4-18-12 UPDATE
April 18, 2012
Went to LAX last night at 10 p.m. to meet with Customs and Immigrations officials and Department of Homeland Security personnel as part of the Global Entry program, which we are told is becoming very popular.
They claim that everybody is doing it to avoid the x-ray machines (which have their genesis in the diamond mines of South Africa).
Those who travel a lot = me = get a lot of radiation from these scanners, and are not happy about it, to say the least.
Especially since we are probably the lowest probability "bad guys" imaginable.
So, more paperwork and jumping through hoops.
And those awful questions.
I just have to quote my friend in Zurich:
They ask questions, you know.
And then more questions.
And then a lot more questions.
And then more questions, and more questions still.
And you don't want to be answering ANY of those questions, do you?
I responded that I do not even know the answers to most of the relevant questions anyway.
In my little world, where most things must be kept confidential or secret, as a matter of my licensure, I operate on a "need to not know" basis; or on an "I don't want to know" basis.
In my field the less you know, the better.
And that is no joke.
As one gets deeper into criminal defense one will quickly find oneself forced to operate on both sides, simultaneously, as a matter of course; things I will explain in person, but not here.
That is when it starts to get really scary.
Too many questions
Oh, well, just having some fun with that one.
On a more serious note, I am leaving in a few hours, to travel 200 miles north from here.
Hopefully will get out on the Big Sur coast, for a few hours, and then must return, probably on following day, dependent upon cloud formations, and such like (landscape photo op?).
Have a number of very serious matters dangling in the air at the moment.
Dollar amounts concerned are large.
And these matters must be taken care of as quickly as possible, before I am able to leave for more than a few hours at a time.
So, here is the tenative plan.
Going up north, today, and tomorrow, and maybe one more day.
I can and will conduct business by telephone, while on the road, so far as the immediate matters are concerned, having taken care of all other business during the past several days.
Because I am attacking this particular series of huge problems linearly, (i.e. one problem at a time, one step at a time, with full focus upon each step as it is taking place), that means that I will not actually know anything beyond that until several days from now.
Because of numerous experiences with such matters, I know to just simply wait until I need to know before trying to know.
So many things can change so fast and so abruptly that I find it ridiculous to think much beyond a potential 48 hours from now.
Even that seems pretty far fetched to me.
That is what years in the trenches do to you.
It keeps you very tightly focused upon the here and now.
Now, somebody tell me ---
Can you go into yesterday?
Can you go into tomorrow?
Are you even in now?
or are you everywhere except --- ?
Now is all we really have.
It is all we really can do anything about.
We do not have to look back with regret and sorrow as we remain intensely focused and engaged upon this very moment, and nothing more.
We call it "in the moment".
And that is a very good description of it.
It is what every surfer and performer and trial attorney knows all too well.
If you let your mind wander, even for one second, off of what you are doing, you will crash and burn with one of the few certainties you will ever see in your short life.
That is the basis of Murphy's Law = if it can go wrong it will.
We have to keep it from going wrong.
Which means we must be active participants in life, not passive observers.
We take charge of ourselves and of any and all around us who need help, by nature.
We continuously work on reshaping our natural inclinations into something more honorable, and hopefully, something to be far more desired than what we once were.
Yes, folks, the battle is raging on inside of you, as well as outside of you.
Your battle is with your own inner self, and not with aging, or politics, or keeping up with whatever you think is cool at this moment.
"Inner you" will almost definitely become outer you, given enough time.
I would think that cultivating "inner you" would be something one would want to put a huge amount of emphasis on.
Only, this is all too rarely the case.
It is almost non-existent, from my point of view.
But, at the end of the day, or the end of a life, this is one of the few things which you can be certain will follow you everywhere you go.
I would sure hope he or she is fun to be with.
Now, on that delightful note I think I will go out and jump off of a cliff, or a bridge, or something else which is real tall.
No building tall enough here, so I must use maybe a train, for example.
Euphemistically (metaphorically and with similitude), that is.
I am no suicidal.
Remember that when they find my body in a shallow ditch on the side of the road.
Listed as "death with suspicious circumstances" as they stamp the file and toss it to one side, "case closed".
Seriously,
Hope to have a really good trip.
The day is beautiful, which is the norm around here, and is one of the reasons why I am remaining here for the time being.
I always look forward to getting some time for driving and thinking.
I have always found driving to be very useful for sorting out my thoughts and deciding exactly what to do, given any situation.
So, who knows?
Again, we shall see.
I hope to post more upon returning tomorrow evening or following morning.
At least that is the tentative plan.
Wishing everyone the best.
w/love
vw
4-18-12
9:08 a.m. pst
Wednesday
Ventura, California, USA
Just a quick follow-up (written 5-5-12):
It was a really crazy and surrealistic thing which took place at LAX.
They totally set me up, like you would in a lie detector test.
They played a wicked little game of "gotcha".
But they were most definitely not ready for my response.
Because I had no idea what they were talking about at all, other than the incident in question, which they thought that they had stealthily uncovered.
"You didn't tell us about this" said the interrogator.
Well, here's the funny thing about that, I thought to myself, I didn't tell them about anything, because I did not fill out the form, and apparently did not even read it before signing it, as I had no idea at all what he was talking about.
My complete loss, instead of "oh no, I've been caught" which he expected, took him completely off guard.
And, Oh, by the way, Regarding that incident. If you would look at the records you will see that such and such was a matter of record and that I was entirely exonerated.
Now, he is getting p****d off at me and is going to make me pay.
Oh no, I think to myself, he is going to make this cost me dearly.
"Yes, you will not be given approval until you go to so-and-so place and obtain such and such documentation and bring it to us."
So, during the next several days I tried to find time to go and obtain copies of the requested documents, but was simply unable to.
Good thing, as that turned out, because within several days of denying me (or only tentatively accepting my application) my new card arrived in the mail.
Now, that is good work, I thought to myself.
Is this a good object lesson in why procrastinaton can have a place in our repertoire of tricks?
Only once of numerous times I have seen it play out this way.
Way too numerous to count, I should add.
vw
Ventura, California, USA
5-5-12
1:39 p.m. pst
Saturday
They claim that everybody is doing it to avoid the x-ray machines (which have their genesis in the diamond mines of South Africa).
Those who travel a lot = me = get a lot of radiation from these scanners, and are not happy about it, to say the least.
Especially since we are probably the lowest probability "bad guys" imaginable.
So, more paperwork and jumping through hoops.
And those awful questions.
I just have to quote my friend in Zurich:
They ask questions, you know.
And then more questions.
And then a lot more questions.
And then more questions, and more questions still.
And you don't want to be answering ANY of those questions, do you?
I responded that I do not even know the answers to most of the relevant questions anyway.
In my little world, where most things must be kept confidential or secret, as a matter of my licensure, I operate on a "need to not know" basis; or on an "I don't want to know" basis.
In my field the less you know, the better.
And that is no joke.
As one gets deeper into criminal defense one will quickly find oneself forced to operate on both sides, simultaneously, as a matter of course; things I will explain in person, but not here.
That is when it starts to get really scary.
Too many questions
Oh, well, just having some fun with that one.
On a more serious note, I am leaving in a few hours, to travel 200 miles north from here.
Hopefully will get out on the Big Sur coast, for a few hours, and then must return, probably on following day, dependent upon cloud formations, and such like (landscape photo op?).
Have a number of very serious matters dangling in the air at the moment.
Dollar amounts concerned are large.
And these matters must be taken care of as quickly as possible, before I am able to leave for more than a few hours at a time.
So, here is the tenative plan.
Going up north, today, and tomorrow, and maybe one more day.
I can and will conduct business by telephone, while on the road, so far as the immediate matters are concerned, having taken care of all other business during the past several days.
Because I am attacking this particular series of huge problems linearly, (i.e. one problem at a time, one step at a time, with full focus upon each step as it is taking place), that means that I will not actually know anything beyond that until several days from now.
Because of numerous experiences with such matters, I know to just simply wait until I need to know before trying to know.
So many things can change so fast and so abruptly that I find it ridiculous to think much beyond a potential 48 hours from now.
Even that seems pretty far fetched to me.
That is what years in the trenches do to you.
It keeps you very tightly focused upon the here and now.
Now, somebody tell me ---
Can you go into yesterday?
Can you go into tomorrow?
Are you even in now?
or are you everywhere except --- ?
Now is all we really have.
It is all we really can do anything about.
We do not have to look back with regret and sorrow as we remain intensely focused and engaged upon this very moment, and nothing more.
We call it "in the moment".
And that is a very good description of it.
It is what every surfer and performer and trial attorney knows all too well.
If you let your mind wander, even for one second, off of what you are doing, you will crash and burn with one of the few certainties you will ever see in your short life.
That is the basis of Murphy's Law = if it can go wrong it will.
We have to keep it from going wrong.
Which means we must be active participants in life, not passive observers.
We take charge of ourselves and of any and all around us who need help, by nature.
We continuously work on reshaping our natural inclinations into something more honorable, and hopefully, something to be far more desired than what we once were.
Yes, folks, the battle is raging on inside of you, as well as outside of you.
Your battle is with your own inner self, and not with aging, or politics, or keeping up with whatever you think is cool at this moment.
"Inner you" will almost definitely become outer you, given enough time.
I would think that cultivating "inner you" would be something one would want to put a huge amount of emphasis on.
Only, this is all too rarely the case.
It is almost non-existent, from my point of view.
But, at the end of the day, or the end of a life, this is one of the few things which you can be certain will follow you everywhere you go.
I would sure hope he or she is fun to be with.
Now, on that delightful note I think I will go out and jump off of a cliff, or a bridge, or something else which is real tall.
No building tall enough here, so I must use maybe a train, for example.
Euphemistically (metaphorically and with similitude), that is.
I am no suicidal.
Remember that when they find my body in a shallow ditch on the side of the road.
Listed as "death with suspicious circumstances" as they stamp the file and toss it to one side, "case closed".
Seriously,
Hope to have a really good trip.
The day is beautiful, which is the norm around here, and is one of the reasons why I am remaining here for the time being.
I always look forward to getting some time for driving and thinking.
I have always found driving to be very useful for sorting out my thoughts and deciding exactly what to do, given any situation.
So, who knows?
Again, we shall see.
I hope to post more upon returning tomorrow evening or following morning.
At least that is the tentative plan.
Wishing everyone the best.
w/love
vw
4-18-12
9:08 a.m. pst
Wednesday
Ventura, California, USA
Just a quick follow-up (written 5-5-12):
It was a really crazy and surrealistic thing which took place at LAX.
They totally set me up, like you would in a lie detector test.
They played a wicked little game of "gotcha".
But they were most definitely not ready for my response.
Because I had no idea what they were talking about at all, other than the incident in question, which they thought that they had stealthily uncovered.
"You didn't tell us about this" said the interrogator.
Well, here's the funny thing about that, I thought to myself, I didn't tell them about anything, because I did not fill out the form, and apparently did not even read it before signing it, as I had no idea at all what he was talking about.
My complete loss, instead of "oh no, I've been caught" which he expected, took him completely off guard.
And, Oh, by the way, Regarding that incident. If you would look at the records you will see that such and such was a matter of record and that I was entirely exonerated.
Now, he is getting p****d off at me and is going to make me pay.
Oh no, I think to myself, he is going to make this cost me dearly.
"Yes, you will not be given approval until you go to so-and-so place and obtain such and such documentation and bring it to us."
So, during the next several days I tried to find time to go and obtain copies of the requested documents, but was simply unable to.
Good thing, as that turned out, because within several days of denying me (or only tentatively accepting my application) my new card arrived in the mail.
Now, that is good work, I thought to myself.
Is this a good object lesson in why procrastinaton can have a place in our repertoire of tricks?
Only once of numerous times I have seen it play out this way.
Way too numerous to count, I should add.
vw
Ventura, California, USA
5-5-12
1:39 p.m. pst
Saturday
Posted by Vincente E. Woodward.
