I did take a break from the reading to watch some football yesterday. Since I'm now at Notre Dame and the grad housing rec center was throwing a "watch ND football party," I decided to go watch the ND-BYU matchup. I picked the wrong game. ND lost 20-17, but it felt much worse than that. In other news, OSU beat Cincinnati handily, 27-6.

Radom thought for the day: some words/phrases just sound pretty funny. If you've ever seen Dana Carvey's stand-up routine on Comedy Central a few years back, you might know what I mean. He was discussing the infamous OJ Simpson Trial, and felt that "judicial system" made people sound somewhat drunk, even if they were completely sober. (As a result, I sometimes get the urge to laugh when some of my law profs say "judicial system" in class.) That goes double for F. Lee Bailey. There are lots of other funny moments in that stand-up, so if you ever get a chance be sure to check it out. But back to funny words. If you're a fan of The Matrix, click here, hit "Watch this Movie" and choose "Architect." The phrase "systemic anomaly" sounds pretty funny, eh? And now to tie it back to the whole law school thing: in my most recent Contracts reading, a defendant tried to weasel his way out of a contract he'd formed by claiming he was drunk. His exact phrasing was "high as a Georgia pine." Ok, I'm probably the only one who finds that funny.

Now on to website news. It seems everyone's jumping on the website/blog bandwagon, and it's been recommended that I switch formats to something like blogger (see Brad's page for an example of the typical format). One of the advantages of this would be the ability for people to post comments to my page, thereby encouraging discourse and the robust exchange of ideas. A drawback would be the (hopefully temporary) inability to custom craft the layout of the page. So I will leave it to you, my faithful readers. Is it time for a new look? Do you want the ability to comment on my commentary? Or do you not care either way? Make yourself heard by emailing me.

In the waning days of summer, be sure to check out these handy safety tips.

Along those lines, I'd like to briefly share the lessons of the day. Consider this a public service announcement. It's against public policy to sell babies (even on ebay). Haystacks can spontaneously combust if not stacked properly (this is apparently common knowledge). Being in Florida right now is a bad idea. Being in New York City might be worse (ok, not really). A 20 oz. beverage from the soda machines (not to be confused with "pot machines" or "coke machines") at NDLS will set you back $1.35 (see Brad, it could be worse).

And remember, always wear sunscreen.

Seriously. I thought orientation was only supposed to last until classes started. Okay, maybe a few more events during the first week. But ND Law just keeps rolling out the orientation sessions. Now it might not be so bad if they weren't all mandatory. Feel like learning more about this subject? Come to this event. But noooooo. All 1Ls are required to attend. To quote from one recent email: "Attendance is mandatory and it should be an enjoyable evening." I wonder if the irony was lost on the author of this statement.

Tonight's event wasn't too bad though. There was a faculty panel discussion, in which several members of the faculty discussed their interests and research projects for, oh about an hour. This was rather tedious, especially since two of the panel members weren't particularly good speakers. And since I had LegWri this morning at 8am, it was a struggle to keep awake. Fortunately we were subsequently rewarded with dinner. This was more than pizza or subs though - we're talking a full three course meal complete with wine. The food was very good (and FREE), and each table of about six 1Ls was joined by a member of the faculty, specifically the faculty advisor for those six students. My advisor is none other than Professor Dutile aka the "Smiling Assassin." He's quite a riot - easy to talk to and quick with the jokes. As we finished our meals, Dean O'Hara introduced each faculty member in turn, reciting the extensive resume of each. A bit self-congratulatory, perhaps, but nevertheless impressive. But overall, what made the evening tolerable was the free food.

Fortunately, I'll be able to skip out on some of the upcoming orientation events due to my commitment to the Depositions course. But I think they may be placing a videotaped version of each session on reserve at the library. I'm not sure how they'll try to force us to watch them, but I'm sure they'll think of something.

On a completely different note, I received the packet of materials for the first major LegWri project of the semester, the memo. Seems my fictitious firm will soon be representing a fictitious old guy who went to a fictitious fast food restaurant and spilled fictitious hot coffee on his fictitious lap causing fictitious second and third degree burns. There are seven real cases provided in the packet. I had no idea that people spilling hot coffee on themselves was such an epidemic in this country. I suppose it's just further proof of Einstein's quote: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

I suppose that law school automatically invites certain comparisons to mock trial, especially considering that during my tenure on OSUMTC I spent some time in a law library and filled numerous yellow legal pads with notes, diagrams, and ideas. But there's more. First off, one of the first people I met in my class happened to be a member of ND's mock trial team. She even remembered seeing me at a few of the tournaments (undoubtedly the ND Regional). Then, among the cases assigned for Torts this week was a case involving epileptic seizures and dilantin. Finally, there's my "job" for this semester: being a witness for an upper level Depositions course.

Just before orientation kicked off, the entering class received information about the opportunity to participate in this class. A total of eight 1Ls would be hired to play witness roles (read training dummies or guinea pigs) for (mostly) 3Ls to practice their burgeoning deposition skills on. It's a pretty sweet gig; it's something I figured I'd enjoy doing, a chance to see an upper level class and mingle with upperclassmen, and it pays $350 for the semester. (At an expected 50 hours of work, that's a $7/hr job - not too shabby.) I was one of the 1Ls selected, and I feel that I owe that to my mock trial experience.

After filling out a bunch of tax forms and rearranging my schedule, I got my first look at the course today. It looks to be pretty interesting, and I hope to learn a bit just from being in the class. I consider it akin to auditing a class that I may want to take in a few years. The witnesses aren't quite as compelling as some of the characters I've run across in the world of OCLRE and AMTA, but still interesting. And this will be my first look at the deposition process.

I'd always figured that mock trial was at best "fake" law, and not particularly relevant to law school and the legal profession as a whole. It's interesting to see that it nevertheless continues to have a big impact on my life.

Moving on... I feel obliged to report that my first week of law school has been interesting, exciting, and even fun (yes, I know I'm a big dork). It was not the "hell" that others have characterized it. My choice in movies is not indicative of a mental breakdown, but perhaps poor taste. But I hardly feel the need to justify myself to someone who not only saw but openly recommended Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle (I kid, I kid).

To add a bit of random silliness to today's post... Most college campuses have a "Union" or "Student Rec Center" which is basically a place for students to congregate and eat fast food. It's a lounge-meets-shopping mall food court sort of thing. Well, Notre Dame is no different. It's called the La Fortune Center. To me, "La Fortune" conjures up images of a French/Chinese restaurant; the kind of east-meets-west fusion cuisine served in ecclectic California eateries that seems to be all the rage in some of the country's more cosmopolitan cities (even Columbus has P.F. Chang's, which is not fusion cuisine per se, but still describes itself as a "Chinese Bistro"). However, LaF has neither a French nor a Chinese restaurant inside. No Au Bon Pain, no Mark Pi's. I highly doubt anyone else finds this nearly as amusing as I do.

Finally, Brad's recent call for suggestions on how to makeover his site got me to thinking if my little webpage could use some sprucing up. Any ideas? Email me.

The Poor Taste Award of the week goes to this great idea. Whoever designed that gem deserves a special place in hell, maybe alongside the hit-and-run driver that hit my car this summer. "Commemorating" 9/11 with cheap plastic toys is incredibly sick... but they'll probably be worth something in a few decades as collectors items for the twisted and depraved.

The Flip-flop Award of the week goes to none other than President GWB. Although the administration has fervently denied the existence of global warming, in "a report sent to Congress this week, the administration noted a recent government-sponsored study supported the view of many scientists that human action from driving automobiles to running power plants helped cause global warming." But it gets better: "In an interview with the New York Times, published on its Web site, Bush was asked why his administration had changed its position. 'Ah, did we?' Bush replied. 'I don't think so.'"