Learning (active voice) Computer (a subject area)

.
The dot just gives me a little space - leastwise as it shows on my screen.

Sat.Nite.Blues cbc in back, at wood counter at 277.

Tomorrow I head out for a week golfing in Myrtle Beach with Jay Paul Tony Dave & JimMac.
And I got a lot of packing and other stuff to do before departure.

But still I make this feeble effort at a few words about
Computer and the struggle to learn it and keepup.

Geez it takes some effort and patience.
Plenty of both.

The most recent challenge
getting music for my iphone (which spelling was rejected by this apple spell checker.
And more specifically, without using iTunes service/software/maniacal patience challenger.

After a few hours browsing the Web, as we used to say,
I'm thinkin' you juz can't get there from here.
Leastwise not sensibly.
Got t'hand it to the genius Steve Jobs
he wasn't letting go once he had you in his grip.

But what's harder to understand
is the seeming lack of a easily retrievable common sense explanation
of the straight goods
on how Apple ties you up when it comes to listening to music,
and what the sensible workarounds are.

And then I thinks to myself,
I got better things to do.

And probably the same for you.

-30-

Solo Practice Lawyers - no more

Tis with a tinge of sadness, I report the demise of the solo practising lawyer. No doubt this is not an original notion. And I am not inclined to do a search to determine who said it earlier. If this post be repetitious, perhaps there is merit in repetition. And if it is new to your eyes, then the post will be worthwhile.

Let me be more specific about the phrase 'solo practising lawyer'. It covers a range of practice types where there is a single licensed lawyer plying his/her trade.

Imaging a spectrum of complexity, at one end is the proverbial rural or small town sole practitioner, usually in general practice, with a staff of one trusted clerical secretary. This type of practice is most vulnerable, and no doubt has seen a continuous diminution these last 40 years. My guess is that those courageous souls who have pursued this path recently are struggling and have regrets.

At the other end of the spectrum might be a sole lawyer with a large complement of staff, who operates in a narrow specialized field. There is greater hope for the survival of this type of practice, but I figure only with a proviso. The proviso being that the firm have on the payroll a staff person attending to regulatory compliance matters, and ensuring that the practice keeps abreast of the ever growing, always changing, regulatory regime.

Know that I say these things with a confidence that comes from over 30 years of experience in the profession, 20 of those operating solo. The first 12 years of my trade were in a small firm that I co-founded with a contemporary, and it faced many of the same challenges that solo firms have. And I have come to the conclusion that for a new entrant, the hills are too steep, the costs too onerous, and the obstacles too numerous for any sensible prospect of success.

Following I aim to catalogue some of the regulatory burdens that a law firm faces. But before doing that it is important to observe that other factors are at play besides the regulatory landscape. Most notable of these is the increasing complexity of the laws that beset every practice area.

It is difficult to understate the magnitude of changes in the law, even as it affects a narrow practice area. It is also difficult to describe the scope of the changes in the last generation for a particular practice area. Consider this though. Take Real Estate practice; helping individuals and organizations buy, sell and finance real estate. Thirty years ago at the local courthouse law library there were perhaps a dozen textbooks on topics related to real estate law. Of these, maybe 4 or 5 would have been considered classics, and these were the kind that would have seen multiple editions. By that I mean every few years the classic text would have been updated to reflect changes in the law, and a new edition number would be given to the text. The nomenclature sounded authoritative: "Falconbridge on Mortgages, 4th ed." A practitioner could be confident that if the answer to the question being searched for wasn't in Falconbridge, then the question was likely spurious.

Apart from the texts there were other library resources, namely the digests and related reference books. The 3 or 4 heavy weight publications were 20 plus volume affairs, with all areas of the law covered. Real estate law was a big chapter in each. And every 3 to 5 years, these resources would be updated to deal with new laws and new court decisions.

Over time publishers increased the frequency of updates. At one point it was annual. Then 3 or 4 times a year. Then monthly. And now, by the miracle of electronic communications, it is by the minute, as new laws or passed, or new court case decisions are released.

All this to say that just keeping up to the substantive changes in a particular field is a serious task that compels commitment and diligence. Sadly for the practising lawyer, the usual compensation scheme for legal services does not synchronize with the demands of keeping up. Reading and studying new material is not considered "billable time". For those efforts there is no direct compensation.

Now back to the regulatory issues. Even more dramatic than changes to the substantive law, practitioners are inundated with frequent and novel demands that require attention and effort. Mess up on one of these demands and you might just kiss your license to practice adieu. And don't be bothering to ask le Bon Dieu for help in time of need.

Here, just for snooks, is a list of some of the big regulatory changes I have encountered in my time to date.

Oversized Annual Reporting requirements for membership - Law Society of Upper Canada

Oversized Annual Reporting requirements for mandatory errors and omissions insurance

• per file levies for civil litigation and real estate - report quarterly
• dollar volume of billings based  levy (since discontinued

Mandatory Annual Education requirements with related reports

Conflict of Interest checking requirements, and restrictions

Privacy laws and freedom of information access
- establish policy
-
Hiring Protocols for articling clerks

Expanded Human Rights protections for certain groups

Accommodating clients and staff with disabilities

GST and HST requirements to bill, collect, report and remit (independent of whether there was collection) with an extremely convoluted and complex set of rules.

Two Mighty Oaks - poem

About a month back I was challenged to come up with a wedding gift for Dave and Connie Horton.

'Twas a sad / happy occasion.
Happy because they were formally getting hitched and there would be a party at their newish, custom built home on the shore of Dean Lake, near by to Iron Bridge.
Sad because Dave was not well and worse, he had recently received a shitty prognosis of metastasizing cancer. His esophagus and liver had been hit.

In a felicitous (I thought) moment,  I remembered that brother Neil had some oak seedling he had been guarding. Many he had given to uncle John. Perhaps he had a couple left over. And indeed he did, and graciously set them out for me.

It was a bit of a visual disappointment on picking them up. There were two of them, each in its own small faded plastic margarine container. But they would do.

What was next needed was a narrative. No amount of dressing up, nor ornamentation would help these two matchstick like protrusions from the soil convey the notion of a wedding gift. Perhaps some text could not only rescue this as a gift, but also help to explain the symbolism that had occurred to me, which might make the gift resonate.

To further enhance the experience I took a picture of the parent tree in Neil's yard. It was a shot looking skyward from close to the base of the tree. Only tree and sky in the frame. A leafless tree I should add, but it filled the frame nicely, with it's sturdy trunk, and solid branches, and delicate twigs.
Once printed, about  5" x 7", it made a good cover for the transparent plastic enclosure that held the two pots.

And then came the poem. Hand written on stiff white card stock (actually surplus picture framing matte) it read:

Two Mighty Oaks

Alive.

& in need of love

& attention,

in exchange for unending rewards.

Don't be fooled 

by appearances.

I m a g i n e
what is yet to come. 

 

Book Concept: moving from strengths

While reading a book review with the idea / title The Metaphysics of Ping-Pong,
it occurred to me that a book dealing with The Metaphysics of Contracts
might be a decent diversion
both in the writing and the reading.

I've long been searching for an appropriate topic/piece to write about.
And I know more than many about contracts.
And I've formed my share plus of opinions on notions metaphysical
So there may be a good fit here.

How 'bout a section on An Insight into Everyday Contracts.
Say the one with your cable company.
Or still in a tekkie mode, one that you "Agree" to with a click online.
Or best of all Banks and Insurance companies.

And a chapter on "Where All This S**T gets us..."
Mentioning diminished appreciation for the importance of the Rule of Law
Which is a rather ironic outcome (diminishing what should be built up.)

It might also include extracts and links to various contracts.
And a sidebar on Enforcement of ...
and a side-side bar on the Horrors of Litigation.

Best to start in the middle (actual examples)
then the End
then the beginning will fall into place.

And do it in form of blog
which may generate some feedback which
could positively influence next steps
in the collective Journey of exploration
into the world of everyday contracts.

And a blog would add extra motivation to getting 'er done!
The pressure would be on to get out the next installment.
Which might very well be a good thing.

The humour component should be disciplined.
The rant quotient kept lean.

There might also be the notion of layers
weaved throughout the piece.
For digital screen applications mostly.
So there would be the core layer primarily visible,
but there would be 'layered' entries something like
endnotes, or other examples, or rants, or jokes,
Each layer a click away, with teasers adjacent to the click spot.

Does Market Play with Science

Consider the problem of someone (me, you, another, the hospitalized) who experiences "depression".
And also consider the $ 20,000,000,000.00 (est) annual! anti-depressant medication industry.
(they don't call it BIG Pharma for nothin'.)
And consider the recently described illness with the handle "drug induced tardidysphorium".

This last phrase means: late onset (tardi) unhappiness (dysphorium) brought about by injesting medications - ironically those meds being initially recommended to cure depression in the first place, and which now, after a time, have made it worse.


And this from one of my favourite poets, Dane Piet Hein.

REMEDIES' REMEDIES

Pills are useful
against ills
and against
too many pills.

Sculling

a few observations about my recent experiences with sculling.

These are the recordings of a newbie.
While I had been in, and operated,  skiffs and rowboats previously, some years back, never in a racing boat.
Nor had I ever hung out at a rowing place.
My familiarity on the water has been in runabouts, canoes, kayaks, small sail boats, windsurfers and yachts.

Well, for me the familiar became foreign.
Things are all backwards.
It starts with language and related concepts.
You face the stern, rather than the bow
The  bow points in the direction of travel.
Normally you face the direction of travel. Not with sculling.
It's like a sport that requires you to walk, or worse run, backwards.

Port, normally on your left hand side is now on the right.
It took long enough to learn port from starboard corresponding with left and right.
Now reverse it.

And then there is the mechanics, with levers (oars) and fulcrums (the pivot or pins).
Move your hands toward your body, and the blades go away from your body.
Move your hands up, and the blades go down.
Totally counter intuitive.

Better to teach young'uns this sport, cuz the mature have a lot of long learned leanings which must be overcome.

Then there is the whole balance thing.
These craft are narrow. And tippy.
How narrow and tippy?
Well the closest prior experience was as a kid, playing in the water, with a big ol' log.

Ever try sitting on a log in the water.
In short, it is not easy. Damn near impossible.
A doubles racing scull ain't much different.

Next consider the movement of the two oars handles in the typical stroke.
The idea is that the left and right oars describe a symmetrical pattern.
This creates a mirror image with the axis being the long center line of the boat.
The two oars handles ought to move in a fluid pattern, first away from you, then towards you, preserving the symmetry.
Imagine your hands over a big table. The right hand makes a big imaginary letter 'C' on the table in one smooth away stroke. The left hand does the same only in mirror image. Now do it at the same time with both hands. First a stroke away from your body, then a return stroke towards your body.
But here's the rub.
Or should I say smash.
When the oars are perpendicular to the boat, the symmetry can not be maintained.
That's because the oars are too long to allow then to avoid smacking into each other.
Where the letters come closest together, in fact there is an overlap.
You must either make one higher than the other, asymmetrical, or one in front of the other, asymmetrical.
Or alternatively feel the smash.
Smashed hands (usually the thumbs that cover the end of the oars) are a common place rookie experience.

For all the obstacles though, there must be some net benefits.
Elsewise, why would some folks  persist, and persist they do.
That's cuz when it's going right, it is a thing of beauty.

Beauty, and an awesome sense of the power of muscles moving the craft along the water's surface.
And of course, it is a healthy workout when done right.

For me the learning continues.
I don't expect to see the best of the  benefits for some time.
I shall have to be content with taking comfort merely from the fact that I (my brain and other body parts) am learning.

more later.

Convolutions Hypocricies and Ironies: Ontario Lawyers

Here is (another ?) stab at an outline for a monograph
that has been in my head for a couple of decades or more.

For sure somethings related to this topic appear in one of my hand written journals,
but perhaps now is a good time to start a piece digitally.


The most recent element to cross my path connects the rules of our governing authorities and their partners for access to the real estate conveyancing software that allows lawyers to change the named ownership of a property online, ( read while in your pajamas and slightly inebriated at the comfort of your home worktable). I acknowledge that a real real estate lawyer would have written that sentence differently.

So a lawyer wishing access has to go through one lot of hoops - many of them repetitious, needlessly, some them comical and some tragic.

One irony before it slips my head: for a group that includes in its mandate 'promotion of the rule of law', the rules of these rule guardians promotes the breaking of the rules. Go figure. And without, heretofore, nary the slightest whisper from the governed, nor the governors for that matter.

For my dear readers it is probably best I now to set the stage, a backgrounder of sorts.

The software is required for the ordinary and the extraordinary practice of real estate law in the province. Real estate law practice at the householder side is all about doing the paperwork to reflect that Bob & Jane have just bought a new old home. New to the buyers, old to the sellers. The paper work will also reflect the reality that the First New Bank has loaned the money that was given to the bikers that have just sold the place, and their lenders whoever they may be.

Now in our system we allow anybody, for a small fee, (hmmmm), an opportunity to view a record disclosing ownership, and lender, and claimant information, about each privately owned chunk of land in the province. And it is known to be a very reliable system. People can and do count on it, routinely. The stakes are usually very significant, both in dollar terms, and emotional terms.

So the designers, and protectors of the system (read: lawyers) are eager to ensure the system is secure. And in an online, world around, bit based system, knowing who is actually entering the critical information into the system database is a paramount concern. Securing that security requires protocols, and procedures, and the inevitable rules, which rules often reach the status of laws, for which, on a breach, the State may impose severe penalties.

What I have recently had confirmed from an impeccable set of sources, is that there is widespread flaunting of the critical rules, and just as sadly, widespread lying about it. And for clarity, yes I level these charges at Ontario lawyers. Not that any other jurisdiction is meaningfully better.