Kaulapi World

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

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.