The moot court season was about the opposite of last school year, with a couple exceptions. Instead of crapping out the brief in one night and getting in one practice argument with Berman, this year we did numerous practice arguments (thanks to everyone who helped with those BTW) and spent a lot of time on the brief. Instead of having one of the worst weekends of my law school career, this past weekend was one of the best. In both competitions I had to miss things I would not normally miss under any circumstances (Kelley’s Birthday and Barrister’s Ball last year, OSU v. UM this year). However, the more things change the more they stay the same…at least for the team I was on.
Both Team Scarlet (Lee, Tom, myself) and Team Gray (Holly, Justin, Erik) did an absolute ton of practice arguments the past three weeks to get ready, and I think we all finally were confident and ready to go. Our team decided to ride up together Friday evening to the Regional competition in Cleveland, and there were plenty of laughs on the ride up. I do not recall what context Tom gave for this comment, but the funniest thing said on the ride up was something getting called “The Shining Jewel of Crowning Ignorance.” Little did we know that this would be the theme for the weekend (we changed Crowning to Colossal over time, but the meaning is the same…the dumbest things you can think of fit into this theme). The ride to Cleveland flew by which is remarkable given how boring that drive can be at night. We checked into the Hampton and had a Team Scarlet pow-wow for a couple hours to finalize our argument outlines and answers to tough questions. There were quite a few 2nd Amendment issues they discussed (which my lack of knowledge allowed me to chime in what were probably not very helpful comments), and a couple in my preemption issue. Looking at how the other competitor briefs dealt with my toughest issue, we decided on an answer but had to laugh at how bad the Petitioner briefs were on that point. Headed to bed around 12:30, with the Hawaii football game in the background.
If you watch college football, you will understand this bit. If not, then you’ll figure it out. Every week in college football, ESPN nominates a handful of plays to be the Pontiac Game Changing Performance of the week…so in that mold, I present the Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance of the weekend award. There are quite a few nominees, but the first came on Friday night while we were discussing these tougher issues. A local TV station in Cleveland (channel 5 I think) has the cheesiest newscast in the world. One of the two anchors had on some colorful suspenders and every few minutes the newscast would cut to a wide-angle view of the anchors, then do a fast zoom in right up to the anchors, where they would say something dramatic. This is perhaps the worst TV news strategy I’ve ever seen, and apparently those comedy movies making fun of the fast zoom were grounded in fact! So the ridiculous TV news in Cleveland is the first nominee for Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance.
Surprisingly I slept well (Lee not so much I hear), but I still shot out of bed at 7 AM due to excitement/nervousness over the competition. As it was OSU-UM Saturday, I wore the closest thing to Scarlet and Gray that Beazley would allow (scarlet tie, white shirt, black suit). I also threw in the Teddy Ginn Jr. jersey and a Buckeye necklace for later. Plus it is always good to have the lucky Buckeye gear. Met the teammates for the complimentary breakfast in the hotel and the six of us with Beazley made our way to the Cleveland Justice Center. Let’s just say the building is dated, much like the hallways in Moritz. 23 stories of courtrooms, so they must be churning through a lot of litigation in Cleveland. We received our brief orientation from the competition director (who wore plum-colored shoes, as Holly pointed out) and our courtroom assignments for the two preliminary rounds. We decided to have Beazley watch Team Gray’s morning round and then our afternoon round. There was enough pressure on Lee who was arguing first in the morning argument, so we did not need Beazley there if that added any pressure.
So we go up to the courtroom a few minutes early and meet our opponents from Case Western (the host of the competition). There is also just one judge, an older gentlemen. Around the time of argument, the bailiff decided to go see where our other judge is, as every courtroom was to have two. The competition directors could not contact the other judge, so the bailiff came back to explain the situation. This is what she said: “Since our second judge could not be contacted and we cannot slow the competition, what we will do is proceed with just one judge and adjust your scores accordingly.” The four of us arguing all probably wanted to ask what adjustment of scores meant, but Lee was the first to speak up and ask the bailiff. The bailiff says, “we will take the score from this judge and double it, and then we will divide your overall score by 2 to find your average.” At this point she realized just how stupid that was, so she qualifies it by saying “it’s kind of like just taking the one score as the average.” No, that would not be kind of like the one judge score, THAT IS the one judge score! We were stifling the giggles on this one. This adjustment of scores (doubling the score and then dividing by 2 to find the average) is the second nominee for Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance.
As it turns out, the second judge was running late and made it just in time to sit for our argument. For those of you who don’t know moot court, the judges are grading you on your style and form and how you react under pressure of questions in an appellate argument. Their relatively subjective scores are added to you team brief score (60/40 percent) to find out which team wins the round. The more judges you have, the better it is. This is because one judge may grade you down unfairly for something, and fewer judges means fewer questions and a “cold court,” which is tougher than responding to questions of a “hot court.” We were happy to have the extra judge. Before getting into the argument, let me illuminate the issues we covered. Petitioner was the State of Old York, who passed a handgun restriction law that was challenged on Second Amendment right to bear arms grounds as well as federal preemption under the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act (which stops states from regulating motor carriers). The Respondents are Sun Longone, a guy who is asserting his second amendment right to bear arms…and York Loading Company, a package delivery service like UPS or FedEx who lost profits due to needing to comply with Old York’s Law. So those are the sides, and clearly the Second Amendment is a sexier issue than preemption. There’s also a lot more research of historical cases on the 2nd Amendment, so that’s why both OSU teams set two team members to write and argue for that issue, and one team member who wrote the preemption part of the brief and argued both sides at competition.
Our first argument was Petitioner side against Case Western, where Lee does 2nd Amendment and I argue preemption. Lee argued very well despite a fairly cold court, with one bump in the ride. At one point the older justice asked Lee to distinguish this case from McGee v. Connecticut. I’m sure Lee’s face must have shown absolute devastation at not knowing the case, but he just rolled with it and told the court he was not familiar with that case and moved on. Later in the argument Lee was talking about the most recent Supreme Court case Miller from 1939, and the judge asked if Lee would disregard the case because it is so old, and Lee disagreed with that sentiment, which led the older justice to say “As someone who happens to be 68 years old, I’m happy to see that you don’t think old opinions should be discarded.” My argument was one of my best ones I had done for that side of preemption. The only struggles were when the older justice brought up the parts of the State Law challenged under the 2nd Amendment (but not under preemption for some reason) and forced me to explain to him why those State law provisions not at issue were not preempted. I explained those were not at issue and tried to give a substantive answer for his question, at which point the justice tells me to stop and he calls the bailiff up to the bar to ask the bailiff something. He then asks me to proceed and I continue, trying to forget about this line of questioning. Near the end of my argument the younger justice asked me if the criminal liability on delivery drivers is a heavy burden and I said no…then he repeated the question in a menacing tone, so I realized my error and explained that it was a heavy burden, but that did not make the state law automatically preempted. The opposing team then went, and each of them did well. The 2nd amendment guy was asked by the older justice, “are you a member of a militia?” and when the guy said no, the justice asked “why not?” The guy actually had a quick-witted response saying he was registered for selective service but not yet called. Later in the argument the guy was arguing that the State Law was not a restriction on handguns but an outright prohibition, and the older justice asked “Didn’t prohibition end back in the 1920’s?” The girl doing preemption also did well, but she spoke so fast it was hard to follow her points. At one point in the argument, the older justice said “Now hold on a minute honey, what evidence do you have in the record for significant economic effect?” Yeah that’s a little demeaning, but she rolled with it and went on. Lee gave a great rebuttal, including answering a question about preemption which was his biggest fear about rebuttal.
Once the argument was over, we left the room to let the judges deliberate and Tom and Lee were freaking out about the Connecticut case he cited. We go back into the room and receive commentary from the judges. The older guy then told us he fucked with each of us to see how we perform under pressure. Nice. So the McGee v Connecticut case was completely made up, he called the bailiff during my argument to disrupt me, he asked the militia questions to mess with the Case guy, and he said “honey” to see how the Case girl would react. He preached from the bench that judges who are demeaning to women still exist today and they need to be reported because that language is unacceptable. I can see wanting to teach a point in a classroom, but this is an advocacy competition and messing with people like that seems awful. I presume he wouldn’t interrupt a black competitor with the N-word, so this guy was something else. The critiques were about even. Lee was criticized for starting a little shaky before the court asked questions. I was criticized for wearing a red tie (no reason given) and smiling too much (I got that same comment last year in competition and Lee thinks it is because I naturally smile a little when I talk to people, not because I’m going out of my way to smile…I just don’t get it but I cannot seem to control it). The second judge also said that I got the short straw of the four arguments to make and did a nice job overcoming that. The comments were similar on the other side, but the girl got absolutely blasted for speaking way too fast. We figured that with those comments that it was a close argument but we probably won narrowly. Still, the result came back from the bailiff for respondents (Case Western) and we had to walk back to lunch with an 0-1 record. Beazley and Team Gray came out with a win, so at least we had one win and one loss. Still, this older justice fucking with each competitor is clearly the third nominee for Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance.
During lunch we went over to a hotel bar across the street and watched the first quarter of the OSU-UM game. We stayed until OSU scored a touchdown early in the second quarter to go up 7-3. It looked like it was going to be a good game, but we had to go argue. C’est la vie.
Onto the afternoon session, which now has Tom and I arguing for Respondents against a team from Detroit Mercy. Beazley and Lee settled down in the background, and we had a couple judges again this time. Detroit Mercy got up there and had some serious problems. The court was relatively hot, and the 2nd amendment guy on Detroit kept conceding points to the court and struggling with questions. With 3 minutes left in the argument, the court explicitly asked why he was conceding so much away? How could he win if he conceded these points? He had no answer for that. The Detroit preemption girl got up there and was clearly a little shaky in responding to questions and getting back on track in her argument. She at least did not concede so much, but she also used cases that were only in my preemption brief (no other team used these cases to make the points she made) and fell into traps of relying on a presidential signing statement and the federal handgun act. Considering that I wrote that brief and knew exactly how to kill those points from 3 weeks of practice, I was ready to rebut all those points in my argument. Tom gave a very good argument, certainly one of his best that I’ve seen. Then I got up there and gave what we thought was a good argument, hammering all of opposing counsel’s faults while making my affirmative case for preemption. The Detroit team waived rebuttal, which is a huge opportunity lost for extra points at the end. Needless to say, our solid arguments and their terrible ones led to a conclusion that Beazley and the three of us all thought we would win for sure. We go back into the room and get criticism from the judges. Nothing terribly unfair here, but they did slam the Detroit guy for conceding his case away. Oh and one more very interesting comment for me: this judge said I got the short straw of the four arguments, but did well with it. Sound familiar? Apparently I’m really good at playing the victim, since I got the “short straw” of the arguments on BOTH SIDES OF THE SAME ISSUE! Unbelievable. The bailiff came back with the verdict, and handed the folded piece of paper to the judges. When the judges opened the verdict, the one I was watching was visibly taken aback or shocked. They read: petitioner wins. We couldn’t believe it (and apparently the judges couldn’t either), but we wished Detroit good luck and went to sulk in the hotel bar across the street. We got to watch the last 7 minutes of the OSU 14-3 victory and that combined with a couple beers helped ease the sting and shock of going 0-2 in arguments. Team Gray also lost their second round so we had one team who did not know if they were going to make Sunday’s quarterfinals and another already eliminated. Despite thinking our brief was one of the top 5-6 out of 18 teams, we concluded that we must have not gotten a good brief score and it brought us down.
We went back to the hotel and got ready for the House of Blues banquet. I had thrown on my Ginn jersey and Buckeyes over my white dress shirt and scarlet tie, and it looked so good that I decided to not change into something else for the banquet (other than switching suit pants for jeans). The dress shirt and tie under a jersey is not quite sweater vest, but it does remind you of Tressel according to my teammates. The banquet took it’s sweet time, and no open bar like last year’s competition…so it was just interesting conversation with Beazley and all the OSU people. The ribs at House of Blues were very good, and I was happy I got them after seeing how awful the chicken and noodles dish ended up. The cornbread was the highlight of the meal though. A Case Western professor gave a speech about how to lose an appeal which was sometimes funny but not really. At least he was brief in his remarks, so the competition director could get to announcing the quarterfinals. The Best Brief award was also given out first, and guess who got best brief…of course it was the Case team that beat us in the first round! Both teams we faced made the quarterfinals, and thankfully so did Team Gray from OSU. Holly won the double-coin toss (more on that later) and picked Respondent side so they would be on-brief for the Sunday morning quarterfinals.
Now this double-coin flip procedure. To decide in every round who does which argument, the competition director gets a representative from both teams and has one of them call a first coin flip. Whoever wins the first coin flip calls a second coin flip. The winner of the second coin flip gets to pick which side they want to argue. This statistically makes no sense whatsoever, as the coin flip is fair and 50/50 every time you do it. I’m guessing one year in the past something happened during a coin flip…and the losing team said the coin flip was unfair because they were not able to call it or whatnot. So instead of arbitrarily picking one team to call the coin toss, they use a coin toss to decide who gets the right to call. There’s one problem…they still have to arbitrarily pick who calls the first coin toss! Not only is there no statistical difference in the double coin flip, it has the exact same arbitrariness as before! The double-coin flip procedure by its very nature is the fourth nominee for Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance.
Both teams hung out in Lee and Tom’s hotel room after the banquet, kicking back with a couple beers (not so much for Team Gray) and lively discussion. It was fun to reconnect a little with Justin and Erik who were in my 1L section and to get to know Tom, Lee, and Holly even better. My two teammates had not read the infamous blog entry about my other moot court competition, so some good Brian stories went around with all the other law school stuff. There of course were more “Shining Jewel” comments and other inside jokes that I will spare the readers. We’ll just say it was a good time. Tom’s wife dropped by the hotel, and she and Team Scarlet went out to the Cleveland Panini’s bar while Team Gray went to study and get a good night’s sleep. At the bar we watched a couple of good football games (WVU-Cincy, Oklahoma-Texas Tech) and talked all things moot court, law school, and Buckeyes. The bar in Cleveland had the most eclectic crowd I’ve ever seen. People of all ages and walks of life, as well as all races were in the bar at one time. There were a couple people getting jiggy or interpretive dancing to the music behind us, and there were some professional-looking people having a quiet drink a few tables down. The drunkest guy in the bar and the drunkest girl were making out near us at the bar (nasty) and when she walked away we noticed this guy was pimpin with his fly open on his jeans. He was sitting in such a way to show it off to the whole world that he is just too cool to zip his fly. That guy also makes it in as the fifth nominee for Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance.
Woke up Sunday morning, went down to grab a quick breakfast and ride over to the courthouse to watch and support Team Gray in their quarterfinals. What was funny about this round was that Team Gray ran into the same problem that we did on day 1, that being there were only 2 judges when there were supposed to be 3 for each quarterfinal. The third judge was called and said he forgot. Nice. So the competition director comes up to explain the situation, and said the teams could decide to go ahead with only two judges or that the competition director would be the third judge because she was the only person qualified. The teams decided quickly to add her as the third judge, which she was stunned about because she did not expect them to take her up on the offer. After delaying a bit more to get some score sheets for herself, the competition director sat down and was the third judge. Don’t offer something you are not willing to give! Both teams in the quarterfinals did a nice job, and the court was relatively hot which helps. Holly and Justin gave really good arguments in my opinion. There was one judge who asked very probing questions and tough questions to each competitor, and was by far the best judge in the entire competition that I saw. The arguments were pretty close in this round and it was really too close to call. The verdict came in: Respondents (OSU) wins.
The team immediately went to the semifinal round, which would determine who makes the Top 2 and goes to National competition. Holly lost the double coin flip, but the opponent shockingly chose to be Petitioner, despite that being a harder argument and that put themselves off-brief against the OSU team who would be on-brief. In any event, the team they were facing for nationals was the Detroit Mercy team that Tom and I lost to inexplicably. This was favorable as Holly and Justin have been arguing Respondent side against us for a couple weeks (and our brief’s argument for Petitioner was clearly used by the Detroit team). The Court consisted of 2 real judges and a practitioner, but they were as cold as a cucumber. They asked the Detroit guy one question in 14 minutes of argument! They did not warm up to ask many more questions of the Detroit girl, Holly, or Justin. The problem was that the Detroit team are great oralists, and they delivered an amazing argument for a cold court. This was a polar opposite from what they did against Tom and I (struggled mightily against a hot court). Holly and Justin gave solid arguments, but after the Detroit team beat us so shockingly I just assumed they had a pretty good brief. Detroit had a slightly better argument and so I figured they would knock out the other OSU team. Sure enough, the judges came back with the verdict for Petitioner. We all congratulated Detroit and Lee, Tom, and I left the building immediately. Tom and his wife were riding back together, so Lee and I hopped in his SUV and hit the road.
Just when the weekend seemed over, Lee gets a call right before we stopped for lunch 15 minutes out of Cleveland. It’s the other team. Turns out the after we left and Erik, Justin, and Beazley left, Holly was putting on her boots to leave the building and got stopped on the way out by the competition director. They told Holly a terrible mistake had been made and that OSU had actually won the semifinal round. Holly called Beazley and tracked down Erik, but could not get in contact with Justin (who was the only person who knew the preemption arguments). Beazley waited for Justin at the hotel just in case he went back to get his car out of valet, and she managed to get Justin back to the courthouse just in time to argue with Erik in the finals (Holly lost the double coin toss again and was put on Petitioner side this time). Lee and I obviously did not go back for the finals, but it turns out OSU lost that one. Still, second place in Regionals and a trip to Nationals for OSU, the first time in 7 years. Oh, and messing up the verdict in the most critical round of Regionals…definitely a sixth and final nominee for Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance!
Congratulations to Holly, Erik, and Justin. Professor Beazley and Monte Smith both noted that you need good briefs, good arguments, and good luck to do well. Team Scarlet did not have the luck for sure, but I’d rather go out with our best arguments and a good brief as opposed to messing up arguments. We went out with guns blazing, losing to a team who won best brief and a team who lost a nationals berth by a hair. Plus OSU could only send one team to nationals anyway, so as a group of 6 we did exactly what we went to Cleveland to do. This moot court weekend was a great time, made even better by the OSU thrashing of Michigan. I know Holly and the rest of my 5 teammates were terribly worried about what I would write about them (LOL), but other than going 0-2 personally…the weekend was fantastic. Looking forward to helping Team Gray go win OSU some pride at national competition.
Before I put a wrap on this entry for good, there still is one item of unfinished business. We must declare a winner of The Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance! To remind you, here were our nominees:
1. The TV newscast in Cleveland, with the suspenders and fast zoom in from a wide angle shot
2. Score adjustment: Taking your score from one judge, doubling it, then dividing that by two to find your average
3. The judge from Team Scarlet’s loss to Case Western who intentionally fucked with each competitor
4. The double-coin flip procedure for determining who argues what side
5. The guy at the bar with the fly wide open, sending a big pimp message to all of Cleveland
6. Announcing the wrong winner of the semifinal round, then crushing the happiness right out of the real loser (Detroit)
The competition is fierce, but there can only be one winner. The TV newscast and guy at the bar just don’t stand up to the rest. The judge from our first round might be a royal prick, but not really ignorant. You could really take your pick from the other nominees, but the winner is…
Petitioner!
…
Wait. There seems to have been a mistake. The winner is Respondent!
That’s right: your Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance is announcing the wrong winner of the semifinal round. Way to mess up your most important job at the most important time CWRU, and call into question all your other “decisions” on the weekend. For all that, CWRU gets the crown! Congratulations to them on achieving the Shining Jewel of Colossal Ignorance.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
All of a sudden, a slow down!
It has been so busy since going on vacation for fall break that blogging just kept slipping down the list of priorities. Too bad, because lots has happened in the interim. This entry will go back and try to cover vacation forward to this weekend, which deserves it's own entry just like last year. But thankfully moot court weekend was absolutely awesome this time, as it should be!
So details from the Florida vacation left out from the short entry in October. The cruise was good as mentioned back then. A couple highlights were watching a magician-comedian and finally figuring out the grand old game of Craps. The shows are generally decent on a cruise ship, but they brought this guy in when we were in port at Nassau and he was outstanding. The whole schtick was him failing miserably at a bunch of tricks and then working a real trick into the act at the end of each "failure." Craps is an incredibly simple game once you figure out what all the bets you can make are. Sticking with the Pass Line, the odds bet, and the 6/8 single number bets are the way to go and we had some hot shooters with the dice who won me enough money to make us almost even in the casino for the entire cruise. That's a success when you play as much Roulette as we did! The craps table also is a neat big piece of furniture, and Kelley and I decided that we may have a couple professional casino tables in our future home (in my classy poker room with the bar). That should be nifty.
We returned to Florida to spend 2 days with Angela. She lives in the center of Florida now about 45 minutes north of Orlando and she had an appointment in Jacksonville the morning we returned from the cruise to Canaveral, so we took our time driving from Canaveral to there, dropping by where NASA is. Once we made it back to her little town, guess who was driving her? Her ex-husband Jim. Nice. So we went out to a bar called the Blue Martini that evening and finally got a chance to knock back some drinks and just relax. I dropped 4 shots of Bacardi 151 with no chaser at all, just because I like the burn. The bar was incredibly classy and upscale for being at a mall in Orlando (the bouncers literally walked around and made people take their feet off chairs, etc.) So Jim showed some of his true colors at the bar. Let's just say he's around Angela to try and get back in her pants...and he acts like it too. Jim is a perfectly nice guy to me, but he doesn't really listen to Angela, or treat her well. So once they sell their house, I'm pretty sure he'll be officially kicked to the curb for good. It could be worse...
So we saw Chris at Burton's wedding the weekend before the cruise, and he seemed to be doing a lot better. He said he had broken it off with his girlfriend for good, and they have been on and off for years so I thought no big deal. Well Kelley came across Connie's blog and she had written a nice entry about what happened. So Connie writes that Chris is such an ass because he never did half the chores when he was in school and she worked for 2 years...but let's see, that's what you do for someone you love. Anyways, he kicked her out because she told him she was pregnant with some other guy's baby. So he told her to get the hell out, and she had to go stay with her parents. She said "who kicks a pregnant girl out?" and called him a heartless son of a bitch. Well honestly, that's exactly what he should have done. To continue their relationship would be hurtful, fake, and ridiculous. Then in the SAME BLOG ENTRY, Connie goes on to brag about how hot the guy she cheated with was (if you had to cheat, damn did I pick the hottest blah blah blah...you get the point). And how she's so happy about having his baby, but clearly Chris was in the fault. All her friends were supporting her in the comments, calling Chris the biggest jerk in the world for this. I'm so happy he is finally away from that psycho. So in retrospect, Angela could have it worse. Let's hope it does not get as bad as Chris.
Guitar Hero III finally came out right after vacation, and it was nice to finally have that for Wii. The guitar feels a lot better because when you hook the Wii-mote into it, it gives the plastic guitar a more appropriate weight than the other systems. Also wireless is way better, but anyways on to the game itself. The song set has a few weak points and there are no good bonus songs, but the regular lineup of songs is way better than anything else they had brought out in the first two games. Plus the vast majority of the songs are the originals done by the artists instead of covers. Highlights include Bulls on Parade by Rage, One by Metallica, Same Old song and Dance by Aerosmith, Stricken by Disturbed, and Welcome to the Jungle by GnR. Also the new boss battles are challenging but good (original riffs by Tom Morello and Slash, and a final battle agains the devil which happens to be The Devil Went Down to Georgia). I blew through all the songs on Medium and have been struggling through Hard. Kelley is way better than me at the game, but I'm sure it will get many more hours of gameplay this year alone. Now I need to find a friend who has the game for Wii so we can figure out what co-op mode is like.
The other good thing about Guitar Hero is that you can fit it in to blow a few minutes when you have them, with no real time committment. I'll have more time for my other games now, but the past few weeks it's just been forcing it in wherever. As of this week, we have 15 games for the Wii, many of which I have not had a chance to fully get into. These include Super Mario Galaxy, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, and Zack and Wiki. All of those are the best games for the Wii, so we'll have to see how far I get through those during break. At least I've gotten good at Guitar Hero on Hard and beaten Super Paper Mario...
School has been kind of a constant drone in the background. Finally got the first and second accuracy checks finalized and made it through the third accuracy check for JDR. Now we are on final reads for Issue I (and II when we get to it), while Issue III is through the first steps. I was going to be diligent and get Issue I final reads done by mid-November, but I am just starting them this week. Securities class is now getting blown off in every regard, as I skim the readings and read the slides. Lots of friends apparently in the same boat for that class, so we'll need to pull it together. I made it through my last two days on call in Sales, and of course they were the first day after fall break and the day after Veteran's Day. Nice. It would be cool if she would send out the assignments in those cases before the evening before! At least that class is easy, but the multiple choice exam will be kind of random. International IP ended last week, and we'll have an exam in about a month. That should be easy enough, patent and copyright is interesting stuff. Seminar is done this Tuesday, but it has been essentially done for a couple weeks with both papers turned in and final presentations left. Despite writing each paper for Judge Sutton's two seminars in a day or two before it is due, I managed to get the same decent grade on all of them. Nice consistency. This seminar has been better though because all 20 of us are giving oral arguments on our assigned current SCOTUS cases with a devil's advocate giving the other side. C.J. and I actually managed to make a securities case manageable last week, and this week I get to explain my death penalty racial discrimination case (Snyder v Louisiana). The best so far was after Chad gave a very serious explanation of a voting 1st amendment case, Everson was his Devil's Advocate and dropped some absolutely hillarious lines in his rebuttal. Let's just say the opening was "The Romans threw Christians to the lions, and that's what is happening in this case because Washington is throwing political parties to the lions, destroying them." He also tied in Utah, putting cats and dogs in a room together for 2 days, and the Real Slim Shady. Some days, academic conversation needs a little humor. So two classes are all but finished (except for the IP final), and two others need to be cracked down on all of a sudden now that moot court is over. But more on that later.
So the Writer's Guild strike actually came about and all of a sudden we are facing a long winter of reality TV. Maybe that will be good for the country and we'll all go hang out at the gym. Or maybe not. It's really disappointing that 24 will not come back MLK weekend now due to the strike...the preview for Season 7 was amazing. No more CTU, and now Tony Almeida is back...apparently as a villain. This could be a return to greatness after the first disappointing season in series history. The only good fall shows we've found are Kitchen Nightmares based solely on Gordon Ramsey...and House of course. The House story arc leading into the holiday break has been fun, but now it's time to pick our 2-3 new doctors and get on with it. Clearly Foreman, Chase, and Cameron are staying on as a part of the series, so it should only get better with more characters in prominent roles. I've also grown attached to Don't Forget the Lyrics and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, as well as Cash Cab. Game shows that require some general knowledge but not Jeopardy knowledge. Perfect to watch. Still, once House goes off the air it will get nice and redundant...Fox has to be salivating though as American Idol will dominate the airwaves even more than usual this year.
Bowling season ends this week with the finals, but we don't know who's in it and we don't really care. Our hopes for a title come down to the final semester, as we went into the playoffs as the second best team in the league (tied for first, but lost to them 2-1) and lost in the quarterfinals. Brodie had a serious cramp up in his neck and could barely throw the ball in the quarterfinals. Still, he did better than I did. Daniel carried the team game 1 and Kelley beat my scratch series for the first time ever. We bowled decent as a team but it did not matter because the team we faced bowled way over average. Still, we've entered the last three playoffs in 1st, 4th, and 2nd overall in a league of 24 teams (32 last year). In a real bowling league that would be successful because there are no playoffs...just the regular season. Fun times nonetheless, and hopefully we do better next semester. But much like moot court, it take s a little luck to match up in the playoffs with teams that are not bowling out of their minds that week. Brodie and Daniel came with the costumes this year, so that's what we are known for.
College Football has been crazy. The four games in a row were fun, including the road trip to PSU. A guy just randomly messaged me on the Buckeye Ticket Forum and got me a ticket in the Buckeye section for face value. He was a nice guy to hang out with in Happy Valley all day as well. The Beaver Stadium is very large and impressive, much more room than what we have in the Shoe or Michigan's Big House. The home schedule got a lot more interesting too, as Michigan State only lost by 7, Wisconsin led by 7 in the fourth quarter before surrendering 28 straight points, and Illinois shocked the Buckeyes. I'm a little upset that my last game as a student was a loss, but it seemed like the fate of 2001 when we lost our last home game to Illinois (the last time they were decent) and followed it up with a road win in Ann Arbor. Well of course the Buckeyes got that again this year, in the most impressive fashion. Michigan held under 100 yards total for first time in 50 years, Beanie Wells sets an OSU record against Michigan with 222 rushing yards, Mike Hart and Chad Henne stuffed terribly to go 0-4 in their careers against OSU, and Lloyd Carr retiring after being the first Michigan coach to lose 6 out of 7 to OSU and the third to lose 4 in a row. It will be interesting to see how the rivalry goes under a new Michigan coach. I did get a press pass to the WVU-Louisville game, and that was quite the experience. Sitting with a bunch of local newspaper writers and NFL scouts is something else, especially in a climate controlled pressbox with a buffet. Morgantown is a great college town and I loved that first trip to see a game there. Now that the Buckeyes are in the clubhouse at 11-1, the Rose bowl is certain while another BCS Championship game is possible with one more big upset of LSU or WVU (assuming the Big XII is won by Oklahoma). It's been a great 7 years as a Buckeye student. 1 National Title, 5 BCS Bowls, 2-3 National Title Game appearances, 4-2 bowl record, 6-1 Michigan record, 4 Big Ten titles and 3 in a row during law school. Absolutely awesome. Living in Cincinnati will allow us to continue to follow our favorite team, which is good because Cincinnati Bengals football blows. Enough said.
Sportswriting still going well. By all means, see my articles weekly at www.southerncollegesports.com. This week I explained why Tim Tebow should win the Heisman, and the argument would be a lot easier now that Dennis Dixon of Oregon is out for the season. But you can read that at your own leisure...
Work has been decent when I get a chance to go down there. I've been set up permanently at a "law clerk desk" which Jim Carey works at on Tuesdays while I come in for R-F some weeks. The assignments have been OK this fall, not as good as summer but it is hard to do time-sensitive stuff when you are only there periodicially. All 5 of the new class of associates passed the Ohio Bar, so that was great news. No OSU 3L's made it through interview season with another offer from WHE, but the two 2L's I heavily supported got offers. I know one person declined and the other is debating, but I hope he decides to spend next summer there. The firm is the best IP firm in Ohio, hands down. It's a good place to be.
All of a sudden, I have time again. No more bowling, football Saturdays, moot court, seminar, IP class, etc. JDR final reads and finals. Anybody want to go out for a drink?
So I've left out moot court, but I think everything else has been covered effectively. I've got a fair bit to say about this past weekend, but it is getting late and so I'll write tomorrow evening. I know my moot court teammates are on pins and needles waiting to see if I bash them thoroughly like the last time I went on a Moot Court trip, but this will not happen. The story is still pretty funny and needs to be told when I can tell it well, so come back tomorrow for that one. See you then (all 10 of you readers, and that's just because 5 of you are my moot court teammates!)
Oh and in case you were wondering, the title of tomorrow's article will not be something generic like "Bowling Semifinals and Gibbons Weekend." No, it will be far greater than that. It will be The Shining Jewel of Crowning Ignorance. And when that's the theme of the weekend, you know it was fun.
So details from the Florida vacation left out from the short entry in October. The cruise was good as mentioned back then. A couple highlights were watching a magician-comedian and finally figuring out the grand old game of Craps. The shows are generally decent on a cruise ship, but they brought this guy in when we were in port at Nassau and he was outstanding. The whole schtick was him failing miserably at a bunch of tricks and then working a real trick into the act at the end of each "failure." Craps is an incredibly simple game once you figure out what all the bets you can make are. Sticking with the Pass Line, the odds bet, and the 6/8 single number bets are the way to go and we had some hot shooters with the dice who won me enough money to make us almost even in the casino for the entire cruise. That's a success when you play as much Roulette as we did! The craps table also is a neat big piece of furniture, and Kelley and I decided that we may have a couple professional casino tables in our future home (in my classy poker room with the bar). That should be nifty.
We returned to Florida to spend 2 days with Angela. She lives in the center of Florida now about 45 minutes north of Orlando and she had an appointment in Jacksonville the morning we returned from the cruise to Canaveral, so we took our time driving from Canaveral to there, dropping by where NASA is. Once we made it back to her little town, guess who was driving her? Her ex-husband Jim. Nice. So we went out to a bar called the Blue Martini that evening and finally got a chance to knock back some drinks and just relax. I dropped 4 shots of Bacardi 151 with no chaser at all, just because I like the burn. The bar was incredibly classy and upscale for being at a mall in Orlando (the bouncers literally walked around and made people take their feet off chairs, etc.) So Jim showed some of his true colors at the bar. Let's just say he's around Angela to try and get back in her pants...and he acts like it too. Jim is a perfectly nice guy to me, but he doesn't really listen to Angela, or treat her well. So once they sell their house, I'm pretty sure he'll be officially kicked to the curb for good. It could be worse...
So we saw Chris at Burton's wedding the weekend before the cruise, and he seemed to be doing a lot better. He said he had broken it off with his girlfriend for good, and they have been on and off for years so I thought no big deal. Well Kelley came across Connie's blog and she had written a nice entry about what happened. So Connie writes that Chris is such an ass because he never did half the chores when he was in school and she worked for 2 years...but let's see, that's what you do for someone you love. Anyways, he kicked her out because she told him she was pregnant with some other guy's baby. So he told her to get the hell out, and she had to go stay with her parents. She said "who kicks a pregnant girl out?" and called him a heartless son of a bitch. Well honestly, that's exactly what he should have done. To continue their relationship would be hurtful, fake, and ridiculous. Then in the SAME BLOG ENTRY, Connie goes on to brag about how hot the guy she cheated with was (if you had to cheat, damn did I pick the hottest blah blah blah...you get the point). And how she's so happy about having his baby, but clearly Chris was in the fault. All her friends were supporting her in the comments, calling Chris the biggest jerk in the world for this. I'm so happy he is finally away from that psycho. So in retrospect, Angela could have it worse. Let's hope it does not get as bad as Chris.
Guitar Hero III finally came out right after vacation, and it was nice to finally have that for Wii. The guitar feels a lot better because when you hook the Wii-mote into it, it gives the plastic guitar a more appropriate weight than the other systems. Also wireless is way better, but anyways on to the game itself. The song set has a few weak points and there are no good bonus songs, but the regular lineup of songs is way better than anything else they had brought out in the first two games. Plus the vast majority of the songs are the originals done by the artists instead of covers. Highlights include Bulls on Parade by Rage, One by Metallica, Same Old song and Dance by Aerosmith, Stricken by Disturbed, and Welcome to the Jungle by GnR. Also the new boss battles are challenging but good (original riffs by Tom Morello and Slash, and a final battle agains the devil which happens to be The Devil Went Down to Georgia). I blew through all the songs on Medium and have been struggling through Hard. Kelley is way better than me at the game, but I'm sure it will get many more hours of gameplay this year alone. Now I need to find a friend who has the game for Wii so we can figure out what co-op mode is like.
The other good thing about Guitar Hero is that you can fit it in to blow a few minutes when you have them, with no real time committment. I'll have more time for my other games now, but the past few weeks it's just been forcing it in wherever. As of this week, we have 15 games for the Wii, many of which I have not had a chance to fully get into. These include Super Mario Galaxy, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, and Zack and Wiki. All of those are the best games for the Wii, so we'll have to see how far I get through those during break. At least I've gotten good at Guitar Hero on Hard and beaten Super Paper Mario...
School has been kind of a constant drone in the background. Finally got the first and second accuracy checks finalized and made it through the third accuracy check for JDR. Now we are on final reads for Issue I (and II when we get to it), while Issue III is through the first steps. I was going to be diligent and get Issue I final reads done by mid-November, but I am just starting them this week. Securities class is now getting blown off in every regard, as I skim the readings and read the slides. Lots of friends apparently in the same boat for that class, so we'll need to pull it together. I made it through my last two days on call in Sales, and of course they were the first day after fall break and the day after Veteran's Day. Nice. It would be cool if she would send out the assignments in those cases before the evening before! At least that class is easy, but the multiple choice exam will be kind of random. International IP ended last week, and we'll have an exam in about a month. That should be easy enough, patent and copyright is interesting stuff. Seminar is done this Tuesday, but it has been essentially done for a couple weeks with both papers turned in and final presentations left. Despite writing each paper for Judge Sutton's two seminars in a day or two before it is due, I managed to get the same decent grade on all of them. Nice consistency. This seminar has been better though because all 20 of us are giving oral arguments on our assigned current SCOTUS cases with a devil's advocate giving the other side. C.J. and I actually managed to make a securities case manageable last week, and this week I get to explain my death penalty racial discrimination case (Snyder v Louisiana). The best so far was after Chad gave a very serious explanation of a voting 1st amendment case, Everson was his Devil's Advocate and dropped some absolutely hillarious lines in his rebuttal. Let's just say the opening was "The Romans threw Christians to the lions, and that's what is happening in this case because Washington is throwing political parties to the lions, destroying them." He also tied in Utah, putting cats and dogs in a room together for 2 days, and the Real Slim Shady. Some days, academic conversation needs a little humor. So two classes are all but finished (except for the IP final), and two others need to be cracked down on all of a sudden now that moot court is over. But more on that later.
So the Writer's Guild strike actually came about and all of a sudden we are facing a long winter of reality TV. Maybe that will be good for the country and we'll all go hang out at the gym. Or maybe not. It's really disappointing that 24 will not come back MLK weekend now due to the strike...the preview for Season 7 was amazing. No more CTU, and now Tony Almeida is back...apparently as a villain. This could be a return to greatness after the first disappointing season in series history. The only good fall shows we've found are Kitchen Nightmares based solely on Gordon Ramsey...and House of course. The House story arc leading into the holiday break has been fun, but now it's time to pick our 2-3 new doctors and get on with it. Clearly Foreman, Chase, and Cameron are staying on as a part of the series, so it should only get better with more characters in prominent roles. I've also grown attached to Don't Forget the Lyrics and Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, as well as Cash Cab. Game shows that require some general knowledge but not Jeopardy knowledge. Perfect to watch. Still, once House goes off the air it will get nice and redundant...Fox has to be salivating though as American Idol will dominate the airwaves even more than usual this year.
Bowling season ends this week with the finals, but we don't know who's in it and we don't really care. Our hopes for a title come down to the final semester, as we went into the playoffs as the second best team in the league (tied for first, but lost to them 2-1) and lost in the quarterfinals. Brodie had a serious cramp up in his neck and could barely throw the ball in the quarterfinals. Still, he did better than I did. Daniel carried the team game 1 and Kelley beat my scratch series for the first time ever. We bowled decent as a team but it did not matter because the team we faced bowled way over average. Still, we've entered the last three playoffs in 1st, 4th, and 2nd overall in a league of 24 teams (32 last year). In a real bowling league that would be successful because there are no playoffs...just the regular season. Fun times nonetheless, and hopefully we do better next semester. But much like moot court, it take s a little luck to match up in the playoffs with teams that are not bowling out of their minds that week. Brodie and Daniel came with the costumes this year, so that's what we are known for.
College Football has been crazy. The four games in a row were fun, including the road trip to PSU. A guy just randomly messaged me on the Buckeye Ticket Forum and got me a ticket in the Buckeye section for face value. He was a nice guy to hang out with in Happy Valley all day as well. The Beaver Stadium is very large and impressive, much more room than what we have in the Shoe or Michigan's Big House. The home schedule got a lot more interesting too, as Michigan State only lost by 7, Wisconsin led by 7 in the fourth quarter before surrendering 28 straight points, and Illinois shocked the Buckeyes. I'm a little upset that my last game as a student was a loss, but it seemed like the fate of 2001 when we lost our last home game to Illinois (the last time they were decent) and followed it up with a road win in Ann Arbor. Well of course the Buckeyes got that again this year, in the most impressive fashion. Michigan held under 100 yards total for first time in 50 years, Beanie Wells sets an OSU record against Michigan with 222 rushing yards, Mike Hart and Chad Henne stuffed terribly to go 0-4 in their careers against OSU, and Lloyd Carr retiring after being the first Michigan coach to lose 6 out of 7 to OSU and the third to lose 4 in a row. It will be interesting to see how the rivalry goes under a new Michigan coach. I did get a press pass to the WVU-Louisville game, and that was quite the experience. Sitting with a bunch of local newspaper writers and NFL scouts is something else, especially in a climate controlled pressbox with a buffet. Morgantown is a great college town and I loved that first trip to see a game there. Now that the Buckeyes are in the clubhouse at 11-1, the Rose bowl is certain while another BCS Championship game is possible with one more big upset of LSU or WVU (assuming the Big XII is won by Oklahoma). It's been a great 7 years as a Buckeye student. 1 National Title, 5 BCS Bowls, 2-3 National Title Game appearances, 4-2 bowl record, 6-1 Michigan record, 4 Big Ten titles and 3 in a row during law school. Absolutely awesome. Living in Cincinnati will allow us to continue to follow our favorite team, which is good because Cincinnati Bengals football blows. Enough said.
Sportswriting still going well. By all means, see my articles weekly at www.southerncollegesports.com. This week I explained why Tim Tebow should win the Heisman, and the argument would be a lot easier now that Dennis Dixon of Oregon is out for the season. But you can read that at your own leisure...
Work has been decent when I get a chance to go down there. I've been set up permanently at a "law clerk desk" which Jim Carey works at on Tuesdays while I come in for R-F some weeks. The assignments have been OK this fall, not as good as summer but it is hard to do time-sensitive stuff when you are only there periodicially. All 5 of the new class of associates passed the Ohio Bar, so that was great news. No OSU 3L's made it through interview season with another offer from WHE, but the two 2L's I heavily supported got offers. I know one person declined and the other is debating, but I hope he decides to spend next summer there. The firm is the best IP firm in Ohio, hands down. It's a good place to be.
All of a sudden, I have time again. No more bowling, football Saturdays, moot court, seminar, IP class, etc. JDR final reads and finals. Anybody want to go out for a drink?
So I've left out moot court, but I think everything else has been covered effectively. I've got a fair bit to say about this past weekend, but it is getting late and so I'll write tomorrow evening. I know my moot court teammates are on pins and needles waiting to see if I bash them thoroughly like the last time I went on a Moot Court trip, but this will not happen. The story is still pretty funny and needs to be told when I can tell it well, so come back tomorrow for that one. See you then (all 10 of you readers, and that's just because 5 of you are my moot court teammates!)
Oh and in case you were wondering, the title of tomorrow's article will not be something generic like "Bowling Semifinals and Gibbons Weekend." No, it will be far greater than that. It will be The Shining Jewel of Crowning Ignorance. And when that's the theme of the weekend, you know it was fun.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
It's all tied together...
Moot court competition is this weekend. Last year's moot court competition used Saved by the Bell characters, and I was trying to prove AC Slater was nuts so he did not get the death penalty. Then I come across this gem right before this year's competition:
Guys this is probably the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me. I was at my girlfriend’s house tonight for dinner, and shortly after I had to go #2. My Gf's brother was in the downstairs bathroom, so I went upstairs to use the master bathroom. I was about to take a dump, and I remembered something my friend told me called AC Slatering. AC Slatering is when you take a dump facing backwards on the toilet, just how on saved by the bell AC Slater always sat backwards on a chair. So when I was taking a dump, my stomach was facing the back of the toilet, and my back was facing the door. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and began to get nervous. Since AC Slatering is a tough position to get into, it requires taking off your pants. So there I am sitting in my GF's parent’s bathroom taking a dump with my pants off and facing the wrong way on the toilet. My dump was about halfway out when the footsteps became closer. I then turned around to see that I had not locked the door. Trying to finish as quickly as I could, I began pushing harder and harder. Suddenly, the door opened, and my gf's mom stood there in shock staring at me. We made eye contact for a split second, and I was so embarrassed I wanted to die. I quickly finished up, got dressed, and ran out of the house as quickly as I could. I am expecting my gf to break up with me tomorrow. I am so embarrassed and I hope my gf doesn’t blabber about this, Ill die if anyone else finds out.”
Wow. AC Slater is nuts. But not as nuts as someone who forgets to lock the bathroom door in these circumstances. I think finding this story is a good sign for this year's moot court competition. Don't ask me how...it just feels good. Much like I'm sure AC Slatering feels good.
Guys this is probably the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me. I was at my girlfriend’s house tonight for dinner, and shortly after I had to go #2. My Gf's brother was in the downstairs bathroom, so I went upstairs to use the master bathroom. I was about to take a dump, and I remembered something my friend told me called AC Slatering. AC Slatering is when you take a dump facing backwards on the toilet, just how on saved by the bell AC Slater always sat backwards on a chair. So when I was taking a dump, my stomach was facing the back of the toilet, and my back was facing the door. I heard footsteps coming up the stairs, and began to get nervous. Since AC Slatering is a tough position to get into, it requires taking off your pants. So there I am sitting in my GF's parent’s bathroom taking a dump with my pants off and facing the wrong way on the toilet. My dump was about halfway out when the footsteps became closer. I then turned around to see that I had not locked the door. Trying to finish as quickly as I could, I began pushing harder and harder. Suddenly, the door opened, and my gf's mom stood there in shock staring at me. We made eye contact for a split second, and I was so embarrassed I wanted to die. I quickly finished up, got dressed, and ran out of the house as quickly as I could. I am expecting my gf to break up with me tomorrow. I am so embarrassed and I hope my gf doesn’t blabber about this, Ill die if anyone else finds out.”
Wow. AC Slater is nuts. But not as nuts as someone who forgets to lock the bathroom door in these circumstances. I think finding this story is a good sign for this year's moot court competition. Don't ask me how...it just feels good. Much like I'm sure AC Slatering feels good.
Monday, October 29, 2007
National TV
Went to the Penn State-OSU game this weekend. Fun times as we bash them 37-17. Went to watch taping of Gameday Final on ESPN afterwards, and got on TV for about 0.3 seconds. It's at the beginning of the video in the post below. For your convenience, here's a screenshot.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Back from Vacation
An update...simply because I'm sitting in Securities class listening to another fascinating discussion of the only case worth mentioning that ever came out on Section 11 liability, the bowling alley case. Funny how we always do this one on a Wednesday. Bowling night tonight should be fun, as we get into the stretch run before the playoffs. We are 13-2 after five weeks and should probably have the playoffs locked up tonight if not already. Then it is all a game of week to week luck.
Interestingly enough, the baseball playoffs have been going pretty much as I envisioned, with the glaring exception that the Cubs did not make win a game, let alone make it into the NLCS. The Rockies are on some kind of roll, and I think it will be interesting seeing them face a team with far superior hitting and pitching (both the Indians and the Red Sox are just better). Go with the underdog though, as the Rockies are just too hot to lose the Series.
I do not know how I still have a winning record in my game of the week picks on Southern College Sports. I'm 13-11 now which is far worse than other seasons but given how half the Top 10 teams have been losing every week, it's too unpredictable. I should have an article up later today which is one of my better ones this season. Two weeks ago I wrote an absolute monster around working on my moot court brief and seminar paper, but then last week was a short one due to vacation. I'm hoping the PSU-OSU press credential comes through later this week, but the WVU-Louisville game is still out there waiting for a response. At least I've got a press pass for Ohio University's finale against Miami (OH)...never would have guessed the team fighting for a MAC title in that game would be the RedHawks, but that's how it looks now. In any event, I'm planning on going to the next 4 Buckeye games after missing the past 3 (2 road games and Kent State due to vacation). I'd like to be confident that the Buckeyes could take care of their schedule and keep that #1 ranking they have now, but in this season it should surprise nobody that I still think we lose somewhere.
The Big Ten actually might have 8-9 bowl eligible teams for their 7 spots this year, which is a flip from the past 3 years where the Big Ten got 2 BCS bowls and only had 6-7 bowl eligible teams (leaving 1-2 bowl spots open for others). Here's guessing those conferences jumping in on the Big Ten's spots the past few years don't open up spots for teams like Northwestern and Indiana this year. There are currently an astounding seven teams at 5-2 (Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn State, Indiana, Michigan St, Purdue) and each of them will likely join the Buckeyes as bowl eligible. Even Northwestern at 4-3 and Iowa at 3-4 are threats to get to 6 wins, so this should be an interesting back half of the Big Ten schedule. Every team left on OSU's schedule is 5-2, but the teams couldn't be more different. I have about 98% confidence the Bucks win at home against a team like Michigan State, but only about 35% confidence that we can escape Happy Valley next weekend with a win.
Wouldn't it just be great is the Buckeyes played against BC or USF for the title? It will not happen but we can dream while those teams remain undefeated behind us.
Vacation was nice, until the drive home! The cruise was so much better than three years ago, highlights being no jellyfish infesting all beaches this time, sunny skies, smooth seas, nothing boarded up in Nassau, etc. Added another HRC bear to the collection, and this one is the most different so far (bright green bird jump suit on a bear, it's interesting). It was so great to absolutely not think about law school in any meaningful way for 7 days, but it was not to last. There just is nothing better than an all-inclusive resort/casino/etc on the high seas. It would be nice to actually get some friends to go with next time, so we'll have to start bugging them to save up some money sooner rather than later.
The drive home was going well until Virginia. Virginia is 66 miles long on I-77, ending in a tunnel to West Virginia. We stopped at mile marker 56. Three hours later we'd finally moved ten miles and went through the tunnel (pushed down to one lane), and it appeared there was no reason. WTF Virginia and West Virginia? But whatever, got back at 4 AM, got awake the next day and turned in the mooot court brief on time. So that's that. Back to the grind, class is over.
Interestingly enough, the baseball playoffs have been going pretty much as I envisioned, with the glaring exception that the Cubs did not make win a game, let alone make it into the NLCS. The Rockies are on some kind of roll, and I think it will be interesting seeing them face a team with far superior hitting and pitching (both the Indians and the Red Sox are just better). Go with the underdog though, as the Rockies are just too hot to lose the Series.
I do not know how I still have a winning record in my game of the week picks on Southern College Sports. I'm 13-11 now which is far worse than other seasons but given how half the Top 10 teams have been losing every week, it's too unpredictable. I should have an article up later today which is one of my better ones this season. Two weeks ago I wrote an absolute monster around working on my moot court brief and seminar paper, but then last week was a short one due to vacation. I'm hoping the PSU-OSU press credential comes through later this week, but the WVU-Louisville game is still out there waiting for a response. At least I've got a press pass for Ohio University's finale against Miami (OH)...never would have guessed the team fighting for a MAC title in that game would be the RedHawks, but that's how it looks now. In any event, I'm planning on going to the next 4 Buckeye games after missing the past 3 (2 road games and Kent State due to vacation). I'd like to be confident that the Buckeyes could take care of their schedule and keep that #1 ranking they have now, but in this season it should surprise nobody that I still think we lose somewhere.
The Big Ten actually might have 8-9 bowl eligible teams for their 7 spots this year, which is a flip from the past 3 years where the Big Ten got 2 BCS bowls and only had 6-7 bowl eligible teams (leaving 1-2 bowl spots open for others). Here's guessing those conferences jumping in on the Big Ten's spots the past few years don't open up spots for teams like Northwestern and Indiana this year. There are currently an astounding seven teams at 5-2 (Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Penn State, Indiana, Michigan St, Purdue) and each of them will likely join the Buckeyes as bowl eligible. Even Northwestern at 4-3 and Iowa at 3-4 are threats to get to 6 wins, so this should be an interesting back half of the Big Ten schedule. Every team left on OSU's schedule is 5-2, but the teams couldn't be more different. I have about 98% confidence the Bucks win at home against a team like Michigan State, but only about 35% confidence that we can escape Happy Valley next weekend with a win.
Wouldn't it just be great is the Buckeyes played against BC or USF for the title? It will not happen but we can dream while those teams remain undefeated behind us.
Vacation was nice, until the drive home! The cruise was so much better than three years ago, highlights being no jellyfish infesting all beaches this time, sunny skies, smooth seas, nothing boarded up in Nassau, etc. Added another HRC bear to the collection, and this one is the most different so far (bright green bird jump suit on a bear, it's interesting). It was so great to absolutely not think about law school in any meaningful way for 7 days, but it was not to last. There just is nothing better than an all-inclusive resort/casino/etc on the high seas. It would be nice to actually get some friends to go with next time, so we'll have to start bugging them to save up some money sooner rather than later.
The drive home was going well until Virginia. Virginia is 66 miles long on I-77, ending in a tunnel to West Virginia. We stopped at mile marker 56. Three hours later we'd finally moved ten miles and went through the tunnel (pushed down to one lane), and it appeared there was no reason. WTF Virginia and West Virginia? But whatever, got back at 4 AM, got awake the next day and turned in the mooot court brief on time. So that's that. Back to the grind, class is over.
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
A long awaited update
Well it's been far too long, but I feel that I must write before vacation and I'm having writer's block on the moot court brief again. We are already into Week 7 of the school year and much has happened since the last time I wrote. Let's start with school...
Classes are whoop-de-doo fun. Securities is hard to read for anymore but still better than Sales. I hope I can sludge through Securities like I did in BA, but it seems like so much statutory material every week to outline. Might have to start early. Rose is an awesome professor though, and his auction for money envelopes was classic good stuff. Sales class makes me dumber every time, but we have to go because of the enforced attendance policy. Seeing some Creola Johnson questions on quizzes also indicates that her all multiple choice test will be a nightmare. All this for bar prep or remedial contracts...at least I have many friends in there suffering with me. International IP is the highlight of my reading for each week, especially since we are starting the patent half of the class this week. Copyright was OK too, but I'm happy to be moving back into my field again. Lee is good as always. I guess Mike the new IPLS president is passing around a petition to get the school to run a patent drafting class next semester. I do not know if I can sign it in good faith because that class does not seem useful to me now that I'm working part time and learning how to do it for WHE on the job (which is all that matters for the future, not some academic notion of perfection). Finally we have Seminar, and as usual I am happy keeping the same grade on the first paper this semester as I got in all my assignments for him last year (when over half the class serves on boards of the top 3 journals at the school, it's tough to stay in the median let alone on the top). Judge Sutton is the absolute bomb, and I cannot wait to have him grill us national teams for moot court class later in the semester.
Speaking of moot court, hopefully the Michigan game is another 3:30 or 4:00 kick this year as we should be done with our preliminary rounds on Saturday by 3 in Cleveland. Our team has had a bit of bad luck with computers...as I have wireless problems slowing my process, Tom had half of one side of his computer ripped out by a would-be computer thief, and Lee's laptop actually has been stolen. Crazy times...not even a lock stopped this thief. We are slogging through the brief and will hopefully be done before I go cruising. The topic is a good one, with the first issue being whether the 2nd amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms, and the second issue being federal premeption of state laws. I am doing the preemption issue and will be doing both the argument for premeption on both sides. It's quite a bit less sexy than the second amendment, but I like the challenge. Journal is going OK, as we finally got the Pope article today (3 weeks late) and we will move seamlessly from the end of the first acc-checks to the second round for Issue III two weeks after fall break. Thankfully the administrative duties of my job will slow significantly after October as I only have 1 more acc-check to prepare and then the 2L notes to read and grade. Everything else will now move to the substantive portion of my job, that being final reads and publishing. More work for me, but it's all stuff I can do at my leisure thank God.
Well Kelley got fired from the church job because they found someone eight months early. Whatever. Her last week was a hymn sing this past Sunday and it was nice to hear her play so many songs one last time on the old pipe organ. Maybe she will take up a little more piano at the house now...I think she's hoping to get on at COSI with Sarah, where she will get more hours than she is getting from the daycare job. Plus she hates that job. Sarah is finally moving out late this month as she bought a condo across town. Will be absolutely lovely to have all the space and home office back for sure. I do a lot of work at school in my office, but for writing papers and home work I like to have a place to get away not consisting of my comfy chair and our bed. I'm also working most weeks R-F down in Cincinnati. OSU callbacks are going on now and Laura came through last Thursday while I was there, some other guy on Friday, Dave L. went today and Keith will be down there with me on Thursday. It's greedy but I really want Dave and either Keith or Laura to receive and accept offers there...I want coworkers I know from my school days! I'm just now getting back into the swing of things at work and getting more efficient. The money is good and necessary until Kelley gets back on her feet but really I'm just glad for the break from school life. Plus it is nice to build up a repertoire with the work friends before getting there full-time.
Bowling is off to a great start. We've already bowled against Aaron's team and Bart's team in the first four weeks, and we lead the division with a 10-2 record. Hopefully things will keep up but I do not think we will need much more to make the playoffs this semester. Then it's all a luckfest from there. Ohio State football swept through the joke schedule of September and is now #4 ranked. We'll see how appropriate that rank is with the tough roadie at Purdue this weekend. I wrote perhaps my longest non-preview article ever this week because I just had lots to write about, so feel free to scoot on over to southerncollegesports and check it out. In TV Solitary ended this week and I can only hope for Solitary 3.0! House is back and looks to be quite entertaining as House cuts through 40 interns to find 3 apprentices to replace Chase, Cameron, and Foreman. I think we will continue to get the occassional appearance by Chase and Cameron also, so perhaps not all is lost and changing in House world. It's the only thing to sustain us until 24 and Lost come back.
We watched the premiere of Cavemen tonight. That was quite possibly the worst pilot I've ever seen. Just outright BORING the whole way through and not very funny. I had bet that the show would be awful, but I figured it would at least be novel and funny for a couple weeks. Oh well.
Baseball playoffs start tomorrow night, and boy what a finish in the National League. Anyways, here are my predictions sure to go wrong as always!
Chicago Cubs over Arizona Diamondbacks in 4
Colorado Rockies over Philadelphia Phillies in 5
Boston Red Sox over Los Angeles Angels in 3
Cleveland over New York Yankees in 5
Colorado Rockies over Chicago Cubs in 6
Boston Red Sox over Cleveland Indians in 7
Boston Red Sox over Colorado Rockies in 5
Wouldn't it be sweet if the Indians played against the Rockies in a super low-budget market world series, or the Indians against the Cubs in a battle for one team to end a LONG world series drought. Probably will not happen, but we can hope.
Well hey I cannot think of anything else to speak of and it is getting late, so it must be time to wrap this entry up. Cruise to Bahamas and out of the country next week, so probably will not update until middle of the week 2 weeks from now at the earliest. Have a good fall break law school people and everyone else, see you next time.
Classes are whoop-de-doo fun. Securities is hard to read for anymore but still better than Sales. I hope I can sludge through Securities like I did in BA, but it seems like so much statutory material every week to outline. Might have to start early. Rose is an awesome professor though, and his auction for money envelopes was classic good stuff. Sales class makes me dumber every time, but we have to go because of the enforced attendance policy. Seeing some Creola Johnson questions on quizzes also indicates that her all multiple choice test will be a nightmare. All this for bar prep or remedial contracts...at least I have many friends in there suffering with me. International IP is the highlight of my reading for each week, especially since we are starting the patent half of the class this week. Copyright was OK too, but I'm happy to be moving back into my field again. Lee is good as always. I guess Mike the new IPLS president is passing around a petition to get the school to run a patent drafting class next semester. I do not know if I can sign it in good faith because that class does not seem useful to me now that I'm working part time and learning how to do it for WHE on the job (which is all that matters for the future, not some academic notion of perfection). Finally we have Seminar, and as usual I am happy keeping the same grade on the first paper this semester as I got in all my assignments for him last year (when over half the class serves on boards of the top 3 journals at the school, it's tough to stay in the median let alone on the top). Judge Sutton is the absolute bomb, and I cannot wait to have him grill us national teams for moot court class later in the semester.
Speaking of moot court, hopefully the Michigan game is another 3:30 or 4:00 kick this year as we should be done with our preliminary rounds on Saturday by 3 in Cleveland. Our team has had a bit of bad luck with computers...as I have wireless problems slowing my process, Tom had half of one side of his computer ripped out by a would-be computer thief, and Lee's laptop actually has been stolen. Crazy times...not even a lock stopped this thief. We are slogging through the brief and will hopefully be done before I go cruising. The topic is a good one, with the first issue being whether the 2nd amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms, and the second issue being federal premeption of state laws. I am doing the preemption issue and will be doing both the argument for premeption on both sides. It's quite a bit less sexy than the second amendment, but I like the challenge. Journal is going OK, as we finally got the Pope article today (3 weeks late) and we will move seamlessly from the end of the first acc-checks to the second round for Issue III two weeks after fall break. Thankfully the administrative duties of my job will slow significantly after October as I only have 1 more acc-check to prepare and then the 2L notes to read and grade. Everything else will now move to the substantive portion of my job, that being final reads and publishing. More work for me, but it's all stuff I can do at my leisure thank God.
Well Kelley got fired from the church job because they found someone eight months early. Whatever. Her last week was a hymn sing this past Sunday and it was nice to hear her play so many songs one last time on the old pipe organ. Maybe she will take up a little more piano at the house now...I think she's hoping to get on at COSI with Sarah, where she will get more hours than she is getting from the daycare job. Plus she hates that job. Sarah is finally moving out late this month as she bought a condo across town. Will be absolutely lovely to have all the space and home office back for sure. I do a lot of work at school in my office, but for writing papers and home work I like to have a place to get away not consisting of my comfy chair and our bed. I'm also working most weeks R-F down in Cincinnati. OSU callbacks are going on now and Laura came through last Thursday while I was there, some other guy on Friday, Dave L. went today and Keith will be down there with me on Thursday. It's greedy but I really want Dave and either Keith or Laura to receive and accept offers there...I want coworkers I know from my school days! I'm just now getting back into the swing of things at work and getting more efficient. The money is good and necessary until Kelley gets back on her feet but really I'm just glad for the break from school life. Plus it is nice to build up a repertoire with the work friends before getting there full-time.
Bowling is off to a great start. We've already bowled against Aaron's team and Bart's team in the first four weeks, and we lead the division with a 10-2 record. Hopefully things will keep up but I do not think we will need much more to make the playoffs this semester. Then it's all a luckfest from there. Ohio State football swept through the joke schedule of September and is now #4 ranked. We'll see how appropriate that rank is with the tough roadie at Purdue this weekend. I wrote perhaps my longest non-preview article ever this week because I just had lots to write about, so feel free to scoot on over to southerncollegesports and check it out. In TV Solitary ended this week and I can only hope for Solitary 3.0! House is back and looks to be quite entertaining as House cuts through 40 interns to find 3 apprentices to replace Chase, Cameron, and Foreman. I think we will continue to get the occassional appearance by Chase and Cameron also, so perhaps not all is lost and changing in House world. It's the only thing to sustain us until 24 and Lost come back.
We watched the premiere of Cavemen tonight. That was quite possibly the worst pilot I've ever seen. Just outright BORING the whole way through and not very funny. I had bet that the show would be awful, but I figured it would at least be novel and funny for a couple weeks. Oh well.
Baseball playoffs start tomorrow night, and boy what a finish in the National League. Anyways, here are my predictions sure to go wrong as always!
Chicago Cubs over Arizona Diamondbacks in 4
Colorado Rockies over Philadelphia Phillies in 5
Boston Red Sox over Los Angeles Angels in 3
Cleveland over New York Yankees in 5
Colorado Rockies over Chicago Cubs in 6
Boston Red Sox over Cleveland Indians in 7
Boston Red Sox over Colorado Rockies in 5
Wouldn't it be sweet if the Indians played against the Rockies in a super low-budget market world series, or the Indians against the Cubs in a battle for one team to end a LONG world series drought. Probably will not happen, but we can hope.
Well hey I cannot think of anything else to speak of and it is getting late, so it must be time to wrap this entry up. Cruise to Bahamas and out of the country next week, so probably will not update until middle of the week 2 weeks from now at the earliest. Have a good fall break law school people and everyone else, see you next time.
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Getting into the flow...
The second week of classes and school went down a little smoother than the first. Of course there was the complication of Kelley going out of town to Wisconsin all week, but now she's back as of tonight and we have a full house again. Her cousin Stephanie got married right before us last year and had twins in October of last year, and now she'll be raising them by herself for a while because her husband died. It's a very sad situation, but Stephanie has a lot of good family supporting her if she needs them. Kelley said it put here in a real tough spot emotionally because the family kept bringing up our recent news and success (accepting the job offer in Cincinnati, which will make her "the rich cousin") and she felt guilty about that coming up when everyone was so sad about the death. It sounded like the whole week was absolutely awful, but hopefully things get back to normal again now that she's home.
On the home front the classes for week 2 were a tad more interesting than those of week 1 (getting through with review type materials and starting to hit some more meaty classes). Securities keeps me about half interested, International IP is a great class, Seminar has the same interesting discussions, and Sales looked better after this week because we will have on-call lists. I'm up on 9-11, so we'll see how bad I can answer questions then. Found out what weeks of the school year I'll be busy with Seminar and moot court, and I'm a little pissed about Moot Court. Last year it was Barrister's Ball and Kelley's Birthday...so I picked National to avoid the spring only to end up having competition on the Saturday and Sunday of OSU-Michigan weekend. Which means my streak of 6 straight OSU-scUM games is over, but hey it was a nice run (5-1 and 3 Big Ten titles clinched against the Wolverines). The guys on my team seem like good guys and everything I hear about them is positive, so there should be no repeat unfortunate experiences. We will be at Case Western for our regional in the national competition as well, so much better than the early rumors of Akron or last year's which was at Moritz. Brief writing will start in a week or two I think so it will be time to get going on that. You better believe I will have my pocket radio with me on moot court Saturday...as I don't want to hear about the Michigan game from anyone other than the radio guys. Got a DVR this week which is ironic as I might have ordered one after finding this out just to record the big game. It's bery nice not having to set a VCR anymore.
Speaking of the Buckeyes, went to the home opener for the second year in a row on Saturday. Went with stepdad-in-law because obviously Kelley needed to give her ticket to someone, and it was his first ever college or pro football game live. I gave him a similar experience to what I got for my first ever OSU game, as we woke up early enough to go to the Buckeye Bob tailgate for a little over an hour before trekking to the stadium. Most of the usual crew were there including David Way, Paul, Doug, Dan, etc. Talked to Bob about the offer in Cincinnati and the last year of school, and he says he can still feel the anxiety for others taking the bar exam every July (despite being 25 years removed from that this year). It's funny that due to David Way and my mom working together for so long that I got hooked into one of the best group of tailgaters at OSU and a group of attorneys at that. They are limiting the number of times students can go to the Moritz tailgates to 2 this year, and Kelley and I may only make it to one of those (next week against Akron). Good for the breakfast food type tailgates and noon games, but I'd rather go to Bob's on most occassions. The new field turf looks sharp in the stadium, but the endzones and the block O at midfield being bright scarlet takes a little getting used to. It was hotter in the stadium than I ever remember, but it was OK because humidity was very low for Ohio. They say it got up to 140 degrees on the field turf because that rubber sucks in heat. In any event, I'm looking a little like Two-Face from Batman movies right now because right right side of my face and neck is sunburnt while the left side is not at all. Go figure. The Buckeyes look like a pretty good defensive unit this season, and the offense should be good by the time the big games roll around. The game that worries me is Purdue, as I do not know if we can win a shootout and Purdue has one of the best offensive units in the Big Ten. Definitely hoping that press credential comes in for the Penn State game now, as the Purdue game is Burton's wedding and the Michigan game now is Moot Court. Should be a good season no matter how it goes, but I've got my sights on a one-loss Rose Bowl year.
Not too much to speak of during the long weekend, although I did pick up a few good DVD sets for our collection and viewing pleasure. Ghostbusters 1 and 2 gift set is on serious sale right now at Best Buy and Target if you want those, but everything else was used stuff (seasons of House, Boston Legal, Mind of Mencia, and the Godfather trilogy were the vast majority of what I bought). Spent good time with Everson and David Lee, and now I've seen firsthand what a beautiful thing Brodie vs. Everson is on the Dr. Mario game. If you've ever seen Brodie bowl, it's pretty much the same...except in front of a TV. Also had a live fantasy football draft after the game Saturday at Panini's with Aaron and some other law school guys. Some guys did not show which was disappointing, but we got it all hammered out and my team seems pretty acceptable. I sacrificed my QB position to have higher quality RB, WR, and DEF. So my question to you is this...should I start Romo or Vince Young this week? That will be the the question of the week every week for my fantasy team.
Well it's getting late and I have some work to do on Labor Day (reading to do for this week's classes and my weekly SCS article among other things), so time for me to get off to bed. Short week this week with Labor Day giving us only 2 days of classes, but next weekend is another home game, Sternwheeler fireworks, and preparing second round acc-checks for the staffers so a busy time all around. Also time to make final substantive revisions on my student note. Fun! We'll see you next week if not before.
On the home front the classes for week 2 were a tad more interesting than those of week 1 (getting through with review type materials and starting to hit some more meaty classes). Securities keeps me about half interested, International IP is a great class, Seminar has the same interesting discussions, and Sales looked better after this week because we will have on-call lists. I'm up on 9-11, so we'll see how bad I can answer questions then. Found out what weeks of the school year I'll be busy with Seminar and moot court, and I'm a little pissed about Moot Court. Last year it was Barrister's Ball and Kelley's Birthday...so I picked National to avoid the spring only to end up having competition on the Saturday and Sunday of OSU-Michigan weekend. Which means my streak of 6 straight OSU-scUM games is over, but hey it was a nice run (5-1 and 3 Big Ten titles clinched against the Wolverines). The guys on my team seem like good guys and everything I hear about them is positive, so there should be no repeat unfortunate experiences. We will be at Case Western for our regional in the national competition as well, so much better than the early rumors of Akron or last year's which was at Moritz. Brief writing will start in a week or two I think so it will be time to get going on that. You better believe I will have my pocket radio with me on moot court Saturday...as I don't want to hear about the Michigan game from anyone other than the radio guys. Got a DVR this week which is ironic as I might have ordered one after finding this out just to record the big game. It's bery nice not having to set a VCR anymore.
Speaking of the Buckeyes, went to the home opener for the second year in a row on Saturday. Went with stepdad-in-law because obviously Kelley needed to give her ticket to someone, and it was his first ever college or pro football game live. I gave him a similar experience to what I got for my first ever OSU game, as we woke up early enough to go to the Buckeye Bob tailgate for a little over an hour before trekking to the stadium. Most of the usual crew were there including David Way, Paul, Doug, Dan, etc. Talked to Bob about the offer in Cincinnati and the last year of school, and he says he can still feel the anxiety for others taking the bar exam every July (despite being 25 years removed from that this year). It's funny that due to David Way and my mom working together for so long that I got hooked into one of the best group of tailgaters at OSU and a group of attorneys at that. They are limiting the number of times students can go to the Moritz tailgates to 2 this year, and Kelley and I may only make it to one of those (next week against Akron). Good for the breakfast food type tailgates and noon games, but I'd rather go to Bob's on most occassions. The new field turf looks sharp in the stadium, but the endzones and the block O at midfield being bright scarlet takes a little getting used to. It was hotter in the stadium than I ever remember, but it was OK because humidity was very low for Ohio. They say it got up to 140 degrees on the field turf because that rubber sucks in heat. In any event, I'm looking a little like Two-Face from Batman movies right now because right right side of my face and neck is sunburnt while the left side is not at all. Go figure. The Buckeyes look like a pretty good defensive unit this season, and the offense should be good by the time the big games roll around. The game that worries me is Purdue, as I do not know if we can win a shootout and Purdue has one of the best offensive units in the Big Ten. Definitely hoping that press credential comes in for the Penn State game now, as the Purdue game is Burton's wedding and the Michigan game now is Moot Court. Should be a good season no matter how it goes, but I've got my sights on a one-loss Rose Bowl year.
Not too much to speak of during the long weekend, although I did pick up a few good DVD sets for our collection and viewing pleasure. Ghostbusters 1 and 2 gift set is on serious sale right now at Best Buy and Target if you want those, but everything else was used stuff (seasons of House, Boston Legal, Mind of Mencia, and the Godfather trilogy were the vast majority of what I bought). Spent good time with Everson and David Lee, and now I've seen firsthand what a beautiful thing Brodie vs. Everson is on the Dr. Mario game. If you've ever seen Brodie bowl, it's pretty much the same...except in front of a TV. Also had a live fantasy football draft after the game Saturday at Panini's with Aaron and some other law school guys. Some guys did not show which was disappointing, but we got it all hammered out and my team seems pretty acceptable. I sacrificed my QB position to have higher quality RB, WR, and DEF. So my question to you is this...should I start Romo or Vince Young this week? That will be the the question of the week every week for my fantasy team.
Well it's getting late and I have some work to do on Labor Day (reading to do for this week's classes and my weekly SCS article among other things), so time for me to get off to bed. Short week this week with Labor Day giving us only 2 days of classes, but next weekend is another home game, Sternwheeler fireworks, and preparing second round acc-checks for the staffers so a busy time all around. Also time to make final substantive revisions on my student note. Fun! We'll see you next week if not before.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Top Nintendo Entertainment System Games
The original, the best. Here we are on Friday and we finally come back to the NES and a top 15 games for it. There were around 700 games for the system and given Nintendo's strict licensing and control systems...that was a remarkable number of games and variety. Without further ado,
15. The Adventure of Link - This game may not have made the list until the past couple of years when I got on a quest to beat a lot of older games I could not stand or be good at as a kid. While I still believe it was a huge mistake to change Zelda to a completely different style of game, the game is pretty well done for what it is. Zelda 2 also happens to be one of the hardest games in Nintendo history because the controls were kind of tough to get good at consistently.
14. TMNT 2: The Arcade Game - Like Street Fighter for the SNES, TMNT 2 stole many quarters from me and others in the arcade era. TMNT 2 is not a great single-player game, but partying with one other player (or 3 others in the arcade) was what made the game awesome. How can you beat finally giving Shredder the heave-ho as well? The only thing keeping this game out of the top 10 was the fact that on the NEW you couldn't play with 4 turtles at once.
13. Galaga - While this game may have been much more cool back in the arcade or back on the atari, the space invader battle game was simple enough to get good at and challenging enough to keep players coming back for more. There's nothing like the outbursts you have when your double-ship gets plowed by kamikaze alien forces or you mess up when trying to make a double ship. Sometimes the most simple games are the best.
12. Dr. Mario - This game is another that might suffer from me not being introduced to it until recently. I had originally thought this was a Nintendo knockoff of Tetris, but the game is an amazing 2-player battle which Tetris did not offer. You can up the intensity and handicap the players, all aspects of making a tetris-type game into something even better. This game is reaching legendary status on our bowling team.
11. Metroid - Again just recently playing this game, but the game that started the Metroid series in 1985 is amazingly well-designed. The gameplay is simple and challenging, but all the power-ups and add-ons (missiles, morph ball mode, etc.) that are so amazing when done in 3D in the Prime series were thought up in 1985 for the 2D original. It's actually amazing there were not more of these games over time, but we will always have the original thanks to downloading it on the Wii.
10. Marble Madness - While I realize that I'm in the severe minority by putting this "stupid marble race game" above games like Metroid, this is a game I've always been fascinated with. It is a successful concept too as Super Monkey Ball ran with it on the GCN and just this month there's a Marble Madness type race game on the Wii. While there are only 6-7 levels and they are easily memorized, the game is still challenging to get through today. What really made the game was the 2-player race mode.
9. Disney's Adventure of the Magic Kingdom - There were a couple of kiddy games that ended up being really good for the NES (Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers being the other), but this game had it all and then some. Not only did this game make fun battles out of 6 of the most famous DisneyWorld rides, it remains challenging today. The variety in the games was also refreshing.
8. Tecmo Super Bowl - If there's one thing you can see from my game collection, I love playing sports games and always have. Unfortunately they get dated every single year by the newest and updated version, and old system sports games fade into obscurity when looking at the top games in retrospect. This game breaks from that mold though and was the absolute shit back in the day. The quintessential football game on the NES remains playable and fun today.
7. Super Mario Bros. - I've seen this game on the top of many NES lists, but these people are simply delusional in my opinion. This game is great, but it was just the beginning on the NES. The game has lots of replay value, but you do get so good at it eventually that it is not really challenging. This is still the game that hooked us all into the revolution of gaming that was Nintendo and the lovable plumber platformers. Our princess is indeed in another (later) castle on this system.
6. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out - Whether it is Mr. Dream or Mike Tyson, this game is the only real good boxing game until the Wii allowed us all to actually punch and dodge. While Glass Joe and Soda Popinsky are some of the biggest jokes ever, learning how to combat and getting good at beating fighters with great special moves like Bald Bull, King Hippo, and the dude with the turban and tiger was a tough challenge and fun at the same time. This game also kind of channels the spirit of Rocky movies in my opinion...in any event beating on boxers was always a great way to let off steam on the NES.
5. Final Fantasy - One of the more disappointing yet awesome moments of the past 4 years was when my dad found a sealed copy of this game at a yard sale. Yes sealed. Yes a yard sale. Absolutely unbelievable, as there might not be 25 other sealed copies of this game in existence. What was disappointing was he broke the seal wrap and tried the game out, not liking it and giving it to me. Well I was happy to have the box and book and everything in mint condition, but still...this is the RPG that blew open the RPG market. Good characters and varied gameplay allowed this classic to spawn the most famous series of games in the past 20 years.
4. The Magic of Scheherazade - While Final Fantasy gets all the credit and deservedly so, this RPG was actually the only one I got into back in the NES days. This little hardly known gem was certainly one of the best games on the NES as far as gameplay and depth and difficulty go. There was also plenty of comedic value in pissing off the shopkeepers by making low offers on their goods multiple times until they kicked you out of their store. The title of the game is nearly unspellable and copies of the game are damn near impossible to find now, but it's worth it if you ever see one.
3. Tetris - From Russia With Fun. This play on the famous movie title really was fun as the Cold War was just beginning to wrap up. This Russian block dropping game was so addictive and fun (the Sudoku of its days for you young kids out there) that it actually led to worried companies because worker productivity was down due to people playing this game obsessively. The only downside was no 2 player mode, but the game is still iconic and good enough to overcome that.
2. Super Mario Bros. 3 - This game was the most expensive and hard-to-get game in NES history because Nintendo hyped up the release and did the worst of their short stocking of stores for this game. It was still worth the $65-70 dollars retail stores demanded for it (after this game Nintendo went to a $50 price for everything that has not changed in 20 years and is now pretty affordable). This update of the classic SMB platformer had better graphics, more items, inventive levels, and nice controls and music. The thing that keeps this game super-playable though is the fact that you can play it in a co-op 2 player mode instead of the independent 2 players in competition for SMB 1. One of the best games ever made, this game set the bar high for all future Mario games (and has only been matched in awesomeness by Super Mario 64...but high hopes for Super Mario Galaxy).
1. The Legend of Zelda - Unlike SMB 3, this game is not loved as much overall because it is not a kid's game and not a casual gamer's kind of game. For someone like me though the Zelda game is the best you could get for an adventure battle kind of game, and it was unique and smooth in its creativity. Zelda and Mario have to be one and two in any NES discussion, and the genius of S. Miyamoto in bringing both these games to light is unparalleled in game design even today. The original Zelda had plenty of depth and difficulty to make it hard to get through over and over again, so the replay value is high even today. For a single player game on the NES, it doesn't get any better than this.
So now it is finished. You've seen my top lists this week for all the various Nintendo systems, so feel free to comment and tell me how you would rank them. But enough talking about the Nintendo, it's time to go play some of these old classics and solve my craving. Have a great long weekend!
15. The Adventure of Link - This game may not have made the list until the past couple of years when I got on a quest to beat a lot of older games I could not stand or be good at as a kid. While I still believe it was a huge mistake to change Zelda to a completely different style of game, the game is pretty well done for what it is. Zelda 2 also happens to be one of the hardest games in Nintendo history because the controls were kind of tough to get good at consistently.
14. TMNT 2: The Arcade Game - Like Street Fighter for the SNES, TMNT 2 stole many quarters from me and others in the arcade era. TMNT 2 is not a great single-player game, but partying with one other player (or 3 others in the arcade) was what made the game awesome. How can you beat finally giving Shredder the heave-ho as well? The only thing keeping this game out of the top 10 was the fact that on the NEW you couldn't play with 4 turtles at once.
13. Galaga - While this game may have been much more cool back in the arcade or back on the atari, the space invader battle game was simple enough to get good at and challenging enough to keep players coming back for more. There's nothing like the outbursts you have when your double-ship gets plowed by kamikaze alien forces or you mess up when trying to make a double ship. Sometimes the most simple games are the best.
12. Dr. Mario - This game is another that might suffer from me not being introduced to it until recently. I had originally thought this was a Nintendo knockoff of Tetris, but the game is an amazing 2-player battle which Tetris did not offer. You can up the intensity and handicap the players, all aspects of making a tetris-type game into something even better. This game is reaching legendary status on our bowling team.
11. Metroid - Again just recently playing this game, but the game that started the Metroid series in 1985 is amazingly well-designed. The gameplay is simple and challenging, but all the power-ups and add-ons (missiles, morph ball mode, etc.) that are so amazing when done in 3D in the Prime series were thought up in 1985 for the 2D original. It's actually amazing there were not more of these games over time, but we will always have the original thanks to downloading it on the Wii.
10. Marble Madness - While I realize that I'm in the severe minority by putting this "stupid marble race game" above games like Metroid, this is a game I've always been fascinated with. It is a successful concept too as Super Monkey Ball ran with it on the GCN and just this month there's a Marble Madness type race game on the Wii. While there are only 6-7 levels and they are easily memorized, the game is still challenging to get through today. What really made the game was the 2-player race mode.
9. Disney's Adventure of the Magic Kingdom - There were a couple of kiddy games that ended up being really good for the NES (Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers being the other), but this game had it all and then some. Not only did this game make fun battles out of 6 of the most famous DisneyWorld rides, it remains challenging today. The variety in the games was also refreshing.
8. Tecmo Super Bowl - If there's one thing you can see from my game collection, I love playing sports games and always have. Unfortunately they get dated every single year by the newest and updated version, and old system sports games fade into obscurity when looking at the top games in retrospect. This game breaks from that mold though and was the absolute shit back in the day. The quintessential football game on the NES remains playable and fun today.
7. Super Mario Bros. - I've seen this game on the top of many NES lists, but these people are simply delusional in my opinion. This game is great, but it was just the beginning on the NES. The game has lots of replay value, but you do get so good at it eventually that it is not really challenging. This is still the game that hooked us all into the revolution of gaming that was Nintendo and the lovable plumber platformers. Our princess is indeed in another (later) castle on this system.
6. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out - Whether it is Mr. Dream or Mike Tyson, this game is the only real good boxing game until the Wii allowed us all to actually punch and dodge. While Glass Joe and Soda Popinsky are some of the biggest jokes ever, learning how to combat and getting good at beating fighters with great special moves like Bald Bull, King Hippo, and the dude with the turban and tiger was a tough challenge and fun at the same time. This game also kind of channels the spirit of Rocky movies in my opinion...in any event beating on boxers was always a great way to let off steam on the NES.
5. Final Fantasy - One of the more disappointing yet awesome moments of the past 4 years was when my dad found a sealed copy of this game at a yard sale. Yes sealed. Yes a yard sale. Absolutely unbelievable, as there might not be 25 other sealed copies of this game in existence. What was disappointing was he broke the seal wrap and tried the game out, not liking it and giving it to me. Well I was happy to have the box and book and everything in mint condition, but still...this is the RPG that blew open the RPG market. Good characters and varied gameplay allowed this classic to spawn the most famous series of games in the past 20 years.
4. The Magic of Scheherazade - While Final Fantasy gets all the credit and deservedly so, this RPG was actually the only one I got into back in the NES days. This little hardly known gem was certainly one of the best games on the NES as far as gameplay and depth and difficulty go. There was also plenty of comedic value in pissing off the shopkeepers by making low offers on their goods multiple times until they kicked you out of their store. The title of the game is nearly unspellable and copies of the game are damn near impossible to find now, but it's worth it if you ever see one.
3. Tetris - From Russia With Fun. This play on the famous movie title really was fun as the Cold War was just beginning to wrap up. This Russian block dropping game was so addictive and fun (the Sudoku of its days for you young kids out there) that it actually led to worried companies because worker productivity was down due to people playing this game obsessively. The only downside was no 2 player mode, but the game is still iconic and good enough to overcome that.
2. Super Mario Bros. 3 - This game was the most expensive and hard-to-get game in NES history because Nintendo hyped up the release and did the worst of their short stocking of stores for this game. It was still worth the $65-70 dollars retail stores demanded for it (after this game Nintendo went to a $50 price for everything that has not changed in 20 years and is now pretty affordable). This update of the classic SMB platformer had better graphics, more items, inventive levels, and nice controls and music. The thing that keeps this game super-playable though is the fact that you can play it in a co-op 2 player mode instead of the independent 2 players in competition for SMB 1. One of the best games ever made, this game set the bar high for all future Mario games (and has only been matched in awesomeness by Super Mario 64...but high hopes for Super Mario Galaxy).
1. The Legend of Zelda - Unlike SMB 3, this game is not loved as much overall because it is not a kid's game and not a casual gamer's kind of game. For someone like me though the Zelda game is the best you could get for an adventure battle kind of game, and it was unique and smooth in its creativity. Zelda and Mario have to be one and two in any NES discussion, and the genius of S. Miyamoto in bringing both these games to light is unparalleled in game design even today. The original Zelda had plenty of depth and difficulty to make it hard to get through over and over again, so the replay value is high even today. For a single player game on the NES, it doesn't get any better than this.
So now it is finished. You've seen my top lists this week for all the various Nintendo systems, so feel free to comment and tell me how you would rank them. But enough talking about the Nintendo, it's time to go play some of these old classics and solve my craving. Have a great long weekend!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Top Super Nintendo Games
The Thursday feature is the SNES, the golden era of Nintendo before the Wii came out. Plenty of good games, improvements on the 8-bit games, and nice hardware made for many great games. A top 15 should cover it nicely.
15. Super Star Wars - All three original Star Wars movies were made into a great set of SNES games, but this first game was the best of the bunch. Taking Luke Skywalker and shooting down enemies or kicking ass with a lightsaber was just simply outstanding. Enough challenge to keep you going through all 15 levels also.
14. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Quest - Took the fantastic graphics of the original and made the levels a bit more original and varied. The game was still a little too easy to do after you got good at DKC, but the controls and graphics were solid enough.
13. Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting - This was one arcade game that seemed to eat everyone's quarters in bulk back in my childhood, so when an improved version hit the SNES it was a dream come true. No more quarters after quarters and better controls on the SNES controllers than at the arcade. The combos were better in Turbo and the characters were slightly better than those on Mortal Combat (although I have a soft spot in my heart for Sub-Zero, Scoprion, and Rayden). Definitive 2-person combat.
12. Super Mario All Stars - Yes this game was just SMB 1-3, but there was a lot more to like here. Not only were the graphics updated and improved for all three of the classic Mario games, but the previously Japanese-only SMB2 was offered as the Lost Levels. This alone was enough to make the list, but revisiting three of the best NES games was also very nice.
11. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - While I was not a huge RPG fan as a kid, there were just some games that you could not miss. SM:RPG finally branched Mario out past the regular platformer and saw characters such as Luigi and Bowser in new roles. An interesting twist on the Mario story that was so successful it opened the door for Mario Party, Tennis, Golf, and more Kart games.
10. Final Fantasy II - Speaking of RPG's, the most famous RPG series came back for the sequel on the SNES and was no disappointment. Just squeaks my Mario because this game was a lot more in-depth and not an introductory game to the RPG market.
9. Final Fantasy III - Unfortunately this game was destined to be the final FF game to arrive for Nintendo as Square took a first step toward fighting Nintendo's policy of exclusivity and short supply. Another solid version of the classic RPG though.
8. Starfox - This was the game that sold the FX chip graphics in the SNES, making a relatively realistic flight combat game. While the graphics are still a little polygonal, the effect was very high-tech for the time. Controls of the Arwing were easy and the game had tons of replay value. The best early space/flight and fight game.
7. Super Mario World - While this game arguably was not all that much better than SMB3, SMW brought my favorite Nintendo character of all time into the mix, that being Yoshi. Every hero needs a sidekick, and Mario finally got one in the green dino. An excellent start for the SNES, and the game is still fun today.
6. F-Zero - Again a game makes much more out of the graphical capability of the SNES than seemed possible for any console games at the time. F-Zero really did a nice job of making you feel like you were racing futuristic hovercars at ridiculous speeds. The only downside to this game was that it needed a good multiplayer mode to be the best racing game on the system. As it was, it ends up getting beat by...
5. Super Mario Kart - While it is true that SM:RPG smashed the door open for other Mario types of games, SMK was the first new type of Mario game. Still the absolute best racing game on the SNES, this game was very challenging despite the lack of really good graphics. The multiplayer battles were genius as well.
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - The second Zelda on NES was too different and hard for me as a kid, so I grew away from Zelda in the SNES days. Looking back this was a mistake because this console's Zelda went back to the original and improved everything about it. The dungeons and bosses were better, the graphics were better, and the story was improved. A great addition to the Zelda line.
3. Donkey Kong Country - This game began to show gamers what we could expect from the next generation of systems. The graphics and backgrounds are stunning and pretty. The game was simple yet somewhat challenging and fun at the same time. The only downside to the game was that it was a bit short, but still a very solid game.
2. Super Metroid - Many will choose this game as their number one, but I never got into Metroid until Prime came out. Looking back and playing the original and Super Metroid, these were great games that were inexplicably stopped after this version (until the current Metroid Prime series started). Even the current Game Boy Advance and DS versions of the sidescroller are not as fun as Super Metroid, so it earns the number 2 spot.
1. Chrono Trigger - As someone who did not get into RPG's, this game was far and away the one I spent the most time playing for 2 solid years of the SNES. The game is so good you still cannot track down a copy for less than $40-50, and this game defines what a good RPG is. Not only are the story and characters good, the game has around 15 separate endings to try and get for beating the game in different ways. This game therefore is so deep and re-playable that it easily takes the top spot on this list.
One final day to go, and the Friday feature will finally take us back to the 1980's and the console that brought us into the modern era of console gaming, the Nintendo Entertainment System. No longer would Atari and Intellivision rule the world of games.
15. Super Star Wars - All three original Star Wars movies were made into a great set of SNES games, but this first game was the best of the bunch. Taking Luke Skywalker and shooting down enemies or kicking ass with a lightsaber was just simply outstanding. Enough challenge to keep you going through all 15 levels also.
14. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Quest - Took the fantastic graphics of the original and made the levels a bit more original and varied. The game was still a little too easy to do after you got good at DKC, but the controls and graphics were solid enough.
13. Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting - This was one arcade game that seemed to eat everyone's quarters in bulk back in my childhood, so when an improved version hit the SNES it was a dream come true. No more quarters after quarters and better controls on the SNES controllers than at the arcade. The combos were better in Turbo and the characters were slightly better than those on Mortal Combat (although I have a soft spot in my heart for Sub-Zero, Scoprion, and Rayden). Definitive 2-person combat.
12. Super Mario All Stars - Yes this game was just SMB 1-3, but there was a lot more to like here. Not only were the graphics updated and improved for all three of the classic Mario games, but the previously Japanese-only SMB2 was offered as the Lost Levels. This alone was enough to make the list, but revisiting three of the best NES games was also very nice.
11. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - While I was not a huge RPG fan as a kid, there were just some games that you could not miss. SM:RPG finally branched Mario out past the regular platformer and saw characters such as Luigi and Bowser in new roles. An interesting twist on the Mario story that was so successful it opened the door for Mario Party, Tennis, Golf, and more Kart games.
10. Final Fantasy II - Speaking of RPG's, the most famous RPG series came back for the sequel on the SNES and was no disappointment. Just squeaks my Mario because this game was a lot more in-depth and not an introductory game to the RPG market.
9. Final Fantasy III - Unfortunately this game was destined to be the final FF game to arrive for Nintendo as Square took a first step toward fighting Nintendo's policy of exclusivity and short supply. Another solid version of the classic RPG though.
8. Starfox - This was the game that sold the FX chip graphics in the SNES, making a relatively realistic flight combat game. While the graphics are still a little polygonal, the effect was very high-tech for the time. Controls of the Arwing were easy and the game had tons of replay value. The best early space/flight and fight game.
7. Super Mario World - While this game arguably was not all that much better than SMB3, SMW brought my favorite Nintendo character of all time into the mix, that being Yoshi. Every hero needs a sidekick, and Mario finally got one in the green dino. An excellent start for the SNES, and the game is still fun today.
6. F-Zero - Again a game makes much more out of the graphical capability of the SNES than seemed possible for any console games at the time. F-Zero really did a nice job of making you feel like you were racing futuristic hovercars at ridiculous speeds. The only downside to this game was that it needed a good multiplayer mode to be the best racing game on the system. As it was, it ends up getting beat by...
5. Super Mario Kart - While it is true that SM:RPG smashed the door open for other Mario types of games, SMK was the first new type of Mario game. Still the absolute best racing game on the SNES, this game was very challenging despite the lack of really good graphics. The multiplayer battles were genius as well.
4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - The second Zelda on NES was too different and hard for me as a kid, so I grew away from Zelda in the SNES days. Looking back this was a mistake because this console's Zelda went back to the original and improved everything about it. The dungeons and bosses were better, the graphics were better, and the story was improved. A great addition to the Zelda line.
3. Donkey Kong Country - This game began to show gamers what we could expect from the next generation of systems. The graphics and backgrounds are stunning and pretty. The game was simple yet somewhat challenging and fun at the same time. The only downside to the game was that it was a bit short, but still a very solid game.
2. Super Metroid - Many will choose this game as their number one, but I never got into Metroid until Prime came out. Looking back and playing the original and Super Metroid, these were great games that were inexplicably stopped after this version (until the current Metroid Prime series started). Even the current Game Boy Advance and DS versions of the sidescroller are not as fun as Super Metroid, so it earns the number 2 spot.
1. Chrono Trigger - As someone who did not get into RPG's, this game was far and away the one I spent the most time playing for 2 solid years of the SNES. The game is so good you still cannot track down a copy for less than $40-50, and this game defines what a good RPG is. Not only are the story and characters good, the game has around 15 separate endings to try and get for beating the game in different ways. This game therefore is so deep and re-playable that it easily takes the top spot on this list.
One final day to go, and the Friday feature will finally take us back to the 1980's and the console that brought us into the modern era of console gaming, the Nintendo Entertainment System. No longer would Atari and Intellivision rule the world of games.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Top Nintendo 64 Games
The Wednesday feature is where Nintendo began to flounder as a console maker, the Nintendo 64. Many good franchises either started or continued on this system, but the third-party support was too low and that led to Sony's success in my opinion. Nonetheless, there were some classics to fill a Top 10.
10. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - For the first and only time so far in the Zelda series, Nintendo had to come up with a second game on a system using the same control and graphical layout. The game suffers from not being as good as Ocarina of Time, but that's unfair because OOT was perhaps one of the best 3 games in history. This game is actually more deep if you go and try to get all the masks, and ends up being enjoyable in the end.
9. Mario Kart 64 - The follow-up to the huge SNES hit did not disappoint, as the graphics upgraded significantly and the courses were just as good as the original. The real improvement in this version was the better courses.
8. Starfox 64 - The original Starfox was great due to the FX graphics on the 16-bit SNES, but a jump to 64 made things much better and more realistic. All the worlds and paths to Venom are fun to play through so this game has a lot of replay value. The controls are smooth and familiar, working at their best in the 3D boss battles.
7. Waverace 64 - Given the title of the last 3 games on the list, you can see the lack of creativity in this era of Nintendo game-naming. Near the launch of the console, Waverace took a completely new race genre (jet ski) and actually managed to pull it off very well. The physics and randomness of the waves and how they affect you are a great challenge. This looked to not be a huge title at launch but ended up being one of the greats.
6. Perfect Dark - This was dubbed the improved version of the super-popular Goldeneye 007. While the game utilized the expansion memory pack well, the game was not much of an improvement over Goldeneye. Graphically more pretty, this game was an excuse (along with Majora's Mask) to help sell more expansion memory packs. Still one of the best first person shooters ever brought out on a Nintendo system.
5. Goldeneye 007 - The classic first person shooter on the N64 wins a top five slot by being the Halo of its day. Halo 1-3 has and is single-handedly selling a good percentage of the Xbox systems sold, but the first game to really master the genre was Goldeneye. Not only did this game follow the movie very faithfully, the multiplayer was outstanding. The original Halo was a true highlight of the N64 experience.
4. Mario Party - While Goldeneye was far more popular and perhaps better back in the day, in retrospect the beginning of this franchise was a brillant move by Nintendo. Combining the fun of minigames with a board game background is a formula that has been sold for 8 iterations now successfully. This game did not have very good graphics, but it did have great party value.
3. Conker's Bad Fur Day - Just like Eternal Darkness on GCN, this is my sleeper pick that not many people played but everyone should experience. BFD mixed a lot of pop culture references of the day (incorporating the Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, and many other things) with some very funny original characters (Opera singing Poop Monster anyone?) to create one of the most playable and funny games in history. Yes it is a little crude in humor, but more adult humor in a game is always appreciated when well done. Also a good multiplayer mode to put this in the top 3. On some systems this might be the top game, but...
2. Super Mario 64 - Another Mario launch title, another great game to lead the console into the market. This game introduced the platforming game and the gaming world in general to 3D gaming, and what an introduction it was. This game pushed the limits of the hardware but ran so smoothly that nobody could possibly complain. We were all too wrapped up in the graphics and the notion of playing in true 3D. The game is also truly fun with bunches of different levels and lots of variety to get all 120 stars. A real gem and Top 10 all time likely.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Perhaps the greatest game of all time, OOT took everything Nintendo learned in making SM64 and took it to a whole new level. The graphics are even better (you could just watch the sun rise and set and the moon move across the horizon in awe without being bored) and Zelda moved into 3D combat perfectly. The storyline was very well written and the different elemental kinds of dungeons has continued to present-day Zeldas (Forest, Fire, Water/Ice, Shadow, Desert, Light/Shadow). The movement between young link and adult link is also a great part of thr story. This game was the definition of success and should not be missed by anyone.
Well there's the short list for the N64. Looking ahead, the Thursday feature will be the Super Nintendo, and we'll be back up to 15 games as the first golden age of Nintendo is what we will be going back to tomorrow.
10. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - For the first and only time so far in the Zelda series, Nintendo had to come up with a second game on a system using the same control and graphical layout. The game suffers from not being as good as Ocarina of Time, but that's unfair because OOT was perhaps one of the best 3 games in history. This game is actually more deep if you go and try to get all the masks, and ends up being enjoyable in the end.
9. Mario Kart 64 - The follow-up to the huge SNES hit did not disappoint, as the graphics upgraded significantly and the courses were just as good as the original. The real improvement in this version was the better courses.
8. Starfox 64 - The original Starfox was great due to the FX graphics on the 16-bit SNES, but a jump to 64 made things much better and more realistic. All the worlds and paths to Venom are fun to play through so this game has a lot of replay value. The controls are smooth and familiar, working at their best in the 3D boss battles.
7. Waverace 64 - Given the title of the last 3 games on the list, you can see the lack of creativity in this era of Nintendo game-naming. Near the launch of the console, Waverace took a completely new race genre (jet ski) and actually managed to pull it off very well. The physics and randomness of the waves and how they affect you are a great challenge. This looked to not be a huge title at launch but ended up being one of the greats.
6. Perfect Dark - This was dubbed the improved version of the super-popular Goldeneye 007. While the game utilized the expansion memory pack well, the game was not much of an improvement over Goldeneye. Graphically more pretty, this game was an excuse (along with Majora's Mask) to help sell more expansion memory packs. Still one of the best first person shooters ever brought out on a Nintendo system.
5. Goldeneye 007 - The classic first person shooter on the N64 wins a top five slot by being the Halo of its day. Halo 1-3 has and is single-handedly selling a good percentage of the Xbox systems sold, but the first game to really master the genre was Goldeneye. Not only did this game follow the movie very faithfully, the multiplayer was outstanding. The original Halo was a true highlight of the N64 experience.
4. Mario Party - While Goldeneye was far more popular and perhaps better back in the day, in retrospect the beginning of this franchise was a brillant move by Nintendo. Combining the fun of minigames with a board game background is a formula that has been sold for 8 iterations now successfully. This game did not have very good graphics, but it did have great party value.
3. Conker's Bad Fur Day - Just like Eternal Darkness on GCN, this is my sleeper pick that not many people played but everyone should experience. BFD mixed a lot of pop culture references of the day (incorporating the Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, and many other things) with some very funny original characters (Opera singing Poop Monster anyone?) to create one of the most playable and funny games in history. Yes it is a little crude in humor, but more adult humor in a game is always appreciated when well done. Also a good multiplayer mode to put this in the top 3. On some systems this might be the top game, but...
2. Super Mario 64 - Another Mario launch title, another great game to lead the console into the market. This game introduced the platforming game and the gaming world in general to 3D gaming, and what an introduction it was. This game pushed the limits of the hardware but ran so smoothly that nobody could possibly complain. We were all too wrapped up in the graphics and the notion of playing in true 3D. The game is also truly fun with bunches of different levels and lots of variety to get all 120 stars. A real gem and Top 10 all time likely.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Perhaps the greatest game of all time, OOT took everything Nintendo learned in making SM64 and took it to a whole new level. The graphics are even better (you could just watch the sun rise and set and the moon move across the horizon in awe without being bored) and Zelda moved into 3D combat perfectly. The storyline was very well written and the different elemental kinds of dungeons has continued to present-day Zeldas (Forest, Fire, Water/Ice, Shadow, Desert, Light/Shadow). The movement between young link and adult link is also a great part of thr story. This game was the definition of success and should not be missed by anyone.
Well there's the short list for the N64. Looking ahead, the Thursday feature will be the Super Nintendo, and we'll be back up to 15 games as the first golden age of Nintendo is what we will be going back to tomorrow.
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Top Gamecube Games
The Tuesday feature brings us the Top 15 games from the Nintendo Gamecube. Yes there were 15 good games for this system, despite the much-maligned criticism of the Cube. The fact that the Wii is backwards compatible to the mini-discs of this system will help these games continue to see play for the next few years.
15. Star Wars Rogue Leader - It had been quite a number of years since a Star Wars game blew me away, but this game was outstanding. Early in the life of Gamecube, this was a game that saw a majority of play time on many Cubes. Good for kids and adults, this is a sleeper on the list.
14. Super Monkey Ball 2 - The original may be on many people's lists, but SMB2 channels the greatness of the old game Marble Madness and adds a level of 3D complexity to that genre not seen before. This game is so good they rushed out another for the Wii launch, so hopefully there will be more in this series.
13. Resident Evil 4 - Same argument as the Wii version, except on GCN the game is simply a port of the PS2 and Xbox versions. Still a great game worth looking into if you prefer the traditional controllers.
12. Timesplitters 2 - A friend introduced this gem to me on the PS2, but the GCN version is just as good if not better. Timesplitters reminds me a lot of Goldeneye 007 which is a good thing for those who like mission-based spy type first person shooters. A nice story to back up the traveling to different time periods keeps the game varied and fresh.
11. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Every trio of games or movies has to have a dark middle tale, and the Metroid Prime series got just that in Echoes. This game is much like the original, with the only problem being that the designers should have gone further in developing the series.
10. Resident Evil - While RE4 gets a lot of press for being quality, the first Umbrella Corp zombie battle is a classic not to be missed. Cheap scares abound as well in this surprisingly successful hit.
9. Super Mario Sunshine - While most other systems launch with a Mario game alongside, GCN decided to launch with a Luigi game instead. While we all love Luigi, Sunshine was only disappointing in that the gameplay did not improve much over Luigi's Mansion. The game is a noble addition to the Mario line, but will probably fade to obscurity over time.
8. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - The 2D Mario series continues to impress with this entry and certainly provides more than the platformer at #9.
7. Mario Party 7 - GCN had an amazing 4 Mario Party games come out in 5 years, and that is just too many. While the market was saturated, the minigames themselves really got better in this one. With a little more work on the graphics and board gameplay, this series could have gone to greater heights.
6. Super Smash Bros Melee - Many people would put this in the top 3 for sure, but I just am not huge into the fighting genre. This is a fun game to play but is only more fun than Mortal Combat and Street Fighter because the characters are Nintendo classics. Still the controls are almost perfect and the boards are nicely interactive, so the gfame ranks high even for me.
5. Animal Crossing - While pulling weeds, fishing, running errands for others, and building up and decorating a house may not be an adequate escape from real life for some, this game is terribly addictive to those who like the SimCity or Sims genre. While the characters do look childish and doofy, the gameplay is actually very fun. The kicker that puts this in the top 5 is the ability to carry characters and designs to your friends' Animal Crossing neighborhoods. The interactivity with real time is awesome also.
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Initially I did not like the cel-shaded graphics of this game or the fact that I beat it in one weekend, but now I realize the game has so much depth just like Majora's Mask did (both games suffer because the basic storyline does not require a lot of these interesting side quests that are available). I may never like the cel-shading, but this game does earn its place in the Zelda landscape as a good game.
3. Wario Ware - This game certainly did not seem like much of a hit when it first came out, with Mario Party holding the minigame crown for so long. The question was why would you buy a game of minigames when you could play minigames as part of a bigger board game in MP? The answer was that when the games are so well designed to make a party laugh and replay the game for hours on end, you have something that beats any Mario Party. Wario Ware was one of the best in the GCN era.
2. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - And now we get to my sleeper pick on the Gamecube. For those who have played this game, you will understand why it ranks so high on my list (and many others). If you did not pick up this game and many players did not, you missed one inventive and easy to get into game. The storyline is compelling, the game has some cheap thrills and scares a la Resident Evil, lots of fighting and spellcasting action, and the best addition to any adventure game in years, the sanity meter. You had to keep up your health and magic meters, but the sanity meter made you hallucinate and see things not there, which is very inventive. The game is also playable many times because there are three different pathways through the game based on different kinds of Magic. A real hit.
1. Metroid Prime - I really wanted to put Eternal Darkness here, but it goes against the grain to put an unknown in the top spot. Metroid Prime updated a series that had been dead since the SNES days (despite huge NES and SNES popularity) into 3D and first person shooting, but Metroid was still more than awesome. While many of the same aspects from the 1986 classic came back, doing it all in 3D environments with a new juicy storyline just made everything perfect. With the Mario and Zelda franchises bringing out mediocre games and the Starfox franchise being all but murdered by a terrible outing, it was nice to see one of the old classic Nintendo standby franchises take over the throne in such a nice fashion.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, and that will bring us to the Nintendo 64. The Top ten will be revealed then (the N64 suffered from poor games far more than any other system in Nintendo history, which is why the list is limited to 10, and also coincidentally why Sony got such a great market placement).
15. Star Wars Rogue Leader - It had been quite a number of years since a Star Wars game blew me away, but this game was outstanding. Early in the life of Gamecube, this was a game that saw a majority of play time on many Cubes. Good for kids and adults, this is a sleeper on the list.
14. Super Monkey Ball 2 - The original may be on many people's lists, but SMB2 channels the greatness of the old game Marble Madness and adds a level of 3D complexity to that genre not seen before. This game is so good they rushed out another for the Wii launch, so hopefully there will be more in this series.
13. Resident Evil 4 - Same argument as the Wii version, except on GCN the game is simply a port of the PS2 and Xbox versions. Still a great game worth looking into if you prefer the traditional controllers.
12. Timesplitters 2 - A friend introduced this gem to me on the PS2, but the GCN version is just as good if not better. Timesplitters reminds me a lot of Goldeneye 007 which is a good thing for those who like mission-based spy type first person shooters. A nice story to back up the traveling to different time periods keeps the game varied and fresh.
11. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Every trio of games or movies has to have a dark middle tale, and the Metroid Prime series got just that in Echoes. This game is much like the original, with the only problem being that the designers should have gone further in developing the series.
10. Resident Evil - While RE4 gets a lot of press for being quality, the first Umbrella Corp zombie battle is a classic not to be missed. Cheap scares abound as well in this surprisingly successful hit.
9. Super Mario Sunshine - While most other systems launch with a Mario game alongside, GCN decided to launch with a Luigi game instead. While we all love Luigi, Sunshine was only disappointing in that the gameplay did not improve much over Luigi's Mansion. The game is a noble addition to the Mario line, but will probably fade to obscurity over time.
8. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - The 2D Mario series continues to impress with this entry and certainly provides more than the platformer at #9.
7. Mario Party 7 - GCN had an amazing 4 Mario Party games come out in 5 years, and that is just too many. While the market was saturated, the minigames themselves really got better in this one. With a little more work on the graphics and board gameplay, this series could have gone to greater heights.
6. Super Smash Bros Melee - Many people would put this in the top 3 for sure, but I just am not huge into the fighting genre. This is a fun game to play but is only more fun than Mortal Combat and Street Fighter because the characters are Nintendo classics. Still the controls are almost perfect and the boards are nicely interactive, so the gfame ranks high even for me.
5. Animal Crossing - While pulling weeds, fishing, running errands for others, and building up and decorating a house may not be an adequate escape from real life for some, this game is terribly addictive to those who like the SimCity or Sims genre. While the characters do look childish and doofy, the gameplay is actually very fun. The kicker that puts this in the top 5 is the ability to carry characters and designs to your friends' Animal Crossing neighborhoods. The interactivity with real time is awesome also.
4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Initially I did not like the cel-shaded graphics of this game or the fact that I beat it in one weekend, but now I realize the game has so much depth just like Majora's Mask did (both games suffer because the basic storyline does not require a lot of these interesting side quests that are available). I may never like the cel-shading, but this game does earn its place in the Zelda landscape as a good game.
3. Wario Ware - This game certainly did not seem like much of a hit when it first came out, with Mario Party holding the minigame crown for so long. The question was why would you buy a game of minigames when you could play minigames as part of a bigger board game in MP? The answer was that when the games are so well designed to make a party laugh and replay the game for hours on end, you have something that beats any Mario Party. Wario Ware was one of the best in the GCN era.
2. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - And now we get to my sleeper pick on the Gamecube. For those who have played this game, you will understand why it ranks so high on my list (and many others). If you did not pick up this game and many players did not, you missed one inventive and easy to get into game. The storyline is compelling, the game has some cheap thrills and scares a la Resident Evil, lots of fighting and spellcasting action, and the best addition to any adventure game in years, the sanity meter. You had to keep up your health and magic meters, but the sanity meter made you hallucinate and see things not there, which is very inventive. The game is also playable many times because there are three different pathways through the game based on different kinds of Magic. A real hit.
1. Metroid Prime - I really wanted to put Eternal Darkness here, but it goes against the grain to put an unknown in the top spot. Metroid Prime updated a series that had been dead since the SNES days (despite huge NES and SNES popularity) into 3D and first person shooting, but Metroid was still more than awesome. While many of the same aspects from the 1986 classic came back, doing it all in 3D environments with a new juicy storyline just made everything perfect. With the Mario and Zelda franchises bringing out mediocre games and the Starfox franchise being all but murdered by a terrible outing, it was nice to see one of the old classic Nintendo standby franchises take over the throne in such a nice fashion.
Tomorrow is Wednesday, and that will bring us to the Nintendo 64. The Top ten will be revealed then (the N64 suffered from poor games far more than any other system in Nintendo history, which is why the list is limited to 10, and also coincidentally why Sony got such a great market placement).
Monday, August 27, 2007
Top Wii Games
The Monday feature, a little late but then again this list is so preliminary after only 8 months with the system. We begin with a couple of honorable mentions which will likely make the list once they come out.
Honorable Mention: Super Smash Bros Brawl - This game will probably compete with the Gamecube version for one of the most popular party games in the Wii.
HM: Super Mario Galaxy - There are certainties for every Nintendo system, one being that there will be a high quality Mario game. This game looks like it will revolutionize the Wii platformers and be nearly as successful as Super Mario 64. Big times await Mario.
10. Wii Play - A collection of nine mediocre games comes together with a pack-in Wii Remote for the same $50 as all other games. For $10, you really cannot beat the value assuming you bought the Wii-mote at retail value. The games do grow old in a hurry though.
9. Madden NFL 07 - Certainly to be outdone by the 2008 version once EA gets off the pot and brings out the Wii version, the 2007 Madden showed that the future is bright for football franchises on the Wii. You finally feel like you are in the game by throwing and stiff-arming and all the other neat moves you can do.
8. Mario Party 8 - While this game has a new set of great minigames, it offers nothing unexpected or new to the Mario Party formula. It's nice to have Wii minigames, but the visual quality should really be better. Perhaps this franchise needs a break. Still a fun party game.
7. Wario Ware Smooth Moves - This was the first set of crazy new Wii minigames, and the set is actually better than the Mario Party ones. The big disappointment is that Wario Ware was a great party game for the Gamecube, but this is only 1 player. With a few more hours of design this game could've been in the top 2-3 for a long time. Single player Wario Ware is not as fun.
6. Resident Evil 4 - The Wii version incorporates all that was great about the other versions and adds beeter control with the Wii-mote. The silly scare tactics might be gone, but the game is devilishly scary still and challenging.
5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 - TW has been a vastly improving sports franchise the past half-decade, and this entry is no disappointment. The Wii Sports template for golf was imrpoved upon and made easier in this classic.
4. Wii Sports - The pack-in game with the system does not disappoint, as the games show off the basic realm of control possible with the Wii-mote. Bowling is amazing, Tennis is scary realistic, and the other three are all fun to play over and over again. A nice introduction to the Wii.
3. Super Paper Mario - Although Super Mario Galaxy may change this perception, but the best Mario games to come out since Super Mario 64 opened the door to 3-D are all in the Paper Mario 2-D series. Of course there are some 3-D puzzles and aspects, but a primarily 2-D game shows how well the platformer games continue to be playable.
2. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - OK so I don't have my hands on this game yet, but it appears that this game will set the bar high for graphics, story, and first-person shooter controls on the Wii. Add in the fact that Metroid games are some of the most popular games out there, and you have a sure-fire winner. This could end up #1 eventually.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - The most genius decision outside the design of the Wii was Nintendo pushing this game back a year to become a Wii release title instead of a second Gamecube title. The best entry in the Zelda series since Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess did everything right to set the bar high for Wii games. The controls are seamless, the graphics astounding, and the difficulty about perfect. Twilight Princess will be a hard game to beat, but the new Metroid and Mario games may just surpass this instant classic.
So there's the current Top 10 list for Wii, subject to many changes. The fact that there are 10 games to rank (and 6-7 of them very deserving) in one year is a good sign for this system, which gains market share and strength every day. Nintendo is entering a second golden era with the Wii for sure.
Tomorrow, we cover the top 15 Gamecube games.
Honorable Mention: Super Smash Bros Brawl - This game will probably compete with the Gamecube version for one of the most popular party games in the Wii.
HM: Super Mario Galaxy - There are certainties for every Nintendo system, one being that there will be a high quality Mario game. This game looks like it will revolutionize the Wii platformers and be nearly as successful as Super Mario 64. Big times await Mario.
10. Wii Play - A collection of nine mediocre games comes together with a pack-in Wii Remote for the same $50 as all other games. For $10, you really cannot beat the value assuming you bought the Wii-mote at retail value. The games do grow old in a hurry though.
9. Madden NFL 07 - Certainly to be outdone by the 2008 version once EA gets off the pot and brings out the Wii version, the 2007 Madden showed that the future is bright for football franchises on the Wii. You finally feel like you are in the game by throwing and stiff-arming and all the other neat moves you can do.
8. Mario Party 8 - While this game has a new set of great minigames, it offers nothing unexpected or new to the Mario Party formula. It's nice to have Wii minigames, but the visual quality should really be better. Perhaps this franchise needs a break. Still a fun party game.
7. Wario Ware Smooth Moves - This was the first set of crazy new Wii minigames, and the set is actually better than the Mario Party ones. The big disappointment is that Wario Ware was a great party game for the Gamecube, but this is only 1 player. With a few more hours of design this game could've been in the top 2-3 for a long time. Single player Wario Ware is not as fun.
6. Resident Evil 4 - The Wii version incorporates all that was great about the other versions and adds beeter control with the Wii-mote. The silly scare tactics might be gone, but the game is devilishly scary still and challenging.
5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 - TW has been a vastly improving sports franchise the past half-decade, and this entry is no disappointment. The Wii Sports template for golf was imrpoved upon and made easier in this classic.
4. Wii Sports - The pack-in game with the system does not disappoint, as the games show off the basic realm of control possible with the Wii-mote. Bowling is amazing, Tennis is scary realistic, and the other three are all fun to play over and over again. A nice introduction to the Wii.
3. Super Paper Mario - Although Super Mario Galaxy may change this perception, but the best Mario games to come out since Super Mario 64 opened the door to 3-D are all in the Paper Mario 2-D series. Of course there are some 3-D puzzles and aspects, but a primarily 2-D game shows how well the platformer games continue to be playable.
2. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - OK so I don't have my hands on this game yet, but it appears that this game will set the bar high for graphics, story, and first-person shooter controls on the Wii. Add in the fact that Metroid games are some of the most popular games out there, and you have a sure-fire winner. This could end up #1 eventually.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - The most genius decision outside the design of the Wii was Nintendo pushing this game back a year to become a Wii release title instead of a second Gamecube title. The best entry in the Zelda series since Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess did everything right to set the bar high for Wii games. The controls are seamless, the graphics astounding, and the difficulty about perfect. Twilight Princess will be a hard game to beat, but the new Metroid and Mario games may just surpass this instant classic.
So there's the current Top 10 list for Wii, subject to many changes. The fact that there are 10 games to rank (and 6-7 of them very deserving) in one year is a good sign for this system, which gains market share and strength every day. Nintendo is entering a second golden era with the Wii for sure.
Tomorrow, we cover the top 15 Gamecube games.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
The First Week
Nothing quite like the first day of school, and this will be the last time (one would hope) that a summer ends and school begins for me. Quite a difference 18 years makes though, as I remember being so scared and excited with a brand new backpack in one hand and a box lunch in the other as a 5 year old kid in New Matamoras, OH. Now I just grab my satchel of law books and laptop and rush out the door to prevent being late.
The first class of the new term was Securities Regulation with Professor Rose. Rose is a new guy who just came from Northwestern Law School, and the law school is really happy to get this guy. He calls on people alphabetically with a third of the alphabet on call each day of the week (MTW), so I guess we early alphabet people only need to care about Mondays. He not only is a powerpoint professor who puts his slides online, he seems to know a great deal what he is teaching from his experience as a broker. A good corporate professor not named Oesterle, who would have thought? I think I will enjoy that class, which is why I'm taking corporate type classes to fill the time this year anyways.
Sales with Professor Johnson is interesting also. There is plenty of mixed opinion out there on Professor Johnson, but she seemed OK in one class this week (Tuesday was cancelled). This is another Whaley book so I'm going to treat it as remedial Contracts since our 1L contracts was essentially UCC Article II anyways with common law mixed in. It should be easy but Contracts didn't turn out so hot, so I'll have to keep on it. The subject is kind of boring...however, with Professor Johnson being the only random Socratic method teacher this semester, that should be enough motivation to do the reading. Lots of my 1L class in there as well. Happy to have Larry in the class and maybe we'll study group despite our terribly different study styles (me being last minute and him starting early). More on this class later when we've had more of them as Professor Johnson is hard to get a read on this early.
AK and I were late to Johnson's class and she is a stickler about attendance and being on time (whatever floats your boat), so we got our proverbial tongue lashings at the beginning of class. Shouldn't be too hard to make a class after an hour and a half lunch break, unless you go to Eddie George's Grill apparently. I like EG's place, but on this day they were not very busy and took literally 55 minutes from the time we ordered to the time the food arrived. Then half the food had to be sent back because the orders of chicken wings were ice cold and the steak was medium rare for somebody who dislikes the sight of any pink. So I wolfed down mine and AK had his boxed up to go when the wings were warmed again, but still we were late. Thanks EG's. Word to the wise...maybe avoid that lunch destination until they get quicker service (probably when the undergrads come back). Even though that's Johnson's pet peeve, at least AK and I got our customary tardiness out of the way on the first class.
The other two classes are only scheduled once a week, which is unfortunate considering they are going to be my two favorite classes. Supreme Court Lit with Judge Sutton should be as much fun as the State Con Law seminar was. I'll take a more active role in class too as I was all but dead silent in class discussions last semester (too many very assertive 3L's in his seminars). This seminar is all 3L's and would be chock-full of A's even if there were a regular curve on seminars because there are tons of people from our 1L section and tons of OSLJ people in there. There should be plenty of good class discussion though with the people that are in there, which makes for a good seminar. I'll be writing on Justice Alito, so kind of a fresh slate there to work with. International IP with Lee should be a good time, and hopefully I will not need to miss any more class after missing the second hour this week to go to Cincinnati. The usual suspects are in that one for one more IP go-round with Lee.
All the JDR things seem to be going well finally. Got one of the two late articles and passed it off to associate editors. The other one is AWOL, but Erik finally is contacting the author to say "Where is it?" I'm hopeful that they just decide to not get published, but probably not. Just another year where the publication schedule will be pushed off by one author...we're used to it. This week the articles go to the authors, which means I'll need to work on my note for the last time as an author. Also in journal related news, Daniel and I got the Nintendo room up and running (well minus a TV) so that's good. In honor of the Nintendo room and because I was bored enough surfing the net to find some top 25 lists, I'm going to post one countdown a day this week of top games for each system. I'm sure nobody will agree but you can only go by your own experiences. we'll go backwards in time, so Monday look for the Top 10 Wii games (as you might imagine, this list is still preliminary). Tuesday Top 15 Gamecube, Wednesday Top 10 N64 (because there just are not 15 good games for that system), Thursday Top 15 SNES, and Friday Feature Top 15 NES.
Football season had officially returned with the high schoolers this past weekend. Marietta busted Parkersburg South for 25 unanswered points in the final quarter to win on the road 38-20. That's absolutely remarkable and might mean Marietta could seriously compete for the SEOAL title. The other team I follow (Frontier) got crushed in a league game week one 39-12, so another poor season for the tiny school I started in. But more importantly, this means we are only 6 days from BUCKEYE FOOTBALL! We have such an easy schedule for the first 8 weeks that barring a meltdown in Purdue or Washington, we should be 8-0 entering the beef of our schedule. Then we finish at Penn State, home against Wisconsin and Illinois, and at Michigan. The Big Ten schedule is also backloaded like the Big East was last year, as the last three weeks have the top three teams visiting each other (11/3 Wisconsin at OSU, 11/10 Michigan at Wisconsin, 11/17 OSU at Michigan). While I'm looking forward to November, just getting out there this weekend to watch the new Buckeyes grow up against Tressel's old school Youngstown State.
Went down to Cincinnati this week on Wednesday to watch the Reds play the Braves and go to dinner at the ballpark with the firm. It's nice that they move around their quarterly partner-associate dinner to various different places around the metro area, but of course any time I get free Reds tickets I'm not complaining. I could seriously tell that Keith and the guys wanted me to accept the offer, and of course Keith tells me about who he is interviewing at OSU OCI. Turns out Jim (the other summer) accepted his offer and we had a long chat after the game in the firm's parking garage. Kelley and I discussed things over after I received a couple more important rejection letters on Wednesday night...and we have big news. I ACCEPTED THE OFFER! Had to call and turn down 3 callbacks, but 2 of those were firms I was not particularly interested in anymore based on location. We are happy to be done with it and be in a great firm in a good local city. Did not think last year at this time that I would be taking the Ohio bar exam, but that's how it is. Sharing Reds season tickets with Jim and his wife should be nice too. Now we can start looking at neighborhoods and houses to rent. Fun!
So now that those decisions are off the table and football season is starting, it really feels like school time again. That's all for now, but hopefully some of you will enjoy the lists coming this week (or will comment back with your own favorites). Have a good week!
The first class of the new term was Securities Regulation with Professor Rose. Rose is a new guy who just came from Northwestern Law School, and the law school is really happy to get this guy. He calls on people alphabetically with a third of the alphabet on call each day of the week (MTW), so I guess we early alphabet people only need to care about Mondays. He not only is a powerpoint professor who puts his slides online, he seems to know a great deal what he is teaching from his experience as a broker. A good corporate professor not named Oesterle, who would have thought? I think I will enjoy that class, which is why I'm taking corporate type classes to fill the time this year anyways.
Sales with Professor Johnson is interesting also. There is plenty of mixed opinion out there on Professor Johnson, but she seemed OK in one class this week (Tuesday was cancelled). This is another Whaley book so I'm going to treat it as remedial Contracts since our 1L contracts was essentially UCC Article II anyways with common law mixed in. It should be easy but Contracts didn't turn out so hot, so I'll have to keep on it. The subject is kind of boring...however, with Professor Johnson being the only random Socratic method teacher this semester, that should be enough motivation to do the reading. Lots of my 1L class in there as well. Happy to have Larry in the class and maybe we'll study group despite our terribly different study styles (me being last minute and him starting early). More on this class later when we've had more of them as Professor Johnson is hard to get a read on this early.
AK and I were late to Johnson's class and she is a stickler about attendance and being on time (whatever floats your boat), so we got our proverbial tongue lashings at the beginning of class. Shouldn't be too hard to make a class after an hour and a half lunch break, unless you go to Eddie George's Grill apparently. I like EG's place, but on this day they were not very busy and took literally 55 minutes from the time we ordered to the time the food arrived. Then half the food had to be sent back because the orders of chicken wings were ice cold and the steak was medium rare for somebody who dislikes the sight of any pink. So I wolfed down mine and AK had his boxed up to go when the wings were warmed again, but still we were late. Thanks EG's. Word to the wise...maybe avoid that lunch destination until they get quicker service (probably when the undergrads come back). Even though that's Johnson's pet peeve, at least AK and I got our customary tardiness out of the way on the first class.
The other two classes are only scheduled once a week, which is unfortunate considering they are going to be my two favorite classes. Supreme Court Lit with Judge Sutton should be as much fun as the State Con Law seminar was. I'll take a more active role in class too as I was all but dead silent in class discussions last semester (too many very assertive 3L's in his seminars). This seminar is all 3L's and would be chock-full of A's even if there were a regular curve on seminars because there are tons of people from our 1L section and tons of OSLJ people in there. There should be plenty of good class discussion though with the people that are in there, which makes for a good seminar. I'll be writing on Justice Alito, so kind of a fresh slate there to work with. International IP with Lee should be a good time, and hopefully I will not need to miss any more class after missing the second hour this week to go to Cincinnati. The usual suspects are in that one for one more IP go-round with Lee.
All the JDR things seem to be going well finally. Got one of the two late articles and passed it off to associate editors. The other one is AWOL, but Erik finally is contacting the author to say "Where is it?" I'm hopeful that they just decide to not get published, but probably not. Just another year where the publication schedule will be pushed off by one author...we're used to it. This week the articles go to the authors, which means I'll need to work on my note for the last time as an author. Also in journal related news, Daniel and I got the Nintendo room up and running (well minus a TV) so that's good. In honor of the Nintendo room and because I was bored enough surfing the net to find some top 25 lists, I'm going to post one countdown a day this week of top games for each system. I'm sure nobody will agree but you can only go by your own experiences. we'll go backwards in time, so Monday look for the Top 10 Wii games (as you might imagine, this list is still preliminary). Tuesday Top 15 Gamecube, Wednesday Top 10 N64 (because there just are not 15 good games for that system), Thursday Top 15 SNES, and Friday Feature Top 15 NES.
Football season had officially returned with the high schoolers this past weekend. Marietta busted Parkersburg South for 25 unanswered points in the final quarter to win on the road 38-20. That's absolutely remarkable and might mean Marietta could seriously compete for the SEOAL title. The other team I follow (Frontier) got crushed in a league game week one 39-12, so another poor season for the tiny school I started in. But more importantly, this means we are only 6 days from BUCKEYE FOOTBALL! We have such an easy schedule for the first 8 weeks that barring a meltdown in Purdue or Washington, we should be 8-0 entering the beef of our schedule. Then we finish at Penn State, home against Wisconsin and Illinois, and at Michigan. The Big Ten schedule is also backloaded like the Big East was last year, as the last three weeks have the top three teams visiting each other (11/3 Wisconsin at OSU, 11/10 Michigan at Wisconsin, 11/17 OSU at Michigan). While I'm looking forward to November, just getting out there this weekend to watch the new Buckeyes grow up against Tressel's old school Youngstown State.
Went down to Cincinnati this week on Wednesday to watch the Reds play the Braves and go to dinner at the ballpark with the firm. It's nice that they move around their quarterly partner-associate dinner to various different places around the metro area, but of course any time I get free Reds tickets I'm not complaining. I could seriously tell that Keith and the guys wanted me to accept the offer, and of course Keith tells me about who he is interviewing at OSU OCI. Turns out Jim (the other summer) accepted his offer and we had a long chat after the game in the firm's parking garage. Kelley and I discussed things over after I received a couple more important rejection letters on Wednesday night...and we have big news. I ACCEPTED THE OFFER! Had to call and turn down 3 callbacks, but 2 of those were firms I was not particularly interested in anymore based on location. We are happy to be done with it and be in a great firm in a good local city. Did not think last year at this time that I would be taking the Ohio bar exam, but that's how it is. Sharing Reds season tickets with Jim and his wife should be nice too. Now we can start looking at neighborhoods and houses to rent. Fun!
So now that those decisions are off the table and football season is starting, it really feels like school time again. That's all for now, but hopefully some of you will enjoy the lists coming this week (or will comment back with your own favorites). Have a good week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)