From the depths of Twitter: The Laws of Criminal Defense

Check it out.

Exposed?

There are a number of social media websites out there, such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, et cetera. I have joined a good number of those sites using my real name and my pen name. When I joined these individual sites, I divided them into either the “Donzell” group and the “real me” group. The idea was to have two separate identities on the internet. Over time, I grew tired of updating each of these sites individually, and having to make conscious decisions as to whether the content I was producing was only for the “Donzell” group or the “real me” group. As a means to resolve this difficulty, I tried using sites such as Ping.fm as a means to update these disparate sites at once. While joining Ping.fm helped me from having to duplicate the same content on multiple platforms, it did not help me with making the decision of whether the content would go the “Donzell” group or the “real me” group. In addition, I grew tired of having to join another website to update my other social media websites. As a result, I decided to leave some of these social media websites behind or let my membership in them lapse. Next, I started to integrate my separate identities on the internet into one, and started to intertwine what I was doing on these sites. There was no more deciding if what I was doing would go to the “Donzell” group or the “real me” group.

Well, this intermingling of my internet personas has resulted in something that I should have anticipated, but did not really want to happen. Someone in my professional life has discovered my online journal, and he reads it on a regular basis. That someone is the elected District Attorney in the judicial circuit where I practice. You may ask how I know that he reads my online journal. Well, he told me so. If the elected district attorney knows about my online journal, I am left with a number of questions to ponder:

1.) How many people in my professional life know about my online journal?

2.) Regardless of how many people in my professional life know about my online journal, should I refrain about writing about topics associated with my professional life to avoid further exposure and potential liability.

3.) As to my previous journal entries, should I password protect them?

4.) Should I ditch my pen name of Donzell and use my real name?

Randomness

I had scored some Braves tickets last night. Despite posting on SG, Twitter, and other places both on the interwebs and in real life, I could not find a single person that was willing to go with me. God, this sucks. I do not go to sporting events alone, unless it is a UGA football game. Anyhow, I was not going to let these tickets go to waste. I was able to find someone willing to purchase the tickets. Now, since I did not pay anything for the tickets, I did not feel right in gouging someone that was willing to go and help me out. So, I skipped out of work and went to Atlanta to meet my willing buyer.

I had brought to work a change of clothes for the game, to wit: a pair of jeans, a pair of steel tip boots, and a black linen shirt. On my way out to my car, I saw the chief judge walking back to the courthouse. This judge does not mind if I wear casual clothes to the office, so long as I don’t go to court in them. However, I don’t like the Judges that I practice in front of see me in casual clothes. They are from the old school that lawyers must maintain the dignity of the profession. Plus, I did not have want to answer questions of why I was leaving early from the office, why did I have a change of clothes with me, and why I was taking them to my car? So, I started to walk in a manner that could avoid the chief judge seeing me. As soon as I did so, I hit the panic button on my key chain by accident. The chief judge looked at me, shook his head, and walked away. I wanted to crawl underneath a rock.

I love to drive, but with gas prices near $4 a gallon, I don’t get to do it for fun much anymore. I drive primarily to work and back home. So, I enjoyed the drive to Atlanta, and listening to Braves putting a whuppin’ on the Schmuts (aka the Mets). As I pulled into Little 5 Points, I enjoyed being in an urban environment. Now, mind you, I loved my time out in the rural part of Georgia, and I am proud of my country roots. Yet, there is something to be said about living in Atlanta.

While I waited to meet up with the buyer of the tickets, a young lady walked up with a large trash bag full of clothes. She appeared to be a college student or someone that lived in the area that was about to move. She asked me to watch her belongings. I said yes. She pointed to her car, which was only a short distance away, and said that she would bring it down here because she could not carry the bag up the hill. So, I picked up her bag and carried it to her car. It felt good being a good southern boy helping a lady out with her personal belongings. Shortly thereafter, I met with the buyer and received a small payment for the tickets (to talk about the amount of the payment would be just tacky, especially considering I did not pay a dime for them). Afterwards, I was on my home, I decided to take a picture or two with my cell phone camera. Check them out.