Ahh, Spring...

6 Days

• 6 days till we leave for Cabo on Sunday, staying until Friday. We're staying at the Cabo Azul Resort in San Jose de Los Cabos, which has great reviews on tripadvisor. It should be amazing.
• Here's the thing. We booked this trip in late February, I was excited, I couldn't wait to go, then the excitement passes. By the time you start getting ready for the actual trip, it feels like old news.
• Ask me how I feel when I'm lying by the pool with a margarita.
• MyFoodDiary.com has changed the way I look at food. It makes you accountable for whatever you eat. You have no idea how motivating an unhappy face can be.
• Things that I used to think were light turn out to be unhealthy. I would sometimes get buttered toast for breakfast. Not any more. That shit is bad for you!
• A salad from Chipotle is surprisingly healthy, if you skip the cheese, sour cream and salad dressing. I was ordering one the other day when the lady ignored me and dropped a huge spoonful of sour cream as I watched in horror. They scraped off as much as they could. That one bite with sour cream was by far the best part.
• I am not leaving Mexico without going to a taco truck.
• I'm back into running in the park again. I find that the best tool to get me to exercise is shame. I set the alarm clock early and shame myself into getting up. I am my own gym teacher.
• I think I've figured out how to run downhill. It sounds easy, but you wind up plopping your feet down and basically trying not to fall. The trick is to lean back and sort of trot down, as if you're hopping. I'm sharing. I help people.
• I'm sparing you all the interesting facts from the Phish biography I'm reading. Your loss.
• The best time to go for an annual physical is right before a vacation. You'll never be healthier.
• We finally got our wedding pictures. It's only been three years. They arrived on a dvd and I can't wait to get post them. Of course, this is the time that my dvd drive decides to stop recognizing cds in the drive, so I can't access them. Curse you, hp pavilion entertainment pc!
• In other news, Nilda's never-ending-fill-the-apartment-with-furniture continues with the addition of a new cocktail table, which I am advised is a great deal. Both people reading the blog? Meet the new cocktail table. New cocktail table? Meet both people reading the blog.

Goldman Sachs Is Evil

This is my understanding, based on this and this. Goldman Sachs, like every other bank, bundled together all kinds of terrible mortgages together into securities. Once Goldman realized that the market was going to tank, it asked John A. Paulson, a prominent hedge fund manager who recognized the housing bubble, to pick which securities he thought were most likely to go first. Goldman then bundled those securities into a new stock called "Abacus." This means that Goldman was selling its customers a product that it knew was going to fail.

At the same time that Goldman was selling Abacus, it was preparing to make money off of Abacus' failure. Goldman bought a fancy-dancy insurance on the Abacus stocks, which are called credit default swaps, from AIG. The swaps, sold by insurance companies like AIG, provide that a certain payment be made if a stock drops below a certain value.

When Abacus failed, as Goldman knew it would, Goldman went to collect the billions it had coming back to it on the swaps. AIG didn't have the money, Goldman didn't care. AIG had to get the money from somewhere or else risk failing, which it was too big to do. All of Wall Street counts on AIG as a safety net, and losing that meant the collapse of the system. So, the Federal Reserve has no choice but to step in and grant a $182 billion bailout for AIG, making sure Goldman makes its money. By the way, the head of the Federal Reserve, Henry Paulson, used to be the head of Goldman Sachs. This didn't motivate the bailout, but it might have helped prevent requiring any oversight or putting through new regulations.

Maybe Goldman Sachs isn't evil. It's not that they knew everything that would happen, just that they hedged their investments wisely and, when the market collapsed, had positioned themselves to make out well. Or, they're just evil and completely manipulated the system.

Math Class April Fools

Ben Folds

If you squint, you can kind of see Ben Folds at Town Hall last night. It was a great show. He's an amazing song writer and seeing him live shows how good of a piano player he is. For anyone who cares, he played Annie Waits, Narcolepsy and Army, among others. No Bitches Ain't Shit, unfortunately, but what can you do. I can see why he's touring without a band. He doesn't have to rehearse with anyone, can improve without messing other people up and doesn't have to share. The only thing was that it sometimes felt like it was Ben playing all his greatest hits. Still, loved it.

A few weeks ago, he was going on Chatroulette on stage, while improvising on the piano. If you don't know what Chatroulette is, welcome to last week.

There was an opening act, but I have no idea who they were. Gary tells me it was the chick who sings the facebook song.

P.S. - The last time I was at Town Hall was taking BarBri and we were sitting in the same spot. This may not mean anything to you, but it made me think that I had post-traumatic stress disorder.

P.P.S. - If anyone knows how to keep the embeded videos from getting cut off, please tell me. Help.

Bad Bad Romance

This is Nicole if she were an overweight 8-year-old boy. The world needs to know.

Live Blogging The Trial: Day 5

Defense verdict. I don't want to talk about it.

Look, it was a tough case to begin with. We wouldn't have been at trial if it wasn't. I thought we put in a good case, thought. But maybe I'm too close. You can't really prepare for a trial without getting emotionally invested. I wonder how I would have felt if I had just heard the case for the first time, like the jury did.

At least - I feel - we got a fair shot. We knew when we started the lawsuit that this was a possibility. We signed up for this. I just hate that the asshole defense lawyer is now high-fiving himself. You're weren't that good, dickhead.

Jeff once wrote on his blog that you can't grow unless you leave your comfort zone. I've thought a lot about that the past week and I couldn't agree more. The next couple of days will suck, but I think we're better off for the experience.

Live Blogging The Trial: Day 4

I killed the expert. I felt good about the other witnesses I did during this trial, but this was different. I don't want to sound full of myself, but I beat the shit out of him. I found an article he wrote 11 years ago and tore him apart with it. I had this professional expert, who's done this many more times than me, shaking. I don't think he ever expected it from this twerp. America's got talent, bitch!

The evidence is in and the end is in sight. You could tell that it was a short day from the way the jury was dressed. They were all in nice clothes because they had to go to work afterwards.

We have summations tomorrow afternoon, jury charges and then the case goes to the jury. We would prefer the case to go to the jury on Thursday morning instead of the late afternoon on Wednesday. The concern is that the jury won't want to come back the next day and will reach a defense verdict just to end it. The jurors have been watching this story for a week now and have not been allowed to talk about it with anyone. They're going to want to talk about it. I also think they're going to be surprised by the different opinions they hear when they finally are allowed to talk about the case.

To answer all of you, yes, I have been making eye contact with the jury. Not crazy-I'm-gonna-stalk-you stares, but just not looking away. I don't know it makes any difference. I've got a job to do and making sure I stare at the jury isn't part of that.

Like in most cases, I think the case will be won or lost on summation. Yes, the jury makes up its mind early on, but the closing, when all the pieces of the puzzle are brought together, is where their opinions are cemented. I've decided not to start thinking about the outcome until after the closing. I've got a lot to worry about and shaking confidence isn't going to help. It's a hard case, but it went in well.

Live Blogging The Trial: Day 3

We have a full day of trial and then I spent most of the night preparing to cross the defendant's medical expert tomorrow morning, so this is going to have to be quick.

It's amazing how much the case can change after a day and a half of trial. Even after all the preparation we've done, all of Friday was dedicated to recalculating our strategy and figuring out how to handle the rest of the trial. Witnesses that we thought were essential were suddenly no longer needed. Even the defendant reduced their witness list. The case has become much

tighter.

Even though we can't speak to them, you can tell that the jury's demeanor has changed. Whereas they were trying to get out of jury duty, now they are invested and active members of the trial. They understand the importance of their role and take it seriously. Ironically, they know that the significance of their role gives them a certain freedom. The female juror who wore a suit on day 1 wears sweatpants on day 3.

I've been re-thinking this whole eye contact with the jury thing. Yes, I try to look at them, but I don't want to creep them out. But when I'm doing cross examination, I'm more focused on the witness than the jury, which is how I feel it should be. A cross examination is a lot like an open mic. You have a short amount of time to make your point before the crowd gets bored. You've got to put on a show to be memorable.

We have the last witness tomorrow and then the charging conference, to finalize what the judge will tell the jury as to the law they have to follow. Summations and jury charges will follow on Wednesday afternoon, since the judge is busy on Wednesday morning. It's good to be the judge. The jury will begin deliberations on Wednesday, we'll probably have a verdict on Thursday. I think our case is going in well, but don't ask me how I think the jury is going to find. I haven't thought about that yet.

Live Blogging The Trial: Day 2

• Things move a lot faster than I had imagined. Questioning that I had thought would take an hour took 10 minutes.
• Cross examination is much easier than direct. You can plan out cross question by question. Every question on direct, to a friendly witness, comes with the threat that your witness will say something stupid.
• And if your client messes up, the judge will blame you. And that will mean the jury will blame you, so you're screwed.
• After being so invested in our version of the facts, its jarring to hear the other lawyer ask questions. A case is like a novel with two authors who can't stand each other.
• Some lawyers make eye contact with the jurors, but that's just weird to me.
• I questioned a minor witness today. I did the got to do the whole walk up to the witness with a piece of paper and say "I'm showing you what's been marked as Exhibit blah blah blah." It felt a lot more stupid than I thought it would.
• One witness with a thick accent said that he was a "master baker" today. Three times. Hehehehe.
• Our trial strategy has slimmed dramatically in two days. People we thought we needed are now off our witness list. It's interesting to see how, after years of work, a case actually presents at trial.
• We're off tomorrow, back to court on Monday. We're expecting to rest on Monday. We may be able to close on Tuesday.