - or as I thought it was going to be. 

I'm only in my third week of class, but I am so far loving it! Last week we were looking at what principles the High Court Justices follow when deciding whether a piece of legislation is constitutional or not - for e.g. do they interpret it based on what the individuals of 1900 originally intended? OR do they consider that since then, society has changed immensely, and words have new meanings e.t.c. 

As a lover of language and words, it's fascinating being able to study it like this. Does 'jury' for example, have the same dictionary definition  today that it did 111 years ago? 

Today, the Honourable ex-Justice of the High Court Michael Kirby was a guest lecture at my University, to discuss the Constitution and the High Court. It is amazing having someone as prolific and extraordinary come speak to us. 

Mr. Kirby was incredibly well-spoken, and captivated the entire audience with every word that he spoke. 

He discussed what I mentioned earlier, about how difficult it is to set a principle to follow when interpreting the Constitution. 

Like he stated, for e.g. There has been plenty of discussion in the media lately as to gay marriage. One MP stated that it must go before the people in a referendum before Australia can legalise it. 

Another MP thought this was ridiculous - that the Constitution gives the federal government the power to legislate in regards to marriage. 

But - when the Constitution was written, and assented in July 1900, marriage obviously meant purely between a man and a woman - and probably in a Catholic Church. 

Since then, we have changed our views on the subject. So - do we use the 1900 definition of marriage? If so, then this requires a referendum to amend the relevant section to include the union in matrimony between people of any gender. If we use today's definition then this is unnecessary and the federal government is free to legislate. 

Interesting stuff. 

Anyway, so whilst I was waiting outside the lecture hall, (a good hour or so, before it started), Kirby walks in with the Dean of our Law Faculty and the co-ordinator for the subject. Amazing!!

He went to go have coffee with the co-ordinator, and I timidly approached him. 

I apologised for interrupting his morning tea and asked if he could possibly sign my biography, and if I could possibly get a photo. 

Gosh, I was so embarrasing. 

BUT!

Reads: To Michaela

With best wishes for your life in law. Make a difference - and always remember the vulnerable. 

Michael Kirby. 

He was so gracious, and so willing to sign my book for me - even stating it "was the least he could do". 

I almost cried at one point, I was so overwhelmed with the whole situation! 

Mr. Kirby was an amazing speaker, and is a more amazing person. 

I think now I'm going to be able to read his judgements in a whole new light! 

Deactivated

On the First of August, 2011 I deleted my facebook account.

My friends complained - "but how will I keep in touch with youuuu!?", and about 30 seconds after deleting it I was hit with withdrawals. I brought up the page, wanting to log on, NEEDING to know what was going on in my friend's lives.
But, that feeling quickly passed.

I deleted facebook for a few reasons, but my main being; I hate it.

I thought it was somewhat creepy that people who I barely talked to in high school could log on, 'stalk' my page and judge me based on the minimal information I posted, or that other people posted to me. I thought it was weird that people would want to 'check in' wherever they were to show to all their friends what they were doing and with who, at all hours of the day.
I was also annoyed that I would only just meet people, and within 12 hours there was a friend request. My name is quite common, so I'm not easy to find on facebook to start with, which shows serious dedication on their behalf. But on another note - I just met you, why do you now want to know everything about my life?

So, about a year ago, I started culling my friends list. Regularly. I kept the number constantly below 200.
But then I realised there were people on there that I was only friends with by obligation. Deleting them might start some passive/aggressive feud between us that I never intended. So they stayed being 'my friend' even though I didn't feel too great about it.

And that brings up the next point - social networking etiquette.
It frustrated me to no end that nobody seemed to have any manners when on facebook. RSVP'ing was a major irk for me (as seen in this blog post), as was the general unwritten rules surrounding commenting on photos, walls, and even adding photos of other people and tagging them and whatnot.
What was no issue for some, was a major issue for others, and I really just could not keep up with the crap any more.

I realised that I was spending wasting hours on facebook. I wasn't even stalking other people - I was just staring at the news feed, waiting for someone to say something juicy or interesting. But, the ironic thing is that I did not really care what was superficially going on in these people's lives. I realised I would be so much more productive without this distraction in my life. It's so nice being able to have so much more time on my hands!

For the most part, I wasn't even using facebook to 'stay connected' with my friends and family.
Admittedly, I did have family members on there whose lives I won't know that much about, but they have my email address, should they want to get in contact with me.
Most of my close friends I never even spoke to on facebook. Lunch dates and weekends are organised via text message. Studying is done via skype. Lengthy catch-ups are done over coffee or over the telephone.
So facebook wasn't even fulfilling the one thing it says on its homepage that it does.

Add to that the constant changing of security settings that occur without my consent or knowledge, and I'm not totally over the moon with Zuckerberg at the moment.

I don't think that all social networking sites are bad - not at all.
Clearly not, as I have a blog and a twitter. But with both of these outlets I have more control over what gets published and what gets seen. Twitter is a lot less self-involved than facebook is, which I like.
And although some may argue that blogging is only done by people obsessed with themselves or seeking some form of self-gratification by talking about themselves, I beg to differ. Not that I'm going to get into that at the moment, but I have met some awesome people through this and I love that.

I was worried that I would feel 'out of the loop' from my friends, and would have no idea what's going on. It's only been a week, but so far I don't feel like that at all. I don't even miss it!
Besides, it's so refreshing being able to tell stories, or hear stories from friends without the seemingly cliche' "oh yeah, I heard about that on facebook"


What about you? Do you love or loathe facey? Would you ever consider deactivating yours?

The Past Week in Pictures #1

Rainbows in the sky!

I love my view from the train on the way to Uni in the mornings! 

Reading the Constitution and drinking tea from my "eat, sleep, law" mug!

New tragus piercing!

Chilling by my friend B.R's fireplace - super cosy and warm!

Blah, back at uni. 

Yes, that is really how many textbooks I have this semester. I will actually have to read pretty much all of them too. Fun!

Bought this today - as a law student I read so many of Kirby's (dissenting) judgements in my studies.

He's such an interesting person - being the only openly gay judge to sit on the High Court and all the drama that unfolded because of that, as well as his work with human rights both nationally and internationally.

And, this is hell exciting: he is speaking at my uni in my public law lecture next Wednesday.

Fuck, I'm so excited! 

Also, I de-activated my facebook account yesterday. 

For a few different reasons, which I'll leave for another post.