courtesy of STLtoday.com
Best Headline and Photo Combo – It’s Going to be a Rough Black Friday
Posted on November 14, 2012 // Leave a Comment
What Will You Expend Energy On Today?
Posted on October 29, 2012 // Leave a Comment
Damn you StoryCorps for Making Me Cry Again!
Posted on October 11, 2012 // 1 Comment
It happens every time.
I’m driving my kids to school before heading to work, listening to NPR, and coming back from break, I hear that nice acoustic guitar, and I know what’s coming. “Now it’s time for StoryCorps…” StoryCorps is a nonprofit organization dedicated to recording, sharing and preserving the stories of ordinary Americans. It seems they have a way with a story, because almost every time these 2-minute segments are aired on NPR, they make my cry. Yeah, I’m a tough guy.
A while back they aired a story on a prison inmate named Daniel Ross fighting forest fires in Wyoming. He first talked about how scary it was to confront these huge blazes, but then the story took a different turn. The prisoners-temporarily-turned-firefighters received a very warm thank you from the townspeople, and their well wishes included a meal, and more. Take a listen here.
As the townspeople thanked the firefighters, Daniel said “I was overwhelmed to see it in their eyes and hear it in their voices. It was so moving that I had to get up and go compose myself. That was my proudest moment, hands down.” He found a sense of significance and a feeling of contribution by helping the town. Two of his six human needs were fulfilled right there. I started breaking up a bit.
My older daughter said, “Dad, are you crying?” Funny, because they can’t see my eyes; they’re in the back seat. And I was wearing sunglasses. How did she know? “No, I’m not,” I said.
My kids always want to understand the stories they are hearing, so I tried to explain it. This is such a HUGE life lesson, and I so hope it registers with them. With a cracking voice, I basically told them “What that man felt after helping fight that fire and save that town … that is a feeling he never could have bought.” I reiterated that there was nothing he could ever buy that would make him feel that fulfilled. It made me think of Bob Burg’s The Go-Giver. Giving is so much more powerful than receiving.
Link to the story on NPR’s site:
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/24/159932788/an-inmate-firefighter-finds-his-proudest-moment
KitchenAid Twitter Debacle – Keep This From Happening To You!
Posted on October 4, 2012 // Leave a Comment
The first presidential debate of the 2012 campaign was held in Denver last night. KitchenAid accidentally chimed in with a wee bit of an off-color joke. Naturally, their quip about President Obama’s deceased grandmother was none too well-received.
How can we keep social media interns and junior people from accidentally tweeting from the big important corporate account? Separate devices! One for your personal social media accounts, and another for the corporate accounts from which you’ve been trusted to tweet. Watch the video above, and let me know what you think in the comments below.
A few other items of note: see the jpeg below that Steve Hartman tweeted me – a huge transparent plea by an employee of KitchenAid to the media. I do not have firsthand knowledge of what happened here, but my guess is a lower level employee made the mistake, and Cynthia Soledad is working her butt off to make it better. So hats off to Cynthia for diving in.
@rizzotees Start writing! twitter.com/creativille/st…
— Steve Hartman (@creativille) October 4, 2012
Also, it is clear to me that, when your communications snafu reaches CNN’s front page, then you really screwed up!
Here’s another story from AdWeek.
Remember the 25-second rule, people! (yes, I’ve upgraded from the 5-second rule). Review everything about your tweet for 25 seconds before committing it to the public domain.
Thoughts?
My Interview With Travis Sheridan
Posted on September 21, 2012 // Leave a Comment
Link to the interview, in case the embedded video above doesn’t play.
More information on OverFundIt here.
Thanks Travis!
Texting With Your Mom Can Be Fun
Posted on September 19, 2012 // Leave a Comment
This was about our local football team, who had surrendered a touchdown in the first minute of the first quarter. Funny, we ended up coming back and winning. My mom (texting in white here) just got a new iPhone and doesn’t understand how autocorrect works or doesn’t work. She was trying to type Robert Griffin III’s abbreviated nickname “RGIII.” Hilarity ensues.
Performing a Wedding Ceremony is a Thrill and Honor
Posted on September 18, 2012 // 1 Comment
I recently served as officiant for my friend’s wedding. I’ve known Mike Tomko for a few years now, and have gotten to know his now-wife Tabitha over the past year or so. When they asked me to become an ordained minister and marry them, I asked them if they were serious, and I asked them if they were sure. After about 24 hours had passed with no recantation of their request, I got a bit excited. This was new territory for me.
Using the Universal Life Church’s website, I became ordained, and even ordered a certificate to prove it. That piece of paper cost $6.99, plus like $7.50 in shipping. They always get you with the shipping!
After receiving the certificate, I posted a picture of it online and Steve Kaufman of the APA saw it and sent me an email. He’s performed ceremonies in the past and was able to provide me several scripts. I wrote the wedding, shared it with Tomko and Tabitha in a Google Doc, and they were able to edit it. Once we had it finalized, I exported it to a PDF and put it on my iPad in iBooks. I used a large font so I could sufficiently see it. It was an 8-page document – seven swipes to the left and they were married.
The morning of the ceremony, Mike took the wedding script and broke it down into tweets using the hashtag #tomkotember. He loaded up my account on his laptop, along with Tabitha’s account and his own. He then set up a wifi hotspot at The Campbell House Museum, which is where they had the ceremony. Shelley Satke Niemeier of Campbell House used Mike’s laptop and cut, pasted and tweeted the wedding as it progressed. She did a phenomenal job!
Joe Holleman wrote about it on stltoday.com, and Allison Babka put together a Storify that contains the best of the best tweets. Be sure to check it out.
Best wishes to Tabitha, congrats to Mike on their nupts today. They and their rev are 3 of STL’s favorite 140 characters. #fgs
— MayorSlay.com (@MayorSlay) September 15, 2012
With that, I now pronounce you husband and wife. @michaeltomko, please kiss your bride! #Tomkotember
— Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees) September 15, 2012
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce to you for the first time … Mr. and Mrs. @michaeltomko! #Tomkotember
— Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees) September 15, 2012
This picture was taken about two minutes after they were married.
AND THEY’RE MARRIED. HUZZAH! #tomkotember cc: @michaeltomko @tabithakmeyer twitter.com/RizzoTees/stat…
— Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees) September 15, 2012
One last item of note: in the comment section of Joe Holleman’s stltoday story, a pastor left a comment concerning my willingness and/or ability to be a real pastor to Mike and Tabitha. His comment, in its entirety: “I hope this freshly internet-ordained pastor is willing to do the hard work of helping this young couple with their marriage and isn’t just doing a wedding. Real pastors don’t just help people get married, they help them stay married.” I responded “Don’t worry. I’ll be there for them.”
Without going into too much detail, I’ve noticed a tendency among folks like Pastor Patrick to, how shall I put this, not be able to sit still when happy people carve out a happy life for themselves outside the confines of their purview. It seems to make them downright fidgety. As a human being of 41 years, I can provide people like Mike and Tabitha advice along much the same lines as a pastor of faith. The words, messages and meaning might be different, but they won’t be inherently less effective. Mike and Tabitha made some personal choices that made great sense for them, and my sensibilities largely match up with theirs. Coupled with the fact that I love these people, I was thrilled and honored to officiate the ceremony. I believe they will be quite happy together, and I’ll always be available to offer my perspective on marriage, kids, cats, etc.
Saving Nikola Tesla’s Lab
Posted on September 13, 2012 // Leave a Comment
I blogged about this NPR story on Falk Harrison’s blog. There is an effort afoot to save Nikola Tesla’s lab. Have a look at the blog post, listen to the NPR audio, and enjoy the “new-fashioned” way to generate interest, awareness and even $1.2 million in donations.