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January 14, 2005
Congratulations D.C. Hotel Workers!
At the risk of turning ai into an “all congratulations, all the time” blog (see the past two posts and this one), congratulations to D.C. hotel workers who just won what sounds like a great contract offer from their employers! The D.C. members of UNITE HERE, “the merged union of hospitality, gaming, apparel, textile and laundry workers” which represents nearly half a million workers in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico, were ready to strike, which would have seriously messed with the plans of the nation's elite who are descending on D.C. next week for the 2005 inaugural. I guess now all the rich and famous Bush supporters will get to be pampered in peace and the management of D.C.'s finest hotels will be able to rake in the cash hand over fist w/out having to worry about any of those pesky “labor issues.” As the union reported:Sounds great to me!The tentative agreement ensures that there will be no work interruptions and the hotels will be able to proceed with all guest services for inauguration week as planned. The contract language includes new protections from workload increases, harassment at the workplace and other problems workers sought to improve. The economic package improves wages, pension contributions and maintains a strong health care package. Details will be released after members have read and voted on the contract.
Posted 08:56 PM | Comments (1) | general politics
BlawgCoop Welcomes Divine Angst!
After a bit of template magic to make her new home her own, stellar 0L Divine Angst has migrated her blog to her own domain! Check it out at divineangst.com. Congrtulations, DA! (And everyone else, don't forget to update your links!) For now, when you go to divineangst.com you'll find that you actually end up at a blawgcoop url. Why? Because DA had the ingenious idea of getting her own domain, but hosting her files w/blawgcoop! Barring unforeseen difficulties, DA can eventually hide the redirect so that users who go to divineangst.com will never know they're actually being served files from the blawgcoop server. This is such a neat little innovation that I'd like to invite anyone interested in moving or starting a legally-related blog to do the same thing. The “get your own domain but host with blawgcoop” plan offers the following advantages:- You secure your own domain name so if you ever decide to host your blawg yourself, you've got the domain you want.
- Readers will be able to find your blawg easily—you can make the URL match the name of the blawg.
- You don't have to pay the $5-$10/month it would cost to host the domain somewhere. If you register somewhere like GoDaddy.com you'll get free forwarding (and “masking” so that users won't see the foward) with your domain registration for only $8/yr.*
- You don't have to hassle with setting up and maintaining your own MT or WordPress installation, but you get all the benefits of MT or WordPress.
- You can import your entries from an existing blawg to your new blawgcoop-hosted blawg so you'll have everything in one place. If you ever decide to fully host your own blawg yourself, MT makes such a move relatively easy. (I'm not sure about the migration features of WordPress but I'm sure we could figure it out.)
- Bottom line: Your total annual bill for your own MT or WordPress blawg at your own, custom URL will be $13. Per year. ($8 for your domain registration, $5 to host at blawgcoop.)
Posted 07:44 AM | Comments (3) | life generally
Happy (late) B-Day, E. Spatch!
In the “better late than never” vein, here's wishing a happy birthday to Energy Spatula at Will Work for Favorable Dicta. Judging by the gazillion birthday wishes she received here and the cake her friend Legal Quandary made her, E. Spatch did not miss my good wishes, but I thought I'd send them anyway. Plus, it allows me to link to her post-birthday post, which is truly funny.Posted 07:02 AM | Comments (1) | life generally
January 12, 2005
Counter-Inaugural
FYI, if you'll be in Washington, D.C. for the Counter-Inaugural Protests on January 20:When I mention stuff like this, people generally ask: What's to protest? Short of convincing evidence that the election was stolen, some people think protesting an inauguration is pointless, or sour grapes, or even somehow disrespectful of our democracy and electoral system. Maybe. There's also the argument that protest is patriotic and a vital part of our democratic system, that the electoral process is broken (see, e.g., gerrymandering), and that the 49% of voters who did not support Bush/Cheney last November have a right (perhaps even an obligation) to voice their continuing opposition to this administration's policies and ideology. Whatever your thoughts, here are a few more counter-inaugural resources:
- Turn Your Back On Bush, a group that plans to do just that.
- Counter Inaugural, an effort supported by Billionaires for Bush, CODE Pink, and many others. Includes information on events both in D.C. and elsewhere.
- A.N.S.W.E.R., the anti-war juggernaut. The theme of their activities is “End the Occupation of iraq, Bring the Troops Home Now!”
- Not In Our Name, another war protest, which also lists other actions nationwide.
- The DC Anti-War Network, with “Rise Against Bush, Shine for A Peaceful Tomorrow
Posted 12:09 PM | election 2004 general politics
January 11, 2005
Big Announcement Day
Big big news today! First, Apple announced the Mac mini, the iPod shuffle, and iWork (including the new “Pages” word processor and graphic design app). Oh, and all the updates to the iLife apps. This greatly increases the odds I'll be getting a new computer this summer when the next update to OS X (“Tiger”) comes out. It just doesn't make sense to pay close to $200 for the os upgrade, plus the iLife upgrade, and the new iWork bits, only to run them on a 600 mhz G3 machine. Since all that new software will come on any new machine I buy, I'll practically be saving $200! (Er, or something like that.) The other big news: Howard Dean announced he's officially running for Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. I don't know what to think about that. It could be great. Or really not great. I'm pretty pessimistic about the chances for it being great, though. Too much money would really hate to see Dean in any position of “official” influence that it's unlikely he'll get the job, and even if he does, all that money will still be working very hard to make him “behave” and serve its interests. If he refuses, the money will make the position of DNC Chairman irrelevant. (And obviously its not just big money doing the talking, but also lots of people with positions of various amounts of power who would be threatened by Dean as an official party leader.) In short, the status quo does not like to be messed with, hence my pessimism. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong. I think.Posted 04:02 PM | Comments (3) | general politics mac geek
School Started, Life Over
School has begun again for me and that means my life is pretty clearly over. Nearly every second of every day appears to be booked with obligations. The trouble is, with journal, a 20 hour/week job, writing for ACS blog, a clinic that requires 10+ hours/week, and 14 hours of class, far too many of the seconds in my days appear to be double-booked. I mean, that's 44 hours booked already, without even figuring the time necessary for journal work, ACS blogging, or reading. Clearly I can't do all of these things, but I don't know what to give up. Crap. Question for anyone with knowledge/an opinion: What is the use of taking Federal Courts? I was advised to take it if I want a clerkship, which I'm pretty sure I do, but it looks like it's basically going to be something like “advanced CivPro with a special focus on Erie doctrine.” That's fine, but is it really worth the time and effort? Any thoughts on the long-term value of any of the above activities relative to the others would also be welcome.Posted 08:11 AM | Comments (9) | 2L
January 10, 2005
Political Geek “Star” Sighting
I just saw Jim Strock, who was a “candidate” on Showtime's “American Candidate” series last summer. He was on foot at the corner of 20th and J Street downtown, crossing 20th against the light. He looked right at me and I said hello because I thought I knew him, then as soon as I was past I remembered why I recognized his face. Burning dilemma: Should I have gone back to say hello? I've only had a couple of “star” sightings in my life, but I've always thought it was poor taste to say anything to people you don't really know, but just recognize from tv or movies. A I wrong? Should I have seized the moment? If it had been Keith or Lisa or Bruce or Malia, I might not have been able to stop myself because I would have had to complement them on their roles in the show and their positions on the issues. But Jim? The only thing I could have said was “Hi. You seemed nice, but I never would have voted for you.” Somehow, that really didn't seem appropriate. Anyway, I wonder what he was doing in D.C...Clearly Erroneous
Welcome to Clearly Erroneous, a new group blog featuring some of the most fiendishly funny law students in the blawgosphere. My failure to mention it in my bits of blawg news was clear error on my part. (Ha! Now you see why I'm not part of a humorous group blog! I'm just too punny.)Posted 09:06 AM | meta-blogging
Norrell & Strange, Unfortunate Events Into the Forest of Middlesex
Since school starts again today (oh yay), I figure this is my last chance to recount the
wonders of my vacation reading, after I got so much good input on it before break began.
Click below for more on Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, some Lemony Snicket books, Into the Forest,and Middlesex. (There's a spoiler, but it comes with a warning so you should be able to avoid it if you want.)
My vacation reading started with a bang, but technically it wasn't reading at all. First, I was just about ready to start Middlesex as we were leaving, but L's sister and her SO kindly gave me a wonderful gift with orders to open it just before we left. It turned out to be Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell—on cd! 
So we started listening to that almost as soon as we hit the road and the magical intrigues of Susanna Clarke's excellent first novel kept us pretty well riveted all the way to Michigan. The book is not small, so the cd version occupies a full 26 discs. Counting both directions of our drive, we got nearly halfway—to the middle of disc 11. It took nearly that long for the two magicians to meet, so now I'm dying to learn what becomes of them in the rest of the book. I'm still trying to figure out how (and when) to listen to the rest of it, but what I've heard so far is plenty to allow me to recommend it. (Thanks, M & P!)
The book struck both me and L. as very much trying to evoke the style of a 19th century British novel (i.e. Jane Eyre), but its narrator has a much more contemporary sensibility, and its supernatural subject matter creates an interesting contrast with the 19th century style. The characters are painstakingly drawn (almost too painstakingly, at times), and the matter-of-fact treatment of magic keeps things interesting. The book's vision of magic (along with its liberal use of footnotes which enhance the impression that every bit of it is serious and true) is both dark and whimsical, and therefore believable. This is serious stuff these characters are playing with, and that seriousness adds a nice edge that makes you always want to know what happens next. Also, even halfway through the book I can't really figure out who I'm supposed to be rooting for, or who I'm even supposed to like. It takes skill to do that, and Clarke has done it well here.
Once we were out of the car, I turned to books I'd read instead of listen to. My sister has been enjoying the Lemony Snicket books, so she kindly brought the first five or so and allowed me to read the first three in about as many days. I was pleasantly surprised to find them to be very fun mind-candy. Because they're kid's books they read quickly, and it's fun to imagine what it must be like to read them as a younger person.
The Unfortunate Events books actually contain some great insights, I found. For example, the first book, The Bad Beginning, takes some nice digs at the law. This excerpt displays one of them, but it also shows Snicket's distinctive tone:
How true! The tone and the little stylistic traits of a) warning the reader repeatedly that this is a horrible story in which terrible things happen to small children, and b) defining a word Snicket thinks his young readers may not recognize, are endearing trademarks of the whole series. But while I found most of the three books I read to be very well-written, I had to quibble with the the resolution of the first one. --- Caution: Spoiler ahead! --- If you haven't read this book and would like to, please skip the next three paragraphs! Also, if you haven't seen the movie and plan to, I'm guessing the following might give something away about that, too. The resolution of The Bad Beginning's central dilemma turns on what Klaus learns from reading these awful law books because it allows him and the other Baudelaire children to convince Justice Strauss to annul Violet's wedding to Count Olaf. By the judge's reasoning, the law requires a party to a wedding to sign a wedding document “in her own hand,” but since Violet is right-handed and she signed the document with her left, then she didn't sign in “her own hand,” and therefore the wedding is invalid. Obviously, this is a fairly weak and unsatisfying resolution to the problem, and Snicket seemed to feel that way, too, because he tries to explain it away:
Um, really? I mean, sure, many things in the law turn on technicalities, but would the law really say that a person's “own hand” is only the dominant hand with which he/she generally signs his/her name? Maybe, but it still seemed weak to me. Maybe I've just spent too long in law school, or maybe not long enough. --- End Spoiler --- But even if the Lemony Snicket books may only get law mostly right (and who am I to say?), they still might teach young readers a good deal, especially in the way they attempt to expand their readers' vocabulary by defining words like “incentive” and putting them into context. One word I learned from the second book is “brummagem,” which “is such a rare word for 'fake' that even Klaus didn't know what it meant” (91). Did you?
After three volumes of the Unfortunate Events in a row, I decided to take a little breather from the series. After all, the movie is only supposed to cover the first three books, so now if I end up seeing it, the books won't be spoiled for me. L. kindly gave me Into the Forest for Christmas, so I read that next, and as promised, it was a quick read with a somewhat Atwoodian feel. It's like The Handmaid's Tale in that it envisions a near-future where human folly has nearly made life as we know it impossible, but it's unlike that book in its lack of real concern for or attention to the larger causes of the future changes it predicts. Hegland's book feels less political, and more personal. But, like Handmaid it's centrally concerned with the relationships of women with women, women with men, and how culture can damage those relationships. I'd say it takes an idea of female solidarity and independence perhaps a little farther than Atwood does in Handmaid, and for that reason it's perhaps even darker than Handmaid, at least in a way. I'll say no more, but if you liked The Handmaid's Tale, I do think you'd like Into the Forest, plus it's a much faster read.
Finally, I ended the break where I intended to begin—with Middlesex. There's enough to say about this book that I'm not sure where to begin, but first, thank you to everyone who recommended it so highly—it really was all that and a bag of chips. I mean, this is one great novel. It's a historical novel, it's a political novel, it's a domestic novel, it's a gender and sexuality novel. It's a little-bit-of-everything novel and that's why it's so good. I particularly liked the playful narrator, a sort of omniscient first person voice who explains his omniscience through the clever device of genetics and the idea that we're all omniscient before we're born. I liked the historical details about Smyrna and the Turks and the Greeks and Detroit and Henry Ford and the riots in the 60s and the sad decay of the “motor city.” I liked the careful and well-developed characters and the way they spanned generations, retaining a delightful family consistency and plausibility over the years. And, of course, I loved the way the gender and sexuality issues are woven throughout, and finally more or less resolved.
In fact, maybe the only thing I didn't like so much was that I got the feeling at times that the author, Eugenides, knew exactly how good his book was, and was sort of showing off a little. I felt this most when our gene-crossed narrator admits that he once aspired to be a great novelist, but had resigned himself only to telling his story as plainly and completely as possible once he'd realized he simply had no talent for writing. Yeah, right, buddy. And yeah, I know the narrator is not the author, but still, to have your narrator say such a thing in the middle of a novel that's clearly going to be a big literary statement, it just seemed a teensy bit over the top. But only a teensy bit, because if there's any gloat in that moment on Eugenides' part, it's well-deserved, as far as I'm concerned.
In short, this is just a great book. Again, I don't want to say anything that might reduce your pleasure in reading it by spoiling anything (although, while this book is about a big secret, it's an open secret from about page one, so I'm not sure what I could spoil), but suffice to say I'd recommend moving it to the top of your list.
Posted 07:39 AM | Comments (5) | ai books
January 09, 2005
Peggy Browning Fund Deadline
FYI: If you're interested in labor law and would like to make at least $4000 this summer practicing a bit of it, the deadline for the Peggy Browning Fund Fellowship is this Thursday, January 14th. Applications are here.Posted 08:30 PM | law school
Bits of Blawg News
After one semester, Ex Mea Sententia is leaving law school for full-time work and an unidentified graduate program. He's also leaving his blawg behind. You gotta love it when a law student can say this:Stop it, will you? I'm jealous enough already! Best of luck, Ex Mea! Who knows, maybe when I read this book I'll be following you out the door... E. McP of The Neutral Zone Trap now has an RSS feed, thanks at least in part to my incessant demands. Thank you! (If anyone else wants to subscribe, just add this link to your aggregator.) Transmogriflaw has moved to a new home on TypePad and things look great! She's also decided to spend another semester with her new favorite person (her son, who is fast becoming master of his thumbs), rather than returning to law school this semester. Sounds like a great decision to me. I also think that blawg is going to become a priceless record of little Nathaniel's life, and that's very cool. But speaking of moving to TypePad, as Jeremy Richey kindly noted recently, blawgcoop might be a good solution for anyone who wants to start a blawg or migrate one to MT or WordPress. One advantage of a blawgcoop blawg over TypePad is that, while TypePad charges a minimum of $5/month, blawgcoop charges a maximum of $5/year. Since it's a co-op, Blawgcoop is also completely non-profit. An advantage of blawgcoop over blogspot (and this is important for the burgeoning ranks of aggregator geeks, like me): every blawgcoop blawg comes standard with an RSS feed! ;-) Last but not least, say hello to three more GW blawgs!
- WonL is written by Law-Rah, who has been posting pretty regularly since starting school last August. Oh, and she got an iPod maxifor Christmas—possibly the first and only of its kind.
- Neil Chilson is another 1L who appears to have been blogging for nearly a year and a half now. Since his last post was late last November, perhaps he's giving his blawg second thoughts, or perhaps he just hasn't returned from his winter break.
- Section14 looks like it was an attempt to get a section of 1Ls to create a group blawg. It's a great idea, but somehow I'm not surprised it hasn't taken off. I bet, however, that if its proprietors help it limp along through this year, it might be more successful next year because then it would provide a good way for former section-mates to keep in touch. Maybe.
Posted 08:23 PM | Comments (1) | meta-blogging
Comments Temporarily Disabled
FYI: I'm installing a CAPTCHA thingy to combat comment spam, and in the process, comments are currently not working. If there's anything here on which you'd like to comment, please return in a couple of hours. I hope everything will be working correctly by then. UPDATE: Well, that wasn't as hard as it seemed. Comments seem to be working now. Please let me know if you experience any problems. UPDATED UPDATE: Ok, the CAPTCHA was working fine here, but I had to remove it because it required edits to core MT files, which meant that it screwed up every blog on this MT install. Rather than making time-consuming tweaks to 4-5 templates in every one of the 23 blogs on this server, I decided to skip the CAPTCHA test. If anyone knows of anything similar to sCode that doesn't require hacking core MT files, please share.Posted 10:23 AM | Comments (9) | meta-blogging
Welcome Luminous Void
Hey, stop the presses! There's finally another GW blog (or blawg) to add to the scant three that I know of already.* Welcome to Luminous Void, a GW 2L who has so far written almost exclusively about RFID law and technology. He/she has a good little RFID primer for us mere mortals who only know enough about the technology to think it can't be good. If you're interested in IP law, Luminous Void promises to be an interesting place to visit. *The other GW blawgs I know of (besides this one) are:- Actus Reus, the 2L writer of which I recently learned is a friend of mine. “Hey, do you write a blog?” is just not a question that comes up often in law school so, although he may have known my “real” identity for some time, I had not a clue of his. The gulf between the digital and the physical world can be wide, it seems.
- Idle Grasshopper, a 1L I haven't met and who hasn't posted in recent weeks, but he's made many interesting observations about law school from the perspective of an evening student balancing both coursework and a full-time job.
- Veritable Cornucopia, which started as a group blog, but which was maintained primarily by Sam, a GW 3L (who was a 2L when the blog started). Unfortunately, it largely seems he's given up on the project.
- Life, Law, Libido (aka “L-Cubed”) is written by two GW grads (Matt graduated from GW, too, didn't he?), but since they've graduated, it's a bit of a stretch to continue calling it a GW blog.
Posted 09:25 AM | Comments (6) | law school meta-blogging
