It's Been a While...

It's been a while and today I was just sitting in front of my laptop and thought - I really feel like typing, so I'm writing another post since the other typing I have to do involves a case I'm trying to convince myself will just go away if I ignore the file teetering on my kitchen counter.
I have a cute and adorable dog who does this thing where he shoves his face under a newspaper or shirt and then, apparently, assumes that since it doesn't see me, I can't see him - even though the rest of his body is in clear view and his tale is banging against the floor. So I'm hoping if I ignore that annoying, and yet beckoning, file in my kitchen - it will somehow sprout legs and walk out the door.
Some cases are just too tiring and it's not that this one is hopeless but it's one of those things where you don't know where to begin and so you try to avoid beginning it at all.
Yeah... I'm going to stop typing and go over the file right now... *sigh*

Jane M.

I Can't Concentrate

I do a lot of reading, a lot of paper work... it's part of my job. Today I arrived at the office a bit early and started going over the case files that were on my desk and, multi-tasker that I am, went through my emails as well. I won't get into detail but one of the emails was sent to me in confidence, I was BCC-ed on a co-worker's response and I just got chills down my spine. I tried to convince myself that it's nothing and that they wouldn't show me this if they didn't have my back. Still, I can't focus on my tasks, I can't concentrate, and worst of all - I'm MAD.
I'm rarely ever mad, I just don't know how to deal with this emotion. My heart rate goes up, my body starts shaking and I feel like I'm going to explode. And for what? A good for nothing piece of crap who thinks he's better than me because he went to a better university. Bottom line is, I'm smarter than he is and it pisses me off that a person with a single digit IQ who had the connections and cash to go to Harvard gets the nerve to send an email to my co-worker telling him that I should be fired because he just doesn't think a person with my "background" should be in such a popular firm. He might as well have said "She's black and she's a woman, let her go."

Men piss me off enough as it is, but a racist man... wow. I hope karma comes and bites him in the ass. In the meantime, he better pray to God we never face each other in court.

Jane out.

Blogs

So since I started writing this blog I decided it would only be fair to look for others around the internet. I found a blog called "2 Say or Not 2 Say" which I decided I like so I'm recommending it - I suppose that's how this works right?
Anyway, it has nice information in there and the writer is articulate which is more that I can say about the blogs I came across so kudos to whomever you are!

Jane

PS - I'd love to find a blog with good recipes for people who want to loose weight (for my, uh...friend). Any recommendations will be highly appreciated.

Translation Aid for Parents in Juvenile Courts

Until now, Sonoma County's juvenile court system has provided a service to assist people who don’t speak English. The translators would meet with parents of young people waiting to go on trial and explain the legal issues facing their children, as well as provide translations in-court. They would even help with testimonies, documents and witnesses.

PressDemocrat.com reported that the administrators of the court system will be cutting the translation services available to people who don’t understand English. While they will still be providing translations inside the courtroom, it has been determined that the translators spend too much time going above and beyond their duties to help these people. As it is, the translators feel understaffed as they run from courtroom to courtroom assisting families to understand the details of the proceedings. Cindia Martinez, the court's deputy executive officer, said that the out-of-court discussions should be left up to the public defenders to take care of. The state-funded interpreters should stick to their jobs in the courtrooms.

The parents of children awaiting trial find it comforting to be prepared when they enter the courtroom, and the translators want to help. Another option available for people struggling with English is to try and familiarize themselves with some of the related terms. There are many ESL programs available. Personally I would recommend the WhiteSmoke Translator for word-to-word and full-text translations because I like them and I very much dislike their competitors but many programs are available out there. Also, here’s a very good blog with free English lessons and English-related news.

M.Jane 

Dishonesty in Marketing

Yesterday I read several favorable reviews of WhiteSmoke Translator on various blogs. After seeing so many positive thoughts, I decided to click the links. Boy was I surprised when the links took me not to WhiteSmoke Translator, but to Babylon!

WhiteSmoke Translator and Babylon are competitors in the translation technology field, and each has its pros and cons, but that sort of dirty marketing was completely unacceptable to me. A company writing about its own product with links included is common marketing practice, but to write a review of another company and put links to a competing product is low.

Online marketing is so important to these companies these days and I guess there is no end to the lengths some companies are willing to go. At least WhiteSmoke Translator got some positive PR for free out of this, but I do believe Babylon employed morally ambiguous tactics in this situation.

I know it's rich coming from a lawyer, and since I'm considerably a successful lawyer it would be farfetched to assume I'm totally honest BUT some things piss me off as a consumer. By the way, just to annoy Babylon, I linked a bunch of times to WhiteSmoke here...so THERE.

Jane out. 

Does the World Revolve Around Me?

I'm kidding, I'm not that in love with myself to actually believe the world revolves around me. But sometimes it's funny when you see something generic and feel like it's all about you.
For instance, I saw this blog post on WhiteSmoke's news section (I love their blog!) http://www.whitesmoke.com/brafton26_jobseekers

I know it's very general about the relationship between getting a job and writing correct English, but I couldn't help but smile and think they wrote that about me :)

oh and really, their blog is great, they have pretty much a subject for anyone. Me personally, I like the news section, but my niece uses their grammar rules all the time in school (and the "how to"s but only when no one's looking...)

M.Jane

A Complaint About Complaints

So who hasn't heard of the BBB (Better Business Bureau - http://www.bbb.org/)?
Yesterday it got mentioned in an argument I overheard about some company - we shall keep it nameless for the time being. Anyway, one person basically told the other that "said" company was unreliable, a scam, and a general bad idea. Why did this person believe such horrible things? Because he read about it on the BBB website when he searched for the company's name there. I was sitting with my laptop on the nearby coffee table so I figured I'd visit the site and check it out and here's what pissed me off:

As a consumer, I can see how many complaints a certain company has received in the past year and how long it took the company to deal with those complaints. The problem is - that's all I see! What if I'm happy with the service the company is providing? Can I leave a good comment or review for fellow consumers? NO! It's an organization built solely upon complaints and that's kind of hypocritical and I don't like it.

So here's me saying "I pity the fool" who relies upon the BBB.

Voila,

M. Jane