Non-Sequiturs

There are definite advantages to being a staff attorney. One, I am not on partner track, so I don't have to do all the marketing and business development that associates have; two, I don't have to work as many hours and am generally not at the beck and call of any partners; and three, I get assigned projects and then am essentially left alone to do my work. But the downsides can be annoying: the view that because we are staff somehow we are second-class attorneys (even though I have worked as an associate for even bigger, more prestigious firms), and the lack of support for us. I chose to be a staff attorney in order to have a much better quality of life, and so far I am very happy with my choice. But a couple of things have happened lately that are casting a pall on the job. First, they are moving us all to a different floor soon and they keep moving us from actual outside attorneys' offices to paralegal size offices and now to almost a cubicle like environment. Thankfully they came to their senses and are giving us actual offices with doors, but they are really small. Second, our firm merged with a California firm at the beginning of the year and they kept sending us emails to fill out these forms with our new contact information so that we could receive new business cards. When the beginning of the year rolled around, I hadn't received the cards so I inquired about them, and after several back and forth emails was told, rather brusquely that the firm was no longer providing business cards to staff attorneys and that if I had any problems with it to call HR. It was just an odd exchange considering the constant stream of emails we got asking us to put in our order. I guess it is just one more way to push us as staff attorneys further into oblivion.

Ok, enough workplace whining. Here's some pretty to look at. Kurt and I joined some friends this weekend to see the new Jason Statham movie, The Mechanic. It was surprisingly good. Well paced, plotted, and acted (shocking enough). I definitely recommend it.

The movie also starred this little hottie, Ben Foster. He was excellent.

Someone asked me the other day if I was going to a Superbowl party this weekend. I sort of chuckled, considering I really have no idea who is even playing, or even where they are playing. I suppose I understand how people can get into football, but it pretty much escapes me why. To each his own I guess. I do think the commercials are entertaining, and will likely have the game on while I am doing something else, just so I can catch them.

Lyrics Rattling Around My Head

"Your veins are my trenches
my gun is my own
the whispers fall heavy
with delicate moans

Arms and legs
teeth and nail
our fragile companions
are destined to fail

For this battalion
has been run through
therefore captains and comrades
I bid you all adieu"

Esben and the Witch
"Marching Song"

"Wake up you're getting high on your own supply
oh baby you're still alive when you could've died
the world is not round because of you
you know i'm not around because of you

you've got a mouthful of diamonds
and a pocketful of secrets
i know you're never telling anyone
because the patterns they control your mind
those patterns take away my time
hello, goodbye"

Phantogram
"Mouthful of Diamonds"

"We live as we dream, alone
The space between our work and its product
Some fall into fatalism
As if it started this way"

Gang of Four
"We Live As We Dream, Alone"

"Cloudlight
Floating in magically colorful pieces of sky
Pieces of skylight"

Eskmo
"Cloudlight"

Appealing Things

The Hunger Games
The Radleys
Esben and the Witch
Getting tickets for Baths concert at the Masquerade for only $8
Bates boots

Annoying Things

Kroger whole wheat pasta; the stuff is foul
Daniel Bejar's voice
Artistic (or not so artistic) nude photos of people with their pets; seriously?
Old Yeller, Toady, and Silent Cracker