And be sure to check out Patrick Boivin’s “Making Of” clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94KO4UHOyk4

So there’s a great video that’s made the rounds at work.

We actually stumbled upon Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video: 2nd Attempt before finding the original video, so that’s how they’re presented here: second one first, first one second.

“Buy a house for the price of a VCR”

“Our main export is crippling depression”

Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism Video: 2nd Attempt

HASTILY MADE CLEVELAND TOURISM VIDEO

If you’re still more than a little disappointed by the ending to last season’s 24 on FOX, have no fear because Kiefer Sutherland’s next big project already launched in an attempt to help millions.

(NOTE: Let me just say, that I’ve had the link to this Cracked.com article sitting in my inbox since they posted the piece on May 12, 2009.)

Kiefer Sutherland’s Conflict Resolution presentation had me rolling on the floor laughing.

One of my favorite slides has to be “Root causes of conflicts,” though “How many weapons did you see?” prompted a riotous laugh.

The funniest part is how comprehensive the PowerPoint presentation is; you could probably give this at work and not get funny looks for at least a few slides.

See the whole presentation on Cracked.com.

I had to literally laugh out loud when I watched this video.

• Did you know that 85% of your prospects will visit your website before contacting you?
• What will happen when they get there? Does your website look professional?
• Do you have video on your website? You have to have video on your website.
• It also give you credibility. Showing visitors that you exist and aren’t another web-only business.

I only have a few points to make about this “professional” “website”:

1. 85% of potential customers visiting your website sounds reasonable. But if your website looks anything like what they’re suggesting it should look like, no one will be coming to your business.
2. When they get there: If they see video and are Digital Natives, they’ll think you’re not professional. If they are Digital Immigrants they’ll think you’re a highly successful company with tons of cash on hand. Know your target demo!
3. You do not have to have video on your website. Many businesses have no reason to have video. VIDEO DOES NOT MAKE YOU SUCCESSFUL!
4. Did you know web-only businesses can make videos too? No shit!

Original here.

When you think of The Onion, no doubt fake interviews and hilarious headlines come to mind.

Well, the Onion News Network has now been around for a while, poking fun at television news operations across the country the same way The Onion makes fun of newspapers.

This is the story that could put all of us out of business, watch out for the crude language.

My new favorite website

Is Obama President?

Bars & Tones

From André at Vimeo

Blasting local TV weather coverage

Hilarious and true…

In news, sometimes the most important or interesting elements of a story are hidden in the middle or even near the end, a practice known as burying the lede. But Lehigh Valley Live had no such problems with this story I came across. The piece was full of amazing content, I absorbed every word.

Their headline didn’t leave a lot to the imagination, though:

Holland Township family angry that supermarket won’t personalize cake for their son

Perhaps a more appropriate headline would have been:

Supermarket refuses to make birthday cake for Adolf Hitler

That could have been their highest rated story of all time!

Oh, and there’s no lying or misleading being done in my version of the title.

The bulk of the story comes down to the fact ShopRite supermarket denied a family’s request to make a birthday cake for their 3-year old son. The priceless part is what ShopRite’s public response was:

“We believe the request … to inscribe a birthday wish to Adolf Hitler is inappropriate,” said Karen Meleta, a ShopRite spokeswoman.

I think they could have taken a stronger approach, and not lost any (or much) business. I mean, are there a lot of people out there who think it is appropriate to wish Hitler a happy birthday? And who would go to a discount grocery store to get a cake for him? I’d want to make sure I really knew the person behind the counter before I asked them to icing that onto a sheet cake.

I guess the only way they could have lost more business is if there are more families in their area who have named their children in a fashion similar to this couple:

• JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell
• Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell
• Adolf Hitler Campbell

Read the full story: Family angry over son’s birthday cake

The Bush Game

Throw shoes at the President of the United States of America. Enough said. Link: The Bush Game

WTF Stamp

The best holiday gift this season. Students turn in a test with ridiculously wrong answers? Subordinate can’t tell the difference between “they’re,” “there” and “their?” Friend got drunk, passed out on your couch and is now begging to how something written on him? Then this is the gift for you. Only to be topped by a “STFU” stamp. Link: WTF Stamp

Super Mario 63

Say goodbye to your work day. Someone has created a Super Mario game, entirely in Flash. I can’t stop playing… Link: Super Mario 63

CNN, MSNBC and Fox in symphonic ecstacy

I believe the title says everything you need to know… Link: CNN, MSNBC and Fox in symphonic ecstacy

I was digging through old bookmarks and *.txt files and came across these four things. I thought they’d be worth a second look for me, and a good time-killer for you.

Movie Showtimes Map
http://hurwi.net/map/

The Movie Showtimes Map is extremely helpful if you know what movie you want to see, but have no idea where it’s playing near you. Just type in the ZIP code or address where you are, then select a movie from the list on the left.

Here’s a link to the Indianapolis map.

Shopping Cart Fail

Pretty self-explanatory. If you’re a fan of Fail Blog you’ve no doubt already seen this. If not, enjoy.

ABC Bohemian Rhapsody Music Video

This is really old, well September-old, but very good. It’s basically a clip reel of the then-upcoming 2008 season on ABC, set to Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

The Promotions Office

If you’ve ever worked in the News or Promotions/Creative Services department at a television station you’ll see this is reality, not just comedy. This is really how my job goes some days…

DTV: Explained

This is what our viewers are really going through

How to liven up a crowd at church

Is Jesus really Superman? I’ve never seen both of them together

A co-worker forwarded this my way the other day, and I’ve found myself giggling about the “Boston Market” line quite frequently.

Ooh Girl – An Honest R&B Song

“Cause I just had a big dinner”
Boston Market
“And I’m struggling with some negative body issues.”

They need to check their map

Last time I looked, Google Maps has that distance as 147 miles. But 10 miles is a decent estimate, I guess.

[Editor's note: This post updated 4 October]

I love Firefox.

But I don’t like having to run GTalk in the background to have mailto: links open in GMail or my Hosted GMail. So, what do you do to change how mailto: links function?

It’s actually quite simple.

Open Firefox.

In the address bar type one of the following strings of code. It will vary depending on if you are using a Google Hosted account or a regular GMail account.
GMail:

javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler
("mailto","https://mail.google.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","Gmail")

Hosted GMail:

javascript:window.navigator.registerProtocolHandler
("mailto","https://mail.google.com/a/exampleurl.com/mail/?extsrc=mailto&url=%s","GMail")

You will be asked if you want to add GMail as a handler for mailto: links. Go ahead.

If you are not asked for any confirmation, go back to the address bar and type:

about:config

Click “I’ll be careful, I promise!”

In the filter bar type:

network.protocol-handler.external.mailto

Double-click on the entry listed under “Preference Name,” this will change the entry to “true” and appear bold.

Then verify the setup worked by going to Tools > Options.

Click “Applications” and in the “Search” box type

mailto

Make sure the drop-down on the right says “Use GMail.”

This has been one of my favorite tweaks for Firefox. And it’s made sharing things much easier, because I don’t have to “Copy link address” to send e-mails to friends.

“Okay, let’s put it on the truck!”

“No, wait. Bring it back! It can’t go out until tomorrow!”

These are the screws that hold my TV together. The TV I haven’t been able to put back together since I moved. Mainly because I’m not smart enough to put the original screws with the TV during a move.

Fair use is an interesting topic within copyright law. During media law classes in college, it was always a conversation starter.

Copyright law protects our property and creations. Movies, books, poems, blog posts, music, blueprints, videos and everything else you can think of are covered.

But there’s a great loophole that lets others use part of your work (and not technically as a derivative work). Fair use. It lets news programs and people poking fun of your work use your work. Keep in mind that satire and parody are two very different things, and I can’t remember which one is protected speech when I’m this many beers deep already.

Anywho, here’s a very helpful (and fun) explanation of fair use using fair use.

Genius. Simply genius.