blueblanketblogmy not-so-temporary blog, i guess saturday, january 5This glass bowl-making class I'm taking is the best best thing I've done here so far. *Man* it's great. I am going to take every one of these glass blowing/sculpting/fusing/casting classes now, it's that great. It balances out work just *perfectly* -- it's almost entirely aesthetic, I work with colorful, physical things, and every now and then I cut myself. Oh, I am loving this. .: 9:28 PM .:friday, january 4I'm looking at this site about upcoming movies, and someone's making a movie based on my favorite zombie game! .: 10:39 PM .:My favorite Justice is probably Breyer. .: 1:12 PM .:"The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right."---Learned Hand .: 1:06 PM .:So hey, this new law, S. 1438, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002, got passed. Why, you ask, am I celebrating a law with such an ominous name? Because section 1116 of this law authorizes federal employees to retain promotional items, including frequent flyer miles, earned on official travel. .: 10:59 AM .:Movers came yesterday. God, where did I get all this *stuff*? Oh, I remember. Bookstores and music stores. Sigh. My living room is currently a good argument for the e-book. .: 10:06 AM .:thursday, january 3Pick your old age persona! You know, of course, that I'll be a curmudgeon. .: 5:25 PM .:Trapped at home! Waiting for movers! Bored! .: 10:22 AM .:wednesday, january 2how working for the department of justice is different from working for a judge Okay, to balance off my recent string of fluffy posts, I figured I'd talk a little bit about work. So I'm a new attorney here at the Department of Justice. It's fun, it's neat, and I feel like I'm doing good stuff so far. But it involves compromise. I don't (just) mean compromise in terms of ideology -- as I said, so far I've agreed with all the legal positions I've been taking. (I like that, I like feeling like I'm on the side of what's "the law," which is not, apparently, always the feeling one gets as a legal advocate.) Maybe I'll eventually feel pressured to compromise, but like I said, I'm new, I haven't yet. What I mean, though, is compromise in terms of dealing with different parties. When I was working with my judge, I would write stuff, he would give me edits, and I would just make them. Simple as that. The one person I listened to was my judge, and when I thought maybe he was wrong, or needed to see some extra case law, I would print that stuff out, write a little memo up, or talk to him about it. A bidirectional relationship, basically. Now there are all these *people*. I mean, sure, ultimately "The United States" is my client, but what that really means is interacting with bunches of agencies, and (because I just do appeals) with the trial counsel, who is also really invested in the case (as you'd expect). And, contrary to the characterizations of many who talk about the government, the government rarely speaks with one voice. I mean, in the end, the government *is* supposed to speak with one voice. And, scarily, this one voice is the voice that I'm supposed to put together. With the help of my reviewers and supervisors, thank goodness. But in the process of it all, each of the agencies and subagencies (for instance, the Forest Service, the Department of the Interior, the EPA) have their points to add, their different things they want to say, and their terminological nuances they want to preserve. Some care about whether I write "biological diversity" or "diversity in a multiple-use context," while others don't. Some want me to take a specific legal position regarding, say, certain types of scientific studies, while others don't. Some feel like I should make very concrete statements about our obligations (in order to strengthen our argument), while others feel I should leave lots of fudge room (to preserve flexibility). One of those "polycentric" situations, as it were. Working for a judge wasn't like that. There was one voice I was supposed to write with, and that was the voice of my judge. But balancing all these things is really interesting, making it into "what the government says." Not sure I'm good at it yet (actually, I know I'm not good at it), but I guess I'm learning. .: 3:18 PM .:Just one more resolution, really. To see more indie bands. Because it gets me out, and because it's fun. .: 2:53 PM .:I'd been trying to remember the details about this for ages, but finally ended up looking it up on the internet. Anyway, it was about how King Lear was based on these fairytales about a daughter who said to her father, "I love you like salt." Here's a page that has a bunch of the variants of this story. I've always liked these stories because of how they seem to urge us to be more aware of the pervasive things in life, the background things we often take for granted. Oh, and before you say anything, yes, I already know about (and am reading) Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky. .: 11:40 AM .:I am still discovering weird business cards and phone numbers and other drunken scrabblings leftover (presumably) from new year's eve. Yeesh. I have no idea who these people are. I would put an ad in the "I saw you" section of the Citypaper, but I am just too lazy. .: 10:00 AM .:Because the lowered-caffeine intake resolution is pretty lame, even for me. So here's another lame one to add for the mix: I resolve to get up, I mean really get up, within three alarms of my alarm clock. No more will I go for six or seven rounds of "just five more minutes," no sirree! I am a wakin' babe! .: 9:18 AM .:tuesday, january 1A surprisingly (what with the aforementioned bopping-around stress and all) fabulous new years eve. Parties, parties, parties. Met new people and smooched some of them. Spent the night in a friendly, tight hug . . . because of the cold, really. Tired, now, but also relaxed and tension-free. A great start to this new year. .: 10:25 PM .:monday, december 31The holidays bring a sort of tension, the tension of juggling friends and obligations. People in town, people out of town, parties you want to go to, parties you have to go to. So much interaction, packed into so little time. So much meaning (or at least reading of meaning) with regards to hanging-out priority. Soon it'll be over, the sociological blur that comes with this strangely hectic time of the year. .: 6:45 PM .:. . . is to drink less coffee. Or at least less caffeinated coffee. That's it, a modest resolution for a modest gal. I'm just tired of getting caffeine headaches when I don't get my daily joe. .: 2:16 PM .:It occurs to me that I am doing fine, just fine. Better than in a long while, despite my various dissatisfactions and complaints about the city. Being able to hook up without needing to explain that, well, thing is good. And re-realizing the potentials of life in general is good too. My god, there's a whole world out here! What a fabulous thing to remember. .: 12:31 PM .:Multidimensional scaling is so very very cool. .: 10:37 AM .:It's hard to do anything in this town without someone else finding out. I'm not even talking about me. But it's funny how fast news travels. On that note, a tiny list of movies that really should not be, but apparently are, hookup movies: .: 8:18 AM .: |
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