Friday, May 30, 2003

 

I misunderstood some of the results of this morning's DIII heats. That was Wellesley's JV 8 in last place of the first heat. Their var 8 finished first in the 2nd rep so will be competing in the grand final. But looking at the times from the morning heats and afternoon reps, UPS and Coast Guard should be favored. I'll have to call tomorrow from the river to see how they do.

posted by The Brooklynite 1:26 PM

 

Go UPS!! And I'm not talking about the package delivery company. University of Puget Sound's varsity women's 8+ won their heat the NCAA championships. They had the fastest time of the to heats, finishing close to 4 seconds faster than the second heat. They race in the grand finals tomorrow for the varsity 8+ national championship. They probably will not win the team trophy, however, because that is based on how both boats do. UPS's jv 8+ was last by quite a bit in the second heat.
Now why am I all excited about this. First, the head coach, Sam, rowed for ORU when he was in high school. So there is a little bit of pride involved. Also, a good performance by them shows all the East Coast schools that we have some great speed out here in the West and maybe they will recognize that in the polls. The last poll had UPS at about 16. And, this somewhat salves the wounds of losing to UPS this season. Heck LC finished closer to UPS (around 24 seconds) than Wellesley did (33 seconds back). Go Sam!!

posted by The Brooklynite 9:16 AM

Thursday, May 29, 2003

 

IRAs update: Well all of my favored teams are alive and kicking in the big three events: varsity 8+, JV 8+ and Frosh 8. Cornell (Go Big Red!!), Cal, Washington and Oregon State have made it to the AB semis. The dreaded Harvard made it by winning all three of their initial heats and did not have a single one of these boats racing in the Reps. That's impressive. But the powers of the West Coast/Pac-10 are still battling for it. For Oregon State, this means for I believe the 3rd year in a row their top 3 8+s will finish in at least the top 12 in the country. I think the last two years they all finished in the top 10 with the varisty crew finishing an impressive 4th last year.


I'll be departing from the Beaver boathouse on Saturday morning as a volunteer launch driver for CPR V. That stands for the fifth Corvallis-to-Portland row (115 miles). I've driven land support a couple of years and I'm excited to ply the waters of the Willamette all the way from Corvallis to Oaks Park in Portland. I'll try to find my Oregon Historical Society book about the river to take along with me. I'm happy that A is still willing to help by driving the advance land support.

Got another grade back today. Yuck. This is going down as my worst semester yet. And that is after the Fall in which I had, by far, my best semester. I'm hoping against all hope for my Con Law II grade to help bring it back up. The large classes with the mandatory 2.8 curve is just killing me this semester. But at least I know that I'm average.

posted by The Brooklynite 3:54 PM

Wednesday, May 28, 2003

 

In the realm of patent law: Words Matter!! I've signed up to do my big paper requirement on a topic that focuses on how this important idea about words affects patent prosecution and litigation. I engaged in conversation with my mentor this morning concerning when is a "bus" a "bus." And I'm not talking about the yellow thiung carrying children but buses as they relate to transistors, etc. A lot of folks will say that patents are just a big word game. They are right in one since but we are stuck with using the written word to describe patentable subject matter and words cannot, many times, capture definitively the essence of an invention.

My life is about to be filled with dictionaries, administrative law and the Federal Circuit.


On rowing: This is the biggest weekend in rowing in the US. It's collegiate championship weekend. The women race in Indy for the NCAA national championships and the men (even Harvard and Yale this year) race at the IRAs. At the IRAs I'm rooting for my alma mater (Go Big Red!!!!) and the local boys of Oregon State. But I'll also root, in general, for the West Coast teams.

NBA: Prior to last night, I was confident that the Spurs would finish the series and then go on to sweep the Nets. The real championship is still the Western Conference Championship. I do like Jason Kidd and he is pretty incredible. But he still plays in the Eastern Conference. Right now, the West is just too dominating. However, the Spurs have shown a knack for collapsing in the 4th quarter. Spurs fans' best hope is for the Spurs to be ahead by only a couple or even down a couple going into the 4th. Those big leads just lull the Spurs to sleep. The Nets might just be able to pull off one or two wins this year.
The East will make a comeback, though. Some of their best teams (Detroit, NJ, Indy) are young and only getting better. The pendulum will shift in the next couple of years as the powerhouses of the West age and change personnel.


Quick political note/observation: I'm still trying to figure out why GW is getting a free pass on lying to the public and other countries on issues concerning Iraq and their WMDs and "involvement" with terrorists. Wake up Demos!!! Our economy sucks and Congress just passed the first-ever tax cut during war time (oh yeah, don't forget we're still at war folks). Heck the sole reason the federal income tax even came into existence was due to funding problems created by war.

enough ranting. time to go dig in my garden (planting flowers and a few veggies tonight).

posted by The Brooklynite 4:57 PM

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

 

A Tuesday Morning That Feels Like a Monday Morning

It's been a couple (almost exactly two) years since I had full-time steady job. This coming back from a 3-day holiday weekend is rough.

The yard/garden is beginning to shape up. A & I pulled weeds, turned soil, planted things, chopped things down, edged, trimmed and watered all three days. We still have far to go but yard already looks better. I think the accomplishment of the weekend was renting a chainsaw and cutting down six 20-30 ft tall portions of my bay leaf bush/tree without any loss of limbs or any head injuries. I'll try to get a picture up some time later this summer.


As usual, a note on rowing: Congratulations to Lisa Schlenker. She and her partner won the US national team trials for the lightweight women's 2x on Sunday. This is a first for Lisa who has won the lightweight 1x many times and won silver and bronze in that event at various world championships. However, she has never won the lightweight 2x until Sunday.

Also, I send out a big hearty congratulations to my classmates at Lewis & Clark Law School, fka Northwestern School of Law, who graduated this last Saturday. In particular I need list a few who were helpful toward me and are just all-around great people: Katie, Michael G., Wm, Trinh and many many others. Good Luck to all of you!!


Well, back to work for me.

posted by The Brooklynite 9:10 AM