Video of the Week: Serious ping pong skills

I grew up with a ping pong table in my house. I was all right at it...or so I thought. When I got to college I met some people who could really play. My skills were pitiful in comparison. Then I saw these guys this week. They take it to a new level.



Here's a link to another good one if you want some more ping pong action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIOAqf5P03o


Link for the feed readers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIOAqf5P03o

Does Your Digital Outreach Tell the Truth?

I recently submitted another article for Outreach Magazine's website. I took a little different angle this time from previous articles. Rather than discussing new technology specifically as I've done in previous articles I thought it was time to address the disparity between how some churches portray themselves online verses the actual experience when a person arrives at the church. Here's a little bit of the article:

It's tempting to create an image of what you want your church to be, rather than what it is. Though your intentions may be pure, you're not helping your prospects gain an accurate picture of your church. If you paint an inaccurate picture, then aren't you guilty of false advertising?

Web 2.0 tools can be used to communicate anything you want. And therein lies the opportunity for inadvertent false advertising. Though you may want to make some changes, don't show your community what you hope the church to be in a few years. Rather, show them all the great things about your church today. If your church needs to make changes, then make the changes within the appropriate avenues in the church, but don't convey those changes until they’re nearly complete.

You can read the full article here.

Video of the Week: Pachelbel's Bedtime in D

This is what happens when a dad with a webcam and guitar starts writing lyrics to Pachelbel's Canon in D. Quite funny with some things I can relate to!



Thanks to my brother for the tip on this video.

Link for the feed readers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA

This is why I love social media...

I'm working on a project and had to do a little digging into Flickr. One thing led to another and I discovered this photo by photographer Kris Kros. I don't know what it is about this picture but it totally captivates me. There's a story to it on the Flickr page too. It was a great find.

Thanks to Kris for allowing me to post the image on this blog. There's more from Kris on his Flickr page.

UPDATE: Holly Hunter Interview - The Spin

I recently wrote about the really bad Holly Hunter interview from the ABCNews.com segment called What's the Buzz. I originally wrote about this interview and linked to the video as my video of the week but it turns out this story is becoming a case study for web 2.0 cluelessness (if that's even a word).

Now ABC News is playing this story up like the interviewer, Merry Miller, is an Internet celebrity like the Evolution of Dance guy when in reality this is more akin to the Star Wars kid (video here for the uninitiated) brand of celebrity. Steve Bryant over at Reel Pop nailed this whole thing on the head. He said, "Miller's celebrity isn't positive, no matter how much she or ABC tries to spin it. Her appearance was a series of simple mistakes, good for a laugh. But by conflating notoriety for celebrity, ABC reveals they're just as out-of-touch as Miller."

So what's the lesson here? If you're going to venture into these new waters try to get some people on board who know the culture. It's not enough to find people who can execute technically. There's an entire culture shift around the new media. ABC is on the right track going the You Be the Anchor angle and they could have played that up more. Unfortunately, ABC's lack of new media understanding shines brighter.

Video of the Week: Ouch! Skater takes big fall.

I've seen my fair share of bloopers and sports injury video clips but I've never quite seen a fall (or maybe free fall is a better term) like this. The good news is he walks away in the end.



Link for the feed readers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBvCrSjpx9I

Blog Maintenance: Checked your blogroll lately?

If you're a blogger you've probably got a blogroll. If you've been blogging for a while, chances are your blogroll has gotten pretty lengthy as you've traded links with various bloggers. I've been blogging for over a year and had 31 blogs I was linking to from my blog. It struck me tonight that it's been a while since a viewed a few of them so I decided to start going down the list and here's what I found:

• Dead Blogs - Two of the blogs don't exist anymore. The guys shut them down for various reasons.
• Dying Blogs - One of the blogs hadn't been updated since April. It's on life support at best.
  
• Departed Blogs - One of the blogs had a new address and I was linking to an old blog.

Needless to say it wasn't speaking well for my blog upkeep to be linking to dead, dying, and departed blogs. The dead and dying blogs were removed and the departed blog now links to the appropriate address. A few of the existing blogs are close to hitting a month of zero blog posts so I'll check on them again over the next few weeks. I don't know when I'll officially put them into the "dying" category (and therefore remove them from my blogroll) but if six weeks have passed without a post I think it's fair to say the blog is dying.

So when is the last time you went through your own blogroll? Are you linking to any dead, dying or departed blogs?