Pals Conspire to Dominate the World with Craft

I've been at an asylum conference the last two days, sponsored by MN Advocates for Human Rights. Aside from great speakers from UNHCR and other agencies, there were great sessions on litigation strategies and other practice pointers. With the passage of the REAL ID Act on May 11, there have been some big changes in asylum standards for immigration judges and expanded jurisdiction for the federal courts, and we're not sure how it will all play out. I have an 8th Circuit brief to write next week for an asylum case, and am a little bit nervous about tackling some of these issues for the first time. In particular, the act opened a new avenue of relief for the guy, which we did preserve in the record below, so I need to come up with a real bang-up argument. It's just kind of a weighty thing to be tackling it for the first time.

Well, I suppose all this is boring to read about. Let's talk about crafts.

Last night was the first ever meeting of The International Craft Conspiracy. The meeting took place at my house. A dozen or so crafty pals came over, everyone brought tasty food, we drank tasty beverages and made stuff. I can't tell you our subversive plans to overtake the world with craft, of course, but soon we will have a blog and start posting crafty stuff, and of course Ugly Juice will provide a link. Also the Conspiracy's public interest arm is making baby quilts to donate to Project Linus, who will distribute them to ill and traumatized children. We'll post photos of the quilts, too. Last night we made glass marble magnets. My magnets, featuring photos of the faces and ribcages of emaciated sailors (a truly inspired creation I call "The Scurvy Series") turned out like crap. Which is really sad, considering the project requires about a 3-year-old skill level. I think it's because they are black and white. So if you make them at home, do something in color first.

Brother John will be showing up any minute and we're going to get started on the patio. It's threatening rain outside, I hope it blows over during the night. We want to get everything set up tonight and go to town on it tomorrow.