The evolution of birth control in pictures.

Love this bed.

Image: source.

Chicago prosecutors demand student records from Northwestern University journalism students who worked on the case of an exonerated man.

Paris by way of Street View.

This is definitely on my to-read list: on the negative side of positive thinking.

This pic from The Sartorialist is making the rounds, and for good reason - I love her look!

Go NY! "A New York State appellate court on October 21 struck down a lower court requirement that transgender people seeking to change their names provide medical evidence of their need for the name change. " via TransGriot.

For the love of High Fidelity.

Awesome blue bag.

Bukowski has his moments.

Love love love this. Image: source.

LCD Soundsystem...via cello.

So, I didn't pass the MA Bar. I studied hard, felt good at the test...but still fell three points short. 267 out of 270. It's hard. Really hard. The hardest part is the ego part. Knowing that others will talk about how I failed, knowing that others passed who may not have studied as hard. But it also is just a bump in the road. As my beloved best friend reminds me, we have been through a lot so far. This is just another hurdle to get over. Now I'm trying to figure out where to take the Bar next - MA again? Head west back to OR or CA? We will see. In the meantime, I'm grateful to have a job, grateful to have amazing friends and family, grateful to have a wonderful boyfriend, and grateful to have a sense of humor about it all. Thanks, everyone who's been there for me. You know who you are.

NUSL featured in Feminist Law Professors...and not in a positive way:

"Undignified Marketing Alert."

Although I generally like and very much appreciate Feminist Law Professors, I think they are off in this instance. As Libby (who is an awesome person and professor) says in the comments section, the female student sitting on the floor could (and in my experience, should) be read as a mark of comfort and lack of formality, not subservience. One of the things that attracted me to NUSL was that exact sense of comfort and a missing air of stuffiness. Further, Jim Rowan (the professor in the photo) is hardly a power hungry misogynist. He is the head of the clinics programs, has been with the school for 40 years (since reopening it in the 60s with its current focus on social justice), and has never struck me as someone eager for students subservience. You missed the mark this time, FLP!

11 Ingenious Signs on the Simpsons.

Been loving the Avett Brothers recently.

Image: source.

Awesome street art in Paris, France.

Sleeping nooks!

New Sarah Haskins.

"Yesterday marked 150 years since the failed raid on Harper's Ferry. In the aftermath, John Brown predicted, "that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." The crimes to which he referred, of course, were slavery and the economically, socially, and racially hierarchical system it created."

A friend (thanks, Melissa!) recently reminded me of DesignSponges awesome city guides - I'm definitely consulting their Austin, TX and Durham, NC guides for upcoming trips!

We are gonna be staying at this hotel, the Hotel San Jose, in Austin, which gets great reviews...so excited!

The Obamas pick out modern art for the White House.

John Darnielle on faith and feminism.

Image: source.

A tour of some of the awesome houses in my wonderful neighborhood, Jamaica Plain.

Louisiana interracial couple denied marriage license. In 2009.

Marc Jacobs, why do you make so many things I love and can't afford?! These earrings! And, SWOON, this bag!

Awesome necklace and earrings from Etsy shop SavageSalvage.

The Avett Brothers "Kick Drum Heart"

Anyone who has spent time on Etsy will appreciate this collection....Regretsy.

Image: source.

Eight Things That I Have Learned In The Last Eight Years.

Lusting after these earrings.

"I'm Not Here To Make Friends"

Iron & Wine "Boy With A Coin"

Women of power T.

“Being a nerd, which is to say going to far and caring too much about a subject, is the best way to make friends I know. For me, the spark that turns an acquaintance into a friend has usually been kindled by some shared enthusiasm like detective novels or Ulysses S. Grant.” — Sarah Vowell, The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Such a simple and beautiful bag - definitely at the top of my wish list (and destined to stay there).

Some amazing portraits from Bees and Trees.

Great jewelry from Naventin on Etsy, especially these earrings and these and this ring.

Left: A Map of the Open Country of a Woman's Heart.

The Mountain Goats on the Colbert Report.

Interesting! A non-structured, creative book for kids....

Dick Tracy villans!

Love all the oxfords around this season.

More gorgeous clothbound classics from Penguin.

I want to live in this window seat...

Oh, I wanna go check these out: the Boston MFA's collection of Japanese postcards from the early 1900's.

Eight great street vendors in Chicago. Maybe I'll hunt some down when I'm there next weekend!

"On Nov. 1, a law in Oklahoma will go into effect that will collect personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and post them on a public website." WTF?! Luckily the Center for Reproductive Rights is launching a challenge - please support them in their important work!

A current fav: Bon Iver "Skinny Love"

"Monsters carrying chicks."

Image: source.

Dirt poster. Awesome concept.

Belgian Beer fest in Boston!

Love this way of adding a personal touch to a shirt: 9-hole buttons.

Urban Prankster and the Wooster Collective are two of my favorite sites for street art.

Obstacles to health care for victims of domestic violence.

The classic Dali-designed Hitchcock dream sequence.

Left: source.

Travel & Leisure on the world's best beer gardens.

Feeding my travel urges: the cheapest times to visit expensive spots.

On bicycling and gender - very interesting.

Cool! An albatross photographs a killer whale. Watched a few hours of Planet Earth last night - in-freakin-credible as always....Photographer for that series would definitely be in my top 10 dream jobs...

Lonely Planet reintroduces its cycling series.

Law lovers, check out "When the ‘Client’ Demanding Them Is Not the Client Who Hired You," written by the smart and stylish Natasha M. Korgaonkar. "This article addresses what lawyers can do when they find themselves faced with a request for their files from receivers ostensibly standing in the shoes of their former clients but who, in fact, are working hand in hand with the SEC investigating the former client."

I cannot and will not lie - I love Kelly Clarkson (and I also love this Kings of Leon song. So sue me.)

Love this yellow dresser! Still need to spray paint my trunk, maybe yellow is a good idea...

Left: source.

After putting it off for fear I would look like a 2nd grader or an elf, I've finally been playing around with tights, especially for work...and I love it! I have teal and fuschia and some patterned black ones that all get tons of compliments. They are definitely making the transition to winter more bearable...My favorite places to get them so far have been Target, Forver21, and the assortment at Filenes Basement here (especially their Betsy Johnsons....)

Love all the chunky rings like this one from Blind Spot Jewelry.

Great article: Pete Campbell Is A Rapist. This quote really struck a chord: "For anybody who has ever watched the gendered social interactions of women — watched a woman get browbeaten into accepting attention she doesn’t want, watched a woman get interrupted while speaking, watched a woman deny she is upset at being insulted in public, watched a woman get grabbed because of what she was wearing, watched a woman stop arguing — and said and done nothing, you never have the right to ever ask, 'Why didn’t she fight back?'"

10 biggest cases to watch for sentencing fans in the new SCOTUS term. (h/t Crim Prof Blog).

With love to Dorchester.

Awesome/unique earrings.

Some wonderful lines here.

Left: vertical panorama of redwood.

Lexapro's Marketing Plan Shows How Drug Maker Pushes New Drugs.

New York in the 1940's.

From The Curvature, The Problem With Hoping Rapists Will Be Raped.

Best Fiction of the Millennium (so far) - a new start to my reading list....

New York....before New York.

At the leaning tower, it's all about perspective: great shot.

Love this owl ring.

Buddy Holly! (Oh, kids and their rock and roll.)

The awesome Musee Mecanique in San Francisco.

"Drawing" with steel - very cool.

Maybe the perfect studio.

Comparing tobacco warnings in Germany and U.S.

Yay for Rogue River Blue - delicious stuff, and Oregon made!

A map of New York street food.

Dream home in Santa Monica.

Chris Rock on Roman Polanski. "He made good movies, THIRTY YEARS AGO. Even Johnnie Cochran don't have the nerve to go, 'Well, did you see O.J. play against New England?'"

Image: source.

Appropriate respect paid to the donut.

"Despite a constitutional amendment put in place by voters and the Texas Family Code, which prohibits same-sex marriage or civil unions, Dallas state District Judge Tena Callahan ruled that a gay couple can divorce in the state and "the state prohibition of same-sex marriage violates the federal constitutional right to equal protection'." Source.

“Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won’t either. For solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love.You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could.” ~ Louise Erdrich

Haha, awesome! Improbable movie trading cards.

A great article on a tough topic: Why I don't support hate crimes legislation.

Um, want both of these. Awesome jewelry from Melissa Joy Manning.

Image: source.

On the greatness of bookstores.

Beautiful tattoo.

Loving all the terrariums I keep seeing around...maybe that's a way for me to have plants without killing them...

Still loving all the braids out there...and still looking for a way to rock them without feeling like I'm in third grade.

“And I say to my heart: rave on.” - Mary Olive

Interesting: Born to Rue: Why some people may be hard-wired for anxiety.

Image: left. Gorgeous.

Prepping for my upcoming work trip to NC, hoping to find some time for fun! 36 hours in Research Triangle.

Check out Type Is Art. I like!

Comically Vintage!

Gotta love Sarah Haskins. Target Women: Dating Advice.

So awesome - astronomy photos of the year. Astronomy was one of the hardest classes I ever took, but also one of the most life-changing....

Arcade Fire covers "Maps" by the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs.

“Ah get born, keep warm. Short pants, romance, learn to dance. Get dressed, get blessed. Try to be a success. Please her, please him, buy gifts. Don’t steal, don’t lift. Twenty years of schoolin’ and they put you on the day shift. Look out kid, they keep it all hid. Better jump down a manhole. Light yourself a candle. Don’t wear sandals. Try to avoid the scandals. Don’t wanna be a bum. You better chew gum. The pump don’t work. ‘Cause the vandals took the handles.” - Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

Awesome! St. Peterborough/Restaurant Row revival (my old hood). Thanks for the link, PC!

Left: loving the artwork of Charmaine Olivia. (via the awesomely named My Love For You Is A Stampede of Horses).

Who knew? John Muir, naturalist AND inventor...

Another great Daily Pep Talk From A Best Friend.

On the urban planning tip, the cost of urban freeways.

This gets to my frustration with peoples focus on organizations like the Innocence Project as a driving force behind the fight against capital punishment - Opposing the death penalty is not about innocence: "The hunt for the identity of a wrongfully executed person reflects the need to put a face on one particular critique of capital punishment. That hunt is admirable and, if structured the right way, well worth the cost. But the "innocence" critique need not have a face to be right, and the myriad other critiques of our perverse capital punishment system should not all stand or fall on our ability to specifically identify a wrongful execution."