It Pays To Act Up

Did you see that Blogger is offering early Gmail accounts to "active" users? More, from Ev.

Also via Mr. Williams, Tim O'Reilly takes on California Senator Liz Figueroa and concerns about Gmail and privacy.

Gotta Love The Headline

"It's geek-meets-grape as wine gets wired"

Speed Limit: 8 Miles Per Hour

It was indescribably beautiful here today, so I'm in the process of posting a bunch of photos from my walk with the baby. I hope these help quell the entirely fictitious and not at all rampant rumor that they want me on the Third Circuit. (Unless I too could have chambers in the Ninth...Hmm!)

On the seventh day God made maternity leave. And it was good. So educational too. In just one day, for example, my portion of wisdom increased in numerous subtle ways:

• It's tough to beat a charged phone, a charged iPod, an uncharged baby in a big, comfy stroller, and a whole morning to enjoy them.


• It's a really good time to be in construction.


• Trash day is trash day — even on the beach.


• The roses in our front yard bloom in April.


• One need not necessarily juggle one's schedule a month in advance to work in a hair cut.


• Baseball caps. (I'd forgotten all about them.)


• There are literally hours of baby entertainment in that paper bag Starbucks provides with your muffin.


• If you should find yourself in a grocery store without the baby, there is hardly any reason at all to rock the shopping cart.

Interesting Mother's Day Idea

The American Immigrant Wall of Honor: "Mother's Day means Family, and what better way to honor Mom than by presenting her with a unique document celebrating her own family's heritage. . . . Proceeds from the Wall of Honor support the many projects the [Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island] Foundation undertakes year-round at Lady Liberty and on Ellis Island." Names on the wall are searchable, too.

Hundred Thousand Dollar Bar

Over at David Giacalone's, my Newport neighbor J. Craig Williams explains how his blog has helped grow his law practice — we're talking "hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of legal business" — as reported in the New York Times:

I think you have to put yourself out there, who you truly are, and let people see that.  You show them that you're the one they want to hire because you either write well, they understand what you write, or you're writing about the very thing that they need help with . . .

Just as important to getting clients, however, is that the blog teaches me . . . I am [] more informed about the law than if I did not write it.

Nice, huh? (The backdrop of the discussion is continued musing about LexBlog, and business blogging in the legal context.)