BradleyScribe

The New Promulgation (Snippet of the Moment)

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Earlier on Twitter I wrote that Lawrence Lessig was the coolest lawyer / code man. I am currently reading his Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Published in 1999, the book is somewhat dated (especially since we're talking about the Web here), but I still think Code is hip.

Code is hip because we're talking about the new promulgation. Legislatures promulgate rules. These rules become the code that regulates our conduct and behavior. But another group of folks promulgate rules: software developers. These folks promulgate in the form of HTML and a variety of other languages.

In his chapter on regulating code, Lawrence writes:

"Congress passes an endless array of statutes that say in words how to behave. Some statutes direct people; others direct companies; some direct bureaucrats. The technique is as old as government itself: using commands to control."

Software developers create their own commands. These commands, in turn, control "killer apps" like micro-blogging tool Twitter, allowing journalists (or anyone else) to send realtime tweets on the political debate from inside town hall. That's just one example of what Twitter can do. And Twitter, like other like-minded programs, is a product of the new promulgation.

I love an un-regulated Web. It's good to see the average citizen make some rules.

About This Blog

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

This blog exists because words exist.

I think that your main pursuits should be tailored (1) to some natural ability and (2) interest. As a boy, I remember waking in the morning and immediately reaching for a book. Sometimes I would read until my eyes hurt. I would read and I would write. Doing these things made me better at them than other things (like mathematics) and later in law school I'd spew the cliched quip that I was doing law because I couldn't do math. Chuckle chuckle.

So I thought I'd put a small carbon footprint on the Web in the form of words and the way words can be used. Because I'm a lawyer by training and currently a copy editor by trade, I hope my take on words is worthy of a modest URL. If not worthy of a modest URL, then at least it was a small carbon footprint. ;)

Grainy McCain (Snippet of the Moment)

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:03:00 +0000

Friends!

Ever notice how television insists on portraying Senator McCain as some kind of ghost in the screen? As if suddenly everything went from digital to analog again; the image just isn't quite as clear. The effect makes you think that the footage is from some bygone era, irrelevant and old. This is, however, conjecture. Who knows?

I will, of course, draw an analogy to words. Behold, Michael Crichton of thriller-book fame in State of Fear:

"...there was no scientific basis for eugenics. In fact, nobody at that time knew what a gene really was. The movement was able to proceed because it employed vague terms never rigorously defined. 'Feeble-mindedness' could mean anything from poverty and illiteracy to epilepsy. Similarly, there was no clear definition of 'degenerate' or 'unfit'. Vague terminology helped conceal what was really going on."

What was really going on was genocide in the name of progress. According to Wikipedia, eugenics is a social philosophy. A smarter, healthier, less-suffering human race is its fundamental goal. But if what Mr. Crichton says is true, then it's quite important to wake up when you come across impotent words like "feeble-mindedness" and "unfit" - or a television network's subtle use of poor imagery.

Wax Moon Garden (Snippet of the Moment)

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:14:00 +0000

This first snippet is a relevant one for a blog that is, ostensibly, on words. From the pen of Ray Bradbury in his 1953 book Fahrenheit 451:

"So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless. We are living in a time when flowers are trying to live on flowers, instead of growing on good rain and black loam."

Until a few days ago our vegetable garden was struggling to survive the onslaught of bunny rabbits. My wife and I put up an imposing wire fence and electrified it. (I'm kidding about the electrified part.) Our wax moon garden is much more comfortable now.

Anti-flash-bang lawyer marketing

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:45:00 +0000

I love this site because it came together as it should. Now, I can't take complete credit for it. The writer gets a sizeable share. As editor and project manager, I get a sizeable share. But the person who gets the most credit is the person for whom we built the site: Mr. James Denison. He gets most of the credit because he already had his thumb on what it meant to market yourself as a lawyer on the Web.

This site proves that you don't need flash or other attention-grabbing multimedia on the page. Here, what counts is the content. It's a clean, attractive site that focuses on one thing: Mr. Denison's legal writing and oral advocacy skills.

In my opinion, writing and speaking are what a lawyer does. These are the fundamentals of lawyering. They underpin all else, from the biggest practice areas to the obscure niche practice areas. If you excel at the fundamentals, you'll be an effective lawyer.

The site doesn't deviate from that message. It doesn't ramble on about 50 different practice areas-which really tells prospective clients that you don't have focus. Mr. Denison, however, has focus.

Social Networking Fiend?

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:43:00 +0000

Things are getting a bit crazy today, I guess: I've just signed up on Twitter and De.licio.us - all in one day.

Kind of brings me back to my undergraduate days, my fluttering fingers typing away at the keyboard, deftly managing AOL IM windows in every corner of the screen.

My handle was Chino Pressley because I wore chinos (khakis?) everyday and thought Jamie Pressley from My Name Is Earl was a good-looking lass.

You know, I'm thinking of getting back into chinos.

The Tentative Man

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:09:00 +0000

Another piece I wrote for Hearsay, the New Lawyers Section newsletter of the Minnesota Bar Association.

It's about the first unpaid compensation case I settled for a client that worked in sales and got stiffed by his former employer.

Joe Closer

noreply@blogger.com ({the scribe}) — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 22:38:00 +0000

A piece I wrote for Hearsay, a publication of the New Lawyers Section of the Minnesota Bar Association.

It's a short tale about working in sales at West Publishing.