Today we had to say goodbye to a dear friend, Daisy. My son, when we first brought Daisy into our family, wanted to name her Reticulated Dinosaur. An odd name for a 4-year old to bestow on a hapless puppy. We opted instead for Daisy. Through these many years, she was as a good a companion and confidant as any person could be blessed to know. She was part Golden Retriever and part Kangaroo, and anyone who knows Goldens understands what I mean. She was, at times, dumb and stubborn, qualities that closely mirror someone else I know. She was also a notorious crotch nuzzler, which guests either found shocking or pleasant. But mostly, she was sweet, and soft, and kind. And when I think of her, which will be often, I will always imagine her sitting on the porch in Maine, watching the boats go by, dreaming of nothing but an endless supply of tennis balls and dirty rotten kitties.
Good luck sweet baby, you will be missed.
I’m holiday now. I’ll be back after the end of this week, hopefully with a fresh look to this site. I hope all of you who stop by to read this trash have a peaceful holiday. God knows we need it.
Ok, I have 2 invites for Google Voice and 10 for Google Wave. If you want one, please leave a comment to this post and let me know what you do for a living. All invites are on a first come basis. And if you have a joke, you can tell me that too.
UPDATE
Google Voice invites went quickly. Sorry folks, but I do have Wave invites left.
Yes, I’m back. And I’ve got a whole journal of shit to say about what’s been going on, particularly with these ridiculous fucking e-readers. Dear God, if I see one more effusive lawyerly post on the second coming with these damn things, I think I’m going to puke. Okay, I’m harshing a bit. I’ve actually got a few thoughts now that B&N has released an interesting concept with the Nook, or nookie, or whatever the fuck they’re calling that thing. I want someone to hack that Android OS and get some really interesting functionality on it, but until it comes out, we’ll just have to wait and see. But that’s all for another post. I’ve also got some thoughts on prognostication, why so many people think they’re cool doing it, and why it’s becoming a trend, why e-reading is going to seriously screw with our ability to learn and why that’s a bad thing, Spindle Law and other new services like it, why I like writing to rock ‘n’ roll, why you should subscribe to Simple Justice, and why you should read Fuck You Penguin at least once a week.
The point is, I’ve had some interesting things going on, and I’m glad to be back online with you tools.
I sold a house. I bought a house. On the same day. Many people said it couldn’t be done. I told them to go to Hell. It turns out that the house may have needed more work than I thought. So the contractors came. Now, Virgil is with me, and we are making the descent. I will soon be with those “people.” If you see her, please tell Beatrice where I am. Thanks.
I wanted to wish everyone a happy July 4th. I plan on picking up next week with a couple of new ideas that have been kicking around in my head in a post I’ve tentatively titled “Streams, Lakes, and Brian Eno’s Box: Thoughts on the future of legal research.” And for those of you who might be interested, I’ve been hard at work on our newest O’Connor’s title: California Civil Pretrial Handbook, which will be available this coming Spring. It is a fantastical book. Like a Liger, which we all know is bred for its skills in magic.
Anyway, enjoy the weekend. Catch you on the flipside.
[Image 
Tony Sodaro.]
My friend Ed Schipul (here on Twitter) told me about five months ago that I was going to have to start Twittering at some point. Join the conversation he said. This immediately reminded me of line from the movie Die Hard:
“Come out to the coast, we’ll get together, have a few laughs…”
See, I’m a writer and publisher by profession, and although I spend a considerable amount of time thinking about my industry, I have avoided joining the great debate on the interwebs for the usual reasons: it’s all noise, too much time, no obvious benefits, blah, blah, blah. Nevertheless, I put the excuses aside and joined Twitter (you can find me here) and started following a few folks, and then a few more, and few more after that. Then I came across a tweet about Adrian Lurssen’s list of 145 lawyers to follow on Twitter (now up to 736 as of 5/26/09), and a quick search found another link of big law on Twitter, and another site that’s simply a feed of what lawyers are twittering. So I started following some of those folks.
Turns out, when you get into following people, you’re thrown off a cliff into the middle of some rushing rapids. This reminded me of yet another line, this one from a classic Bugs & Daffy cartoon:
“You’re hurting me. Put me down please.”
As soon as I got in, I wanted to get out. But I calmed down after a few days of learning some of the tools of the trade (e.g., Tweetie works best for me on the iPhone, and Tweetdeck does a good job of reorganizing folks into groups once you get a handle on the kinds of topics each person posts). With these I’ve gotten better at organizing posts relevant to my thoughts about the law, and the future of legal publishing in particular, and keeping quick tabs on certain twitterers of interest. (I’ll compile a list in a separate post.) This in turn has actually lead me to more specific and relevant information, in a way that my RSS feeds weren’t. It is also one of the great things about Twitter. [Note: For a terrific (and humorous) summary of why a lawyer might want to be on Twitter, see Charon QC's post here.]
Along the way a curious thing happened. The social aspect of Twitter, and the ensuing online discussions, made me want to blog. The 140-character limit, while great, is too limiting if you want to speak to a point more thoroughly. And because I’m not a blogger, there really wasn’t much of an outlet other than comments to other posts, which have their own limits as well (e.g., moderation). So that explains this blog, or at least why I’m doing it.
One other thing. There are plenty of great new media law content publishers out there on blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed, etc., linking and talking about the future of legal publishing, but I haven’t seen many old media publishers doing it. Not that they aren’t using blogs to brand, market, and distribute valuable content, it’s just that most old media companies (with the possible exception of Thomson West) aren’t speaking directly to the issue of the intersection of old and new media. Interestingly, I did find Bill Pollak, the CEO of North American operations for Incisive Media (they own Law.com among others) on Twitter here. He’s participating in the discussion, and blogging about some of it.
If you happen to know of any old line publishers out there blogging about this stuff, please drop me a line or a link in the comments.
See you around the tubes.