Friday, April 26, 2013

How the Wheel Turns, Putting Student Loans Into Perspective & Another Reason Not to Anger a Natural Redhead

There's some BIG news on the horizon for me. Started last week after my husband had gone out of town. For one thing, did some networking (as I'm apt to do). I also had a guy try picking me up on the subway (marking the second time this has directly happened).

This happened after leaving a party where this guy in a grad program for Math saved my evening after this bitchy woman who had no clue who the fuck she was talking to dared to make little gestures at me and be a bitch about people sitting in her precious little VIP booth (simple polite words would have been fine; making little scurrying gestures is another story). I did make sure to loudly say it's not a good idea to piss off an attorney after getting up but not sure if anyone heard or not.

Before that, I'd sat down and some guy asks me "Who are you?" Not "Hello," or "How are you?" Taken aback, I was about to say "An entertainment attorney you shouldn't mess with," when the aforementioned bitch walked up. Funny that I also saw 2 people I knew at this event, one of whom has landed himself on my future victims list & may very well have landed a spot on my shit list. We'll see how he conducts himself in a face to face setting with me to assess that one. He also wins the Captain Obvious Award for deeming me "weird." It's what "No, duh! What planet do YOU live on?" I had to ask him what his first clue was after that e-mail considering when he met me in person, it was fucking obvious I'm not some conventional or ordinary person.

Life lesson: don't piss off an entertainment attorney, especially if you work in the entertainment business. We can & WILL fuck you up. That's a promise & we won't even bother violating legal ethics rules to do it.

Back to this little subway pick-up scene: I'm listening to music & riding the subway to my transfer point. The guy sitting next to me asks what time it is. I tell him & then he asks "Are you single?" I said I was happily married. To his credit, he didn't say anything further or, to quote Positive K's song I Got a Man, say "What's your man got to do with me?" That will get you smacked in real life.

That is the proper way to handle a failed pick-up. Civilized people do this instead of harassing the woman, creeping her out or otherwise pestering her. Let's face it, I'm one of the last women anyone ought to be hitting on considering I've got options if I wanted to use them.

That statement is probably only going to be more true in the near future considering I got a great opportunity to do something lots of women would like to do (some might even kill to do it) but probably couldn't. Not disclosing much here but let's just say that after feeling that I get harassed so darn much by guys I ought to be getting paid based on my looks, that feeling will most likely become reality in the short term future. High school me would have loved it & did get an offer once but couldn't take it b/c of that whole being in school during the day thing.

I also learned something interesting on Monday at my City Bar Entertainment committee meeting. Rumor has it that the current City Bar President may have the same gripe I've had for years about the entertainment being offered at NYC Bar. You can imagine the response of the majority of the committee; massive conniption fits all around. Somebody else may want modernism as well. Now, who would YOU say is the biggest modernism proponent in these bar associations? If my name doesn't come up, someone hasn't been around lately. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a more anti-lawyer than me, especially considering my entertainment work & my actually knowing good writing, living the life I've lived (my diverse & unusual experiences) and my general creative personality. Maybe sticking around will pay off again.

As an artist, I've felt stifled except for exactly one time in the year where I can present MY creative voice and do what I want to do. If I didn't have that one event, I would be gone. I spoke up about my recent forum that's become the talk of NYCLA and led to people coming out of the woodwork to thank me for doing it, ask me for mentorship, connect with me on social media, etc. I'm hoping I got some people the average events wouldn't muster a second glance from.

For me, good entertainment is art. Art is not politically correct! It makes you think, provokes something in you, even if it's just making you laugh or feeling empathy for someone or a group. For me the two go hand in hand.

Censorship bothers me on a very deep level & while I was asked to be part of the delegation to meet with this President to see if the rumor is true, I did mention I'm a button pusher and I think any objection City Bar has to something could be solved with a simple disclaimer saying what we do is NOT to be taken as a representation of City Bar's views. Commentaries to movies and TV shows have this. This blog even has a disclaimer lest anyone thinks my personal views are = to those of any company I own or work with.

I'm not the type of person who has patience or tolerance to cater to the most offended people in the room. I say if you're that offended, you should stay home & stick to programs YOU select for yourself. If you're making some big complaint about my art in that context, I'll have to assume you're trying to shut down television shows and so forth because you refuse to parent or get off your large butt/grab the remote & change the channel/turn off the TV set or radio like every other human being on this planet. Nobody's putting a gun to your head & making you watch or listen to anything. Plenty of reality TV shows offend ME but you don't see me trying to shut down Snooki & JWow, The Real Housewives of Wherever, or anything else that offends me. You don't see me picketing TV networks or advertisers over it. I just don't watch them. End of story.

Last I checked, we were also adults here. Why should we be doing acts catering to 5 year olds? I haven't even seen little kids at the shows I've been to unless they were related to the person being honored at the 12th Night show.

There's also question of if City Bar wants to act like the Hayes office or network censors when it comes to our entertainment. I think I'd have to point out the hypocrisy if it rears it's ugly head. Lawyers are supposed to be PROTECTING the Constitution and the 1st Amendment freedom of speech is a basic right everyone is familiar with in there. A bar association, run by attorneys, censoring other attorneys is a major problem for me as an artist, film exec and entertainment attorney. That's a good way to get all of them to flee in droves & you bet I'd tell everyone I knew in entertainment if that happened and how hypocritical it would be for a particular attorney in the field to stick around. I'd have to also share with my creatives so they knew who to avoid for legal services; clearly endorsing the censorship of someone else's art means that lawyer isn't going to protect any other creative like (s)he should.

I'm also wondering if modernism is an issue, will the old guard take new writers and ideas seriously? Will they give people room? I feel like maybe I could get room since I don't think you have to pee on history or tradition to accomplish that goal & I've built some goodwill (in singing & acting at least so I think I can push writing, considering I've been published) but who knows about anyone else.

I know if I didn't get room, I would react very strongly. I even shared this issue with the old City Bar President & he pretty much told me "it's very competitive" and left it at that. I would welcome not having that committee feel like a high school or college drama club where the same people do the same things year after year, nonstop & no one ever will get a chance to do anything until the current people die (which is worse than waiting on the seniors to graduate). I'd feel the same if people I brought in didn't get room since that's the same as being nasty to me.

I've also been looking at more publicity for myself & had to jump on board for something else I'm not going into detail on. However, it was the reason I had to claim this blog officially.

These days, I don't spend much of my time reading the so-called "law school is a scam" blogs but I did see an entry on this story that made me want to rant.

This happened in the US, where having student loan debt means you are an indentured slave.

So, hotshots who claim we need no student loan debt reform, tell me how you like the idea of this guy doing what he did? What about him committing suicide over these student loans?

Personally, I'd have taken some different people with me. For instance, some paid off government officials or high ranking employees of these student loan companies that flagrantly violate debt collection laws. I have no beef with my law school administrators like the scam blog writers do. Perhaps settling personal scores before you go or having sex right before you kill yourself.

Then again, if you had sex first you might be so happy afterwards you talk yourself out of suicide unless you were severely, chronically depressed & wouldn't be able to have sex with that person again for some reason. Granted, it would also be bad to be the man or woman who had sex with that person & now had to worry about continuing to put out and delivering whatever game they delivered in the first place so the suicidal person doesn't kill himself/herself (unless that person was a total monster or knew they had nothing to do with the choices of the suicidal person; hopefully they have some measure of care toward the suicidal person).

Still, I wouldn't want to go without having good sex first. That includes the presence of consent.

Nonetheless I know the people railing against reform would whine & cry about how that's terrible and "suicide's not the answer." They'd be joining in the whole community mourning and all that outpouring of grief. I don't think they'd have the balls to go against that view.

Well, what IS the answer bitch (or bastard)? Your own religion would punish you for speaking ill of the dead or saying they will burn in Hell like you're a judge announcing a verdict. If you're not religious, you're still asking for karma to bite you in the ass.

Get a job? Have you opened your eyes to today's economic reality where college kids are forced to work in retail & fast food making minimum wage or far less than $10 an hour? See that recent article about the McDonalds that required a college degree to be a cashier there? Entry level in the legal field is non-existent. Nor is the state bar obligated to get jobs for new attorneys or law schools obligated to get jobs for new graduates. It's sink or swim, fuckers!

Payment plans? Do you know how private loans operate? Do you know that most law graduates have a good chunk of debt in private loans, meaning the government's got squat to do with them & the providers are, for whatever reason (probably lobbyist money), a legalized Mafia organization whose motto is "Fuck you, pay me!"

Networking? That's a limited solution, not a one size fits all concept. Some people are shitty individuals & no one likes them. Not everyone has the charisma or charm for it, especially many attorneys. You also have to be able to find the right people to network with & if you're not in those circles, you aren't in.

Join the bar associations? Doesn't really work if the bar association doesn't have a committee in your field of interest. It also doesn't work if you aren't willing to jump into a conversation of 4-5 people who already know each other & don't know who the fuck YOU are (assuming you aren't a gorgeous creature busting up a group of people of your preferred gender to sleep with) or get approached by people (that also increases if you're a gorgeous creature). One of my big gripes with bar associations is that new people who aren't social butterflies have no way to effectively meet and integrate with attorneys there. If a sorority did that in recruitment, the school or Nationals would attack them in about 2 seconds.

Let's also not ignore the obvious fact that many attorneys are assholes & I definitely encountered plenty when I was a law student/new attorney regardless of my unusual career path.

Finally, if you aren't some BigLaw worshiper with a T1 school on your name you are considered fucked by many circles of the legal field (circles I don't deem worthy of my time or attention). I personally don't think innovation or subbing those assholes ought to mean people commit suicide over unconscionable & disgusting student loan contracts and repayment terms.

I find most of the anti-reform crowd are either old farts who went to law school before 2000 (and the later exemption of student loan debt from bankruptcy, including private student loans, in 2005) or people with no graduate school degree or training to their name who haven't the faintest clue how going to law school works. These people need to shut the fuck up & propose useful, relevant and practical solutions instead of rattling off the same old tripe a hundred times. We're sick of "when I was YOUR age, I walked 15 miles in the snow to school" logic. Boo hoo! Look how sympathetic I am to you sitting in your little mansion & eating at the most expensive restaurants in the world.

Repetition doesn't make your argument magically more sound. It just makes you look more stupid, clueless, out of touch & at worse, a heartless piece of shit who should just go work for one of these loan companies and have blood sacrifices for them. You love them so damn much, why aren't you sacrificing animals to them? You're already figuratively sacrificing humans to them. Why not make it literal?

Read this article from Secret Agent Man on Backstage & apparently this is another reason not to piss off redheads. Seems our presence at a casino table means good luck.

Now if I ever go to Vegas and guys ask me to blow on their dice before they throw them, I'll know why they're asking. That could also explain anyone following me in the pursuit of high payouts. Hopefully, that knowledge will keep my husband from killing folks.

Do you think a redhead you have pissed off is going to bother helping you in that respect? I don't know if this applies to natural redheads exclusively but I'd say this is more reason not to piss off natural redheads. We could fuck up your ability to win in casinos by alerting the Fates & thereby making sure you lose. I would do that. So would any of my naturally red haired family members. We've got tempers, you know.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

The "Resolution" & Living By Your Wits

I must be a psychic. Or maybe I'm just smarter than the people working in the public library system.

As I predicted, Mr. Ineffectual did exactly what I expected. He rewarded my husband with a demotion and transfer to a worse neighborhood. My husband then tells me he has to go back to the shit situation he'd dealt with in the first place. I said if he did, we'd no longer have a happy marriage. I also asked how he'd feel if someone hurt me b/c he was "doing his job." He claimed he had no choice & I disagreed. This became a huge fight, where he decided to leave.

The Ineffectual one made the mistake of calling my home while I was on the phone with my brother in law. I was extremely pissed off & trying to talk to my family to calm down. If you'd heard me, you'd know I was in a mood to kill. The phone rang twice & I figured it would keep up if I didn't answer.

I made sure to inform this mental midget about my being an attorney with contacts (you know, not the average schlub who has to suck up to law firm partners). His response? "Good for you."

In retrospect, I should have "But bad for you." It is, after all. However, my husband adamantly refused to mention it to anyone & claimed doing so wouldn't make a difference. Uh, yeah like he knows anything about what it's like to be an attorney or have that on your name. How many incidents has he heard about or witnessed where someone suddenly treated us or me differently after hearing about me being an attorney? You would think the man would know better.

This is also the same man who said the union couldn't help him on various injustices that he informed me about.

Well, I'm ready to give them some credit for this one since they did help him. I warned him that I didn't view these people as MY "betters" and would not be kissing their asses. Those who know me already know I don't kiss ass for anyone. If anything, I'm one of THEIR "betters!"

The union contacted the library's attorney. I expected the attorney to have a brain & say "Wait a minute. You're not allowed to demote this guy for having safety concerns. Plus, what message are you sending to everyone else? The PR will fuck you up as well."

If we'd informed him about me being an attorney, I think he'd have also considered that I could get quality legal counsel far more easily than these other employees (or peons, as I know they are regarded as) if something happened to my husband after all that. Maybe handing the lawyer a slam dunk legal case isn't such a hot idea, right? Especially one with the network & connections I have.

Not mentioning that information means my husband was given a non-option the next morning when he spoke to Mr. Ineffectual. Maybe the attorney should be called Anti-Social Dumbass.

I researched him & learned that not only is he not licensed in NY state but that he's apparently not a member of any bar associations and may as well have zero LinkedIn contacts. Attorneys always mention bar association memberships on LinkedIn. Seems this lack of networking also goes to the top brass there, though you hear nothing but "Network, network, network!" in the legal field even if you are a super veteran. When the ship finally sinks all the way (and we know it's sinking), this attorney will be fucked not just with lack of networking but with my informing people of this situation. He may even have a grievance hearing before him if the library is doing what we & many others suspect they are.

I even went to a program Thursday night were the panelists told people to join the bar associations and get involved there to get contacts!

Ultimately, my husband chose the placement where he'd not be getting a demotion & assured me there wouldn't be a safety issue. The union rep also said there were fewer incidents in this so-called "dangerous" area than in my own neighborhood (which isn't know as a bastion of crime & refuge for criminals).

See why I'm rooting for gentrification and saying "Go fuck yourself" to my local community? Want me to give a damn? Get rid of that manager & don't be silent. Silence is acceptance.

It is, seriously. Not saying "Hell, no! Not taking this shit," = "I'm okay with it" in my book. Don't whine to me about something if you're not talking to the local representatives & demanding accountability for this shit. If you aren't planning a hit against your oppressors or doing something, ANYTHING, to stop them then you've got nothing to complain about. This goes back to my basic attitude about making your own happiness and luck in this life.

Oh, and if you're doing anything to remotely benefit the Queens Public Library don't expect me to pee on you if you're on fire. These pricks made it very fucking personal & this neighborhood I've lived in for 6 years is nothing I take any pride in, not even remotely.

I don't help saboteurs; saboteurs can go drown in acid or face something far more gruesome for all I care. I wouldn't shed tears for their misfortune either; in fact, I'd probably celebrate it. Remember, I never signed up to "be a bigger person"; when you never signed up for such things you aren't held to those kinds of standards.

Also, causing shit in my household and with my loved ones is the same as doing it to me directly. How many of you go around helping or even saying "Hello" in a non-bitchy way to YOUR saboteurs?

My husband isn't on my good list right now either but that's because he doesn't love himself enough to have stood up for himself, told these pricks about that other placement & dealt with his interests as needed. He was too busy going through life like a scared bunny.

Reading a letter in this week's Dear Prudence & some of the comments was illuminating and definitely hit close to home. It was the one about the college student who is stuck in a job she hates, has no family to bail her out if times get rough & wanted to leave, getting an opportunity to move to NYC.

Well, I'm the one who left a paying job in Atlanta to go to law school in CT. I'm also the one who was going to leave with $600, my car & a few personal belongings a few months prior since I hated being in NC that much and saw no light at the end of the tunnel. Condo Man, who was older than me, had a momentary purpose in my life. I definitely am of the "do it while you can" school & favor living by your wits and having some hope in life over being secure but miserable. That is one of many reasons why "security" isn't an argument that resonates with me.

If all else fails, my life will be a Tarantino film. Not an ideal course of action & probably a waste of what I could have done but there will still be some fulfillment of potential, just in a negative direction. If you're going down, go down swinging.

Why is it that 90% of jobs these days require employees to be dogs? Why not stop advertising that you are seeking staff or employees and just tell the truth? You want robots or dogs, not people. Stop wasting time & shitting on people's dignity!

McDonald's obviously hasn't gotten the message either, as you can read in this story. Is it that hard for these CEOs to figure out or are they just so damn greedy & selfish that they can't see or think straight?

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Day of Reckoning Has Arrived

Seriously, it has. After a relaxing vacation last week, my husband returned to work to have to continue dealing with the same old bullshit...

Until the same old bullshit became threats to personal safety & activated my radar. Here's the story:

Yesterday, at my neighborhood public library, a brawl concerning 8 teenaged boys breaks out right next to the desk where my husband had been covering. Thankfully, he wasn't there & isn't fucking stupid enough to play cop when he's not paid to do that. His manager, on the other hand, decides she's going to intervene. Idiot. She got what she deserved for that one. Who would actually do that & NOT call the cops to let them handle it?

Though for her to REALLY get what she deserves, she should be demoted & forbidden from ever being in a position of authority until she learns not to write checks her behind can't cash.

Apparently, this event was unprecedented and this means my husband can't do his job without threat of violence. Oh, and if I were a woman I wouldn't bother going in there without a handgun or Taser on me since our police precinct is known for being ineffectual & showing up far too late to do anything.

Where were the cops on this one? The liaisons for this particular branch weren't even in the borough at the time. By the time they arrived, the guilty had fled & the victims weren't talking.

My husband isn't going back. That's by my edict & everyone else who's heard about this.

The wheels are in action for him to go elsewhere, which is complicated by the fact that he's on supervisor probation though this particular manager (whose name I'll gladly give you privately) is known for arbitrarily failing folks just to be a bitch. I'm pretty sure she gave head to the right person to still be manager there after pissing off staff members & the community at large.

Apparently, she's not smart enough to have set up this little brawl so she could fail my husband for not being He-Man. Sounds like she'd be a pitiful lawyer. She won't be manager much longer in my community if I get any say on it. I have a real problem with my tax dollars paying that bitch's salary. If you live in my area, so should you.

For now, my husband has some faith in management not fucking around. I don't. After contacting the head of all this (whose nickname includes "the Ineffectual" since he refuses to transfer one librarian who hates it there & is openly hostile to everyone b/c he "doesn't want her to win"; fuck the community or morale or the working environment there--in fact, fuck his manager who has to supervise this unhappy camper & deal with it day to day unlike his ineffectual ass), he apparently still thinks my husband should put his safety at risk.

I don't think this ineffectual prick knows who I am & what I do. If he did, I don't think he'd be handing me a slam dunk legal case if something happened to my husband or an excuse for me to end his life in a manner befitting a Quentin Tarantino film.

My husband has been all adamant about not mentioning who I am but I'm in fight mode. I will rain down a shit storm with hydrochloric acid rainfall mixed in; I have my official ways of doing things as well as unofficial ones.

I suggest that when they decide on where to transfer him (since it will fucking happen or I will meet with them personally on this), they ask themselves "Would I feel safe working here? Would I feel comfortable if my children were in this neighborhood after dark?" If the answers are "no," then that place is not an option. Capice? I will also have to have a conversation with the Queens Library attorney and see if he can motivate some dumbasses with the letter of the law. Perhaps tell them that maybe it's not a great idea to put an attorney's spouse in a danger situation since there will be an instant lawsuit. I'm not exactly just any attorney, either; I've got a public profile & contacts all over the spectrum. My spouse is far more likely to get adequate legal representation than most of the employees (or as they think of them, peons).

I can make life hell for someone who crosses me & I'll certainly do it if needed. When it comes to my loved ones & my friends, I'm downright sociopathic if you mess with them.

I know Thomas Galante, the library director (oh, excuse me President since he's got a God complex & likely wanted to evade the new salary regulations for the heads of non-profit organizations) has zero empathy or respect for the employees. He or his underlings want to try shit with me, they will live to regret it & I will make it my mission in life to take these people down including and especially him. I already spread the word wide & far about how utterly incompetent the management is & other business owners who have heard about their antics agree with me. Only an idiot would side with them.

Let's be honest: the management is laughable at best. My youngest niece & nephew (both under the age of 4) would be better at running the library system than these pathetic toads who are utterly devoid of ambition, basic human respect or any quality that would define one as a human being. This is my view as a business owner.

I wouldn't shed any tears or feel bad if they or one of their family members were raped, tortured, killed, or had any hard times at this moment; I have a strong feeling that my stance on them is not going to change.

None of these pricks had better think for a second they are better than me. In fact, I'd safely say I'm better than them. What education do they have? What contacts do they have? Who regards them? What is their public profile like?

Could they get their equivalent positions in a private business? From what I've seen, the answer is "Hell no."

So, here's where we stand. My husband hated being at this branch & will not be returning. If anyone asks, I'll be asking if they plan to provide an armed guard to escort him to & from work & be with him the entire time he's working, provide him with a loaded gun/Taser along with a bulletproof vest/body armor. If the answer to either is "no," my answer is "Then he won't be going. End of story." I'll also have to get personal since cunty behavior invites my asking you how you'd feel if it was YOUR kid, spouse, etc. If it were my local politician trying to make life easier for rapists or limit access to contraceptives, you'd best believe I'd ask them about scenarios involving THEM or THEIR loved ones.

If he can get in a better branch, at least we've solved that problem of him wanting to quit every single day & dumping that stress on me.

If they do nothing & then fire him, my life will most likely become a Taratino film since everything I worked my ass off to do will have gone up in a puff of smoke. I will have no place to live & there's no way in hell I'm going down without a fight. I won't have reasons to care about things like law & order, especially if my husband is harmed or killed. Nor will any of these mental midgets be allowed to take away my livelihood, my family or my purpose in this world.

I will also be livid that total incompetents like multiple branch managers in the system and various others will be keeping THEIR jobs & sucking up taxpayer money to continue fucking things up.

At this point, I have zero neighborhood pride or loyalty. Would YOU feel pride in a neighborhood where you can't even go to the public library & be content in your safety? I'd be better off going to a nightclub in Manhattan; at least they have bouncers. We didn't move here to live in Thug Town. I hate that area of my neighborhood anyway since it's in a public transit dead zone.

This just gives me more reason to root for gentrification & their families being priced out. I met with someone in charge of a social group in this neighborhood. I'll have to share & mention that this is just emblematic of my general attitude of Queens and this neighborhood.

A comedy producer I worked with once said she slept in New Jersey but lives in NYC. I feel I sleep in my neighborhood but I live in Manhattan. That's where everything I do business wise is, including my bar association memberships.

Why, especially in light of this library thing where Galante refuses to get any effective security in there, would I give a damn about this place? Who wants to hang around a bunch of little pussies who can't even fight effectively & whose parents would probably enable and defend their "menace to society" status to the very end?

Any moron can get a posse to beat up 1 guy. Any moron can get a weapon.

When I was in high school, there was the specter of fights. We were nicknamed "Thug High" by the community & the local newspaper even covered our fights, though normally got the details wrong.

Most of them were during break in plain sight of teachers & a big crowd of students. I refused to fight anyone in that setting since the teachers broke it up in about 5 seconds. You'd be lucky if you got 2 good hits in.

If I'd been challenged to one, I would have said "It's me vs. you. No friends, no weapons, no witnesses. You have to fight me during class time & behind one of the outdoor trailers. No one to bail you out or a little toadie to do your dirty work. Even odds or nothing."

I was like "Fight me like a woman or don't bother!" I hate half-assed measures at anything. I also might not be the strongest person but I'm a lot smarter & I'm far crazier, however that form takes. I could also fuck people up in the social order in ways that someone known as a thug/troublemaker couldn't do.

As I've said before, I'd have been a far more dangerous killer than the average thug/troublemaker since I knew the social rules, had a reputation as a kid beyond reproach & had access to things the average student didn't. That's probably still true but I'd rather take the pro-social route if it's available to me.

If that were closed, I know myself enough to know that I wouldn't have recourse or be able to roll backwards from all the shit I got out of.

What would that teach me or anyone else? You came from nothing so fuck getting good grades, getting an education or doing anything socially productive since you'll just end up a teen mom, a crack whore or homeless & hopeless in the end?

Gee, if I believed that I'd have ended my life long ago & taken as many oppressors as I could with me. I wouldn't have been able to live my happiest life so I'd see no point in wasting my time when it would never get better. This is the logic that makes me wonder why people who hate being attorneys so much & who feel there's no light at the end of the tunnel continue to be on the planet and write blog posts bitching about it.

Do we want mass suicide of young people who don't come from means? Or do we want them to use their brains to become societal nightmares? Make up your mind. This is world that's being created in the US.