Another letter to Bennington

Dear Mr. Edgar,


You entered apartment #1419 to repair the dryer today. You left a working order that states “check dryer. It is blowing hot air.” Indeed the dryer will always blow hot air when you first turn it on. But the hot air will not continue for more than 5 minutes. To see it yourself, I suggest you throw a wet towel in the dryer, turn it on, and then come back in 5 minutes. I guarantee you the dryer will be shut down when you return. A dryer that blows hot air for less than 5 minutes is as useful as a toilet that cannot flush.


I would appreciate you repair the dryer to its full condition. This has been the fifth times I file a repair request about the dryer. And every time, the maintenance persons seem to leave the property in a hurry when they feel the first breeze of hot air. Please stay a little longer. Do not leave until you witnessed the dryer function for more than 5 minutes. Feel free to drink the beverage in the refrigerator while you are waiting. I have no doubt the dryer will not perform any better when you are present than what I’ve seen in the past few months, that is, it will not work for more than 5 minutes. As unpleasant as the recent weather is, it is ironic that a continuous hot air could be found everywhere but the place that needed it most--my dryer.


And if you confirmed that the dryer could not function for more than 5 minutes; and you realized even with your expertise, the wicked dryer still refuse to be repaired, I appreciate you replace the dryer. Particularly, I prefer you replace it with a dryer that could work a full cycle.


Thank you for your work.



Sincerely,


麥可青蛙

An efficient routine (summer intern)

8:30 alarm ring

8:41 wake up

8:55 dry shirt, iron hair...no, wake up...dry hair, iron shirt

9:06 start car engine. Shakira on radio

9:35 arrive office

10:10 make a cup of tea

1:00 have lunch. not pizza again.

2:31 fall asleep

2:32 make a cup of coffee

4:21 look at the clock, check email

5:04 look at the clock, check email

5:06 look at the clock, check email....

6:00 print something, pretend to be busy

6:17 leave office. Shakira on radio

8:00 have dinner + CSI: Las Vegas

10:00 study for patent bar, apply for job

12:00 MSN

12:40 lay on bed. read a few pages

1:00 set up alarm. fall asleep

Law Review

Few days ago I learned that I did not make it to the Law Review. That is not surprising, since I never turned in my competition assignment.

Several classmates in (maybe half of) my small section class made it to one or the other law journals. Those classmates include Augustine, Karen, Laura, Kathy, etc. Congratulation to them! This is an achievement since GWU Law only has 5 journals. Other law school with similar or smaller class size has much more journals than GWU (ex. Georetown has 15 journals).

Although I never expected or seriously imagined myself joining the law review, I still feel somewhat lost when I heard the name list. Although it was a battle--a time-limited, massive-reading, smart English writing competition--that I knew I have little chance, I still felt defeated by the winners of the battle.

"That is not my game", I try to remind myself, "an English writing competition will never be my game." How I feel was vividly portraited in the book "One L," in which the main character described how he changed from not caring about the law review at all to suffering the depression when he learned that he failed to make the law review; how a high-achiever was encouraged and harmed by the competitive atmosphere of the school. I don't feel nearly as bad as he did. But "joining the law review would have been nice" I wonder.

Absence all the excuses, I do appreciate one precious reward from the competition experience--I know one more thing that I'm not good at. After doing poorly in guitar, jazz percussion, piano and singing (singing was really bad), I learned to focus on things that I'm better at and enjoy learning things that I'm still, well, learning.

Odyssey Banquest

The very generous firm that I'm interning right now hosted a banquest on Odyssey on a Friday night.

The purpose of the banquet was to establish relationship with foreign clients, who came to the firm to attend a 1 month training program. Summer interns, including me, were just lucky to take advantage of the event.

Odyssey is a flat ship that cruises along the Potomac river. It departs at 8PM and returns to the port at 11PM. On the deck of the ship one could enjoy the night of Washington DC. The food was ok, but the scenary was amazing. Washington Monument, Lincoln memorial hall, Thomas Jefferson memorial hall, Raegan airport, War College, etc.

There was dancing on the boat. Surprisingly most asian clients, those from Japan, Korea and Mainland China, really enjoyed dancing and refused to leave the boat when the ship returns. The Koreans had no problem emptying the bar. The tour ended at 12 PM, an hour later than expected.

The internship so far has been much more fun than I expected. Although a no-intern-only-vacation summer vacation would be much better. Alas, I guess the only chance I could ever have another summer vacation is to pursue an academic career......