Haven't been writing enough

Writing a blog post was a usual occurrence in order to procrastinate studying Con Law or Fed Courts (which is the procedural side of Con Law for the most part), and since I haven't been doing much of either lately, I haven't blogged. It could also be the fact that I've been spending more time on Facebook or Twitter to make some type of social commentary and share it with friends. Though the sites encourage being witty and concise, the possibly unintended consequence is that attention span is now even less than before.

Not knowing how public this whole blog post is, my usual theme of introspection may be curtailed a little until I figure out how to limit the privacy on this site. Most of the previous blog posts were from my MySpace account, which had at least the check of allowing only my friends to read the post and also the anonymity of probably never meeting any digifriends who were on that account.

As to the purpose of this post . . . well, it's mostly out of boredom since I actually feel unemployed for the first time in years. With law school, there was always the reason/rationalization that I always had school work to do, so I was at least keeping busy (or, the fact that I took a trip to Argentina to pass the time). It's been about six months since I've been unemployed, but it's only effectively been about 6 weeks. The first two months don't really count since I was studying for the Bar exam, which took up 12 hours a day 5 days a week (and 6-8 hours the other 2 days). And, understandably right after the ordeal, the last thing I wanted to do was work. Then there was the time in limbo (from end of February until the results came out end of April), since it would be pretty hard to secure an offer without knowing the results of the exam. Then, even after the results came out, there was two weeks before I was sworn in. Even though it would have been more tangible to get an offer once I received the results, I wasn't technically an attorney until I was sworn in. So, there is sort of a schism of what this unemployment is from a temporal sense and a functional sense.

I knew it would be a horrid market, as even when I was still in school and before the global economy tanked, there was example after example of unemployed attorneys. I vividly remember my 1L year, going to a "networking" event at the Chicago Bar Association, where it was a packed house of attorneys either looking for jobs or looking to change jobs. I swore to myself that I'd take the steps not to be in that boat when I graduated . . . no I don't appreciate the irony.

To my credit, however, some of what's going on is totally out of my control. Yeah, there may have been a culmination of decisions that gave rise to the situation, such as going east of the Mississippi instead of west, then deciding to move to a place where the regional pull of my law school didn't really matter. But I think more importantly, there's a historic re-calibration going on because of this economic meltdown. It's crazy to think how unprecedented this is, so it's hard to get too down about the whole unemployment thing (there's more of us than there's been in decades). This is so far reaching, so I'm just going to limit this particular discussion to the legal field.

As bad as this sucks, it's a needed recalibration. One law school dean said that law schools are similar to the American auto industry--producing a product that no one wants. Though there's some merit in the analogy, it goes a bit too far. The effect of this whole situation will weed out those who don't want to be attorneys. I feel the proper analogy (one that I've always made) is more akin to the Wizard of Oz. There's this thought that law school is like some emerald city with some grand wizard. As a result, people who don't know what to do with their lives after undergrad feel that law school is an automatic route to riches. This is compounded by the sense of entitlement of my generation, which was nourished from childhood by giving trophies for "participation." The reality of the matter is that it's only an old man behind the curtains who makes everyone wear techinicolor glasses. But in the end, if it's really what you want, the old man still can get you to your goal.

The recalibration has started, and hopefully people will realize that it is just an old man behind a curtain and the technicolor glasses; that there are ways to get their goals other than parading through Oz. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. But those still standing woudn't have to rely on hindsight, they were looking for the old man the whole time.

New ink for cover-up

So I have 3 Chinese symbols that I want to cover up and I think this is how I'm going to do it

Finished the migration

So I just moved my blogs from my MySpace account. I guess this is a bit more public because my account was under a pseudonym and through an email account that I don't give out. I'll probably post something later in the upcoming days.

My time in the Chi for law school pt xv

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Lao Tzu, Socrates, and Buddah walk into a bar . . . So I should be reading about standing in federal courts right now, but there's nothing like Constitutional jurisprudence to get the philosophical neurons firing. Besides, I haven't blogged about law school lately (which isn't a bad thing). The penultimate semester is off to a start, and I have more practical courses this semester. But sprinkle a bit of Fed Cts on top, and that's enough academic mastrubation for the semester. Had trial ad tonight, which was interesting. Aside from being unprepared because of a weekend of binge drinking, a couple weeks in the class have illustrated how I have not resolved a conflict I have noticed from the beginning of law school. In my life-long search for truth, I was of course influenced by Western thought and Philosophy. And in those early days, I fell into the destructive trap. I thought that there has to be something deeper. So, I tried to break down everything, trying to find what that deeper was, what "it really meant," what was "truth." And in that mindset, I was more skeptical, always thinking, "that can't be it, there has to be something else." But after stepping out of my myopic self-validation (if there's more than what people think, then I had to be more right than them just by "knowing" that right?) and actually pushing myself, I traveled a path as documented by Persig in "Zen" and "Lila." Of course, I didn't recognize how prophetic those books would be until I was at the end of the same path. Where that path ends is the realization is that there isn't anything more. Things just are. Truth is a verb, not a noun. Of course, this had been known by the ancient Chinese, with Camus and Niezche eventually discovering it on their own centuries later. This truth, that at times, there isn't anything more, that some things just are, is at conflict in an advasarial philosophy. If I'm right, you must be wrong. Or, if you're right, then I must be wrong, and that would be bad.

My time in the Chi for law school pt xiv

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Wait, we were supposed to wear the home uniform? So back in Chicago after a 3 week stint at home. Weird thinking that I'm only gonna be here for a little bit longer, but so it goes. But yeah, went out for a few drinks last night. Quite the contrast when juxtaposed with going out in CO. There's been this weird flip, in the sense of when I was back home I saw things from a Chicago perspective when it came to people out at the bars. People out West seemed to be more playful (shit, I'm sorta playful myself), but acting that way could get you a punch in the teeth in Chicago. Just sorta funny, noticing that after a couple years, there's a bit of a Midwest tint to me these days. Last night was amusing though. I wore the wrong uniform out to the bars, as I was wearing a zip-up hoodie with my skate shoes; the traditional western state look. I forgot that out here, instead of wearing something with a hood and shoes you can ollie in, you have to wear something with buttons and shoes you can see your reflection in. There are things about Chicago that I'll miss, but I definitely won't miss the jersey. P.S. Another thing that was reaffirmed: I like my girls to dress creative-sassy, not stuck-up-bitchy.

My time in the Chi for law school pt xiii

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

How Many Nails? Ah, the blog...haven't had much to say lately...but there's something in the air.... So today it was about 75 deg, not humid and there was not a cloud in the sky, total Colorado weather. Just another reaffirmation of the powermove. There's always been little signs foreshadowing the return (I still have a 303 number) but there have been other things since to seal the deal. The powermove has become more lucid lately. After a break in B.A., the move away was almost all but decided. I've always said that would stay if there was a killer job opportunity, but I think my true intentions permeated while I was going through the interview process. So much of the legal profession depends on manipulating the situation in your favor. Not following baseball (but hellz yeah Rockies!) and cheering for a team in the AFC that runs a West Coast Offense doesn't bode well for turning things in your favor in an inherently Xenophobic profession (ah, the greatness of our Federalist system). Even the first words the president of the Illinois State Bar Association said to me were, "you're not from around here, are you." If this meant outgoing, playful and dressed in colors other than drab, yeah I'm not from around here. At first I thought the fixation my displacement was a result of some right of passage I've been failing. But after the stint in B.A. I realized it was more of the fact that there's nothing here that fundamentally defines me. I found a calm in B.A.--I could actually sleep. I believe in the philosophy that you should never close doors, as you never know what defines you until you give it a chance. However, it's equally important to realize that certain things will never define you. In this process, it's only natural to redefine yourself every once in awhile, but you should only do so by eliminating flaws, not giving up qualities that fundamentally define you. Unfortunately, the redefinition the past few years has been more of the latter, and not the former. So there was a point to this, oh yeah, how many nails does it take to close a coffin? Keeping a 303 number; cheering for an AFC team; preferring a snowboard to a life jacket; having a wardrobe that consists of more than white, grey, black, and navy ... hmm, it may only take the first one for a Xenophobic profession....

From Argentina pt 5

Saturday, July 21, 2007

The Language Barrier So it's my last night in Bariloche, and I should be going out to check out the night scene, but I'm beat from riding. But yeah, hit one of the first gaps in language. Some people speak English out here, but it's far less than in Cosmo B.A. Not too bothersome, but it sorta sucks when rolling solo at a hostel where the kids are cool, but have a hard time communicating. It was funny though when this Spanish (de España) Cat and I joked about this French guy. We're all cool, so it was in good fun. We were drinking, and the French guy had some Vodka and was making drinks. He mixed his with Apple Juice, while the rest used orange juice. When somebody tried it, they made a comment on the taste. Then I said, "Nunca he tomado vodka con manzana." Which I got the reply from the Spanish Cat, "El es Frances." It was pretty funny. I think this would have been a different experience if I would have gone with some kids I know, but so it goes--I made the choice to book my trip in advance to ensure that I could go riding. The kids from school are going next weekend, but they got lucky to find accomidations, as it's peak ski season. Would have been cool to roll with them, but didn't want to gamble on not going at all. Met some cool kids on the slopes, though. It took me a day to run into some kids that could ride, so it was cool finding people who could actually ride. But Bariloche is a cool town. It's like Boulder mixed with Tahoe. The minas are more of my liking...a bit more crunchy than the Porteñas. The problem with Argentina is that the women here are so hot that I fall in love every day. But on the bright side, I do fall in love every day (now I just need to work on the pick up line.) Either way, totally could spend a few more days here. The time would have been enough had I not snowboarded over 60% of the time I was here, but so it goes. I thought I had more to blog about, but guess not. Me Voy.