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joeross.me

Civil litigation lawyer. Interested in the collision of law & tech policy. Prone to geekery.

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    Ziggy Played Guitar

    Look up here, I’m in heaven I’ve got scars that can’t be seen I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen Everybody knows me now

    – David Bowie, Lazarus

    David Bowie died surrounded by family at his New York home Sunday, January 10, 2016 eighteen months after being diagnosed with cancer. He released his final album, Blackstar, on Friday, January 8, 2016, his birthday. I’m listening to it as I write this article about how he inspired me.

    Read More →

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    An update on 'Reading List'

    A daily post of links I read that day feels too spammy now that I’ve done it a few times. I’ll make it a weekly thing where I highlight the best of what I read that week.

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    My first post at Medium

    My first post at Medium

    It’s something I put here in January, but I thought I’d point it out in case you hadn’t seen it, or you prefer Medium, or you have yet to see Medium in action.

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    Errant law blogger repents, promises return to snarky, somewhat-informed weblog

    Dearest readers,

    I know, I know: it’s been a while. I moved, started a new job, got married, and am preparing for the bar exam. “Busy” is an insufficient descriptor. In case the new look hasn’t given it away, though, you can expect regular publishing to restart very soon.

    Thanks for still reading.

    Sincerely,

    Joe

    ∞

    Should I merge Geekeries with this blog?

    ∞

    Why I Chose Temple Law

    I originally posted this to one of my old blogs, The Rotten Word, in April 2009. I wanted to publish it here as well because I plan to write a follow-up soon, having graduated in January of this year. Many thanks to Philadelphia litigator Max Kennerly for his advice and kind words about this post when it first ran. Also, this post by my Temple law classmate and friend Kishwer Vikaas Barrica was humbling, so thanks to her too!

    In the Beginning…

    It’s not a choice easily made. First of all, just the decision to take the LSAT is a journey in itself. It requires research, asking the right questions of the right people, preparing for failure and, perhaps most importantly, preparing for success. It’s the success that can be most confusing. After all, if you do poorly on the test the first time, you resolve that you probably didn’t take it seriously enough, or that it was just a bad day. There’s a “choose your own adventure” feel to it. The first time I took the LSAT, my score was embarrassing. The only saving grace was that the average friend and family member has never had any reason to learn the how the test is scored, so they don’t know how poorly I did.

    I could have gotten off the train right there. I almost did. I almost decided that maybe it isn’t meant to be. But then I thought about it, and remembered that I don’t think anything is meant to be. That’s the great liberating foundation of my personal moral value system: freedom at the cost of accountability. Things happen to me because (a) I have made a decision that caused them or (b) someone else has made a decision that caused them. Thus, I can decide that I’m not cut out for lawyering, or I can decide that I am, and then act.

    So I took it again. And I did better. Much better. Suffice it to say that I am no longer embarrassed, even by my first score, because my second vindicated me. I studied harder, focused more deliberately, and made executive decisions about which questions I could answer well and which ones I could not.

    But getting a score you can respect yourself for is only the beginning.

    Decisions, Decisions

    Will you devote all of your time to your studies, subsidizing your living expenses as well as the cost of your education? Or will you retain your current employment, making the (in my opinion) far more daunting commitment to maintain your financial standing and continue to accrue work experience while you submit to the rigor of a legal education?

    On the one hand, going to school full time looks like the most sensible decision. Everything you have heard about law school is true: it’s hard. It’s not an afterthought, or a hobby. It’s at least as mentally stressful as your job, and probably more. Like any graduate school, every hour of class time requires at least an hour outside the classroom. So, the ability to go to class all day and devote your evenings to study and work is a precious resource.

    On the other hand, the economy is (still) bad, and even if previously borrowed loans are deferred while you are in graduate school, there are bills and rent to be paid, not to mention food and (dare I say) the occasional drink. Borrowing money for these expenditures is inadvisable at best. Working through law school is difficult, but, since the evening division is a part-time program, credit requirements are flexible: you must complete a certain amount, but you have summer sessions during which you can earn credit, as well. You can keep earning money, and producing promotable deliverables. But you’ll be spending a few hours a night, a few nights a week, in a classroom. And that’s before you even start your homework. It may be a part-time education, but it’s a second full-time job.

    So why did I choose Temple Law?

    Well, even taking into account the (generous) aid package Drexel offered me, I would have had to borrow more money to cover living expenses than I’ll likely need to borrow to go to Temple. Also, my 401(k) account makes me smile, and cutting it off for a few years would mean less smiles. Finally, I’ve got a good thing going at my current job: good work, good people, good benefits. These are not things to be taken lightly in today’s job market. For every lawyer making $80k right out of school, there are three more at the unemployment office. And we’re talking partners here. People with experience.

    I made the commitment to work and go to school at the same time. I want to be confident about it, even arrogant. But the truth is that it’s terrifying. After all, I might not be able to do it. Then what? I don’t know. But I know that it’s what I want, and people do it every day. People with more stressful jobs, people with children. There are really no excuses.

    Classes are technically from 6pm to 10pm. I’m going to be in danger of succumbing to my burgeoning caffeine addiction. I’m going to be in danger of burning out. I’m going to be in danger of driving the girlfriend (more) insane (than usual).

    But maybe I’ll quit caffeine and start meditating. Or running. Maybe I’ll apply my work ethic to my studies, and develop a schedule that includes class time, study time, and mental stability time. Maybe I’ll do well.

    Closing Argument

    This absurdly long post has served primarily as a “thinking out loud” session for me, in which I’ve tried to express what has been going on in my head as I near the next and most important part of my journey: actually going to law school. But this is the tip of the iceberg. This stuff takes me away mid-conversation at work, puts blank stares on my face while Meg’s talking to me, and keeps me wide awake in bed. It worries me, aggravates me, scares me. This is the stuff I always thought adults had to deal with, the stuff that I got to watch other people figure out while I wrote stories or played my guitar.

    Now I’m one of those people. I have a job, investments, credit cards, an actual (and good) credit score. I don’t think I could afford to work a side job and go to school. So it might take me longer to finish, while I take fewer classes. But my sense of financial security is young and, with the exception of some indinspensable help (for which I’ll always be grateful), largely self-wrought. Risking it doesn’t seem right. So wish me luck.

    I’m going to need it.

    ∞

    Questions?

    Now that Constant & Endless is up to a staggering 26 Tumblr followers, I’ve enabled the ability for signed-in Tumblr users to ask questions on this site. Just click the “?” in the links menu at the top of the page, or visit this link.

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    Site Design as Context: An Amateur's Perspective

    Introduction

    I hesitated to change themes because, well, it’s one of those things people do instead of writing. But while my customized version of Quite Big theme had treated me very well, I hate using Tumblr’s default mobile theme on phones, or seeing my desktop-optimized layout on a tablet. I also had modified Quite Big so much that it started to look a little off to me. I know enough HTML and CSS to avoid breaking sites altogether, but over time my changes had started to give the theme a clunky look. I decided that I needed to find the ultimate theme for me: minimal, useful, and responsive.

    Minimal, Useful, and Responsive

    Some people use minimal themes to keep the focus on their content. Others use minimal themes because they think any content placed within a minimal theme will appear great. I think of myself as the former, and it’s why I’ve been personally trending to more minimal site designs for a long time. I consider the use of a minimal site design focused on content to be a commitment. It commits me to quality, and that’s a great thing.

    I also want my website’s design to be useful. I’m particularly annoyed when a theme requires me to scroll down to the footer to see how the author describes the site, what other pages are on it, or how you might contact the site’s purveyor. Give me the things I expect when and where I expect them. Yes, it is absolutely a sense of entitlement, but when you’re writing at a blog, you’re writing for whomever is reading. If most people expect things in a certain place, put them there and get to writing the real stuff.

    Finally, most free blogging platforms have automatic mobile layouts, but they’re often global, meaning that all sites on the platform end up looking the same on a phone or whatever device the reader is using. This site is on Tumblr because I got tired of maintaining Wordpress and other self-managed CMS installations. I love Tumblr for its simplicity and its Markdown support, as well as its truly beautiful apps. But their “optimized mobile layout,” while minimal and designed for clarity, feels far too cookie-cutter.

    Vision Quest

    After all, a theme, however minimal, does more than determine post width and font face. It sets the tone for the site. It provides a context in which all of your content is going to be experienced. I think of site design, whether for a blog or a corporate portal, as a form of self-expression. Many people get enough self-expression out of being able to share whatever they want, or looking “professional” or “enterprise,” and to them the theme of their site isn’t important. But I take pride in:

    • having a vision for how my content should be presented to readers;
    • seeking out well-made themes as starting points for that, and
    • being able to make customizations that bring the theme I found and the vision I have together

    If you can find a theme or site design that fits your vision out of the box, that’s great. Nothing beats just applying a new theme and getting to the writing part of it all. But if you do need to modify someone else’s design work, it’s important to leave credit somewhere in the theme.

    I credit Idraki Muhamad's MNML in the footer as well as on my About page. The changes I’ve made fit the design into my vision, but Mr. Muhamad created the theme.

    Ed. note: I’ve moved to Observer by Tumblr designer Zach Sultan since first writing this in January, but the principals still apply, and MNML is an awesome theme.

    Conclusion

    Most people use blogs as a means to an end, usually to share opinions or showcase work. But geeks often see their blog as an end in itself. If your site is a book, its aesthetic and layout are the cover, and unlike many authors, bloggers have full control over it. I take advantage of that, and I encourage others to do the same.

    In a world of cloned “default” themes, a site design with a little bit of personal nuance will stick in someone’s mind. You don’t need to use design to scream “I’m DIFFERENT!” but you should use it to politely remind visitors that, you know, you’re different.

    Then, all you have to do is write amazing content.

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    Another Note to RSS Subscribers

    Those who subscribe to http://feeds.feedburner.com/byjoeross only have a few more days to subscribe to the new feed. Please make the change so you can keep reading my priceless insights.

    Do it for your friends. Do it for yourself.

    The New Feed!

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    A Note to RSS Subscribers

    If you are subscribed to http://feeds.feedburner.com/byjoeross you need to subscribe to http://joeross.me/rss instead. The /byjoeross feed will go away forever in about a month.

    Click here to subscribe to the new feed.

    It would mean a lot to me if you did that. Really. I would smile. Widely.

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    Housekeeping, too, is Constant & Endless

    I’m changing a few things as I settle into my new theme and workflow here at Constant & Endless.

    In no particular order, those things are:

    • I have changed the title of the RSS feed for this site from “By Joe Ross” to “Constant & Endless.”
    • I’m appending “↗” to all link posts to make clear what kind of post you’re looking at. If that’s confusing, let me know.
    • Link posts will appear in this color and article titles will appear in bold black.
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    No Comment

    I have turned off comments here at Constant & Endless. I have had only one comment since I started writing here, from Mr. Scott Carpenter. He left a good link, and I certainly don’t want to alienate him or anyone else who wants to tell me something in response to what I’ve written.

    But I trust that Scott and anyone else reading this will find it easy to reply to my posts using the avenues listed on my Contact page, or described in the posts by others I have linked to later in this piece.

    I won’t turn off comments at Fiction By Joe Ross (where, it turns out, Scott has also contributed valuable comments) because it’s good to have proposed revisions or critiques right there on the page. This site, however, is a different beast. I could write a long post about why I think this is the right move for most if not all personal small (from one to a few authors) commentary blogs, but the decision is already well-defended by people with bigger audiences (for now…muhahaha) than I.

    iOS and Mac OS X developer Matt Gemmell wrote on his popular blog in November 2011 what I consider a bullet-proof reasoning for keeping comments out of personal blogs. He also has great suggestions for different (and, in his opinion and mine, better) ways to respond to something someone has written on their blog. If you don’t understand why I turned off comments here, read his initial post and his follow-up.

    MG Sielger, a general partner at CrunchFund, a columnist at TechCrunch, and purveyor of parislemon and Massive Greatness, chimed in on Gemmell’s posts with some thoughts of his own. If you still want some more explanation after reading Gemmell’s posts, read Siegler’s initial post and his follow-up.

    So, if you want to reply to this post, have a look at my Contact page or write a blog post of your own.

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    Self-Promotion Alert: Read My (Very Short!) Fiction

    This site is supposed to be me talking about the law and technology, but I have some shameless self promotion to do, so I’m deviating from the usual subject matter this week.

    <shameless_self_promotion>

    I recently started a new Tumblr called, creatively, Fiction by Joe Ross. I’m posting flash fiction there, because I love to write it and it’s the best I can do length-wise until I finish my JD in December (a semester early, if you’re counting, which I am … pats self on back). It’s going to be mostly but not all science fiction, so if you’re into that sort of thing, please check it out and tell me what you think.

    I have been writing fiction since, probably, ever. My first short story was a survival tale about a man’s struggle in the wilderness. Alas, I can’t find it, but I wrote it in high school and I remember being super proud of it. Survival? Wilderness? Sold!

    Anyway, I wrote another story in college, call Three Days, which you can get for free in eBook format at Leanpub. Did I mention that it’s free? Go get it. It has an epidemic, love, psychiatry, and time travel.

    I know, genius.

    Oh, and it’s okay to tell me you don’t like stuff. You get extra points for being as polite about it as Scott, my first commenter, was, but what I really want is to know why you didn’t like it. Of course, it won’t kill me to hear from you even if you did like it, but constructive criticism is wonderful.

    Nowadays, I’m one of those obnoxious people who doesn’t mind telling you I’m in law school, and working full time, and kind of a big deal because of all that. The bottom line is, though, that I never have much time to write, the little time I do have I use mostly to write about tech news and law stuff, and I have no time at all to edit. So I’ve been hoarding all these little scenes of mine, sometimes for years. That hoarding, for better or worse, has come to an end.

    As of the publication of this post, I’ve already put up two scenes, Carnival Time and The Deaths of Dolly Dignan. I bet you’ll like at least one of them, at least a little bit.

    And, even if you don’t, and I become a famous author one day, you’ll be one of the cool kids who read my stuff long before I was on the bestsellers list. People make fun of people like that but admit it, the truth is that we all love having the chance to be one of them.

    Well, it’s that very chance that I’m offering you today, for the future. Or something. So here’s the link, one more time.

    Okay, I’m done.

    </shameless_self_promotion>
    ∞

    This is my new blog.

    This is a post I ran recently at my Posterous blog, announcing my move over here. I thought I’d put it here for reference while I finish drafting a proper post about how my personal take on blogging has evolved over the years.

    Dear people who read this website,

    Here is a list of things I want to tell you:

    1. I made a new website. It’s located at http://joeross.me. It is called “By Joe Ross.” The title may not be creative, but the content will be good.
    2. I made it because Twitter bought Posterous in mid-March, and Posterous hasn’t said a word to its users since. I trust they will give users notice before a shutdown, but TweetDeck has mostly stagnated in the wake of its acquisition by Twitter, and I don’t want to keep investing my content in something that will potentially go away soon.
    3. My Posterous blog, from now on, will consist only of links to new posts at my new blog.
    4. My new site is a Wordpress.org installation registered via Hover.com and hosted (for now, at least) with HostGator.
    5. My new blog will focus on law and technology, and how the two intersect. There won’t be many images, because finding images for posts has been a distraction for me and I want to focus on what I’m saying.
    6. My new blog won’t include photos of my pets, thoughts about gaming (unless there’s a legal or new-tech angle), or posts about food. That kind of stuff will live at my Tumblr.
    7. I will be importing relevant posts from my Posterous blog to my new blog over the next several weeks. I won’t post links to those on the Posterous, since that’s where they came from.
    8. I will maintain my Posterous blog for as long as Posterous maintains their service.
    9. There are at least thirty folks subscribed to my Posterous blog’s RSS feed. Thanks for that! But my new feed is here, so update your reader. The feed will remain full-content.
    10. I’m excited to write more during the summer due to a lighter course load, and I hope you like the new site.

    Thanks,

    Joe