Hey guys, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted on this site, but I assure you that occasionally I still do stop in and check it out, particularly after Kevin manages to intercept me on gchat while I’m checking my email.

Anyway, I had a question for everyone. What is everyone’s plans for next week (the week of 3/20-3/27)? It’s my spring break, and as I have nothing in particular at all planned, I was thinking of taking a random road trip to basically wherever I feel like. Now, if people are going to be in their respective locations (Mike- Chicago, Patrick- Indiana/Bloomington, Kevin- NY), I was thinking of hitting up all or some of these locations on the way. Obviously though, it would suck to go to these places when you’re not there, so I wanted to check in and figure out what people are doing that week, and then go from there.

This is just a preliminary idea, but I figured I’d get the ball rolling. Let me know what you’re up to, and I can start figuring out what I’m going to be doing over spring break.

So I thought I’d check in on the site after a long absence. I know Kevin tells me to post more often, but somehow I never get around to it.

Anyway, so I recently finished up an internship in California working for a family law judge. Overall, the experience was a good one. All you need to know about it was that I was an apprentice for a judge, who trained me in the legal arts for six weeks. I liken the experience, including the judge’s combination of strict demands, keen insight into my weaknesses, but yet sound advice and overall goodness, to Luke Skywalker and Yoda.

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Not to bombard everyone too much with the content of my Constitutional Law class, but I couldn’t help but think of certain New Jersey-residing individuals when I read this case where the Supreme Court declares that the Constitution mandates New Jersey to be the nation’s landfill…

It seems that in the 1970’s New Jersey got tired of having other states use its landfills, and so passed a law that only New Jersey garbage could go to New Jersey, and that NY and PA garbage could no longer enter the state.

The Supreme Court ruled:
“The New Jersey law blocks the importation of garbage in an obvious effort to saddle those outside the State with the entire burden of slowing the flow of refuse into New Jersey’s remaining landfill sites. That legislative effort is clearly impermissible under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.”

So… New Jersey is officially, under the Constitution of the United States, the garbage bin of America.

So, I’m back in America again, and on to law school.  Thanks to a helpful reminder from Kevin, I’m back in the posting gig.

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Okay I know it says Dan but I’m just posting under his name. Hopefully he’ll have time later to add some text. I just thought it would be nice to see our pal in all his regal glory (I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen him not wearing a t-shirt and jeans). I also updated his *prior post to add some pictures to the wall of text. -K

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After a great Christmas in America and New Years in Japan with Tsubasa and her family (Tsubasa’s parents treated me like a king, another great perk of dating a Japanese girl :) ) I am back at my apartment and just about to start the new trimester at my schools. Because I have nothing to do at the moment, I decided to rent some anime from the video store. Being in the mood for one of Vishal’s infamous harem animes, I picked up a copy of the first four episodes of “Ichigo 100%.”

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Edit: Added Pictures for Dan. -K

I have to say that I’m quite proud of myself today. If I accomplish nothing else in Japan from this day forward (I hope this is not the case, but hey, who knows), I can say that I had at least one great victory as a teacher. For the past several weeks, I have been staying after school (and after official working hours) to work on English speech and roleplaying contest entries with my kids at Tomisuhara Junior High School.

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