My So Called Life (An Update)

Okay, I haven't depressed you guys lately, so why not this weekend, huh?

Business/job news: None. I've gotten no bites for Royal Document Review. The word is out there. My network says that they're informing people on their networks, and that hopefully word is spreading, but other than that, nothing. And apparently, setting up a website is akin to advertising, which means that I'm now having to get clearance from the State Bar of Texas over what I say on it. That's also why there's no advertising, I need to get approval. And each time I want approval for something, I have to send the State Bar $75 along with what I want to say.

I love being an attorney (sarcasm).

I'm getting together with my best friend to develop some new software for document reviews. All of the software programs I've ever used have been crap. They're not attorney friendly in that the documents are always hard to see, you're always having to adjust sizes and rotate pages, and the logic is designed for the IT process. I want the logic designed for the person who is actually doing the review. When you're reviewing a document, you're attention should be on the document, and the information contained in that document. It shouldn't be on clicking buttons and trying to save things and constantly adjusting window sizes. I can't explain it better, but I think attorneys and paralegals out there know of what I'm speaking. My best friend happens to be a software designer, and he's bored, so we're going to give it a try.

Meanwhile, I'm still going through the temp agencies, etc. and still trying to find temp jobs or some kind of permanent placement. And most of that has just been insulting. I was making approximately $47 an hour at the job I lost. When I first interviewed with a temp agency -- back in March -- I was told I would get $35 an hour. Two weeks ago, I was begging for an assignment on a temp doc review that would pay $30, but apparently, I wasn't qualified enough -- yeah, I don't get that either since all I've been doing for the past decade is document review and production. This past week, I was begging for a placement on a doc review job that was going to pay $25 an hour, but the agency lost out to a competitor -- don't know which one -- which is going to pay $20 an hour.

Frankly, any law firm or corporation that is that cheap when it comes to a document review is going to lose it's case because the projects going to be staffed by a bunch of people who don't give a damn and will just be doing a half-assed job while they're searching for something different. Meanwhile, in a couple of months down the road, the firm is going to discover that the work product they've been paying for is absolute crap and they're going to have to do it all over again, but with different people. Which means they'll be paying to have the work done twice, which means that it would ultimately have been cheaper and easier to just pay decent rates the first time out so as to get the job done properly. But the bastards just don't think that way.

What else is there?

A little loneliness and isolation, I guess. The only people I seem to see are my family and best friend. I used to see more people and get chances to speak to more people during the day. And that kept me alive. I know if the business venture takes off, I'll be working alone, at home. But that's different. Then I'll be busy. But when you're not busy, there's nothing worse than having no one to speak to.