A Yoga Coffee Outlook

Ethical Hmmm

Last night while at the gym I got a call from a former client. Yes, Virginia I do take my treo with me on the elliptical cycle.

I've mentioned before that prior to operating my online store, I was a consultant. I have a unique background in kinesics and a large number of my accounts were with various attorneys who employed me to assist with Voir Dire. For those who have not had the pleasure of watching our justice system in action, Voir Dire is jury selection. To simplify, I would assist my clients by helping them to select jurors that I felt would lean in their clients favor. I did this by interpreting nonverbal communication (body language, oculesics) and paralanguage (non verbal cues, vocal mannerisms, tonality and such).

You might think that my ethical dilemma would have something to do with the fact that many times the clients who were benefiting from my expertise were either guilty or liable or both. Actually that's more of a moral dilemma. But the BIGGER dilemma is always an ethical one. When I am making recommendations, ethically I must do my best for my client. But it would be very easy to make bad recommendations.

The thing I've learned is this. There are exceptions and yes people are considered innocent until proved guilty. However most cases that make it to trial take the long road to get there, meaning that there is often some merit to the case... In most cases ;).

I was asked to consult on a criminal case. I haven't given my answer, but I will be seriously thinking it over.

Picture Day

This morning I got up at 4:30 to have my photo taken for the website. I'm accustom to getting up early, but getting up early and trying to look nice isn't as easy as it use to be. Luckily for me, my friend Sheri is a very talented photographer and deserves every bit of the credit if I manage to come out looking alright. She clicked away for about three hours so hopefully there's a good one in there somewhere.

All of the photos were shot in Downtown Denver neighborhoods. It was sort of a walk down memory lane for me. In high school I never belonged to one group, I sort of bounced around trying to find the right group for me, but I guess I never did.

One of the locations was an old coffee shop, Paris on the Platte. This was one of my hangouts long before the area was gentrified. Also before Starbucks, and before drinking coffee was cool. Pretty much the alternative crowd hung out here. Musicians, artists, writers and those who wanted to be. The attached bookstore is long gone replaced by a wine bar. Truth be told I drink more wine than read books, so I'm okay with it. It was fun being there and I think I'll go back soon.

We also went to the 13th and Pearl Street area in Capitol Hill. Another old haunt from my Betty days. It's pretty much crack central now but I guess it was then too. There were two shops here Wax Trax and Imi Jimi where I spent all of my milk money.

Wax Trax was.. and probably still is the place to buy vinyl. I have boxes of 12" imports that were purchased from here, mostly punk and industrial stuff. It's an old skool sort of place, a music lovers paradise. I wouldn't wander in here looking for that old NKOTB album if you know what I mean. It's still here..

It looks like Imi Jimi just moved out of the neighborhood. Back in the day.. (feeling old).. Imi Jimi was pretty much "the" urban Skate Shop. Several of my friends were sponsored by IJ, so we spent a ton of time here loitering. Bad things went down in in 1993, it was called "the summer of violence". That year, the owner of Imi Jimi, Tom, and his wife Christina were attacked. Tom was murdered. Christina continued to run the shop until a couple of years ago. :( Sad thinking about that again.