Global Warming is the biggest sham in scientific history. That being said (and nuclear power should also be the power of the future if we care about the environment...creating a solar panel makes far more waste than running a nuclear plant for years), U Weekly ran a nice article on global warming today that made me laugh. So here you go.
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People sure can be an ungrateful, snotty bunch of crybabies. Mother Nature opened her loving arms and offered us a reprieve from the bitterly frigid temperatures that normally drape Ohio in the winter, and the best people could do was complain about global warming. Thanks to whiny, tree-hugging, dolphin-f*ucking liberals, Mother Nature recanted her gift and brought back the nut-freezing climate that us Ohioans were just starting to forget. Piss on Al Gore and his herd of hippy followers. Christ, can’t you people ever be happy?
It was a beautifully mild day in early January. The temperature was 57 degrees. I had just gotten home from a brisk run when I flicked on the television. CNN ran a story about the unseasonably mild weather and had a bunch of nerdy (probably virgin) scientists insisting that global warming was going to be the end of the world. They were talking some crap about glaciers melting, sea levels rising, animals being killed off and ecosystems being ruined. I call bulls**t.
Ever since, news reports can’t shut their mouths about the dangers of global warming. Most of these “scientists” seemed to think that the greenhouse gases that us humans have emitted over the last 50 years has somehow caused the temperature of the world to rise a few measly degrees. What a bunch of dicks.
I’m no genius. I don’t hold a doctorate, master’s, or even a bachelor’s. But I do have a Ph.D is common-f**king-sense. Allow me to explain.
The earth is old. Real old. Around 4.5 billion years to be exact. The earth is also huge – I won’t bother you with the details of just how big it is, but you get the idea. Aside from being really old and really big, the earth is also one of the most complex and ridiculously complicated systems known to man. Leave it to us humans to think that we can destroy something that has survived for 4.5 billion years and sustained meaningful life for the better part of 230 million years in just 50 years. People (especially Americans) have a terrible habit of over stating their importance to, well, everything.
Let’s try an exercise in analogy; it’ll go a long way to discredit the entire scientific community regarding global warming. I may win the Nobel Prize in scientific achievement for this:
If the earth is 4.5 billion years old than that means that 50 years is around .00000001% of the current age of the earth. If the Earth were a 18 year-old adult, that would equate (by my calculations, which are very likely wrong) to just a few seconds - or, about the time it takes to fart.
In my day I have let rip some of the most heinous, insidious, foul and otherwise un-Godly farts that anyone could possibly fathom. I have filled my bowels with countless gallons of beer and Jack Daniels, I have made hundreds of trips to Taco Bell at 3am and I have eaten enough junk food to single handedly keep Hostess in business. But I have never ripped a fart so bad that I simply stop functioning and died. Not yet, anyway.
You see, global warming is like a fart. It isn’t very pleasant, it’s very uncomfortable for the people around you and everyone will be looking to blame someone - but it isn’t that bad. And eventually, with time, you won’t think anything of it...until the next one. And unfortunately there are always people that want to make a bigger deal out of it than it is.
To be sure, the temperature is rising. But since scientists can, as of yet, only find correlation and not causation, I think its safe to assume that any rise in temperature is likely caused by events that took place long before most of us were even here. Changing the landscape of the most complicated physical system known to man probably takes longer than what amounts to a few seconds.
So maybe if Al Gore and the rest of his parishioners apologize and ask real nice, Mother Nature will bring back those comfortably warm temperatures and forgive us for being snot-nosed, whiny ingrates.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Ahh yes, a very relaxing weekend. Just me and the Wii. Good times.
I am writing because of two developments of the late week. First was bowling. We did not have our best week ever, but we went 3-0 and now sit at 6-3 going into a critical battle for first with Bart's team. They dropped 2 of 3 this week and will be 6-3 when we face off. Should be good times. Kelley and I went bowling Friday night too and we did not do great. Very average.
I'm keeping a running tab of Oesterle...we started with the Barrister's Ball and alcohol problems. Thursday he left us with this thought. You cannot blog and be successful at a law firm. If you want to be an academic then who cares about blogging, but a firm will read your blog and they will fire you for breaching attorney-client confidentiality (or the risk of it). If you're blogging now, you better stop immediately.
Hmmm...well on that note I'll leave you until next time.
I am writing because of two developments of the late week. First was bowling. We did not have our best week ever, but we went 3-0 and now sit at 6-3 going into a critical battle for first with Bart's team. They dropped 2 of 3 this week and will be 6-3 when we face off. Should be good times. Kelley and I went bowling Friday night too and we did not do great. Very average.
I'm keeping a running tab of Oesterle...we started with the Barrister's Ball and alcohol problems. Thursday he left us with this thought. You cannot blog and be successful at a law firm. If you want to be an academic then who cares about blogging, but a firm will read your blog and they will fire you for breaching attorney-client confidentiality (or the risk of it). If you're blogging now, you better stop immediately.
Hmmm...well on that note I'll leave you until next time.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
What a week
No updates due to the incredibly busy week around here. But tonight is bowling night and that means relaxation (and essentially the weekend) are here. Last week we had our Evidence Class Presentation worth 5% of the grade and it was such a joke. I spent 5 minues reviewing the rule at issue and then got grilled by other students acting as judges for 5 minutes on my case. It did bring what will be the highlight of my semester as far as talking in class goes.
Judge: Why should we exclude this gruesome picture from evidence?
Me: Because the risk of unfair prejudice substantially outweighs .... and there were three doctors as well as the burn victim on the stand giving expert testimony on the burns at trial.
Judge: Would you disagree with the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words?" What would you say to that?
Me: I'd say there were probably more than one thousand words of testimony between the four witnesses.
Let me condense it for you: if you bring the smart-ass question shit in a class presentation, I'm not afraid to swing back at you. Gave the class a laugh anyways.
The classes are interesting. State Con Law is a nice weekly discussion, and writing two papers in there should be easy. Business Associations and Evidence are hard to pay attention in because a lot of the class info is straightforward if you did the readings and looked at the class slides before class. Professor Oesterle is a blast in class though, quite the personality. Today the Oesterle words of wisdom: "I'm never going to another Barrister's Ball because all I will see is students getting drunk. The practice of law is stressful and some handle it better than others. If you have an alcohol problem now, it will get worse in practice. If you get drunk in front of your professors, you have an alcohol problem people. Simple as that. So I'm not going to any more Barrister's Balls." Trademark of course I was on call the second week of class, but no hardballs from Professor Lee...I think I've dropped his expectations of getting something intelligent out of me other than in an exam setting.
We recovered in bowling last week, getting 3-0 and back in the division hunt again. We'll see how we do tonight, but the current averages after two weeks are 142 (me, but I sandbagged of course), 128 (Brodie), 123 (Kelley), 76 (Daniel). Kelley's AVG is a bit high for now but Brodie and Daniel are well below usual so we should be OK. Encounters with Abbie the Judas have been interesting this week at the law school. Somehow Daniel always finds a way to make it interesting, and of course I incite them even more. We have a great division, all the best teams except for the professor team.
I think the town is finally getting over the football Buckeyes and are realizing what a great season the basketBucks are having. 16-3 and rolling right now with the only losses on the road to 3 top 5 teams in the country. Should be a great February and March.
Well getting on this week as my blogging time is limited. There were three things occupying my extra time in the early week, those being Ebay sales, the final Acc-Check for Journal, and Mediations Competition. The Ebay sales are mostly in hand tonight as I spent 5 hours catching up the 160 auctions that sold out of 180. Made a nice cool $750 on the cards, so up to $1080 so far with many more cards to sell. This helps pay for the splurges of Xmas, that being the Wii and the new digital camera. Ebay is kind of a pain, but I love the open marketplace and could easily see myself in another dimension opening a business that sells other people's crap on Ebay.
The final Acc-Check was ignored mostly. Symposium last week and the goings on of this week let me spend about 10 hours on it total. I did not do a very great job, but I did a good read through and such...so I shouldn't be in trouble over it. Erik Stock ran unopposed for next year's Editor in Chief, which went directly to my plan if I want a good managing board position. I applied for Executive Editor, Chief Managing Editor, and Articles Editor positions...we'll see what I end up with. The symposium was boring as balls, but we had to go so oh well. One student note and one bib assignment away from done with JDR for this school year. Unfortunately the note will take some serious time in the next month and a half.
Mediations competition had 8 teams of two, and you sat in a mediation in front of judges who judged how well you stick to the negotiation strategy you set and how well you worked together as attorney and client (you switched roles on the second night). The two fact patterns were fun to do, a family probate dispute and a gay guy discriminatory firing. All the all-stars of the negotiations competition from the fall were in there (Erik Stock, Cat Woltering, Andrew Richey, etc), so the field was tough. Richey and I thought we played the game well but our judges were terrible both nights and so alas, we did not make the final four tonight. The top two go to Regionals and get 500 dollars bar/bri money, so hey it was worth a shot (and we did have a lot of fun despite the late evenings).
24 this week set up the season nicely, and wow Jack is back. I love that the squirrely little guy who was behind it all (other than President Nixon, I mean Logan) last season is Jack's brother and is involved again this season. I'm still holding out for a Cuthbert comeback, as there is still more to develop (as in they could kill Jack's daughter too).
Quote of the week from Chloe: "why do people I work with keep dieing?" here's your sign.
On that note, it's bowling time. Woot.
Oh and two more notes. The team I am on for Moot Court is Criminal Procedure. We are meeting tomorrow to discuss travel arrangements. The bad news: it's in Newark NJ on the weekend of Barrister's Ball (also Kelley's birthday). Wonderful. So much for celebrating her Bday there. I instead get to spend that weekend with Brian Smith and some 3L. Oh well. C'est la vie....I wouldn't want to be doing Herman instead.
My grades this semester are ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I know I got the top grade in App Ad even though I do not know the numerical score yet (damn you Beazley come off them). This week I got my first ever 100 in Tax class, so another top grade. The 97 from Shippy and 92 in Copyright were nice also...so only Patent Law can screw up a beautiful semester. Wonderful how that all worked out.
Judge: Why should we exclude this gruesome picture from evidence?
Me: Because the risk of unfair prejudice substantially outweighs .... and there were three doctors as well as the burn victim on the stand giving expert testimony on the burns at trial.
Judge: Would you disagree with the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words?" What would you say to that?
Me: I'd say there were probably more than one thousand words of testimony between the four witnesses.
Let me condense it for you: if you bring the smart-ass question shit in a class presentation, I'm not afraid to swing back at you. Gave the class a laugh anyways.
The classes are interesting. State Con Law is a nice weekly discussion, and writing two papers in there should be easy. Business Associations and Evidence are hard to pay attention in because a lot of the class info is straightforward if you did the readings and looked at the class slides before class. Professor Oesterle is a blast in class though, quite the personality. Today the Oesterle words of wisdom: "I'm never going to another Barrister's Ball because all I will see is students getting drunk. The practice of law is stressful and some handle it better than others. If you have an alcohol problem now, it will get worse in practice. If you get drunk in front of your professors, you have an alcohol problem people. Simple as that. So I'm not going to any more Barrister's Balls." Trademark of course I was on call the second week of class, but no hardballs from Professor Lee...I think I've dropped his expectations of getting something intelligent out of me other than in an exam setting.
We recovered in bowling last week, getting 3-0 and back in the division hunt again. We'll see how we do tonight, but the current averages after two weeks are 142 (me, but I sandbagged of course), 128 (Brodie), 123 (Kelley), 76 (Daniel). Kelley's AVG is a bit high for now but Brodie and Daniel are well below usual so we should be OK. Encounters with Abbie the Judas have been interesting this week at the law school. Somehow Daniel always finds a way to make it interesting, and of course I incite them even more. We have a great division, all the best teams except for the professor team.
I think the town is finally getting over the football Buckeyes and are realizing what a great season the basketBucks are having. 16-3 and rolling right now with the only losses on the road to 3 top 5 teams in the country. Should be a great February and March.
Well getting on this week as my blogging time is limited. There were three things occupying my extra time in the early week, those being Ebay sales, the final Acc-Check for Journal, and Mediations Competition. The Ebay sales are mostly in hand tonight as I spent 5 hours catching up the 160 auctions that sold out of 180. Made a nice cool $750 on the cards, so up to $1080 so far with many more cards to sell. This helps pay for the splurges of Xmas, that being the Wii and the new digital camera. Ebay is kind of a pain, but I love the open marketplace and could easily see myself in another dimension opening a business that sells other people's crap on Ebay.
The final Acc-Check was ignored mostly. Symposium last week and the goings on of this week let me spend about 10 hours on it total. I did not do a very great job, but I did a good read through and such...so I shouldn't be in trouble over it. Erik Stock ran unopposed for next year's Editor in Chief, which went directly to my plan if I want a good managing board position. I applied for Executive Editor, Chief Managing Editor, and Articles Editor positions...we'll see what I end up with. The symposium was boring as balls, but we had to go so oh well. One student note and one bib assignment away from done with JDR for this school year. Unfortunately the note will take some serious time in the next month and a half.
Mediations competition had 8 teams of two, and you sat in a mediation in front of judges who judged how well you stick to the negotiation strategy you set and how well you worked together as attorney and client (you switched roles on the second night). The two fact patterns were fun to do, a family probate dispute and a gay guy discriminatory firing. All the all-stars of the negotiations competition from the fall were in there (Erik Stock, Cat Woltering, Andrew Richey, etc), so the field was tough. Richey and I thought we played the game well but our judges were terrible both nights and so alas, we did not make the final four tonight. The top two go to Regionals and get 500 dollars bar/bri money, so hey it was worth a shot (and we did have a lot of fun despite the late evenings).
24 this week set up the season nicely, and wow Jack is back. I love that the squirrely little guy who was behind it all (other than President Nixon, I mean Logan) last season is Jack's brother and is involved again this season. I'm still holding out for a Cuthbert comeback, as there is still more to develop (as in they could kill Jack's daughter too).
Quote of the week from Chloe: "why do people I work with keep dieing?" here's your sign.
On that note, it's bowling time. Woot.
Oh and two more notes. The team I am on for Moot Court is Criminal Procedure. We are meeting tomorrow to discuss travel arrangements. The bad news: it's in Newark NJ on the weekend of Barrister's Ball (also Kelley's birthday). Wonderful. So much for celebrating her Bday there. I instead get to spend that weekend with Brian Smith and some 3L. Oh well. C'est la vie....I wouldn't want to be doing Herman instead.
My grades this semester are ridiculous. Absolutely ridiculous. I know I got the top grade in App Ad even though I do not know the numerical score yet (damn you Beazley come off them). This week I got my first ever 100 in Tax class, so another top grade. The 97 from Shippy and 92 in Copyright were nice also...so only Patent Law can screw up a beautiful semester. Wonderful how that all worked out.
Monday, January 15, 2007
The 24 Premiere
Well a good weekend comes to a close. Put up all my extended cards on Ebay yesterday, took about 4 hours and I have 180 auctions running. That's crazy as I though 56 was a lot to keep me busy last summer. I'll probably wait until this summer to finish off the money cards, perhaps around Origins or shortly after. I might take the stuff to Origins and see what I can get, especially for the bulk. I know Villa sold his bulk online on Ebay, but I probably have 4 times as much as he had when he sold. Eh, it's just cardboard. But cardboard that will make some money for poker and other fun endeavors. I was pleasantly surprised by raking in around $300 for my limited collection of standard cards last summer...we'll see how this goes.
Does anyone else find it odd that the President chooses now to send in more forces? 21,000 more troops in Iraq? Are we installing a draft again? OK the last one was kidding, but seriously why was this not done 2-3 years ago? I always thought Kerry was a kook and had the president pulled the troops entirely now we would've been better off with Kerry, but thankfully the President did not do this. I just hope this means he has a real plan with realistic goals and a realistic endpoint. Even if moderately successful, Bush has ruined any legacy he had other than finishing his father's business (getting rid of Saddam). Both Bush presidencies taken down by Iraq, what a cute quagmire. While I think as a conservative that Senator McCain would be the best choice to succeed Bush in 2008 (and John Edwards would be acceptable), it appears the nation is really going to get behind Barack Obama. Could you have a worse name to try and break the white male president trend in this country though? I have trouble truly believing McCain or any other republican candidate has a chance in 2008 after watching a true swing state go so democrat in 2006 (Ohio). Ohio is a perfect model for the country as it has a little bit of everything except maybe a high concentration of the very liberal or far left. Ohio has gone ridiculously blue and I really do not see that changing in 2 years absent some governor or high state official misconduct (thanks Bob Taft, real classy career), and as Ohio basically never votes on the whole for a presidential loser...watch the democratic primary season carefully.
Can you imagine with Iowa going first in the primary season as always...who do they choose? Obama and Clinton are so unpopular there, but they know that Iowa is crucial to setting the rest of primary season. Will Edwards strike gold because Iowa fits his profile? Very very interesting, and almost makes me wish I were a registered democrat in Iowa. But not really. I'd rather my vote count in a general election.
Well 24 has premiered now, and the "shocking turn of events" was indeed pretty shocking. Another long running main character Curtis is killed and by Jack's hand no less. Of course then Jack wants to quit...but nothing motivates Jack like a nuclear weapon going off in LA. I'm happy they are finally letting some big bad stuff happen to the public, as I know America could not be so lucky so many times in a row if 24 were realistic. The stakes have been raised and even though they went back to the old standby of nuclear weapons, 24 doesn't feel right without a good big nuclear threat. Still going to be hard to match Season 5, with a Nixon-like president deceiving everyone and tons of long running main characters getting the axe (Tony, Michelle, Edgar, David Palmer). I do like that the writers are not shying away from a legitimate scary topic, that being the war of terrorism coming to America. Even with 2 more seasons of 24 after this one agreed to, I think we may be seeing the best days of 24 right now.
One final note from the premiere: I am always amazed the actors they bring in season to season (last year they had Sean Astin better known as Samwise Gamgee playing Lynn McGill, Jean Smart playing Martha Logan, and the guy who plays Desmond on Lost as a critical British MI6 agent), and this season I was happy to see Alexander Siddig playing Asad. Siddig used to be known as Siddig El Fadil when he played Dr. Bashir on Deep Sapce Nine, and I am always thrilled to see the good actors from Star Trek series get good roles elsewhere. Siddig also was good in the movie Syriana last year. We'll see if there are any more big actors coming in this season.
Well if you did not tune in to the 24 premiere the last 2 nights...Fox in their money making mind will give you a reprieve if you wish to catch up. The first 4 episodes are on sale in DVD tomorrow, to which I say HA! Fox might as well give up and webcast the episodes for a limited time after they run the first time...ABC is already doing this and they are the only other network with shows close to as good as Fox's lineup. It was so nice not having to tape Lost but just loading it up later on ABC.com. I hope Fox follows suit, as it would be wonderful to catch House or 24 if we ever missed it.
In the end, if you are not watching 24...you should be. There's nothing else even close to as good on TV Monday nights. Should I watch American Idol this season? I mean every other Fox show I've watched turns out to be good (Prison Break, House, 24, and Standoff as well as Trading Spouses), so maybe I'll finally give the old Idol a chance. I did like Survivor after all, and it has to be better than that.
Back to school tomorrow. Suck. Talk to you all later.
Does anyone else find it odd that the President chooses now to send in more forces? 21,000 more troops in Iraq? Are we installing a draft again? OK the last one was kidding, but seriously why was this not done 2-3 years ago? I always thought Kerry was a kook and had the president pulled the troops entirely now we would've been better off with Kerry, but thankfully the President did not do this. I just hope this means he has a real plan with realistic goals and a realistic endpoint. Even if moderately successful, Bush has ruined any legacy he had other than finishing his father's business (getting rid of Saddam). Both Bush presidencies taken down by Iraq, what a cute quagmire. While I think as a conservative that Senator McCain would be the best choice to succeed Bush in 2008 (and John Edwards would be acceptable), it appears the nation is really going to get behind Barack Obama. Could you have a worse name to try and break the white male president trend in this country though? I have trouble truly believing McCain or any other republican candidate has a chance in 2008 after watching a true swing state go so democrat in 2006 (Ohio). Ohio is a perfect model for the country as it has a little bit of everything except maybe a high concentration of the very liberal or far left. Ohio has gone ridiculously blue and I really do not see that changing in 2 years absent some governor or high state official misconduct (thanks Bob Taft, real classy career), and as Ohio basically never votes on the whole for a presidential loser...watch the democratic primary season carefully.
Can you imagine with Iowa going first in the primary season as always...who do they choose? Obama and Clinton are so unpopular there, but they know that Iowa is crucial to setting the rest of primary season. Will Edwards strike gold because Iowa fits his profile? Very very interesting, and almost makes me wish I were a registered democrat in Iowa. But not really. I'd rather my vote count in a general election.
Well 24 has premiered now, and the "shocking turn of events" was indeed pretty shocking. Another long running main character Curtis is killed and by Jack's hand no less. Of course then Jack wants to quit...but nothing motivates Jack like a nuclear weapon going off in LA. I'm happy they are finally letting some big bad stuff happen to the public, as I know America could not be so lucky so many times in a row if 24 were realistic. The stakes have been raised and even though they went back to the old standby of nuclear weapons, 24 doesn't feel right without a good big nuclear threat. Still going to be hard to match Season 5, with a Nixon-like president deceiving everyone and tons of long running main characters getting the axe (Tony, Michelle, Edgar, David Palmer). I do like that the writers are not shying away from a legitimate scary topic, that being the war of terrorism coming to America. Even with 2 more seasons of 24 after this one agreed to, I think we may be seeing the best days of 24 right now.
One final note from the premiere: I am always amazed the actors they bring in season to season (last year they had Sean Astin better known as Samwise Gamgee playing Lynn McGill, Jean Smart playing Martha Logan, and the guy who plays Desmond on Lost as a critical British MI6 agent), and this season I was happy to see Alexander Siddig playing Asad. Siddig used to be known as Siddig El Fadil when he played Dr. Bashir on Deep Sapce Nine, and I am always thrilled to see the good actors from Star Trek series get good roles elsewhere. Siddig also was good in the movie Syriana last year. We'll see if there are any more big actors coming in this season.
Well if you did not tune in to the 24 premiere the last 2 nights...Fox in their money making mind will give you a reprieve if you wish to catch up. The first 4 episodes are on sale in DVD tomorrow, to which I say HA! Fox might as well give up and webcast the episodes for a limited time after they run the first time...ABC is already doing this and they are the only other network with shows close to as good as Fox's lineup. It was so nice not having to tape Lost but just loading it up later on ABC.com. I hope Fox follows suit, as it would be wonderful to catch House or 24 if we ever missed it.
In the end, if you are not watching 24...you should be. There's nothing else even close to as good on TV Monday nights. Should I watch American Idol this season? I mean every other Fox show I've watched turns out to be good (Prison Break, House, 24, and Standoff as well as Trading Spouses), so maybe I'll finally give the old Idol a chance. I did like Survivor after all, and it has to be better than that.
Back to school tomorrow. Suck. Talk to you all later.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
The Update...Halfway Home
Halfway home...halfway through law school at large and halfway through this second year. Hard to believe but at the same point I am so ready to start making money instead of taking out loans. I'm sure work will not be great or anything, but it should be better than school. Regardless, let's get caught up from November.
The OSU-UM game was amazing. That's all there is to it. My first game in 2001 was fantastic beating UM up in Ann Arbor unexpectedly, but this was so much better with the national championship game and an outright Big Ten title on the line. Nobody would have guessed the offensive explosion that happened, but the game was really not as close as a field goal. It felt exactly like the Iowa road game being there in person (a little uncomfortable at times, but always felt like we had the upper hand)...the main difference was against Iowa we did not lose the turnover battle 0-3. I pretty much crowned us right then and there, as I am pretty sure had we played playoff games the next 3 weeks or the title game itself we would have easily rolled on to victory. Unfortunately, we had a 51 day wait...
School was so busy the last weeks of November and early December, between finals coming up and one last 2006 JDR assignment and other stuff. We lost in the first round of the bowling playoffs, which were only 8 teams instead of the usual 16. Still making the top 2 in a division of 8 was something. Abbie deserted the team and we've been jokingly calling her Judas ever since. Well at least I'm joking :-) Nevertheless, we added Kelley to the team and will go on as MFR Minus Judas.
Did nothing amazing for Thanksgiving. Onto exams all of a sudden, but Guy and Everson joined me for a tax study group 5-6 times before the exam. We all probably killed that exam as I think I busted the multiple choice only missing 1-2 in all likelihood and we had an answer written for the policy question the night before the exam. So that one went well. As exam season went on, my preparation (and how I felt walking out of the exam) got worse and worse. It's hard to care too much about anything law school with a job in my back pocket, but I still cannot blow it off in case the job doesn't work out. My look on law school is definitely more relaxed than most everyone around me (as Guy reminds me of every time I see him). You cannot take anything too seriously in law school or else it woul drive you crazy. Bad enough as it is.
So Fed Tax went very well as I said. Patent Law was absurdly straightforward, so hopefully Mescher keeps his word about not grading on a curve. If he curves it is hard to tell where I will end up as everyone I know thought that one was easy. Copyright Law took me too much time and I do not think I fully fleshed out the issues in the big essay enough, but the exam was not hard. Accounting For Lawyers was a very hard exam. It wa smore of a Business Associations plus Tax plus Accounting exam, and I rocked the tax and accounting parts but not the BA. Everyone did poorly in there though, so another crapshoot just like Property was (and that was my highest grade last year). Although you have to compete against 3L's this year, they don't care even more than we don't care and it's nice not being in my section anymore which was brutal. We'll see how the grades come out, as they should start popping up soon. I'm actually surprised some aren't up already. Guess they wanted us to have a nice 3 day weekend.
Speaking of grades, I have to bitch about this. This year Moritz switched wholesale from a 7 point scale to a 10 point scale. There will be the same distribution or curve of A's, B's, and C's, but the numerical grades on the whole just get lower. So an 80 was a very low C (essentially bottom of the class) last year and this year it is a B- (above 25 percent of the class). So now we have two completely different grading systems and will have to explain how a 91 first year was a B but a 91 second or third year is an A (minus). What bullshit. Why could we not grandfather this in? I'm all about a 10 point scale to clarify how you did and spread the distribution to separate people in the class better...but not after one year of a 7 point scale which gets averaged against 2L and 3L grades. It's just dumb.
First semester of 1L I did not know what to expect, but second semester I was right on with my grade predictions. Based on how I felt about these exams, I would have to guess Tax will be a mid-high A, Patent will be a low-mid A, Copyright will be a middle B, and Accounting could be anywhere but I'll guess A-/B+. Hopefully I'll keep the no-C streak going. I cannot guess Appellate Advocacy (although I thought I was definitely in the top 1-2 out of my 14 person adjunct section after getting my final draft back and my good oral argument critique) because I already know. That's another topic though.
The next to last week of school we had a meeting explaining the Herman Competition to us, which is basically our school's big Moot Court competition (and we all know if there's one ting employers say they value other than grades, it's law journal and moot court). The top 5 in every app ad section get to participate if they want, but the first week of class there are open arguments for anyone else to try and get in the competition. There's also a selection round the first week for the top student in each app ad section to compete for 4 spots on Moritz's intramural traveling moot court teams. Well I got the top grade in my section and had to reprep my argument from app ad for the second day of school. It was Professor Beazley (who I knew from Legal Writing's oral argument was a tough judge) and Professor Tokaji (who teaches 14th Amendment and whose pet case of 2006 was our Seattle Schools equal protection case), so I knew I was in for some tough questions. Time flies when you answer questions the whole time, and I really never brought the good facts of the case out. In fact I never looked down as I was always engaging the two judges in answering or listening to questions. Maybe technically my oral argument was fine but I felt terrible because substantively I did the worst I have done ever in an oral argument. Nevertheless, I unexpectedly got an email Thursday night saying I got first out of all the arguers Tuesday night. This means I got my choice of traveling team spot and I do not have to compete in Herman. That is SO NICE! I also get second choice for whatever traveling team I want for 3L year (behind the one winner of Herman out of the I'm guessing 60-80 competitors). I've got plenty of time, but I'm torn between doing one of the big national teams next year or IP. For this year, I get to be on the Constitutional Law team. I really cannot believe all of this, but I'm happy I won the appellate advocacy race as it turns out.
Christmas break was very relaxing and I needed that. We did 3 quick days in Marietta area with all the family and no big blow ups happened (although we did get the guilt trip from everyone in some respect when we left). Got back up to Columbus and spent an uneventful Christmas together with Kelley. The big gifts we got (counting the post-loan money purchases) were bowling balls for each other, a Nintendo Wii for me, and a NICE digital camera for her. I'm so happy to have a pretty spare ball to go with my old standby purple Jaguar ball I've had isnce high school, and the few times in December we bowled I did very well. It's a Cincinnati Reds Vis-A-Ball if you want to look it up. After all, I'm going to be living in Cincy and that's the only pro team I like there. Kelley got a black and red ball that smells like cherries (yes it's supposed to smell like that). Her game has been rather inconsistent as she gets used to a slightly heavier ball and a better ball than her old Wal-Mart 10 pounder. I'm sure it will do wonders in the long run for her game as the Jaguar ball did for me in high school. The Nintendo Wii was bought in December because Tom talked me into staying out all night with him when the second big release of them happened. After driving for an hour and a half around Columbus, we found one store on the SW side of town which did not have a shitton of people waiting outside. It was a long cold night, but we had a 24 hour Kroger and a good group of 5 other people to wait with. The Wii itself should have kept the code name Revolution, because that's what it is. EVERY SINGLE PERSON (counting grandparents and people who hate video games) who has tried the Wii loves playing it, and I really think Nintendo may have a chance of not only competing with the Xbox 360 and PS3...but perhaps beat them in sales. It was crazy to think that before the system came out, but the control system is so much more entertaining and intuitive than the button pushers we grew up with. I have Wii Sports, Madden 07, and Zelda Twilight Princess and all are breathtaking. In the next 3 months we have already pre-bought Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Wii Play, and Mario Party 8. It will be a great year to have this system as it is still in short supply and everyone I know loves to play it. The digital camera is absurdly nice, like 10 megapixels and changeable lenses and it's really a dream of Kelley's. I'm so happy that she is excited to bowl with us and her new bowling ball, take awesome pictures, and play the new Nintendo with me. All purchases were well worth it.
The remainder of Xmas break, we finally got out wedding thank yous because I was so sick of them and Kelley obviously was not of a mind to do them ever. I also got my extended card collection ready for Ebay (probably this weekend), prepped for Extended season with the guys, ignored my JDR note, worked with Shipman, and wrote 4 articles for SCS bowl season. Enough to keep me plenty busy. Got the final two assignments done for Shipman and will now be his legal writing TA, which means I will be helping 7 young 1L's learn how to write like a lawyer. Hooray. We also had the first extended PTQ of the season, and since I'm only going to 3 by my plan...I intend to enjoy every one. I played the right deck which was very popular in Cleveland but went 2-2 disappointgly running into 3 mirror matches. 4 people running the deck (including our teammate Dan) made the top 8, so that made it a little more disappointing. Couldn't be too upset as Burton and Tom did terrible with me and I had other things to do in Cleveland actually. We got together with Thomas and Lisa finally and went out to a great dinner and heavenly ice cream and good times with our Wii. The place we got dinner brews its own beer and has a deal where you pay 100-120 dollars and get 70 big bottles of your own creation to drink and keep. We'll have to try that. We hope to go on a nice weekend trip with them this summer.
The other big thing over break was our new year's party, which did not really happen as planned. Tom and Heather cancelled at the last minute after being too tired flying back from Germany (whatever, I expected this one), Shep and Marissa cancelled because Marissa got throw-up sick the day of, and Lisa and Thomas cancelled because Thomas spent that whole weekend in the hospital. Very frustrating, but we still had Zach and Sarah as well as Brodie and Sarah Miller over. Made too much food for all of us, but I just had to have no-bake cookies, chex mix, and cucumber sandwiches. Played poker (which since I suck in real life now apparently, I lost again), blackjack, roulette, Wii, and Rage. Not as good as if we had 10-12, but still a fun time.
The first week back was HECTIC. Not only did class start up again, but Monday night was the championship game party at Villa's, Tuesday night was Herman selection argument and watching House with Tom and Heather and Burton and Leah's place, Wednesday was bowling, and my first draft of my JDR note had to be completely written in 2 days (15 pages minimum). Yuck. The championship party was fun, but watching the game was not. It really has been a bad week in Columbus as the Blue Jackets have lost 4 in a row, the basketball Buckeyes barely went 1-1, and the football team got thoroughly embarrassed by Florida just like they did in basketball a month ago. I've only seen a Jim Tressel team get embarrassed once in my life and I had the displeasure of attending that game live (30 point loss at Iowa in 2004), so I was very happy we did not pay big money to get tickets to Glendale. Not only did Florida hold the best offense in the country to 85 yards total, Jim Tressel got out-coached and looked silly out there. It has been a long week and will be a long offseason because the Buckeyes are not bringing back conference title talent, let alone national title talent. I'm not nearly as depressed and upset as everyone else in town seems to be, but it's not like I'm going to forget this one anytime soon (going to Iowa was so satisfying this year because it sort of erased the 2004 memories). Bye bye Troy Smith, Ted Ginn Jr, Anthony Gonzalez, Antonio Pittman, and my personal favorite senior Quinn Pitcock. On the bright side, Michigan and Notre Dame got their butts whipped too in BCS bowl games and Iowa almost beat heavily favored Texas...so that makes me happy. And we did win a 7th Heisman Trophy and our 5th Michigan game in 6 seasons and a 2nd straight Big Ten title.
I swear I'm going to make a T-shirt that on the front says "MICHIGAN, Rose Bowl Greatness 2004, 2005, 2007..." and on the back shows the scores of those three games and says "...Three-Straight Ass Whoopins!" Honestly Michigan, can you please stop embarrasing the conference in the Rose Bowl?
House is seriously one of the best shows on television right now. And come to think of it, TV seems better than it has been in recent years, especially on Fox. Standoff, the Office, American Idol, Survivor, etc. is all watchable. My three shows are Lost, 24, and House. House has had an amazing story in this season and it will be interesting to see where they go with the second half of the season with a new major storyline. Lost is having a great third season as well, and the wait until mid-February for new episodes is excruciating. 24 finally comes back tomorrow night for Season 6, and if you have not watched 24 before please please please tune in this weekend (8-10 Sunday and Monday). Kelley and I watched the beginning of season 5 last MLK day weekend and never looked back as we bought all the previous seasons on DVD and watched them to catch up over the summer. The writing and suspense is very good, definitely one of the best shows on television.
First week of bowling was not great, but not a complete loss. Our division is all I could ask for, as we have a good 3L team that always does well (Bring Back Clovis), Brian Smith's team, Abbie's new team, and Bart/Christie's team. We bowled against Clovis for the first week and thank God we got that out of the way as they beat the everloving shit out of us. We went 0-3 also because they beat us consistently (by 27 the first game after handicap and by 26 the second game, by 150 pins scratch both games). The 2 out of 3 seasons we made the playoffs, we started 2-7 both times though so it's OK. And our handicaps are set nice and low compared to where I expect the team will be. I amazingly did not mark the first eight frames (possibly the longest streak of futility I have had in years) and had a 68 through 8...but then I got a spare in the ninth and 29 in the tenth to finish strong at 117. I had it going in the second game getting a 175 fairly easily. I like that I recovered the bad start, but I hope this week is not a sign of going back to inconcsistency. I am so much better when my scores are consistent. Nevertheless, the averages we carry will help as they are a little lower than last season.
ME: 146 average, 154 last season
BRODIE: 129 average, 133 last season (and 140 last year)
KELLEY: 100 average, 110 last season when she subbed for us
DANIEL: 77 average, 94 last season.
With a 16 team playoff again, I think we can get in since we have our tough week out of the way. Thank God bowling is back :-)
The JDR note (note is such an inappropriate word for a 25-30 page scholarly paper, but when compared to the 100 page behemoths professors and experts write for JDR and we edit...I guess note is OK) should not have been ignored as longas I did, but all my friends were in the same boat. I don't care for my journal...I mean I'm happy to be a part of such a great journal but I really don't care about ADR itself. Having to write a lengthy paper about ADR is murder...I don't want to research and I don't want to write. But I somehow came up with a nice 11 pages fully footnoted and 4 pages of BS I'll have to rewrite and redevelop for the next draft. At least I got it in on time. It would be nice to get published after all this work, but I don't care if it doesn't happen. I wonder if I will be as cynical about moot court next year as I am about journal, but writing briefs and doing oral arguments is a whole hell of a lot more fun than acc-checking, preparing bibliographies, and writing scholarly articles. So I'm guessing no.
The new classes seem better than last semester. In retrospect last semester turned out poorly as Accounting was a waste (Shipman can only teach BA in my opinion), Patent was terrible to sit through (professor was awful), Copyright's rules were irritating, and Tax was awful. Other than Lee the professors were not good last semester. All my professors this semester seem much better. Oesterle is the only full-time conservative professor in the law school, and BA should be good with him. Evidence has very entertaining cases and Simmons is engaging. Trademark with Lee should be as good or better than Copyright was. State Consitutional Law seminar seems awesome too and I'll be done with the writing and presentation for that class by beginning of March (Judge Sutton is a nice change from normal professors too). My three bigger classes all have what I call powerpoint professors, which makes taking notes so much easier. I have enjoyed Civ Pro with Fairman, Legislation with Colker, and Copyright with Lee so much more than I would have had they not been powerpoint professors. Should be a good semester, even if the classes are not tailored for me [Accounting and Tax are full of math, Copyright and Patent are my beloved IP].
So between four classes, moot court traveling team, JDR, and extracurriculars I will be very busy this semester. March will be a good month as the 9-10 weekend I'll be in DC doing national moot court competition, the March 3 weekend is Tom's bachelor party, March 17 weekend is Tom and Heather's wedding (which Kelley is playing piano for and I am best man), and March 31 is Kelley's birthday and law school prom, the Barrister's Ball. AND March Madness! What a fantastic month!
Well I've updated my blog now. I know some of you thought Moritz Trek was dead, but hopefully it is not. And hopefully I at least get on here weekly to update the musings of law school. One final note of interest from the first week of school...
So there was this douchy guy who wasn't in my 1L section but was in my App Ad...let's just say he was an interesting character. His name was Adam. We come back to school in January, and now this person's name is Alice. Yeah...so now all of us in law school get to experience a co-worker getting a sex change first hand. Knowing the gossip of law school, it only took about half a day for word to get around. I hear from my good buddy Joe Siefert who asked Alice about this situation that the state of Ohio does not recognize sex changes. So she will always be Adam according to them. Just another "backwards" thing in this state that republican people like me think is OK despite being a little 1900. I figure what the hell though, you want to cut the junk off and bring out the feminine side of yourself, it's your life. By far, the most entertaining thing from the first week back. 1 down, 14 to go.
The OSU-UM game was amazing. That's all there is to it. My first game in 2001 was fantastic beating UM up in Ann Arbor unexpectedly, but this was so much better with the national championship game and an outright Big Ten title on the line. Nobody would have guessed the offensive explosion that happened, but the game was really not as close as a field goal. It felt exactly like the Iowa road game being there in person (a little uncomfortable at times, but always felt like we had the upper hand)...the main difference was against Iowa we did not lose the turnover battle 0-3. I pretty much crowned us right then and there, as I am pretty sure had we played playoff games the next 3 weeks or the title game itself we would have easily rolled on to victory. Unfortunately, we had a 51 day wait...
School was so busy the last weeks of November and early December, between finals coming up and one last 2006 JDR assignment and other stuff. We lost in the first round of the bowling playoffs, which were only 8 teams instead of the usual 16. Still making the top 2 in a division of 8 was something. Abbie deserted the team and we've been jokingly calling her Judas ever since. Well at least I'm joking :-) Nevertheless, we added Kelley to the team and will go on as MFR Minus Judas.
Did nothing amazing for Thanksgiving. Onto exams all of a sudden, but Guy and Everson joined me for a tax study group 5-6 times before the exam. We all probably killed that exam as I think I busted the multiple choice only missing 1-2 in all likelihood and we had an answer written for the policy question the night before the exam. So that one went well. As exam season went on, my preparation (and how I felt walking out of the exam) got worse and worse. It's hard to care too much about anything law school with a job in my back pocket, but I still cannot blow it off in case the job doesn't work out. My look on law school is definitely more relaxed than most everyone around me (as Guy reminds me of every time I see him). You cannot take anything too seriously in law school or else it woul drive you crazy. Bad enough as it is.
So Fed Tax went very well as I said. Patent Law was absurdly straightforward, so hopefully Mescher keeps his word about not grading on a curve. If he curves it is hard to tell where I will end up as everyone I know thought that one was easy. Copyright Law took me too much time and I do not think I fully fleshed out the issues in the big essay enough, but the exam was not hard. Accounting For Lawyers was a very hard exam. It wa smore of a Business Associations plus Tax plus Accounting exam, and I rocked the tax and accounting parts but not the BA. Everyone did poorly in there though, so another crapshoot just like Property was (and that was my highest grade last year). Although you have to compete against 3L's this year, they don't care even more than we don't care and it's nice not being in my section anymore which was brutal. We'll see how the grades come out, as they should start popping up soon. I'm actually surprised some aren't up already. Guess they wanted us to have a nice 3 day weekend.
Speaking of grades, I have to bitch about this. This year Moritz switched wholesale from a 7 point scale to a 10 point scale. There will be the same distribution or curve of A's, B's, and C's, but the numerical grades on the whole just get lower. So an 80 was a very low C (essentially bottom of the class) last year and this year it is a B- (above 25 percent of the class). So now we have two completely different grading systems and will have to explain how a 91 first year was a B but a 91 second or third year is an A (minus). What bullshit. Why could we not grandfather this in? I'm all about a 10 point scale to clarify how you did and spread the distribution to separate people in the class better...but not after one year of a 7 point scale which gets averaged against 2L and 3L grades. It's just dumb.
First semester of 1L I did not know what to expect, but second semester I was right on with my grade predictions. Based on how I felt about these exams, I would have to guess Tax will be a mid-high A, Patent will be a low-mid A, Copyright will be a middle B, and Accounting could be anywhere but I'll guess A-/B+. Hopefully I'll keep the no-C streak going. I cannot guess Appellate Advocacy (although I thought I was definitely in the top 1-2 out of my 14 person adjunct section after getting my final draft back and my good oral argument critique) because I already know. That's another topic though.
The next to last week of school we had a meeting explaining the Herman Competition to us, which is basically our school's big Moot Court competition (and we all know if there's one ting employers say they value other than grades, it's law journal and moot court). The top 5 in every app ad section get to participate if they want, but the first week of class there are open arguments for anyone else to try and get in the competition. There's also a selection round the first week for the top student in each app ad section to compete for 4 spots on Moritz's intramural traveling moot court teams. Well I got the top grade in my section and had to reprep my argument from app ad for the second day of school. It was Professor Beazley (who I knew from Legal Writing's oral argument was a tough judge) and Professor Tokaji (who teaches 14th Amendment and whose pet case of 2006 was our Seattle Schools equal protection case), so I knew I was in for some tough questions. Time flies when you answer questions the whole time, and I really never brought the good facts of the case out. In fact I never looked down as I was always engaging the two judges in answering or listening to questions. Maybe technically my oral argument was fine but I felt terrible because substantively I did the worst I have done ever in an oral argument. Nevertheless, I unexpectedly got an email Thursday night saying I got first out of all the arguers Tuesday night. This means I got my choice of traveling team spot and I do not have to compete in Herman. That is SO NICE! I also get second choice for whatever traveling team I want for 3L year (behind the one winner of Herman out of the I'm guessing 60-80 competitors). I've got plenty of time, but I'm torn between doing one of the big national teams next year or IP. For this year, I get to be on the Constitutional Law team. I really cannot believe all of this, but I'm happy I won the appellate advocacy race as it turns out.
Christmas break was very relaxing and I needed that. We did 3 quick days in Marietta area with all the family and no big blow ups happened (although we did get the guilt trip from everyone in some respect when we left). Got back up to Columbus and spent an uneventful Christmas together with Kelley. The big gifts we got (counting the post-loan money purchases) were bowling balls for each other, a Nintendo Wii for me, and a NICE digital camera for her. I'm so happy to have a pretty spare ball to go with my old standby purple Jaguar ball I've had isnce high school, and the few times in December we bowled I did very well. It's a Cincinnati Reds Vis-A-Ball if you want to look it up. After all, I'm going to be living in Cincy and that's the only pro team I like there. Kelley got a black and red ball that smells like cherries (yes it's supposed to smell like that). Her game has been rather inconsistent as she gets used to a slightly heavier ball and a better ball than her old Wal-Mart 10 pounder. I'm sure it will do wonders in the long run for her game as the Jaguar ball did for me in high school. The Nintendo Wii was bought in December because Tom talked me into staying out all night with him when the second big release of them happened. After driving for an hour and a half around Columbus, we found one store on the SW side of town which did not have a shitton of people waiting outside. It was a long cold night, but we had a 24 hour Kroger and a good group of 5 other people to wait with. The Wii itself should have kept the code name Revolution, because that's what it is. EVERY SINGLE PERSON (counting grandparents and people who hate video games) who has tried the Wii loves playing it, and I really think Nintendo may have a chance of not only competing with the Xbox 360 and PS3...but perhaps beat them in sales. It was crazy to think that before the system came out, but the control system is so much more entertaining and intuitive than the button pushers we grew up with. I have Wii Sports, Madden 07, and Zelda Twilight Princess and all are breathtaking. In the next 3 months we have already pre-bought Wario Ware Smooth Moves, Wii Play, and Mario Party 8. It will be a great year to have this system as it is still in short supply and everyone I know loves to play it. The digital camera is absurdly nice, like 10 megapixels and changeable lenses and it's really a dream of Kelley's. I'm so happy that she is excited to bowl with us and her new bowling ball, take awesome pictures, and play the new Nintendo with me. All purchases were well worth it.
The remainder of Xmas break, we finally got out wedding thank yous because I was so sick of them and Kelley obviously was not of a mind to do them ever. I also got my extended card collection ready for Ebay (probably this weekend), prepped for Extended season with the guys, ignored my JDR note, worked with Shipman, and wrote 4 articles for SCS bowl season. Enough to keep me plenty busy. Got the final two assignments done for Shipman and will now be his legal writing TA, which means I will be helping 7 young 1L's learn how to write like a lawyer. Hooray. We also had the first extended PTQ of the season, and since I'm only going to 3 by my plan...I intend to enjoy every one. I played the right deck which was very popular in Cleveland but went 2-2 disappointgly running into 3 mirror matches. 4 people running the deck (including our teammate Dan) made the top 8, so that made it a little more disappointing. Couldn't be too upset as Burton and Tom did terrible with me and I had other things to do in Cleveland actually. We got together with Thomas and Lisa finally and went out to a great dinner and heavenly ice cream and good times with our Wii. The place we got dinner brews its own beer and has a deal where you pay 100-120 dollars and get 70 big bottles of your own creation to drink and keep. We'll have to try that. We hope to go on a nice weekend trip with them this summer.
The other big thing over break was our new year's party, which did not really happen as planned. Tom and Heather cancelled at the last minute after being too tired flying back from Germany (whatever, I expected this one), Shep and Marissa cancelled because Marissa got throw-up sick the day of, and Lisa and Thomas cancelled because Thomas spent that whole weekend in the hospital. Very frustrating, but we still had Zach and Sarah as well as Brodie and Sarah Miller over. Made too much food for all of us, but I just had to have no-bake cookies, chex mix, and cucumber sandwiches. Played poker (which since I suck in real life now apparently, I lost again), blackjack, roulette, Wii, and Rage. Not as good as if we had 10-12, but still a fun time.
The first week back was HECTIC. Not only did class start up again, but Monday night was the championship game party at Villa's, Tuesday night was Herman selection argument and watching House with Tom and Heather and Burton and Leah's place, Wednesday was bowling, and my first draft of my JDR note had to be completely written in 2 days (15 pages minimum). Yuck. The championship party was fun, but watching the game was not. It really has been a bad week in Columbus as the Blue Jackets have lost 4 in a row, the basketball Buckeyes barely went 1-1, and the football team got thoroughly embarrassed by Florida just like they did in basketball a month ago. I've only seen a Jim Tressel team get embarrassed once in my life and I had the displeasure of attending that game live (30 point loss at Iowa in 2004), so I was very happy we did not pay big money to get tickets to Glendale. Not only did Florida hold the best offense in the country to 85 yards total, Jim Tressel got out-coached and looked silly out there. It has been a long week and will be a long offseason because the Buckeyes are not bringing back conference title talent, let alone national title talent. I'm not nearly as depressed and upset as everyone else in town seems to be, but it's not like I'm going to forget this one anytime soon (going to Iowa was so satisfying this year because it sort of erased the 2004 memories). Bye bye Troy Smith, Ted Ginn Jr, Anthony Gonzalez, Antonio Pittman, and my personal favorite senior Quinn Pitcock. On the bright side, Michigan and Notre Dame got their butts whipped too in BCS bowl games and Iowa almost beat heavily favored Texas...so that makes me happy. And we did win a 7th Heisman Trophy and our 5th Michigan game in 6 seasons and a 2nd straight Big Ten title.
I swear I'm going to make a T-shirt that on the front says "MICHIGAN, Rose Bowl Greatness 2004, 2005, 2007..." and on the back shows the scores of those three games and says "...Three-Straight Ass Whoopins!" Honestly Michigan, can you please stop embarrasing the conference in the Rose Bowl?
House is seriously one of the best shows on television right now. And come to think of it, TV seems better than it has been in recent years, especially on Fox. Standoff, the Office, American Idol, Survivor, etc. is all watchable. My three shows are Lost, 24, and House. House has had an amazing story in this season and it will be interesting to see where they go with the second half of the season with a new major storyline. Lost is having a great third season as well, and the wait until mid-February for new episodes is excruciating. 24 finally comes back tomorrow night for Season 6, and if you have not watched 24 before please please please tune in this weekend (8-10 Sunday and Monday). Kelley and I watched the beginning of season 5 last MLK day weekend and never looked back as we bought all the previous seasons on DVD and watched them to catch up over the summer. The writing and suspense is very good, definitely one of the best shows on television.
First week of bowling was not great, but not a complete loss. Our division is all I could ask for, as we have a good 3L team that always does well (Bring Back Clovis), Brian Smith's team, Abbie's new team, and Bart/Christie's team. We bowled against Clovis for the first week and thank God we got that out of the way as they beat the everloving shit out of us. We went 0-3 also because they beat us consistently (by 27 the first game after handicap and by 26 the second game, by 150 pins scratch both games). The 2 out of 3 seasons we made the playoffs, we started 2-7 both times though so it's OK. And our handicaps are set nice and low compared to where I expect the team will be. I amazingly did not mark the first eight frames (possibly the longest streak of futility I have had in years) and had a 68 through 8...but then I got a spare in the ninth and 29 in the tenth to finish strong at 117. I had it going in the second game getting a 175 fairly easily. I like that I recovered the bad start, but I hope this week is not a sign of going back to inconcsistency. I am so much better when my scores are consistent. Nevertheless, the averages we carry will help as they are a little lower than last season.
ME: 146 average, 154 last season
BRODIE: 129 average, 133 last season (and 140 last year)
KELLEY: 100 average, 110 last season when she subbed for us
DANIEL: 77 average, 94 last season.
With a 16 team playoff again, I think we can get in since we have our tough week out of the way. Thank God bowling is back :-)
The JDR note (note is such an inappropriate word for a 25-30 page scholarly paper, but when compared to the 100 page behemoths professors and experts write for JDR and we edit...I guess note is OK) should not have been ignored as longas I did, but all my friends were in the same boat. I don't care for my journal...I mean I'm happy to be a part of such a great journal but I really don't care about ADR itself. Having to write a lengthy paper about ADR is murder...I don't want to research and I don't want to write. But I somehow came up with a nice 11 pages fully footnoted and 4 pages of BS I'll have to rewrite and redevelop for the next draft. At least I got it in on time. It would be nice to get published after all this work, but I don't care if it doesn't happen. I wonder if I will be as cynical about moot court next year as I am about journal, but writing briefs and doing oral arguments is a whole hell of a lot more fun than acc-checking, preparing bibliographies, and writing scholarly articles. So I'm guessing no.
The new classes seem better than last semester. In retrospect last semester turned out poorly as Accounting was a waste (Shipman can only teach BA in my opinion), Patent was terrible to sit through (professor was awful), Copyright's rules were irritating, and Tax was awful. Other than Lee the professors were not good last semester. All my professors this semester seem much better. Oesterle is the only full-time conservative professor in the law school, and BA should be good with him. Evidence has very entertaining cases and Simmons is engaging. Trademark with Lee should be as good or better than Copyright was. State Consitutional Law seminar seems awesome too and I'll be done with the writing and presentation for that class by beginning of March (Judge Sutton is a nice change from normal professors too). My three bigger classes all have what I call powerpoint professors, which makes taking notes so much easier. I have enjoyed Civ Pro with Fairman, Legislation with Colker, and Copyright with Lee so much more than I would have had they not been powerpoint professors. Should be a good semester, even if the classes are not tailored for me [Accounting and Tax are full of math, Copyright and Patent are my beloved IP].
So between four classes, moot court traveling team, JDR, and extracurriculars I will be very busy this semester. March will be a good month as the 9-10 weekend I'll be in DC doing national moot court competition, the March 3 weekend is Tom's bachelor party, March 17 weekend is Tom and Heather's wedding (which Kelley is playing piano for and I am best man), and March 31 is Kelley's birthday and law school prom, the Barrister's Ball. AND March Madness! What a fantastic month!
Well I've updated my blog now. I know some of you thought Moritz Trek was dead, but hopefully it is not. And hopefully I at least get on here weekly to update the musings of law school. One final note of interest from the first week of school...
So there was this douchy guy who wasn't in my 1L section but was in my App Ad...let's just say he was an interesting character. His name was Adam. We come back to school in January, and now this person's name is Alice. Yeah...so now all of us in law school get to experience a co-worker getting a sex change first hand. Knowing the gossip of law school, it only took about half a day for word to get around. I hear from my good buddy Joe Siefert who asked Alice about this situation that the state of Ohio does not recognize sex changes. So she will always be Adam according to them. Just another "backwards" thing in this state that republican people like me think is OK despite being a little 1900. I figure what the hell though, you want to cut the junk off and bring out the feminine side of yourself, it's your life. By far, the most entertaining thing from the first week back. 1 down, 14 to go.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Welcome 2007
I will update on all the Christmas and finals stuff that kept me from blogging for weeks sometime later, but anyways just had to start 2007 by posting the nastiest story I have ever heard from a college football fan. After all, it is bowl season!
Link is here with discussion: http://mb25.scout.com/fthehivefrm1.showMessage?topicID=65970.topic
Since 1974 (thanks Dad!) I have attended Georgia Tech football games as a fan, student, and then alumni. Over the years, I have witnessed odd behavior at college football events. Until New Year's Day 2007, the event that stood out most was when the Georgia Tech student section covered the Notre Dame Team with raw fish in the late 70's.After the Gator Bowl? Wow. Just wow.I always carry my camera to Georgia Tech football games. We were fortunate and had seats on the lower level, two seats away from the Georgia Tech Band section. At the end of the second quarter, the band was in position on the field, leaving their section empty. I walked to the bottom of the band section to get some panorama shots of the stadium and then returned to my seat. I noticed a West Virginia fan standing in the middle of the Georgia Tech Band seating area, with his pants around his knees. As this is unusual, I pointed the walking stereotype to my fiance', a Virginia Tech alumni. She had been preparing me for the encounters with West Virginia fans and this individual only supported her prior observations.Then things got ugly.The WVU fan then dropped his drawers and defecated on one of the Georgia Tech band section seats.I turned the camera on and snapped the below series of pictures...picasaweb.google.com/THWU...andSection The Georgia Tech fans around us saw the incident and were also speechless.My first stop was to one of the Georgia Tech Band members remaining in the section. I introduced myself as a Georgia Tech alumni and apologized to him for what I had to say next. The story was repeated with accompanying pictures. The band member was in shock and then thanked me for looking out for the band. He went to find a member of the stadium facilities managment staff. I went to find a law enforcement officer.The Police Officer was in disbelief that behavior such as this would actually occur. The officer requested that the WVU fan walk up to the portal to discuss the incident. Walking up the stairs was a little too much for the WVU fan as he apparently had imbibed quite a large quantity of alcohol. Falling UP the stairs twice did not help his cause with the officer...We could hear the WVU fan screaming, 'y'all ain't got no proof I did nothin!' repeatedly as the officer questioned him on the 'leavings' in the seat. The officer motioned for me to bring my camera over and show the pictures to the WVU fan. Well, two things happened as he saw the images. One, he stopped protesting. Two, he vomited down the front of his shirt (always a classy move).The officer took the individual into custody and requested that I provide the images to the police command station. None of the officers in the command station could belive my story until I displayed the images. The WVU fan was arrested and removed from the stadium."I went to the Gator Bowl and all I got was arrested!"picasaweb.google.com/THWU...andSectionFor what it's worth, the rest of the WVU fans treated us with respect. It was a great game.
Well I'll be damned. A Mountaineer fan drunk off his kilter and so drunk he does something disgusting and stupid in the name of competition. Who'd a thunk it?
Link is here with discussion: http://mb25.scout.com/fthehivefrm1.showMessage?topicID=65970.topic
Since 1974 (thanks Dad!) I have attended Georgia Tech football games as a fan, student, and then alumni. Over the years, I have witnessed odd behavior at college football events. Until New Year's Day 2007, the event that stood out most was when the Georgia Tech student section covered the Notre Dame Team with raw fish in the late 70's.After the Gator Bowl? Wow. Just wow.I always carry my camera to Georgia Tech football games. We were fortunate and had seats on the lower level, two seats away from the Georgia Tech Band section. At the end of the second quarter, the band was in position on the field, leaving their section empty. I walked to the bottom of the band section to get some panorama shots of the stadium and then returned to my seat. I noticed a West Virginia fan standing in the middle of the Georgia Tech Band seating area, with his pants around his knees. As this is unusual, I pointed the walking stereotype to my fiance', a Virginia Tech alumni. She had been preparing me for the encounters with West Virginia fans and this individual only supported her prior observations.Then things got ugly.The WVU fan then dropped his drawers and defecated on one of the Georgia Tech band section seats.I turned the camera on and snapped the below series of pictures...picasaweb.google.com/THWU...andSection The Georgia Tech fans around us saw the incident and were also speechless.My first stop was to one of the Georgia Tech Band members remaining in the section. I introduced myself as a Georgia Tech alumni and apologized to him for what I had to say next. The story was repeated with accompanying pictures. The band member was in shock and then thanked me for looking out for the band. He went to find a member of the stadium facilities managment staff. I went to find a law enforcement officer.The Police Officer was in disbelief that behavior such as this would actually occur. The officer requested that the WVU fan walk up to the portal to discuss the incident. Walking up the stairs was a little too much for the WVU fan as he apparently had imbibed quite a large quantity of alcohol. Falling UP the stairs twice did not help his cause with the officer...We could hear the WVU fan screaming, 'y'all ain't got no proof I did nothin!' repeatedly as the officer questioned him on the 'leavings' in the seat. The officer motioned for me to bring my camera over and show the pictures to the WVU fan. Well, two things happened as he saw the images. One, he stopped protesting. Two, he vomited down the front of his shirt (always a classy move).The officer took the individual into custody and requested that I provide the images to the police command station. None of the officers in the command station could belive my story until I displayed the images. The WVU fan was arrested and removed from the stadium."I went to the Gator Bowl and all I got was arrested!"picasaweb.google.com/THWU...andSectionFor what it's worth, the rest of the WVU fans treated us with respect. It was a great game.
Well I'll be damned. A Mountaineer fan drunk off his kilter and so drunk he does something disgusting and stupid in the name of competition. Who'd a thunk it?
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