Ten Things

Sorry I have not been moved to post.  Trying to write other stuff, and mostly not doing enough worth writing about or thinking about things worth posting about...  But here goes:

1. I was watching ten minutes of the Today show on Sunday, and they were talking about Sarah Palin's last day in office, and the reporter said something like, "Sarah Palin spent yesterday making the 7 hour trip to Fairbanks for the transition, and although she didn't talk to reporters, she wrote a Twitter post about the music she was listening to on the trip.  Why she would waste an entire Twitter post on something like that, who knows."  That's not a verbatim quote, but basically the reporter was trying to say that Sarah Palin is a moron because she's Twittering about her music.  There might be a million reasons why Sarah Palin is deserving of criticism, but, come on, what else is she supposed to Twitter about, how is it "wasting" a Twitter post to say she's listening to Kid Rock and Rascal Flatts, and, hey, some people might care, and what's the difference.  I just thought it indicated a poor understanding of Twitter on the part of the Today show.

2. I don't know how many people read about the Mets crazy press conference yesterday where in the course of firing their VP of Player Development for challenging players to fights and generally being crazy, the General Manager threw a Daily News reporter under the bus, saying he originally discounted the articles the guy was writing about the VP being a nutcase because the reporter had "lobbied" for a job in the Mets front office.  Ignoring the idea that if the writer wanted a job with the Mets, he'd probably be better served writing puff pieces than stuff that would get a guy fired... it seems pretty crazy that anyone would be either surprised nor scandalized by a sports reporter whose ambition is to perhaps work for a major league team.  After the press conference, the Mets owner basically said that, sure, the reporter had made some general inquiries about how a writer might one day transition into working for a team, and the reporter said, sure, he's asked around and had conversations with people about that... but no one's actually saying his stories haven't been accurate, or that he's done anything but a good job covering the Mets... so what's the big deal?  A beat reporter spends six months out of the year following the team, talking to people, and, since he's a human being, I'm sure he ends up having conversations about all sorts of things, including his own career ambitions, and it's not like this is Watergate he's reporting on, while trying to figure out a way to work in the Nixon White House....  Bizarre.

3. I'm sure these commercials have been on forever but I haven't noticed until the other day -- a commercial for Toaster Strudel, where they tear down Pop Tarts, saying Toaster Strudel is so much more awesome and why would anyone eat dry cardboardy Pop Tarts.  I haven't eaten either one in 15 years, but, sure Toaster Strudel might be tastier, but it also (a) requires a toaster, and (b) has the lamest name in the world.  If they want to make it appeal to kids, stop calling it Strudel and change the name to Pastry Pockets, or even Toaster Danish or Hot Jam Sandwich, or Frosted Fruit Packs.  I don't know.  Strudel sounds like something for the elderly.  (although I admit I like strudel.)

4. Nina and I went raspberry picking at a farm in Westchester on Saturday, since it was her only day off of the week and we figured it'd be fun to get out of the city.  It was fun, and the raspberries were good-- except you'd think they could charge less than $6/pint since you're doing all the work for them and there's no middle man, no?  Anyway, with our $12 worth of raspberries, we made a raspberry spoon bread (like a big muffin) and had the rest of the berries in cereal and on their own.  They were very good.  Berry picking is fun, and tasty.

5. Three books I finished in the past week.  First, "Patient by Patient" by Emily Transue, about her experiences as a doctor.  It's a solid member of the doctor-memoir genre, although I guess I didn't get a ton from it that I hadn't gotten from other similar books I've read.  I imagine the audience for books like this are mostly medical students or aspiring medical students, since actual doctors would likely be bored by books about other doctors and experiences similar to their own.  But perhaps not.  A lot of stuff in the book about the author's grandparents and dealing with their decline, which hit fairly close to home, leading me to...

6. Update on my grandma -- she's been really pretty stable for the past few months, which is good because she's not declining further, but bad because it's more and more apparent that her memory issues aren't going to resolve themselves and she's in a much different place than she was before her stroke last year.  I visited her last week and brought our wedding pictures, so she could see-- and we got a lot of great shots of her with me, which are great to have-- and she sort of remembered being at the wedding but sort of didn't, and every page I had to re-explain who people were and what these were pictures of....  I try to talk to her every day on the phone, and there are days that are better than others, days she's aware that she's having trouble with her memory and days she isn't, days she remembers something about what's going on in her life or my life and days she merely remembers who I am and that she loves talking to me but doesn't really remember a lot about much.  So it's hard, because she used to be such a part of my life and a source of advice and now she can't really be that, and it's frustrating.  But for now she feels okay physically and is getting out of the house when the weather permits, and her aide takes her to the botanic gardens or the library and she's happy... which is all I can really hope for at this point.

7. The other books I recently finished-- Nudge by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler.  A great read, along the same lines as Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely and The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow.  Really enjoyed Nudge, was glad I finally got to the top of the library wait list and was able to read it.

8. And yesterday just finished As They See 'Em, by Bruce Weber, a book about major league umpires, the umpire training school, and how it's not as easy as it looks.  That will either sound interesting or it won't-- if it does, it's a good read.

9. I'm still trying to figure out what my life ought to look like now that I'm back in New York.  I'm writing some new material, and making decent progress with it, but after my two years in LA, and the year of Anon Lawyer book writing before that, I'm genuinely tired of sitting in front of my computer all day and trying to write.  I did my best work when writing was something I did out of passion coming from other things I was doing in my life-- like law school.  I've been networking a little bit and trying to figure out some projects to be working on besides my own writing, whether that's somewhere in media or marketing, or something outside the box completely.  Part of what I'm struggling with is a lack of defined focus-- it's hard for me to make the case for someone to help me find opportunity X when I don't know what that is.  I do know I want to be working with smart people on projects where I feel like I'm adding value and making some sort of an impact somewhere.  But everyone wants that, and it's too generic to be of use.  I e-mailed some private high schools to see if they could use me to teach a class.  I've talked to some folks in advertising to see if there might be a fit somewhere.  But I bring a varied enough set of experiences to the table-- author, law school, blogging, some TV experience, some software marketing experience before law school, some publishing experience on the editorial side-- that it doesn't really form a straight line toward anything, and at least at the gatekeeper level, it's not a resume that makes sense to pass on for a recruiter swimming in resumes that make a lot more direct sense for any particular position.  Not sure why I'm necessarily throwing that out there, except to say, if there's a way you could use me, or an idea you've got for who might be able to, I'm all ears.  The longer Nina's days in the hospital get, the more I start to go stir-crazy in my apartment-- which is my own fault and completely solvable, except I haven't solved it yet.

10. Dating In The Dark on ABC -- caught much of last night's episode, where people go on dates in a dark room and then see what the people look like.  I expected so much worse -- I expected Beauty and The Geek, in the dark -- but it was actually kind of perfectly fine-looking people, being matched up with each other... but then I wasn't sure why they needed the gimmick at all.  Why not just let them see each other?  What point was being proven?  They might have liked each other just fine without the gimmick anyway.  I don't know if I have a point there.

Comments

[PG]

Re #1: The Today Show not only misunderstands Twitter, it misunderstands Palin, whose popularity is largely based on people's feeling that she is Like Folks. The listing of mostly country artists with a bit of pop and rock was perfect for her fan base. (Only haters like me would be suspicious of the country music-loving cred of someone who doesn't know how to spell George Strait's last name.)

Re 3: I had a similar reaction about the necessity of toasters (and more importantly, freezers) to the Strudels. There's a reason Pop Tarts get rained down in Afghanistan and put into soldiers' care packages, while Toaster Strudel never will be.

[PG]

Sudden thought re #9: A lot of people seem to get material out of having kind of crappy temporary jobs. Maybe that would get your engine re-started?

[Lobbyist]

What about lawyering work for real? I used to be a prosecutor, it was a great job and had great stories if you want future material. Same for public defender, and I would imagine the same would be true for legal aid type work. Being a lawyer, if you have a good job, can be fun, interesting, challenging and creative. Just cuz you didnt love law firm life doesnt mean you couldnt still be a lawyer. Politics, where I work now, is also a field full of material. Work on a political campaign or for a politician? Speechwriting?

[JD]

On number 9, can you do anything to help your synagogue, or a synagogue? I ask because I do legal work for a Catholic Church, they couldn't be more appreciative, and the people there are fascinating.

[John O'Sullivan]

There is no better material for a lawyer/writer than this story.
There is a case in NY that truly shocks the conscience. Barbara Bracci, a hard-working New York State corrections officer who claimed she was brutally attacked by her work supervisor, Captain William E. Peek. Bracci made tape recordings she alleged were of her remorseful attacker confessing to his crimes. The NY State Dept. of Corrections (DOC) took the tapes from her then conspired with a crooked judge to illegally withhold them from a New York court.
The case went to the Division of Human Rights (SDHR). Bracci wanted her original tapes played in open court. DOC refused to give the tapes back to her and gave them instead, to the presiding administrative law judge (ALJ) who refused to let the court hear them.
The ALJ then weighed the tapes unlawfully in secret (ex parte, in camera) and ruled they were ‘unreliable.’ So the case was dismissed. Bracci protested that she was denied her due process rights and the case went before the Appellate Division, Third Department as an Article 78 special mandamus proceeding. Inexplicably, the tapes then became ‘lost’ and SDHR refused to give a verified answer in response to Bracci’s serious charges of corruption. So with Bracci having proof her tapes were now destroyed and with the opposing party declining to defend their actions, she duly filed for summary judgment.
However, the Appellate justices unlawfully took away Bracci’s right to a special proceeding and outright dismissed the claim on May 14, 2009 upholding the lower court’s judgment. Interestingly, nowhere in the Appellate decision does the term, ‘Article 78’ even appear.
Thus a corrupt higher court had not only condoned the weighing of evidence in secret and then its destruction, it had unlawfully removed Bracci’s status as an Article 78 special proceeding litigant.
Even a layperson looking at the court’s website under ‘Bracci-v-State Division of Human Rights’ (Case no: 506150) can see that this raped, abused and permanently scarred woman was cheated of her most basic rights to due process rights.
http://decisions.courts.state.ny.us/ad3/Decisions/2009/506150.pdf
Now Bracci is filing another appeal with the Court of Appeals. We shall see if the highest court in New York is just as corrupt as those below.
You see, I’m British and I grew up with a worldview of American as an honorable civilization. Like most people in the English-speaking world I was greatly influenced by Hollywood movies. I confess to have learned that reality of what American Justice is quite different from what I saw in films. Forget the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment of the United States, that Bill of Rights nonsense and the Constitution. The practice of law is very different. American Justice is a fiction told in Hollywood. In real life corruption is the methodology of the courtrooms.

[Jerami Davidson]

When you said "I did my best work when writing was something I did out of passion coming from other things I was doing in my life-- like law school." what I think you meant what you did your best writing when you had something to write about. It seems to me that you are running on empty in this category. Here's my advice for keeping it in perspective.

From what I've read about you, you seem to be focused on being a writer probably because you feel like writing is the best outlet for expressing yourself or achieving what you want to achieve in life. Do not ever reverse this logic. You write because you have something to say. If you have nothing to say, then there is no reason to write. If you are writing just to write, then you are going to hate the days you are spending in front of the computer, which is I guess why you didn't want to be a lawyer - probably would have hated the days you spent couped up on an office doing what someone else told you to do.

You have a great opportunity in life right now - a chance to search for new ideas, things that really turn you on inside and an outlet for expressing them. Don't squander it. Channel your discontent and in the end your writing will mean something. Hopefully.

My bit of practical advice is spend more time learning and less time writing and you will find inspiration. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you have time for both in law school and shouldn't you have time for both now?

[0L]

About five hours ago I was a quivering soon-to-be-1L, did a search for law school blogs/advice, found yours and have significantly calmed down after reading through your entries from your first year. They are greatly anxiety reducing, probably because you never seemed particularly stressed out (or didn't vet on blog) and seemed really into life as a law student. The song parodies and Torts limericks are great - "Choose my class" is currently stuck in my head. Is there a draft of a law school musical comedy saved somewhere? Because your creative bits are seriously funny.

Hope I'm able to find as much fun when in my first year, and best wishes on figuring out your next project!