Funny Joke

What happened when the school band played Mozart?
Mozart lost.

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You make me happy

And I do....

Happiness is having a large, loving, caring, close-knit family in another city. - George Burns

Miss you, family. Happy belated birthday to Silvio Delgado, who I am quite sure does not even know this blog exists.

An Economist's Sentiment

The Economist has brought up an intersting point about white-collar crimes. With regards to the conviction of Jeff Skilling of Enron, they had this to say:

Prosecutors and the public seemed delighted by Mr Skilling's long sentence. Yet there are growing worries about the severity of America's white-collar sentences, which treat bosses more harshly than drug dealers and some murderers. Twenty years ago, Mr Skilling would have got just seven years. America also treats white-collar offenders more severely than other rich countries. (http://economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id=8082101)

Now, just reading this w/o the whole article does not do it justice, so let me bring up an idea that is mentioned later in the article. This kind of punishment is meant to be both retributive--that is, as a punishment for the billions of dollars lost and millions of lives adversely affected--and a deterrent to others. Not to say all punishments come out like that, but this one seems to have both aspects. We must ask what the goal of deterrence is, what are we trying to avoid. Coorporate scandal and unqualified risk-taking is not least among the goals, but is this the best way to acheive that? It seems that this kind of punishment might deter cooperate heads not only from excessive risk-taking, but might even make them play safe and pass up on some potential moves. That is not good for the economy as a whole, especially when other countries do not have as harsh of punishments and their companies would eat up this potential. More comprehensive reform and accountability schemes would do more to prosecute the problematic players and keep others safe.

Two more questions (at least) arise. First, who will make up this comprehensive reform? Not me. Second, should our moral and economic decisions be influenced by others? Absolutely, because morality is hardly black and white. Furthermore, we are required to think on the macro scale when decisions will impact it. That means looking at decisions' effects on local and world economics, poverty, employment, etc. If no man is an island, then what about coorporations?

All that being said, I think that Skilling, if really guilty, got a just punishment for the lives him and his decisions ruined. I just think that it should be clearer that his punishment is his and his companies. Not cooporate America's. They just need to know that changes are coming and that they should learn a thing or two of what not to do.

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Happy

"Happiness is always a by-product. It is probably a matter of temperament, and for anything I know it may be glandular. But it is not something that can be demanded from life, and if you are not happy you had better stop worrying about it and see what treasures you can pluck from your own brand of unhappiness."
  - Robertson Davies

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My Weekend

Again, y'all, life is good. My folks are coming up this weekend and we get to play. I hope to take them to the art museum here, which has this pretty cool picture from the inside. We are also going to eat at a little restaurant next door to it, hopefully for brunch on Sunday or something. Monica and I have had pretty super telephone call conversations too, which always makes the evenings pretty nice. Also, the St. Louis Red Birds (aka Cardinals) seem to be tearing up the World Series. Coming from Tampa Bay, it's nice to have a baseball team to be proud of because the Devil Rays, who I wholeheartedly support, are terrible. And will probably sell their team like any good major league farm team would.

I also printed out a list of 100 things to do in Milwaukee, which should add for hours of entertainment...if most of the events are free. I have done a few of these things already, like go to Miller Park. And I probably won't do others, like sailing Lake Michigan (though I can dream). But it's cool to have this list and see how much I can accomplish in one year.

With that, I leave you. I might be writing some more thoughtful things later, instead of just updates on my life. The updates are mostly for the people that don't get to see me or talk to me all that much, but the politics and religion and economic ideas in my head are also a part of me and probably intersting to at least some. Don't hold your breath, though. I might just do some ranting.

Peace.

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Forgive me if this is boring, but I think I downloaded a sweet blogging tool that let's me blog much more impromptu and add quotes and whatnot much more clearly despite the fact that I have beta.blogger, which is infinately less developed (though easier to use on the website itself) than the orinigal blogger.

Or maybe I'm just a big toolbag.

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Been a while

Funny, but that's a song. Remember? By Staind. It's kinda depressing.....

I'm not depressed. In fact I might be classified as giddy or happy or the like. And I'll tell you why. There are many reasons. First, I got to go see some friends this past weekend that rocked myworld. I hadn't seen some of these kids in over a year and it was good to see them. One of them even ran a marathon. So that's good. Then the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Monica O'Malley Eagles. That means I win the bragging rights war. And I'm prettier than her. Then I find out that I did 16 points better on my LSAT this year than a year ago. Now, although I think my score was great and I was suprised to see it, it is only partially a testimate to how I studied this summer for it. Cause I did. Hard. But I think it also shows, maybe show more, how poorly I did the first time. It was a big drop from my practice tests even then. Anywho, that sparked my life and life is good. My roommates even made me cake to celebrate. So that's my update and I'm stickin' to it.

PS- Milwaukee is cold.

Happy God

So, I talked to Orlando today and life is good and I got to see Monica this weekend and I have done two good things at work and I won a fantasy football game this weekend and I moved up the rankings in another league and I'm going to eat chicken tonight and today was just a good day. Thus, happy pictures for all to see. And to replace the mean looking gun below. Pics are c/o Monica c/o Monica's dad c/o someone with too much free time.

Shots fired

Well, today was quite a day at work. In fact, I'm still at work but I felt the need to write something right now. The day involved affidavits with people who were the victims of domestic violence. A few tissues later, when my last client had just left, there were shots fired outside. I thought it was a crappy car backfiring, but one of my coworkers say she saw someone running in the alleyway b/n my building and the next, while someone else said she saw a silver accura and a group of people running the other way. Thank God my client had already left. But to think that some random group of teenagers are trying to kill each other right in front of this property is ridiculous and scary. Sad more than anything else. Why is shooting the only option? What happened that they can't talk? Too much pride? Retaliation? Turf wars? Whatever it is, its bullshit. And it's, above all, tragic. I don't think that anyone died or was actually hit, at least I don't know of anyone who was, although I haven't strolled around outside yet. But I do know that people heard it. And they are scared, or worse yet used to it and indifferent. I'm going to think about this all day. And I have to come back tomorrow and act like nothing happened. Cause I got two clients tomorrow too. That sucks. Thank God all those in this building and my community are ok.

LSAT

Good luck Daniel. Good luck Lev. Good luck me.

Really fast

Ok, I have been at work for over two hours and have only made coffee and two appointments, not any work. Thus I just wanted to drop a quick line to tell people to look up this song. It comes from the senior project of two Gonzaga theater kids. It's the trailer song to some video they made. I found it randomly by having a youtube video sent to me and I went to the people's website. Pretty funny guys, but the song is pretty mellow and cool. Just thought some people may like it. It's all acoustic and relaxed and whatnot. That's it. More to come. September 30 is only a few days away. LSATs are fun!

Update

Well, life for me is still pretty good, but work is busy. That's how I like it, though, or esle I would be bored. I take the LSAT (again) in less than two weeks so the studying for that has really taken off. I am not working out from now until then to be able to get maximize my study time. I hope to do well, because I feel that I need to options in schools. Monica will find work in so many places and I want to be able to learn wherever she needs to be. That means I need to look for schools in LA, Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Boston, DC, Philly, or wherever else she may go. This is not to say there aren't schools there I would want to go to. Besides most of those places have phenomenal programs, I am mostly done with caring where I get my education as long as I get it. Someone, I forget who, just wrote an article about how few of the CEOs of American companies went to Ivy League schools. Though they are present in slightly higher proportions as a whole, they aren't dominating. And more and more I see how much connections, experience, and the right kind of both are the most valuable part of success, whatever you choose that to be. Those are today's thoughts.

Milwaukee Community

Milwaukee 1
Originally uploaded by jvc_mw.

This is a picture of my housemates and me at orientation. We are all dressed up with nowhere to go b/c they asked us to get ready for this picture. It gets sent to people who will donate and they like to see happy people with smiling faces wearing fabulous clothing. Nonetheless, lets's run through it. Mathew is on the top right. He's a little bit California wrapped up in Britain. Meaning, he is a Cali-kid, but spent some of his best years in England; Kent, I think. He's got a wonderful sense of humor and plays guitar like I wish I could. He also seems to need lots of naps after a long day of dealing with pre-teen girls. To his right is Cassie. She's Eastcoast to the core. Grew up outside DC and spent most of her life in the area and the rest of Maryland. She most definitely can kick my butt, but usually just lets me sleep on her on our coach. She also has never won intermural co-ed basketball. The comes me. I work with immigration law stuff and am wearing some else's shirt. I am hugging Kyle, my roommate. Dallas by birth. Creighton by grace of God. He is really into social justice and has been since college. He has lots of heros like Che and some guy from the t.v. show M.A.S.H., and he has read most every book ever written. He's got the list to prove it. Below us is Dorota. She's a Polish lass brought up Midwest style. She too has been active since before college with things like building houses for people in E. Tenn and such, forcing the Vagina Monologues on the Jesuits, and all around good-deedery. She is also pretty easy going and bad at keeping in touch with. Don't worry, it's because she hates you. To her right (our left) is Ashley D-D-Davis. Though she has no relation to Mr. Davis (unless you mean her father in MI), she is still pretty awesome. She is also very easygoing and doesn't seem to stop smiling. She works with kiddies all day, though they are usually the troublemakers so she beats them with rulers. She has also thown me forcefully on the couch calling out, "Ho down." I am shamed. Finally, Jeff. Jeff is the artistic type in the sense that he paints very well and really sees deep things in art. Not in the sense that he wears barrets and listens to beat-nik jazz all day. No, he's a pretty sporty guy, touting the KC Chefs as the most delicious team in the NFL (oogaly-moogaly). He's helping people at a clinic.

So that's our crew. Thanks for watching. Stay tuned for the next episode of Jorge's world.

Quick note

Well, I just finished my second day at work and it rocked. Before I get into that briefly, here is a pick of me and one of my (3) boyz from MDA camp. We rock!
Nonetheless, today I had my first client. We filled out citizenship papers as best we could. Apperently you have to be thorough. They pick it apart with a fine-toothed comb. But things ran well. My office is a bit of a mess thanks to the lady who was here before me. She filed lots of stuff that is out of date and pretty useless to me. But soon enough it will be my office. Tomorrow I have one more client, some translations to be done, and some bad news to bear for on family. So is the nature of the immigration buisiness.

I'm off to the community that I love, my JV kiddies. Gives a letter, care package, or better yet, beer any time. Just call me up and I'll give you the address. Stay cool kiddies. Shalom to Atom.

PS- Monica is one hot tamale!

Jorge's Back

Welcome to all those that were sent here via Orlando's email (ojc14@hotmail.com). I don't ahve the best history of being on top of this blog, but now I have more reason to be.

Right now I am in Marquette University's library, in Milwaukee, WI. I'm here as a Jesuit Volunteer, and will be living in community with 6 other volunteers and working at Catholic Charity's Immigrant Legal Department. That means that I will be taking the bus everymorning to a 9-to-5 as a paralegal helping asylum seakers, people who want to get their family green cards, and domestic violence cases (most often regarding immigrants who married abusive US citizens--they can divorce and still stay in the country and get green cards). The question might be, "Why are they called green cards?" The answer, I don't know. I'm assuming the color is green. Nonetheless, that's my job for one year, while I apply to law and social work schools.

The community mates are great. Each one has a unique personality and has different work , ranging from schools to community planning to homeless and childcare. Of course, whenever one lives in community, things might take some getting used to, but so far things have gone smoothely.

I must leave b/c Marquette is kicking people out of their library soon, so I'll update more. Before that, just a few points.

--I went to Milwaukee's Irish-Fest, the second biggest Irish festival in the US. Great music and lots of craic!

--Orlando's new address is:
Ave. Balaguer
Lote #67B
Lindero Nana
Nana, Lima 8 PERU

--everyone should write to him for a belated birthday wish (Aug 14 he turned 24)

--the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have all but clinched the Super Bowl b/c I say so.

Hasta luego.