Pennermag.com

Today I have 145 new spam messages. Yes, that’s right a whopping 145, and it’s only early afternoon. Apparently, I should be an Ebay worker, sign up to get an free XM satellite radio, or get a free green XBox today. Plus I gan get Xanax, Viagra, and Vicodin without a prescription.

I think, I’m currently averaging about 200 a day. But, I’m not worried. As a matter of fact, I never see these spam messages.

Why you ask, because I don’t give out my e-mail address. You know how it is, you sign up to read newspapers like the New York or L.A. Times, you order stuff on-line, you comment on a blog or news group.

These people all get my spam e-mail. Finally, Hotmail, Netscape, and Yahoo have a purpose. These free e-mail accounts are what I use to filter the junk from the stuff I may actually want to read.

Today I was reading in the Time how a possible do-not-spam list has been rejected by the Federal Trade Commission. I say — big deal — e-mail users have to be sophisticated enough to deter spam.

My alter ego (I also use a false name) is all over the net. A search for my other self reveals that I’m ready to be spammed.

There is no federal action that’s going to really stop spam. Most illegal spammers are off-shore and are hardly threatened by U.S. goverment action.

I say let them spam! Get yourself a fake address, and move on.

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I admit it, I don’t know much about babies. Other than some babysitting and a Red Cross children’s first aid class, I don’t know much about having kids.

Just this morning I learned what a Diaper Genie is. Someone mentioned it in an offhand manner and Adam and I looked at each other with raised eyebrows. Later, he asked me what a diaper genie is. I said I assume it was some kind of diaper system or something. After tihinking about it I realized I had no idea what it was — but really, I’m not going to need one so I didn’t think about it.

Then today, I was looking at a friends baby registry — and there it was again. They were registered for some kind of diaper genie refills. So after some clicking around and reading descriptions, I learned what a diaper genie is. It’s some kind of diaper disposal system. The bottom line is that diaper’s smell, and if you don’t want to take them out to the trash everyday, these systems allow you to store used diapers for days in the house before you dispose of them.

I realize that theres’ a lot I don’t know about having children. Often people ask me (impolitely, I say) because I’m getting into my 30s, when am I going to have children.

Then answer is probably never.

I’ve observed people putting aside their dreams and try living through their children. I still have a lot I want to do and I know that I couldn’t fully pursue those with children in tow.

I definately couldn’t afford it. College tuition and fees at my alma mater is $38,800. My graduate school is $47,000 per year. You know how it is, we moved into one of those gentrifying neighborhoods, so we’d have to factor in private school tuition — at top schools in Los Angeles — was $17,000 last year . . . .

I could go on, racism, sexism, classism — I can barely tolarate it myself — I can’t imagine subjecting another to it . . . .

I know, I know, plenty of other people do it — I just don’t think I can.

Ironically, people think that it’s selfish of me to continue to live child free. I think I’ve done the most selfless act — sparing our overpopulated world of one more person. No one to feed, educate, pollute, and possibly burden society.

Just imagine all the baby pictures I’m saving you from.

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. . . with reality television. Sure, I watched the first Survivor I m still a Richard Hatch fan! Yes, I watched the first American Idol until they eliminated the good black singer, and even the third American Idol until they got rid of the good black singer.

But since I ve been renting cable scripted series on DVD I miss a good ol story on television. I m watching less and less and missing a good story more and more.

Lately, I ve been caught up in the family lives of the Sopranos, the quirky life of Larry David, and the bizarre lives of the Fisher family on Six Feet Under.

Now, I m on season four of Sex in the City a show I was sure I wouldn t like and I m on season two of Queer as Folk which I love except Toronto is no Pittsburgh and I wish Pittsburgh were more like Toronto.

Currently someone s one or two DVDs ahead of me at the video store so this night I had to go bare. That s right my option last evening was the Last Comic Standing. I love stand-up comedy — and Jay Mohr is cute, well really cute, but honestly how much more reality TV can I watch. It s not original, it s not funny, and no matter how much they try to edit it it s just not compelling television.

There seems to be a huge crossover between cable writers and television network writers how come we can t get better television.

Are you gay? Are you hot? Are you really seeking stardom from a reality show? Call me when there are some original stories back on TV. While truth is stranger than fiction the truth is people s lives are all that interesting without a little spicing up.

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For a second there, I though the U.S. had collective amnesia.

Ronald Reagan — 1911 - 2004.

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Today I received my monthly State Bar (California) Journal today. The front page article screams — Better Job Market for Attorneys!

Yipee! (That’s sarcasm folks.

Santa Monica based Rand Corporation has assessed the legal field in California and has determined job prospects are looking good through 2015. The downside, according to the study, there are less affordable lawyers out there. There are less solo practitioners and rural counties are having problems attracting lawyers and other professionals.

All this is characterized as if this is surprising? Are they kidding? Students are graduation from college with more debt than ever. The tuition and fees at my private law school now top $47,000 per year. Unless you have a full time job, or have wealthy parents, hundred of thousands of dollars of debt come along with the degree. Is it any shock that newly minted lawyers are taking the highest paid jobs that they can get? That solo practitioners want to earn more?

I don’t blame lawyers. I still have debt from law school . . . eight years, and I’m just beginning to reduce the principle — still have $67,000 to pay there. Even in Cleveland, many of my clients earned more than I. High school graudates working at the steel mills — for Ford — making upwards of $80,000 a year and complaining about my fees.

The cry for affordable lawyers is like the cry for affordable healthcare — just a plaintive wail by many who think they should get something for virtually nothing.

In a time when college and graduate school tuition has outpaced inflation for more than a dozen years, that’s just not realistic. With over $18,000 a year in debt payments, how can a recent graduate take a job with a legal aid or public defenders or prosecutors office that pays just $36,000. You do the math.

Yes, the poor are going to fall as the safety net is removed. The young graduates can’t pick up the slack anymore. After all we have to pay the high cost of health insurance too.

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