Forwards…

Don’t you love the forwards?

I am on many family and friends email forward lists which periodically have video clips of “America’s Funniest Home Videos” PET Edition as well as corporate warnings…

How many times have people have received the email asking people to boycott Exxon/Shell/You-Name-Itco stations on a particular day? Yeah, that will send them a message!

About a year ago I received an email regarding Pepsi and how we should boycott them because they didn’t put “In God We Trust” on their cans. After roughly one-minute of research I found this on Pepsi’s website. A quick “reply” and paste and all was well in the world…

A couple of days ago I received this email:

Title: Caught off Ucluelet B.C

So much for swimming in the Ocean around here
UCLUELET, B.C. (West side of Vancouver Island)
While the ocean vessel ‘Dawn Raider’ was commercial fishing for dogfish, this Great White was hooked in the mouth but only resisted slightly for 15 minutes before it came up alongside the boat to have a look; long enough for one of the crew members to slip a rope around it’s tail

‘And that’s when the s**t hit the fan. The Shark took off towing the 42 foot fishing boat backwards through the water at about 7 Knots.

Just like in JAWS, the boat was taking on water over the stern and the crew watched in

horror as the shark would actually jump completely out of the water at times. This went on for an hour before the shark finally drowned. She weighed in at 1035 LBS. It is suspected she followed a weak El Nino current into local waters in search of food. Although mid 60 deg water is considered ideal for these sharks, the larger ones can tolerate water in the low 50s.

Some bloggers have posted it as “new” in 2006, when I have seen some posts of the same story from 2004.

Boy, someone paid a lot of money to have that Cat brought all the way over to the West side!

The number goes to:

Cat Rental Store – 902-481-3455
185 Akerley Bl, Dartmouth, NS
Category : Rental Services General

Be sure to rent all yer Shark Cranes from the “Cat Rental Store…” Why rent a Shark Crane anywhere else?  (ding)

Throw in a little science and global warming propaganda and it is believable right? Man, this is making bloggers look like the main stream media (forget about a story for 2 years, and Don’t Fact Check Anything.)

1.3 Million PRWebpodcast Downloads

PRWeb’s Podcast division announced today they had over 1 million downloads of their  press release podcasts.  Very cool.  Very, Very Cool!  Congratulations to Mario, Lacy, Aaron, and Lauren!

I hope you guys celebrated with lots of pizza, Benson’s, or Chihuahua’s (right Mario)!

Macworld is like Christmas all over again

Every year Macworld comes around and I never get enough. I look to the next week to see if Apple sneaks out a new line of towers or laptops. This year the big talk is the iPhone. Yes, it is very cool, but this might surprise some people… I am not much of a cell phone guy.  On the other hand I am a big TV guy and therefore I am very interested in the iTV (now Apple TV.)

I am a little disappointed that the Apple TV does not hook up to my composite TV as I am not ready to go to HD. If I go to HD I will have to purchase a better receiver, up my standard def cable connection to digital… it starts getting expensive. It is my hope that Apple Inc. (Not Apple Computer Inc. anymore) comes out with an adapter that allows me to plug the Apple TV into my old 4:3 standard def TV.  It is a little depressing checking out component to composite adapters online (some are around $500.)  I wonder how many people are going to be getting the iPhone and not the Cingular service.

Education Reform

This is an interesting idea to educating a new generation. Although it is not my cup of tea it has received some interesting comments/praise on YouTube.com (see the one about the New York classroom.) I am all for connecting with students on their level to teach them. I remember in high school when I was taking German, my teacher set up the classroom to represent an airport. We had a powerpoint presentation displaying arrival and departure times (in German) and we had to catch the correct flight. Videos, music, and other multimedia always has connecting power. ‘Pitt uses music, video, and rap to communicate Fox’s new educational principles in a DVD included with Fox’s book.’

My New Years Resolution…

Tonight I decided what my New Years Resolution will be: Buy A Car!

(I am in the process of selling mine.)

New Years Resolution

I have never been one for new years resolutions. New Years, for me, is a good time to reflect on mistakes I’ve made during the last year as well as the good times I’ve had. Looking forward to next year I have a high school reunion coming up that might actually shake me into making a new years resolution (or two.)
Having these thoughts in the back of my mind I have been easily alerted to jokes (such as ‘I will not wrestle a wild jaguar this year’), advertisements (‘I will eat less out of my current fridge… because I will be buying a new one’), and press releases (Life Coach Explains How To Create a Meaningful New Year Resolution for 2007) about new years resolutions. My guess is most new years resolutions have to do with eating right, exercising, and dating strategy / relationships. Thank goodness I am married.

Where I Would Travel / My Happy Place

Lately I have been thinking about traveling to Hawaii or somewhere lush with crystal clear waters. Somewhere I could take in nature, somewhere tropical. I was watching Black Stallion with my kids a couple of days ago. In the movie a kid is stranded on a beach where the water is clear and you can see a good distance. I mentioned to my wife I wouldn’t mind going somewhere like that. Some of the images here are making me think of my happy place again. Fantastic sunsets on the beach, forests… Costa Rica is looking pretty good.

Berries Are Looking Better and Better

I recently heard blueberries are good for the brain, from a “brainfood study” if you will. Today I saw that black raspberries are being used as part of a four-year study to find out if they effect the recurrence of oral cancer. Berries are in the news as something good to eat. Even comedians are putting berries in their acts.
There is a hilarious (and clean) comedian named Brian Regan, who has a funny bit about “The Cran(berry) Man” that pops in my head every time I think of berries nowadays. Check out the DVD, “I Walked On The Moon.”

What are you doing New Years Eve?

Some of my favorite memories are from what I did New Years Eve. I remember being glued to the TV in 1999 as Boris Yeltson said farewell, and watched as the countries one by one celebrated the transition to the year 2000. Some less memorable years I would attempt to watch the entire MTV top 100 countdown. One of the fondest memories is when I went to an ice skating rink with a group of friends when I was in high school. There is always stuff to do, in Washington D.C. there will be a live recording with Gospel Artist Bruce Parham. A release states, “The live recording is absolutely free, but tickets are required for entry. Doors will open at 6.00 pm.”

WebmasterWorld Boston ‘06

The trip started out with me traveling to Puyallup to visit my sister and her husband. I had an early flight out of SeaTac and therefore had to chose between leaving my house (in Bellingham) around two o’ clock in the morning, or spending the night at my sister’s house and leaving around 5 in the “A M.” I chose to leave the night before and get somewhat of a good night sleep.

Mick and David had left the previous day, so I was traveling solo. I had received directions to the airport from my sister’s house. These directions were not the best as I was starting to get nervous about when my plane flew out. I took “The Back Roads” to avoid the morning traffic, but the back roads got me very lost. After asking two gas station attendants and one McDonalds employee how to get to the airport (while in SeaTac) I finally made it to the airport. Of course by now no PRWeb travel is complete without stopping at the Anthony’s Fish Bar in the airport for a Mahi Mahi taco breakfast.
While on the direct flight to Boston I “rented” one of those movie players from the flight attendants. The players let you choose from several movies or shows from a little LCD screens. I watched “Walk the Line” (the Johnny Cash movie,) and “Robots” (with Robin Williams.) I wanted to know more about Johnny Cash and I liked the movie. Previously all I knew about him was he had some great humor in his songs “One Piece at a time,” (Well, It’s a ’49, ’50, ’51, ’52, ’53, ’54, ’55, ’56, ’57, ’58′ 59′ automobile. It’s a ’60, ’61, ’62, ’63, ’64, ’65, ’66, ’67, ’68, ’69, ’70 automobile.) and the classic “Boy Named Sue.” Now I know more about him.
I arrived in Boston and had to immediately take a bus to the Subway station, and take the subway to the hotel. I befriended a guy on the bus who was going to be staying in the vicinity of where my hotel was, so we decided to get lost in Boston together. I arrived to my hotel without any problems and in the lobby, waiting for me, was Mick and David. They had reservations to the Cheesecake Factory, so I checked in, dropped off my bags, and away to dinner I went. The streets and restaurants were packed because the Boston Marathon was just finishing when we arrived.
The show, WebmasterWorld, was a lot of fun. I was able to take in some sessions. I sat in on the Keynote with Malcom Gladwell, author of the “Tipping Point” and “Blink,” and later got a couple of books autographed by him. I sat in a Podcast session with Daron Babin (WebmasterRadio.fm) and Amanda Watlington (APR.) In that session I met Daron’s wife, Brandy (Webmaster Radio). I also sat in with a blogger session with Robert Scoble & Matt Cutts.

One of the things I requested when we were all going to Boston, was to swing by Fenway Park. Not necessarily go in (or catch a game), but just to swing by and be able to say that we were there. David did one better. When we made it to the park he bought Mick and I tickets.

I found that the culture in the game was very different from a Seattle Mariners game.

After the game we were walking back to the hotel when we saw a burrito and smoothie restaurant. They had smoothies titled: “The Jimmy Carter” (a peanut drink.) I got a tofu wrap and a strawberry smoothie. They were pretty good.

It was a fun first trip to Boston.