The Rogers News

Category: Our Experiences

Tales of my life as told by me.

  • Check Out the New Old Posts!

    I just finished migrating, via copy-and-paste, hundreds of posts from my old blogs – The Yugflog Blog and another. I was disappointed to have lost the backed-up databases, but fortunately I had imported most of the old posts into Facebook. Although some of the links in the posts were lost, I’m thankful that I’ve been able to recover much of the writing!

    The posts go as far back as February of 2006, a time of transition for me. I had just left Ruckus and had not yet started working at K12.com. The posts pass through my first days in law school and my travels to China in the summer of 2007. Many of the late 2007 and early 2008 posts are from The Yugflog Blog and are largely golf related. And the writing continues to this day.

    That’s the quick overview. Here are some links to some to some of the larger groups of newly imported content:

    China posts.

    Golf posts.

    Law posts.

    Writing posts.

    Biographical posts.

    If none of these interest you, check out the “Tags” cloud and the “Categories” list in the sidebar to the right. Enjoy!

  • I am here because…

    In working on a cover letter it dawned on me that there is much more to who I am, where I am, and how I’ve arrived at this stage of my life than my academic and vocational accomplishments. The formality of a cover letter – especially one targeted to lawyers conducting serious business at prestigious firms – is constricting. Thankfully, my blog is none of those things! So, what I have to say follows.

    I was born in the cherry capital of the world to the two greatest parents in the universe. I am here because I watched hours of Voltron and Thundercats, experienced the creative wonders of Disney World at an early age, and learned hockey stickhandling from Mr. Hockey himself, Gordie Howe. I am here because I spent every spare second from my 9th birthday through the beginning of college consumed by the sport of golf, which taught me the value of patience, brutal honesty, and friendship. I am who I am because of the many wonderful people who have been kind enough to say hello to me when I was too shy to say hello to them and because of the few great friends I’ve had over the years and because of the girls with whom I’ve fallen in and out of love. I am here because my sister has made me laugh, inspired me and nudged me in the right direction.

    I built monsters and houses from LEGOS and Lincoln Logs. Refrigerator boxes became spaceships. Summer days ran until dusk then darkness. I fell down, then stood up again. Those hours of sax practice – or the lack thereof – are not lost on me. I will never forget the dinners at Mabel’s. I studied economics in college while wishing I was a writer. When not writing and reading, I played poker with friends until the sunrise. Law school has been a good excuse to explore New England, a place that reminds me of home. And a reminder of home is always a good thing.

    I am here in Concord, New Hampshire two months away from graduation to the next phase of my life because I’ve done a million different things in my past. I have a feeling, regardless of how I package who I am on this cover letter, it will matter more that I’ve been where I’ve been, seen what I’ve seen, and met the people I’ve met.

    Here’s to the next step – the great beyond. I love looking back, but I have to move forward. There’s a ways to go.

  • Should I Quit Facebook?

    First, read the following excerpt of the “Licenses” clause of Facebook’s new terms of use:

    You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

    If that’s not bad enough, read the “Termination” section:

    The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: … Licenses …

    Since I’ve been alerted to Facebook’s new terms of service, I will not longer be importing the posts from this blog to Facebook’s Notes application. Further, I will no longer be importing photos via the “my flickr” application or directly into Facebook’s default photo application.

    Facebook is now just an elaborate address book to me.

    Update: Consumerist has a nice summary and highlights that if you restrict your privacy settings then you may not be as exposed to the drastic licensing provision quoted above.

  • More Time Needed

    I wish I had more time for everything because there are so many things that interest me. It’s inevitable that I discover and archive, drive by, dream up, and am assigned much more than I’ll ever be able to take in thoughtfully. And that is just one day. The next day it starts all over again. It’s not a feeling of being overwhelmed as much as it is disappointment that I can’t effectively absorb more.

    I wonder if I would feel the same way if I stopped reading so many blogs, twitter posts, and facebook notifications. Consuming all of that “pop-life” is like trying to get my brain to record the lives and events of a thousand different people each day.

    It is my hunch that if I were able to better focus on “local-me” that I would find each day more fulfilling and, in turn, less stuffed. And who I am trying to prove something to – that I care about all of the useless gadgetry, latest fashions, and most obscure routines of people I’ll never know? It can’t be anyone except myself.

    So many people.
    So many stories.
    So many facts.
    So little time.

  • Happy Valentine’s Day

    Have a great Valentine’s Day. Keep it simple. That’s what I’m doing. And getting some work done on my paper. How romantic.

    Without much to say, I’ll leave you with the following Robert Frost poem that asks you to set aside your love and experience the heartbreak of two lovers unfit for one another – a warm mature woman and a dashing, but fleeting man. What more is to be expected from winter wind?

    Wind and Window Flower

    Lovers, forget your love,
    And list to the love of these,
    She a window flower,
    And he a winter breeze.

    When the frosty window veil
    Was melted down at noon,
    And the caged yellow bird
    Hung over her in tune,

    He marked her through the pane,
    He could not help but mark,
    And only passed her by,
    To come again at dark.

    He was a winter wind,
    Concerned with ice and snow,
    Dead weeds and unmated birds,
    And little of love could know.

    But he sighed upon the sill,
    He gave the sash a shake,
    As witness all within
    Who lay that night awake.

    Perchance he half prevailed
    To win her for the flight
    From the firelit looking-glass
    And warm stove-window light.

    But the flower leaned aside
    And thought of naught to say,
    And morning found the breeze
    A hundred miles away.

  • Romanettes

    No, “romanettes” is not the name of a female punk band. It’s the little-known and scarcely used terminology for referring to little roman numerals. This comes up a lot in my tax class. We find ourselves saying, “four little eye,” to verbalize (iv). When you think about it, “four little eye” could be quite confusing. It could be interpreted as (4)(i). Saying “romanette four” is clearer.

    Here’s a humorous exchange from the Supreme Court regarding romanettes:

    MS. SAHARSKY [of the Solicitor General’s office]: What I’m suggesting, Your Honor, is that the “that” refers to everything that is in Romanette (i) and (ii) up to the break with “committed by.” So that it is an offense that is a misdemeanor and has as an element “committed by.” You know, these — these two different clauses both modify “offense,” just as a grammatical matter, not looking at this Romanette (i) and (ii), but just looking at that sentence.

    CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Romanette?

    MS. SAHARSKY: Oh, little Roman numeral.

    CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: I’ve never heard that before. That’s — Romanette.

    (via The Volokh Conspiracy)

  • Ruckus RIP

    Ruckus, the company at which I first worked after graduating from college, shut down today around 5:30pm EST. I left the company in February of 2006, nineteen months after I was hired as the approximately thirtieth employee. While I’ve been far removed from the company for a long time, I look back on my time there in a positive light. I met some outstanding people, learned about balance in my own life, and had a great deal of fun. I will always have a great affection for “start-up culture,” and hope to experience it once again someday.

    Here is a TechCrunch article that explains what will happen with the Ruckus music libraries.

    Rest In Peace.