Twitterbug?

According to a Neilsen study, only 16 percent of Twitter users are under the age of 25.

I don’t use Twitter (and I’m 25. Maybe I’m just immature). I have an account, but I find Facebook much more useful and entertaining. But I do believe Twitter is an essential resource for any reporter who has tech-savvy people on his or her beat. It’s an easy way to get ideas for stories.

Twitter is like Facebook Lite (even though Facebook copied Twitter’s status-heavy format, but nevertheless). Its popularity relies on status updates from its users, and nothing else. It’s ridiculously simple.

Facebook does that, and about a million other things. You have a profile where you can list your favorite music, movies, quotes and more. You can upload photos, videos, and you can annoy your friends with take quizzes on everything from “Which state should you live in” to “What kind of dog would you be” to “Which stupid Facebook quiz are you”.

You’ve probably seen the ads on TV for the Jitterbug, the no-nonsense cell phone that is really just for making calls. It’s primarily designed for the elderly, but I’m sure there’s a market for it among the severely technologically impaired too.

So basically, Twitter is the Jitterbug of social networking. Both are simple, and old people like them. Boom.

Take off the rose-colored glasses

I was driving home from an evening with my husband’s family on Tuesday when I heard an ad on the radio for a Web site that only shares “good news”, and not in the biblical sense.

According to its site, “GoodNewsinTulsa.com is a website dedicated to the Good things that are happening in Tulsa, and the surrounding communities, every day! Our goal is to build news centered around area businesses and people that are focused on Successes rather than failures! Triumphs over disappointments! Achievements over collapses!”

As a journalist, this idea is revolting and idiotic. Not because I don’t like good news (“American Eagle is having a sale on jeans!”), but because bad news is essential to our lives.

You know the old journalism saying, “If it bleeds, it leads”? It’s because, whether people admit it or not, they need – and deserve –  to know bad news.

Say there’s a man reportedly driving around your neighborhood in a white van, telling kids he’ll hurt them if they don’t get in. That’s not good news, but it’s important.

Say you are driving to work on the one day you CAN’T be late and you find a major part of your route is shut down for construction and traffic is awful.

Say you’re house-hunting and you think you’ve found your dream home, but a meth lab is discovered down the street.

Say you’re a single woman living in an apartment and there’s a serial rapist who has struck nearby.

You get my drift.

I understand the intentions of the site’s creators and I believe they are sincere. I also believe happy stories are a critical part of the media’s information-sharing process. It’s good to recognize teachers, volunteers, entrepreneurs and the like.

I’m not saying the idea for this Web site is all bad. People do like to read uplifting stories. But a site like this only works as a supplement to a real news outlet.

P.S. I took a second look at the site, and it copied and pasted stories from news outlets all over the Tulsa area. Copyright infringement, much?

Birthday

Happy birthday Harry S Truman (born exactly 100 years before me), Don Rickles, Peter Benchley, Toni Tennille, Gary Glitter (thanks for your song after every Dallas Stars goal), Melissa Gilbert and Enrique Iglesias.

Since this is a sports copy editor’s blog, I wish an especially happy birthday to these sports folk: Mike D’Antoni, Bill Cowher, Lovie Smith, Bobby Labonte, Ray Whitney, Korey Stringer, Jussi Markanen, John Maine, former Texas Ranger Adrian Gonzalez and Felix Jones.

Most of all, happy birthday to me! (And Prince Fielder, I’ll always be one day older – and about 150 pounds lighter – than you.)

Fires and ice

Interesting weather across the state today. Wildfires are raging in the central and western parts of Oklahoma, and severe storms are producing hail across the east.

News reports say Interstate 35 is shut down near the Stillwater exit, and parts of Highway 51 are closed. Homes have been destroyed, but the out-of-control fires are only 15 miles from Stillwater. You can even see the smoke on Doppler radar, which is kind of awesome and terribly sad, because you know people’s lives and homes are at stake.

From 4:15 to 5 p.m. today, I had some good opportunities for pictures.

Here’s some in chronological order. As always, they look best (and real big) when you click on them.

Sunny and rainy creeps me out.

Look at the puddle. Marble-sized hail is making those plunks.

Nice rainbow!

It’s actually pouring in these pics, but you have to click to see it.

Ragged, low clouds scare me.

Lookin’ a little green outside.

It got real dark this afternoon, but it’s sunny now. All the “good” stuff is east or south. But channel 6 does have some awesome video of some rotation right now.

I have things I need to be doing today, but I always enjoy listening to Travis Meyer talk about circulation features, tornado indexes and lowerings. There was a scary time when the satellite was getting scrambly and they were talking about rotation in Jenks.

The red circles are fires.

Update: You can smell the smoke outside. I think those fires are still near Oklahoma City, about 100 miles away.

Blizzard ’09

It was 80 degrees last week, right? I didn’t dream that, did I?

I have a feeling I will need to leave for work a little earlier than usual.

Dairy Queen should sponsor these kinds of snowstorms… mmm Reese’s Blizzard…

The pics are much bigger when you click on them. I recommend the second and sixth ones.

Spring is here!

I’ve been meaning to write this blog for several days, and now it’s almost too late.

Since this is the blog of a sports copy editor, I try to keep posts to three general areas: sports commentary, journalism-industry commentary and grammar. This post is not about any of those things, but I’ll try to make a connection…

One of my favorite trees came into bloom in Tulsa a few days ago. They are all over town, but you’d never notice them until the one week a year that they bloom.

Can you guess what kind of tree I’m talking about? Here’s a hint:

Here is the tree.