Titillating Technological Tidbits

I doesn't take me a long time to figure out electronic gadgets; however, understanding every little in and out of my blackberry has been quite the adventure for the past year or so. As some of our stalkers know, I wrote music and lyrics in a former life. Occasionally an idea or impulse arises and I have to record it somehow so that I won't forget. Yesterday morning I woke with a song in my head (a little Sherwood reference there). I sung it to myself in the shower and while getting ready for work. After I got into the car, I took out my blackberry and sung the idea and spoke some notes into my Voicenotes program. After I was finished, I backed out of the program and drove to work. My blackberry is in my jacket pocket of my suit all day long and, as I found out later, Voicenotes is a program which you must QUIT, not simply back out of. Because I did not properly exit the program it stayed active all day and made a recording any time that the talking around me was loud enough. As a result I have about three hours of recorded conversations involving investigations and courtroom chat. Additionally, I only noticed this after my battery was almost dead for the second time in two days (it usually only needs to be charged two times a week). I guess the point of this story is to warn all of you that the FBI may haul me off for investigation at any time. Luckily, I have already deleted the recordings without disseminating them to anyone else.

Still, I love technology...

PUPPIES!!

Okay, so I must confess, I have an obsession with puppies! Not all puppies though. I like baby beagles, labs, and huskies.....and those kinds of dogs. I don't like fluffy fur balls which in turn makes me a short haired fan. So my love for puppies, not dogs, but puppies has softened Dustin quite a bit. We passed the pet store today so of course I made Dustin stop. We went in and found a baby pek-a-chi, which is a mix of a Pekingse and a Chiwawa. Now we dont like either one of these dogs but we loved this little puppy. And by the time we left, which was almost an hour later, Dustin was wondering if we should move apartments so that we could buy this dog. I never thought those words would come out of his mouth. He did not grow up with dogs and is not a dog fan, but we both loved this short haired, 1 pound puppy. I have included a picture of what she kinda looked like! And for the purpose of this blog, we will call her Roxy.

Taking the Dive...

At the end of every semester, all across the country, law students remove themselves from the world. For me, that time starts today. I am about to attend my last law school class for the semester. That means it is officially finals time. Normally this type of behavior would have started earlier in April; however, I was lucky enough to have a week off before my brutal week of finals. Although Meredith will also be busy with school, I encourage all of you to occupy some of her time so that she won't feel my absence too keenly.

Before I go underground, I will provide a short update. Meredith and I have decided (almost certainly) to remain at BYU for my third and final year. There was some talk about being a visiting student at KU; however, the balance shifted and it is now more advantageous to remain. As for summer plans, Meredith earned a full-tuition scholarship for the spring/summer terms and will take classes full time. This means that SHE WILL BE GRADUATING IN AUGUST (an interesting little tidbit for our stalkers)!!!!! As for me, I have an offer in Kansas City and am waiting for word on several more across the nation. As a result, I will probably not be in Utah for a portion of the summer. I will try to remember to post my final decision on jobs when it happens.

An Eventful 24 Hours

The fun never ends. Thursdays are usually pretty slow for Meredith and me; however, yesterday was a definite exception to that tradition. March 5th is the day that two of my good friends were born: Drew and Joe (Uh oh, another name for the stalkers). I have known Joe for over ten years, and I think that we have done something every year for it. Sometimes it is just a phone call, but I rarely forget. I have known Drew since August of 2007 ,when we both started law school.

About a week ago, Drew's wife started planning a dinner get-together for Drew and some close friends. Meredith and I committed early in the week to participate in the dinner. On Tuesday, Joe's wife called and said that she was organizing a surprise gathering of Joe's friends and family for the same night. It worked out that we were able to attend both. Meredith went to work and I went to school around noon. Meredith left to get a haircut at 4.00pm and then came and got me at 5.00pm after class.

We went to dinner at Iggy's at 6.15 with Drew and company. It was nice. We ate, talked and laughed at him. As a side note, every year the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma sends out a birthday card at the beginning of your birthday month. I always receive mine around the 2nd or 3rd. Last year I gave my card to Drew for his birthday. It is a big joke that I am "Chief O'Kelley" and so anything Native American that I receive is somewhat humorous. I also gave him my card this year, with a picture of the actual Chief taped in it.

We left Iggy's at 7.30 so that we could get to Joe's on time to surprise him. We gave him a card that was probably meant to be given to a husband from a wife. It was quite mushy and sentimental. It made us all laugh. We played games and ate treats until 11.15 or so, and then headed home to get some sleep. We needed a lot so that we would be at our best for our appointment the next morning.

WESLEY!!!!!

Okay, ever since our unsuccessful encounter with pregnancy Meredith and I have been a little baby crazy. Meredith offers to babysit for most of our friends, but we don't get many that take us up on the offer. We thoroughly enjoyed taking care of Meredith's nephew, Hayden, over Christmas Break and we have some limited exposure to other children at church. A day or two ago, Meredith's friend, Eliza, called and asked if we could babysit Friday morning. We obviously agreed to do it. I hadn't met Wesley before today, so I didn't know what to expect. He arrived a little before 9 and left around 12 and we had a blast the entire time. He is a smart little kid. Meredith tells me that I always talk to babies/toddlers like they are actual people and I did that today also. When I went into the office to make a phone call, Wesley followed me in. Because he was standing there waiting for me to play with him, I explained that I had to make a phone call and I would play with him afterwards. He looked at me, sort of nodded his head and then sat down to wait for me to finish my stuff. So cute!

Additionally, at about 9.15, I got a call from a law firm in Cedar City, UT offering me a part-time law clerk position. I accepted. The firm has practices in business organization, securities, real estate and tax. These are a lot of areas that I am interested in. It is some litigation; however, any exposure to these practice areas will be beneficial. As an extra perk, I get to work from home because they are located 3 hours away. I am excited to start on Monday, but this probably doesn't ease my job search for the summer.

Since this is kind of an update post, Meredith has asked me to also post some pictures of her new hair style. Please, feel free to comment away. She had over three inches off. Did you even think that was possible? She also discovered that her bangs appear much fuller if they are swept to the right, instead of the left as she has previously had it. I have to admit, I like it quite a bit more than the A-line haircut that she has had for the last 18 months. I liked that one also, I just like this one more.

Hick Date

The first semester of law school Meredith and I went on a "hick date" with three couples from law school. We drove to Heber, ate at Dairy King (that isn't a typo) and went bowling at a charming little alley. This past week, the boys (that is what Meredith calls my law school group) decided we need to replicate that date. Because one of the wives now had a job in SLC, we decided to keep this "hick date" a little closer to home. The images and accompanying explanations may be disturbing. It is recommended that only those age 14 and older continue reading this post. Last names have been withheld to prevent our stalkers from jumping over to another couple...

Hick Date Credits (Listed in the Order of Appearance):

Emily, aka Pumpkin Tits
We honestly have no idea where this nickname comes from. Her husband, Miles, first revealed it last October during a group overnight in a cabin in the mountains. Needless to say, Emily was less than thrilled to have her nickname flashed up on the board. Emily ended up winning the second game narrowly over Miles. As you can see, her form is excellent and it came through for her in the second game. Emily played a focused game while bowling; however, according to Meredith, Emily did participate in the wilder activities. None were captured by our photographers.

Miles, aka Slaur
Again, the origination of this nickname is shrouded in mystery. Miles was the powerhouse player, finishing in first place the first game and second place the second. Miles has a careful, methodical approach which allows him to harness his great power. Miles plays his game seriously, never giving succumbing to whimsy or showmanship. Miles is also one who encourages others, never insulting or booing. Perhaps most attentive to the games of others, Miles was always there with an encouraging word after a less-than-successful attempt. Because of his placement on the end of the seating, there are few pictures of this elusive participant. It looks like Miles is simply placing the ball on the ground, but at the end of this bowl there were no pins left standing.

Dustin, aka The Hulk
I am by far the biggest person in this group. The others guys are kind of slight in build - something I have never had - and run or bike more than they lift. I am not the tallest, but even at my skinniest I carry more weight around than these guys do. Thus, the nickname. The bowling alley had almost brand-new equipment that made bowling that much more entertaining. One of these features tracked the speed of each bowl. Because of this, many of my bowls in the first game were made to reach the highest speed possible. Unfortunately, no bowl from any participant was able to break 20.9 mph. We think that there was a cap on the speed that the screen would display because I definitely threw some 20.9s faster than others. I ended up getting the lowest score on the first game, a 69. The second game I focused and used a combination of right and left-handed throws (right for power and left for accuracy). This allowed me to finish 3rd in the second game. I do not have great form. My only advantage was the ability to send pins flying in all directions at alarming rates of speed.

Meredith, aka The Rail
I think this nickname is obvious; however, I think it makes a nice contrast to mine. Meredith takes a laid back approach to bowling. She used an 8 pound ball - one of the lightest if not the lightest ball any of us used. Even using a light ball, it was probably too heavy for her to bowl with (demonstrated by the video below). It is so cute that she practically just drops the ball at the end of her swing. Despite this difficulty, Meredith took home the silver for the first game. Unfortunately, her strength didn't last and she placed last in the second. Meredith is credited with some of the photography and cinematography for this post. As for the extra-curricular activities, Meredith was purposefully absent from the shenanigans that were instigated by others.
In addition to braving the adventures of bowling and the potential embarrassment in associating with these people, Meredith also gritted her teeth and continued bowling despite the war it was waging on her nails. Meredith isn't really that particular about her nails; however, she had just gotten them to the length and "roundness" that she felt was perfect earlier this week. She lost three nails on her right hand in the name of camaraderie.

Meg, aka Kim Jong Kill
Meg is part Korean. Her husband is in law school and a political science undergrad major. I believe that the formulation of her nickname stems from this. Meg is a fairly quiet participant in most of the activities that we do as a group. When her attempt didn't go as planned, we got a one-armed swing in front of her body. When the attempt was good, it was a double-armed swing. Although Meg wasn't a power player, her presence kept her husband, Drew, from getting too wild. She and Meredith sat quietly together and observed the embarrassing antics of their husbands while managing not to get embarrassed. There are rumors that someday these two women will be rewarded for their patience.

Drew, aka Sloth
I believe that the story was told regarding this nickname; however, I didn't hear it. From what I gather, it has something to do with Meg's family and the character Sloth from the movie "Goonies." Drew is the "prankster" of the group. He and Spencer have known each other for many years and, as a result, Drew torments Spencer at every opportunity. Drew was constantly laughing at Spencer's bowling form, Spencer's random acts of dancing and frequently directing the group on how to respond to participant's bowling attempts. These ranged from clapping for gutter balls to booing for any attempt made by a certain person. Drew was also a competitor in the speed challenge, coming up with a speed of 20.9 mph. Again, we believe that the speed display was capped at this speed, since it seems unlikely that two different people using the same ball would throw at the same speed consistently. At times, Drew's antic interfered with another participant's game. In particular, our photographers captured a disturbing image involving one of Spencer's more creative bowls and one of Drew's more aggresive pranks. As for involvement in the extra-curricular activities, Drew was one of the most active. While Dustin demonstrated possible moves that could be done, Drew would take them to the next level and perform them for all who would watch. I believe that Drew finished middle-of-the-pack in both games.

Cate, aka Mrs. Carlos Boozer
Cate thinks that Carlos Boozer of the Utah Jazz is hot stuff. This is something that comes up almost every time that all four couples get together. I guess what I am saying is that the nickname just seemed to fit. Cate was the only one who got into the spirit of the date by wearing a hick-ish outfit. Cate was a fierce bowler who approached each attempt with the goal of getting a strike. Careful, calculated and powerful, Cate had a solid performance in both games that allowed her to finish third overall. There was much commentary and amazement at the angle of her back ankle at the end of each bowl. The participants had never seen such an extreme angle achieved outside of sports injuries. Although Cate did participate in some of the crazy antics, she was mostly engrossed in conversation with Emily. This probably saved her a lot of embarrassment, as her husband, Spencer, was randomly breaking out into song, dance and a number of other noticeable activities.

Spencer, aka Thunder Tights
This nickname was created on the spot. Someone suggested Thunder Thighs and I made a joke that I had seen him running in spandex and it might be an appropriate name. Miles then made a unilateral decision to change the nickname to Thunder Tights. Spencer put in an odd performance. There is really no other way to describe his game. Spencer frequently approaches bowling and throws with his right hand off his right foot. Since Drew was getting too much laughter out of this method, I suggested that Spencer throw off his left foot. This ended up making all of us laugh, as Spencer had a difficult time in coordinating his body to the new method. He continued to experiment with different methods throughout the night, giving him a finish that was near the bottom both times. Luckily, he was distracted from this fact by his own involvement with singing and dancing. This publication votes Spencer the Most Entertaining Aspect of Hick Date.

The Big Picture

Just to clarify, this post has nothing to do with photography, painting or other forms of art. I apologize that I got your hopes up that I had something interesting to say.

As most of you know, I am in my second year of law school at BYU. It has been an adventure from the start. I must confess that I haven't enjoyed the "entire law school experience." The law is generally (and this definitely a generalization) divided into litigation and transactions. Law school is very focused on making people litigators, or those who deal with trials and go to court. I have never been interested in being a litigator. There is some appeal to Appellate work as it deals mostly with the legal questions only and not questions of fact; however, it wasn't enough to convince me to become a litigator.

I entered the law with the desire to do transactional work. My favorite aspect of undergrad was economics. I know that makes me a nerd and I don't care. The combination of predictions, numbers and business made it the perfect way to hold my interest while also engaging my brain. In the second-to-last semester of undergrad I took a class called "Law and Economics." At this point I had not really thought about attending law school, but I thought that I would give it a try. This is probably what finally pushed me to research and register for the LSAT. The majority of our time was spent on contracts and efficient compensation when dealing with damages and precautionary measures. I love contracts. I love efficiency. I love Meredith. I took Contracts during my first semester of law school and it remains my highest grade to this point (although there really isn't much room to improve on that grade).

The problem with law school being so focused on litigation is that there isn't much for the transactions people to do. All of the competitions are about oral arguments and brief writing. It is difficult to do any transactional work until you are actually practicing and, even then, you will probably end up doing "due diligence," reading documents involved in the transaction, for the first couple of years of practice. As a result, it is more difficult to find a job as a 2L in transactional work than it is to find work in litigation. During the Fall semester I had plenty of interviews for transactional work; however, the economy took a really hard turn right after these interviews. As a result, law firms in general have scaled back hiring. Transactional attorneys have been hit really hard because their jobs depend on companies actually having money, through cash or credit, to make deals with other companies. Plenty of firms are laying off transactional attorneys which obviously means that they aren't really hiring 2Ls at this time.

Since last October I have been searching for a job in any area of law that I can. I have met with some success, most of it being in Kansas City. Unfortunately, I am not the kind of person who can "act" in a job interview. These interviews that I obtained were 100% litigation, sometimes in areas of law that I hold absolutely no interest in. I can only assume that my lack of enthusiasm for the work I was interviewing for came through during the interview. I had one interview with the Federal Immigration Court in Dallas, TX which actually appealed to me. I hadn't had any exposure to immigration law and I thought that it might be interesting. I was still excited about the opportunity after the interview; however, the position was unpaid. This wasn't a huge deal because I could still get school credit and experience. Recently, however, I have finally found some clarity and comfort regarding my job search.

I flew into Kansas City on President's Day because I had an interview with a firm in Overland Park the next day. I was extremely excited for the interview because the website said that the firm practiced a number of transactional areas as well as some litigation. I thought that exposure to both would be MUCH better than all litigation. The interview went really well. I enjoyed the company of everyone that I met with and they seemed to enjoy me. The founding partner was extremely honest with me. He told me that my chances were good, but that they were interviewing someone with better academic qualifications the next day. He told me that it wasn't certain that there were even hiring anyone. He said that my chances were good: my resume was impressive, my grades were good, I am a minority and everyone I met with liked me a lot. This was encouraging. The only negative of this entire interview was that the majority of their practice was tort defense. As an economist, I feel that tort reform is necessary in the US. Tort defense is a noble sort of way to fight against excessive tort litigation; however, tort litigation is one of my least favorite things in the law. The firm does do transactional work, but it is only two or three attorneys out of the 25 in the firm. The founding partner said that I would probably do a couple transactional projects, but the majority of my work would be from the rest of the firm. Still, I was pretty excited. I was told to keep in contact with the firm and let them know about any changes in my plans. They wouldn't be making a decision for another 3-4 weeks, so there was plenty of room for plans to change.

So I flew back to SLC after a couple of days in Kansas. I don't have a lot of time to spend with Meredith because I spend so much of my non-school time searching for a job. As a result, I watch movies with my laptop in front of me sending out resumes, corresponding with networking contacts and looking through websites to find a job. As the next couple of days passed, I became more and more discontent with the fact that I would have to be a litigator because the economy chose to tank at this time. I do what I can to get good grades, interview well and find a job that will support my family; however, I just couldn't believe that I would have to spend years in a career that I hated in order to pay off my student loans. When choosing law schools, BYU was the last place that I wanted to go. I didn't even want to apply but did because of several external influences. My final choice in April of 2007 came down to BYU or KU. BYU was significantly higher in the rankings and slightly more expensive but had a better reputation for placing people in Big Law. KU had a wider, more interesting offering of classes and was in an area closer to home. At his point I wasn't sure if I wanted to practice on the East Coast or go back to the Midwest, so I prayed about my decision. I got the overwhelming feeling to go to BYU. Logic and spiritual guidance pointed towards BYU, so I made the decision to go. Meredith and I have since decided that we would like to return to the Midwest, barring any outstanding offer from another area. This has limited the job fields available.

Anyways, back to the job search. On Sunday I kind of went crazy. I somehow stumbled across a government job working as a law clerk for a government agency that regulates financial markets. I have known for quite a while that the best way to work with contracts and my other interests was to work in financial aspects of law. I find myself interested in banking law, securities, corporate transactions and others areas that are closely related. Earlier this academic year I had the desire to work for the Securities Exchange Commission, but I had missed the application deadline. Finding this government job posting led me to several other postings that offered jobs in exactly what I wanted to do. This is when I realized that, similarly to my choosing a law school, I did not know where to research for job possibilities or how to do it when I had really needed it. Finding these jobs on Sunday made me realize that there were plenty of options in government to work in the areas that I wanted. Also, I had always heard that the pay was dreadful. In comparison to Big Law it might be dreadful (about 45% of Big Law pay) but it would be enough to accomplish the financial goals that Meredith and I had. That night, I couldn't sleep and got up to search for more jobs. I applied to anything and everything that involved contracts or financial markets. It was entertaining, but I don't think anything will come of it.

Later in the week I spoke with one of my professors. It was a fairly long conversation, but the main thrust was that he had felt in law school that if he couldn't do what he wanted, he would look outside of the law. This was a sort of revelation for me. I had always known this realization but had never articulated it to myself. I don't want to practice law if I can't practice it in the areas that I want. I can use my JD in other areas, though it may not be practicing law. The day before this realization I had been made an offer by the Immigration Court of Dallas. I had asked for a couple of days to discuss it with Meredith and think about it. After discussions and realizations, we decided to reject the offer. We went to the temple to seek confirmation of a number of things, including our decision to reject the offer. It isn't very comforting to reject the only offer for legal experience that you have on the table, but we felt it was the right thing to do logically and spiritually.

Do what you love and the money will follow. I can't say that I am happy with my current employment situation, but I am happy with my current direction. It has been tough road so far and will probably continue to be so for some time. I guess this will help Meredith and me to grow together. It will be interesting to see how this new direction plays out.

I'm Healed

So I woke up this morning and realized that I have been healed. For the past 10 days I have been fighting something that combined flu-like symptoms with a sinus infection. I just thought you (stalkers) would all like to know that know that I am healed I get to catch up on the past week of law school work. This means I need to read about 700 pages before tomorrow at 10am. Wish me luck!

In the Beginning There Was Nothing

Hello! This will eventually turn into a wealth of information concerning Dustin & Meredith Kelley. We are excited to share tons of personal information with friends, family and any internet stalkers. We hope you guys enjoy this as much as we have enjoyed changing the colors of the background and fonts. Thanks for stoppin' by!