"It was a great day."

Another memorable line from The Thirteenth Warrior, which is rapidly becoming my favorite movie. Actually, the whole "no man can escape his doom" ethos is appropriate for a foggy Valley day. This site looks pretty good for background on the movie, and, look, here's the Viking Creed:

Lo, there do I see my father
Lo, there do I see my mother and my sisters
and my brothers
Lo, there do I see the line of my people back
to the beginning
Lo, they do call to me
They bid me take place among them
in the Halls of Valhalla
Where the brave may live forever...

How come modern Pagans only come in the modern "give Nature a big hug" flavor, and we never hear anyone claiming to be a modern survival of Viking Paganism with its doom-filled stoicism?

In any event, drove up to Sacto last night. Defensed an $80,000 debt collection case. Drove back. Rule #5 in the Eternal Truths of Litigation, when your opponent's settlement offer is "all the principle, all the interest and all the attorney's fees," it makes the decision to try the case fairly automatic. Rule #6 is something like, "if you're going to be arrogant, you'd better win."

Update: In case anyone is interested, I thought that I'd provide the first four Eternal Truths of Litigation. Realize that this is a work in progress and that the nuances of the Truths sometime change based upon experience. OK, here goes:

Rule Number One: There are no secrets.

Rule Number Two: Some people can lie to your face and make you believe them.

Rule Number Three: If your gut is telling you something, but you can intellectually convince yourself that your gut is wrong, your gut is always right.

Rule Number Four: When your partner tells you that you can't lose the small matter he wants you to handle, it's always (a) much bigger, (b) a headache and (c) you can.

Rule Three is actually a logical conclusion derived from Rule One and Rule Two. Rule Four was added by me at 11:30 a.m. yesterday. Rule Number One is so true that you could safely tattoo it on your body and it would never need to be changed.

Second Update.

Come to think of it, I remember hearing of Fresno attorney Robert Bergen's Three Rules:

1. There are no secrets.

2. People never change.

3. People never get any smarter.

Which really do encapsulate that Viking no-man-escapes-his-doom ethos.