Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday morning I walked out of my apartment without my coffee. It was because I had not yet had my coffee that I forgot it. What a vexatious logical loop.

Happy St. Patrick's Day. I'm not Irish, but I'm from Boston, so that half counts, right? It definitely counts today. Strike up the band. No, not the orchestra, the Dropkick Murphys. Unless the orchestra has bagpipes. That would be neat.

I think I'm never going back to that trivia night again. Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. So, shame on me, but I am learning from my lessons. Categories I have no knowledge or interest in include: tv spinoffs, obscure volcano locations, and surfing. Categories that were present at this week's trivia include: tv spinoffs, obscure volcano locations, and surfing. On top of that, the host is supremely unfunny (despite what he believes), arrogant, and often times incorrect. Simply unacceptable, and I am done.

France and India

Last night I went to trivia at the synagogue again with Rebecca. Because we were a two person team we got randomly joined to a 3 person team. As luck would have it (or maybe fate, rather than luck) we got put on a team with this girl I've met a few times at Felizia's apartment and her two friends. Alright, the night started off fine, eating kosher tacos and talking. Things deteriorated once we started getting trivia questions. The first round of 10 questions Rebecca and I answered...every one of them. And got 9/10 right. But I knew things were going to go badly when the second question was "What two countries fought in the French and Indian War?" I jokingly said "France and India," and this girl says, "Oh yeah." "Not really though, it's actually England and France." She spent 2 minutes trying to convince me it was France and the US "because George Washington fought in it, right?" Yeah, he did, but that was before the American Revolution, you know, when America wasn't a country. When we were a colony of England, who, incidentally, did fight in the French and Indian War. Good thing we got that one all figured out. What's next? I had to convince her that the giraffe is the world's tallest mammal. Any third grader can tell you that. Also there are five oceans in the world-she thought there were four. After that little mix-up I gave her my own trivia question, not even included in the trivia night: How many continents are there in the world? "Five." Ok, you clearly don't know anything, I'm very sorry that I had to break this to you, but you are an idiot. You should spend less time watching reality television and more time not being retarded. The problem is that this has the potential to be worse than me being angry at a stupid person. She is a contractor for the Defense Department...she has a job that potentially impacts our national security. And she doesn't know how many continents there are in the world, to say nothing of in what order the terror alert level goes (this was another trivia question that she botched...though it is, admittedly harder. But she works at DoD, come on!!!!). Despite her best efforts she did not ruin my night, trivia was still a lot of fun. We finished probably around 5th place, which isn't bad for a two and two half person team. The most fun trivia question of the night was What are the only two team names in the MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL that do not have the name of a city, state, or province in them?

I did end up getting my Torts midterm back on Monday. It wasn't what I was hoping for, but it's alright. I met with the professor in all his bow-tied glory the next. He made me feel better about it by telling me that when he got done grading my exam he was surprised that the score wasn't higher. He gave me some good feedback; I think my problem is more about test-taking than the preparation. I understood everything, I just didn't articulate it all perfectly and I didn't allocate my time well. Meh, it happens. Onward and upwards. Of course the next grade I get back is Memo 2. When do I get that back? Friday night. What a stellar time to receive grades. Take out the trash day, I suppose. Then, Saturday morning, I get to have my super fun, no stress meeting with my LRW professor about how the memo went and what I can do to make it stronger. Oh joyous day. I can't wait for my morning of coffee and criticism.

Today I'm feeling a bit under the weather. I'm trying to fight it off. I went to CVS and got soup and orange juice. I also had a miserable time in the check out line which included a man who didn't understand the idea that only the products actually marked as on sale are in fact on sale and a woman who cut me in line to get six cans of Campbell soup. I ended up using the automated check out, which I hate with a fiery passion. It is a machine of the devil.

I might do mock trial in the spring. Something to think about and mull over. It could go well and I could make mock trial board (which is apparently a prestigious thing, though I don't really care), or I could make a fool out of myself and being teased (or...mocked - ba-dum-ch) by my classmates. That second option I just threw in there for giggles, I'm not actually worried about my classmates' opinions. Which helps to explain why yesterday afternoon I found myself discussing whether the Fellowship of the Ring is a criminal conspiracy and what offenses each member of the Fellowship could be found guilty for. Frodo - being a wussy, for example. Alright, this got awkward.

To make things better consider this: Tim Lincecum won his second straight Cy Young award. But he still looks like a weirdo.

Not a Jew

Tonight I was taken to trivia night at a synagogue. It was actually a lot of fun. Two rounds in particular were a lot of fun. In the first of these rounds they played 24 cartoon theme songs in a row and you had to guess what each one was. I would say that 50% of the cartoons I watched as a kid were X-Men. I also did not have cable growing up. I don't know if that affects it so much, but I am not exactly a cartoon aficionado. However, I was able to guess correctly the He Man theme song and the My Little Pony theme song. Those divergent cartoons were my greatest successes. The Simpsons theme song wasn't exactly hard. My Little Pony was particularly difficult since I've never even attempted to see an episode. To be honest I wasn't certain it was a cartoon. I only thought of it because of Pony. I also got Mighty Mouse because Mighty Mouse is awesome (and easy).

The second themed round was Jew or Not a Jew, where they put up pictures of celebrities on the projector and you, unsurprisingly, have to guess whether they are a Jew or not. It wasn't that hard, but I kept feeling like I was creating my own version of The Chanukah song. Surprises: Jason Biggs = Not a Jew; Sarah Michelle Geller = Jew; and most suprising of all...Paula Abdul = Jew. That last one is unfortunate. I think she probably gives Jews a bad rep. Good thing not too many people know about her.

Here's another thing I learned today: if you are going to commit a violent or drug trafficking crime that has federal jurisdiction, you really shouldn't carry a gun. Carrying a gun is a mandatory minimum 5 extra years in jail. Branishing a gun is an extra 7. Firing a gun is an extra 10. That sucks! I highly recommend just not having a gun. Or not committing federal crimes. Whichever is easier. After class, my Criminal Law professor told a classmate, "Here's some free legal advice: leave the gun at home when you are carrying weed." My classmate was appropriately freaked out.

My torts professor smacked down a kid who deserves it. It was awesome! In college we used to refer to the this type of kid as "that guy." He's the one who sits in the front of the class, raises his hand constantly, and starts every comment to the professor with "Well in my experience..." He's a douchebag basically. In law school we have been advised that "that guy" is called a "gunner." He guns for the professors attention. And my section in school certainly has a gunner. I don't know his name, but when I said "Hey, Gunner wasn't in class today," everyone knew who I was talking about. But Gunner wasn't in class on Friday (I'm assuming, since I don't recall him making obnoxious comments), nor was he in class Monday or Tuesday. A lot of people started wondering what happened to him: "Maybe he got in off a wait list to another school. "Oh, well he probably deserves to, since he knows so much" (read: what a dick). But today Gunner was back in class. No explanation. And, of course, he raises his hand in Torts class and starts pontificating on what he believes to be the common law standard for trespass. Our professor stops him mid-sentence and says, "Well you weren't here yesterday when we discussed this, and that's not exactly the case..." aka "Shut up and put your hand down." Yes! Point, game, match. Professor wins.