Fake it if you don't have friends...

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FakeYourSpace.com is a social networking Web site--sort of.

Don't have many friends?

And if you do, are your friends not very attractive?

Solution: FakeYourSpace.com

Winthrop's "common book" awaits puppies

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If you're a junior, sophomore or freshman at Winthrop, you already know about the "common book" that all first-time entering freshmen read over the summer before their first (fall) semester of enrollment.

The next freshman entering class will be reading a book by choreographer Twyla Tharp.

Ever heard of her?

Apparently she's a big name in the creative arts business.

Read all about why the "common book" committee selected Tharp's "The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It" as mandatory reading for our next freshman class.

Jacob Matovu at ASU is smiling about Uganda

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Well, Uganda is in the news--in a big way--because of an Academy Award (for best actor) won last night by Forest Whitaker; he starred in the movie "The Last King of Scotland," cast in the role of long-time Ugandan dictator (and some say murderer, power monger and tyrant) Idi Amin.

My longtime good friend Jacob Matovu, by the way, plans to take 15-20 students with him this summer for a five-week visit to Uganda.

Want to visit one of Africa's most beautiful countries and earn up to six semester hours of academic credit?

Contact Dr. Matovu at Appal. State Univ. at: 828-262-2406.

Or you can e-mail him at: matovuj@appstate.edu

Satellite radio merger on the horizon

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Are you a satellite radio subscriber of Sirius?

XM subscriber?

Soon, these two satellite radio services may be merged.

Sort of like soon all the businesses in America will be owned by:

Wal-Mart

Is such a satellite radio merger good for subscribers of this sort of media service?

Read the link above.

Coming soon: an FM radio station in Rock Hill

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No longer will locals (living in York County, S.C.) have to settle for a home-based AM radio station.

In April, if you tune your FM dial to 94.3, you'll hear good vibes.

Read all about it and what it means for local listeners in the above headlined link.

Saluting our student journalist winners

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Students working on campus newspapers at Winthrop University fared well in the 2006 S.C. Press Association Collegiate Division newspaper competition.

The SCPA judges entries from S.C. college and university student publications. The contest categories include: Best Photography, Best Page Design, Best News Story, Best Feature Story...

Nice going, Winthrop students.

Michael and Mychal...

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Well, this old journalist blogger could be wrong (and I've been wrong before), but the news media are finally catching on to the strength and competitiveness of the Winthrop men's basketball team. As I write this, the team is 23-4, and it's quite possible they'll be seeded ninth or tenth in whatever bracket they find themselves in for the "Big Dance" in March.

Of course, much of this depends upon whether the team wins the Big South Conference Tournament. (They could lose, and stranger things have happened.)

But I want to put a plug in here for sharp shooting Michael Jenkins (25 points in the victory over Missouri State in the Bracketbuster game televised on ESPN2 last night).

An additional plug goes to Mychal Frost (a 2006 WU graduate--mass communication major/journalism track). I noticed Mychal on ESPN2 last night, working at the scorer's table on the home court of Missouri State University.

Mychal is the son of the famed Jack Frost, who does media relations, writes stories, does Web site work and just about everything else for the Athletics component at Winthrop.

Jack, you taught him well.

(The photo above--from the Winthop University Athletics Web site, is of Michael Jenkins in action against the Bears of Missouri State. The Bears never knew what hit them last night.)

It must have been fun and exciting, Mychal, working this game.

My daughter Dorothy's wedding...

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Okay, I don't always blog about media or press stuff.

If you're up for something different, click on the link above which takes you to a 19-minute video of my daughter's wedding about two months ago.

Turn up the sound and enjoy.

I love the pictures and music.

Dorothy and Patrick were married in Alexandria, Va., on Dec. 30, 2006.

New book out by investigative journalist

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Ron Chepesiuk, a retired professor at Winthrop University, has just written (and released) his 19th book, I believe.

Quite a prolific writer, and I've learned a lot from him

His book is titled "Gangsters of Harlem."

Check it out, all you aspiring investigative journalists.

Lessons to be learned about the craft of journalism from Ron's book.

The cold could be worse

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Okay, so you're shivering from our (maybe colder than normal) winter in S.C.

Things could be much colder.

Try Maine, for example. Click on the link above to see how lucky we are in S.C.

Story by a Winthrop alumna of our program

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Noelle Coyle is a May 2005 graduate of WU (mass comm. major/journalism track.)

Her dream/goal was to work on a magazine.

Look her cover story article--about an Air Force base--in a recent edition of AZ Business (based in Phoenix, Ariz.)

Note how she's putting her journalism skills to good use as a writer for a magazine.

My best friend--my dog

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Here's my dog, Roadie. A sheltie, he's about 5 years old.

Like his owner, he's very smart--and somewhat spoiled.

What kind of money can a blogger earn?

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The money a blogger makes depends, in great part, on how much passion he or she brings to blogging. How many eyeballs are attracted to the blog? How hard does the blogger work each day? Read the above link, from the Wall Street Journal, for more of the financial skinny about blogging.

Citizen bloggers...

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If you don't believe in the potential news power of blogging, check out what the dominant wire service in the world--the Associated Press--is doing with regard to citizens with cell phone cameras and laptop computers.

Interesting stuff!

Yours truly is turning gray

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It's a drab to get old, but it happens to all of us--if we're lucky. The hair turns white after you've been "through it" and have become truly "a real person."

Let's move to Miami

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If you're like me or live today in South Carolina or north of South Carolina, it's cold. A friend just shared with me that it's minus 35 degrees in the rural community in Maine where she lives.

Now THAT'S frigid.

In Rock Hill, S.C., this morning it's 20 degrees--cold enough, thank you, for this southern guy.

Seeking balmier and better climes?

Click on the above link and check out the short-sleeve weather in Miami.

News University

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A good link to explore if you are teaching journalism or trying yourself to learn more about journalism is News University--sponsored by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies.

Other side of the story about Iraq...

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With all the condemnation lately about America's involvement in Iraq, I just ran across an interesting piece, by Ed Williams, editor of the editorial pages for The Charlotte Observer, which helps tell the OTHER side of the story.

Click on the hotlink above (the headline) for an interesting, (forgotten?) retrospective of why U.S. troops went there in the first place.

Yes, it's very cold in my hometown again...

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The windchill this morning in Mountain City, Tenn., is at least minus 3 degrees.

I'm glad I'm living today in South Carolina. Cold here, too, but not THAT frigid.

Blades and antlers collide...

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Ever heard of a skier crashing into a deer (or vice versa?).

It apparently happened in Maine.

Read on:

By Scott Thistle , Regional Editor
Saturday, February 3, 2007
CARRABASSETT VALLEY - Dr. Ray Stone never saw it coming.

Skiing down the Haulback Trail at Sugarloaf/USA on the morning of Jan. 12
the family practice doctor, who lives in New Gloucester and works at Central
Maine Medical Center in Lewiston had a fine arcing turn interrupted by a
whitetail deer that was attempting to cross the ski trail.

"I just never saw this deer coming," Stone said from his ski chalet near the
mountain Friday. "I was going pretty quick down the top half of Haulback,
arcing from left to right and all of the sudden I just got knocked right off
my feet and I was falling."

The deer, too, went down. "Its legs were just pumping away really fast, they
never stopped moving," Stone said of the animal. Uncertain of whether it was
a buck or a doe Stone, in a letter to the Kingfield-based weekly newspaper
The Irregular, wrote, "My first thought was, 'What hit me?...a (snow)
boarder? drunk skier? linebacker?' "

Others saw the collision from the chairlift said longtime Maine skier and
ski writer Dan Cassidy. At a social event that evening in Stratton, Cassidy
overheard some people talking about how they witnessed a skier hitting a
deer. Cassidy said he, at first, thought they were joking and was wondering
if they were "drinking something." But he said the story checked out so he
wrote about it, which eventually prompted Stone to write in to report he was
the skier who hit the deer.

Cassidy, who has been skiing in Maine for 45 years and writing about skiing
for 15 years, has never heard of a deer-versus-skier collision.

"Never, never, never," Cassidy said. "I've never even heard of anybody
encountering a deer on a ski trail, especially an alpine trail, I've seen an
animal, like a fox, come out on occasion but never a deer."

Stone recalls people hollering at him from the lift, and he raised his fist
and pumped it in the air just to tell them he was OK. To the lift riders it
appeared Stone was shaking his fist in anger over the deer ruining what
would have otherwise been a nice run down one of the resort's favorite
expert trails, Cassidy said.

But Stone wasn't angry just surprised. "I wasn't mad, just signaling I was
fine," he said Friday.

After checking himself out for any injuries, the doctor skied down to meet
his wife, Diane, at the chairlift. She was skiing ahead of him on the trail
and hadn't seen the collision.

When he told her he had just run into a deer on the ski slope her first
question was, "Is the deer all right?" she said Friday.

Stone said he's been skiing at Sugarloaf since about 1985 and is a "fairly
conservative" skier. "I don't think I even fell once last season," he said.
The run-in with the deer took him down, but his skis stayed on, he said. The
deer quickly bounced back to its feet and continued across the trail and
into the woods beyond, Stone said. "It never stopped running even though it
was down," Stone said. "Luckily we just glanced off each other. I'm just
glad the deer wasn't hurt."

Storm caused Rock Hillians to change their act

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They're going crazy in Rock Hill, S.C., what with all this snow and ice today. It's exciting. It's fun. It's different.

It's a community and its people in the South when white stuff falls.

Rare and it makes people do curious things--as you can see from the attached photo.

Final call for the J.K.R. wizard

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Personally, I've never been much into the Harry Potter series of books, but I know lots of people love them, have read all of them, seen the movies...

It's really a rags to riches story for author J.K. Rowling, who began her writing career as a secretary, scribbling notes on a legal pad while she rode the train to and from her job in England.

Look how far she has come today!