One reason I rarely post here anymore is b/c the design does not reflect what I’d really like to do with this page. I’d really like to make some minor changes, and maybe over a longer term redesign the whole thing, but I never seem to find the time. Plus, I don’t really remember what I was thinking when I put this together. I made few notes to myself about how all the pieces fit together so now if I start digging around under the hood it’s like starting from zero. Maybe that’s the way to do it. Start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start.

Or not.

Talk about looking a gift horse in the mouth. One might think that Kathy Kelly, of the Capital Post-Conviction Project of Louisiana, jumped for joy upon discovering this blog post by Patrick Frey, a Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney who writes an off-the-clock blog, Patterico’s Pontifications. Not only did Frey build a case for witness misconduct and evidence tampering by two prosecution witnesses in a Louisiana murder trial that landed Kelly’s client, Jimmy Duncan, on death row, but he even conducted an interview with another prosecution expert witness. Given that a post like this one — coming from a prosecutor — could potentially provide grounds for appeal, you’d have expected Kelly to get on the phone with Frey ASAP. Kelly did indeed contact Frey — to threaten him with an ethics complaint!

It’s kind of a crazy story. Apparently the misunderstanding has since been resolved with an apology from the defense attorney. Still, it’s a good reminder of just why it’s often better to say nothing about your work than to risk saying the wrong thing.

Now, if only I could find work to say nothing about…

I know it doesn’t seem to readers of this blog as if anything is happening here. If you subscribe to the RSS feed you’ve gotten a few twitter updates recently, but that’s about it. The truth is, I’m kind of busy, but I’ve also been thinking about what to do w/the site. My initial thought was that I’d make the whole thing into a tumblelog, a single stream of pretty much everything I stumble across in my my web travels that seems interesting, funny, or otherwise worth sharing. For some, that would be fine — you’d be happy to skim through the twitter updates, the links to random articles, the quotes, whatever, and just pay attention to whatever you find interesting. I’m sure others would find that annoying — the signal-to-noise ratio would be too high.

The solution I’m considering at the moment would be to promote two feeds — one would be for substantive content and would be updated relatively infrequently, while the other would be more stream-of-consciousness and random. You could subscribe or pay attention to either, both, or neither. Thoughts? Suggestions?

A few resources that might be helpful in this project (mostly for my own benefit):
DIY Wordpress Tumblog
Wordpress plugins for tumbling
T1, a WP Tumbletheme
Tumble-hybrid Deuce theme

Random thought while reading 9 REasons Not to Attend Law School”: Lawyers who regret and complain about choosing to become lawyers are a little like addicts complaining about taking their first drink, hit, whatever. Shut up and deal, people.

And yes, I’m talking to myself here.

BTW: I’m still trying to figure out what to do with this blog. Patly because it’s so dormant, I sometimes feel official retirement is the way to go. And then I think, no, it just needs to be changed up. And then I think: Quit distracting yourself from studying for the bar, you idiot!

Still here, just busy. I’ve been having a little fun helping out at PD Stuff here and here, while also applying for jobs, searching for jobs, trying to network, oh, and don’t forget getting ready for company. And “testing” my new iPhone. Wow.

Oh, and trying to figure out what to do with this blog. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be under construction in the next few weeks, not that it should matter to most readers (the two of you) — I will try not to break the RSS feed. The rough idea is to try to integrate the tumbroglio with the imbroglio, so that everything in my flickr, del.icio.us, twitter, and Google Reader shared items will all appear here seamlessly. No more “bits” in the right column, no more separate place for tweets, just a regular flow of whatever I’m posting wherever it may be. That’s the idea, anyway. Who knows if it’s possible, or rather, if I’m capable of making it so. We’ll see.

But first, it’s gluttony week! Perfect for a nation whose economy is in the toilet because of too much credit, too much borrowing, and basically overconsumption. But that’s a crap way to look at it. Forget I said that and if I don’t get back for a bit, Happy Turkey!

So says a hatchet job article in the Boston Herald. The comments do a pretty good job of pointing out how misleading and inaccurate the article is. It’s sad when something like this can be called “news.”

But and so, what the heck has happened to Public Defender Stuff? It’s been silent for a month and while that’s pretty normal on this here blog, it’s very not normal for PD Stuff. Gideon is still posting regularly on his main blog, which is good, but… I miss PD Stuff. Anyone know what’s going on?

One of my favorite blawgs in the last year or two seems to have disappeared. Woman In Black was an experienced public defender in some western state who shared great insights about her practice, constitutional law, and also some details of her particular state’s law and practice. This all came with frequent and funny anecdotes about her personal life — children, dates, movies, etc. She had a great mix and I always enjoyed catching up on her posts.

So imagine my dismay when I visit today to find Blogger saying, “Sorry, the blog at womanwearingblack.blogspot.com has been removed.” What!? Google shows that her last post on Nov. 5 suggests that she has decided not to be a woman wearing black any longer:

One of the heaviest things, mentally and emotionally, about the job is that I am responsible for my clients in so many ways. Yeah, we all know we are supposed to “counsel” and “advise” and “assist” in decision-making, but that’s really bullshit when you are talking about our clients. How many times a week do you get asked, “What should I do?” or told “If that’s what you think, I’ll do it.” or even “Tell me what to do.” But then there is the segment of clients you simply can’t tell ANYTHING to, or at least they won’t hear what you are telling them. So, my poorly-drawn analogy is that America is like the public defender client base. And now Obama is responsible. So I wore black just about every day for the last eight years and now I don’t have to. It is oddly liberating.

That’s cool (and a good example of her style—frank, smart, always w/an edge of humor), but this doesn’t mean she has to stop blogging! Please Woman In Black, come back!

Hey reader! By which I mean you people subscribing to this blog in an RSS/newsreader. Has it seemed like this blog has been dead for, like, forever? Or at least since May? Well, that’s because I’ve posted rarely and randomly. But it’s also b/c the feed was screwed up, I think, by a WP update or something. I think it’s working now. I mean, I hope it is. If you — someone, anyone, Beuller — would be so kind, could you just drop a little note to let me know whether you successfully received this post in your feedreader of choice?

I wish I’d never gotten involved w/the feedburner monster, but as long as it’s working, well, cool.

Please ignore. This is a test.

List every job (other than those listed in response to preceding questions 23A and 24), including without limitation all temporary, part-time, full-time, and self employment, paid or unpaid, you have held for the ten year period immediately prior to the date of the filing of this application. List jobs in reverse date order so that your current or most recent (non-judicial and non-legal) employment is listed first.

Lawyers are the biggest idiots on the planet. I want to pull my hair out!!!!

Also not helping: This blog is somehow broken. The RSS feed’s not working, which it never really has in any way that was satisfactory, and I can’t post through the xml-rpc interface. So sadness all around. The dearth of posting here means fewer people follow anyway, and the hassle associated w/keeping the damned thing running, updating software, troubleshooting, etc., is beginning to outweigh the benefits. Hmph. Changes to come. Suggestions always welcome.