Goodbye, Dear!

Laura has started a new mock trial blog. You should go read it and root her on as she takes ODW to Oregon! :) http://oregonmocktrialclub.blogspot.com/

Title: (I'm not too creative with titles)

Just wanted to check in and see how many of our members are actually following the blog yet. Post a reply if you are a faithful follower!

Lydia

On Locking Doors

So evidently no one revoked my administrator privileges, and OCLRE hasn't blocked me from the HSMT portion of their site. Therefore, I will post the case capsule, and gloat a little bit that I found it first... :P

STATE OF OHIO v. STORM JACKSON

Storm Jackson, a college freshman, is accused of stealing prescription drugs while attending two real estate open houses and while visiting at the houses of two friends.  The Defendant and his parents’ names were on a sign-in list at both of the open houses.  Without a warrant, the police subpoenaed and obtained Storm Jackson’s cell phone GPS records before he was arrested. Storm Jackson has filed a motion to suppress claiming that the evidence seized was the result of an improper search and seizure that violated his Fourth Amendment rights.

You guys get to deal with something other than the First Amendment. Jealousy outweighs aforementioned gloating...

So anyway, this is a lesson on what happens when you don't lock your doors! Because, after all, this is your blog now. :-)

(See? My title did have to do with the post! Yay me!)

Sarah

Who's coming?

I'm wondering, given the fact that Laura is moving and Sarah has graduated, whether or not we'll have enough people this year to make a full team without too much double-duty-ing. I know that I'm personally counting on doing MT again, but I don't know about anybody else. Thus, it'd be great if we could all figure out who's planning on continuing Mock Trial. On a different subject, is anyone planning on doing anything interesting this summer?

Let's discuss in the comments!

Mock Trial Photo

No, this is not a newly-discovered photo of the team. This is a photo that reminded me of the "No climbing on the walls" stipulation for the state competition...

I laughed out loud, and I'm sitting in a library.
Oops.

Have a happy day!
Sarah

Let's Party!!

So Lydia and I were talking today at Burgers Dogs and Fries, and we decided that we need some more excuses to get together now that the alumni party and House of Reps recognition are over. So let's brainstorm about this.
1. Movie party at Lydia's house
2. Pool party at Laura's house
3. Donut party at Aleithia's house (this would combine well with another movie party)

Other suggestions? We still need to figure out how to work Taboo into one of these, too. So comment with your party ideas and movie suggestions. We have so far (going from my memory...)
Up
National Treasure II
Spiderman
Lord of the Rings
Star Wars
Rigoletto
A Night at the Museum
Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Keep commenting with other suggestions!

Also, we need to figure out how to combine our pictures. Mrs. Marchi uploaded a bunch to Shutterfly, but I don't really know how that works--can multiple people upload to one album?

I'll close with some famous words: "Hey, a trophy! Congrats!!" :D
Sarah

Wrapping Up

Well.

*ahem*

WELL!

Congratulations, team, on your hard work, your "kindness and competence", and your willingness to rely upon God. I'll be the first to agree that I never expected to be in the finals--I've watched that trial for years with tangible awe! I think it'll sink in eventually that we were there, that we placed second, that "God governs in the affairs of men", as Ben Franklin aptly put it.

I feel so privileged to have been part of this team for four years. Beyond just facts and legal theory, I've learned critical skills, gained confidence, and made some truly wonderful friends. I hope that each person on this team will continue to work hard, passionately pursue excellence, receive criticism, solicit help, accept responsibility, and, above all, constantly rely upon God's ever-present help. Thank you all for your friendship, hard work, great attitudes, and sense of humor. It's been a fantastic ride, and I'm excited to see where you'll go next year! It's not the end of the road for me, either, as I hope to continue speaking on OU's debate team or start a collegiate mock trial team. I'm not sure, but you'll definitely hear all about it...

With thanks to the team and to God,
Sarah

Good Morning

Good morning and when I say good morning I mean GOOD morning!! The day we have all been waiting for has arrived! States are a short 5 hours away and I hope that everyone has practiced to the extreme limit and went to bed early last night! If you are nervous, here is some tips on being not nervous:

Simeon: If you are in mental anguish, look, you've thought about this. You're prepared!

Jenny: We don't get paid money to do our job. Just barbecue sauce. Just be careful not to get grilled.

Christian: Even if he's an irksome individual, your witness at least won't refer to himself in the third person.

Mr. Robe: Boy, this is really scary!

Lydia: Don't worry. I'm sure he's not expecting a full-blown-ready-to-go-to-trial thing.

James: Just don't forget the name of your witness and you should be fine.

Alethia: Don't be scared of the big word. Just remember it's 'Sarah' and then...'bellar'.

Sarah: Hey, this is not a support group. This is a trial.

Laura: I'll take the final word. "We don't need no stink'in bus to get there!"

Laura

A Bad Omen!

Did you realize that there is competition near "The Ides of March?!" I don't know if maybe I am the only one who LOVES Shakespeare, but, you know, classic omen.

Laura

A Very Happy Post

If anyone actually wants to see what a death certificate looks like, here's your opportunity!! Get excited, people! :)  (Click on the picture to see it larger)

Sarah

WEDNESDAY!!!!!

Never before in most of your brief competition careers has "Wednesday!" held such deep meaning. To borrow from West Side Story, "Say it soft and it's almost like praying..." Of course, you'll feel better if you do some real praying, not just "Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednesday! Wednes..."


And if you're feeling stressed, there's nothing like a good laugh to loosen you up. So here you go.

Given our obsession with lint rollers....

And MUFFINS!!

These are from bentobjects.blogspot.com , which is full of other hilarious images... :D

So yeah. Wednesday. Enjoy the tangible anticipation, check your notebooks, call me with your questions, and I'll see you tomorrow morning in the driveway just past this one toward The Plains!

Sarah

State Competition...

How is everyone feeling about the State competition? Great! Don't you guys just love Mock Trial?!?!?!?! The answer to this question will tell whether or not you love Mock Trial.

If we won State and could advance to Nationals, would you do it?

So, there.

Just a quick reminder; there is security at the courthouse that we will be competing in, so leave all knives and stuff at home.

Hope that everyone is looking forward to the time change this Sunday as much as I am (not)!

Sleep well, everyone!

Lydia

On Stardates

Lately, people have been asking me what the funky numbers at the top of my documents mean. Naturally, they're stardates. How else would I keep track of my revisions?!?

They're formatted like this:
(mm)(dd)(yy).(military time)
Right now, for example, it's stardate 030811.12. See? Of course. It's simple. :)

However, in my loooooong years of experience as an attorney (*coughcough*) I have found them to be especially helpful for tracking revisions, since no other format concisely contains the month, date, and hour. And it looks cool.

If you have no idea what a stardate is, watch the first 10 seconds of this video, and you'll know all about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VibXjlF0N1c&feature=related

So that's today's update. I won't mention that tonight will be the last official meeting of my mock trial career. Cue sad symphony orchestra and weeping. IT'S THE END OF AN ERA, PEOPLE!!!!!
Oops. I think I just mentioned it. :D

See ya'll tonight!
Sarah

Actual teams at state...

Drumroll please...

Archbishop Hoban HS Team Thomas *

Ashland HS Team Red 

Big Walnut HS Team Purple

Centerville HS Team Black *

Danville HS Team Black *

Dayton Early College Academy Team Red *

Georgetown HS Team Black *

Indian Hill HS Team Black *

Indian Hill HS Team White *

Jackson HS Massillon Team Gold  (This confirms my suspicions that we need a Wikipedia page!)

Lake Ridge Academy HS Team Blue

Marysville HS Team Temporal *

Mentor HS Team Rock 

Mother of Mercy HS Team Vicimus *

North Olmsted HS Team Legal Eagles

Olivia Davidson Washington Team Washington (Yeah, that's us! Woot!!)

Orange HS Team Cub (admitting stuff into evidence?? Well now...)

Orange HS Team Falcon

Perrysburg Court Explorers Team Puma

Pickerington Central HS Team Tigers *

Pleasant HS Team White 

Reynoldsburg HS Team S *

Solon HS Team A Scalia

Solon HS Team J Roberts

Sylvania Southview HS Team White

Upper Arlington HS Team Marshall *

Walsh Jesuit HS Team Maroon 

Westerville North HS Team Immortal *

That's 28 teams, in case you're too lazy to count them yourself. And I believe I've broken this news before OCLRE... :D Anyone who feels like it should add/change links to info about the new teams. I've only got a few more minutes to make changes to my closings! Gaaaah!

I hope to see at least some of you in about an hour. Bye now. :P

Sarah

The Longest Post Ever!

So.


There are only 15 teams at State this year.


Wow.


In case anyone didn't get the email, the teams are
Archbishop Hoban (Team Thomas) Notably, without J. Decker this year. Hum.
Centerville High School (Team Black)
Danville High School (Team Black)
Dayton Early College Academy (Team Red)
Georgetown Jr. Sr. High School (Team Black) Also from Scioto. :)
Indian Hill High School (Teams Black and White)
Jackson High School (Team Gold)
Marysville High School (Team Temporal)
Mother of Mercy High School (Team Vicimus)
OLIVIA DAVIDSON WASHINGTON (TEAM WASHINGTON) !!!
Pickerington Central High School (Team Tigers)
Reynoldsburg High School (Team S)
Upper Arlington High School (Team Marshall)
Westerville High School (Team Immortal)


Since there is an odd number of teams, Reynoldsburg or Pickerington will play both sides at the same time. There will be eight trials of non-eliminated teams during the first round (Thursday from 2-4), like this (just going in order, no predictions!):

Archbishop Hoban v. Centerville

Danville v. Dayton Early College Academy

Georgetown v. Indian Hill Black

Indian Hill White v. Jackson

Marysville v. Mother of Mercy

ODW v. Pickerington

Pickerington v. Reynoldsburg

Upper Arlington v. Westerville

Then in the second round (Thursday from 6-8), there will be four (or three) trials of non-eliminated teams, like this (pretending the first team listed in each match-up won):

Archbishop Hoban v. Danville

Georgetown v. Indian Hill White

Marysville v. ODW

Upper Arlington v. (randomly selected losing team)/(Pickerington, if they won both trials)

Trials of losing teams against losing teams would take place at the same time, of course.

Thus, the third round (Friday morning) would have only four teams. (Again, pretending the first listed team won.)

Archbishop Hoban v. Georgetown

Marysville v. Upper Arlington

As you can see, there can mathematically be only one trial on Friday. I wonder if that means that Ms. Natalie will move the final round to Friday afternoon. If so, we should stay and watch it: it'll be worthwhile!

So there you go. I'm excited about being in Ohio's top 15 teams, in case you can't tell. I guess this "mock trial club" model is actually pretty effective! ;)

Sarah
P.S. Let me  know (or just fix 'em) if any of the links don't work/go to the wrong place. I did this in kind of a hurry so that I can actually do what I'm supposed to be doing today! :)

Looking Forward...

Well, we did it! Congratulations to everyone--you've worked hard and come a long way!! I'm very pleased to have another two weeks to continue polishing and improving. Anyone feeling like seasoned competitors yet? ;-)

Laura, thanks again for a hilarious and slightly insane morning-of post...that was pretty awesome!

One more thing--I'm sorry to hog all the awards. I really am. Believe me, I would be very happy to have one of my co-counsels win the award over me!! So go for it, guys. :)

Happily,

Sarah


P.S. State assignments aren't out yet, but should be pretty soon. Pure fun-ness there!
And also, you should join Facebook and search for the "Olivia Davidson Washington Mock Trial Club" page that I just created!

Morning Report

Hello All!

Its early morning day of Regionals, and I have decided that 5:30 AM is a bad time to get up! I am drinking my chocolate milk, and very glad that I packed last night. At the moment, I am too tired to be nervous. We must be crazt to want to get up at this hour. At least it didn't freeze last night.
Okay, things left to do

• Banned from saying yeah, yep, sure, right or nope.
• Banned from going bac upstairs to lay in bed.
• Required to get into Suit.
• Required to take care of Clea and Brooks.

I'm trembling! Or is it shivering? Or am I still asleep?

I must go get ready, lest I be last at our rendezvous spot.

"...stricken from the record..."

The peculiar verbiage of courtroom procedure dictates the unusually frequent use of the verb "to strike".

Thank you for enduring that superlatively boring introductory sentence. To reward you, here's an interesting sentence: 22 3/4 years in prison.

(Sentence...sentence...get it? Equivocation? Yeah?)

As I was explaining, we say "stricken" (the past tense of "to strike") without difficulty about ten billion times in every trial. However, problems arise when the judge is both (a) able to speak (unlike Mike) and (b) not used to being the judge (also unlike Mike!). In these cases, the judge often utters unusual phrases like, "Yes, so...uh, stricked," or, avoiding the problem,"Aren't you satisfied? You won the objection, dude!" Of course, we all know the correct reply: "So strack!"

Similar quandaries arise when the judge attempts to avoid inventing bizarre tenses of "to strike" by forgetting about the motion to strike, and the attorney must remind him or her of it. Real mock (!) trial judges shudder to hear such unusual constructions as, "Your Honor, will you stricken the testimony from the record?" And the ever popular "Your Honor, is the testimony stricked?" Once again, the correct reminder is, "Your Honor, is the testimony strickened?"

Confusingly,
Sarah

P.S. I have been informed that this post is somewhat confusing, so I'll just submit for your consideration that people (but no one on this team) actually do say things like "So strack", and I was just humorously and lovingly pointing out that that's not exactly the right way to say it. :D

Regionals Assignments!!!

Go to here to view the page. 10 different teams in Scioto county this year.

Sylvania Southveiw had 3 teams, 2 advanced to regionals. Indian Hills had 4 teams, 4 teams advanced. Oak Hills had 4 teams, did not have any teams advance. (not surprising, really. Hamilton county had 46 teams listed! I am surprised all 4 of Indian Hills teams advanced.) Upper Arlington had 4 teams, 3 advanced. Archbishop Hoban had 5 teams, 2 advanced. There were so many Marylands listed under districts, I am not sure who are the ones to be worrying about.


Everyone should vote on the fallacies, I think were as far as we'll go :(

Laura

Awesome People!

Hey Team,

We did a great job. Sarah won Outstanding Attorney!
Jenny was the somewhat evil Dr. Brody! Lydia won
Outstanding Witness! James showed Federal
Hocking that we people who meet in a double wide
in the middle of a cow pasture know what we are
doing! Aleithia kept time and was an awesome
team member! Sarah won Outstanding Attorney,
again! Christian won Outstanding Witness! Aleithia
was a great bailiff! Simeon had the lint roller!
I ate pizza!!! I'll see you all at the party!!!

Laura

Oh, and we are advancing to Regionals.

YAY! Two more weeks of pressure building!!

Early Morning, Day of Districts

Good morning,

IS any one up yet? Well, I sure am. Like Sarah, I
prepared yesterday, collected my stuff and
dumped it in my bag, then collected myself and
and dumped me in bed. Not that I slept very well,
though. Now I am off to a cold pizza and chocolate
milk breakfast and get ready to go.

It's currently 6:30.
I am currently the only one awake at my house.
I just made a copy for presentation of our quotes.

I had better get ready,
Laura

OH MY GOODNESS! WE ARE GOING TO
COMPETITION TODAY!!!!

Drumroll...

It's finally here!! The night we've all been waiting for!!! The night before competition!!!! Are you excited now? :) As you can probably tell, I'm very excited. I just memorized my statements and rebuttal and gave them repeatedly to the mirror, which now knows more about Taylor Henlacks than it ever wanted to. And I entered in my final changes, printed out my final copies, checked my notebook three times, collected my legal pads from around the house, gathered up my pens and pencils, charged my iPod, found my water-bottle, implored God for help, downloaded all my documents to a flashdrive and uploaded them to Google Docs and shared them with both of my accounts in case I forgot anything...what else did I do? I'm sure I'm missing something...


So anyway, I'm pretty pumped about this trial thing. Bring it!!


By the numbers:
Fallacies: 4. I think we're done here. :(
Quotes: 130 (We're going to show them as a slideshow during the post-mock trial party!)
Days to competition: 1! One day! YEAAAAAAAH, WE MADE IT!!!!!!


Sorry. I'll try to contain myself.


Sincerely,
Sarah
(There, how was that?)

Groundhog Day, etc.

It's Groundhog Day! Punxsutawney Phil has--fortunately--predicted an early spring. (So did Buckeye Chuck!)


If you're feeling jumpy on Thursday night, come on out to MemAud in Athens and hear me play banjo with the OU Wind Ensemble! (Banjo. Wind ensemble. Uh-huh.) It'll be fun, and it's free, and you can still have time to fix up your notebook and pack up your stuff before going to bed early and getting up early and DOING A TRIAL on Friday. Oops, was my stress showing? ;)


So anyway, I've discovered that the defense will play Fed Hock in the morning and the plaintiff will play River Valley in the afternoon. Hopefully that'll be helpful in scheduling rides and inviting people and stuff like that.


One more thing:

Ahhhhh. I feel much better now. :)


--Sarah


Fallacies: 4 (Yay! Sort of.)
Quotes: 123
Days to competition: 2

The Importance of Being Earnest

It was a great play. So I decided to take its title. Yes, that is completely random. And your point is? :P


I just wrote an essay for English 151 at Hocking, so I should be feeling verbose right now. But I'm not. So I'll just be uncreative and recap the happenings for the rest of the week.


We're having a practice on Wednesday; it's our last officially scheduled one! Oh no!
We shall meet at Robe Law at 8 on Friday. (As Aleithia artfully pointed out, "At least it's not a Saturday morning!")  They (whoever "they" are) don't tell us which courtroom we're in until sign-in, so be prepared to text/call people when we find out, if needed. You'll need to pack a lunch; be prepared to be too nervous or excited to eat. (Chips, veggies, and juice tend to slide down well.) It's gonna be a great day!
If you have any energy and are at all musically inclined (which I think everyone on the team is...) I recommend popping over to OU to hear Sylvia McNair give a masterclass at 4. It's a pretty phenomenal opportunity, and I'm personally resentful that she's coming on Friday of all days.
After the trials and announcements, we're having a party at the Robes' house--should be around 6 pm. Bring food. And be ready to play games. And giggle giddily. :-)


So that's that. Mr. Robe said a lot of funny things tonight, but I haven't had time to get them up yet. So, currently, there are

• 3 fallacies (NOOOOOOOO!!!)
• 115 slides
• 4 days until competition

Titles Are For Awesome People!!

Well, congratulations. If you're reading this, you've survived our 5 1/2 hour long dress rehearsal, a feat not to be easily dismissed! So now eat some food, watch some Star Trek, fix some holes, and generally get rested and prepared for Monday.

Yay.

Now, having seen that trial today, I can say with great assurance that you people have no trouble coming up with fallacies. So do it! Create! Submit! Vote! Hurry, or I'll go overboard. And you don't want to see me go overboard.

And our numbers:
Fallacies: 3. I've said my piece on this!
Quotes: 115
Days to competition: 6

Enjoy your evening,
Sarah

Titles are for Wimps III

I think that it might be a good if you all post your Fallacies.
If you don't do it by Saturday or AT LEAST Monday, Sarah
might go overboard. Anyway, the three on there are hilarious.
Also, read the rules before you think of a really good one,
because avoiding the question fallacies are out-of-date. (Keep
them in your non-removed brain, though, because in a week...)

Just so ya know, we are no longer "Athens Mock Trial." We
have been updated to Olivia Davidson Washington.

Laura

We now have
-3 fallacies submitted (still...)
-111 slides in our quotes collection
-5 days until competition

Stressed?

Based on how I'm feeling, I thought you folks might need this today. Enjoy.

(Obtained from http://www.wolfescape.com/Humour/WorkStress.htm)
(Other content from that site not necessarily recommended!)

Witnesses, consider yourselves commended to keep reviewing your depositions.
Attorneys, consider yourselves commended to keep developing, refining, and reviewing. I know it's tough, but  you can use the head banger if you have to. :-)

Sarah
P.S. We now have
-3 fallacies submitted (still...)
-107 slides in our quotes collection
-7 days until competition

Titles Are Still For Wimps

We now have
      -three fallacies submitted
      -106 slides in our quotes collection
      -8 days until competition!!!!

I'm in a "counting things" mood, I guess.

--Sarah

Titles Are For Wimps

So we're coming up on competition! Who's excited? ...no one? Oh.


Well, here's something to get excited about: the fallacy game! We're playing it again! And it's online this time! Oh boy, oh boy! I'm excited, anyway. So submit one fallacy from the "making assumptions" category to our Google Doc, and I'll put a poll on the blog when they're all in. I just know you can do it by Friday! :D


Since no one's getting excited with me, I guess I'll go be excited by myself and play banjo. That's a good thing to do when you're excited.


Sarah

District Assignments!!!!

Districts are up here. Athens doesn't have any teams this year! O.o  Since there are only three teams in our district, I'm curious as to how competition will proceed. Also of concern is the fact that we're listed as "Athens Home School" instead of our more grand title, "Olivia Davidson Washington Mock Trial Club". Questions, questions!

I'll have an analysis post completed shortly--just wanted to break the news! :-)

Sarah