The End of The Summer, 3L Year Arrives

Well it's time to get back into old habits, especially sportswriting and blogging. I tracked down my old blog right before it got deleted and pulled many of the posts over here from 1L year and last year of undergrad. Some tough days back then, but some good days. But that's in the past and mostly for me, so let's move back to the present and catch-up from a much too short summer break.

My last entry listed my schedule for the year, and it's so hard to believe I'll be in class again Monday. Kind of sucks because I'm ready to be done with school, but this will likely be the last year of school ever for me so I should enjoy it to some extent. Went to go buy books yesterday and I'm pissed at the bookstores. Not only do they never stock many used books (although I went too late to get them this semester), they have trouble getting law books in before classes start for some classes. So I've got 5 of my 8 required books so far, but hopefully the others will come in next week. Doesn't seem like too much to ask, but OSU is not geared for us law students. I actually had to ask permission to go into the textbook section of Long's (one of two bookstores that carry law books) because they had it roped off "in preparation for the upcoming quarter." Undergrads don't start for another 4 weeks...so thanks for being so accomodating Long's. Speaking of slightly inconvenient changes, the construction following me around campus continues...the last part of the shell that was the Ohio Union came down 2 weeks ago. First the mechanical engineering building, then the main library and Oval, now the Union. At least the major points of campus will be nice to come back to :-)

I'll highlight some of the good and bad points from the past few weeks, but looking at the summer overall, it was a success. Went to two more Reds games, a third bobblehead night where we actually beat the Brewers and climbed out of the NL Central cellar, and of course the July 3 fireworks game for our anniversary. Diamond seats are more than amazing, and we're hoping to go at least once a year for that. Not only the best and most comfortable seats in the house right behind home plate, but also unlimited food/drinks (yes alcoholic) and service at your seat every inning. You also have a private lounge and bar underneath the seats as well. The seats are very expensive, but I think we definitely got our money's worth. Plus, we won the game against the Giants and saw Barry Bonds hit home run #752. Fireworks were very well done as well after the game. It's funny that Bonds has hit a home run in both the games I've seen him in and Griffey has yet to homer when I go see the Reds despite countless opportunities. Darn fate. If we settle there it will be nice to get Reds season tickets or a partial season.

Last time I wrote we were still in the middle of softball season and it was the day of the formal attorney-guest dinner. Well the formal dinner was dressy, but more like LBD instead of prom wear if you know what I mean. It's definitely a little intimidating speaking to people you work with when you still don't have a full-time offer from them and to other attorneys at the firm you have not worked with, but I'm sure it was worse for Kelley. The dinner was good and the conversation was OK. We sat at a table with Colin (a new associate), Kurt (undergrad co-op student for the summer), and Rich (a partner working half time on his way to retirement)...so lots of different views. Hopefully it will be a little better if we do it again next summer. Softball season ended on a high note as we won our last game in extra innings against the worst softball team I've ever seen. Of course I think that says something that we needed extra innings to beat them, but oh well at least we finished with our first win in over 2 years (they say). Everyone makes the playoffs and we lost our playoff game to a team we were very competitive with both times we played them. Still, it was a good end to the season.

The work itself became much more centered on patent applications. I got plenty of small research projects in all IP fields to fill some time when I got into a lull, but still there were days where I did not have much to do. I completed 8 or 9 patent applications wire to wire, so that's more than most summer clerks at most firms. Also did another office action, but only did 3 of those this summer. Of course the patent search online and at the USPTO was also good experience. One final thing I did work-wise was litigation discovery work and going to a Markman hearing. I couldn't ask for a better work experience for a first-time IP summer associate, and thankfully after being on this path of schooling for 6 years, I am confident this is what I want to do as a career.

The apartment drama never really ended. They finally moved us to the other building 2.5 weeks after they said they would, so I never again really felt unpacked at those apartments. Stephanie was really apologetic and sweet about the whole mess, and I figure Heather (who I subletted from) and her will probably not live together much longer. Too much displeasure between them. It happens even when you live with friends. I'll be looking forward to renting a house next year or a nicer apartment wherever we go. Speaking of friends, the shit hit the proverbial fan this summer at the Columbus apartment. Kelley was there only half the time and couldn't clean much, but Sarah did not help out hardly at all. It got so bad in the kitchen and living room that I wanted to freak out one of the last weekends I came home. Plus Sarah apparently brought her mom into the apartment without giving Kelley notice so the place wasn't picked up at all. That makes us look bad and that angers me a little. Plus Sarah doesn't realize what she says around Bruce (her new b/f) and us...things like "my co-workers cannot wait for me to move out of the slums" and "it only takes 5 minutes to empty the dishwasher, but I just want to relax when I get home from work." I never was particularly happy about wasting my spring break helping her move from Philadelphia into our spare room...but at least I was gone all summer. This arrangement was OK for three reasons: (1) it got Sarah to save up some money and get on her feet here in Columbus, (2) it saved us rent money we desperately needed while I had to sublet another apartment, and (3) it kept Kelley from having to be alone in Columbus this summer. Now Sarah is on her feet, the sublet is over, and I'm back full-time again...so thank God she is apartment hunting. Here's hoping she finds something soon. I'm happy to be a friend and all, but it's time to have my office, my closet space, and our storage space in the basement back. I'm not helping her move out either...that's for her and her family. C'est la vie.

Bruce is an interesting cat. He's quite a bit older than the rest of us and works at COSI with Sarah. Perfectly nice guy, but definitely has a strange streak. Beats me in the geeky department which is hard to do! The only problem is he never seems to treat Kelley and I with much respect, as if we're too young to be smart and mature. He actually opened up to me more when he found out I was an engineering student who went to law school, not some random law student (he was an engineer himself). You can get the picture. I wish them the best, just in a different apartment because I feel like our hospitality is not appreciated as much as it was in April and May.

For free time this summer I spent a lot of time working on ebaying and sorting my Magic collection to sell at Origins. I also read the entire Harry Potter series mostly on lunch breaks at work and of course went to see a good number of popcorn flicks. Best of that bunch was a tie between Knocked Up and Order of the Phoenix, but Ocean's 13 was enjoyable also. The Harry Potter series is the first series I've read that did not have a disappointing ending. While I still recommend the Left Behind series, the Mission Earth decaology, and the Dark Tower books...Harry Potter is the only series strong from start to finish. I could nitpick how slow the first half of book 7 was, but it gave Rowling enough time to wrap up every major loose end and character from the past 6 books (there were a lot). I was also disappointed that there were no more deaths in the main characters, but the primary thing I cared about was Snape and that turned out how I wanted. Anybody who wants to talk Harry Potter can certainly msg me, but I'm looking forward to seeing Movies 6 and 7. Should be a banner holiday movie season for Christmas 2008 with Harry Potter 6 and Star Trek 11.

Best week of the summer was our anniversary and Origins. Kelley and I went out to a very nice dinner at Melting Pot for our anniversary and of course she got her lovely three-stone diamond ring for the right hand. Then we did the Diamond seats Reds game as explained above and that was a good experience. Origins was back to being a blast this year after a year off. Thursday I offed the bulk of my collection for a hair less than I wanted (like $10 less but that's OK as I made about $3000 off the whole collection over the past year), and I played in the Settlers of Catan World Qualifier. You play 4 games against very good Settlers opponents and top scores counting wins and then points moves on to semifinals and finals on Sunday. I got one win and three second-place finishes, so I just missed the semifinals. Still a lot of fun playing a bunch of Settlers because I cannot get people to play much around here. Friday I branched out and tried a couple new things I've been itching to do for years. First was a LARP called Terrorwerks, which was an awesome experience. It was like playing Halo in real life, with Marines and air-soft rifles and alien creatures causing havoc. Also puzzles to figure out along the way. LARPS (live-action role playing games) are definitely a full-on experience, but I really enjoyed my first foray into one and will be trying to recruit my buddies into one next year. I also did one of the National Strategic Decision Making games (NSDM), which is a role-playing game where the controllers set up a scenario involving 3-4 countries and then certain conflicts arise while the players (which are assigned government or media or other leadership positions at the beginning and each having their own personal agendas) try to make deals and further the interest of their country. Our scenario involved Austrailia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. There were lots of people there who have done tons of these (in a room of 60 players, I bet there were 60% that had played 8-10 or more times all the way up to 50+ times...and these games last 4 or 8 hours apiece!). It was very awkward being the rookie and I ended up getting assigned Prime Minister of Vietnam, #2 in command over there. The geo-political knowledge and discussions of my fellow Vietnam players was way over my head...these guys know their geo-politics. Nevertheless, I just did what I could to make deals and not look like a fool. At the end of the game the controllers pick the top 9 individual players in order and recognize them for their great play. I think our group of core leaders clearly did the best for Vietnam and did better than Indonesia and Austrailia, but the shocker was that I was named #1 overall and the winner of the NSDM. This is no small deal to these people, and the rest of the weekend I kept running into people who played the game and congratulated me on my performance. I was kind of shell-shocked, but hey I guess I beat 60 other guys at a game using the lovely beginner's luck. I don't think I'll do that again despite my win because it was a little too over my head, but good times. Friday night Kelley came down and we tried Palabra but nobody else signed up to play. Bummer. Saturday we skipped Killer Bunnies and tried out a bunch of games in the Exhibit Hall (we brought home tons of new games this year and a mega-bagful of dice for Kelley since that's her thing). We played in the Apples to Apples National Championship and Kelley made the final table. I just missed the final table but won a copy of the game in a consolation game. That's a great party game if you have not tried it. Sunday I did some final shopping at the Exhibit Hall and watched the Settlers tournament final, which was for a trip to the World Championships in Germany. Looking forward to going next year and maybe actually getting the gang to go, as it was kind of lonely this year with Tom not going and Shep not coming up.

All of a sudden it was time for the Loyola patent interview program. My insistent bugging and pleading with the career services office (and Jon getting 15 interviews last year while I had 13) finally got some results and OSU sent twice as many as they ever have to the program, 17 people! I got to hang out with some 2L's and a couple 3L's as well as Jim from WHE while I was there. Ended up with 12 interviews when it was all said and done, and they all were easy conversations as you lose a lot of the pressure when you think you have an offer in the pocket. Plus a couple firms were repeats of last year and my experience/resume have only gotten better than last year so those went really well. Highlights were a Charlotte GP firm, a St. Louis branch of a Washington boutique, a laid-back California boutique, and a couple of really solid Indy firms. The NYC firm, Chicago firms, Texas firm, and Michigan firm all would have to woo me pretty well after what I saw in the initial interview. I doubled or tripled my nice clothes wardrobe the week before Loyola and bought new shoes, which messed up my feet badly on Friday. I'm still dealing with it over 2 weeks later, and I think it was a case of sesamoiditis. Essentially I cannot jog or play tennis or go bowling or anything because it was too painful and hard enough to walk without limping. It's finally getting better though, so that's good news. Much more painful than that ingrown toenail on the same toe from last year around this time.

Then it was time for JDR Orientation and the only 2 on-campus interviews I'm doing. Orientation was a long 4 days of hard work, but I think it all came off well and I did not get any complaints from the new staffers. They will be handing in their first Acc-check Monday and then we start the process with the managing editors and then the authors before coming back for a second go-round. I'm so happy to be done with Orientation, but with gimping around in pain and having to run around and stand all the time...it certainly did not help my foot heal. Exec Editor is going to be a lot of work from time to time, but thankfully Orientation is one of the biggest jobs and it's over. Now I have to manage the staff and play the double role for a while as my note is going through the editing process now as well. I probably should have added more substance to it, but I also don't want to stretch it out too long. Maybe I'll attack it this week, maybe not. No big deal either way as I think it's in a good spot even if it is shorter than the other notes we are publishing.

Kelley and I have decided to go on a cruise for fall break, and we chose the one that we took for our first cruise 3 years ago. That one ended a day early and sucked because of hurricane Francis, so hopefully no repeat performance of that. I went back to Wood Herron for two more weeks of 3 days of work leading up to the partner's meeting on August 15, so I could know if I had an offer before I left the firm (and also so I could earn some more money before school). These weeks I stayed in cheap motels at night, but Kelley stayed with me the second week since she had all week off. On Wednesday I got the good news that I indeed do have an offer for full-time work next year. The offer is six figures in Cincinnati which is very exciting given cost of living and full benefits as well (free health insurance for entire family, 7.5% of salary paid into 401K by the firm with no matching required, moving/bar exam expenses, death and disability insurance, etc.). This offer is so good that Kelley and I wished we could accept on the spot, but I do want to see if my better resume opened more doors this year at loyola. I am done with first interviews and sent letters out, but I really only am tracking the 14 interviews. I've already got 4 responses, three no's and one callback with Leydig in Chicago (who I called back with last year). Plus now with the offer I can push the timetable a little bit, so we should have a fuller picture in 2 weeks I'd think. All early indications are pointing toward WHE, but let's not count out the important Charlotte, St. Louis, and Indy firms I mentioned above; as well as any others such as Leydig. Still, it's comforting to know you have a good full-time job at a great firm waiting for you. The only two law school friends I've talked to so far (PS and DE) also got offers and are accepting them straightaway. So hopefully I'll hear lots of good news from friends this week. The other two summers at WHE also got offers, and I know Jim will accept his. Steve is only a 2L this year so he may look elsewhere for his second summer before hopefully coming back. He is our best softball player...we need him!

I'll also be going back to WHE for part-time work on Thursdays and Fridays if I accept the offer. That's good because I'll keep touch with the firm and also make better money than grading engineering papers. I'll also get to do a little bit of what I love as opposed to the likely boring coursework I'm taking as a 3L. Yay to bar exam prep. Also going down to the firm for the quarterly associate-partner dinner Wednesday because they are eating at the Club in Great American Ball Park and going to the Braves-Reds game afterwards. It's the fourth and final bobblehead night, so we'll have a complete set from the summer of 2007 as well. Should be a fun time. Also doing a fantasy football league with others at the firm, so I'll let you know how that goes if I remember. I tried a few different draft strategies in my 3 public leagues and this firm league...see if any of them work.

Also I'll be in charge of the NFL football pickem pool this season. Please email me if you want details, but it will be $20 buy-in for the entire season with payout only to first place unless we get ten or more people. We've only had 4-8 in the past three seasons, so hopefully we get more this season.

Between sportswriting, JDR exec ed duties, National Moot Court this semester, and classes...I'll be lucky to regularly update the blog. But I'm hopeful to keep my usual pace of the past 2 years of law school, at least once a week or so. We'll see you around.

PS - Went to The Beach waterpark Thursday. Why would anybody go there instead of King's Island? The Beach = lame. At least IMHO.

The beginning and middle of summer

This week on the calendar we officially moved into summer, but around Cincy it's been hot and extremely dry for weeks anyways (spring showers, what spring showers?). Of course on the school semester schedule, we are at the halfway point of summer vacation. Hard to believe but when you are working and staying busy, time flies as usual. I've worked for 7 weeks already at the firm, and only have 5 1/2 weeks left. It's actually 5 weeks spread over the next six as I'll be off the 4th-6th of July for Origins and I'm stopping full time work on August 1 (a Wednesday) to go to the Loyola Patent Interview Program in Chicago and get ready for JDR Orientation which starts that weekend. Then it's back into the grind 2 weeks later. Woo-hoo.

For anybody still scheduling, here's what it looks like for next year.
AUTUMN
Securities (Rose) MTW 11:10-12:00
Sales (Johnson) MT 1:30-2:45
Supreme Court Seminar (Sutton) T 5:15-7:05
International Intellectual Property (Lee) W 1:30-3:20

SPRING
Wills Trusts Estates (Johnson) MTW 9:10-10:00
Mergers and Acquisitions (Oesterle) MTW 10:10-11:00
Professional Responsibility (Greenbaum) MTW 11:10-12:00
Criminal Procedure Adjudication (Michaels) MTW 2:55-3:45

What a wonderful schedule. Should open up plenty of time to go work for WHE 1-2 days a week during the autumn if they decide to have me back and make me an offer. Speaking of WHE, the past three weeks has been busy, and I've finally gotten pretty busy with work. Marked off most of the hiring committee partners on the list of must-work-for these people, still have 3 more to go though. The Washington DC trip was interesting to say the least. Got out of work on Tuesday three weeks ago and rushed home to pick up my suitcase and back into Kentucky to the airport. Steve, Adam, and I met at Outback in the airport and had a good light meal before getting on the plane. I was in the middle seat but both I had the smallest little Asian lady beside me so there was plenty of room. The firm puts each of us in our own separate hotel rooms with two beds (enough room for 4 comfortably, or if you were at a convention like Origins...enough room for 8-10). Woke up way too early the next day to catch the Metro to the Patent Office, which is now in a very nice complex. The public search facility requires two badges to get into, so I had about an hour wasted on getting in the PSF and figuring out EAST, the examiner search system we use to pull up patents and review them. 10 hours of clicking through patents is quite draining and almost soul-crushing in the late afternoon hours, but I got my first ever search done and started work on a second with Steve. We did go out to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse for dinner and had a bill before tip of $299 for the three of us. So expensive, but then again $100 of that was a bunch of white russians for me and Jack and Cokes for the other two guys. The steak was certainly one of the two best I've ever had though, and their barbeque shrimp appetizer comes in some of the most delicious sauce I've ever tasted. Also nice views of DC and Ronald Reagan airport from the restaurant. Then it was back to the hotel and the USPTO for another day (half-day for me due to flight availability) and rushed off to the airport after lunch. I ended up waiting forever to check in and almost did not get on the flight at all. This was a smaller plane and so I was the aisle seat in a 2 seat row...then even later than me comes the window seat. This girl needed the extra lap belt, so you can imagine how lovely our flight was back to Cincinnati (sigh). That's life though and I was just happy to be back in Ohio (Kentucky) when we got off the plane.

The next week the firm found suite tickets for the 3 summer clerks and Dave Dorton and off we went to the Reds game Tuesday night. We actually beat the Angels and the suite is something else. Unlimited food, drinks, air conditioning, private bathroom, etc. Seats are kind of crappy which makes the diamond seats I'm getting for our anniversary better, but the suites are nice as well. Went to the next night's game with Kelley and of course the Reds couldn't win two in a row. But we did get a Harang bobblehead, so we did not walk away empty handed. At work I've actually gotten to work with a couple client matters now (writing them letters, teleconfrencing with an inventor, etc), as well as more office action responses, patent applications, and legal research projects.

Today is the big attorney and guest formal dinner and cocktail party. Should be interesting and hopefully fun. Not as much fun as Barrister's Ball, but maybe a little fun. More on this later. The first week of school I'm going to have to cut out early of Int'l IP to go to the next partner-associate dinner event because they are having dinner at Great American Ball Park and then going to the Braves-Reds game. How could I say no to that? One other thing in the past three weeks was a day-long new associate training at the Cincinnati Bar Association. Some interesting speakers and some very boring ones, but that's how these events usually go. It was a free paid day away from work though so that's good enough for me, and I got to see Avonte and Paige from OSU...seems like all the OSU people working at Cincinnati firms are either from there or married to someone from there. No wonder I'm having trouble accepting the city.

The softball team has also sucked bad, but I missed the two weeks for the summer associate Reds game and the USPTO trip to DC. This past week I finally got to play again and played first base which I'm planning on keeping. We made some stupid errors and made a close game into a royal blowout 16-1 in five innings. Next week is the last week I can go to as they are done in 2 weeks...so hopefully we'll have a decent game.

So the apartment drama continues. They found a family that needed our apartment badly and immediately, so the landlord decided to let these guys move into a smaller 2 bedroom apartment for the remainder of their lease (which solves the absent third roommate problem). So two weeks ago we get less than a week's notice to pack up because these new people are going to move everything for us. The move was supposed to happen this past M-W, but come each day they just don't show up. The new people also do not return Stephanie's calls so we did not know what the hell was going on. I finally unpacked half my stuff on thursday because I decided I'm not living out of suitcases. Turns out that the landlord figured out Heather wanted to prorate the rent since they were moving us to a cheaper apartment for half the month, and the landlord did not want to so she told this family to wait another week and let us know. But the family and the landlord did not bother to tell any of us...so we were just packed up a week early. This sucks. So now they are saying this monday and tuesday, but I will not believe it until stuff starts getting moved. Also had a neighborhood disturbance Tuesday morning as a guy from across the street comes banging on our doors saying "Call the Police!" this white guy and his next door black neighbor had a fight or something and so six cop cars show up and investigate. This made me an hour late for work, but it was softball night so I just took my softball stuff to work and worked later. I'm just happy neither of them had a gun because we had about 12 people shot in those first two days of the week this week. Crazy.

As much as it pains me to say it, the Reds need to give up on this lame season and trade Adam Dunn and maybe even Ken Griffey Jr. for some good pitching. They need to get it figured out, as Harang, Arroyo, and Homer Bailey need some bullpen help. If we end up in Cincinnati I'd like to think I'm paying for good season tickets in 2009, not a joke team. It's like buying season tickets to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Yes I like hockey, but why do I need to suffer through cheering for a team going nowhere with management that just doesn't care?

Our anniversary and Origins is right around the corner, the best part of the summer. Kelley and I are thinking of going on a cruise for fall break this year since we have not done anything big like that for any of my fall or spring breaks thus far in law school. Anybody want to come along?

This past week I got the ebaying of Magic cards done and sorted the rest of the collection for sale at Origins. Finally done with that. This week I've got to update the resume, writing sample, etc. and apply for the OSU Chicago interview program as well as OCI. I'll also work out financial aid for this school year for the final time thankfully. Maybe I'll send out some cold-call letters to my favored markets as well. The only other thing on my plate is finishing up my JDR note, but I've got some flex time for that if necessary.

Also trying to read through the Harry Potter series in time for movie 5 and the final book. I doubt I'll get them done, but I'll work on it. Well have a good week or two or three, depending on when I update again. See you around.

Cincinnati (The vigil works...)

Yes indeed my friends, I noted the vigil. And here is your response. It is more than hard to believe I've been in Cincinnati working for four weeks now, but sure enough time has flown by that quickly. Let's jump right in.

Let's start with the job, as that's the only real interesting new development in the past 4 weeks. Going into the firm job I think everybody without any law-work experience has to wonder if this is the career they will really like and will do the rest of their lives. I definitely had that worry being so set on IP law since high school really but not having any experience other than engineering work which was not that enjoyable (although I think that was a function of working for a hometown small company). Well that fear has been more than calmed as I love the work and unlike law school, it feels good to go to work and do something productive for inventors and companies as opposed to just "spinning the wheels" in law school. I've heard the same from a couple classmates doing the firm job for the first time this summer, so that's good. The work is just what I wanted: intellectually stimulating, challenging, and lots of variety scientifically. For example, I've worked on things as different as pallets (the wooden platforms you put merchandise on in warehouses and stores), tractor trailer aerodynamics, spinal stabilization systems, and dentistry braces. You never know what technical expertise you will get working in the mechanical side of patent law because everything has some level of mechanics.

The learning curve is tough coming in because responding to an office action (which is a patent application rejection from the patent office based on certain reasons such as lack of novelty or non-obviousness) is something that you struggle with and learn with time. Same for writing claims and descriptions in a patent application. I've had a few trademark research projects which makes me happy I took all the IP I could this year, but no copyright as we don't do much work in that field. I've also done some research projects for patent infringement litigation, including a trip to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals courthouse which is literally a block away from our building. Research is a nice break from the patent work because I'm still learning how to do all the patent work whereas I know how to do research. Our firm uses Lexis, so I'm forcing myself to use actual books in the firm library as well as Lexis now...I like using Westlaw more for school. Each system online has benefits though. Office Actions and Patent Applications will come more easy as time goes along though, and I'm working on one patent application with a guy who's only been at the firm a year and is still learning himself. That's why the billing rate for partners and senior associates is higher than junior associates and clerks. I still ask myself how companies can pay over $100 an hour for my services (which they do), but that's the going rate in this business. But nevertheless, a great start and a satisying work makes for a good outlook for this career path. Thank God.

The only real problem was lack of work, but now I'm rolling in steady work like everyone else after the other new summer clerk showed up 2 weeks ago. I did show up a week earlier than any law clerk normally would because my finals were done a week early and I did not want a big break before work thanks to the JDR orientation two weeks. Everybody's got plenty of work and the firm is growing slowly as they just opened a sixth floor in the Carew Tower, so it was just a matter of time before I got enough beginner-appropriate projects to get me up to speed enough to do regular projects (which are just more mechanically involved).

Our firm has had a few social events in the mix, but not like a big firm. The first one was the annual partner-associates meeting my second week at the firm. This was a nice steak (although many of the attorneys picked the two kinds of fish available) from a place called McCormick's right near our office. The cool part was the associates all went over for a happy hour and a half before the dinner at 6:30 because the partners were meeting about business during that time. It was nice to really sit down with a Guinness and Blue Moon on the firm and get to know my co-workers. The firm also has a softball team which is a fun time on Tuesday nights. We are really bad, as the firm was 6-4 two years ago but has not won a game in the past season and a half. We play against other law firms so we usually do not get blown out, but our problem is scoring runs consistently. We lost 4-12 the first week I went, 4-8 the second (down 3-5 after 6 of the 7 innings, but 3 runs did us in for sure), and 4-19 in six innings last week (we were up 3-1 after three innings before it went to hell). Still a fun time but we need to get it together offensively somehow. I've also got to learn to swing the bat at a softball, as my baseball skills from 8th grade do not translate well today or to softball. We've got enough younger guys though to improve and be a good team eventually.

There is a black tie optional annual attorney-guest ball/event coming up in 3 weeks Kelley and I will attend. Looking forward to that as we had to miss Barrister's this past year for what became the infamous weekend in New Jersey. I also found out late this week that I will be getting the customary trip to the patent office in Washington DC to do a patent search this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Another learn-how-to-do job, but I was promised this trip to DC if at all possible this summer so it should be interesting even though it is work. Also firm pays for everything so apparently we are going to a steak joint called Ruth Chris on Wednesday night and if attorneys brag about it, it's probably going to be some of the best steak I've ever eaten. But overall it's been plenty good enough at the firm and I am getting good reviews on work product thus far. Hopefully I'll manage to work for enough hiring committee partners well enough to get an offer, which I will seriously consider.

There has been a poor side to all of this, and most of it deals with Cincinnati and the apartment. The apartment I chose is great and I even got the master bedroom a week early because of a third roommate moving in early who then did not show up but the master bedroom owner stayed on the couch until she left for NY anyways. Except for one thing. The central AC unit in the building is not working and maintenance is apparently retarded or the problem is serious because one month of complaints and you think it would be fixed. But no. So it simmers up here on the third floor and fans run 24-7. But whatever, it's only temporary and it is cheap for what I'm getting. The commute is pretty good too once I figured out how to avoid I-75 and Vine Street which runs through the most ghetto part of Cincinnati. But overall in my explorations of Cincinnati, Covington, Newport, and surrounding areas I'm just not impressed. I did not expect to be but Cincinnati just seems really crummy. Some of my co-workers have a long commute to get into better areas so if I come back next year that's what we will probably do.

Moving onto the just in case scenarios, I will be hitting the letters and interviews trail again this year, and next week I'll probably start refining my letter for Chicago, Texas, and the midwest. There's a OSU sponsored job fair in Chicago with 10 employers (3 strictly IP), so I'll probably check that out in August as well as the patent interview program, where I have 6/7 interviews. Wish I had more at the patent interview program, but oh well. And the ridiculous supply of letters at the now improved rate of 41 cents apiece!

I finally got my grades in after waiting on BA for 3 weeks after getting the other 3, but Oesterle still hasn't submitted grades for his other 2 classes so I guess we should be thankful. I somehow kept my high average (improved it a tad) and will almost certainly stay in the top 10% through 4 of 6 semesters...and with my job search being a tough one trying to get out of the region...I need a sparkling resume. Yay journal high position, being published on journal, 2L moot court experience, top grades, and IPLS position. What more can I do? Anyways, this semester proved I like everyone else cannot predict law school grades. I said I knocked Trademark out of the park...and I did bad in BA...well I did well in everything but in the opposite order than what I expected. 97 in BA is just inexplicable, 95 in Evidence is nice, and the pair 93's in seminar and trademark are good (but I really thought I was in the running for a CALI in trademark...but Lee doesn't like my style I guess). On the bright side, now I'm through 2L year, I did much better than I anticipated, and hopefully I can work that into some interviews for full time positions. I hear a couple of my other friends did very well also so good for them, but it's no surprise people from our 1L section are doing well because that was a tough section. And we can all see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if that soothing light is a frieght train comin our way in the bar exam. Bonus points to whoever gets that reference without wikipedia.

Kelley's doing well, but I think she's going to switch jobs away from the daycare place because it's finally getting to her. They are bad about not scheduling until the last minute and work policy is a little strange. Plus she has to put up with other people's kids for hours all day, and that would drive me batty. We've been taking in some Cincinnati Reds games which is awesome after seeing them like once a year since childhood. They are awful early this season rather than giving us false hope, so seeing a win is a rare thing. We went to the Bronson Arroyo bobblehead night and saw a loss to Washington 12-7. I've never seen so many runs, but it was cool to see a team I've never seen before (that counts when they were the Expos). Then we went again a few days later to see the Reds beat the Pirates on memorial day 4-0. Unfortunately our best outfielder Ryan Freel was injured and laid motionless on the field for 15 minutes that game too. We've got tickets to see my first ever interleague game in a little over a week against the Angels, also Aaron Harang bobblehead night. Then my desk at work will be bobbling on both sides.

Longer term, looking forward to our anniversary, the 4th of July, and Origins the following weekend. Signed up for some interesting events such as a world championship qualifier for Settlers of Catan, a LARP called Terrorwerks, Palabra, Apples to Apples national championship...and I'm sure I'll catch some poker and perhaps magic too. I'm selling the remains of my magic collection as planned in summer 2007 and the last good stuff is on ebay now, the bulk goes at origins probably in the auction. Also really looking forward to our anniversary, as we both know what we are getting each other. She's getting a 1 carat three stone ring she's wanted since our engagement 3 years ago and also a night out on the town with dinner and tickets to the musical Wicked. She's giving me Diamond seats on fireworks night July 3 when the Reds play St. Louis. I've never been in such good seats! Hopefully the Reds will win too, but that may be asking for too much :-) Should be the best week of the summer though, hands down.

Speaking of rings, Zach (Kel's brother) and his fiancee broke it off. Guess they argued constantly for 10 months since they got engaged, and it is no surprise they are broken off. It's probably better off for him. Crazy happenings though.

Grading the editing assignments for the write-on competition for main journal and JDR, and man does that suck :-) It's usual JDR stuff though. I'm just happy I don't have to read the essays. That would be much worse...40 or more ten page papers on the exact same topic with the exact same ten sources. Ick.

Let's turn finally to TV and movies. TV had a decent end of season. Lost finished in a fantastic manner, actually killing off a main character and some others as well as threatening many more. Plus we found out that maybe flash-forwards is the new flash back for the final three seasons and that could be awesome. Plus we know Jack and Kate get off the island...many more questions but a few answers in great Lost style. 24's mediocre season ended poorly, with the lamest soap opera ending ever of Jack spending the last 20 minutes talking to his comatose girlfriend and crying on the beach. On the bright side they did leave open any storyline they want to do with no cliffhanger to tie back into for the first time, so perhaps Season 7 will be great yet. Finally, House had a good run at the end of the season but inexplicably half the cast quit or got fired in the last episode (all the ducklings Foreman, Chase, and Cameron are gone, leaving just Cuddy, Wilson, and House). This means either some good stuff goes down at the beginning of next season or we have to learn 3 new characters. Hmm, don't know which I would prefer. Overall I think House beats Lost for the best this season because while Lost finished much better, House had solid episodes all season long and a great fall storyline with the asshole cop screwing House and his friends over to make a point. We await next January and February...when 24 and Lost come back. At least OSU plays football in the fall.

The first three blockbusters have come and gone in movies as well. Spiderman 3 was quality but maybe a tad worse than the first two because they had too many enemies and not enough plot behind them. The movie totally could have been carried without Sandman, who got absolutely ridiculous at the end. Shrek 3 was also an enjoyable popcorn flick with a few hearty laughs, but this series was at its best when it was novel. Pirates 3 was an impressive ending to that story and is probably my pick for movie of the summer up till now (edging Spiderman). Ocean's 13 comes up this week which is the one I've been looking forward to most along with Harry Potter 5. Knocked Up looks like a surprise fantastic movie as well, so maybe we'll go catch that at some point. Good popcorn summer so far.

Well I'm sure there's stuff I forgot to cover in 4 weeks, but I got the major stuff. Won't make any promises as to when I'll update again as I'm pretty busy relaxing and working. If you are in Cincinnati or living here this summer and want to grab lunch or dinner, let me know. Have a good summer to all of you still reading.

End of the 2L Era

It's been a couple of weeks since I blogged last, but it has also been a busy couple of weeks. Now as of Tuesday I'm finally into my last year of schooling (year 19 if anyone's counting), a 3L or rising 3L, whatever your fancy. I definitely understand the mindset of 3L's now in law school with not caring about classes as much and just wanting to get to the bar exam and get into their jobs. After taking the whole IP suite my 2L year, the only course I'm taking in my area of interest is a once a week 2 hour International IP class next year. There's always the patent bar if I want more to do, and I really do not have a large classload. Executive Editor of JDR will keep me plenty busy otherwise and moot court in the fall as well. The 2L year is over though! Hooray!

The first thing to talk about is exams, now that they are over. What a crazy week of studying before exams and through them. Studied Evidence MTW and then finally turned my attention to Trademark on Thursday, but I knocked that class out in one day. After Evidence on Friday I turned my attention to Business Associations for the rest of the weekend before Trademark on Monday and BA on Tuesday.

I don't want to invoke any honor code problems, so I will speak in generalities only about the exams (and I ask that people like Aaron not read the following paragraph). Evidence went OK, but I have no idea where my grade will end up because it is like a big multiple choice test where all you do is see if you can make correct evidentiary rulings. Tests with significant multiple choice portions also have no consistent track record for me, with my highest grade in law school coming from Federal Income Tax and my second worst coming from Criminal Law, both like Evidence. Of course I ran out of time on the Evidence exam as well, but it's OK because god only knows how Simmons will differentiate the class on the final question. I think I knocked Trademark out of the park as everything was easy...and all I have to say is wow Professor Lee, American Idol contestants making a porn video...wow. The BA exam was a little tough as expected, and I wish I'd spent more time on corporations. Nonetheless, half the exam was a softball expected question where you knew exactly how to answer if you attended half the classes in there. I still think BA will be my worst and Trademark my best. We'll see. At least they are over and blissfully quickly.

Since exams ended, I've been busy grading mech eng midterms and I'm dropping those off later this afternoon. Nice to be done with school and my school job, now 2 days of relaxing and prepping for the Sunday evening move to Cincinnati. Hard to believe I'll be earning real money being a lawyer on Monday (well a summer associate but still). Looking forward to seeing what they put me on in the first week. I'll certainly be reporting in from time to time this summer to let you know how it is going. For those in the C-Bus this summer, I will be up most weekends spending time with the wife when she's not working so we can still get together and have some fun. Fun fun fun!

Been playing tennis as much as possible with Tom and Heather the past 3 weeks. I think we've had 6 sets of completely different scores as Kelley and I try to get up to speed (they started a couple weeks before we did). Our first outing was a 2-6, 3-6 loss and our second was 1-6, 4-6. Had a bad outing in the middle of my finals where we started 0-6, but we won the second set 6-4 then oddly enough. Back on tonight and maybe we're finally even again. We're hoping to play every weekend both couples are in town this summer. We'll have to fit it in around all the ridiculous movie blockbusters just like tonight, as we are all going to see Spiderman 3 after tennis to kick off the movie season. Reviews were not great but I think this is just because the first two (and especially the second) were clearly better than almost every other superhero movie in the last 10 years. Seems like too many storylines to me with 3 separate villains and an internal battle as well, but we'll see tonight.

Looking ahead to the summer of the sequels, Shrek 3 looks iffy in the previews to be quite honest. Ocean's 13 will amuse me but will be hard pressed to live up to the original. Fantastic Four 2 will be missed by me as I have no desire to see another good comic book series shafted by terrible movies. Pirates 3 kind of reminds me of the Matrix trilogy in that the first one was excellent and the second was just OK because it's a setup for the third movie. For the Matrix the mediocrity continued, but I have a feeling Disney will have a solid third Pirates movie here. Speaking of Disney (and getting out of the sequel run for a second), kind of wanting to see Ratatouille because Pixar movies always seem good. The end of the summer will bring the end of the Harry Potter book series and the fifth Potter movie, Order of the Phoenix. The end of the fourth book is where the series got incredibly dark and adult, so it will be nice to see the first really dark movie in the series. The previews for this movie look outstanding too. We'll hope for the best. It's a popcorn filled summer for sure.

Speaking of movies, bought and watched the two best picture frontrunners in 2006, The Departed and Babel. Babel was OK but it seemed kind of boring and was a bad Crash knockoff (the 2005 best picture winner over that movie with the Ga-ays). The Departed on the other hand was a very well done artsy flick about cops and criminals and rats. The movie was a joy to watch and I recommend that for everyone's movie collection.

The NBA playoffs has been feast or famine in the first round. The east was unbearable to watch as the three central division teams with the three best records in the east all coasted to sweeps (Detroit over Orlando, Chicago over Miami, and Cleveland over Wizards). The boring and irrelevant series between the Nets and the Raptors has a game 6 tonight nobody will watch outside the state of New Jersey or the state of Canada. The Nets might have a chance to knock off Cleveland, but probably not. The Bulls-Pistons series should finally bring some excitement to this side of the bracket. In the west there were no sweeps thankfully, but the Spurs and Suns (both 4-1 over the Nuggets and Lakers, respectively) were never in doubt. It's still entertaining to watch guards without help fail miserably in the playoffs, and yes I mean Kobe, AI, and Carmelo. The shocker of the first round ended last night as the Golden State Warriors blasted the best team in basketball (Dallas) out 4-2. Not that surprising given the way the Warriors finished the season 9-1 just to squeak into the 8 seed and the fact that the Warriors had the Mavericks' number all season (3-0 against Dallas in the regular season). The last series is going to Game 7 Saturday night with Utah visiting Houston. This has been a very good 4-5 matchup and will be a good game 7. So the west has been entertaining in all 4 series and the east has not. At least the east has one good series next round while the West should have two very interesting and competitive series.

Predictions certain to go wrong: Pistons over Bulls in 7, Cleveland over Nets/Raptors in 5, Spurs over Suns in 6, and Utah/Houston over Golden State in 7.

I find it funny that this Saturday is a huge day for two sports that used to be tops alongside baseball in this country but now suffer miserably: horse racing (Kentucky Derby) and boxing (Oscar De LA Hoya v Floyd Meriweather). The problem with boxing is easy to figure out: ultimate fighting is more entertaining, no heavyweight bouts of note in 10 years, and every fight of any relevance at all is on pay-per-view so nobody can see them. If you want fans, you have to be accessible. The problem with horse racing is that it only happens 3 times a year (the top level racing) and you can go bet on horse races every day of the week at your local track. Sports of the past are the name of the game this weekend, and I'm guessing Jazz-Rockets game 7 gets more attention.

TV has been top notch the past 2 weeks. American Idol has removed three ass-clowns who did not deserve to be there anymore (Sanjaya, Pasty Phil Stacey, and Chris). The last male singer remaining should be gone this week, but I'm sure one of the female trinity will probably have a bad outing and go home. House has been top notch as well, but now with 2 weeks left we are left asking...are they really going to write Omar Epps (Foreman) out of the series? That would suck but I guess if there was a replaceable character it would be him. Still hope House turns it around on us. 24 unfortunately stands out as not that great the past 3 weeks and with 3 weeks to go I just hope the end is OK. I really feel like this season they ended the main storyline with Arab terrorists 6 weeks too soon and crammed all the major 24 threats into one season to try and make it more bad-ass (Nuclear weapons, Russians, Chinese, and Arab terrorists). But we all should have known it was going downhill when Wayne Palmer became president. What a joke. Lost is back in primo form again and appears to be poised to take back the TV crown going into next year.

Time to go run some errands (getting Spidey tickets, undershirts for work, and maybe a windshield repair quote). Nice that the day after finals a crack on the truck windshield grew about 8 inches long and Kelley cut a tire that ended up needing replaced. Sigh :-)

Have a good week. Reports from Cincinnati coming!

I Need To Study

Yes indeed finals are staring me right in the face now. A short 9 days from now many of us will be sitting down to hammer out Simmons' Evidence exam. Once I start studying (which may not start until Thursday) then I will get through it all but right now it seems so daunting. At least there's only three finals to juggle again unlike last semester. More on this when they come up, but the last two evidence assignments have certainly helped me see a lot of topics in review. Speaking of the evidence paper, jumped in on a group this time because we can work in groups of up to 4. Makes for a lot less work, except for Wolfson who doesn't mind the "research" for our Star Wars fact pattern.

So TV. Tonight is House night, and we watched American Idol too. Since this is the first time I've kind of followed Idol, let's rank the contestants based on country night:
1. Melinda Doolittle - no doubt about it, best singer of the season
2. Jordin Sparks - Good song this week, big drop off from Melinda
3. Phil Stacey - Very mediocre singer but did OK tonight
4. Chris Richardson - Ugh it's Mr. Nasal Voice, reminds me of a poor J. Timberlake
5. LaKisha Jones - She was forcing her voice over a loud song, it was awful even though she sings OK
6. Blake Lewis - Just like LaKisha, country is a bad genre for this guy. Picked a mediocre Tim McGraw song and delivered it like a karaoke champ
7. Sanjaya Malakar - What hasn't been said? I have to give him credit, he's a good sport for everyone knowing he's terrible and the judges are brutal (rightfully so, how this guy made the top 40 is beyond me), and "Let's Give Them Something to Talk About" was a nice ironic choice.

So looking at those rankings and assuming Sanjaya will get his usual voting base (as long as there are more than 4 contestants he will make it through because his "fan" base is not divided week to week among the other 6 or more contestants)...I'd say the bottom three will definitely contain Blake and LaKisha, then either Chris or Phil. I think there's too much support for Blake still, so LaKisha goes home tomorrow. Of course I'm wrong, but I figure I might as well make a game of it.

House was incredible last week with the mental phenomenon of making yourself sick (to a ridiculous degree on an airplane). Nice dual story with Cuddy and House in the sky solving that problem and the young guns solving an old lady's poisoning on their own. This week's is on right now and seems interesting, but House is not something to spend too much time talking about. Lost, on the other hand, was absolutely awesome last week and it appears the season of "the others" will finally come to an exciting climax after spinning wheels for months. I really want to see if my favorite character John Locke turns his back on the flight survivors, as it might cost him his life. 24 this week was also pretty good, although it pains us all to watch that douche bag VP Noah run away with the presidency when Palmer was going to force him out. Of course it is kind of Palmer's fault for popping adrenaline shots like M&M's during the Fayed crisis resolution. Seems like the main story ended about 5 weeks early this year, as now I really wonder what they are going to do the rest of the season. It appears the Audrey exchange goes down next week, so I figure Jack and the Chinese guy who has it out for Jack will be the focus of the rest of the season. Brings us to the end (maybe) of a great storyline started in Season 4. We'll see, as the season has been OK thus far. Just wish for once there was a president on that show who knew how to pick an agreeable VP. Oh well.

Big news of the week: I got two out of my three JDR banquet predictions correct. Xavier will indeed be published and Larry did win staff member of the year, but Larry unfortunately will not be published.
Bigger news: I'M GETTING PUBLISHED! Woot. Makes all those long hours the week before drafts were due worth it. I'll give the note a fresh look once I'm in Cincinnati, as I only have until July 1 to make any significant changes or additions. Xavier and I will be in Issue 2 (my topic is increasing ADR in patent law, Xavier's has to do with non-traditional couples I think). Erik and Nate are the other two being published, Erik on Eminent Domain ADR and Nate on interest group mediation. So those are the three people I get to bug the crap out of for footnoting, and of course now I get to participate next year as a final backstop editor and an author. Should be an interesting year.

Shipman's class ended today, and all my 1L's have reached the height of cynicism. Most of them think they are screwed about App Ad because all the other kids have written a brief and they have not, and also in general because they got no real help or feedback on the journal competition type assignment (according to them). But many other people have made it out of Shipman's writing class and gotten onto journal and been successful, such as the other two TA's for our class Andy Johnson (main journal, executive editor next year) and Uzo (main journal, articles editor next year). They will be fine trying to get on journal and may have an advantage in that regard having done one of these assignments. Shipman is correct in telling them this is all learn by doing. My journal write-on paper was probably horrible, but I got it figured out at least decently for the note. Same with office memos and briefs. Speaking of briefs...

Is it possible for the Moot Court Governing Board of this school year to be any worse at their jobs? It doesn't seem too much to ask to do your job and do it competently, after all these people ran for the offices and were interviewed etc. I think Aaron is going to write an article series for the Hearsay jokingly telling next year's board how to do their job. Maybe the board should have given Keener a spot on the board for having the guts to tell them the truth to their faces about how terrible they are. Here's a short list of minor to major greivances I have with them.
1. The exact specifics of how Herman works and how teams are chosen for 3L year was not all that clear and the competition rules took multiple reads to figure out.
2. They faux pas'd on the selection round ranking email that told the top 5 2L's where they stood (at least Brian who was 4th and I who was 5th got emails asking for our preference of teams because the original email said we were ranked number 1). That I was pissed about but I was willing to give them a mulligan. just more angry about which team I got stuck on (topic, teammates, Kelley's birthday weekend...need I say more?).
3. They told the 5 of us on teams as 2L's this year to leave the Herman TWEN group and then did a poll on which teams they should keep next year because some had to be cut. Well they did it through TWEN and so did not ask any of the 5 of us who have PRIORITY CHOICE for next year's teams. So my voice was not heard and that among other things led to no IP team for next year.
4. They finally get everything done for this year and so all that's left is to process the team preference forms for next year. How hard can it be to plug those numbers. It's a really simple system...go to the top ranked person (Brodie), look at his sheet, slot him into the top team he wants that's still open. Continue for each person down the list. Seems simple right? Well it's taken them way too long and then finally today we get an email with moot court teams for next year. Problem is, 20 minutes later we get another email saying they double-checked the teams but still there were errors and they have to redo the teams. WTF?

GET IT TOGETHER MOOT COURT BOARD. It's not that much to ask that you do something easy and simple...and for heaven's sakes, get it right. We'll see if my team changes at all, but as it stands right now I'm on what I consider to be one of the 2 most solid moot court teams for next year. One ABA team is Aaron, Brodie, and Tiffany (all-stars) and my National team is Lee (one of the 2L's on a team this year), Tom (top 10 overall in Herman), and me. There are some other good looking teams as well, but of course it's all tenative so this discussion may be moot. Also of interest is Cheggs being on B-Smith's team, that sounds like a match made in heaven. But whatever. So maybe by the end of the semester we'll know what teams we'll be on. It does look like I'll be on a national team for sure, so that's cool. I'll be done with moot court in the fall too which is nice.

Bar fitness interview was this morning. That was about as exciting as watching women's golf on TV. I have a clean record (no speeding or traffic tickets even, but I'm lucky in that category) so we had NOTHING to talk about. They asked me if I had any questions. Hell I did not know I was supposed to come prepared, let alone what the interview was going to be like. So we chatted about the Virginia Tech slaughter and after 10 minutes of that the two attorneys signed off on my competency to be a lawyer and so that's the end of that. They let people with DUI's through this process without too much grilling (so these two said), so you have to do some bad stuff to raise eyebrows when trying to take the bar. One less thing to worry about.

Went to Cincy on Friday and looked at 8 apartments. Found some crazy landlords in the morning. First was the old lady who was half-senile and told lots of stories and had to show me her cats and the 3 baby raccoons she rescued from the city streets. Then was the lady who answered the door with a power drill in hand (working on the house). Then an uber-businessman who buys and sells and rents houses for a living, so he was a slick operator. Went to Joe's for lunch and then to WHE, my firm, to discuss final details with them. In the afternoon saw a couple more stinkers but 3 good apartments. One was like University Village in a big building, had a pool and gas grill and exercise rooms and game rooms for everyone to use...you rent one room in a 2-4 bedroom apartment and they would have matched me with another guy living there for the summer working at a different Cincy law firm. Tempting and all-inclusive with furnishings, but $549 a month is a decent price and not great. Second place was a one and a half room studio from a law student subletting, but she wanted around 500 with few furnishings. The one I chose was another law student sublet in a 3 bedroom apartment off the UC campus a ways. Nice short drive either through the ghetto (Over the ridge) or down an interstate to downtown every day, and the apartment is furnished and cheap for all-inclusive. So I have Cincinnati all worked out and I'm looking forward to getting down there in a couple weeks.

Oh one more note: we received our brief scores from Moot Court competition. We finished 12th out of 32. So the brief far from brought us down. Now Dustin and I really do not know how we got out of the top 16 after beating both of our opponents in oral argument. Probably the judges in the first round misattributing things from Brooklyn to us and vice versa. Gives me hope for next year though as it seems kind of a crapshoot in a way, but you can clearly succeed if your team cares to.

Time to get back to ignoring studies and the such. Have a good week.

The Run Is Over

Another week flies by, and this puts us 2 weeks and 3 days from final exams. Even though I only have three they seem a little daunting because they are coming quickly and all at once (Friday, Monday, Tuesday). I'm thinking that because I'm not starting work until the following week I may petition to get Tuesday moved back to Thursday...but I'm also thinking I may just suck it up and get them over quickly. Trademark shouldn't be too bad, just like copyright. Evidence I need to work on as I kind of let that class go here recently, and BA is a nightmare for everyone but we'll make it through (just like accounting for lawyers).

Watching 24 right now and the jaw-dropping twist from last week turns out to be lame and not really true as Presdient Palmer sends a fake nuke to get a message across to the terrorist loving arab country. Of course CTU is about as effective as a butterfly net at keeping Fayed in their control so no surprise they managed to let him go again this week. But with Jack on the attack (and just how do you hold onto the undercarraige of a trash truck for miles???) the threat is averted. What a brutal finish. But in rote 24 style, one crisis averted and another starts up as the Chinese are going to use Audrey to get to Jack. Go figure.

Lost was good last week too. It is funny how Sawyer gets a heart and a leadership role this week, just in time for Jack to come home and steal away leadership. At least Sawyer can be Sawyer again. I thought we were going to see a big battle between the others and the Lost, but perhaps this season is not like the first two (which stood alone as the "survivor mystery" season and "the hatch" season). Perhaps this is the grand final story ark at its peak since the others did appear in season 1 to ruin the raft plans of Michael, Sawyer, Jin, and Walt. I hear the Lost writers envisioned the series as reaching a logical ending after 4-5 seasons, so perhaps this series will not drag on into mediocrity. The beginning of this season was pretty poor though, but at least it has gotten better.

Ohio has been lovely this week ever since we came back from Newark. Freezing temps again and snow with little accumulation. It does make for a funny story though watching the Indians cancel an entire 4 game series because there is a FOOT OF SNOW on the field over the weekend. So they are playing this week's series in Milwaukee against the LA Angels. Now that's a hot ticket! Two way out of town teams playing in your stadium...enjoy that Brewers fans. The Reds started 4-2 winning both of their opening week series, so as usual let's get optimistic that I'll have something to watch in Cincinnati this summer (something other than Bengals players getting arrested for a rainbow of felonies).

Well the title of this blog entry refers to bowling (I know, shocker!). The semifinals proved why bowling playoffs are a great thing and a terrible thing at the same time. The great part is that any team can win and "binary elimination" makes for some exciting bowling. The terrible part is that there is little reward for doing well all season. We ran into kryptonite again in Bring Clovis Back and Bill Browne, but at least their team bowled regular average games this time...no 200 game beatings. Kelley was off her game and so was Brodie, but in typical MFR fashion Daniel had the best week of his career and I bowled well also. We lost by 2 pins in the series, winning game 2 by 30 but losing game 1 by 32. It was infuriating for 3 of us because Brodie and Kelley bowled poorly and were blaming themselves while I had a chance to put them away in the tenth frame of the second game (working on a double strike, I went 9-miss which is agonizing). Still, this season was better than all before and we had our chance to make the finals. Maybe in our 3L year we'll be lucky enough to get one more shot. The professors went down in flames to cinderella also, so that sets up a battle of titans:

(16) Bring Clovis Back vs. (14) Pinning the Blame

I'd have to guess PTB completes the cinderella run and bowls above average to slay another opponent. But Bill Browne would like one more title before law school is over :-) To put a wrap on our season, we were 24-9 this season and 22-2 against teams not names Bring Back Clovis (2-7 in three weeks against them). Pretty good. I noticed another statistical fluke that probably rarely happens in this many weeks of bowling. We never went 2-1! 3-0 seven times, 1-2 three times, and 0-3 one time the first week. I could see not going 3-0 or 0-3 in eleven weeks as sweeping is hard, but no 2-1's??? As I'm sure all my readers don't care so much about this statistical anomaly, we'll move on.

The week at school otherwise was pretty uneventful. Finished up Acc-Checking/Final Reading the third issue last week and sent to publisher, the bibliography issue this week. Which means we are almost finally done with Volume 22. JDR Banquet is this week and we'll find out who won staff member of the year (my pick would be Larry if I had one) and which 6 of us will be published next year as student notes. This also determines which 6 (or 5 if I'm published) of you JDR members will get to be bugged by me next year as authors instead of ME's or whatever job you will be doing. Fun fun fun. I am curious though to see if people who really tried hard and cared about note writing get what they deserve (yes Larry and Xavier and whoever else I missed in this category, you deserve to get published). Classes were kind of blah, but our second evidence paper was interesting. Binary elimination of hearsay exceptions, which is silly but March Madness was in season and it did help me and probably many others learn just what the hearsay exceptions were. The third and final writing assignment even more silly as we have to take a movie or book or TV show and use the plot to bring up how evidentiary issues would come up at trial. Not nearly as much educational value but we need a fun assignment right before finals or else people would go BAT-CRAZY (as if they don't already).

The weekend was good, very relaxing in Marietta. Spent all weekend at Kelley's grandparents' house, but did spend Friday night with Sarah and Kelley at Pastor Steve's place. He has this Burmese Mountain Dog who is the most adorable huge dog you've ever seen. Chip had a lot of fun bouncing around his legs and playing with the big guy. We chatted it up over pizza and quality beer (Steve is quite the conissour of dark beers) before playing the Wii that we brought over for the weekend. Steve is quite the character as he is a young divorced pastor who is not afraid to talk straight to you. I'm sure he would put off quite a few more traditional Lutherans with his ways, but the man is young and he has to live you know. He just wouldn't fit in the Missouri Synod (but then other than my Dad, who does?). Easter Sunday at church amuses me...300 people packed in at our church which is double normal. Communion took FOREVER but I finally took communion with my wife for the first time ever (she hardly ever takes it because she plays background music during communion usually and I am hardly ever at church anymore...so you can figure it out). The grandparents sent us home with our usual hefty helpings of leftovers from the Easter feast and another hefty plate of guilt trip (we hate to see you go etc...Kelley's more than used to it though). Another successful weekend of relaxation though.

And finally, let's get to the subject everybody seems so eager to talk about: Brian and the Newark trip. First, let me say that while I do not intend to ever work with Brian again on anything professional or not...I hold no ill will towards him. He has some problems (whatever they may be) that he needs to work out and I hope that someday he does get everything straight. I'm not patient enough (unlike some of my other friends) to deal with him, and I also feel like I'm in a unique position because very few if any of you will spend 3 straight constant days with him with no breaks. So perhaps my view is extreme because extreme things happen when you spend that kind of time in close quarters. If you have ever read the great existential novel No Exit (Huis Clos) by Jean Paul Sartre, you'll have an appreciation for why this kind of thing happens.

In response to some of the comments, I do have a few things to say. First this is my personal blog and I will air whatever I feel like here, you do not need to read it and I do not expect you to (unless you are stalking me in which case you need to find someone more interesting to stalk). That being said, I state the facts as I see them and I will not sugar coat things...but I also refuse to make truly petty and senseless attacks on colleagues. I vented for two and a half hours to create that last lengthy entry and I was perfectly OK with the world after that. You'll understand that I did not want to relive the weekend over and over to my many friends, so I told them to check the blog. Most of them did, and some told their friends. It's law school so word spreads. If you read this entry as offensive, you either (i) do not know Brian well enough, (ii) do not know me well enough, or (iii) don't understand what a vent on a blog is for. Simple as that. I've heard the gamut from "I was offensive and petty" to "I was nice" in my representation of how Brian can be. But that misses the point either way. This blog is a factual recollection of law school that I plan to look back on later. Making what I consider to be one of the worst weekends of my law school career (when it should have been one of the happiest) sound peachy keen is just plain wrong.

Thanks to all you friends and unknowns who support the common sense in the blog. Some of you did get petty and out of control with your comments and I have to say something about that. People think they are invincible and invisible when commenting anonymously on these blogs, so perhaps my only sin in the matter is opening up the door for all of you to make comments that degrade or attack Brian unfairly. But that's your perogative and the attacks on my "ethics" or "professionalism" for the blog entry itself should be directed at the real problem. That being the practice of people not having the balls to say what they truly feel and sign their name to it. I'm not ashamed of what I wrote because it is how I feel and Brian should know that. It is unfair to hide my true feelings from him and talk behind his back...but don't get me wrong I am just as guilty as many other Section 1-2 people from last year in talking about Brian and Pamela. Nevertheless I will tell these people how it is and like one anonymous poster who had a little class eventually after wrongfully personally attacking my wife (nice low move my friend) in a previous comment..."we agree to disagree." Better words could not have been spoken. I do not think Brian is commenting on here, but if he is more power to him.

Responding directly where it needs to be done:
1. "you should be ashamed of yourself." - And so should you for not signing your name to the comment.
2. "stating that a colleague has a mental illness on your diary might be a tantrum worthy of a 3-4 year old" - Number 1, there's a big difference (and you'd know that if you knew me) between having a screw loose and true mental illness. I do think he has problems to work out and I have a lack of words to adequately describe it, but I also in my rage of blogging that day made it clear I do not think mental illness is to be joked about. There's no joke when it comes to Brian. Just cold hard facts. If you find them funny, that's your perogative. Number 2, you need to back down the silly comments if you don't have the balls to sign it. I would actually respect you and would agree to disagree if you were not so cowardly.
3. "BAS and Dave can both seem pompous at times." - Well welcome to law school. Just be happy you did not meet high school Dave, who should've had a ego-trip blog back in the day.
4. "impressed with the implications of a psychology minor" - Hmmm. I almost shut down comments because you people were getting so petty and personal and stupid. It hurt to watch, and again you want to attack my wife...say it to my face or her face.
5. Of course I hold back some opinions I have of law school people and events. Some things should never see the light of day, while others such as last weekend deserve to be spoken. Not only is a moot court competition weekend a once (or twice) in a lifetime opportunity, I gave Brian my apology and he continued to make an issue of things. He pushed me too far so I wouldn't cry too hard for him. In a way he brought whatever I wrote on himself.
6. "rodney king" - nice. I hope you go on all kinds of blogs and make that same comment because I'm certain you will find crazy petty little fights on half the blogs out there today. And who doesn't like a little more Rodney King in their lives?
7. "I can assure you that none of the comments have been from Brian." - Care to share how you have this nugget of knowledge? Are you some god who can pierce the veil of the anonymous tag? If so, you are a god.
8. Furthermore, I am not surprised at the readership. It's law school. I don't know about any dismay other than those of you who don't have the guts to come face to face with me, someone who indeed has the balls to say how I truly feel. I do not care if you do not read my blog or comment on it, as really before this post only 10 of the probably 100 people who read it this week had read it before and only 5 people regularly. That's just fine with me.
9. I can barely respond to the rest of that comment, as it is just so spineless and senseless. Plus the next comment said more eloquently than I ever could how you are wrong about your high and mighty ethics. "I am not going to give you favorable treatment in our contacts beyond Moritz in the legal community." Who the f^%$ do you think you are? You will probably have no professional contact with me outside of this school because I am in such a narrow field that maybe 3% of our graduates will go into. I have no idea what you think your unfavorable views of me will do, but it certainly will not affect my legal career. But whatever. You want to act all high-and-mighty and pretend like you have a say in my life, go ahead.
10. And finally, yes rampant use of alcohol and illegal substances is bad. Now that we have that cleared up...

You may continue to comment on that old thread if you wish, but it is yesterday's news and nobody has the balls to come out against me in person because they know I was not attacking Brian and I really was in no way unethical or unprofessional. So that's that. Shut the book on Brian. I'm finished with that.

Have a good week, and don't GO CRAZY over outlines and upcoming exams for god's sakes! No reason to have an insanity outbreak.

One final note: our evidence professor has a lot of respect from me. He's buying a round of drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic, whatever your pleasure) for whomever wants to join him at the end of our evidence exam. No exam talk allowed. Now that's what I call a good idea, get the people rested up a little bit and get them to take a short break from the rigors of law school exams. Should be good for the mental health of all involved.

Bowling Semifinals and Gibbons Weekend

Well that was quite a week. Not one of my favorites, but certainly one of the most memorable. Part of that comes from STILL having that damn cough with no other cold symptoms. It is just irritating to have to medicate something like that. But that is the least of my worries.

This week in classes was short and not that notable. Doing some JDR final formats in the meantime and those are no fun...but now I can rip through them. We get to bowling a little late this week and got limited practice, but one of our opponents showed up late with no practice anyway. We are in a bracket style so we played against Bart and Avonte and Jen and who's that other person....oh that's right Christie! And she showed up this time (we beat them in a close 3-0 in the regular season and she did not show up). Kelley was on top of her game, getting a 168 I think game one with another opening turkey in a game. We bowled great the first game and good the second, but neither game was really close as Penal Servitude was not bowling well. Bart was in the 150's with a 175 AVG, Avonte was 30 pins off AVG...that just buried them. Here were the other results:

(16) Bring Clovis Back def. (9) Imwinklereids
(4) MFR Minus Judas def. (5) Penal Servitude
(14) Pinning The Blame def. (11) Jim & The Holograms
(2) Enlightening Strikes def. (10) Elvis Lives

So we have finally broken the string of losses in the Elite eight and will be battling in the Final 4 next Wednesday. Four very good teams remain. Our matchup with Clovis gives us a chance to avenge our two losses to them in the regular season (we are 23-7 in 10 weeks, but 1-5 against them. So 22-2 when not bowling this opponent). Clovis is the only 3L team lef tin the field and they won it last spring. Pinning The Blame is definitely a cinderella in this madness (2L's like us) and will be hard pressed to beat the always tough professor team. Nevertheless, any one of these teams could win it all. I'm personally still looking for my first good week since January, and now would be a great time to get my game back.

Please Bill Browne of Clovis, stop rolling 200 games against us. It really stings :-)

Then it was time for Gibbons, the Seton Hall moot court intramural competition in Newark NJ with Dustin (a 3L) and Brian (a 2L). Now I'll say this once and I'll say it loud and clear so you can understand my position: I was NOT HAPPY to be stuck on this team with a topic I don't care at all for and Brian on my team (hoping for 3L's) as well as having to be away from my wife on her birthday AND missing the Barrister's Ball on her birthday. What a whammy. So that's your background.

I'm also going to put this disclaimer at the top: if you are one of my teammates and you read my blog, I would recommend you stop reading this entry here. I am venting and I'm not going to be pleasant. So take whatever I say with a grain of salt if you must read on, and don't come complaining to me if you don't like what I say in MY PERSONAL BLOG.

Let's start before the competition even began. We probably doomed ourselves with our brief and none of us was too into writing it (Dustin spent 2 days on his part, I spent one long night, and I doubt Brian spent more than a few hours in his "busy schedule" that we all have). Dustin wrote what appears to be a straightforward 4th Amendment part, not going to win any awards but not bad either. My part was OK but I was calling for the Supreme Court to explicitly make a new 8th Amendment test (a bold move in this kind of competition) and our brief was very unique from all the other petitioner briefs thanks to this. But again, not the best written product I could come up with. Brian's part of the brief was a joke. I reformatted all I could and fixed as many typos as possible, but we were like every other team and had a bunch of typos. I don't think that made a difference, but it probably put us at a slight disadvantage since brief scores were half of the prelim round score.

So I get to the airport Thursday and the wife drops me off because she's sweet like that. I got held up at security because some dumbass old white guy needed hand-wanding after failing the metal detector and he was impatient and started screaming at the TSA agent to get him through security. Not a good idea. She screams for a supervisor and I thought they were going to take this guy down as dramatic as this was. But they finally got the line moving and this guy off to the side so the rest of us could get to our gates. This guy ended up on our small plane too, go figure. I do not take elderly white gentlemen with tempers as security threats, so no worries. Dustin just beat me to the gate and Brian showed up right before boarding. Dustin's the kind of guy who wears his suit on the plane so that he only carries a very small suitcase and briefcase. I on the other hand checked a big suitcase and had a backpack because I don't wear anything on the plane I don't want terribly wrinkled and sweat through (planes are a little warm with the close quarters, and yes I turn the air thing on myself the whole flight...one jetstram of air doesn't cut it but it does make it bearable). The school somehow managed to put us all in the same row both directions in a small jet (1 seat on one side, two on the other). I had the loner seat on the way to Newark which was nice because I'm large enough to make it uncomfortable if I have to sit next to a similar person but not uncomfortable if I'm by myself or next to a small person. The descent into Newark was 20 minutes of hell turbulence, and I'm betting more than half the people had their sick bags out whether or not they were using them. I've got the iron stomach but it bothered even me a little after a while. Took a taxi to the Hilton and got all checked in to the rooms. Dustin won the most important lucky battle of the weekend when the school put him in a single room while Brian and I had to put up with each other in a double. There were two big beds though, so that was a big plus. The Hilton was across the street from Seton Hall law and was attached to Newark Penn station, so we did not have to walk more than across the street to get anywhere we wanted to go in Newark.

We decided to walk around though and grab some lunch after we all got settled. Not very much around really but we did find a deli that would do the job. I got a good Italian type sandwich and some surprisingly good buffalo wings while the other gents got sandwiches of some sort and chips. Went back to the hotel where we decided to stay the remainder of the day Thursday. So let the long weekend with Brian begin. I watched some judge shows and ESPN, bought the internet on my computer which we decided to share, and worked on JDR final formatting and planning to schedule my classes for next year all through the afternoon and early evening while Brian took a 3 hour nap. Finally Dustin got hungry so we ordered in some New York style pizza and once it was delivered we decided to eat in Dustin's room and watch the NBA game that was on (Bulls-Pistons). Dustin went to MSU for undergrad and is a big Pistons fan, while Brian is a huge Cavaliers fan and the three teams are fighting closely for the top 2 seeds in the East. I'm a Knicks fan so I was just cynical but they were cheering for different interests. The side salads, garlic bread, and pizza were good but nothing amazing to shout home about. New York style cannot even compare in my opinion to Chicago deep dish anyways. So anyways after talking basketball and our different interests for a while, we somehow got into a discussion of CEO high salaries and labor unions and just generally business in America today. Brian is hard core labor union because his dad is a factory worker at Goodyear in a small town, Dustin is the son of a businessman and small company CEO and is pro business, I am moderate as usual because my family is very blue-collar like Brian but I will be a shareholder someday and will be on the other side. This debate or discussion lasted over 2 hours. I enjoy political or social debate and basically played the role of hard economics (showing why CEO's earning so much is not a huge deal and why labor unions are OK at the same time...shareholders and workers are always in an inevitable struggle over company profits and that will not change. Dustin and Brian just happen to be on opposite sides of the fence. Dustin tried to get to the heart of Brian's argument (which like everything else Brian says...is based completely on conjecture and anecdote instead of actual knowledge or expereince) and at one point Dustin noted that Brian's argument hinged on what their definition of a healthy economy is. Dustin thinks it is money changing hands and commerce and trade at a high level (nobody sitting on their money), while Brian thinks it is a zero unemployment rate. Dustin said that this part of Brian's argument was a lot like communism in that everybody should have a job for a healthy economy. Brian took all kinds of offense because he could not understand what dustin was saying. He bitched about this all weekend and pretty much barely talked to Dustin the reminder of the weekend, only when necessary. "Nobody ever called me a communist before!" Jeez. I heard him talking to his Mom on the phone that night and I'm OK probably just because my grandfather lost his pension to a corrupt factory and my parents are blue collar, but Dustin is just a "privileged never-worked in his life CEO's son." Ugh, if you want to have a for-fun intellectual discussion with Brian about anything but his expertise which is history, don't bother. He will have some biased view and take something you say completely wrong and degrade to personal attacks because he has to be right. He's naive and better than thou in these situations.

Brian self-depreciates A LOT and it really gets irritating. "Oh I am hogging the TV, you take the remote (when I'm clearly not paying attention to the TV and don't care)." "Oh I'm hogging the internet and your computer" (and to be fair he was checking his email for an hour and a half but we were splitting the internet...but don't say that and then keep checking your email for another half hour)." "I shouldn't have spent 3 hours in Dustin's room doing nothing when I haven't even written my argument yet, I just shouldn't have done that." This was getting on my nerves thursday night, but whatever. I talked to Tom on the phone fresh back from his honeymoon and we shared bitching stories to each other (Heather had a minor injury and incident on their way to the Caribbean but she's OK now while I was complaining about this weekend and the Philly trip). And then Kelley of course as well. I just sat out in the hall and avoided the room because I knew Brian would be working on his argument and I did not want to listen to him. I could not answer his questions or help him because I did not know the 4th amendment part of our case very well and that was his argument.

Let me take a sidebar here to complain some more about Brian. When you sign on to be on a moot court team, YOU SACRIFICE A LITTLE FOR THE TEAM. I'm not asking for a lot, but a good faith effort would be nice and we did not get that from him. When we wrote the brief Dustin and I said we will be done on Saturday so Brian could have a weekend to get the rest done and we could review it Monday through Wednesday and send it out because it was due on the Friday. Well Brian kept saying "i don't have time and I'm so busy when I know I'm more busy than him back then." I stayed up ALL NIGHT to meet my deadline so we could stay on schedule and he just put it off until THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS DUE. Then I had to frantically fix what I could because we did not have time for a good review and Brian still had to overnight it to Newark. Maybe our brief was late and that's why we lost, but maybe it wasn't. I e-filed it with the competition director and we had serious issues because Brian had to convert everything to his Wordperfect. SUCK IT UP AND USE MS WORD. You are welcome to use Wordperfect all you want but not when the competition directors tell you they seriously prefer MS Word. Then it's really hard to moot with our coach the week before or moot at all the day before when we had plenty of time to because YOU DON'T HAVE YOUR ARGUMENT PREPARED UNTIL 1 AM THE NIGHT BEFORE THE ACTUAL COMPETITION!!! What the f%^# do you have going on that is so important that you basically sabotage the team by making it impossible for us to ever practice? Honestly...if you are on Brian's team next year get on him early or else you will not be able to practice or fix your brief adequately or anything that is VITAL to succeeding in a moot court competition. Yeah I was not prepared until a week before the competition, but at least I was practicing with Dustin and Professor Berman on our 8th Amendment issue and at least I gave us the opportunity to be prepared as a team. So we went into competition with no idea how Brian would do.

Friday we did not have to rush because competition check in was not until 1:45 and the first round was at 3:15. Got some Subway with Brian then met Dustin and our coach and waited around in Seton Hall forever while every other team showed up and checked in. Nothing at this competition was run very quickly, but oh well. The first round we were against Brooklyn, a couple of tall guys in power suits. Dustin was a little nervous and you could tell but he gave a solid argument overall and dealt with questions well. I then went and I thought I did well (I was the only one of the four who didn't appear flustered or nervous in my opinion and the judges did not say anything to me about that afterwards). The Brooklyn guys both started very strongly and confidently and I originally thought we were getting beat badly. But then the court stopped asking questions to both of them halfway through and both got terribly flustered for the whole second half (not answering the few questions well and not seeming prepared to go into their argument points again). Our coach and the other team thought we blew them away, but the judge comments were a little rough on both teams. The irritating thing was the judges were mis-attributing things that happened to the wrong person (I accidentally "blew through the zero" which means when my time was up I did not ask the court for permission to go on until after they asked their next question, but the judges said Dustin did that...one guy on the other team left 2 minutes on the clock and that was an error attributed by a judge to me). So the judges screwed us a little but still my only real bad comment (other than blowing through the zero) was my demeanor because they did not think I should be smiling. That's how I keep a confident and colloquial tone with the court and I just smile up there. Sorry. We still think we beat Brooklyn regardless.

After another 2 hour wait, it was time for the second and final first round argument against Widener (in Harrisburg PA): Brian and Dustin against two ladies. We blew them away. The first girl got very angry and was practically shouting answers to the judges and both ladies made AWFUL concessions which in real life would have given the case away. The judges were rough this round though as far as questioning and really hit them super-hard though. Brian gave a pretty good argument for not being prepared and I only had 3 complaints. He said I/We a few times but I think everybody was guilty of this from time to time so minor point. He looked down a lot at the beginning but was not reading (clearly he knew what he was saying but just had to look down at his notes to be confident I guess), and this is a big moot no-no. He said he changed his plan when he saw how bad the first girl was but you probably should not stray from whatever plan you have in your first oral argument of the day. The biggest problem with his argument was that with 4 minutes left the court threw him the biggest "softball" (which is moot court lingo for a question that's so easy you just hammer it out of the park and it strengthens your argument) about one of the 2-3 key cases in our argument. Brian kept deflecting the question by going back to his argument instead of directly answering and the court kept asking which made me want to pull my hair out. Nevertheless it was still a pretty decent first argument of the day for him (and I felt like I could not really criticize him because he would self-depreciate so much it would make me sick and he wouldn't get better). Dustin then gave a pretty flawless argument to finish the day. The judges were complementary of both teams (too much so) but gave more credit to Dustin and our team which seemed appropriate considering we slaughtered them in our opinion. Our coach who has done some moot court before thought we were in the top 16 for sure and her husband (also a moot court veteran) agreed, saying our arguments were solid and clearly better than both our opponents.

So Friday night was a banquet at a place called Don Pepe's which was across the street from Seton Hall and the Hilton Hotel. They offered a banquet dinner of seafood dishes and a decent open bar with a DJ playing some music on the tiniest little dance floor (but a couple crazy students got down). Dustin tested the bar's ability to make drinks and I wanted sweet drinks so I drank some Black Russians (yum yum chocolate flavor) while Brian got ONE glass of wine. Remember he is uber-religious and not Lutheran, so this was heavy drinking to him even though we all had 2 full plates of seafood. We were sitting with the team from Wisconsin, so we had a good time talking basketball and Big Ten campuses. As I said, our coaches were guaranteeing we would make it...which of course led me to worry that our brief or something would bring us down. Well finally around 11 they announced the 16 teams moving on to Saturday and surprise...we're not in it. Neither is Brooklyn or Widener. Hmmm. Some of the judges were around and the ones from the second round were more than stunned that we did not make it because they say they watched 3 oral arguments and we were by far the best of the 6 teams they saw. Dustin got perfect scores from them!!! So what happened? Well it was either one of the worst briefs of all time or the judges graded us terribly in the first round. I just don't know and we could not compare to a team that made it since we did not compete against one. Disappointing, but we just said what the heck let's socialize. I actually convinced Brian to loosen up and have a second glass of wine (we would self-depreciate later of course) and go up to a couple of girls sitting off to a side table and talk to them. You don't get good at talking to girls without trying and failing first, so I was happy I got that going. One of the girls even gave him a number (and though it may be fake, it's something more than usual and a start). Dustin and I talked to a couple interesting people from Virginia Law School, a handful of judges, and quite a few students. We ended up hanging out with the Widener ladies and the Virginia guys most of the reminder of the banquet. Bunch of 3L's (Brian and I were two of maybe 4-5 2L's in the room) ready to graduate and get on with their interesting life plans. Nice people though and it was a pleasure.

It was kind of a win-win situation though because we may have gotten the better of the deal not having to wake up for a 9 AM octofinal argument, instead getting an all-expenses paid day to spend in New York City. Brian and I went into the city while Dustin spent all day with his family who lives in Hoboken NJ. I'd never spent any time in NY other than taxi-cabbing through Manhattan on the way to and from our honeymoon cruise, and Brian had never been in New Jersey let alone NY. We'll call Saturday Mr. Smith goes to New York. I was a little nervous because I did not really know what I was doing, but I had a map of Manhattan and the subway system with us and we figured out the NJ train system which got us into Manhattan quickly. We started by going down to battery park and saw the Statue of Liberty from Manhattan (which is far away but oh well). Then we walked up through financial district to Ground Zero which we walked all the way around. It's finally looking like they are done setting a foundation and will be building the Freedom Tower soon (supposed to be done in 4 years). Still it's just creepy with this gigantic hole in the city. Also saw the neat little church right by the site that somehow survived the WTC collapse despite being 250 years old and grabbed some actual NYC pizza (huge pieces of thin crust delight). Hopped the subway back up north to Central Park and spent a couple hours there walking, people watching, and viewing a lot of rollerblading and ice skating. Saw the infamous Trump building as well, and the man has some primo real estate right there at the corner of Central Park. Hiked back out of Central Park in the late afternoon and subway-ed down to Times Square then. Wow that place is ridiculous. I could spend days just shopping at all the good stores in the area, let alone do touristy type things. We went in Virgin Megastore and a couple sports apparel stores. Finally it was about 5:30 and we wanted to track down a sports bar to watch the OSU game. Dave and Busters was not too busy (just like Gameworks for you Columbus people) and we got a table right in front of a couple plasma TV's). Had a nice steak dinner because we had plenty of school compensation per diem to spend and a couple beers. The game was awesome as the Buckeyes always seemed pretty much in control despite Greg ODen hitting the bench with 2 fouls in the first 3 minutes of the game. Big ol Roy Hibbert just isn't that good and for some inexplicable reason Georgetown forgot about Jeff Green. Whatever. Lots of Georgetown people in the bar and they were loud and boisterous so we got little loud and boisterous to give equal time. Rushed back through subway and train to the hotel after our game and made it back in time to see about half of the first half of Florida-UCLA. Then we just crashed in front of the game and eventually went to bed. I turned down the TV when Brian went to bed and he was like "no no don't turn it down I like to hear a little TV in the background." Then 20 minutes later Sportscenter finally came on when I was getting ready to pack and so I upped the volume almost unnoticeably so I could hear over my packing because I had it down so low. "NO NO NO We cannot have that TV loud like that Dave, we're getting up in 6 and a half hours and we cannot sleep with that." WTF? I was making more noise packing anyways than the TV ever was and I made especially sure to make some noise packing the remainder of my stuff before going to bed. You want to be an ass, I can be an ass.

The two things other than the self depreciating which continued all day Saturday while he followed me... ("I really got ripped off on that disposable camera" when he paid 10 or 12 dollars for a camera in a tourist trap city...I thought it wasn't that bad a deal) ("I'm spending so much money I shouldn't on this trip" when he spent 70-80 dollars all day and 50 of that was on food he is getting reimbursed for entirely, the remainder being souvenirs and subway/train fare which could not have cost more than 25-30 dollars).

1. Copious amounts of bitching about NYC. "I would never be able to live here. Everything is overpriced. There's nothing green in this city. I hate putting my hands on anything or touching anyone, especially on the Subway because everything is just so dirty. That subway car smelled like someone died in it. People stand too close to you. Street Peddlers need to get out of your face. I don't understand why anyone would come to Times Square for New Year's or on a business day when it is too overcrowded. Etc. Etc. Etc." All damn day.

2. If the self-depreciation was not bad enough, Brian annoyed the shit out of me even more Saturday and Sunday by doing something that I think indicates he's got something a little off in the brain. I kept saying things that I knew about certain aspects of New York City or kep making observations and then 2-5 minutes later he would say it back to me like he was telling me something I did not already know. The first couple of times this happens I'm like whatever but it happened probably 15-20 times throughout the day Saturday. I'll give you a couple examples. We were watching ice skaters in Central Park and Brian does not know much about Zambonis and hockey (which I follow somewhat). So I told him how an outdoor ice rink stays frozen in the warmer days and that hockey is more interesting in person than on TV. 4 minutes later he says "you know Dave I bet hockey games are a lot more interesting in person" and then parroted back some other things I'd said about hockey. Another example is when we were in Times Square and I was looking for MTV because that's the only building I could not see right away. I told him let's walk up the street here and MTV should be somewhere up there where they tape TRL. We walk up half a block and run right into MTV basically at which point Brain says "Hey there's that MTV building. You know they tape that total request live show there?" One more for posterity: Brian kept bitching about spending money (when we did not spend much at all) and so on and I kept telling him every time he brought it up that all the food was covered so we did not spend that much. Sunday we are standing at the airport waiting on baggage to arrive and he turns to me and says "you know Dave I did not really spend that much because I'll be able to get 50 dollars back from the school for yesterday and subway/train fares and souvenirs were not that much."

I say this delicately because I do not think it is right to make fun of people with legitimate mental conditions (other than the stereotypical things comedians make fun of). I really cannot help but think there's some screw loose when you parrot back facts to me like you are telling me something profound or something you knew already when I'm the only person with you and I told you said facts a few minutes ago. I don't know what it is but it just does not seem right. If something truly is wrong I cannot say anything to him because he would probably think I was attacking him and nothing would come of it. I don't really care too much but man did it irritate the everloving shit out of me Saturday.

So now we come to Sunday, and Brian messed up the clock in the room somehow (it kept time just fine the previous 2 nights) and it was an hour early and so woke us up at 6:25 AM. So we go back to sleep because we have until 8 (or since Brian has to pack he was getting up earlier than 8). Around 8 my phone alarm goes off and I get up and turn the TV on loudly. Brian is not moving. So I yell at him to get up if we want to make the 8:30 shuttle and he gets going (grumpily) and somehow gets everything packed up frantically. He ends up forgetting a binder with competition info in it which he complains about Sunday despite only losing a $1 binder and a Hilton Hotels pen he wanted to keep. So whatever, should have packed carefully the night before. In the shuttle ride to the airport we get to talking about basketball a little bit and then career services...and then Brian just snaps. "Why do you two always have to be so disagreeable...I'm so sick of listening to you two put me down and disagree with everything that comes out of my mouth for 4 days." WHAT THE F%$#?!?!? The only disagreements I had with him were when Dustin and him had a big falling out over the stupid Thursday night labor/CEO chat (I took the common sense economics view that CEO's giving up a 10 million dollar salary is irrelevant to workers because if distributed to workers it would only net about $1000 a year (a dinky raise) for each worker. He just lumped me in with Dustin and snapped. The most recent disagreement (and the only other big one) was over career services because Dustin thinks OSU career services can help people sometimes because they did help him and he transferred from Capital where career services is even worse. Brian was randomly bitching about how OSU must hate their students because only 3 firms come to OSU for on campus interviewing in the spring and he had to do his job searching all by himself etc. I said I'm not happy the one callback out of 8 that I got an offer from was OCI instead of Loyola Patent Law Program (because I feel like it gives me a lot less right to complain about what I consider to be an inadequate career services office, especially with respect to IP people). So how exactly am I disagreeing with him? Because I don't think spring OCI matters because all these firms have all their people and they only want the top people anyways? Whatever.

So at the airport Brian bitches about another minor delay (handicapped person this time) when we got to the front of the security checkpoint line, then we got into the terminal with over an hour to spare. Brian kept saying "this airport better have some good places to eat, some real warm breakfast food." So we meet up with Dustin and Brian says this again, but Dustin points out that there was a grill place right beside our gate and nothing else in our small leg of the terminal. THEY HAD BREAKFAST SANDWICHES AND HASH BROWNS AND ORANGE JUICE etc at this cafe, although they were also starting to prep lunch Dustin said (Cheesesteaks and fries). Brian said "I don't want any damn cheesesteak" and storms off to another leg of the terminal. OK whatever, I went and got a Ceasar salad and some fries for myself and sat with Dustin chatting up the basketball some more and the competition and what we each did with our free day Saturday. So Brian comes back like a half hour later with a McDonald's bag and cup. As he's walking up I say "hey you found civilization" jokingly and Dustin says "what did you get from McD's?" Brian snaps back "a Big Mac, obviously because everyone gets those with ORANGE JUICE!" At this point I was so sick of them that I just mouthed off that "yeah of course we get Big Macs with OJ" and Dustin backed off, saying "man I cannot see through the bag and I did not see you had OJ." He ate his egg mcmuffin and hash browns and then stormed off again. Could've got what was probably a better version of the same thing 30 seconds away but whatever. I seriously considered going to the ticket counter and make them give me the $300 travel voucher to fly later in the day because they overbooked and this was their offer. As it turns out I really should have because I knew Brian and I were sitting next to each other.

On the plane Dustin and I just sat with Brian between us and we both put in headphones and listened to our MP3's. What made it so unbearable was that we sat in the plane seats for 40 minutes because the plane had engine trouble and they had to check it out before we left while we were trapped in our tiny plane. So it became an indetemrinably long 2.5 hours in that seat next to Brian. Then when the plane finally got to gate in Columbus Brian does that asshole thing where he jumps up out of the seat and rushes past 4-5 rows of people to get off the plane faster. Whatever. Dustin and I waited our turn and then he had to wait for his small bag planeside so I said my goodbyes to him there (it was easier without Brian anyways) and then went to baggage claim. Brian was giving me a ride home and so I don't know why he decided to rush to baggage claim without me but whatever. So we get to his car and we go to my place, which seemed to take forever because he bitched me out some more for being disagreeable. We made nice (which means I apologized for whatever offended him and then he bitched some more) and finally we got to my place. I thanked him for the ride, went inside my apartment, and screamed in frustration. How can someone be so narrow-minded and backwards yet claims to be offended because you disagree with him when he is wrong. I don't go out of my way to be mean and I have lots of friends at law school (he may be the only person who truly dislikes me nad it is just inexplicable because even if I don't see eye to eye with someone I am so easy going and laid back it usually does not matter). I just cannot explain it.

I'm so happy that we cannot be on the same team next year. Good riddance sir. you were a terrible teammate and a pretty terrible person all weekend and yet I was just going to let it go and not say much in my blog. But you snap at me like a psycho and I'm going to vent. That's how it goes.

So apparently moot court preference forms for next year's teams went out late last week I hear and I also hear the IP team got nixed. I'm going to fight my ass off to get it back because I'm certain there are many other competitions that do not have 2 people first picking it over national team and ABA (the prestigious teams). IP does. The coach Professor Lee wants to coach the team again and we want to do it, so I'm fighting for it. But even if that does not work out, next year will be SO MUCH BETTER than this year. An all expenses paid trip to spend 4 straight days and 3 nights in a hotel room with Brian...hoo-ray thanks for the kick in the nuts Moritz. It's my fault for giving the worst oral argument of my life selection round night in January, and I cannot believe I still made a team...but oh well. I've got a new friend in Dustin for sure.

Scheduling is this week. I've got contingencies and all that and guarantee I will have no Thursday and Friday classes all of next year. This should give me plenty of time to study for and pass the patent bar and the PMBR (professional responsibility exam we all have to pass) as well as follow my extracurricular pursuits such as bowling, JDR executive editor, and moot court. I love law school schedules...

Well I guess that was another book-length entry, but I needed to vent and you probably enjoy when I do. so have a good week and we'll see you sometime soon!