Good evening spies I am happy to have gathered you all here. To prepare for your mission you are going to find your secret identity. Hello everyone! As you can probably guess I went to the Spy museum this weekend and was in my own nirvana. So a few things you should know about the spy museum: 1) It is very kid oriented 2) The museum does not give all of the details of a spy's life (no matter how much we want them to) 3) There is a whole floor dedicated to James Bond 4) They do give a lot of details about being a spy in the 'good old days' As a girl who grew up watching James Bond save the world from evil. I wasn't too upset that there was a whole floor dedicate to Agent 007. The museum draws you right in starting you off just like you are a real spy letting you pick your own mission and undercover persona. You then watch a short introductory film with a narrator that sounds like Madame M from James Bond. Then you go through "spy training" where you test your memory of your cover story and finding drop locations even being able to crawl through an air vent. In "spy training" the museum intersperses actual spy tools and devices used by actual spies. The museum also slightly discusses the consequences of when a spy is captured. However, as I said before it was a very kid friendly museum so the nook did not go into gory detail focusing on a life in prison and not a tortuous death. Now obviously it is all materials that are no longer used by spies because they are currently hidden in the nation’s secrets. But I did see some fascinating old weapons such as the one seen below. There was the second floor dedicated to the history of spies and how over the years there role has changed. Believe it or not Benjamin Franklin was a modern day spy, writing letters to British-German troops and hiding them in their supplies causing some of them to leave the British militia. They also gave tribute to spies in other nations such as in the British and of course the ninjas in Asia. Below you can see a statue of a ninja in typical garb. The last step in the spy museum is the James Bond exhibit. This exhibit went through James Bond’s entire glorious career. So this is the root of my captivation with James Bond, all of the villains in the James Bond movies reflect real villains in current times. The villains focus on drug, and diamond trade for some movies, then moving to nuclear war fears, with villains trying to convince nation leaders to start an all ending nuclear war destroying the world, while the villains hide in space or under the sea. As seen in the latest James Bond movie we see the exploits of cyber warfare and that is all I will say for those who have not seen it. Now several feminists have a problem with all of the women who fawn over Agent 007. Now I am not saying that I am exactly thrilled with how women are always portrayed in the movies; but especially when the earlier movies were made women were not super heroes. It was always a man who defeated the Villains in the end. This is a reality we thankfully do not need to live with anymore since the woman revolution. The revolution is apparent throughout the movies when we have a Madame Director of MI 6. *stepping down from platform* The exhibit on the other hand was really cool to see the touch screens revealing sharks swimming in your face and a metal pole you could hold on to compare your strength against James Bonds. Below is a picture of all of the propaganda in the stairwell leading to the exhibit. On a more academic note for this week, I started my poster project for the end of the semester and have shopped around for topics for my final paper. At my internship this week I wrote the answers to a set of interrogatories. Interrogatories are inquiries each side makes requesting document production during discovery. So I was really excited to do the answers for the OAG. Obviously, the attorney I wrote them for must look them over and then my supervisor must also approve it, but I was excited and very nervous that the Attorney would let me write them. I also prepared and reviewed an exhibit binder, finished printing around 1500 emails for document production, called witnesses for deposition preparation and wrote a Rule 37 Letter. A Rule 37 Letter is the next step after you receive document production if the opposing side does not fully answer your interrogatories. I am not going to lie that it was fun to go through and see what the opposing side did wrong. I think it went well because then the same lawyer then asked me to write another one! On Tuesday night I went to a talk by Norman J. Ornstein on his most recent book. The discussion also included Mark Chester a photographer who produced a book of photographs of juxtaposing pictures. My favorites were of one of a young married couple compared to an old married couple and a glasses shop compared to a pair of glasses framing a beach scene. The night turned into a serious talk on the media, how it has changed over the years and the direction it is heading. After the event Mr. Ornstein was signing books so I had him sign my book we read for class called It’s even worse than it looks by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein. Well I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and I hope that even if you are not with your families you still have a wonderful time this holiday!
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Hello everyone! So I went to the Supreme Court this week and was able to see two oral arguments presented for two cases. As you all can imagine I was super excited. My friend Nicole and I stood out in the cold for an hour and a half to get inside the building. As usual I forgot my hat, scarf and gloves in my rush to get out the door but, it was so worth the wait! Nicole and I were very fortunate to get inside because they cut the acceptance line off for the first case two people after us. While our friend David who arrived later had to wait and extra half hour to get into the second court case. After going through our first round of security to get inside the building we placed our coats and everything but our notebooks and a pen in a locker because they are not admitted into the courtroom. Once we placed our coats and bags in a locker we had to go through another security check to make sure we were only bringing in paper and a pen. This unfortunately made it so I could not take any pictures inside the court room. The first court case was about gun laws. The main issue was if you are apart of a crime where a gun is used but you do not know that a gun was meaning to be used should you still be charged for the gun crime. We have been discussing gun laws in class and with all of the shootings that are currently occuring it seemed to be very appropriate to attend. The second court case concerned drugs and if an addict dies of an overdose is the drug dealer responsible for there death. It was so amazing to see these lawyers argue in front of the Justices. Who were by no means holding back in there line of questioning. They asked serious questions that would have made me cringe if I was the lawyer at the podium. I think the scariest one was in the second court case when the Judge asked why the lawyer refused to reference the experts in his court case and kept on using hypothetical experts. The same Justice also asked why they were using a law school hypothetical to try and support there case. It was also great to watch the Justices on the bench. There was one appeared to be falling asleep, while another had his head in his hands, some were taking notes, or fighting to ask questions. It was amazing to see them all interacting with one another. We watched a movie after court giving an over view of the Supreme Court which showed the Justices giving there opinion on certain aspects of there job which added to the experiance of seeing them in court. I made several observations while I was at the Supreme Court. 1) They arguments involved masses of hypothetical arguments 2) You need to be on the top of your game when you argue at the Supreme Court 3) The building was very grand to fit the weight of the cases considered there 4) The Justices are brazen and do not walk on eggshells This week has been jam packed. I have visited three tourist attractions, along with plenty of work at my internship. Where did I go you ask? I went to Archives, Arlington Cemetery and the Nation History Museum. Attraction 1: Archives After class on Tuesday I went to visit the Archives. I knew I needed visit them before I left DC because I get off at the Archives stop almost every day for my internship. This was a bit annoying because I could not take any pictures once I was inside with the documents. On the other hand, it was nice to be able to see our constitution and the Declaration of Independence. One thing that I was not expecting when I visited these historical pieces of history was I my inability to read the documents. This was not because they were written in ornate handwriting, it was because they were so sun bleached you could barely read it. But the guards around the documents were very nice providing an unending stream of knowledge concerning the documents. Attraction 2: Arlington Cemetery on Saturday, I went to Arlington Cemetery. It was more powerful than I was expecting. At home I used to run through cemeteries for cross country practice, so I have been somewhat desensitized to cemeteries. But seeing the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier made me really reflect on what military members must go through. The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier could be anybody and a family is without a family member or even worse no one even knows who they are. At the Tomb we were able to see the changing of the guard and changing of the wreath ceremony. So even though I did not see the President change the wreath it was powerful to see the line of veterans watching the ceremony as seen in the picture below. Attraction 3: National American History Museum The main reason I went to the Museum of history was because I really wanted to see the exhibit on First Lady Dresses. They were all so beautiful! But the exhibit stressed the importance of the first lady and her role during a presidency. Below is a slideshow of my pictures of the First Ladies dresses. I was able to also see several other exhibits one my way to the First Lady's exhibit. Some of my highlights are Dorothy’s Ruby slippers, Mohammad Ali's Boxing Gloves and the first Harry potter uniform for Daniel Radcliffe from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This museum was filled with various exhibits appealing to everyone, such as an entire exhibit dedicated to food right next to the exhibit on transportation. The Star Spangled banner exhibit was HUGE. This flag took months to create and was worked on by only 5 women by hand. If this flag was recreated in current times it would involve machines or several sewing women in possibly a foreign country. Unfortunately, I was unable to take pictures of the exhibit. So in order to see this exhibit you must visit it for yourself.
Have a Happy Veteran's Day and please thank a veteran for all of their service! So this week I become one step closer to my goal of law school. Yes, my heart rate just increased typing that sentence. This past weekend I took a practice LSAT exam. This needless to say was extremely hard. However, I did not do as bad as I was expecting and earned a 144 out of 180. To put it into more manageable terms it was like getting an 80% on a test. My goal for the LSATs is to earn a 160-165 which would be like getting a 90% on a test. I took the practice test at Georgetown University. Georgetown is about a 30 min walk from the Rosslyn Metro station. You have to cross over the Potomac River, but thankfully there is a bridge. On my way to the test I was a little unsure were to go but luckily there was always someone walking around who I could pester for directions. Crossing over the bridge I passed some military runners who almost hit me with there american flag. Below was my view from the bridge. After, I crossed the bridge my directions sent me on to 36th street. However, from the main street off the bridge there is no access to 36th street. Which under regular touring situations I would be totally fine getting a little lost is my forte but I needed to be starting my test in 20 mins. So after checking Google maps I took a hunch (because my maps have not been updated for quite some time) to turn down 35th st. and go up a block. Lone behold was 36th st. I was so so excited to see it that I took a picture of the sign which you can see below. After walking a couple of more blocks I was at Georgetown University which was in full fall bloom. Falling leaves of all different colors and sizes, people playing Frisbee, and students with backpacks, it looked like I was walking through a college campus movie. As seen in my picture below: So the test. . . upon arriving at the proper building I was checked in by Kaplan to my practice test. The LSAT is made up of 5 sections 35 mins each.
- 1 reading compreshention - 2 logic question sections - 1 puzzle game section - 1 experimental section Reading comprehension is exactly what is sounds like there is about 4 to 5 short readings with questions at the end. This section was really hard for me to finish in 35 mins. The logic questions ask you to choose the best or worst answer to an argument or what is statement will strengthen or weaken the argument the most. The key part to this section is the most option because there can be several great answers just not all of them will be the right answers. What I call the puzzle game section is a problem that needs to be solved fitting certain criteria. This was one of the questions on my test: Individual hour-long auditions will be scheduled for each of six saxophonists - Fujimura, Gabrieli, Herman, Jackson, King, and Lauder. The auditions will all take place on the same day. Each audition will all begin on the hour, with the first beginning at 1 p.m. and the last at 6 p.m The schedule of auditions must conform to the following conditions: Jackson auditions earlier than Herman does. Gabrieli auditions earlier than King does. Gabriell auditions either immediately before or immediately after Lauder does. Exactly one audition separates the audition of Jackson and Lauder. Then they would ask questions along the lines of which schedule works and which ones cannot. The experimental section is when the makers of the LSAT put in practice questions. You never know which section is the experimental section. This is slightly frustrating since this section is not graded. The worst part about the LSAT is there is only 1, 15 min break. after the third section. Which after racking your brains for roughly 2 hours is much needed. the only negative side is it makes the last two sections appear to last forever. Thankfully this is one step closer to my goal of law school. As I have previously mentioned law school is a very daunting task for me. Taking the practice LSAT helped ease my fears because I though I was going to score in around the 100 range. You can imagine after I plugged in my answers on-line my happy dance around my apartment with my very different score. My only fear is that now my doomsday prophecy has not come true that I will slack off when it comes to the LSAT. I think if I keep reminding myself to study and making a study schedule I will be just fine. Well that was my adventure of the practice LSAT which puts me of step closer to my vision of becoming a lawyer. |
AuthorMy name is Shannon McCullough. I have Political Science and Legal Studies degree at Nazareth College of Rochester. I have previously interned at the Office of the Attorney General for DC. Currently, I am studying my Masters degree in International Relations at Shandong University in Jinan, China. Archives
September 2016
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