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So, recently I got an acceptance letter from Queen's law, after all that LSAT prep. They had an orientation get together this weekend in Kingston, so I ended up driving there Friday morning for the meet and greet. With a free breakfast and lunch, along with the Kingston Film Festival going on over the weekend it really was a no brainer to go back to the place of formal/former education. Moreover, Jer was going up as well, and this was another opportunity to visit with my cousin Justyna who is schooling in her final year at RMC.
I got into Kingston around 9 and walked down to MacDonald Hall (Queen's law building) -- after changing my floor hockey shirt/brushing my teeth in the car -- early, and introduced myself to about 4 prospective students, 6 upper year students, and 3 coffees, not necessarily in that order. So far, all good news.
Musical interlude time! Decide, decide, it's decision time, so make up your mind and move along.
D People do good, people do bad A Open up the church to see what they had D Pine, pine all of the time A D That's the story of our lives
D There's the steeple, but where's the catch? A It's underneath the highway overpass D Pine, pine, pine all the time A That's the special of the day
G D You meet, you cheat, and you lay down a beat G D You reap what you sow and you are what you eat Bm A G D And you go where you go on your own two feet Bm A G D You go where you go on your own two feet
D People do wrong, people do right A I've done both in the same damn night D Pine, pine, pine all the time A D I'm tired of hearing it myself
D You can go left or you can go right A You can get dim or you can get bright D Decide, decide, it's decision time A D So make up your mind and move along
G D You meet, you cheat, and you might drop the beat G D You reap what you sow and you are what you eat Bm A G D And you go where you go on your own two feet Bm A G E You go where you go on your own two feet
E You can make hay or you can a mess B You can make hell on earth I guess E Misery, misery, company store B E I owe my soul and more
A E Footloose and fancy free A E Don't come callin' cause you can't catch me C#m B A E I go where I go on my own two feet C#m B A E I go where I go on my own two feet
Um, I wanna say this as well; I loved my time at Queen's and in Kingston. I have always felt an association to the small town feeling there. Everything, simply EVERYTHING you need is within walking distance. When you rent a place to live at Queen's it is practically impossible to be more than a 15 minute walk away from your 8:30am classes. Distance doesn't make for a good community, and makes you miss your classes.
I don't really want to go to a university where there's an hour or two between classes and you need to 'hang out' or drive/bus to and from. I think part of the reason for this feeling (amongst so. many. other. things.) is my job at PHD. It's far. It's a 25 km commute, and not easy by any means of transport to get to, nevermind bike. But, I found a family there. Robert has always treated me like a member of his family. He lives approximately 5 meters from the office (his house was built on the premises), so 80% of the time I take my lunch with him, his family, his mother, and his children at his place. There is a fridge, a couch and a tv, there are kids running around, and there is a loving, home cooked meal by his mother on most days. It is pretty awesome, and a feeling that is so intertwined with work that for me it has pretty much become a spoiled, downtime requirement.
Somewhere like Osgoode Law can't really compete on that level. I don't want to commute if there is no reason to. I love/need that community feel; a home. I want/like to know that everyone is working toward a common, unifying, a relatively easy achievable, mutually beneficial goal. Small spread out group projects are fine, but key large projects within a focused tight group is where I get off.
Justyna and I talked about this; in some ways I'd fit right into the military lifestyle. I remember discussing this with Andrew, a high school friend who enrolled in the military. The regimentation and goal orientation is something that I think I lack in life a bit. But, I like only certain aspects of that; the structure, the common goal, cooperation, small, focused groupings. There is also too much structure; rebelling comes to mind. I feel one is always working under someone's command and not necessarily within a guidance role, cooperation or partnership. I fully admit, can adhere to, and endorse the idea of partnership and/or mentorship and the need for that, but it gets complicated sometimes. Anyway, this is the story of anyone's life I guess, and I can wax on about this but won't.
SO, back at the law orientation. After an introduction to the Dean of Law and some other sales stuff we had a sample lecture by Associate Prof Michael Pratt, who also has a cross-appointment at the Philosophy department.
So, Mike Pratt is (seems?) pretty awesome. He has a philosophy degree, and math degree, and a law degree. With full realization that he's just one prof, the man did did give'r, and it really was quite a great sample lecture. First, I remember him mentioned the name Isabel and Alfred Badel. Most Torontoians will recognize the name from the Isabel Bader Theatre.
Alfred Bader escaped Austria at 14 (from the German invasion) to England, was suspected of being a Nazi sympathizer and deported to an internment camp in Canada, released a year later, attended Queen's and Harvard, started his own chemical company, got kicked out, then got asked to come back, becoming quite wealthy in the process.
When asked his greatest achievement, Bader answered that it was twofold, one for his business achievement, and the other was meeting and marrying Isabel.[12] His romance is detailed in his second autobiographical book; it involved a shipboard meeting and courtship, some 400 love letters, a twenty-five year separation, and finally a happy and fruitful marriage.[13] (Wiki)
Anyway, Bader is just another one of those names that seem to connect Toronto and Kingston, UofT and Queen's... I can't quite remember why Pratt mentioned them though.. haha... whateves.
Ok, second musical interlude.
Both album versions are fantastic. All chords are relative to a capo on the 2nd fret.
G-Riff G G Gadd9 Gadd9 +==+=========+=========+=========+=========+ | 1 ' 2 ' 3 ' 4 ' | +==+=========+=========+=========+=========+ e |--3---------3---------x---------x---------| B |--0---------0---------0---------0---------| G |--0---------0---------2----h4---2----p0---| D |--0---------0---------0---------0------h2-| A |--2---------2---------0---------0---------| E |--3---------3---------3---------3---------|
The final hammer on this riff is only played on even numbered riffs when they're done in pairs.
VERSE 1: G Well I know we don't talk much C C D But you're such a good talker, oh whoa G Well I know we should take a walk C C D But you're such a fast walker, oh whoa G-Riff G-Riff Well, all right
CHORUS: C D G-Riff G-Riff I know where I'll be tonight, all right C D Outta mind, outta sight
VERSE 2: G Well okay, I know you don't love me C C D But you've still been thinking of me, oh whoa G Well all right, I know you probably hate me C C D That's okay with me G-Riff G-Riff Well, all right
CHORUS: C D G-Riff G-Riff I know where I'll be tonight, all right C Em Outta mind, outta sight Bm C7 Outta mind, outta sight G-Riff G-Riff
BRIDGE: Am G-Riff G-Riff You don't see me now D C G-Riff G-Riff G-Riff G-Riff You don't want to any-----how
VERSE 3: G Look out, here I come again C C D And I'm bringing my friends G Look out, here I come again C C D I'm bringing my friends, okay, all right, okay, all right G-Riff G-Riff
CHORUS: C D G-Riff G-Riff I know where I'll be tonight, all right C D Outta mind, outta sight C D Outta mind, outta sight C D Outta mind, outta sight
FINALE: G-Riff (4x)
So, Prof. Mike Pratt. He continued his lecture with a brief explanation of common law. I'm guessing you do, but I have no idea what the difference is between common and civil law. He broke it down this way: Common Law is based on precedent, Civil Law is based on the rules. Canadians practice Common Law except for in Quebec. So, what the means, and I'm really not paraphrasing him much here, the law we practice in Ontario is based basically on two things: story telling and reason. Two of my favourite things; I got sucked in a bit here...
The defendants, the proprietors of a medical preparation called "The Carbolic Smoke Ball," ran an ad in which they offered to pay 100 pounds to any person who contracted influenza after having used one of their "smoke balls" in a specified manner and for a specified period. The plaintiff, on the faith of the asvertised claims bought one of the balls, and used it in the manner and for the period specified, but nevertheless contracted influenza (Wiki).
Anyway, without boring the shit out of you, this seems to be the classic precedent within contract law, of binding law, and of moral vs. contractual obligations. The class went on from there discussing the differences between the two obligations, and what happens when they don't align. Also, what the main purpose of a contract is, the cooperation involved, and the distinction between it and the (social contracts) laws imposed on us by the government. I'm pretty damn sure that not all of law school is gonna be this interesting, but the man sold it here.
As an aside, I think the only reason I got into Queen's Law is because of the recommendation letter from my Queen's cognitive psyc prof, Dr. Merlin Donald (Merlin Donald is widely known as the author of two books on human cognition, Origins of the Modern Mind and A Mind So Rare.) Wiki. He's the brilliant man who came up with the theory that human language developed primarily within the realm of gossip; people, mostly women first, needed to discuss what was happening within their cohort - current coordinations of food and people in a group dynamic, where everyone was within the group at certain times, what (and who) everyone was doing at the time (I'm obviously paraphrasing and minimizing). To minimize further, basically, language came about because there was a need to organize and gossip. On top of that, language gave birth to the consciousness, the mother load of humanity, through language first(!), because of the organizational requirements involved.
This had very little to do with my study; Merlin was/is also involved in visual perception, and that's where my focus came into play, but that's all coming in a later post about perception that I've been working on lazily for about a month now...
More to the point, I explicitly acknowledge, and thank him endlessly, that without his help and guidance I would not be how/who/where I am today.
So, back to the weekend. I really enjoyed everything I pulled from that orientation, and now have no hesitation about going there, or any other law school for that matter (easily convinced?). I know this may sound like cheese, but it almost feels like a second opportunity to go through university without the constant drinking binge/hangover. I'm talking shit really, but yeah... First through third year were a blur for too many reasons.
Anyway, who the fuck knows. More discussion left to an actual discussion, ummm, over beer.
Ok, back again to the weekend for real this time. After the orientation I walked around Queen's campus a bit, and then met up with Justyna, who gave me a tour of the RMC campus. During my years in Kingston I never visited RMC, and it is quite nice!
Vic Hall, 1st year residence.
Physics building; 1st year crappy marks.
Pulling into the res at RMC, there were boys and girls in uniform training for a parade!
Until recently, all students at RMC were forced to room on campus. They have opened it up a bit to fourth years, but still most live on campus. This is what an RMC dorm room looks like.
They had a 24-hour cycling competition on that weekend, not unlike the one at the Toronto Spring Bike Show.
On campus pub.
View of downtown Kingston.
Just in case.
Justyna mentioned that pranks were a big part of leaving class rituals. One year the students placed remote charges in the river along with blank charges in the cannons. They then began to 'fire' on the island ferry until it apparently u-turned back to the opposite shore. Awesome.
More walking and talking...
As mentioned, The Kingston Film festival was on as well that weekend, and my friend Ryan had two movies playing. The first one, The National Parks Project: Gros Morne played Friday night. We showed up about 5 minutes before the film and found it was sold out. So, we missed it... ugh... Incidentally, The National Parks Project got picked up by Discovery Channel Canada and the boys will be going across the country this summer filming a national park in each province and territory! I'm currently trying to sneak my way into production.
On the Saturday night, No Heart Feelings played, which I hadn't seen yet. Jer lined up early to ensure we all got tickets, and it was a great movie.
Both nights Ryan and Geoff got us into the KFF hospitality suite (free booze), where we chatted and chatted. Also, one of the nights included an almost emotional discussion on the merits of the TTC at Simon's (Jer's brother, who is doing his PHD up there), but I'll leave those kinds of details for later...
--
No, this post isn't done yet (I'm not sure why I didn't split it up. One weekend I suppose.. anyway) Sunday morning rolls around, and Jer and I take off for Toronto to catch his under-14 team play in the North Toronto Championships! If you'll remember to last weekend, his fourth placed team beat up on the first overalls just before Canada won their Olympic hockey gold.
The Big Game!
The National Anthem was sung beforehand...
... and a pep-talk to rally the troops was given.
Despite scoring the first goal of the game, the Spokes seemed overmatched by the Agency 59 boys on this day.
The final was unfortunately a 3-1 loss, but the Spokes were still smiling.
The last walk around.
Sunday night then rolled around, and I headed over to Chris and Donna's place for dinner and Oscars. After nearly falling asleep I met up with Adam at the Cadillac Lounge where we topped off the weekend with The Rattles (first seen here), a Beatles cover band that plays every Sunday night at the Cadillac.
They were pretty good, and a perfect cap to a great weekend.
Remember Ray Kurzweil? Well, he recently ripped apart Avatar based almost solely on the battle technologies used within the movie. That, and he "thought the story and script was unimaginative, one-dimensional, and derivative."
No. way.
I suppose it's difficult for an "artificial intelligence, transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism" (Wiki) genius to look at it any other way, eh? Kinda funny.
I mean, this kind of perspective is, hmmm..., is peculiar when applied to a blockbuster-orientated movie. I can't say I disagree with him on a lot of his points, but there is something in me saying that he kinda didn't get (or address/acknowledge) all the ideas and perspectives behind the making of the movie. It just seems like a fairly narrow review, is all I'm saying. For example, Cameron's cultural, battle, weaponry, and futurism choices/references may have been deliberately "incorrect" - though perhaps lazy and formulaic - for reasons such as familiarity, association and simplicity in order to reach a wider money, umm.. audience.
Update: Not incidentally, it seems Ray has surprisingly ;) thought about Cameron's limited choices as well... However, I just don't remember Mr. Kurzweil forwarding his review of Star Wars, like my friend TheDurkinKnight.
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