Freedom Blade ~ This Will Destroy You

There is a stereotype out there--probably well-founded in general--that university students are well-informed about current events. Unfortunately, I am definitely an exception to that stereotype. I seem to have a general understanding about the big issues out there, but if you were to ask me to explain the recession, or the war in Afghanistan, or pretty much anything to do with politics, I will only be able to say "Yeah, that's pretty crazy, eh?" or "Well, things have to get worse before they get better" or something that attempts to cover my lack of knowledge.

This year I decided to try and remedy my un-informedness by signing up for the top stories of the day with www.cbc.ca. This worked for a week or so, and now I only look at the stories if they're sensational (like a murder trial) or are something to do with animals doing funny things. So, I think I may be a hopeless case. I guess I just get too much "real world" in my reading of case after case for school.

Today my school had a small-firm recruitment fair. We also had the Chief Crown Prosecutor of the province come and give us a little spiel about jobs with the Department of Justice. I'm only a first-year, so I don't really have to worry about finding a job for the summer (especially since the place I've worked at the past two summers--unrelated to law--has hired me back), and I'm not going to be looking for an articling position until next year, it still scares me. I mean, I'm actually going to have to put effort in, sending my application to dozens of law firms in the hopes that one of them will have mercy and hire me. I'm really looking forward to the actual working and all of that, as I'm enjoying what I'm learning, but I don't want to go through all of the rejections and uncertainty.

I guess I'll just decide to be optimistic for now and believe that it'll be a cake walk when it comes down to it. I can't do anything about it right now anyways.

Glittering Blackness ~ Explosions in the Sky

I should actually be really careful as to what I write on my blog--particularly about local car wash owners--if I want to avoid being sued for defamation (lowering someone in the estimation of the community, NOT defecation--you'd be surprised how many times people have had them confused when I mention defamation). That's because the case I'm working on for my moot court project is a case of a guy accusing an Edmonton car wash owner with soliciting prostutition (sorry, I guess this blog is now PG-rated), when he was just talking to some people on the street. Frank, the car wash owner, sued Rick, the blogger, for his words. Let this be a warning to all bloggers out there: before making criminal allegations, check the truth of your assumptions. I plan to do so.

A note on the musical artist of the week (Explosions in the Sky). They are of the genre of post-rock, which if you've never heard of, you should definitely check into. It's basically instrumental music using the types of ensembles you'd hear in a rock band, but not quite rock. I don't really know how to explain--Wikipedia would help you out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_rock). I like music that helps me think, and post-rock, at least the practitioners of it that I've been exposed to (Explosions in the Sky, This Will Destroy You, etc.) does that better than any other genre out there. The song this week, "Glittering Blackness" took me a while to appreciate. It's one of Explosions' earliest pieces, but it grew on me. If you're going to look into any of their songs, 2 musts are "Your Hand in Mine", and "First Breath After the Coma"--although I would seriously suggest you should just get all of their music. I'll try and find a way to post a YouTube video of a performance of one of those.

Liebestraum No. 3 in A-flat ~ Franz Liszt

All right, let's be honest. I'm not famous, rich, or important in any way. Thus, I realize from the outset that it's likely that absolutely no one will read this blog. But that's okay.

So, for anyone who somehow stumbles across this blog, I shall proffer you a brief introduction. I am a lowly first-year law student. My days are filled with reading case after long case by the Supreme Court of Canada in Constitutional Law, while my nights are blessed with nightmares about my Contracts class (literally--last night I definitely had one).

Do I have a life outside of school? Not per se. But, I'm quite involved with my church, which provides me with a welcome dose of perspective. I also have many interests other than reading about trusts and negligence.

My three favourite parts of mortality are undoubtedly (and not necessarily in this order) music, family, and books. In fact, I've decided to title my blogs (as I am hopeless at thinking of titles) after the piece of music to which I am listening as I write it. I love pretty much any genre of music you throw at me, but my two favourites are alternative and classical.

My family is wonderful--I have 4 brothers, a sister, 2 parents, 3 nephews, a niece, and various siblings-in-law to go along with them. I have so much fun when I'm with them, especially on holidays and vacations when I can (temporarily) forget about school. To the left is a picture that shows part of my family while we were on a trip to New York City (behind us is Ground Zero).

Books have been a passion of mine since I learned to read. I love everything from the history of Russia to pure fluff. I have two huge bookshelves full of books.

Well, that's pretty much the essence of my existence. I hope to update with the details of my sojourn through life approximately weekly.

--Sarah