Going to take a short break from the Mock Trial series and tell you about last night.

So my dog, Lucy, had to have a surgery to remove this thing off her face on Wednesday. Now she has stitches under her right eye. To keep her from rubbing it we had to put one of those conish dog collar things on her. She hates it, obviously. Wednesday night she slept alright, we had been concerned that she wouldn't. Yesterday is when things started getting ugly. The vet said she could be outside, which is where she normally is except at night. So I let her outside. Every time I looked to check on her she had either broken the collar or taken it apart in some way. [enter duct tape] By now she had a Frankenstein look going. (and no, I didn't duct tape her) Then came bed time. I did not sleep. About every half hour she would make a racket and start whining and I'd have to go take care of her and at about 3:30am it became apparent what she wanted. So I grabbed a blanket and my pillow and slept on the kitchen floor while Lucy, 69.2 lbs, and the cone slept on me. The only sleep I managed in that arrangement was when my right leg fell asleep. Around 5am I went back to bed. Not really. I only started getting up every half hour to check on her again. Finally morning came and I let her outside and went to sleep. Then the gardeners came so I had to bring her back in. So in comes Lucy with the shards of this cone hanging around her neck. [enter duct tape] And thus a new day begins. Good morning everyone.

Prosecution witness highlights:

Peter: pulled off the 1960's geek part like he lived it every day. Not only was he a convincing geek, he was a convincing witness, not confining himself to answering questions in a scripted courtspeak kind of way but talking like any highschool geek would if on the stand.
Alley: the smart and kind librarian. Made her character someone who could not be doubted. She spoke with a sweet voice and still projected.
Rachel: had the complete demeanor of a responsible teacher. She was especially skillful at not breaking character in order to better build up the teams case. She remained a witness under oath.
Mike: was an all around pleasure to watch. He explained his investigation like he really had done it, instead of just reciting the info that needed to get into trial.

And to complete the prosecution highlights...

Kelli, my sister, was the best court clerk of the competition. She was the only clerk I saw that was able to tell an attorney how much time they had remaining right when they asked. (she also had great shoes) If they had given a best clerk award it should definately have gone to her. (not like I'm biased or anything)

Stay tuned for the defense team highlights....

It looks like someone from Canada came to my site. I'd like to know how. While I'm on that topic, who came here from either Russia or New Zealand???

Now for what I'm really writing for.

Mock Trial 2004.
I would first like to say that this was THE BEST year ever for the TPCS Mock Trial team. True, we (and I can say we, it is my alma mater) did not make finals, but then, we never have. However, I am confident that we placed much higher than we have in the past, perhaps just missing finals by one place. The strength this year came from the witnesses, they are what really pulled it all together for a solid performance. Never have I seen our witnesses seem so much like real witnesses in court. Also, the cases presented were very tight, very understandable, and incredibly convincing.
Here are some highlights from the prosecution team attorney performances. I'll post up highlights from the rest of the team later tonight or tomorrow.


-Alyssa: argued her objections and against objections amazingly. Her attentiveness to the judge and her recognition of the oppropriate times to object showed her strong grasp of the material.
-Anna: actually made the attorney role in a direct examination believable and personable (I think this was the first time I have seen that pulled off successfully). She also presented an engaging opening statement that was one of the best I have ever seen.
-Andrew: took a case with little evidence and pulled it all together in his closing argument and left NO room for reasonable doubt. The judge agreed.
-Bethany: on the pre-trial motion gave a solid performance when she stepped up to calmly, step by step dismantle the defense's arguments.

Yay for the Trinity Pacific Mock Trial team. I love you guys. Just to let the world know, they did awsome tonight and I'm sure they'll do even better tomorrow night. I'll announce the results and do a little synopsis of what happened probably on Wednesday. I'm thinking that I will go tomorrow night to watch again, I just can't stay away.

Automobile:

Asset
Usurping
Terror,
Offending
Monetary
Obligingness
Because
Impoverishment
Loves
mE

Yes, my car is out to get me to the tune of a lot of $$$. All in all this has been a stressful week all around. Its late right now so I'll tell more exciting stories later. But now you have one of my excuses for not giving you stuff to read. Pretty soon I'll start giving you a play by play on my job hunting. Should be exciting! Wooo!!!

"now if you had a way people could leave comments...people could say "hey! i'm from russia, are you as beautiful as you are insightful"" -Heidi

I'll see about a comment system one of these days.

It is with a heavy heart that I announce that Simi Valley has been demoted to 2nd place in the race for safest city per capita in the United States. Thousand Oaks, our long time rival and neighboring city, beat us this year. So it is now a time for reflection, a time to consider the reasons for this failure. We can be certain it is not due to lack of police. A couple days ago I saw 3 cop cars within one minute, and two at the same intersection. I will have to wait to see the actual report on what crime rates have risen and what is our main problem, but I would at this point probably attribute some of the crime to the sleezy businesses that are around. Snooky's, well, enough said. But that has been around for some time. There is this little gas station/mini mart down the street from my house. It has gone through a few different owners, first it was Stop and Go, then Circle K. About a year or so ago it was bought again by someone else and now its just called the Plaza Food Mart or something. With the new ownership came the sale of some ehem materials. I had considered in the past taking some actions of sorts (talking to the manager, rallying the neighborhood, boycotting), but now that our first place has been taken away I'm more motivated than ever. I'll keep you updated if I actually do anything. I really just need to get a job (read: life) at this point.

Not much spectacular about my day, unless you happen to be me. I went to church, and I forgot to get myself some coffee before I went, only this time I didn't even drink tea. Disaster. So that was church.

This afternoon I went to the park with a loaf of french bread. There were other people at the park today, so I wasn't swarmed by ducks as I often was on the colder days of this winter. I went and sat on the ground under a tree in the grass about 7 feet from the pond and waited for a few ducks to wander my way. I think they know me now. Anyway, the exciting part was this: two Canadian geese came! Now, I have never seen them at the park, I do not think their paths normally come through my town. But it was certainly my luck that two decided to stop and pay me a visit on their way back up north (at least that's where I assume they were going). So I fed them the most, I'm sure they were quite hungry and much more deserving of the food than any of the other birds around there. Eventually the bigger, local geese came by and chased them off. I am beginning to realize that I must be a sight to behold sitting there among the geese. Most people run away from them or are really gittery AND they never sit down with the geese around them. It is true that geese bite pretty bad and they are loud and they have some serious attitude issues, but these ones actually will eat out of your hand if you are nice. So I was sitting there amid four geese, when this kid comes walking up and is amazed that they were so close to me. I gave him some bread and he fed them with me, and even got to feed them right out of his hand, which he told me he had never done. So I felt I had done an act of charity by giving this kid a new experience in life. Then he left and after I got annoyed with those geese I shood them away. Then the Canadian geese came back and I got one of those to eat out of my hand. Please understand what a feat that was. These aren't park geese, these are wild geese. All that to say, I think I've found my calling but it is probably a good idea to refrain from talking to them as much as I did today.

Then tonight my family suddenly decided to have these family times. I can't complain, it was fun. We played card games. Some game with a weird name and poker. My mom turned out to be a maniac table slapper and my dad broke out in song.

I'm thinking I should post something meaningful and opinionated and of a political nature one of these days. I did get this partly for that purpose. We'll see what comes up. If anyone has any topic suggestions let me know.

Happy Valentines Day everyone. I know I promised a haiku, but I'm pretty busy today so I probably won't get it up until later in the day. Unfortunately, its probably going to be a little depressing sounding, not because of any feelings, but simply because my vocabulary and grammar are quite limited.

As many may have heard, Rick Dees will be leaving us (as in KIISfm listeners). I thought this would be an appropriate time to pay tribute to his morningly contribution to our radio and to our drives to school and work.

An Ode to Rick

Where shall our dials turn
When we've lost the voice
That kept us alert
As we drove to the next town.

Gone are the days
Of the funny Dees Sleeze
They have faded away
Lost to the breeze.

What can we say
Of Candid Phone?
Will it stay with us? Nay
It is gone.

Where is there a morning show
Where talk is so clean?
No one can replace now
What is missing from this scene.

Rick Dees will be missed
By young and by old.
No replacement will fix
What in my heart is a hole.

The masses (Heidi) cry out for more, so here you have it folks. (hmm, Prof Root?)

Some advice for the world, do not ever tell me you haven't voted for years. My opinion of you will plummit if you haven't already revealed yourself for the irresponsible citizen you are.

In other news...today in the shower I thought up the beginnings of a Valentines Day haiku in Latin...I'll be sure to finish it and post it on Valentines Day.

Also making headlines today is the upcoming September release of the first Star Wars trilogy on dvd. I will be sure to get that one, that means much more to me than episode III. (many thanks to Heidi, my lovely assistant, for bringing this to my attention)

Repeat after me,
"Good cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California."

(my apologies for stepping on trademark toes, but my readership is so small that if you care you have no life)

Tonight I made Ring Tum Diddy for dinner. Some may already be familiar with this fine quisine, those who aren't should be. All that you need to known is that it requires cheddar cheese. I think that the recipe should make it clear that it calls for California cheddar cheese. Thanks to the supermarket strikes and the supermarket's strange way of dealing with it, normal brands of foods are not available. Actually, many food forms have become totally scarce. For instance, most of the vegatables are wilted or simply not available and the same goes for the fruit. Good bread has been even harder to find. Chicken has disappeared in some places. There is a vanilla yogurt shortage and you should always be prepared to buy the wrong percent milk because you can't even hope that they'll have what you need. So today my mom came home with Oregon cheddar cheese. This was not her fault, she knows better. Why the supermarkets decided they would no longer provide California cheese is beyond me. Anyway, I open it up and it wasn't the right color. It was much too pale for a medium cheddar. I tasted some and it tasted funny. But I figured it would be fine for cooking. Wrong. Tonight we ate tastless Ring Tum Diddy. Mooooo!

Today a couple things happened. First, I had tea instead of coffee before church this morning. What's worse, I didn't even drink the whole thing. So, I kept yawning during the service, made me feel wicked, but I know my pastor is a total coffee addict so I figured he understands. Then after church my family and I went to this place where my sister was planning to get married (though through the course of the afternoon it seems that plans will be changed). We had this really nice brunch there with her and her fiance. Lovely place. But it was quite apparent to me that wedding planning is not fun, I do not look forward to it. Afterwards, we went to try on bridesmaid dresses. That did not go well. I'll spare my readers the details of the dress shopping, but we came out empty handed for the bridesmaids. However, she did find herself her wedding dress. Quite beautiful. So the shopping trip really was a sucess, but I really am convinced that wedding planning is not fun. The poor girl is so stressed out.
As for my blog, I've got a counter thing now. So I can know if I'm popular. Not got it all figured out yet. Oh, and, my friend Nathan who is up at UCD is who's link you'll find there on the side there. I am a regular visitor of his blog, and you should be too. I'll add more links as I get the motivation.

Welcome everyone! (or at least those I have invited) Just getting this set up and then I've gotta run. But I promise awsome stuff in the future. I'm sure all IQ's will rise 15 points just by reading this on a regular basis. Yay for me for talking my mom into letting me get this!