I’ve had such an incredibly amazing year that I almost can’t believe the amazingness is continuing right down to the end, but as I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s entry I’m currently writing this post from the not-quite-as-frigid-as-NC climate of the Sunshine State!

The drive down was ridiculous, as a 1-car barely-an-accident¹ in the northbound lanes of I-95 in South Carolina somehow created enough attention that rubberneckers successfully slowed both of the southbound lanes of I-95, creating a backup for 40ish miles — and since there are only 2 lanes to I-95 for the entire stretch of SC, it took 雅雅 and I ~3.5 hours to travel those 40 miles

SC+GA+FL are now added to the list!

But the wait was worth it! Florida seems very cool so far, our hotel is amazing, and I just ordered room service for the first time in my life (delicious!). Then tomorrow I’ll get to see a lot of my old friends from undergrad plus explore a new state plus enjoy the obligatory pre-game tailgating plus get to see some Wolfpack football!

And I got to add 3 more states to my “Gotta Get to All 50 Before I Croak” list

Your normally-humble author is getting spoiled…

I’m not sure if I’ll have an entry here tomorrow night after the game, but if I get back to the hotel at a decent hour I’ll try to cobble something together. In either event, have a great night y’all!

1. A compact car ran into, and wedged itself under, the little guardwires separating the two sides of the interstate  

I come from an apparently-bygone era where it’s still possible to appreciate a person/group/institution and what they do, while still trashing them habitually in certain competitive eras like athletics (or mock trial competitions). So, for example, while I’ve got a few colleagues who hate anything and everything that is Duke Law, I don’t have a problem with them or their students — just the trial team, which couldn’t litigate its way out of high school detention without professional help¹

By that same token, I have no doubt the University of Non-Compliance at Cheater Haven is a fine upstanding academic institution 6 out of 7 days of the week. But the rest of the time they’re typical blue-blood white-wine elitists who got where they are today courtesy of mommy’s and daddy’s trust fund.

Oh, and the wealthy white alumni $$$ that came with excluding blacks for 160 years.

So it was in that spirit I’ve been exchanging trash-talk with one of my colleagues in the NCCU Law Student Bar Association, who happens to be a UNCCH alum. That in turn led to the inevitable taunt of putting a friendly wager on the game. I proposed the loser cooking the winner dinner and wearing a t-shirt touting the victorious school.

She saw my bet and raised by taking it a step higher: social media

If, by some cosmic coincidence, the Baby Blue Powder Puffs manage to eke out their 1st victory in the past 4 years over my beloved N.C. State Wolfpack, I have to change my Facebook and Twitter avatars to something UNCCH-esque and write an entry here at law:/dev/null praising them for their victory

Even though Vegas has my Wolfpack as a 3-point underdog… and we’ve whipped them 3 years in a row so they’re due for a win… I accepted

So this entry is just to give y’all advance warning that if things don’t turn out the way I want, you might want to avoid stopping by the blog tomorrow — and if you happen to ignore my advice, make sure you read #6 on the Disclaimer first

1. And even so, I’m sure they’re fine people outside of a courtroom and I’d happily get drinks with them

THE N.C. STATE WOLFPACK BEATS THE #16 FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES AT HOME!!!

28-24 NC State!

The game was full of huge plays, including N.C. State going for the winning TD on 4th and goal with 2 minutes left in the 4th quarter, instead of just kicking a field goal to tie.

Ever heard that old saying that “[l]ife isn’t for those who punt on 4th and 1″? Same applies to scoring

N.C. State, FSU and Maryland are now all tied at 1-loss apiece in the Atlantic Division.

Aaaannnddd we’re now bowl-eligible @ 6-2 with 4 games remaining!

Check out this ESPN post-game entry for the details, or visit the good folks over at StateFans Nation

Law-related entries will resume tomorrow, I’m off to celebrate! Have a great night y’all!!

Congratulations to the Blue Devils on the achievement

The big news for lovers of N.C. State athletics came a couple hours ago though, with the Wolfpack securing an NIT bid against the University of South Florida!  For all the talk of NIT being a “second tier” tournament, for a NCSU team projected to have no post-season at all whatsoever just a week ago I’m pretty doggone satisfied that I’ll get to watch them in another game this Tuesday¹

Have to head to bed, Spring Break is now officially over and I’ve got CivPro at 9am It’s hard to believe in just a few weeks I’ll officially be a 2L…

Good night everybody!

1. Especially if they can avoid repeating bad habits

The game was plagued by truly horrible officiating and botched calls for/against both teams. But the Wolfpack lost largely from falling back into old habits — scoring droughts, bad judgment calls, missed free throws.

They played one hell of a game though, fighting back from a 10+ halftime deficit to take a 1-point lead with a few minutes remaining. I was yelling long+loud enough with 雅雅 that by the time we left I was genuinely worried I was having a heart attack

On the upside, for a 4-day tournament I got to watch my team for 3 days of it — 2 more than anyone was expecting. Much to the team for the entertainment

Heading to bed, then driving back to Greensboro for the final game tomorrow. Have a good night folks!

By 58-52, the N.C. State Wolfpack upends the Florida State Seminoles

Continuing my string of totally non-law-related entries begun yesterday, the #11 seed N.C. State Wolfpack scored an upset victory over #3 seed Florida State by six points tonight, in the quarterfinals of the 2010 ACC tournament. The victory was particularly sweet given the self-righteous arrogance of several FSU folks I crossed paths with at the game

Not saying every Seminole is a bad Seminole — at least one of my classmates here at NCCU Law is an FSU alum and he’s perfectly chill —  but those folks were a less-than-optimal reflection of the University.

On top of N.C. State’s upset win, 2 of the other 4 games were upsets as well #12 seed Miami taking out #4 seed Virginia Tech and #7 seed Georgia Tech scoring a big win over #2 seed Maryland.  We’ll be facing the Yellow Jackets tomorrow in the semi-finals

That means out of the 8 games played so far in the tournament, 6 of them (75%) have been upset victories.

It also means history will be made tomorrow by somebody: only 2 ACC teams in history have made it through 3 straight games to go from the prelims to the finals (NCSU in 1987 and NCSU in 2007), and with both GT and NCSU playing last night whichever team advances will become the 3rd.

That’s all for now, long drive home to Durham then I’m off to bed

But on the bright side for teams I do like playing, my #11 seed alma mater just knocked off the #6 seeded kittehs of Clemson in the preliminary round

About to drive home to Durham, sleep for a bit, then head back tomorrow afternoon for a quartet of games. If you’re in a charitable mood, prayers and well wishes for NCSU’s continued basketball success would be appreciated

I had mostly forgotten yesterday’s drama by the time I woke up this morning to get ready for a trip down to Raleigh. The N.C State men’s basketball team took on Wake Forest, where the Wolfpack thoroughly mauled the Demon Deacons in a 68-54 victory that we led the entire game.

You can tell from the celebration this was the first win we'd had in awhile (photo by Raleigh News & Observer)

Yes, that’s the exact same N.C. State currently dead last in the ACC standings, and the exact same Wake Forest that was ranked #23 in the AP poll

The trip was a little interesting/odd this time because I invited Co-Counsel, a WFU alum, to join me back during the Kilpatrick-Stockton mock trial competition. Turns out her dad is an N.C. State guy like yours truly so I lined up tickets for her parents too. But with of the start-to-finish beating administered to the Deacs, she was in a thoroughly frosty mood pretty much the entire time — meaning I spent most of the game talking to Papa Co-Counsel

Of course her bitterness didn’t stop me from heaping on a good helping of trash talk during/after the game

Overall it was a fun way to spend a Saturday. Even when we lose, I love going back to N.C. State and catching up with the folks I left behind to head to Durham and the N.C. Central University School of Law.

Now I’ve just gotta catch up on studying since midterms are only 1.5 weeks away…

1. Especially when your team wins!

I just got back from the N.C. State basketball game against Dook…

A blurry cameraphone shot of the final 88-74 score. Note the students totally swarming the court :D

…and we won!

By 14 points!!

And had the lead for all but the first 5 minutes of the game!!!

The last time we beat Duke was in the ACC tournament back in 2006, the first season since I had returned to NCSU.

We then got thoroughly demolished in pretty much every game for the next 2.5 years

So needless to say my voice is completely shot and it was a great experience to see in person

I’ll resume “for serious” posting tomorrow, promise Good night folks!