I went to Michael's today to get more gesso'd board on which to paint, and I saw that they had a sale on Golden paint. 70% off. After picking my jaw up off the floor, I bought a few jars, and got some new colors I hadn't used before.
About a year and a half ago, I compared different acrylics to choose the best of the brands available. The winner was Golden for its consistency and smoothness. Once applied, it stays where I want it to stay. Perfect!
And a friend of mine has agreed to let me hang my work in her store to sell, so I'll be painting a lot in the next month. Mostly flowers... but I'll try a few things.
I posted recently on a judge who is hurting a business through a frivolous lawsuit.
Rush Nigut, an Iowa business and corporate attorney, wrote about my post. He mentions a reference to the infamous McDonald's coffee incident by someone in my comments section. And Rush gives a link to a page that explains why the jury found for the plaintiff as it did.
Rush wrote because he's concerned for the image of his profession. I get that. We all worry about how we're perceived. (Rush, by the way, is a terrific guy and helps a friend of mine on legal matters. He gets a big thumbs up from me.)
But to his larger point, he says:
It sure is helpful to see how many view our justice system. I'll remember a lot of the commentary in preparation for my next trial.
But this - half the industry with its thumb on the scale? Half the lawyers in the country think it’s not unethical to charge the same hour to two clients?
Everyone knows a good lawyer joke. Insert yours here...
A friend reminded me recently that perception is reality. It doesn't really matter what the truth is if everyone is convinced otherwise. People act according to what they believe is true.
Do lawyers gets a bum rap? Politicians? Muslims? Pick a group maligned disproportionately, and what they suffer is most likely not a vacuum of ethics or morals across the expanse of them, but a few gleaming and sticky examples of really bad behavior. Like it or not, it's what people will remember. Everyone finish this phrase with me now: "One bad apple..."
The question: how do you combat that image?
The answer: you fight that battle on your own turf. Lawyers ought to be the first in line to whup on others in their profession over frivolous lawsuits. Muslims should be the first and loudest to denounce violence done in the name of their god. Politicians should root out corruption in their own ranks and show their backbone against influence abuse.
I don't think that happens much. It's like Reagan's 11 commandment: never speak ill of another Republican.
But this is a different time. It's a time where PR is not centrally controlled, but is in the hands of the masses. It's a time where deeds done in the dark get highlighted on Drudge and other heavily-trafficked sites.
Today, Republicans ought to be the first to pick up stones against corrupt Republicans. If that doesn't happen, then the acts of a few become the sticky image for many. Unfair? Sure. But it ain't good news that's ever the top story of the night. The fact that a trial is fair gets no publicity. It's when it's not that it does. And that's the image people remember.
We have a justice system that allows financial terrorism. The story: a guy's pants are missing at the dry cleaners. His solution? Sue the dry cleaners for $67 million. The kicker? This guy is a judge, using our justice system as a lottery to satisfy his idiot vengeance.
First, Pearson demanded $1,150 for a new suit. Lawyers were hired, legal wrangling ensued and eventually the Chungs offered Pearson $3,000 in compensation.
No dice.
Then they offered him $4,600.
No dice.
Finally, they offered $12,000 for the missing gray trousers with the red and blue stripes.
Pearson said no.
With neither satisfaction nor his prized gray pants, Pearson upped the ante considerably.
The judge went to the lawbooks. Citing the District of Columbia's consumer protection laws, he claims he is entitled to $1,500 per violation.
Per day.
What follows is the beginning of thousands of pages of legal documents and correspondence that, two years later, have led to a massive civil lawsuit in the amount of $67 million.
According to court papers, here's how Pearson calculates the damages and legal fees:
He believes he is entitled to $1,500 for each violation, each day during which the "Satisfaction Guaranteed" sign and another sign promising "Same Day Service" was up in the store -- more than 1,200 days.
And he's multiplying each violation by three because he's suing Jin and Soo Chung and their son.
He also wants $500,000 in emotional damages and $542, 500 in legal fees, even though he is representing himself in court.
He wants $15,000 for 10 years' worth of weekend car rentals as well.
Here's this clown's bio. He's obviously proud of his previous work as an attorney on the "Neighborhood Legal Services Program," and he boasts of getting multi-million dollar settlements. I guess he saw that gravy train and decided to hop on board.
The scariest part for me is that he "was responsible for training and supervising a legal and support staff of 20-60 persons in neighborhood offices throughout the District of Columbia." He taught people this mentality. He's breeding.
They have it exactly right in the first article when they quote this:
"People in America are now scared of each other," legal expert Philip Howard told ABC News' Law & Justice Unit. "That's why teachers won't put an arm around a crying child, and doctors order unnecessary tests, and ministers won't meet with parishioners. It's a distrust of justice and it's changing our culture."
While Tamara's out at a dog show letting our schnauzer, Dochas (Doh'-chuss), strut her stuff, I'm spending the day in codeville finishing (hopefully) the changes on this web site so that I can get rid of the cumbersome, complicated, unorganized interface that I have today. I hope that the old interface is completely gone by tomorrow.
Recently, I talked of the changes I'm making to the blogroll. That was a step in the right direction, but it didn't go far enough. I have favorite bloggers, but I also have favorite books, movies, etc. So I've organized the main menu of the site into 6 areas:
Blog
Gallery
Store
Thumbs Up
Things to do
About Me
Then, within each of these you can find the sub-areas. So under Thumbs Up, which is my list of favorite people, places, and things, I have these sections:
Artists
Blogs
Books
Friends
Movies
Music
Web Sites
If you click on the Thumbs Up icon in the menu, you go to the new favorites page where you can access all of it.
This feels better. It's not just a hodge podge list of links with no context or meaning behind it, but instead I put some time into each person, place, or thing to which I link. If I really want to recommend them, they're worth a few minutes time to do it right.
Note to my friends and fellow bloggers: if I haven't yet linked to you, it's not personal. Today is infrastructure day. I'm working on the backbone of the site. Content, which includes you and the link to your site, comes later. Please forgive any delay.
This new site is organizes the clutter of the current site. I have a ton to do, and the new site will go through changes today, so if a few things don't work, it should only be temporary.
Working on the last flower - the big one in front.
We've roughed it in. Small brushwork next... then detail and finesse on the grass and we're done.
This work is too big for the scanner. I had to scan it in pieces and then line it up. How will I take a picture of the 24" x 48" painting that's up after this one?
