Randomness

For your reading pleasure, a bunch on unrelated random thoughts of yours truly.

First off, the large lost post was my review of the new Star Wars movie, which I simply haven't felt inclined to retype. Derek and I are working on a joint review, based on some of our impressions over our most recent viewing (my second, his third) last week. Hopefully we'll have it up soon. I may also write up a shorter version of my original review to cover anything we may have glossed over (or edited out) of the joint review.

It's been a few weeks since the end of 1L now, and it already feels so far away. As might be expected, my fellow NDLS bloggers haven't been posting as regularly. Of course, I'm a prime example of this. But in a law-school related vein, I've wanted to do a "Top 5 Things I Miss Since Starting Law School" for a while now (yeah, I stole the "top 5" idea from High Fidelity), and now that I'm on the other side of 1L, I think it's time. So here it is:

5. Daylight (mostly due to South Bend winters- I was usually at the law school before sunrise and didn't leave until long after sunset)
4. Pleasure reading (yeah, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and our ConLaw casebook don't count)
3. Sleep (natural night owl + 8am legal writing = little sleep)
2. Skating (I think I made it to the rink less than a dozen times all year- pretty sad)
1. Honor (okay, she's a person and not a thing- so maybe "Being with Honor" would be more accurate)

In the past couple of weeks, I've rectified some of these. But I'm still missing the top two. I plan to hit the rink later this week. And Honor's due back next week, so we'll get to see each other again real soon!

As I've been living more or less alone for the past few weeks (owing to the fact that my parents decided to take a 3 week Alaska/Western Canada excursion) and can only spend so much time on legal reading/writing/editing before going insane, I've watched a little bit of tv. And there's one thing that I find particularly disturbing: the number of commercials advertising online poker sites. Is this unique to Ohio? I know that there's been a move to allow casinos in the state, but that seems tangentially related at best. There are at least three different websites touting their online poker games, and every commercial break features at least one, frequently two, and occasionally all three of them. Another oddity is that they're all into alliteration (Party Poker, Pacific Poker, Paradise Poker). It's strange. And all in all, these commercials are just annoying- even more so than commercials are in general.

Alright, that's enough randomness for now. I apologize for the lack of a running theme to this post, but I wanted to jot down a few things to surprise the three or four of you who've been obsessively checking my blog and feeling great disappointment in the lack of new reading material. I'll try to make my next post a bit more cohesive.

Grrrr

Ok, I just lost a really lengthy post which I don't really feel like retyping right now. Look for a replacement sometime in the near future.

Teaser

Yeah, I know, it's been a while. I don't even have a very good excuse, since I've been done with law school for about two weeks now. I haven't been up to anything too exciting, with the exception of the premiere for the new Star Wars movie. It was a great experience, and I feel obligated to write a review - but it's something upon which I need a bit more time to reflect. For now, let me simply say that I greatly enjoyed the movie. I've already perused some other reviews of the movie, which seem to be mixed. Some loved it, others despise it, and all for a variety of reasons. Soon I'll throw my hat into the ring and give you my reasons for my reaction. I doubt the delay will have any real impact, as no one should be depending on my review in deciding whether to see the movie. Furthermore, as I expect my review will be laden with spoilers, this will give any readers who have not yet seen the movie to do so before I launch into my thoughts.

And I fully realize that there are members of my readership (if I still have one after so long an absence) that couldn't care less about Star Wars or my reaction to the latest installment. To you I apologize in advance, and simply pledge that I'll do my best to post a bit more regularly and on topics I hope you'll find more interesting.

Legal News: Ho Edition

Taking a page out of Brooke's book*, I present you with an amusing tidbit from the legal world. From an actual court opinion (Ct. of App. for the 7th Circuit):

n1The trial transcript quotes Ms. Hayden as saying Murphy called
her a snitch bitch “hoe.” A “hoe,” of course, is a tool used for
weeding and gardening. We think the court reporter, unfamiliar
with rap music (perhaps thankfully so), misunderstood Hayden’s
response. We have taken the liberty of changing “hoe” to “ho,” a staple of rap music vernacular as, for example, when Ludacris
raps “You doin’ ho activities with ho tendencies.”

(Full cite, for the super legal dorks: United States v. Murphy, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 7695)

For more on the word "Ho," click here. (I'm at the bottom.)

*Note to Brooke: Don't worry, I have no plans to make this a regular fixture here at Arguend-Ho. I just couldn't pass this one up.

Finally

Yes, finally a new post. Sorry about the long absence, but much studying had to be done for this semester's finals. But now...

That's right, I just finished my first year of law school!!
I'm 1/3 of the way through!
As Brooke's been exclaiming, "We're now 1/3 of a lawyer!" (not counting the bar exam)
And as the upperclassmen have been saying, "Congrats on getting through the rough year! (but wait 'til next year...)"

Anyway, I'll try to keep this blog a bit more up to date now that I no longer have a good excuse to ignore it. I'll probably throw up a few posts summing up my reflections on the first year and such. Oh, and since I'll be seeing Episode III soon, look for a review by yours truly in the upcoming weeks.

Indiana joins 20th century

Indiana will soon have daylight savings time. Hat tip to Brendan, who has a more detailed post about this historic development.

Snow?!

Just a quick post to note how utterly ridiculous the weather is here in the 'Bend. Snow? At the end of April? And it's sticking?? This is patently unacceptable, if you ask me.

Scheduling and such

Well, since everyone else seems to be posting their schedules, I figured I'd briefly follow suit and let my faithful readership know what classes I'll be taking this fall.

Business Associations
Evidence
Cyberlaw
Trial Advocacy Intensive
Moot Court Appellate

I'm pretty happy with that lineup, and as of right now I don't plan to change anything. But changes can be made all summer and up until the Add/Drop date next fall.

(Not so) Hot (Golf) Shots, Part Deux

After our round of golf on Saturday, everyone had such a great time that Derek reserved a tee time for Sunday morning. We had a foursome booked for 11 am. So Sunday morning started with me trying to wake Derek up. Anyone who knows Derek and his love of sleep will understand how difficult of a task this can be. Still, I managed and we were soon on our way.

Emily had emailed me to let me know that she wouldn't be accompanying us. Jaime had said something similar the night before, after The Princess Bride, but Derek thought he could persuade her to change her mind. She'd agreed to at least let us call her. But first we needed supplies - gas for Derek's car and chocolate for bribing. As we got back in the car, I called Jaime, who had decided not to go. Derek even tried to plead his case to her over the phone, but to no avail. He wanted to at least drive to the law school to give her the chocolate, but as we were already running late, we headed straight to the golf course.

We were close enough to being on time that we didn't get yelled at (unlike the day before). And since our party was now down to two, they paired us up with another twosome - two ND undergrads who were way out of our league. As for the golf... not so good. No one should be worried about me running off to join the pro tour. (Unless I actually go crazy and do so; in which case everyone should be very, very worried about how I'm going to survive.) It's really quite sad that I can probably chip farther than I can hit a ball with my driver off the tee. Still, we managed to get through the course in record time, and I posted a very good 18-hole score after playing 9 holes. Go ahead and think about that for a minute.

After that dreadful performance, we caught a quick bite at Subway before heading home. Derek chilled out on the couch to sleep/watch television. I did a little studying, then went about making dinner plans. No one was sure where to go or what they wanted to eat, so I made an executive decision to go to the Mishawaka Brewing Co. I made a reservation for 8, but in the end there were only 7 of us. Attending the evening's festivities were: Derek, me, Brooke, Lala, Meghan, Giancarlo, and Emily (we couldn't get a hold of Jaime). As the name implies, this restaurant makes its own beer. I had a raspberry wheat beer which was quite good, though next time I think I'll do what Giancarlo did and order the sampler - something like 8 different beers served in an equal number of small glasses. The food was good, the conversation was good, and an all-around good time was had by all. Derek did cause a little bit of a ruckus by slamming his hand down on the table repeatedly, causing the table to shake, the silverware to rattle, and Brooke and Emily to jump. Fortunately, Emily managed to prevail upon Derek to cut it out.

Next, Derek and I headed home where we watched Harold and Kumar go to White Castle. It was a thoroughly ridiculous movie, which one could probably anticipate based solely on the fact that the same director was responsible for Dude, Where's my Car? Still, it was funny. But I have no desire to eat at White Castle, so ultimately their marketing vehicle failed. Afterwards, we perused the DVD's many bonus features. Then Derek headed off to sleep (that boy does like to sleep), and I did a little studying before hitting the sack myself.

Monday morning saw me again trying to rouse Derek from his deep slumber so that he could make it back to the 'Nati in time for work. Fortunately, I didn't have ConLaw that morning (it was cancelled earlier that morning around 5 am - not everyone was as fortunate as me to read the email before heading to the law school). After a breakfast of pop tarts and OJ, Derek was on his way. All told, it was a fun and successful weekend. For Derek's recap, go here.

The Agony and the Ecstacy

The crowd cheers as Derek* misses a putt.

*not actually Derek.

Golf: a good walk spoiled

Golf can be very frustrating.

Weekend, Part I

My apologies for the recent lack of posts. As exams are fast approaching, I doubt there will be frequent blogging for a while. But I did want to post an update concerning the past weekend.

My good friend Derek came to visit this weekend (he'll be posting his own update soon). It's been a while since we've hung out, so I was glad to have the chance to reconnect. He arrived Friday night after work (he's currently working at Fidelity, soon to become a stock broker). Since it was still really nice out, we took an evening walk through campus. At this point I should mention that I am the last person who should ever give campus tours. As a law student, I'm really only familiar with a handful of buildings on campus. In addition to the law school (where I spend the better part of my life, it seems) and the obvious buildings (the main building (aka the one with the dome), the basillica, and the main library), I can point out the South Dining Hall and LaFortune (note that both of these buildings contain food) and Coleman-Morse (because they have free popcorn and soda), DeBartolo (where the undergraduate mock trial regionals is held), and the engineering building (which is next door to the law school). Anyway, after this essentially ineffective tour, we met up with Brooke who was studying at the law school. We got some dessert at Reckers, then headed back to my apartment. We chatted a bit, played a game of chess, then decided to call it a night.

The next day started with a rousing round of golf. Joining Derek and me were fellow 1Ls Jaime and Emily. As usual when dealing with either Derek or Jaime, we were running a little late. I caught some flak for this from the guy at the clubhouse when we showed up to play. At least I had reserved a tee time in advance; apparently the weekends get pretty busy at the ND golf course. We got off to a rocky start, and after finishing the first hole, the course attendant told us that we were holding things up and should simply play best ball (read: we were a disgrace to the game of golf). Instead, we just split into teams and played scramble. Derek and Emily were at a decided advantage, since Derek actually has a long game. Jaime did most of the heavy hitting for our team, though I conributed to the effort with some good putting. A few highlights: we made par on one hole, and I sank a 25 foot putt on another hole. Derek and Emily won the day, but a good time was had by all.

After finishing the front (and only) nine, it was time for some lunch. Derek had never been to Michigan, so we drove north in search of sustenance. We ended up in Niles, Michigan at the Golden Nugget Saloon. We had burgers all around and an interesting discussion on the nature of religion and Catholicism. Since it was mostly Derek talking with Jaime and Emily, I'll leave it to him to detail the salient points of the conversation. Lunch was capped off with dessert at Dairy Queen.

Next came a touch of studying and/or siesta. After a few hours, Derek and I ventured out again, this time to pick out some movies and dinner. Brooke and Jaime came over, and we watched The Princess Bride. Then it was off to bed, for Sunday would be another adventurous, action packed day. More on that in my next post.

Springtime for South Bend, and Notre Dame

We're finally getting some good weather here in the 'Bend (I'm even posting this while sitting outside - yes, they do let us out of the law school dungeon from time to time). It's sunny and bright, there's a nice breeze, and best of all, no snow. This isn't to say that I'd be surprised if winter raised its nasty head again. It is South Bend after all, which means the weather here's about as predictable as it is in Ohio. (Don't like the weather? Wait a minute.) In general, I'm usually not a big fan of spring, but it for now it comes as a welcome relief to the bitter winter weather.

Of course the nice weather outside only underscores how bad things are in the classrooms at the law school. It's been insufferably stuffy. Unbearably warm. Oppressively hot. It's hard to absorb the finer nuances of implied easements and FRCP 23 when you're melting into your chair. I'm not alone in this complaint - everyone I've talked to has lamented the inferno.

Part of the problem is that the heating system in the law school is out of control. Personally, I think that the heat build up in the library stacks has finally built up to the point that the heat is escaping to the rest of the law school. Thermodynamics at work. The problem could be remedied by giant blocks of ice that would serve as heat sinks, but the ensuing flooding would be... problematic.

A Farewell to (Bowling) Arms

Last night was the final night of the NDLS bowling league. ICBING wrapped up the season with a good performance. Here are the scores:

One Arm: 140, 110
8 lb: 62, 88
Nugatory en Fuego: 115, 125
Wrong Lane: 160, 121
Bowling InJury: 104, 81
Breaks 50, et al.: 93, 110

Nugatory also has a report here, and InJury posted some pics here.

Some additional highlights:

InJury successfully bowled backwards for the second half of the second game, picking up several spares. Wrong Lane also scored a personal best of 160 in the first game, which included four consecutive strikes. (Apparently this is known as a four-bagger, though I personally prefer Nugatory's term for it - 'buffalo.') We're pretty sure last night's scores didn't count towards the league standings (I use that term very loosely, since I don't think anyone knew what the standings were, or even if there were any, for most of the season), and I haven't seen the final result. But rumor has it that ICBING may have placed second...

It's been a lot of fun bowling with ICBING, and all of us are a bit sad that it's over. But there's always next year. InJury has suggested that we create a team named "Gutter Hos."

Crashed and Burned

That about sums up my oral argument tonight. More later if I feel up to it.

Easter and such

One of the perks of going to Notre Dame is getting a nice long weekend for Easter. We had a four-day weekend (Good Friday, weekend, Easter Monday). Some people got a somewhat longer break either my luck (the other Contracts section didn't hold class on Thursday) or by skipping out early. What made this mini-vacation interesting for me is I actually stayed on campus this time, instead of heading back to Ohio.

I did get some work accomplished, though not as much as I would have liked (but isn't that always the way?). In addition, I got to meet Brooke's boyfriend Craig and partake of lots of free food (courtesy of Brooke and Craig). The three-course Easter brunch was very good.

As it turns out, it's probably for the best that I didn't go anywhere - Depositions had a class today and I was up to perform.

Now for a little news in the world of blogs... Brooke is back from her hiatus and posting like crazy. Brendan's NCAA pools are going strong (and in which my picks performed fairly well - not bad considering my absolute lack of sports knowledge (just ask anyone who's played Trivial Pursuit with me)). Derek's experimenting with a new blog format, when he's not painting by number at work. Brad's not feeling the love over at his blog where no one's been commenting lately (so take some pity on the boy and leave him a few words). And last but not least, it seems my sister's jumping on the blog bandwagon.

Anyway, it's back to law school tomorrow. I only have one class - Contracts. It'll be a nice way to ease back into the week. But tomorrow night I have my oral argument for LegWri II/Moot Court. Look for a post late tomorrow night to see how things went.

Coming Attractions

Most people who know me know that I'm a pretty big fan of movie trailers. It's an additional incentive to get to the theater early to see a movie. (The other reason is to get a good seat, which could be its own argument/post.) Nowadays, it's no longer as big of a deal because modern technology has brought the movie trailer to the internets. I find Quicktime's site to be a good place to find and view trailers for upcoming movies.

Movie trailers can be a work of art, and often better than the movie itself. They frequently come in two types: the "teaser" and the traditional trailer. Teasers offer a frustratingly small glimpse of the upcoming movie. The new War of the Worlds teasers are a good example.

The traditional trailer tends to give a little more away. Hopefully, it doesn't give too much away; too frequently the trailer includes so much of the story that there's really little point in seeing the movie itself. Of course, there are some movies where you pretty much already know how it's going to end (Titanic and The Alamo come to mind), but you still don't want to give away all of the best scenes. This goes double for comedies; there are few things more annoying than going to see a movie and realizing that all of the best gags were in the trailer.

Trailers are often made before the movie has gone through its final edit, and sometimes it includes parts of scenes that don't actually make it into the movie. This can also be annoying sometimes. But now that movies are released on DVD with bonus features like deleted scenes, which may let you see some of that lost footage.

Based on my recent perusal of Quicktime's site, here are a few of my recommendations:

The newest trailer for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is pretty good. One thing that makes it particularly amusing is its meta-commentary on trailers themselves.

Sin City looks interesting. It has an interesting style to it, kind of a mix of black and white film noir and random splashes of color. I'm not quite convinced that the underlying storyline will be that great though. Though a certain level of narrative deficiency may be forgiven if the scene with Jessica Alba lives up to its potential...

There may be some promise in The Island, provided that it amounts to more than a Matrix rip off.

I'm also looking forward to Batman Begins, and of course Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (not hosted on Quicktime).

Now for a few movies that probably shouldn't have been made:

A remake of Herbie the Love Bug? How many Disney remakes will Lindsay Lohan star in?
Zathura? I don't think we really need Jumanji in space. (Seriously, right down to the board game.)

Ok, enough from me for now. Enjoy a few movie trailers; as they say in the trailer to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it'll help you plan out the next few months of your life.

Irish Bowling

It's Thursday night, and time for a special St. Patty's Day edition of ICBING bowling!

We were a bit shorthanded tonight with only 5 bowlers. (The other ConLaw section has its final on Monday.) We decided not to rotate through a phantom slot, and just kick back and enjoy. Things were very festive tonight. Most people were wearing green for the occasion, green beer flowed freely, and we were even serenaded by bagpipes. There was also a video camera floating around, though I'm not quite sure why. Non-internets rumors speculate that the bowling alley might have been filming a commercial.

Here were tonight's scores:

Wrong Lane: 115, 155
Bowling Injury: 80, 101
Breaks 50, et al.: 92, 88
One Arm Bandit: 127, 132
No Show*: 133, 118

* So named because despite being on the team roster from the beginning, No Show made his first appearance tonight

Some of the highlights:
Wrong Lane bowled a personal best of 155 which included a turkey. No Show dazzled all with his bowling prowess (where have you been all season?!). One Arm put in a very strong showing; the jury is out on whether having the use of both arms has benefitted his balance.
Since we only had five bowlers, we managed to fit in a third game that didn't count towards the standings. No Show experimented (unsuccessfully) with bowling between his legs. Bowling Injury demonstrated considerable talent at bowling backwards, racking up 19 pins in three frames and almost getting a spare.

Legal Neologism

The legal profession seems to encourage making up new words. Law students who have used Microsoft Word to take notes during class are frequently confronted with the following situation. You're typing away, trying to catch the most salient points of the daily Socratic dialogue when the evil red squiggly line pops up under half of the words. At first, you think you must have misspelled it. But no, you had it right. It matches the professorial scrawl on the board; it matches the printed text in the casebook.

Granted, some of the words used in law school might be expected to set off Word's spelling alarms. Some words/phrases are basically latin (res ipsa, parens patriae, etc.). Others are clearly terms of art that lawyer-types have adopted (tortfeasor, offeree, textualism). A few others at least look like words (consider, e.g, foreseeability).

Then there are the really fun ones: those that don't even look like words. These are words that clearly sprung from the mind of some lawyer or judge who either couldn't quite find the word s/he was looking for, or had some idea they wanted to convey but couldn't be bothered to consult a dictionary. Justiciability? Purposivism? Neglify?

Of course, other professions have been known to invent words as well. I hear that engineers have given us plenty of "-ize" gems, the most ridiculous of which is probably "requirementize." Still, I find it funny how many crazy words the legal profession has created. After getting through law school, maybe I can be a neologist too.

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated

Worry not, I am still alive. Currently, I'm on mid-semester break in Ohio. As my parents are still using dial-up, my internet access hasn't been all that great. I apologize for not posting much in the recent weeks, but my LegWri brief was eating up a lot of my time. You know how the saying goes, the Law is a jealous mistress and all that.

I had hoped to post some in-depth bowling coverage, but alas the scores are still back in South Bend. But here's a general recap of last Thursday:

Most of ICBING showed up, and our first game went pretty well. I bowled a 120, far above my average. 10 pin and Take a Knee also bowled well, raking in big numbers. Performance dropped off in the second game. Nevertheless, I triumphed over Bowling Injury, winning a new bet and restoring my good name. Bowling Injury now owes me a beer, and will be driving next week (on St. Patty's day, no less). Afterwards, several of us decided to get a jump on celebrating the end of the first half of the second semester. (It's hard to believe that we're now 25% of the way through law school!) There was drinking, dancing, and general craziness at the 'Backer. Then we stumbled home to our beds and a general state of unconscoiusness. That it was a good night was more or less confirmed by the next morning's hangover.

The LegWri brief is now finished (or perhaps more appropriately, abandonned). After putting a few finishing touches on it, I handed it in Friday afternoon. Despite the delays caused by this and Pres. Shrub's visit to ND, I made the trek back to Ohio and arrived late Friday night.

Since then, I've been relaxing, catching up with Honor, and doing a little reading. Honor had her last choir concert on Saturday night. It was a very good concert. OSU Men's Glee opened, and I enjoyed all of the performances.

On Sunday night I reconnected with an old friend from high school. Matt's just finished getting his Masters in Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), and is now back in Chillicothe to conduct his job search. He doesn't plan to get a job here, just live at home to cut costs while hunting for a job.

That's pretty much all that's been happening lately. I'll try to post a little more frequently now that the brief's behind me. But updates may still be a bit slow while I'm in Ohio and using dial-up.