AbsTracked

What's Old is New

2009-10-12T13:59:00.004-04:00

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised I remembered my Blogger password. I just decided I needed to post something other than information about July 10th. Yikes.

Unfortunately, I don't have anything terribly exciting to mention. I just want to remind law librarians to join the Law Librarian Group on LinkedIn. We're up to 579 members as of today! That's a lot of law librarians. You can post jobs, start conversations, ask questions of other librarians, and oh so much more. Join today.

Also, if you want to hear from me a little more often than you do on this blog, feel free to follow me on Twitter.

Lastly, if you're lucky enough to have a holiday today (like me), happy holiday!

Happy Julio Day!

2009-07-10T19:52:00.004-04:00

So, how is Julio Day gaining momentum? Well, apparently because of me. It turns out it had a little momentum before my Julio Day post 2 years ago. The person who first dubbed Julio Day (at least so far) turns out to be a fellow Illinoisan name Doug Bradley. Doug was kind enough to send me an e-mail with the specific text from his blog. I made him do that because I didn't want to click on the link he sent. Then I clicked on the link and of course, it's fine. He's an Illinoisan after all. So, here's what Doug wrote:

"The story of Julio Day as written by @bradleydoug (Twitter) about the holistay adventure of the Bradley's in 2008. See the whole blog in its entirety at http://s271501489.onlinehome.us/

CHAPTER FIVE
I am probably the only person in the world that celebrates Julio Day. Most people hit some sort of Mexican Restaurant for the Cinco de Mayo holiday but I put more emphasis on Julio Day. Julio Day started for me way back in 1990. I was at a seminar in Virginia’s William and Mary College. The group of educators I was with stayed in the campus dorms for a few nights and the campus is quite isolated. Our abilities to travel while there were pretty limited. There apparently was a guy who had no such difficulties: Julio. Everywhere we walked on campus there were paper signs posted that said: “NO PARKING JULIO.” This Julio guy became a legend among our group. We speculated that he was the Robin Hood of parking on the hoity-toity campus. Julio didn’t care that most William and Mary students drove BMW’s, we conjectured, “He parked wherever he wanted to.” “Good for him,” we thought. Imagine how cool it would be to have an entire campus security department posting signs with our name on them! Go Julio!

That’s the reason I celebrate Julio Day. How did I determine to celebrate Julio Day on the 10th of July? Simple. That was the day the mystery of Julio was revealed. It was our last day on campus. Getting around on campus that day was even worse than usual due to the oiling of all campus streets. The sign that said: “NO PARKING JULIO” really meant that there was no parking on JUL 10 due to the oiling of the streets. Go Julio!"

You've got to admit that is a great story! But Doug and I aren't the only people pushing Julio Day today. My sister Michaelle over at the Adventurous Women Blog has this to say. Is she calling me weird?

And last, but not least, I need to give a special shout-out to Mario Vittone who told me on Mario Day (I finally found the e-mail) that, "my nickname for years was Julio!" What could be better than being both a Mario and a Julio?!

Oh, and I did find an English translation of "Balada de un día de Julio" and it is about a July day not Julio Day, but it could have been.... Happy Julio Day!

Julio Day is Gaining Momentum

2009-07-09T22:53:00.000-04:00

Stay tuned....

Newly Revised CIA World Factbook

2009-06-08T19:22:00.004-04:00

As of today, the CIA World Factbook has a new look. It includes user-friendly interactive maps, quick links to country comparison rankings, photos, and easy-to-print maps.

The World Factbook isn't just limited to country profiles. You can also learn about places like the oceans and, for that matter, the entire world. Check out these interesting profiles:

I like the new look (although I did just click on Baker Island and ended up at the US Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges, but I'm sure that will be fixed soon)!

THOMAS Gets An RSS Feed

2009-05-01T18:16:00.003-04:00

One. Well, that's a start. THOMAS now has its first RSS feed and it's for the Congressional Record Daily Digest. Here's the feed: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/rss/dd.xml.

You can keep an eye out for future additions here: http://www.loc.gov/law/news/rss.php

Just a Reminder...

2009-03-26T21:45:00.003-04:00

I realize my posts have been dwindling a bit. Between being extraordinarily busy and working on a new blog project, I'm afraid AbsTracked is getting the short end of the stick. I just wanted to remind you that I tend to post my Twinks (Twitter links) more often. You can follow them at http://www.twitter.com/abstracked.

LinkedIn Groups Now Offer RSS Feeds & Job Info.

2009-03-20T22:07:00.004-04:00

LinkedIn has added a feature allowing Group managers to add feeds for their Group members to read. I haven't tested it out, but it sounds like a good idea.

Also, there is a new "Jobs" tab for Groups (I have enabled this for the Law Librarians Group). LinkedIn says, "The jobs area enables members to discuss job opportunities in these difficult economic times without cluttering the main conversation, and like all discussions it's free."

Mario Day

2009-03-09T21:11:00.005-04:00

Once again, March 10th is here and with it brings my wish for you (whether or not you are a Mario) to have a very happy Mario Day! For those of you new to Mario Day, here's a refresher:

Fans of Mario Day will be happy to know you can now join Mario Day Fans on Facebook and celebrate Mario Day as a Facebook event. It just doesn't get any better. Honestly.

Now it's time to start planning for Julio Day.

DC Court Dockets Online

2009-02-27T19:57:00.005-05:00

DC Superior Court docket entries for civil (all open cases, and closed cases back to 2000), criminal, domestic violence, tax and large and small estate probate cases are now available online at http://www.dccourts.gov/pa. You can search by name or docket number and the site offers an "advanced" search option for both.

I just tested it and the system is extremely slow. The site states, "the current version is significantly slower than ideal," which is an understatement. They do promise a newer, faster version in the future, though. I hope it's soon. I just received an Internal Server Error. I hate those.

CRS Reports

2009-02-12T22:15:00.005-05:00

If you search this blog, you'll find at least 7 posts about Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports and where to find them for free on the Web. Well, here's one more.

I need to thank my friend Monica for pointing out this Washington Post article about wikileaks.org adding thousands of full-text CRS Reports. If the server's not bogged down, it looks like it might be pretty useful.

It's just one more place to add to the long list that includes Open CRS, predefined Google searches, Penny Hill (for getting titles and numbers to search), CRS Reports on Congress and other subjects. I'm sure this won't be my last post on CRS Reports, but let's hope it's close! If we're lucky, my last post on this subject will be the one that states that CRS is making them all available at LC's site.

Current US Federal Court Rules Now Available

2009-02-03T17:47:00.004-05:00

The current (December 1, 2008) US federal court rules are now available online. You'll find:

Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
Federal Rules of Evidence

They are avaialble at the House Judiciary Committee's Procedural Documents page and at GPO's House Committee on the Judiciary: Committee Prints page.

Groundhog Day

2009-02-02T06:19:00.004-05:00

If he sees his shadow - six more weeks of winter.

If he doesn't see his shadow - early spring.

Here's more from the Washington Post.
Here's more from the Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Update: He saw his shadow this morning.

New White House Blog and New WhiteHouse.gov

2009-01-20T13:51:00.002-05:00

With a new U.S. president comes a new WhiteHouse.gov and a new blog. You can read more about the new site at the blog post, "Change has come to WhiteHouse.gov" and grab the new blog feed here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/feed/blog/

PACER Now Has RSS Feed

2009-01-16T06:33:00.004-05:00

The PACER Service Center now provides RSS feed. According to the site, "The PACER RSS feed contains information such as upgrades to local courts CM/ECF software and PACER announcements." You can grab that feed here: http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/pacerrss.xml

1809-2009 Some Great Beginnings....

2009-01-12T22:04:00.010-05:00

The upcoming (extended) weekend is a pretty exciting one in the U.S. On Monday we will commemorate Martin Luther King Day with celebrations all over the country. Of course, Tuesday is the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. There are loads of activities around DC for the inauguration, including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian's Out of Many: A Multicultural Festival of Music, Dance, and Story.

Being from Illinois, Abraham Lincoln's life was a huge part of my elementary school education, so I'm happy to see that the 200th anniversary of his birth will be commemorated in the Inaugural Theme (For those of you visiting DC, Ford's Theater is closed, but the Petersen House, where Lincoln died is apparently open). Interestingly, there is someone else who was born 200 years ago, who is being honored (though, perhaps appropriately, his celebrations are a bit over-shadowed) this weekend too. Someone who was as much, if not more a part of my youth than Honest Abe. My favorite childhood author...Edgar Allan Poe.

Let's face it, he put the Poe in poetry! Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 (less than a month older than Abe). I'm not going to give you his life's story because that would take forever. I am, however, going to point out some things you can do between inaugural and MLK activities this weekend. Here are a few:

Visit Poe's House in Philadelphia (It just opened for this weekend!) - I went years ago and loved it.
Visit Poe's House in Baltimore (It's opening briefly from 11-3 this weekend to accommodate a nearly sold-out Poe celebration) - Oddly, I've never been, so I'm going. I have been to the grave a few times, though.
Visit the Poe Museum in Richmond - This is my favorite.
Visit Poe's Cottage in the Bronx - If you go, let me know what it's like. I'm going next summer.

If you're not in the DC, VA, PA, NY area, you can at least read his works. Check out these:

New Year, New Blog

2009-01-02T13:55:00.003-05:00

Former Virginia Governor, and Richmond City Mayor, Doug Wilder has started a new blog. It is called WilderVisions. Wilder says it "will cover a variety of both local and national topics."

You can sign up for the RSS feed here: http://wildervisions.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

2008 Supplement to the Analysis and Interpretation of the Constitution

2008-12-07T21:26:00.005-05:00

You can check out the 2008 supplement to the 2002 edition of The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation at GPO. The 2008 supplement contains the analysis of cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court to June 26, 2008.

GPO has a lot of interesting current documents online. You might want to look at the New Member Pictorial Directory for the 111th Congress to familiarize yourself with what the new U.S. Senators and Representatives look like.

GPO is also currently featuring The U.S. Senate Manual for the 110th Congress.

I was just watching Miracle on 34th Street and I'm pretty sure attorney Fred Gailey was reading from the U.S. Government Manual. GPO only goes back to 1995, but you probably only want the 2008/2009 version anyway. Here's the section Fred would read from today.

New Financial Crisis Page on FindLaw

2008-12-04T21:09:00.004-05:00

WestBlog announces that FindLaw has a new Financial Crisis page. The page includes news, documents, agency profiles, and more.

ALR Returns to LexisNexis

2008-12-04T20:57:00.003-05:00

Last year I noted that the American Law Reports were leaving Lexis. Now Bonnie at WisBlawg informs us that their back. You can learn more by checking out the LexisNexis Source Information.

US Federal Court Rules Changes

2008-12-03T21:58:00.006-05:00

The following U.S. federal court rules changed on December 1, 2008:

Bankruptcy Rules 1005, 1006, 1007, 1009, 1010, 1011, 1015, 1017, 1019, 1020, 2002, 2003, 2007.1, 2015, 3002, 3003, 3016, 3017.1, 3019, 4002, 4003, 4004, 4006, 4007, 4008, 5001, 5003, 6004, 7012, 7022, 7023.1, 8001, 8003, 9006, 9009, and 9024, and new Bankruptcy Rules 1021, 2007.2, 2015.1, 2015.2, 2015.3, 5008, and 6011

Supplemental Rule C(6)(a)

Criminal Rules 1, 12.1, 17, 18, 32, 41, 45, 60, and 61

You can read more at the U.S. Courts Federal Rulemaking page. Until the House Judiciary Committee publishes them as new Committee Prints (and GPO posts them here), you can view the text of the amended rules at the U.S. Court site.

Blawg Republic?

2008-12-03T21:47:00.003-05:00

After months of being down, the Blawg Republic has resurfaced. I'm not sure what happened, and I can't say that it's new and improved. But it's back. So, there you have it.

I think I'll e-mail them....

2008 Plum Book Online - 7,000+ Job Openings

2008-11-18T21:09:00.005-05:00

The Plum Book, also known as the United States Government Policy and Supporting Positions, is published every 4 years (shortly after each Presidential election). The latest Plum Book is now available online from GPO as a single PDF (1.26MB) or broken into separate sections. Here's a description of the Plum Book from its Foreword:

"This publication contains data (as of September 1, 2008) on over 7,000 Federal civil service leadership and support positions in the legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government that may be subject to noncompetitive appointment (e.g., positions such as agency heads and their immediate subordinates, policy executives and advisors, and aides who report to these officials). The duties of many such positions may involve advocacy of Administration policies and programs and the incumbents usually have a close and confidential working relationship with the agency head or other key officials."

To put it more clearly, it is a list of positions (largely political appointments) soon to be vacated by the Bush administration.

Take a Survey About the "Legal Recession"

2008-11-18T21:02:00.003-05:00

The ABA Journal would like law students, judges, and attorneys to take a 2-minute survey regarding the job market and the current state of the economy. Survey results will be published in the January ABA Journal.

Free Donuts & Ice Cream on Election Day

2008-11-04T07:59:00.004-05:00

Get out and vote today and then celebrate with free star-shaped donuts from Krispy Kreme and a free scoop of ice cream from Ben & Jerry's. WTOP has a list of those and a few more freebies.

Cricket Anyone?

2008-10-13T21:46:00.003-04:00

If you've read this blog for a while, you know I love gross things...and dead things. Here's a way to get both!

Michaelle at Adventurous Women Blog is giving away "Salt N' Vinegar" (my favorite flavor) edible crickets. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on her Edible Cricket post. Good luck!