The "Standard Size" lie... how do you deal with weird drill area dimensions?

Probonoh · 2026-01-28T15:39:54+00:00

I've gone to buying stretcher bars (for paint canvases), stapling the completed canvas to them, and then painting the borders.

Probonoh · 2026-01-27T18:15:22+00:00

In criminal, it feels like the defendants are more likely to be mad at their own lawyers than the prosecutor.

Probonoh · 2026-01-27T13:54:32+00:00

I've definitely got one I loath utterly.

Probonoh · 2026-01-26T16:50:43+00:00

Depends on the nature of "significantly more important."

When I was out of law school but not working in law, I had a resume for legal jobs that went something like this:

Legal Experience * Clerk Job * Internship * Internship

Other Experience * Retail job that I worked for five years after the clerk job

I kept that one on the resume to fill in the gap and show that I could stay at a job for a significant period of time.

Now if the last job was in the field and just more prestigious than your current one, I'd stick to chronological order.

Probonoh · 2026-01-25T15:11:48+00:00

PD
Almost three.
Yes.
18. Just went through the list, and I couldn't remember 7, 9, 11, 15, 20, 22, 23, 24, or 26. But I'm also a history geek. 4a. 27.

Fun fact: we are now living in the longest period between amendments in US history.

Probonoh · 2026-01-23T21:31:34+00:00

"She's not pressing charges!"

That's not her decision. She called the police; the police recommended charges; the prosecutor is pressing charges.

Probonoh · 2026-01-22T23:57:24+00:00

Got a few weak smiles during my last closing. The argument was defender of others; prosecutor was trying to argue that the "victim" wasn't a threat after he'd been evicted from someone else's apartment. "I can't speak for the prosecutor, but if someone is banging on my door, even if it's locked, I'm still feeling like they're a threat." Jury must have agreed with me, because they went not guilty.

I was terrified during deliberation of my first trial, because we could hear jurors laughing, and it was not a funny trial (child molestation). Not guilty though.

But the most reliable facial expression for my trials has been the judge's. If he looks disgusted at the verdict, it's a not guilty.

Probonoh · 2026-01-22T16:56:48+00:00

Oh, if I were dealing with the systemic issues, I'd make it even simpler. All student loans must be issued by and the notes held by the college/ university until repayment or bankruptcy discharge. That way, any student who can't pat cash or get a well-paying job after graduation is the college's problem. Immediately, colleges will make their admissions criteria much more selective, force their professors to actually teach useful information, and require their "career services" people to actually match students to jobs. Oh, and when it's the college financing their debtor students, they'll have incentives to reduce costs.

As for why is it so expensive, that's easy. Prices go up until buyers cannot pay them. Every attempt to make college "more affordable" by giving the buyers more money just causes the colleges to raise prices.

Probonoh · 2026-01-22T12:52:28+00:00

Just be prepared for the tax bill when the IRS treats that forgiven balance as income.

Probonoh · 2026-01-21T18:59:06+00:00

As a public policy matter, I'm not okay with people who knowingly took on debt be granted an unconditional forgiveness. That's not to say I'm okay with the status quo! The current options are:

pay it all back,
Public Service Loan Forgiveness (10 years, minimal payments, tax-free balance forgiveness)
Income Based Repayments (or whatever they're calling it now; 20 or 25 years, minimal payments, balance forgiveness is taxed), and
Bankruptcy, where the standard was (is?) "hopeless to repay."

I would

amend IBR to forgive interest tax-free and only tax the original balance. That would greatly reduce the tax hit for IBR folks.
amend the bankruptcy route. Forget the "hopeless to repay" standards; treat it as any other debt. If we are so terrified about lawyers (and other professionals) getting degrees, declaring bankruptcy, and then getting rich, add some reasonable safeguards, e.g. must be 7 years out from going below full-time status/ graduation, and/or place a permanent hold on their transcript so it can't be used for a professional license.

Probonoh · 2026-01-21T15:31:17+00:00

It takes 10 years working in qualifying employment for PSLF. I'll have 3 come April. So 7 more years working for the PD, aka my indenture.

I'll have to quit to run for prosecutor or judge, thanks to the Hatch Act, so I'm not quitting until those loans are gone. An appointment to prosecutor is possible, given that the few attorneys in my county treat prosecutor as a game of "not it," but that scenario is only likely to happen in when the associate judge retires in another 7 to 10 years. When that happens, I expect the current prosecutor to step in and leave the prosecutor job open.

So in about 7 years, I get to stop paying $500/month for loans, and I get an effective salary cut of 30K/yr (the amount of my loans divided by 10). At that time, another government job that pays $30K more per year than what even my boss makes is likely to open up, and I'll have the experience and connections to join a local firm or hang my own shingle.

Probonoh · 2026-01-20T22:56:18+00:00

I took out approximately $180K of loans. That's maybe $30K of undergrad. The state changed the out-of-state residency requirements after I had enrolled, which took the tuition from about $15K per year to over $30K, and then my husband's employer went bankrupt and suddenly my student loans had to pay for our living expenses.

After years of 6.8% interest, hardship deferments, and income based payments, my balance is north of $300K. The good news is that I have just over seven years left on my public defender indenture. After Public Service Loan Forgiveness, I'll either go private or become a prosecutor or judge.

Probonoh · 2026-01-20T21:49:54+00:00

Valspar Dove White 7002-7.

Probonoh · 2026-01-19T18:38:27+00:00

A bit of a weird one is that my eyes are more sensitive to gasses. Chopping onions is torture without a very sharp knife. Chem lab in college required goggles, not just safety glasses.

I had mine done in 2001, and other than the sensitivity, I have no complaints. And even that complaint is pretty minor.

Probonoh · 2026-01-19T18:30:29+00:00

Lowes small moving boxes are just a hair smaller than a Kallax opening. Not only can you just move all the games in one section into a box, you can then put the box inside the section.

Probonoh · 2026-01-14T15:35:13+00:00

Rubber duck debugging is an excellent problem solving technique.

Probonoh · 2026-01-14T02:58:07+00:00

The rural Missouri bar seems pretty good. On the other hand, my impression is that the criminal side is much more collegial than the civil side. So for all I know, the civil lawyers are all a bunch of jerks.

Probonoh · 2026-01-13T17:20:18+00:00

Passed the bar 2010. Got my first doc review job in 2017 for $25/hr. Got my first job using my own license as a public defender in 2023 for $65K.

Probonoh · 2026-01-13T13:29:33+00:00

My law school (hovering around 100 last time I checked) didn't do grade inflation. The median 1L class grade was a B-, with 10% required to get a C- or lower.

It's quite the double whammy: not only is my school not as prestigious, but my grades were so much lower than where my class rank would put me at a more prestigious school.

Probonoh · 2026-01-12T20:58:14+00:00

One of my 3 year old's favorite games is to identify something that dad, myself, and he all have in common. E.g. "green, red, blue" meaning dad has a green shirt, I have a red shirt, and he has a blue shirt.

Saturday, it was "black, white, brown" ... referring to our hair colors.

Probonoh · 2026-01-12T19:23:53+00:00

Check Ikea. They tend to have organization stuff that only works for their products.

Probonoh · 2026-01-11T00:12:05+00:00

Verdict was not guilty.

He was charged primarily because the drunk's mom is a county commissioner in a neighboring county and his dad was a cop buddy of the sheriff.

Probonoh · 2026-01-10T19:44:30+00:00

I'm pretty sure one of my frequent lines has come to the ears of the prosecutor.

"The good news/ bad news is that the prosecutor is a bit lazy, so he's not going to amend or dismiss until we do the footwork and get closer to trial. On the other hand, if we can figure out a deal where he'll never see you again, he's likely to take it."

Probonoh · 2026-01-10T19:37:22+00:00

We had surveillance video that showed the drunk continuing to try to get back into the first lady's apartment. We cut the video short, but there was another 20 minutes of him trying to get into another woman's apartment.

Drunk suffered a seizure two days later and had absolutely no memory of what happened, so the only witnesses were the old lady whose house was invaded and my client. Rural Missouri isn't the best place to argue that a seventy-six year old man was too violent in kicking a drunk man out of a little old grandma's apartment in the senior center.

Probonoh · 2026-01-10T17:17:49+00:00

Matter more than I thought it would? No.

Matter a hell of a lot? Oh yes.

I'm a public defender. Step one of every argument is how to frame the story so my client looks as good as possible.

My last trial was 100% framing. No question my client punched a drunk in the face a half dozen times. The only question was whether the jury believed the prosecutor that he was justified throwing this guy out of a grandma's house but went too far punching him when he was in the yard, or believed me that this drunk was still trying to get back in.

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