Special Powers Can Be So Much Fun.

It's always good to have dinner with friends in downtown Big City. Working in Small Town is nice, but it has no friggin' culture at all. We left the Irish pub stuffed from Shepard's Pie and beer. Some of us, those without children, decided to head up a few blocks to a martini bar. The cold November air was nice. It made a nice counterpoint to my slightly beered up and warm condition.

Our conversation went something like this:
Friend: So Wolfrham congrats on the job. Does this mean you can arrest people now?

Me: Yeah, one of my special powers is that I CAN ARREST PEOPLE NOW!

About 10 feet in front of us two young black males, age 18-25, stopped what they were doing and looked around. The three of us walked right by.

Me: OMG! Did those two black guys just stop when I said I can arrest people?

Friend: YES! That was pretty cool. You should say that again loudly so we can see what people likely are troublemakers.

Christmas Comes The Day After Thanksgiving.

I bought my laptop before going back to school. It was a factory refurbished model to save a little money. The laptop is well over 5 years old and I wouldn't be surprised it it was 6 years old. In laptop years that is ancient. A 800 MHz Celeron with 384 MB of RAM (memory) simply can't handle modern antivirus software or modern webpages. If I could run an antivirus program without bringing the laptop to a grinding halt I would try to postpone buying a new laptop. The money isn't quite there for a decent replacement.

However what was 'old reliable' in law school is now quickly dying. While Dells kept dying among my classmates my Gateway hummed along. This week I had to salvage my data to an external hard drive and reformat and reinstall Windows. This is the second time in six months I've done that. While not chattering currently, I hear the hard drive chattering excessively this week. A few times this week Windows has booted up and shut down in the span of an hour instead of a few minutes. The Gateway is on life support even with my best tricks.

The internet is a beautiful thing. I brought up the websites for Gateway, Dell, and HP. Laptop shopping is like shopping for a car: you'll never get a true apples to apples comparison. It took some time but I managed to configure a laptop from each that was roughly the same. The Gateway I liked ended up $200 more than the HP. The Dell I created was $50 more than the HP. The HP had what I viewed as a superior processor, a new Core 2 Duo from Intel. It was the slowest version of that most current chip, but it is the most current tech out there. The HP had a separate video card with 128MB RAM so it wouldn't share memory with the system. A free upgrade to a 120GB hard drive. Built-in wireless LAN, USB 2.0 ports, and 2GB RAM so Microsuck Windows Vista will run nicely. Holy crap it was a great laptop! I'm amazed at the amount of hardware you can get for well under $1,000 these days. Even with shipping and handling it's still a 3 figure deal.

The killer part is my parents decided to make it my Christmas present. I was speechless. I give my parents grief at times. They love me but don't understand how my world works. The legal world and my life is so different than their simpler world. But they love me and they want to see me happy. I wish I could say a material possession like a new laptop isn't the key to my happiness, but right now it is. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Black Friday

No way in Hell am I going out near a shopping mall or a strip mall with a large big box like Best Buy or Buy More today.

Shopping online is my friend.

I Already Knew I Was Going To Hell

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Fifth Level of Hell!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	Very High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Very High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	High

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Springing Around

Yet I love autumn as well. The pretty colors, football, and all. However I do love spring because it means winter is over.

Your Power Element is Wood

Your power colors: green and brown Your energy: generative Your season: spring Like a tree, you are always growing and changing. And while your life is dynamic, you are firmly grounded. You have high morals and great confidence in yourself and others. You have a wide set of interests, and you make for intersting company.

What's Your Power Element?

The Dark Side

Ugh. I feel like I've been hit from 20 different directions for the past few days. My time is not my own. I realized that going in, but to actually live it is a eye opening experience. Random phone calls, random pieces of paper, random extra files just pop out of nowhere. Instead of being paid as an attorney I should be paid as a fireman. I've been putting out lots of fires lately.

For some reason one judge is most unfriendly to the types of cases I handle. Everyone says he's a great judge, but he isn't the most understanding person for certain things. Of course those are the things I handle. Who knew he was a firestarter? Friday he let me know he had a problem with a case. The case didn't have a real problem; it simply ruffled his feathers. I would get one chance to fix the problem. Judicial discretion, what a pain! It took a lot of sleuthing, but I found my victim. I hoped my victim would be cooperative. My victim decided against cooperation. I understood the reasoning. Sometimes you are faced with a no-win scenario so the victim wanted to select the least worst option.

I win some, I lose some. I accept that. I hate losing before the battle begins.

It Sounds Like A Joke But Isn't.

I had to explain the new job to some friends. To truly explain the more interesting aspects of the job I gave 4 factors for my friends.

When in doubt every file has at least one, if not two, of the following:
1. Alcohol
2. Meth
3. Cocaine
4. A trailer

Monday Monday

I can't say today was a bad day. It was certainly a rough day. Things that take 15 minutes took 60 minutes. Things I've done once or twice before I completely forgot how to do today. A deposition I was covering for took twice as long as I expected.

The one file that I didn't get to last week because it was a guilty plea I got to today. About 10 minutes before the hearing I noticed the guilty plea was to a charge not originally filed. That might be okay if an amended charge was in the file, but I didn't see one. I saw some trial notes so the case looked like it was going to trial before a plea was accepted. Okay why was the accepted charge so low compared to the original charges? The attorney in that court noted that I would have to file a continuance and amend the charges. The judge lightly grilled me. I hate not having answers to questions. Thankfully defense counsel supplied a few answers. Ugh. At least no jail time is involved for this case so the defendant isn't getting screwed that way. I'm sure he just wants some finality.

"Can you fill in for a few hearings?" It sounded like a simple request. I could take notes about dates and times of the next hearings. Oh wait here's a surprise probation violation with the probation officer here. I'm so glad the defense lawyers do most of the work in the hearings. I'm hoping my deer in the headlights look wasn't too obvious.

I've never cross edited two documents at the same time before. After 3 or 4 hardcopies I managed to get both docs straightened out. It didn't help they were the same motion for 2 different cases.

Mondays just suck sometimes.