Kaulapi World

I think being sleep deprived leads to some very interesting and vivid dreams. Had a dream last night that I ran into an old boss of mine who was set to lecture in an auditorium for a class I was taking. He was in a wheelchair but when he lectured to the class he got up and walked to the podium. Much more to this dream that has significance than I’m alluding to here, things to think about I suppose.

Working on a motion for summary judgment for class, recalling some of the elements and formats that I used to see back when I was working around 2001. I wonder how much of that experience I’ll retain as we move forward in the course.

Ordered a uke about a month ago, due to backorders it still hasn’t come in yet. If it doesn’t come in today then I think I have to call in to check up on it again.

Turned in a draft complaint for class, I’m cautiously optimistic what I turned in was mostly on point. I think the professor is right this semester’s material is more engaging, more argumentative, more to the point, more room for creative interpretation. Drafting it brought back some memories of the 16th division, can’t recall exactly how many of real life cases with real life people I read up on back then. Seems like I was so close to the actual application, made a wide sweep away from it, and am slowing making my way back.

Trying to see how much more productive my days are if I get an earlier startin the morning, roughly leaving the house 30 minutes earlier, which in turn frees up 30 minutes at the end of the day before class to review and read up on some cases. So far its been going pretty well, I think its a good habit to get used to if I can keep it up. Mid-week after a 9:35 night and a 9:00 night might take its toll though. Especially when the train gets stuck in a station for 15 minutes.

Another week, another post – a good sign that I’ve been keeping busy. More cases to read, theories to review, papers to write, numbers to crunch, data to verify. While things have been kind of hectic, I can say that I’m enjoying the experience overall, thinking in the long run it’ll pay off more than I might realize at the moment. In a couple weeks I’ll be reassigned to another division at work, a bit sooner than I had originally planned, but really in the bigger perspective, its not a bad time to move on.

Shifting some kala around, trying to find a good balance for the present and the near future. Things should be solid overall, but it is a reminder sometimes that I am in more ways on my own and alone in the world. I never really did see that as a bad thing, I suppose I’ve always been more the independent type, even at a young age, or so I hear.

Mention of the broken window’s theory in Torts the other day, brought back memories of sociology classes and 421 in Madison, I think that link from my undergraduate adventures is a fitting reminder of what has sparked my interest and drive in going back to school this time around. I think I like the arguements of a fine balance between monetary incentives and deterrance being the foundation for discouraging anti-social behaviors both large and small.

I think in the end this sort of law is what will interest me the most, the applicable, practical, day to day bit. Anything that would bridge the theoretical and overly analytical with the actual public policy implications of it. In the strictest sense I guess I can’t argue against the basic pretense for Tort reform, being that the legal world is so complicated and layered that it limits access to justice.

In a research seminar tonight I was thinking about the volumes and volumes of statutes and regulations that aren’t accessible to the general public in libraries or over the internet without a westlaw or lexis subscription. Then again even if someone had access to the actual hard copy document, its written in a funny language that only a trained reader could interpret and apply to one’s question.

Semester 2 of 8 officially kicks off, and its more late nights and tonnes of cases to read day in and day out. I did notice a change of pace in today’s classes, maybe it was a little bit of catching up from last semester, maybe a different phase of the material, or maybe I just got a little too used to life without school of 3 weeks. At any rate, its kind of good to get back into it, looking forward to tackling this semester with lessons learned from the previous one.

At the same time work has been picking up a bit, I have to make sure my databases are ready for the next step of the job, so I can move forward smoothly and quickly. More admin stuff is on the way I’m sure, hopefully things will work out for the better. crossing my fingers on that one for sure.

Due to delayed postage, I had to pay my tuition on the last day before the due date. Luckily I was able to pay it online with my credit card. I was also fortunate that I keep a low enough balance to be able to make that kind of a transaction. Minus loans and student aid it still came out to a hefty chunk of change. Have to be pake for the next couple of months to make up for it, at least mentally I suppose.

Geocities has been acting kind of strange lately, I notice that the last couple of times I tried to update this posting it tok a while for the upload to register. I’m wondering if it is some kind of upgrade they’re implementing or something. Maybe it’s time to switch over to a blog afterall. I guess it’ll depend on where this journal is going. I never really intended it to be more than a substitute for a heads up sort of email-like posting to people out there that I slack on emailing. I think the notion of getting posts and comments might be interesting, but I keep thinking it would be more like getting more email.

So far for the past couple of days I’ve been coming home to quiet, empty traps, cheese still intact, springs still locked. I think I’ll be leaving them out for a bit more, just in case more little guys decide to show up. Last two BSC bowls of the season came and went, pretty crazy, triple OT in the Orange, and a shootout in the Rose resulting in a new national champion. Good way to end the college football season, and to set up the NFL playoffs.

Hit the gym today for the first post-holiday session, aside from the extra poundage I put on from the break, I’m still at a decent level of conditioning in terms of strength and endurance. Hopefully my class schedule this semester will make it easier for me to get 2-3 workouts per week. For this past semester I was only able to make it down on average once a week, usually on a friday, which made me kind of anti for the most of the season.

Spring semester assignments are coming in online already, time to stretch out the brain and get ready for round 2. Probably stop by the school later this week to pick up some books, find my classrooms, and then it’s back to business as usual.

Lately I’ve been listening to the sounds of Matisyahu, a Hassidic reggae singer. He has an interesting story to how he got his start, especially the elements reggae music as being rooted in religion, and how he rediscovered his faith and ultimately found his voice. A very uplifting and positive story of religion, a rare gem in this age of terrorism and war.

Food for thought, it might in part explain the appeal that certain types of music has, feeding off the creative energy that the musician taps into, as well as the political and historical roots of the music itself. Reggae, Hip-hop, and Jazz all fall into this category well, in expressing the struggles of race, class, and culture, not necessarily in that order, or course. And like popular music and culture, the true message and meaning has the tendency to get lost as the medium gets popularized and commercialized.

The analogy can be made in the watering down and commercialization of music today by the big recording companies. The artist as a preacher/prophet sending the message, the fan base as the flock of the faithful, all searching for inspiration, answers to life’s questions, perception, a connection with other human beings, a heartbeat, a soul. It starts of simply, humbly, a lone song heard on a street corner, surrounded by poverty. As people are drawn to the message they are willing to travel far and wide to hear more, and are willing to pay to hear more. Eventually as enough people are drawn to the message, an bureacracy forms to administer and better market the message, the sole purpose of this entitity is to consolidate the marketplace of ideas and maximize the profits in number of converts/customers. Inevitably, the organization soldifies and classifies the “message” in the form of credentials and rituals, divides the faithful and the ultra-faithful. In the end the corporate interests subplant any truth or rightousness in the original message and it is mass produced in instructional dating videotapes and top 40 music stations. With an insatiable appetite for more followers and the means to gain additional converts, the organization infultrates other social institutions as a means for poltical and social influence. Campaign contributions and political action groups are formed, and wars are waged both abroad and at home.

At the root of this mess is the over-emphasis on transcendence from the rest of humanity as just another excuse of obtaining an elitist view of the world, when maybe what we really need is the realization how interconnected we all are. There is a tendancy to associate anything human in nature as being inherantly evil, essentially denying who and what we really are in exchange for the elitist illusion that we are better than the non-believer or sinner.

The price to pay of this illusory elitism is the constant fear of those lessers around you who you are now convinced wish to harm you with their dirty human nature. So we trade a life of unknown in the afterlife for a life of fear in the present.

Sounds more like a hell of one’s own creation to me.

A new year is here, which means traditional and semi-traditional food, college bowl games, and the NFL playoffs around the corner. Of course this year it means another semester coming up soon, and more reading and lectures on the way. It was a good weekend for football, the Badgers upset Auburn in Barry Alvarez’s last game as head coach, pretty much dominating on all sides of the ball, with Calhoun rushing for 212 and Williams receiving and rushing for another 200 plus. Even Stocco put up 300 yds passing, something that Wisconsin quarterbacks aren’t known for doing. Then the previous day, the Pats made it back to the playoffs with a loss to Miami, arguably to get a better seed on their road to the superbowl, and to let Flutie drop kick an extra point.

And of course it means more adventures with the mice. Rang in the new year with two more little guys, one on a sticky trap behind the couch, and another in a snap-trap. The good news is that they seem to be getting smaller, and more desparate, without any packaged food within climbing reach, they’ve been falling for the traps. At this rate I’ll have to make a tally board or something in honor of the late great Patches the cat, who might be proud of my kills so far.

make that another caught in the snap-trap, I just heard one go off, and I’ll probably have to go and clean it up pretty soon. I hope this one isn’t as bloody as the other one, it might as well be a crime scene or something. I have to say that this is getting old.