Twitter Updates for 2008-12-29
- Replacing bulbs with Jacob’s ladder. He’s my neighbor and his name really is Jacob. #
Haiku
I’ve always been a fan of Haiku, but recently I’ve tried my hand at creating some.
Food Court at the mall
plate of bacon before me
indigestion looms
Verdant green expanse
I can’t see the chihuahua
Time to mow the lawn
Blue glow fills the room
An alien abduction?
Nope. Insomnia.
White bag fills my arms
Wave of nausea, revulsion
Trash Juice on my shirt
Means comment this does what?
A while back I wrote a tongue-in-cheek post about an AARP card I received in the mail. Then the other day I got a really unusual comment on the post. Most of the time when a comment comes in on an old article it’s spam, but this time I wasn’t so sure. In fact, I didn’t know what to think. I deleted it anyway, but it was so puzzling my thoughts kept returning to it. I came across it in my deleted comments folder today and found it even more confusing than the first time I read it. Here it is, minus the IP addresses and such:
From a guy calling himself William Sumrall:
“it my card from aarp it yes it but lost I rember uh I need know the hotel it trvel it my name it of the H.C. for I am deaf .
thankyou for called giveing your leave a massge it . william s”
OK, let’s assume for a second that the post is legit. Sloppy grammar and typos are one thing. This looks like it may be from a parallel universe. I can’t for the life of me figure out what the poster is trying to say… Does he think that the picture is of his long-lost AARP card? He wants to come to my hotel and get it? He thinks I called and left a message? He wants to come over for a massage? What is an H.C. and what does it have to do with being deaf?
So many questions, and frankly I’m not entirely sure that I want to know the answers. Still, I’m intrigued by the sheer inscrutability of it all. A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma… So let’s hear it, what do you think William was trying to say? Post a comment and clue me in!
Am I blogging less, or tweeting more?
If you’ve been watching this blog, you probably noticed that I’ve started using Twitter. For a guy who develops web applications for a living I’m a relatively late entry into the social media phenomenon. Once I got an iPhone, something changed. I no longer needed to be chained to my computer in order to share a thought. Also the standard keypad on my previous phone was just horrible to type any sort of meaningful message on.
With the iPhone and Twitter’s 140 character limit, that’s no longer a problem. I don’t often have time to write a lengthy blog post, but it’s pretty easy now to dash off a quick thought and even include a picture or map coordinates.
For the moment, I’ve settled on Twittelator Pro as my iPhone Twitter client of choice. Granted, I haven’t tried them all, but I like the feature set and it seems about as stable as anything else on the iPhone, which granted isn’t saying too much.
I’ve also discovered Twhirl to use on my Mac, which I really like. It’s an Adobe AIR application, so it’ll run on Windows as well if you’re stuck with a PC. 
I can just leave it open all the time and it posts new tweets as they come in.
I now have Twitter cross-posting to this blog and Facebook. I discovered LoudTwitter which posts a daily archive of the day’s tweets to a new post here so I can archive my deep thoughts for future generations. Since I’m using a Wordpress plugin to post tweets as they happen, I don’t really need the daily archive to be posted to the blog. Unfortunately I haven’t figured out how to keep LoudTwitter’s posts private yet. So every day I have to log in and hide the posts. Still working out a few kinks.
So I guess I’m blogging more in one sense, and less in another. I have more choices now at least. I would have felt kind of guilty posting a one sentence blog post, but Twitter’s enforced limit is very freeing in a paradoxical way.
Another side benefit of Twitter’s character limit is that it encourages good writing skills. Here, I can ramble on forever, but Twitter forces you to think and write in a concise way. Before posting a tweet, I’m getting in the habit of boiling down my thoughts to their essence.
If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, I’m ZippySeven. http://twitter.com/zippyseven
Gig at Sopranoz
I’ll be playing guitar with Lang and Renee Bliss at Sopranoz in Spring Hill this Friday (August 29th) at 7:30pm. Come and enjoy a refreshing beverage on the patio and hear a great mix of original material and a few carefully chosen covers. Lang and Renee’s sound is rock, but with a lot of jazz influence. Think Steely Dan and you’re getting the idea. I hope to see you there!
Update: We had a great time and the weather cooperated. Singer/songwriter Tommy Bynum also brought a few of his tunes to add to the evening. Thanks to all who attended and hope to see you again soon. 