Too Funny!

Does the headline and verbiage in the screen capture below look familiar? (Click on it to see it normal size.) If not, scroll down a few entries on this blog.


I'm going to let them figure this one out on their own.

See the copy on their website here.

The "Feed Me!" Purr

You know cats purr when they're happy. And I've read where cats will also purr when they're distressed to calm themselves -- it's even been reported in cats who are in labor. "Reverse purring," I call it when I think Annie's doing it.

Now some British researchers say that cats have different purrs for different occasions. And that people can tell them apart. Video from the Associated Press via the St. Petersburg Times website.

On the Map

Along Hill Brady Road in Battle Creek, Michigan, you'll find an industrial park that you enter by turning onto McQuiston Drive. No kidding!


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Unfortunately, the park is home to an auto parts plant that is shutting down.

Dear TBO.com -- AGAIN!

An item on your website (http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul/12/shot-in-ybor-city-97713/) was copied in whole from an entry on my blog (http://mcqueue.blogspot.com/2009/07/shot-in-ybor-city.html).

Brief excerpts are welcome with a link to the rest of the article or essay on my blog. Please edit the item on your site accordingly.

At least this time you couldn't swipe the photo slide show.

This is the second time this has happened (that I know of) and it needs to stop.

-------------------------

I did send this message, as well as the previous one, to TBO.com staff through the contact page on its website. My website stat counter tells me that someone from Media General (TBO.com's owner, which also owns WFLA-TV and the Tampa Tribune) has seen my original complaint.

Let's see if they act.

Update (7/15/09): TBO.com has removed the posts and promises it is trying to figure out how entire articles were being quoted in its blog roll.

Just Don't Hurt Yourself on Live Television

Bang your toe on the coffee table? The expletive that escapes your lips immediately afterward may help you feel better. I am totally bleeping serious. So are researchers at Keele University in England, who say that you may be able to increase your pain tolerance by swearing.

Dear TBO.com

An item on your website (http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul/08/i-thought-it-was-a-butter-knife-57773/) was copied in whole from an entry on my blog (http://mcqueue.blogspot.com/2009/07/i-thought-it-was-butter-knife.html).

Brief excerpts are welcome with a link to the rest of the article or essay on my blog. Please edit the item on your site accordingly.

Shot in Ybor City

Just photos. I went to the historic Ybor City section of Tampa this morning to take pictures. I didn't have a model this time, though I caught at least one bum still sleeping off the night before. I'm not sure that counts as someone posing.

There's something about shooting places that are often crowded while they're empty. Ybor City is party town Friday and Saturday and probably a lot of other nights, a fact which you can smell the following morning.

I Guess United Didn't Count on the Guy Havning Another Guitar

A Canadian musician who says United Airlines heavily damaged a $3,500 guitar, gave him the runaround and ultimately gave him the finger when he complained is getting the last laugh.

And more. He turned his tale of woe into a tune of wow -- as in an Internet sensation with more than 600,000 hits on YouTube so far.



According to the Associated Press (via MSNBC), Taylor, the maker of the guitar, has offered to try to restore the damaged instrument. And -- guess what? -- now United wants to make it up to him.

Now?!?!?

Would this be the PR equivalent of locking the barn doors after the horses have escaped? When will these morons learn? It's not enough now that any disgruntled customer can vent his frustrations about you on his blog and create a stain on your reputation that you may never rub out of Google searches.

You have to tee off a guy who writes songs for a living? A guy who, enraged and inspired, can create a sensation that makes you look like a colossal jerk in front of the whole world? OK, so it's only 1% of the world so far but this viral party may just be getting started. Oprah wants him on her show.

That's what these idiots have to grasp who don't care about their customers. It used to be that if you screwed one guy, who cared? How many people could he tell?

Now?!?!?

Motivation

I mentioned my struggle writing the family documentary on which I'm working. How's this for a kick in the pants: I got an e-mail from a St. Petersburg Times reporter who stumbled across my personal documentary site (www.Personal-Documentary.com, if you don't know) and thought it might make a good story idea.

Although I'm happy with the site now, if I could get a couple clips from this current project up there, it would make an even better impression on anyone who visited. Should I get a mention in the Times, that should bring a lot of traffic. It would be good to have my best foot forward.

It might not happen. I confessed in reply to the reporter that I had not started marketing the business and I did not yet have any paying customers. I did include several possible angles for her to pursue if she was not deterred by my opening admission.

In fact, there they are:

First, in the YouTube era people are much more conscious about capturing and sharing themselves on video. A personal documentary is a richer ore in the same vein. People can have their life stories professionally told and preserved on video. They're also using more multi-media in the events of their lives.

Wedding receptions now feature "how they met" film clips. Funeral services often include a memorial tribute video. Anniversary celebrations and birthday parties, including bar and bat mitzvahs, are now sometimes incomplete without the "how they got to this point" video.

Those who would not subject their friends or loved ones to sitting through home movies can hire someone like me who can turn a rambling recollection of memories in to a memorable film.

Second, the same advances in technology that have made consumer grade equipment better and easier to use have also brought professional equipment into more people's price range. Camera and editing equipment that would have required a second mortgage on my house just a decade ago cost me less than $10,000. It has already paid for itself in freelance work.

What that means is that someone like me who knows his way around a camera as well as script writing, narration and editing, can work as a one person crew for smaller jobs. That, in turn, brings the cost of production down into an individual's price range. Not that these productions are cheap. You're talking between $5,000 and $9,000 depending on how complex the project is. But it's still a lot less than if you had to hire a producer, camera person, narrator and editor separately.

Last and probably least, I'm a former TV news and sports reporter looking for a new way to put his video storytelling skills to profitable use. I don't have to tell you how the media landscape is changing and how many people displaced from traditional media outlets have to find other places to ply their trades. The term "enterprising reporter" may now entail a different kind of enterprising.

I tell people's stories. This is my enterprise.

I'll let you know if I hear anything back.

My personal documentary site as well as JohnMcQuiston.com are both getting traffic from links embedded in e-mails. While I do now include both sites in my e-mail signature, I don't think that can account for it. The visitors are coming from places, according to my StatCounter, where I have not sent e-mails.

That means that some good soul is spreading word around about my sites for me. I'm curious to know who and why. And I'd like to say thank you.