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To: Connecticut Public Defenders
From: apublicdefender.com Management
Re: Job opening
Can you spot Gideon?
It’s been a while since there have been any new posts on this blog and for that, I take sole responsibility as the primary (and only) author. Gideon has been preoccupied with several things, including the holidays, work and snow. However, another round of days off are on the horizon and with that comes the promise of some fresh content.
So, sit back, grab a cup of coffee (actually, do that tomorrow and into the weekend. It’s a bit late for that now) and feast your eyes on the smorgasboard of posts that spring forth from this idle mind.
In other words, I’ll post soon, I promise!
Happy New Year to you and you.
For the music, I have provided a song with “New Year’s Day” in the title:
The list is out there, but for the second year in a row, the ABA Law Journal (or whatever) didn’t see it fit to include this (or any other public defender blog) in it’s awards ceremony.
After all the marketing/no-marketing brouhaha, I thought it appropriate to create some fun badges to display on your blog.
For the blawger:
For the public defender blogger:
Since you all know that my image making skills are limited to cutting and pasting, this obviously is not my work. All credit for these badges goes to Heather, who writes a terrific blog on city issues in Hartford and Springfield.
Update: Please don’t link to the image on my server. Right-click, save as, download, upload to your server and link to it there. The license for the image is the same as for all else on this blog: Attribution, Non-Commercial, ShareAlike.
FYI – I’ve tweaked a thing or two here on the blog. Some tweaks you won’t notice, one you will.
Given the propensity of people to say stupid things on the internet using the cloak of anonymity (myself included), it is always a good idea to keep reminding everyone to take personal responsibility.
To that end, I’ve appended a short paragraph at the head of each comment box. So every time you comment, you will be given a link to the privacy policy/legal disclaimer and the comments policy. If you haven’t read them in a while, go check them out.
Every time you say something stupid, you’re responsible. Not me. Some other blogs have chosen to moderate comments, I have not. I don’t want to impede the trickle of communication on this blog, but that doesn’t mean that you can say anything you want without consequence. I reserve the right to edit or delete any comment I see fit, without giving reason for it. I also reserve the right to ban people from commenting on the blog.
Finally, you say something, you own it.
If you haven’t been scared off yet, thanks for reading and leave a comment!
So, those of you using IE 6 must have been greeted by this awful lime green color splashed across the page today (thanks for telling me!). Obviously, that was not intentional. I don’t know what happened, but I seem to have gotten it fixed now.
You could avoid this problem in the future, you know by clicking on the link below 
Update: So, not being content with leaving well enough alone, I’ve tinkered a bit and added 4 custom header images. These are rotating images, so every time you come to the site, there will be a different header image. They are:
It should liven things up a bit. Hope you like it!
In addition, Recent Posts and Recent Comments are now in a tabbed box in the far right sidebar. You can switch between the two with ease. It saves space and looks kinda nifty, too! I have set it to display at random, so don’t get confused if you show up on time and it opens recent posts and the next time it opens recent comments.
Thanks to those who have left comments thus far. If there’s anything that was part of the old design, but that you find missing in the new design, leave a comment and let me know. I’ve tried to port everything, but I may have forgotten something.
Original post: As you can see (hint for those using readers: come to the site!), I’ve changed the theme on the blog after 1 year and 3 months. I like this new theme because it’s different, but not too different from the old one. I’ve kept some elements from the old design – like the header – and still have been able to change it up a bit! I’ve thought about changing the theme several times in the past, but this is the first time I’ve actually felt like it was worth it. I came close a few times, but this one leaves me happy. I hope you like it too. Many thanks to Marie for all her help. Now, since it is 3 a.m. here on the East Coast, I will go to sleep.
This song goes out to Miranda:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmxT21uFRwM[/youtube]
Sorry folks, still pretty occupied here in Gideonland. Normal posting should resume tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for sticking around!
Sorry folks, but it’s going to be a very busy week, so blogging will be rather slow. I’ll try to do the Jumpstart this evening, because there is a lot of good stuff going on in the ’sphere. Don’t forget to check out the links on the left if you start to experience withdrawal symptoms.
I’ve just intalled and activated a new comment plugin that provides a few more features. Since no one besides me seems to use nested comments to reply directly to the comment they’re replying to, now there are two additional buttons: reply and quote. The reply button will simply add a link to the comment you’re replying to with the text: “@Gideon” (or whoever the commenter is) and will display at the bottom of the comments, not below that specific comment. Quote does the same thing, except it quotes the comment you want. This brings back an earlier feature.
Also, on the right sidebar, below Recent Comments, you can see a list of the most commented posts.
Here, at a public defender, we like to make your experience as user friendly as can be. You’re welcome.
At least one of you must be wondering why I haven’t posted since Monday. Truth is, I’ve been a little preoccupied with things here in “real life”. However, today is the end of the week and the long weekend is around the corner, so I have 3 days to catch up on all that I missed.
Thanks for sticking around.
Please STOP making links open in a new window! I know how to do it, so if I want to, I will. Kthx. All links on this site open in the same window. If you want them to open in a new window/tab, simply right click and select that option. If you find one here that does open in a new window, let me know and I’ll fix it.
Actually, let me throw this open to you guys. What do you prefer? Links automatically open in a new window/tab or in the same window/tab?
Further update: So as you can see, I’ve added the option to the left there. If you want links to open in a new tab/window select the box. If not, leave it unchecked. Thanks to Randomwalks for the code and Scotusblog for inspiration.
[poll id="23"]
Sorry folks, posting may be rather slow for a day or so. I’m having some internet issues.
I’m adding a new feature today, one that I’ve wanted to for a long time. Since this is still my personal blog, and there are stories of interest out there that are not law-related, I’ve created a category called asides, wherein I will post links to stuff that interests me. Right now, you can tell that it’s an aside, because it does not have any formatting and looks pretty ugly. I’m going to try and get the CSS tweaked so it looks different, but no guarantees. You can still leave comments. The entry below is an example of an aside.
Scott, Dan Hull and Kevin have been talking up the need for us blawgers in the US to be more social. So I’m taking it to heart. Here’s a brand new blog, written by an old hand.
Norm Pattis has started “Stupid Prosecution Tricks“. He explains his reasoning here. Give Norm some extra love and don’t forget to add the link to your blogroll and reader.
(See! That’s how it’s done. FOUR links in the same post. I am so cool. I better get some link love in return.)
