Now that mock trial has ended, I've actually been able to catch up on my reading for school and time with friends. This week, I was able to go to lunch AND dinner with my dear friend Kea!
Also this week was the first A&F Table Read of the new script. This is where the entire cast gets together and we read through the script for the very first time. Definitely one of my favorite things - we finally get to see how our part fits in the show and a clearer picture of the production begins to emerge. It's also the first time we get to meet the new 1L's who will be participating. I baked two peach cobblers for the event I was THAT excited! And they both got eaten. Score one for me!
After the table read, we all head down to this shady, hole-in-the-wall Korean karaoke place for some fun. I skipped this part last year because frankly all the A&F 2L's scared me at the time. But this time, I went. And it was BYOB...let's just say that at 2 am watching a man sing Sk8r Boi by Avril Lavigne is just about the funniest thing in the entire world.
So, other than that, I've just been trying play catch up and somehow begin studying for exams - which all of a sudden are thisclose. Excuse me, where did my fall semester go? It's like I know it happened, but I don't remember being a part of it!
Anyways, I'm off to the library - I have a lot of work to do and if I don't escape all the football on TV, it will never get done!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Monday, November 9, 2009
When Inspiration Strikes
Being as it is November, final are right around the corner. Mock trial has wrapped up for the semester, leaving me with oodles of free time...to study. Law school is like a pie eating contest, where the only prize is more pie.
In any event, 40 inspirational speeches in two minutes...when you need a quick pick-me-up:
In any event, 40 inspirational speeches in two minutes...when you need a quick pick-me-up:
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Support Struggling Writers!
Well...just one in particular - my very own Otis.
As some of you know, Otis spends a lot of his free time writing - short stories, novels etc. He has recently taken a freelance job with The Examiner writing articles for them on various topics. He gets paid by page views and length of the page view. His first article is up - http://www.examiner.com/x-28122-Austin-Golf-Examiner~y2009m10d29-Jimmy-Clay-Golf-Course-a-review. So, if you have a moment (or interest in reading about Golf Courses) read the article and support him! Thanks!
As some of you know, Otis spends a lot of his free time writing - short stories, novels etc. He has recently taken a freelance job with The Examiner writing articles for them on various topics. He gets paid by page views and length of the page view. His first article is up - http://www.examiner.com/x-28122-Austin-Golf-Examiner~y2009m10d29-Jimmy-Clay-Golf-Course-a-review. So, if you have a moment (or interest in reading about Golf Courses) read the article and support him! Thanks!
I thought I signed up for Mock Trial...
...not endless torture.
I'm sorry for the recent drag in blog posts as of late, but as my rapidly dwindling amount of friends will attest, my entire waking moments have been consumed by mock trial. The time commitment has swelled to upwards of 20 hours a week, all culminating in a grueling 11-hour practice this past Sunday. That's right - I spent 11 hours at the law school on a Sunday. And today was another 3 hour practice, and tomorrow we are trying our case in front of a federal judge for his input. At least another 4 if not 5 hours. And this is on top of work (16 hours a week) and sometimes, if time allows, class. Two months ago, I knew absolutely nothing of this world I have been thrust into.
And I know I shouldn't be complaining. After all, I signed up for this of my own volition. It seemed "fun". And a great way to learn more about the trial lawyer's craft. All I've really learned is that I should have paid more attention in evidence. And that I have some really patient people in my life. Most notably Otis, who seems me in the morning for class, sometimes for a quick lunch and maybe a nice afternoon hug. If I'm lucky. He's brought me food during my marathon practices. And always makes sure I have a Cherry Coke Zero handy to get me through the day. He's taken notes for me when I have to miss class and even cleaned up my apartment so I wouldn't have to worry about that when I got home. I fear I would be living in a heap of suits and panty hose, discarded haphazardly amonst motions and depositions, were it not for him. And he's kept me sane. Always reminding me that I can do it and I deserve to be on the team when my insecurities get the best of me. A true partner in every way. Thank you Otis.
In other non-mock trial related news, I have found out my role in the upcoming Assault and Flattery production for next semester. The play is "Top Gunner" and I am Billie Flanagan - the Irish LLM student. I somehow have to adopt a passable Irish accent in order to say things like "I am drunk, ya pansy" and "My friends Guiness and Baileys". I am beyond excited about A&F. I always am. I get to spend my time with people who openly and proudly sing songs from musicals at the top of their lungs in the hallways. My kind of people. A people who break into song whenever the mood is right, just like the cast members of real musicals. A rousing chorus of "Rent"? Don't mind if I do! Does it matter that we're in the middle of the law school? Absolutely not!
Also, for Halloween, a group of staunch A&Fers and I blatantly disregarded the law school tradition of dressing up and getting drunk, and instead traveled down to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for their "Park After Dark" fright fest thingy. The park is usually closed already, but they open it up just for Halloween and supposedly have creatures roaming around (we never saw any). The best they did was put pumpkins on the street lights and ghosts on the light poles. There was a haunted house - for $5 extra - but it really wasn't that scary. Maybe it's because the entire time I was yelling "You can't touch me, you can't touch me" each time a "creature" popped out of a wall. However, we got to ride a bunch of roller coasters and that was really fun. Some of you might be aware that I have a problem with motion sickness. I can't read for more than a minute in a car before I get sick and have to stop. Cruise ships have made me throw up. And deep sea fishing - worst 8 hours of my life. The Pacific Ocean is a complete misnomer. There was nothing "pacified" about it. So, I was worried about the coasters. I haven't been to a theme park since high school and it's safe to say my motion sickness has really gotten worse over time. I was really afraid I was going to throw up on everyone. My friends were eating funnel cakes and drinking beer. I was silently praying to God to make me a bird so I could fly far, far away. But, besides the first coaster we went on, which went backwards, I didn't really have any trouble with them. I think as long as I can see what's coming and mentally prepare myself for the twists and turns, I'm ok. I mean, I have a college degree. How hard can sitting for a minute and a half be? I've tackled Kaden's final. What is a measly loop-de-loop? Thankfully, the lines were still kind of long and I had about 30 minutes between coasters to reset my stomach. And I actually really enjoyed myself. Apart from the fleeting 2 or 3 seconds right before the coaster dropped and I was certain I was about to die. But apart from that, jolly good time! I'm pretty sure my friends got tired of my saying "OK, I want off now" everytime the roller coaster was chugging up a hill, but they never told me to shut up. At least to my face.
Anyways, I'm off to bed! Happy November!
I'm sorry for the recent drag in blog posts as of late, but as my rapidly dwindling amount of friends will attest, my entire waking moments have been consumed by mock trial. The time commitment has swelled to upwards of 20 hours a week, all culminating in a grueling 11-hour practice this past Sunday. That's right - I spent 11 hours at the law school on a Sunday. And today was another 3 hour practice, and tomorrow we are trying our case in front of a federal judge for his input. At least another 4 if not 5 hours. And this is on top of work (16 hours a week) and sometimes, if time allows, class. Two months ago, I knew absolutely nothing of this world I have been thrust into.
And I know I shouldn't be complaining. After all, I signed up for this of my own volition. It seemed "fun". And a great way to learn more about the trial lawyer's craft. All I've really learned is that I should have paid more attention in evidence. And that I have some really patient people in my life. Most notably Otis, who seems me in the morning for class, sometimes for a quick lunch and maybe a nice afternoon hug. If I'm lucky. He's brought me food during my marathon practices. And always makes sure I have a Cherry Coke Zero handy to get me through the day. He's taken notes for me when I have to miss class and even cleaned up my apartment so I wouldn't have to worry about that when I got home. I fear I would be living in a heap of suits and panty hose, discarded haphazardly amonst motions and depositions, were it not for him. And he's kept me sane. Always reminding me that I can do it and I deserve to be on the team when my insecurities get the best of me. A true partner in every way. Thank you Otis.
In other non-mock trial related news, I have found out my role in the upcoming Assault and Flattery production for next semester. The play is "Top Gunner" and I am Billie Flanagan - the Irish LLM student. I somehow have to adopt a passable Irish accent in order to say things like "I am drunk, ya pansy" and "My friends Guiness and Baileys". I am beyond excited about A&F. I always am. I get to spend my time with people who openly and proudly sing songs from musicals at the top of their lungs in the hallways. My kind of people. A people who break into song whenever the mood is right, just like the cast members of real musicals. A rousing chorus of "Rent"? Don't mind if I do! Does it matter that we're in the middle of the law school? Absolutely not!
Also, for Halloween, a group of staunch A&Fers and I blatantly disregarded the law school tradition of dressing up and getting drunk, and instead traveled down to Six Flags Fiesta Texas for their "Park After Dark" fright fest thingy. The park is usually closed already, but they open it up just for Halloween and supposedly have creatures roaming around (we never saw any). The best they did was put pumpkins on the street lights and ghosts on the light poles. There was a haunted house - for $5 extra - but it really wasn't that scary. Maybe it's because the entire time I was yelling "You can't touch me, you can't touch me" each time a "creature" popped out of a wall. However, we got to ride a bunch of roller coasters and that was really fun. Some of you might be aware that I have a problem with motion sickness. I can't read for more than a minute in a car before I get sick and have to stop. Cruise ships have made me throw up. And deep sea fishing - worst 8 hours of my life. The Pacific Ocean is a complete misnomer. There was nothing "pacified" about it. So, I was worried about the coasters. I haven't been to a theme park since high school and it's safe to say my motion sickness has really gotten worse over time. I was really afraid I was going to throw up on everyone. My friends were eating funnel cakes and drinking beer. I was silently praying to God to make me a bird so I could fly far, far away. But, besides the first coaster we went on, which went backwards, I didn't really have any trouble with them. I think as long as I can see what's coming and mentally prepare myself for the twists and turns, I'm ok. I mean, I have a college degree. How hard can sitting for a minute and a half be? I've tackled Kaden's final. What is a measly loop-de-loop? Thankfully, the lines were still kind of long and I had about 30 minutes between coasters to reset my stomach. And I actually really enjoyed myself. Apart from the fleeting 2 or 3 seconds right before the coaster dropped and I was certain I was about to die. But apart from that, jolly good time! I'm pretty sure my friends got tired of my saying "OK, I want off now" everytime the roller coaster was chugging up a hill, but they never told me to shut up. At least to my face.
Anyways, I'm off to bed! Happy November!
Monday, October 26, 2009
Mock Victory
I've posted recently about my forays into the world of mock trial. Currently, I am on an interscholastic team and competing in a novice competition. Each of which have their own separate case, facts and arguments. I am happy to report that on Saturday, our interscholastic team tried our case (an admittedly shortened version of it) in front of the parents at the law school for Parents Day. And we won. And today, Headband and I tried our novice case in the first round of our tournament and won again!
It has truly been the steepest learning curve I have ever ridden. Two weeks ago I knew absolutely nothing about trying a case, writing a direct or cross examination, admitting evidence - nothing. Today, I can proudly state that as a team, Headband and I prevailed on all of those things. Wednesday provides our next challenge as we move to round two of our tournament and must switch sides from defense to plaintiffs. And Sunday, our interscholastic team is fully trying the case two times, once as the government and once as the defense. Stay tuned!
It has truly been the steepest learning curve I have ever ridden. Two weeks ago I knew absolutely nothing about trying a case, writing a direct or cross examination, admitting evidence - nothing. Today, I can proudly state that as a team, Headband and I prevailed on all of those things. Wednesday provides our next challenge as we move to round two of our tournament and must switch sides from defense to plaintiffs. And Sunday, our interscholastic team is fully trying the case two times, once as the government and once as the defense. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
It's Finally Here!
I have plenty of other substantive things to write about later, but there's something I want to mention real quick.
As most of you know, I interned at the Court of Criminal Appeals this summer and one of the things I got to do was write an opinion for my judge. Although that was back in July, the court was in recess at that time and wasn't issuing any opinions. Well, my opinion has finally be handed down and published! Soon it will be on Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis for viewing by what I'm sure will be dozens of people.
In case you don't want to wait that long to read it (and I don't blame you...it's riveting stuff)...here's a direct link:
http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/HTMLOPINIONINFO.ASP?OPINIONID=18866
Happy reading.
As most of you know, I interned at the Court of Criminal Appeals this summer and one of the things I got to do was write an opinion for my judge. Although that was back in July, the court was in recess at that time and wasn't issuing any opinions. Well, my opinion has finally be handed down and published! Soon it will be on Westlaw and Lexis/Nexis for viewing by what I'm sure will be dozens of people.
In case you don't want to wait that long to read it (and I don't blame you...it's riveting stuff)...here's a direct link:
http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/OPINIONS/HTMLOPINIONINFO.ASP?OPINIONID=18866
Happy reading.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Trial Mockery
You know those moments in life, where you sign up or agree to do something not really knowing what you're getting yourself into...only to realize far too late that you're in way over your head? I am currently in one of those moments.
Earlier this semester, a friend asked me if I would be interested in doing mock trial with her. Sure, I said. That sounds like fun. I signed up for the fall litigation institute, whereby I was monitored and eventually deemed talented enough to represent the school in interscholastic mock trial competitions around the nation. Never mind that I had never taken an advocacy class, actually seen a real trial or cross-examined an adverse witness. I took evidence over the summer. That was really my only experience.
Last night was our first team meeting. This fall, I am on the scout team for the Georgetown White Collar Mock Trial team. Basically, our job is to prepare for this competition as if we were actually competiting in it and then spar with the real team a few times to prepare them for their upcoming battles. At the meeting last night, our coach asked me to prepare a direct and cross of a witness for the prosecution. I swear to you my question to him was - what's a direct and cross? My team also consists of 4 other 3L's, two of which are the Chair and the Mock Trial Director of the Board of Advocates. Needless to say, these guys know their stuff and have actually done many mock trial competitions. I feel like a complete fish out of water and possibly like I may be wasting their time.
To mitigate some of the damage my ignorance might cause, I signed up for the novice mock trial competition today. My partner is none other than "Headband", my law school blog nemesis that I wrote about many many blog posts ago. To refresh - this guy is like me, but male and substantially funnier. I declared imaginary war on his blog about a year ago. Now, he is my teammate. We're both in this rapidly sinking ship together. We both made the mock trial team without an iota of trial experience and are both on the same scout team. The "novice" trial that we are now competing in is only an intramural competition (meaning we're only competing against other UT students) but the entire field consists of the students from the Advocacy Skills class. And us. What in the world did I get myself into and how do I make it stop? I feel like I've stepped into this whole other universe in law school that heretofore I did not know existed. Today, I asked one of the trial attorneys at work if she knew of a good litigation handbook so I could at least read up on what the heck goes into an opening statement. She pulled out a notebook that had all of her class notes from her days at Baylor. Apparently at Baylor, this whole mock trial thing is all they do their entire third year. At UT however, it appears you can graduate with a law degree without ever taking an advocacy class or doing anything trial related. Which I guess is ok if you don't want to be a trial lawyer. But I might. So, I am going to have to teach myself. And in the process make a huge ass of myself as well. I'm not sure how many times a judge will tolerate listening to me say "I don't know, your honor" before he sanctions me into oblivion. But I'm going to try. If I'm still alive at the end of the month, it will be a small miracle. Stay tuned to see how this large pile of poo I've voluntarily stepped into turns out.
Earlier this semester, a friend asked me if I would be interested in doing mock trial with her. Sure, I said. That sounds like fun. I signed up for the fall litigation institute, whereby I was monitored and eventually deemed talented enough to represent the school in interscholastic mock trial competitions around the nation. Never mind that I had never taken an advocacy class, actually seen a real trial or cross-examined an adverse witness. I took evidence over the summer. That was really my only experience.
Last night was our first team meeting. This fall, I am on the scout team for the Georgetown White Collar Mock Trial team. Basically, our job is to prepare for this competition as if we were actually competiting in it and then spar with the real team a few times to prepare them for their upcoming battles. At the meeting last night, our coach asked me to prepare a direct and cross of a witness for the prosecution. I swear to you my question to him was - what's a direct and cross? My team also consists of 4 other 3L's, two of which are the Chair and the Mock Trial Director of the Board of Advocates. Needless to say, these guys know their stuff and have actually done many mock trial competitions. I feel like a complete fish out of water and possibly like I may be wasting their time.
To mitigate some of the damage my ignorance might cause, I signed up for the novice mock trial competition today. My partner is none other than "Headband", my law school blog nemesis that I wrote about many many blog posts ago. To refresh - this guy is like me, but male and substantially funnier. I declared imaginary war on his blog about a year ago. Now, he is my teammate. We're both in this rapidly sinking ship together. We both made the mock trial team without an iota of trial experience and are both on the same scout team. The "novice" trial that we are now competing in is only an intramural competition (meaning we're only competing against other UT students) but the entire field consists of the students from the Advocacy Skills class. And us. What in the world did I get myself into and how do I make it stop? I feel like I've stepped into this whole other universe in law school that heretofore I did not know existed. Today, I asked one of the trial attorneys at work if she knew of a good litigation handbook so I could at least read up on what the heck goes into an opening statement. She pulled out a notebook that had all of her class notes from her days at Baylor. Apparently at Baylor, this whole mock trial thing is all they do their entire third year. At UT however, it appears you can graduate with a law degree without ever taking an advocacy class or doing anything trial related. Which I guess is ok if you don't want to be a trial lawyer. But I might. So, I am going to have to teach myself. And in the process make a huge ass of myself as well. I'm not sure how many times a judge will tolerate listening to me say "I don't know, your honor" before he sanctions me into oblivion. But I'm going to try. If I'm still alive at the end of the month, it will be a small miracle. Stay tuned to see how this large pile of poo I've voluntarily stepped into turns out.
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