Brute court

I just came back from my moot court final argument. I honestly hope that the law school norm that the worse you feel after an exam, usually the better you did, holds up here. But considering that these were oral arguments, I'm not entirely sure that it holds up here.

The final round of competition involves a panel of 7 judges, who are firing questions at you from the bench as you're going through your arguments. In the earlier rounds, we had fewer judges and not as many strenuous questions. But in the semi-final round earlier this week, the questions were definitely more difficult and more rapidly fired. Tonight, the questions were fired with automatic weapons loaded with depleted uranium bullets. The most brutal part involved a question that in retrospect, I answered in a completely meaningless BS manner. Thinking back, I know the perfect answer, and that NOT the answer I gave... not even in the same universe as the answer I gave.

So, I'm surprised that I even made it to the final round. Around 80 people were in the beginning briefing and rounds, around 50 survived to semifinals, and 30 of us survived to finals. The top 18 make special teams and automatically get onto Moot Court Society. So, I'm hoping that 12 or more people were just as nervous as I was tonight.

Ironically, the rewards for this competition were strange. Everytime I worked really hard to survive another round, I earned the opportunity to do more hard work. And if all my hard work pays off and I make it onto society, it means even more brutally hard work next semester in interschool competition. So, I'm not entirely sure I want to make special teams. Who am I kidding, of course I want to make special teams. That way there's something on my resume next to my name that doesn't imply that I'm a complete idiot.

But in the end, I have to say that I really enjoyed this competition. The brief writing was annoying as crap, but the arguments were actually fun. Thinking on your feet, actually knowing your stuff, answering some questions pretending that I know my stuff, etc. It was definitely something that kept my interest, much more so than the crappy arguments and brief writing from legal writing last year. So in the end, even if I dind't make it, I at least enjoyed myself.

So halloween is coming up very soon. This weekend is full of parties which I'm really looking forward to. The law school party, the Harvest Moon Ball, is really fun. I remember having a blast over there last year. Last year I tried dressing up as the monopoly man. But some stuff went wrong, namely the face paint starting to itch, and not having a monocle so nobody knew who I was. Most people thought I was Charlie Chaplin. But oh well, fun nonetheless.

This year I'm planning on going as the Count from Sesame St. He was always a pretty cool character from way back in the day. He was a vampire, meaning he was pretty badass and had an evil side to him. But he was also friendly and taught little kids math. I vant to teach you math....


So I have the cape (albeit black), some face paint, and a fake goatee. Can't wait for saturday.