Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Jim Toth and Reese Witherspoon: Engaged to be Married




Jim Toth proposed to actress Reese Witherspoon over the holiday weekend.  This will be actress Reese Witherspoon's second marriage.  Jim Toth, an agent for the Creative Artists, and Reese Witherspoon started dating shortly after the end of her two year relationship to actor Jake Gyllenhaal.  The actress is represented by Creative Arts but not by Jim Toth.  "They are both extremely happy," said a representative for Reese Witherspoon.

John Bobst aka The Force of Nature

Check out my blog at www.theforceofnature.net



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Adam Sandler: Another Death Hoax







Adam Sandler was the victim of a celebrity death hoax.  The rumor was reported by the Global Associated News and goes a little something like this.  "Sandler lost control of his snowboard and struck a tree at a high rate of speed… Sandler was air lifted by ski patrol teams to a local hospital; however, it is believed that the actor died instantly from the impact of the crash" 


This same hoax was spread around about Charlie Sheen a few days ago and Morgan Freeman was also recently the victim of a death rumor.  


John Bobst aka The Force of Nature

Check out my blog at www.theforceofnature.net


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Tuesday Night Football: Eagles vs Vikings - Mike Vick Hurt By Game Plan



The first Tuesday night pro football game played since 1946 had a surprise ending. The Minnesota Vikings under Rookie Quarterback Joe Webb beat the seeming World-beating Philadelphia Eagles in Phili, 24 to 14.

While Webb's cool, calm, clutch performance in his first start made a lot of people say "Tavarez who," (referring to the Vikings other QB Tavarez Jackson) and cemented him as their new signal caller, it was a very bad offensive game plan that prevented Vick and the Eagles from playing up to expectations.

Michael Vick can't win. When his athleticism overcomes a bad game plan, everyone cheers him. When his athleticism can't overcome the bad game plan, everyone boos him. But the bad game plan, and the coaches who created it, goes without criticism.

Against the New York Giants last week, Vick overcame a bad offensive game plan with his legs and timely passing. But the Vikings used the same defensive game plan as that of the Giants, and with Vick not able to muster the same energy as the week before to essentially play out of that awful game plan, the Eagles offense stalled.

"That bad game plan," sets the relatively short Vick up in the pocket as a sitting duck, a focal point for blitzes. And those pass rush calls have come more and more over the last four games. But instead of rolling Vick out to have him throw more often than not, Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid kept Vick in the pocket.

The result: hurries, batted passes, and sacks.

And a shocking Vikings win.

Videos On Videoblogging - Tips, Irina Slutsky, And Gavin Newsom

In this vlogger's ongoing effort to encourage more people to video-blog, here are three videos I've made on the subject.

The first video, or vlog, is the most recent to date, and includes basic tips on videoblogging. The second vlog contains interviews with a number of people, including San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and asking "What Is New Media To You?

That one was fun and demonstrates how easy it is to use the camcorder to record the views of others and produce a vlog.  (But, in the case of Cathy Brooks, I asked her to send a MPEG file of her "in car" vlog.)


Vlog number three explains how I produce a vlog and what equipment I generally use.  The fourth vlog is another favorite, and features pioneer vlogger Irina Slutsky and "Television of Tommorrow" producer Tracy Swedlow talking about video-blogging.

How To Vlog:



What Is New Media To You:



How I Make A Vlog:



Irina Stutsky And Tracy Swedlow - Vlogging Pioneers:



But, with all of this, you've got to do it yourself. Get out there and vlog!

Vanity Fair Magazine Print Edition Is Real Thin (Media News)

Vanity Fair is this blogger's favorite print magazine to buy at San Francisco International Airport when traveling. "VF," for all of it's faults, does a great job of presenting a certain way of the good life. While it could be more diverse in it's presentation of what that means, Vanity Fair is always an enjoyable read. The problem today is it's shrinking. Check out my video:



Yep. Vanity Fair's January 2011 print mag edition is a full 50 percent smaller in thickness than past issues. VF fans are used to seeing a thick, heavy, magazine, as was the case as recently as the December 2010 mag.

The one with Cher on the cover, wearing fishnets.

Or the April 2010 issue where Michael Douglas announced the new Wall Street movie, and the David Letterman sex scandal was detailed in all of its glory.

Those issues, two of countless many VF's I own, are all damn thick, heavy magazines.

Then, there's Johnny Depp, or the VF issue with Depp on the cover. There's only two words for it: shockingly small.

Curious, a little cyber walking revealed that Conde Nast, the company that owns Vanity Fair and other publications, embarked on an initiative to have its properties think in a more "business like" way. After losing $1 billion in ad revenue in 2009, it's no surprise to lean Conde Nast has some problems, but then, as it's CEO Chuck Townsend pointed out, so does its competition.

Its print competition.

Much was made of Chuck Townsend announcing how well Conde Nast was doing compared with Hearst Corporation and TIME media properties, but that's print. Magazine ad revenue as a whole barely recovered from the recession, and newspapers are just plain taking on water. Print's seen better days and before the Internet World.

The question is what's the future for Vanity Fair?

I can't see VF lasting as a monthly. Quarterly, yes. Monthly, no. Moreover, it's future is in television and multimedia. And it's got to up its audience grab from Oscar-related content.  Why in heck it doesn't emphasize video and video-blogging is beyond me, but the old heads there better wisen up before it's too late. The VF brand can survive, but it's got to grow out of its print-oriented mentality.

Blog Platform Downtime: Blogger Wins Tumblr Loses

Royal Pingdom decided to compare blog platforms for reliability way back in October; they just released their test results on December 17th. Blogger won and Tumblr lost.

Blogger - the favorite of this blogger, even though we also have a Word Press platform, too - had a 100 percent uptime rate. That means Blogger blogs were up and running 24 and 7, or 100 percent of the time during the two month reporting period from October 15th to December 15th.

For Tumblr, something weird happened on December 5th: the largest blog outage known to man in a long time. For 24 hours Tumblr was down from December 5th to December 6th, giving it a 97 percent uptime rating.

Yikes.

Add to that, Tumblr had down times before the giant December outage.

And it just happened to occur just when the watchful eye of Royal Pingdom weighed in.

Nice.

Yeah, Blogger!

Stay tuned.   (Here's the full report.)