Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 11, 2014 in
Background I’ve learned after writing this blog for almost 5 years now that I have -0- clue what the future is going to hold.
See, e.g., me thinking I might make it to Marine Corps OCS (nope), or me thinking I might become a prosecutor (negative), or my in-retrospect-absurdly-ambitious plans for NC SPICE (LOL).
So I made sure to eschew making any predictions when I got asked the inevitable question of what I looked forward to in my undergraduate alma mater’s future. 
Here’s the last snippet from the interview, followed by some stuff on my history with traffic tickets:
Questions in this Clip:
00:00 – What do you look forward to for the future at NC State?
01:46 – Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?
03:03 – Outtake: Traffic Tickets
And that’s it! Hopefully over these past 9 entries you’ve got a slightly more detailed view of the man-behind-the-blog. 
Back to law-related stuff in the weeks ahead 
Hope all of you have had a great weekend, and enjoy the upcoming week!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
Tags: About TDot, NC SPICE, NC State, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Wolfpack, TDot.TV
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 10, 2014 in
Background Many years ago, back during the days-you-couldn’t-pay-me-to-relive when I was a 1L, I wrote this entry on LRA mentioning how my computer science background helped me with studying law (and also how I hated LRA 
).
That was the main topic in the penultimate snippet from my interview with the NCSU Libraries as part of their Student Leadership Initiative — not just how computer science prepared me for law school, but how my NC State education in general factored in.
Before we get to that though, you get to witness me being stumped by a question because the thing I thought was the highlight of my career in Student Senate was dead by the time I had the interview
Questions in this Clip:
00:00 – What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment as a student leader at NC State?
02:11 – Do you think your time at NC State has prepared you so far for law school?
06:07 – Could you talk a little bit about how your time at State has influenced your life more broadly?
Only one more video left, then I’ll get back to law-related stuff Good night y’all!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
Tags: 1L, About TDot, LRA, NC State, NCCU Law, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Student Senate, SG, TDot.TV
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 9, 2014 in
Background Long-time readers of law:/dev/null have likely already come across at least one of the several dozen entries I’ve posted over the years on the UNC Association of Student Governments under our UNCASG tag and the Student Government category
If my time leading the Student Senate was best characterized as a hobby, UNCASG quickly developed into an obsession.
The group had grown so wholly and completely dysfunctional that it was practically begging for unconventional leadership, and I truly felt called to step up and fix it. So I eventually teamed up with the Pickle Princess to burn everything to the ground and start over — with N.C. State as my template.
But first there was the whole issue of running for reelection for the purpose of vanquishing a certain villain…
Questions in this Clip:
00:00 – So what factors influenced your decision to run for reelection?
07:27 – How did you handle both responsibilities as Student Senate President and ASG President?
Hope all of you have had a great week, and enjoy your weekend!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
Tags: About TDot, NC State, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Student Senate, SG, TDot.TV, The Pickle Princess, UNCASG
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 8, 2014 in
Background Every good story needs a good villain, and during my tenure as N.C. State‘s Student Senate President that villain was the Student Body President.
It might have been my own fault, informing the then-President-elect “I’m not taking any sh*t off the Executive Branch” — on the night we got elected
Maybe I never gave him a fair shake because I’d always hated the Office of the Student Body President as an institution.
Or perhaps it really was how I saw it at the time: our two paths diverging over the failed leadership of the statewide UNC Association of Student Governments, and the fissures growing with each misstep from there.
Whatever the reason, the discord was sufficiently epic that it became the single longest response to any question I got asked as part of my interview with the Student Leadership Initiative. Take a look:
Questions in this Clip:
00:00 – Can you describe how you collaborated with other Student Government branches, particularly your relationship with Student Body President Bobby Mills?
Needless to say I wasn’t a member of the fan club
Thanks for watching, have a great night!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
Tags: About TDot, NC State, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Student Senate, NCSU Technician, Race Relations, SG, TDot.TV, UNCASG
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 7, 2014 in
Background So what would you do if you suddenly found yourself elected to public office with a huge mandate… and no platform?
That’s the question-behind-the-question of this next snippet of my interview with the NCSU Libraries Student Leadership Initiative.
Here’s a hint: we did a lot of things for the first time ever, and didn’t give three-tenths of half a damn what the University Administration thought about it
Questions in this Clip:
00:00 – So following your election to the presidency, did you make an effort to instate Hankins as Student Senate President?
02:23 – So you just mentioned the fee referendum, so we’ll talk about that if you don’t mind. Can you describe the student fee referendum and how your administration implemented it?
08:45 – As Student Senate President, you called for Congressional repeal of a bill that limited financial aid given to students with drug convictions. What inspired you to advocate for that issue?
Hope all of you had a great Wednesday! More tomorrow
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From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
Tags: About TDot, NC State, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Student Senate, NCSU Technician, SG, TDot.TV, Tuition & Fees
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 6, 2014 in
Background It’s an odd bit of serendipity that today’s video in the NCSU Student Leadership Initiative snippets I’ve been posting happens to coincide with Election Day nationwide.
When I finally rejoined the N.C. State Student Senate in April 2006, I was the campus equivalent of a snakebitten candidate. My initial spot in the Student Senate was only via appointment; when I ran in my first real election in March 1999, I foolishly filed for Student Senate President (as a 17-year-old) and got walloped. I ran again in March 2000 only to get pulled off the ballot en route to dropping out. Then I tried for a simple Student Senate seat in March 2006, with 4 candidates running for 3 College of Engineering seats…
…and I came in 4th out of 4, losing to a guy who didn’t even campaign
So after starting 0-for-3* in the election arena, I finally had an uncontested race for a Senate seat going into March 2007 and was looking forward to getting my first notch in the “Win” column.
Then I gave it up.
The rest of the story is too crazy for words, so here’s the video:
Questions in this Clip:
0:00:00 – During that time period, the Elections Commission decided to remove Student Senator James Hankins from the Student Senate President ballot. Can you talk about that, and your response to his removal?
Thanks for watching I hope all of your respective candidates won on this particular Primary Election Day!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
- Part 1 of 9: The Backstory (05/03/14)
- Part 2 of 9: In the Beginning… (05/04/14)
- Part 3 of 9: Dropping Out (05/05/14)
- Part 4 of 9: Prelude to Revolution (05/06/14) [this post]
- Part 5 of 9: Party Time in Witherspoon (05/07/14)
- Part 6 of 9: “Collaboration” (05/08/14)
- Part 7 of 9: SSP Round Two and UNCASG (05/09/14)
- Part 8 of 9: Law School (05/10/14)
- Part 9 of 9: Traffic Tickets (05/11/14)
Tags: About TDot, NC State, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Student Senate, NCSU Technician, Serendipity, SG, TDot.TV
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 5, 2014 in
Background Most folks I meet don’t believe it when they find out I was once a homeless college dropout. I’ve mentioned it occasionally here at law:/dev/null but I generally don’t talk about it in person — it’s not exactly an uplifting topic!
Well of course that ended up being one of the topics of discussion during my interview with the N.C. State Libraries as part of their Student Leadership Initiative (links to Part 1 and Part 2 are below).
We also chat about me helping to shepherd a few items through the Student Senate on my return, including the creation of a campus LGBT Center.
Enjoy
Questions in this Clip:
00:00 – You’ve spoken about the challenges you faced while you were a student, specifically your time as a self-described “college dropout.” Can you talk a little bit about why you dropped out and what factors influenced your decision to return?
08:21 – As a Student Senator, you authored many bills including the Student Media Independence Referendum and a bill that supported the establishment of a campus LGBT center. Can you talk about your decision to support these bills?
I’m off for a weekly poker night with one of my mentors and his friends Have a great night y’all!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
- Part 1 of 9: The Backstory (05/03/14)
- Part 2 of 9: In the Beginning… (05/04/14)
- Part 3 of 9: Dropping Out (05/05/14) [this post]
- Part 4 of 9: Prelude to Revolution (05/06/14)
- Part 5 of 9: Party Time in Witherspoon (05/07/14)
- Part 6 of 9: “Collaboration” (05/08/14)
- Part 7 of 9: SSP Round Two and UNCASG (05/09/14)
- Part 8 of 9: Law School (05/10/14)
- Part 9 of 9: Traffic Tickets (05/11/14)
Tags: "Real" world rants..., About TDot, Money Money Money, Nan & Pops, NC State, NCCU Law, NCSU Libraries, TDot.TV, The Parents, Top Gun
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 4, 2014 in
Background Happy Star Wars Day everybody, and May the Fourth be with you
Yesterday I gave y’all the background behind a 1.5-hour long oral history project I did with the N.C. State Libraries — if you haven’t read that entry yet, you’ll want to do that before watching the video below so you understand why they ask the things they ask.
Go ahead. We’ll wait.
The interview is broken into 8 snippets of around 10 minutes or so apiece. Here’s the first one, on my background and deciding to come to NC State:
And for those who like knowing what they’re about to watch, here are the questions they ask me and the timestamps for them:
Questions in this Clip:
0:00:19 – Before we begin talking about your time at State, we’d like to talk to you about where you’re originally from?
0:00:48 – Do you have any siblings?
0:00:58 – What factors influenced your decision to attend NC State?
0:02:11 – Did you live on campus?
0:02:31 – Can you describe what it was like to live on campus?
0:03:45 – What campus events or clubs did you participate in?
0:06:37 – What did you hope to gain from your involvement in Student Government?
0:07:55 – Following your first year as a Student Senator, you campaigned for Student Senate President. Can you describe that?
Next video tomorrow — good night folks!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
- Part 1 of 9: The Backstory (05/03/14)
- Part 2 of 9: In the Beginning… (05/04/14) [this post]
- Part 3 of 9: Dropping Out (05/05/14)
- Part 4 of 9: Prelude to Revolution (05/06/14)
- Part 5 of 9: Party Time in Witherspoon (05/07/14)
- Part 6 of 9: “Collaboration” (05/08/14)
- Part 7 of 9: SSP Round Two and UNCASG (05/09/14)
- Part 8 of 9: Law School (05/10/14)
- Part 9 of 9: Traffic Tickets (05/11/14)
Tags: About TDot, Nan & Pops, NC State, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Student Senate, SG, TDot.TV
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on May 3, 2014 in
Background Out of the 561 published posts here at law:/dev/null, only about 9% or so are actually about me — who I am as a local internet legend ( 
), as opposed to my travails as a mediocre student / slightly-less-mediocre student politician / not-mediocre-but-broke solo practitioner.
Some of those T.-centric posts are squirreled away here in the Background category, while the rest mostly fall under the About TDot tag. Among them you’ll find the occasional disclosures like me being an extra in a Disney movie, thoroughly embarrassing myself academically in undergrad, and accepting my fate as a bald guy.
Well for the next week I’m going to take a break from writing about law stuff to share a smidge more about myself — and in video form!
Back in 2010, the N.C. State Libraries started a really cool project called the Student Leadership Initiative, where the Special Collections folks were gathering oral histories from past Student Body Presidents about their times at the University.
I’ve always had a visceral hatred of the office of the Student Body Presidency though, even going as far as writing a preemptive resignation letter to my Senate President Pro Tempore in case the SBP were ever removed. So I kindly impressed upon the Libraries staff the importance of getting other non-SBP leaders, ideally including folks from the Student Senate.
They graciously agreed, and included one of my closest friends and political allies among the interviewees.
Then a year later, back during October of my 3L year, they invited me 
The final resulted ended up being this snazzy page with some of my SG-related highlights (and lowlights ) and a few video snippets of me rambling about campus life.
And if that wasn’t cool enough for me — certified Student Government geek with his geekery enshrined on one of his alma mater’s websites — they recently sent me a DVD with the whole doggone interview! 
So naturally I’m going to post it here
That’s it for this entry tonight. I wanted to give you the backstory on what to expect, and for the rest of this week I’ll be posting one chunk of the interview each day so you can learn a little bit more about your friendly neighborhood blogger
Have a great night y’all!
—===—
From the law:/dev/null Student Leadership Initiative-related archives:
- Part 1 of 9: The Backstory (05/03/14) [this post]
- Part 2 of 9: In the Beginning… (05/04/14)
- Part 3 of 9: Dropping Out (05/05/14)
- Part 4 of 9: Prelude to Revolution (05/06/14)
- Part 5 of 9: Party Time in Witherspoon (05/07/14)
- Part 6 of 9: “Collaboration” (05/08/14)
- Part 7 of 9: SSP Round Two and UNCASG (05/09/14)
- Part 8 of 9: Law School (05/10/14)
- Part 9 of 9: Traffic Tickets (05/11/14)
Tags: About TDot, NC State, NCSU Libraries, NCSU Student Senate, SG, TDot.TV
Posted by T. Greg Doucette on Apr 30, 2012 in
Things TDot Likes Back during 2L Fall I mentioned in this ConLaw-centric Things TDot Likes entry that I like knowing when the stuff I do helps someone else.
It’s one of the reasons I’ve kept law:/dev/null going, why I host outlines on the blog and post how-to videos on YouTube, and that sort of thing — contrary to popular belief, it’s less about being an attention whore and more about (i) representing my law school and (ii) hoping to improve the law school experience for the folks coming after me.
I don’t expect that of course, but that’s the goal And hearing that it’s worked always brightens up my day.
Today was one of those days:
Nicest. Message. Evah.
Hey dude…just wanted to say thanks for all the videos you’ve uploaded on Youtube. I’m on the mock trial team at [redacted] University in [redacted], and our school is mostly transactional so we don’t have a lot of coaching/budget /trial resources. I thought you’d like to know that your videos have helped me enormously in preparation for the TYLA regional competition and the [redacted] Mock Trial Comp as well as in becoming a semi-finalist in the [redacted] Closing Argument Competition hosted annually by our school. My friends and I have been studying your movement, inflections, introduction of the burden, use of themes, use of jury instructions, and your acting skills for our trial ad classes. You’ve become kind of a legend down here lol. Anyway, just wanted to reach out, say thanks, and wish you luck in the future. And of course, looking forward to any more entertaining and educational videos you may post in the future.Best Regards, [redacted]
That has to be one of the very best messages I’ve ever gotten on Facebook. It not only put me in a great mood, but validated why I do what I do — and gave me extra motivation to keep things going and (hopefully) get the blog updated sooner rather than later.
I don’t expect that either of course, but that’s the goal 
Good night y’all!
—===—
From the Things TDot Likes archives:
Tags: 3L, About TDot, NCCU Law, TDot.TV, Trial Team, TYLA
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