March 31, 2008
Subscribe by email
If you want to get entries from this blog sent to you by email enter your address in the form below and then hit the 'Subscribe' button. By doing so you'll receive posts automatically, although they will probably come one day later than they appear on the weblog. Still it will save you the need to visit the site, if you prefer. Of course, we love to have you so if you want to keep visiting the site we welcome you.
10:22 AM in This blog | Permalink
Search this weblog
If you are looking for something that was posted on this weblog the easiest way to do it is to search it using Google. Below is a search box. Just type your search into the box and press the button to the right of the input box, and you'll be taken to a results page compiled by Google.
10:20 AM in This blog | Permalink
March 28, 2008
Rethinking business cards
Andrew Flusche asks for help with designing his business cards, which is interesting because I just redid my business cards yesterday. I decided to make them different than typical business cards. Here's why.
A few years ago, when I was still working for the large law firm, I jokingly had some 'Ernie the Attorney' cards made. Well, actually I made them myself while playing around with Photoshop Elements and then took the file to FedEx/Kinkos and had 500 made. Whenever I ran into people who knew me from this blog I gave them this card on the left (click on it to enlarge it). The black & white photo is what used to appear on the banner of this weblog, so it was sort of a 'branding' thing.
People loved the card, and always made a big deal about it. They wanted to know where the picture was taken (the Metro in Paris) and if I had taken it (yes). It seemed like the card had 'special powers' because it always created a small buzz. Soon I started giving these cards to everyone, even folks who didn't know I had a blog. Same result.
That's when I began to sense that traditional business cards are kind of lame.
When I started my solo practice, I still felt obliged to have traditional business cards. I couldn't say why exactly. I thought maybe for when I needed to give contact information to, say, a court reporter. This card here (pictured left) is the result: it had my phone number, email address, physical address, fax number and so forth. And I think we can agree that it's pretty dull.
I found that if I gave my 'Ernie the Attorney' card to one person in a group and my business card to another person, the later would feel cheated and ask me if they could have one of the 'special cards.' That's when I finally accepted the truth: no one really cares about ordinary business cards.
So the other day I updated my blog design with a cool new photo of the skyline of New Orleans. I decided to use the same photo for my firm website, and that led me to consider updating my business cards. I needed to update the cards anyway, since I had recently moved to a new address.
I decided to re-examine the whole business card concept. What exactly do I want my business card to do? First, I want it to be cool enough that people still find it interesting when I give it to them. That's the most important thing. And it would be best if I present the same 'brand image' as my websites. But a business card should let people know how they can contact you. How do people do that these days? They call or they use the internet. So my new card gives two ways to contact me—a phone number and a web address.
Frankly, if people want to find me all they have to do is google 'ernie attorney' or 'ernest svenson' and they'll find all the information they need. My physical address and so forth is up on the web, where it can be updated if it changes. My email address is on each of my weblogs. Even if I didn't have a business card, it would be easy for people to contact me if they wanted to. My business card should encourage them to contact me, and I've learned that traditional business cards don't do much in the way of 'encouraging.'
I think how we market ourselves deserves to be re-examined. Marketing is about getting noticed, in a good way. Traditional marketing is no longer effective; people rely on it only because it's familiar. Seth Godin has helped me to understand this principle, and I highly his recent books and his blog, especially the recent post entitled: Why bother having a resume?
Incidentally, if you want to order business cards I recommend a company called Printing for Less. They were recommended to me by a top notch legal marketing consultant named Ross Fishman. They are truly amazing, and very reasonably priced. Definitely better than FedEx/Kinkos.
11:30 AM in Law, This blog, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (7)
March 25, 2008
New banner here
I redid the banner on this blog. If you want to see it you might have to hit refresh on your browser (F5 for Windows users). I used the same image at my law firm site. What do you think?
09:32 PM in This blog | Permalink | Comments (9)
November 28, 2007
Vote for this blog? Nah!
The ABA Journal has posted its list of the top 100 law blogs. Somehow my blog wound up on the list, under a category called "Generally Speaking." If you want to vote for this blog click here. However, I recommend How Appealing or Overlawyered as far better choices --assuming you believe in the whole 'ranking' thing (which I don't).
It's interesting to note the ABA's list of "Seven lawyers who started the blawg revolution." Denise Howell, who is listed first, would be on anyone's list of blawg pioneers. But three of the other six people listed there were not, in my opinion, present at the start of the 'blawg revolution.' Of course, I guess it depends on when you think the blawg revolution started --assuming you believe that there has been a 'blawg revolution' (which I don't).
I should mention that the description of my blog, which suggests that I had a 'harrowing escape' from New Orleans after Katrina," is highly exaggerated (I didn't create that description, by the way). I admit that I felt a lot of apprehension about what was happening after the storm passed through town. But my 'escape' consisted of a leisurely drive to the Interstate, followed by an uneventful exit. The most remarkable thing I saw as I escaped was a portable electronic road sign that said matter of factly: "New Orleans Closed." One of my greatest regrets in life is that I didn't stop to take a picture of that sign. Well, I should say that it would be my greatest regret --assuming I believed in regrets. But I don't.
My other hypothetical regret is that I didn't participate more fully in the blawg revolution. But, assuming that it hasn't actually started yet, I suppose there is still hope.
06:41 PM in This blog | Permalink | Comments (5)
December 18, 2006
Explaining the subway picture
What's with the black & white picture of the train on this weblog's masthead? Well, the short answer is that it was taken at a metro stop in Paris back in 2003. I took it with a Nikon digital camera by setting the shutter speed to 1/15 of a second (so the train would appear slightly blurred and convey a sense of 'movement'). I had to brace the camera against a column to make it so everything else in the picture was not blurry, and I used the 2 second self-timer too. The solo figure in the foreground was not something I planned, but it was one of those lucky things that 'made the picture.'
So why did I use it for my weblog? That's the main question that I get asked. The answer to that question is a little more complicated.
When I started blogging I had my weblog hosted by Radio Userland (see here). I was able to choose a name for my weblog, but not a masthead picture. I've already described how I chose the name, and what that name means to me. In August of 2003, I moved my weblog to the Typepad service that I now use to host it. For the first time I was given the option to have a masthead picture. I didn't really know what to use, and nothing seemed to go with the whole 'Ernie the Attorney' motif.
What exactly was that motif anyway?
Frankly, I had never really thought about it. Selecting an appropriate picture made me stop and ponder the question. Sure, law was one common topic. But I was really more interested in how people dealt with social change, or how they avoid dealing with it. All societies have to balance their traditions and norms with the need to adapt to new circumstances. Long ago virtually all 'new circumstances' were introduced by nature. Now, technological advances --created solely by people-- are bringing about many of the most challenging changes that we face.
So here we are in this world where we have to adapt to the new, and
yet also try to preserve the old. Every day, in every segment of
society, we have to face these sorts of questions: what's worth
preserving? What's impossible to preserve? What forces of change are
inevitable? Which ones are dangerous? Are some of the dangerous ones
also inevitable? And then as we examine their dangers do we learn that
we are over-stating their danger because they challenge deep-seated
values? Do some of our deep-seated values need to be reexamined
because they produce more conflict than social benefit?
These are the kinds of questions that have always stirred me. And that's what I began to reflect on back in August of 2003 as I came across the subway picture.
Something made me wonder what it would look like if I converted it to black & white. My first reaction to this notion was to reject it. After all, the picture was taken 'in color.' I decided to experiment, knowing that, since the image was digital, I could convert it back to color if I didn't like the black & white version. But as soon as I made it black & white it acquired an unsettling aspect, which was striking.
Somehow it seemed to capture what I wanted to talk about. The image suggests, to me at least, the stark choices that we are increasingly facing. Technology is advancing at a faster pace, which is represented by the moving subway. Yet, many of us feel isolated and bewildered by the nature of technological change, and by its increasingly rapid pace. The young fellow in the picture seems at ease in the underground world of subways, even though he's alone. Then again, maybe he feels powerless because he can't really control the world around him. The more you examine the picture the less certain you are about how the young man feels.
How do you feel about the changes you encounter in your life,
especially the changes brought on by technological advances? Do you
ever feel like you resist things reflexively that are actually
beneficial? Do you sometimes feel like other people, when they are
challenged by sudden change, fail to act in their own best interest?
Do you ever get the sense that certain social groups resist certain
changes to the detriment of society as a whole? And do you ever feel
like they do this because they cling to a tradition that is losing its
vitality? Those are the questions that I want to keep asking myself,
and the people who read this weblog.
I feel like the subway picture is consistent with these sorts of questions. And so, in a nutshell, that's why I chose it.
08:03 PM in This blog | Permalink | Comments (3)
August 22, 2006
The hidden power of blogs
I like to check my referrer logs (click on the picture to the left) every once in awhile to see how people find my site. Recently, I saw that someone googled the word 'attorney' and found my site. So I googled it myself and saw that I'm like the 9th hit for that search term. Then somone else googled 'katrina anniversary' and they found me because my post about the Rising Tide Conference is the 5th hit for that search term (the Times Picayune link is below mine, interestingly enough).
I mention this not to pat myself on the back (I didn't do anything special to deserve this sort of 'google stature'; I just got into the blog thing early and kept at it). I point this phenomenon out because it's something that I constantly see, as do other bloggers who examine how people find their sites. I like blogging, mostly because blogging continues to bring me into contact with new people and new ideas. But I also like having some influence over how people find certain kinds of information. I wish I had more time to exert this influence towards all the things that I think deserve to be noticed, but I don't. So I do what I can, when I can, and hope that it makes a significant difference.
Here is an update on other search results:
#1 result for "call apple customer care" (as of: 8/23/06)
#1 result for "driving in new orleans" (as of: 8/23/06)
#3 result for "legal brief writing" (as of: 8/23/06)
#3 result for "katrina videos" (as of: 8/23/06)
03:05 PM in This blog, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (6)
June 03, 2006
Responding to reader mail: How to find stuff (like old posts) on this blog
I got a nice email from a new reader who 'stumbled across the blog' and wanted to know how she could find older posts beyond what was on the main page. Weblogs are great for new content, i.e. stuff that appears on the home page. But with each new post that gets put at the top, an old post at the bottom rolls off and gets archived. It's still 'out there somewhere,' but it's not as easy to find unless you understand a few things about how blogs are set up.
Okay, let's answer the reader's question, and in the process explain a few things about blogs.There are several ways to find old stuff on this blog. First if you go to the last post on this page you'll notice that, like every other post, there are some little words in blue at the bottom. Let's pretend that the April 28th entry called "Plow Through Bagelry" is the last post (scroll down to the bottom of this page). Below that post appear these words: "06:54 AM in New Orleans | Permalink | Comments(1) | Trackback (2)" What do these words mean?
Basically, it means the post was launched (not necessarily created) at 06:54 AM, and the post is linked to a category of posts called New Orleans. If you want to see ALL of the posts that I've created related to New Orleans then click on that link whenever you see it below a post. It will filter and pull out ALL (as in EVERY SINGLE ONE) of the posts I've created in that category. Even the ones that have been archived. So that's one way to find my older stuff by category (there are lots of categories, including one called Katrina that has all my Katrina related posts).
Another way to find older stuff is to click on the link that is called Permalink. This will filter to where you just see one post (i.e. the one that was above the Permalink link). At that point, you'll notice three links at the top. The one on the left will be the the next post (i.e. the one below the current post). The one in the middle, called Main, will take you back to the Main, or Home, page. The one to the right is the title of the post above the current one. Knowing this method you can read every single one of my posts in reverse chronological order. Just go to the last post and click on Permalink and then click on each link at the top left to go from post to post in reverse chronological order.
Last, you might remember that I posted something a long time ago that you want to find. There are two ways to do this (I use the first one a lot). First, go to Google and type in "Ernie Attorney" and then whatever words you think are in the target post. Usually this will give you a good result. Another way is to use Google's advanced search features and tell Google to use those search words just on my blog. I'll leave you to figure that one out; it's not hard.
Oh, and what do the words Comments(1) and Trackback(2) mean? The comment link shows that there is one comment to the post, and the trackback link has two trackbacks. I think most people know what comments are, but not trackbacks. Comments are things that people say about the post that is appended to my post. Trackbacks are things that people who have their own blogs say about the post, but at their weblogs. So when you click on a trackback link it will take you to their post that is (supposedly, but not always) related to my post.
05:08 PM in This blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 03, 2006
Reader mail - help with Katrina insurance issues
When I first started blogging I used to keep close tabs on how many people were visiting my site. These days I very seldom even bother to look at my stats. I care less about how many people visit the page. What I do care about are the really great emails I get from people who either stumble across my site or who read it regularly. Here's a really nice email I got recently from someone with some good information that she wanted me to pass on:
Hi Ernie,
I love your blog page, and I've been up late reading it. I'm sure you have heard from plenty of folks who have decided to go out on their own. I wanted to tell you about my friend, who did something similar to you. Her name is [xxxxxx]. She clerked for a judge for two years, then practiced insurance defense for 17 years. After the storm, she started to feel uncomfortable about the kind of law she was practicing, and quit the firm. She opened her own firm, and has become a part-time volunteer and community activist. While I know she has initially taken a cut in pay, she does not regret her decision, even on her most difficult day.
Aside from her cases, [she] is helping me in my volunteer effort to help the people of New Orleans with their insurance difficulites. You might be interested in what you find if you visit our website: www.UpHelp.org. The group is United Policyholders, and we are a consumer education group, offerring information free of charge to people in need of the info. We have also organized some public meetings, given testimony to the house insurance committee, and various and sundry other "trouble making" activities. I want to raise the awareness of those in public office, as well as those outside of the state, to what our issues are here. The insurance companies failure to pay timely has stymied alot of folk's efforts to return to normalcy. Please pass on the website to anyone you know is having problems with their insurance company.
Those are the kind of emails that make blogging worthwhile. Hopefully, this post will help more people find someone to help them with their insurance issues.
04:12 PM in katrina, New Orleans, This blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 10, 2006
Readership Poll
I think it's time for a readership poll. What topics do those of you who read this blog regularly like the most?
10:07 AM in This blog | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack
December 01, 2005
If you want more from this blog
Consider getting the email subscription. A couple of possible benefits (depending on what you want):
- You'll automatically receive posts as they come out, so you won't waste time visiting the site if I haven't posted anything new
- You'll get to see pictures that I've uploaded to the Flickr photo site as they get uploaded. Otherwise, you'll have to visit the Flickr site or wait for the photos to rotate onto the main page of the blog.
- You'll get a list of my del.icio.us links, which are a grouping of webpages and stories that I've bookmarked as interesting. Many of them will relate to Katrina and to New Orleans' effort to rebuild after Katrina. You can see these by clicking on the link on the left of my blog that is labelled 'Hurricane Katrina", but if you get the email version you'll just see the list automatically with only the newest links. And you'll see all the stories I tag, not just the Katrina ones (the others are related to law, the internet, and assorted other interests).
I've been getting the email subscription to my blog for a few days now (just to see how it works) and I have to say the email version is pretty slick. I realize that I'm going to lower my hit count by telling you this, but I'm don't care. I'm more interested in making your life easier. So if you read this blog regularly, or even semi-regularly, I'd sign up for the email version. Just enter your email address up there on the top left-hand side.
Of course, if you want to keep my hit count up by visiting the site every day that's okay by me too.
10:16 AM in This blog | Permalink | TrackBack
November 21, 2005
Improvements to this blog: Update to RSS feed & New Email Feature
If you are reading this in a News Reader or News Aggregator I'd appreciate it if you would update the RSS feed to this address. I believe the old address will continue to work, but the new one ties into Feedburner, which is a great company that my friend Rick Klau works for. I found out a lot of benefits to using Feedburner and I'd like to start doing that now. Basically, that means I'm asking people who read this blog in a news reader to update their RSS subscriptions.
Of course, many of you have no idea what a news aggregator is or don't want to use one. But you may still want to get new posts when they come out without having to check to see if the site has been updated. So if you want to receive new posts by email you can subscribe by putting your email address in the box on the top left and then hitting the 'Subscribe Me' button. The service that provides the emails is called FEEDblitz and I think you'll find it to be a good service if you try it.
09:27 AM in This blog | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2005
Tips on using this weblog
For those of you that read this weblog somewhat regularly I'd like to point out a couple of things that may help you use it better.
Lately, most of my posts have been about life in New Orleans post-Katrina. I have categorized these posts by tagging them as related to Katrina. So you'll note that at the bottom of this post there is short line with a time stamp, followed by four hyperlink words: "Web/Tech Permalink Comments and Trackback." The word 'ThisBlog' indicates that this post is assigned to that category. If you click on that word you'll pull up all the posts I've ever created that relate to that category, even posts that have become archived and no longer appear on the main page.
Likewise, if you want to find all of my posts related to Katrina then just click on the 'Katrina' word after one of my posts on that topic and you'll see them all grouped together on one page. If you want to find a particular post that I wrote about in the past and you don't know what category it is in then I'd recommend doing a Google search with the words "Ernie Attorney" together with some of the words that you think are in the title or body of the post. There is a better way to do the Google search using advanced search features, but many people just want a quick and dirty way of searching things on the internet and I can vouch for this as an effective method; I use it on my site all the time when I'm looking for an old post.
03:00 AM in This blog | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 22, 2005
Today I remember someone special
When I was clerking at federal court back in the mid-80's I had the fortune to work in the same building as Michaelle Wynne. She was one of six magistrate judges that worked in the court. She was extremely hard-working and friendly, and so attorneys loved appearing in front of her. She was always in a good mood, or at least she always made it seem that way. She never got harsh with an attorney, unless they deserved it--and even then she had a way of getting her point across in a way that made the attorney more ashamed for misbehaving than ridiculed or put down.
As I said, pretty much everyone loved her, including the attorneys that she occassionally had to 'straighten out.' Not surprisingly, attorneys would often consent to waive their right to a trial with the judge assigned to their case and agree to let her try the case. If that happened to a case that I was working on I would get to go help her with the trial. I remember sitting in court one day when the jury was being picked and she was addressing one of the prospective jurors, asking him the preliminary questions about his marital status and his occupation. The man gave his occupation and reported that he was not married.
Magistrate Wynne immediately exclaimed: "What? You mean to tell me that a good looking man like you isn't married?" I was stunned because that was, to me, such an unusual thing to say in the course of a somber court proceeding. But, the jury members and everyone else in the courtroom laughed and it was obvious that her remark was intended to break the tension in the room and allow everyone to relax and just be themselves.
I learned a lot from Michaelle Wynne in the two years that I clerked in the Eastern District, and I learned a lot in the years after. She was passionate about mentoring lawyers, especially young ones. She was always extremely busy (because she did such a good job that all of the judges would send her their difficult cases to settle, and she tried a lot of cases for the reasons I just mentioned). And, yet, she always had time to listen to a lawyer who had a dilemma or problem.
Eleven years ago today, she died after being struck by a drunk driver while she was on her routine 5:00 am bike ride. To this day I can't really fathom her death. She was so full of life and so driven to be a positive force it just doesn't seem fair that she could have suffered such a tragedy. And it doesn't seem fair that the rest of us (including especially her husband and three children) could be deprived of someone so gifted, so vibrant, and so inspirational.
Her funeral was held in a large church, but it still couldn't accomodate all the people who came to mourn her loss. I remember driving away from the funeral crying and thinking about how to make sense of what had happened when a song came on the car stereo, and it seemed so perfect. It was a song by Sting called Fragile and it reminded me that the thing I cherished most about Michaelle Wynne was that she made me feel like it was okay to be myself as I practiced law. I didn't have to be an overbearing, humorless law-zealot; I could even relax and be casual and try to put people at ease.
I have a picture of her in my office to remind me of her and the many things I learned from her while she was alive. But I have another thing that reminds me of her even more: this weblog. I chose the name 'Ernie the Attorney' when I was picking a name because that's what she used to call me. So whenever people tell me that they like the name of this blog and say it's because it sounds so down to earth I silently think of Michaelle Wynne. Somehow I feel like she is still hovering nearby, encouraging me to do a good job practicing law, but above all, cajoling me in a playful way to not take myself too seriously.
