baltimore canon, cheesecake, tumblr & nokia

Let me first apologize for how poorly written this post will be. I'm a little tired and still have a few hours more to go to finish some assignments, but I felt compelled for whatever reason to blog tonight. So here it goes.

Yesterday, my mom and I went to a low key concert.  My mom tutors a 10-year old and 7-year old kid in Japanese, and both of them are violinists.  Actually, their mom is too.  The 10-year old, Ryu-kun, travels to New York every weekend to receive lessons from someone who teaches Juliard (though Ryu kun still isnt able to get into a special Juliard program for his age group). The short of it is - he is amazing.  I wish I could show you his solo performance ... some of the older professional violinists had their jaws hanging.

The group that their family is a part of is called the "Baltimore Canon," and its a kind of orchestra that plays for the community from time to time. It's composed of some professionals and other amateurs, nearly all of them japanese, but they're all darn good.  They play for free around Baltimore and DC.  We attended a DC one yesterday, but the one clip from below is from Baltimore (they played Rhapsody in Blue at the one yesterday as well):

The low keyness of it was great!  I'm attending some concerts throughout this semester with my mom at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore, but this was even better. Not only was it free, but everybody was very friendly and welcoming.

Today, at work, a young engineer came in to get some advice from our attorneys.  I was assigned to work with them, and at the engineer's request, she took us out to dinner at the cheesecake factory in the inner harbor. That made me realize how close we were to the harbor - just two blocks. I don't know where I am going with this, except to say that I'm enjoying my job even more, especially when people take you out to eat! (See previous post, "I can get used to this."). It also made me think of Irvine, during my SUA days!!

Sooo - tumblr. I checked out a friend's tumblr, and, wow. I didn't know that tumblr integrated so many cool things. I don't know if its flash or simple CSS or what, but these websites just make it fun to read. I particularly like these floating posts, where a series of posts are sort of floating in an organized fashion. Some are bigger than others, but they all have pictures to make it sort of look like a collage. Since I've convinced myself that I no longer make sense, I will stop trying to explain my attraction to tumblr...

I'll end by telling everyone again that my replacement Nokia, which I've had for... maybe a month or two (?) has died once again. It's not even a battery problem, Nokia's just plain suck. I can technically get a new phone with a 100 dollar discount with Verizon, but I'm waiting for the new LTE phones to come... they're freaking hot. You all might know that I'm a phone fiend, and I even check sites like www.phonescoop.com.  The HTC thunderbolt and LG Revolution will probably come out near the end of February, so I'm holding out til then.

floccinaucinihilipilification

floccinaucinihilipilification was used in a Maryland Court of Special Appeals case involving real property evaluation. If you don't believe me, it's here: Baltimore v. Kelso Corp., 46 Md. App. 285 (1980).


As the court notes, "It means the habit of estimating things as worthless or of belittling the achievements of others." I don't want to even try to pronounce it. I wonder if you can make it a verb. Another moment of unnecessary indulgence  by the court.

electric typewriters

I never knew there was such a thing. But alas, I see my supervisors using them all the time at work. Yes, they use typewriters.  I was shocked . . . except that when I remembered how poorly funded the city was, I decided not to ask my boss about it.  But my bewilderment must have shown because she smiled and told me not how useful they still were. Apparently, the attorneys use it when they are handed a physical form to fill out and they need to type out in the information.

So I told her how I used to use a typewriter when I was young, but more for purposes of having fun of course... Anyway, I remember having to manually scroll the wheel on the side in order to move the paper up and pushing the bar back to the left to position the keys; in other words, the combination of those tasks acted as the "enter" key. I also remember having to line up the holes on the sides of the paper with the spikes on the interior side of the wheel of the typewriter.

But then my boss showed me the typewriter she was using. Yes, it was an electric typewriter. I've never heard of such a thing ... They are a lot bulkier and look more commercial than its mobile counterpart. Instead of a wheel and a bar, the electric power has the 4-D keypad like laptops, which allow you to position the keys in the proper location. I started to see how the typewriter slowly but surely evolved into the modern day computer.

Okay, enough about the typewriter. My boss also took me around to some of the other locations I would need to go to for work, such as land records, accounting, etc. Most of these places were located in the circuit court for Baltimore city, which is located immediately west of city hall. I wasn't expecting too much, but I had forgotten that this building was listed as a historic site. It is over 100 years old, and it looks absolutely beautiful. Think DC architecture on the outside and Hogwarts on the inside (including some scary pictures of old people on the walls).

Alright. It's snowing heavily outside, and I've been lucky enough to have some time to catch up somethings I need to get done. Which reminds me that I've been so exhausted these past two days because it takes me an hour and half to get from my door to work (30 min of walking)! That essentially means I get up at 5:30am, which, for many working people, is not so bad.  Except that my body has not yet adjusted, it's cold as hell outside (5-10F), and the additional school work at night is killer. Though I'm sure I'll be alright.

i could get used to this

I may have forgotten to follow up about the three interviews I had for spring semester jobs. Two were with law firms and another was with the city. I got the city one, and I love it.

The rejection I received from the small law firm was the nicest rejection I have gotten. The guy actually called me to tell me that I didn't get the job, but explained to me exactly his reasons for choosing someone else. Even  during the interview I felt like this was someone I could work with. I definitely felt the collegiality of the small law firm culture. Although I would have liked to have worked for them, it may have been a little far. It's in Annapolis, and driving their a few days a week would be hell. A very long and congested one at that.

The bigger law firm, like most other established private firms, did not call back. The interviewer was surprisingly nice, but I felt like he did not want to become too invested in the interview. I mentioned this a couple of posts back, but this firm was not one that practiced in the field that I was interested in, so perhaps it was a good thing that I wasn't going to be stuck doing something that I didn't enjoy. Actually, that's a very good thing.

However, I got the semester job with the City working on land use issues, and I have fallen in love with it. I had said earlier that I felt somehow uncomfortable with the marble flooring and the sparkling nameplates I found at the larger firm above. This place, for the obvious reason that it's the city government, is not on same bandwidth. Instead, city hall is architecturally beautiful, but the interior looks like an apartment building from the early 90s. Not-quite-white walls, warm lighting, unpolished windows, and a lot of brown folders - the ones with the string attached to them. I love it - it feels like we're doing something valuable.

More importantly, the work I'm doing is extremely interesting. The specific practice group I work with is the Land Use Practice Group. They work on eminent domain (takings, condemnation, expropriations, whatever you wanna call it), zoning and planning (variances, special exemptions, conditional uses, etc), and environmental assessment (environmental impact statements, building codes, etc) in the context of urban real estate development. That... is exactly what I want to do! I could get used to this!

the beginning of the end

The 2011 spring semester has started. This is my last semester of law school, hopefully. To be very frank, I'm done with school. As much as I enjoy the idea of setting my own schedule, that freedom has largely been undermined by my need for experience. This semester, as always, I've committed any available time outside of class to extern.

credits:  cheesyflix.com

Once again, I'll have to face the obstacle of constantly transitioning between work and school, which is, for some reason, very difficult for me. When I study, I do it rather awkwardly. For whatever reason, I understand the material better if I binge study and rest, on and off. For example, I will study a particular subject for hours, then rest for long periods of time , as opposed to balancing my time studying throughout the day or week. I guess this allows my brain to soak it in and understand on a subconscious level. Whatever the science says, this is my ideal style of studying. Let me just make clear here that I used to beat myself up for "resting" and I would force myself in front of the desk. But I soon discovered this to be counter-productive, and that, in fact, during my "resting" period I was actually thinking deeply about the material (like a mad man, I wake up in the middle of the night more often than I would like because my brain is, I believe, trying to make sense of everything).

However, working obviously takes time. And since I cannot afford to refrain from studying, I will dedicate my "resting/soaking in" time to work, simply because I need more experience (side note: the pains of attending law school directly out of college - I HIGHLY recommend working beforehand, or obtaining a useful degree if the financial circumstances are ripe). Thus, the problem is clear: I have time to binge study, but no more time understand the material because I have to work.

Study or Work. Must do both! But this day marks the beginning of the end of such a time.

International & Comparative Law Clinic

I'm happy to announce that the University of Maryland School of Law became one of the premiere public interest law schools in the nation.  As many of you know, I had the fortune to be able to pioneer the international and comparative law clinic at my school.  I went to China with my professors and dug deep into some research regarding microfinance development in the country.  We met with underprivileged citizens, government officials, nonprofit leaders, and bank officials.

The clinic is one of the a kind because it actually sends students abroad to do legal work.  Other students went to Namibia and Mexico to work on labor laws.  Truly, this is one of the few instances where students can actually practice "international law" - the nebulous and amoebic field.  You can catch our story on page 3 and 25-30 of Pre-Law magazine, which you can find HERE.  I am planning to send a copy to Sensei.

ラスト・フレンズ

Gooooooooood evening--- Today, I unfortunately began watching a j-dorama (please see my blogger profile for details). The dorama is called "Last Friends." The story revolves around a group of friends who have complicated relationships with each other. A group of four live in a "sharehouse," while one girl lives together with his boyfriend. Just to give you a gist of the muddled relationships, there's one lesbian girl (Ueno), another guy that's has had a traumatic sexual experience (Eita), and another girl that is in constant need of attention (Mizukawa). The one girl who lives with his boyfriend is abused (Nagasawa), but her dependency leads her back to him (Nishikido). These issues get even more complex as time goes by...

credits to japanjdrama.com

For any of you who are stupid enough to watch dramas and waste their time, this cast is pretty sick... Ueno Juri, Nagasawa Masami, Eita, Mizukawa Asami, and Nishikido Ryo. I need to do some work for moot court... But it's winter break!----- Cherish my last few days of freedom...

footnote

I switched to chrome. It's beyond fast, but it's missing a few things. For example, why can't I make my bookmarks "bar" into an icon? The extra line is unnecessary. Also, why isn't there an easy accessible zoom button? Com'mon google, let's keep pace.

I've also been MIA for a few days because I had to finish a brief with my moot court teammates. The content is good, but as always, we gave ourselves a heart-attack by submitting it 4-min before its due. We were also forced to priority-overnight ship the physical bound copies. The school better reimburse. 

Because our schedules didn't match, my team and I collaborated over google docs, which is the absolutely amazing.  I always knew hat you could collaborate real-time, but actually doing it is an entirely different story. With that being said, when we copied our text from google docs to WORD, there were a few things that didn't translate over (if any of you care - if you save the google document as a pdf or doc instead of copying into Adobe Acrobat or Word, it will indeed transfer all data correctly). The most heartbreaking thing was that, in our rush to submit our brief, we didn't realize that my footnote didn't transfer over.

I can't explain to you how disappointed I am about my footnote. I will not be humble. It was an amazing footnote. It was well-research, well-cited, well-written and discussed a controversial issue of individual constitutional rights. I even cited a case in which Nike was involved. I know you all think I'm going crazy, but this footnote was the work of a saint, and it was my baby.  I will never live this up. 

overindulgence

I am waiting for a journal article to print from WestLawNext (a new god-like legal research system. West - you are in the same company as google, my friend), so I'll take a moment to share my two cents on the hotel my team and I are staying at in later february for a moot court competition. The venue is the nation's capital, and I believe the competition is taking place in the DC Superior Court. The hotel we're staying at is the "W Hotel," owned by starwoods hotels - a titan in the hotel industry. It owns Le Meridien, Westin, Shertaon, and many other brands. Here' s a pic:

credit: http://www.lusix.com/

Here's a piece describing the hotel in its 2009 debut:

"[T]he W Hotel in Washington, D.C opened this past Thursday with a giant bash. It was a jam-packed party full of the town's political elite, including Presidential Aide Reggie Love and the President's personal secretary Katie Johnson, as well as celebs like Emmy Rossum who flocked to hear an intimate performance by John Legend. In an event that brought Versailles to Washington, the party was full of Marie Antoinette models sporting powdered wigs and opera glasses while guests sipped on pink cocktails and munched on cotton candy."

I don't know about you, but I am not a political elite. And I certainly cannot afford $350 a night. I'm not sure why law schools insist on fooling themselves into thinking that its students are entitled to great luxury. As I see it, we are ill-trained lawyers-to-be competing in a tournament that is based on fiction. How much more can we lie to ourselves? Apparently, enough to believe that we are in the same company as Obama.

credits: http://www.kimbercymarie.com/

credits: http://www.kiwicollection.com/

Why we need such accommodations I do not know. I am baffled. But since this is being paid for, I say "keep it coming!" Justin had the the idea of shooting a documentary during my multi-day competition. I will follow his guidance.