Bye to Boss Bob

The AOL and sports blogging community suffered a great loss over the weekend.

Former Blog Boss Bob Wooldridge, longtime AOL guy, one of the principle creators of Sports Bloggers Live, my boss up until he left the company in May, and my friend, died on Saturday after being hit by a car in a tragic skateboarding accident. He was 42.

Yes, leave it to Bob to exit this world on a skateboard.

He was pretty well-known to AOL's sports blogging community, as he played an active role in SBL, especially behind-the-scenes, as a tireless advocate of blogging and promoting the community that sprung up around it and the show.

Here he is with the SBL crew -- he's kind of hiding in the back row, left, between intern Chris's big melon and Jamie's finger:

Here's a well-deserved close-up:

I didn't know it at the time, but as I was reading the Sunday paper, there was a short blurb about him in the Metro section: "Skateboarder Hit by Car, Killed."

As I skimmed the page, one thing jumped out at me -- the victim was 42. You don't really expect that when you see "skateboarder." It was kind of unusual, something that sticks with you. You don't dwell on it too much, though -- turn the page. Maybe remember to send the link off to a friend the next day as one of those odd death stories.

Then I got the phone call later that evening.

Jamie over at Mr. Irrelevant's Sports Blog shares the contents of a farewell letter that he never got the chance to send to Bob -- it's a far more eloquent message than I could ever write, so go check it out.

Also check out Jeff's entry in his Pixel Pusher blog, featuring video of two of Bob's top bands -- the Ramones and the Replacements.

For my part, here's a picture of a book that Bob gave me before he left the company -- it's the illustrated collector's 25th anniversary edition of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy':

Bob, we will always have our stories and our memories. You will be missed.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: bob wooldridge

If you do an entry about Bob and want to tag it so that others can find it, try using the Technorati tag "bob wooldridge" -- you can go to the beta and tag your entry from there, or just use the following code that you would paste while in HTML editing mode:

<br>Tag:
<a rel="tag" target="_blank"
href="http://technorati.com/tag/bob+wooldridge">bob
wooldridge</a>

Headed for the Hot Place

Hi folks -- hope you had a good weekend.

Over here in the mid-Atlantic region, the temperature is creeping up to 100 degrees:

This is kind of a big deal over here, though I'm sure people in the South and Southwest (not to mention every servicemember stationed in the desert) are wondering what the fuss is about (just like folks in the snow belt point and laugh when 3 inches of the white stuff shuts everything down).

It wasn't too bad this morning, but the humidity is supposed to be a lot worse tomorrow.

In other news, I'm sure you've heard that space shuttle Discovery touched down safely this morning, so congratulations on a successful mission and safe return.

And, getting about as political here as you're going to see me, let's just all hope for a speedy and peaceful resolution to the current flare-up in the Middle East.

Anyway, hope things are cool in your neck of the woods.

Thanks -- Joe

More Zidane-Headbutt Goodness

Hey folks -- first things first: Journals Editor Jeff has posted this week's Guest Editor's Picks over in his Pixel Pusher blog -- check it out.

So, on with the headbutting. As I was doing my previous post about the Zidane headbutt-inspired video being featured on video-sharing site YouTube, I got to looking around to see what other people were doing with it: YouTube search results for "Zidane Headbutt"

There are a few hundred results -- some are straight lifts off of the TV, others are remixes and parodies and re-enactments of varying quality.

For another view of things, I went over to freakishly-odd (and occasionally Not Safe For Work -- NSFW) YTMND.com, (which stands for "You're The Man Now, Dog." Why? It's a little complicated) where it looks like people's riffs on the Zidane headbutt have taken over the site for the past week or so.

What they do over at YTMND is typically take a short video clip or animated gif and set it to music -- there are established conventions and cliches that people use.

For example, in the "[Person's Name] Doesn't Change Facial Expressions" genre, all the creations are set to Steve Winwood's 'Valerie,' as you can see in the original, Lindsay Lohan Doesn't Change Facial Expressions.

For the Zidane headbutt, there are now hundreds of variations, a lot of them involving video game and other pop culture references -- you can see some examples below:

From left to right and top to bottom, we've got here:

• Katamari Damacy
• Nintendo
• Star Wars
• SNL's "Night at the Roxbury"
• MC Hammer
• Fidel Castro

And that's just off the first page of search results for "Zidane."

Even if you don't know the specific things they're referencing, they're still pretty funny. Or at least I think so.

Just more ways to waste time for a weekend. Which I hope you have a good one... of.

Thanks -- Joe
Tags:
youtube, zidane
headbutt, ytmnd, remix

Embed YouTube Video in Your Journal (Beta)

Hi folks -- Happy Bastille Day! Here's the wikipedia entry on the holiday, its history and significance.

Thus ends the educational portion of this entry. Here's the fun bit: Below is an embedded YouTube video that's tangentially related to the French holiday, as it features a new way to solve everyday problems inspired by French national team soccer player Zinedine Zidane, and his famous headbutt in this year's World Cup final:



But wait, you say -- forget about that silly video -- how do I embed the YouTube video player into my Journal?

Well, I'm not going to tell you.

That's because Journals Editor Jeff just did an entry about this very thing; check out Embedding YouTube Video In Your AOL Journal in his Pixel Pusher blog.

(Also see blogger John's embedded video -- he chose a video featuring cats.)

YouTube is one of many social video sharing sites out there -- AOL's own version is AOL UnCut Video, which we'll be talking about more in the coming days.

As regular folks get more comfortable creating and sharing their own content (not just words, but photos, audio, video and more), social media sharing sites are going to get more and more popular.

Of course, it's also fun to just watch.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: zidane headbutt, journals editor jeff, youtube, aol journals, embedded video

Two News Items

Hi folks -- just a few news items to ponder:

* NPR's Morning Edition (yes, I know we're in "All Things Considered" time now, it's been busy today) had a piece on how women's hearts are different from men's.

Surprisingly, it's not that women's hearts are cold and dark, but rather that heart disease develops differently in women and men, and shows up differently on angiograms, which may cause doctors to misdiagose it.

Here's a quote:

"They found that women did have blockages in their major arteries; the blockages just didn't look the same as in men. The plaque was there, but it was spread out smoothly and evenly against the arterial wall. In men, plaque lumps up; an angiogram would show bumps and lumps in the blood flow. A women's angiogram looks smooth.

The difference appears to relate to the way men and women store fat."

Interesting stuff -- also interesting that it's taken us (that's the collective us -- I'm a blogger, not a doctor) this long to realize this.

* Following up on my post about the Mumbai bombings: Earlier, I'd noticed that the traditional news media hadn't really been falling over themselves with coverage of the attacks.

Over at blog Sepia Mutiny, they're wondering why the blogosphere has basically ignored the Mumbai attacks (relatively speaking), compared to the coverage of other attacks, such as the transit bombings in London and Madrid, as well as the nightclub bombing in Bali.

The big ole sphere o' blogs is supposed to fill in for the stories that the mainstream media is supposed to miss, but perhaps the attention spans are more closely linked than we'd like to believe.

(Link via Boing Boing)

Thanks -- Joe

More Words From AOL Pictures

As I mentioned previously, here are a few other items recently blogged in the AOL Pictures blog that you might find useful:

* Here's How to Contact the AOL Pictures Team, including how to submit pictures that you would like to see featured in their blog (like their Picture of the Week from last week, which is a series of rainbow shots).

* Will from the Pictures team is soliciting advice for a new digital camera to replace his ancient, brick-like 2.1 megapixel monstrosity.

With all the digital photo expertise around him, might he be fishing for comments? Nah.

Here are my two most recent cameras:

Me with my cameras -- I'm using a mirror that was given to us by the Business Conduct folks. I include myself in the shot since I am apparently a narcissist.

My current camera is on the right. It's a Canon PowerShot SD200, which was already obsolete at 3.2 megapixels when I bought it last year (around $200 bucks, including a 1gb SD card) -- it's about the size of a deck of cards.

The size, weight and screen size difference compared to the the S200 next to it is pretty dramatic. The S200 is a 2.1 megapixel camera which I also bought when it was obsolete, with memory card, for about $200 bucks.

[Update, 7/13: I've gotten a few comments from folks who aren't quite following the camera talk -- I took a few shortcuts in my entry, so here's what's going on -- I'm basically comparing my old camera, a 2.1 megapixel model, to my current camera, which has 3.2 megapixels.

A megapixel is a measure of resolution -- how much a digital camera can capture, which determines how big the photo can be. Unlike film, digital pictures are made up of dots, or pixels. The more dots you can use, the bigger the picture can be. "Mega" is the prefix for "million", so 3.2 megapixels is about 3,200,000 dots.

Digital cameras store their images on memory cards, of which there are different types -- my current camera has a 1-gigabyte memory card -- the type is called "SD" or "Secure Digital" -- it's about the size of a postage stamp and fits about 1,500 pictures.

I explain more about megapixels and other digital camera stuff in this earlier entry: Go Wild With Your Digital Camera.

Thanks -- Joe]

I am more of a snapshot guy, though sometimes I find myself wishing that I had a more fully-featured camera. And that I was a better photographer. I do like that fact that the SD200 fits easily into my pocket -- being small-statured, I also have small pockets.

In fact the current versions (SD450? SD500? Something like that) are slightly thicker and heaver, though the display screens are ginormous.

Anyway, as with any gadget, it really depends on your needs. But I've been happy with the Canon series so far. The fact that they have Maria Sharapova as their pitchwoman has absolutely nothing to do with it.

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: aol pictures, digital cameras, digital camera recommendations, canon powershot

Uh-Oh, Joe's Annoyed Again

Cow-orker and AIM Pages person Stephanie just sent an item to a social media and blogging listserve I'm on.

It annoyed me:

(If you know my AOL blogging history, when I get annoyed, other people tend to get very angry. At me.

Fortunately, the people with whom I'm annoyed don't read my blog.)

The reason I'm annoyed is that Dell just recently launched a corporate blog.

I don't particular care for Dell, nor do I hate them. (Unless we have a strategic partnership that I don't know about, in which case I absolutely lurve them.)

As blogs go (even corporate blogs), it was pretty lame. Of the first eight entries, the first seven are pretty much video product brochures and press releases (essays, if you want to be charitable.)

Then, the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice and the Dissemination of Best Practices [Blogging Division] got ahold of it.

And the virtual truncheons started falling.

"You're not being transparent!" *WHAM*

"This isn't real!" *BOOM*

"OMG, you guys don't get it!" *CRASH*

"Where are the links? I see no links!" *THUD*

"Blogging is conversation!" *WHACK*"

The eighth entry, of course, is all about a properly-chastened Dell falling over themselves to be authentic, and transparent, and real and all that good blog stuff.

Now, I agree with all these folks in an academic sense. I've inflicted my own advice on people, both in this blog and elsewhere, about why and how I think companies (and people) should blog.

But, folks, if some company wants to have a crappy blog, let them.

Instead, we have a virtual feeding frenzy: Hey, I'm piling on Dell! I've got credibility! See my blog, buy my book and see me speak at the next conference! Let's all pound on Dell and then on each others backs as we congratulate each other for getting social media. High five! (Visit my blog! Subscribe to my feed! Love me!)

If "eyeballs are currency," I guess that makes all us bloggers Attention Whores.

Even better, let's get all righteous as we guide companies onto the Eightfold Path to enlightened corporate blogging, which will of course save the world.  Oh, no, wait, I forgot: This is marketing -- we're not saving the world, we're figuring out ways to better sell [stuff] to people, most of which they don't need (which is why it needs to be marketed in the first place).

Anyway, I don't have a neat little bow with which to wrap up this entry, so I will just say that I believe in world peace and ponies for everyone.

(Please note that this is not some passive-aggressive "Look at me, look at me!" plea for attention. The people who read my blog don't care, and the people who care don't read my blog. I just got annoyed again.

Also, just as last time, this blog entry is rated approximately 50-65% serious, which is down from last year's 60-75%.  Especially the part about the truncheons. And the attention whoring. And the part about marketing not saving the world. I note that this similar disclaimer cut me absolutely no ice last time.)

Thanks -- Joe

Tags:
dell, annoyed, ponies for
everyone