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3 . 2 6 . 0 5 Wisconsin is on an improbable final four run, if they can upset UNC in tomorrow's game, they'll be back for the second time in 5 years. There are three big ten teams that made it to the elite eight, something that hardly anyone expected, let along predicted. I'm kicking myself for not turning in a bracket, I'm actually doing pretty good so far thanks to by big ten bias. Illinois is in the final four, and MSU has a shot after upsetting Duke in the sweet sixteen game, although I don't know how they'll do against Kentucky. It really would be something to see 3/4 final four teams from the same conference. Went to the Exchange Saloon to watch the Wisconsin-NC State game, apparently its an official Badger bar in DC of sorts, we pretty much filled the place out. Its been pretty exciting overall, especially since this is ACC country out here as far as sports are concerned. 3 . 2 4 . 0 5 So I'm back online now, it took a couple of weeks, some fiddling around with a router and I finally solved the problem, the encryption on my wireless card. I guess it would've saved me some time and money had I just bought the better version card back in grad school. Anyway, this new card is pretty impressive, its actually faster than a physical connection, or so I think so far. Work is coming along, I have several good job prospects ahead, pretty excited for the learning opportunities. Still waiting for one more law school, otherwise I've gotten pretty used to the one that said yes, looking forward to their open house in a couple of weeks, should be fun. Still working out the details on how it'll play out with work, I met with some division directors to see how it would play out with travel, it looks like it'll be ok. I hope so. Some friends have come through the city and gone, some still here. One is actually in town getting situated, planning out a permanent move out here for work. So far he's been pretty fortunate in finding housing, close to the metroline, actually within walking distance of where I am right now. He'll be joining the masses of DC denizens soon enough. 3 . 1 8 . 0 5 I have a bad feeling that the chinese store in chinatown where I buy a lot of foodstuffs is closing down due to the increasing presures of gentrification downtown. I'm sure the operating costs and rents are going out the roof, to the point where they can't survive, or that they could just make enough of a killing to retire the store. I got this idea in that when I stopped by the other day to pick up some saimin all of the china was half-off, and most of the shelves were looking sparse and half-empty. Later on outside an old chinese couple were pointing at the written signs outside and talking loudly. Its a little strange my reaction to all of it, I immediately got homesick, and scrambled to find an alternative store within proximity of the metro, or buslines. I was able find quite a few, but none within the district. I guess its just a sign of the times, and nature of urban centers. Ethnic communities usually form because of institutional racism and cultural differences, recent immigrants usually flock to areas where the rents are more affordable. Then later on when gentrification sets in the local businesses are eventually priced out, and the chain stores come in. If you look at chinatown in DC today, the only thing really chinese aside from the handful of chinese restuarants that are still operating is the friendship gateway, and that the storefronts have chinese characters written on them. Its strange to see Ann Taylor Loft and Starbucks written in kanji. Went up to Catholic University for a Telecomm law conference as part of my agency's external training. It was good to see the school where it looks likely that I'll be starting at in the fall. I was very impressed with the facilities and programs that they offer overall, especially their Telecommunications Law Institute, which I may consider in the future. Being that IT policy and law is a growing field, and that much of the lobbying and regulatory structure is here in DC, it is an interesting area for future study. Later on I took a look at the rest of the campus as well, got to see the Basilica of the immaculate conception, a cathedral dedicated to the Catholic faith in America. It was huge, with a lot of historical and religious significance. I noticed that a lot of effort was put into showing the wide reach of Catholicism around the world, with the many shrines and alters all over the grounds. I think its interesting how I ended up here, really coming from Hawaii to Madison, to a graduate program named after Bob LaFollette, to a law school named after the Knights of Columbus. I've always valued hearing and learning about different perspectives, and I'm sure that this won't end while I'm living working and learning here DC either. I'm still looking into options of getting back into some budo while I'm in between being a student. Some of the recent talk around town is regarding bankruptcy policy and consumer spending, namely a bill that was just passed on the hill that makes it harder for people have their debt forgiven by declaring bankruptcy. While the arguement on the sake of the credit card companies was that it would prevent fraud and abuse of peopele cheating the system, the hill shot down ammendments that would make exceptions for loss of a job, medical emergency, or strangely, identity theft. They also balked at the ammendment that would involve a loss of a family member, immediately I thought about the military families with their breadwinner in a combat zone. Additionally, the whole concept of the legislation struck me as a little hypocritical of the federal government, being that we are running up massive deficits in spending and tax cuts, but all of a sudden has gotten so fiscally hard on middle class consumers. So hypocritical it seems like a movie. Then theres the legislation that passed 51-49 to begin exploration for oil in ANWR, a topic that has been contested for many years now. The arguement for it is that the program is welcomed by the majority of the people who will be affected by it, and that somehow the additional oil reserves could lower the price of American oil and gas at the pump. I don't buy this for the fact that they don't expect to see noticible returns on investment is as far off as 10 years from now, and that the reserve isn't expected to be large enough to have long term affects on price or supply. Of course my main problem with this is that the drilling is not part of a bigger plan to reduce dependency on fossil fuels. Logically we should really be focusing our attention on increasing fuel efficiency, and decreasing overall consumption. Been doing some research into Flex car and zipcar, shared car services that offer some pretty good pricing rates, especially when it is compared to owning a car, even if the numbers are a little inflated, its still a good deal. Especially since this city is very accessible through public transportation, and on foot. I kind of see not owning a car as opting out of some of the stresses of the city, at least when it comes to dealing with the traffic and high cost of living. Found some blogs on the Akaka bill, have been reading some interesting interpretation of the bill and what it would mean. Once again it seems like an example of trying to find a similar solution or remedy to questions that pertain to Hawaii, and finding that it doesn't exactly fit. More specifically that Hawaii, largely because of its history and its people. 3 . 1 1 . 0 5 End of a hectic week, got a draft of my section of the report in, the first of many revisions I'm sure. Got some relatively positive feedback on it, which is interesting because I think it still needs a bit of work before it is ready for print. A lot of it was like reconstructing a crime scene, stating the facts and attributing the appropriate sources, trying to piece together exactly what happened, when, how and by whom. I'm liking this part of the job so far. We'll see how it goes on from here. So Tristan is coming out for sure, he accepted a position in DC and is now in the hunt for housing. So far it sounds like he has gotten a couple of good prospects already, in a fun part of the city too. A bunch of old friends are also coming out for the next couple of weekends, should keep me busy for the remainder of the month. On a side note, I've been reading up on a small piece of legislation that is going for a senate vote regarding Native Hawaiian federal status . I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, but I do know that there is a lot of opposition against it for various other reasons. It is a topic that I've given more than a passing thought on, I think from Grant's class back in UH, and my conversations with the Land Tenure Center in Madison. Of course I don't know where I stand on this issue, what would help is if I could understand the real impacts on Kanaka Maoli and other residents of Hawaii. I often wonder if any kind of law or change in policy can be fostered without an understanding or general respect for history, and when I mean history I don't mean the versions that have been whitewashed to tell the side of the victor, or the colonial power. Then again, that is the nature of colonialism to deprive the native of the ability to tell their history in their own tongue, their own perspective. Without a foundation of knowledge or sense of identity, a people can easily be displaced in their own ancestral land, pitted against immigrants from far away, other cultures who compete for power and capital, form governments and buy land. welcome to the rat race. 3 . 9 . 0 5 Back from my short sick vacation for about a month and its been back to work almost non-stop. Been pretty busy for the past couple weeks especially, with work and non-work stuffs. I have some more write-ups to do and report drafting, referencing and citations to work out. All in all I also made some decisions on which division to move within the agency in the next couple months. For all we know I might be returning to some previous areas of research or new emerging ones. To make my life even busier, I got into a part-time law program, and denied by another. So really now its just a matter of the one I got into, or the one holdout that said they wouldn't respond until March at the earliest. So now I've added on a bunch of financial aid forms and scholarships to apply for. Its exciting, but a little much at this point in time. And without an internet connection at home I've had to cram a lot of this research between breaks at work. A lot of stuff all at once. A couple of snowstorms have come and gone, more like ice storms really, I dig the fact that it may snow 4+ inches here overnight and then be gone that same afternoon. I also dig the fact that anything more than an inch, the whole city and sometimes the federal government shuts down and everyone gets administrative leave AKA vacation on account of snow. Been reading up a lot of news articles about religion and politics, an area that has been kind of sparking my interest more so lately. Partly because it seems so fucking insane. Random note, my next significant gadget expenditure might be one of these |