So, I graduated from law school on Friday. I wasn't sure I really cared about the ceremony, especially since I finished my last exam more than a week before, I had already put a lot of energy towards moving out of town, and wasn't actually getting grades or a diploma. But as I walked up to the stage, my heart started beating faster, and I found that I really was happy to be done.
Tomorrow, I leave Pittsburgh. I thought about waiting until Tuesday, but I really want to get this move over with. I don't like lingering, and the sooner I get back to Chicago the sooner I can keep working on my other projects, like job hunting and that whole bar exam thingee. Plus, it's just time to leave this town. I never really got connected to it, and the prospect of going to someplace where I have a strong attachment is appealing.
And fyi, carrying ten cinder blocks out to the trash kinda sucks.
Juicy Tidbits
Monday, May 18, 2009
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Just call me "Upgrayedd"
I'm gonna get me a new car! Woohoo! A '92 Nissan Acura:
It's my cousin's car, and she is selling it pretty cheap. And it's only got 60K miles on it. Sure, it puts me even more in debt, but by this point, why not add a little more? At least this is parent debt, not bank debt, i.e., no interest.
Also, the 'rents are buying me a new computer as a graduation gift! I will be upgrading all over the place.
It's my cousin's car, and she is selling it pretty cheap. And it's only got 60K miles on it. Sure, it puts me even more in debt, but by this point, why not add a little more? At least this is parent debt, not bank debt, i.e., no interest.
Also, the 'rents are buying me a new computer as a graduation gift! I will be upgrading all over the place.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Cleaning up the tabs.
News I liked for the day:
It's about damn time. Regional high speed rail will be huge.
Oh right, the rule of law IS important!
It probably is important on the international stage, too, but Nicaragua doesn't care. Nope, not really. That's just bizarre.
Not what I usually envision as having a carbon footprint, but it makes sense. I wonder how much of a footprint email in general has.
A little follow-up on reducing executive pay in China's SOEs.
An interesting little piece on the societal effects of refrigeration.
It's about damn time. Regional high speed rail will be huge.
Oh right, the rule of law IS important!
It probably is important on the international stage, too, but Nicaragua doesn't care. Nope, not really. That's just bizarre.
Not what I usually envision as having a carbon footprint, but it makes sense. I wonder how much of a footprint email in general has.
A little follow-up on reducing executive pay in China's SOEs.
An interesting little piece on the societal effects of refrigeration.
Making stuff happen, one step at a time.
It feels good to have the impression of accomplishing something. Even better to get affirmation that at least one of my ideas actually has merit, and people are willing to get behind it. Allow me to explain it in, in part, through the form of internal dialogue:
Me: I came up with the idea to have an intramural international law moot here at Pitt.
Me: Why?
Me: Because the school needs it, mostly.
Me: Yeah, but why do you care? I mean, you leave this school (and the town) for good in a couple months.
Me: Well...um...I kinda got mad at how much better a lot of the moot programs are at other schools, and...um...
Me: That's it?! You are doing this because you got mad that other people were better prepared than you?
Me: Basically. And if Pitt has a good moot program, it will improve in the rankings, and I will have a better chance at getting a job someday. That, and I am so used to having a ton on my to-do list, and, maybe most importantly, I wanted to feel like I was accomplishing something.
Me: Finishing law school isn't accomplishing something? And don't you have finals to do? You know, those tests that you are supposed to spend all your waking life preparing for? And what about job searching?
Me: Yeah, but that's all just the usual crap. And once law school ends I still have to do law. So this is a nice break. Besides, job searching is the ultimate "you-will-fail" task I have these days, so it's good to have something that makes me feel vindicated.
Me: But...but...pah! (exits in a huff)
Me: ...Okay then! Off to make stuff happen!
Fin
And I did! After a month or so of laying the groundwork with professors, finding other students to help out, and coming up with a coherent and plausible proposal idea (adding RB's idea for a summer international law workshop), me and RB made a presentation today and officially received backing from a student organization. So we have the support of professors and students, and it's on to the next hurdle: administration. Will I survive the bureaucracy? Who knows!
Me: I came up with the idea to have an intramural international law moot here at Pitt.
Me: Why?
Me: Because the school needs it, mostly.
Me: Yeah, but why do you care? I mean, you leave this school (and the town) for good in a couple months.
Me: Well...um...I kinda got mad at how much better a lot of the moot programs are at other schools, and...um...
Me: That's it?! You are doing this because you got mad that other people were better prepared than you?
Me: Basically. And if Pitt has a good moot program, it will improve in the rankings, and I will have a better chance at getting a job someday. That, and I am so used to having a ton on my to-do list, and, maybe most importantly, I wanted to feel like I was accomplishing something.
Me: Finishing law school isn't accomplishing something? And don't you have finals to do? You know, those tests that you are supposed to spend all your waking life preparing for? And what about job searching?
Me: Yeah, but that's all just the usual crap. And once law school ends I still have to do law. So this is a nice break. Besides, job searching is the ultimate "you-will-fail" task I have these days, so it's good to have something that makes me feel vindicated.
Me: But...but...pah! (exits in a huff)
Me: ...Okay then! Off to make stuff happen!
Fin
And I did! After a month or so of laying the groundwork with professors, finding other students to help out, and coming up with a coherent and plausible proposal idea (adding RB's idea for a summer international law workshop), me and RB made a presentation today and officially received backing from a student organization. So we have the support of professors and students, and it's on to the next hurdle: administration. Will I survive the bureaucracy? Who knows!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
I do China stuff instead of study.
Outlining freakin sucks. Omg. Five sit-down finals. It feels like 1L year all over again.
So I will distract myself instead! Whee!
So here's what I think is kind of odd about this announcement that Shenzhen is implementing rule of law goals and standards: Shenzhen is not a prime example of rule of law.
First, a little background on Special Economic Zones (SEZs): SEZs are special because they are intended to be economic, and occasionally political, sandboxes. To that end, the government of an SEZ is given certain autonomy in its decisions making. The major legal check on that power is the approval power of the provincial government for every measure implemented by the SEZ, which is the same power the province has over all its immediate subordinate governmental units. This power, however, is subject to a limitation that makes SEZs so special: that approval power only extends to SEZs insofar as the measures affect the entire geographical area of the SEZ.
Shenzhen, and other SEZs, take advantage of this limitation and implement measures that only have effect in perhaps half of its administrative subsections. And believe me when I say that this is incredibly loaded. There are, as I remember, 7 subsections in Shenzhen, and something like 90% of the SEZ government measures only affect 5 of those subsections that border Hong Kong. The number of measures that actually affect the other geographic areas are very general in nature and are much like the everyday laws that are passed elsewhere in China, i.e., not likely to be rejected by the provincial government.
The important result of this imbalance, though, is that those 5 subsections are by far the most developed areas of Shenzhen. Why? Because the rule of law has been implemented, encouraged, and enforced in those areas. The other areas do not enjoy that attention...and I fail to see how it is likely that they will enjoy that. What is the incentive to do so? And including those areas in a rule of law sort of movement might subject Shenzhen's decisions to provincial approval mechanisms, which is likely to undermine the very sandbox environment that could even give rise to a push for the rule of law.
Basically, I can't see how it's much more than political puffery. Which, considering that it is in regard to the rule of law, of course leads to the irony I enjoy so much.
I'm also curious what Google is up to. Investing that much time and effort in China implies a physical product release, or off-shoring of technical expertise, or both. The former is most likely, however; technical internet development expertise tends to go to India.
So I will distract myself instead! Whee!
So here's what I think is kind of odd about this announcement that Shenzhen is implementing rule of law goals and standards: Shenzhen is not a prime example of rule of law.
First, a little background on Special Economic Zones (SEZs): SEZs are special because they are intended to be economic, and occasionally political, sandboxes. To that end, the government of an SEZ is given certain autonomy in its decisions making. The major legal check on that power is the approval power of the provincial government for every measure implemented by the SEZ, which is the same power the province has over all its immediate subordinate governmental units. This power, however, is subject to a limitation that makes SEZs so special: that approval power only extends to SEZs insofar as the measures affect the entire geographical area of the SEZ.
Shenzhen, and other SEZs, take advantage of this limitation and implement measures that only have effect in perhaps half of its administrative subsections. And believe me when I say that this is incredibly loaded. There are, as I remember, 7 subsections in Shenzhen, and something like 90% of the SEZ government measures only affect 5 of those subsections that border Hong Kong. The number of measures that actually affect the other geographic areas are very general in nature and are much like the everyday laws that are passed elsewhere in China, i.e., not likely to be rejected by the provincial government.
The important result of this imbalance, though, is that those 5 subsections are by far the most developed areas of Shenzhen. Why? Because the rule of law has been implemented, encouraged, and enforced in those areas. The other areas do not enjoy that attention...and I fail to see how it is likely that they will enjoy that. What is the incentive to do so? And including those areas in a rule of law sort of movement might subject Shenzhen's decisions to provincial approval mechanisms, which is likely to undermine the very sandbox environment that could even give rise to a push for the rule of law.
Basically, I can't see how it's much more than political puffery. Which, considering that it is in regard to the rule of law, of course leads to the irony I enjoy so much.
I'm also curious what Google is up to. Investing that much time and effort in China implies a physical product release, or off-shoring of technical expertise, or both. The former is most likely, however; technical internet development expertise tends to go to India.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
I'm not buying the explanations.
As a follow up to the last post:
http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/activists-reject-having-it-burger-kings-squarepants-way/
http://tvdecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/activists-reject-having-it-burger-kings-squarepants-way/
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Who thought this was a good idea?!
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE BURGER KING ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT?!?! And I thought that whole culturally-insensitive "never tried a Whopper" campaign was rock-bottom. I mean, this is boodyshaking for freaking kids meals! BURGERFAIL.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Random China links
Just a random rundown of China-related links, mostly because I'm kinda tired of cluttering up Facebook with links:
China is cracking down on human rights again, and again. See what happens when everyone's attention is diverted by looming economic doom? That, and people are hating on civil rights on their own.
If you want access to some old school Chinese culture (not that most people who read this would), check this out.
China, land of the electric car?
The government is going to limit executive pay for SOEs (if you get WSJ, they have more that I can't read), but (not surprisingly) I can't find a whole lot of information on how.
China is cracking down on human rights again, and again. See what happens when everyone's attention is diverted by looming economic doom? That, and people are hating on civil rights on their own.
If you want access to some old school Chinese culture (not that most people who read this would), check this out.
China, land of the electric car?
The government is going to limit executive pay for SOEs (if you get WSJ, they have more that I can't read), but (not surprisingly) I can't find a whole lot of information on how.
Friday, April 10, 2009
A good argument for banning laptops
I love it when people do ridiculous things online during class. For example: the guy two rows in front of me watched Halo 3 videos on Youtube for the entire 3-hour class. Every so often I got a glimpse of the titles. My favorite was the one about how to snipe yourself.
His understanding of bankruptcy law is obviously the hugest now.
His understanding of bankruptcy law is obviously the hugest now.
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