~ & ~
Reading: The Mists of Avalon, and now
also Deception on His Mind by Elizabeth George,
who is my favorite modern mystery writer. One day I shall
tell the tale of the booksigning I attended.
Watching: More damn political advertisements than
I can stomach. All the races in Missouri --
President, Governor, and Senator -- are still too close to
call, which means
there is a veritable barrage of ads. Sometimes they put
opposing ads one right after the other, which makes me wonder
why they can't just eliminate both and let me see a Tide
commercial or something.
Also watching: Matt Lauer on the Today show this morning.
Oh, my. I laughed and laughed until I couldn't catch my breath
at his Halloween costume -- Jennifer Lopez at the Grammys, with
Al as Puff Daddy. It was fucking hysterical.
Anticipating: Oh yes, people, we are a mere five days
from the season premiere of my little alien show. I was very glad
to get to see last season's finale again on Sunday, because I had lost
my tape of it and therefore spent the entire summer dying to
to see it again. (If there is anybody out there who cares
about this even half as much as I do, I wanted to share something
I noticed, which is that in the last scene at the hospital where
Scully tells Skinner about the bambino, she isn't wearing her
necklace. Hmmmm... I wonder who has it?)
I'm sorry about subjecting
you to my X-Files drivel for yet another
season, but I will try to be good about putting it at the end
of the entries so you can just go about your business if you don't
care about Scully's necklace and all the rest of it.
Wondering: How the stock market works. I mean, I understand
about buying and selling and shares, but what I can't quite grasp
is how exactly the price of a stock changes. What makes a stock
go from $11 to $12 a share? Like, what makes it go up (or down),
and who decides how much? Is it just a formula based on volume?
If someone can
explain this to me like I'm only moderately educated, please feel
free to give it a shot, because it's really starting to annoy
me that I can't figure it out.
-- The Code of Lipit-Ishtar, c. 1850 BC, the earliest known codified law
Link of the Day:
All right, enough of all that existentialist blather of yesterday. Let's talk about my new job.
It's at one of the three biggest firms in Kansas City, for which I will of course have to find some kind of pseudonym, or maybe I'll just call it The Firm. They represent several tobacco companies in lawsuits all over the country. I mean, they do other things too, but they have developed a national reputation as a tobacco firm.
My position is as a research analyst. From what I understand, I will be assigned to a team of several associates and a couple of partners who represent cases in a certain area of the country. I'll be one of two research analysts for the team, and we'll also have two medical analysts and a two litigation assistants.
Basically, my job will involve managing the documents we get in discovery and from our own investigators and breaking them down for the attorneys trying the case. I'll make sure all the bases are covered as far as deposition testimony, medical reports, and procedural matters.
I'll be working downtown, which is very exciting. They've done a lot to rejuvinate the area in the last few years, so while there are still some shady sections, there's also great shopping and restuarants. Mary and Gillian also work downtown, about six blocks from where I'll be, so there will be all kinds of lunches and happy hours.
I will have to share an office, but just the space; we'll have our own desks and computers and file cabinets and such. She said I'll probably share my office with someone else who is new, which I really wouldn't mind. It will be kind of nice to have someone to learn with, and hopefully we'll be able to help each other out.
And the benefits are out of this world. Full medical, including dental and vision. A 401(k) that starts right away. The Firm doesn't match funds in it, but it does open a pension fund for you and contributes to that, and it's 100% vested immediately, so when I leave, I can roll it over into my 401(k). Two weeks paid vacation and five sick or personal days as of January 1. No parking in the building, but they stick $50 post-tax a month in your paycheck to cover parking expenses.
But the best part, the best perk as far as I'm concerned, is the trial itself. She said it's unlikely that I'd go to trial in the first six months, but eventually it would happen, because the tobacco companies hardly ever settle. The trials usually last six to eight weeks and they are out of town, and we'd be expected to stay for the duration. Since we don't get overtime pay, they make up for it by covering every last expense while we're out of town. Four or five-star hotel room, every meal, a rental car, dry cleaning, phone calls, and a plane ticket every weekend for use to either bring you home or bring someone to you.
I don't have long-term plans at this job, to be honest. I'm looking for a good experience while I learn about the reputations of firms in the Kansas City area and figure out what I want to do. But I am hoping to stay long enough to go to trial. It sounds very glamorous, but I'm sure it's also incredibly grueling, and I think it would be an extraordinarily educational experience.
But anyway. I'm just looking forward to using my brain once again. And having a paycheck that's more than $200. And getting a business card, which is the secret reason I went to law school. I've always wanted a business card, but I've never been important enough to get one.
So, no big Halloween plans here. I'm meeting Mary and Tara at a place called Buffalo Wild Wings, which is a bar that specializes in... uh... buffalo wings, for a drink and some... er... wings. Then we're going back to Mary's to watch the original Scream, which I haven't seen in forever, and since I don't go in for the real Friday-the-13th type scary movies, it sounded like a decent choice.
And speaking of movies, I'm putting a pox on Entertainment Weekly for completely spoiling the end of a movie that's out right now. I don't even want to say which one, because until I inadvertantly saw this spoiler, I didn't even know there was a surprise ending to this movie, and if you didn't either, I don't want to be even remotely responsible for spoiling it for you. If you're like me, as soon as you know there is something to the ending of a movie (The Sixth Sense) you spend the whole movie trying to figure out what it is (which I did as soon as that kid said "And they don't know they're dead"), and I don't want that to happen to you.
They tried, in the article, to hide it, I know. I went back and read it from the beginning, and they do put big MAJOR SPOILER in big letters for the whole paragraph before they give it away, but it just doesn't work in magazines, because people like me can see the spoil without seeing all the warnings if they're flipping through it backwards or whatever.
That's why I feel it's important to see a movie the first weekend it comes out. I'll brave the crowds to avoid having the whole movie ruined for me by the time I get around to seeing it.
So how do we like the new index page? It's not like what I did was all that difficult, but I think it looks so much better. I love those series of paintings by Magritte. That's the original Empire of Light (stretched a bit to fit across the screen), and there is an Empire of Light II, which I like even better, but could not find it anywhere on the net. Magritte's estate is a bit fussy about reproductions, which is why I only have a postcard of Empire II instead of an actual print. I found one Magritte-related site that stated that its contract had run out and they were no longer allowed to display the art on its site.
I suppose if they ever show up in my corner of the internet, I'll probably have to find something else to put on my index page. But until then, I'm comfortable living on that particular edge.
As for my little act of vote-switching over there, I'm not necessarily all about Nader, but I do support the idea that we need more than two political parties to give everyone a chance to be heard. I was watching an interview with Ventura the other day, and he pointed out that the two states with the highest voter turnout rates were Minnesota and Maine, the only two states with third-party governors. I was on the Perot bandwagon for a while in 1992, until I figured out that he was crazy, but I think I was drawn to the idea that there just might be a better way than a two-party system. And you know me, I am all about voter turnout, so if it's a third party that will get people in the booths, then I'm glad to help.
So, because my vote for Gore would be meaningless here in Bushwhacked Kansas, I'm happy to help Nader get his federal matching funds in 2004, while kind Rob in New York will cast my Gore vote where it may actually do some good. Everybody wins.
Well, hopefully not Dubyuh, but maybe everybody else.