Jìngluán in Book Five: Working Through the Maze 2018

China: An old Chinese saying about twitching eyelids says that “the twitching of the left eyelid indicates the coming of good fortune; while the right one is a warning about the coming bad luck.”

So… obviously, the aggressive eye twitch I have is in my right eye.

Last night when I got home, I started the transition process for my belongings. The laptop and the cellphone I use for work are my PERSONAL items. (One of the many “non professional” elements of this firm) so I’ve created a full laptop backup hard drive. Because I can’t predict exactly what my bosses will demand when I hand in my resignation. They could shrug their shoulders and say “Oh well.” They could demand that I do a complete system reboot to factory settings. They could try to purchase my laptop from me. They could simply demand that I not leave with my laptop. Obviously, some of those options will work better for them than others. Any attempt to purchase my laptop will be too expensive for them, and I will explain that to them. Because I won’t accept less than $400 for this laptop. ESPECIALLY because… this laptop is also proof that I do think ahead in ways my bosses don’t. SO I’m not that much of an idiot or a shitty lawyer. How? Well… we’re attorneys. We deal with discovery materials. Discovery materials from many different counties and many different sources. So a laptop should have a USB input, HDMI output, and CD Drive. NONE of the computers the firm has purchased have CD drives. NONE of the personal laptops the bosses own have CD drives. So every time they want to review or display CD-based discovery… they have to use my bloody laptop.

Then Wife and I watched the movie “The Lobster.” That is a movie I would love to dedicate an entry to, a review and an analysis… sharing my thoughts, feelings, impressions… but with this job, I just can’t. Which makes me think that, potentially, another great thing I can do when I’ve totally left is write intelligent articles again. Maybe even try (though I wouldn’t know how) to see if any On-Line Content providers would be willing to publish/purchase anything I’ve written.

Then today. Starts with me waking up, hating that fact, and checking my e-mails. One of the prosecutors I work with wanted to let me know they were leaving their job, so their position should be open should I want to apply. I thanked them for informing me. Truth is, I applied for that job last week within the first 2 hours of it being posted. But I’m pretty convinced that it was a courtesy posting as the posting only has a 10 day life cycle. But we’ll see what happens. That’s me, though. I keep my eyes open for the opportunities I want and I pounce on them. Only, it seems, to have them yawn… shuffle a bit… and tell me that I’m really not what they are looking for. For some reason.

I got into the car to start driving to work aaaaaand… my damned right lower eyelid. I had it checked out at the eye doctor last week. He said it was caused by one or multiple of the following (1) Stress; (2) lack of sleep; (3) caffeine. Well, I’ve not had caffeine… but I can assure you of the presence of the other two! And this eyelid… cripes, man! Vibrated the entire drive up to Ames and has been consistently vibrating for the last two hours. Irritating as fuck.

Here’s something interesting/terrible. So… I have 6 complete discs of discovery to watch for a Private Client case. That is a bare minimum of 6 hours of material to get through. I went to Ames today, partially so I could be there should any Legal Aid cases walk in and partially for some uninterrupted privacy while working on these videos… but I can just about promise you that Chinese Boss will be upset that I spent “a full day doing nothing.” Uhm… yeah. It is bullshit that Video 1, 2, and 4 were 45 minutes of a parking lot. But part of my job is to watch all of the video given to us in case, by chance, Video 4 ended with an officer saying, “Fucking chinks ruining this country.” BEcause that would change everything about this case. So… yes. I “wasted time” by doing my job. Sorry not sorry.

Plan for the rest of today?

Continue to watch every minute of these videos in an effort to actively help my clients.
Apply to yet another “Prosecutor, but not for you” position.
Drive back to DM for a hearing.
Likely get a talking to by my bosses.
Clean my office to be more “professionally presentable” then go home and sort through all the “random crap” so that there is little reason/excuse for something to be less than correct.
Finish (or try to finish) my resignation letter that I might turn it in tomorrow.