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.