So some things happened this week:

So some things happened this week:

1. I found a group for my civ pro project. All by myself! And then it turned out that I could just have sent my name into a person and have a group assigned. My group met on Wednesday, split into subgroups of two, and then agreed to meet today with a rough outline of what we wanted to do. My partner and I went through the whole thing and laid out what we thought would be the best approach. We went pretty into detail. Then today we met and it turned out that most other people came to conclusions different from ours. That was a surprise, since I thought we had come up with one of the only options. So today I spent about an hour convincing seven of my cohorts to go with what we had already laid out, a process that was actually pretty fun, but sort of frustrating because we had already done all of the work I was advocating we do. Then I came up to the computer lab and put all the work we did into a formal draft of the complaint we are putting together. It looks really good, and as a nice little bonus, I get a ton of credit for doing work for the group!

2. A second plotline. I ate a bunch of free food this week. This is not an elaborate plotline. But it was delicious. On Tuesday I learned about study abroad while eating some pizza.

a. I think I might be interested in applying to study abroad at some point during my legal education. There's a program in Dublin, two in Germany, one in Sweden, and one in France. As well as a couple in South America, which are conducted mostly in Spanish. The one in Dublin would be fantastic because I would be able to play handball. The one in Sweden would be awesome because it's the only one that has any sort of funding attached. The other European ones would be secondary, but still interesting.

On Wednesday, I ate more, but different pizza while listening to an Afghani lady talk about warlords in her country and how the US was an awful country that everyone hated.

b. Malalai Joya said the CIA had started ramping up the opium trade in her country before 9/11 even happened, and that her country should have been allowed to get rid of the Taliban themselves. I felt a bit in over my head when another person from the middle east asked what we should have done when we were attacked. Unfortunately, she asked him to say it again in a different language, and then I lost track of what was going on. She has a book coming out, and she stressed not listening to major news sources. She said her website had the sources she uses to keep up with things while she is touring. People have tried to assassinate her multiple times (I think four). The thing I found most persuasive was when she showed this magazine cover:

The magazine is saying that the country isn't stable enough to leave. But Malalai Joya suggests we ask a different question: What has happened while we were in Afghanistan? The things that we are worried about happening can still happen. She had pictures of four year olds that had been raped, women who set themselves on fire to escape marriage, and some really disturbing statistics to go along with it.

 (The pizza was amazing! I don't know what the top piece was, but the front piece had falafel, and the middle piece had potatoes and cheese. The back piece was the best. The sauce was zingy. I'm sure I could find out what it was, but sometimes it's better to not know...)

On Thursday I went back to the study abroad people. This time they had sandwiches.

c. Nothing happened, except they let out the people who had been before early. So I got to eat free food and only had to spend a half hour of time listening to people who liked Sweden.

Today I ate pizza again.

d. I was headed to my normal spot to study, only to find a staff lunch happening. It was a common use area, and a lady told me I could still study if I wanted, and normally I would have left, but the presence of food was too much to pass up. So I bided my time and studied while watching youtube. Sure enough, it ended with leftovers, and I was first at the remainder. Justice! I put in the time and reaped the reward.

3. Handball has also happened.
a. My shoulder has been hurting a bit since the tournament. I haven't been using it. I suited up with one glove on Tuesday. I was still the first one there and the last to leave, and I actually felt like I was improving by the end, which is a thing that hasn't been happening that much recently. My left arm was even sore when I woke up on Wednesday.
I. On a side note, I've investigated various muscle groups and I think what I did was strain my pectoral muscle (or its attachment, or something). There are three grades of strain; the first requires a couple days to feel better, the second 2-6 weeks, and the third is a rupture that requires surgery. Since I am obviously not in mortal pain, I have ruled out the third option, but since it still hurts, I'm afraid it's probably not the second one either. I have my first handball league on Tuesday next week, so I've decided to try a bit with it on Saturday just to see how it feels, and try and gauge things from there. So back to the Midway Y for me tomorrow morning.
II. It feels weird to have an outline format layer with only one element, so here's a second side note about my left arm: It exists! It needs to get better at handball though. Maybe this forced practice will do that. Maybe I should not use my right hand more often!

b. When I went to Mankato last weekend I left something in everyone's vehicles. I left my sleeping bag and water bottle in David's, and my prize for second place was in Jessica's! Of course, I had a full backpack with my books, etc. and the sleeping bag left no room for my last companion:

Isn't he adorable? I just hope some people saw me biking back with this guy! It was raining, though, so I might have gone unnoticed.

4. I wrote a paper between the hours of 2:00 and 7:59 on Thursday. Unfortunately, those hours occurred before my class at 8:00 that morning, so it might have gone better... I was confused, because even after I felt like I had addressed the issues, there was a lot of space left in the ten page maximum my instructors said people usually struggled to keep within. So I added stuff until the last minute (making the organization worse, but lengthening the end product), and my submission time was 7:59:32, which I think is pretty nifty. But since my class starts at 8:00, I was a couple minutes late to that. We exchanged copies for editing with another person during class, and I was relieved/annoyed to learn that the reason some people run out of room is that they include every single fact. And not even just the facts of the case we are arguing! Of all the cases that establish precedent! So unless there's something I'm missing, I think my approach is pretty valid. I just gave the citations of the relevant cases and highlighted why they specifically applied to the case at hand. That took up way less room than giving background on the cases we were supposed to be using to give background on our case. So maybe there's a line to walk between the two approaches, but I'm fine erring on the side of brevity for now.

5. Conclusion.
a. I have outlines on the brain after writing that draft of my complaint.
b. I'm not focusing on this entry anymore.  I should have free time again soon, so thanks for reading!