hilsy's not really daily picture blog

Friday, January 16, 2004

And from the Department of...

Open mouth, insert soccer cleat, we have the President of FIFA saying women's soccer should wear sexier uniforms.

posted by The Brooklynite 9:55 AM

Kind of Surprised I Didn't Read About it in the Newspaper This Morning

One of my side jobs I have is Game-Time Stats for the Trail Blazers. Heeding Bojack's warning about blogging and jobs, I won't be delivering any diatribes or inside info. However, as I left the arena last night after a loss to the Phoenix Suns, the worst team in the Western Conference, I heard an interesting song being played over the PA system: Eric Idle singing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," from the memorable final scene of the Monty Python movie Life of Brian.

posted by The Brooklynite 9:05 AM

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

Back to School

Classes started yesterday for my last semster of law school. This has been quite an adventure. I left a perfectly comfortable job of 12 years as a mechanical engineer for a rail car manufacturer, walking away from a decent salary, lots of seniority and a nice corner cube looking out toward Forest Park. I went into law school firmly convinced that I would practice patent law. Along the way I've been seduced by litigation and the general business area of law. I'm currently clerking at one of the (IMHO) best patent firms here in Portland. However, my techincal background is not aligned with the vast majority of the patent work at this firm. They (and most of the other Portland patent firms) deal mainly in electronics and software with some optics and other various fields. The mechanical engineering degree and experience just doesn't help me in this market. So my current plan is to get a job with a small to "smallish" civil litigation firm in town where I can get extensive litigation experience over a few years and take some classes in electrical engineering during that time. Then I can walk back into the Portland patent firm scene with my experience here at this firm, extensive litigation experience, and electrical engineering education. At least that's the plan.

But then there is this interest I have in business. I'm taking part in a new "clinic" at the law school this semester where law students and MBA students will work together with a local research group to form start-up companies almost from scratch. From what I understand, the patent part of this area has already been taken care of, but the organization of the start-ups and contract drafting and such will need to be done as well as business plans from the b-students.

posted by The Brooklynite 9:25 AM