Mentor Logs

Monday, April 22, 2013. 9am-1pm

Today my mentor and I discussed more about analyzing a case and the actual process of investigating and getting evidence for the case. He and I put together a prosecution and defense theory for the investigation write-up. It was really cool because we had to look at the case in different angles. One of his clients came in for an appointment and I was able to stay in the office and listen to his case. Attorney Hayden also had him share his story. I realized that he asked the client to share a little bit about himself not just to get to him better, but to do some analyzing of his own about his client. As I heard his case and his story, I found it amusing that this could really happen in real life. It gave me more inspiration to become a Juvenile Delinquent lawyer because I believe every kid has a story behind their reason of why they do something inadequately.

Theme of 1984

The theme in 1984 that I see is Hot&Cold. I see it as that because the level of authority is very fragile. If authority reaches too high, it becomes chaotic. If authority reaches too low, it becomes dull. Power needs to be balanced. I chose the theme hot and cold specifically because of the game. If you're too hot, you're going over the maximum. If you're too cold, you're no where near the boundaries of the item.

Mentor Logs

April 18, 2013, 9am-1pm

Today I met up with my mentor, Criminal Defense Attorney Jeffrey Hayden. I made out a list of goals that I would like to attain from him. The goals I listed were: to understand the process of analyzing the case and learning the certain vocabulary they discuss in the courtroom. He gave me a 50 page police report to read and analyze. Obviously I cant speak about the case itself because it's client privileged, but it was really interesting to see that it was a real case. I never knew that things like that could actually happen. He also gave me a piece of paper that was for the investigator to see. The lawyer is supposed to fill it out and after he is done making analysis over the case, he hands it to the investigator to do his job. Hayden also spoke to me about thinking differently and thinking about what the other side (prosecution) would be presenting to the judge. I found that super cool because I actually really never thought of that. Afterwards, a client of his came in and I got to meet him and listen to their discussion about his case. It was really cool, but then again, I cannot speak about it because it's client privileged. We also got to speak about college and whatnot and the steps in order to become a lawyer. After that, we went out to lunch! It was was a great meet.

Mentor Logs

Yesterday on Wednesday, March 13th, 2013, I spent a day researching different types of cases such as ones that involve Juvenile Delinquency, Immigration and Civil Rights. These three types of law interest me the most.

The reason why I want to be into Juvenile Delinquency is because I believe that all children have a different story that deserves to be heard. I'd like to defend their title especially if a teenager has committed a crime who's experienced child abuse or neglect or an imbalanced family structure. Based on my research for my research paper, children become more prone to committing bad crimes because of those various reasons.

I am interested in Immigration because I think people who have a clean criminal record and have lived in America for a long time, deserve to be a permanent resident and a citizen. It isn't  fair that innocent people have to be deported all because they want to start a new life over here. I think children should definitely be able to stay in the country because in most cases, they were so little and young when they came to America and they didn't know what was going on. And if they spent their life here and studied and suddenly have to go back home all because they don't have papers? I think that's plain wrong. I want to fight for those people.

Lastly, I chose Civil Rights because ever since I went to Sojourn, I realized how important civil rights are to everyone. Before, they were just two words to me, but as I learned more about the Civil Rights Movement and peoples' rights, I got more into it. Everyone has rights and I want to defend those whose were violated in the past, present, and future. I learned in Sojourn that crimes from the 1940's committed by the Ku Klux Klan weren't brought to justice until the early 2000's. It's really upsetting and it gave me a lot of motivation to fight back. Total time: 4 hours

Narrator's Fiction

When I first started watching the Narrator's Fiction, I thought it was a bit weird. I was really lost in the beginning when I realized that he heard the lady talking in his head. The differences between an author and a narrator are that an author takes the time to write and create the story. They actually create the plot and set the scenes for readers. Whereas for narrators, they just tell the story. An example from the movie is when the writer took her time writing her book and even had some difficulties to finish it. She was creating the story and making sure that the readers have an understanding of the plot by the time they finish the book. Another example from the movie is when the narrator would narrate Harold's life, the voice didn't have much feeling in it. It was actually more monotone rather than anything. This proves that narrators just tell the story instead of actually understanding it.

The way I wrote my paper is that I made sure that it ended to be an actual research paper because I really suck at writing research papers. I made sure that my paragraphs were organized and remembered all the materials I learned from Mr. Migdail's honors class last year. In my paper, it definitely speaks out mostly to teenagers because the topic is Juveniles Being Tried as Adults. It conveys statistical evidence about teenagers' past records in 2012, popular arrests, and psychological and social issues that affect a child's inadequate behavior. This impacts mostly teenagers and parents because the children are the ones who behave this way and the parents are responsible for them.

P.S. i'm sorry this is late Mrs. D, it slipped my mind because of musical rehearsals and it was the night before I left for sojourn.

Personality Test

Dear Lady Macbeth,

After evaluating your personality test, it has come to my conclusion that you are narcissistic; however I have also observed that you are independent. You have manipulated your husband into killing Duncan, yet you could have done the deed yourself. He already felt guilty and nervous about doing it, but you made him feel even more guilty to kill the king himself. In order to improve these disorders that you have, it is best to divorce Macbeth and go off alone. You have the characteristics to live by yourself because of the observations I have made over being independent. Take the time to think over everything. Have a lovely day.

Sincerely,
Althea de Rivera

Democrats vs. Republicans: The Fiscal Cliff

The difference of the fiscal cliff between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans are in the zone of a regressive tax policy, whereas Democrats favor a progressive tax policy. Democrats want mandatory spending for taxes on Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. But democrats are being asked to cut government spending such as the entitlement programs earlier explained. While Republicans are being asked to increase the taxes on higher paid families. If the two parties cannot reach a deal in the next two months, our economy and government will have reached a fiscal cliff and an increase in taxes by 1.9 trillion dollars in debt.

The strategies helped me because I used the site filter which brought me to different sites that could give me more information about the fiscal cliff.

No, I did not because each filter gave me many, various options to choose from.

The site option was new to me but I used it anyway which really help me.

I will use all the search strategies to have a wide variety of options, that way I can gather as much information as I can.