… the weekend of October 12 2007

Death Metal in a small Bar at 9pm will damage hearing.

It’s true, I learned it Friday when we went to some small bar where so and so’s boyfriend’s band was playing. Nobody told me that the venue would be a 40 by 40 ft room, with 1/5 of it taken up by the band itself. Nor was I warned that the music was akin to that I imagine heralding the coming of the anti-Christ. MegaDeath would be proud.

I do, in retrospect, wish the volume control guy would have considered the small size of the room, the nature of the godforsaken melodies, and how close everyone was to the speakers. But, the volume guy has probably done this to his ears many times before, I can understand how he needs to turn it up to a volume which he can actually still hear. http://www.abelard.org/hear/hear.htm#question

Afterwards we went to somebody’s house to play Jenga. Somehow Jenga was so fun that it lasted until 3:30. Unfortunately for me, I was the only one who had to awake on Saturday morning before 12pm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jenga

In fact I had to meet my negotiations partner at 7:30am to review our strategy for the 9am USD negotiations tournament. So I awoke at 6:30 and drove home in the rare San Diegan Rain.
http://www.sdcwa.org/manage/sources-rainfall.phtml

Less preparation is More: The Negotiations Tournament:

A year and a half ago my roommate asked me to fill in at the last minute as his Mock Trial teammate. (Mock trial is a fake trial based upon a given fact pattern where teams compete head to head in front of judges who rank the teams). I had taken evidence but had no other experience whatsoever. With only a day to prepare, it turned out ok, we came in first for the Defendant’s side out of 19 other teams. Encouraged, the next semester we changed our ingenious strategy and actually spent a few days preparing…which was a big mistake because then we ended up losing in the finals.

Similarly, last year my other roommate and I took a few hours to prepare for the annual USD negotiations tournament. With all that preparation, we took 6th out of 28 teams.
This year, my friend Hasmik was running the negotiations tournament. I didn’t sign up. However, two days before the tournament she emailed me, asking that I find a partner and fill in for a team that had pulled out. I had a bit of trouble finding a partner, because Ean, my roommate and former partner, was out of town. I finally did find a partner in Alex Outwater and at 7:30am on Saturday we agreed to meet and prepare for the tournament at 9am.

Go figure, we tied for 1st. Lesson: In spite of everything anyone who is successful has told you, preparation is overrated and possibly will make you do worse. http://www.englishclub.com/business-english/negotiations-preparation.htm

My up and coming Honor Code Violation

…is ironic. You see last year I was elected as Chief Justice of USD’s Honor Court, which basically makes me part of a team for the students’ voice for any law student’s unethical behavior. Included in ‘unethical’ is signing up to participate in any Mock Trial, Moot Court, Negotiation etc. event and then not meeting your commitment.

The winners of the USD negotiations tournament must go on to represent USD at the regional tournament in Malibu on November 10th. Of course, the Jessup Moot Court trial competition is on that same weekend. A week ago I eagerly signed up for Jessup because it seems like a great experience to practice brief writing and trial advocacy skills. Upon signing up, I signed an ominous form that warned me that failure to compete after signing up would result in my being referred to the Honor Court.

Thus, two days after the preparation period for Jessup began, I won the Negotiations tournament…and earned a scheduling conflict. Being Chief Justice of the Honor Court myself…this is truly fantastic ; unless of course they let me acquit myself.

Lobster Hunting: Check the weather first

Saturday night Ean, my roommate set up a group to go lobster hunting in the bay. While I am of the opinion that almost everything aquatic near the San Diego/ Southern California area is incredibly overfished, I think going out late at night snorkeling for lobsters sounds like a blast. I’m a diver so I have a good idea of how many cool sea creatures only come out at night. I had no intention of keeping any lobsters I found…just touring.

As it turns out, it probably only rains in San Diego 7 or 8 times a year. For two days or more after the rain, all of the water runs off of the land and into the ocean, bringing massive amounts of sediment (sewage?) with it. This leads to very poor visibility. It rained Friday night and Saturday morning but we decided to go out anyway. Visibility, normally 10-15 feet, was about 2 feet. If you’ve ever been out in the ocean at night, with only a flashlight…it can be pretty scary and claustrophobic. Add to it poor visibility and…whoa its downright freaky. Visibility was so poor that Ean actually hit his head on a rock and started bleeding...prompting the relevant conversation about what time of year Great White Sharks visit San Diegan waters.

That being said, it was a lot of fun to get out and I look forward to going out again when the visibility is better.