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6 . 1 9 . 0 7 Mid June in the district and the heat is on, literally. One thing I haven't quite gotten used to is the extreme heat that comes around this time of year. Today coming back from class was brutal since for some reason some genius decided to turn off the air conditioning in the building with heat indexes of 100. At 9pm it was still about 90, or 96 or so with the heat index. Another part of summer in DC is the torrential rainshowers that come hand and hand with all that humidity in the air. Last Thursday it was pouring so bad there were rivers in the streets. Fortunately the drain outside my door is working well, no flooded basement apartment yet, knock on wood. For a side project this summer I drove up to MD this past weekend to get an Earth Box, supposedly an idiot-proof planter system that has high yields for growing small scale fruits and vegetables. It came with some fertilizer, CaCO3 mix for growing tomatoes and supposedly set up with a reservoir system that makes it impossible for you to over or under water the plants. I started off with a celebrity tomato plant, some Thai basil for pho, Chinese parsley and Italian basil for pasta. I'm in the process of germinating some seeds to see if I grow some Okinawan goya as well although I don't know if it'll work. I think it might be my mom's influence as well who grows just about everything in her yard back home. Or part of it is from reading articles about citizens living on an isolated island giving up their domestic agricultural industries (AKA food?) based on the faith that the regular shipments of cargo won't be affected by a spike in oil prices or geopolitical crisis. Maybe its this lingering concern that maybe one day the consumption bubble will burst and those who have skills in producing goods will be in a better position than those who just produce services. Who knows, maybe trying to grow stuff, even on a micro-scale and mostly symbolic way may be the start of a personal struggle with this consumer identity that pretty much become a way of life. I recall reading lots of articles in grad school and around the web talking about the shift from manufacturing and agriculture to strictly service industry, and what are the potential implications of this in the long term economies of the world. While all economies require producers of goods and consumers of those goods, and that as economies become more service-based, they are more driven by consumption of goods produced in other countries. As things stand now the service-industry countries are the richer ones, more or less dictating the market prices while importing the hard goods that their respective companies no longer produce because it costs cheaper to buy it overseas. Eventually we become a nation of service providers who produce nothing really other than our "expertise" which unfortunately can sometimes materialize in bureaucracy, pushing paper skills and a lot of bullshit. Irony, I think this service skill set describes me and pretty much everyone I know in terms of our formal education - although its true my day job is in the production of policy analysis, research, and reports, and eventually I'll be providing legal services or producing legal work products, it would be nice to actually produce or create something down to earth once in a while. Also with this outsourcing there are very serious vulnerabilities to service industry-based economies as a result of this shift, we become more dependent on international political stability, free trade trade agreements, and of course cheap oil to transport the goods that we consume but do not produce. Everything is dependent on cheap energy for communications and transportation, otherwise the service-based industries would eventually starve. One sign of becoming a yuppie is to do more grocery shopping at Whole Foods and be tempted by all of their latest promotions and organic goodies, and actually not be totally fazed out by the higher prices. I think for some produce and meats I definitely do taste a difference. I have begun to appreciate quality over quantity, with some exception of course. I remember talking to a friend about his refusal to buy anything organic on the basis that it is overpriced for the amount of food you actually get. This is someone who loves to shop at Walmart, and refuses to even consider the arguments presented in Fast Food Nation, or Super-Size me as having any merit at all. I do agree that part of being an informed consumer, you have to remind yourself the misconceptions of organic food in general, especially lately how it has become more a marketing tactic. Maybe it always was, maybe not, who knows. In part I suppose we have to trust our own judgment and make our own decisions for what a particular good or service is worth. Again, everything is relative, overhearing a conversation at the the local farmer's market gave another perspective as the person was bashing whole foods as an evil corporation. Linkes for June 11-19 Love Thy Neighbor bombs, with apologies to Stanislaw Lem Colleges revolt against U.S. News Rankings - Law schools to follow? Secrecy in today's world National Bitter Melon Council AKA Goya Cosumerist blog updated frequently Top ten Copyright myths 6 . 1 3 . 0 7 Today marks another 3 years transition for me, this one marking my official transition to a productive member of the full-time work force from a life as a full time student, not so gainfully employed, if you include tutoring and graduate assistantships. Pretty amazing how much things have changed from 3 years ago I was a freshly minted graduate, ready to work, ready to learn, ready to try and make a difference no matter how small or insignificant in the greater scheme of things. Kind of ironic that I end up spending the day not at work, but instead at the Federal District Courthouse for jury duty. Again it was a trial that I probably would've been really interested in sitting in on, but for whatever reason I was not selected. This time I happened to be towards the end of the jury pool and didn't even have to answer any questions by the attorneys before the clerk excused me for the day. The last time was similar situations in the sense that I was actually in the process of learning about the law and was probably one of the only people in the pool who was secretly hoping that he would get picked. The last time I did get selected, but the Judge declared a mistrial after the first 30 minutes of the trial. It was nice to have some time off from work to take a breather from the hectic interview and drafting schedule to reflect, stop and look around. I found some interesting little parks and statues gardens a few blocks away from where I work. It has been so nose to the grindstone that I'm sorry to admit that I've become in part one of those District denizens rushing to and from work, not taking time to enjoy the more insignificant things in life. Since I didn't have class tonight, today was probably one of the first days in a long time I can remember that I actually had an excuse to walk around with no place to go. I used to wonder whether certain twists and turns that life seemed to throw at me were all part of a master plan. Part of me still believes, although by judging the mixed signals, sometimes it seems kind of strange what kind of path I've been drawn down by the universe. Maybe it is just as fitting that I spend my 3 year anniversary of federal service in a federal courthouse, albeit as a prospective juror - afterall it was in another state court house back home that made me seriously think about heading out to the East coast, DC specifically, although if you asked me 6 years ago if I ever thought I'd be living in the district I'd tell you that you're nuts. The three years out have been good to me, very productive, eye-opening. I guess you could say that I'm older, wiser, not as naive in the ways of government systems and institutions. I've secured some benefits, non-competitive standing for certain positions, access credentials, and of course a steady stream of income which I've been able to afford a decent living standard and put away a bunch in IRA accounts and savings accounts. Filing taxes this year I was surprised with the prospect that my paid taxes were starting to sound like what I used to gross in a year. I've applied and denied for a few promotions, won some battles with management, lost others. Gotten a better feel for the agency's internal culture, strengths, weaknesses, insanities, inefficiencies and inequities. Haven't drunk the kool-aid as some of my peers obviously have about a perfect agency that rewards its employees based on performance and no politics or favoritism, but honestly haven't given up just yet. Time will tell. On the extra-agency development, I am now a little bit more than half way to a J.D. from going to night school. Can't say that law school has been everything that I expected, but I can say that I have been learning a lot more than I could've ever imagined, even though I have some work experience in the area nothing really substitutes actually going through the intellectual hazing that aspiring legal scholars have to go through. I understand why so many law school alum decide that they after all do not really want to practice law and find other professions. Settled a few personal demons, while others still linger. Most importantly, I took the plunge and made a real commitment to Hana at the time that felt right, although as with everything else, it was very unconventional and maybe a little wild from an uninformed observer. Circles of influence and interest change gradually but significantly when you've found something worth fighting for and making a life commitment to. When people ask me how life is now I can't say that it's that much different in the day to day, but every so often I do notice. All in all I think the past three years I've spent out here so far have definitely toughened me up a bit, made some sense on what to expect from people in general and in terms of professional and personal integrity, and limits of them. The locality of the district and all that goes on here has been a lesson in human nature all by itself. I've come to realize that there are some very insecure and screwed up people at any age and background. All in all I've still maintained for the most part my own personality and temperment - Meyer's Briggs profile has been a solid ENTP/ENTJ. Time flies when you're busy, thats for sure. 6 . 5 . 0 7 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 |