№ 535. I for Ikigai

For a State of Happiness

№ 221. Virtual Lawyering

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only." --- Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities

What is out there for the once and future lawyer?

Emails are so mid-90s. Google has grown up and morphed into a teenage giant. Social networks are slowly plateauing. Wireless, and its many iterations, is almost the humdrum norm, circa 2015, except maybe for my desktop office.

№ 214. A Day in the Life

"I’ve always told myself to treat it like a 9-to-5 job. You just go do it. It doesn’t matter whether you’re feeling good that day. I don’t think writers or artists can afford to have a “creative temperament” or to wait for inspiration to descend. You have to simply sit there and make yourself do it. And over the years that’s a discipline I really developed. I can sit down at my desk every day and do my work, never give myself permission not to do it. Once your mind understands that it has no excuses, it’s remarkable how it begins to play along." (Harvard Business Review)

Life after Law School, Circa 2005-2006

№ 204. 884 Mondays Till Retirement

It's Monday. Again. I know the feeling. There are piles of work, deadlines to beat and projects to accomplish. I've been through several Mondays before. In 43 years, 2,236 Mondays. There will be several more to go. That's 884 Mondays more till retirement, kid.

What's an appropriate emoticon for Mondays?

But then.... there's this article about getting old and not retiring. And a quote from Pablo Casals:

“The man who works and is never bored is never old. Work and interest in worthwhile things are the best remedy for age.

On my last birthday I was ninety-three years old. That is not young, of course. In fact, it is older than ninety. But age is a relative matter. If you continue to work and to absorb the beauty in the world about you, you find that age does not necessarily mean getting old. At least, not in the ordinary sense. I feel many things more intensely than ever before, and for me life grows more fascinating.”

№ 54. Dreadlines

Dreadline
noun

"The most final of deadlines; a critical target date which, when missed, plunges a project deep into a terminal spiral and you in the crapper.

The deadline was last Thursday but I ain’t sweating it. Dreadline’s still next week." (predatorinchief)