Forgive the Construction Mess
I am noodling around a bit with my blog’s design. Forgive the duplicate postings and the visual mess for the next day or so. Thanks.
Sound Parenting Advice
As a dad, I can only hope my daughter writes something like this when she grows up. Now I just have to come up with some great advice for her. Here are a few nuggets I’m stealing:
13. Invest your money in something.
14. Invest yourself in something else.
Whale Watching Pics
I wanted to share these, taken off the coast of Southern California on a whale watching trip several months ago. We came across a pod of killer whales, and then about 1000 common dolphins. One dolphin didn’t make it. It was like watching a National Geographic special. Amazing.
Here are two of the whales:
Here are some of the dolphins:
Cats aren’t the only animal that plays with its food before eating it.
Now, where’s dessert? And yes, that pink stuff in the water is dolphin leftovers. Yummy.
Grace Says Hello.
Last night, as I was reading Grace a book, and she asked me (in a perfect TiVo moment) to “pause” it for a minute. Since I’ve not posted a picture for a while, here’s one from last week.
Taking a Week-Long Walkabout
I’m swamped. At last count, I’ve got ten different business projects on my plate, along with a significant number of personal things going on in my life.
Starting today, and continuing until next Friday, I’m going to focus on, well, focusing. The television is going into storage, the extra stuff cluttering up my apartment is going to Goodwill (or the dumpster), I’m going to re-acquaint myself with my music collection, and my only time on the internet will be for e-mail.
I’ll post details on the Soulard Idea Market, but that’s it. See you soon!
Having a nice time, wish you were here
I'm back in St. Louis for a few days, trying to sort out some living arrangements when my time in California comes to an end. I'm also closing some open loops on a few projects I'm working on. I'll be back blogging with a vengeance on Friday.
Meet Me in NYC
I’m headed off to NYC for LegalTech New York. I’ll be around Sunday evening (1/29) through Wednesday afternoon (2/1). If you are New York, and would like to get together, I’d love to meet you/see you again. Don’t know if we’ll get a blogger dinner organized this year, but Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell are working on it.
Wanna Go Camping in LA?
I’m going to BarCamp LA, on March 4–5. If you are in the LA area, and want to get your Geek on, head over to the Website/Wiki and join up. It’s free!
On another note, I’m putting together a creativity/brainstorming group to meet in February in the LA area. Anyone interested?
Grace says Hello
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a pic of my daughter Grace, so for my friends and family who read this blog, here you go:
Ignorance is Bliss?
The great folks at JD Bliss were kind enough to interview me and post my “success story” here. The interview was done a while ago, and I’d like to think I’d sound much more intelligent and interesting now. ;-)
What's For Dinner?
As I’ve been reflecting on how cool being a dad is on this Father’s Day, I thought I’d share this post from the Eide Neurolearning Blog about the benefits of family dinner:
According to a Harvard study, family dinners were more important than play, storytime, or other family events for building vocabulary. And "families that engaged in extended discourse at the dinner table, like story telling and explanations, rather than one-phrase comments, like 'eat your vegetables,' had children with better language skills, said Dr. Catherine Snow, a professor of education at Harvard and the researcher of the study. Parents should be encouraged to use adult-level vocabulary and encourage back-and-forth conversation with their kids. It also helps social skills. Today, 65% of families with kids under the age of 6 have dinner together 5 or so nights per week, but that drops to 50% if a family has kids age 12 to 17.
When I was growing up, we almost always had dinner as a family. My wife and I are lucky enough to share dinner together with my daughter nearly every night as well. I know my father better because of it. I hope my daughter will be able to say the same about me once she’s grown.
Grace at the Beach
Just wanted to share a recent picture of my daughter at the beach last week.
And if they are from St. Louis, Don't forget to ask where they went to High School.
John Jantsch has this great advice in his Duct Tape Marketing Blog:
Let's say you have a Top 25 prospect list. One of the ways to get a leg up on everyone else in who also has this same list is to find out two simple pieces of information and then use those to unlock the door to marketing success.
The two things you should try to discover about each of your prospects is:
- Where they grew up
- Where they went to college
Now that you have this information you need to see if it can pay dividends. If you prospects are from a small community your job on that one is easier, but no matter where they are from - subscribe to or at least visit the web site for their home town paper. It is amazing what you can pick up from even a couple casual reads. But, you might even hit paydirt if something big happens back home or your prospect gets some ink in the hometown news and you, little old marketing pro that you are, fire off a copy to your prospect! Think that might help your chances of getting an appointment?
As for the title of this post, if you are from St. Louis, you understand.
Seriously, it is just an honor to be nominated...
Fresh off my surprising win of "Best New Blawg" from Dennis Kennedy, I've just learned that this blog has won a "Buzzy" from the ABA's GP-Solo section. For those of you coming here for the first time, welcome.
For regular readers, things are not yet "normal" here in Southern California (if they ever were), but my wife and I are settling in to our "spacious" apartment in the Oakwood corporate housing development. Our two year old daughter, Grace, made the trip like a champ, and she starts full-time daycare Thursday. Today's trial run ended in tears, but we'll give it another half-day go tomorrow.
I'm starting my regular blogging schedule Thursday morning. Look for a flurry of posts between now and LexThink in April.
Thanks for your patience!
We're packing up the truck to move to Beverly ...
Actually Burbank. My wife just accepted a temporary transfer (9-18 months) from her employer (Nestle-Purina Pet Care, Inc.) to go from St. Louis to Glendale, California for a big project. We are still sorting out the details -- which explains my sporadic posting the past week -- but we know a few things already. First, we will be housed by Nestle in Burbank, California. Second, my partner, Jeff, will handle much of my existing practice, with my help via e-mail, fax, and telephone. I'll return home on a monthly basis to cover court hearings, mediations, etc. Third, I'll have more time to blog and focus on LexThink -- which is shaping up as an unbelievable event, by the way. Finally, I'll be able to concentrate more on speaking and writing about law practice in general.
I'm really excited about the opportunity. My wife and I will sell our current house, and start building a new one when we return. I'll fill in some more details as they become available, but want to make sure everyone knows this blog isn't going anywhere, even though I am.
So, LexThink! Los Angeles anyone?
Today is my Bloggoversary!
One year ago today, I started this blog. It has been an incredible journey. Thanks for the company!
LegalTech New York
I am going to be attending LegalTech New York later this month (arriving 1/30 and departing 2/2). If anyone is going to be at the conference, or would like to meet me for a cocktail or two, drop me a line.