April 13, 2017 in Book Four: Ichi-no-Tani 2017

It is funny when a day has no profound historical significance. For a lark, I checked “Historical Events” and… other than a few interesting quotes (Apollo 13) and sporting events… April 13th seems to be a day that merely occupies history… not defining it.

Much in the same way that… so you know how I was late to work yesterday? Well… that is once in about two weeks. Granted, I get it. They’re concerned that my lack of clients is bad for business and want to make sure that I am still working in some capacity. But the flip side of that is… for the most part, I get in by between 8:30 and 9:00. Because… well… that was what I tried to do in Tiny Town. And just about every single day… I’m the first person in the office. Now, in Tiny Town… when I would arrive and be the first person in the office… it got positive attention because a Salaried Person working with Hourly People and I’m putting in the hours alongside them. Granted, I didn’t do nearly as much work but… on the face of things, it is important for morale and team work. If I put in a solid 8 to 10 hours every day, it shows that I’m not just taking the position for granted. On the private side, however… the face of things is far less important. Actual work and production is. And clients. So… it honestly doesn’t matter a whit if I’m here at 8 or leave at 7… it is about billable hours which requires work for/from clients. Being here at 8:30 without client work is meaningless. But… I still claim that it is good practice. Because if things pick up… the whole thing inverts. I go from sitting around, using time, billing 4 hours… to running my ass off, lacking time, billing 8-12 hours. They do say that about the law, btw. Feast or Famine.

As for the daily stuff that isn’t work related? Well… (spends a few minutes worldlessly trying to come up with the proper response). Hrm.
Apartment is still… coming along. I kind of hate how Wife, totally unintentionally, makes me feel shitty. Y’see… she is still VERY MUCH “I have to do this.” And in a lot of ways, I’m okay with that. I mean… my schedule has me spending a lot of time doing other things; so if she wants to do the Apartment Arranging, that’s a load off of my mind. BUT at the same time… that is where I live, too. I know I’m not “making her” do all the work; but I feel like I’m just being a lazy sod not doing more to help. As for Wife in general? Well… yeah. Hates her job. Hates it. But at least seems to be happier about not being in Tiny Town. Just… it all goes to her personality. I honestly don’t think anything will ever be good enough for her in her life. She’ll never have “the right” place to live, never have “the right” job… all of that. But I may be wrong there. Maybe she’s just been stuck at Wal Mart for so long that, if she ever does leave, her life will be sunshine and rainbows. But then… I also think it is rather naive (or demanding) to want/need life to be sunshine and rainbows. Life is more… temperate weather and clear skies.

Though… that being said… I am not without my own areas where things just… aren’t right. And in many ways, can never be the right kind of right for me. There are things, controversial and I’m sure offensive, things that I would like to write about. Things I would like to share that may either illicit criticism or disgust, things that might make me seem less like who I’ve become and more like who I once was. But.... as none of my writing is being done in my Safe At Home Desktop (thus why I still have yet to begin playing catch up)… I really can’t go into some of that stuff I’d like to. Hopefully, that changes soon. Because… even though I always feel fear about opening myself up to being called an Evil Chauvinist or a Privileged Example of The Problem or an Alcoholic Sex-Addict or whatever negative titles I may be deserving of… even though I hate that kind of possibility… I think it extremely important to open up about some of the things that could “earn me” those labels. Because the best way to let our worst natures take over… is to keep them entirely hidden.

Back on work issues… you know what is interesting and kind of sad?
SO… one of the horrific things you think as a prosecutor when you have a sexual assault case is “I wish we had more hard evidence.” Hard evidence is code, in this case, for violence. Because one of the biggest things to overcome is the consent argument. One of the best attacks against “She said yes, now she’s saying it was a mistake” is if you can prove active, forceful resistance. In other words… you hope that the event was violent, traumatic, and potentially the worst thing ever. Again… a horrific thing to think as a prosecutor but it helps the case. I’ve got something like that in Immigration Court right now. A kid and his wife ran away from a violent arrest for being Christians. They came here seeking asylum. Their case is just… way too weak. They didn’t actually get arrested because they were able to run away. They didn’t actually face any physical harm, torture, or extreme persecution. Granted… these kids aren’t dumb. They know if they had stayed, shit would have gone down. They know if they go back, shit is going to go down. But… “my country is mean to my religion” just isn’t good enough for Asylum. We need to prove actual, legitimate harm (literally) past, present, and future. And so I still have that horrific thought of, “I wish we had more hard evidence.” Hard evidence is code, in this case, for violence.

More work related:
I hate not having anything to do at work. I hate having seventeen billion things to do at work. That can be a problem. The biggest issue, though, is the public/private difference. You see, when I didn’t have anything to do at work as a Government Employee… I could still got paid and could feel like… even if I had wasted a day, it wasn’t a wasted day. Private sector… no work, no money. A less happy situation. Because… as of Noon on Thursday… my billable hours say I’ve only worked 7 hours this week. “Giving up” (as it were) 26 hours of my life to only get “credit” for 7… is not the hip hip hooray of life. THOUGH, sadly, it is part of the deal. Another reason why it is so easy for people to hate lawyers; when that isn’t necessarily fair.

In other news… apparently the Bookmarks Page of PB can only accommodate 6 pages. Which is weird as I thought a few weeks ago I had 8 pages of bookmarks to catch up on. Weiiird.

And uh… United may be screwed. Two weeks ago: Leggings PR issue. Earlier this week: Dao Beating. News from today: Passenger is stung by scorpion on flight. Thing is… (1) All of these events are true. (2) All of these events can be supremely bad PR. (3) Forbidding people from boarding a plan due to “unacceptable attire” should be reserved for far worse offenses… like people not wearing any pants or leg coverings at all. (4) While it sucks that it is totally legal for someone to be forcibly removed from their flight… no one, not Dao (who may, allegedly, double as a drug mule), not Sharif (who may, allegedly, appear to be Muslim), not Heidi (who may, allegedly, be carrying large breasts), no deserves to be brutalized in order to remove them from a plane. At least… not unless the passenger behaves violently or threateningly first. Honestly… we do need to make sure we allow Law Enforcement to respond with appropriate levels of escalation. (5) Insects and Arachnids get on board planes all the time. It sucks. It probably shouldn’t happen. It can (and does) increase the risk of deadly diseases spreading and non-native invasive species issues. BUT it happens.
(6) All of these things happening in such succession… plus the press on it… plus how none of these things have ever been reported (with this scrutiny) from other flights… either United really IS the shit-bird of the sky… or some group/individual/country is trying to get a smear campaign worked up. Just a theory. But if our President gets to spout random, crazy assed theories with no proof… I’ll allow myself to do that, too.

My joke on United, though?
United banned leggings and would not let women wearing them on:

United brutalized an Asian man who said he could not delay his arrival:

United scrambled when a scorpion mysteriously appeared and stung a man:

United has clearly upset the Elder Gods and been forced to become The Official Airline of Mortal Kombat:

And now… I suppose this is just… that part of any work day. The last few waning hours. Where either you scramble hard to make sure you accomplish as much as you possibly can… or the converse. You try to make it look like you’re working hard and hoping that nothing else major happens to make your last hour or so of work turn into your last hour or ten of work.

IF I can hold out without any new major projects keeping me here....
tonight? Well, last night I did get my haircut… but I did not exercise. Because no matter how badly I want to return to being attractive… or to just work out enough until/so that someone can find me attractive… the fatigue, exhaustion, and enhanced pain creates… a considerable mental block. It is pathetic. I’m in pain every day to some degree. So I should exercise. It might help the pain (in minor ways). But the idea of increasing the pain for any reason and for any length of time… it just… yeah. Creates a mental block. SO today… I’m looking that mental block right in the face and saying, “Excuse me, sir.” Because I brought my work out clothes with me to work. So I’ll go straight from work to the work out place. THEN home. And maybe do dishes or laundry or something. Maybe play video games. Seriously… video games kind of not doing it for me right now. Because… we still haven’t increased the PS4 memory. And we’re going to… but we wanted to get the Apartment set up before trying to add to the PS4 stuff. So… I’m mostly still playing Borderlands 2: The Handsome Collection. And even though I’ve beaten the story mode and all the DLC… several times… I cannot complete every Character Level (Ultimate True Vault Hunter is like putting Scrappy Do up against Shao Kahn). And I cannot complete every challenge (because some of them are ridiculous; like “kill this ultra rare hard to find nearly invincible sub boss 45 times.” But due to limited space and all that… my video gaming is pretty much stuck on Borderlands 2. So… yeah. Another reason why even my usual hobbies are waiting on us to get our apartment finished. lol.

Then tomorrow/this weekend? Well… I’m sure hoping I can get out of here tomorrow by 6 so I can go to Good Friday Service. Then Saturday, Pathfinder in Omaha. Then Sunday, Easter with family in Des Moines. Then Monday morning? Court in Johnson County. So… yeah. With Omaha on Saturday… I’ll basically go from one end of 80 to the other!

RANDOM FOR NO REASON: