Chicago: They paved a fetid swamp/and put up a parking lot

I need professional acquaintances. How do I find those? I want a network of paralegals or legal secretaries or similar to be able to ask and answer questions and commiserate with, and to have as contacts for jobs. Where are all the other legal assistants?

xxp I wonder if it's the guy who has bragged to me on more than one occasion that he uses P2P software "all the time" at work, because "no one cares."

xp maybe start a thread on "I Love Paralegals and Legal Secretaries"?

Linkedin groups

Ouch.

xp - oh! I didn't know anything about those! I will look. Thanks.

I don't go in underground el stops very often. Its hot in here.

Until I find a peer friend, I'll be sharing such hilarious tidbits like OMG can you BELIEVE that we are up to EIGHT tolling agreements in one of our cases?! ROFL, amirite?? and going on about the vagaries of multi-district litigation in the Toyota stuck accelerator cases.

And saying "Excuse me, I have to run to the little paralegal's room." Hahahahaa.

it could be like teachers, and paralegals are hesistant to post in public forums about stuff that could get them into big trouble or Big Trouble or out of a job

maybe not though

i'm enjoying spotify! i'm making a playlist of things to listen to from electric eden. right now i am listening to john renbourn just like no big whoop.

Man, I swear to Christ, I'm about THIS close to Googling "Spotify" to find out WTF everyone is talking about.

Yeah, that would not be looked upon kindly at my firm. Xpost

Amangda, there must be message boards and listservs full of teachers sharing tips, commiserating, and gossiping!

I just Googled paralegal forums and it bears further investigation.

There are way more teachers than legal assistants, so I bet there are a wide variety of fora to choose from.

Jeff - your firm is enormous and has its network built in, and probably has a whole department dedicated to keeping up with court operations.

No, they would not like work related posts on discussion boards.

This is occurring to me b/c last week I was dealing with the Ch@nc3ry for the first time, and it was like trying to ride a bicycle on the freeway. I stopped a clerk or paralegal who looked like he had some brains and he filled my head with more knowledge than I asked for, and then he bitched about the compl3t3 disorganization of that particular department since the housing crisi5 st@rt3d.

i have no idea, but i prefer to do my gossiping and commiserating irl and only after i know the person pretty well

Mostly, I want to get laid.

Leche - are you not a member of any teacher's associations or some professional collective?

I mean, you post on the teacher's thread on 77.

i am
and i do, but not terribly seriously and not (hopefully) in too much detail

anyway i would be happy to talk about something else or to talk with jesse instead of je55e

Jesse isn't here right now.

I gave that account to d drone.

Jumping back a bit, jaymc is Comcast your work's ISP by any chance? They just sent an email to my wife's job's IT guy saying roughly the same thing. It seems like Comcast is really leaping on people lately. But yeah, pretty stupid to be torrenting stuff at work.

hey ppl that work at libraries -- what's the general sense on donations? specifically, back issues of academic journals? we toss (recycle) a lot of content here...

― keillor can folk anything. and he will, and has. (dan m), Friday, July 29, 2011 2:56 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i feel like most of the libraries to which your publications would be relevant probably already subscribe? i don't know. every library has its own donation policy but periodicals are tricky because they pile up fast and the info tends to be online anyways.

Jumping back a bit, jaymc is Comcast your work's ISP by any chance?

No idea! But I wouldn't be surprised, given your wife's story.

http://twitter.com/DABParalegalSvc/status/81317107874267136

Cool, thanks, Eric. Did you already know of that company or did you search for it today?

What I was talking about earlier is all about wanting to fill in the gap where I lack of peers at work. I can't believe I didn't look at social networking as a solution before.

I just searched paralegal+group+twitter, and that seemed to be the most relevant immediate match. I think just about every industry now--interior decorators, symphony-orchestra managers, etc.--has a professional group on Twitter now.

Oh, wait, this link is even better--a trove of accounts to follow:
http://twitter.com/ParaGate/paralegals/members

hey jesse, GOOGLE IT

Eric, you're awesome, thanks for taking the time!

Nick, thanks for your advice, too.

(for the info of certain lurkers, I did not think Nick was being a dick, and he is a Valuable Poster and Rad Dude)

Oh my jeez Eric, you opened a door to an overwhelming universe of paralegal blogs, fora, and social media, sucked my last 4 hours, somehow led me to a blog about liquor, and leads me to believe I need to get my career house in order.

Seriously, finding folks in the same boat as you in Chicago means potential jobs and more.

Jesse, this ad made me think of you:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pviAoSTsZDQ/TjFmYZWtpKI/AAAAAAAAOBQ/FAga7LcKQzE/s1600/RufflesHotWings.jpg

I am anticipating you asking me why, and the answer is because that sounds like something you would say.

"Fuck your face in the mouth."

kick a jesus in the face

HOOS, I am excited about the prospect of kickin' it witchu.

what

BIG HOOS aka the comingtochicagodude

Moving or visiting?

I'm not prepared for this.

visiting but returning on the reg iirc

I'm gonna be there over Labor Day weekend visiting my ladyfriend & tryin to visit IIT and Columbia as they're my top two grad school spots for Fall 2012. So it's a visit, hopefully followed by more visits, hopefully followed by a move maybe next summer.

where should sarah and i eat dinner where we have never eaten before?

I'm not prepared for this.

Lol

Jenny I can see that.

http://www.soulvegetarianeast.com/ xp

i've been meaning to check out soul vegetarian since we first moved here. sounds too heavy for this weather right now though. maybe later this year.

the veggies I work with swear by it fwiw

I remember reading about SVE before we moved here and thinking that I'd like to eat there one day. Then moving here and realizing I would never ever make it to that location.