Happy New Years...

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only know site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's all about the random things floating in my mind that I find interesting.

It's that time of the year. New Year's Eve. A time where you try to stay awake until midnight to ring in the new year. Another year to make resolutions (most of them will be broken in the first few weeks of January). Another year to live another year in a life. As you ring in the new year--2007--in your own special way, whether with fireworks, a toast of champagne, or the falling of a ball, remember that it's about the spirit of revival and optimism, to live life to the fullest, and to remember that despite the year changing, some things like friends and family do not change. That is what Auld Lang Syne is all about.

AULD LANG SYNE
Words adapated from a traditional song
by Rabbie Burns (1759-96)
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

And surely ye'll be your pint-stowp,
And surely I'll be mine,
And we'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
For auld lang syne!

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pou'd the gowans fine,
But we've wander'd monie a weary fit,
Sin auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl'd in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin auld lang syne.

And there's a hand my trusty fiere,
And gie's a hand o thine,
And we'll tak a right guid-willie waught,
For auld lang syne


A more modern version of this sentiment is expressed by "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent, based upon the opera La Boheme. It's a great song:
SEASONS OF LOVE
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffeeIn inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?
How about love?
How about love?
How about love?
Measure in love
Seasons of love.
Seasons of love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes!
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Journeys to plan.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life
Of a woman or a man?

In truths that she learned,
Or in times that he cried.
In bridges he burned,
Or the way that she died.

It's time now to sing out,
Tho' the story never ends
Let's celebrate
Remember a year in the life of friends
Remember the love!
Remember the love!
Seasons of love!

Oh you got to got to
Remember the love! remember the love,
You Measure in love know that love is a gift from up above
Seasons of love.
Share love, give love spread love
Measure measure you life in love.


May 2007 and all the rest of your years be a great year to you all.
That's all for now.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. I'm going to keep this one short. It's Christmas today.
And so, some song lyrics wishing you all in the Internet a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Hannukah, Kwanza, Festivus, or whatever winter holiday you are celebrating right now.
Remember, this season isn't about getting gifts like an XBox 360 or bright lights, but about love and caring and spending time with friends and family. So spend some time witht he ones you love.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like eskimos
Everybody knows some turkey and some mistletoe
Help to make the season bright
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight
They know that Santa's on his way
He's loaded lots of toys
And goodies on his sleigh
And every mother's child is gonna spy
To see if reindeer really know how to fly
And so, I'm offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two
Although its been said
Many times, many ways
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to.. You!


That's all for now.

Not Extinct like a Dodo, but Elusive like an Ivory-Billed

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet (that I know of right now) devoted to all things related to Un. You know the drill. It's all about the random things on my mind that I find interesting at that moment. And my mind is very random at any given moment.

I was flipping through the channels and I happened to stop on CBS. The Survivor finale. Woohoo. It was kind of interesting, unlike the Chiefs game. That went horribly. The Chiefs did not get punched in the jaw, as one commentator said, but they got smashed by a steamroller. Offense flatter than the plains of Kansas. The defense was shot up more than a heroin addict's arm. All in all, an embarassing game by a less-than mediocre team. I'm thinking 8-8. No 9-7 season for the Chiefs. I would be thinking 7-9, but they're going against the Raiders, so that should be a win. Anyways...the winner, a Korean named Yul, said something about how winning would break the stereotypes about Asians. The runner up, a Mexican named Ozzie, said a win would do the same thing for Mexicans.

The Asian (who happened to be a lawyer by the way) won through using his smarts by deceiving, manipulating, and using guile to win people over. The runner up, a Mexican, applied himself in doing tasks. He got food, started fires, won immunity challenges involving physical activity. He was, for the most part, honest. To sum up again, the Asian won.
The scheming, deceiving, smart Asian lawyer won. The loser was a hard-working Mexican who could run, swim, climb, and jump. Doesn't that break the mold we have of certain races?

I went to a party last week on Saturday. It was a holiday themed affair. I did not wear a holiday sweater with anything related to Christmas. I don't wear sweaters, especially those that have snowmen, Christmas trees, or any other holiday-related motif. Many did, however. I'm not one to wear clothing of such dubious taste, no matter the occasion.

As you may have guessed, I am not much of a social-events type person. My lack of a social calendar is quite obvious. It must be due to several reasons. One of which is a severe case of social introversion, unless some form of social extroversion is absolutely necessary. Or I find some event where I do not look out of place. Like an academic contest like Hi-Q or Scholars Bowl or a math contest...

I do show up for the infrequent event. Just enough to show that my social life, though limited, is not absolutely extinct like the dodo. See picture below this paragraph. I think my social life is like one of those SAT analogies where you pick the best one. It's sad when you can compare your social life to extinct or supposedly extinct creatures that have been exterminated from the face of the planet. Thankfully, I make enough rare showings that I am not like the passenger pigeon or the dodo:

I think of my social life (in keeping with the bird theme), the elusive ivory billed woodpecker. Thought to be extinct for many years, it suddenly and mysteriously shows up in the wild. Even with some kind of proof, the presense is actually debated. The existence is under debate. When seen, people utter words of complete awe and shock. One famous viewer of the bird, Theodore Roosevelt, said "Good God," hence the nickname of the "good God" bird. Which is the kind of reaction that happens when I show up for a social event. People think they have seen a ghost and express surprise. And then some people take pictures to mark this occasion as a rare sighting.

I now consider myself to be an endangered species in the party realm. Somewhere, someone is posting a cash reward for pictures of me. Kind of like UFO or Bigfoot sightings. This only would happen in my mind of course or in an absolutely bizarre parallel universe. It seems like everyone knows who I am without really have seeing me. Strange. My life is, for some reason, stranger than any fictional story. Which makes me, at times, question reality. There are pictures of me with actual people (unmarred by Photoshop). Not just any ordinary people, but women. That in itself is worth several million (in a worthless currency). I am not in possession of any, but I'm sure I can wrangle a digital copy. Some time in the not so near future.

It was an amusing event. Attending a function thrown by law school students is a refreshing change of pace. A law school student party is akin to walking into an alternate universe. At least for me. It's like visiting a whole other country. Ah, the sensory overload one gets. All the little details one notices. Some of the more amusing things I saw and experienced:

1. Having my picture taken with a group of attractive women. OK, this was more in the line of "Damn, aren't I a lucky guy" but amusing is a perfectly fine way of describing this experience. I had made the comment of "attending this party is like sighting an endangered species. Someone should take a picture of this." I had meant this in jest, but I guess that the person took this literally and took a picture of me and several girls. All of whom, I might add, are attractive. I, indeed, for a while, was a happy guy.

2. Never trust a law school student to add liquor to eggnog, unless they have a recipe. Adding half a bottle of whiskey to eggnog is not a good thing. Unless you want to get drunk off the fumes. Or lose your liver after taking a sip. I don't drink alcohol, but I could tell that this was going to be an accident waiting to happen. And it was, put mildly.

3. Holiday music is not holiday music without happy holiday music. Sure, Christmas carols are nice, but at least stick in upbeat stuff. A little of Mariah Carrey's "All I Want for Christmas" is a good thing. That and a little Motown/R&B will do wonders to the mood.

4. Did I mention the eggnog? It was potent. So potent, nobody could drink it. This is amazing as this is a large group of law school students who embrace alcohol as a food group. Well, two people thought it was fine, but I'm not sure about the veracity of such statements.

5. White trash holiday fashion does exist. No pictures, however. I know some of you wanted to see this. When you combine a holiday sweater, a skirt, silver heels, and red hose together, it can happen. This is coming from the girl who wore this combo and wore it quite proudly, I might say. It does bring new meaning to "Ho, ho, ho. Merry Christmas!" Hey, if you're going to do this kind of holiday wear, you might as well embrace it with aplomb. And she did.

6. I exist. And I have a life out of law school. That wasn't interesting or entertaining, but seeing people do double takes when they saw me was fun. People are always surprised at seeing me outside of law school for some reason.

I hope they disposed of the eggnog in a safe fashion. God forbid something bad happens. That's all for now. It is now time to hibernate and make a rare showing at a law school function next year.

Contracts...Mordor Style

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. It's time for an update.

Law school finals for this semester are over. Done. I will not think about law school until January 2007 when the final semester of my final year begins. Or, if the current trend continues, maybe until May 2007.

This is, quite possibly, one of the more interesting posts I have seen on a blog in a long time. Only because it combines the Lord of the Rings with contracts law. What is even crazier is that the people commenting add in their little bits to the legal analysis. This might be proof that people start out sane and law school erodes this sanity until it becomes insanity. Or it might be proof that people who go to law school are inherently mentally unstable but don't know about it until later. I digress.
I probably would have come up with something crazy like this if I wanted to, but I don't think I could sum up enough craziness to come up with something coherent like that post. I think I don't make sense to myself sometimes. Well, I'm done for this post.

That's all for now.

Back to Zero...And A Rant

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. If, by the way, you don't know by now, all the little things that I find interesting. So it's all about me. Deal with it.
Law school finals are almost over. Dealt with three of them and I should be feeling better right now, but I am not. I should be feeling much better. All of the forced regurgitation of case law and statutes, all of the poorly-written and vague questions, all of the time limits, nearly done. A month away from all of that stuff...I should be happier by now. But I am not.
It seems like I am playing a zero-sum game or even worse, one where I am losing something in exchange for a month of freedom from law school. The Rolling Stones with their song "Back to Zero" describes how I am feeling:

Back to zero, that's where we're going
Back to nothing, that's where we're heading
Straight to meltdown, that's where we're going
Back to zero, right now, right now
We're going nowhere
Right now, right now
Back to zero, that's where we're heading
Back to zero

This sucks. I'm beginning to think I am a trained dolphin at Sea World, but mentally unstable in some manner. I've been trained to jump through all of these hoops. Each time, the task gets a little more difficult. A little higher than the last. Maybe a little smaller. Maybe on fire. Maybe a little bit of both. All of these minor variations that make the task harder. Sure, it is a change, but it's the same damn task. The same damn hoops to jump through in some kind of graceful manner.
I've always had this feeling, but now, it's just become stronger and stronger. It's now the truth. The unadulterated truth. Not because I am bitter or angry, but because it's what is what. All of this hoop jumping is just a big, steaming load of freaking bullshit. None of this really matters in real life. All of those law school exams and the grades indicate nothing. Even the professors say that grades don't matter. Means nothing. But it is nice to have an A than a B, a B than a C, a C than a D, a D than an F. In law school, grades below a C are pretty much nonexistant. The C could be a D or an F, but thanks to the mandatory curve, it's a C! That A might really be a B, but you have to have some A's to get the curve right.
Professional tests? Just another way to make the profession seem good. Highest grade on the Bar? Doesn't mean a thing. Professional ethics? Laughable. You don't need a test to know what is right or wrong. Just a way to make lawyers seem less crooked. I prefer my personal ethics than what a damn test says what is OK behavior. Legal ethics, by the way, is an oxymoron. And what is "ethical" as a lawyer is pretty pitiful. It makes you wonder what really matters: doing your best for the client or doing your best for your bank account. As a cynical person, I'm guessing the bank account. Yes, there are honest lawyers who actually give a damn about such things, and not in the legal ethics viewpoint, but I wonder about them also. I wonder about myself as well and what path I will take sometimes.

God, I am a mess up there sometimes. Maybe more than sometimes. I question my sanity. Which might make me the sanest person around. Or I am severly delusional. Either possibility is scary. I think this world is messed up and has its priority backwards. Maybe I am naive in thinking this world can be better and more sane and thinking it should operate the way I think it should. I'm getting angry over things I can't change. Things that are minor, but get me pissed off and on a rant.
Society and the media considers a marriage between Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes breaking news, but a car bomb killing Iraqis and American soldiers not that important. The news reporters might say things in jest, but it is indicitive of what Americans are serious about. Trivial fluff. "I know you all want to know about the marriage, but we have to get to serious stuff." If the serious stuff is serious, then talk about that first instead of some marriage that is planned and most likely, fail in a year. We have a vast source of information--newspapers, TV, Internet--and we're quite possibly, the most ignorant about what is going on in our backyard and the world. More people would know details about a celebrity breakup or a football game than what is happening in Iraq or any part of the world.
That's the scary part. Apathetic people who can't think for themselves, who accept whatever is fed to them, deciding what should happen. People who don't think and analyze. Who accept the simplest explanation of "this is wrong" and takes it in at face value. People who don't care running the place now and people who don't care taking their place.
A quote from the movie Network that describes the state of this world:

You people and sixty-two million other Ameicans are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books. Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers. This tube is the most awesome, god-damned force in the whole godless world. And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome, god-damned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what s--t will be peddled for truth on this network. So, you listen to me! Listen to me! Television is not the truth. Television is a god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, story tellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business. So if you want the truth, go to your God, go to your gurus, go to yourselves because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth. But man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you want to hear. We lie like hell! We'll tell you that Kojack always gets the killer, and nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker's house. And no
matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry. Just look at your watch - at the end of the hour, he's gonna win. We'll tell you any s--t you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true! But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds - we're all you know.
You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness. You maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing. We are the illusion. So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you now. Turn them off!

Sorry. Went on a rant. I'm getting angry, venting over something I can't change. Stupid of me to do that. But it still remains. We're all on a trip going back to zero. And we're all responsible for it.

That's all for now.

Under Pressure...Think I'm Going Crazy

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only known site on the Internet devoted to all things related to Un. If you haven't guessed by now, this means stuff that I find interesting that is going on in my so called life.
It's that time of the year when the average law school student is abuzz and being active. No, I am not talking about the law school weekend. I'm not talking about the holidays. No, I am talking about the season of madness. The brief two-week period that comes twice a year when law school students are actually reading the textbooks and statute books. It is the Law School Finals period.
I've just begun my journey down the pathway to perdition today. Nothing like a lovely closed-book final over International Trade Law (ITL), specifically over GATT. The textbook is thick, densely packed with a mind-bursting amount of information, and at times, becomes incomprehensible due to the overload of three letter acronyms. There is a certain amount of information you can pack into a sentence before the mind starts to overheat and burst into flames. This treatise on GATT and any federal statute will do this to you. Which reminds me, I have a Federal Income Taxation final on Monday. The only consolation I can give myself (and to put this into proper perspective), is that it can't be as bad as the Federal Income Taxation final. Which will involve slogging though the Internal Revenue Code. If you've taken a glance at the statute, you will know what I am talking about. Believe me, the 1040 forms aren't that bad. The freaking Internal Revenue Code it is based upon is worse, much worse. This isn't much of a consolation. Not at all. Forget it.
Anyways, the ITL final, as I said earlier, was a real doozy. The first problem was not that hard. It was straight forward, though very open ended. You could have written an entire book about one of the questions (multiple parts to every problem) in the first problem. Interestingly enough (note the sarcasm coming), people have written books about the advantages and disadvantages of free trade agreements with the Middle East. And I am supposed to give a precise, concise, well-written answer to this question and I have an hour? And this means using proper grammar, or as the professor would like to put it, "Queen's English?" He did, after all, get a British education while in the London School of Economics and I also believe, Oxford University. Which is true.
The second problem just got worse. It was a lovely Article III question involving like products. Are "men's dress shirts" like products with white unisex shirts made of a cotton/polyester blend? You have to go through Article III of GATT, the Japan Alcoholic Beverages test on like products, the rules on product descriptions with the Harmonized Trade Schedule, and a slew of other things. Once you do that, and the HTS doesn't work, you need to go on a different route of analysis involving comparing the subject merchandise and relatively similar items and see if that works. This is, supposed to take an hour, but of course, there is a second part to this problem involving the deep question of what makes a leather belt a leather belt. And of course, that involves another test that depends on some factors that depends on...you get the point. By this time my brain is burning out or just about past well done and going into charred.
The third problem was...well...not fun. Not freaking fun at all. There were very little facts to base an actual detailed calculation and some things just could not be quantified into hard numbers that neatly fit into the Dumping Margin calculation. How much is something like lost profits worth? Or the fluctuation of the Indonesian rupiah compared to a dollar during the year of 2002? Oh, you could add in some stuff about zeroing and the meaning of "relevant" information to the mix and well, that adds to the sheer impossibilty of giving a concise yet detailed answer in an hour.

Queen and David Bowie sum up the experience nicely (sorry for all those Queen fans who know I am taking this song way out of context) with the following excerpts from the song "Under Pressure"

It's the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming 'Let me out'
.....
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure

Or the following from "Think I'm Going Mad" by The Rolling Stones:

This season that'll pass
Think will be my last
I know my mind's afloat
Sometimes I feel so young and sometimes I feel so old
Yeah you want to see, you want to see all the things
And I'm thinking, they say that your crazy
They say that your insane
I think....and I think I'm going crazy
And I think I'm going mad
You ought to see my shaking hands
I think I've been drinking lots of cups of coffee
I think I've lost my head
I think I should be sacrificed
I think I should be put to rest
Save yourself
And I think I'm going mad
Think I'm going now
Think I'm going crazy

The fun continues on Saturday. Public International Law. Let the good times roll...
It will all be over soon. So soon.
That's all for now.

Me and Fourth Place...

Greetings and welcome back to The Un-Zone, the only site on the Internet (that I know of) devoted to all things related to Un. If you don't know it by now, it means stuff that I find interesting. If this is not your cup of tea, or you were hoping for something else, then please hit the "back" icon on your web browser. Or you can press Alt + left arrow (press both at the same time) if you don't want to use your mouse.

I competed in an Open Mic Competition yesterday. It wen't pretty well. Considering that I got fourth place in the Standup Competition (a long story that does not need to bear repeating), I really should not have made it to this competition. But, since the third place winner could not make it due to a conflict, I got to take his place in this little bit.
To make a long story short, I do my comedy routine. Considering how not-so-well other times have gone (like forgetting punchlines and jokes), I do quite well. But then again, the guy who plays the piano and sings songs about stalkers and bad dates is coming up next and he will kill the crowd in a good way. Compared against him, my performance would be a bad night. The best joke of the night is this one involving world peace and M&M candy:

This world is messed up. I think the world should be like a bag of M&M’s. They represent the world, as it should be. Different colors on the outside, same center in the inside. They exist together, making a delicious mix. Brown ones: African-Americans and Hispanics. Red ones: Native Americans. Yellow ones: Asians. And the white...there aren’t any white M&M’s. No
wonder why things work so well. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Could you imagine the situation if there were white M&M’s? The same crap that has happened before. They would enslave the brown M&M’s. Then they would steal space from the red ones. Finally, they would blame the yellow ones for taking away all of the jobs.

It's nice to make jokes that poke fun of serious issues with a politically incorrect and irreverent sense of humor. One of the poetry slam people talked about race, but in a more emotional and more eloquently stated manner. I just do the jokes.
During the intermission while the judges are tallying the scores, the judges allow audience members/participants to hit the mikes again. So I decide to entertain the crowd with some impressions. This went over very well. It seems like that people do not expect an Asian to do Sammy Davis Junior in an eerily similar manner. I probably should have tossed in the Woody Allen bit about adoption, but that might have been a little too much. I should try that next time. Maybe. I think. I guess.
To make a potentially long story short, I get fourth place. One place away from getting a gift certificate that can be used to buy things in Downtown Lawrence. Fourth place. So close, and yet so far. Which, oddly enough, whenever I do these competitions, is the ranking I get every time. There must be a strangely perverse reason for this. Not that I am complaining or anything, but why fourth? It may be due to a certain lack of smoothness in delivery, but why fourth?
Oh well. This is the way things are in the world. I can't complain about this. All that matters is that I did a good job and can be proud in what kind of work I have done.
Then again, if I did get something higher than fourth place, like third, second, or even first, I might consider that a larger fluke. And I might wonder what sick sense of humor God has in these things. The philosophy I shall leave for others to worry about.
I guess that I shall have to work on the jokes and the delivery. There's the spring semester contest and I need to do better. Get funnier jokes. Work on delivery. Maybe I can get third place. Or I could just get another fourth place. This might be a repeating cycle.

That's all for now.