Die, Patriots, Die!

I hate them. Nearly everyone in football hates them. The Giants put up more fight than anyone expected, but those damn Patriots are still 16-0. Cheaters! Who did they videotape this season? Brady doesn't deserve the touchdown record. Unworthy! The man has no honor. All he does is date supermodels and knock them up.

Boston has used up all it's sports sympathy. Oh we hadn't won a World Series in forever. Whoopee, they still had those damned Patriots the last decade. The Red Sox won and one city should not be allowed to have multiple championships in one year.

The Jaguars are a very physical team. With luck they'll break Tom Brady's leg and tear Randy Moss in half.

Some Filing Systems Don't Work Well.

Boss comes into my office.

Boss: Wolfrham, do you have the such and such file?

Me: Yeah it's in that file cabinet.

Boss starts thumbing through the drawer looking for the file.

Boss: How do you find anything in here?

Me: It's all alphabetical order.

Boss: No wonder I can never find anything. I don't understand your filing system.

Me: The alphabet?

What Happened To All The Snow?

Last weekend we get around 8 inches of snow. This weekend it's in the 50s temperature wise. Somehow I doubt we're having a white Christmas by Tuesday. It's just too weird to walk downtown in Big City and be comfy in short sleeves. At least short sleeves for only a few minutes is comfy.

Only within the last few days have I wanted to hear Christmas music. It's Christmas, but I never seem to really get into the mood for the holiday. I love the time off, but it's not a very special day for me. I don't know why. I do like seeing the lights on other homes and around town. The Salvation Army bells always bring a smile. Even though I was insanely poor this year I try to put in a few coins. No matter how bad it was for me lots of people had it worse.

While I may not get into the spirit of Christmas at least I understand it.

The Good News About Snow & Ice.

At least the waves of snow and ice came on a weekend instead of before a Monday rush hour. The street crews had a few hours to push the snow and ice out of the way so I made it to the mall to finish up my Christmas shopping. I swear it was half as fun the week before Christmas as it normally is. SWEET! Most of my dad's gifts I ordered online, but my mom's gifts require shopping in person.

At least it is done now. I shall rest.

Shiny New Toy.

The new laptop is sweet! It arrived about a week ago. What can I say about it? It works! Just having a functional computer that I can use is a nice change of pace compared to the last month or so. The fact it runs modern software is nice. Modern antivirus softwares are such system hogs the old laptop couldn't handle it. Now I can run a scan in the background and continue on with my work and online play.

I haven't had a chance to see how fast it is yet. Word docs open up pretty quickly though. Perhaps I'll load up a game around Christmas and blow stuff up quickly. The biggest was figuring out how to hook up my old printer. New laptops don't have parallel ports anymore. Luckily Printer/USB converter cables do exist. At $15 quite a steal too. Now why did the printer driver load up in Spanish?

How Not To Start A Trial.

I hate having a jury trial dumped in my lap with slightly more than 2 weeks notice. Oh great. The last time I did a trial was my trial prep class a few years ago. On the plus side I've been teamed up with a senior attorney. I have help and guidance through this journey. Am I nervous? Hell yes! Do I know what I'm doing? Hell no!

Needless to say I would like to think I would have prepped a few things in the file differently had I been given it earlier. I would like to think I would have gotten some evidence ahead of time. Getting medical records is a pain. Do we need an actual medical witness or can we just use the records? Getting a medical witness around the holiday season is beyond pain. Many doctors love to take long vacations this time of year.

Why the hell did this case not plead? Is there any legitimate reason that will allow me to get a continuance until after the holidays? Bloody hell what are the rules of evidence again? Oh this will be a learning experience, but can I get some justice out of it?

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.

Nerd Test

What Be Your Nerd Type? Your Result: Science/Math Nerd   (Absolute Insane Laughter as you pour toxic chemicals into a foaming tub of death!) Well, maybe you aren't this extreme, but you're in league with the crazy scientists/mathmeticians of today. Very few people have the talent of math and science is something takes a lot of brains as well. Thank whosever God you worship, or don't worship, so thank no deity whatsoever in your case, for you people! Most of us would have died off without your help.
Social Nerd
Literature Nerd
Musician
Drama Nerd
Gamer/Computer Nerd
Anime Nerd
Artistic Nerd
What Be Your Nerd Type? Quizzes for MySpace

Call Me Spock

You Should Be a Mechanic

You are logical, calm, and detail oriented. You're rational when things are chaotic, and for you, reason always prevails. And while you are guided by logic, you aren't a slave to it. You're flexible when it counts. You are always open to being wrong. You do best when you: - Work with your hands - Can use tools, machines, or equipment You would also be a good architect or carpenter.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

A Cool Breeze.

Speaking of the new fan, it feels great in my office. A coworker thought it was a great fan. If I get the hottest office then I need the coolest fan. FYI: the low setting has he power of a jet engine. High is a mini-tornado.

Oh well back to the paperwork tomorrow.

Beer!

If I could figure out a way to embed the video I would.

Finally Some Climate Control.

My office is hot. I'm talking jungle hot. The rest of the offices have decent air conditioning. When the temps outside are below 80 my office ends up around Death Valley instead of solar surface temps. All I wanted was a fan.

Sadly those are out of season. Target, Wal-Mart, and a few other big box stores didn't have a medium-sized oscillating fan that would fit on my desk. I guess they're just summer items. On a whim I tried Fry's Electronics. They seem to have plenty of small electric devices, perhaps fans would be one of them. Fans were in the very last row.

I found one that wasn't made of plastic, but metal. For $30 it seems a very nice fan. I can't wait to try it out tomorrow. Sometimes it is the mundane things that are so important.

The Paycheck Is Not In The Mail.

A good thing too since I wrote some checks last night. Direct deposit is a beautiful thing. If I found my paycheck on the desk Monday I think something would have bounced. I wish it was a full paycheck and not a partial one. Once I know what to truly expect paywise then I can work on a budget. I'm going to take a guess that the numbers might work out okay, but the real issue will be timing of outgoing bills and incoming paychecks. I'll find out soon enough.