Thursday, August 31, 2006

Once again, I get f*cked by the curve

Sorry to bring down the average everyone. Maybe I should move to a city where a degree is a bit more...um...scarce...I remember something about diminishing returns from my old econ classes.

See the full article

While I am still jaded...

I decided to change the display name. Apparently "jaded j.d" was the name of a blog in Virginia. Much apologies, I never did google it, and just assumed that I was being creative. So I decided to now call myself "the default attorney."

This is not just totally random.

I feel that this is the role I play at my firm. This past week two of the other associates were on vacation. Another one was sick. And then there's this senior associate who doesn't really seem to have to do anything he doesn't want to do, and only works on one case. So when all hell breaks loose on a case, they come to me.

None of them were large projects, but several of them have been on-going for some time and I have no background knowledge what-so-ever. I don't like working when I completely lack any sort of big picture context. So inevitably I have to do some background into the case, find the template for the pleading, who are co-counsel is, who has to be served, etc. What would have taken the attorney who is normally assigned to the case an hour takes me three. And since they're coming to me in the first place, that means that it's always some sort of crisis, and the filing is time-sensitive. This makes me stressed.

So I am now the default attorney, because when no one else is around, they just give crap to me. Now I really sound like a jaded j.d.

P.S. I might also have to work this weekend. The fact that the partner did not get the irony of working on labor day is what pains me most.

P.P.S. Go Bears!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

FU Craig

To be fair, I have bought a few file cabinets off of craigslist without incident, and have found several great roommates over the years, many of whom I still stay in touch with, even from my college years. Two of my latest adventures with craig, however, have ranged between frustrating disappointment and a truly horrid experience. Let's start with a roommate that my flatmates and I found off of craigslist.

Let's call him Craig. Craig seemed cool at first. He was funny and quick-witted. He had tattoos but a real job...and he was a D.J. on the weekends. Cool, but not too cool. He seemed like a good counter-weight to the other three roommates who were all different shades of boring professionals.

Little did we know.

Fast forward a few months. I get a call from Craig in the middle of the day, saying that if the cops contacted me regarding a female friend of his, to say that I didn't know anything. Which was true. I didn't. Apparently a former friend of his had started to consider pressing charges for rape. He said that it was all just a lie. I didn't know what to believe, but I knew that this was not good.

Then the drugs really started. He would fairly regularly be on something at any given moment. His favorite was acid, which meant that on Tuesdays (yes, Tuesdays) I would often come home to pounding industrial trance (or whatever the fuck his sub-genre of music was), with him running around the flat with no shirt on, but a fuzzy vest and a woman's wig, and toilet paper hanging out of his ears.

It became a chore to go home. I didn't want to see him, I didn't want to hear that "dope new track." A good day was when I would come home and he would still be passed out from the night before.

Then one day I came home and he had bandages all over him. One was around his head. It reminded me of cartoon characters from when I was a kid. You know, when they had a toothache and they would have that bandage around the bottom of their jaw, and it tied at the top?

"What happened?," I asked.
"I got into a fight."
"Really, with who?"
"Nah, I'm just kidding...I got plastic surgery"

Now at this point I thought the fight story sounded the more plausible, but I was wrong. He had gotten some liposuction and a chin tuck, or whatever it's called.

"Hey man, would you mind keeping your phone by your bed? I might need something during the night, and I might not be able to get up."

Something else I learned...the wounds left over from lipo? They seep and ooze. For the next week, there were soiled gauze bandages spread around everywhere.

Then the coup de resistance. A few months later, he tried to solicit a prostitute. How did he go about this, you ask? Why the great bazaar that is craigslist of course! The girl came over, took his money and said that she was under age and that if he ever said anything, she would go to the cops. Later in the day, she came back with some "friends" asking for more money. Nothing else ever happened, but we kicked him out.

She must be a real looker

From SfGate:

HIT-AND-RUN: Within half an hour, 14 pedestrians picked off one by one on streets of San Francisco

A day of hit-and-run horror that started with the death of a Fremont pedestrian and erupted into half an hour of chaos on the streets of San Francisco ended in the arrest of a 29-year-old driver described by some relatives as mentally disturbed but by police as apparently rational and unrepentant.

At least 14 people were hospitalized Tuesday in San Francisco after the driver of a black 2004 Honda Pilot cut a path of destruction from the Tenderloin to Laurel Heights, striking pedestrians and a bicyclist in at least 11 locations starting at about 12:45 p.m.


...

Wow, glad I moved from the Western Addition. In a report last night, a member of the driver's family stated that the driver was "stressed out" about his arranged marriage in Afghanistan. I guess this is just another reason to question arranged marriage. Jesus.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Technorati Profile

My girlfriend just moved to New York City

for grad school and I feel 1) sad that my favorite activity partner in crime is gone and yet 2) incredibly relieved. Her impending move had been hanging over us for the past month or so and led to many arguments ("you're not prioritize me enough") and just over all stress. I think I'm relieved to have some time to myself. As soon as she left, I went and took the placement exam at our local Alliance Francaise and I'm going to start up salsa classes again.

Now, does this demonstrate that I did not feel comfortable leading my own life and doing things that I wanted to do, which I think is a bad sign, or is it that I just have more free time now?

I will say this. She is joining me for a wedding up in Sonoma in September, and I said that I would come out to visit her in October. The French class I would take is only offered on Saturdays. When I told her that I would come and visit her when my French class was over in mid-October, she said something like "you don't want to come visit me sooner?" This irritated me.

Am I selfish?

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Gracias Manu Chao, mille fois merci!

In my past life (circa 1998), when I lived in Paris and led a much more interesting life, mes amis introduced me to Manu Chao. It was some of the most innovative and eclectic music I had ever heard. He is one of the more famous musicians in the world (outside of the U.S. at any rate, can't get it on itunes for example) and I would put him in the "living legend" category. He is a wonderful musician who sings in several languages and infuses his music with a postive message of solidarity and social consciousness. Not like "we are the world" but more like a french resistance song. It gets you excited about seeking out injustice. This summer, Manu Chao traveled through the U.S. for the first time in 4 years. I hopped on Bart over to the People's Republic of Berkeley to see him at the Greek Theatre, and it was the best concert ever. It lasted for over 3 hours and it was too short. He had the crowd excited, entertained, and dancing. I don't even know how many encores they did. You could tell that he and his band enjoyed performing and that they were (I think) pleasantly surprised by the enthusiasm of the crowd and how familiar we all were with his music. At one point, someone threw a EZLN flag on stage and he wore it for the rest of the show. Je ne me rappelle pas d'un autre concert qui m'a autant fasciné ou amusé. Merci beaucoup beaucoup Manu Chao.



P.S. Manu Chao also produced an album for Amadou and Miriam, two blind musicians from West Africa. Beautiful.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

An apology to Lebanon

Belated, but sincere.

I find the United States' unwillingness to seek an immediate cease-fire to be disgusting. Truly, unequivocally, disgusting. The justification given, needing to find a way to a "sustainable" ceasefire, lacked any sort of logic. Why does the search for a sustainable ceasefire necessitate the continuance of violence? And by violence I mean the death of Lebanese civilians. Was the United States hoping that Israel would eventually just destroy Hezbollah, and that this was worth the civilian death toll? Mission decidedly unaccomplished. While I in no way condone the military arm of Hezbollah, Israel's knee-jerk and incredibly disproportionate reaction to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers was destructive and accomplished nothing. In the end, Hezbollah has emerged the relative winner of this war with no victor. As soon as the bombing stopped, Hezbollah was in the streets, assessing the damage and arranging funds and materials for those Lebanese who had lost their homes. What was that about winning hearts and minds?

Poor Lebanon. So lauded by the west when it had kicked out the Syrians and used by the U.S. as an example of a Middle-Eastern country on the righteous path. Yet we stood back and watched while Lebanon, with its new and fragile government, was pounded by Israeli attacks. See what you get for good behavior Lebanon? Nothing. You get American made bombs...dropped on you. What have we done? Created another reason to hate us, that's what.

An email from a lebanese friend of mine

She sent this to me during the conflict.

"Just minutes ago, Israel dropped 20 bombs within a 5 minute period on a residential neighborhood in the heart of beirut, a 10 minute drive from our apartment in beirut. Six residential buildings were brought to the ground, the number dead is unknown at this time. What goes through the bombers' mind??"Lets kill as many people and destroy as many homes in Lebanon as possible...after all we unfortunately will have to stop bombing tomorrow per the UN resolution...at least for a short time before we can come up with another excuse to eliminate our neighbors, Muslims and Christians alike."What is wrong with them???"