Kaulapi World

Done with my last final exam for the semester, its a good feeling to get it off my back, now its time to work on this paper. Should be a good change of pace, although there’s still a good amount of work to be done for sure. Have to say that this third exam was kind of in between, it was difficult enough for it to get my respect, but open ended enough to make me think outside of the box a bit. That can be tricky though, since the study of law is so in the box. who knows, who cares, I’m officially pau with 6/8 semesters, and am officially a 4E now. kind of scary thought.

Pretty beat tonight, but since DC is under a flood watch I think it probably makes more sense to stay up and keep an eye on the drain to make sure it doesn’t overflow. Don’t want a repeat of a few weeks ago. Its an afterthought by now, but I wonder how the earth boxes are doing. I just planted a bunch of seedlings and hope they aren’t getting too drenched. Really can’t complain about the rain when other parts of the country are getting hit with tornados. Opps I spoke too soon, I hear the water pooling outside the door, time to clear the drain. Looks like I’ll be up at least a few more hours tonight.

Going back into work tomorrow to finalize some details on my work travel trip for next week, which seems to be changing on a daily basis. Without going into too much detail, its looking like an interesting trip coming up, probably riding a lot of trains to and from meetings, something that isn’t totally ideal, but like everything else, I’m willing to roll with it. For me it’ll be a good excuse to see a different part of the country for a change.

2 Finals down, 2 to go. Well, one more final, and a paper, same smell more or less. The nature of the study of law has blurred the intensity of test prep and papers that I don’t know which one I prefer anymore. Once upon a time I used to enjoy writing papers, even the more challenging and academic ones. Now it seems like its such a labor intensive and detail oriented process that seems like a mountain of work before you start and it just keeps piling on and on. Don’t get me wrong, I really do enjoy doing all this research, I find it very insightful and enlightening, its just that with a full 8-6 work schedule, after three or so years now I actually have begun to value sleep and downtime as a valuable commodity as well as education.

This exam was definitely a tough one. I could tell partly by the questions and the format itself, have to give props to my prof for designing a challenging final exam. Also I noticed that only 1 or 2 of my classmates left before the 3.5 hours time was up, that is out of at least 60 of us in the class. Also hardly anyone decided to take a piss break. This may seem like a trivial point, but when you’re really hunkered down in cranking out some legal IRAC analysis you just hold that shi-shi for the love of god, your grade depends on it. Unfortunately for me I was drinking Pepsi max the whole time so about 3.1 hours in I had to give in and take a whiz break. The look on some of my classmates as I was walking out the door was a mixture of irritation to sheer panic, maybe because they thought for a moment, I’m sure, that I was done already.

Without sounding like a broken record from a few days ago, I have no idea how I did, other than I was able to make what I think was a good hard effort and it more or less reflected that I went to just about every class and was pretty good about keeping up with the reading, which believe me is a feat in itself, going at night. I can also say that I enjoyed the class overall, and learned quite a bit. That means I’ll probably get a C or a B. Oh well. Again the curve seems to maybe be in my favor, I wasn’t the only one who thought it was a tough exam. Oh well, that all pau, on to the next exam.

Strange/insightful dream again last night, it seems like during my finals prep my subconscious is especially active nocturnally. This dream I was visiting Madison, Wisconsin, on either some kind of fellowship or sabbatical. I had become some kind of academic professor of law or something like that and I was visiting my old alma mater. I went to the union and noticed a bunch of changes to the layout and the old haunts I used to frequent many years ago. Out of sheer coincidence, I learned that Akiko was in town as well, visiting from Japan, and I was in touch with her over phone and blackberry to meet up later that evening. To kill time in the meantime, I went walking along lake mendota, which now had become a rough lake, with waves crashing on the shoreline. I thought to myself that it reminded me a lot like Hawaii, and noticed the amount of sand that had accumulated on what used to be the Union terrace. The water was green and dirty looking, churning with microbiotic life, yet there were a lot of people jumping in, playing in the water.

One Final done, 3 more to go. The first one always is the hardest one to get through in terms of the prep, review, and all the motions. As always, I’m not quite sure how I did. The good news is that going through it quickly I was able to recognize everything and immediately tie the questions to material that we had covered over the semester. Usually that means that I did OK. As I tell Hana, I’m confident that I passed. . . but passing could mean an A, B, or a C. If grades were any function of how much one learned from a course, then this should be my highest grade, it definitely opened up some perspectives and caused some re-evaluating of political philosophies for sure. Of course in law school your grade is solely determined on your ability to articulate your knowledge in clear, concise legal arguments, in proper IRAC form in a single exam at the end of the semester (or year). There’s no credit for participation or recognition for the process by which you learn the law. I’m wondering if the X-factor on this first exam was that this was a class I took during the day division - I would think this would stack things against me as the lone evening student competing with classmate who well, have ample time to prepare, but a good chunk of these day students happen to be graduating this semester.

Either way, what’s done is done, its on to the next one. Back to camping out in coffee shops and subway. Looking forward to getting this stuff done.

In the past I’ve noted times when I’m sitting around, doing something usually very ordinary, but then I have a sudden realization that I’ve dreamt about the exact moment down to the very minor detail. In the past I’ve called it de ja vu, but maybe I should call it more like a moment of clarity or realization, an epiphany maybe. It almost always is some random and meaningless moment, like looking out a window of a car and noticing the detailed reflection of my shirt print, or sneezing on my way to work. But when it happens I feel a sense of calm, sort of a reassurance that I’m on the right track in life, that everything up until that point in my life has been for a reason. Trying to rationalize it psychologically, I have wondered if its a self-talking mechanism in times of my life when there is some self-doubt, or questioning of life in general. However I’ve noticed that this has happened in relatively frequency in both good and bad times in the past.

The only other reasoning I can think of is that I’ve noticed the frequency of these feelings increases right before some kind of an world event or personal crossroads in life comes up. The creepy thing is that like the feeling, I don’t even see it coming until after it happens. So if I’m some kind of a clairvoyant, my forward viewing devise is way out of focus.

So the reason why I mention all of this now is that it happened a few weeks ago, for the first time I think in at least a couple of years, on my work trip down in the hotel down in Orlando. I was up late doing research for one of my classes and kind of thinking how out of synch it is trying to study away from home. Then the feeling hit me, down to the smallest detail, the shape of the room, the furniture, this funky laptop tray that came with the hotel, the fact that my extension chord barely reached the outlet, the coverage on the news about the pope visiting America.

For what its worth, I thought I’d make it a point to make more regular posts at least for my crazy finals prep week(s) It sort of allows a mental break from reading case law. I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few days advanced leave from work due to my trip going over the weekend. I usually plan to take some leave around this time of year months in advance, but it seems like more often than any extra time to prepare is welcomed.

Looking back to my political compass and mindset from the last presidential election a couple things haven’t changed at all. I’m still looking for a truly anti-war candidate, pro-civil liberties, and pro-fiscal responsibility and pro-social responsibility. What has changed since 2004 is my opinion on the way to achieve populist goals, and to what extent the “noise” in the political discussion has confused us to which party or which ideology promotes the values that I believe in. Sometimes its better to keep a healthy level of skepticism whenever ideas are reduced to sound bites and one-liners. The party who speaks about limited government in actuality becomes the big government spenders, the party of civil liberties becomes the party of pro-war party, and the party of warrant-less domestic spying.

Another busy few weeks between posts, mostly been bogged down at work wrapping up some things here and there and everywhere. I ended up trying to beat the clock showing up a few hours earlier than usual, catching the 1st or 2nd train into the city, and staying a few hours later, it became a new paradigm for me to leave and get back home in darkness. At least I’m fortunate enough to have a cubicle next to a window, otherwise I wouldn’t see the sun at all these past few weeks.

Meanwhile march madness is in full swing, Badgers are back in the big dance, after winning both the Big Ten regular season, they dominated the Big Ten tournament and got a 3 seed in the Midwest bracket of the NCAA. I have a feeling that they’ll go a lot farther this year with the big man center back in commission. Last year they were pretty tough, but had injuries down the stretch, ended up getting upset by UNLV in the second round.

So semester 6/8 starts with a busy week, lots of reading to do, new profs, some familiar faces in the crowd of inspiring students, some new ones. So far I’m taking Administrative Law, Criminal Procedure II, and Legislation. I noted that it’ll be the first semester in which all of my classes are actually ones that I’m personally interested in, not just classes to take as they are recommended for the bar. While it’s always hard to gauge a class by the first couple of meetings, I have to say that I’m genuinely looking forward to the semester and the material that I’ll be covering. so far so good, lets see where this all goes.

It was a tough and physical game, but the Patriots advanced to the AFC championship for a second year in a row. In other news the Chargers upset the Colts in a close match-up and will be in the AFC championship as well. I’m cautiously optimistic that New England will be headed to Superbowl 42 based on the fact that the Chargers are pretty banged up right now, if both Rivers and LT were healthy, I would expect a battle like it was in last year’s divisional, but this time around I think it won’t be nearly as close.

Meanwhile Green Bay toasts Seattle in a classic Packer game in the falling snow. After rough start Green Bay’s running game comes to life and Favre is looking like it is 1999 (1998) again, who knows, maybe it’ll be a rematch of the 1998 superbowl? That would be my first choice of matchups this year for Superbowl Sunday.

I still feel like I was just studying for my Immigration law final, but as crazy as it sounds, I’m starting up classes again tomorrow. Ran up to the school to get my books in gear, ended up spending an arm and a leg (again). I’m pretty much used to it. It seems like the more letters you try and tack to the end of your name the more hundreds of dollars get tacked on for books for the semester.

Also marking the new year is once again my return to work/school schedule something that I’m not looking forward to at all, but have accepted it as just a fact of life for the next couple of years at least. Been feeling completely drained both mentally and physically lately, not really looking forward to the late nights in class and even later nights reading and studying up for the next class. The positive spin this semester is that I’ve been able to stack all of my classes on two days a week, meaning that I’ll have some more evening time to get a work out in here and there, and if need be, work later hours. I think just getting mental break from school for one extra day makes a big difference. Will see.

Wild card weekend, it looks like New England will be facing Jacksonville for the divisional round game. Been reading up on a lot of the news reports and it seems like a lot of people are picking the Jaguars to knock off the Pats. I’m not so convinced, although I do think that the Jaguars are a hot team right now and are looking pretty tough for a wild card after beating Pittsburgh almost as convincing as the regular season meet up in the snow.

Survived another round of finals (3 this time), and with one more small paper or so, am just about wrapping up my 5th semester or so of night school (6th if you count summer school). As always I’m not sure how I did, but I think the difference with this semester and those past is that I’ve definitely gotten to a point that I can honestly say that regardless of the paper grade, I know that I’ve learned a bit more about the law. Also this time around, although just as hectic and stressful, I think I’m getting better and better at coping with the demands. I attribute it partly to a lot of B vitamins, taking a break here and there to watch a football game, and surprisingly, getting more sleep than usual. After parking myself at various coffee shops for hours on end, lugging heavy casebooks for almost 2 weeks non-stop, I could feel my physical health start to take a hit. I’m a little amazed that I didn’t come down with the flu or something after shocking my immune system.

In other news, there’s an internet tea party today, as in the 234th anniversary of the one thrown by a bunch of feisty free thinkers once upon a time. I caught a documentary on PBS the other night about the last day-long money drive, the one that broke all kinds of records for one-day fund raisers. I’ve been tracking the tally from early this morning, as of 8:41am its roughly at $1,350,000 and climbing at a rate of $180K per hour. It looks like regardless of the total, at the current rate Ron Paul should be sitting on another big chunk of change with Iowa coming up in 18 days.

First snowfall of the year in the district, and I’m in full study mode for this next round of finals. Got a paper out of the way a couple of weeks ago, then its two big staple exams, and then I have a 4 day break before the last elective course is up. After that its another smaller paper, and some administrative matters which would wrap up the semester. Its crazy enough that I planned ahead to take some annual leave this week, ironically it ended up that my job had a crunch this week as well.

Crazy to think how busy life gets right around the holidays, when most people are thinking about winter vacations and shopping for Xmas presents. I’m usually camped out in coffee shops and libraries. I suppose its been like that for almost a collective decade now. Its become second nature really, the one year when I didn’t have to go anywhere or study anything I felt kind of lazy.

Pleasant distractions/breaks from studying has been the ongoing successes of my college and pro football teams. Hawaii went undefeated in the regular season and is set up to go to the Sugar Bowl to face Georgia, who had case to be playing for a national title. Wisconsin is on its way to the Outback Bowl to face Tennessee. On the pro side Green Bay lost a battle with Dallas, but is still in the hunt for the NFC playoffs at 10-2. Finally New England has had a couple of close games but is still undefeated at 12-0. I suspect that the rest of the games will be tough, even the winless Miami and almost Winless New York. Everyone is saying how Pittsburgh will be the hardest game, and it should be a cakewalk after that I’m not so sure, after seeing how the Baltimore and Philly brought their A game on to face the Pats. Its a strange feeling really, being in a bar and hearing just about everyone cheer against your team, even though they aren’t Baltimore fans.

One thing for certain, its looking like both pro teams will be in the playoffs, and both college teams are in New Year’s day bowls - which makes for good football distractions for the winter, and the first month or so of the next semester.

Class notes time, to sample the sometimes confusing legal reasoning in the beginning stages of processing - Criminal Procedure: the general procedures of a warrant. if it appears to be rambling its pretty typical of how the concepts tend to come out at this early stage.

Linkes 10/2/207:
Kahoolawe Adze, Found in Chile?
Tuning da sanshin how to
Recession theories and some