Twitter Ain’t So Bad

For the past few months, I have been monitoring the use of Twitter and how it can work fora blog.  I have come to the conclusion that it “ain’t so bad” after all.  I definitely do not want to sign up my cell phone for Twitter updates.  I would never get anything done and I believe my employer would fire me!  Twitter on a cell phone, to me, is probably the biggest cause of short attention span and ADD.  Not to mention, I really don’t want a bunch of disconnected sentences from random people.  I do see where it can be useful for a blog.  In the instances where you do not want to waste an entire post on a very brief thought or subject, you can just “twitter” it.  On the other hand, I am intimidated by Twitter.  I do not want my time wasted and I do not want to burn brain cells on trying to figure out what the person meant.  So, I try to make my Twitters short and smart.  That’s not easy to do in 140 characters.  I added it to my blog yesterday, so I am testing it out and we shall see what happens!

Andrea

Louisiana House Bill 27: Right to Carry Concealed Weapons on College Campuses

I see that CentralLaPolitics has beaten me to writing about this topic.  I am in favor of this bill passing.  It is not easy to get a concealed weapon permit.  To see the criteria you must meet in order to obtain a permit, click here.  I don’t know about you, but I feel safer having a gun in my house.  I don’t have a concealed weapons permit, but I have not yet ruled that out.  Times are getting worse and, if the economy tanks out, I might follow through with obtaining a concealed weapons permit.  I prefer the odds on my side.  Most (I did not say all) persons who go on shooting sprees steal or borrow guns from friends or parents.  I would much prefer a gun in the hands of a person who has had to jump through hoops to obtain a permit, than trust the yo-yo on the street who obtained their weapon on the black market.  I find the argument against it interesting.  I can somewhat sympathize with colleges and universities not wanting to turn their campuses into a bedlam of gun toting thug wannabes, but to leave thousands defenseless and vulnerable to senseless execution?  Sorry.  Don’t see it.  A person who really wants to create havoc or shoot up a college campus, will find some way to do it.  Usually, the law abiding ones who follow the rules and obtain permits legally, are not endeavoring to inflict harm.  Their main purpose is protection.  However, I do note that although later touted as mentally ill, Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, did have a concealed weapons permit.

Just my random thought for the day.

Andrea

PS In response to this: http://alexcenla.wordpress.com/2009/05/13/random-views-the-town-talk-and-other-comments/, hopefully none of it was intended towards me.  But, if it was, I do not copy and paste news for blog hits.  I don’t post anything for blog hits.  In my About Me section, it clearly says that this is a personal blog mainly for my own and my extended family’s interest.  I do note that some Cenla bloggers have linked to my blog.  This was not because I asked them to.  I am still surprised that anyone finds anything worthwhile to read since my blog is mainly a family/renovation project blog.  I do rant about certain things in Cenla, but hey, don’t we all?  I think the only reason that my blog was picked up on some of these other sites is due to the controversy last year with Ratcliff.  Otherwise, I think I would still be carrying on with my same ole limited subscriber anonymous blog of the past.  I do not consider my blog journalistic AT ALL.  If anyone is looking for up to date news, IT IS NOT HERE. 

10,000 Hits

I just celebrated my 10,000th hit!  Thanks for visiting!

Twitter: The New Name for Spam?

Twitter shmitter….honestly.  Who invented such nonsense?  Does anyone really care that you are eating a hot dog for lunch or that you were up at 3 a.m.?  Do I really need to know such things instantly?  I have received several invitations to join Twitter…all of which I promptly deleted from my inbox while cackling like a maniac.  Twitter is like IM’s gone awry.  You get these messages, completely unsolicited, at all hours of the day which, by the way, reminds me of spam mail.  I HATE spam.  In fact, I believe I have lost a few friends over spam mail.  Those friends felt it necessary to send me every urban legend circulating the world wide web, advice of quacks from unverified sources, scare tactics, etc.  All the while I am reading this junk thinking “You gotta be kidding me!”.  When I finally grew weary of hitting delete 105 times every time I opened my inbox, I finally sent a “friendly” little note asking my “friend” to please stop sending me such junk.  Most of them quit sending me anymore email. Period.  Well, if ya don’t have anything good to say, THEN DON’T SAY IT!  Or, in this case,  forward it (or Tweet it).  :-)

Now, when I open my WordPress account, a little banner is on the screen asking me if I want to add Twitter to my blog.  They should have left me a little box to check “No”.  I am wondering, though, how in the world does that work?  Do they send your blog posts to all your Twitterers?  I guess I will have to read up on that. 

Earlier, I decided to Google the word Twitter.  I came across several people discussing Twitter as being the new microblog.  Microblog?  Is that a new name for text messages?  Honestly.

Now, I know what you are thinking.  You are wondering why, if I have such a disdain for reading everyone’s business at all hours of the day, why am I blogging?  The answer really is simple.   I don’t really care if people visit my blog or not.  It is mainly for my personal journaling purposes.  Could I write in a diary instead?  Sure.  But journaling in a weblog is much more fun and I can upload pictures!  The difference between reading blogs on the computer and receiving “Tweets” is that when I read blogs on the computer, I am soliciting.  I can control who and what I want to read about.  When I receive Tweets, they are unsolicited.  With Twitter, people would intrude on my privacy and work, at all hours of the day, whenever they deemed fit.  I am sure that there are good uses for Twitter.  But, for now, count me out!

Andrea

***UPDATE:  At least I am not the only one who has electronic social overload.  Check out this article, I laughed my way through it.  Here is an excerpt:

Are you a twit if you don’t want to Twitter?

Published: 4/8/09, 4:06 PM EDT
By MARTHA IRVINE

CHICAGO (AP) – Eily Toyama gave in after friends pestered her to join Facebook. But she used her cat’s name instead of her own so she could avoid networking requests from people she didn’t really want to connect to. And don’t even ask her about Twitter unless you want to get an eye roll.

 

“I just don’t think people need to know that much about my life,” says the 32-year-old Chicagoan, who works in information technology.

 

Call it online sociability fatigue. And it’s not just being felt by older folks who have lived most of their lives without the Web. As social networking grows, from stream-of-consciousness Twitter to buttoned-up LinkedIn, even some of the very young people who’ve helped drive these sites’ growth could use a break.

 

Mike Nourie, a student at Emerson College in Boston, says he feels a little relieved to escape social networking when he works summers at an inn on Cape Cod where connection to the wired world is spotty.  For more, click here: Are you a twit if you don’t want to Twitter?