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1 0 . 3 0 . 0 5 Went to eat dim sum in silver spring today, haven't had that in a while, back home or on the west coast. I think it was one of the newly developed areas of the city, you could tell by the building and clientile. I am told that the area has been up and coming a lot in the past couple of years, that it will be the "second bethesda" developing right outside the district lines. Noticing different areas of the city experiencing different levels of revival, gentrification what not. Contrasting Friday evening eating dinner in bethesda, found a nice vietnamese place close to the metro, a little upscale, and maybe a little haolified, but it was still very good. I like the area overall, something about the feel and layout fits closer to what I had originally expected to see coming out here to live. Of course the costs are always a factor, something to think about before making another move. Overall I think I like the area as a possible future place to live, although it is a bit farther out of town, and therefore a longer train ride in the morning. Badgers have a big game this weekend against Penn State, like deja vu from 6 years ago en route to the rose bowl when they came in a close race for the lead in the big ten. Strange how this weekend, after being spoiled with pretty much non-stop coverage on ESPN I'll be getting shafted with the regional ABC coverage. I'm thinking it might be partly since nobody thought preseason that either team would be in the running. so much for preseason expectations. Under the random reminder that this degree I am working on comes with a lot of assumptions and expectations, almost to the point in which that it is an unspoken invitation for people's comments, advice, paradox and humor. Somewhat ironic being that until I finish this degree, and actually go and get a job with it, my current work during the day, although probably not as glamorous by way of name recognition, is actually a lot more meaningful and interesting. One thing for certain, I'm not driven by just the money or the prestige independent of some cause or mission that I could stand behind. And the nature of the world today, I'll probably end up working for a non-profit, or government agency. I find that often times people have trouble understanding this, as if unless you go into corporate or business law, or some big name politician then its all a waste of time. Afterall, why study anything unless you're going to get rich and famous in the process? My answer, at least in part is that despite all the talk of thre being too many damn lawyers, as a society, we do need more in certain other areas. Namely those areas that are left behind by the free market. I suppose I view the degree as I would any other degree, as an opportunity for making a positive contribution to society in addition to earning a living. Both of which I seem to be fine accomlishing with my current job and degree. 1 0 . 1 8 . 0 5 Another week, another twist in my job placement. Looks like I might be staying in my current division afterall, can't say I'm bummed at all by the prospect, I've had a very positive past 5-6 months, think I've learned a whole lot and gotten a lot of good experience both in subject area and in interacting with different types of managers and workers. Bottom line for my consideration is the prospects of permenant placement in a division, extending this stay looks like it'll increase my chances of placement that I prefer, as opposed to being locked into a situation where I might not have as many options. Just the other day I got an email about another placement option that I might have to look into. Have to say that I've noticed a higher level of energy overall in my more recent work, not to say that anything I'm doing now is more relevant than prior, in fact my team got an award on the long term project I had been working on in the older division. Its more that I think this division gets down deeper to the more grassroots level, micro, there is more of an opportunity to see the human face of the story as opposed to just a paper trail. Of course then again it may just be becuase I've started school again, and seem to see relevant experience in almost every aspect of the job tied to something I'm learning in class, mostly in civil procedure, although here and there the legal research, and contracts comes into play. for the most part property has made be think about land tenure and estate law, for a variety of reasons. I've also been able to keep up with somewhat of a workout schedule as well, kind of surprising, but so far so good. Shifted gears into a maintainence schedule, keeping my rep at a solid 235, trying to go at least once or twice a week. I've actually lost another 5 pounds since school started, bringing me down to the next weightclass (kg). Busy weekend coming up, probably be spending a good amount of it in the library, or surrounded by these big red case books. guess its a good thing that my regional ABC channel is showing Texas v Texas Tech instead of the Badger game. Last week's game at Minnesota will be hard to beat no doubt. 1 0 . 1 1 . 0 5 Couple of cultural/regional observiations from this weekend: first, people in the Wash DC area are maniacs on the road, defensive driving applies to parking lots as well as it does on the beltway. secondly, assume that the old haole lady who backs into you with her large white sedan will take off instead of stopping to exchange insurance with you. you might as well get her license plate (Or as they say up here "tag" number) and file a police report. One drawback of zipcar might be its insurance policy which doesn't cover dings and bumper road rash. One of the things they advertise is free gas, free insurance, so I thought that I was covered, even after reading the fine print. After reporting the incident I got the impression from the rep that I should've filed a police report, even though the dent on the bumper was the size of a ping pong ball. Pretty much since I didn't get the bitch's information, I'm supposedly liable, even though it was clearly her fault. I also draw the line there, as calling this in would've been a waste of law enforcement resources, which goes against both the policy analyst and the law student in me. Anyway, I had to fill out an incident form complete with a detailed narrative section, and a diagram chart. All for a ding literally smaller than my left nut. It really seems silly, to have an overly stringent ding policy for a car sharing program in a city like DC - as soon as you replace a bumper the door will get sideswiped by some socialite talking on a cell phone swerving in and out of traffic in Georgetown. I've never seen so many cars with structural damage (anything non-functional) in a metropolitan area before. I think its mainly due to the fact that people here drive like maniacs. Came across an interesting article about liberal and neo-liberals as illustrated in a daily show interview of Charles Schumer by John Stewart . I thought it summed up the parallels in the Democratic party split. I definitely identify more with the Stewart perspective, identifying with the dems more by default than anything else, but constantly questioning their stance on the issues and direction (or lack of) that they want to take the country. I'm not too keen at all with the fact that a lot of establishment dems continue to dance around the issues, afraid to stand up to yet another lamebrain policy choice, or crony political nomination. It is amazing that with all the scandals going on in the current administration that the dems still haven't been able to give a clear alternative view. I think Stewart's comment about the democrats taking 40 years to get corrupt vs the republicans doing it in 5 years was right on. The quesiton now is how much worse does it have to get before someone steps up and leads the party? Until someone does then the dance will go on. 1 0 . 5 . 0 5 October and this semester is chugging along. Its been going be very quickly, which I is a good sign being that It has been very engaging and anything but boring. If a levels of alertness is any indicator, I haven't gotten sleepy in any of the classes yet - whether it is because of the intensity of the course material, not wanting to miss any amount of the sheer amount of information, or the fact that I'm more of an evening person I'm not quite sure. Working out some details at work on my next work assignment, it is looking more and more like I'll be rotating onto a different division, there was talk of me staying with the current one, which at the moment I would prefer. However I am open to the new experiences, chance to work with new managers, opportunities to develop new skills and areas of expertise. Tonight's lecture had a mention of alternative settlements outside of the traditional trial, namely arbitration courts and mediation. Kind of liked the possibilities of what many are calling a growing area of conflict resolution, something that I think I might be interested in looking into after I get past these 1L courses. I recall M saying once that a good attorney will actually be able to keep you out of court with a fair settlement. Fair really meaning literally fair, not the largest, fattest payout, but something that both the client and other party can live with. Of course the obvious first reaction to this idea is some clients are out for blood, either out of vengence, or while faced with a claim so serious that they are justified in going for the house. Other clients are simply more risk-loving, more the gambling type. These sort of cases are what the court was designed for. have a trial. In some ways the attorney should be able to inform the client a risk assessment of the claim, and the client's chances or winning. This is an increasingly relevant area of law, something that the prof said isn't covered as much as it should be in law school. With my current courseload spread out over the next 3 semesters I think I have some time to dig more into this. Been a somewhat frequent user of zipcar as of late, and so far I'm sold. I've increased my mobility in the city substantially, at a minimal cost - even reserving a car for 4 full days a month is less than the cost of a monthly payment on a used car, fuel, and insurance. this past weekend I went up in MD and found a bunch of Chinese groceries in Rockville. |