Kaulapi World

Busy trip home, a week vacation on Lanai, and then a few weeks back in the district in time for the new semester and back to work. Haven’t had much time for a post, as my work and school schedule permits, maybe I’ll post day to day entries to play catch up. or not.

Linkes 8/29/2007 - kinda sparse edition
Protesting the Superferry Alakai.
Pitfalls of contractor qui tam.
Chashu recipe
Article on Market Panics thoughout history
Another housing blog Paper-money

Finished up my Corporations exam tonight, and I’m officially done for the summer now. As usual, I’m not sure how to gauge how I did. If its anything like how I did this past year, then I’ll be pretty happy with the results whenever they come in. I have to say that this is one of those classes that I think I got a lot out of regardless of how it turns out on paper. In all honesty I never thought I would find a class on corporate law as interesting as I did, I think part of it was the professor, but also the content of the course kept me pretty engaged in the material all these hot summer nights.

On the flip side it was pretty hanging tough through the last couple months or so, it was really like my spring semester didn’t end and carried on through the summer. looking back I realize that I have gone through the equivalent of 1 and 3/4 of law school, which would make me unofficially a 2.75 L going into the fall semester. not too bad considering this is my third year of night school, at this rate I may have the option of getting out a semester early, finishing 3.5 years total while working full time. It was really non stop, going for about 2 and a half years, I’m surprised I haven’t lost my mind just yet.

I’d like to think that I may finally be getting a real hang of things, at least the surprises and volume of material doesn’t seem as crazy, I’m able to read things quickly and get to the bottom line pretty quickly. All skills that might come in handy one day for sure. One thing for sure, It’ll be nice not having to rush out to catch a train at everyday during rush hour to head up to class, or lugging my laptop and textbooks everywhere I go. I’ll enjoy it for about a month before the next semester starts up again.

Earthbox update, I set up a flickr account to post some of the pictures. The humidity and heat are doing the plants well, the goya is now climbing up the net mesh and tomato plant stalk. I ended up saving some seeds from the chinese bitter mellon in place of the cilantro. we’ll see if that one sprouts as easily as the okinawan goya.

Linkes 7/5/07 - 7/16/07 (Law school notes edition)
Greatest boom ever, or just another bubble?
7 Sacred Pools of Oheo on Maui.
Web Back Machine - blogs and websites engraved in e-stone.
$12B a month. nuff said.
Talk about lowering the security clearance standards.

June is here and another summer in the district - number 4 to be precise. In annual fashion I should mention that this entry marks another year of this web-journal, not much for reflection in terms of entries, other than the mirror site over at Webomatica that I have been updating and tinkering with when I have spare time. I’ve been keeping up with this log-journal of sorts since 2000, although the current version only links back to June 2004 since it was getting pretty cluttered.

I’m enjoying my summer corporations class, its an area that I never really thought I’d find an interest in, being that my interests have been outside the corporate and financial world. On the other hand I seem to have an interest in crunching numbers and quantitative analysis, something that might prove to be worth looking into after I finish this degree program. I think my revisiting of this area it goes with the idea that there is a distinction between profitable businesses that provide quality goods and services and compete fairly in the market and corrupt businesses that lobby for corporate welfare and political influence. Somewhere in the mix lawyers can play an influential (good or bad) role in all of this.

Riding the train home last night after class, thinking about a million things as usual at the end of the day, I noticed from my reflection that I was of scowling out the window. Looking away quickly I thought I saw a familiar face across the train car, but I couldn’t place a name to the face to go up and say hello. After I got off at my stop and was walking home I realized that it might’ve been one of the random linkes that I came across a while back and happened to bookmark because of the interesting entry about Korean-Brazilian cultural identity. To a certain extent reading these online journals and blogs even in passing gives you a sort of sense that you might actually know someone, even a complete stranger that you have never spoken to before. I think in some part what appeals to me about certain blogs as a reader is the bluntness in observations on life experiences. This is in contrast to the more polished, over-edited sites, especially those that are hell bent on promoting the author or trying to sell some kind of a product. After all, since when did anyone make money by just reflecting on life?

Another twist in my daily grind of a schedule is that I’m on call for the next two weeks to report for Jury duty - basically it means that every day at 5:00pm I have to call an automated line to see if I have to report, with the chance of being selected for a trial to last an indefinite period of time. I was given a pass for Monday, but had to report today at noon downtown, being the dutiful government employee I decided to report for work in the morning and then rushed out in time to make the reporting period. After a few hours of milling around in the waiting period (Also reading a few cases) we were told that the civil trial we were summoned for was canceled, BUT still are to follow the on-call status.

While I was waiting I saw the huge mess of media camped outside the courthouse, and eventually the long procession of Ford Explorers and police escorts for the Scooter Libby sentencing hearing. It kind of reminded me what city I live in and what kind of things go down in the center of politics and power deals. I seem to forget this from time to time. Also this morning reported in the post was that the military commissions in Gitmo have hit a snag because of conflicts in the charges with the recent military commissions act of 2006. Maybe the DC court of appeals will have to begin hearing cases again after all. Speaking of trials that might be fun to sit in on, either as a juror or as a member of the general public: the notorious DC pants trial of 2007.

Chicago was fun, good seeing my brother who is settled on the south side, working on the side and playing underground and classical music. It was good to get out of DC for a weekend and see another city for a change. It brought back some memories of visiting the windy city back in college, inadvertently retracing my steps here and there. We stayed at the Hard Rock hotel on Michigan avenue, it was a quirky hotel with a big picture of prince next to the elevators and art deco style furniture. I was able to find a zipcar parked within walking distance of the hotel, and we drove up to Patty’s wedding up in N. Ill. It was a very nice ceremony, a good balance overall. Lots of observations and reflections on this point in life I’m at, mostly how old we’re all becoming and growing up.

Linkes 6/2007
Pre-columbusPolynesian voyagers to Chile proof by chicken DNA.
Leeches and Leeches that file lawsuits

It’s looking like a busy summer alright, already looking forward to the Chicago trip to go to Patty’s wedding, visit the kid brother, and meet up with my folks all in a short weekend. After that I’ll be hunkering down on the books for my corporations class this summer, keeping going with the law training. I’m hoping that with just one class to focus on I’ll be better position to pull of a decent enough performance as an add on for the last semester, build more experience and push on through to the 3rd year. Juggling 4 courses and working full time was pretty challenging.

First day of summer session was today, first impressions of a course are always memorable being that you don’t really know what to expect at first. So far I’m finding some interesting side observations on the readings so far which comes to somewhat of a surprise as that this course isn’t one that at first thought comes to mind as one that I would be interested off the back. I think its the public policy training and all the economic theory that I’ve crammed into my brain that gives me an interest in this area, one things for sure, I’m not going to be closing off any possible interests that might develop through this course of study.

Having some interesting dreams. The theme lately has been that I keep finding secret tunnels and doors in my apartment that lead to hidden rooms, corridors and exits that I never imagined possible. At times I’m able to peal away the concrete foundation and walls with my hands to reveal another passageway. The spooky thing is that some of the rooms I’ve been in before in previous dreams, and they are over the top extravagant, like a luxury hotel room overseeing a cliff with wall to wall, ceiling to floor windows. In stumbling on these rooms I kid myself in not realizing that this was here all this time, and I had been confining myself to only a handful of small rooms.

I think there is some symbolic references to what is going on in my personal life and perceptions, especially in the past month or so, persons of whom I am very protective of in some difficult times. I’ve noticed that I’m not anxious at all in these dreams though, in fact I’m more thrilled at the prospect of finding rooms and passageways that I’ve overlooked, or been too busy to notice before. It seems like every time I look there is someplace new to explore, and each time I feel strangely at peace.

Linkes 5/21/2007
9mm violence on the rise in Honolulu
Ron Paul Can’t say that, can he? Sure, why not?
Foreign Policy of Freedom - Bomb or Subsidize
Why China must be scapegoated
Ron Paul - SC debates party crasher
Live Science - top 10s geek style
Torture - its ok now?
DC demographics shifts, compared on a national scale.

Finally pau with finals. Right now I’m feeling both utterly beat mentally and physically, and yet at the same time very liberated. Don’t know how I ended up doing, there were a few exams that didn’t turn out as nearly as well as I had hoped, but whats done is done I guess.

One week off till summer school.

Got done with a Trust and Estates exam last night and just got up from my first 6 hours of sleep in about a month. I feel a lot better about this one compared to my first exam, given the amount of material I was able to review in a short amount of time. Although with any of these exams you really have no idea how you did until you get the grades. one more to go, but its a take home and is due a a few days. Just have to stay focused and theres a light at the end of the tunnel. It really has been a perfect storm these past few weeks, month even, it seems like work, school, personal life, and more and more all comes at once and you just have to deal with it. Still not pau yet, but I’m still standing I guess.

The symbolic dreams are back again. A few nights ago I had one where I was holding the door to my apartment shut with my back, because there was a constant wind blowing it open and I couldn’t get it to shut completely and stay shut. After a while of this I noticed that there was a side door/cabinet that I had never seen before. While still holding the first door shut I opened the side cabinet which revealed a bunch of pipes like an old radiator and a tiny hallway leading away from where I was standing. once I opened the cabinet the wind seemed to be somewhat diverted enough that I was able to close the door. I wondered what was down that hallway. Part of the significance is that this is one of the few dreams that I’ve had in my apartment up in DC. new sense of home, maybe, and all of the symbolism that comes with it.

Last night I had another where I was back home in Hawaii, many years in the future. I had rode the rail line that they are supposedly planning on building and I was either down in Waikiki or by Kaka’ako, down by the water in some kind of a tourist trap. There were a lot of boats in a shallow harbor and I was watching an old local man going fishing with a bunch of tourists standing around, yapping and eating lunch. For a while I was distracted with the tourist’s conversations, a few of them started talking to me. I noticed the old man caught a medium sized fish by snagging the hook on the side of the fish and pulled it up. Immediately the fish started growing bigger and bigger, with its teeth widening alongside its mouth. I noticed that the tourists were both frightened and intrigued.

As the man pulled up the fish he quietly was talking to it as he removed the hook, and then gently put it back in the water, rubbed its belly and the fish grunted back at him like a dog. Then it swam along the water on its way. the old man then jumped in the water and somehow was able to tread alongside the fish by moving his feet, gliding through the water at his ankles. They were like two old friends who hadn’t seen each other in a long time. The violence of the hook snagging the fish was necessary to restart their acquaintances and then they could go along their way. I noticed that the tourists of course were not noticing any of this. A bunch of them came and asked me which rail line to catch to manoa or someplace, and I told them that I wasn’t as familiar with exactly how the rail line works, despite being from there originally.

Jump either earlier or later in the dream I was back at an old work place, I was talking to a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in years, but they recognized me. I was going there to get a copy of a record or something, and ended up walking around the place. apparently they had remodeled and made part of it a bank.

I had a scary thought that this might actually be my last hell week after how I felt after my first exam. It was one of those that catch you off guard despite the fact that you’ve studied your ass off the whole year and for better or for worse just got caught up in the last final weeks. Leaving the exam room I immediately started getting post-test anxiety, thinking about all of the different things I could’ve written. The format of law essays really suck, especially when they are all rolled up into a single exam at the end of the year, often closed book and written in a way that there is never enough time to possibly answer everything, and sometimes even with a word limit imposed on you. Then there are all of the nuances of each professor to consider, and the overall subjectivity of how this will all be graded. If there ever was a recipe for test anxiety it would be a law school exam.

Adding to all of this crap I think it has something to do with working full time, and having to worry about the unpredictable work schedules that may come and go regardless of the exam schedules, but hey that’s the breaks. One thing I’ve learned so far about studying law is that the barrage of finals at the end of the semester so far has been an increasingly stressful round of intellectual hazing. I’m just hoping that I have a couple more in me.

I’m not afraid to admit that I have procrastination tendencies, but that all has had to change very quickly since I embarked on this degree program. If its worth anything I’ve come a long way from HS and College pulling all nighters as a result of putting things off to the last minute. The crappy thing now is that instead of feeling stupid and kicking myself for not starting reviewing material earlier in the semester instead I just end up feeling beat down and defeated going through a circle in my head in figuring out why I ended up feeling so overwhelmed with no end in sight: “1) Damn I should’ve started reviewing my stuff earlier. 2) But I did, throughout the semester/year, I seem to have survived last semester alright and I did even more this time around. 3) Damn. Maybe I should’ve got by with less sleep during the week. 4) But I was averaging 3-4 hours on weeknights, 4-6 on weekends. 5)Damn.” Conclusion: This really sucks. Oh well, back to the pit to get ready for the next exam.

About a month away from completing my 4th semester, and 2nd year as an evening student. While saving any overly reflective comments until I’m actually through the gate and survived the seasonal trials and stress that comes with studying the law part time while juggling a full time day job, I’ll say that things have been progressing along, slowly but surely. My cases are becoming easier to read, and the legal reasoning has become clearer and easier to spot quickly. This is not to say that any of the material has gotten any easier, but I as usual, I’m finding ways to adapt and push forward when faced with a challenge. I think a lot of this has to do with my choice of classes this past summer and fall semester, I kind of went off the beaten path by enrolling in a clinical program which in retrospect helped put all of this training into context. In many ways it was the human element that I found missing from my first year - brought back some memories of taking pre-med science courses and craving for something more fundamental to a professional field of study.

I’m looking into my classes for the next couple of years, weighing options with the required staple and bar-related courses. There are some that I’m having a hard time conceptualizing why I would need to take, and then there are others that I would like to take, but am limited based on my evening hours schedule. I’m finding myself drawn to similar topics as I did back at La Follette, more along the public policy route, with some twists and turns.

Recent discussion in class dealt with the Grutter v. Bollinger case involving affirmative action policies at the University of Michigan. Reading the case I’m sure struck a nerve among many of my classmates in the sense that the case involved a haole student who was denied admission to an “elite law school” but who probably had a similar LSAT/GPA profile as many of us sitting in the classroom. Instead of “settling” for a lower ranked law school, the student decided to sue the university claiming racial discrimination. There has been some talk recently about law school rankings which inevitably enters the law student’s mind because they seem to matter so much for employment, and overall assurances that you’re not wasting 3-4 years of your live on a degree that will be perceived marginally good enough, depending on the circle you associate with, of course.

My take on affirmative action to me has always been mixed. On one hand I think that we cannot deny the history (and disturbingly recent history) of racial discrimination and we as a society should be actively engaging it. On the other hand I do not think that it is a fair system, and that it can also breed some of the same discrimination and racial tensions if it is not applied equitably. It definitely has its limits as with any other law or policy, the ultimate goal is to discriminate one class against another. in free market terms, there are always winners and losers, we as society have to decide who wins, who loses, by how much, and for how long.  I think I agree most with O’Connor’s comment in the case that she could envision that 25 years from now there might not be a need for affirmative action.  I don’t know about the prediction of 25 years by itself, but I do agree with the broad concept of using racial preferences to address a historical wrong if it meets a certain standard of scrutiny - however they can’t be sustained indefinitely forever.  Of course saying when the playing field is truly “level” is the hard part.

For the hell of it, I thought I’d post an excerpt of my raw reading notes from one of my Constitutional law cases. More later as far as commentary on the method I’ve developed to learning legal doctrine over the past 24 months. It’s a long tedious process that works great if you have the time for it, not so much if you’re fully employed or otherwise distracted.

U.S. v. O’Brien - 391 U.S. 367 (1968)
Draft card burning case during the Vietnam war - question of whether burning a draft card at a protest constitutes free speech protected under the first amendment, and the constitutionality of 462(b)(3) of the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 1948 and the subsequent amendment of 1965 criminalizing the conduct of someone who knowingly destroys, knowingly mutilates or in any manner changes a certificate (registration certificate)

ICA found the amendment as unconstitutional limit on free speech, holding that the amendment had no valid purpose, focused on public rather than private destruction.

SCOTUS overrules the ICA and says that the amendment is in fact constitutional, pointing out that on its face, the 1965 amendment has nothing to do with speech, and is instead focused on protecting draft cards from destruction. SCOTUS likens draft cards to driver’s licenses, or maintaining tax records.

O’Brien’s arguement is that the 1965 amendment is unconstitutional (1) applied to him because his act was protected symbolic speech under the first amendment, and (2) the amendment as enacted fulfills the purpose of congress to suppress freedom of speech.

In addressing O’Brien’s (1) claim, SCOTUS points out that while acknowleging the grey areas between speech and non-speech, all free speech has its limits. SCOTUS puts forth a 4 part test in which suppression of speech by the government is constitutional:
1) When it is within the constitutional power of the government
2) When it furthers an important or substantial government interest
3) If the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression
4) If the incidental restriction on first amendment freedoms is no greater than is essential to further that interest

Court’s reasoning here:
1) When it is within the constitutional power of the government
Derived from Congress’s powers to raise and support an Army

2) When it furthers an important or substantial government interest
Governmental interest in having the selective service system, how the draft card is a integral part of it.
- as proof of registration
- as a document with important dates, numbers
- as a continual reminder that the registrant needs to notify his board of his movements

3) If the governmental interest is unrelated to the suppression of free expression
distinguishes protecting the card from mutilation or destruction from specifically suppressing free speech
distinguishes case with Stromberg v. California that punished people who expressed opposition to organized government through the display of a flag, badge, banner or devise.

4) If the incidental restriction on first amendment freedoms is no greater than is essential to further that interest
(balancing test) says the 1965 amendment is limited just to preventing harm to the selective service process, no more.

On O’Brien’s other charge (2) that the purpose of the 1965 amendment is to suppress freedom of speech, the court in part acknowledges his point, but claims that he is going the wrong way about arguing this point. Court points out that in order to find something facially unconstitutional, especially when dealing with congressional intent, they need something more than a few floor speeches and committee reports.

Points out that only one senator and 2 representatives spoke about the bill before passing it. Besides, what discussion there was on the amendment had to do with the concern of destruction of cards would have on the selective service process.

Harlan’s concurrence - agrees with majority, but cautions on limiting this exception to cases when governmental interest is important and substantial. Also points out that O’Brien could’ve spoken out about his opinion without burning the card.

Douglas’s dissent:
thinks the real question is whether conscription is permissible in the absence of a declaration of war.
Points back to Brandenburg v. Ohio - action is often a method of expression and within the protection of the first amendment - raises the question of whether burning a copy of the constitution or a bible would be considered unprotected “speech”

Linkes 3/13/2007

Talking Points Blog.
The Quality of Justice.
For some, not all a rich year indeed.
Cats of Mirikitani Play.

Been a busy couple of weeks, had the benefit of being on an early spring break from classes, a good rest from night school, some reading here and there, but most importantly it was a chance to get back into the gym on a regular workout schedule. It really adds to the energy levels and routine, plus it gives me about an hour to read a few cases, although it isn’t really easy to take down notes in the margins while riding a bike, it still helps.

Bit of a lengthy list of links for this post.

Linkes for 2/17/07 - 3/5/07
Kaufman’s Rules: 1-7 | rules 8-14 | 15-21
MCA of 2006 - Dodd Amendment , blogger coverage and similar legislation up north?
I really hope they’re wrong about this too
Smarter than a 5th grader and Superficial greeks

Some news back home:
Algae wins at the state capitol Limu wins at blaisdell arena
Masu’s Teri Chicken recipe and Ramen eating contest photo finish
Family detention facilities in PR sucks to be immigrant families

Sexuality and religion:
Rotting gametes , and the Vatican Method of birth control
Sleeping position psychology?

Market Crash of 2007?
Bloody Tuesday Dow down 400 points , and Greenspan’s warning
Subprime problems looming and more mortgage Lender BS
Something to think about financial insecurity in America all around

Baggage of citizenship, war on tactics:
Perspective of a wannabe Canadian, occupational hazardsclandestine employment
Face and voice of America zero credibility, domestic security in plain english
VA funding and support for the troops
DHS resisting pay for performance time to unionize