The Light Room

time flies...when you're on winter break

2006-01-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

All three weeks of winter break have vanished out from under me - and I find myself back in the lecture hall for my final semester of this law school business. I'm having the usual mixed reactions to being back - and while I don't think my senioritis has kicked in in full force yet, I'm wary of what's going to happen to my already minimal motivation when the spring sun finally comes out. Work at the state has been good but busy...busy enough in fact that I've spent a good part of my three day weekend working on compliance reports, but I'm getting close to the end of a major project, and there's certainly some satisfaction to be found in that.

Winter break was really a good time all in all - probably the most free time I'll have in a single block until after the bar. I enjoyed some much needed quality time with the family down in Pasadena and then returned north to spend new years/and the remainder of the days off with Chante. While out in Windsor, we got to experience the major flooding in Sonoma - the most water northern CA has seen in the last ten years. Thankfully, Chante's folks' property didn't sustain any damage - quite to the contrary, their vineyard view was changed to lakefront over night. This truly remarkable transformation afforded me a rare opportunity to grab some breathtaking shots with my new Panasonic Lumix DX9. Hope you like em!

chante and champagne

2005-11-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

a time for change

2005-11-14T16:24:00.000-08:00

update: new template + modified settings to allow non-members to comment.

step2 will be an attempt at original banner creation. time to see how rusty my photoshop skills really are...

new books!

2005-11-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

...back to back releases from Robert Jordan and George R.R. Martin - oh yeah! I'm preparing myself for 2000 pages of raw self-indulgence.

venting

2005-11-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

At 15 years old, I was pretty good with computers. I worked as the assistant to a net admin for a multi-branch lumber company. It was good stuff, lots of problem solving - and I already had my own office.

Now a little over a month away from 25 years of age, I'm nearing the mid-point of my final year of law school. I've learned quite a bit, matured at least a little, and lost more than one hair along the way... As a law clerk for a state agency, I see a few interesting issues and a whole lot of mundane regulations cross my desk. I have felt generally appreciated. However, today I was informed that due to space limitations, I would henceforth be SHARING MY GODDAMN CUBICLE...

Now I feel like that strange little guy in the movie Office Space, when they took away his Swingline Stapler...

--------
update!
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a subtle indication of my concern, heard by the right ear, has solved the problem - and my dignity restored.

drm or digital intrusion?

2005-11-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

Today on slashdot:

Sony's most recent attempt at digital rights management, on it's line of "copy protected" CD's, has been revealed to contain "rootkits" which automatically install registry level security flaws on Windows computers.

It is, in fact, time to be afraid. Rootkit hacks, formerly only associated with serious "malware," are far beyond the reach of the best spyware tools and virus checkers. Installation takes place without notice or consent, and the mere discovery (much less removal) of these cloaked files poses serious difficulties for even skilled IT professionals.

I am frankly shocked that Sony would stoop to this level of illegal and intrusive conduct, and I seriously hope that consumers will repay this violation of trust with a boycott that brings the consumer electronics giant to its knees.

Link to Slashdot Story - (click link "rootkit from Sony Music" for full discussion)

what a monster

2005-10-31T16:07:00.000-08:00

This slate.msn comment on the Alito nomination was just too priceless to pass up:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And Thrasymachus sheds some light, albeit ironically, on Alito's judicial stance on abortion:

The poor man is being cruelly maligned and slandered by his unscrupulous feminist opponents.

Why, just last week Alito issued a decision in which he denied asylum to a Chinese woman who fled China because she had undergone a forced abortion and been ordered to report to a medical clinic for mandatory sterilization. Chen v. Gonzales, Slip Copy 2005 WL 2652051 (3rd Cir., October 18, 2005).

So take that, liberals! He's not anti-abortion at all! He's just against women having the right to choose abortion for themselves.
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What a monster! They should give this guy horns, a goatee, and red face paint to go with his robes. Scales of justice soon to be replaced with fiery trident...

A little beauty goes a long way

2005-10-31T15:44:00.000-08:00

If your values are at all akin to mine, the nomination of *Scalito* as a replacement for Justice O'Conner probably has you feeling more than a little depressed or outraged (depending on the moment and your personality type).

I would invite you all to set these troubling ramifications aside, if only for a moment, and find a little joy in this exquisite gallery of "floral abstracts" by Adam Clutterbuck. I stumbled on it today, and it is simply breathtaking.

Goodness and beauty are not dead afterall. Gallery Link

arg...

2005-10-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

While attempting to enjoy a rare weekend trip home to Pasadena, I met with some minor misfortune.

I was driving my mom's car down Walnut in the right hand lane, just past Allen, when I was suddenly startled by a loud noise from my immediate right. I looked back over my shoulder to see fragments of my passenger mirror flying through the air, and further back, the door of a parked SUV extended open into my lane.

That's right - some asshat had decided to open his door right into my moving vehicle, on a very busy street, without so much as looking to see if any traffic was coming. Arg....

Even more frustrating, the guy immediately started a confrontation with me, refusing to admit any fault, and instead alleging that I must have been speeding (which I certainly wasn't - given that I had just been at a red light 40ft. back from where his car was parked.)

As the damage clearly shows - starting on my passenger side tire/broken mirror - the front of my car was already past him when he opened the door into me without looking. My sincere thanks to my father and Patrick (my forensic photographer /grin) for rushing down the hill to lend their support and document the scene. I'd probably still be standing there in a shouting match with that bastard if I didn't have you guys to rely on.

Sorry about the car mom =/

Bush's Divine Inspiration...

2005-10-06T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today, the BBC reported on Bush's most recent conference with Palestinian ministers - in which our *esteemed president* claimed to have had direct communication with the almighty...

"President Bush said to all of us: 'I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, "George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan." And I did, and then God would tell me, "George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …" And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, "Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East." And by God I'm gonna do it.'"

Did your god also tell you to desecrate the environment, to hate gays, to lie to the general public, and to provide tax breaks for the richest 1% at the expense of the poor?

How dare you claim any association to my religion, much less divine inspiration, when your actions and beliefs couldn't be further from the concepts of love, kindness, and forgiveness central to Christianity. Your warmongering god bears no relation to my God.

news worth reading?

2005-10-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

With 9/11 now years behind us, I've discovered I can finally read the headlines again without being exposed to a fear-generating torrent of "war on terror" horseshit. Terror alert up! Terror alert down! Terror alert up again! ... It's been like a bad game of emotional red light, green light. Thankfully, the game appears to be fizzling...at least until the next *threatening* photography student is arrested and held without access to counsel for taking pictures of a bridge. Talk about terrorism...

But I digress, real news is not dead! Today Huffingtonreport.com has restored my faith in popular media with a story too hot (and hilarious) to ignore: Kate Moss, international super model/stickfigure has become the new slang for cocaine after being caught on camera with a straw up her nose. Now that is some funny shit!

Link to Blurb

more minutia, less philosophy

2005-09-21T11:33:00.000-07:00

Due to my great lack of momentum in maintaining this blog, I've decided to embrace a new approach.

I will still be posting my photos periodically, assuming I ever find the time to post-process, but I'm going to scale back the legal diatribes, the political pontification, and the philosobabble. Instead, I will attempt to do something novel - present some actual description of what's been going on in my life. First entry of this sort soon to come.

Reflection

2005-07-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

While in Tahoe, my father and I took a truly enjoyable bike ride along a wooded path near the lake side. We rode the peaceful path to its end point and then decided to stop off at this state park on our way back to town. The small pool, inland of the lake, made for some nice reflections.

Emerald Bay

2005-07-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

At long last, I've post-processed the first of many Tahoe photos from my trip in mid-June. If you haven't ever been to Emerald Bay (depicted below) you're missing out.

Pool Side

2005-07-26T00:55:00.000-07:00

For almost 2 weeks now, Davis has been roasting me at around 107 degrees, and I've taken to searching for solace in the soothing waters of the apartment swimming pool. Of course, these waters would be far more soothing if they were cleaned on a more regular basis. But regardless, hiding from the heat, even for just a few seconds, in cool submerged isolation, lying on the bottom of the pool looking up at the light, gives me a wonderful sense of peace. It makes me feel like I'm on vacation, if only just for a moment.

Haiku for Justice O'Conner

2005-07-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

A lost moderate
Leaves our cherished rights exposed
Goddamn O'Conner

Grokster reversed and remanded

2005-06-27T21:57:00.000-07:00

So maybe the optimism in my last two posts was slightly misplaced. Here's to eating my own words...

Today, the Supreme Court, in its *infinite wisdom*, handed down its decision reversing the 9th Circuit's dismissal of claims for contributory and vicarious infringement in MGM v. Grokster (and Streamcast - aka Morpheus).

Distinguishing the case from Universal v. Sony where the court recognized "the substantial non-infringing uses" of VCR's as a defense to liability, today's court held that, “where evidence goes beyond a product’s characteristics or the knowledge that it may be put to infringing uses, and shows statements or actions directed to promoting infringement, Sony’s staple-article rule will not preclude liability.”

This evidence centered on an advertisement and marketing scheme whereby both Grokster and Streamcast sought to capture Napster's former audience - by promising access to more copyrighted work than even through a new sort of decentralized/unmonitored network which would not be vunlnerable to liability under the Napster decision.

Grokster has been remanded to the lower court for a final decision, but the legs of the defense have been kicked right out. The court has stated that, "one who distributes a device with the object of promoting its use to infringe copyright, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster infringement, is liable for the resulting acts of infringement by third parties.” The court concludes by ordering consideration of summary judgement for MGM. In my novice eyes, the situation does not look good for Grokster and Streamcast.

On the bright side, I suppose it's only a matter of time before some new corporation puts this standard to the test by promoting its filesharing software *as intended solely for the sharing of non-infringing files*, taking every step to warn against infringement, and no steps to actually prevent it - because monitoring would just be too expensive right? Grokster and Streamcast piggy-backed on Napster just like that and got away with it for a couple of good years before this decision, making tons of money through advertising revenue targeted at a user base of 100 million.

The question is not if, but when someone will take the small steps necessary to escape the reach of this decision and fill the market gap left by the collapse of Grokster and Morpheus. They just can't document the plan to be the next big thing like Grokster did. (locating the company in international waters or in a 3rd world nation which doesn't follow TRIPS might also be good thinking.)

Limewire seems to be hot stuff these days - I imagine we'll soon see if they've been careful enough to withstand the fallout of this decision.

Link to the Grokster Decision.

A cost benefit analysis on downloading

2005-06-17T15:03:00.000-07:00

Since 2003 when active downloaders were estimated at aproximately 18,000,000 people, the RMIA has managed to sue fewer than 12,000 people for copyright infringement.

Despite the legal hype, the downloading subculture has grown in the last two years, to an estimated 23,000,000 participants in 2005.

What are the current odds of being sued? P2P.net concludes that "when you get right down to it, individual file sharers stand about as much chance of being sued by the RIAA as they do of being struck by lightning, which ironically is a simile the RIAA has used to describe the effects of its onslaughts." (link to full story)

With the average settlement amount for the unlucky 12,000 totaling to only $3,200/head - the economics simply do not favor the RMIA, especially given that your high end copyright attorneys typically charge industry plaintiffs something on the order of $500/hr for their services. Not only is the industry losing money from downloading, it is losing money on its failing enforcement efforts. The settlements do not come close to matching the legal fees, and the few major judgements go unpaid by insolvent defendants.

Unless these suits eventually strike fear into the hearts of the general public, or become more palatable in an economic sense, they serve little purpose at all. With the number of downloaders still growing, it would seem that this generation will witness the triumph of civil diobediance through filesharing. Free copies for one and all.

Reflections on Intellectual Property

2005-06-09T01:22:00.000-07:00

Imagine for a moment the creation and mass distribution of a device that could perfectly replicate food, even the most elaborate meals, at no cost at all. You could insert any dish and rapidly produce perfect copies. It would be miraculous, wouldn't it? It would be the end of hunger across the globe. It would allow millions of people, people of every socio-economic station, to experience the joy of eating fine and varied food. What would we not give for such technology!

Now imagine the creation of a device that perfectly and rapidly replicates music, making it accessible to people everywhere at no cost. File sharing is miraculous isn't it... Yet this amazing technology is outlawed and our potentially free exchange of culture and music is branded copyright infringement. It makes me sad to see the monetary interests of the few, predominantly the middlemen in the recording industry, come before all the potential joy and cultural growth which might stem from free copying of digital media.

(further thoughts after review of my original 2am posting...)

Certainly we should find some way to compensate the artists for their work, but the current state of the law egrigiously overshoots the necessary scope of economic incentives to encourage creative efforts.

Long ago, the US rejected copyright protection in perpetuity, an enduring absolute right of control for the author stemming from natural rights philosophy and the position of several European nations. But the current 75 year monopoly is still clearly too long - especially when the underlying motivation for the the most recent extension of copyright protection was a Disney lobbying effort because Micky Mouse was about to fall into the public domain.

When the copyright clause was added to the constitution, it was casually referred to as "an act for the encouragement of learning." Today, however, the overly broad scope of intellectual property rights are interfering with learning, thus slowing both the rate of technological expansion and creative expression by providing unecessarily strong monopoly rights. Intellectual property today is defeating its own initial purpose.

These protections were premised on encouraging learning, but by forbidding derivative works, and ignoring the fact that human knowledge and culture must build upon their own shoulders in order to progress, we hinder learning instead.

Long before Justice Breyer became your and my "honor," he composed one of the first scholarly criticisms of broad copyright protection based on economic incentives. He pointed out that laborers in almost every other industry are allowed no expectation of enduring rights to control the products of their labor. A wage is sufficient economic incentive for the corporate inventor to invent. And a one time fee was historically sufficient to inspire and author to write and subsequently sell his or her work to the publisher (who was the original benefactor of IP protection.) It is time for us to realize that IP rights mark the delicate boudary between public benefit and private reward.

For far too long, this private reward has been far too great - and it has been at the expense of public access to art, literature, and music. Through the civil disobediance made so very easy by the internet, our culture must challenge this archaic system and assert the strength of our semiotic democracy. The time for *mostly* free information and reform is long overdue.

Back in Action

2005-06-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

Vegas was amazing - a marathon of good times with great people and a truly beautiful wedding as the finale.

The strip itself has come a long way from the gaudy, ugly, flashing lights I remembered from my adolescence. Highclass hotels, 5 star dining, and giant LCD's have replaced the Vegas of yesteryear. And while I tend to doubt that I would ever opt to get married in sin city, if I did, I would want it to be just like this wedding.

It was truly an elegant affair, and the feeling of love and joy in the room was tangible. Just seeing the confident and adoring look on the face of the groom as he watched his bride walk the aisle had me teary-eyed before the ceremony even began. This was no Elvis wedding. The Venetian is pure class, and that's to say nothing of the perfect piece of seared Ahi Tuna I consumed at the reception.

I had not realized how much it would mean to me to witness the union of my friend, neighbor, and mentor, my favorite baby-sitter/swim coach, the man who cultivated much of my lifelong interest in computers/gaming/and a few libertarian ideals as well - it meant more than I can aptly express. Congradulations again Kevin and Soula. Yours is clearly a bond of both love and friendship to be envied. My thanks to you and to Patrick and Cathy for sharing this event with me and my family!

The rest of the weekend was "a whirlwind" to borrow Patrick's phraseology. Aside from overextending myself on the night of the bachelor party and subsequently "liberating" myself off of the 6th floor balcony, the trip was intense fun. From seeing the Blue Man Group with my family to delectable tapas at the Firefly to a rowdy night of drinking, darts, and philosophy in an Irish Pub, we lived it up at the expense of doing a whole lot of sleeping. But I suppose that's what Vegas is for.

Since then, I have started my work for the general counsel at the Resources agency and helped Chante get settled down in LA for her fast times as a big firm summer associate. It's hard to find myself in a long distance situation again, but we'll have a lot of weekends together over the next 8 weeks, and her location couldn't be more ideal - in a lovely condo on the corner of Sunset and Fairfax - half a mile up from Canter's and the LA farmers' market. I assure you, my visits will not be hurting for good food =)

I'm going to cut myself off before I cause any eyes to bleed, but I hope to catch up with you LA folks the next time I'm down. The move-in weekend just flew by - sorry I missed you, and I hope all is well!

Out of the books and into the bender

2005-05-21T01:48:00.000-07:00

School is behind me, summer is upon me, and I'm heading for Vegas first thing in the morning.

I'm not much of gambler, truth be told, but I've got some friends and family to see, a wedding to attend, and a plan to consume my own weight in Bombay Sapphire over the next three days.

Amusing Vegas stories hopefully soon to follow...

Caving to post-modernism?

2005-05-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

So after arguing with Jishnu for 3+ hours regarding the virtues of modernist philosophy and the dangers of post-modernism, at least when taken to the extremes, I have been unmasked by an internet quiz as predominantly embracing the post-modern ideal myself. Jishnu, feel free to gloat.

I do maintain my modernism, with contextual limitations (rejecting, for instance Kant's deluded moral imperitive), in the ethical arena. For instance, I do believe that it is always wrong for an innocent person to be convicted of a crime he or she did not commit. This is not to say that I might not find some joy in it, if such a person were otherwise deserving of punishment or social stigma in my judgmental eyes, but mine would be a vengeant joy as opposed to one based in justice or moral certitude. Wrongful conviction might be karmically deserved, but it is always ethically wrong.

This sort of moral absolute conflicts head on with post-modern ethics, but I confess there are very few situations where I am comfortable making this sort of blanket assertion of right and wrong (senseless violence, subjugation based on race or gender, and the sexual exploitation of children for example). There are times and contexts, however, in which I believe it is not only not wrong, but in fact morally right, for an individual to lie, cheat, steal, or even kill. This is where my post-modern understanding kicks in.

To a great degree, our morals are shaped (and sometimes dictated) by regional culture and society. Where modern thought failed to demonstrate even causal certainty in the validity of our own senses (see David Hume and Thomas Reid), post modern logic within philosophies language have managed to disprove global doubt based on the need for shared meaning. These beliefs, as well as my sympathies for religious pluralism, have resulted in the following breakdown:

You scored as Cultural Creative. Cultural Creatives are probably the newest group to enter this realm. You are a modern thinker who tends to shy away from organized religion but still feels as if there is something greater than ourselves. You are very spiritual, even if you are not religious. Life has a meaning outside of the rational.

Postmodernist

69%

Cultural Creative

69%

Existentialist

63%

Romanticist

50%

Idealist

44%

Modernist

38%

Materialist

19%

Fundamentalist

19%

What is Your World View?
created with QuizFarm.com

Bush Whacking

2005-05-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

The rumors have been verified, and President Bush is indeed scheduled to speak for this year's commencement at my old alma mater, Calvin College /sigh. (read more on this)

Apparently, Calvin did not initiate the invitation (allegedly reported in the GR Press - they already had another speaker lined up). Rather, Bush has a practice of scheduling commencement speeches as means to joint ends of laying out new policy and currying favor in key states. Calvin's religious affiliation (though politically mixed) combined with its location in the midwest has seemingly put it on Rove's short list of low hanging fruit for the picking.

The liberal portion of Calvin's student body has not given up hope though. During my Calvin days, they successfully petitioned to reverse the decision allowing Strom Thurman to serve as a major event speaker (based on his early position against racial equality). In opposition to Bush, the following is now being undertaken: assuming the successful fundraising of $10,000, one quarter of which was met in the first two days after Bush was announced, the following letter will be published in a full page ad in the GR press with as many signatures as possible, the day before commencement.

A LETTER TO PRESIDENT BUSH

Dear President Bush:

We are students, alumni and friends of Calvin College who are deeply troubled that you will be the commencement speaker at Calvin on May 21st. In our view, the policies and actions of your
administration, both domestically and internationally over the past four years, violate many deeply held principles of Calvin College.

Calvin is a rigorous intellectual institution, and a truly Christian one. Since its inception in 1876, Calvin has educated its students to use their minds and hearts to transform the world into
a "beloved community" where no one is an outcast and all of God's children are cared for. Calvin teaches its students to work for peace and justice, and to be good stewards of God's creation.

By their deeds ye shall know them, says the Bible. Your deeds, Mr. President--neglecting the needy to coddle the rich, desecrating the environment, and misleading the country into war--do
not exemplify the faith we live by.

Moreover, many of your supporters are using religion as a weapon to divide our nation and advance a narrow partisan agenda. We are deeply disappointed in your failure to renounce their
inflammatory rhetoric.

We urge you not to use Calvin College as a platform to advance policies that violate the school's religious principles. Furthermore, we urge you to repudiate the false claims of supporters who say that those who oppose your policies are the enemies of religion.

To sign onto the letter it: email nobushatcalvin@yahoo.com and give your name and the year you graduated (if you're an alum). Also include your phone number for verification purposes.

Well said. My electronic signature email is already on the way.

2005-05-11T16:36:00.000-07:00

My closed book exam double header is behind me. Phew.

4 gin and tonics and 3 hours of tivo later I am feelin fine. Too many gin and tonics, in fact, for me to write much of a coherent post.

Remaining goal for the day: convince Chante to play some frisbee, maybe at night, with our Flashflight. Yeah, this thing is dope. It's straight out of Tron.

(Not my photo - Chante adds, "dirty hippie not included." Ha!)

update:

I too have taken the republican quiz now, and I am proud to announce:

I am:
9%
Republican.

"You're a complete liberal, utterly without a trace of Republicanism. Your strength is as the strength of ten because your heart is pure. (You hope.)"

Are You A Republican?

Put to Work

2005-05-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

Good news! I landed a summer research position with one of my favorite professors from last semester to complement my part time work with the general counsels of CalEPA and the California Resources Agency.

The topic: assisting in research to critically undermine the economic incentive rationale for granting limited monopolies through intellectual property protections. I am strongly in favor of dashing this ficticious justification against the rocks and adopting a natural rights approach. Give some credit (in the form of protection/rights) where credit is due, to the author or the innovator. I just don't want to hear fanciful fables of "economic incentives for innovation" when the effect is a bottle neck on technological progression, seriously impeding the potential for derivative works.

I'm feelin real good about this (and I don't think its just the St. John's Wort).

Space and Time as modes of human understanding

2005-05-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

Thoughts inspired by Kevin's post on Cosmological Constance or Quessiance:

With regard to coming to some confortable understanding of our own finite place within an ever expanding universe, or perhaps within but one of a million such universes, I still find myself attracted to the Kantian view that space and time are, within the human mind, modes of understanding. Relative to our ability to perceive of things in terms of spacial location and chronology, these the axis in our system of mental sorting, and joined by causal assumptions, the mechanism through which we interpret and evaluate the sense data.

When science causes us to question our fundemental assumptions about space and time, our heads tend to spin. In other words, mixing physics and philosophy can be like mixing beer and hard liquor. But I don't know how much any of this should really impact our major questions about human purpose and origin (at the heart of Kevin's post.)

What is relevant remains the world around us. If you follow Wittgenstein's philosophy of language at all, it is community and shared meaning that give not only our words, but also our thoughts, intelligible meaning. This social web creates its own meaning and logically precludes global doubt.

So even if it is true that we live in nothing more than a tiny disposable pocket of the ever expanding quilt of space/time - our meaning is assured by what is all around us. It is in living, loving, thinking, creating, surviving...

I have sorely missed thinking in this way - thanks to Kevin for giving me the inspiration to uncork the bottle for a brief sip of thought.

2005-05-05T23:12:00.000-07:00

In order to get the suggested 8 hours of sleep for maximum mental alacrity the night before an exam, I should have been in bed drooling on my pillow 23 minutes ago.

But that would have interfered with watching my netflix of season 1 of the OC earlier tonight. Talk about a conflict of interests...and it felt sooo damn good to see Ryan sock that Oliver kid right in the mouth.

Now if only I could sock professional responsibility in the mouth. Please do not confuse this with a desire to sock my professor, ex-CA Supreme Court Justice Cruz Reynoso, in the mouth. He's a sweet old guy, and I wish him nothing but the best in his continued efforts to ignore the model rules, and in their place, instill virtue, or at least some inclination towards ethics, into the hearts of a room full of would be litigators.

I think I've got the material under control - I suppose we shall see. Time to get to that drooling.

Inspired by Xanga

2005-05-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

After a year of suffering the abuses of xanga.com - namely the prohibition on adding external links to my blog without succumbing to montly fees - I am making a happy and long overdue move to blogger.

Welcome to the light room, my virtual dark room, my fresh start, the new home of my rants, photographic indulgences, and other unjusitified opinions.

I first created, and subsequently completely forgot about this site, while playing on the wireless network during my professional responsibility class. Not so responsible. Now, instead of studying for my Friday final in that very class, I am turning the switch back on in the light room and wasting my afternoon away on the internet, doing what I do best.

This should provide some insight into my recent approach to surviving the mundane chore that is life in law school: working for moderate success with minimal effort. This may suggest that my true passion in life lies elsewhere, but I haven't given up all of my hope in a happy ending in the legal world, just all of my faith in the value of the process.

A warm summer rain is falling in Davis. It reminds me of carefree time spent on Kauai with my family - time that my parents are actually enjoying this very instant as I prepare for my exams. Truly, if life was at all fair, I too would be sitting in the in the sun, feeling that sweet pacific breeze, pounding a Mai Tai, and soaking in this view off our condo's balcony right now.

Accounts of my prior adventures, tales of woe, and tedious ramblings should remain available at my old blog.

Creation

2005-04-06T14:28:00.000-07:00

On the first day - there was light.