How Stuff Works

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So I have Optimum Voice hooked up so that the network e-mails me any new voice mails I get. I get a .wav attached to an e-mail. Since I'm working from home today, I forwarded my office phone to my home office phone. I got a voice mail this morning and I clicked on it when the e-mail came in. This, of course, launched iTunes and I listened to it. At some point after that, I downloaded a couple songs to my iPod.

This is how you end up in a situation in which you're minding your own business, listening to your iPod, and then suddenly hear a voice mail from work come through your headphones right after your favorite ZZ Top song.

How to Pitch Me

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I've been getting pitched for stories for much longer than I've had a blog. I usually don't mind it when PR folks and company CEOs try to get me to write a column about something, but there's a lot of broadcast thinking that often goes into these pitches, which is something I do mind. I also don't like it when someone does a half-assed job of trying to customize something to make it look like it's addressed to me, or when people try to tie their concept in to my last column and screw it up. So, here's how you pitch me.

1) Be totally transparent. I know your job is to get ink for your client or company. Don't pretend that you're calling or writing for some other purpose.

2) Explain what it is that you think is important that I write about and why.

3) Read your pitch before you send it to me. If it sounds like a stretch, it probably is. Don't spend 10 paragraphs trying to tie something in to a column I recently wrote. If you're trying to pound a square peg into a round hole, you'll waste my time and yours.

4) Don't send me the same (release, story, pitch) you're going to send to everyone else.

5) Have some information ready for me, or someone at your company/client who can speak to the issues you raise.

6) Don't push for me to talk to someone (client CEO, executive at your company) about something non-specific because you think we'd have an interesting conversation. If I want to talk to somebody at your company, it means I really want to gather valuable background info about something specific or do an interview. I don't have a lot of time for small talk.

7) Don't lie to me. The rule is pretty simple. If you lie to me and I catch you, I never speak to you as a source again.

8) If I indicate I don't want to write a story about what you're pitching, don't continually send me e-mail or leave me phone messages about what a mistake I'm making by not writing about whatever it is. My job isn't to cover every little thing I see. It's to crank out a limited number of informed opinion pieces every month.

9) Don't ask me what I think about something and then get pissed because I didn't give you the opinion you were looking for. You're free to disagree with me and I'm free to disagree with you. You can try to change my mind and I'll listen, but I don't tolerate unfocused anger or poor treatment very well.

10) My very favorite stories are the ones that no one wants to talk about and that people try to keep buried. Bring these to me, or set me on the right path to find them, and I will love you.

Nice Weekend

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As far as I'm concerned, snow is really cool only when it snows enough to shut things down. And this last storm certainly did that. I spent most of Saturday working on my quad in preparation for the storm. The battery was dead and not taking a charge, so I ran out to Riverhead Honda and got a new one. While I charged that up, I figured it would be better to be safe than sorry (and out of commission), so I stripped the quad down, got rid of the old gas that was sitting in the tank, put in a new spark plug, and put the machine back together. The machine started right back up after I got the new battery in. The snow didn't start until late, and there wasn't enough on the ground early in the evening to shut the roads down. Craig, Dennis and I didn't get out until after midnight. It was a cold night, but we got in some amazing riding. Craig broke his aging sprocket and had to head back to get another quad, but we still had a great time riding around, blowing donuts on the street and sliding around parking lots, streets and trails.

I even got some riding in Sunday morning. Most of the streets didn't get plowed until this morning, so there was a good deal of fun to be had Sunday. I took a cruise around the neighborhood a couple times. One of the roads in the next development over was unplowed through the entire storm and the quad could barely get through the deep snow, since it was at least 15 inches deep. Thankfully, my tires have some nice paddles on them and I was able to skim over most of the deep drifts without getting too bogged down.

Sunday night I went over to Lauren's. She cooked dinner and since I had the quad in my truck, we took a spin around her block. There were some kids down the block trying to tow a sled with a Yamaha Raptor. We didn't stick around long enough to see if they were successful.

This morning I decided to work from home because the LIRR was so screwed up and I had an early conference call. In a couple minutes, I have to leave for Islip and go pick up my Mom at MacArthur. Hopefully, her flight will make it in on time.