Scorpions - Still Loving You

Classic '80s Scorpions, one of their best songs from this era - and of course, Jabs is playing the Explorer.

Gibson Explorer

In March 1990, the spring and final semester of my senior year at University of Maryland, I had spring break, and nowhere to go.  Out of curiosity and boredom, I went to Chuck Levin’s music store in Wheaton, THE go-to place for guitars in the Northern Virginia/Suburban Maryland/Washington Metropolitan area.  There I saw, and immediately fell in love with, an ebony (aka “black”) Gibson Explorer ’76 reissue (as shown above). 

I loved the headstock, the color, and the white pickguard.  Of course, like 99% of Gibsons, it had a rosewood fretboard (I can’t stand maple – thank God Fender makes Strats with rosewood fretboards!). I just had to have it.  Sure enough, two months later, I had the guitar.  Oddly, despite being a big Metallica fan, James Hetfield’s choice wasn’t much of an influence.  Back then he was playing contemporary models without a pickguard.  For me, the contrast of the pickguard, i.e. the reissue model, was what drew me to it.

However, Hetfield did influence my decision, in 1992, to replace the stock “Dirty Fingers” open coil pickups with EMG-81 active pickups, for a warmer, thicker, though somewhat less raspier sound.  It takes a 9 volt battery, which only rarely needs to be replaced.  More recently, around 2004, I replaced the white pickguard with a mirror pickguard, so now it’s truly unique. 

Origins.  In the late 50s, Gibson found that its Les Paul models were not selling well – ironic considering how valuable original ’58-60 Les Pauls are nowadays, with even the reissue models being damn expensive, and Lenny Kravitz complaining about the cost of vintage models.  Gibson’s reaction was to introduce 3 new models: the SG, the Explorer, and the Flying V; by now the consensus is the Moderne was never actually released.  The SG and Flying V survived, while the Explorer died off fairly early.  It’s not hard to imagine how this outlandishly styled guitar was too far ahead of its time for 1958.  The first handful of guitars had a bizarre split headstock (which Dean now uses for its guitars, see Dimebag Darrell) and very soon the “banana” shaped one took over.  The original models were also in Korina wood.  By 1976, the public was ready for the Explorer, and Gibson reissued it.  Later, they reissued the reissue, so to speak, adding ebony (black), cherry, and white to the mix, though the original Korina (natural) finish is currently offered. 

Players. 

Eric Clapton briefly played an Explorer, in the early 70s, although he cut off the end to be more rounded – it did not improve the looks, though he apparently felt it was easier to play that way.  I’ve never had a problem playing it in its original shape.  This was a brief transition phase between his Gibson era, when he played an  ES335 and an SG (famously painted by The Fool) with Cream, and a Les Paul with The Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, and his solo era when he eventually settled upon the Fender Stratocaster he’s so often associated with. 

In the mid-70s, Allen Collins of Lynyrd Skynyrd often played an Explorer, as well as a Firebird.  He can be seen playing the Explorer in the “Freebird” movie.  His unique Explorer Affectation is to draw the guitar strap over the front of the guitar, whereas everyone else – myself included – keeps it behind the guitar.

Rickey Medlocke, of Blackfoot – and now back with Lynyrd Skynyrd (he was originally with the band before they became famous) is also an Explorer enthusiast. 

Since the late 70s, Matthias Jabs of the Scorpions, taking over (by force?) from prior guitarist Uli Roth, also plays an Explorer, with stripes on the body.  He still plays them, though now he prefers a custom-made 90% model (scaled down to 90% the size of a regular Explorer). 

The Edge, the guitarist for U2, has been seen playing Explorers more recently.  He’s about the least impressive guitarist to pick it up.  I really hate his jingle-jangle guitar sound, which could easily be replicated on a Telecaster or just a cheap guitar. 

Gary Moore is most often associated with the Les Paul, including Peter Green’s with the reversed neck pickup.  But at the 2003 Monsters of Rock show, half his set is played on a white ’76 Explorer reissue.

The new Australian band, Airbourne, is pretty much an AC/DC tribute band, for all intents and purposes.  Joel O’Keefe and David Roads both play Explorers.

In terms of being both closely associated with the guitar, and being prominent in his use of it and his overall publicity, James Hetfield of Metallica is probably the top Explorer player.  He started out playing Flying V’s in Metallica’s early days, switching to a standard (non-reissue) Explorer on the Ride The Lightning tour (including the August 1985 Donington show).  He replaced the Gibson pickups with EMG-81s, and ended up having ESP make him a series of Explorers in various colors and varieties.  I still see him playing Explorer-style guitars, though he’s taken a recent preference for Les Paul variants.  Despite his long-time preference for Explorers, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him play the reissue model.

Whether it has the original PAF humbuckers, the Dirty Fingers humbuckers, or EMGs, the styling and pickups combine to make this guitar stunning in appearance and sound, perfect for rock and metal.  

General Guderian Speaks

...for about 4 seconds! But the rest is pretty cool. I just wanted to give a modest taste of this, not a long, duplicative, biography.

Panzer Leader

I suppose this is a good sequel to my Rommel blog entry, as the premier German tank general of World War II, Heinz Guderian, also wrote a book.  Two books in fact, but I didn’t bother to read his pre-war book Achtung! Panzer!, instead opting for his post-war memoirs, Panzer Leader instead.  Actually, the idea for Guderian to write memoirs came from the Americans, who were extremely impressed with him after interrogating him after the war (“dude, you kicked major ass.  You should write a book!”).

 Rommel came into the tank picture fairly late in the game, only being given command of an armored unit in spring 1940 just before the attack on France.  He was never involved on the Eastern Front, which is where all the most important tank battles were fought, although his operations officer, Bayerlein (who in fact wrote several entries in The Rommel Papers) was Guderian’s in Russia before being transferred to Africa.  Guderian was involved with Germany’s tank program from the very beginning, starting with secret developments of tanks in the Reichwehr in the inter-war years. 

 I’ll spare all the details and cover the main areas.  His book starts with a brief chapter on his inter-war years (1919-1939) and he explains how they developed the panzer divisions.  Although Guderian had served in WWI and Germany did have a few A7V’s in that war, Guderian had been an infantry (signals) officer in the war. Germany had been on the receiving end of the Allies’ tank warfare, so he was determined to learn from his enemies.  He gives Liddell-Hart a good deal of credit; ironically, Liddell-Hart was pretty much ignored in his home country, England, nor did the French pay any attention to him either.  The victors, having won, decided the way they did things in WWI was good enough for the next time around.  Guderian figured the Germans needed to innovate and change things if they wanted to have a shot at beating the Allies the second time.  Part of this was concentrating tanks into panzer divisions instead of spreading them out among infantry divisions as support weapons.

 As Guderian describes it, typically terrain can be divided into three types: (1) terrain completely unfavorable to tanks, (2), terrain which is neutral, and (3), terrain which is extremely favorable to tank warfare.  The enemy has chosen to spread his tanks across all infantry units, including many in areas (1) and (2).  Guderian thought it was smarter to concentrate his tank forces in type 3, where they would have not only a terrain advantage, but also a tactical, numerical advantage despite the fact that, overall, Germany had less tanks than its opponents.  He also felt that tanks themselves should be the vanguard of the attack, not merely supporting the infantry. 

 His first taste of battle was in Poland, where his forces were involved in the northern sector, near Danzig and the Polish Corridor.  He was even able to visit Kulm, in East Prussia, where he was born.  Then, of course, he was also involved in the invasion of France.  The crossing of the Meuse, while a dangerous affair early in the campaign, nevertheless had its light moments.  Lt-Col. Balck, throwing Guderian’s own words at him (from an earlier exercise), warned his superior that “joy-riding in canoes on the Meuse is forbidden!!” 

 Then it was on to war with Russia.  In August 1941, Guderian had hoped and fought that the German forces would advance on Moscow as soon as possible, but Hitler had other plans.  The Fuhrer wanted to sweep back and take the Ukraine and Sevastopol (Russia’s “aircraft carrier to attack the oil fields in Romania”), Guderian was vetoed.

 On page 208, he describes something I have to laugh at.  “[On August 31, 1941] the 10^th (Motorized) Infantry Division succeeded in crossing the Desna, to the north of Korop, but was thrown back again to the west bank by heavy Russian counter-attacks, besides being attacked on its right flank by strong enemy forces.  By sending in the very last men of the division, the Field Bakery Company, a catastrophe to the right flank was just avoided.”  Not THE Field Bakery Company??  Forget the Grossdeutschland Division, or the SS, it’s the Field Bakery Company which struck fear into the hearts of the Red Army.  Surely an elite unit.  Did they have a special counter in Squad Leader?  Red player: “Your assault engineers don’t frighten my Guards.” German player: “Oh yeah, well here’s the Field Bakery Company.  Prepare to die!”  Red player: “No!!!!”

 On a darker note, Guderian notes the German High Command (OKH) and Hitler were completely oblivious to conditions on the front: the persistent mud, the bitter cold, the petrol shortages, and the overall hardships which the average German soldier was forced to endure.  Coddled in their warm, comfy headquarters hundreds of miles behind the lines, these staff officers, and the Beloved Fuhrer, couldn’t possibly imagine the hell which the troops were going through.  Remarkably, these boneheads would neither accept the word of the generals such as Guderian who had been to the front, much less even consider going to the front themselves to see what was going on. 

 In December 1941, the offensive ground to a halt to the west, south and north of Moscow in the bitter cold, the troops too frozen to fight any more – especially since, by that point, the Russians had poured in large reinforcements, including Siberian units well-equipped for cold weather combat, whereas the German troops still did not have any cold weather uniforms – they were stuck in Warsaw.  Guderian advised Hitler that the troops should be permitted to retreat to river lines with previously prepared defenses to wait out the winter; Hitler disagreed.  Based on this disagreement, Guderian was relieved of command, and remained inactive until March 1, 1943.

 At that time he took over as Inspector-General of Armored Troops.  His two strongest recommendations:

1.  Don’t create any new units, simply refurbish the old ones to full strength.

2.  Don’t put any new tanks into combat until you have enough of them to make a full unit, and the men know how to use them.  Feeding them into combat piecemeal simply lets the enemy learn how to fight it (almost like the tank version of a vaccine). 

 Rommel.  In spring 1944, Guderian went to see the Atlantic Wall preparations, and ran into his old buddy Rommel (who I’ve described at length earlier).  Guderian was very impressed with Rommel’s track record, had very nice things to say about him, and believed Rommel deserved his reputation.  But they differed on the best way to deal with the oncoming invasion.  It’s funny – Rommel claims that Hitler agreed with the generals who believed that the German forces should be held away from the beaches, and Guderian here admits that he is one of them.  But Guderian claims that Hitler agreed with Rommel!   Go figure.

 Waffen SS.  He generally tends to be favorably impressed by the fighting ability and morale of the Waffen SS.  The Second SS Panzer Division, Das Reich, was under command of his army group in 1941, and he got along well with, and liked, its commander Paul Hausser.  He did not like Himmler, who he thought was completely incompetent as a military commander.  He was also good friends with “Sepp” Dietrich, the commander of the First SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler – when Guderian was sacked in late ’41, Dietrich came to visit him as a show of support.  Unlike Skorzeny, he actually recognized the Holocaust, condemning it but claiming extremely limited knowledge of the major details.  He also condemned as criminally stupid the ill-treatment of the Russian and Ukrainian local populations – here they had vast numbers of people who hated Stalin, and were willing to fight, even die, for the Germans against the Red Army, yet somehow the Nazis managed to screw that up, alienating these people and turning them into partisans cooperating with the Red Army in throwing the Germans out of Russia. 

 Later war role.  On July 21, 1944 – immediately after the bomb plot (see “Valkyrie”) Hitler appointed Guderian Chief of the Army General Staff.  Guderian knew something of the plot, but had kept his mouth shut and unlike Rommel had not been fingered by anyone.  He had refused to join the plot, reasoning that by that point the Allies were insisting on unconditional surrender, so anyone taking over from Hitler would be equally f**ked.  He thought the plot was half-assed and extremely poorly conceived.  Despite this, he still argued with Hitler, as one of the few generals who would talk straight to Hitler and not kiss his ass.

 Bewilderingly, with Russian troops in East Prussia, threatening Berlin, Hitler insisted on sending what few surplus units they had down to Budapest.  It turns out that Germany’s last sources of oil were in that neighborhood, now that Romania was gone and the synthetic oil plants were destroyed by Allied air raids. 

  Also, Hitler refused to allow the generals to establish fortified defense lines, especially on the German border, which might have assisted them in defending Germany from the Soviet onslaught.  His reasoning was: if we build these lines, the cowardly generals will simply retreat behind them immediately.  We don't want to give them any more incentive to retreat than they already have. 

 Finally in March 1945, Hitler couldn’t take any more, and advised him to go on vacation.  “Hitler said to me, ‘Please do your best to get your health back.  In six weeks the situation will be very critical.  Then I shall need you urgently.  Where do you think you will go?’ Keitel advised me to visit Bad Liebenstein.  It was very beautiful there.  I replied that it was already occupied by the Americans. ‘Well then, what about Bad Sachsa in the Harz?’ asked the solicitous Field-Marshal.  I thanked him for his kindly interest and remarked that I intended to choose my place of residence for myself and that I planned to pick a locality which would not be overrun by the enemy within the next forty-eight hours.”  He ended up in the Tyrol, where he was on May 10 when the Germans surrendered. 

 The remainder of his book consists of fairly candid character analyses of Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, and other major players (except Rommel, who he had praised earlier).  I found this just as fascinating as the rest.  I can see why the Americans were so impressed with him – I certainly was. 

Zico - Flamengo x Grêmio - Final 1982

A brief glimpse of some classic era Brazilian soccer - Zico, playing for Flamengo at the height of their glory.

Flamengo

Time for a sports blog.  I’m not really much of a sports fan, but I do follow the NFL and professional soccer.  With the Super Bowl done, now the NFL season is over (Pro Bowl? ZZZZ) so I can focus on soccer again, particularly the Rio State Championships (Campeonata Carioca) going on in Brazil.  So I’ll devote this entry to my favorite Brazilian soccer team, Flamengo.

 Flamengo is from the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is within the state of Rio Janeiro; these are two separate entities, likewise there is the city of São Paulo and the state of São Paulo.  It originally formed in the neighborhood of the same name, which is northeast of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon.  Later they moved to Gavea/Leblon (kind of straddling both neighborhoods) and have a large, modern complex there which faces onto the lagoon.  My friend Leila lived in Leblon from 2004-2007 and was close enough to hear the games – we even visited the complex when I went to visit her in 2005.  However, the field there only holds 8,000 and is pretty much a joke, which is not a big deal as the team plays most of its home games at Maracana Stadium, which holds 95,000 as currently set up, though the original capacity was closer to 200,000.  The team is not only the most popular in Rio de Janeiro itself, but also in Brazil, making them pretty much the Dallas Cowboys of Brazilian soccer – always popular no matter how badly they suck.  Their main rivals are the other three teams in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Fluminense, Botafogo, and Vasco da Gama.  In fact, the club began in 1895, though as a rowing club at that time.  They only started playing soccer in 1911, stealing players from Fluminense to start off.  The classic “Fla-Flu” (Flamengo vs. Fluminense) game is one of Brazil’s top rivalries, and I was lucky enough to see the game at Maracana in February 2004, won by Flamengo 4-3, on the same day as the Patriots-Panthers Super Bowl.  Romario was actually playing in this game – for Fluminense. 

 While the team has a wide fan base, its most notorious core are the favelados (slum dwellers) and traficantes (drug dealers), whereas Fluminense is more closely associated with the “playboys”, as the richer segment of Rio de Janeiro is disparagingly referred to by the favelados. 

 The team uniform is black & red horizontal stripes, thus the nickname “rubro-negro”, as well as “Mengão”.  Popular chants in Maracana are “MEN-GO!” (the reply to “NEN-SE!!” from the Fluminense crowd) and “uma vez Flamengo, Flamengo ate morrer!” (one time Flamengo, Flamengo until death!).  The current jersey is made by Nike, the away jersey is white, and the current sponsor is Petrobras, the state-owned oil company of Brazil.  I have a 2000 season red/black home jersey from Umbro – the first soccer jersey I ever bought, on my first trip to Rio de Janeiro in June 2000 - and a later 2004 season white away jersey from Nike; I also  got my brother and his son each a home jersey, and his older daughter a skirt. 

 Its most memorable player was Zico (Arthur Antunes Coimbra), who holds the club record for goals, 508, more than twice the next runner up.  He played with them from 1971-83, then again from 1985-89 after two seasons with Udinese in Italy – almost 18 years. More recently, Zico was the coach of the Japanese national team in the 2006 World Cup and now coaches CSKA Moscow. Romario played for the team briefly – off and on between 1995 and 1999, scoring 204 goals for the team. 

 Flamengo’s best era was 1978-1983.  As much as the national championship, now known as the Campeonato Brasileiro (aka “Brasileirão”), the Brazilian teams also compete strenuously in the state championships, which for Flamengo is the Campaneato Carioca, split up into two phases, the Taça Guanabara, and the Taça Rio.  After 1978 they won this three times in a row, and won the national championship in 1980, 1982, 1983, 1987, and 1992.  They also compete against the other Latin American teams in the Copa Libertadores, which is the Western Hemisphere’s equivalent of Europe’s Champions League – in fact, the winners of each play each other in a sort of soccer Super Bowl, the World Club Championship.  In 1981 Flamengo won not only the Copa Libertadores, but also beat Liverpool in this championship.

 An odd thing about Flamengo is that the “franchise”, if you could call it that, also plays other sports.  There are Flamengo teams for rowing (obviously), basketball (mens & womens – I have a Flamengo basketball tank top), swimming, volleyball (men & women’s), gymnastics and fencing. 

 Unfortunately I can’t watch any of the games.  I don’t have TV Globo, as my condo faces the wrong way to mount the correct DishNetwork satellite, and Brazilian games are rarely shown on Fox Sports World or GolTV; the latter seems to be showing Paulista (São Paulo state) games when I’m at work.   

Super Office Space

Office Space & Super Friends cleverly combined. It's been around for awhile - but it's still funny.

Office Space

It occurred to me that between the various jobs I’ve had as an attorney from 1992 to the present, and the Embassy & fast food jobs mentioned in the earlier blog, there have been some which fall in between.  They were more substantial than the summer office jobs with the Embassy – they were real, I got them myself and not through my parents, and meant to pay my rent and living expenses, not just to earn extra cash.   But they were never intended as permanent positions, merely stop-gaps to pay the bills until real legal employment returned.

 Office Space.  I suppose I should start with this: I like the movie – I even bought it on DVD.  More than any other movie, it truly captures the idiocy of the modern office environment in a deliciously cynical yet humorous way.  Milton and his stapler and constant abuse; the badly named Michael Bolton (“there WAS nothing wrong with [his name] until 10 years ago and that no-talent ass-clown started winning Grammies”); Mike Judge’s inane flair-demanding manager; and Peter’s fantastic attitude (?) which got him management consideration.

 Compare this with “The Office”, (the NBC TV show) which I find about 70% as funny.  Of course Jim is my favorite and I enjoyed seeing him finally hook up with Pam.  Dwight gets on my nerves, which I suppose is the point (!).  But I’ve never had a boss like Michael Scott (Steve Carrell).  Still, they have to endure much of the same corporate stupidity as the Initech people.  I find, though, that filtered through Michael the abuse seems more stupid than callous or cruel – compare to the “Bobs” who find it best to fire people on Fridays to avoid problems. 

 Having said that, none of the offices I ever worked in resembled Initech at all.  I’ve never had a tech job, and even CACI, a government contractor, didn’t really resemble that atmosphere.  Nor, for that matter, did any of my jobs resemble the Scranton, PA, branch of Dunder Mifflin.  Anyhow, on to my OWN office experiences.

 AIDSCAP.  This lasted from August 1994 to December 1994.  I had been laid off in March, when my boss Jerry ran out of money to pay me (no slight on my skills).  In August I walked into Manpower and got this job. This was filling in a position of some person at an office near the Arlington Courthouse.  This “agency” did work under a USAID contract on the topic of AIDS – me and maybe two other guys at the office were the only straight guys there.  After a few days of “ok, come back tomorrow” they told me to keep coming back until they filled the position with a permanent employee.  I didn’t even apply for the position myself.  Most of the job was boring make-work which really didn’t challenge me and barely kept me awake until closing time.  When they filled the position in November, I wasn’t very disappointed to be leaving.  But they did treat me well, and I had a good time working with Mike, the only other straight guy there, who wrote for the City Paper, played guitar, and bought his Volvo for $300.

            I try to learn something from every job, no matter how brief or insignificant, and what I learned from this one was this:  by their own documentation and information, the AIDSCAP project noted that in the US, AIDS is primarily a problem of the homosexual community.  It’s only in the Third World where heterosexuals have any appreciable or substantial risk of the disease. 

 CACI/DOJ.  This was considerably different from the others.  I can’t really count it as a lawyer job, as I was hired as a paralegal, and the work was so mindless and repetitive that anyone with a high school education could do it – a JD was definitely overqualified, much less a bar license.

 In May 1998 Jerry was hired by a firm in Fair Lakes, so his firm closed down, and I was out of a job yet again.  By August 1998 my unemployment benefits were running out, and I still hadn’t found a job.  So I walked into Manpower – again - and told them, “I don’t care what you give me, just give me some office job that will pay the bills.”  So they set me up with this: Manpower, filling a contract with CACI, a government contractor, which was in turn filling a contract with the Dept. of Justice.  The position was paralegal, with some scant and nominal hope that MAYBE the DOJ might hire someone out of this.  Despite applying to DOJ several times, however, I never even got an interview – so much for that. 

             The particular project concerned Winstar, which was a massive collection of 120 lawsuits filed against the US in the Court of Federal Claims by various defunct S&Ls.  This was the tail end of the S&L crisis which was in the public spotlight in the early 80s – featuring John McCain and his ties to Keating.  Because of the vast amount of documentation associated with these cases, covering not only 120 different banks but also various federal agencies – the FDIC, the RTC, the OTS, the FHLBB, etc. – it was imperative that some coherent form of document processing was developed.  CACI managed to find a way to scan in every single page of every single document, and attach a tag which would allow them to be retrieved from a database without having to manually retrieve a hard copy of a document.  Some poor schmucks had to process all these documents and enter them into the database – accurately - which is where we came in.  With so many documents, quality control became the prime concern, so much so that they reduced it to a verb: “to QC”. 

             At first I was stationed at L Street, from September 1998 to March 1999, in the so-called “priv group”.  This group focused on entering certain documents into a special database which covered privileged documents; it still wasn’t substantive review, as the decision to label them privileged was made by someone at DOJ who we never met.  In March 1999 this group was transferred to Rosslyn, to a building literally 3 blocks away from where I lived.  To make matters even more interesting, in June ’99, a Brazilian woman, Leila, transferred there from K Street, and by October 1999 we were dating.   In January 2000 I transferred back to L Street, where I was put to work on a specific case.  In June 2000 I went on my first trip to Rio de Janeiro with Leila, and by November 2000 I finally had a lawyer job again, at a firm in Woodbridge, so I was able to quit this job after 2 years and 3 months.  Funny thing was that even after the 90 day temporary period, I never made the switch from Manpower to CACI, and was paid weekly by Manpower the entire time. 

 Adjunct Legal.  I took this job in April 2000 to supplement the CACI/DOJ money, really to pay for the June 2000 trip to Rio.  This meant working full time at CACI down at L Street, then coming back to Rosslyn – the office was 4 blocks from where I lived (this would have been FAR more convenient if I hadn’t transferred to L Street!) – and doing a document processing job.  In this case I was hired as an attorney and paid an attorney rate.  I had to work from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. for 6 weeks straight, though we had Sundays off and only had to work on Saturday if they specifically told us to come in.  Adjunct Legal was filling a contract with Crowell & Moring, which was involved in some litigation regarding DSL service.  Our job was to scan the client’s email databases (no hard copies of any documents anywhere) to determine whether any incriminating evidence was contained therein.  Unlike CACI, where all the document processing was procedural – you were simply verifying that a given document was correctly scanned in – here it was substantive: we had to read the subject matter of each email and make a judgment call on whether it was irrelevant, relevant, and if relevant whether it was good or bad.  We were allowed to dress casual, listen to CDs on headphones on the computer’s CD players, and they provided unlimited drinks and semi-fancy buffets.   I got along fine with the Crowell & Moring lawyers and they were favorably impressed with my output, efficiency and effectiveness.  Unfortunately, none of that led to any leads with C&M, just a favorable reference should I ever apply for another document processing job with them.

 Now I’ve covered all my non-legal jobs: from high school, through college, after law school, up to the present day.  Moreover, I’ve touched upon various elements of my legal experience in several other blogs.  However, I’m sure I’ll find something to write about in the years to come.