squirelawrence

squirelawrence @ 2020-03-17T10:05:00

2020-03-17T14:17:31Z

Been a while, but I thought I might start journaling a bit on here so that I can keep a record of this for later. May also do on FB, but far more people access my FB page, and this I think will mostly be just for me.

Second day of working from "home." I put that in quotes because Im currently staying in an extended stay hotel in Apex, about 15-20 minutes from downtown Raleigh and my office. My lease ran out on my apartment, my landlord decided not to renew, and I'm applying for a career clerkship position with a federal judge in Wilmington, NC, so locking myself into a new lease in Raleigh seemed like a bad idea.

After some hiccups with my current job, things seem to have settled down, although I'd still not be unhappy if this new job comes through, despite all the hassles of moving and job change it would bring. It's a little weird right now - not because we're all working outside the office, or because it's all business as usual, but because it's a weird combination. The courts are mostly operating on a normal schedule, with some changes - the midterm Fayetteville session is occurring tomorrow, but only with initial appearances (no arraignments or revocations), and the judge is appearing by videoconference. I personally think that sets a terrible image - we're going to make all the attorneys and defendants show up, but the judge isn't going to risk it. And I like this judge, personally. If I think it looks bad, it's hard to overstate how bad it probably looks to all the defendants.

I'm supposed to have court tomorrow, although there is a possibility that they won't let me in the courthouse because I'm coughing. I've been coughing for months, now - some sort of chronic lung condition. But, under the current standing order, no one is supposed to enter any federal courthouse if they are coughing. Dumb, but there you are.

Trying to get some work done here from my hotel room. Hope anyone who happens to read this is doing ok.

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Well, I'm alive. . .

2014-03-29T13:40:47Z

Which is a good thing. I suffered a massive GI bleed on Tuesday evening due to (they think) diverticulitis. I lost, as one ICU nurse put it, "about a half a person's worth of blood." Then spent the next 48 hours getting that blood put back in. For a while it was a race between pumping blood in faster than it leaked out. Then they were able to find the source of the leak and fuse the blood vessels. Fun.

Home now. Have to go back on Tuesday for investigative colonoscopy to make sure I'm not still leaking somewhere. Feel like an overfilled balloon - they pumped me so full of fluids that even though I was on no food, no liquids prep for colonoscopy, I gained 12 lbs overnight. Now I'm just supposed to wait while the fluid and pressure levels equalize naturally. Whee fun.

Send happy thoughts!

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Blacklist

2014-03-19T22:17:38Z

Damn, 16 episodes in and Tom FINALLY got interesting. That's an impressive display of restraint in writing and character development. Guess I'm going to have to get some icons now.

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Went ammo shopping for my birthday. . .

2012-09-03T23:11:20Z

as I seem to have developed a 200 round a week shooting habit. I'm still reasonably certain that cocaine addiction would be both more destructive and self-destructive (and less fun!), but I'm beginning to wonder if it wouldn't be cheaper.

Worked all three days of the holiday weekend (including my birthday) and still don't feel prepared for the hearings (plural) and trial (singular, thank God) I have this week. Thankfully, once I get through these next two weeks, I have a week to prep for October, and then I get to go on vacation for a week. Whee!

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Huh - I've been an attorney for 8 years.

2012-06-28T01:08:20Z

I realized the other day that I've been a licensed attorney for 8 years, which actually makes it the longest career I've had yet by a bit - seven years total in various retail jobs (yeah, that was dumb, what can I say) and 6 years in construction (which was actually fairly useful, at least).

And today, after eight some years, I won my first jury trial in federal court. Life isn't bad. Time for a drink.

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AP just called the marriage amendment as having passed in NC. . .

2012-05-09T01:27:04Z

Really, really, really wish I could call in sick tomorrow and just get plastered in mourning. *sigh*

For the first time in a while, I really miss DC.

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Things which do not make sense. . .

2012-05-05T18:52:40Z

Making everyone EXITING the Gun & Knife show go through a metal detector. Except possibly to amuse the door security, who were making bets on whether anyone WASN'T going to set the thing off.

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13 months after purchasing my "new" car. . .

2012-04-13T22:49:03Z

I finally have registration and a license plate! \o/ A little bit over the 60 days the law allows, but hey. *sigh* For a licensed attorney who has worked for or directly against the Federal government my entire legal career, I'm sort of appallingly bad at dealing with bureaucracy. Still, it's done.

And tomorrow I get to go out to the shooting range and compete with my little sister for bragging rights as best shot in the clan (although I suspect our dad could've waxed us both, back in the day). Gonna be fun!

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Soon can get things that go bang-bang!

2012-02-26T00:25:16Z

Passed the classroom portion of the NC Carry Concealed Handgun class today. 8 hours of instruction followed by 10 minutes of test - whee!

Which, since I already passed the range portion of the class, means that now I get to go hand in my application, get fingerprinted and background checked for something like the seventeenth time in the last 8 years, and hopefully then get issued my permit. \o/

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Pardon me while I squee about Evenescence a bit. . .

2011-12-28T22:40:51Z

but DAMN, that girl can sing.

SiriusXM radio had an hourlong interview/acoustic set with Evenescence while I was on the road for work (totally worth whatever I paid for Sirius this month). They opened with Bring Me to Life, of course, and at first, the acoustic set (with piano and cello) sounds pretty much like the album version (which is kind of neat in itself). Then it hits the point where normally the guitars come snarling in, and the difference hits you. And then the non-difference hits you - Amy Lee's vocal track sounds exactly the same. And you realize that amazing, pure, precise, freaking GORGEOUS voice is all her - she can do this with nothing more than a microphone and an empty room.

Damn, that girl can sing. And apparently she plays harp, too, which has got to be amazing to see.

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I feel a playlist coming on. . .

2011-11-29T01:14:19Z

Listening to Christina Perri's new single on the radio ("A Thousand Years," from those sparkly vampire movies, for those who haven't heard it yet), and I feel like a playlist of songs about immortality and reincarnation (and, yes, vampires). So far -

Christina Perri - A Thousand Years
Saving Jane - Immortal (and possibly I'm in Love With a Vampire)
Barenaked Ladies - It's All Been Done
Indigo Girls - Galileo
Pretty much all of Queen's It's a Kind of Magic (but particularly Princes of the Universe and Who Wants to Live Forever)
Tempted by Muse's Supermassive Black Hole, but that may be cheating.
About every other Evanescence song (but particularly My Immortal and Bring Me to Life)
Cheryl Wheeler - Gandhi/Buddha

Any suggestions? I know I'm forgetting about a thousand songs. . .

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I have the strangest car-ma. . .

2011-11-04T00:36:56Z

It's not that my cars refuse to break down (which may be the more advanced version, I suppose - wonder if I can level up somehow?). It's that WHEN they break down, they tend to be very considerate about it.

For example - my last three breakdowns? One, the car refused to start after we had stopped for lunch at Arby's (where we never went for lunch normally). The Arby's was across the street from an Autozone - we walked over, grabbed a new battery, walked back, drove away.

The second? Tire shredded and blew out on the Interstate. Managed to pull over to the shoulder without incident. Neither the car nor I had stopped shaking when a breakdown vehicle pulled up behind me. They saw the tire start to fray and followed me for the half-mile it took for the tire to blow. Had the tire changed out in under 5 minutes.

And tonight. My car dies while I zipping down the highway. I pull over in what I later find is the last stop for several miles before the shoulder just drops off. Call Roadside Assistance - they say tow will be there in an hour or two. Tow pulls up in 15 minutes. Get towed to dealership, where I have to leave the car and make my way home. Figure I'll walk across the highway to the sandwich shop, call a cab and get some dinner while I wait. There's a cab pulled into the restaurant, just finishing up their dinner. Zip right home.

And yeah, my beloved, less than 8 months old car broke down, which makes me pretty upset. On the other hand, no one was hurt, I got home with little fuss (although damn, the cab ride home was expensive), and this was about the perfect time, as I'm about to fly out to New Mexico for the week anyway. If I can manage to get the repairs initiated by phone, I can stay home tomorrow and Saturday, the shuttle comes to get me Sunday, and then I'm in New Mexico for the week and wouldn't be driving anyway. Almost makes me feel bad for, well, feeling bad that my car broke down.

Almost.

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In other news, I still love Vegas. . .

2011-08-31T00:48:27Z

Didn't have the spectacular luck of my fellow vacationers, but had a good time nonetheless! Ka is still awesome, although I still get twitchy with all the ninjas popping out of the woodwork everywhere. With bows. And flaming arrows. O was more beautiful than I remember, which is nice. Crazy people hurtling through the air into water - very symbolic.

The Sugarland/Sara Bareilles concert was AWESOME! It was mildly funny in that I'm fairly used to going to concerts where I'm the oldest person there, and almost as used to concerts where I'm the youngest person there (don't laugh!), but this one I was pretty much right down the middle, as the audience seemed to range from tweens up to retirees. The Sugarland portion was one massive singalong, and I was tremendously entertained when one of the numbers in the encore was "Come On Eileen" with Jennifer Nettles and Sara dancing onstage. Very cool. Also worth noting is that at least for this tour, Sugarland has the cutest bassist since Hole. And Kristian Bush is a toon character, and seems to be very amused by life. I applaud him.

People watching was great, food was good, and the Desert Eagle in .44 Magnum really is ridiculously huge, but shoots quite nicely. Jams like a mofo, though - I only had 5 shots and it STILL jammed on the fifth. Sad. The Sig P226 and P220 were both nice, but freakin' expensive - I may start with something a bit cheaper.

*happy sigh* And now, to hit the Cirque site to decide if the next trip is to see a touring show or back to Vegas!

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The Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day - with Bears!

2011-08-22T01:56:47Z

Had a terrible, horrible, very bad day - despite getting to see tricksterquinn and her new house of awesome - involving a truly demented GPS and some very horrible roads. And no phone service. And getting home to find the obituary of one of my high school classmates in my email inbox.

One the very slight uptick, the GPS routing me through the back roads of Hell meant that I got to see cows, and horses, and BEARS! Mama black bear and two cubs standing on the side of the road and contemplating crossing. Very cute.

I'm going to run away and join the circus now.

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Man, this new job takes some getting used to. . .

2011-07-20T02:00:18Z

So, I've discovered that, much like my old job, I'm much more productive after everyone else has left and I don't have to worry about phone calls or emails or people dropping by my office - I can just put my headphones on and write like the wind (ok, a very gentle breeze - but it's HARDER when you have to include citations for every sentence you write).

So, I'm typing along on my reply brief that's due Friday, when the time display clicks over to 8:00 and bam! every light on my floor goes out.

*brief wtf moment* And I realize that not only is there not a light switch in my office, I haven't seen one anywhere on my floor - the whole building may be centrally controlled, for all I know.

I briefly consider continuing to work in the dark, and then realize that while I can still type just fine, I can't read my freakin' notes. *shrug*

So, I go home. I guess it really is kinder and gentler in the public sector! (For reference, the longest day I ever spent in the office at the firm was 17 and 1/2 hours - which, yeah, makes me a wimp by large firm standards, but there's a REASON I don't work there any longer).

Cool - 8 pm work curfew. I guess I can live with that!

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Mythbusters, Gaiman, and Gollum. . .

2011-07-01T00:12:20Z

An interview with Neil Gaiman turns into Adam Savage from Mythbusters, in the voice of Gollum, singing "I Will Survive."

Could not stop laughing. I think the interviewer may actually have sustained injuries.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X9eriClHWLw#at=186

This planet is so WEIRD. But I loves it, I loves it, my precious!

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Say what you will about him, Antonin Scalia can WRITE. . .

2011-06-27T19:27:06Z

From the California video game case:

Justice Alito accuses us of pronouncing that playing violent video games "is not different in 'kind'" from reading violent literature. Well of course it is different in kind, but not in a way that causes the provision and viewing of violent video games, unlike the provision and reading of books, not to be expressive activity and hence not to enjoy First Amendment protection. Reading Dante is unquestionably more cultured and intellectually edifying than playing Mortal Kombat. But these cultural and intellectual differences are not constitutional ones. Crudely violent video games, tawdry TV shows, and cheap novels and magazines are no less forms of speech than The Divine Comedy, and restrictions upon them must survive strict scrutiny. . . Even if we can see in them "nothing of any possible value to society. . . . they are as much entitled to the protection of free speech as the best of literature."

Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Ass'n, fn. 4.

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The jig's up - the cat knows. . .

2011-04-23T14:06:26Z

The cat's been a little suspicious for the last couple of days, but not much, lured into a false sense of security by my very slow packing pace. Even she started to get alarmed at the number of boxes popping up, though, and the emptying of the closet was a dead giveaway. Luckily, she didn't panic and hide under the bed, allowing me to lock her up in the study with the food and the litter box instead.

The movers have come and gone - my entire life packed into 2/3 of a storage pod in under an hour and a half. Slightly depressing, that, but also impressive. Due to the apartment complex I'm moving to being closed on Easter, I'm stuck here until Monday morning, when I will be hitting the road for Durham, NC. My email will remain the same, as will my phone (at least for the immediate future), and I'll pass on my new physical address shortly.

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Signs that you've made the right job choice. . .

2011-04-20T03:07:41Z

Apparently the U.S. House of Representatives has retained my old firm to defend DOMA. *headdesk* *sigh*

http://abovethelaw.com/2011/04/paul-clement-and-king-spalding-defend-doma-at-a-discount/

I suspect that my waxing too rhapsodic about my feelings on this would violate the "no disparaging" clause of my separation agreement. And, to be fair, I'm going to go work for the Federal Public Defender's Office, where all of my clients aren't going to be on the side of goodness and light. Also to be fair, the House made a good choice - I've met Mr. Clement, I've seen him argue, and he's every bit as good as his reputation.

I will say I'm a bit surprised - I know the Atlanta (the home office) branch of the firm has been heavily involved in LGBT representation on a pro bono basis.

And now I think I'm going to go bang my head against a wall for a while.

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I can has job, I can has car, I can has apartment. . .

2011-04-15T18:48:57Z

now can I has sleep? *pitiful whine*

I got the job on Monday. I drove an hour north (to be fair, the inestimable tricksterquinn drove me out there) of Baltimore to buy the car on Tuesday. It had six miles on it when I drove off the lot.

I drove to North Carolina on Wednesday to apartment shop. Drove back today and got the news that the lease application was approved an hour ago (pending payment of deposits and proof of renter's insurance - yup, it's a NICE apartment). My beloved new Nissan Juke (needs a name - I'm leaning towards Luke at the moment) now has 724 miles on it, and I am SOOOOOO tired.

I have the moving truck scheduled for pickup and dropoff, and am waiting for the movers to call me back to schedule packing, loading and unloading. It's been an incredibly productive couple of days, but I feel like I've been beaten with a stick (yes, in fact, I do know what that feels like). I really need a nap, but I still need to schedule the movers and figure out where I can park the car legally and move it. *whine some more*

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If there is a logic here, it is not like your plebeian Earth logic...

2011-04-15T00:14:11Z

I'm back in NC, apartment hunting. On the drive down and around I've been listening to the radio for the first time in a while, and Rihana's S&M is in heavy rotation. I confess it strikes me as rather odd that you can say "Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me" on the air but not "Sex in the air."

Censorship is not only wrong, it's WEIRD.

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I can has job! \0/

2011-04-12T01:19:44Z

Got a call this morning from the Federal Public Defender's Office, asking me what start date I wanted. I think that qualifies as an official job offer. *snerk*

They're supposed to email me the formal letter (including my salary) tomorrow. I also get to go to Carmax tomorrow and purchase a car, so I can drive to North Carolina and apartment shop before I have to move in two weeks. Gonna be a busy couple of weeks.

So, for all those in the DC and Baltimore area - I'll miss you! Hope all stays well for you here, but I need to get back to court, and that seems to mean back to North Carolina. On the other hand, the apartment I'm hoping to get is a block from the local Amtrak station, so hopefully I'll be back soon and often.

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Paranoia - it's not just for breakfast anymore

2011-04-04T20:52:00Z

I've had an income since I was 17 or so (not counting mowing lawns), so I've also had income taxes for going on a quarter-century now. In that time, I don't think I've ever actually had to pay income tax. I mean, I think there were one or two years where I owed state taxes, but I always received a federal refund that more than compensated.

Despite that, every year I get paranoid, put off filing, and generally get the shakes while clicking through my income tax returns, even though every year it turns out that no, in fact, I won't have to send the government every cent I have and have to scrabble through loose change to buy food for my cat. Go figure.

This year is yet another triumph, and now I can scratch taxes off the list of things to stress about. Leaving moving, finding a job and buying a car, but I'll take the progress where I can get it.

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Truly, we live in the Age of the Geek. . .

2011-01-19T00:05:27Z

Saw an ad in the Pentagon Metro station for some military contractor that apparently manufactures an electronic communication and intelligence network for the military.

Name of the contractor? Palantir.

I'm so amused. Wonder if they had to pay royalties to Tolkien's estate?

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Fortunately, there was room at the inn...

2010-12-25T23:03:04Z

Came home to North Carolina to visit my family, only to discover for the first time in the last three decades or so, there was forecast heavy (well, heavy for here) snow for eastern NC for Christmas. Contemplating the idea of being snowed in with my family, I promptly took the coward's way out and ran for the hills. Or Chapel Hill, at any rate.

Now, of course, there is no snow, at least as of yet. But I am safe, fed, not broiling to death in Jacksonville, and neither tears nor blood among my family had to be shed. Gonna count it as a win, listen to the Hogfather audiobook and knit like the wind. Merry Christmas, y'all!

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