Record Breaking Storm

We just survived one of the strongest storms on record in Seattle. Winds recorded over 100mph and rain falling faster than the systems could keep up with it. So far so good around our house as it looks like we escaped with no damage. Scroll down about 4 photos to see the transition of weather of the past few days.

Then the winds. Trees and power lines are down everywhere. Over 1 million people were left without power in the Puget Sound region. As I write two mornings later, 650,000 people still don't have power, but we got it back last night :)

Then came the rain! More rain I have ever seen fall at once in Seattle. Their was literally a river running down Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. While I didn't see it, the confluence of Rio MLK and Rio Madison (a few blocks from our house) was quite a scene.

After some clear weather, a few clouds pushed in revealing this nice walk on Rado's morning walk.

Some recent high pressure in the NW brought the typical fog that burns off to blue skies. A winter commonality up here.

Law School Final Exams

Finals began the Monday after Thanksgiving for me this year with an Appellate Oral Argument. I am now entering my third week of exams, and the experience of these exams propelled me to look up a couple quotes from a book I read before entering law school:

Final exams play on a law student’s world like some weirdly orbiting moon. They are always in sight; but while they’re at a distance, they serve merely to create the tensions which swell daily like tides – to read, to keep pace, to understand. As exams draw close, however, in December (and May), their gravitational forces starts to shake the whole place to pieces.

FYI, for those who don't know, the typical law school course has one final exam that determines your entire grade.

It is Monday morning, and when I walk into the central building I can feel my stomach clench. For the next five days I will assume that I am somewhat less intelligent than anyone around me. At most moments I’ll suspect that the privilege I enjoy was conferred as some kind of peculiar hoax. I will be certain that no matter what I do, I will not do it well enough; and when I fail, I know that I will burn with shame. By Friday my nerves will be so brittle from sleeplessness and pressure and intellectual fatigue that I will not be certain I can make it through the day. * * * I am distracted at most times and have difficulty keeping up a conversation, even with my wife. At random instants, I am likely to be stricken with acute feelings of panic, depression, indefinite need and the pep talks and irony I practice on myself only seem to make it worse.
I am a law student in my first year at the law, and there are many moments when I am simply a mess.

-- Scott Turow, ONE L

I am now in my second year. Arguably the hardest semester of the program, and while I do my best to maintian a certain amount of integrity grounded in my life outside of the law, the second to last sentence has rung especially true is days of late.

Constitutional Law - Final Exam

My take home final reads, in pertinant part:

Describe the model of government or of the legal system that you think our Constitution aims to create, and specify the doctrines of Constitutional law that support your proffered model. Be sure to locate the legal principles you choose to discuss in the document, describe their operation using relevant case law, and articulate the way they contribute to the creation of the democratic order you have in mind.

Due Tuesday. Maximum Six Pages. This will pretty much be consuming my thoughts until then.

A cool picture I stole from the NYTimes during our rainy November

Snow in Seattle and Rado's Ghost