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.

Video

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.

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.