Books and Their Covers

This is a quick post to record a thought I had today: When did we start labeling politicians as "D" or "R" in the media? 

It strikes me that the party designation carries a lot of baggage with each representative politician, regardless of their actual conduct, speech, or voting records.  It's a shortcut for the public, but taking shortcuts in this area may be a really bad idea.  One of these days I want to find out how that practice started, why it started, and whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

Of course, we use labels to short-circuit experiential judgment constantly, and the legal profession is one of the worst offenders.  Journal membership, clerkship experience, GPA, LSAT score, specialty bar membership... It all affords us an "easy" way to identify ourselves and sort each other into groups.  But knowing the resume-padding nature of many of these things, how do you boost their effectiveness? How do you convey their reliability?

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Catching Up

Image via Wikipedia
New Year's Eve is my favorite holiday.  I love the spark of anticipation before midnight and the fresh feel of the new year just after the bell.  I love watching the world celebrate, hour by hour, as we move into the future together.  I love to put thought into my resolutions, reflecting on what I've learned about myself over the past year and what I'd like to change.  I feel like I got a bit of a head start on this year's resolutions by starting this blog.  One of the things I learned and disliked about myself last year was the swell of uncertainty rising to drown the best parts of my personality.  This blog helps me stand against the swell.

Image by Leeni! via Flickr

I have more typical New Year's Resolutions, as well.  Last year I gave up land-bound meat and became a pescetarian for 12 months.  I'm back to an omnivorous diet this year, because it's easier on my home life (Mr. B finds it easier to cook meat dishes, and it's incredibly helpful when he takes over that responsibility).  But I am resolved to eat less meat than I did before last year's experiment.  I'm also resolved to jog at least two times each week with my dog, Buckingham.  

Buck is a new addition, and has been great for our mental health.  He's also a big motivation point, because in general I hate exercise and would never choose to do it for myself--but I love that puppy and his boundless energy, so I will do it for him.  I've succeeded two out of the four weeks of the year, and I am giving myself a pass on the two weeks I failed because they were exceedingly busy due to school.  (No more of that excuse though!)

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeI've officially decided on my bar exam state- I'm putting the application in the mail tomorrow.  It's been a nerve-racking experience but at least it's finished now.  There's a sort of resignation to it.  I still never thought I'd be here without a plan, but at least now I'm taking steps to form one.  And this paragraph sounds more depressing than it is.  I am confident that my chosen state is the right choice for us, at least for now.  I'm just (characteristically) having a difficult time adjusting my expectations from three years ago to reality today. 

This post has been a long time coming and is almost a month overdue, but now we are all caught up. The next one will be back to normal!

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