Little Green River

I support quite a few of Obama’s policies and decisions thus far in his administration. However, when it comes to the future of civil liberties in America, Obama’s tenure makes me MORE worried than I was under Bush.

Yes, you read that right.

I didn’t look at immigration websites during the last eight years. I figured sooner or later the madness had to end. But now I find myself semi-seriously considering attending school in Canada and/or positioning myself for a career that could potentially take me to continental Europe. (NOT the UK; that island has been positively hurdling toward fascism over the last eight years. Frickin’ “New Labour.”)

Why? Obama’s DOJ is making the same–if not worse–arguments for expansive executive power. We’re still being wiretapped–and Obama voted for immunity. Sure, Obama may use these powers more responsibly. And stopping torturing people and giving the folks in Gitmo trials are good things to do. But if the powers to wiretap and deny judicial scrutiny over any rights violation with the scantest of national security claims aren’t dismantled, it doesn’t MATTER if Obama never uses them. They’ll still be there when future, potentially crazy/intolerant/power-hungry presidents come in.

If we can’t get rid of the big red authoritarianism button now, with this administration, it will never go away. And that scares the shit out of me.

Well, technically, not really. It’s been cloudy and rainy for the last several days. But the daylight keeps getting longer–even with the clouds, you can definitely tell. Daylight savings time means that I’m not coming home in the dark anymore. The cherries and crabapples and magnolias are blooming. And good God am I getting much more done.

In February, I’d wake up, drink my orange juice and surf the Internet, go to work and surf the Internet, and come home, eat dinner with Nelson, and surf the Internet. On the weekends I’d do chores and play games. Now? Well, I still surf the Internet. But lately I’ve started actually doing stuff. I’ve followed up on a documentary proposal, started redesigning Nelson’s band’s site (finally!), wrote some music, planted and transplanted plants for the balcony garden, bought concert tickets for next week, and gotten more work done. I’m reading books on the Metro instead of numbing my brain with crosswords and sudoku. I’m getting up at 6 and exercising, for pete’s sake. What the heck happened? My best guess is the seasons changed.

I never thought I had Seasonal Affective Disorder when I lived in Minnesota. Of course, I spent most of high school asleep–napping on desks, groggy due to staying up late for homework and debate stuff. I was running around 70% at best (which was good enough, because it was high school). Perhaps given the circumstances I just didn’t notice.

But looking at the last week or two, perhaps I am affected somewhat. If winter turns me into a lump, maybe living in lower latitudes to minimize the duration is a good idea…

An email from my mom got me thinking:

What if aliens abducted all the lawyers, so law school wasn’t an option anymore? What would I do instead?

Good question.

Well, I guess I’ll start with what I’m looking for in a career.

• I like project-based work where I’m working mostly independently.
• I like variety–working two part-time jobs, even when one of those was menial or not that fun, was nice because the contrast in working environments kept me from getting bored.
• I enjoy creative work: drawing, editing video, music, website updating… I also like research and writing. I don’t need to do these things all or even most of the time, but I’d like them to be a possible part of my work.
• I want to care about my work–it doesn’t need to be non-profit, but improving the world in some respect I find interesting is definitely something I’m looking for.
• I want to work in a small group setting–even if it’s part of a larger company.
• I want to have a near-peer or mentor-mentee relationship with my boss.
• I like working with geeks (broadly defined).
• I want to keep the “talking with people I don’t know” part of my job down to a minimum, if possible.
• I want to have a fast work computer with a monitor that doesn’t suck.
• I like the European dress code–blazer + jeans = awesome.
• I prefer having flexible hours and the ability to work from home sometimes.
• I’d rather bring a lunch from home than have it as a perk unless the options are healthy. I’m bad at not eating things.

Oh, and also:

• I’d like to make enough money to:
  • Travel (and potentially work abroad at some point)
  • Own a small but comfy house, with a greenhouse and a big garden
  • Be financially secure
  • Be financially independent and capable of being the breadwinner, whether or not I need to be

How many jobs fit these criteria? I have no dang clue. But probably not many. Web design fits most of them, but CSS bugs can be extremely frustrating (just ask Nelson)–I don’t know if I’d grow to enjoy the programming side of it. I could be a freelance web editor/videographer/cartoonist/etc like I was during the summer, but a.) I’d be broke and b.) I’d have a breakdown every couple days out of worry that I was going to be broke. Unless you’re retouching photos for teen magazines or at the very top of your game, it’s hard to make being an artist exclusively pay–and even when it does pay, it pays unreliably.

Non-managerial, slightly-technical positions in young tech companies could be interesting. I’ve spent some time drooling over the courses offered at UMich’s School of Information. Studying how information structures and flows work in the context of entrepreneurship and Internet culture sounds vaguely cool and probably in demand. I have no idea what these “information architects” or whatever actually do all day, though.

Working for a non-profit small enough that I could just be “the web/media person” and do whatever such work I knew how to do and delegate/contract the rest might be ideal. I guess that’s what my job at SPARC would’ve been if SPARC were big enough to have needed me full-time. But these kinds of relatively low-skill web editor positions REALLY don’t pay well.

Ever since I got into UW-Madison, I’ve been thinking about the possibility of becoming a law librarian. Their library school is very good and they have a dual-degree program with the law school. Law librarians are supposed to be very well paid (though I’ve yet to see statistics backing this up…the stats I’ve seen have them making little more than what I make now :/) with a less suicidal schedule than first-year associates at big law firms. I’d also probably get out of UW with little or no debt. But…I dunno. It’s true that academic law librarians sometimes also publish and teach–but those courses are usually in research and writing, not a particular subject material in the law, so I wouldn’t really consider that the same. Others probably wouldn’t either–librarians, unfortunately, don’t get no respect. I also worry that librarianship might be too…sedate…a job for me. I’ve never worked in a library and it’s just not a career I’ve ever considered. Well, we’ll see.

The career I’m most interested in at this point (and at which I’m aiming my law degree) is academia. It sounds like the perfect job: except for the time you’re in class, office hours, or meetings, professors’ work is completely flexible. You spend your time arguing over ideas with students and ridiculously smart people and publishing those arguments in journals. “Publish or perish” doesn’t scare me–I enjoy writing and already have a book or two I’d like to write, given the opportunity. Your ideas have the potential to change the world, and if other people don’t change the world quickly enough, you can participate in non-profits or other projects on the side to speed it up. You’re well-paid, and if you get tenure you have pretty good job security. If I want, I can add silly cartoons to my outlines and presentations (*coughRoddycough*) or publish my ideas in comic form (see: Hayek’s Road to Serfdom). I love those professor blazers with the patches on the elbows. What’s not to like?

Not much, says I. But it’s tough to get into–and even tougher if I don’t go the law school route. Then instead I’d need a Ph.D. Sure, Ph.D candidates are (hopefully) funded so they don’t have to go into debt for tuition, but you’re basically committing yourself to subsisting on ramen for seven years. I don’t even know if I *could* get into a funded Ph.D program–I’m a media studies major, not a scientist, and there aren’t that many Schools of Information out there. Do any of them even have Ph.Ds doing info policy work? Most of the ‘faculty interests’ I’ve seen are more on the theoretical or technical side…

Whereas from law school you need 1-2 years clerkship or firm experience (to become “seasoned”….really), 3+ published works (ideally, you get these done during law school or your clerkship, because you sure as heck won’t have time working at your average firm), and if that doesn’t do it maybe go for one of those fellowships/visiting professorships meant to help alumni break into legal teaching. While law schools like candidates with other graduate degrees, a JD from a prestigious school is all you need.

And, fundamentally, my main interest is in IP/techlaw and policy. My secondary academic interests (civil liberties, national security, international law, etc.) are also law-related. For the most part, law school seems like the best place to study these areas. I’m certainly willing to question law school, and I do believe it costs too much. I’d be interested in looking at other alternative careers. But if I can pay it (balancing prestige with scholarships), and it gets me to where I want to be…doesn’t seem too shabby.

Been awhile since I drew comics; figured I should get back into the swing of things.

It’s based on a dream Nelson had a couple weeks ago. I thought the idea was adorable so I had to illustrate it.

Nelson and I visited the University of Virginia/Charlottesville today. Here I am in the law school library, studying conlaw with a distinctly ruffled Jefferson.

The library had tons of comfy, expensive work chairs.

They were, perhaps, too comfy.

It was really frickin’ warm for February today in Charlottesville–the high got up to 67°F! Running around without a coat, just a couple days after we had single-digit windchill in DC, was pretty much awesome.

For lunch we went to the Main Street Market, a collective of local handmade fooderies. I had some delicious, spicy chicken soup from Polyface Farm, the farm featured in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, and bought a bunch of local and/or organic food to take home–local baby spinach, Spanish olive oil, local wine, local cheese, local popcorn, fancy chocolates, a loaf of whole-wheat sourdough… It was pretty expensive, and made me somewhat concerned about the cost of living in Charlottesville. (Local food is great, but I imagine this is not the place to buy all your food during the winter.) But so damn good. At the bakery we found some fat-free mostly-vegan oatmeal raisin cookies that even Nelson liked! Here I am eating a delicious cookie at a table outside. In February.

Charlottesville is really pretty, all hilly with the Blue Ridge mountains and Shenandoah National Park nearby. UVA has lovely architecture and landscaping–I imagine even more so when all the trees have leaves and stuff is blooming.

(not taken by me/Nelson)

(also not our photo)

Jefferson designed the rotunda and central part of the university, and Monticello is only a few miles away.

(Not our photo either. We’re bad at taking pictures of the things you’re supposed to take pictures of, aren’t we?)

No, it’s not the Midwest. But I liked it a lot. Had coffee with Siva and now I’m feeling significantly less stressed about choosing a law school. A lot’s going to come down to finaid/scholarship money along with whether I get into any of the remaining, crazy-selective schools I’ve yet to hear from. But so far, it looks like all my choices are pretty darn good.

From the cartoons and comments I’ve seen from various media, it seems like everyone wants to metaphorically punch 2008 in the gut and shove it out the door. The collective sentiment is understandable, for both economic reasons and various personal ones. But for me, 2008 was a pretty good year.

In January I stayed in a ridiculously fancy hotel with Nelson for the ALA conference in Philly, where Gavin gave us Casey, our orange tree.

Then I had my final semester at Scripps, where I chewed out the Scripps dean for security theatre and sang some truly excellent music with the Claremont Concert and Chamber choirs. I took classes on Supreme Courts fundy rights cases and personal finance. I visited to Joshua Tree during spring break, which was frickin’ awesome. And finally, I got graduated in 100 degree heat wearing a plastic gown-tarp.

In June I moved to DC and moved in with Nelson for realz. We haven’t gotten sick of each other yet. :)

I sent out a lot of job applications, and got very few interviews. By the very end of July, though, I got two part-time gigs–contractor work at SPARC and an LSAT teaching job at Kaplan. It wasn’t enough to pay the bills, but it paid some of them. Nelson and I tried to entertain ourselves cheaply, by picking something like 19 pounds of blueberries from a u-pick farm or playing pinball out in Fairfax. Nelson tried growing a beard for a couple months; fortunately, he got an A in Copyright, so he was able to shave it off.

In October I flew out to San Francisco, hung out with Asheesh and a bunch of college friends, and attended two conferences: Patri’s seasteading conference and the SFC conference at Berkeley. It was much colder than expected.

Finally, at the end of October I got the job as a tech support dudette at Webs. Now most of my closet (businesswear borrowed and bought for graduation) is irrelevant, since I wear jeans to work. Oops.

November I went home for Thanksgiving and saw snow and family. I also got two acceptance letters from law schools, Georgetown and UW-Madison.

In December Nelson surprised me for my birthday with vegan chocolate birthday cake, an issue of Fables, and tickets to Milk. Man, I hope that movie wins all the Oscars that Wall-E doesn’t. Then I went up to New Jersey to celebrate Christmas with Nelson’s family. There was snow on the ground there, thank goodness, so it actually looked like Christmas. I would’ve hated to spend it in DC.

And now it’s 2009. I’m looking forward to it. Here are some of my plans/goals:

First, I’m planning to attend the Mason City PGI convention (really frickin’ huge fireworks con) this summer for the first time. That, in itself, is gonna be one awesome vacation. But beyond that, I decided that I want to make a (mini?) documentary about amateur fireworks clubs–essentially, to answer the question posed by anti-fireworks groups: why not just sit back and attend professional shows? There’s hardly any documentaries about fireworks and none on this particular subculture, and in many parts of the country (like almost the entire East Coast) fireworks clubs have been driven extinct. I think it’s an interesting (and beautiful) activity that somebody should archive. No one else is doing it, so I’m gonna buy a video camera before I go.

Second, I signed up for beginning guitar lessons starting later this month through Arlington’s adult ed program. I figure that I’ll borrow Nelson’s guitar and, if I get enough of a hang of the guitar interface, I’ll invest in a bass guitar and take a class on that.

Third, I’m not going to make a weight loss resolution: both because those are hella trite, and because I wouldn’t care what I weighed if more of it were muscle. However, I am going to try to make regular exercise part of my routine. It never has been. In the summer it’s easier–you can sign up for rec sports or something, and that keeps you on a schedule and is generally more interesting than going to the gym. But that doesn’t work year-round. So I’ve got to find a way to get my ass on the elliptical downstairs at least once a week, until it’s a habit. We’ll see how this works.

Overall, my resolution is just to do interesting things and keep improving myself even though I’m out of college. I wasn’t very impressed with myself the last two months or so–I didn’t do that much besides work, and telling semi-literate people how to edit their guestbook for the millionth time isn’t that thrilling in itself. Although I’m damn lucky to have such a good workplace, I am not my job and I wouldn’t want to be. So I’m going to try to push myself to stop surfing the Internet so dang much and instead spend my precious evenings and weekends learning new things and working on creative projects. The point of my job is to subsidize the rest of my time, so I should make the most of it.

Go read.

I don’t want anyone giving me that bullshit about how these are just a few “bad apples” and that most policemen are good cops. Really? Those “good cops” conducted the internal investigation that (in this and virtually every case) finds the cop did nothing wrong. Those “good cops” are the highers-up who let these brainless thugs keep their jobs. Those “good cops” allow these so-called “bad apples” to represent the same badge they do with nary a peep of protest. The “good cops” aren’t good in any sense of the word. They enable and harbor these beasts in uniforms, and the corrupt police bureaucracy lets them.

If I’m a parent, and I hear my twelve-year-old daughter screaming bloody murder with three adult men beating her and trying to drag her into a van, God so help me I will blow them to pieces if there is a shotgun anywhere in the vicinity, and go mother grizzly on their asses with my bare hands if not. To the best of my ability, to the death, those motherfucking perverts are going down. And there can be no law that stands in my way.

We need meaningful, powerful community oversight of the police force. We need to reform the law to make it clear that an off-duty or unidentified cop who beats or shoots you gets *at least* the same as any regular white guy. We need to find ways to separate the police force from the prosecutor’s office so that when cops go to trial, the DA doesn’t just *forget* to present major pieces of evidence or contest bullshit defense attempts because he “feels bad” for the defendant (c.f. the trial of Harvey Milk’s murderer and ex-cop Dan White).

Being a cop shouldn’t mean you can do whatever the fuck you like. Being a cop is not supposed to be the choice career path for idiot brawlers. Being a cop should mean you are held to a tougher, not looser, standard.

Until that happens, fuck the police. I don’t trust them to protect me. If I get raped, I don’t believe they’ll do a damn thing. The best thing I can say for them is I think they probably won’t ever beat me–and that’s only because I’m white and haven’t attended any protests.

Freeway – Aimee Mann: I like this song, but it feels incomplete–it’s got a good idea, but only one. I feel like it needs to be sampled/medleyed into a larger song. Possibly about the foreclosure epidemic.

People C’mon – Delta Spirit

Shake! Shake! – The Subways: Yeah, just another upbeat pop rock song, but I’m highly attached to the automotiveness of the part where the guitar enters the chorus. With a good set of speakers, the roar reminds me of driving stick-shift.

Sirens in the Deep Sea – Longwave: Nothing insightful to say about the lyrics here. Just something that’s been in the Current’s rotation that I rather like. The guitar’s a bit more metal than what I usually listen to, but the high, ethereal vocals lead me through it like Virgil through Hell. (Yes, I am proud of that simile. :p)

2080 – Yeasayer: I am head over heels for this song. First, it’s just beautiful–”Peter Gabriel meets Animal Collective,” in the words of one review. But it also fits my feelings about this moment in history exquisitely. Go read the lyrics and I’ll explain why.

Our generation’s past Fukuyama’s “end of history”–the Berlin Wall fell before I even knew what communism was. But history didn’t really end, now did it? For better and for worse, there’s a lot to come.

On the one hand, with Obama’s election I can’t help but feel incredibly optimistic. We made history on November 4; even though I disagree with Obama on not a small number of issues (the auto bailout, for starters), I’m nevertheless extremely excited to have a competent, tech-savvy administration with interesting ideas. I believe he’s going to make America and the world a better place for me and my hypothetical children to live. “It’s a new day…”

On the other hand, I’m also extremely pessimistic. I think the economy’s gonna get worse–possibly much worse–before it gets better. At the same time, short of some major, European-sized tax hikes or the mysterious disappearance of the Baby Boomer generation, the national debt/deficit is going to bankrupt us in the next forty years. Not to mention global warming, peak oil, infrastructure problems, obesity, and a host of other looming, potentially-crippling threats that the country has been procrastinating on for decades. Nelson and I have been considering interning at an orchard/veggie farm to learn how to grow our own food in case the white collar economy collapses. Every generation rebels against the one before it. The Boomers were collectively selfish, short-sighted, and entitled. I can see self-sufficiency, frugality, and nouveau pauvre becoming the big thing among my generation. You can already see it in the crafters, the Makers, the Green and organic/local/slow food movements. “We can all grab at the chance to be handsome farmers…”

But even in that case, perhaps it’s an adjustment that had to come, y’know? It might not be all that bad. We’re smart. So long as Instructables and Wikipedia stay up, we’ll figure it out.

Here’s a minimalist, post-show version of the song (gets going around 1:24). The post-chorus bridge thing is pretty much the best musical thing ever.

So yeah. I like it a lot.

Kids – MGMT

Horizon’s Homecoming – Kevin Fleming: Hosting myself because you won’t find it anywhere else–not even Kevin’s LJ anymore. Hope he doesn’t mind my “piracy.” maahahaha.

Six months after graduation, the calls for cash have started. Scripps wants me to give $100 to the general fund. I said no. For one thing, I just spent way too much money on app fees for law school. For another, I have basically zero confidence of the Scripps administration. I’m not giving a single discretionary cent until Dean Wood and Rhonda Risser are gone and I have some confidence that their replacements aren’t cloying, paternalistic Umbridges. I know a number of fellow alumnae who feel the same way.

So I was perusing the Scripps website, seeing what opportunities there were for targeted giving. The online form allows you to give to various vague categories (”student/faculty scholarship”); the most specific it gets is it allows you to give to a specific CLORG. But, unless I’m close to campus and talk with current students, how am I supposed to know which of my favorite CLORGS needs investment? And what if there are specific projects that aren’t CLORG-based but worth funding? Fundraising works best when the outcome of the money is tangible and exciting. That’s what makes special campaigns for new buildings (assuming the building is expected to be useful) work. But you shouldn’t just be harnessing that assignment for buildings–there should be a list of smaller (say, < $10,000) projects that alumnae can read about, give to, and propose. Large, wealthy donors can productively give toward specific projects because they can give enough to accomplish the goal all by themselves. (One senior-now-alumnae told me that if she became wealthy and Dean Wood were still in charge, she'd offer to leave all her money to the school if Wood would wear a red clown nose at all college functions. For example.) Less wealthy (especially recent) alumnae need an infrastructure to enable the same. It both bolsters enthusiasm for giving generally and brings those of us who distrust the Scripps administration into the fold.

Basically, the alumnae office needs to start using Fundable, or something like it. Seriously. Obama got elected by harnessing microdonations. Scripps should do the same.