Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Sam's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
12:51 pm	Why The Constitution is So Complicated For those interested in my latest academic endeavors, I have begun writing for Associated Content. Associated Content is sort of an odd combination of blogging, freelance reporting, and wikipedia. It's like blogging because individuals write in their own perspectives, and get paid for their work based on page views, but it is unlike blogging because there is an extensive editorial process, your submissions are not guaranteed to be published, and they often offer you upfront a payment (usually between $3-$10) for the rights to what you wrote, meaning your income is not based exclusively on page views. It's like freelance reporting because there are calls for content, but unlike freelance reporting because you can write on anything you want to, whether it is called for or not. It is like Wikipedia because it is a massive database of user-contributed information, but again it is unlike Wikipedia because there is an extensive editorial process and some actual fact-checking... So, anyways, I've decided to write a series I'm calling "Why is the Constitution so Complicated?" Basically, I will be writing articles about the controversial constitutional issues of the day. These are actually not opinion articles, as my goal is not to convince people of my side, but rather to challenge people who think that each Constitutional question has an "obvious" answer, and cannot understand how anyone could think differently while still being faithful to the Constitution. My goal, then, is only to convince people that the answers are not as simple as they think they are, and so those who disagree with them are being perfectly rational in doing so. Anyways, I invite you guys to read my works, I'm pretty happy with them so far. I've gotten two articles published, one on the Second Amendment, and one on Constitutional interpretation in general, which I use to introduce the series. You can go to http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/195713/sam_leven.html whenever you wish to check on my works. It is my goal to do 1-2 of these articles per week. But it will be a little bit before my next one, since I haven't written a third one yet, and the editorial process takes a little over a week from submission to publication. However, I expect my third topic, which I plan to write tonight and tomorrow, to be the issue of the rights (or lack thereof) of terrorist suspects held in Guantanamo Bay as "enemy combatants" to challenge their detention in federal court. (Comment on this)
Thursday, June 5th, 2008
11:58 pm	Need a Roommate? So... is anyone who reads this living in a house, or going to be living in a house by January, not with their parents, and would like some extra cash from renting out a room or two in the house for at least six months (January through June, 2009)? If so, shoot me an e-mail (bannana873@hotmail.com) or leave a comment. I may have a renter for you, who is not of the axe murderer variety. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
5:37 pm	Hello Real Life Well, a lot's happend since my last entry. I finished my first year of law school. Jen graduated. Yesterday I began work. It's pretty nuts. This summer I'm working for Nate Baldwin's dad. He runs a very small (currently one attorney, him, as his associate just recently moved on) family law and estate planning firm. I'm one of four emloyees other than himself (his others being a paralegal, receptionist, and, occassionally, Nate, although Nate will be out for a while as he is currently working full time for Doug Denneny's campaign in the 11th District). This means this is my first actual job in my chosen field.... Scary stuff. I have very quickly, in just two days, learned some important things: 1) I made the right career choice - I officially love law. 2) If you can't find the courthouse, but you know you're near it, find the nearest old, white male in a suit and follow him... Never leads you wrong. 3) Legal Research and Writing actually provided some useful information... I've also learned very quickly the advantages and disadvantages of doing a summer associateship at a small firm. Disadvantages: Significantly lower pay (About $600 a week, versus about $3,000 a week), and none of the exciting perks that the big firms give summer associates (absurdly expensive dinners, parties, etc.). I was worried my lack of these things would hurt my summer, but in reality, I'm finding the advantages are far outweighing the disadvantages. I will still obviously do the big firm thing next summer, but doing the small firm thing this summer is turnng out great. Advantage: You get REAL work. I know big firm summer associates do real work, too, but not like the work I'm doing. I'm doing substantial research on cases that may play a major role in their outcome. For example, yesterday Mr. Baldwin needed me to research an issue that is going to be a big part of a court debate tomorrow. I did the research and gave it to him. Today, I delivered a memo from Mr. Baldwin to the judge with is arguments on the issue. Sure enough, the memo was loaded almost exclusively with my research. This means that a real judge is reading MY work, and when he makes his ruling on the issue, our side is largely represented by MY research. The other big avantage of small firm work is court time. In most big firms, summer associates rarely see the inside of a corthouse, and only maybe one in ten actually see the inside of a courtroom. Not so in a small firm. I've already been to the courthouse twice, and tomorrow, I will be going with Mr. Baldwin to court for the hearing that will decide the issue I researched yesterday, amongst other things. This will likely be the first of probably a decent number of court trips for me this summer. Now, admittedly, for most summer associates, the court thing is irrelevant, as they have no interest in it. But for the approximately 20% of law students who want to be litigators, and I am among those 20%, getting court time in a summer associate job is like finding gold in your backyard. Yes, we don't get to actually say anything or make arguments, but we're THERE, and we do have an important job (if something suddenly comes up that was unexpected, I'm the one who runs to the law library elsewhere in the courthouse to look up the rule and get some quick research on the issue). So, as you can imagine, this is quite exciting. So, that's what's up presently. Tomorrow's court, Friday I have work, and then am heading down to Charlottesville to spend the weekend with Jen, who is there this summer, and subsequently not here, and so my missing her has been the big sad spot on my summer. :-( Anyways, hope all is well for everyone else! Toodles. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
11:21 am	One Year Ago Today.... One year ago today... I was in History of the Wind Band, and a student commented there was a shooter at Tech. I responded "That was months ago, you must have heard wrong, it must be a memorial or something." We all agreed, and moved on. I returned to my Dorm to discover no memorial. One dead, several injured. A tragedy, I thought, but at least it seems isolated. I was tired, and so I napped. I knew something was wrong the moment I woke up. All of my suitemates gathered around the Common Area TV, that never happened. I looked, in horror, as "1" had become "32". My Dad called me, to see how I was handling the news, I asked him to call me back later. I frantically moved to list every person I even remotely knew at Tech. And then I started frantically searching facebook, AIM, MySpace, anything, for word on each of them. And word came. Slowly I checked names off. At 5 p.m., three names still on my list, I changed my AIM away message for the first time. "How long do you wait to hear word from someone before you accept that that word isn't coming?" Slowly, my growing relief, was turning into glowing dread, until suddenly at 5:30, I heard from one, then a second, then the third. I was ready to mourn and be upset, just like everyone else at UVA. But I also knew the relief of having no one I knew personally be among the mourned. And then the names started coming out. Maxine Turner.... Why did that name sound so familiar? After hearing Maxine's name several times, I looked into it, and my dread grew again. From Vienna? I became convinced that her name sounding familiar and her being from my home town could not be a coincidence. Sure enough she went to my elementary school. But was that it? I didn't really remember that. Then I found out... She'd been an Events Volunteer for Steve's 2005 campaign. I was an Intern, and during at least one event, she worked directly under me. I realized then I'd met Maxine, and spoken with her, for maybe 5 minutes. Otherwise she was doing the work I'd assigned, and I'd never met her before, nor do I believe we'd met since. Yet those five minutes... Those five minutes existed, and mattered. It was odd to get so upset over someone I'd known so briefly, and maybe it was all of the emotion of the day concentrating itself on Maxine, but at that moment it became too much. For the first time since 9/11, over something that was not directly personal to me, I sat down, and I cried. I think about that day all the time still. Just the other day, I was remembering Highroads, the big camping trip all Sixth Graders at my Elementary School go on. It's a lot of fun and shenanigans that you'd expect from a three-day camping trip involving 120 eleven year olds. I was telling the story of water balloon raids to a friend, when out of nowhere, my thoughts turned to Maxine. I nearly cried again, as I remembered that I was having fun on that trip over 11 years ago, with all those kids, with all that time ahead of them, there was one kid there who had already hit the half-way point of her life... one who wouldn't make it out of college. I realized that again, despite knowing her for just five minutes, I can never think about my Elementary School again, without remembering Maxine. I look at how the shootings affected me, how depressing the entire University was that day, how it felt like it had happened here... And it makes me think thank God I wasn't there. I can't even imagine what today is like for the students who are there, or who were there. I can't even imagine how awful that day and the days that followed it were for the students at Tech, much much closer to the pain than I was. I admire the students at Tech for their strength, and can only hope that if in their place, I would have it too. I, like so many others, will never forget 4/16/07, and for today, once again, We Are All Hokies. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
11:34 am	You Know You're A Law Student When.... So, yesterday was my first day of "Death Penalty: An International Perspective" and as a short course, instead of a final, my grade in that class is based on a paper. I realized how old and used to long papers I've gotten that my response when he informed us that our page requirement for the paper was 10 pages, my response was "SWEET! Only ten pages!" The TJHSST Sam "Never Written a Paper Longer Than Five Pages" Leven would be stunned. (Comment on this)
Thursday, February 28th, 2008
8:44 am	Spring Break Cometh Well, Spring Break is coming, and not a moment too soon. I'm reaching insanity point with this semester. It's not that I don't still love law school, but work is work, no matter how much you enjoy it. Last weekend I had Journal Tryouts, which is basically 72 straight hours of... well... let's just say I equate it with a certain quote George Schaeffer had in high school about Seniora Rodriguez, involving a cactus.... Lately, I've been working on my Genetics and the Law paper, which is due DURING Spring Break, so I'm trying to get it done tonight so that I don't have to actually do anything on it during Spring Break. I've become nostalgic for the days when "paper" meant 7-10 pages, although admittedly back then I was nostalgic for the days when "paper" meant 3-5 pages. I suppose after my paper in History last semester that came out to 34 pages, a 15-25 page paper shouldn't be so daunting, but yet, I find myself on page 11, realize I have more than enough material to get through page 15 and beyond, but find the task of writing itself just so daunting. So, I look forward to Spring Break. Flight leaves for Vegas at 12:50 p.m. on Saturday and arrives at 3:15 (yay for five and a half hour flights that only eat up two and a half hours of time due to time zone changes). Sunday Jen and I are meeting up with Diane for lunch, and Tuesday we're taking a day-long tour of the Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon. At some point, we may have to meet up with my relatives who live in Vegas, but I'm hoping to avoid this encounter by means of a friendly phone call, as one of my Great-Aunts is not exactly overwhelmingly thrilled when members of the family date girls who aren't Jewish... we can ignore that most of her sons married girls who aren't Jewish... Other than Sunday and Tuesday, however, we have no plans. At some point, some schoolwork must be done, and at some point we'll go to some show called "Ice" at the Riviera since we have free tickets (and "free" is the name of the game when we might be going broke otherwise)... Oh, and of course we'll have to visit M&M World at some point. Otherwise, I suppose the focus will be finding the right balance between Blackjack, poker tournaments, poker cash games, and slot machines... But the most important thing is: no class. Yay. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 26th, 2008
2:52 pm	Discovering Yourself For me, the idea of geneology has always been fascinating. Knowing exactly where you came from. The thought came to me for the first time in middle school when we had to put together a family tree for my history class going up to your great-grandparents. It was then that it really hit me, if it weren't for 8 people, or 4 groups of 2 people, coming together in the exact right way at the exact right time, I wouldn't be here. Then it just expanded in my mind. Sixteen great-great-grandparents, 32 great-great-great grandparents, and so on. Through all the generations, literally hundreds of thousands of people have come together in a perfect way to create me. Regardless of your belief in a "God" per say, it's hard for any individual to think they came along by complete accident. Fate made us, and it's odd... And then I think of what my ancestors did during various times. I'm of Jewish descent, so how did my relatives survive the Crusades? Where were they during the time of Rome? It's kind of vexing in a way. The biggest question is, a family as persecuted as mine must have been, being Jewish, over the ages, how would they feel about one of their decendants going to one of the best law schools in the world, becoming an attorney in the most powerful nation in the world, realistically pursuing political ambition in that world, and facing (relatively) little trouble due to his faith? My guess is they would be shocked. My hope is they would be proud. But what's the point? Well, if you believe in an afterlife, as I do, I believe they can check in every now and then on what's going on with me. Sometimes I think they do. Which is odd, cause it means they can (if I'm right) know so much about me, but I know almost nothing about them. I didn't even know until this past summer that my father's mother had been a teacher (he'd never thought to mention it before... both of my dad's parents died before I was born). I also thought it odd that my dad's brother, when he ran for County Commissioner in Citrus County, Florida in 2006, listed his father (Samuel Leven, my namesake) as "an inventor." I'd always just thought he was an engineer. I asked my Dad about it, and discovered a whole slew of things I never knew about my ancestors. Today, though, I discovered more. I was googling my name when I came across a nifty little device called the "Leven Compressor." Basically, it's a tool used in mining to help make mining easier (I really don't understand much beyond that). I had noticed this before when googling, but never thought much of it. Today, I inquired further, and discovered it was named after it's patenter. One Samuel Leven, of Michigan City, Indiana, who patented his invention in 1963. Knowing, of course, that my father was born and largely raised in Michigan City, Indiana, I had very little doubt, but just to make sure, I shot an e-mail over to my dad who confirmed that yes, this was one of my grandfather's inventions. Even my Dad did not realize that it still bore his name. I continued to search through this site, a patent listing website, and discovered 11 more patents held by Samuel Leven between 1953 and 1970. It made me proud in my own little way. I guess I've always been sort of sad that I'm not from one of those families with extensive family geneologies who can trace their ancestry to Charlemagne, Caesar and what-not. I really wish I did know more about my ancestors, since I believe you can learn a lot about yourself from those who came before you. Learning a few things about my grandfather, the one whose name I bear, and the one who I never got to meet, did make me feel very good today. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
11:46 am	An Update! Wow... so yeah, I got pretty delinquent on the whole "updating" thing.... This would be thanks to an insane end of semester, and extremely busy winter break, which is now almost over... :-( So, how did my first semester of law school go? Well, I think. I actually don't know my grades yet since they're not technically due until, like, the first week of February, which is mildly frustrating (and by mildly, I mean extremely). However, I really enjoyed pretty much all of my classes, and find myself mostly looking forward to the semester ahead. Most importantly, though, I survived. Although I do wish our softball team had done a little better... 1-3 regular season record and a loss in the first round of the playoffs.... oh well, at least we had a win! :-) Extra-curricularly, I'm still way too involved in Honor. While I've pretty much dropped HASS (for various reasons... most notably time conflicts), I got involved in Braintrust, which means lots of frustrating policy issues. Yay? Had a trial last semester, and will likely have 2 in the first month of this semester... Yay? Actually, this semester is shaping up to be insane.... Job interviews, classes, my glorious return to band... and something else I probably shouldn't start talking about yet. Ultimately, I'm actually a little worried about balancing all of those things and still making sure not to neglect my school work, my friends, and, of course, Jen. Things with me and Jen are still going well. We're going on a trip to Vegas for Spring Break, which should be pretty exciting. She graduates this May, will do one semester in the Fall and get her masters, and then begin work in January (already has a job secured and such...), and will subsequently be in Northern Virginia a lot more than I am... So, let's see... is there anything else I didn't mention.... Um.... yay for TJ being number 1 high school in the country? Uh.... can't really think of anything else that needs to be said, so.... toodles! (20 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
12:50 pm	Death For those who are wondering, yes, there are deadlier things than college final exams. They're known as law school final exams.... Ugh..... On a more serious note, I can't believe Sean Taylor's dead.... Where the hell did that come from? I liked him, too, he'd made such an awesome turnaround after his legal problems.... Ugh... People suck. I hope they catch whoever did this, but I worry that the person may not be catchable.... (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 26th, 2007
9:01 am	Surprises Well, everyone seems to be doing this. Five things that would surprise 16 year old Sam about 22 year old Sam: * I've been in a committed relationship for 2 and a half years * I'm in a top 10 law school * I'm never more than a day behind in my readings for classes * I still deal with having created an organization that is well known throughout the University (yay Hoos Against Single Sanction) * I still intend to at least try to run for political office some day Five things that would NOT surprise 16 year old Sam about 22 year old Sam: * I'm in law school * I've never gotten drunk * I'm still waiting until marriage for sex * I'm a counsel with UVA's Honor System (wanted to be one ever since I first heard of UVA's Honor System... pre-dates even my opposition to the single sanction) * My official permanent residence is still with my parents (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
2:29 pm	Posting Regularly... Right So, apparently I thought I could post regularly while a 1L.... well, I've learned THAT lesson... In fact, this is the best chance I've had to post in weeks... and I'm posting from my Criminal Law class. Go me. so, point is, I'll update when I can, which won't be often... but I'll try? Law school = awesome, though. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, September 28th, 2007
8:38 am	Burma Burma (or Myanmar, as the illegitimate government calls it) has been a pet peeve of mine for osme time. Ever since 8th grade, when I had the opportunity to meet an American high school student who was jailed there for passing out pro-democracy cards. Only the threat of military action got the American students out. From that day forward, everything I learned about the government of Myanmar made me angrier. In 1988, thousands of people were killed after, when peacefully demonstrating in support of democracy, Myanmar's military dictatorship ordered troops to fire into the crowds. In 1990, a pro-democracy party won elections overwhelmingly, the dictatorship rejected the results, and the leader of the party has been under house arrest most of the 17 years since (including currently). So, it was with a great deal of happiness that I watched the development of the monk protests there this past week. I was happy to see it, although I was worried for them. Now, it seems my worries have come to be. Yesterday, the crackdown began. The official numbers is at least 9 dead, but the official numbers are almost always absurdly low estimates. The crackdown is continuing today. It's frustrating to me. I've been following Myanmar for years, and have no power whatsoever to do anything about it. I don't have an answer to that except just being frustrated. However, what I would ask of all of you, my friends, is make sure you read the news. Pay attention to what's going on there, and tell your friends about it. At least, the more people the government there knows is watching, the more pressure they may feel.... Unfortunately, that's all I can think of... hopefully it's worth something. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, August 24th, 2007
11:23 pm	Welcome to the Real World So, one week of law school is down, and I just can't escape noticing how much closer to the real world I really am. Today, it is rarer and rarer for people to go straight to grad school from undergrad. At UVA Law, only about a third of the class did. As a result, I feel so young compared to a lot of my classmates. Yesterday, one invited me over to meet his wife and kids. He's 30, and age that just a year or two ago I would think of as someone to look up to and accord an almost authoritative respect to. Certainly not consider old by any means, but old enough. Certainly not colleague and friend, as this person is. In fact, my best friend in my section to this point so far is also a few years older than me (26) and is now in his 10th month of marriage. It just makes me feel really old. Law School itself is AWESOME. That's right, AWESOME, with all caps. First of all, I've won my first election already... But I'll get into that in my weekly breakdown below, LJ Cut for your convenience: ( My Week ) (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
12:25 pm	Classes Commencing Well, I say I'm gonna' start posting, then I don't. Don't worry. With orientation plus Jen's surgery, things were just too hectic to update the past two days. I will attempt an update on law school so far tonight, but it might have to wait until Friday, so I apologize to my loyal fans. Wish me luck! (Comment on this)
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
9:56 pm	A Whole New Look at the Same Old Town Ok, so I know what you're all thinking. Probably something like "HOLY CRAP!!! SAM'S UPDATING HIS LJ!!!" This is a reasonable response, as the astute observer will note that I have not posted in well over a year. This is for two reasons. LiveJournal always had two purposes for me. One was to vent and complain about things going wrong, and the other was to keep friends in the loop about my life. While I've always been in close proximity with most of my friends, that second reason has never been too compelling, so it's been primarily the first. As I spoke to at some length a bit over a year ago, since I started dating Jen the reasoning for this has diminished, then reaching the point where since I had a girlfriend to interactively listen to everything going on in my life, LJ lost meaning for me. Thus, I stopped posting. While Jen is still an excellent source for my complaining and such, I am now compelled to write by the second reason. For the first time in 12 years, I am finding myself away from most of my friends, and in the process of starting to make entirely new ones. Because of this, I have no easy way to keep my friends in the loop about my life. Additionally, being now more distant from Jen, as well as my other UVA undergrad friends, as Copeley is perfectly situated for a law student but horrendous anyone else, even my UVA friends I will have trouble updating regularly, thus, while I make no guarantees, I HOPE to start posting regularly again. Anyways, on to the point of this post. Mainly it's to let everyone know that I am now in Charlottesville and moved in to my new dorm. Orientation for law school begins tomorrow and I must admit to being terrified. Beyond the fact that I'm in one of the top 10 law schools in the country and will as a result face a workload like I have never faced before, I'm just plain nervous. After all, I've been looking towards this moment for the past 14 years, so this is no small event. Anyways, I hope to say more in the coming days, but I have more unpacking to do and some reading (yes, we already have homework), so for now, I'll just close with my traditional toodles. (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, July 14th, 2006
5:02 pm	Yay William and Mary... So, since receiving a 170 on my LSAT, William and Mary Law School has been recruiting like mad... They've waived all application fees for me, have hinted at near-certain acceptance, and probably a decent scholarship should I apply and go there. Now that's all been by e-mail... Today the mail started... an information packet and applications.... Something tells me they really want me to go there... :-) (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, June 9th, 2006
4:16 pm	And So I Depart Well, I'm about to head down to Charlottesville. While I've been down there every weekend this summer so far, this one has a particular bit of importance. What, you may ask. Well, in less than 72 hours, in Charlottesville, I will be taking probably the most important test I've taken in my life: the LSATs... This will play probably the most important role in determining what law schools (if any) I get into. So, I'm about to head off. Wish me luck! (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 24th, 2006
5:46 pm	For Those of You Who Miss My Political Rantings and Ravings... ...I've started up a blog at http://www.writingup.com/bannana873 where I'm hoping to update every day (except when I'm out of town, and sometimes even then) with political commentary. Also, they pay me for every time someone clicks on the google ads on my blog site, but I'm not allowed to ask people to click on them... so, look at the ads, and if any INTEREST you, click on them, but don't just click on them to get me money, that'd get me in trouble.... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006
2:50 pm	A Note to Former TJ MUN people Just thought you'd find this interesting. I was a gym sub at Langley high school today. In one of my classes I had Maddie Wise. Was kinda' cool... SARAH WISE, Maddie says you're not getting back here until June 10thish? Well, I hope you remember the birthday/Hannukah present I'm expecting... :-) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, May 15th, 2006
10:55 pm	One of those random get rich quick schemes Except you don't get rich quick... doesn't pay well at all, but it's legit, and oddly fun... so go here and sign up... you'll be my hero (not really... I don't even know why I'm doing this... probably my own amusement) (2 Comments |Comment on this)