Nichtlustig

On the board: names for our new product
Honey 8
Bee-slobber 1

Man: Clearly, no one values honesty here!

Really Finished!

If you don't know the number it is about a con man tricking a town into buying band instruments by convincing them that the opening of a pool hall will turn all their kids into hoodlums (i.e. quick get your kids into a band and off the streets1). I basically tried to do the same thing , i.e. try and sell my paper by telling everyone the federal agency involved was the devil.

I am proud of my work and feel my transformation into a used car salesman is complete (i.e. first year is done and all my pesky moral qualms are gone too).

So Close and Yet So Far!

As mentioned below I am done with exams, but the academic year for first year law students is not quite over. Yes, first we all get to scramble to write what amounts to about a sixteen page paper in two days. Oh, and it is based on a 58 page packet of cases we get on that day. Did I mention none of this is technically for fun? Yes, based on these papers the editorial board for the law journals will be chosen, an honor we have all been brainwashed into thinking we secretly want since day one.

Now, I always have a bit more trouble sorting through cases with no human parties and just a lot of regulations that seem to have borrowed the devil's Dewey Decimal system to come up with their names. Yes, I do best when parties are human (ok I am holding out for mythical beasts, but none of those yet) and when there is a comprehensible story or at least some human elements involved for better or worse. So image the joyed I was filled with after receiving my question packet from an overly chipper helper and discovered that our question was on banking regulations. Awesome! Nothing like 50 plus pages of banking regulations you have to read and then come up with new and exciting views on them. Now, I may be as pigmentless as the monopoly man one day, but that does not mean federal banking regulation will ever occupy a warm place in my heart.

So just as I though I was out the door the icy hand of the law grabbed my ankle and pulled me back in. Accordingly, the monsoon weather we had on my free day was traded for fun in the sun weather when I had to lock myself inside and attempt to do handstand as an attempt to better understand what I was reading.

Did I mention that the reward for this is getting to argue for a year about other peoples citations? Seriously, I would accept a handful of beans. It would be a better offer. Then I would climb up mine bean stalk to the the land of the giants where all would hopefully live in a land of blessed anarchy and anyone who mentioned the law would be given in intimate role in the provision of bread for the entire giant community. And on that blissful not I shall drift off into sweet, sweet sleep.

Praise Be!

First year of law school is done!

I seriously cannot believe it

Maybe in a few days time I will have some insight

you know,

other than law school,

don't do it.

Oh, I don't dislike Hillary THAT much

Remember when I used to have words on this here blog? Or things about me? Maybe those will return once I finish exams tomorrow and have life again/words to spare.

Um, Yeah

If you ever wanted a ghetto summary of the Die Hard movies in Russian and set to music and then marketed as a hip hop hit...

And yes, this is one of Ukraine's most popular groups

Clearly I am studying civil procedure.

Dragons vs. Robots

In

Vs.



II



(WTF?)

In Other Presidential News...

And Just because...

"Senator Barack Obama has caught the imagination of the British public across the board. He is both known and seen as fresh and exciting. Nearly a half of all voters (48 per cent), and the same proportion of men and women, and of Labour and Tory voters, prefer Senator Obama."

"This meanwhile is a disadvantage for Barack Obama. All those Americans who care deeply what the Brits think will be voting for him anyway and the enthusiasm of foreigners - even British foreigners - will only add to suspicions that he is not the heartland candidate."

We are a bit touchy about that whole Revolutionary War thing. Maybe if they had burned down the White House under a less popular president?

New Guy in Town

Dmitry Medvedev was sworn in as the President of Russia today. The role of religion in the ceremony seems to be much more than prominent than it has been in the past (but I could just be looking for it more intently this time after reading this article). Still they managed to find a group of people who knew the non-Soviet lyrics of the national anthem so that was impressive.

The video above, among other things, shows Medvedev being sworn in (does it say anything that he is not given the book by anyone and it is not being held by anyone? Seems a bit like Napoleon crowning himself). A big part of the oath that they show was up holding human rights. This cartoon parodies that:

Medvedev: the most important values are human rights and freedom
Putin: [thinking] what was that now?

Now for fun, compare and contrast the video with the video below of the (re)inaugeration of the President of Kazakhstan:

I can sing that anthem!

Hilarity

This one is all Edward and is brilliant:



And a Kids in the Hall sketch I cannot rationally explain liking so much:

Under the Sea

Oh man, I really could not believe this. So apparently because subway service in New York is too regular New York is willing to give away older subway cars. This has inspired a number of odder projects. Delaware decided to use its subway cars to make an artificial coral reef:

I guess this is why you really want to make sure you get off when it is the last stop

Studying for Property

Preparing for my property exam involves going back over a lot of very funny situations. Oh sure, we have plenty cases where there are just angry neighbors in a cookie-cutter suburb, but oh there is so much more.

Here's a list of some of the better ones:

1. Angry neighbors...who live next to a racetrack
2. Developers who build a dung heap (sexy right?)
3. It is WWII, in the middle of an air raid in London an expensive broach falls from somewhere in a house, a soldier finds it, but it is not from the house, who keeps it? Apparently that division of German fighters got confused and was dropping priceless heirlooms.
4. Whaling and the Provincetown mafia.
5. Rivers fickley changing and stealing part of states territory.
6. It's my body, I own it, so why won't you let me sell bits of it?
7. I have this lovely home how can the government even think of taking it away? So cruel, and to think I would lose my view of the HUGE sewage plant.
8. I know lets build a huge skyscraper on top of Grand Central, fortunately this is the 70s so a t least it will be pretty.
9. I don't like you, you nouveau rich bastard, having a fox hunt are you? Oh, did I just kill your fox mid hunt? What?

Nichtlustig

TV: penguins mate only once and then stay together for lifetime...

Ha!

I was brushing up on my English slang the other day mainly using wikipedia. I was listening to a lot of slangy British music and though I remembered most of it from my time in Brighton it was fun to get dry dictionary definitions for the stuff.

One of the words was Chav, which in Brighton we usually called townies. Wikipedia had this illustration:

Personally I like this one:

Anyway, a bit of research led me to a certain Welsh rap group and this amazing music video:

Nichtlustig

* I REALLY like this one

Goings On

Not too long ago I applied for a job with Human Rights Watch in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. If I get it I will take it.

I would really love to go for a number of reasons. For one, it has been really tough for me being separated from my passion (the former Soviet Union). Granted it is not as if I haven't done anything related to it: I have been taking Russian classes, reading quite a bit in branching into legal topics, going to Brighton Beach, and unwittingly going to multiple Russian Speaking Uzbek Jewish barbers. None the less, for something at the center of my academic interests and that I want to be at the center of my professional life. What kind of professional life? I have no idea, but I am looking for something to push me and force me to use the skills I have and to push me.

Of course, there is also the fact that I miss being abroad in general, and Central Asia in particular. I have to admit I would be very excited to be using my Russian on a daily basis again and to learn Uzbek. After law school I also have to admit that the idea of working a 9-5 is also extremely appealing. I could start to sing again and learn Uzbek songs! In addition to just generally being a bit more chill (though I think I have done pretty well as law students go). It will also come as a surprise to no one that I also find the history of Russia-dominated Uzbekistan fascinating.

So we'll see. What I am really looking for is a galvanizing experience. Uzbekistan is a country where human rights violations are quite prevalent and the position involves keeping track of the many political prisoners in addition to taking notes and trials. I have to admit that I do not think it would be an easy experience, but I think that is exactly what I need. If I continue with law school I really want to have a focus and to really know what I want to do and to have relevant work experience. Also I mean this would have to like tipple my street cred right? (Shh, no comments about multiples of zero)