Cryptic Writings

Good title for Halloween, eh? Beaucoup to cover ... my awesome wife, local jerks, Thriller remakes, and maybe a few non-related jabbers. Let's see where this goes ...

Right now I'm sitting at work disguised as giant iPhone. I am iJerry. And for the first time ever, I'm going to post a picture of myself. Allow me to explain. I despise Halloween. Mostly because if I just didn't feel like dressing up in the past, EVERYONE would be scolding me for being a party pooper. God forbid we celebrate the birth of Christ as exuberantly. I don't care if you get into it - it's just not my bag baby!

Despite that, my employer gets pretty tangled into the tortuous ordeal known as costume partying ... contests, prizes, etc. My VP is having an extra give away for Thanksgiving Day Cowboys tickets - as long as you are dressed up. Upon hearing this, my wife told me to get my derriere in the car and get over to Hobby Lobby. We discussed Benny the Bellhop, the retired Hotels.com mascot.

This was too difficult. But what she churned out between the kids bedtime and 1 am this morning ... let's just say she may have been selling herself short. I have a good chance to win (JD@kronos, eat your heart out). Go ahead and give them a click - it's even more impressive with the picture blown up - it will open in a separate window/tab.

Thanks babe (Elizabeth) - you rock!

Finally proud of something to wear for Halloween ... so allow me to digress and talk about a local cryptic photographer who decided to take my good buddy down a notch for no good reason. Now - Billy should never have copy and pasted a news article directly into his blog, but the ensuing "holier-than-thou" attitude just blows my mind.

Kinda like the pompous radio station personalities, these media babies are getting out of hand. Masquerading as grown men, they are nothing more than the old ladies in the hair salon that just have to be the first to bring the dirty news to the Grey hairs. And if the don't get proper credit ... watch out. The result is childish whining. Have a gander:

From: Mark M. Hancock
Date: Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 4:44 PM
To: billy@tri-prosoap.com

Billy,
I noticed unauthorized use of one of my images on the blog http://www.blogger.com/profile/18205350178441371908. I need a physical mailing address to the owner of this blog.

-- Mark M. Hancock
Photojournalist
Plano, Texas
www.newseagles.com
http://markhancock.blogspot.com

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From: Billy Self
Date: Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 6:19 PM
To: "Mark M. Hancock"

Hi Mark, I'm the owner of the blog... Which photo are you talking about? Also, if I ask for your permission (albeit a touch late), will you allow it?

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From: Mark M. Hancock
Date: Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 6:30 PM
To: Billy Self

Billy,
I can't express how angry your note makes me. You want use of one of my images after I've found YOU'VE VIOLATED MY LEGAL RIGHTS. You should know which one(s) are mine. It's your legal OBLIGATION to know the origin and make proper payment for content you publish before it's published.

Remove the image(s), don't ever post them again and I won't have Blogger kill your account for copyright violations.
-- Mark

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From: Billy Self
Date: Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 6:35 PM
To: "Mark M. Hancock"

Mark, please forgive my ignorance to blogging. It is not intent to anger anyone. www.tri-prosoap.blogspot.com the photo has been removed.

Oh Mark. I understand protecting your work. But are such threats really necessary? I mean ... it was a picture of kid that we all know in a triathlon article on the triathlon blog of the team that the boy's father is a member of. Sheesh ... what a T-I-R-D, tird.

Mark - if you want to look like a chump, look no further. I have a knack for finding imperfection in just about anyone - probably because I'm so full of them myself! You know what we do though? Lighten up and laugh about it. I'm sure you could find plenty of grammatical errors and none-too-good Franglais right here. Give it a whirl ...

But if you don't want to have fun we can always go see my buddies up at the Intellectual Property offices of ... well, we'll see if you even pick this up.

Happy Hunting ... here are transom links to some hauntingly horrible video remakes of MJ's Thriller - enoy (all from Glumbert):

• Punjabi Thriller - http://www.glumbert.com/media/thriller (truly disturbing)
  
• Prison Thriller - http://www.glumbert.com/media/prisonthriller (scary or cool?)
  
• Thriller Acapella - http://glumbert.org/media/thrilleraca (see comments)