Zennie62 joins Ushow.com!

I discovered (for myself) this great new video-sharing website that's really well hooked into YouTube such that I can quickly upload my YouTube-based videos to it. It's called UShow.com. Ushow.com's also matted very well with Twitter such that one can rapidly share their videos with the Twitterverse! Check out UShow.com!

Michael Vick poll: Play in NFL: 43.99 % ; Not play: 38.38 %

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

This morning I ran a poll asking you what you thought Michael Vick should be allowed to do. Thus far, the poll has attracted 998 voters and 1,777 views. Of the voters, 43.99 percent say Vick should be allowed to play in the NFL, 38.33 percent don't want him to play in the league, 9.21 percent want him to play after a one-year suspension, 4.40 percent favor Vick as a special counselor to NFL rookies, and 4 percent want to see him play in the UFL first, then the NFL.

Here's my video on the poll and my thoughts on PETA for some background on why I voted that he be allowed to play in the National Football League. If you've not participated in the poll, it's presented below the video:



More on pollsb.com

What should Michael Vick do? A poll

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube



On YouTube.com

On Monday July 20th, Michael Vick becomes a free man, released entirely from Federal custody after being found guilty of harming dogs as part of a dog fighting business, the former Atlanta Falcons star has his life ahead of him after two years in jail. But what should he do, or more to the point, what should Vick be allowed to do? With the idea of getting an answer to that question, I created this poll:

More on pollsb.com

As you can see, it has five choices one can make. Play in the NFL? Play in the new UFL football league after a one-year suspension? Not be allowed to play football at all? Play in the NFL after a one-year suspension? Be a special councelor to NFL rookie players?

I voted for the first choice: play in the NFL. Look, he's done his time and seems to have learned the error of his ways. But there's a weird double standard at play here that just bugs me. PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal, has called Vick all kinds of names regarding this matter, even saying that Vick's brain may be tuned to violence, or words to that effect, and asking for a brain scan.

Wild.

But what really bugs me about PETA is that they would, ok, dog Vick, and even get after President Obama for swatting a fly, but PETA turns a blind-eye to the dog racing activities of the Rooney Family, which owns the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dog racing has the same kill-to-weed-out-the-weak process that dog fighting is known for and PETA knows it. But did they say anything about the Rooneys when the Steelers ownership was up for review by the NFL, thus turning a public spotlight on them?

No.

I tried to get a statement from PETA's PR rep on this, and she just sent me the statement they issued about Vick! I have that already! So with that I lost a lot of respect for PETA and chose the "play in the NFL" option. It seems that if one's black and high profile, PETA has no problem aiming its PR machine at you, but if you're white, as is the case for the Rooney Family, you get a pass from PETA. PETA has issued no statement regarding the Rooney Family's involvement in dog racing.

Vick as mentor

But of all the choices, I also like the last one listed in my poll: be a special counselor to NFL rookie players. Vick can be really valuable here as an example of how one can go from rags to riches to rags and yet have a fighting chance to regain his life and to not repeat his mistakes.

Poll can't be gamed

So try my poll. One can't "game" it to get a particular answer outcome. Sorry. If you click on the link "view full results" it asks for your name and photo only once, so it weeds out the double count in the final result.

What should Michael Vick do? A poll

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube



On YouTube.com

On Monday July 20th, Michael Vick becomes a free man, released entirely from Federal custody after being found guilty of harming dogs as part of a dog fighting business, the former Atlanta Falcons star has his life ahead of him after two years in jail. But what should he do, or more to the point, what should Vick be allowed to do? With the idea of getting an answer to that question, I created this poll:

More on pollsb.com

As you can see, it has five choices one can make. Play in the NFL? Play in the new UFL football league after a one-year suspension? Not be allowed to play football at all? Play in the NFL after a one-year suspension? Be a special counselor to NFL rookie players?

I voted for the first choice: play in the NFL. Look, he's done his time and seems to have learned the error of his ways. But there's a weird double standard at play here that just bugs me. PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animal, has called Vick all kinds of names regarding this matter, even saying that Vick's brain may be tuned to violence, or words to that effect, and asking for a brain scan.

Wild.

But what really bugs me about PETA is that they would, ok, dog Vick, and even get after President Obama for swatting a fly, but PETA turns a blind-eye to the dog racing activities of the Rooney Family, which owns the Pittsburgh Steelers. Dog racing has the same kill-to-weed-out-the-weak process that dog fighting is known for and PETA knows it. But did they say anything about the Rooneys when the Steelers ownership was up for review by the NFL, thus turning a public spotlight on them?

No.

I tried to get a statement from PETA's PR rep on this, and she just sent me the statement they issued about Vick! I have that already! So with that I lost a lot of respect for PETA and chose the "play in the NFL" option. It seems that if one's black and high profile, PETA has no problem aiming its PR machine at you, but if you're white, as is the case for the Rooney Family, you get a pass from PETA. PETA has issued no statement regarding the Rooney Family's involvement in dog racing.

Vick as mentor

But of all the choices, I also like the last one listed in my poll: be a special counselor to NFL rookie players. Vick can be really valuable here as an example of how one can go from rags to riches to rags and yet have a fighting chance to regain his life and to not repeat his mistakes.

Poll can't be gamed

So try my poll. One can't "game" it to get a particular answer outcome. Sorry. If you click on the link "view full results" it asks for your name and photo only once, so it weeds out the double count in the final result.

Terrell Owens to consider acting after football

According to Mike Florio at Profootballtalk.com, Buffalo Bills wide receiver Terrell Owens has gotten the acting bug after his stint in a Flavor Flav sitcom. I think it's a good idea for him to have his second career planned out as that's perfect because he will not lose the love from the crowd he enjoys.

CoLoursTV and "The Blog Report With Zennie62" on Georgia Tech Cable Network

The Blog Report with Zennie62 is on Channel 82 which is CoLoursTV's channel on the Georgia Tech Cable Network. Tune in Saturdays at 6:30 PM EST, 2:30 AM, EST, then Sundays at 3 PM EST. For more information see http://www.zennie62.com

Top 10 On Twitter in Oakland: Zennie62 over KTVU; DaveyD Drops out

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget!

In the third installment of my series on the "Top 10 on Twitter" in different cities, I took a new look at Oakland today and found some dramatic changes. But first, from Dharmesh Shah's awesome Twitter Grader app, here's the list by name, score, and number of followers:


1. MistahFAB - 99.99 - 22,971
2. acedtect - 99.97 - 16,206
3. mollywood - 99.97 - 20,539
4. zennie62 - 99.95 - 5,878
5. mc_lars - 99.8 - 3,912
6. ktvu - 99.8 - 2,445
7. bulldogreporter - 99.8 - 1,736
8. mariedenee - 99.8 - 2,397
9. stocktwits - 99.8 - 85,623
10. pandora_radio - 99.8 - 26,844

The news? Well, compared to two day ago when I started this, I jumped from number 7 to number 4. How? Well, I really didn't set out to improve my Twitter Grade from 99.8 to 99.95. What happened was that in losing followers - which happens all the time - I gained a better score! I was up to about 6,000 followers, then at 6,001 I lost followers, a weird development that happened right after the installation of my first blog on this matter of Twitter rankings. Well, all I can say is "Thanks!" to those who dropped, it really helped my score.

MistahFab Rules; KTVU needs a Twitter lesson

But some things remain the same: Rapper @MistahFAB still rules Oakland, and has a healthy following (visit his site to hear his music at http://www.mistahfab.com), Tom Merritt and Molly Wood are in the mix at two and three, and while Oakland-based KTVU Channel Two is still in the rankings, I'm over them by two!

YEAH!!! Woot! Woot! Alright!

I cheer this because it's yet another example of how some - ok, most - big media organizations don't get new media. If KTVU knew what it was doing, it would be at the top of this list with a score of 100, but it doesn't so it's not. By contrast, CNN gets it. CNN now has over 2.2 million followers on Twitter. What CNN does is encourage people to follow them on Twitter. Of course that doesn't mean CNN's use of Twitter is flawless, as MC Siegler points out over at TechCrunch, having millions of followers means a lot of people will be upset with you when you install tweets that have broken links!

Moreover, to digress for a moment, broken links mean no traffic from Twitter, which then means less online ad revenue than CNN has a right to expect from CNN.com given having 2 million followers. Fix the links! I doubt this is KTVU's fear - they just plain don't give a care or don't know what they don't know. For example, KTVU's website lack's a link to their Twitter page as of this writing. So if you see one there, top of the fold, you know this blog post had something to do with a change they should make ASAP.

Of course, they could consult me. I certainly hope they're not so naive as to think I've given them all the answers to the problem here. We'll see.

DaveyD out of the top 10 in Oakland

I had to admit I almost fell out of my chair when I saw that Oakland's hip hop journalist and UC Berkley alum, DaveyD fell out of the top 10 here. DaveyD, what happened? Well, one thing that has occurred is he's not tweeting as much as he should, and he needs to discover the joy of retweeting so he can gain more followers. But that written, I expect to see him back in the ranks again, especially once he sees my blog post!

Oakland Twitterers need to improve

Look, it's a total shame Oakland's not on the top 10 Twitter cities list and that can only happen when the ranks of us are not as engaged or partnered with each other as we should be. Every one in Oakland on Twitter should follow each other first of all, then promote each other second. In fact, I'll lay out a plan in a future post.

Oh, and follow me on Twitter at @zennie62!