Reading For Enjoyment

Through high school and undergrad, debate colored my view of the news. Almost every time I read about domestic or international policies and issues, I did so with the question of how information in the article could give me a competitive advantage lingering in the back of my mind.

Learning to read the news simply to be well-informed has been an interesting and fulfilling change. I will admit to processing similar thoughts as before, except in the context of wondering whether the subject would make for an interesting paper topic--but that question is less relevant and less present.

I'm undergoing a similar change in literature. Now that I read case law rather than Victorian literature as homework, I've had to adjust to reading books because I enjoy them rather than enjoying them but also wondering whether I'll have to comment on the political implications of the ending of Jane Eyre.

All in all, I've enjoyed the change. I think I'll always read differently than I did before participating in debate and taking literary theory classes, but I don't find that to be a bad thing.

A Plea to the Greater Seattle Area

Dear Greater Seattle Area:

Please start serving brunch on a regular and delicious basis.

Thank you very much.

Doing the Firm Thing

Last semester, I was fortunate to secure a summer job working at law firm here in the Seattle area. I started work near the end of May, and have enjoyed the experience so far. One of the benefits of working here is that I've been able to do work on interesting, substantive issues. In the past couple weeks, I've already formulated several different ideas for paper topics.

And most of all, while work is engaging and at times difficult, it's a lot less work than actually going to law school. So I've had a lot of time to catch up on all the movies and tv shows I missed in the past couple months.

It's going to be a good summer.

Facebook Is Weird

I never understood why some people choose to air their personal laundry via their Facebook status updates. I don't have a problem with it, but I imagine I would be weirded out if I knew that even mere acquaintances were aware of intimate details of my life. On the other end, it's strange that I know more about personal problems of some people I hardly know than I do about some of my close friends.

Margaret Cho, On Miley Cyrus

http://www.margaretcho.com/blog/2009/02/11/oh-miley.html

I Hate My Chair

Thus far, my biggest regret of law school is that I didn't purchase a chair at the beginning of the year. The desk chairs here are awful, and I think my upper back is taking a beating because of it. Lately I've been attempting to remedy the situation by transferring my workstation to my desk; it's actually been working fairly well. I'm able to sit on my bed with my laptop and textbook, and I've set up my speakers on the floor near the bed for some sweet surround sound.

Procrastination Is An Art

The last two weeks of school have been short weeks. We have functionally had school for three and a half days each of those weeks. But instead of getting ahead in my reading, I've just found myself procrastinating in ways that compensate for the lack of class time.

It's not such a bad thing though, and I've rather enjoyed the trade-off. Instead of classes, I've been hanging out with friends more and been able to go out in the evenings. The lack of classes has been a good excuse to celebrate holidays that we might not otherwise celebrate: for example, we celebrated Robert Burns' birthday over the weekend (with appropriate food, drink, and poetry reading). We also made dumplings and other similar good food last night for Chinese New Year's.

I've also played basketball quite a bit, explored the area, celebrated a couple of friends' birthdays, and even gone to a concert. If I've learned one thing from last semester, it's that we should take advantage of our free time, especially in the beginning of the semester. And so we do.