The Indiana governor’s race is tightening, according to a new poll out today. The Republican challenger, Mitch Daniels, has a slight lead over the Democratic incumbent, Joe Kernan (who was Frank O’Bannon’s lieutenant governor until O’Bannon died last fall).

Between Joe Kernan and Joe Donnelly, it looks like I’ll be hoping for a lot of “Joe-mentum” on election day here in Indiana. :)

Game over. Moratorium over (for now). Red Sox 9, Angels 3.

ESPN’s Jayson Stark predicted earlier today that Boston will win the World Series. Well, so far, so good. In particular, Stark’s contention that “[Curt] Schilling is the best big-game pitcher in baseball” certainly didn’t lose any credibility today. Schilling gets the win and improves to 6-1 lifetime in the postseason.

Having won at Anaheim in Game 1 of this five-game series, the Sox now own home-field advantage. Tomorrow, with Pedro on the mound, they gun for a 2-0 lead that they can take home to Fenway.

Washinton Post sports reporter Dave Sheinin taps the Houston Astros to beat the Boston Red Sox in a 7-Game World Series this season. Citing how well “hot” teams have done in October, Sheinin sets out and proves that since the ‘Stros and the Sox both have superb records heading into October, they are most likely to quickly do away with teams that have struggled of late (like the Cardinals and Twins) and have diminished (the Yankees) or unproven-in-October (Dodgers) bullpens.

Although I have my doubts about Houston’s ability to top St. Louis, it is nice to know that there are (supposedly) neutral reporters saying that the Sox have a chance. (I also appreciate the last line of the article: Sheinin predicts that Astros ace Roger Clemens will retire after game 6 of the World Series and then start game 7.)

The first games of the best-of-five division series in the American League take place today (Boston @ Anaheim, 4:09; Minnesota @ New York, 8:19), and one of the two NL series start in about an hour (LA @ St. Louis, 1:09)

Kaveny on the open-book nature of her exam: “You can take in your notes. You can take in your outline. You can take in your teddy bear.”

Also: “Remember, you don’t get graded on your outline. You don’t get any points for italics. … But I’ve seen this, first-years intimidate each other with their outlines. They say, ‘Oh look, I’ve got this 750-page outline.’ Well, that’s great. It’s longer than the book.”

P.S. Another: “[Promissory Restitution] is the Frankenstein theory of contract law. We’re taking pieces from one body of law, grafting them on to pieces from another body of law, and you know what? The stitch-marks show. It’s not pretty, but it works.”

I’m breaking moratorium again (only briefly, I swear!) to record this fleeting thought before it fades irretrievably into an undisclosed location deep within my A.D.D.-addled brain. :)

I feel like my life is building to a crescendo. It kind of snuck up on me, but now its momentum is undeniable, and it’s rapidly approaching avalanche proportions. I’m doing my best to ride the wave rather than be consumed by it. (Yeah, so I’m mixing my metaphors. So sue me.)

Practice exams — which don’t count toward your final grade, but everyone says you should prepare for them as if they do — are in ten days, which means I have a lot of outlining and studying to do. Between now and then, though, there’s an entire Red Sox-Angels playoff series to watch, not to mention three election debates and the biggest game of the year for USC, which I intend to watch from Chicago with Adrienne & co. (as it won’t be on TV here in South Bend). The first two games of the ALCS, hopefully featuring the Red Sox (knock on wood), will also take place prior to practice exams. Oh yeah, and I have a Legal Writing paper due the day after the exams (Friday, Oct. 15).

[I can hear the angel on my shoulder, a.k.a. Becky, whispering in my ear from 2,000 miles away: “School is your top priority… school is your top priority…” :) -ed.]

After that comes fall break, from Saturday the 16th through Sunday the 24th, a brief period of a tempo or even decrescendo. (I’ll be in Arizona with Becky.) But really, on the entertainment side of things, there will be no let-up: there’s USC’s second straight game against an undefeated conference foe (Arizona State), two huge Notre Dame games (Navy and BC), and the rest of the ALCS and NLCS. There will also be plenty of stuff to do: more law-school work, and perhaps some wedding planning and advance preparation for Becky’s and my big move in January.

The World Series starts on the second Saturday of fall break, Oct. 23 — again, hopefully including the Red Sox. (As you can imagine, it would actually make my life easier, in a way, if the Sox get knocked out early in the playoffs. But I don’t want that to happen!!) During the week that school starts up again, the Series comes to an end, hopefully with a Red Sox world championship on my birthday, Saturday the 30th. :) Throw in Halloween festivities and the Redskins-Packers Halloween game that will decide the presidential election, and you can see that it’s going to be another busy week, in terms of both work and entertainment.

The following week features the presidential election — Tuesday, Nov. 2 — and then Becky comes to town on Nov. 3. And when the dust settles from all of that, it’ll be time to start seriously studying for final exams. Not to mention the fact that 1Ls can start talking to Career Services on Nov. 1, meaning the summer job search will be officially underway. (”And they’re off!”)

If I can survive the next month — check that, if I can thrive through the next month — I think I’ll know conclusively that I’m up to the challenge of this law school thing. On the other hand, if I’m going to crash and burn, this is where it will start.

There will have to be a lot of blogging moratoriums and light blogging days in there. I’ll never make it otherwise. In fact, depending on how the next few days go, I may actually declare a long-term moratorium, through the start of fall break, starting later this week. We’ll see.

I just finished scheduling my entire life for the next two weeks on my iCal, literally down to the minute, to help me plan how and when I’ll get my work done amid all this entertainment, excitement and distraction. My counselor thinks that giving myself concrete schedules and deadlines is crucial to my success, since I only seem capable of focusing on my work when I feel like I’m “on deadline.” I think she’s right, and I hope this strategy (combined with Ritalin and will power) works. I don’t mean to overdramatize, but my ability to pull things together and really excel in the next two weeks may tip the scales on how my entire 1L year — and even my whole law-school career — will go, not so much because of the immediate consequences but because this is my chance to prove to myself once and for all that I am not a slave to my bad study habits, that even amid just about the maximum imaginable number of distractions and ready excuses to fail, I can do it, I can succeed, I can work up to my potential.

Well, I should stop preaching and start practicing. I have to get back to reading Contracts. Moratorium back in effect.

Wish me luck.

P.S. Damn, re-reading this post, I feel sort of inspired now. I think I’ll put on my headphones and listen to the Rudy soundtrack while I read Contracts. “In this life, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself.” :)

SpaceShipOne made its third flight today laying claim to not only the $10 million Ansari X Prize but also a place in the history books.

The Indiana Court of Appeals is meeting in the Notre Dame Law School Courtroom at 2:00 PM to hear oral arguments in a products-liability case. The case is Richard Schultz and Gail Schultz v. Ford Motor Company.

I’m in the Courtroom, and we have wireless access. Since I’m obviously not doing any work during the court hearing, I see no point in obeying the moratorium right now. :) However, whether I liveblog the hearing will depend on whether other people have their laptops out as well… if others are typing notes on their computers or whatever, I might liveblog… otherwise, probably not. I wouldn’t want to be held in contempt! :)

UPDATE: All right, all right, I’m putting my computer away…

UPDATE AFTER THE HEARING: After the hearing was over and the judges had finished answering questions, a handful of students stuck around and had our picture taken with them by an official NDLS photographer. He was also kind enough to take a photo with my camera. :)

Memorable quotes from the oral arguments:

“I’m not saying they flip-flopped.” –Plaintiff’s counsel, referring to defendant (and, in truth, essentially saying that they flip-flopped)

“That word ‘presumption’ is like the elephant is in the room.” –Plaintiff’s counsel

“Are you pitching and I’m not catching?” –Judge Barnes, to Defendant’s counsel

“You can’t grant summary judgment on the basis of an inference. Y’all know that.” –Plaintiff’s counsel (on rebuttal)

I didn’t get this verbatim, but it was something like: “Of course, you can avoid your kids’ torts by neglecting them, and then they’ll get taken away by Human Services, and you won’t have to worry about being liable for what they do.”

Also, regarding the possibility of suing small children for their own torts: “What are you going to get in damages — his legos?”

Thar she blows. Archived image from a few minutes ago:

Live image below. (Click to enlarge.)

Mostly steam, not ash, so far, says the volcano liveblogger.

Mr. Sun’s suggestion captions for that unfortunate photo of John Kerry bending over and throwing a football between his legs:

“John Kerry, reporting for booty.”
“Fetch me a proctor. I am ready for the global test.”
“I was a top, before I became a bottom.”

LOL!

The Supreme Court yesterday told the telecom industry to stop calling them during dinner when they upheld a lower court’s ruling to keep the national Do-Not-Call list on the books. Telemarketing calls, the Court said, do not qualify as speech protected under the First Amendment.

This qualifies as major breaking news:

ESPN officially decided ‘College GameDay,’ featuring Chris Fowler, Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit, will broadcast from outside the Coliseum on Saturday. It is the show’s first visit to a Pacific-10 Conference game since 2000, and its first to a USC game.

Wow! I’m stunned! East Coast Bias is vanquished (at least for this week)! USC-Cal gets the nod over Texas-Oklahoma! Woohoo!!!

Well, USC students, now it’s up to you. Are you ready for some football? More importantly, are you ready for some drunken tailgating at 7:30 in the morning on national TV? I have faith in you, fellow Trojans. Now, go out there and make Troy proud! :)

P.S. On the other hand, is a visit from Gameday really a good thing? So far this season, home teams are 2-3 when Gameday visits their campus… and one of the two wins was LSU’s squeaker over lowly Oregon State, a game they should have lost and a sign, as it turns out, of things to come for the now-plummeting Tigers. Oh, well. Hopefully the Trojans can buck the trend and avoid any possible “Gameday curse.”

P.P.S. Man, I wish I wasn’t so poor. I just checked, and even at this late date, I could fly out to L.A. for $184 round-trip without missing any classes. I could do homework on the plane… I’d even be back in time to do my Legal Research assignment in the law library Sunday evening! But alas, I don’t have $184. :(

P.P.P.S. Hmm… anybody want to volunteer to start a BrendanLoy.com travel fund? I could fly out to L.A. on my audience’s dime… “The Irish Trojan Liveblogs Gameday“… C’mon, it’d be almost like legitimate journalism! :)

With Brendan now in another of his cyclical dark-side-of-the-Moon Communications semi-Blackout periods, it falls to us Amateurs to Fill In.

Accordingly, please note (gratefully) that Asteroid 4179 Toutatis peformed as advertised, Whooshing on past us at some 4 times the Earth-Luna degree of separation. (Of course if it hadn’t — well, we wouldn’t be reading this, now would we? But saaay: isn’t that the Anthropic principle, right there? :)

See the Clip.

And now for my last pre-moratorium post…

John Kerry really, really, really needs to stop with the football photo ops.

Honestly. I know he’s trying to look all manly and stuff, but he always seems to end up just looking stupid:

(more…)

Virgin Atlantic is about to make joining the mile-high club a lot easier. (SFW)