IP: A bit more on a rough week

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Last night I crashed early and had the sleep of the righteous (well at least the very very tired).  

I wondered why I was so tired. certainly I had given depositions in the past that lasted that long. certainly I have 
given day and multi day courses that lasted longer.  This afternoon it popped into my mind why (besides I am just a bit 
older :-) ) (Side bar, I made a gross error at the trial which luckily did not undercut my credibility with the Judge. 
I said my opinions were based on 30 years of experience -- it was actually 40 years and when I told the Judge my error 
and that there is a tendency to shave off years -- he smiled broadly).

Anyway back to the question. I realized the big difference is that the trial is first very important to the future of 
our nation and its economy. Second every thing I said  and did was going to be reported by the key papers of our nation 
and maybe even world. A stupid mistake could have incurred great damage to the case and to my reputation and impact a 
lot of people.

Luckily I  tend to get super relaxed when under pressure so it went very well but it did have a profound impact on me 
after. Exhaustion!! Maybe that is a small case of what a soldier feels after a battle?

A bit more on email I have been getting. Still heavily positive. Still a set of off the wall darn near hate mail with 
strange misreading of what I said. And another set of email which asks why I wanted to do such a visible thing? Why not 
let someone else do it? Why expose yourself?  No matter which side I was on and what I believe in, it is not the way I 
am built to just "let someone else do it". Luckily for our nation, that has not been a way the citizens in the past 
acted.

Enough of seriousness. After Sunday IP will be off the air and so will I for 10 days as I go off to a place in Hawaii 
where there are no phones, no radios, no TVs etc. and certainly no EMAIL. I and IP will be back after the 23 rd. 

have a good Hanukkah and a merry Christmas etc.

Dave