According to my desktop widget, we are 99 days away from Sooner football. In the meantime, a summer full of fun awaits. That means gardening, sweating, the occasional golf major, players getting arrested, and nights out at the local race track.
I’ve been following the Mike Vick story closely over the past couple weeks, and there are two definite camps of opinion.
One group says what he did was heinous and he doesn’t deserve the privilege of earning millions as a football player. They say it would be a bad example to kids to send the message that a person can get away with doing some awful stuff.
The other group says he’s served his sentence and done what’s been required of him. Football is his chosen profession, and just like anyone else walking out of prison, if they can get a job, then they have every right to work.
I can see both sides. I do think playing football is a privilege and I wish that the players who flirt with the wrong side of the law would get punished more harshly. That being said, I’m decidedly in the second camp. And the thing about kids just pisses me off.
If Mike Vick had been able to walk away without any real punishment, like say, Michael Irvin, then I might feel different. But the guy did sit in jail for nearly two years, and will also serve some sort of NFL suspension on top of it. I’m not saying he’s rehabilitated, but he’s done what’s been asked of him.
Like anyone else walking out of the slammer, finding a job will be tough. But if the guy gets paid by a team to play football, then that’s obviously his right. If he fails, or if he gets into more trouble, he’ll be on the street again, and that’s fair as well. Just because you or I would be fired on the spot and blacklisted from out professions doesn’t take away his right. Crappy double standard, but it is what it is.
As for the “what message are we sending to the kids?” gripe… YOU need to be the role model for your kid. Teach him to admire the way an athlete plays or the cool roles a certain actor portrays, but he needs to understand they’re not to emulated in life. That’s YOUR job.
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There’s a growing glut of “Instant Millionaire” sites on the Interwebs. I guess people are going for it, because everyday I see more and more of them.
You know what I’m talking about. You’ve clicked on one before. If you’re especially gullible, you’ve read all the way through one, or even sent over that VERY LOW $149.99 payment to START MAKING MONEY WHILE YOU SLEEP.
DID YOU HEAR ME?
MY NAME IS CHRIS JACKSON. I HAD A CRIPPLING PORN ADDICTION AND SPENT MOST DAYS CRYING INTO MY MOTHER’S AMPLE BOSOM. I WAS A SIMPLE FRY COOK UNTIL I WAS INTRODUCED TO A MAN NAMED JONES SMITH. YES IT’S A SIMPLE NAME, BUT HE WAS NOT A SIMPLE MAN.
HE HAD MONEY! LOTS OF MONEY! HE HAD A PRIVATE PLANE…
I could see something like this working very well in 1995, when the internet was new and people were very gullible about it. But in 2009?
And when did the American Dream turn into making money for doing nothing? Isn’t that what most of the rich people in the country whine about, the other people taking money while not doing a damned thing?
Also, is it just me, or are Lamborghinis a relic of the 80s? Every time I see one I think, “that’s cool but I bet that guy had to sell LOADS of coke to get it.”
In my last PR for small business post I talked a little about knowing your audience. This would help you define more closely who you need to focus on and find the best mediums to reach them. Kind of a durr! post, I know. But you’d be shocked how many people develop an amazing product, thinking it’s so awesome it’ll just sell itself…then watch it fall flat because it never finds its way to the people who can’t live without it.
Moving on…
The next step is important: Find your story. Even better, find your stories.
The Secret? USE AS MUCH TEXT AS POSSIBLE
What makes your nail salon different? What does your auto repair shop do better than any other shop in your area? Do you have kick-ass customer service while your competitors are notorious for their lack of it? Maybe your company has a great charitable or environmentally-friendly commitment.
This isn’t limited to your business, either. Maybe you as an individual have a compelling story – dip into your personal background. Overcome a rare disease or rare childhood? Adopted 6 children from Africa? Leave a high-paying corporate gig to jump out on your own? All of these are compelling and make for great reads.
Look for compelling stories everywhere. What may seem like everyday, mundane to you might be a revelation to the readers of your favorite trade publication; or what seems like an overplayed (among friends) personal story or belief might be an inspiration to readers of the local newspaper.
Relevant to 2009 – New media. What’s going to drive hits to a blog, or make for interesting chatter on a podcast?
The key to this is to think like an editor. Think of the story in its final form – what’s the headline, the subhead, is there a picture, who is quoted, and on and on. The best PR people don’t think like PR people, they think like the journalists they have to work with on a daily basis.
Which brings me to my next post, where we’ll chat about identifying outlets, editors, journalists and others who will want to hear your story, tell your story and make you a freakin star.
I’m thinking of starting a support group for husbands who suffer through Grey’s Anatomy, to please their wives. I’m usually at the gym on Thursday nights so I miss the show, but I catch four or five episodes a season.
It’s not awful. You can all yell at me for having a love affair with shows you deem to be inferior, like “Tim and Eric Awesome Show.”
But there needs to be a support group for husbands who quietly let the show go by, armed with tissues to pass over to the women we love so much and silently praying that, Dear God, please don’t ever let us end up in this hospital.
How do people get treatment with all the drama going on there? I remember being in the hospital during Nate’s birth, and spending some of the down time just wondering around. I looked for Grey’s style drama, but missed out on the sex scenes, steamy confrontations, chick fist fights, shouting matches. That sucked.
Last night was the season finale. Drama, baby.
Whereas E.R. would have a helicopter crash/nuclear bomb/plague of flying monkeys to end their seasons, Grey’s tends to do things slightly more subtle, but no less dramatic. Izzy croaks, Meredith marries McDreamy, George joins the army (oh but does he get there?), the ugly one gets conveniently voted out of the hospital, oh hey! that one is a lesbian now…all in one day!
I’m not a surgeon or doctor or even a man-nurse, but even I can tell that these folks aren’t exactly being technically correct.
“What happened doctor?”
“His head is bashed in. Get me the tweezers and a band-aid. STAT!”
“Fine. But we need to talk. You can’t leave me. Not now, damnit!”
(HIPSTER FOLK SONG STARTS PLAYING. IS THAT LISA LOEB? NO, SHE’S NOT AROUND ANYMORE. MAYBE IT’S COLBI CALLIET?)
“Listen, baby. You know I’d never leave you. I’m just…you know…in a bad way.” (pushes patient off bed)
(LOVE SCENE)
(PATIENT DIES FROM HEAD OW-EE)
I guess it could be worse. I’ve tried to fight through Desperate Housewives, and good lord….those women are not as hot as they think they are, and the actresses who portray them can’t act much. Remember how bad Geore Strait was in “Pure Country”?
They could ask him to show up tomorrow to play the role of a granola hippy swining wife, and him walking around in a cowboy hat mouthing one-liners is more believable than the slutty housewife. Her character was better when it was known as “Samantha” on Sex and the City anyway.
By the way, and only the dudes will connect with this one – but am I the only one who is convinced Eric Dane is the same guy as David Keith, who peaked as the hated Jack Parkman from Major League II?
Major League II. Now THAT is some entertainment.
Man. My wife is going to be pissed when she reads this.
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Speaking of doctors, I went to see mine this week after a couple cord sores popped up. Yes, herpes. I haz it. Or at least the simplex-A type. Basically it means my lip hurts like hell and I can’t kiss my wife or child for weeks at a time.
He gave me a new prescription for Valtrex. After at least 8 years of taking Acyclovir (generic of Denavir), at five pills a day during outbreaks with only moderate success, I was willing to give it a go.
While I was there, I asked him about Propecia. In case you didn’t know, I’m balding. I’m mostly okay with it, but if there’s something out there that can regrow/slow the decline without costing me sexual virility (shaddup, Beavis), then I’ll listen.Plus, doc said, tests show it helps battle prostate cancer.
The prescriptions were called in to Target. I thought maybe I would get a deal there.
Valtrex costs more than crack. 20 pills for over $230.
Hell, I don’t hate herpes that much.
Propecia is going to cost $81 a month?
Hell, I don’t like my hair that much.
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Sheesh. Cheers to all, and have a fantastic weekend.
Sorry for another post about Twitter, but doggone it, it just keeps coming up.
(I should also say that I’ve basically taken the helm of my firm’s social media efforts, so I’m immersed in this stuff.)
Moving on…
Big news broke on Twitter yesterday when Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff suddenly announced – via Twitter – his official candidacy for the Senate seat currently held by Bob Bennett.
Except uh…well….that wasn’t supposed to go out.
HIT THE DELETE BUTTON, BOBBY!
(Side note: Don’t blame it on being sleepy, it just makes you look more irresponsible.)
With Twitter’s newfound widespread usage, incidents like this will only become more prominent. A solid example used to be dmfail, which posted public attempts at private messages.
One of the great benefits of the service (and why I’m such a fan) is accessibility – I can read and post Tweets from just about anywhere, using phones, computers and anything else that connects to the Interwebs. The downside to that is if you’re not paying attention, that message you think is going to Timmy is instead being broadcast to the universe.
For schadenfreude voyeurs like myself, seeing others goof is enjoyable, until I do so myself.
(I haven’t made that mistake yet, but I manage several accounts, and mix-up hilarity has ensued, sadly. No you won’t get a link.)
It’s basically the Aughts’ version of hitting “Reply All” instead of “Reply.” Or even replying when you meant to forward.
We’ve all seen those. Hell, we’ve all done that. You get a meancing, angry email from someone and forward it to a friend with the message, “Who took a dump in this guy’s coffee this morning?”
Only instead of forwarding, you replied. Brav-o.
As with the “Reply All,” it doesn’t have to be something private or personal to be embarassing. Maybe you jusy want to chime in – forgetting that most people get pissy to see their inbox suddenly flooded with a conversation that really belongs between two people.
Consider this to be a rule – there is no “private” on Twitter. If you have something serious to talk about, send a DM asking to take it offline.
Even with Twitter fooling around with the way replies work, eventually your dirty laundry will get out, one way or another. Just have a phone chat, that way the only folks listening in will be CIA agents.
I imagine Shurtleff was trying to send a text message to Tommy or some other name that starts with a T, and his BlackBerry auto-filled the To: field with “Twitter.” It’s a common mistake.
But most of the messages sent are not terribly important. Certainly not on the level of a national figure announcing his intentions to hunt down and fight one of the stalwarts of Utah politics.
Here’s a clue: If you’re talking important business, pick up the damn phone. Twitter, texting, IM, email are all nice, but the best conversations are still face to face or over a phone. If nothing else, what takes 15 minutes to talk about online takes three to discuss in person or over the phone. It’s simple.
I know I talk about Twitter quite a bit. It’s really not that exciting.
It DOES help my business as a PR guy and every time I mention it here, I get a lot of hits. So you WILL have to put up with it from time to time. You WILL be okay with this.
You’re bully right I’m okay with it, good sir!
A lot of my network on Twitter is comprised of Okies. I follow people like @SamSims @Newson6 @trey_brown and others because they keep me comprised on what’s happening in my home state, which in all honesty, I’m more concerned about than the state I live in. Sue me.
I consider some of them good friends, at least in that “never met you in person” way. I value their opinions and pay close attention to what they send out. Every week I add a couple more friends from the OK (as well as Utah and other places, don’t get all pissy with me).
So it came as no surprise a few months back when I was followed by one @tulsaoknews. The feed is basically a stream of links related to Tulsa from some unknown source, but they have some pretty good info. Sports stuff, national news that mentions Tulsa, local news, and the sort. I followed them back.
I was a little bummed a few weeks later when they unfollowed me. It’s a common tactic to build what looks like a “guru” profile: Follow tons of folks, wait for a lot of them to follow you back, then unfollow them. The end result is a lopsided number that let’s you walk around and say “People listen to me! And I don’t have to hear what they say back! LOL Nurdzzzz!”
I don’t go with it. I follow several people that don’t follow me back (like Shaq), but mostly if you don’t care to hear what I have to say, then I don’t care to hear what you have to say.
That little rant aside…I found myself surprised when I went to the TulsaOKNews profile page to double-check the unfollow, and there were a lot of familiar faces among those the account followed.
In fact, I knew every one of those faces.
I attributed it to the simple fact that it probably followed folks with an expressed interest in Oklahoma. But wait. Is that…
Those profiles with the circles around them are all Utah people. I know each of them personally. None of the give a hoot about Tulsa, except for the lovely wife, @loriloo310.
Did @tulsaoknews hijack my follow list? Yes, in fact. Every person on that list is someone that I follow or have followed in the past.
What’s interesting is they’ve developed more followers (like I said, it’s a useful stream), yet still only follow my old chunk.
I don’t know what to say about it. Is it bad or good? Like most things with Twitter, it’s really neither I suppose. No one has to follow anyone they’re not interested in, so I don’t pity the Utah folks it followed.
I think I’m more curious what tool they would’ve used to do such a thing. I’ve always considered creating a fake account for the fun of it, and I think @the_effiminate_shaq would want to follow @the_real_shaq’s people.
I guess more than anything I’m just pissed that they (@tulsaoknews) unfollowed me.
¡ManRam! ¡Roids del EL de Viva! 私は私のズボンに魚を置いた。 それは大体大きいこれだった。 It' 実際はそこのまだs。 見たいと思いなさいか。!!!!!111!!!!oneoneone
Our friend Manny Ramirez tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Not just your run of the mill roids, not something commonly given to horses. No, he took a drug commonly given to women having trouble getting knocked up.
human chorionic gonadotropin is prescribed to treat infertility in women by triggering ovulation. The hormone naturally occurs in pregnant women – home pregnancy kits test for one portion of the HCG molecule.
But looking further into the uses, it sure as hell sounds like the perfect drug.(H/T ESPN.com)
“I have used hCG numerous times,” Radomski told ESPN.com. “It works great. You feel great. After you come off a [steroid] cycle, your body doesn’t crash. It turns your [testosterone] production back on. It gives you more energy. It makes you feel like you’re still on a cycle.
Hot damn. Growing up in the Oklahoma high school football juggernaut, I saw a lot of kids take roids. Most of the guys that took roids were benchwarmers, but the few stars that took them were monsters. Irregardless, anyone taking roids looked like a beast in the weight room.
I saw a talentless fourth-string defensive end squat 650 pounds. I saw a kid who would go on to play in the NFL bench more than 400 like it was a baby.
To paraphrase a quote from Fight Club, during the day these guys were schlubs, 18-year old has beens. But on roids, they were GODS. Being an all-natural 5-10, 205 pounds made me feel like somehow I was cheating myself.
Which brings me to a story that kind of depresses me.
My cousin was an All-American baseball prospect coming out of high school and a major D-1 college, and a fifth-round pick by a major league team. Dude was a freakishly talented athlete with one of those physiques that looked like freakin’ Adonis no matter how much or how little he worked out.
He gets into the team’s minor league system and does well at the first couple of levels. But once he got to AA, he stalled. AA is where the “committed” players show up. The roiders.
He was a doubles hitter with occasional power and a fantastic arm. He could hit for average and defend his position well. He hustled. He would be a solid third baseman for any team.
Problem was, dude has morals.
Every year he would other guys pass him by. Roid monsters. He got to AAA, but no further, because one of the beasts that surpassed him became one of the best at the position in the majors. After several years of toiling in AAA, he retired.
The moral of the story is this: every day guys are faced with cheating to succeed. At stake is millions of dollars and fame. If you don’t cheat, you lose out. He cheats, he gets it all. My cousin has his deceny intact, but he has to work a job (daaaamn) the rest of his life.
What would you do? I guess it’s not so wrong, if you value money that much. This player is an all-star with a massive contract that, assuming he doesn’t lose it on hookers and blow, could allow his family to live lavishly for generations to come. All for having a modicum of talent and the audacity to stick a needle in his butt.
Some other thoughts….
-Is this why Manny has been growing his dreads out so long? He has to wear huge hats…pretty convenient way to hide a swellin’ melon, AMIRIGHT?!?!
-Is superagent Scott Boras pumping roids into his clients? Agents were known to arrange roids for their clients back in the day. The more his clients hit home runs, the more their teams paid them and the more the agent earned. Let’s look at a select group of his clientele:
Manny Ramirez
Rick Ankiel
Eric Gagne
Alex Rodriguez
Ivan Rodriguez
Kevin Brown
Ron Villone
Scott Schoeneweis
Gary Sheffield
Quick question: what do all these players have in common?
