After reviewing Federal Courts for a few hours, my roommates and I decided to take a walk to clear our heads.  Thankfully I remembered to bring my camera, and took a few pictures.  The whole set can be found here.

Late on this, but here are a few quick pictures from my cousin Joe’s visit to Cambridge two weeks ago. I have some others from Boston that I need to add to Flickr soon. Anyway, it was great to finally take my camera out around Boston/Cambridge, and even better to see Joe.

The first is Joe looking his most pretentious at Queenshead, Harvard’s pub. The second is a shot I took at the Hark (the law school cafeteria) before it closed down for summer construction.

“Just a reminder to my friends studying for Law School exams: The person that graduates dead last in a medical school class is still called ‘doctor,’ and the person that graduates dead last in a Harvard Law class is still called ‘a**hole.’”

– Recent Facebook status from my friend Jim that’s keeping me grounded during finals.

I bought a harmonica a few weeks ago on Amazon. It’s really getting me through this paper writing situation.

I’m not gonna lie, I’m pretty amazing at it. AND I NEVER EVEN HAD LESSONS.

I have one more class today and it will be the last class I take as part of my formal education. It snuck up on me — I’m excited, sad, and terrified all at the same time. It’s hard for it to really set in when I still have so much work ahead of me in the next two weeks.

Anyway, my Federal Courts class went out on an incredible high note yesterday, with a genuine and motivating speech by Professor John Manning. He talked about his love for the U.S. legal system and how amazing it is to live in a country where so much respect is given to the rule of law — and how we, as lawyers, have the opportunity to serve as a check on anyone who steps out of line. It was hopeful and idealistic — qualities I rarely fall for — but it came together beautifully.

Before class, we also had a special gift for Professor Manning, courtesy of one of my friends. You see, Professor Manning is from California an repeatedly screwed up geography throughout the course, so my friend made a map of “Manning’s United States” that clearly labeled every other state as “Not California.”

I’m writing a paper on the history of juice regulation in the U.S. It’s for a class I took last year :/

Anyway, as part of the paper I’m writing about how 19th century tariffs helped establish definitions for some juices. I wanted to get a copy of the McKinley Tariff of 1890 and saw that Harvard had a book with the text of the Act. When it came in today, I was amazed to find out it was an original copy — with a Harvard Library stamp from 1890. Not sure why I’m so surprised, but it’s still awesome that I can just get these books whenever I want. I wish I took advantage of that perk a bit more while I was here.

Professor Charles Ogletree has been teaching a class on The Wire this semester at HLS.  I have a few friends in the class, and they really seem to enjoy it.  As an added bonus for those of us who weren’t able to participate, Professor Ogletree has hosted a series of talks on subjects related to the class — inviting special guests to talk about life in the inner cities.  This all culminated tonight in an All-Star Extravaganza event — we had Jim True-Frost (Prez), Jamie Hector (Marlo), Andre Royo (Bubbles), Michael K. Williams (Omar), and Sonja Sohn (Kima) from the cast.  The real-life Omar (Donnie Andrews) and the woman who David Simon and Ed Burns followed for The Corner (Fran Boyd) were also on the panel.  Oh, and they’re married, if you didn’t know.  David Simon and Ed Burns also joined via Skype video chat.  No big deal.

I’m biased as a huge fan, but I thought the event was incredible.  The cast was so incredibly warm and generous.  They all stayed afterwards for half an hour to take pictures, sign autographs, and tell stories.  Sonja Sohn, also the founder of ReWired for Change, gave a moving speech in which she called for us to stop ignoring the problem and give back — if not with time, then with money.  She’s dedicated years of her life and hundreds of thousands of dollars to run her organization.  Jamie Hector also runs an organization called Moving Mountains — and finances the $600k yearly budget largely out of pocket.  It was amazing to see that the actors were all so concerned with giving back, and listen to them talk about how the show directly affected their lives.

Andre Royo also told me the story about his “Street Oscar,” which I had never heard.  He was so excited; it was like he hadn’t told the story 1000 times before, which I’m sure he has.  Anyway, my friend Lea is at dinner with them all right now, which is incredible and I hope she blogs about it soon!  In the meantime, enjoy the pictures!

Reeeeeally proud of myself for that title.

Anyway, as I approach the finals season for (what is likely) the last time in my educational career, I’m starting to feel the pressure.  I need to write a paper.  I need to learn an insane amount of doctrine.  I need to enjoy my remaining time in Boston.  Ignoring the former two and embracing the latter, this week will be filled with a dinner at Dali (one of my local favorites), a game at Fenway (Wednesday vs. Tampa Bay), and a visit from my cousin Joe on Saturday.

But before any of that, I should get some sleep.  Here’s a picture reward for suffering through this meaningless post — it was Admitted Students Weekend at HLS and they brought out the fancy banners.

And just for good measure, sunset over Cambridge Common.

As my friends, I feel like I should share this with you. Some man in Cambridge let me in on the secret today. I’ve already started living my life accordingly — by not working on my paper or preparing for finals. Why learn patent law when I’m going away in two short weeks!

I rediscovered my love for Pneumonia the past few weeks.