I'm a solid lights man, myself

As expected, Team Awesome trounced the unfortunately-named Team Champion in this week's moot. Though, I must admit, this has somewhat less to do with the sheer eponymous awesometude of my co-counsel and I, but the fact that our judges openly admitted they could hardly find a reason to side with a loud, obnoxious industrial company over a cute pair of landowners. Counting my successful prosecution of a gym bag thief on a grade 6 courtroom field trip mock trial, I'm 2 and 0 in my legal career. Look out Jack McCoy!

Arguing in front of a judge is something else though. You have so much planned out, but then you get interrupted with a question out of the blue. Our judges would try and throw us off by asking us if we knew the facts of the case. Really, now that I think of it, they were no different than average hecklers one might encounter at a comedy club. Though in all fairness, the material I had to work with was pretty weak. "What's the deal, with narrow statutory interpretation? I mean, c'mon?!"

This was just one of the cool parts of this, the best week I've had thus far in Vancouver. Trips to West Vancouver and Jericho Beach, walks around downtown - all in all very cool.

And not to disappoint those looking for my unsolicited musical advice, I also snagged online the upcoming Eels CD, "Blinking Lights and Other Revelations." If you're a fan of the band, it's pretty much the best thing they've done. Lead singer E explained the title of the album in a posting on his site that I thought was pretty cool:

"There are two kinds of Christmas people. Those who like their Christmas lights to stay on solid and those who like them to blink. As a kid, I always had a thing for sitting in the dark and watching the lights blink on and off at random ... In the end, what we have are these little great moments. They come and they go. That's as good as it gets. But still, isn't that great?"

Among the 33 tracks, highlights are "The Other Shoe," "Things the Grandchildren Should Know," and the instant Eels classic, "Whatever Happened to Soy Bomb?" (For guitarists, it's capo 5, Amin, A/C, C, F, Amin, G).