"Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."

"I may give the impression that the human being is completely and unavoidably influenced by his surroundings. (In this case the surroundings being the unique structure of camp life, which forced the prisoner to conform his conduct to a certain set pattern.) But what about human liberty? Is there no spiritual freedom in regard to behavior and reaction to any given surroundings? Is that theory true which would have us believe that man is no more than a product of many conditional and environmental factors-be they of a biological, psychological or sociological nature? Is man but an accidental product of these? Most important, do the prisoners' reactions to the singular world of the concentration camp prove that man cannot escape the influences of his surroundings? Does man have no choice of action in the face of such circumstances?

We can answer these questions from experience as well as on principle. The experiences of camp life show that man does have a choice of action. There were enough examples, often of a heroic nature, which proved that apathy could be overcome, irritability suppressed. Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

And there were always choices to make. Every day, every hour, offered the opportunity to make a decision, a decision which determined whether you would or would not submit to those powers which threatened to rob you of your very self, your inner freedom; which determined whether or not you would become the plaything of circumstance, renouncing freedom and dignity to become molded into the form of the typical inmate.

Seen from this point of view, the mental reactions of the inmates of a concentration camp must seem more to us than the mere expression of certain physical and sociological conditions. Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone. Fundamentally, therefore, any man can, even under such circumstances, decide what shall become of him - mentally and spiritually. He may retain his human dignity even in a concentration camp.

~Victor Frankel "Man's Search For Meaning." Pages 86-87

Current Location: SLC Utah
Current Mood: contemplative

So the Bar exam is in a couple days... I am freaked out, I am not prepared, I am exhausted both physically mentally and emotionally... Oh yeah, and Sara gets married tomorrow... I hate distractions.

If I don't pass the bar I really might just give up!

Current Location: SLC - Front Office
Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: She's Gonna Break Soon! - Less than Jake

I really don't want to talk about this at all... But just to put it out there, Sara and I are no longer talking.

Current Location: Cooley Law School
Current Mood: Sadness
Current Music: none

I took an International Environmental Law Class when I was down in Australia from a professor who admitted to being "far left" in politics, while at the same time expressing that she was teaching her class in an unbaised fashion (while at the same time espousing Al Gore as an unbaised "expert" in the field as well).

Since then I have actually been very interested in the are of Environmental Law. Another prodding to my interest was when Mr. Gore recieving a Nobel peace prize for his work in promoting "Climate Change."

Today I was reading the news and was struck by several articles that seemed to completely contradict each other, so I thought I would put them out there and hear what everyone had to say.

Read the following news stories:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/americas/02/26/us.warming.ap/index.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332956,00.html

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,332651,00.html

http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/columnists/story.html?id=332289

I would be interested in any respectful thoughts on the subject...

Robert

Current Location: Lansing Michigan
Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Lecture for Bus Orgs - Professor Jim Carey

So I am in my last term here at law school. I am stressed as can be. I am taking 16 credit hours of classes, as well as working 16 hours a week in my externship for the state of Michigan, I am also pretty involved in extra-curricular activities, AND I have started my prep for the July Bar exam.

I still don't have a job nor any offers or even interviews yet, but I guess I should be optimistic, I still have six months before I take the BAR and so there is still time. Honestly though, I am wanting to find a place to go that is outside of Michigan after I graduate. I think that may have something to do with the stress and the fact that there has been a lot of snow here and very little sun this winter. Or maybe it is just the headache I have at the moment. LOL.

Anyways, I know I have been a slacker about writing on here. Sorry.

Robert

Current Location: Cooley Center Rm 309
Current Mood: stressed
Current Music: Professor Cox - Contracts BAR Review

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING

Blink wildly and then close your eyes really tight for an interesting light show
(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)
See a variety of blobs, stars and flashes. Try to make out shapes and see if your subconscious is trying to send you a message (perhaps that funny shape is saying, 'send all your money to urban75.com'?)

See how long you can hold a note
(Amusement Potential: 4-20 minutes)
Not that much fun, but it sure passes the time. Play with a friend, or try to beat your own personal best. Inhale deeply and then try and make a noise for as long as you can. Earn extra points for making your partner laugh or ending on an amusing note.

Try to not think about penguins
(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)
This is especially hard, because by trying too much, you remember what you were trying to avoid thinking of. If you try too little, you end up thinking about penguins anyway.

Use your secret mind power
(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)
Pick a passing by and try to use your mind power to command them do something, like drop their bag or knock into someone. The law of averages dictates that sooner or later one of your mind commands will come true, so you can convince yourself that you really have super human powers and waste even more time trying them out.

Pretend you're a robot
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Walk down the street with mechanical movements, adding 'zzzzzt' sounds with each motion. Pretending to have a motor broken in, say, your left hand can add at least 30 seconds more entertainment.

Scratch yourself
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Go ahead, scratch yourself now. Even if nothing itches, go ahead. Doesn't that feel pretty good?

Repeat the same word over and over until it loses its meaning
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Pick a random word out of a magazine and say it aloud to yourself until it becomes a meaningless set of noises.

Hurt yourself
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
What is pain? Why is it unpleasant? There's nothing physical about it - it's all in your mind. Plus, after pinching yourself for awhile, boredom will seem nice next to being in pain.

Try to swallow your tongue
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
There's not much to say about this one. It is possible, but really stupid.

Pretend to be a car
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Make appropriate revving noises in your head as you walk along and add a racing commentary as you pass strangers in the street. Use blinking eyes as indicators for extra authenticity.

Make Star Trek door noises
(Amusement Potential: 1-2 minutes)
Stand by an electric door to a bank or something and make that silly "Scccccccchwop" sound heard whenever people popped on to the bridge to hang with Captain Kirk.

Look at something for awhile, shut eyes, study after image
(Amusement Potential: 2-5 minutes)
Another great time waster. It takes about 30 seconds of staring to create an after image, and the image is then viewable for about the same length of time. Fun to combine this one with pushing on your eyes.

Get yourself as nauseated as possible
(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)
Best achieved by looking straight up and spinning around. Try to be so dizzy you can't even stand up. This is also entertaining due to the "makes boredom seem a lot better" effect (see "Hurt Yourself").

Invent a weird twitch
(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)
Adopt a bizarre twitch (e.g. flicking your head irregularly, twitching with eye or busting out sporadic cough noises) and try it out whe you go shopping.

Make a low buzzing noise
(Amusement Potential: 15-30 minutes)
Hours of fun in libraries! Keeping a totally straight face and looking nonchalant, make a low pitch humming/buzzing noise and see who reacts.

top

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH VERY LITTLE

See what's in your neighbour's rubbish/trash
(Amusement Potential: 20-30 minutes)
You can learn a lot about people by what they throw out. You might uncover some dark secret about them. Plus, they might be throwing out something with value that still works, like a VCR or some porn mags.

Watch TV, repeat everything said in Italian accent
(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)
Sort of entertaining. Include flamboyant shoulder shrugs for added impact, or go for a Marlon Brando set of grunts.

Send spooky emails
(Amusement Potential: 15-60 minutes)
Look up someone's CV on the web, do some research on them via Google and then send them an email full of personal references claiming to be an ex-work colleague who fell in love with their shoes. Or something.

Play our useless games
(Amusement Potential: how long have you got?)
Waste away the hours with our collection of useless games

Make prank phone calls
(Amusement Potential: 20-60 minutes)
Very entertaining, but requires discipline. Remember - vulgarities don't make a call funny, but getting the other person to believe a ridiculous story will. Try seeing if you can get them to make noises to 'test' the line. One to get you started off: Call McDonalds with weird complaints about their food.

Pretend all humans will die except for people in room with you
Amusement Potential: 10-20 minutes)
What would you do if this really happened? Would the group stay together, or would there be factions? Who would join what group? Remember, there would only be power for a few days before the plants ran out of fuel or broke. To travel, you would always have to be near cars to siphon gas out of. Best to do with people you know.

Step off a curb with eyes shut, imagine it's a cliff
(Amusement Potential: 2-5 minutes)
To get any benefit out of this one, you have to have a good imagination. Don't step off immediately, build up to the jump. Study the ravine below. Feel the winds at that altitude. Step off and...AHHHHHH!!!!!

Try and sound Welsh
(Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
The key to sounding Welsh is to make sure that your voice goes up at the end of the sentence, so that everything sounds like a question. Throw in a superfluous 'isn't it?' at the end of everything you say and you're halfway there. Isn't it?

Burn things with a magnifying glass
(Amusement Potential: 5-30 minutes)
Ants are always fun to use for this, but burning the face of someone you don't like, under some circumstances, can be just as entertaining.

top

THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH ANOTHER PERSON

Have a water drinking contest
(Amusement Potential: 5-10 minutes)
While the competition is fun, you probably won't feel too good afterward. To give your event an old western theme, slam the cups upside down on the tables after you have emptied them.

Stare at the back of someone's head until they turn around
(Amusement Potential: 2-5 minutes)
This works on the "I have the feeling I'm being watched" principle. Conduct an experiment-does this really work?

Have a "Who is less competitive" competition
wonder (Amusement Potential: 1-3 minutes)
Trying to win at this will make you lose. Trying to lose makes you win which makes you lose. Not trying at all makes you lose which makes you win which makes you lose.

Pick up a dog so it can see things from your point of view
(Amusement Potential: 3-5 minutes)
Think about it: your dog has only seen the house from a viewpoint from 6" to 2' high (15 to 60 cm for all you metric fans). It's never seen the tops of counters, what you keep on your desk, the tops of shelves, etc. Try looking at things from its point of view, too.

Pull out a hair, stick in someone's ear
(Amusement Potential: 1-5 minutes)
Best done to sleeping people. Added challenge in having no one else around, because then you can't blame it on anyone else. Try to beat your record number of times before the person catches on.

Pour water in hand, make sneeze noise, throw water on back of person's neck
(Amusement Potential: 5-15 minutes)
Always a good gag. For an even bigger reaction out of the person, act like you're not sorry at all for what they think you did. Comment instead on how big that sneeze was or about how there was a lot of mucus in that one.

DISCLAIMER: Obviously, a lot of these suggestions are really dumb things to do, so don't take them seriously.

And whatever you do, don't be as stupid as this halfwit from New Jersey who mailed me this: "we attempted your ''water drinking contest'' we drank 48oz of water each in about 7 min, and 3 seconds later we were puking uncontrollably all over the kitchen. how dare you put this on your web site its very dangerous and health dangering. legal action may take place since you have no warnings on your site explaining you are not responsible for out comes of ''useless games' or the possible risks. please contact me back so we can settle this matter with out involving the law. "

Current Location: Okemos Michigan
Current Music: The Droning of my professor in my ear

So since I have now plagerized this am I gonna get kicked out of School?


A Brief Taxonomy of Classroom Participation Strategies



The Preemptive Strike

A calculated move to pick off low-hanging fruit early in a given class period, with the hope that you'll be able to avoid being called on later to talk about something you haven't read. Caution: If done too well, can sometimes backfire; the professor may like your answer so much that he drags you into being his Socratic punching bag for much longer than you'd intended. See Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Falling on the Grenade

If your professor has a semi-predictable pattern of calling on people, and you have reason to believe that one or several of your friends are a) unprepared, and b) about to be called on, the Christ-like thing to do is to raise your own hand in order to draw the professor's attention away from other students. Also known as The Rodeo Clown.

The Mercy Kill

Sometimes called the Ben Stein, this strategy is best employed to put an end to the deafening silence following a question that is either too hard or too easy, or to silence a professor that has said "Anyone?" more than four times in a row.

Playing Possum

For gunners finding it particularly hard to get called on, feigned distraction and boredom can often provoke the desired response. Pretend to be asleep, or obsessed with your navel, or eating, or making out with your significant other in class, and more often than not the professor will call on you, thinking you easy prey. Make him regret it.

Playing Foreign LLM

If you happen to be unprepared, disaster can often be avoided by answering in a language cooler than English, like Korean, Norwegian or Portuguese, or Canadian.

The Admiral Stockdale

Most professors will simply move on to the next student if faced with an answer like "POTATOES! I LIKE POTATOES! WHERE'S MY PONY? MOM? ARE YOU THERE? POTATOES!" Also known locally as "The Johnnie Five?"

The Marvin

I don't know Marvin. I've never met Marvin. And I'm pretty sure that he doesn't even go by the name Marvin. But I have been told that once, when called on by name, while sitting in his assigned seat, Marvin successfully pretended that he was not, in fact, in class, and that a slightly confuzled professor was then forced to move on to the next student. For that, Marvin, we salute you.

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Haven't Read

Answer the prof's question with another question. If he fires back with yet another question, it's on. If not, he loses, and you should tell him so.

The Paige Pipkin

Really just a stalling tactic, forces the professor to clarify as many parts of the question as possible while you frantically flip pages in your case book: "Could you repeat the question?" "Could you say that one word again?" "Could you give me the language of origin?" "Could you use it in a sentence?" "Could you use it in a sentence other than the original question?"

Scorched Earth Policy

If the professor is going to take you down, then you're going to take him down with you. Pull in an unrelated law review article. Cite Blackstone. Bring up the war in Iraq. Or abortion. Calling your professor a racist is also good for this, though it often takes a little bit of creativity in some of the drier classes. Trust your instincts.

Scorched Nuts Policy

1. Spill coffee. 2. On crotch. 3. Run away.

Current Location: Okemos Michgan
Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Weird Al - Canadian Idiot

So I have entered the world of the Flip Phone... Stupid to even consider, I know, but sadly my last phone has breathed its last breath, so I was forced to look to the future with a new Razor V3xx. Normally I just take the cheapest phone out there, ie: the free one offered by the plan, but I was so sick of having dropped calls and such bad coverage that I couldn't even get a signal in my own apartment I decided to upgrade just a little.
The problem with the new phone is that it has so many features gizmo's and gadgets I am not sure I know how to make a phone call anymore without wading through it all... Oh well onward and upwards!

I do owe you all many blogs, from Thailand, London, and Oslo to the most recent trip to New Orleans. Hopefull I will get to it in the next little while. In between reading for classes etc.

Current Location: Okemos Michigan
Current Music: Lord of the Rings (Fellowship) Sountrack

I was only a kid
When I said goodbye to you
Ten summers ago
But it feels like yesterday
Lost, scared and alone
Nothing I could give to you
I tried, I really did
But I couldn't find another way

And I want and I need
Somehow to believe
In the choice I made
Am I better off this way

I can hear the voice inside my head
Saying you should be with me instead
Every time I'm feeling down, I wonder
What would it be like with you around

So I, I made my way
Cold and roaming in the wild
I'm forever changed
By someone I never knew
Now I've, I've got a place
I've got a husband and a child
But I'll never forget
What I've given up in you

And I want, I need
Somehow to believe
In the choice I made
Am I better off this way

I can hear the voice inside my head
Saying you should be with me instead
Every time I'm feeling down, I wonder
What would it be like with you around

And I want, I need
Somehow to believe
In the choice I made
Am I better off this way

Current Location: Okemos Michigan
Current Music: Better Off - Dixie Chicks

At first they came for the Jews, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. And then they came for the Communists, but I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. And then they came for the gypsies and the Jehovah's Witnesses and the homosexuals and the handicapped and the mentally ill, but I didn't speak up because I was none of those things. Last of all they came for me. And there was no-one left to speak up for me.

Current Location: Student Living Center
Current Mood: angry
Current Music: Another Brick in the Wall - Pink Floyd