From here, it looks like everything about the blog is working again, but I'm aware that many readers are having problems with comments (based on many emails). Multiple people have emailed me to say they tried to post a comment but weren't able to. In all of these cases so far, though, their comment(s) actually did come through, sometimes in duplicate or triplicate. But apparently it appeared to them as if the system wasn't working.
Blog Notes: I Did It When I Wasn’t Looking
Hi and thank you for an informative blog. I work for a Government Agency and when responding to Subject Requests some of my colleagues redact all email addresses, telephone numbers, and names of colleagues/employees of the agency who are included within the records and information. Some of them only remove email addresses and contact numbers of colleagues/employees but retain names and titles whilst others do not redact these details at all, citing that as the colleagues/employees identified were acting in an official capacity their details should remain unredacted so as to ensure transparency and accountability.
I was going up to New York to see my sister and spend the night. He had on a dress suit and patent leather shoes and I couldn't keep my eyes off him but every time he looked at me I had to pretend to be looking at the advertisement over his head. When we came into the station he was next to me and his white shirt-front pressed against my arm--and so I told him I'd have to call a policeman, but he knew I lied. I was so excited that when I got into a taxi with him I didn't hardly know I wasn't getting into a subway train" (2.120).
"Well," you retort, "if lawsuits are that bad, then my employer will pay any amount to get rid of it, right? So it's still worth it to sue."Well, no. Or, at least, not necessarily. You see, your employer gets sued a lot. This is what they call a "cost of doing business" in the United States. It is true that your lawsuit will be stressful and disruptive for your company. But it will be a lot more stressful and disruptive for you, who are not used to the court system or dealing with lawyers, and you don't even know whether it's a trap when the employer's lawyer says hello to you and offers to shake hands.The distraction and stress of a lawsuit may also make it more difficult for you to do well in your new job. And having to continually dwell on an unpleasant experience (as you'll have to do while your lawsuit lasts) is difficult and stressful.3. You may find out that your co-workers are not on your side. You feel very strongly that your employer did you wrong. You find a lawyer willing to take your case. You sue, and start taking depositions of all of your co-workers, who were your BFFs when you worked there. Well. It turns out that your BFFs weren't such BFFs after all. They say, "I liked Maudie, but I felt that she was out of line, and in my opinion she was treated fairly." And then you have the co-worker who saw you when you were not at your best, and she testifies about all the things you said to her in confidence when you were having a rotten day. Which are embarrassing. And which do not help your case. On the record. In a verbatim transcript, for cryin' out loud.What happened to these people?Most plaintiffs' lawyers will tell you that the co-workers are afraid of retaliation by the company if they don't side with the company and diss you. I am sure that happens sometimes, but I don't think it explains the majority of these situations. What I see most of the time are two phenomena:*Most people consider a lawsuit an "act of war." They probably were on your side when you all worked together and went out for mai tais and kvetched about what was going on at the office. But that was just gossip, harmless venting. Nobody thought you were really going to sue! And now, thanks to you, they're being dragged in front of lawyers and court reporters and judges and juries, and they're ticked off. And maybe what they said to you in confidence about the boss is coming out -- while the boss is sitting across the table with a stern-looking lawyer in a pinstripe suit. AWKWARD! No wonder they've turned on you.
Recall No. 2, above. Finding out that your co-workers don't support you is one of the "painful" parts.4. You may be opening up your own life to scrutiny. This is another "painful" part. In order to get more money, and because you really were very upset when you were fired, your lawyer includes a claim for emotional distress in your lawsuit. Next thing you know, the company has asked for your medical and psychiatric records dating back 10 years. And maybe you saw a shrink a few times and have been diagnosed as bipolar. Along with a few physical conditions that are not appropriate to mention in a family blog. Surely you don't have to share that information with the company's lawyers! Do you?YOU ALMOST CERTAINLY DO. If you claim emotional distress (you don't have to, but you may not get as much money if you don't), most courts say you have put your own emotional condition at issue and the employer is entitled to find out how much of your (just as an example) bipolar disorder was caused by your termination and how much you had all along (in which case the company isn't responsible for it). "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea -- Norman has seen a psychiatrist three times and says his wife doesn't understand him!"
Proofreading requires very focused, detail-oriented attention, while choosing which words to put down in the first place might require a more open, free-floating attention. When looking for interesting connections between notes, we often need to be in a playful, curious state of mind, whereas when putting them in logical order, our state of mind probably needs to be more serious and precise.
OLIVER STOLTZ:When I lived in Los Angeles, I stumbled on the internet over a study of the U.N. about the fate of children in Northern Uganda. And it was interviews of children who have been abducted and had been forced to kill, and I never heard about his before. I was looking for more information, and was going after this whole situation in northern Uganda, trying to understand it. My idea was a fiction project, a feature film, but then the next coincidence came when I met my directing partner Ali Samadi Ahadi. And we found out that he too as a child was involved in war. We both were very early on in conflict zones, me in Namibia, southwest Africa before independence, when there was also a rebel war going on. And my partner was forced into the Iranian army during the first Iran-Iraq war, and had to flee Iran in order not to be killed in a minefield. They used children at that time to clear minefields.
"He was the one guy who wasn't stood up by their pressure," Wojciechowski said. "At times when attacking it he was maybe a little too aggressive, but he got 10 assists. I think he pressured the ball really well."
E-mail Monith IlavarasanAbout this blog: My parents, brother, and I moved to Pleasanton when I was in the seventh grade. I then graduated from Amador Valley High School, went to college at UC Davis and started out a career in tech. After several years working in large co... (More)About this blog: My parents, brother, and I moved to Pleasanton when I was in the seventh grade. I then graduated from Amador Valley High School, went to college at UC Davis and started out a career in tech. After several years working in large companies and startups I took a sabbatical to be a community organizer. I now work back in tech and look to use this blog to share my thoughts on the people, places and events that make up and shape the town that I grew up in. (Hide)View all posts from Monith Ilavarasan 2ff7e9595c
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