resident mafioso whacks a few birthday candles

Louis Massari, a.k.a. Louie the Lip, a.k.a. Lou the Hammer, a.k.a. Brokeback Mountain, a.k.a. Tim, is celebrating his birthday today. Due to his past ties with a certain La Cosa Nastra, Lou said he will not divulge his age (or true identity, for that matter) to any of us. Damn that Omertá and its stupid law of silence. Anyhow, Lou plans on celebrating his special day with the traditional Sicilian birthday ritual:

The birthday ritual in most families happens when a man becomes an associate, and then, a soldier. The neophyte (Lou) is brought together with at least three "men of honor" of the family and the oldest member present warns him that "this House" is meant to protect the weak against the abuse of the powerful; he then pricks the finger of the initiate and spills his blood onto a sacred image, usually of a saint. The image is placed in the hand of the initiate and lit on fire. The neophyte must withstand the pain of the burning, passing the image from hand to hand, until the image has been consumed, while swearing to keep faith with the principles of Cosa Nostra, solemnly swearing "may my flesh burn like this saint if I fail to keep my oath."

Happy Birthday, Lou (or whoever you are).

Oh, and Happy New Year, people.

making freezing to death an art form

Shooting footage always equals fun. Even when it's deceptively cold out and you can no longer feel your hands, feet or other, well, less public extremities. Here are some pics from our shoot the other day at Frontier Park in Erie. It's for our good friends down at Erie Plastics. Hi, Jane. We're in the process of developing a new corporate vid for one of their latest proprietary products. We shot the outdoor footage first, knowing full well that snow can creep up on us at any time. Thankfully, the remainder of the shots will be filmed in doors.

Feliz Navidad, people. It's the Monday before Christmas.

Hanes Erie—Looking good from 30,000 feet.

Okay, we know, we know. One blog entry a month is a little lame, but honestly we have been working hard on a lot of new projects over the last month. We finally are kicking off the new Hamot Physician Network stuff and finalizing a number of projects for some of our healthcare and industrial clients.

One new industrial client we just started working with about a month ago is Hanes Erie, Inc. No they don't make underwear. They provide coating and graphic printing services for the high-end cosmetic industry. We just completed and got sign off for their first print ad that will be placed in US Airways Magazine for the month of February 2007. It was a fun project to work on here and we got some great photography shot for it by Art Becker. It will be on every flight both domestically and internationally. I posted a preview for your viewing pleasure.

so close...but yet 41 yards away

Yesterday was a painful day for both the Buffalo Bills and their fans. The undefeated Indianapolis Colts beat the Bills 17-16, due to a wide-right, 41 yard missed field goal by Rian Lindell. Words can not describe the feeling that was running through my veins yesterday...Oh wait...I remember...losing 4 Super Bowls just about sums it up.

Kudos to the Bills defense! It is nice to see a group of players still give 120% until the clock reads 0:00 in the fourth quarter. I wish they could pass some of that dedication over to the offense. But honestly, I don't think there is any miracle in the universe that could help JP Losman. I feel as if I am experiencing a severe case of De ja Vu and #11 Drew Bledsoe is still playing.

Are the Bills ever going to catch a break?!

odds of running the table?

1) Democrats (2-1)

With Iraq weighing heavily on the hearts and minds of many, and the National Dept swelling daily to record highs, the Republicans have all but handed a complete sweep to the Democratic Party. Now can the Democrats step up and make a difference?

2) Steelers (10-1)

I think the Steelers have the talent to pull out 8 victories in a row. But do they have the mettle? Sad part is, that might not even be good enough to make the playoffs.


It's Tuesday, people. Get out and vote.

sit. stay. play. (fun = virtual dog)

We love dogs here at fishtank—so much so we often bring them along to work with us. Like today. It's not unusual to find them roaming the hallways, doing their business on the neighboring law firm's lawn or just napping away the afternoon on one of our beanbag chairs.

What a life, right?

Well, when we had the opportunity to develop an interactive website for DAD'S Treats, we just had to incorporate our love of all things canine into the creative.

In fact, the site just launched today and acts as a portal to two of DAD'S premium dog treat brands—Better Than Ears and Nut-Tastics.

But what makes this site most appealing to animal lovers of all ages is the addition of a virtual dog on the homepage. Actually, she's a multi-talented little Jack Russell Terrier named Maggie (pictured above).

Once the page loads, you can type in any number of commands and/or tricks and Maggie will perform them in real time. From dog-training standards like come, fetch and shake hands to more elaborate tricks including dancing, counting and even yoga poses like downward-facing dog, Maggie virtually does it all. Yeah, the pun was intended.

Best of all, you won't ever need a pooper scooper.

Already a celebrity in her own right, Maggie has made numerous national TV appearances including stints on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Animal Planet's Pet Star and Fox News. She's sure to have millions of new fans once they see her strut her stuff in cyberspace.

So check Maggie out, people. And remember to share the love.

Apple's Stealth Marketing Move?

Apple shipped a windows virus on a small amount of 5G Video iPods.

From Apple.com:

We recently discovered that a small number - less than 1% - of the Video iPods available for purchase after September 12, 2006, left our contract manufacturer carrying the Windows RavMonE.exe virus. This known virus affects only Windows computers, and up to date anti-virus software which is included with most Windows computers should detect and remove it. So far we have seen less than 25 reports concerning this problem. The iPod nano, iPod shuffle and Mac OS X are not affected, and all Video iPods now shipping are virus free. As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.

Full info here

In my opinion it's brilliant.