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As I was in search of a decent Irish bar and a hot Irish Coffee after a very cold day that was the Inauguration of President Barack Obama in Washington DC, I literally almost walked right into Joe Scarborough of MSNBC's "Morning Joe." If you're a political junkie like me, you certainly catch his show even though it comes on in the wee hours of the morning on the West Coast (ok, most of the time I'm asleep but I do try to watch it.)
After righting myself to avoid a collision I asked Joe if I could interview him on camcorder and get his thoughts on President Obama's speech. He gave permission and I promised to hold it to about 2 minutes. Scarborough said it was the greatest speech he heard since JFK's 1960 inauguration speech but most important, Joe took time to remind us that we're all Americans. I have to explain the context: while it was a great day, with a record 2 million to 3 million people in attendance (I think more than that), some took time to boo George W. Bush and as Joe said in the video, some conservatives thought it was a bad day for America. In reponse to this, Scarborough said "We're Americans. If you can't look at the sea of 2 million people waving American flags and not thank God that you're an American regardless of your political affiliation, there's something wrong with ya."
I thought about this as I considered the constant stream of hate-speech from some conservatives and claims that anyone who wanted to fix our health care system or improve our economy by spending money where needed (we have a great disinvestment problem) was in some way not American. That's when I remembered my talk with good ol' Joe Scarborough.
Conservatives should take a note from Scarborough and remember that while we may disagree on what to do to make America better, we're all interested and committed to improving our country. At least I hope we are. I'm certainly happy Scarborough checked the all-too-ridiculous rant of MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan (from "The Closing Bell") a few days ago, when he asked Ratigan if he's done a few lines (of cocaine) before appearing on "Morning Joe". Ratigan's under the impression that capitalism's under attack, when the fact is America's always had a mixed economy. The sooner folks like Ratigan get that, the better he and others will understand what's happened to our system, but that's another blog post.
Right now, I'm worried that there are two types of conservatives and the one's who aren't like Joe are more in number. We have a few conservatives who are even-tempered and thoughtful like Scarborough, and a lot who are hateful and unintelligent, like Glen Beck. I call the Beck-types "couch potato" conservatives who watch TV, listen to Rush, quote his lines, don't read a lick, never even heard of William F. Buckley, or for that matter can't deal with the fact that much of their brand of conservative behavior (I will not call it thought) is really a cover for a new brand of racism.
In fact, in my experience couch-potato conservatives don't understand economics well enough to talk about what a conservative approach should be separate from parroting tax credits as a term again and again and again, and not knowing why they work or don't work in some cases. But ask them about immigration or affirmative action and they can talk for days. Totally disinterested in rigorous thought they are, and right now, they're doing all they can to wreck this country. I hope they realize one day what Joe Scarborough said to me on January 20th 2009: "We're all Americans", and I would add, we've all got to join together as one and fix the economy of the USA.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Facebook eats FriendFeed; Mark Zuckerberg is Charles Foster Kane
In a sign that Facebook's not happy with Twitter being the "pulse of the planet", it acquired rival social network FriendFeed today. Yes, Facebook gets all of the FriendFeed ex-Google employees. Bully for them. But what does it mean for a person like me who's on both sites? For the answer, I checked Friend Feed's blog.
Well, to the unaided eye nothing. But then everything. Here's my hypothesis: look for Facebook to morph into FriendFeed such that all of the content from your social networks will easily find their way into your Facebook profile. On Flickr and uploaded a new photo? You'll see it on Facebook. And you can already see your tweets on Facebook, but if you're on about 14 main sites like I am (and 34 in all) you can't see all of them on Facebook; look for that to change too. That's just my prediction, but one thing's clear: Facebook just bought itself "Citizen Kane-style", the best engineers around. This is the press release that one can see at Friend Feed:
Mark Zuckerberg is Charles Foster Kane
In the classic movie and one of my favorites "Citizen Kane" when Kane (played by the late Orson Wells) acquired a little known paper called "The Enquirer" it was far behind the rival Chronicle in circulation and the Chronicle had the best writers around. Six years later, Kane built the Enquirer's circulation and bought the Chronicle's writers and moved them to the Enquirer. That's essentially what Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook has done; bring it the best talent. It's certainly an epic move because it's one that will boost Facebook's already lofty online presence.
Who's Facebook aiming after?
The popular view, advanced by TechCrunch because it's take and readership, is that Facebook got FriendFeed to go after Twitter, but legendary tech blogger Robert Scoble has a different view: he thinks its Google that's their target and has some great points, foremost is that Google does not have "real time search" and FriendFeed does.
What's real time search? It's an on-the-spot updating of your content. Check Robert's blog for an example of this now (just look on the right at the scrolling widget). It's a great way for searching for "who's chatting about what, now" unlike what was written years ago, which is what Google does today. Now, Facebook has an advantage over Google here in an area that Google considered a priority. Robert likes the move and so do I.
Well, to the unaided eye nothing. But then everything. Here's my hypothesis: look for Facebook to morph into FriendFeed such that all of the content from your social networks will easily find their way into your Facebook profile. On Flickr and uploaded a new photo? You'll see it on Facebook. And you can already see your tweets on Facebook, but if you're on about 14 main sites like I am (and 34 in all) you can't see all of them on Facebook; look for that to change too. That's just my prediction, but one thing's clear: Facebook just bought itself "Citizen Kane-style", the best engineers around. This is the press release that one can see at Friend Feed:
PALO ALTO, CALIF.—August 10, 2009—Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online. As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed’s four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.
“Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends,” said Bret Taylor, a FriendFeed co-founder and, previously, the group product manager who launched Google Maps. “We can’t wait to join the team and bring many of the innovations we’ve developed at FriendFeed to Facebook’s 250 million users around the world.”
“As we spent time with Mark and his leadership team, we were impressed by the open, creative culture they’ve built and their desire to have us contribute to it,” said Paul Buchheit, another FriendFeed co-founder. Buchheit, the Google engineer behind Gmail and the originator of Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto, added, “It was immediately obvious to us how passionate Facebook’s engineers are about creating simple, ground-breaking ways for people to share, and we are extremely excited to join such a like-minded group.”
Taylor and Buchheit founded FriendFeed along with Jim Norris and Sanjeev Singh in October 2007 after all four played key roles at Google for products like Gmail and Google Maps. At FriendFeed, they’ve brought together a world-class team of engineers and designers.
“Since I first tried FriendFeed, I’ve admired their team for creating such a simple and elegant service for people to share information,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use.”
FriendFeed is based in Mountain View, Calif. and has 12 employees. FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being as the teams determine the longer term plans for the product.
Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.
Mark Zuckerberg is Charles Foster Kane
In the classic movie and one of my favorites "Citizen Kane" when Kane (played by the late Orson Wells) acquired a little known paper called "The Enquirer" it was far behind the rival Chronicle in circulation and the Chronicle had the best writers around. Six years later, Kane built the Enquirer's circulation and bought the Chronicle's writers and moved them to the Enquirer. That's essentially what Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook has done; bring it the best talent. It's certainly an epic move because it's one that will boost Facebook's already lofty online presence.
Who's Facebook aiming after?
The popular view, advanced by TechCrunch because it's take and readership, is that Facebook got FriendFeed to go after Twitter, but legendary tech blogger Robert Scoble has a different view: he thinks its Google that's their target and has some great points, foremost is that Google does not have "real time search" and FriendFeed does.
What's real time search? It's an on-the-spot updating of your content. Check Robert's blog for an example of this now (just look on the right at the scrolling widget). It's a great way for searching for "who's chatting about what, now" unlike what was written years ago, which is what Google does today. Now, Facebook has an advantage over Google here in an area that Google considered a priority. Robert likes the move and so do I.
Richmond, Ca Mayor on Chevron refinery issue
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On YouTube.com
In the wake of my interview with Chevron employee Dennis Roos I've gotten a number of email and calls updating me on the matter of the negotiations to restart the stopped construction of the improvements to the Richmond refinery.
One of them was this "Meet The Mayor" community meeting held Friday, August 7th at 5:30 PM. Here, one could ask questions of Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin for one hour, but my intent was to attend, film residents who were concerned about the project, pro and con, and after it was over, get the Mayor's direct point of view if she would give it to me. (Take note of that.)
To review, Chevron's planned upgrade of their giant Richmond oil refinery was stalled because environmentalists sued them in court regarding what was viewed to be an inadequate environmental impact report (EIR) regarding how emissions were going to be lessened over current levels. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga agreed with their view and ordered planed construction stopped until Chevron could create a "better" EIR. The judge's decision threw over 1,000 construction employees out of work and threatened the future of Chevron in Richmond.
So I did arrive and sat next to a white-haired gentleman who as it happened gave me a copy of a letter I'd not seen from Richmond's Mechanics Bank. The letter stressed the importance of keeping Chevron in Richmond and arriving at a settlement to get the plant project going again.
So the meeting started and as the Mayor listened to people introduce themselves I explained that I was a video-blogger who wanted to ask her about the plant matter after the meeting was over if I could. She did say that was fine.
There were only two people who came to the meeting to talk about the refinery issue. The first person, an African American man, said that the Mayor seemed not to care about the people who need jobs and more about her own agenda (this is in the video). The Mayor said that she does did support a support a substitute to the the resolution voted on by the Richmond City Council two weeks ago calling for settlement talks (with California Attorney General Jerry Brown involved) so that all the workers can get back to their jobs and she's working to make that happen. The Mayor said doing this is important because Richmond has a 17 percent unemployment rate.
A few minutes later, and after a number of residents expressed concern for and presented programs to stop the violence plaguing young African Americans in Richmond (which was heart-breaking to see, no matter how many times I am presented with this issue), the man I was sitting next to, who's name was Richard Lompa, asked the Mayor about the bank letter, and explained that he didn't understand "why do we continuously bash Chevron" and quoted the letter written by Mechanics Bank President and CEO Stephen Foster which said the reason given for opposing Chevron doesn't stand up to scrutiny . He said no one would support Chevron putting out more pollution, and that it was as if she was plunging a dagger in the heart of the city.
The Mayor's response was that the judge made the decision and then she threw in that Chevron does not pay its fair share of taxes and talked about the company's court battle against Measure T which imposed a new tax structure for manufacturers like Chevron. She also pointed to Chevron's appeal of its property tax assessment.
After the meeting and people left the room, the Mayor did give me her time and put to rest the idea some have expressed that she was not talking to Chevron, stating that she talks to representatives of the firm every day.
Mayor McLaughlin then essentially repeated her claim that Chevron doesn't pay its taxes in response to my question that as a person trained and who's practiced economic development, tax reductions are a normal part of negotiations to make it easier for employers to maintain their business in a city. She asked if I was referring to the Measure T issue, and repeated what she said before regarding the firm not paying its fair share of taxes. Then, weirdly and after presenting herself well on camera but before I could deactivate it, suddenly turned and said "I have a community meeting" but I turned the camera to show that the meeting had ended long ago. Moreover, the Mayor agreed to give me just a moment of her time, and I gave her a platform to present herself; the Mayor didn't say she had more people to meet when we started the interview. She didn't have to essentially rain on her own parade but that's what happened as one can see and I'm really disappointed that she did that. I turned off the camcorder.
As I went outside, Mr. Lompa was talking to another person, but after he finished gave me his view. "The Mayor," he said, "was being shallow and not grounded with reality" regarding her repeating of the idea that Chevron has a $24 billion profit. He also said that he appeals his tax bill if he thinks it's not valid.
I agree with Mr. Lompa, but I'm really concerned that the good Mayor seems to have more of a personal agenda that may cloud her ability to effectively negotiate with Chevron. It's common practice for businesses to want and ask for tax reductions and its equally normal for city economic development officials (and that includes the Mayor) to structure rates that help businesses.
In all of my years in the public sector I've not seen or met a Mayor that didn't understand that, but Mayor McLaughlin's a new breed of activist city official. That's all well and good for getting elected but it seems to cloud one's ability to conduct the business of maintaining a municipality's economy. One can have their personal beliefs but when a city's unemployment rate is at almost 20 percent as is the case in Richmond, its a recession, and the job base has decreased by over 50 percent in the last two years, it's time to be more pragmatic and less antagonistic.
On YouTube.com
In the wake of my interview with Chevron employee Dennis Roos I've gotten a number of email and calls updating me on the matter of the negotiations to restart the stopped construction of the improvements to the Richmond refinery.
One of them was this "Meet The Mayor" community meeting held Friday, August 7th at 5:30 PM. Here, one could ask questions of Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin for one hour, but my intent was to attend, film residents who were concerned about the project, pro and con, and after it was over, get the Mayor's direct point of view if she would give it to me. (Take note of that.)
To review, Chevron's planned upgrade of their giant Richmond oil refinery was stalled because environmentalists sued them in court regarding what was viewed to be an inadequate environmental impact report (EIR) regarding how emissions were going to be lessened over current levels. Contra Costa County Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga agreed with their view and ordered planed construction stopped until Chevron could create a "better" EIR. The judge's decision threw over 1,000 construction employees out of work and threatened the future of Chevron in Richmond.
So I did arrive and sat next to a white-haired gentleman who as it happened gave me a copy of a letter I'd not seen from Richmond's Mechanics Bank. The letter stressed the importance of keeping Chevron in Richmond and arriving at a settlement to get the plant project going again.
So the meeting started and as the Mayor listened to people introduce themselves I explained that I was a video-blogger who wanted to ask her about the plant matter after the meeting was over if I could. She did say that was fine.
There were only two people who came to the meeting to talk about the refinery issue. The first person, an African American man, said that the Mayor seemed not to care about the people who need jobs and more about her own agenda (this is in the video). The Mayor said that she does did support a support a substitute to the the resolution voted on by the Richmond City Council two weeks ago calling for settlement talks (with California Attorney General Jerry Brown involved) so that all the workers can get back to their jobs and she's working to make that happen. The Mayor said doing this is important because Richmond has a 17 percent unemployment rate.
A few minutes later, and after a number of residents expressed concern for and presented programs to stop the violence plaguing young African Americans in Richmond (which was heart-breaking to see, no matter how many times I am presented with this issue), the man I was sitting next to, who's name was Richard Lompa, asked the Mayor about the bank letter, and explained that he didn't understand "why do we continuously bash Chevron" and quoted the letter written by Mechanics Bank President and CEO Stephen Foster which said the reason given for opposing Chevron doesn't stand up to scrutiny . He said no one would support Chevron putting out more pollution, and that it was as if she was plunging a dagger in the heart of the city.
The Mayor's response was that the judge made the decision and then she threw in that Chevron does not pay its fair share of taxes and talked about the company's court battle against Measure T which imposed a new tax structure for manufacturers like Chevron. She also pointed to Chevron's appeal of its property tax assessment.
After the meeting and people left the room, the Mayor did give me her time and put to rest the idea some have expressed that she was not talking to Chevron, stating that she talks to representatives of the firm every day.
Mayor McLaughlin then essentially repeated her claim that Chevron doesn't pay its taxes in response to my question that as a person trained and who's practiced economic development, tax reductions are a normal part of negotiations to make it easier for employers to maintain their business in a city. She asked if I was referring to the Measure T issue, and repeated what she said before regarding the firm not paying its fair share of taxes. Then, weirdly and after presenting herself well on camera but before I could deactivate it, suddenly turned and said "I have a community meeting" but I turned the camera to show that the meeting had ended long ago. Moreover, the Mayor agreed to give me just a moment of her time, and I gave her a platform to present herself; the Mayor didn't say she had more people to meet when we started the interview. She didn't have to essentially rain on her own parade but that's what happened as one can see and I'm really disappointed that she did that. I turned off the camcorder.
As I went outside, Mr. Lompa was talking to another person, but after he finished gave me his view. "The Mayor," he said, "was being shallow and not grounded with reality" regarding her repeating of the idea that Chevron has a $24 billion profit. He also said that he appeals his tax bill if he thinks it's not valid.
I agree with Mr. Lompa, but I'm really concerned that the good Mayor seems to have more of a personal agenda that may cloud her ability to effectively negotiate with Chevron. It's common practice for businesses to want and ask for tax reductions and its equally normal for city economic development officials (and that includes the Mayor) to structure rates that help businesses.
In all of my years in the public sector I've not seen or met a Mayor that didn't understand that, but Mayor McLaughlin's a new breed of activist city official. That's all well and good for getting elected but it seems to cloud one's ability to conduct the business of maintaining a municipality's economy. One can have their personal beliefs but when a city's unemployment rate is at almost 20 percent as is the case in Richmond, its a recession, and the job base has decreased by over 50 percent in the last two years, it's time to be more pragmatic and less antagonistic.
Tom Hayes: Another glimmer of hope for the economy
The health care sector continues to add jobs so investor confidence during the past month led the monthly Economic Recovery Reality Index (ERRI)
up a modest 4.76 points over July numbers to 16.03 for August. Unemployment dipped slightly and the increase in the number of “discouraged” workers slowed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - but as with prior economic recessions and depressions employment changes are once again trailing the other economic indicators:
The small ERRI gain shows Wall Street's optimism hasn't yet reached most other streets; it will take some time for average Americans to feel - or believe - that this long subtle assault that started with obscure financial "devices" has eased and real recovery has begun. The problem, we know now, was not sub-prime lending, which can and does help people, but aggressive and deliberately predatory sub-prime lending from companies and CEOs who thought they were immune to the risks in an essentially unregulated environment.
The ERRI uses a hypothetical, indexed fund (similar in some ways to a mutual fund) to measure investor confidence across nearly a dozen sectors of the economy, but until jobs and wages show sustained improvements you won't see it move back closer to (or above) the 100 mark no matter how fast stock prices drive the stock/investment component higher.
The modest gain in the August ERRI figures reflect both equity prices as of the close of the NYSE on Friday, August 7th and data released in the monthly update/estimate from the Department of Labor earlier the same day combined using a new calculation. Without the on-going hiring in health care and the slight turn-around in unemployment rate even the robust gains in various stock markets would not have had much impact on the index.
up a modest 4.76 points over July numbers to 16.03 for August. Unemployment dipped slightly and the increase in the number of “discouraged” workers slowed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - but as with prior economic recessions and depressions employment changes are once again trailing the other economic indicators:The small ERRI gain shows Wall Street's optimism hasn't yet reached most other streets; it will take some time for average Americans to feel - or believe - that this long subtle assault that started with obscure financial "devices" has eased and real recovery has begun. The problem, we know now, was not sub-prime lending, which can and does help people, but aggressive and deliberately predatory sub-prime lending from companies and CEOs who thought they were immune to the risks in an essentially unregulated environment.
The ERRI uses a hypothetical, indexed fund (similar in some ways to a mutual fund) to measure investor confidence across nearly a dozen sectors of the economy, but until jobs and wages show sustained improvements you won't see it move back closer to (or above) the 100 mark no matter how fast stock prices drive the stock/investment component higher.
"Equity investments are volatile, particularly when not carefully diversified and monitored; the ERRI would have shown even less improvement had closing prices from even a day sooner been utilized in the calculations (since that would have reduced the 'ERRI fund' improvement.)"
The modest gain in the August ERRI figures reflect both equity prices as of the close of the NYSE on Friday, August 7th and data released in the monthly update/estimate from the Department of Labor earlier the same day combined using a new calculation. Without the on-going hiring in health care and the slight turn-around in unemployment rate even the robust gains in various stock markets would not have had much impact on the index.
Michael Vick please show that you have class!
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Now as any regular follower of my blogs knows, I'm really happy former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick's back in the NFL, and even though he's not signed with a team yet, former Indy Coach Tony Dungy said on NBC's telecast of the "Hall of Fame Game" that a team should sign him within the next week. That's great. But just because God's smiling on Vick, doesn't mean he has to lose control of the image he's working to build so quickly, and risk blowing it all.
What do I mean? Well, there's a new set of expectations of Vick from a number of people: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dungy, and anyone rooting for Vick to get a second chance and most important succeed at it. I count myself here because I embarked on an attack against on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for its race-tinged smearing of Vick, and I'm still not done with PETA. But because of that, I expect Michael Vick to be that guy we all want him to be, and not someone sporting the latest in thug attire and saying "I'm gonna always love my N___, you know what I'm sayin" as he did in this video:
When I got wind of this via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports on Twitter, I pretty much fell out of my chair. I wanted to make sure I wasn't being too anal about the whole deal so I asked my Mom, who's visiting me, to come over and watch the video. Her words came out as soon as she listened to him: "He's not gonna make it," she said.
I informed Mom that Coach Dungy said Vick would be signed by someone and she said "I hope so." So do I.
See, what Mike doens't understand is now, like it or not, everyone black's not only rooting for him and fighting for him, but demands that he represent himself in a way that justifies our actions in defending him. I write "black" because Vick's behavior ignites the age-old argument of what it means to be black in America and the idea that one does not have to act black, but that's another blog post, back to this one.
Allowing ones self to be on camera showing the best of thug life (another code word for "acting black") doesn't help us one bit. I don't know where anyone got the idea that rap culture was desirable, but Vick's got to understand if he wants to establish himself as lovable to corporate sponsors (and if you want to say that's a code word for "acting white" go ahead but my retort is that being clean, intelligent, and presentable to companies has nothing to do with race at all), he's got to lose that shtick, and fast.
Am I being harsh, yes, massively so. Do I care? No way. I'm really ticked-off with Vick's actions; perhaps T.O. (Terrell Owens) can talk me down and talk to him in the process. Protecting the proper image is at the center of this issue of Michael Vick's future. There are people betting that Vick will be just the kind of person he's showing himself to be in that YouTube moment and that's not acceptable to us, his fans. While Michael may feel he's got to "keep it real" as Chris Rock would say, "keeping it real, yeah, real dumb" is what he's doing.
Why in hell would Michael allow someone to point a camera at him and just follow him around without knowing what the digital image was going to be used for? Vick not only didn't care, he got right up to the camera and came off big in his thuggy glory.
Great, man. Just peachy.
What we want to see - Ok, what I want to see is a clean-cut, smooth, thoughtful version of Vick that by its very existence gives a collective finger to his doubters and allows him to regain then surpass the value he had before he was hauled off to jail. In the NFL, where potentially hundreds of millions of dollars can be brought to bear on one person, image is everything. One can't whine and cry about not being able to wear his gangta t-shirt or not "looking black", unless of course he wants to kiss his revenue potential goodbye. If so, then fine. There's thousands of brothers on the street trying to sell their music and "looking black in the process, perhaps Vick can join them.
Call me "Uncle Tom" or whatever. I don't care. I'm keeping it real myself. And the real story is that the Michael Vick I saw in that video is pretty much the same Michael Vick I briefly met at the 2000 EA Sports Party in Atlanta during the Super Bowl. At that event, Vick was playing video games wearing a white tank top shirt some call a "wife beater" shirt. His hair was braided. I was disappointed and wanted to kick the ass of whomever was supposedly advising him.
There's no denying Vick's physical talent, but I want to see him bring himself to an NFL-level of character and image, if anything because it's a good, positive message to send to kids. He didn't project that NFL-level of person at the EA Sports party 10 years ago, where he should have dressed business casual, and he's didn't show it on the YouTube video.
Coach Dungy, please talk to Michael before its too late. As my 74-year old Mom said "He's got to stay away from that old crowd. C'mon Vick!"
Amen.
Now as any regular follower of my blogs knows, I'm really happy former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick's back in the NFL, and even though he's not signed with a team yet, former Indy Coach Tony Dungy said on NBC's telecast of the "Hall of Fame Game" that a team should sign him within the next week. That's great. But just because God's smiling on Vick, doesn't mean he has to lose control of the image he's working to build so quickly, and risk blowing it all.
What do I mean? Well, there's a new set of expectations of Vick from a number of people: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dungy, and anyone rooting for Vick to get a second chance and most important succeed at it. I count myself here because I embarked on an attack against on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for its race-tinged smearing of Vick, and I'm still not done with PETA. But because of that, I expect Michael Vick to be that guy we all want him to be, and not someone sporting the latest in thug attire and saying "I'm gonna always love my N___, you know what I'm sayin" as he did in this video:
When I got wind of this via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports on Twitter, I pretty much fell out of my chair. I wanted to make sure I wasn't being too anal about the whole deal so I asked my Mom, who's visiting me, to come over and watch the video. Her words came out as soon as she listened to him: "He's not gonna make it," she said.
I informed Mom that Coach Dungy said Vick would be signed by someone and she said "I hope so." So do I.
See, what Mike doens't understand is now, like it or not, everyone black's not only rooting for him and fighting for him, but demands that he represent himself in a way that justifies our actions in defending him. I write "black" because Vick's behavior ignites the age-old argument of what it means to be black in America and the idea that one does not have to act black, but that's another blog post, back to this one.
Allowing ones self to be on camera showing the best of thug life (another code word for "acting black") doesn't help us one bit. I don't know where anyone got the idea that rap culture was desirable, but Vick's got to understand if he wants to establish himself as lovable to corporate sponsors (and if you want to say that's a code word for "acting white" go ahead but my retort is that being clean, intelligent, and presentable to companies has nothing to do with race at all), he's got to lose that shtick, and fast.
Am I being harsh, yes, massively so. Do I care? No way. I'm really ticked-off with Vick's actions; perhaps T.O. (Terrell Owens) can talk me down and talk to him in the process. Protecting the proper image is at the center of this issue of Michael Vick's future. There are people betting that Vick will be just the kind of person he's showing himself to be in that YouTube moment and that's not acceptable to us, his fans. While Michael may feel he's got to "keep it real" as Chris Rock would say, "keeping it real, yeah, real dumb" is what he's doing.
Why in hell would Michael allow someone to point a camera at him and just follow him around without knowing what the digital image was going to be used for? Vick not only didn't care, he got right up to the camera and came off big in his thuggy glory.
Great, man. Just peachy.
What we want to see - Ok, what I want to see is a clean-cut, smooth, thoughtful version of Vick that by its very existence gives a collective finger to his doubters and allows him to regain then surpass the value he had before he was hauled off to jail. In the NFL, where potentially hundreds of millions of dollars can be brought to bear on one person, image is everything. One can't whine and cry about not being able to wear his gangta t-shirt or not "looking black", unless of course he wants to kiss his revenue potential goodbye. If so, then fine. There's thousands of brothers on the street trying to sell their music and "looking black in the process, perhaps Vick can join them.
Call me "Uncle Tom" or whatever. I don't care. I'm keeping it real myself. And the real story is that the Michael Vick I saw in that video is pretty much the same Michael Vick I briefly met at the 2000 EA Sports Party in Atlanta during the Super Bowl. At that event, Vick was playing video games wearing a white tank top shirt some call a "wife beater" shirt. His hair was braided. I was disappointed and wanted to kick the ass of whomever was supposedly advising him.
There's no denying Vick's physical talent, but I want to see him bring himself to an NFL-level of character and image, if anything because it's a good, positive message to send to kids. He didn't project that NFL-level of person at the EA Sports party 10 years ago, where he should have dressed business casual, and he's didn't show it on the YouTube video.
Coach Dungy, please talk to Michael before its too late. As my 74-year old Mom said "He's got to stay away from that old crowd. C'mon Vick!"
Amen.
Michael Vick please show that you have class!
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Now as any regular follower of my blogs knows, I'm really happy former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick's back in the NFL, and even though he's not signed with a team yet, former Indy Coach Tony Dungy said on NBC's telecast of the "Hall of Fame Game" that a team should sign him within the next week. That's great. But just because God's smiling on Vick, doesn't mean he has to lose control of the image he's working to build so quickly, and risk blowing it all.
What do I mean? Well, there's a new set of expectations of Vick from a number of people: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dungy, and anyone rooting for Vick to get a second chance and most important succeed at it. I count myself here because I embarked on an attack against on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for its race-tinged smearing of Vick, and I'm still not done with PETA. But because of that, I expect Michael Vick to be that guy we all want him to be, and not someone sporting the latest in thug attire and saying "I'm gonna always love my N___, you know what I'm sayin" as he did in this video:
When I got wind of this via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports on Twitter, I pretty much fell out of my chair. I wanted to make sure I wasn't being too anal about the whole deal so I asked my Mom, who's visiting me, to come over and watch the video. Her words came out as soon as she listened to him: "He's not gonna make it," she said.
I informed Mom that Coach Dungy said Vick would be signed by someone and she said "I hope so." So do I.
See, what Mike doens't understand is now, like it or not, everyone black's not only rooting for him and fighting for him, but demands that he represent himself in a way that justifies our actions in defending him. I write "black" because Vick's behavior ignites the age-old argument of what it means to be black in America and the idea that one does not have to act black, but that's another blog post, back to this one.
Allowing ones self to be on camera showing the best of thug life (another code word for "acting black") doesn't help us one bit. I don't know where anyone got the idea that rap culture was desirable, but Vick's got to understand if he wants to establish himself as lovable to corporate sponsors (and if you want to say that's a code word for "acting white" go ahead but my retort is that being clean, intelligent, and presentable to companies has nothing to do with race at all), he's got to lose that shtick, and fast.
Am I being harsh, yes, massively so. Do I care? No way. I'm really ticked-off with Vick's actions; perhaps T.O. (Terrell Owens) can talk me down and talk to him in the process. Protecting the proper image is at the center of this issue of Michael Vick's future. There are people betting that Vick will be just the kind of person he's showing himself to be in that YouTube moment and that's not acceptable to us, his fans. While Michael may feel he's got to "keep it real" as Chris Rock would say, "keeping it real, yeah, real dumb" is what he's doing.
Why in hell would Michael allow someone to point a camera at him and just follow him around without knowing what the digital image was going to be used for? Vick not only didn't care, he got right up to the camera and came off big in his thuggy glory.
Great, man. Just peachy.
What we want to see - Ok, what I want to see is a clean-cut, smooth, thoughtful version of Vick that by its very existence gives a collective finger to his doubters and allows him to regain then surpass the value he had before he was hauled off to jail. In the NFL, where potentially hundreds of millions of dollars can be brought to bear on one person, image is everything. One can't whine and cry about not being able to wear his gangta t-shirt or not "looking black", unless of course he wants to kiss his revenue potential goodbye. If so, then fine. There's thousands of brothers on the street trying to sell their music and "looking black in the process, perhaps Vick can join them.
Call me "Uncle Tom" or whatever. I don't care. I'm keeping it real myself. And the real story is that the Michael Vick I saw in that video is pretty much the same Michael Vick I briefly met at the 2000 EA Sports Party in Atlanta during the Super Bowl. At that event, Vick was playing video games wearing a white tank top shirt some call a "wife beater" shirt. His hair was braided. I was disappointed and wanted to kick the ass of whomever was supposedly advising him.
There's no denying Vick's physical talent, but I want to see him bring himself to an NFL-level of character and image, if anything because it's a good, positive message to send to kids. He didn't project that NFL-level of person at the EA Sports party 10 years ago, where he should have dressed business casual, and he's didn't show it on the YouTube video.
Coach Dungy, please talk to Michael before its too late. As my 74-year old Mom said "He's got to stay away from that old crowd. C'mon Vick!"
Amen.
Now as any regular follower of my blogs knows, I'm really happy former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick's back in the NFL, and even though he's not signed with a team yet, former Indy Coach Tony Dungy said on NBC's telecast of the "Hall of Fame Game" that a team should sign him within the next week. That's great. But just because God's smiling on Vick, doesn't mean he has to lose control of the image he's working to build so quickly, and risk blowing it all.
What do I mean? Well, there's a new set of expectations of Vick from a number of people: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dungy, and anyone rooting for Vick to get a second chance and most important succeed at it. I count myself here because I embarked on an attack against on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for its race-tinged smearing of Vick, and I'm still not done with PETA. But because of that, I expect Michael Vick to be that guy we all want him to be, and not someone sporting the latest in thug attire and saying "I'm gonna always love my N___, you know what I'm sayin" as he did in this video:
When I got wind of this via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports on Twitter, I pretty much fell out of my chair. I wanted to make sure I wasn't being too anal about the whole deal so I asked my Mom, who's visiting me, to come over and watch the video. Her words came out as soon as she listened to him: "He's not gonna make it," she said.
I informed Mom that Coach Dungy said Vick would be signed by someone and she said "I hope so." So do I.
See, what Mike doens't understand is now, like it or not, everyone black's not only rooting for him and fighting for him, but demands that he represent himself in a way that justifies our actions in defending him. I write "black" because Vick's behavior ignites the age-old argument of what it means to be black in America and the idea that one does not have to act black, but that's another blog post, back to this one.
Allowing ones self to be on camera showing the best of thug life (another code word for "acting black") doesn't help us one bit. I don't know where anyone got the idea that rap culture was desirable, but Vick's got to understand if he wants to establish himself as lovable to corporate sponsors (and if you want to say that's a code word for "acting white" go ahead but my retort is that being clean, intelligent, and presentable to companies has nothing to do with race at all), he's got to lose that shtick, and fast.
Am I being harsh, yes, massively so. Do I care? No way. I'm really ticked-off with Vick's actions; perhaps T.O. (Terrell Owens) can talk me down and talk to him in the process. Protecting the proper image is at the center of this issue of Michael Vick's future. There are people betting that Vick will be just the kind of person he's showing himself to be in that YouTube moment and that's not acceptable to us, his fans. While Michael may feel he's got to "keep it real" as Chris Rock would say, "keeping it real, yeah, real dumb" is what he's doing.
Why in hell would Michael allow someone to point a camera at him and just follow him around without knowing what the digital image was going to be used for? Vick not only didn't care, he got right up to the camera and came off big in his thuggy glory.
Great, man. Just peachy.
What we want to see - Ok, what I want to see is a clean-cut, smooth, thoughtful version of Vick that by its very existence gives a collective finger to his doubters and allows him to regain then surpass the value he had before he was hauled off to jail. In the NFL, where potentially hundreds of millions of dollars can be brought to bear on one person, image is everything. One can't whine and cry about not being able to wear his gangta t-shirt or not "looking black", unless of course he wants to kiss his revenue potential goodbye. If so, then fine. There's thousands of brothers on the street trying to sell their music and "looking black in the process, perhaps Vick can join them.
Call me "Uncle Tom" or whatever. I don't care. I'm keeping it real myself. And the real story is that the Michael Vick I saw in that video is pretty much the same Michael Vick I briefly met at the 2000 EA Sports Party in Atlanta during the Super Bowl. At that event, Vick was playing video games wearing a white tank top shirt some call a "wife beater" shirt. His hair was braided. I was disappointed and wanted to kick the ass of whomever was supposedly advising him.
There's no denying Vick's physical talent, but I want to see him bring himself to an NFL-level of character and image, if anything because it's a good, positive message to send to kids. He didn't project that NFL-level of person at the EA Sports party 10 years ago, where he should have dressed business casual, and he's didn't show it on the YouTube video.
Coach Dungy, please talk to Michael before its too late. As my 74-year old Mom said "He's got to stay away from that old crowd. C'mon Vick!"
Amen.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
Canton South Marching Band HOF 2009
Canton South Marching Band during the Hall of Fame Parade August 8, 2009. The band did a great job! Including all the NICC Sr. Highers!
Police slam elderly lady, taser Oakland A's fan - what's up?
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I'm not sure if it's because we have more digital camcorders around than ever before, or there's something sinister in the way police are being trained today, or some combination of both, but we now have two disturbing examples of excessive force applied by the people we hire to protect and to serve.
The first and most recent example comes from a Walmart in Columbus, Ohio. In the video below this elderly woman named Virginia Dodson reportedly of 84 years old is standing in a parking lot and holding a knife. The reason for holding the knife was that Dodson's daughter left her in her car while she went back into the store. The elder Dodson, an Alzheimer's Patient, got scared because she was alone and cut herself out of the car seat belt, then got out of the automobile in search of her daughter.
Some young people had talked to Virginia in such a way that she brandished the knife. In turn they called 911. When the police officer arrived she walked up to Dodson and after asking her to drop the knife, violently slammed her to the ground.
Here's the video:
What's got me is that since it's obvious the female officer (proving that its not a gender-based issue) was strong enough to take her down with ease, why not just grab the knife from her instead? All of the other moves were excessive and caused Dodson to bleed. Thankfully she was rushed to the hospital and no charges were filed.
To me, police officers are supposed to be trained to be super people in judgment not just strength. Yes, I know that what they do is dangerous, but the job doesn't have to be a thankless one. Somewhere along the way, deep in our long term backslide in education spending and the decline of leisure time we produced a society of people impatient to study a situation then react in a non-violent way. Great classic books on negotiation like "Getting to Yes" have given way to the ideas of "Ask A Ninja". Police seem to be expected to strike and make arrests by any means necessary rather than intelligently work to resolve a problem without arrests or violence. Want another example? Take the case of the Oakland A's fan who was tasered by police basically for being a big mouth.
Why taser a man sitting in his chair? What was the deal? Well, he was drunk, unruly, and refused to leave the stadium upon Oakland police orders. But here's the rub, yet again: why the totally unintelligent way of just saying "Just do as I say?" Yes, you should always follow police orders, period. That's for you and me. But what about those stupid people who don't? Why is the answer hitting them or tasering them? Why not another kind of weapon: words? It seems like we're really going backward as a society if you or anyone else feels you have to defend such an action. Again, the police are supposed to be SUPER PEOPLE. People we look up to for their extraordinary decision making skill, not people we fear because of the idea that they may go too far and harm someone.
I miss the days of community policing, when officers on the beat knew folks in the neighborhood and at the stadium. Those guys and women were a unique breed of talkers that knew how to use their brains to solve problems. At least the one's I knew in Oakland; they're retired for the most part. It seems that we have a national problem of not teaching good negotiating tactics to officers, who because of that are more prone to take a physical approach to problem resolution.
We've got to insist on smart cops. In fact, I'll call for a "smart cop" movement: a detailed list of changes in law enforcement systems that will produce more of the kind of modern problem solvers we need today. The first change should be monetary bonuses of $3,000 per officer per event for anyone that manages to defuse a situation without violence. That's a great incentive for an officer to think twice before flipping an elderly woman to the ground.
Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has called for reform of how police solve problems in the wake of the Oscar Grant shooting.
I'm not sure if it's because we have more digital camcorders around than ever before, or there's something sinister in the way police are being trained today, or some combination of both, but we now have two disturbing examples of excessive force applied by the people we hire to protect and to serve.
The first and most recent example comes from a Walmart in Columbus, Ohio. In the video below this elderly woman named Virginia Dodson reportedly of 84 years old is standing in a parking lot and holding a knife. The reason for holding the knife was that Dodson's daughter left her in her car while she went back into the store. The elder Dodson, an Alzheimer's Patient, got scared because she was alone and cut herself out of the car seat belt, then got out of the automobile in search of her daughter.
Some young people had talked to Virginia in such a way that she brandished the knife. In turn they called 911. When the police officer arrived she walked up to Dodson and after asking her to drop the knife, violently slammed her to the ground.
Here's the video:
What's got me is that since it's obvious the female officer (proving that its not a gender-based issue) was strong enough to take her down with ease, why not just grab the knife from her instead? All of the other moves were excessive and caused Dodson to bleed. Thankfully she was rushed to the hospital and no charges were filed.
To me, police officers are supposed to be trained to be super people in judgment not just strength. Yes, I know that what they do is dangerous, but the job doesn't have to be a thankless one. Somewhere along the way, deep in our long term backslide in education spending and the decline of leisure time we produced a society of people impatient to study a situation then react in a non-violent way. Great classic books on negotiation like "Getting to Yes" have given way to the ideas of "Ask A Ninja". Police seem to be expected to strike and make arrests by any means necessary rather than intelligently work to resolve a problem without arrests or violence. Want another example? Take the case of the Oakland A's fan who was tasered by police basically for being a big mouth.
Why taser a man sitting in his chair? What was the deal? Well, he was drunk, unruly, and refused to leave the stadium upon Oakland police orders. But here's the rub, yet again: why the totally unintelligent way of just saying "Just do as I say?" Yes, you should always follow police orders, period. That's for you and me. But what about those stupid people who don't? Why is the answer hitting them or tasering them? Why not another kind of weapon: words? It seems like we're really going backward as a society if you or anyone else feels you have to defend such an action. Again, the police are supposed to be SUPER PEOPLE. People we look up to for their extraordinary decision making skill, not people we fear because of the idea that they may go too far and harm someone.
I miss the days of community policing, when officers on the beat knew folks in the neighborhood and at the stadium. Those guys and women were a unique breed of talkers that knew how to use their brains to solve problems. At least the one's I knew in Oakland; they're retired for the most part. It seems that we have a national problem of not teaching good negotiating tactics to officers, who because of that are more prone to take a physical approach to problem resolution.
We've got to insist on smart cops. In fact, I'll call for a "smart cop" movement: a detailed list of changes in law enforcement systems that will produce more of the kind of modern problem solvers we need today. The first change should be monetary bonuses of $3,000 per officer per event for anyone that manages to defuse a situation without violence. That's a great incentive for an officer to think twice before flipping an elderly woman to the ground.
Saturday, August 08, 2009
LakeFest Street Fair in Oakland, CA - August 1st 2009
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On YouTube.com
LakeFest is a street fair that was held last Saturday and Sunday August 1st and 2nd on Lakeshore Avenue between Lake Park and Mandana near the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. After a long absence, it's back for its second year and with great bands and vendors selling clothes and representing everything from the new Lake Chalet restaurant to "Friends of the Oakland Public Library."
I talked with a number of Oaklanders about the festival because there was a long period of time that, well, there was not an event of this kind at this location. That is until Helen Wyman stepped in.
Helen Wyman is an event producer currently best known for the first, successful Uptown street fair held June 18th of this year. She explained that this event has nothing to do with the version of year's past and is brand new. "'LakeFest' was a concept we came up with through my company Oakland Events. We decided that Lakeshore was a great spot because of the community and the neighborhood, location and the weather and so many people that can walk here. And they didn't have a festival so we wanted to bring the festival back here."
But what happened to the first version of what is now called "LakeFest"? For the answer to that question I turned to long-time Oaklander Pam Drake, who is Executive Director of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District (LBID). "WE had put it on with an art organization that didn't work with the vendors and it ended up costing us a lot of money and didn't involve our stores as much as it should. So the businesses, we weren't really sure if we wanted to go on with it.
"So, we hadn't done anything in a while and we felt like even though we have the wonderful farmers market, that people wanted to see Lakeshore on the map again. So Helen Wyman, who's someone who I worked with her mom, came up and said 'We've done all these events and I'd really like to do an event for this district.'"
LakeFest was Wyman's first independent event so she wrote a proposal to the LBID's Drake and she liked and endorsed Wyman's idea. Last year was the first one; this is the second year in a row for Wyman's festival concept.
Personally, I love what she's done. It captures the feel and the sprit of Oakland without really any "trick" other than organizing businesses and entertainment and booths. But with that, I have to complement Oakland Events on taking steps to guard against overcrowding. Many street fairs in San Francisco have the booths so close to the side walk that its hard to walk back-and-forth because folks are pressed so close together; not so at LakeFest.
LakeFest also helped the businesses along Lakeshore, especially Easy Lounge, which was perpetually crowded with a great mix of people and Starbucks and Noah's Bagels, which benefited from being near the music stage at the Mandana Avenue end of the street fair. Combined with the Grand Lake Farmers Market, the whole neighborhood was just one big party.
So, congrats to Wyman and Oakland Events for a fun time. But I look forward to the day when both Grand Avenue and Lakeshore are both closed down for one big Grand Lake Festival.
On YouTube.com
LakeFest is a street fair that was held last Saturday and Sunday August 1st and 2nd on Lakeshore Avenue between Lake Park and Mandana near the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. After a long absence, it's back for its second year and with great bands and vendors selling clothes and representing everything from the new Lake Chalet restaurant to "Friends of the Oakland Public Library."
I talked with a number of Oaklanders about the festival because there was a long period of time that, well, there was not an event of this kind at this location. That is until Helen Wyman stepped in.
Helen Wyman is an event producer currently best known for the first, successful Uptown street fair held June 18th of this year. She explained that this event has nothing to do with the version of year's past and is brand new. "'LakeFest' was a concept we came up with through my company Oakland Events. We decided that Lakeshore was a great spot because of the community and the neighborhood, location and the weather and so many people that can walk here. And they didn't have a festival so we wanted to bring the festival back here."
But what happened to the first version of what is now called "LakeFest"? For the answer to that question I turned to long-time Oaklander Pam Drake, who is Executive Director of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District (LBID). "WE had put it on with an art organization that didn't work with the vendors and it ended up costing us a lot of money and didn't involve our stores as much as it should. So the businesses, we weren't really sure if we wanted to go on with it.
"So, we hadn't done anything in a while and we felt like even though we have the wonderful farmers market, that people wanted to see Lakeshore on the map again. So Helen Wyman, who's someone who I worked with her mom, came up and said 'We've done all these events and I'd really like to do an event for this district.'"
LakeFest was Wyman's first independent event so she wrote a proposal to the LBID's Drake and she liked and endorsed Wyman's idea. Last year was the first one; this is the second year in a row for Wyman's festival concept.
Personally, I love what she's done. It captures the feel and the sprit of Oakland without really any "trick" other than organizing businesses and entertainment and booths. But with that, I have to complement Oakland Events on taking steps to guard against overcrowding. Many street fairs in San Francisco have the booths so close to the side walk that its hard to walk back-and-forth because folks are pressed so close together; not so at LakeFest.
LakeFest also helped the businesses along Lakeshore, especially Easy Lounge, which was perpetually crowded with a great mix of people and Starbucks and Noah's Bagels, which benefited from being near the music stage at the Mandana Avenue end of the street fair. Combined with the Grand Lake Farmers Market, the whole neighborhood was just one big party.
So, congrats to Wyman and Oakland Events for a fun time. But I look forward to the day when both Grand Avenue and Lakeshore are both closed down for one big Grand Lake Festival.
Friday, August 07, 2009
"Follow Friday" on Twitter - what is it?
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Today's Friday August 7th and for any regular Twitter user it it's "Follow Friday". But just what is Follow Friday and why is it so popular? I've got to admit I had no idea why the habit started. Whatever the case, it's a popular Internet happening, so let me explain what it is.
Follow Friday is the act of copying a Twitter account reference (@zennie62) and other Twitter accounts references (@handsongourmet), then in the "What are you doing" field paste those references and add this before them - Follow Friday - so the result looks like this:
And then click on "update". What will happen is others will see those references and click on them to follow if they want. But at times just making that kind of update will not do the trick, so many people add more account references, like so:
The reason for adding so many accounts is that the more people you encourage to be followed, the more likely they are to place you in their Follow Friday update post and the more times you will be "seen" to be followed by their followers.
Got it?
It's like this: let's say there's a 50 percent chance that you will get new followers if you have just two Twitter reference accounts, ok? So, if we have six, we go from one possible new follower to three. But you don't stop there, you add more Twitter account holders as you go along in new updates for Friday. The ideal system is to help those account holders who are following you first. What you want is for everyone following you to gain the benefit of your follower base, and vice versa. The overall objective is more followers, and a greater base from which to issue your message.
It's also the best free way to gain followers in addition to tweeting everyday, and retweeting (copying someone's tweet, pasting it into your "What are you doing? field, adding "RT" before it, and then pressing "update. On the matter of free, I don't recommend buying into a service as many of them don't work as advertised.)
Now, who started all of this?
According to Mashable the first Follow Friday tweet was issued in mid January of 2009 by @micah (Micah Baldwin), then @myklroventine came up with the hashtag #followfriday (which you can use or just "Follow Friday" as I do). But the very next week, the trend went viral, with about two Follow Friday's per second at its highest rate of activity.
TopFollowFriday a great tool
Wondering what online tool to use to "watch" your Follow Friday activity? I learned about something called TopFollowFriday, which is where can see who's endorsing them and who you've endorsed.
So give Follow Friday a try today, which is...Friday!
Today's Friday August 7th and for any regular Twitter user it it's "Follow Friday". But just what is Follow Friday and why is it so popular? I've got to admit I had no idea why the habit started. Whatever the case, it's a popular Internet happening, so let me explain what it is.
Follow Friday is the act of copying a Twitter account reference (@zennie62) and other Twitter accounts references (@handsongourmet), then in the "What are you doing" field paste those references and add this before them - Follow Friday - so the result looks like this:
Follow Friday @zennie62 @handsongourmet
And then click on "update". What will happen is others will see those references and click on them to follow if they want. But at times just making that kind of update will not do the trick, so many people add more account references, like so:
Follow Friday @zennie62 @handsongourmet @makeitpro @therealshaq @sfgate @ladygaga
The reason for adding so many accounts is that the more people you encourage to be followed, the more likely they are to place you in their Follow Friday update post and the more times you will be "seen" to be followed by their followers.
Got it?
It's like this: let's say there's a 50 percent chance that you will get new followers if you have just two Twitter reference accounts, ok? So, if we have six, we go from one possible new follower to three. But you don't stop there, you add more Twitter account holders as you go along in new updates for Friday. The ideal system is to help those account holders who are following you first. What you want is for everyone following you to gain the benefit of your follower base, and vice versa. The overall objective is more followers, and a greater base from which to issue your message.
It's also the best free way to gain followers in addition to tweeting everyday, and retweeting (copying someone's tweet, pasting it into your "What are you doing? field, adding "RT" before it, and then pressing "update. On the matter of free, I don't recommend buying into a service as many of them don't work as advertised.)
Now, who started all of this?
According to Mashable the first Follow Friday tweet was issued in mid January of 2009 by @micah (Micah Baldwin), then @myklroventine came up with the hashtag #followfriday (which you can use or just "Follow Friday" as I do). But the very next week, the trend went viral, with about two Follow Friday's per second at its highest rate of activity.
TopFollowFriday a great tool
Wondering what online tool to use to "watch" your Follow Friday activity? I learned about something called TopFollowFriday, which is where can see who's endorsing them and who you've endorsed.
So give Follow Friday a try today, which is...Friday!
Thursday, August 06, 2009
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" director dies. John Hughes "got" Chicago
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YouTube , MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos, Sclipo and Viddler
(Topics: John Hughes, Chicago, movies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Zennie Abraham)
When I learned that John Hughes passed away, SFGate.com referred to one of his films "Sixteen Candles" and I thought: What?! Heck with that; the best John Hughes film ever was "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"! That is one of my top 10 movies of all time. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is tops in my movie collection and when I think of Chicago, my hometown, that's the movie I think of.
Why?
Because "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was and is the ultimate "coming of age" story but with a twist. Ferris Bueller already came of age before the movie; we come of age watching Ferris take over Chicago for a day, even as he was thought to be very sick by everyone at his school except the principal and his nosy sister.
That movie was the epicenter of popular sayings like "Who do you think you are? Abe Froeman?" (The mythical "Sausage King of Chicago" that Bueller claims to be while trying to worm his way into an expensive Friench restaurant), or "Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy... Ssssswwiiiinng batter!" , which Alan Ruck, who played Cameron, was actually ad-libbing "He can't hit-he can't hit-he can't hit-he can't hit". It had, front and center, every young man's fantasy: to drive a hot red car all over the place, have your hot girl friend and best friend in it, and absolutely no responsibility for paying for it (because your friend's parents own it).
(Of course, it took Cameron to cause its destruction, just as he was going through his pivotal change where he's ready to argue with his dad.)
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was Chicago: big, brash, bold, old and yet young, all in the body of Ferris Bueller. We saw every inch of the downtown of the City with The Big Shoulders, from State Street and Michigan Avenue, to The Sears Tower (I refuse to use its new name) and Grant Park and the Lake Front. It was a moving, wonderful travelogue of a city I love to this day.
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was our introduction to one of America's bad boys: Charlie Sheen. Playing a drug addict who makes the moves on Ferris' sister (played by Jennifer Grey), Sheen's "James Dean" take was the hit of the show behind Matthew Broderick, who is Ferris Bueller.
I've got to admit because Broderick played his role so effortlessly, it's hard for me to think of him as anyone else he's played in his long and distinguished career. As much as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was a coming of age movie, it was Broderick's coming of age movie.
YouTube , MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos, Sclipo and Viddler
(Topics: John Hughes, Chicago, movies, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sixteen Candles, Zennie Abraham)
When I learned that John Hughes passed away, SFGate.com referred to one of his films "Sixteen Candles" and I thought: What?! Heck with that; the best John Hughes film ever was "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"! That is one of my top 10 movies of all time. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is tops in my movie collection and when I think of Chicago, my hometown, that's the movie I think of.
Why?
Because "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was and is the ultimate "coming of age" story but with a twist. Ferris Bueller already came of age before the movie; we come of age watching Ferris take over Chicago for a day, even as he was thought to be very sick by everyone at his school except the principal and his nosy sister.
That movie was the epicenter of popular sayings like "Who do you think you are? Abe Froeman?" (The mythical "Sausage King of Chicago" that Bueller claims to be while trying to worm his way into an expensive Friench restaurant), or "Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy... Ssssswwiiiinng batter!" , which Alan Ruck, who played Cameron, was actually ad-libbing "He can't hit-he can't hit-he can't hit-he can't hit". It had, front and center, every young man's fantasy: to drive a hot red car all over the place, have your hot girl friend and best friend in it, and absolutely no responsibility for paying for it (because your friend's parents own it).
(Of course, it took Cameron to cause its destruction, just as he was going through his pivotal change where he's ready to argue with his dad.)
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was Chicago: big, brash, bold, old and yet young, all in the body of Ferris Bueller. We saw every inch of the downtown of the City with The Big Shoulders, from State Street and Michigan Avenue, to The Sears Tower (I refuse to use its new name) and Grant Park and the Lake Front. It was a moving, wonderful travelogue of a city I love to this day.
"Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was our introduction to one of America's bad boys: Charlie Sheen. Playing a drug addict who makes the moves on Ferris' sister (played by Jennifer Grey), Sheen's "James Dean" take was the hit of the show behind Matthew Broderick, who is Ferris Bueller.
I've got to admit because Broderick played his role so effortlessly, it's hard for me to think of him as anyone else he's played in his long and distinguished career. As much as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" was a coming of age movie, it was Broderick's coming of age movie.
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