A Kominar Chronicle: In the beginning… 

During my studies at Bond University I was a legal research assistant at the Department of Law. I had the pleasure of working with the other research assistants and contributing to a law textbook. I assisted with the Privacy and Spam Law chapters along with some draft review.

Internet and E-commerce Law is published by the Oxford University press and is available for order online. I was surprised last week when a copy from Australia arrived for me!

Congratulations to both Jay Forder and Dan Svantesson on their recent publication, and to all of the others who worked behind the scenes to make it happen.

All rise! The honourable Doctor Zachary Kominar, JD now resides over this domain. (Please note: graduands of the Juris Doctor program are not entitled to use the honorary title Dr. before their name; However, you are more than welcome to humour me.)

Pictured to your right was my potent potable of choice for the celebratory evening. A JD for a JD seemed fitting to me. My time through Bond has been memorable for too many reasons to list in a list right now. Thankfully, I was forward thinking enough to write some thoughts a week or two before Graduation. Indulge me in my prose and excuse my disjointed poetic meter.

For Nadine to facing a new challenge in me; to Yees Makims and the riff-raff of unit sixty-one; to Thai draft dodgers and the greatest of friends to Malaysian/Asian (Is there a difference anymore!?) neighbours and their train of visitors who never end; to the visitors who tolerated ‘the white people’; to South African princesses and Canadians coast-to-coast; to the Sinha(sic) in us all; to the ‘Prince’ of Jersey and premiere polo players, twins, two, not one! to obnoxious Melbournian Cocaine-Mule neighbours that keep everyone up at night; to a loose association of Canadian Law Students; to reknowned legal scholars and Deans of Law and IT/Law research and international men of business who support all of my work; to dodgy body corporate management who stiff students on cleaning fees; to fellow unicyclers who I already met in Canada; to abrasive Americans, to tolerable Americans, and to pure bogans; to those people who always pipe up in tutorial and also those people who never, ever speak during a tutorial; to those who pass you the notes before tutorial and to those you can help by passing notes to; to Hot-air balloon operators; to 1st semester newbies; to 6th semester graduates; to those desperate for a job; to anime-lovers who never invite me over; to fellow mediators; to staff; to students; to hospitable parents; to Aussies from all over the land; thanks for a great time and showing me kindness.

To the days behind me, thank you for being full of adventure, challenge, discovery, and great friendship. I’ve had the privilege to travel the world and meet many amazing people. Although, this has not come without cost to my friends and family on the other side of the world. I owe this life to the people who care about me the most back in Canada, they made these days possible and I know they enabled me to live and learn this way.
P.S (You may now be seated)

• Graduation Day Pictures
• Graduation Night Pictures! (More fun!)

Since last September I’ve been working as a Research Assistant for Dr. Dan Jerker B. Svantesson. He is an associate professor at Bond University and has been studying Internet Geo-location technologies for some time now. I’ve assisted him doing research and reviewing various draft papers. My last project was assisting in research and reviewing chapters for a new legal textbook, “Internet and E-Commerce Law” Forder & Svantesson Should your travels find you near scholarly legal tomes, look me up!

Dan’s recent article, “The Internet, geo-identification and the law – they know approxymately where you are located” features a reference to the research I’ve been conducting over the past year. Its nice to see my work out in the world without having been first turned into Turn-it-in.com. On the same note, I’m continuing to do some work developing GeoComp to assist in further study of the field.

Thanks Dan!

Jere and Emily flew into Brissy International on Monday morning and were quickly whisked off to the Gold Coast. (Note: Jere’s Nerdy Hat reads ‘Kitchener/Waterloo Software Quality Association’)

Tired, weary and jet-lagged, they were good-natured about seeing local highlights. We went grocery shopping at Robina Town Centre and toured around Bond. Dinner was a special treat as we dined on Kangaroo and Crocodile cooked up for us by a true Aussie, Nadine! It was particularly delicious and a great way to start any Australian adventure.

The next day we scouted out the coast itself and got to some of the beaches. We started at the northern end of the Gold Coast and slowly worked out way south. Lunch in Southport with Nadine, and idle wandering down civilian pavilions. by the courthouse in Southport for a delicious lunch at Mason’s.

I decided that we should head over to Q1 to get a birds-eye view of the land (Left). Q1’s claim to fame is that it is the world’s tallest all residential tower. It is apparently the 20th tallest building in the world, and the fact is well advertised at the base of the tower. Suspiciously absent in any comparison is mention of Canada’s own CN Tower. Amongst the 30 some odd technological tower-marvels, the CN doesn’t deserve to be listed!? More to follow, informal investigation to follow.

We went down the coastline and hit North Burleigh Lookout at sunset (Right). After getting lost in Miami on the way back home we indulged with some Tuk Tuk Thai Takeaway.

The next morning, I cooked up a continental brekky for the travellers and we ventured off to Brissy for our last day together. I learned something that day, Brisbane is a terrible city to drive in if you haven’t driven there before. We enjoyed the adventure because it was a good way to see the city, but stopping right turns for three streets in a row simply can’t be good for traffic. Anyhow, we made it to the airport with plenty of time and I saw them off to Cairns. They’ve got a great tripped planned, owed mostly to Emily from what I hear!

It was quite a treat to see Canadian family and friends down in Australia, and a nice way to celebrate finishing my degree! Thanks to my family who sent me down graduation cards, very appreciated and safely received.

Wishing Jere and Em all the best on the rest of their journey!

Bon Voyage!