“When I watched “Man of the Year,” all I could think of was President Bush stealing the 2004 election in Ohio.” ââ�¡â��

“7 real people with 7 real stories of living on the minimum wage, hosted by Roseanne Barr and sponsored by the AFL-CIO and ACORN.” ââ�¡â��

“I thought these bits were cute, especially since I’m a Mac user.” ââ�¡â��

Now that I’m a “real lawyer” I have this vague feeling that I should do all sorts of lawyerly things and that I should no longer have time for the trivial pursuits of my pre-lawyer life. You know, “I’m a lawyer. I think about important legal issues. This is my best pose.”

And then I laugh at myself. Ha! And go do all the “trivial pursuits” of my pre-lawyer life.

Chief among those pursuits in November will be the annual adventure of NaNoWriMo. Yes, I know I say every year that I’m going to write a 50,000-word novel in 30 days, and yes, I know I have only actually lived up to that promise, um, once (I think), but that’s what makes it so much fun. Maybe this year will be a winning year!

I’ve got the plot roughly outlined (still need to do more there), I have a few characters sketched, I have my No Plot No Problem novel-writing kit, but I’m still looking for my maguffin. Any suggestions?

To help you help me, I can tell you that the story is (not surprisingly) going to be another dystopian scenario where people happily pay for the privilege of being under constant surveillance by the corporations running the government. As an added bonus, the method of surveillance also serves to feed people subliminal advertising so that most good citizens are constantly within an a hair’s breadth of bankruptcy in their pursuit of all of the delightful consumer goods they simply must have. So yeah, a happy world it will be.

So what is my maguffin? I’m just not sure. Obviously that’s a problem. I’m working on it.

Meanwhile, if you’re interested in tackling NaNo yourself, I highly recommend you download the “report card” from truckpoetry. If anything will get you to the finish line, this will. (See also: More report card options here.)

Also of interest to past “winners” of NaNo: The Zokutou Clause says you don’t have to start over w/something new on November 1st. Instead, you can try to finish one of the novels you’ve started in the past. Something to keep in mind if you ever get something going that you really want to finish…

Finally, if you’re attempting to write a novel on a Mac, I also recommend checking out Scrivener, a writing program w/lots of features that just might make the task easier. I greatly enjoyed using it last year and, although it’s still in beta (and is therefore currently free), it’s much improved since then. [tags]writing, nanowrimo[/tags]

“Its ‘goal is to bring the benefits of a daily weblog to the Self-Help Law movement.’” ââ�¡â��

“Therefore, with rebates, such a solar system would actually save me $40/month in total fuel/energy costs. And I use NO OIL! I produce NO HYDROCARBON emissions.” ââ�¡â��

“If the court does not get the respect from members of the bar, we can’t have the respect from clients, and then we have anarchy.” ââ�¡â��

It’s officially official: I’m a lawyer.

The final hurdle, the “swearing in,” was Wednesday at the state capital. I got to put my name in a big book w/all the other members of the state bar “association,” I met the clerk of the Supreme Court, and I got to stand up and sit down in the House Chambers when an assistant attorney general read off my name to “introduce” me to the Court. I also signed an oath and recited another. I’m thinking it would be good for someone to have given me copies of those oaths so I can be sure I remember everything I swore to do or not do, but hey, I guess they trust me to just be ethical or something.

I guess this means the honeymoon is over. For the last two months I’ve been working as a glorified internââ�¬â��researching, brief-writing, and brainstorming for and with most of the other lawyers in my office. I’ve had the chance to be a small part of a murder trial, a DUI trial, and a domestic violence trial. I’ve visited clients in jail, interviewed witnesses, fielded phone calls from concerned family members, and helped write and file an appeal to the state supreme court. All of this has been experience has been terrific for learning local procedure and norms, and for getting to know everyone in my office. Although I started out a little frustrated (ok, very frustrated) at having a job but still basically being an intern, I’ve since grown to really appreciate this opportunity I’ve had to do all of the above w/out the pressure of a client load of my own.

And now it begins for real. I got my first client yesterday and will gradually be getting more clients in the next few weeks. It’s exciting, but a little surreal. That’s my file? My client? I’m responsible for this person’s defense? Me? Allrighty then! Let’s go!

“The blog looks like it’s authored by a couple traveling across America in their RV and spending nights parked in WalMart parking lots - but it turns out that turned out to be a fake blog, written by writers employed by an Edelman off-shoot.” ââ�¡â��

“Despite what you might have heard, weblogs aren’t really a good tool for organizing diverse bits of information.” ââ�¡â��