The GGA Project -- Day #79 "@monkeygal2"

For a long time now, I've been saying that Twitter was my line in the sand.  The end of the rope.  The last straw. The thing that would rob from me the last of my sanity.  That's probably why I found this Twitterific take on the melodramatic trailer for The Social Network so hilarious:

But the road I'm a'traveling along for this project is a long one, and I'm sure it will lead me onto mini-paths I never would have considered ambling down before.  Nothing dangerous or ill-advised of course (though I'm sure Twitter qualifies as "ill-advised" for a good many people), but I am surely destined to participate in scores of activities I never would have considered before.  In fact, that's THE WHOLE POINT of the project!


So on that note, I will make no apologies for this fiasco, for


Today's New Activity: Tweeting My First Tweets


Early adopters have long garnered mad props.  They are the first on the scene, the in crowd, the trailblazers.  They sniff out the cool and lead you to it like the scouting ants to the sticky spoils.  On the other end of the spectrum, I recently read an article in Details about the merits of being a "first dropper," the person to abandon a fad while some are just barely catching on.


That's all good--both of those trend-setters have their place in the grand scheme.  But I've decided to carve out my niche as a Dorky Late-Adopter Who Never Drops, If Ever (*notable exception: Farmville).  Yes.  That's my scene.


Which brings me to Twitter.  I don't know how people who have resisted Facebook handle the constant mentions of it in every corner.  They must feel like the rest of the world has gone insane and they are just barely keeping it all together for the rest of us.  I think Twitter is far less ever-present than Facebook, and still I've been similarly annoyed/curious/annoyed by all the buzz about "tweets," a word I think is just beyond stupid.  Celebrities especially just can't seem to shut up about how they're tweeting all the time.  Ugh.  It's even worse as a verb!


But whatever you wanna call it, I don't really think the Twitter phenomenon is going away any time soon.  And I think that today, finally, I got a little bit of "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" flowing through me.


I chose the super original @monkeygal2 as my handle, or username, or whatever you call it, and set about to find some people to follow.  The thing is, Twitter doesn't make that part real easy.  It allows you to access your email contacts, but who really has the most up-to-date contact information there?  How many people even use email that much anymore?  Why can't Twitter access Facebook contacts?  Maybe because there is NO NEED for *both* Facebook and Twitter, but no matter.  I harvested the few contacts available through e-mail and went from there.


So this post had to happen a little later than usual, just so I'd have some time to actually use the app before being able to comment.  


I didn't have enough time/attention even available to keep up with my friend Nessa, a master Tweeter.  I remember her rapid-fire tweeting during lunch when we worked together like 2 years ago.  And at this moment, she's authored 11,058 tweets.  Good lord!  Her musings, combined with those of my friend Liz managed to keep me busy reading off and on all day.


But beyond that--so far--there isn't a whole lot to say.  I still don't have any burning desire to share all day long in 140 characters or fewer.  But it is more fun than I expected to have this running buzz in my ear all day long--the buzz of people commenting on everything and the whatnot.  It's potentially very annoying as well, and probably bad for me in some unforeseeable way (at the very least, it's just one more distraction at the gym, now that I'm using my iPhone for music while I'm there).


One thing that I've heard people say in defense of Twitter has turned out to be true for me, though.  It does plug you into your friends' lives in a different kind of way.  I get to know details I never would have been privy to before, especially now that I've moved a little ways from them and no longer work with any of them.  Some people find the thought of knowing such details nauseating, but then I'd just say Twitter isn't for them.  I can filter the junk out and enjoy what's left.  Based on today's tweets alone (still hating the word...it hasn't gotten any better through repetition), I had ideas for several more GGA playdates, just because I got to know things about what my friends were into/thinking about that I didn't know about previously.  I think that's pretty cool.


Now I must excuse myself because I have some tweeting to do.  Hahaha.  And as I end this, I see that Nessa is now, quite seriously, up to 11,060.  Here's hoping they've found a cure for carpel tunnel syndrome by the time she hits 30  :P

The GGA Project -- Day #67 "Latte and Some Help Writing my Last Will and Testament, Please"

My last year in college was probably the busiest year ever in my life.  I took 6 & 7 classes in the fall and spring semesters, respectively, worked all week as a tutor in the school's writing center, (wo)manned the desk in the Philosophy Department on Friday mornings, and then worked all weekend at Starbucks.  On top of those obligatory dibs on my time, I also had homework to do (tons of reading as an English major, of course), food to find and consume, and then the more fun task of carving time out to relax or take in a poetry reading here and there.  I write that now and think I must have been on coke!  Or Red Bull at least.  But honestly, it was just naturally exhilarating to have that much going on.  I can say it was one of the fullest and best years I've experienced.

Still, why in the world, in the midst of all that, would I elect to also join the Ethics Bowl, a debate team of sorts that met weekly to prepare for a regional and national tournament, in which we would debate opposing positions on current, highly controversial topics, using philosophical arguments?  Why would I do that?

Basically, I would do that because Ramon Jimenez (now Esquire) persuaded me to, and he's a persuasive individual--which is why he's likely to make an excellent lawyer.  Technically he already is a lawyer, but he hasn't yet spent much time in front of a judge, or any time at all in front of a jury.  And maybe he won't ever.  Not all lawyers get their "You can't handle the truth!" on (just think how many thousands of them are out there carefully crafting the licensing agreements you'll scroll over and agree to without so much as skimming).  For now, he's working part time doing the unglamorous work of collecting debts on behalf of a lumber company, and moonlighting as San Francisco's own in(coffee)-house counsel.

Today's New Activity: An Evening at the Offices of Cafe Lawyer

I reconnected with Ramon a few months back and caught up on what's gone on since we got our asses handed to us at the tournament in North Carolina, since one of our fellow team members (Jeff) happened to marry my best friend Kelsi, and since another of them went to law school and then promptly went back to his MMA, cage fighting ways (as The Hungarian Nightmare).

Turns out Ramon got his law degree from Santa Clara University, passed the Bar Exam last year, and has for the past few months been setting up shop in San Francisco area coffee shops, offering legal advice at the bargain price of $1 per minute.  $1 per minute!

I wish my own lawyer were so generous.

Ramon admits the Cafe Lawyer gig is gimicky.  He knows some people probably think he's a lunatic.  But the idea of offering legal services to the population at large--in a casual setting, and at an unbelievably good rate--was borne in a practical hour.  He has student loan debt after all, and attorneys find their clients almost purely through word of mouth (unless they are paying for spots advertising the chasing of ambulances during episodes of Judge Judy and Cheaters...not exactly appealing).  He hopes to do some good work for people, get repeat and referral business, and ideally be offered full-time employment as in-house counsel for a start up or other small business.  I'd say that in these days of rampant unemployment (especially high among recent law school graduates), it's a pretty sound business plan.

As I type this, I'm overhearing Ramon speak with a client who arranged to meet with him after coming across his website.  I'd feel bad about eavesdropping as these seemingly confidential concerns about photograph copyright are expressed, but hey, it's a freakin' coffee shop!  Obviously this client is okay with the idea of his business being out there in the public air, mixed in with the sounds of milk foaming, the Nas album playing overhead, and the click click clicking of the laptop keys of every single patron in this largish space.

Ramon tells me the couple who he was working with when I arrived this evening were discussing a very personal, highly sensitive matter, right there in the middle of the coffee shop.  I thought this very strange until he reminded me that people talk about such things with friends in the middle of coffee shops all the time.  In fact, I'm sure this approach is very appealing to people who are intimidated by the idea of retaining a lawyer and then having to spend time staring at the bad art on the walls of their offices (or maybe that's just my lawyer...I don't blame her...the senior attorney there picks it out).  And perhaps there's a bit of the idea that near-beggars can't be choosers at work there as well.

I think Ramon's idea is genius.  And I think San Francisco is the best possible place to pull it off.  The approach has a certain community-minded feel to it, as so much of what goes on in The City does.  Really, a LOT of people find themselves in need of legal advice, and my word is it expensive!  This way, he can keep his overheads ridiculously low (needing do no more than purchase a cup of coffee during any given session), learns about all different kinds of legal issues (since obviously he has to take what comes and research the issues in order to really help people), and meets interesting people along the way.  I'd personally much rather work in a coffee shop than pretty much anywhere else I can think of.

On my drive up to San Francisco tonight, I was talking on the phone to Kelsi, who just got her license as a Marriage and Family Therapist.  She asked if Ramon had ever heard of a Cafe Therapist.  We agree there is a market for this service as well.  Just as I've had *quick* legal question I thought could be answered without all the pomp and circumstance of hiring a permanent lawyer, I've also had a concern about my personal life that I'd love to run by a stranger in the interest of gaining new perspective.  I know there are professionals (likely long-established ones) in either of these fields who would be insulted by this approach, thinking it trivializes their work, but I think there's room, as well as a viable market, for all the approaches, and probably plenty of others, too.

Nothing says we have to keep doing things in the same (budget-braking) way, just because that's the way they've always been done.  And I love that so much of the business that comes Ramon's way comes via traffic on his website and Twitter feeds, Foursquare and Facebook check-ins.  These new social media means are helping with the important work of launching revolutions and toppling authoritarian regimes, but they're also helping a hard-working young man get a bite to eat.  I say kudos all the way around.

Hey, here's the Cafe Lawyer now!

If you see him at a coffee shop near you and decide to employ him, be sure to tell him the Cafe Blogger sent you.  Who knows?  You may even get a discount ;)