We here at Abnormal Use are nostalgic persons, and we must commend the dear YouTube user who posted a video of a 1996 drive through the City of Austin, Texas (which our editor once called home). It’s a trip back in time, and you can watch the video here.

Country music singer David Allan Coe now finds himself in legal trouble with the IRS.

Don’t forget that HeroesCon takes place in Charlotte, North Carolina this very weekend.

Our favorite legal tweet of late comes from Judge Dillard, and you can find it below.

Harsh, but fair. pic.twitter.com/HLGSt53c40

— Judge Dillard (@JudgeDillard) June 3, 2016

Enough said: Please consider the arguments set forth in “Why you Need to Stop Typing and Start Dictating” from the Tips for Lawyers website. Very important lessons here, folks. We’ve run into a lot of younger lawyers who believe that their savviness with computers prompt an aversion to dictation. As the article suggests, though, there’s nothing more efficient than using the dictation process to place your thoughts onto the written page (unless your Superman, depicted above on the cover of Superman #27, published way, way back in 1944).

Of course you know that many of our Abnormal Use bloggers also use Twitter. Today, we direct you to the Twitter account of longtime Twitter user Stuart Mauney whose tweets you can follow here. (In fact, it was Stuart who directed us to the dictation article referenced in the preceding paragraph!). Enjoy his tweets!

Don’t forget that the new Band of Horses album arrived today.

After the nonsensical insurance claim subplot in Now You See Me, we have no interest in seeing the new sequel.

There is, apparently, a 1993 issue of Fantastic Four entitled “Chaos in the Courtroom.” You’ve been warned.

You may have heard the troubling news that Marvel Comics has unveiled a new storyline in which it is revealed that Captain America was a double agent, secretly serving Hydra all of these years. Outrage ensued. (We would direct your attention to “The Character Assassination of Captain America,” a post by Josh Gilliland of The Legal Geeks). We’re not quite certain what to think about this new narrative, but we thought it was a good opportunity to post the cover to What If #26, published way, way back in 1981. Back then, there was a storyline involving Captain America becoming president. In this issue of What If, the writers imagine what would have happened had Cap been elected. Interesting thoughts during this election year, no?

Not long ago, we once again stumbled across “Me and Chuck E. Cheese,” a 2009 blog post detailing the perils of working for the chain. To be certain, it’s worth your time to peruse.

You know, we still haven’t seen X-Men: Apocalypse. We’re working on it.

We here at Abnormal Use are pleased to announce that our firm, Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A., has been selected for inclusion in the 2016 edition of Chambers USA, Leading Lawyers for Business as a Leading Law Firm in Commercial Litigation. Additionally, firm attorneys Daniel B. White, Gray T. Culbreath, and John T. Lay, Jr. were chosen as leading business attorneys in the field of Commercial Litigation.

We here at Abnormal Use and Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A. hope you had a safe and fine Memorial Day weekend. As we do each year, today, we pause to reflect upon all of the sacrifices made by American servicemen and women and all they have done for the country, both in present times and years past. Above, you’ll find the cover of War Comics #34, published way, way back in 1955.

We’ll resume with regular posting tomorrow.

We here at Abnormal Use had, of course, hoped to see X-Men: Apocalypse at the theatre late last night, but as it does, life got in the way. We plan to see it this weekend (or, if that plan fails, catch up on episodes of “The Americans.”) That sounds like a wonderfully lazy agenda. (And, no, we’re not planning on attending tonight’s Dave Matthews Band concert in Charlotte, North Carolina).

Friend of the blog Jeena Cho’s new book, The Anxious Lawyer, arrives in stores next week!

We hope everyone has a safe Memorial Day weekend! Try not to do any billable work this weekend, as you’ve earned a break.

Don’t forget that you can follow Abnormal Use and Gallivan, White, & Boyd, P.A. on Twitter by visiting here!

As you know, we here at Abnormal Use find ourselves members of a number of legal groups, including the North Carolina Legal Geeks, which puts on several programs per year in the Charlotte area. If you find yourself in the Queen City tomorrow, Thursday, May 26, 2016, you might be interested in their latest program.

Called “What Are Smart Contracts?”, the program will feature local attorney and self professed legal hacker Tom Brooke will be speaking. Brooke is the founder of the North Carolina Legal Hackers, and as such, he knows a good bit about legal technology issues. He will be discussing how smart contracts will be used in the future as well as how they may affect the practice of law. As a refresher, our friends at Wikipedia have defined “smart contracts” as follows:

Smart contracts are computer protocols that facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or performance of a contract, or that make a contractual clause unnecessary. Smart contracts usually also have a user interface and often emulate the logic of contractual clauses. Proponents of smart contracts claim that many kinds of contractual clauses may thus be made partially or fully self-executing, self-enforcing, or both. Smart contracts aim to provide security superior to traditional contract law and to reduce other transaction costs associated with contracting.

The event takes place Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at Kickstand Charlotte located at 1101 Central Avenue in Charlotte.

For more information, see the event’s Facebook page here.

Okay, so as you know, the new X-Men film, X-Men: Apocalypse, see its release next week. The film’s bad guy is, well, Apocalypse, who you can see depicted on the cover of X-Factor #19, published way, way back in 1987. As we like to say, those were the day. Oscar Isaac of Ex Machina and The Force Awakens fame plays the title villain, so we have some faith that the movie will be a good one. Yes, we do plan to at least try to see it at one of the sneak previews next Thursday night. What else would we do?

Um, did you see the new teaser trailer for the new “Star Trek” television series?

Has anyone registered for the North Carolina Bar Association Annual Meeting, which takes place in late June in Charlotte? As he does each year, our own editor, Jim Dedman, will be attending (something which will be made far easier since the event takes place in his home city). We hope to see you there!

Speaking of Charlotte events, if you’re interested in learning more about “smart contracts,” the North Carolina Legal Geeks are hosting a free event next Thursday, May 26, right here in the Queen City. Attorney and legal hacker Tom Brooke will be speaking. For more information, see the event’s Facebook page here. (Note: One great part about the event page is the usage of Willie Wonka’s contract as the header image.).

By the way, that three disc Grateful Dead tribute album is out today.

As you know, we here at Abnormal Use often direct your attention to the work of our writers and lawyers published elsewhere. Well, this week is no exception, as our own Zach Weaver has published a new piece about trade secrets entitled “Trade Secrets Get Greater Protection – Benefit Business Owners,” the first two paragraphs of which are:

Trade secrets are the lifeblood of a successful business. Be it the formula for Coke, a small business’s special manufacturing techniques, a corporate marketing strategy, or any other competitive business information that has value because it is not known to the public, trade secrets are what differentiate and give businesses an advantage over competitors. Congress has recently decided that such trade secrets and the businesses that hold them are deserving of greater protection. Last week, the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (the “DTSA”) was signed by President Obama. Applicable immediately, the Act substantially amends Chapter 90 of Title 18 of the US Code and creates a federal cause of action for theft or misappropriation of trade secrets. The law effectively federalizes a significant number of trade secret claims, adding to the federal jurisdiction over intellectual property matters that already includes patents, trademarks, and copyrights.

Previously, trade secret cases were brought in state court unless another claim involving federal law existed or the parties were from different states and a sufficient amount of money was involved. This was because the majority of states had adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act in some shape or form, including South Carolina which has the South Carolina Trade Secrets Act, S.C. Code 39-8-10, et seq.  The likely result of the DTSA will be that the federal and state law claims will be brought simultaneously in federal court (as the DTSA does not replace any of the claims one has under state law).

You can read the full piece here.

Did you know that next week heralds the arrival of the 30th anniversary of Top Gun? That’s right, the film was released in theatres on May 16, 1986, which certainly doesn’t seem like three decades ago. To be honest, we here at Abnormal Use fondly remember the Nintendo game more than than the film. We appended an image of the video game cartridge box above for nostalgic purposes.

This afternoon, you can see our editor, Jim Dedman, speak at the The South Carolina Bar Employment & Labor Law Midyear Meeting. He will be presenting on the issue of “Blogging For Lawyers and Related Ethical Issues.” You can see the program information here.

Congratulations to attorney and blogger Lindsay Joyner, who has been awarded the Katharine Heath Manning Perry Award from the Junior League of Columbia (JLC). The Katharine Heath Manning Perry Award recognizes a member of JLC who has excelled in community voluntarism and activism, through her JLC placements and through extensions of her JLC work and training. By the way, you can read Lindsay’s past blog posts here.