Blogging, Cupping, Community, and a Big Night for the Democrats….

1. Take it Easy – Dear Michigan Law (and all future employers),

After two years here in Cambodia, you need to understand that I can longer be expected to work when it’s: a) hot, b) cold (below 60 degrees), c) raining, and d) the afternoon. If at point in the future you require me to do anything at one of these times, a hammock must be provided.

Thanks, Cooper

2. Peace Corps Blogs – Question: Can you think of any group that has a higher percentage of bloggers than the Peace Corps? I would say that about 90% of Peace Corps volunteers keep a blog and with the obvious exception of journalists and bloggers, I can’t even think of another group that comes close. Any ideas?

3. Cupping: Take Two – For the last couple of days my back has been killing me and so yesterday I decided to roll the dice and give cupping another shot. While it’s too early to tell whether it did anything for the back, I just want to say one more time that getting cupped feels awesome and it’s definitely worth trying – that is if you don’t mind having these disgusting marks on your back for a month.

I wonder if I can find a good cupping place in Ann Arbor?

4. Of Sunshine and Studying – One of my best friends Mike Dulong has recently joined the blogging world. Mike recently graduated from UCLA Law and is blogging about getting ready for the bar exam for Above the Law. According to the websites, he’s “another wealthy CA person who does not seem to know the meaning of hard work” (clearly a joke.) Here’s a little sample of what Mike has to say…

I planned on skipping graduation. I spent spring semester interning full-time in New York City, so dropping $400 on a ticket to Los Angeles only to shake my Dean’s hand seemed extravagant when I could stay in Brooklyn wasting that money in other pursuits. My friends ultimately convinced me to come, and I arrived just in time for the ceremony. Unfortunately, I never rented a gown. Oops.

Now, I’m glad I went! I walked in a suit while my classmates wore purple Harry Potter costumes. I basically photobombed my own graduation: Sorry to all the parents whose graduates were seated near me.

Most importantly, I forgot how much law students like to party at the end of finals. It was the first time someone dragged me by my feet across a dance floor begging me to dance again.

I woke up to see my friend’s BARBRI materials, which looked miserably heavy. Are they serious? I prayed the people at Themis knew better than to send me that many books. They did.  I returned to Brooklyn to a small stack, which I figured was a license to keep procrastinating. I mean, I did just spend all last semester not studying…

After a week of late nights, I had to escape to my Jersey Shore house for a reprieve and to form a Bar attack plan. I finally started my prep on Monday by reading Contracts and watching Professor Guzman, who is as dry as the martini you will need to get through his introduction. Nonetheless, he’s really clear and easy to follow. I’m sure we will all use his “Guzers” (pronounced goo-zers) on exam day. Thanks, Guz. If you had been Maverick’s wing man, you would have survived.

Keep up the good work buddy and good luck on the test! See you in a few weeks.

5. New Animal Species – Scientists working in the Cardamom Mountains, have recently discovered a new species of lizard, the Dibamus Dalaiensis,  a six-inch long creature which is both blind and legless. It’s one of about 50 new reptiles that have been discovered worldwide in the past decade. What’s really interesting though, is that the area where the lizard was found – the Cardamom Mountain Region – has become a hot spot for new animal discoveries, because for most of the past 40 years it was controlled by the Khmer Rouge and thus off-limits to scientists. “We hardly know anything about this area or the animals in it, since it was a region formerly held by the Khmer Rouge,” said conservation biologist Jenny Daltry of Fauna & Flora International.

6. Quote of the Week - “In the end, several hundred people in the U.S. government knew about the raid before it happened. But it didn’t leak. U.S. officials took extraordinary measures to keep it quiet, often speaking in code to each other. One decided to refer to the operation as ‘the trip to Atlantic City’ to avoid accidentally tipping off colleagues.”

7. Community and Parks and Recreation – I’ve never been a big fan of the half hour network sitcom, but Community and Parks and Recreation have gotta be two of the best shows on television right now. Sometimes they’re a little dumb, but when they’re good they’re funnier/more clever than just about anything else out there.

8. Real Education Reform – Apparently there is at least one person in America who doesn’t believe that education reform means more testing. In a recent revision of the state budget, California Governor Jerry Brown suspended funding for CALPADS, the state student longitudinal data system, and stopped further planning for CALTIDES, the teacher data base. Here’s how Brown explained the decision…

A number of problems have been identified with California’s state testing, data collection and accountability regime. Testing takes huge amounts of time from classroom instruction. Data collection requirements are cumbersome and do not provide timely – and therefore usable – information back to schools. Teachers are forced to cub their own creativity and engagement with students as they focus on teaching to the test. State and federal administrators continue to centralize teaching authority far from the classroom.

The (Brown) Administration proposes to deal with these issues by carefully reforming testing and accountability requirements to achieve genuine accountability and maximum local autonomy. It will engage teachers, scholars, school administrators and parents to develop proposals to

(1) reduce the amount of time devoted to state testing in schools;

(2) eliminate data collections that do not provide useful information to school administrators, teachers and parents; and

(3) restore power to school administrators, teachers and parents.

The goal is to improve the learning environment in every classroom, thereby encouraging the demanding pursuit of excellence. The May Revision proposes to suspend funding for CALPADS in 2011-12 pending this continued review of data collection requirements.

What a nice breath of fresh air. (Crooks and Liars Blog)

9. Thank you Paul Ryan – NY26 was a safe Republican seat..

The 26th district is regarded as the most Republican in the state, and it gave John McCain 52 percent of its vote in 2008 while Barack Obama was winning most of the state easily. It is also the sort of district that tends to be even more Republican in Congressional races than presidential ones: since the district was drawn in its present form in 2002, the Republican candidate for the House has won an average of 62 percent of its vote.

Yet last night a Democrat, Kathy Hochul, won a special election for the seat by 8% points. How did she do it? By making the entire election about Paul Ryan’s budget and the Republican plan to turn Medicare into a voucher program.

Paul Ryan’s budget has gotta be the biggest political gift the Democrats have gotten in years. Get ready for every Democrat in America to break out the Kathy Hochul playbook in the next election.

10. Thank You Notes - Jimmy Fallon just released a book of  “Thank You Notes” from his Late Night Show. To mark the occasion I’ve copied a few of my favorites below…

• Thank you, tassels, for being the best way to tell the world either “Yes, I’m a college graduate!” or “No, you may not see my nipples”.
• Thank you, fudge, for looking exactly like you sound.
• Thank you horseradish, for being neither a radish nor a horse. What you are is a liar food. (I’m looking at you, too, Grape Nuts.)
• Thank you, hard taco shells, for surviving the long journey from the factory to the supermarket to my plate and then breaking the moment I put something inside of you.
• Thank you, yard sales for being the perfect way to say to your neighbors we think we’re important enough to make money off our garbage.
• Thank you, the name Lloyd for starting with two L’s,  I’m glad both of those two L’s are there, because otherwise I would have just called you… Loyd.

And thank you for checking in. Hope you have a great day!