These boots were made for walkin'

Will Self
walked from the airport all the way to Hollywood.  This is psychogeography.

trust

penelope trunk  says the coming decade will be about trust

she also says: I know there is more to life. 
I just can’t seem to find it.
she's not Robinson Crusoe!

What is it about living isolated together on a desert island that turned everyone poisonous?

A friend of mine recently returned from Australia. He was amazed to find nearly every living creature that walks, swims or crawls Down Under can turn out to be deadly poisonous. 

It was incredible, he said – they had venomous toads and frogs and spiders and fish and snakes and centipedes and jellyfish and even a poisonous octopus. Just about anything you met could end up killing you.

What was it about living isolated together on a desert island that turned everyone poisonous?

Amazingly - the author of that text: the people's therapist might be surprised to find that because of Australia's size there's no being isolated together instead there's plenty of space for everyone to roam around with plenty of opportunities for establishing vast personal space on this enormous Island.

But he goes on:

If you are stranded on a miserable island with the same people for a long time, eyeing one another as candidates for lunch, you begin to turn poisonous. Everything turns poisonous.

You watch the damn penguin die, and you’re glad it’s not you.

This Island is paradise on earth, my friend, it is far from being 'a miserable island'.

Because is not enough to trash Australia, he turns to insulting lawyers:

It starts to feel like a law firm, he says.  

I gather he means Australia is a terrible dismal place that turns people against each other and makes them super aggressive.  

OK, maybe life in a law firm is like that, but if that's nothing like Australia.

This was the reaction from the crowd on the Althouse blog:

Interestingly, I worked in the same law firm he did: I left because I wanted to be a law professor. I was interested in ideas and not so much deals, fights, money, and clients. I'm more the serene, contemplative type and I like self-expression, not expression on behalf of a client's interests. These are just tastes of mine. I've got nothing against the people who like to be out there in the real world making things happen, trying to get things done. You have to know yourself and get into the line of work that suits you.

 

One time, back when I was a student on Law Review, people were having a big conversation about how everyone there was Type A, when I walked into the room. Somebody pointed out that I wasn't and it was roundly agreed that I was the only non-Type A person there. I was a sojourner amongst the lawyers, and I always knew it. Since 1984, I've been an observer, from my remote outpost.  I'm the same way about politics. I think about politics and I write about it, but I'm the furthest thing from a politician.

I practiced law for 16 years. Never for a large firm though, mostly in a small firm (4-10 lawyers) and a few years as as a solo practitioner. One thing they never prepare you for in law school is the ever present contentiousness. Every time the phone rings and just about every piece of mail you get, it's always contentious to one degree or another.  The worst of all to deal with were other lawyers, and that's what lawyers mostly do: interact with one another.  It wears on you, and after awhile it does things to you. I too left law to teach.  It's a much more appealing environment and more personally rewarding too.

Viciousness in a lawyer can be fine when it's directed towards an opponent in a adversarial case and it serves the best purpose of the attorney's client. 

Do lawyers hater their jobs? I don't know.

that was from the people's therapist:

Neuroses? Superstitions? Substance abuse? Blackouts? And suicide? are these problems typical for psychologists? How are Freud's successors doing? Or, to put the question another way: Are shrinks really  crazy?

above the law

a picture from the wild island where the killer bees will get you for sure if the yellow cars don't run you down first!

hcrazy?

Pavlova reading / viewing

and forget Damien Hirst born 1965, forget Tracy Emin born 1963 they are old haggard boring has beens: this is the cutting edge of now art

















when are they going to get it these are not l'enfant terribles these are geriatrics terribles!!!!

I'm gonna play Sun City

I'm gonna play Sun City, originally uploaded by paprikka.

I thought I died and went to Sun City

unlock the door

I am staying indoors today as I want to unlock the door to my mind before opening the door to the world. - ha ha  (to convolute a quote attributed to John Liepa)

 

beautiful pictures of snow on the ever gorgeous New York Social Diary.

 

 

 

Is Ali McGraw still alive?

I am still always so surprised to see her alive and well.  Somehow I can't get used to the idea she's still alive

the gorgeous new york social diary never disappoints to enlighten

the reward you get for reading all the way to the end of the story is to see the gorgeous Ali McGraw looking happy and carefree.  I can't get over the fact that

she died in Love Story

I saw it at a formative age and it seemed so real to me.

OOOhhh how about these giant roses

friday night flowers

My ex mother in law used to

get flowers every Friday night from her third husband (yeah! she lived).  Nice idea.

Tony Blair has taken away something that we'll never get back...

videohttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2011/jan/21/chilcot-inquiry-rose-gentle-tony-blair-video


her son, Gordon, who was killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq in 2004. She travelled to London to hear the former Prime Minister give evidence to the Chilcot inquiry for the second time

The tax system's almost as good as our health system...

NEW TAX SYSTEM (GOODS AND SERVICES TAX) ACT 1999 - SECT 165.55 Commissioner may disregard scheme in making declarations

For the purposes of making a declaration under this Subdivision, the Commissioner  may:

(a) treat a particular event that actually happened as not having happened; and

(b) treat a particular event that did not actually happen as having happened and, if appropriate, treat the event as:

(i) having happened at a particular time; and

(ii) having involved particular action by a particular entity; and 

(c) treat a particular event that actually happened as:

(i) having happened at a time different from the time it actually happened; or

(ii) having involved particular action by a particular entity (whether or not the event actually involved any action by that entity). 

all around us chaos and madness...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsFFBc7dhD0

it was a lovely hot  day, at Myer Music Bowl, was it 1 January 1982, could that be right?
 ... and there was this song..... and .... Moving Pictures performed What about Me, but that's all I remember... I do remember seeing a fantastic T-shirt .... the palm trees in Melbourne are intriguing....

there's hope yet

Law School Graduate Alice Thomas, 79, Raises the Bar

She received her law degree last year  with her sights set on practicing elder law.

http://www.aarp.org/personal-growth/transitions/info-05-2010/alice_thomas_raising_the_bar_at_79.html

http://lawmrh.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/bravo-79-year-old-alice-thomas-graduates-law-school-and-will-take-up-the-cause-of-the-elderly/

love me love my dog

or cat.  New York Social Diary has made another mention of the terrible problems that can befall pets in cities.  Here's a couple of old friends on the couch.... how does this camera thingey work? .... (guess which one is the brains of the outfit?) Two beauties tied up outside the market. I waited for the owner to come out. She was smiling with treats for them as she exited the store. I told her that it was dangerous to leave her dogs unattended on a city street. She said that they were safe because everyone in the neighborhood knew them. I reminded her that not everyone in the neighborhood is from the neighborhood and that people steal these guys to sell for purposes that are fatal to the animals. I know this is somber and serious and can sound just this side of scolding, but it is important to impress upon ourselves that we are responsible for protecting our loved ones, and these are loved ones. read on...

http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/node/1904927

Fresh fruits and melons rose sharply for a second straight month

Among the biggest gainers were home heating oil, which jumped 12.3 percent, and fresh and dry vegetables, which surged 22.8 percent. Fresh fruits and melons rose sharply for a second straight month, posting a 15.4 percent gain.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70B3VY20110113

A taste of what's to come in Oz after Queensland and all the crops have been flushed away.

The sound of a summer long long ago - Dire Straits - Sultans of Swing - Old Grey Whistle Test

....you get a shiver in the dark
It's raining in the park but ....   and then the Sultans play Creole

[I admit it, I was one of the people who had to have that line explained to them]

homage to a good night's sleep

This post is acknowledging the delivery of new bed, a new set of dreams, a new level of comfort and relaxation and a whole lot of good nights sleeps to come....

Estonia to use Euro

http://www.cis.org.au/media-information/opinion-pieces/article/2323-estonia-should-have-listened-to-marx

Who's Who

http://diplomamillnews.blogspot.com/2010/02/marcus-einfeld-pacific-university.html

lawyer of the day

http://abovethelaw.com/2011/01/lawyer-of-the-day-ex-prosecutor-maybe-had-a-little-too-much-peets-coffee/#

off to school with a satchel

Add caption

Graffiti near work!

How do you solve a problem like Maria?

What if Maria is really Myanmar?


Economic development has made us all smile - will it do the same for the people of Myanmar/Burma?


Chinese petrochemical giant and Burmese state energy enterprise confirm large on-shore natural gas find in central Burma


http://www.dvb.no/news/large-on-shore-gas-deposit-found/13624

China is happy to buy natural gas from Burma, so much so that they're prepared to provide a huge loan for a pipeline to be built

http://www.dvb.no/news/china-loans-billions-for-gas-pipeline/13428

Would solving a problem like Myanmar make ASEAN happy?


http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2010/04/13/asean’s-dream-may-not-come-true-if-it-fails-tame-its-unprincipled-member-burma

flying over central Australia in June 2010