Looking back on the Summer of 2012

The days turn into weeks, and the weeks to semesters, and then they end abruptly.

And so Summer semester, 2012, slams on its brakes and screeches to a halt, vanquished to our memories.  

A lot’s happened in twelve hot, sticky weeks.

A bunch of people got tragically killed, their only crime going to see a Batman movie. George Jefferson died at 74. The Marlins gave up on their season. I saw the Alamo in San Antonio and hung out in cool bars in Austin. I also got stranded in Dallas. The Olympics got underway and Michael Phelps retired as the most decorated Olympian ever. (That's not a bad title to carry around). Football season is here.

I quantified myself, instructed someone, proposed an app and did a project for my office. (I also learned why I don’t put the Oxford comma in a list such as this). I learned a lot about technical writing. I learned that it's bigger than I thought it was. I used to have this image of a tech writer as being a guy who labored over computer programs and tried to explain to you how they work. Now I know that any sort of explanation of any process can fall under the label of technical writing. 

The four assignments in this class each presented a challenge. I tried to cater them to my work envronment because technical writing seemed to be something that would have a very practical bent. The Service Learning one was the project I liked the best, and the one I'm really going to get a lot of use out of. The Propose an App flustered me from the beginning, and still does at the end.   

I registered for thesis. I have 18 graduate hours.

Last night I told Star that I wish there was a way we could quantify ourselves from the day we set foot here to the day we graduate and measure how we’ve changed in thoughts and outlooks. I bet we’d be amazed at the results. Last night Veronica said the end of a semester could be bittersweet, and she’s right. I never looked at it like that.

Last night I felt Shannon’s baby move and was again amazed at the magic of life.

Every semester comes and goes and with every change in season we change along with it.  Maybe we change against it. But we change. Every semester has its stories, its successes, its failures. Some of them linger. Most don’t. 

In hindsight, I probably should not have gone to school this semester. A break would have been good, especially since there was no time between the end of Winter and the beginning of Summer. All summer I have felt a bit out of sync; both classes were a struggle from the start. But like a pitcher who grinds out six or seven innings, doesn’t have his best stuff, and hangs in there just long enough to earn a win, I hung on. A win? No, but six credits, yes. 

Let’s see what Fall brings.

Propose an App

Imagine this:

    You're a first-year lawyer sent to argue your first big case on behalf of an important client.

    You know your case. You've rehearsed your argument. Your suit even fits just right. You argue your point and even opposing counsel is impressed.

    Suddenly, the judge asks you a clarification question: "What case did you rely on for this position?" OR "Aren't there already cases directly on point that are in opposition to your argument, Mr./Ms. Hotshot?"

    You stand stunned, caught off guard. The sweat drips down your face and your perfect suit crinkles just a little bit. But then you remember. See, in years past, this could have been a disaster; a career killer. But not you. You're ready. You've got the new Fact Finder app.

    You subtly pull your iPhone from your pocket. Tap the app button. Quickly type in the area of law you need a cite from. Touch on the appropriate jurisdictional court. Fact Finder does the rest.

    "No, judge," you confidently reply. "There is no case directly on point in this area."

    The judge slams his gavel. A big win for you.

    Fact finder. It's like having a lawyer in your pocket.

    For iPhone and iPad.
    Monthly subscription fee.

Instruct Someone

Take ‘em to Court:

How to Sue Someone Without Hiring a Lawyer

Step 1: State your claim

            The first step is to state your claim. A claim is an assertion of a legal right. You do this by completing a “Statement of Claim” form at your local courthouse. If you are filing a lawsuit against someone, you believe someone has infringed on your legal rights. And the solution is to get money from them.  

Step 2: Go to the Clerk of Courts’ website

            Every county in Florida has an elected Clerk of Courts. While chances are you won’t actually need to ever talk to anyone from this office, the Clerk’s website is a wealth of information. Most of these websites will have all the forms and documents you’ll need.

Step 3: Improve your vocabulary

            There are some basic words you will need to know to get by. Know them. The paper you state your claim on is called the complaint. As the person filing the complaint, you are the plaintiff. The person you are suing is the defendant. Since you don’t have a lawyer, you will be known as a pro se plaintiff. The American legal system is loaded with terminology, but you don’t need to know all of it. There are many online legal dictionaries available if you want to learn more.

Step 4: Figure out how much your claim is worth

            If your case is worth up to $5000, you’ll file your suit in the Small Claims Division of the County Court. If it’s worth up to $15,000, you’ll file it in County Court. If it’s worth more than that, file it in Circuit Court. Don’t worry: they are all in the same building. The only thing that changes is the filing fee.  The forms are the same. Most pro se claims are filed in small claims court.

Step 5: Do your discovery!

            After you file your complaint, the person being sued has 20 days to respond. Once they do, discovery can begin. Discovery is a legal term that is what it is: You discover what the other party knows (they’ll also want to know what you know, too). There are only three basic types of written discovery: requests for admissions (you just ask the other party to admit or deny a particular statement), interrogatories (a bunch of questions) and requests for production (in which you ask the other party for all documents pertaining to your case). You can do any or all three. The choice is yours. Whatever helps your case.

Step 6: Now answer their questions

            If interrogatories are a bunch of written questions and answers, then depositions are a bunch of questions and answers done orally. No biggie. Spend the $75 and get a court reporter so all of their answers are preserved forever. If you are setting someone’s deposition, they’ll know you mean business.

Step 7: Try your case!

            After discovery is done, your case will be at issue and noticed for trial. You won’t have a jury, just a judge, and the judge will decide your cases merits based on a “preponderance of the evidence.” THIS IS NOT THE SAME AS “BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT.” That’s for killers and other criminals. In all civil cases, the standard is a “preponderance of the evidence.” That just means you can be a little more right than your opponent. But as long as you are, you win!

Still not sure?

            If you still aren’t sure you’ve got enough information, here are links to some sites you might find helpful:

Palm Beach County Courts:

http://courtcon.co.palm-beach.fl.us/pls/jiwp/ck_public_qry_main.cp_main_idx

Broward County Courts:

http://www.clerk-17th-flcourts.org/ClerkWebsite/welcome2.aspx

Black’s Law Dictionary Online:

http://thelawdictionary.org/

USIBILITY TEST:

1. Were the steps concise and easy to follow?
2. Were the links helpful?
3. Were the steps presented in a logical order?
4. Will the steps produce the desired outcome?

Service Learning

Adjuster Quick Reference Reporting Guide

Defense Counsel Reporting:

·       15-days – Telephone conference scheduled?

                        Strategy discussed?

·       21-days - Defense Analysis received?

                        Coverage cleared?

                        Discovery action plan in place?

                        Written discovery?

                        Interrogatories

                        Request for Admissions?

                        Request for Production?

·       90-days  - 90-day status report received?

                        Depositions scheduled?

                        Experts retained?

                        Proposal for settlement filed?

Pre-Mediation Report:

·       Received 14 days prior to mediation?

·       Pros/cons noted?

·       Discovery complete?

·       Authority requested? (Adjuster level/David level/Brian level)

Pre-Trial Report: 

·       Received 60 days in advance of trial date?

·       Pre-Trial disclosure/witness lists complete?

·       All pros/cons noted and discussed with management?

·       David/Brian/George signed off on trial?

Quantify Yourself

Grinding it out:

A two-week journey of coffee expense

Overview/Purpose:

After reading Robin Barooah’s “The False God of Coffee,” I became convinced that there is no good reason to give up coffee. I’ve been drinking it pretty regularly since I was three years old (that’s no typo), so I’m not giving it up now. I love it. I need it. And it needs me.

Then I thought about it some more, and the only possible reason I could see might be financial. Let’s face it: coffee isn’t cheap. Every so often, we read in the papers that the price of coffee will be going up for one reason or another, and yet our consumption doesn’t really change. There’s a Starbuck’s on every other corner, and the corners that don’t have them have a McDonald’s with a McCafe or a Dunkin’ Donuts, because America runs on dunkin.’

So I started to wonder: How much do I spend on coffee each week? I’m not talking about any fancy cappuccinos or mochacccinos or skinny vanilla latte nonsense, just good old coffee. How much does it all cost me? Let’s find out.

Methods:

I chose a random, two-week period to study my coffee expenditures. I didn’t change my frequency; I just asked for receipts each time I went. I kept track of when I went, added the receipts up and tried to figure out what it all meant. At some point, I’ll create a graphic that will display costs per day, along with notations on any other variables: a project due at school, particular work issues, etc. Do I spend more on Tuesday and Wednesday (class nights) than I do Monday? Does a due date affect my intake?

For the purposes of this study, I am only considering additional coffee purposes. I’m not counting the money I spend on coffee from the grocery store; that kind of blends into the general grocery bill. Specifically, I’d like to just see how much random money I spend on coffee from week to week. And while I will consider any location for a coffee run, the place I generally seek out is Starbuck’s. It’s the source of my addiction and the fix for it. Don’t judge me.

Audience:

There was really no specific targeted audience. But anyone who is concerned about a budget might be interested just to see an example of how one of the “little things” can add up.

Diary:

Week 1:

7/2: Monday – On December 19, 2011, my company relocated from one of the worst neighborhoods in Lauderdale Lakes out west to the Sawgrass Corporate Park. It’s a lot further from home, but closer to NSU. Plus, there is an LA Fitness and a Starbuck’s in the same plaza across the street. As such, no lunch break is truly complete without zipping into Starbuck’s. My poison: a venti regular, room for cream, one Splenda. Daily total: $2.39.

7/3: Tuesday – Tuesdays and Wednesdays are bad. The lunch visit AND the convenience of a Starbuck’s on campus. Combine the convenience with a three-hour grammar class after a dull day at my dead-end job, and it’s a two-visit day. Daily total: $4.78. Weekly total: $7.17.

7/4: Holiday. Fourth of July. Funny how we celebrate the birth of our country by getting drunk, grilling up dead animals and blowing shit up. No money spent on coffee today, but a fair amount spent at the liquor store. Not sure that’s part of this project. I had a 12-er of Stella Artois in my left hand and a sixer of Newcastle Brown Ale in my right when I realized that neither of those beers was American. So out of sheer patriotism I put them both back and grabbed a Sam Adams Summer Ale and a Sam Adams Light. (Note how it refers to Adams as “Brewer/Patriot.” Brewer, of course, being more important than patriot. Which it is. )

7/5: Back to the grind after a weird day off in the middle of the week. Starbucks trip at lunch for the usual, and other $2.39. Then a bookstore run with Adam after work and, of course, he had a caramel macchiato and I had the usual. Visit total: $6.82. Daily total: $9.21. Weekly total to date: $16.38.

7/6: TGIF. Didn’t make it to Starbuck’s today. Blew off an afternoon of work, had a great lunch and hit the pub early. Weekly total holding at $16.38.

7/7: Saturday: There were no coffee runs this day.

7/8: Sunday: There were no coffee runs this day.

Week 2:

7/9: Monday. The Boomtown Rats had a hit in 1979 with a song called “I Don’t Like Monday’s.” It stayed at number one on the UK singles chart for four weeks. It’s a chipper ditty about a little girl who took a gun to school and shot a bunch of her classmates. When asked why, her response was “I don’t like Monday’s.” I don’t like ‘em, either, but I don’t take a gun to work and shoot my co-workers. Not yet anyway. Didn’t even get to take lunch today. No coffee. Daily and weekly total: $0.

7/10: Shannon and I walked to Starbuck’s before grammar. She gets some girly passion tea pink liquid. I got to campus early and actually got one before I met up with her. I asked the dude behind the counter for a refill since I had downed my first one already. He just gave me a refill for free. A visit to my work Starbuck’s earlier brings my total for the day and the week to $4.78.

7/11: Shannon and I walked to Starbuck’s before tech writing. She gets some girly passion tea pink liquid.  I got the usual, only now I’m smart enough to sneak it in here in a no spill mug tucked into my backpack. Daily total: $2.39. Weekly total: $7.17.

7/12: Thyroid biopsy at 10:30. Yes, I needed comfort food so I stopped by Starbuck’s on the way. Don’t judge me. Daily total: $2.39. Weekly total: $9.56.

7/13: Still kind of laid up. Can’t turn my head to the right. Can’t freaking drive. SOB’s at Starbuck’s don’t deliver. Daily total: $0.00. Weekly total: $9.56.

7/14: Saturday. Damn that Target Starbuck’s on Hagan Ranch Road. Two dollars on coffee, but it seems like nothing compared to the two hundred dollars I spent on tires for my car earlier. Ouch. Daily total: $2.39. Weekly total: $11.95

7/15: Sunday. There were no coffee runs this day.

Results:

            The results surprised me. I really thought I spent a lot more than I actually did, and I thought I went to Starbuck’s a lot more often than I do. If I had any expectation at the beginning of this study, it would have been that I go to Starbuck’s every single day and spend $3-4. I don’t. That would have brought my expenditure for this drink into the $30 per week range.

            Two- week total: $28.33

Projected annual total:  $736.58.

Whoopie. All this worry, and my two-week total was a puny twenty-eight bucks. There were some variables to consider:

·        The July 4^th holiday fell into the middle of my study, and I was off from work and school. So at a minimum, one visit to Starbuck’s was eliminated. (There could have easily been two visits this day.

·         Medical issues took me out of action for two work days.

·        Class nights cost me more than non-class nights.

·        It looks like Thursday is the biggest spending day, but that is skewed due to my son’s fancy drink.

·        The holiday and medical stuff cost me 21% of the time I dedicated to this study. Extrapolating this out to a full two weeks, my coffee addiction could have cost me $34.39. This expands to a yearly projected total of $894.14.

Conclusion:

            I spend a lot less on my Starbuck’s runs than I thought I did – about half as much. I picked a random, two-week period and just tracked how much I spent by adding up receipts. And while there were aberrations in the coffee patterns over this two-week period, there are going to be things that come up anytime.