I shall have heroin, but I shan't have a hamburger. What a sexy little paradox.

Ok, so I am TOTALLY that asshole on Project Runway.

You know the one I mean, the one who's all "OH MY GOD, THE CHALLENGE IS MENSWEAR! I LOVE MENSWEAR! I AM MENSWEAR. I WILL ROCK THIS CHALLENGE, CALL IT MY BITCH, MAKE IT MY OWN AND NINA GARCIA WILL LICK MY FEET."

And then that asshole goes the fuck home.

So I tried out for two of the law journals. I got my case and it involved the Alien Tort Statute (but not really, actually). It was part of the case but not the point. I still thought it was essential in a bigger-picture sort of way. Apparently not. Or else my footnotes just sucked that badly. Which, in truth, is 95% of what they look at. But I was thrilled to get a case I had an interest in and for which I had some previous knowledge.

It sucks to have put in a lot of work (but let's be honest, not as much as I should have put in, apparently), but I also don't regret it. The work sucked but I didn't hate it, and the case was really interesting. Seriously, it involved corporate responsibility (and the oh-so-liberal Ninth Circuit with their silly little notions of what they think the law is...sometimes I hope they just do it to upset Scalia). At least the research I did was up my alley, anyway.

Bringing us back full circle to: SADCAKES. So yeah, I totally went home on the menswear challenge, it happens. And just because I liked the case, I don't mean to imply I thought I'd win the challenge, so to speak. I felt like it was 50-50. Or maybe 55-45. ;)

In other news, I forgot to tell you I finally saw Bridesmaids and totally hated it. I liked it ok at the time, but the more I think about it, the more I hate it. I realize I may catch flak for saying this. But seriously! It felt long, it was unfunny, and all it did was establish that women can have juvenile and crappy comedies, too. Right on down to the stereotypical "fat friend" character and all the un-funny that goes with it.

Don't get me wrong, it had its moments. But overall I was hugely disappointed, especially considering the talented comedians and writers involved. Ugh.

Completely unrelated, I will not be leaving the Hague without having seen the ICJ, at least. (These pics were not taken by me but found from the interweb. You are not allowed to photograph inside the Peace Palace "for security reasons." As for the outside pic, I am not on my laptop at the moment so I couldn't use the one I have! Also, this one's sexier.)



Peace Palace! Or Vredepaleis, in Dutch. It houses the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. It was built specifically for the latter and because it was the first building in the world to house an international court, they pulled out all the stops, had a designing contest for the building, all the countries gave it enormous gifts...it was one important baby, in other words.

So it was built for the Court of Arbitration and it was finished in 1913. But after WWII, the ICJ came about, and they got to take over the sexy room, aka, The Great Hall of Justice.



Obviously the room was empty when we were there. It is one hell of an impressive room. I've read several ICJ cases, so it was really, really cool to be in there. I was very much a little bit in awe.

What I did not know is that the President (1 of the 15 judges) sits in the middle and the longer you're on the Court, the closer you get to sit to the middle. Newbies on the ends. Scintillating, I know. (Judges sit on the Court for 9 years with some changing up every 3 years.)



This is an example of one of the gifts. It weighs 3.2 tons. The rest of the Palace has cellars underneath, but this room does not because otherwise the vase would break through the floor. So it's heavy.

The "Japanese room" had the biggest silk, hand-woven (by 48,000 Japanese people!) wall...tapestry? For lack of a better word? Anyway, it's so bad-ass they call the room "the Japanese room." It also has the largest wall-to-wall rug in Europe (I think from Turkey).

The United States gave a wooden ceiling (which is actually in the room that now houses the Permanent Court of Arbitration) which is going to be hard to explain without pictures. It is apparently 7 layers and constructed in such a fashion that it has no glue, no nails, no nothing, but the layers sit on each other without falling. I just think it's awesome that we would give so precarious-sounding a gift.

There are also two giant...things, I don't know...vases? from Hungary. Each one sits outside each court and has lions and owls on it to give each court strength and wisdom. There is also a very cool marble statue Lady of Justice who has no sword, no tools, she's a more "modern" Lady Justice. "She can do it on her own, all she needs is justice." Or something.



She's up there but you can't really see, nor could I find other pics. But it's actually a pretty awesome statue. Don't fuck with Lady Justice.

(Also, I kept writing "statute" instead of "statue." Sigh.)

But basically every single thing in the Palace symbolizes Peace, Truth, or Justice.

And they have a fabulous huge garden that looks like someone spends all day using nail clippers to manicure the whole thing. BUT YOU MUSTN'T GO IN IT. Seriously, the gardens are closed to the public. And they're extensive and beautiful. So that makes sense.

But it's just a gorgeous building. When you go to work in a shitty ex-insurance building with zero character or charm, you get a little jealous. We do international law stuff, TOO, how come we don't get the pretty things?! Oh right, "ad hoc tribunal." Hmph.