Why I haven’t I created a Facebook page for In Brief Legal Writing Services — yet

Posted on October 3, 2016 by alexb2448

This vintage typwriter is our featured image.

As a new business owner, I’ve had a lot to do over the past year.

I created this website, and began blogging regularly. I opened a Twitter account. I have a (minimal) presence on Google+. I am building a client base through Upwork.com.

The only thing I haven’t done is start a Facebook page. Some people — including “the experts– (whoever they are) say it’s the single most important thing all new business owners should do. “They” are probably right (whoever “they” are).

Founder/owner of In Brief Legal Writing Services, Alexandra Bogdanovic. Photo by N. Bogdanovic

So why haven’t I done it? Why wasn’t it my first priority?

Call me a rebel. Call me an individualist. Call me a big fan of critical thinking. Call me stubborn. Call me obstinate. Call me pig-headed. Call me an idiot. Call me anything you’d like.

It won’t change how I feel about Facebook. I hate it. I always have — and I always will.

I hate it because I value my privacy. I hate it because it seems inane. I hate it because “everyone” participates — although I must confess, I don’t know who “everyone” is.

I hate Facebook because I had to post stories (or links to stories) there when I worked at various newspapers. It was time-consuming and it was a pain in the butt — to put it nicely.

I hate Facebook so much that I never created a page to promote my book, Truth Be Told: Adam Becomes Audrey, even though “everybody” insisted that I should. I suppose “everyone” will say that I would have sold more books if I had started a Facebook page to promote my memoir. But here’s a newsflash: I don’t really care.

All of that being stated, I suppose I will have to put my personal feelings aside sooner or later. After all, this is about business.

So yes, I am planning on creating a Facebook page for In Brief Legal Writing Services. I’m determined to do it by the end of the year. And when I do, I hope to see you there.

Scams, schemes, lies and a lawsuit of epic proportions

Posted on September 16, 2016 by alexb2448

At this point I’m not sure who I’ll sue. But I’m going to sue someone. I may even sue a whole bunch of people. And if I have my way, it will be a lawsuit of epic proportions.

But then again, I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. So let me start from the beginning.

To start with, I don’t want to be sued myself. So I can’t name the parties involved in this case. Let’s just call them Company X, Company Y and Company Z.

As I may have mentioned in a prior post, we enlisted the services of Company X in connection with our kitchen renovations earlier this summer. Because Company X is an international conglomeration with a very good reputation, we were confident the project would be completed promptly, on budget and to our satisfaction.

Little did we know…

At any rate, Company X referred us to Company Y, which we paid for general contracting services. We also paid sub-contractors to do the rough plumbing and electrical work, which all went according to plan. We were totally happy… until we phoned the Town Hall to see when the inspections for the rough plumbing and electrical had been scheduled — and found out they weren’t.

So we reached out to Company Y to see what was going on. Phone calls went unanswered. E-mails weren’t returned. A dumpster partially filled with construction debris sat in our driveway.

This went on for weeks.

Finally, we heard from one of our sub-contractors, who called for an update. Without going into too many details, he told us that there was some huge kerfuffle with Company Y — and that we should go ahead and schedule the inspections for the completed work ourselves. So we did.

The inspections went smoothly, but we still couldn’t get a hold of anyone from Company Y. So we got in touch with Company X and they referred us to Company Z. Company Z gave us detailed information about Company Y, and suggested we take legal action against them. Company Z also promised to “make things right” and help us get our project back on schedule.

A week or so after our initial conversation with someone from Company Z, another representative came to meet us in person and assess the status of our project. Based on that conversation, we thought everything would be okay. That was a month ago.

Fast forward to today, when we finally called our attorney to schedule a time to talk about this and then called Company Y to let them know what we’d done. Much to our surprise, someone from Company Y called us back — and told us everything we’d heard from Company Z is a pack of lies.

So we’ll meet with the representative from Company Y next week.

In the meantime, the project that started in June and was supposed to take six to eight weeks is still on hold.

And it’s almost October…

Here’s how to make America great again

Posted on September 12, 2016September 12, 2016 by alexb2448

As a reporter working in the New York City suburbs 15 years ago, I spent months covering the aftermath of the Terrorist Attacks on the World Trade Center. In the ensuing years, I covered the somber ceremonies held on the anniversary of that horrific day.

Those ceremonies are held to remind us what we lost that day. They are held as a reminder of what we stand to lose if our vigilance wanes. Yet they are also held as a reminder of what we stand to gain.

Black and white photograph of Freedom Tower. Photo by Alexandra Bogdanovic — Freedom Tower. Photo by Alexandra Bogdanovic

You see, if we really want to “make America great again,” we cannot forget the most important lessons we learned on September 11, 2001:

Take nothing for granted.
Thank the people who keep us safe.
Tell the people in your life that you love them.
Take time to enjoy the “little things” in life; they are the most precious.
Make the most of every opportunity presented to you.
Know that you are stronger than you think, and that you are capable of more than you can possibly imagine.
Never underestimate the resiliency of the human spirit in general and your own in particular.
Never underestimate the human capacity for love.
Exercise compassion.
Know you are blessed and help those who are less fortunate.
Do not fear adversity; it will bring out the best in you.
Never surrender when confronted by hate.
Lead by example.

Comment moderation or censorship?

Posted on September 9, 2016September 8, 2016 by alexb2448

It’s been a year since I founded In Brief Legal Writing Services and 10 months since I launched this site.

Based on some advice I got in the WordPress class I took in preparation for launching inbrieflegalwriting.com last fall, I initially decided not to allow readers to comment on my blog posts. At the time, I thought it would make my life easier. I have since realized that was a mistake.

Or was it?

While I welcome audience participation, moderating reader comments is not something I particularly enjoy. For one thing, it is time-consuming, and as a small business owner, time is a luxury I don’t always have. Secondly, because I firmly believe in freedom of speech, it creates a moral dilemma.

On one hand, the ability to moderate the comments made in this forum is essential. After all, this is a business site. My personal and professional reputation is at stake.

So make no mistake about it. Foul language and views expressed in anything less than a civil and professional manner simply cannot and will not be tolerated. If you use inappropriate language, engage in name-calling or any other vitriol so often found on the Internet these days, your comment will be relegated to the trash bin without a second thought. In fact, that is exactly what happened to a comment someone made earlier this week.

I won’t name the individual who felt compelled to leave a crude, sick, twisted and vicious comment in response to an old post, Don’t You Dare Feel Sorry for Brock Turner. However, I will say that the gist of the response was that Turner’s victim deserved to be sexually assaulted behind a dumpster.

Well here’s a newsflash: No one deserves to be sexually assaulted and left behind a dumpster. No one.

But getting back to the topic at hand, everyone is entitled to their opinion. And since this is the United States of America, everyone is allowed to express it. As a rule, I frown on any kind of censorship and welcome differing views. I encourage you — my readers — to engage in fierce debate with me and with each other. All I ask is that you remember that this is a professional forum and comment accordingly.

To paraphrase the old saying, “If you don’t have anything constructive to say, don’t say anything at all.”

Drama, drama, drama…

Posted on August 8, 2016August 9, 2016 by alexb2448

As an old friend of mine used to say, “we all have choices.” So I guess there are a couple of different ways I can choose to reflect on the events of last week. I can look back at the first week of August 2016 as one of the most memorable weeks of my life — or as one of the most forgettable.

But the truth is, any way I choose to look at it, there was plenty of drama. And no, I didn’t create it.

As most of you know, the drama began when my cat, Eli, ended up at the vet. At first we weren’t sure what was wrong. We figured he might have had a really bad hair ball — but the vet who examined him said his back was extremely sensitive. An x-ray didn’t yield evidence of any sort of obstruction in Eli’s intestines, but we did learn that he has an extra vertebrae.

Eli, the In Brief Legal Writing Services mascot. — In Brief Legal Writing Services mascot Eli catching up on the latest news. Photo by Alexandra Bogdanovic

The drama continued when his medicine (including some anti-inflammatory pills and very potent pain killers) seemed to make Eli extremely timid and anti-social. He hid under the bed for four days, and only came out to use his litter box. He ate and drank from the bowls I put within reach, and stuck his head out far enough to be brushed, but that was about it.

Eli finally came out of hiding yesterday, but is now camped in the plant room in the basement. At least it’s quiet and cool down there. He’s got a litter box down there. He’ll eat and drink whatever I put down for him, and he’s being a lot more affectionate. Most importantly, no longer seems to be in any pain. So things are looking up…

But wait, there’s more…

Now if only we can get the situation with our kitchen renovation resolved. Due to a potential class action law suit (or other legal remedies) I can’t go into too much detail about this mess. Here’s what I can tell you. We put a kitchen addition on our house several years ago. The project got sidetracked due to unforeseen complications — but the work finally got started earlier this summer. Everything was going well… until our general contractor seemed to fall off the face of the earth.

As anyone who’s ever gone through significant renovations knows, that’s never good. To cut a long story short, last week we finally got a hold of someone who can help us resolve the situation. Of course, we haven’t heard from her since we spoke to her… so we will see what happens.

So much for a quiet weekend

So you would think that the drama would let up over the weekend. But no. Apparently that’s too much to ask.

Yesterday I had to call the cops. It wasn’t an emergency or anything. But let’s just say I wasn’t happy when I finished mowing the lawn, walked down to the river, and found an abandoned skiff tied to our landing. I had never seen this boat before. And there was no sign of the owner.

The most annoying thing — and the main reason I called the police — is that the only way to get from the landing (which is really a set of steps leading down to the water) to the street is to walk through our back yard. And I’m not really thrilled about the idea of someone I don’t know tramping across our property.

As it turned out, my concerns were merited. Let’s just say the owner is “known” to police. And let’s just say he’s not the type of guy anyone would want tramping through their yard…

Dallas Cowboys support for cops gets mad props from this NY Giants fan

Posted on August 3, 2016August 2, 2016 by alexb2448

In the interest of full disclosure, I am a New York Giants fan. A die-hard New York Giants fan. As such, I hate the Dallas Cowboys. Passionately.

I mean, come on. It shouldn’t come as a big shock. I’ve do have a cat named Eli, whom I adopted after Big Blue won the Super Bowl in 2008. Of course, he already had that name when I adopted him, but that’s beside the point.

In Brief Legal Writing Services owner Alexandra Bogdanovic's cat, Eli. — Eli under the Christmas Tree. Christmas 2013.

The point, as I initially said, is that I hate, cannot stand, and passionately dislike the Dallas Cowboys. And their fans.

But this week, the Dallas Cowboys did something really cool. It took guts. It showed class. And as far as I’m concerned, the Dallas Cowboys organization deserves mad props.

As the saying goes, actions speak louder than words. And as they opened training camp, the Dallas Cowboys showed their support for the Dallas police. According to Yahoo’s account (which frequently cited the Associated Press), here’s what happened:

“The team came out in waves. The first wave was led out by Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and some of his players, and Brown. Families of four of the five officers who were killed were represented at the practice, the Associated Press said.”

In addition to showing its support for the Dallas Police Department and the families of the law enforcement officers slain last month, the team wanted to send another message.

“Our players felt that there is no better example of what unity is — and can be about — than a sports team,” the Cowboys reportedly said in a statement. “And they felt they had the opportunity — for the first time they were together this year — to send this very important message.”

To reinforce that message, the Cowboys are sporting “arm-in-arm” decals on their helmets, according to Yahoo.

It is a timely and important message — and under the circumstances, I really shouldn’t make light of it. But I just can’t help it. So I’ll end by saying that as a New York Giants fan, I have no doubt that we will remain united in our universal dislike of the Dallas Cowboys and our hopes that we knock the snot out of them this season. In that, I am sure we are not alone.

Another day, another crisis

Posted on August 1, 2016August 1, 2016 by alexb2448

“No matter what happens, remember it’s not your fault. Animals are difficult to understand sometimes.” — S.A. Witten (Grandpa)

As I write this, Eli is at the vet — again. And I’m worried sick.

Those of you who have been following this blog since the beginning know that he had a serious health scare earlier this year. He emerged from that (relatively) unscathed and I thought the worst was behind us.

Everything was fine until Friday, when he started coughing. Those of you who have cats know that sound … that cringe worthy sound that usually means Fluffy or Princess is trying to hack up a hair ball. Yes, it sounded like poor old Eli had a really bad one — but he didn’t puke.

On Saturday morning he jumped on my bed at the crack of dawn. In and of itself that is not unusual. The fact that he yowled, hissed and took off for no apparent reason is highly unusual. The fact that he curled up in a little ball and refused to eat all day was also highly unusual.

Over the last couple of days, he’s eaten a little bit of kibble — and that’s it. And that’s highly unusual as well.

This morning, I had the unenviable task of corralling him and putting him in his carrier for the five-minute drive to the veterinarian’s office. Needless to say, he was not very happy. That’s par for the course.

At the office, the vet listened while I gave a detailed description of Eli’s symptoms. She then recommended blood work, an x-ray and exam. I agreed and headed for home.

As I opened the door and came up the stairs, I realized how quiet the house is when Eli’s not around. And I thought about something my 101-year-old grandfather told me on Saturday night.

“No matter what happens, remember it’s not your fault,” he said. “Animals are difficult to understand sometimes.”

So is life.

If you rely on Internet technology to feed your pet, you probably shouldn’t have one

Posted on July 29, 2016July 28, 2016 by alexb2448

Okay. Now I’ve seen everything…

Did you know that you no longer have to be at home to feed your pet? Or that you don’t need to rely on a pet sitter, relative, friend or neighbor to feed Mittens or Fido if you’re away? It’s true.

Apparently there’s an app and a special food dispenser that will do it for you. But only if you have a Mac, iPad, iPhone or similar device. And only if you’re willing to spend more than $100 for the feeder.

On its website, the company that makes the product lists all sorts of reasons why buying it is a great idea. But personally I am not convinced.

Sure, I think it’s a great alternative for pet owners who have to work late once in a while, or for those who have to travel occasionally and don’t want to pay a friend, neighbor, relative or pet sitter.

Do I think it’s a good idea to rely on Internet technology to feed your pet all of the time? Absolutely, positively not. Frankly, if you’re not around enough to feed your cat or dog a couple of times per day, you probably shouldn’t have one.

A recent article in The Daily Dot proves my point. Apparently, the servers crashed — leaving the pets that rely on the technology for food without any. The reporter that wrote the story didn’t interview any pets that were affected, but I imagine they weren’t very happy. Judging by a copy of a social media post (tweet) included in the story, I think its safe to say the pet owners whose dogs and cats were affected weren’t very happy, either.

I can’t say whether the company’s claims that the server crash was unusual and that it was working to prevent similar failures reassured those who were affected. But I can say that I’m not impressed. I told Eli about the whole ordeal, and he’s not too impressed, either.

The bottom line is that our companion animals rely on us for only a few things: shelter, food, healthcare, and love. It’s really not asking too much. And in return, we get more love and loyalty than we deserve.

The curious case of the Connecticut commuter lizards

Posted on July 27, 2016July 26, 2016 by alexb2448

“And I thought hedge fund guys were the only ‘reptiles’ slithering in and out of Greenwich on Metro North.”

So I came across a really interesting article in the Connecticut Post yesterday. I mean it. It was really cool.

Apparently a Harvard researcher has determined that “non-native Italian wall lizards” are making themselves at home in Greenwich. And he has a fairly outrageous theory about how they got here.

He says they might have taken Metro North. Seriously. Check your calendars. It is not April 1. Then click the link above if you haven’t done so already. Yes, the story is legit. I wouldn’t kid you about something like that.

But back to the matter at hand. This guy claims a bunch of these little critters have been living in The Bronx for a while. And then, for reasons known only to them, they decided to move. Since they can’t drive and it would take forever to walk, I guess they decided to hop some northbound commuter trains to explore life in the suburbs.

“It’s a really nice expressway for them to travel distances,” Colin Donihue told the Post. “Those little guys move pretty fast.”

Can’t you just picture it? Dozens of little creatures — resembling miniature versions of a certain gecko of insurance advertising fame — riding the 6:37 p.m. local? And I thought hedge fund guys were the only “reptiles” slithering in and out of Greenwich on Metro North. Cue rim shot…

But in all seriousness, Donihue says the wall lizards probably followed the train tracks — which afford protection from predators, warmth in cold weather and shade in warmer weather.

Donihue has reportedly observed 15 to 20 lizards in some yards and estimates there could be up to 1,000. Determining how far off the beaten path — er track — they went will help him refine the estimate.

He is also trying to determine if they have made it to Stamford yet.

Personally I doubt it. I live just steps away from the New York State line, and I can see the Metro North train tracks from my house. But, no, I haven’t seen any Italian wall lizards in my yard.

I’ll let you know if that changes.

Life is complicated

Posted on July 25, 2016July 25, 2016 by alexb2448

That does it. In my next life, I’m coming back as my own cat. Seriously.

I’ve officially decided that human beings are definitely overrated. Just look at everything that’s happened lately. We’ve had cop killings, terrorism, mall shootings, nightclub shootings, and train attacks carried out by ax-wielding maniacs. And then there’s the collective insanity otherwise known as presidential politics.

Yes, humans are overrated. We think we’re so special because we have opposable thumbs and souls. We also think our ability to reason sets us apart from other animals. Well, for such an intellectually and technologically advanced species, we sure are screwing things up a lot. And for some strange reason, we seem completely incapable of learning from our mistakes.

Yes, people are overrated. And life is complicated.

Don’t get me wrong. Life isn’t necessarily easy for American dogs and cats, either. As much as we love our pets, the sad reality is that there are millions of unwanted animals in the United States. According to The Humane Society of the United States, more than 2 million “healthy, adoptable” dogs and cats are euthanized in shelters every year. The organization estimates that is roughly one every 13 seconds.

Yes, you can chalk that up to human stupidity, too.

But my cats were lucky. We got Tiger from family friends when they moved to Saudi Arabia; if we hadn’t taken her, she would have been left outside to fend for herself. Heals was a stray. A co-worker found her wandering in the neighborhood and took her in, but couldn’t keep her. If I hadn’t taken her, she would have ended up in the local pound. And Eli — my sweet baby boy — my “pit bull in a cat costume”– he was a pound cat with an attitude when I adopted him. I hate to think what would have happened if I hadn’t chosen him.

Today, I don’t think there’s a cat on the face of the earth that has it better than Eli. Eli is spoiled rotten — and he knows it. His chief concerns are when he’ll get breakfast and dinner. Beyond that, his only worries are whether he’s got enough kibble and whether his litter boxes are clean (yes, he has more than one). Oh… I suppose he also worries about being hauled off to the vet, having his claws clipped and how long it will take one of us to figure out that he wants to go out on the deck.

He does not have to worry about being abused or being abandoned. He’ll never have to worry about being neglected. In other words, he’s got a pretty good life — and he knows it.

Uncategorized

But wait, there’s more…

So much for a quiet weekend