Law Students

Star Trek Fans, Unite!

Posted on May 07, 2009
I am getting excited. Star Trek fans, show yourself in the comments.I left my comm badge at my parent's house. And it's been years since I've been able to find my little plastic borg cube toy. I did find my "live long and prosper" hand sign pin though, and I'm contemplating wearing that to the movie just to embarrass TD...

"Extremely dangerous to America"

Posted on May 06, 2009
Along with Dahlia Lithwick and Hanna Rosin, I for one, would welcome a gay female Supreme Court of the United States justice. I never understood why gay people (or gay marriage) means the destruction of democracy, America, and "American values," but I do not listen to conservative media and I did not engage my family over their support of Prop 8 at Thanksgiving dinner...

In which the NYT shoulders the great journalistic burden of defending the defenseless...models.

Posted on May 06, 2009
I kid you not. I would not have posted except for the bizarre preponderance of reporting on models this week at the expense of The Crazy Women, ostensibly because there is some kind of museum exhibit. Quick! Someone tell all of the college kids to stop lighting candles and instead campaign for Met exhibits on Darfur, and someone tell all of the anti-war protesters to target curators! Oh wait, that might only work for shallow subjects ofBesides, if not them, who? The Model Anti-Defamation League:1...

yet another tech problem

Posted on May 05, 2009
My Firefox is broken or something. I open up the NYT homepage in Internet Explorer (which I never use). It looks normal. I open up the NYT homepage in Firefox (which I use all the time), and there is a big chunk of white space between the banner that says "The New York Times" and the main front page...

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good and bad ways to save money

Posted on May 05, 2009
(Goal: I will post 3-5 times a week, mostly on weekdays, even if it's crap. I didn't say this was a good goal)In This Current Economic Climate, it behooves a not-so-young graduate student to scrimp and save. There are good and bad ways to do this, however...

Conspiracy Theory: The NY media want you to think that women are crazy and stupid.

Posted on May 04, 2009
Okay, this is the CREEPIEST Modern Love column EVER. Does she not know that you can block creepy stalking students from chatting with you on Gmail? Doesn't she come off as craving the attention and encouraging the crazy? This replaces this entry as proof that "Modern Love Exists to Perpetuate the Stereotype that Women are Batshit Insane"...

Recharge

Posted on May 03, 2009
Things that I need on occasion to recharge:A nice dinner out.A nice dinner in (tonight: pork medallions and orange-braised fennel)Wilco's peppier music (I especially like California Stars and Outta Site (Outta Mind) and I Got You.Non-academic fiction reading (currently, I'm reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and it's really enjoyable...

State of the Belle

Posted on May 03, 2009
Since I've last blogged, nearly a month ago, these things have happened:I'm still alive. No, really.I discovered that I make really great pudding and custard, but do not how to work with gelatin. Panna cotta FAIL.I baked challah and offered some to my Jewish friends, who politely informed me "thanks, but it's Passover...

on trust and intimacy

Posted on April 14, 2009
The most recent episode of Dollhouse can only be described as "ZOMG." Many interesting themes explored in that episode, and lots of new plot developments. In the opening sequence, in what can only be described as the most pandering move EVER made by Joss Whedon to his geeky male fans, Echo (Eliza Dushku) is in a "dude, this is OK for primetime?!" dominatrix outfit and trying to explain to her handler Boyd (protector, I'm not using BDSM terminology to my knowledge) about how it's not about pain or domination, but absolute trust...

do you choose your hobby, or does your hobby choose you?

Posted on April 08, 2009
My hobbies:Reading for fun, mostly fictionKnitting, if poorly and slowlyHiking/walkingBakingCookingBloggingBoard games.The reason for my choices: I don't read as much fiction (mainly because I don't read as much "for fun" anymore) as I used to, but I maybe read a novel or collection of short stories every two weeks to a month, and it this is reading that is "not work," and it's not mindless internet surfing...

undeclared blog hiatus is OVER

Posted on April 08, 2009
I've been busy, blog weary, and my hands hurt. But I just got another round of shots and I am PUMPED! So I am back. Sorry for the long and undeclared absence and silence. I just figured that if I had nothing interesting to say, I shouldn't say anything at all...

the secret to asian cooking

Posted on March 26, 2009
I have a recipe that calls for "Chinese Five Spice." Not knowing what that was, since I am not Chinese, I went out and bought it at a Chinese supermarket--it appears to be a mixture of star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, pepper. I like all of these things, but I have never combined them...

on difficult films

Posted on March 24, 2009
The older I get, the more I want to be diverted and entertained by gaudy spectacles and improbable wish-fulfilling plots. Maybe it's the product of also feeling too old for drama in my own life, which may be mirrored in my aesthetic choices. I went through a major "bummer" phase in college, when I only liked sad, difficult cinema, and even better if it was in a foreign language...

Yet another reason to boycott Jezebel.

Posted on March 20, 2009
My complaints against their faux feminism are many, but when one "feminist" sells out another victim of sexual assault for page views, it's the end of the line for me. Amber has the details.

Discrimination I don't get.

Posted on March 19, 2009
Well, I don't get a lot of discrimination, even as I understand the cognitive shortcuts of availability heuristics that lead to discrimination, whether invidious or unconscious. But that's a conversation for another day.I bring this up because of this rather affecting post by Helen about her experiences at Le Bernadin, a very nice restaurant in NYC...

I don't get the point of this happy blog

Posted on March 17, 2009
The Happiness Project. Wha?I'm working on a book, THE HAPPINESS PROJECT--a memoir about the year I spent test-driving every principle, tip, theory, and scientific study I could find, whether from Aristotle or St. Therese or Martin Seligman or Oprah. THE HAPPINESS PROJECT will gather these rules for living and report on what works and what doesn?t...

dollhouse, reviewed

Posted on March 13, 2009
This post is dedicated to Jason W., who wrote me a very excellent review of the show. If not for the fact that I watch it on Sundays through Hulu, he'd be an excellent IM buddy to watch the show live with. I owe him an email, and my own review. But I though I'd share the TV addiction...

like a moth to a flame burned by the fire

Posted on March 12, 2009
So one of my accidental New Year's resolutions (because the great reorganization project is still buried under piles of books and papers) was to cut out excessive negativity and anger from my life. This is not a Buddhist thing. I am a terrible meat-eating and greedy person...

yet another front in the mommy wars

Posted on March 12, 2009
Hanna Rosin has a great article called "The Case Against Breast Feeding" in this month's Atlantic. It's especially good read in conjunction with Jill Lepore's "If Breast is Best, Why are Women Bottling Their Milk?" article in the New Yorker. The gist of both articles is not to posit La Leche or the American Pediatrics Society as a vast conspiracy to chain mothers to their babies, but that the statistics on the health benefits of breast-feeding are marginal (within statistical insignificance) at best, and so you're not feeding your baby this super vaccine and intelligence juice that will make them super smart and healthy super babies...

Should Belle Watch "The Watchmen"?

Posted on March 10, 2009
Pros: I really like graphic novels and comics, and I like Alan Moore's work. This is the movie I've been looking forward to.Cons: Bad reviews. Really bad reviews (Anthony Lane doesn't like anything, but when he accuses a movie of misogyny, then...)...

greetings from someplace warmer than where you are

Posted on March 06, 2009
Unless you're in Florida or something. I have escaped my cold and rainy climate for sunnier pastures. I am writing from a guest bedroom in the Los Angeles area, and oh yes, haterz, I am blogging poolside. 65 degrees is not exactly sunburn weather, but it is dry and warm here, with a cooling breeze...

random roundup

Posted on March 03, 2009

Saturday Poet: Theodore Roethke

Posted on February 28, 2009

random reviews of things

Posted on February 25, 2009
I'm trying to reduce my levels consumption, but here are things I have particularly enjoyed:My second (or third) time reading it, Pfeffer and Salancik's The External Control of Organizations remains awesome, useful, and so clearly written. It's super interesting and readable...

you've made your bed and now you have to lie in it

Posted on February 24, 2009
Phoebe remarks on the Obama family's efforts to maintain discipline and normalcy for their daughters by way of making them make their own beds and clean their own rooms:While telling the housekeepers not to make the girls' beds in the morning seems reasonable, bed-making is something I've never understood altogether--why must a bed be made, except on the occasion of sheet-change/laundry day? Can't a person (child or adult) OK with a messy bed have it messy in the morning and return to it messy each night? I get how having a maid clean a room could spoil a kid, but I tend to think parents who make their children make their beds (as opposed to saying, your bed will be as you leave it) do so to make a point, a point that could just as easily be made by having children help out with chores that actually must get done, such as dishes, laundry, vacuuming, cooking, etc...

throwing in the (kitchen) towel

Posted on February 24, 2009
Augh! And I haven't even made it yet! One of TD's requested desserts is something called "Black Forest Cake." I have never eaten such a thing and did not know it existed. I mean, I have eaten black forest ham (delicious). But not cake.I'm a pretty decent baker, but I am terrible at cake decoration...

why i read advice columns

Posted on February 20, 2009
In keeping with Matt's urgings (it's like he's my sponsor), I've been better about kicking the Modern Love column habit, because it's usually such dreck and it makes me so mad. I am even thinking of kicking the Jezebel habit, because while it's a great link-referral service to things that are interesting/infuriating, it's terrible at its own "substantive commentary" and the comments are completely idiotic, making me despair for modern feminism...

Belle's Macaroni and Cheese

Posted on February 20, 2009
Pretty darn tasty, and pretty darn bad for you. This is a halved recipe, but I'd say it'd still feed four people really generously. Because we only got through very little of this and are eating it again tonight with the chicken piccata I'm going to make...

Belle's Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup

Posted on February 20, 2009
My own recipe! Super-delish, and was much enjoyed by The Dude, The Best Friend, and The Best Friend's Husband. You can puree it (or half of it) for a Campbell's can toothless consistency, or leave it chunky like I do.Serves 4-6.Ingredients:8 oz. Shitake mushrooms, chopped8 oz...

New Kid on the legal job market vs. the academic job market

Posted on February 19, 2009
One of my favorite bloggers, a Medieval-historian-turned-1L, has great insights into both:I think I bring a warped perspective to discussions about the employment prospects in law. (Disclaimer: I don't know much about the legal job market yet, not compared to the academic job market, so my comments here are just gut reactions, not reasoned arguments...

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