whoa -- this is NOT a public defender blog!!!
the internet is creepy. it's a scary place. it's a bathroom stall with strange phone numbers and "so-and-so luvs so-and-so 4-eva" and bad poetry written all over it. it's a dark alleyway through which one would be wise to tread lightly, and where you can't always tell who is watching.
it's like this... i have (as do most bloggers) tracking code on the html of my blog template which lets me see who visits this site. do not fear, cyberstalkers -- my powers are limited. i can see the date and time of the visit, and the IP address and city from whence the visitor hails. i cannot see names, physical addresses, or any clear identifiers (although i have been able to figure out a few from time to time). anyway, i just logged into my tracking account to see who's checking in around here and i've gotten several hits recently from a site called pdstuff.blogspot.com, where i've been listed as a "public defender blog".
so, to anyone who has found this site as a result of this pdstuff blog, um, hi. and i hate to disappoint you, but i rarely wax philosophic on the nature of public defense. mostly because i'm NOT a public defender. i'm not even a lawyer! i am but a lowly law student with an internship at the PD.
nevertheless, i'd like to add that this internship is IMMENSELY important to me and (although my attendance at work lately has been rather interrupted by the client counseling competition -- hi boss!) i consider it to be one of the most important components of my legal education.
but in the interest of full disclosure, i reject the characterization of this site as a "public defender blog". these posts have been accumulating for almost four years now, and my limited exposure to the work that the PD does is a mere six months old.
however, whenever throckmorton pops up as a link on a blog about which i am not aware, it makes me nervous. not because i ever really write anything here that is private in nature or incriminating (or, let's face it -- that's of any real relevance whatsoever), but because it's a reminder that somebody's always watching. which of course i know, but i hardly consider this a blog of any significance to anyone other than me.
i really don't want to take it down, nor do i have the time to re-work it. so for now it will stay. right here in the open.
huh.
so, there you go. here i am. and here are you.
okay, bye.
posted by emily @ Wednesday, February 21, 2007
3 comments
3 Comments:
I had actually put Throckmorton in the "working on it" section of the PD Blog Guide, because of your expressed interest in becoming a PD. Out of respect for that interest, the blog has been included in the daily feature "New PD Blog Posts" when there are new posts to note. That's easily remedied, because, as you note, Throckmorton is not a "PD blog."
One note: Writing on the internet is like dancing in a public park. Calling the guy who glances over as he walks by "creepy" is a bit over the top. PD Stuff is a free news collection service; every time "public defender" appears in a news article or a blog I check the content to see if it is of interest to those in indigent defense. I also track every blog written by public defenders. I am sure people have found Throckmorton through a Google Search of the phrase "public defender"; in fact, any blog search of that phrase will now retrieve this post.
I understand your concern that by labeling your blog a PD blog, I may have left the impression that you are representing it as a public defender blog. I had not considered that interpretation, and for that I apologize.
and now i have to defend my own personal corner of the internet.
dancing in a public park? really? other people can SEE THIS? ahem, i know. i'm not a fool. but those of us who have chosen (okay, SOME of us who have chosen) to use the internet as an outlet have also chosen a voice, a manner, a tone, a subject for what we're writing.
i'm not a news blog. i'm not a law student blog. i'm not a aspiring career blog, i'm not a public defender blog. arguably, if i have ever been an insert-characterizing-term-here blog, i was a misdiagnosed brain tumor blog for a long time. now? now, my health is good, my blog is familiar to me, my life has gone on.
of course people have found this blog through googling "public defender" (although, given the frequency of that as a topic relative to other things, i can't imagine that throckmorton appears very high on the google results list). people could also find this blog by googling pittsburgh or notre dame football or las vegas, but this certainly isn't a blog that focuses thematically on any of those things.
back to the dancing in a public park analogy. you're right -- the guy who glances over as he walks by is certainly not creepy (and, for the record, i didn't call anyONE creepy -- i said that the internet is creepy). but, if i were dancing in a public park, and a guy kept walking by, kept glancing over, and then started to tell his friends about me without at least introducing himself and asking what i was doing first? i think that's a little creepy.
call me naive, but i'm working on the hope that this "blogosphere" will maintain (or strive toward) some modicum of respect and consideration in its networks of links and conversation, even in the wonderful world of google text searches.
so, hi pdstuff blog! my name is emily. nice to meet you and thanks for stopping by.
dear non-public-defender,
will you PLEASE come to city court on a Tuesday already so we can FACE OFF!
please please please?
xo
and I agree- the internet is rather creepy.
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