Saturday, March 20, 2004

 

SF and Moot Court day 1

San Francisco is just flat out beautiful. It's character is so unique. The funkiness of the older buildings (of course none or few older than from 1906) cannot be found anywhere else on the west coast.

We're staying at the Catherdral Hill Hotel which unfortunately has no wireless access, either free or charged. However, I did find an internet cafe three blocks away and am in that place as I type. I should be able to hit the cafe again tonight but probably not until tomorrow morning.

As far as the moot court competition goes, there was a bit of controversy yesterday involving the other L&C team. They were paired up against a team from Rhode Island that by far had the worst appeal briefs within the regional competition. While our team was not all that strong in oral advocacy (well actually one member of the team, the other member is actually quite good) we figured the fact the each round carries with it 50% of the score from the briefs. And, though the Rhode Island team was relaxed at the podium they proceeded to get the law wrong and misstate facts from the record at which that the judges even caught them. But frustratingly, when the results came out, they gave the round to Rhode Island. Let's just say our entire entourage was pissed. Talk about miscarriage. After much fuming and fretting and even double-checking with the regional director we headed back to the hotel resolved to give frank and critical feedback to the director, but after the competition was completed. Not much later, though, we found out that the other L&C team gets to proceed to the second round anyway because they had the highest composite brief score of the first round losing teams. In a way it works out better because if they had won they would have faced the defending regional champions, Boalt Hall (from Berkeley), today. Now they get to face the BYU 2nd team (who is also a strong team after getting to observe them n action yesterday morning).

My team competes at 11:30 am and we go up against the team from University of San Diego. My partner and I are confident we will get through this round and onto tomorrow's semifinals but realize we really have to bring it to make sure we win.

Enough for now. Check back tonight or tomorrow morning.

posted by The Brooklynite 8:03 AM

Thursday, March 18, 2004

 

Off to San Francisco . . .

to compete in the western regional IP Moot Court competition. From the seeding of teams for the first two rounds it looks like my team is at least in the top 3 for brief scores because we are one of three teams getting a bye out of the first round. My teammate and I get to observe the first round so that we will have a better idea of what to expect on Saturday in the second round. Last year my team made it to the semi-finals only to lose by just two points (the judges told us afterward) to a solid BYU team. This year we have a simple goal of making it into the regional finals which assures a trip to the national competition. We'd also like to just win the region outright. I'll post my observations on the competition and San Francisco if I can get a wireless connection while I'm down there.

posted by The Brooklynite 1:15 PM

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

 

In Mid-Boil

I have a honey ale on the stove boiling away. It's to be a honeymoon ale for two close friends of mine's wedding later this spring. The ale is based on this recipe with my usual twists. I'm using 7 lbs of extract, 60L crystal and Raspberry Honey (~2.5 lbs). The smell of boiling wort and hops permeates the house. I predict a decent beer with this batch.

posted by The Brooklynite 9:46 PM

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

 

Recovering (kind of)

After the emotional roller coaster that was last week, things are calming down a bit. Though I feel a little bit like I am in a twilight zone between school and work. I have to finish school out this spring including a regional (and hopefully later national) IP moot court competition, two research papers, and a few finals. I also have to get prepared for the Oregon bar exam including finishing the long application and setting up bar review courses with both major bar review companies. Then at work, I'm trying to build up enough steam to keep the work flow steady as I transition (eventually come August) to full-time status. I am really looking forward to August when I feel that I can live like a relatively normal human being again. At that point it will be 3 years and just over two months since I last lived in the working world full-time.


Maybe sometime in the near future I can blog about current events including things like the Mayoral race (I'm leaning toward Tom Potter and I still think Busse as mayor is an entirely frightful proposition), President *'s stunning collapse in popularity (I hope), and the vagaries of the spring rowing season on both the collegiate and junior levels.

posted by The Brooklynite 10:39 AM