An Update: Law School, Work, and Thoughts

Hello Friends,

Just thought I'd put a sort of summative note up for those who are interested :)

Work:

I'm finishing up my job at Boston College's Office of the Vice President for University Mission and Ministry, a year in the same position! It's been a lot of fun, at time a lot of work, and occasionally a lot of stress. I redesigned their entire site within a basic framework, invented a newsletter design (in the process teaching myself CSS and relearning HTML), learned to write according to strict principles, and learned a lot about working for Jesuits. I'm looking forward to being done, but at the same time, I'll miss it.

A few weeks ago I started working for Kaplan in earnest, teaching the LSAT to an awesome group of 7 students at MIT.

It has been great working with people again, rather than spending 8-10 hours in front of a computer. :) I've been relearning a lot of what I knew about teaching in Civil Air Patrol and really prepping well for Law School as well.

I'm not planning on working (really, I might have an "on-call" sort of position with the Lonergan Center, but we'll see) during Law School b/c the first year is notoriously hard, time-consuming, and crucial for a lawyer's entire career. It'll be nice to focus only on school for the first time since freshman year in undergrad!

Law School:

I'm going to Boston College Law in the Fall, as many of you know. For more information: http://www.bc.edu/schools/law/home.html ; http://officialguide.lsac.org/SearchResults/SchoolPage.aspx?sid=11 ; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_College_Law_School. I'm really excited for it! It's an awesome school, Annie and I are already enculturated into the city, and we won't have to move. :)

I just finished Law Preview, a course that my good friend Dave recommended to me and I learned many things that will have a huge impact on the next several years:

1. The first year is very time consuming, so much so that, honestly, for the next nine months I anticipate spending a good half of my total time on homework. The reason for this is two-fold: first, the grades made in the first year of law school direct the entire remainder on one's law career; second, it's 15 graduate credits a semester.
2. Law school is expensive, not a whole lot of aid because the schools know that the average salary right out of law school is $160,000/yr which pays off student loans pretty swiftly. (I'm still seeking out and applying for all the scholarships I can find, of course) I was aware of this but also am looking to go into the public/not-for-profit sector which pays a quarter to a third of that figure. Often law schools will assist their students in paying off their loans if they choose a public service type job so until taking this course, I was planning on that route. However, (see next number)
3. I learned something about working at large firms where the median salary is $160,000 a year: their training is the best in the industry. So, if I ultimately want to work in human rights, does it behoove me to have the best training in the industry or not? It's a deep question, which doesn't need to be answered now, but at the moment I'm leaning toward a 2-4 year jaunt in "big law". Doing so would help to set us up after a good 9 years of school, moving back to the West Coast, setting up our farm community, and provide awesome training for the remainder of my legal career.
4. What about the PhD in Philosophy one might ask? Integrating that in has become a little more difficult, but I still plan on doing it, when has just been made a little more vague. Most likely after the jaunt in Big Law if that happens. I plan on staying in touch with the philosophical world as well though. With an MA I can "legitimately" write in journals and present at conferences, especially on the combined law/philosophy topics.
5. I'm of the belief, having had a good introduction/preview of law school, that their emphasis on writing will really help in my writing in all areas. This is good.
6. The possibility of transferring after my first year is still a strong one, however, I learned that it is not worth doing so unless one is making a jump of some 20-30 ranking points. This being the case, I intend on applying to Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley next summer. Whether I get in or not isn't too much of a concern for me at this point. BC is a great school and produces a good number of law professors in its own right.

All thought out? Certainly not, but there is a lot to consider... the first year is the crucial part and determines a good bit of the further pertinent questions.

*Note too though, even though law school is a lot of work, tucking one's head and blocking out all else is a bad idea, so don't fear, I still plan on seeing you all, having the occasional beer, hitting up the BSO, and movies as well. :) (as if any of you doubted that Taylor the Social would ever wholly become a library ghost)

Summer:

So far we've visited both sides of the family and had wonderful visits both times! Keeps us certain that the West Coast is to be our home. Sure, our ideal would be the Seattle area (with a cabin on the beautiful Lake Chelan to write disserations ;) but God knows best. I'll be done with UMM the first or second week of August and Kaplan by August 24th. It'll be nice to have a few days off before the plunge.

Konga Cooperative Reserve

After my last coffee post, one of my very good friends, M sent me this beautiful wheel, whereby I will be able to include more tasting detail in my coffee blog posts! Thanks M!

Today's coffee, one that I have been sipping for awhile now, Konga Cooperative Reserve produced in Ethiopia. Terroir Coffee says this about the beans:

"Konga Cooperative Reserve, Yirgacheffe, Ethiopia (Fair Trade, USDA Organic)

We paid extra for this small specially prepared lot from the Fair Trade certified Konga Cooperative. The coffee is organic as well. The Konga Cooperative has 1683 farmers of which 133 are female heads of family. The average size of a farm is 1.25 acres on which coffee and various foods for the local market are grown. Yirgacheffe is amazingly lush with vegetation. The coffee is grown at over 6,000 feet in altitude. This Konga also has that lush full-bodied apricot core with exceptionally pronounced clarity and sweetness.

Yirgacheffe is one of the great aromatic coffees of the world. It is often used in the finest Italian espresso blends, such as Illy, to add a critical floral element. The scientist- quality coffee pioneer Ernesto Illy (Illy Coffee) stated at the SCAA Conference in Boston, 2003 that the coffee of this region shared an aromatic component found in Darjeeling tea and Chanel #5.

Favorite of Food & Wine Magazine, March 2006

Roast Style: Full Flavor Roast
Harvest: 2006
Altitude: over 6,000 feet
Soil: volcanic
Arabica Variety: Ethiopica"

Using my nifty wheel, I'd have to say it's nose is certainly fruity, almost to the flowery point, giving me a scent of cherries rather than apricots. The taste is a sweet-mellow-delicate, especially brewed with a Swissgold filter.

One of my very good friends, J came over for dinner last night and had a few questions about espresso makers. She is heading to Marquette in the fall for a PhD in Philosophy, looking to have good coffee on a budget (aren't we all), and driven to the point of really desiring a good espresso maker by the lunatic ravings of our mutual friend P who is currently filling the tweetosphere with mocha talk...

A noble enterprise to be sure. I pointed her to this fabulous site:http://www.sweetmarias.com/prod.espresso.php which has a solid offering and even better guidance in purchasing a good machine. I use the stovetop brewer personally, primarily because my tastes still lie in the full flavor roasts, which espresso doesn't bring out well.

Enjoy!

Toraja Tocaro

Friends,

At long last, given the amount of coffee I consume and the number of coffee shops I frequent, I have decided to keep a coffee log. Should the whole grad school thing not work out I can fall back upon this blog, perhaps... (:D)

In my search for good local coffee, I have come across a true gem of a roaster, George Howell, who roasts mostly single origin coffees at a lighter roast that keeps many of the bean qualities. The result is a strong, rich cup that hearkens to the far-flung areas of the world from whence it has come. http://www.terroircoffee.com/

Before I continue my review, here is what Howell has to say about today's cup:

"The coffee formerly known as Celebes returns and it is a far better quality version than ever before. Toraja Toarco has taken on a certain legendary status amongst the coffee cognoscenti. It has been impossible to get any in the US because Toarco was developed and financed by Japan’s Key Coffee Company which sold all its production to the Japanese market. Coffee is grown there from moderate elevations to six thousand feet. Toarco works with over 7000 families to produce this coffee.

The coffee cup exhibits notes of malt and nutmeg-spiced dark honey. The beans are peaberries which are round shaped; they have been separated from the common flat beans using sieves. Peaberries grow in single seed coffee cherries, as opposed to paired, and typically develop near the tips of a coffee tree’s branches. A coffee tree will produce about 5% peaberries. They often have a slightly higher acidity than their flat bean counterparts. This lot has a very pleasant smooth fruity liveliness in the cup."

While I can brew three different ways (Melitta, french press, & espresso) I find that for the single source, full flavor roasts, the best brew method is Melitta (either gold or paper filter). Espresso is definitely only for dark roasts, and the french press I find best for blends. Anyway, that is mostly personal preference.

The water to whole bean ratio I use is 2 tablespoons per 6oz of water, though occasionally, for a strong coffee, I'll bump the water up to 8oz.

The Tocaro peaberries aroma is unmistakably rich, and the body calls to mind a mix between African and Guatemalan coffees: bright, yet earthy. It's the youngest coffee I've tasted, but neither the brightest, nor liveliest.

After several weeks of attempting to characterizes tastes more closely than this, I've decided to forego my own length analysis and serve mostly as a showcaser and highlighter of particular coffees. I may be able to taste nuances, but unless this forum develops my abilities, I have yet to be able to articulate these nuances :)

Enjoy!