001 - Sfist Oscar blog post gets Zennie story wrong

UPDATE: Zennie62 video views according to TubeMogul.

If there's one thing I can't stand it's getting the story completely wrong about another person. Like "Lady Gaga is dead" or "Johnny Depp is dead" for example. The blog Sfist has taken things too far with respect to this blogger and I'm calling them on it. The Sfist making fun of my Oscar predicament was the last straw. They got it wrong.

Sfist never shows this side of Zennie

First, SFist refers to me, Zennie Abraham, as their "Old Pal, Zennie". Well, I'm asking them to stop it, or if I am their "Old Pal" then take the "Old Pal" to lunch. I've never met a single soul over at SFist and would not know any one of them if they walked past me, and they probably have.

I do not know Sfist Editor Brock Keeling by face or any of the other editors at SFist. I've invited Brock to lunch, but he's never taken me up on the invitation (until an email I got as I was writing this). Meanwhile, I feel that at times, and as I've added up, SFist is trying to selectively take some of the 800 blog posts I've written on SFGate.com alone and make me look like a black buffoon.

Yes, it started with my take on Star Trek and black men, which I stand by. At the time, there was a question of how minorities would be shown in a show that was known for its racial diversity and that I grew up with.

While the Star Trek movie was much better than I expected, and I'm a fan of it, the movie was still a wee bit off. What I want of the World is for people to think in terms of diversity first and that's a battle, along with advancing women in business and politics, that I will fight forever.

I try to help people by showing them, openly, how to make money with videos on YouTube. (How many times have I talked about the YouTube Partner Program?). I like helping people, as my friend Sarah Austin shows:



I wish Sfist would present that side of me.

SFist always of late uses a video that's of me doing something not serious (Zennie Abraham goes to White Castle) or if its a blog, about race (Harry Reid). SFist skipped over my blog posts on Haiti. They didn't even pay attention to my Haiti donation list. Matters about Oakland's draconian parking problem are not there at SFist. My interview with Craig Newmark was ignored by SFst. Why?

No. I'm not perfect. I'm a terrible proofreader. I'm at points undisciplined. I talk alot, to a lot of people. I hate tech event where there are a few folks of color. I hate it when people segregate themselves by race. I'm not an ideologue. I favor big business. And I'm perhaps too wonkish. But I am extremely creative. I do know how to write for the Internet. Bots love me and some people, too. It's the reason I'm the highest traffic generator at SFGate.com.

I've generated over 1 million visitors at SFGate.com for three straight months including January, and discovered and developed a formula that allow me to cover both the national and World traffic generating content, then once I reach a point, mix in the local news with it.

I use the strategy for my own blog system and only Google's irrational protection of news websites over blogs keeps the same performance from being repeated by my blogs. If anyone were smart, they'd pay attention: SFGate.com does.

I'm trying to help advance media's future. We can disagree on a lot of things, but one thing we can all agree on is we need to fashion a course for news that's sustainable. News, like it or not, is now a commodity market. But the reason many news organizations fail is they treat it like its at their whim. The idea that "the editor knows best" is the reason many news efforts fail.

In the old days, blacks were shut out of newsrooms. Today, in this tech-led culture, any one can make a difference regardless of race, color, or sex. That's what I'm trying to prove and I love it when some get pissed off about it. Tech can overcome racism and prejudice, if one knows what they're doing. Why Sfist can't present that is beyond me.

But the bottom line is SFist got it wrong. AMPAS (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences)invited me to apply for a press credential for The Oscars. Anyone would be excited if they were given such an opportunity. The Oscar invite was to me a gauge - a measure - of the impact of what I've done. I have the metrics; I should be at the Oscars. But if not, I just want to know what I need to do to change that for 2011. There's nothing wrong with that.

001 - Mike Silver's in The Audi Efficiency Challenge charity drive to Super Bowl XLIV

My long time friend Yahoo! Sports Mike Silver's in The Audi Efficiency Challenge charity drive to Super Bowl XLIV. This is the email he sent on the event:

Hey everyone... I'm fired up to participate in the Audi Efficiency Challenge, beginning tomorrow in Washington D.C. and ending at the site of Super Bowl XLIV. It is a race to see who can make the drive (in a state-of-the-art, clean-diesel SUV) with the most fuel efficiency, and I am trying to win $20,000 for a pair of Type 1 diabetes-related charities, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the Diabetic Youth Foundation. As many of you know, my 10-year-old son has Type 1 and it is a daily and constant challenge for our family and for those of the up to three million Americans with the condition. I hope you will check out my new website and offer any support that you can. There are direct links for both charities. And please spread the word! I totally appreciate it.

http://www.ridewithsilver.com

Mike Silver

001 - Domino's new pizza taste is just awful - an update

On December 20th, this blogger conducted his own informal taste test of the new Domino's Pizza formula. It was terrible:

I read that Domino's Pizza had a new recipe that aimed to "put away the competition" as CBS News reported. So I decided to order a sausage, bell peppers, and cheese version from the store on Grand Avenue here in Oakland.

Aside from the fact that the delivery person didn't understand how to use the intercom system where I live, and had to come twice, the pizza itself was just plain awful. Now, it was cold but warming it just worsened things. I'm sorry. I read that Domino's spend two years developing this new taste; what the heck were they thinking?

A pizza is made by the crust, the sauce, and the cheese. The Domino cheese, whatever it is, is so bad I don't even want to finish my pizza. And the sauce is so bland, it might as well not be on the pizza.

I'm now eating the Cesar Salad I ordered to go with it. In fact, I'd have been happier with just the salad!

Since then, commenters and emailer have responded to explain how much they like the new taste or to say I didn't have the new version of the pizza. So to prove that wasn't the case, I uploaded the video above. You can see that the box claims the new pizza is the one with Domino's Pizza'a new taste. And that was the pizza I called terrible.

Then, I received this email:

Hi Sir,
With refrence to our telephonic conversation ragrading your last experience with us at Domino's pizza I sincerely appologize for the inconvinience you had .
Just to make it up your next order is on us .
Again we appologize for inconvinience you had.
Best regards

Apparently Domino's Pizza Headquarters saw the blog post, contacted the Oakland Grand Avenue store, and the manager contacted me. He offered to provide another pizza made to order by my instructions, and on Domino's Pizza.

Since then, the call to order one has not yet happened, but Domino's Pizza has not stood still. Now, the fast food giant claims their last pizza version was terrible. The new marketing strategy has taken many by surprise. Econsultancy wrote:

Domino's Pizza has a confession to make: the pizza it has been selling for decades sucks. If you ever thought that the crust tasted like cardboard, or that the sauce tasted like ketchup, Domino's isn't going to argue with you. It knows.

Wow. But the problem I has was the new taste was worst than the old one. Of those who took issue with my blog post, I think most were Domino's Pizza plants: people hired by the firm to respond to my often-seen blog post either by commentary or email. Domino's has worked aggressively to get the word out that their new pizza is really better. They even have their own YouTube channel, with their latest pizza taste-test videos just having been uploaded one week ago:



Is all of this really the best approach? I don't know, but I'm going to take them up on their pizza offer.

Stay tuned.

001 - California lawmakers want to take free parking away from you

No free parking? This article in the LA Times has a number of people up in arms. Apparently California State Senator Alan Lowenthal (D- Long Beach) wants cities to reduce the availability of free parking. And just as the City of Oakland's thrown a parking choke chain around Oaklanders. His proposal won Senate approval. He says this:

"Free parking has significant social, economic and environmental costs. It increases congestion and greenhouse gas emissions."

It's this - wanting to take away free parking - that's the kind of stupid squeezing of Californians during what is now a jobless recovery that will doom Democrats in November. Lowenthal has the backing of the Sierra Club, which picked the wrong issue to wade into, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. The bill reportedly provides financial incentives for cities and counties to stop providing free parking on the street.

The question is, will it provide campaign financing for any Democrat who backs it. The ones who do will get a swift ticket out of office in California. It's really just a money grab dressed up as an environmental concern.

Stay tuned.

001- Bank of America website is down as of 12:17 PST

Wow, the website for the Bank of America really is down as of this writing. After a long load time, the result is "page not available". Moreover, it looks like the servers are not responding and their may be what's called a "DNS" (Domain Name System) problem. The reason for that assertion is the logo links do not come up in the page that you see below:

So, even with the special page Bank of America page, we can aee what looks like a DNS issue. We can't browse, and B of A may be getting numbers but not pages. The DNS system is supposed to convert number codes into the readable webpages we're all know. This blogger's bet is that's not happening.

The question is why?

The impact is that millions of people around the World can't get in to see their accounts. However, it does not appear to be impacting account transactions offline. For example, credit and debt cards my friends have are working as of this writing.

As of 12:17 PST, the Bank of America website is still down. A cyber attack has not been determined as the cause of the problem.

Stay tuned.

Oakland Library: novelist Daniel Alarcon event Saturday-007

We love you Oakland Library - Oakland Word kickoff Sat with award-winning authors; free creative writing workshops this Spring

Finally write your novel, poem, blog, essay - with the brand new **and free** Oakland Word creative writing workshops. Program jumps off this Sat, Jan. 30 at 1pm at the Oakland Public Library Main Branch, 125 14th St. Words and music by award-winning novelist DANIEL ALARCÓN, author of Lost City Radio and War by Candlelight, poet and writer TENNESSEE REED, author of Spell Albuquerque: Memoir of a “Difficult” Student and multiple poetry collections, Oakland Word instructors, LINDA GONZÁLEZ, CLAIRE LIGHT, CARRIE LEILAM LOVE and BISOLA MARIGNAY, beats by DJ MAX CHAMP

***The party is free and open to the public.***

More details from organizers:

To provoke dialogue and encourage creativity among underrepresented youths and adults, the Oakland Public Library is offering free writing workshops during the months of February and March. The program, called Oakland Word, launches Saturday, January 30, at 1 p.m. with a kick-off party at the Main Library, 125 14th Street, in Oakland.

During the first of two sessions, a variety of Oakland Word workshops will be available at three Library locations, starting February 3 and concluding March 6:

Asian Branch, 388 9th Street (238-3400)

§ Intro to Writing Short Fiction (Fridays, 4 – 5:30 pm)

§ Writing Life Stories (Saturdays, 4 – 5:30 pm)

§ Teens: Blogging 101 Seminar (one day only: Saturday, March 6, 12:30 – 3:30 pm)

Cesar E. Chavez Branch, 3301 East 12th Street, Ste. 271 (535-5620)

§ Urban Fiction: Elements of Short Story Writing (Saturdays, 2:15 – 3:45 pm)

§ Take Charge of Your Work: Career Development (Saturdays, 4 – 5: 30 pm)

Main Library, 125 145th Street (238-3134)

§ Life Stories in Poetry and Prose (Thursdays, 6 – 7:30 pm)

§ Writing and Speaking Word: Poetry and Spoken Word (Saturdays, 3:30 – 5 pm)

§ Soul Song: Song Writing Seminar (one day only: Sunday, Feb. 28, 2 – 5 pm)

§ Literature of Oakland: Reading & Writing about Oakland Public Library (Wednesdays, 6 – 7:30 pm)

§ From the Heart: Love Poetry Seminar (one day only: Sunday, Feb. 14, 2 – 5 pm)

Courses at Chávez Branch will be taught by bilingual (fluent in Spanish and English) instructors. Some Asian Branch classes will be held at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center, upstairs from the Asian Branch Library, at 388 Ninth Street, Suite 290 (call Asian Branch at 238-3400 for information).

A second session will begin in March and conclude in late April (details about class offerings are forthcoming).

Oakland Word is funded by a grant from the California State Library

Anyone interested in participating in the Oakland Word writing workshops will need to register in advance. For information, call (510) 238-6572 or email theoaklandword@gmail.com. Information is also available online at http://www.oaklandword.org. For information in Spanish, call the Chávez Branch (535-5620).

Obama SOTU: Red State's "cocky" word of White Supremacists is not Sci Fi

Red State's Erick Erickson, now identified as one of Thursday's "Worst Person's in The World" by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Countdown, was given a chance to walk back what this blogger identified as his really misguided and historically racist application of the word "cocky" to describe how President Obama delivered his State of The Union Address Wednesday night.

Indeed, since his blog post compares to that from a forum member of the White Supremacist Group, Stormfront, you'd think he would be eager to reconsider what I had hoped would have been an off-handed, beer-fueled, post television party blog statement.

Erick Erickson not only failed to do that, he actually slammed his head right into what for me is an even bigger problem: his total lack of understanding of The Star Wars Saga.

In his latest RedState post, Erickson brings up the scene in Star Wars - Episode Four: A New Hope, where Han Solo says to a young Luke Skywalker "Don't get cocky" as an example, of how Erick was using the term "cocky".

And that's exactly my point. Erick, I know George Lucas (we met at Aqua four years ago and for the second time, and only San Francisco locals or well traveled people reading this will know that establishment) and thus by extension I know Han Solo.

Erick Erickson, you're no Han Solo.

Han Solo was trying to tell Luke Skywalker to know his place in the scheme of things. Han Solo was trying to tell Luke Skywalker not to get too big for his pants. Thus, the word "cocky".

Han Solo is not a racist because he never told Lando Calrissian to not "get cocky", and Lando's black. Indeed, Han Solo was smart enough to know that he would need Lando's help, and got it in Star Wars - Episode Five: The Empire Strikes Back and in Star Wars - Episode Six: Return of The Jedi, shown here:



Han Solo and Lando Calrissian were good friends in life and in business. They were equals with complementary skills. Han Solo would never tell Lando Calrissian to know his place, because to douse Lando's fire, to try and "box in" his personality would have threatened Han Solo's life.

This never occurred to Erick Erickson because he apparently only sees African Americans as "less than" and can't stand that America has a black man as president. I make this assertion because Erickson called President Obama's Nobel Prize win an "Affirmative Action Quota Pick" and he thought it was funny.

I'm not laughing; it's disgusting. And it's why I stand by my assertion that Erick Erickson's "cocky" statement to insult President Obama was used in the same way that members of the White Supremacist Group Stormfront would do, and have done as I demonstrated in my original blog post. Indeed, Erickson's unfortunately allowed himself to be painted by others as a racist, let's hope and pray he's not proud of the charge.

Racism is a mental illness to be treated, not fostered or celebrated.

If Erick Erickson wants lessons in how to have friends of different colors without putting them down, there are two people he should consult: Han Solo and me.

Stay tuned.