Mar 03
I have blogged about my experiences with Twitter before. I realized recently that these posts document my journey from a twitter skeptic to a twitter addict.
There are a number of different ways that people use the microblogging service that is Twitter.com and there is some contention about what is the “correct” way to use it. Merlin Mann (who made my list of favorite twitter posters in: My Favorite Quotes - Confessions of a Twitter Lurker) has argued that twitter is poetry. The 140 character updates that one is limited to in twitter are a form of haiku.
But I find more and more form me personally twitter is more like digg.com. It is a place where I learn interesting stories from interesting people. I notice that I gravitate to some of the people I follow who have an interesting story to tell me. I still use RSS feeds to track interesting blogs but I find that I only check my RSS reader every other day or so now, because I have already read the best stories via twitter.
Follow Chris Christensen at http://twitter.com/chris2x
Popularity: 39% [?]
Feb 21
I had sent out a twitter message this morning saying:
“Is it cynical of me to characterize the election as choosing between hope (with no specifics) over fear (with no answers)?”
It looks like other’s had that a similar thought today. From Seth Godin’s blog:
It’s too easy to criticize hope
And in the end, cynicism is a lousy strategy.
Popularity: 33% [?]
Jan 09
As I write this blog post I am also watching a movie. It is not that the movie is so bad, in fact it is a movie I like, but I suffer from CPA (Continuous Partial Attention).
CPA has struck the nation with the fervor of an epidemic. We talk on cell phones while driving, surf the web while watching TV, instant message in meetings, text while shopping, and talk in movies. People who live with CPA are never quite present where they are present. There is not a whole lot of there when we are there. It is an affliction that more and more American’s live with. We live with the constant distraction by shiny objects. There is no known cure for those afflicted with CPA. So here are some guidelines for living with the malady.
- Spaces - Create some spaces where there are less distractions. I used to think that I could work in front of the television. I was convinced that I could multi-task. Those who suffer from CPA call it “multi-tasking”. We can do two things at once and do it well we tell ourselves. All my podcasting takes place in a room in the second story of our house away from the TV in the family room.
- Times - Create some times where you can focus. In my house, Saturday mornings are quiet enough to podcast without distractions. Mornings are always quiet when everyone else in the house is a night owl. Limit some activities to certain hours. I try to not check my (500) RSS feeds between 9am and 6pm, if I don’t get to them before “work hours” they can wait.
- Limits - Yes, the web is calling out to you. But make a plan what websites you will check how often. Create a daily folder for web sites you want to check once a day. Only check them once a day. Create another folder for websites that you only need to check once a week. Only check them once a week. Yes, your email is urgent, but you don’t have to check your email every 5 minutes, change your email program to only check once an hour, less often if you can get away with it. Check your RSS feeds daily, but no more.
- Breaks - I have learned that I can’t work 7 days a week without burning out. Pick a day, my day is Saturday, when the work email can stay unopened.
- Edit - I subscribe to about 100 podcasts (yes it is an addiction, but remember people with CPA like to “multi-task”) but finally learned to give myself permission to skip through episodes that don’t grab my attention. If a show sits on my Tivo for 3 weeks before I watch it, maybe I can just delete it. I am still learning that trick.
- Timeouts - If I need to concentrate on a particular project then I know I need to stop the podcasts i am listening to, shut off twitter, quit my email program and maybe even shut down my instance message client.
There is is no known cure for CPA but with help you can learn to live with the… what’s that… ooooo shiny.
Popularity: 9% [?]
Jan 07
If like me, you have become addicted to Twitter, then you should check out the TwitterPod application for the Mac.
If you have been living in a cave, twitter is a web based server that allows people to “micro blog”. You can enter any text that will fit in a 140 character limit. Twitter updates (or tweets) can also be delivered to your cell phone if you so desire. People twitter about blog articles they have written, what they have had for breakfast or words of wisdom as long as it fits in 140 characters. Many podcasters and bloggers have started to use twitter because you can send updates to a set of people who follow you but follow the updates, potentially, of a completely different set of people. I (my podcast is the Amateur Traveler) twitter at chris2x.
The best twitter updates I received (or wrote) the day before I wrote this article (which orriginally appeared on MacCast.com:
acedtect Happy Arbitrary Roman-derived change of annual enumeration.
leolaporte Turkish coffee and a flight to Aswan where we meet the Sun Boat IV. Sarkozy and Blair are in town, snarling the traffic.
chris2x just a thought, when Clark Kent gets new frames, does anyone recognize him?
scottsimpson For the record, a certain part of my anatomy has also been compared to a baby’s arm: my arm.
hotdogsladies GoDaddy’s checkout is like a hallway of Marines trying to hit you with a sock full of pennies. “Ow! Quit it! Don’t need ‘WebSite Tonight!!’”
CaliLewis “When we honor the potato, we honor ourselves.” Just heard it on NPR.
Ihnatko The fonts I bought from Comicraft for $20.08 each (with one freebie plus a $16 discount…details in post): http://tinyurl.com/3d36aq
And if those literary gems make you more interested in Twitter than as a Mac user one program that I would recommend is TwitterPod which has a clean interface and growl notification. It also highlights the last post you read (you can read URLs posted in a pop out panel) so it makes it easy to tell what posts are new.
Let the tweats begin.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Oct 04
I got back last Sunday from the PNME conference in Ontario, Californa. This is the biggest conference of the year for podcasters and it is a wonderful combination of smoozing, presentations, hobnobbing, and networking with other people who are also obsessed with podcasting. Tim and Emile Bourquin (The Podcast Brothers) did another wonderful job on the conference.
Some of my thoughts…
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 15% [?]
