Pi Day ...

Yesterday was Pi Day and I did my best to make sure everyone knew of this wonderful holiday. I of course had pie and shared it with friends. Like a true nerd I even did some soldering yesterday. If there was any doubt at work that I was geek, it was removed yesterday.

After work I went out with co-workers to have a couple of drinks. It was great to see people outside of the office and in a more social setting.

Later that night I made a brief stop by an AACTS meeting, a young catholic group at St. Phillips. I was going to meet an old friend from undergrad there. Sadly, I arrived so late that I got to play one round of Pictionary and then it was time to go. I was supposed to go to mass today, but something came up. I will try to make it next time.

On my walk back to my apartment I saw this ...

My powers of deduction (and a nearby brochure) told me that this was part of the Art Night in Pasadena. Basically, 13 free art exhibits were staged around the city. The picture above was at PCC, it was a floating memorial of 4,000 origami boats created in collaboration with local high school students and community members. I sat there for a while, just admiring all the lights. Pasadena set up a free shuttle service between all of the sites. The events ran until 10pm, so I only had a chance to catch a shuttle to one more location, The Shumei Arts Council.

The council building had a beautiful lecture hall where they were having a watercolor exhibition. The watercolor paintings consisted of flowers with a Japanese poems, my favorite one is below. With the translation quoted below.

At the time I thought life was the most important, it was the most painful to live. On the day when I found there was something more important than life, it became joyful for me to live.

At this point I apologize for the poor quality of pictures. Since this was an unexpected outing I had to rely on my camera phone for pictures and video.

The last thing I saw was a Japanese Taiko drum performance. I took a short video below.

This performance was amazing! The poor sound quality does it no justice. The last performance was called "Rai" which is the Japanese word for thunder. Because of the small auditorium and huge drums it really did feel like thunder.

I caught a shuttle back, only to realize that it was not going to PCC. The driver (after much protest) was kind enough to drop me off at a nearby corner. I ended the night by grabbing some chili cheese fries from Tommy's and watching Felicity. This of course was after finishing some homework for my Saturday morning class (which is cancelled for the next three Saturdays!).

The rest of the pictures from the night were added to the end of my camera phone set HERE.

Overall it was a wonderful night. Now I need to clean for my weekend guest, more on that later.

Hulu is open ...

Hulu.com is officially open and no longer in private beta. A couple of days ago I found out that I had invites to this exclusive beta and felt special. Two days later I am no longer special, at least not in the good way.

This is a great website with MANY TV episodes and movies from the major studios (except ABC, bastards). Go check it out. I will be wasting time today watching Arrested Development.

That is all.

I knew it ...

I always thought that girls had cooties. Turns out it wasn't cooties, it was herpes.

The Center for Disease Control reports that one in four teenage girls in the U.S. have a sexually transmitted disease. Read an article about it over at the BBC.

First it was water that got you sick, and now women. What is the world coming to??

Next Weekend ....

First of all, so far this week I have not missed any classes. Go me!

Nate's birthday was this last weekend, pictures here (look at the last 7 pictures in the set).

Next weekend is shaping up to be busy. I have have to be in class Saturday to meet with our "client." I really wanted to ditch it to be a legal observer for a rally protesting the war in Iraq. I don't think that I will be able to make out in time. I will also be missing out on a Race for Cure walk that morning. I feel guilty since a couple of goods friends are doing it.

Becky is coming Sunday so that day is going to be busy.

Lastly, I need to find time to study for my evidence final.

Fun times.

Murder ...

Today was interesting, I got to walk past a large group of reporters hovering the entrance to my firm.

My firm Kabateck Brown and Kellner shares the historic Engine Co. No. 28 building with Geragos & Geragos. This firm has done many high profile criminal cases including the Michael Jackson case I posted about before. Because of the firm's reputation, celebrities have been know roam the building at random times.

Today's press attention deals with an alleged murder that occurred 27 years ago. Kazuyoshi Miura is Japanese businessman who has been recently arrested in the United States. In 1981, his wife was shot and killed in a downtown LA parking lot. He claimed that street muggers were the culprits. It was latter found out that he took out a large life insurance policy on his wife. Eventually he was tried and convicted for the murder of his wife in a Japanese courtroom and sentenced to life in prison. He served 13 years in prison, but the Tokyo High Court overturned the conviction for technical legal reasons. In the interest of justice, American authorities decided to prosecute Miura and arrest him as soon as he set foot on U.S. jurisdiction. This happened on February 22, 2008.

Senior Partner Mark Geragos recently joined the defense team and will be working on squashing the original arrest warrant.

This brings me back to today. As Margarita and I left for lunch a group of reporters were waiting around for Garagos to make a statement, but were disappointed to see only two lowly law clerks leaving the building. Part of me wanted to gather the reporters and tell them that I was the official spokesman for Geragos, just to get on TV. That would of probably got me fired, good thing I didn't.

Making News ...

The firm I work for is again making news. Sadly this time it had nothing to do with me.

The Los Angeles Times reports that lawyers for Michael Jackson were awarded $20 million in a civil case against XtraJet. The company operates chartered planes and in 2003 was hired to transport Jackson and his attorneys to Los Angeles where the pop star was scheduled to turn himself in for child molestation charges. A secret camera was installed in the plane and recorded conversations protected under attorney/client privilege. The invasion of privacy resulted in large punitive damages against XtraJet.

Brian Kabateck, senior partner where I work represented Jackson's attorneys. Maybe this means I can get a new flat screen for my office.

Random Updates for This Week

My Flickr account reverted back to basic for a couple of days and many pictures were inaccessible. I finally gave up on trying to get Andy to pay his bet and purchased an extension to my pro account myself. All pictures should be back up.

New week's resolution. Don't miss any classes (missed way too many last week). Go to gym at least five times, I have been slacking.

J.D. has his birthday bash yesterday. Since I live 0.7 miles from the party, I walked, which allowed for greater freedom in the night's festivities. Pictures here.

I purchased my plane tickets for Nicaragua. I will be gone from June 22 to July 5th 2008. This should prove to be fun. I will be meeting up with many of the women in my life Becky, Rita, and Carmen. Oddly enough, Carmen will also be in town for a wedding. I am also having a hard time finding a good deal on car rentals down there. I will post a separate entry about this later.

Found this great quote:

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.

- George Orwell

So true, plus bonus points for mentioning cuttlefish. I find myself using big words whenever I want to conceal some truth. This post included. Oh well.