A long awaited update

Well it's been far too long, but I feel that I must write before vacation and I'm having writer's block on the moot court brief again. We are already into Week 7 of the school year and much has happened since the last time I wrote. Let's start with school...

Classes are whoop-de-doo fun. Securities is hard to read for anymore but still better than Sales. I hope I can sludge through Securities like I did in BA, but it seems like so much statutory material every week to outline. Might have to start early. Rose is an awesome professor though, and his auction for money envelopes was classic good stuff. Sales class makes me dumber every time, but we have to go because of the enforced attendance policy. Seeing some Creola Johnson questions on quizzes also indicates that her all multiple choice test will be a nightmare. All this for bar prep or remedial contracts...at least I have many friends in there suffering with me. International IP is the highlight of my reading for each week, especially since we are starting the patent half of the class this week. Copyright was OK too, but I'm happy to be moving back into my field again. Lee is good as always. I guess Mike the new IPLS president is passing around a petition to get the school to run a patent drafting class next semester. I do not know if I can sign it in good faith because that class does not seem useful to me now that I'm working part time and learning how to do it for WHE on the job (which is all that matters for the future, not some academic notion of perfection). Finally we have Seminar, and as usual I am happy keeping the same grade on the first paper this semester as I got in all my assignments for him last year (when over half the class serves on boards of the top 3 journals at the school, it's tough to stay in the median let alone on the top). Judge Sutton is the absolute bomb, and I cannot wait to have him grill us national teams for moot court class later in the semester.

Speaking of moot court, hopefully the Michigan game is another 3:30 or 4:00 kick this year as we should be done with our preliminary rounds on Saturday by 3 in Cleveland. Our team has had a bit of bad luck with computers...as I have wireless problems slowing my process, Tom had half of one side of his computer ripped out by a would-be computer thief, and Lee's laptop actually has been stolen. Crazy times...not even a lock stopped this thief. We are slogging through the brief and will hopefully be done before I go cruising. The topic is a good one, with the first issue being whether the 2nd amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms, and the second issue being federal premeption of state laws. I am doing the preemption issue and will be doing both the argument for premeption on both sides. It's quite a bit less sexy than the second amendment, but I like the challenge. Journal is going OK, as we finally got the Pope article today (3 weeks late) and we will move seamlessly from the end of the first acc-checks to the second round for Issue III two weeks after fall break. Thankfully the administrative duties of my job will slow significantly after October as I only have 1 more acc-check to prepare and then the 2L notes to read and grade. Everything else will now move to the substantive portion of my job, that being final reads and publishing. More work for me, but it's all stuff I can do at my leisure thank God.

Well Kelley got fired from the church job because they found someone eight months early. Whatever. Her last week was a hymn sing this past Sunday and it was nice to hear her play so many songs one last time on the old pipe organ. Maybe she will take up a little more piano at the house now...I think she's hoping to get on at COSI with Sarah, where she will get more hours than she is getting from the daycare job. Plus she hates that job. Sarah is finally moving out late this month as she bought a condo across town. Will be absolutely lovely to have all the space and home office back for sure. I do a lot of work at school in my office, but for writing papers and home work I like to have a place to get away not consisting of my comfy chair and our bed. I'm also working most weeks R-F down in Cincinnati. OSU callbacks are going on now and Laura came through last Thursday while I was there, some other guy on Friday, Dave L. went today and Keith will be down there with me on Thursday. It's greedy but I really want Dave and either Keith or Laura to receive and accept offers there...I want coworkers I know from my school days! I'm just now getting back into the swing of things at work and getting more efficient. The money is good and necessary until Kelley gets back on her feet but really I'm just glad for the break from school life. Plus it is nice to build up a repertoire with the work friends before getting there full-time.

Bowling is off to a great start. We've already bowled against Aaron's team and Bart's team in the first four weeks, and we lead the division with a 10-2 record. Hopefully things will keep up but I do not think we will need much more to make the playoffs this semester. Then it's all a luckfest from there. Ohio State football swept through the joke schedule of September and is now #4 ranked. We'll see how appropriate that rank is with the tough roadie at Purdue this weekend. I wrote perhaps my longest non-preview article ever this week because I just had lots to write about, so feel free to scoot on over to southerncollegesports and check it out. In TV Solitary ended this week and I can only hope for Solitary 3.0! House is back and looks to be quite entertaining as House cuts through 40 interns to find 3 apprentices to replace Chase, Cameron, and Foreman. I think we will continue to get the occassional appearance by Chase and Cameron also, so perhaps not all is lost and changing in House world. It's the only thing to sustain us until 24 and Lost come back.

We watched the premiere of Cavemen tonight. That was quite possibly the worst pilot I've ever seen. Just outright BORING the whole way through and not very funny. I had bet that the show would be awful, but I figured it would at least be novel and funny for a couple weeks. Oh well.

Baseball playoffs start tomorrow night, and boy what a finish in the National League. Anyways, here are my predictions sure to go wrong as always!
Chicago Cubs over Arizona Diamondbacks in 4
Colorado Rockies over Philadelphia Phillies in 5
Boston Red Sox over Los Angeles Angels in 3
Cleveland over New York Yankees in 5
Colorado Rockies over Chicago Cubs in 6
Boston Red Sox over Cleveland Indians in 7
Boston Red Sox over Colorado Rockies in 5

Wouldn't it be sweet if the Indians played against the Rockies in a super low-budget market world series, or the Indians against the Cubs in a battle for one team to end a LONG world series drought. Probably will not happen, but we can hope.

Well hey I cannot think of anything else to speak of and it is getting late, so it must be time to wrap this entry up. Cruise to Bahamas and out of the country next week, so probably will not update until middle of the week 2 weeks from now at the earliest. Have a good fall break law school people and everyone else, see you next time.

Getting into the flow...

The second week of classes and school went down a little smoother than the first. Of course there was the complication of Kelley going out of town to Wisconsin all week, but now she's back as of tonight and we have a full house again. Her cousin Stephanie got married right before us last year and had twins in October of last year, and now she'll be raising them by herself for a while because her husband died. It's a very sad situation, but Stephanie has a lot of good family supporting her if she needs them. Kelley said it put here in a real tough spot emotionally because the family kept bringing up our recent news and success (accepting the job offer in Cincinnati, which will make her "the rich cousin") and she felt guilty about that coming up when everyone was so sad about the death. It sounded like the whole week was absolutely awful, but hopefully things get back to normal again now that she's home.

On the home front the classes for week 2 were a tad more interesting than those of week 1 (getting through with review type materials and starting to hit some more meaty classes). Securities keeps me about half interested, International IP is a great class, Seminar has the same interesting discussions, and Sales looked better after this week because we will have on-call lists. I'm up on 9-11, so we'll see how bad I can answer questions then. Found out what weeks of the school year I'll be busy with Seminar and moot court, and I'm a little pissed about Moot Court. Last year it was Barrister's Ball and Kelley's Birthday...so I picked National to avoid the spring only to end up having competition on the Saturday and Sunday of OSU-Michigan weekend. Which means my streak of 6 straight OSU-scUM games is over, but hey it was a nice run (5-1 and 3 Big Ten titles clinched against the Wolverines). The guys on my team seem like good guys and everything I hear about them is positive, so there should be no repeat unfortunate experiences. We will be at Case Western for our regional in the national competition as well, so much better than the early rumors of Akron or last year's which was at Moritz. Brief writing will start in a week or two I think so it will be time to get going on that. You better believe I will have my pocket radio with me on moot court Saturday...as I don't want to hear about the Michigan game from anyone other than the radio guys. Got a DVR this week which is ironic as I might have ordered one after finding this out just to record the big game. It's bery nice not having to set a VCR anymore.

Speaking of the Buckeyes, went to the home opener for the second year in a row on Saturday. Went with stepdad-in-law because obviously Kelley needed to give her ticket to someone, and it was his first ever college or pro football game live. I gave him a similar experience to what I got for my first ever OSU game, as we woke up early enough to go to the Buckeye Bob tailgate for a little over an hour before trekking to the stadium. Most of the usual crew were there including David Way, Paul, Doug, Dan, etc. Talked to Bob about the offer in Cincinnati and the last year of school, and he says he can still feel the anxiety for others taking the bar exam every July (despite being 25 years removed from that this year). It's funny that due to David Way and my mom working together for so long that I got hooked into one of the best group of tailgaters at OSU and a group of attorneys at that. They are limiting the number of times students can go to the Moritz tailgates to 2 this year, and Kelley and I may only make it to one of those (next week against Akron). Good for the breakfast food type tailgates and noon games, but I'd rather go to Bob's on most occassions. The new field turf looks sharp in the stadium, but the endzones and the block O at midfield being bright scarlet takes a little getting used to. It was hotter in the stadium than I ever remember, but it was OK because humidity was very low for Ohio. They say it got up to 140 degrees on the field turf because that rubber sucks in heat. In any event, I'm looking a little like Two-Face from Batman movies right now because right right side of my face and neck is sunburnt while the left side is not at all. Go figure. The Buckeyes look like a pretty good defensive unit this season, and the offense should be good by the time the big games roll around. The game that worries me is Purdue, as I do not know if we can win a shootout and Purdue has one of the best offensive units in the Big Ten. Definitely hoping that press credential comes in for the Penn State game now, as the Purdue game is Burton's wedding and the Michigan game now is Moot Court. Should be a good season no matter how it goes, but I've got my sights on a one-loss Rose Bowl year.

Not too much to speak of during the long weekend, although I did pick up a few good DVD sets for our collection and viewing pleasure. Ghostbusters 1 and 2 gift set is on serious sale right now at Best Buy and Target if you want those, but everything else was used stuff (seasons of House, Boston Legal, Mind of Mencia, and the Godfather trilogy were the vast majority of what I bought). Spent good time with Everson and David Lee, and now I've seen firsthand what a beautiful thing Brodie vs. Everson is on the Dr. Mario game. If you've ever seen Brodie bowl, it's pretty much the same...except in front of a TV. Also had a live fantasy football draft after the game Saturday at Panini's with Aaron and some other law school guys. Some guys did not show which was disappointing, but we got it all hammered out and my team seems pretty acceptable. I sacrificed my QB position to have higher quality RB, WR, and DEF. So my question to you is this...should I start Romo or Vince Young this week? That will be the the question of the week every week for my fantasy team.

Well it's getting late and I have some work to do on Labor Day (reading to do for this week's classes and my weekly SCS article among other things), so time for me to get off to bed. Short week this week with Labor Day giving us only 2 days of classes, but next weekend is another home game, Sternwheeler fireworks, and preparing second round acc-checks for the staffers so a busy time all around. Also time to make final substantive revisions on my student note. Fun! We'll see you next week if not before.

Top Nintendo Entertainment System Games

The original, the best. Here we are on Friday and we finally come back to the NES and a top 15 games for it. There were around 700 games for the system and given Nintendo's strict licensing and control systems...that was a remarkable number of games and variety. Without further ado,

15. The Adventure of Link - This game may not have made the list until the past couple of years when I got on a quest to beat a lot of older games I could not stand or be good at as a kid. While I still believe it was a huge mistake to change Zelda to a completely different style of game, the game is pretty well done for what it is. Zelda 2 also happens to be one of the hardest games in Nintendo history because the controls were kind of tough to get good at consistently.

14. TMNT 2: The Arcade Game - Like Street Fighter for the SNES, TMNT 2 stole many quarters from me and others in the arcade era. TMNT 2 is not a great single-player game, but partying with one other player (or 3 others in the arcade) was what made the game awesome. How can you beat finally giving Shredder the heave-ho as well? The only thing keeping this game out of the top 10 was the fact that on the NEW you couldn't play with 4 turtles at once.

13. Galaga - While this game may have been much more cool back in the arcade or back on the atari, the space invader battle game was simple enough to get good at and challenging enough to keep players coming back for more. There's nothing like the outbursts you have when your double-ship gets plowed by kamikaze alien forces or you mess up when trying to make a double ship. Sometimes the most simple games are the best.

12. Dr. Mario - This game is another that might suffer from me not being introduced to it until recently. I had originally thought this was a Nintendo knockoff of Tetris, but the game is an amazing 2-player battle which Tetris did not offer. You can up the intensity and handicap the players, all aspects of making a tetris-type game into something even better. This game is reaching legendary status on our bowling team.

11. Metroid - Again just recently playing this game, but the game that started the Metroid series in 1985 is amazingly well-designed. The gameplay is simple and challenging, but all the power-ups and add-ons (missiles, morph ball mode, etc.) that are so amazing when done in 3D in the Prime series were thought up in 1985 for the 2D original. It's actually amazing there were not more of these games over time, but we will always have the original thanks to downloading it on the Wii.

10. Marble Madness - While I realize that I'm in the severe minority by putting this "stupid marble race game" above games like Metroid, this is a game I've always been fascinated with. It is a successful concept too as Super Monkey Ball ran with it on the GCN and just this month there's a Marble Madness type race game on the Wii. While there are only 6-7 levels and they are easily memorized, the game is still challenging to get through today. What really made the game was the 2-player race mode.

9. Disney's Adventure of the Magic Kingdom - There were a couple of kiddy games that ended up being really good for the NES (Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers being the other), but this game had it all and then some. Not only did this game make fun battles out of 6 of the most famous DisneyWorld rides, it remains challenging today. The variety in the games was also refreshing.

8. Tecmo Super Bowl - If there's one thing you can see from my game collection, I love playing sports games and always have. Unfortunately they get dated every single year by the newest and updated version, and old system sports games fade into obscurity when looking at the top games in retrospect. This game breaks from that mold though and was the absolute shit back in the day. The quintessential football game on the NES remains playable and fun today.

7. Super Mario Bros. - I've seen this game on the top of many NES lists, but these people are simply delusional in my opinion. This game is great, but it was just the beginning on the NES. The game has lots of replay value, but you do get so good at it eventually that it is not really challenging. This is still the game that hooked us all into the revolution of gaming that was Nintendo and the lovable plumber platformers. Our princess is indeed in another (later) castle on this system.

6. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out - Whether it is Mr. Dream or Mike Tyson, this game is the only real good boxing game until the Wii allowed us all to actually punch and dodge. While Glass Joe and Soda Popinsky are some of the biggest jokes ever, learning how to combat and getting good at beating fighters with great special moves like Bald Bull, King Hippo, and the dude with the turban and tiger was a tough challenge and fun at the same time. This game also kind of channels the spirit of Rocky movies in my opinion...in any event beating on boxers was always a great way to let off steam on the NES.

5. Final Fantasy - One of the more disappointing yet awesome moments of the past 4 years was when my dad found a sealed copy of this game at a yard sale. Yes sealed. Yes a yard sale. Absolutely unbelievable, as there might not be 25 other sealed copies of this game in existence. What was disappointing was he broke the seal wrap and tried the game out, not liking it and giving it to me. Well I was happy to have the box and book and everything in mint condition, but still...this is the RPG that blew open the RPG market. Good characters and varied gameplay allowed this classic to spawn the most famous series of games in the past 20 years.

4. The Magic of Scheherazade - While Final Fantasy gets all the credit and deservedly so, this RPG was actually the only one I got into back in the NES days. This little hardly known gem was certainly one of the best games on the NES as far as gameplay and depth and difficulty go. There was also plenty of comedic value in pissing off the shopkeepers by making low offers on their goods multiple times until they kicked you out of their store. The title of the game is nearly unspellable and copies of the game are damn near impossible to find now, but it's worth it if you ever see one.

3. Tetris - From Russia With Fun. This play on the famous movie title really was fun as the Cold War was just beginning to wrap up. This Russian block dropping game was so addictive and fun (the Sudoku of its days for you young kids out there) that it actually led to worried companies because worker productivity was down due to people playing this game obsessively. The only downside was no 2 player mode, but the game is still iconic and good enough to overcome that.

2. Super Mario Bros. 3 - This game was the most expensive and hard-to-get game in NES history because Nintendo hyped up the release and did the worst of their short stocking of stores for this game. It was still worth the $65-70 dollars retail stores demanded for it (after this game Nintendo went to a $50 price for everything that has not changed in 20 years and is now pretty affordable). This update of the classic SMB platformer had better graphics, more items, inventive levels, and nice controls and music. The thing that keeps this game super-playable though is the fact that you can play it in a co-op 2 player mode instead of the independent 2 players in competition for SMB 1. One of the best games ever made, this game set the bar high for all future Mario games (and has only been matched in awesomeness by Super Mario 64...but high hopes for Super Mario Galaxy).

1. The Legend of Zelda - Unlike SMB 3, this game is not loved as much overall because it is not a kid's game and not a casual gamer's kind of game. For someone like me though the Zelda game is the best you could get for an adventure battle kind of game, and it was unique and smooth in its creativity. Zelda and Mario have to be one and two in any NES discussion, and the genius of S. Miyamoto in bringing both these games to light is unparalleled in game design even today. The original Zelda had plenty of depth and difficulty to make it hard to get through over and over again, so the replay value is high even today. For a single player game on the NES, it doesn't get any better than this.

So now it is finished. You've seen my top lists this week for all the various Nintendo systems, so feel free to comment and tell me how you would rank them. But enough talking about the Nintendo, it's time to go play some of these old classics and solve my craving. Have a great long weekend!

Top Super Nintendo Games

The Thursday feature is the SNES, the golden era of Nintendo before the Wii came out. Plenty of good games, improvements on the 8-bit games, and nice hardware made for many great games. A top 15 should cover it nicely.

15. Super Star Wars - All three original Star Wars movies were made into a great set of SNES games, but this first game was the best of the bunch. Taking Luke Skywalker and shooting down enemies or kicking ass with a lightsaber was just simply outstanding. Enough challenge to keep you going through all 15 levels also.

14. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Quest - Took the fantastic graphics of the original and made the levels a bit more original and varied. The game was still a little too easy to do after you got good at DKC, but the controls and graphics were solid enough.

13. Street Fighter II Turbo: Hyper Fighting - This was one arcade game that seemed to eat everyone's quarters in bulk back in my childhood, so when an improved version hit the SNES it was a dream come true. No more quarters after quarters and better controls on the SNES controllers than at the arcade. The combos were better in Turbo and the characters were slightly better than those on Mortal Combat (although I have a soft spot in my heart for Sub-Zero, Scoprion, and Rayden). Definitive 2-person combat.

12. Super Mario All Stars - Yes this game was just SMB 1-3, but there was a lot more to like here. Not only were the graphics updated and improved for all three of the classic Mario games, but the previously Japanese-only SMB2 was offered as the Lost Levels. This alone was enough to make the list, but revisiting three of the best NES games was also very nice.

11. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - While I was not a huge RPG fan as a kid, there were just some games that you could not miss. SM:RPG finally branched Mario out past the regular platformer and saw characters such as Luigi and Bowser in new roles. An interesting twist on the Mario story that was so successful it opened the door for Mario Party, Tennis, Golf, and more Kart games.

10. Final Fantasy II - Speaking of RPG's, the most famous RPG series came back for the sequel on the SNES and was no disappointment. Just squeaks my Mario because this game was a lot more in-depth and not an introductory game to the RPG market.

9. Final Fantasy III - Unfortunately this game was destined to be the final FF game to arrive for Nintendo as Square took a first step toward fighting Nintendo's policy of exclusivity and short supply. Another solid version of the classic RPG though.

8. Starfox - This was the game that sold the FX chip graphics in the SNES, making a relatively realistic flight combat game. While the graphics are still a little polygonal, the effect was very high-tech for the time. Controls of the Arwing were easy and the game had tons of replay value. The best early space/flight and fight game.

7. Super Mario World - While this game arguably was not all that much better than SMB3, SMW brought my favorite Nintendo character of all time into the mix, that being Yoshi. Every hero needs a sidekick, and Mario finally got one in the green dino. An excellent start for the SNES, and the game is still fun today.

6. F-Zero - Again a game makes much more out of the graphical capability of the SNES than seemed possible for any console games at the time. F-Zero really did a nice job of making you feel like you were racing futuristic hovercars at ridiculous speeds. The only downside to this game was that it needed a good multiplayer mode to be the best racing game on the system. As it was, it ends up getting beat by...

5. Super Mario Kart - While it is true that SM:RPG smashed the door open for other Mario types of games, SMK was the first new type of Mario game. Still the absolute best racing game on the SNES, this game was very challenging despite the lack of really good graphics. The multiplayer battles were genius as well.

4. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past - The second Zelda on NES was too different and hard for me as a kid, so I grew away from Zelda in the SNES days. Looking back this was a mistake because this console's Zelda went back to the original and improved everything about it. The dungeons and bosses were better, the graphics were better, and the story was improved. A great addition to the Zelda line.

3. Donkey Kong Country - This game began to show gamers what we could expect from the next generation of systems. The graphics and backgrounds are stunning and pretty. The game was simple yet somewhat challenging and fun at the same time. The only downside to the game was that it was a bit short, but still a very solid game.

2. Super Metroid - Many will choose this game as their number one, but I never got into Metroid until Prime came out. Looking back and playing the original and Super Metroid, these were great games that were inexplicably stopped after this version (until the current Metroid Prime series started). Even the current Game Boy Advance and DS versions of the sidescroller are not as fun as Super Metroid, so it earns the number 2 spot.

1. Chrono Trigger - As someone who did not get into RPG's, this game was far and away the one I spent the most time playing for 2 solid years of the SNES. The game is so good you still cannot track down a copy for less than $40-50, and this game defines what a good RPG is. Not only are the story and characters good, the game has around 15 separate endings to try and get for beating the game in different ways. This game therefore is so deep and re-playable that it easily takes the top spot on this list.

One final day to go, and the Friday feature will finally take us back to the 1980's and the console that brought us into the modern era of console gaming, the Nintendo Entertainment System. No longer would Atari and Intellivision rule the world of games.

Top Nintendo 64 Games

The Wednesday feature is where Nintendo began to flounder as a console maker, the Nintendo 64. Many good franchises either started or continued on this system, but the third-party support was too low and that led to Sony's success in my opinion. Nonetheless, there were some classics to fill a Top 10.

10. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - For the first and only time so far in the Zelda series, Nintendo had to come up with a second game on a system using the same control and graphical layout. The game suffers from not being as good as Ocarina of Time, but that's unfair because OOT was perhaps one of the best 3 games in history. This game is actually more deep if you go and try to get all the masks, and ends up being enjoyable in the end.

9. Mario Kart 64 - The follow-up to the huge SNES hit did not disappoint, as the graphics upgraded significantly and the courses were just as good as the original. The real improvement in this version was the better courses.

8. Starfox 64 - The original Starfox was great due to the FX graphics on the 16-bit SNES, but a jump to 64 made things much better and more realistic. All the worlds and paths to Venom are fun to play through so this game has a lot of replay value. The controls are smooth and familiar, working at their best in the 3D boss battles.

7. Waverace 64 - Given the title of the last 3 games on the list, you can see the lack of creativity in this era of Nintendo game-naming. Near the launch of the console, Waverace took a completely new race genre (jet ski) and actually managed to pull it off very well. The physics and randomness of the waves and how they affect you are a great challenge. This looked to not be a huge title at launch but ended up being one of the greats.

6. Perfect Dark - This was dubbed the improved version of the super-popular Goldeneye 007. While the game utilized the expansion memory pack well, the game was not much of an improvement over Goldeneye. Graphically more pretty, this game was an excuse (along with Majora's Mask) to help sell more expansion memory packs. Still one of the best first person shooters ever brought out on a Nintendo system.

5. Goldeneye 007 - The classic first person shooter on the N64 wins a top five slot by being the Halo of its day. Halo 1-3 has and is single-handedly selling a good percentage of the Xbox systems sold, but the first game to really master the genre was Goldeneye. Not only did this game follow the movie very faithfully, the multiplayer was outstanding. The original Halo was a true highlight of the N64 experience.

4. Mario Party - While Goldeneye was far more popular and perhaps better back in the day, in retrospect the beginning of this franchise was a brillant move by Nintendo. Combining the fun of minigames with a board game background is a formula that has been sold for 8 iterations now successfully. This game did not have very good graphics, but it did have great party value.

3. Conker's Bad Fur Day - Just like Eternal Darkness on GCN, this is my sleeper pick that not many people played but everyone should experience. BFD mixed a lot of pop culture references of the day (incorporating the Matrix, Saving Private Ryan, and many other things) with some very funny original characters (Opera singing Poop Monster anyone?) to create one of the most playable and funny games in history. Yes it is a little crude in humor, but more adult humor in a game is always appreciated when well done. Also a good multiplayer mode to put this in the top 3. On some systems this might be the top game, but...

2. Super Mario 64 - Another Mario launch title, another great game to lead the console into the market. This game introduced the platforming game and the gaming world in general to 3D gaming, and what an introduction it was. This game pushed the limits of the hardware but ran so smoothly that nobody could possibly complain. We were all too wrapped up in the graphics and the notion of playing in true 3D. The game is also truly fun with bunches of different levels and lots of variety to get all 120 stars. A real gem and Top 10 all time likely.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Perhaps the greatest game of all time, OOT took everything Nintendo learned in making SM64 and took it to a whole new level. The graphics are even better (you could just watch the sun rise and set and the moon move across the horizon in awe without being bored) and Zelda moved into 3D combat perfectly. The storyline was very well written and the different elemental kinds of dungeons has continued to present-day Zeldas (Forest, Fire, Water/Ice, Shadow, Desert, Light/Shadow). The movement between young link and adult link is also a great part of thr story. This game was the definition of success and should not be missed by anyone.

Well there's the short list for the N64. Looking ahead, the Thursday feature will be the Super Nintendo, and we'll be back up to 15 games as the first golden age of Nintendo is what we will be going back to tomorrow.

Top Gamecube Games

The Tuesday feature brings us the Top 15 games from the Nintendo Gamecube. Yes there were 15 good games for this system, despite the much-maligned criticism of the Cube. The fact that the Wii is backwards compatible to the mini-discs of this system will help these games continue to see play for the next few years.

15. Star Wars Rogue Leader - It had been quite a number of years since a Star Wars game blew me away, but this game was outstanding. Early in the life of Gamecube, this was a game that saw a majority of play time on many Cubes. Good for kids and adults, this is a sleeper on the list.

14. Super Monkey Ball 2 - The original may be on many people's lists, but SMB2 channels the greatness of the old game Marble Madness and adds a level of 3D complexity to that genre not seen before. This game is so good they rushed out another for the Wii launch, so hopefully there will be more in this series.

13. Resident Evil 4 - Same argument as the Wii version, except on GCN the game is simply a port of the PS2 and Xbox versions. Still a great game worth looking into if you prefer the traditional controllers.

12. Timesplitters 2 - A friend introduced this gem to me on the PS2, but the GCN version is just as good if not better. Timesplitters reminds me a lot of Goldeneye 007 which is a good thing for those who like mission-based spy type first person shooters. A nice story to back up the traveling to different time periods keeps the game varied and fresh.

11. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Every trio of games or movies has to have a dark middle tale, and the Metroid Prime series got just that in Echoes. This game is much like the original, with the only problem being that the designers should have gone further in developing the series.

10. Resident Evil - While RE4 gets a lot of press for being quality, the first Umbrella Corp zombie battle is a classic not to be missed. Cheap scares abound as well in this surprisingly successful hit.

9. Super Mario Sunshine - While most other systems launch with a Mario game alongside, GCN decided to launch with a Luigi game instead. While we all love Luigi, Sunshine was only disappointing in that the gameplay did not improve much over Luigi's Mansion. The game is a noble addition to the Mario line, but will probably fade to obscurity over time.

8. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - The 2D Mario series continues to impress with this entry and certainly provides more than the platformer at #9.

7. Mario Party 7 - GCN had an amazing 4 Mario Party games come out in 5 years, and that is just too many. While the market was saturated, the minigames themselves really got better in this one. With a little more work on the graphics and board gameplay, this series could have gone to greater heights.

6. Super Smash Bros Melee - Many people would put this in the top 3 for sure, but I just am not huge into the fighting genre. This is a fun game to play but is only more fun than Mortal Combat and Street Fighter because the characters are Nintendo classics. Still the controls are almost perfect and the boards are nicely interactive, so the gfame ranks high even for me.

5. Animal Crossing - While pulling weeds, fishing, running errands for others, and building up and decorating a house may not be an adequate escape from real life for some, this game is terribly addictive to those who like the SimCity or Sims genre. While the characters do look childish and doofy, the gameplay is actually very fun. The kicker that puts this in the top 5 is the ability to carry characters and designs to your friends' Animal Crossing neighborhoods. The interactivity with real time is awesome also.

4. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Initially I did not like the cel-shaded graphics of this game or the fact that I beat it in one weekend, but now I realize the game has so much depth just like Majora's Mask did (both games suffer because the basic storyline does not require a lot of these interesting side quests that are available). I may never like the cel-shading, but this game does earn its place in the Zelda landscape as a good game.

3. Wario Ware - This game certainly did not seem like much of a hit when it first came out, with Mario Party holding the minigame crown for so long. The question was why would you buy a game of minigames when you could play minigames as part of a bigger board game in MP? The answer was that when the games are so well designed to make a party laugh and replay the game for hours on end, you have something that beats any Mario Party. Wario Ware was one of the best in the GCN era.

2. Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem - And now we get to my sleeper pick on the Gamecube. For those who have played this game, you will understand why it ranks so high on my list (and many others). If you did not pick up this game and many players did not, you missed one inventive and easy to get into game. The storyline is compelling, the game has some cheap thrills and scares a la Resident Evil, lots of fighting and spellcasting action, and the best addition to any adventure game in years, the sanity meter. You had to keep up your health and magic meters, but the sanity meter made you hallucinate and see things not there, which is very inventive. The game is also playable many times because there are three different pathways through the game based on different kinds of Magic. A real hit.

1. Metroid Prime - I really wanted to put Eternal Darkness here, but it goes against the grain to put an unknown in the top spot. Metroid Prime updated a series that had been dead since the SNES days (despite huge NES and SNES popularity) into 3D and first person shooting, but Metroid was still more than awesome. While many of the same aspects from the 1986 classic came back, doing it all in 3D environments with a new juicy storyline just made everything perfect. With the Mario and Zelda franchises bringing out mediocre games and the Starfox franchise being all but murdered by a terrible outing, it was nice to see one of the old classic Nintendo standby franchises take over the throne in such a nice fashion.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, and that will bring us to the Nintendo 64. The Top ten will be revealed then (the N64 suffered from poor games far more than any other system in Nintendo history, which is why the list is limited to 10, and also coincidentally why Sony got such a great market placement).

Top Wii Games

The Monday feature, a little late but then again this list is so preliminary after only 8 months with the system. We begin with a couple of honorable mentions which will likely make the list once they come out.

Honorable Mention: Super Smash Bros Brawl - This game will probably compete with the Gamecube version for one of the most popular party games in the Wii.

HM: Super Mario Galaxy - There are certainties for every Nintendo system, one being that there will be a high quality Mario game. This game looks like it will revolutionize the Wii platformers and be nearly as successful as Super Mario 64. Big times await Mario.

10. Wii Play - A collection of nine mediocre games comes together with a pack-in Wii Remote for the same $50 as all other games. For $10, you really cannot beat the value assuming you bought the Wii-mote at retail value. The games do grow old in a hurry though.

9. Madden NFL 07 - Certainly to be outdone by the 2008 version once EA gets off the pot and brings out the Wii version, the 2007 Madden showed that the future is bright for football franchises on the Wii. You finally feel like you are in the game by throwing and stiff-arming and all the other neat moves you can do.

8. Mario Party 8 - While this game has a new set of great minigames, it offers nothing unexpected or new to the Mario Party formula. It's nice to have Wii minigames, but the visual quality should really be better. Perhaps this franchise needs a break. Still a fun party game.

7. Wario Ware Smooth Moves - This was the first set of crazy new Wii minigames, and the set is actually better than the Mario Party ones. The big disappointment is that Wario Ware was a great party game for the Gamecube, but this is only 1 player. With a few more hours of design this game could've been in the top 2-3 for a long time. Single player Wario Ware is not as fun.

6. Resident Evil 4 - The Wii version incorporates all that was great about the other versions and adds beeter control with the Wii-mote. The silly scare tactics might be gone, but the game is devilishly scary still and challenging.

5. Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2007 - TW has been a vastly improving sports franchise the past half-decade, and this entry is no disappointment. The Wii Sports template for golf was imrpoved upon and made easier in this classic.

4. Wii Sports - The pack-in game with the system does not disappoint, as the games show off the basic realm of control possible with the Wii-mote. Bowling is amazing, Tennis is scary realistic, and the other three are all fun to play over and over again. A nice introduction to the Wii.

3. Super Paper Mario - Although Super Mario Galaxy may change this perception, but the best Mario games to come out since Super Mario 64 opened the door to 3-D are all in the Paper Mario 2-D series. Of course there are some 3-D puzzles and aspects, but a primarily 2-D game shows how well the platformer games continue to be playable.

2. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption - OK so I don't have my hands on this game yet, but it appears that this game will set the bar high for graphics, story, and first-person shooter controls on the Wii. Add in the fact that Metroid games are some of the most popular games out there, and you have a sure-fire winner. This could end up #1 eventually.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - The most genius decision outside the design of the Wii was Nintendo pushing this game back a year to become a Wii release title instead of a second Gamecube title. The best entry in the Zelda series since Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess did everything right to set the bar high for Wii games. The controls are seamless, the graphics astounding, and the difficulty about perfect. Twilight Princess will be a hard game to beat, but the new Metroid and Mario games may just surpass this instant classic.

So there's the current Top 10 list for Wii, subject to many changes. The fact that there are 10 games to rank (and 6-7 of them very deserving) in one year is a good sign for this system, which gains market share and strength every day. Nintendo is entering a second golden era with the Wii for sure.

Tomorrow, we cover the top 15 Gamecube games.

The First Week

Nothing quite like the first day of school, and this will be the last time (one would hope) that a summer ends and school begins for me. Quite a difference 18 years makes though, as I remember being so scared and excited with a brand new backpack in one hand and a box lunch in the other as a 5 year old kid in New Matamoras, OH. Now I just grab my satchel of law books and laptop and rush out the door to prevent being late.

The first class of the new term was Securities Regulation with Professor Rose. Rose is a new guy who just came from Northwestern Law School, and the law school is really happy to get this guy. He calls on people alphabetically with a third of the alphabet on call each day of the week (MTW), so I guess we early alphabet people only need to care about Mondays. He not only is a powerpoint professor who puts his slides online, he seems to know a great deal what he is teaching from his experience as a broker. A good corporate professor not named Oesterle, who would have thought? I think I will enjoy that class, which is why I'm taking corporate type classes to fill the time this year anyways.

Sales with Professor Johnson is interesting also. There is plenty of mixed opinion out there on Professor Johnson, but she seemed OK in one class this week (Tuesday was cancelled). This is another Whaley book so I'm going to treat it as remedial Contracts since our 1L contracts was essentially UCC Article II anyways with common law mixed in. It should be easy but Contracts didn't turn out so hot, so I'll have to keep on it. The subject is kind of boring...however, with Professor Johnson being the only random Socratic method teacher this semester, that should be enough motivation to do the reading. Lots of my 1L class in there as well. Happy to have Larry in the class and maybe we'll study group despite our terribly different study styles (me being last minute and him starting early). More on this class later when we've had more of them as Professor Johnson is hard to get a read on this early.

AK and I were late to Johnson's class and she is a stickler about attendance and being on time (whatever floats your boat), so we got our proverbial tongue lashings at the beginning of class. Shouldn't be too hard to make a class after an hour and a half lunch break, unless you go to Eddie George's Grill apparently. I like EG's place, but on this day they were not very busy and took literally 55 minutes from the time we ordered to the time the food arrived. Then half the food had to be sent back because the orders of chicken wings were ice cold and the steak was medium rare for somebody who dislikes the sight of any pink. So I wolfed down mine and AK had his boxed up to go when the wings were warmed again, but still we were late. Thanks EG's. Word to the wise...maybe avoid that lunch destination until they get quicker service (probably when the undergrads come back). Even though that's Johnson's pet peeve, at least AK and I got our customary tardiness out of the way on the first class.

The other two classes are only scheduled once a week, which is unfortunate considering they are going to be my two favorite classes. Supreme Court Lit with Judge Sutton should be as much fun as the State Con Law seminar was. I'll take a more active role in class too as I was all but dead silent in class discussions last semester (too many very assertive 3L's in his seminars). This seminar is all 3L's and would be chock-full of A's even if there were a regular curve on seminars because there are tons of people from our 1L section and tons of OSLJ people in there. There should be plenty of good class discussion though with the people that are in there, which makes for a good seminar. I'll be writing on Justice Alito, so kind of a fresh slate there to work with. International IP with Lee should be a good time, and hopefully I will not need to miss any more class after missing the second hour this week to go to Cincinnati. The usual suspects are in that one for one more IP go-round with Lee.

All the JDR things seem to be going well finally. Got one of the two late articles and passed it off to associate editors. The other one is AWOL, but Erik finally is contacting the author to say "Where is it?" I'm hopeful that they just decide to not get published, but probably not. Just another year where the publication schedule will be pushed off by one author...we're used to it. This week the articles go to the authors, which means I'll need to work on my note for the last time as an author. Also in journal related news, Daniel and I got the Nintendo room up and running (well minus a TV) so that's good. In honor of the Nintendo room and because I was bored enough surfing the net to find some top 25 lists, I'm going to post one countdown a day this week of top games for each system. I'm sure nobody will agree but you can only go by your own experiences. we'll go backwards in time, so Monday look for the Top 10 Wii games (as you might imagine, this list is still preliminary). Tuesday Top 15 Gamecube, Wednesday Top 10 N64 (because there just are not 15 good games for that system), Thursday Top 15 SNES, and Friday Feature Top 15 NES.

Football season had officially returned with the high schoolers this past weekend. Marietta busted Parkersburg South for 25 unanswered points in the final quarter to win on the road 38-20. That's absolutely remarkable and might mean Marietta could seriously compete for the SEOAL title. The other team I follow (Frontier) got crushed in a league game week one 39-12, so another poor season for the tiny school I started in. But more importantly, this means we are only 6 days from BUCKEYE FOOTBALL! We have such an easy schedule for the first 8 weeks that barring a meltdown in Purdue or Washington, we should be 8-0 entering the beef of our schedule. Then we finish at Penn State, home against Wisconsin and Illinois, and at Michigan. The Big Ten schedule is also backloaded like the Big East was last year, as the last three weeks have the top three teams visiting each other (11/3 Wisconsin at OSU, 11/10 Michigan at Wisconsin, 11/17 OSU at Michigan). While I'm looking forward to November, just getting out there this weekend to watch the new Buckeyes grow up against Tressel's old school Youngstown State.

Went down to Cincinnati this week on Wednesday to watch the Reds play the Braves and go to dinner at the ballpark with the firm. It's nice that they move around their quarterly partner-associate dinner to various different places around the metro area, but of course any time I get free Reds tickets I'm not complaining. I could seriously tell that Keith and the guys wanted me to accept the offer, and of course Keith tells me about who he is interviewing at OSU OCI. Turns out Jim (the other summer) accepted his offer and we had a long chat after the game in the firm's parking garage. Kelley and I discussed things over after I received a couple more important rejection letters on Wednesday night...and we have big news. I ACCEPTED THE OFFER! Had to call and turn down 3 callbacks, but 2 of those were firms I was not particularly interested in anymore based on location. We are happy to be done with it and be in a great firm in a good local city. Did not think last year at this time that I would be taking the Ohio bar exam, but that's how it is. Sharing Reds season tickets with Jim and his wife should be nice too. Now we can start looking at neighborhoods and houses to rent. Fun!

So now that those decisions are off the table and football season is starting, it really feels like school time again. That's all for now, but hopefully some of you will enjoy the lists coming this week (or will comment back with your own favorites). Have a good week!

The 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!