Not in California

websites!

2010-07-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if anyone still looks at this ever, but if you do, you should go check out the new website that my little sister and I have been working on. It's at www.polyglotproject.com. Let me know what you think!

Also, my older sister has been doing a lot with her business and you should check her out at http://www.nurturecenter.com/ and http://www.tendercargo.com

fire!??

2009-03-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

Wow, when I got in tonight I found my entire block occupied by maybe six fire trucks and about 50 firemen. Aparently my building caught on fire. It was just the 4th floor- I'm on the 2nd- and they had already put it out and said I could go in. So I'm sitting here on my couch typing this on my phone because my computer is broken. There's pretty extensive water damage to the apt. Anyway, everything is fine I guess, but I may stay someplace else tonight.

the library

2008-11-19T08:07:00.000-08:00

i just stepped into the library for the first time this semester, and it is bringing back all sorts of memories. i'm sitting at the seat by the window where i used to do all my studying as a 1L, and i feel nostalgic for the time when i used to worry about whether i would fail and whether i would get a job, which was actually pretty fun now that i look back on it. i remember spending so much time here working through everything and watching the snow fall. anyway, i guess i'm finally getting down to work for this semester. but it will be over pretty quickly. home thursday for a while.

books

2008-05-04T05:23:00.000-07:00

so, like i said in my last post, i have been packing up some things to send home. i've accumulated a good collection of books since i've been out here, so i thought i would copy my sister and write out the list of everything i've read lately, not counting schoolwork. this is for the last year or so, i think starting near the end of last summer.

Homage to Catalonia- George Orwell
Traders, Guns & Money- Satyajit Das
Waiting for Godot- Samuell Beckett
Rosencrantz & Guilldenstern are Dead- Tom Stoppard
Waiting for the Barbarians- J.M. Coetzee
Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman- Richard Feynman
Death in the Afternoon- Ernest Hemingway
Medici Money- Tim Parks
The End of the Affair- Graham Greene
On Love- Alaine de Botton
Long Day's Journey into Night- Eugene O'Neil
Hamlet: Poem Unlimited- Harold Bloom
Twelfth Night- Shakespeare
Blood Meridian- Cormac McCarthy
Holidays on Ice- David Sedaris
Status Anxiety- Alain de Botton
A Moon for the Misbegotten- Eugene O'Neil
The Year of Magical Thinking- Joan Didion
The Dharma Bums- Jack Kerouac
The Turn of the Screw- Henry James
This Side of Paradise- F. Scott Fitzgerald
Straight from the Gut- Jack Welch
Dubliners- James Joyce
Exile and the Kingdom- Albert Camus
Lolita- Vladimir Nabokov
The Maltese Falcon- Dashell Hammett
The Annotated Wasteland- T.S. Eliot
The Robert Frost Reader- Robert Frost

also the first two harry potter books fit somewhere in that order.

no parking

2008-04-17T15:22:00.000-07:00

i've started boxing a few things up to send home for the summer, and in looking through some things, i found a great collection of historical documents. see, last summer i was borrowing a car from a generous friend and driving to work everyday. i was spending most of my weekends on the upper west side and sleeping on an air mattress at a friend's apartment. well this was a nice little area, and part of what the city does to keep it nice is make it so dreadfully impossible to park that nobody would dare leave their car on the street for more than a couple hours. they come up with ridiculous, unpredictable rules- "no parking 7-9 AM every third thursday" or "3-5:30 each wednesday"- so that you can never be too sure if you're breaking the law or not, or if, by the passage of time, you will come to be breaking the law. i knew i would get an occasional ticket, but being a naive californian and thinking that i had seen the worst of parking tickets in berkeley and san francisco, expected the damage to be minimal. it was not. i paid $520 in parking tickets over the course of two months last summer, or at least, that is the total of the tickets i found stuffed into a drawer- there may have been more. anyway, i am very excited to know that i will have a parking space this summer, and i am looking forward to spending the money on something else instead.

money

2008-03-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

since this blog is a sort of pseudo journal, i think i should link to this here so i will remember it when i am old.

florida 3

2008-03-11T12:38:00.001-07:00

this really big guy was just sitting along side the water there and we were able to sneak up behind him to get a picture

they had these little baby ones for us to hold. they said that you can't release alligators once they've lived in captivity because they lose their fear of people and will start eating people.

after our tour we drove a while down the road andfound this trail to something called the Shark Valley Observation deck. it was getting dark though so we didn't actually make it to the end. also, the park ranger we met in the parking lot said that alligators become moreactive at night and that it would be dangerous to stay out their.

we got less than a mile down the trail and then quickly found that he was right. this giant alligator was just sitting there on the trail waiting for us. we kept our distance and turned around to go back to the car.

florida 2

2008-03-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

our first alligator sighting

another one

there were a ton of these white birds all around. not sure what kind they were.

one swimming alongside our boat

florida trip

2008-03-11T12:26:00.000-07:00

ao i've been meaning to blog this for the last week or so. here are a few of the pictures i took on my trip to florida at the beginning of march. six friends and i went down and stayed at a condo in ft lauderdale. part of the trip was just a kinda lazy beach vacation and a lot of eating out, but the part that is the subject of this post is much cooler.

one day we took a trip to the everglades to try and see some aligators. we found a tour company that would take us out in one of those fan-boat things.

here is most of our group. from left to right ck, holly, justin, jane, and chris.

here is our tour guide. he was really cool. basically exactly the stereotype. he showed us scars on his leg that he said were from an aligator bite.

this is what the everglades look like.

the view

2008-03-07T09:46:00.000-08:00

hey everyone, i just realized that i've been meaning to post pictures of the view from my room ever since i moved in last summer. considering that out lease might not be renewable i thought i ought to finally get around to posting.

here's the view looking southish at columbus circle:

and here's looking northwestish towards lincoln center:

pretty cool huh?

come visit me before the semester ends.

a fool and his money...

2008-02-05T20:26:00.000-08:00

so i am looking forward to spending this weekend here. it seems that some companies have ridiculous ideas about how to go about recruiting and think parties for students are worthwhile expenses. not that i'm complaining, i just think it is ridiculous. anyway, i am going to stop writing before they take away my vacation.

actually, after thinking about it for a minute, maybe this is a good recruiting tool. i am definitely more interested in working for these people now, so their plan may be working.

2008-01-25T16:08:00.000-08:00

i thought that this was a pretty efficient way to get my screen cleaned

(not sure how long that link will work)

election humor

2008-01-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

almost done

2007-12-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

three finals down as of monday and one more to go. i'll be done with the semester wednessday and home on thursday. i have three weeks or so off and am taking suggestions for where to go or what to do. anyone want to take a trip?

2007-12-03T22:55:00.000-08:00

it' lame but sometimes i am can't get to bed because i am glued to the screen of my laptop following the republican primary news. it is getting worse right when i need to be studying the most. i won't get into it, but man, there is a lot to be said about it all right now.

victory

2007-11-29T20:29:00.001-08:00

i feel very rich today. i finally got my financial aid check for this semester. yes, the check with which i was supposed to pay my rent for september, october, november, and december, as well as buy groceries and textbooks for the semester. basically, the point is to say that my school's financial aid department is incompetent, and that if it weren't for the luck of having a bit of money saved and generous parents, i would have starved to death this semester while interest accrued on my loans that sat in their bank account.

on the more upbeat side of things, studying for finals is going well and i think i will make it. lots of work to do still, but i think i'm working at a fast enough pace to know what i need to know on time. i'll be coming home around the 20th, so see you then.

going dark

2007-11-15T10:51:00.000-08:00

oh crap its november 15th and i just realized how little work i've done for school this semester. finals are about a month away now, so i'm going to the library and not coming out until then. blogging frequency will probably stay about the same lol. if you happen to talk to me, please remind me to get back to studying ok?

remember how the police stole my moped?

2007-11-10T23:47:00.000-08:00

this dude knows what its like to be me.

http://www.timwu.org/log/archives/207

the 1994 "24" pilot

2007-11-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

do you remember when this was how we lived?

do you...

2007-11-03T04:38:00.000-07:00

do you ever wake up and wonder, is it Christmas?

hey look, i blogged

2007-10-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

just not here. look here instead. this little article thing is something i co-wrote with a couple of other people as part of the work for the journal i'm on here at the law school. pretty cool huh?

lol

2007-08-27T02:31:00.001-07:00

return to the blogosphere

2007-08-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

so i slacked off on the blogging for a good month or two there and i'm sorry about that for those couple of you who read this. i got sort of sick of being on the computer at work all the time and could never get myself to do any recreational typing. but i finished work friday and now i have all sorts of free time to fill you in on my life. this will not include pictures of this summer because i put that off until the last day of work and it was raining all day- sorry mom.

work was really good. like i think i wrote at the beginning of it all, i was working in antitrust litigation, defending a company against a claim that it had unfairly excluded competitors from the market. i'm not sure if that's interesting or boring to people who aren't me, so i will hold off on writing about it unless somebody makes a point of saying they care about it. anyway, i liked it, and i'm planning on taking an antitrust class this fall to take advantage of what i learned.

i'm back in manhattan now, living in a pretty cool apartment about a block from the south western tip of central park. the city is much more enjoyable in the summer than the winter, and when you're living in a fun part of town rather than up by columbia. if you want pictures of this place, tell me and i will promise to take them and then forget to do it. but a better plan yet would be for you to visit.

this week is basically a vacation for me but i'm going to be spending a lot of time getting ready for job interviews which start on thursday. suits are at the drycleaners. and i have an pretty serious collection of dress shirts and ties ready to go. i'm sure i'll post more about the whole process as things develop.

anyway, those are the basic facts of my life right now. hopefully i'll post again before september...

big commitment

2007-06-26T17:38:00.001-07:00

i just signed up to do my first full ironman next summer. i've been thinking about it for a couple of years now, so i'm pretty excited to actually be signed up for it. that's a big deal in itself because you have to sign up about a year in advance since there are a limited number of spots. anyway, now i just need to learn how to go that far.

checking in

2007-06-06T19:03:00.001-07:00

i thought i'd take a moment to give an update on what's going on in my life these days.

1) my landlord went to thailand for the month, and his girlfriend had some sort of visa issue and had to go back to Suranam to get a new one, and i am now living alone in a kinda creepy house in the woods. i'm not sure how i feel about that, but i guess i'm getting used to it. it's a lot different from living by yourself in a city where it is never really dark and in which horror movies are never really set.

2) on a nicer note, i did a half ironman triathlon last sunday. here's me with about six miles left to go on the run.

it was up in new hampshire, so it was a bit of an adventure to drive up there. i rented a car for the weekend and drove up saturday with a friend from church. i didn't want to go through the hassel of reserving a hotel room or campsite, so we slept in the car about 100 yards from the race start. the race went really well. i was shooting to finish in about 5:45, and happily came in at 5:39:58. next time i will go under 5:30, which shouldn't be too hard to do. anyway, the whole thing was lots of fun.

here's a picture of the swim start.

it's deceptive though because that doesn't look like very many people. they had us start in waves, and altogether there were i think 750 people racing. and it stayed that foggy pretty much all day and luckily didn't start storming until after i was done.

3) work is still really good. i think i'm getting a pretty good handle on the case and am able to contribute to the work pretty well. i think the highlight of the summer events schedule is going to be the polo game next weekend. i'm not kidding. i didn't even know people actually still played polo, but apparently there's some big game nearby and one of the partners is into it, so we are going and i'm eager to see what its like.

so all in all, life is good. i want to come home sometime soon, but i'm not sure when that will be. hopefully before august, and definitely not later than that.

first week report

2007-05-25T19:45:00.001-07:00

i just finished my first week at work. let me tell you what i've learned so far.

1) being a summer associate is easier than being a real lawyer. i actually have been working more than summers at other firms reportedly work, leaving around 6:30 most nights and coming in around 9 in the morning. but somebody mentioned to me that last night the partner down the hall worked through the night until 6:45 AM. Also, the hours are easy hours. firms get reputations as tough places to work, and this one is supposed to be particularly demanding, but i realized this week that demanding involves sitting in a soft leather chair and reading things and then emailing somebody what you thought about them. i imagined more yelling, but i guess that was sort of silly of me.

2) living in the middle of nowhere is great for some things and really bad for others. biking- good. nature- good. lack of jackhammer outside your window- good. but getting groceries back to your apartment without a car? bad. i just ran out of food from my first grocery run, and i have no clue how i'm going to get more food here. tonight i had a pizza delivered. i might ask another summer if i can borrow his car on tuesday to make a grocery run during work.

i think those are the most important things i've learned so far. and i have learned a good deal about some law related things as well. work will probably get harder as i get more competent, or maybe it won't if they're just trying to trick me into coming back. anyway, all is well here. still no pictures though.

work

2007-05-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

no pictures yet, but i thought i would go ahead and post a little about my first day at work. it's all very exciting for me. i'm working on a really big anti-trust case. i think the claim is for around 400 million dollars, so i get to feel important even though the part i will play will not be big. the people i work with are about as cool as it gets and seem eager to make me feel at home. also i have an office with a window, so i am feeling pretty good about things.

in non-work news, i had my first bike ride and my first swim up here today, and i think the working out conditions will be pretty good. the pool is about 4 mi away from where i live, so thats a good 20 min on the moped, but i think i will be able to manage.

i'd really like the chance to chat with anybody from home, so call me if you can.

moved

2007-05-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

so now i live in westchester county ny. no more manhattan for the summer. is spent the weekend getting moved, and now i'm getting ready for bed so that i can get to work on time tomorrow morning. very exciting for me. i'll try to take some pictures and post them tomorrow. it's really pretty up here.

i am ____ with 1L year

2007-05-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done done

can you feel how the world has been changed?

2007-05-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

i can't believe this actually worked, but after several complaints Jetblue has given in. here's the email i just got from my friend.

cb wrote:
Thank you for participating (or thinking about participating) in my consumer democracy experiment. After several patronizing responses and spurious justifications, JetBlue has decided to return its default to "1" passenger. At the same time, however, JetBlue changed its website to require flight information to send customer comments. This is a serious impediment to future consumer democracy and I intend to launch a campaign against it as soon as I get done with finals. I hope you will join me. See the JetBlue response below.

take care,
cb
>
> Dear Mr. b,
>
> Thank you for contacting us and sharing your comments/suggestions on how we can make our newly redesigned website even better. We appreciate the opportunity to respond and address your concerns.
>
> We love receiving feedback from our customers. In fact, our new design was based on comments from hundreds of JetBlue customers just like you! The response your friends received is correct; the only reason it defaults to "0" is to assist our customers booking unaccompanied minors. Before, when they would attempt to book online, it was very confusing to them because they thought they had to book an adult and could not book a child traveling by themselves. We thought this would remedy the problem.
>
> By doing this we ended up created other problems and this issue is something that we have had a lot of feedback from our customers about. Because we do value our customers opinion and listen to what they have to say, we have contacted the appropriate department to make the necessary changes to JetBlue.com. Our website should reflect this change within the next month or so.
>
> Please be assured that although JetBlue is a business operation and one of our interests is to increase revenue, we do not mean to confuse or cause additional stress to our customers who book online. Please let us know if you have any other ideas of how we can make JetBlue.com an even better experience for you.
>
> We hope to have the opportunity to welcome you onboard a JetBlue flight in the future!
>
> Kind regards,
>
> Andrea
> Customer Commitment Crew
> JetBlue Airways
> Crewmember 80070

st george

2007-05-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

good news, i just got in through the lottery to run the st george marathon this october. but there is bad news as well- none of my friends that signed up got in. so i have pretty concrete plans to be in southern utah that saturday but nobody to go with. anybody want to go with me?

the side of badgers that you've never seen before

2007-05-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

or, what badgers are doing when they're not dancing.

update

2007-05-06T13:52:00.000-07:00

sorry about the blog silence lately. i'm in the middle of finals right now. i had two last week and two more this week. all told, things are going well. the dreaded conlaw exam went pretty well, and my intellectual property class wasn't too bad either. i have crim on tuesday, and then property on friday, and then i'm going straight to the airport to come home for a few days. i can hardly wait. just one more week..

2007-04-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

i just want to know where they're going and make sure its not where i am.

moped

2007-04-23T18:29:00.000-07:00

well, the big news of my friday evening last week was this: i finally bought the moped i was thinking about. it's not actually the one i posted a picture of last week- i'll go out an take pictures for you soon. i spent a good amount of time riding around this city this weekend, and it was way too much fun. it can go around 35 mph, or 40 on a downhill, so i can usually keep up with traffic. i've already saved probably $40 in cab and subway fare. i really don't know why i didn't think of this sooner.

change the world...

2007-04-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

...of online reservation systems. A friend of mine brought up how annoying it is that jet blue's website is set to default to zero passengers, forcing you to change the selection to one every time you fly. This is actually pretty annoying. Well, my friend has gotten ambitious and is trying to get them to change it. I posted the email he's sent around below. Take a second and paste his compaint into the form on their website, and let's see if we can get them to change.

Please help stop JetBlue's idiotic webpage by copying the text below and entering it into customer feedback form at the following link. Then forward this email to your friends and urge them to send in this reply as well.

http://www.jetblue.com/help/contactus/help_contact_problems.aspx

I am concerned that JetBlue's website has 0 passengers as the default. One of my friend's acquaintances who is an analyst at JetBlue said that the company found that making customers think about the number of passengers boosts sales because some people fail to consider that they need multiple tickets. Essentially, JetBlue is imposing a time-tax on the majority of users who are looking for a single ticket or who are sufficiently intelligent to know to request multiple tickets in order to increase sales on the margin. This move displays JetBlue's distinct move away from customer centered service toward a greater focus on making profits at the expense of customers. Although this is an extremely minor irritant, it is an indicator that the customer service meltdown on February 14th was not an isolated incident but rather a systemic drift from JetBlue's core values. Please take the appropriate steps to remedy the situation and systematically re-evaluate policies and procedures to ensure JetBlue continues to be a "customer service company that happens to fly planes."

really good idea i had too late

2007-04-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

today i was thinking about the music i listen to and how happy it makes me when i find really good new music to listen to. and as i clicked through a few songs on i-tunes i though about how it keeps track of how many times you've listened to each song, and i realized that there is a massive pool of information out there about people's musical taste that could be aggregated to give recommendations for new songs based on what you listen to the most and what other people who listen to similar things also like.

so i looked around on the internet and found out that this service has already existed for about two years and is pretty successful. it's called last.fm, and it is really cool. you download their free software and it tracks everything you listen to and then provides you with a personal online radio station of music it thinks you would like. there's also a social networking element to the site where you can link to friends and recommend music for each other but i haven't really tried it yet. I've been listening to it while i wrote this post and i've already heard a couple of really good new songs.

there's another cool music site, called the hype machine. this one tracks blog entries that mention music or link to mp3's, and plays them on a free online radio station so you can keep up on what's new in music.

these are both pretty cool sites that i wish i had thought of. oh well, back to the drawing board (aka school).

run, finals

2007-04-15T19:15:00.000-07:00

on saturday i was irresponsible and skipped studying to go run the brooklyn half marathon. it was a great choice. i went with a pretty big group of friends and it was cool to have a sort of team spirit about it and to go out for a big brunch together afterward. i finished in 1:42:04, which is about 5:30 faster than what i did at the bronx half in february, and about a 7:47 min/mile pace. i'm pretty happy with the time, but of course going to do better at the next one. i was shooting for 1:40:00 so that is some pretty good motivation.

in other news, finals are coming up and I am feeling terribly under prepared. if any if you are constitutional law scholars, please let me know so i can have you teach me some things. actually, in case you are wondering what law school is really like, it's the sort of thing where knowing a brilliant scholar probably wouldn't even help. in fact, i've been listening to three brilliant scholar lectures a week in that class and still would bomb the test if i took it today. i think it's just a matter of putting in the time so that i'll know the right vocabulary of cases and principles to use on the test. and that's why i feel under prepared, because as of right now, i speak con law the way a dog speaks english (meaning i understand my name and when you tell me to do one of three things, but couldn't communicate anything more meaning full that a few variations on the same barking sound at different volumes and frequencies). in a few days i hope to be like a parrot who can produce a few recognizable words but doesn't understand any of them. and then by the time the tests are here, i hope to be a fully functioning dolphin that can speak by pressing different buttons with its nose, or less metaphoricaly, a law student who can tell you when a law will be invalidated under the due process clause rather than the equal protection clause. wish me luck, and more importantly, if you catch me screwing around, please tell me to get back to studying.

on the grid

2007-04-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

ok, i have a phone again. just so you know.

off the grid

2007-04-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

FYI, my cellphone has stopped working. i think its just the battery not charging because its old, and i'm in the process of thinking about buying a new battery, so i should have it working again soon. but if you were planning on calling me, it would be better to write at firstname.lastname@gmail.com, at least for the next couple of days.

scotus

2007-04-11T17:38:00.000-07:00

Today I went to watch the final round of competition for a moot court program at school. My con law lecture was canceled because of it and it seemed like most of the school went to watch. The attraction was that the panel of judges included some pretty big names, the biggest being Justice Alito from the supreme court. I guess that is a sort of dorky celebrity sighting, but I was excited about it. The way the event works is that each student gets up with a 15 min speech planned out, says the first sentence, and then is barraged with questions for the rest of the time and doesn't get to another word of their speech. These judges were particularly smart and had particularly good/difficult questions, and I was impressed by how well the students were able to keep their composure. Lot's of fun.

single people

2007-04-11T13:58:00.000-07:00

here's an interesting map. apparently, i'm in the right place.

link to article

2007-04-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

interesting article about a funny story and what people think is beautiful.

antitrust

2007-04-06T17:08:00.000-07:00

if you go to law school you get to study interesting things like anti-competitive business practices and monopolies. Pretty cute, but I wouldn't call him the next Microsoft or anything.

moped

2007-04-06T09:58:00.000-07:00

what do you think about this? $500 on craigslist. i don't see how that could possibly be a bad idea.

passover

2007-04-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

in the spirit of the season, i thought i would share the hardest rocking passover song of all time, straight from the 80's.

this is "Creeping Death" by Metallica:

here are the lyrics since it can be kinda hard to understand what they're saying with all the guitars and drums and whatnot.

i don't think they're really thinking about the religious side of it though, so i wouldn't expect to see it in the hymnals any time soon. and also, sister, don't let the kids listen to this because it could turn them into head-banging delinquents.

know what i mean?

2007-03-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

screw studying. it's beautiful out and i'm going for a bike ride.

UPDATE: it was a really nice ride. i went into new jersey and up along the river to south nyack. also, my earlier post made it sound like i blew off studying. i actually did a lot of work this afternoon and finally caught up on all my property reading, so this was sort of a reward for that.

visiting

2007-03-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

so remember when i blogged before about how nobody had come to visit me yet? well, it's not true anymore because as i type this my parents are hanging out in my apartment getting ready to go to sleep. we had a busy day running all over the city and had a really fun time. i have pretty awesome parents, in case you were wondering.

more pictures

2007-03-21T12:24:00.000-07:00

ok, here and here, i think you can see most of my pictures from spain. i'm not a very good photographer though, and i only remembered to even bring the camera on two or three days. the other guys in the pictures are two strangers that i met in the gypsy neighborhood of granada who threatened to put a hex on me if i didn't buy them food. the pictures are in chronological order, so granada-> sevilla-> malaga-> madrid. i might label some of the pictures sometime, which will probably make them more interesting.

a couple of pictures

2007-03-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

So these are two of my favorite pictures from my trip to spain last week.

The first one here is at a bar where I went to see some flamenco dancing. The guy in the back is singing and there's another guy who you can hardly see on the right playing guitar. The band wasn't that great, but I had never seen a live show before so I thought it was pretty cool. Also, I want to be a flamenco singer. I realize this means I have to grow out my hair really long, but I think it'll be worth it.

The next picture is at the armory of the Royal Palace in Madrid. This is the armor worn by Gaspar de Guzman, Count Duke of Olivares. In college I took a class on spanish history, and we spent a while talking about this guy and how sneaky and evil he was (here he is looking sneaky). When spain was still a pretty powerful country he was sort of the guy behind the scenes who was running things, if I remember correctly. When you read about him you always see this painting, and i thought it was cool to see the same armor in person.

There are lots of other cool pictures that might be more interesting than these too. I'll figure out a way to post all 180 of them somewhere on the internet.

job

2007-03-07T20:55:00.000-08:00

Good news. I got a job for the summer. It's with a really cool firm here in new york. I'd rather not say much more about it on the internet, but if you're reading this blog I've probably already talked about it with you. I just wanted to document it here since this is has taken the place of my journal, which i haven't written in since october. But if you're interested in law stuff let me know and I'll tell you all about it.

...

2007-03-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

sorry i haven't blogged in such a long time. i've been a bit behind in my reading for school lately and been pretty busy trying to catch up. i'm basically in the middle of the semester where the days sort of blend together and nothing seems blog-worthy. not to say it's not fun- it just doesn't make for a very exciting narrative.

in more interesting news, i leave for spain on thursday. if you want any spain memorabilia please let me know. also, that means that i will probably have a bunch of pictures to put on the blog to make up for my lack of blogging lately. there's not much of a plan in place yet, but i hope that one will materialize before i get on the plane. i'll keep you posted.

hey john h.

2007-02-19T19:55:00.000-08:00

do you still read this blog? and if so, do i have the right phone # for you? it goes straight to voice mail. are you still alive? i want to visit and go running in the mountains when the snow melts.

priorities

2007-02-17T21:30:00.000-08:00

run

2007-02-12T10:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I ran the bronx half marathon and got a nice little tour of a place I had never been before. It took 1:47:34, which is just a bit slower than I was shooting for, and gives me a good reason to keep on training for the brooklyn half marathon this april. it was i think just below 20 degrees for the whole race, which gave me something to laugh about when i would reach for a cup of water and realize that it was frozen over. a pretty good way to spend the morning though.

you should come visit me

2007-02-10T21:46:00.000-08:00

You should come visit me. When I first moved out here everybody said they were going to come. My parents said they would. my little sister was just looking for the right weekend, etc... So far, I've had one friend come up for a work related trip, and one girl come with her family and accidentally run into me at church, which doesn't count.

To sweeten the deal, anybody who comes will get:
1 Free tour of the law school
1 $12 subway card
1 chocolate chip muffin
and 1 hardwood floor to sleep on (if you help me clean up my stuff that is currently on it)

Also, I can sneak you into law firm receptions where there are open bars and free snacks.

health food

2007-02-05T20:10:00.000-08:00

everyone who knows me knows that i love a delicious burrito. tacos jalisco, vasquez, la casacada in berkeley, cancun also in berkeley, and even bajio in utah are all very much missed. becuase of this, i was pretty disappointed when i found this site. It turns out that delicious burritos can be pretty bad for you, assuming of course that chipotle is a good indicator of the caloric content of your average burrito. Luckily for my health, there's not a decent burrito to be found anywhere in NY, except at a chipotle (coincidentally) which is about a 40 min subway ride all the way to the southern tip of Manhattan. But seriously, next time i come home, i am going to pitch a tent in front of jalisco and not leave until they run out of carne asada.

the cold

2007-01-30T22:20:00.000-08:00

so, in general, i've been pleasantly surprised with this winter. it took a really long time to get consistently cold. now it's been bouncing around between the 20's and 30's for the last little while, and i think i can deal with that. I've learned that 1) gloves are important if you like having hands, 2) the parts of your body that aren't covered will sometimes hurt for a while when you get back inside (like your face), 3) you can go running even before the sun comes out as long as you wear every article of running clothing that you own (it looks a little silly though).

so all in all, it's kinda fun.

bad directions

2007-01-22T12:44:00.000-08:00

this is funny. apparently you shouldn't ask google maps how to get around certain parts of new jersey.

EDIT: ok, it's not funny anymore. google changed it because it was too funny. for a day or two, when you looked up directions to that particular place in new jersey the results came back with a couple hundred u-turns at the end. As in, turn right on US 1-N, make u-turn, go 200 ft, make u-turn, go 200 ft, make u-turn, etc... anyway, i guess this post isn't very good anymore. sorry.

Buddy

2007-01-20T21:30:00.000-08:00

i haven't had much experience with death in my life. luckily, the people who i'm closest with have been able to stick around so far. so today when my great old black lab was put to sleep was a new and heart-wrenching experience for me. I know most people would say that he was just a dog, and one that barked a lot and wouldn't let you look away for even a moment, but he was a special guy and it's terrible to lose him. It was cute seeing how my parents went from just accommodating their son's crazy idea to actually liking the dog, and seeing my dad grow to be pals with him and dutifully make sure he got his walk around the neighborhood each night. buddy was crazy about my dad, but i think that is because he would share his breakfast and was also the most liberal with the dog treats. you know, there are a million things i could write about him, but it wouldn't mean much to anyone who didn't already know him, so i won't worry about writing them down. but we sure did love that dog.

snow

2007-01-18T12:02:00.000-08:00

it snowed! for about 2 minutes, and none of it stuck, but it was definitely snowing for a minute there. maybe it will come back soon.

country sights

2007-01-12T20:58:00.000-08:00

While I was home for the break, I got a chance to go on a nice country drive with my mom. It was really beautiful out there. But I already knew that and have probably mentioned that before. The important point is that there are cool animals out there. Look. Here's a lama type animal.

And here is a funny horned sheep/goat animal

Here's another angle on that one, this time with his friend.

They were really friendly and wanted to be pet and to lick our hands. Pretty cute in an ugly sort of way.

back in nyc

2007-01-09T15:18:00.000-08:00

alright, I'm back at school now. I got here a few days ago, but I've been so busy getting back into school that I haven't had time to post anything until now. It was about 70 degrees here when I got off the plane, which has me thinking I might want to buy an SUV and do my part to keep the whole global warming thing going. being home for those couple of weeks was great. my mom makes the best fudge and toffee. anyway, I want to write a bit more, but I really have a lot of reading to do, so I'll see if I can get that done and then post something more later.

sorry

2007-01-02T00:23:00.000-08:00

i haven't really been blogging lately. sorry about that if you've been checking for updates. i've been home in california for a week or two, and i'll be here until saturday. it's been a nice break so far. i'll probably start blogging again when i get back to ny. right now i need to focus on other things, like not studying.

interesting

2006-12-17T03:43:00.000-08:00

so i did an experiment, and it turns out there are more people studying in the law library at 3:00AM than at 7:00AM, which i thought was weird. and i still don't know all the stuff i need to know about civ pro yet, so i'll be here a little while longer.

finals update.

2006-12-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

two down one to go. today's test was good, but probably not as good as the first one. the next one is the hardest of the three subjects. so study for the weekend, test on tuesday, then slurpies in california on wednesday. anybody want to go skiing or anything?

grading

2006-12-14T08:02:00.000-08:00

so this is what passes for funny with me right now. i'm not sure if that system would help me or hurt me.

Christmas list

2006-12-11T22:36:00.000-08:00

Ok, so both sisters are asking about my christmas list, so here it is:

1) an A on my civ pro exam
2) a longer winter break so i can eat more zachary's pizza
3) zachary's pizza
4) maybe a sweater or something warm
5) more time to read things

that's basically it. or at least that's what i've been thinking about lately. what do you want?? i've got access to a whole bunch of nyc memorabilia, so chose either a) an "I heart NY" shirt, b) an "I heart NY" mug, or c) a postcard of the brooklyn bridge. just kidding (unless of course you actually want one of those things). Christmas is hard.

first test

2006-12-08T16:56:00.000-08:00

allright, i just finished my first law school final. one down and two to go. assuming, of course, that i don't freeze to death before the next one. i'd write more about the test, but i don't want to jinx myself, so i'll wait until grades are out. the next one is on thursday i think, so i'll probably take tonight to relax and then jump back into studying tomorrow. see you in a few weeks.

2006-12-05T19:38:00.001-08:00

check this out

in other news, i'm still studying for finals. it's going well, but i'm getting a little restless. soon it will be over and i will go skiing.

and also, it's cold here now. a week ago it was 65 degrees. today was 35.

class is done

2006-11-30T00:32:00.000-08:00

I had my last classes of the semester on wednesday. Now I'll be studying for the next three weeks and taking an exam every week or so. the first one is a week from friday. if any of you want to call with words of encouragement, leave a message, because i don't get cell service in the library.

hiking

2006-11-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

Last friday I went hiking on the coast in marin county. It is beautiful out there.

This is my friend Erick climbing up a gigantic rock.

We found a bunch of crabs hiding out in tidepools and between the rocks. This one pinched my friend Joey's hand, which caused him to throw it at my face. i almost died.

in california

2006-11-22T00:28:00.000-08:00

so i'm home now. and for some reason i feel like i ought to blog about it, even though i started this thing for people at home. let me tell you about my first day here. actually, no, you would probably be bored by it, because it consists of just a few very ordinary things that aren't interesting to read about. but i loved it and was pretty excited about each little thing. i guess the point is that being home is good. i've really liked being away and doing my own thing these last few months, but all my favorite things at home are still my favorite things. i'll try to post some pictures soon so that any new yorkers reading can understand why i love california so much. happy thanksgiving.

reading

2006-11-16T18:15:00.000-08:00

the best news of the week is probably that we finished the syllabus in my contracts class on wednesday. this will cut my reading load by about 33%. we have about a week and a half of class left and nothing to cover that i'll need to know for the exam. more importantly, no new reading over thanksgiving break. that is amazing. of course, this good news is mitigated by the fact that i will spend all the extra time studying something else. yay for finals.

home

2006-11-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

i'll be coming home for thanksgiving for about a week. and if you're reading this silly blog of mine you are probably the kind of friend that i want to see. so let's do that. we can get burritos or something.

distraction

2006-11-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

If I fail my classes this semester, it will be 40% my fault, and 60% the fault of whoever designed this.

album of the week

2006-11-10T20:25:00.000-08:00

Bookends
by Simon & Garfunkel.

No really. This one is good. And the best songs are the ones that you don't hear all the time. I love "Save the life of my Child". "Fakin it" is good too, but sad. But you should just listen to it the whole way through. It's terrible driving music because it's soft and you need to hear the quiet little guitar things they do. But it's good for studying. Especially when it rains like seems to happen pretty often over here.

from theonion.com

2006-11-09T15:38:00.000-08:00

Republicans Blame Election Losses On Democrats

November 7, 2006 | Issue 42•45

WASHINGTON, DC—Republican officials are blaming tonight's GOP losses on Democrats, who they claim have engaged in a wide variety of "aggressive, premeditated, anti-Republican campaigns" over the past six-to-18 months. "We have evidence of a well-organized, well-funded series of operations designed specifically to undermine our message, depict our past performance in a negative light, and drive Republicans out of office," said Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman, who accused an organization called the Democratic National Committee of spearheading the nationwide effort. "There are reports of television spots, print ads, even volunteers going door-to-door encouraging citizens to vote against us." Acknowledging that the "damage has already been done," Mehlman is seeking a promise from Democrats to never again engage in similar practices.

life

2006-11-07T07:46:00.000-08:00

so what should i do this summer? i'm open to suggestions. and if any of you know someone who wants to sponsor me as a professional book reader and bike rider, let me know.

love poem

2006-11-06T14:26:00.000-08:00

so did you see il postino? it was a pretty good movie about the poet pablo neruda and the guy who delivered mail to him. pablo helps the postman get this girl by teaching him about poetry and love and all that. so i picked up a book of poems by him at the bookstore the other day and found this:

Upstream, in the midst of our outer waves,
your parallel body yields to my arms
like a fish infinitely fastened to my soul,
quick and slow, in the energy under the sky.

I don't know what it's like in Chile, but I don't think girls here are that into being compared to fishes. maybe something was lost in the translation.

ghosts + cartoons + technology = amazing

2006-10-29T19:07:00.000-08:00

Today I did something I've been wanting to do for at least the last 5 years. I watched the disney halloween special. do you remember it? it was the one hosted by the magic mirror on the wall. i watched these cartoons every year until I was around 13 i think. and i've been trying to catch them on the disney channel each october for a long time, but now the disney channel just plays all this lindsey lohan junk (with all those outfits...), so i haven't had any luck. but today i realized that technology is amazing and that there is something called youtube . so i finally got to watch my halloween cartoons. and i am happy. it was weird though, because i think my personality was in a big way shaped by the cartoons i watched when i was younger. luckily these were some good cartoons. actually, i really was impressed with them. i didn't realize this until today of course, but they had an animated witch quoting Macbeth and a magic mirror talking about old testament stories. pretty cool. man, it was fun to be 5 for a little bit today.

the problem with studying

2006-10-26T16:20:00.000-07:00

is that it shows you how much more studying you need to do. at least you need to do it if you don't want to fail your classes. there is so much material, and i can see no meaningful way to organize it in my mind or in my notes. there's so much studying to do that i don't know where to start.

on a happier note, i found a great place to do all this studying. i've never been able to focus at home, so i'm used to going out to get work done. here there is a bakery called nussbaum & wu that i go to now. the food isn't actually that good, but there's something about walking into a noisy building, handing someone three dollars and sitting down in a straight backed wooden chair that makes me work a little harder.

how to nurture your marriage

2006-10-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

I got a call today from someone in the elders quorum presidency asking me to teach the priesthood lesson this sunday. the topic: how to nurture your marriage. I don't remember ever being married and don't have a lot of experience with this topic. Also, this is an odd topic for a group of single guys to talk about, but i do understand that it's important to think about now as preparation for later on. but still, i have no personal stories or insights about this, unless i want to talk about how to get phone numbers or plan a date, which would probably be best left to talk about after church (and with somebody who is better than me at those things). So, married people, what should I talk about? Single people, help me make something up, ok? Any ideas or insights would be appreciated.

law related post

2006-10-17T20:00:00.000-07:00

i don't think people are very interested in posts about things related to law school. and i'm surprised that i'm willing to write about them considering how overexposed i am. but here's a kinda gruesome example of what keeps me doing my reading every day. It starts off with a kinda dry explanation of a principle and then gets a little gross, so if my niece and/or nephews are reading (that would be amazing!), please skip this post.

In my torts class the other day we were talking about suing to recover damages for non-physical harms. it's a lot easier to get money if someone does physical harm to you or your property than if they assault you in some other way. if someone punches you in the face, its no problem to get money from them to pay for your stiches. but say someone yells a bunch of obscenities at you or says something really mean, maybe you can get them cited for harassment or whatever, but it will be very hard to convince a judge to give you any cash award to compensate you for the psychological damage. and probably for good reason. but we looked at one case where the court did allow recovery for a purely psychological damage. The story starts with an old man who dies in the hospital. His son then goes to make some arrangements with the hospital and to pick up his father's things. The hospital person hands him a bag of his father's "personal effects", and when the guy opens it he finds... a bloody severed leg. The guy assumes that it's his dad's and freaks out. The hospital clears everything up, and no they didn't cut off his dad's leg or anything, but the guy has nightmares about it for a long time and when his marriage later deteriorates he blames it on the psychological damage resulting form this experience. mark twain said something like "fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. truth isn't". anyway, that guy was allowed to recover. and that is the sort of stuff that you read about in law school.

food

2006-10-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

"shabu-shabu"

roughly translated that means "swish-swish". it's the name of a dish that i had with some friends at a japanese restaurant this weekend. on every table there's a burner and the server brings out this big pot of water to boil on it. then you get a big platter of raw meat and vegetables and some chopsticks and you kinda make a soup with all the vegetables. you hold the meat under water and kinda swish it around for 5 or 10 seconds to cook it, which was really unsettling to me because it never really looked like it was cooked right. anyway, just so you know, this food doesn't really taste very good. and it is really expensive. according to wikipedia, it originated in the 13th century as a way for Genghis Khan to feed all his soldiers. i can't imagine that being very efficient. they must have had some special technique.

entitlement and misery

2006-10-11T21:56:00.000-07:00

I was reading a bit of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters last night and came across something that really struck me. He wrote, "Men are not angered by mere misfortunes but by misfortune conceived as injury. And the sense of injury depends on the feeling that a legitimate claim has been denied." This is so true. I think that we all have a remarkable ability to survive hardship when it comes down to it. We can get through pretty much anything, and the only time when it gets bad is when we allow ourselves to feel a sense of entitlement and think that we're not getting what we're supposed to get. It's so easy to think that you deserve something better than you receive, and to blaim other people when your life doesn't meet your own expectations. Sometimes things just happen and that's ok and you'll always get through it. For a better explanation, look at the first chapter of Job (especially verses 21 and 22). That should be required weekly reading if you ask me (or at least i should read it every week, because i tend to forget it)

album of the week

2006-10-11T19:13:00.000-07:00

the beach boys "Endless Summer"

it's an epic compilation of a bunch of their older stuff, which is the good stuff- love songs, break up songs, surfing songs, driving songs... it's basically the sum of the human experience with a surf guitar background and cool harmonies. also, my old roommate joey used to have it on all the time back at our old apartment (he was a san diegan), and it reminds me of home, which i like.

it's raining in new york, in case you're wondering.

political junkie

2006-10-11T01:27:00.000-07:00

so, normally I hate talking about politics, mainly becuase it tends to lead to arguements. but i can't help but be excited about the possibility of Mitt Romney getting the GOP nomination for 2008. I am a junkie. I check evangelicalsformitt.org and http://blog.electromneyin2008.com several times a day for the latest news. It seems like he's building good momentum. Most conservatives can't stand McCain or Rudy, and there aren't too many other viable options in the republican party right now. The other "other" canidate was supposed to be George Allen, but it turns out he says too many racist things in the news and is too wrapped up in scandal to get the nomination now. And then there's Mitt's awesome record as governor and before that a succesful venture capitalist and CEO of one of the most prestigious consulting firms around. harvard MBA and JD, BYU undergrad. anyway, I'm all for him. and it looks like more and more people are thinking that way these days. just my 2 cents and perhaps the only politcal commentary you will get out of me all year.

good reading

2006-10-10T06:48:00.000-07:00

the last few days or so i've kept on coming back to the same little section of scripture. 2 Nephi 4 16-35. you can read it here. i think the approach here is really interesting in a couple of ways. i'll leave that discussion for another forum though, and just say for now that its a link worth clicking.

rock'n'roll

2006-10-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

I have a guitar now. my friend let me take one of his home with me last weekend. if any of you want to hear me play The Who's Pinball Wizard over and over again, just give me a call and i'll put the phone on my desk so you can listen. seriously, i'm so glad about this.

kindness

2006-10-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

I spent most of the weekend driving around Utah in a gigantic, old, gray truck. It was really great. But I don't think it got very good gas mileage. In fact, I think I pretty certainly overestimated the gas mileage I was getting. I think this because late Monday afternoon, after not driving particularly far after putting gas into it, the car sputtered to a stop on the highway. I wasn't really in the mood for this, especially considering that the weather was starting to get a little wet. I think that it was karma though, because I have a tendancy to drive around on empty for inordinate amounts of time, and I haven't run out of gas in about 10 months, so it was probably just my time again. Anyway, I started walking along the freeway and watching the cars go by, and I didn't even have time to consider being upset or annoyed at my situation, becuase within 2 minutes a nice old guy pulled over and offered me a ride. He took me to the gas station, waited for me while I filled up a gas can, and then drove me all the way back to the truck and waited to make sure I got out of there allright. He probably didn't know how grateful I was, but I was so glad to have someone helping me. It wasn't really about the trouble of walking a couple of miles, but much more about knowing that someone was there when I needed it. I'm not sure if the help came so quickly because I was in utah, or because I looked particularly needy (due to the old, broken looking truck i'm sure), or what, but whatever the case, sometimes a person's kindness just means a lot and deserves at least a blog post.

harrier jet

2006-09-25T17:54:00.000-07:00

Remember that pepsi comericial from a long time ago showing all the stuff you can get with pepsi points, and at the end it says "harrier jet- 7,000,000 pepsi points" or somthing like that? You can watch it here. So if you bought say a 2 liter bottle of pepsi you'd get some number of points which were redeemable for merchandise, like a pepsi sweatshirt or hat. There was also an option of mailing pepsi and actually paying 10 cents per point, if you just really wanted the merchandise but didn't want to drink all that soda. Today we read a case where a guy got together money from a couple of venture capitalists and bought the 7,000,000 points for $700,000, thinking he would cash them in for the harrier which would retail for something like $15 million. Not a bad return. It turns out that jets are a little harder to get than that, and the court said that the commercial didn't constitute an enforceable offer, so he didn't get the one. I just want to know what he did with all those extra pepsi points afterward.

swank

2006-09-24T19:04:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a swanky party. I mean, it was a church thing, but it was about as swanky as any church thing has ever been. It was on the roof of a 50 story building in midtown. The building was super nice and luxurious and all, but the cool thing was the view. All the city skyline on one side, then the river and the huge houses on the shore on the other side. It was hard to hold conversations with people because I was so set on staring off into the distance. I'll probably never live in a place like that because I don't think I could justify the cost, so I'm glad I at least got to check it out for a night.

On a related note; church here is different. I've been here for six weeks and I've only seen my bishop once, and certainly never spoken with him. There are a lot of people, and everyone is nice, but the social scene is hard to navigate. One thing is that there aren't that many guys in the ward. The ratio is something like 3 to 1 girls to guys. It's a lot different from home where going to church was just like hanging out for three hours with my guy friends. Here I feel like I'm at a fashion show. Also, I'm definitely one of the younger people there. I guess that's just part of being here though. None of this is to say that church isn't enjoyable here. It's great, and some of the talks have been really powerful. But its a big change from the comfortable solano ward that i'm used to.

legal history

2006-09-22T14:40:00.000-07:00

So it turns out that Solano County is a bit famous, or at the part of interstate 80 that runs through it is. Let me explain. In 1978 a guy had a tire blow out on his motorcycle causing him to wreck. He sued the tire company, who then sued the company that sold them the part that caused the blow out. The case made it to the Supreme Court and into my reading for this week as we learned about the rules for specific jurisdiction in my civil procedure class. It's actually a pretty important case. If you want to read about it, and see what sort of stuff takes up most of my time, click here. I was pretty excited to see the reference to home.

so many things

2006-09-20T19:01:00.000-07:00

There are a lot of things to write about today.

First, and most important, my older sister had a baby today. He came a couple of weeks early, but he's happily right on weight at 8 lbs and .5 ounces. i'm pretty excited to be even more an uncle than i was before, but it's also sad that i won't get to see the first few years so closely as i did with the first two kids. hopefully he won't hold it against me.

On another happy note, I spent last weekend in Utah and had a really nice time. honestly i wish i could have stayed. The weather was unexpectedly cold and rainy, which was perfect for hot chocolates, but not so good for much else. I did a few important things though, like buying a big winter coat and eating a brownie sunday at leatherby's. Also, i took a few beautiful pictures. It felt so good to smell mountain air and to get around in a car rather than on the subway. The friend who I stayed with got married in the SLC temple two days after I left, and i was glad to get to catch up with him a bit and everything. All in all, i really needed a little vacation for several reasons, and this was exactly what i wanted.

When I got back to New York, I got the news that I have probably the coolest dad around. Through a friend from work he somehow got me a pair of tickets to go see The Who play at Madison square garden on tuesday. I'm not sure exactly how this happened, but these were the best tickets I've ever had to any show. We were right on the floor, maybe 30 yards from the stage. My dad's friend was there that night and was able to sneak me a backstage pass for a bit so I could go check out all the equipment and i even walked around on stage for a bit just before the band went on. The music and the show were awesome, and pete townsend still knows how to rock out pretty hard, even though he's old. The only downside is that two showers later i still smell like smoke, and also that i paid something like $10 for a hotdog and a soda.

School is fun. It's just busy enough to keep me inside and reading for most evenings, but not so busy that I feel like I can't keep up. Really, the schedule they have me on is pretty much ideal as far as structuring my life so that I have time to work out each day, do a bunch of reading, and also spend some time on scriptures each night. i guess when i write it out it sounds really simple and not so exciting, but it's basically exactly how i would structure my time if i ruled the world. except of course that i would also include designated ice cream time.

School

2006-09-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

So, I think now I will explain some things about school. This might be really boring, so don't read it if you don't like boring things.

It turns out that the first three weeks that I spent out here were just for fun. It was a pass/not pass orientation type class, where the only goal was to learn how to take your other clases. We read somewhere between five and six hundred pages and we don't have to remember any of it, which is both a relief and a frustration. Now we've just finished out first week of classes where we will get actual grades. I have three classes- contracts, torts, and civil procedure- and one semi-class called a legal practice workshop that is pas/not pass. And no class on fridays. I'm not sure what I'll think in a month or two, but right now it seems like my workload it really light. I only have fifteen pages of reading to do for the whole weekend, which, judging by the course sylabi, looks like it will be about average most nights, or maybe slightly less than average.

So, not only am I getting all the reading done, but I've had time to do other things. This was my biggest workout week since june, and now my feet hurt in a satisfying way. I also went to Boston and jumped in a freezing cold lake (oh and I found out today that the Harvard rejection letter just arrived, finishing off my 11 month application process). I also have plans to watch the Cal football game tomorrow. So, right now at least, law school is pretty awesome. But I may have just jinxed myself on that one. Anyway, I'm going to bed. I'll write more soon.

someone linked to my blog!?

2006-09-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

Sweet. While browsing the internet today i found this. It turns out my good friend started a blog and didn't tell me about it, but he did link to me so it's all cool. Anyway, he is getting married, and that is pretty great news. Congrats Klobe-man.

movie star=me

2006-08-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

I went to FHE tonight at an apartment shared by a few people in the ward. I got there too late for the lesson, but two cool things happened: 1) I ate an ice-cream bar, and 2) We got to watch the filming of a tv show from the roof of their building. The TV people had sort of taken over their whole street and set up lights and camaras and everything. Someone said it was some popular new show about the irish mob.

Also, I just found out that the author of Rough Stone Rolling, Richard Bushman, will be teaching an institute class here this semester. I'm not sure if I'll have time to go very often, but I will definitely try.

today I rode the subway...

2006-08-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

and it was amazing. not for the reasons that the subway is usually amazing, but because today, as I was waiting for the train to start moving, a 3 person mariachi band came on the train and serenaded us the whole way. I'm not sure how often this happens around here, but I thought it was great. They were pretty good too. It's especially funny to me though because I spent a good deal of time saturday working on an assignment about a law prohibiting subway performances.

Anyway, everything is good here, and sorry I haven't written much this week. I've been reading a lot. We had a tornado warning a few days ago. That's basically it.

a few more school pictures

2006-08-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

So, just a few more pictures of campus to make a point. All the buildings on campus have these beautiful columns and are made of brick and stone to give you that feeling of being in some old established academic fortress. It's really nice.This is Kent Hall, named after the first law professor on campus. It was the law building for decades and as you can see adheres to column theme. But then they decided that it would make a better financial aid office, so now it is where I go to pick up my student loan checks.

This is the new law school building. It's right next to the fancy old campus, but you can tell its not the same thing. It's nice, but in a modern sort of way that doesn't have the same feeling as the old campus.
This is a statue on the side of the building. I'm told that it depicts Hercules wrestling Pegasus, but that's probably a matter of interpretation. if you come visit we can stare at it together and try to figure it out.

Not in California

websites!

fire!??

the library

books

no parking

money

florida 3

florida 2

florida trip

the view

a fool and his money...

election humor

almost done

victory

going dark

remember how the police stole my moped?

the 1994 "24" pilot

do you...

hey look, i blogged

lol

return to the blogosphere

big commitment

checking in

first week report

work

moved

i am *____* with 1L year

can you feel how the world has been changed?

st george

the side of badgers that you've never seen before

update

moped

change the world...

really good idea i had too late

run, finals

on the grid

off the grid

scotus

single people

link to article

antitrust

moped

passover

know what i mean?

visiting

more pictures

a couple of pictures

job

...

hey john h.

priorities

run

you should come visit me

health food

the cold

bad directions

Buddy

snow

country sights

back in nyc

sorry

interesting

finals update.

grading

Christmas list

first test

class is done

hiking

in california

reading

home

distraction

album of the week

from theonion.com

Republicans Blame Election Losses On Democrats

life

love poem

ghosts + cartoons + technology = amazing

the problem with studying

i am ____ with 1L year