Twitter: Am I "Interesting" Enough For It To Be Useful?

My wife didn't want me to write about Twitter. In her mind she thinks it's pointless and a little "scary" how people want to use these applications in hopes of connecting and communicating. I'm not sure if I disagree with her, but I want to get this out just because Twitter seems to be growing.

You say Twitter to someone and one of two things happen. Either they get really excited and want to talk about it or their eyes glaze over and the force-field of "new technology fear" is raised. Like most things new on the web, there is this overwhelming feeling of concern and excitement as the latest "gadget" comes out vowing to make our (Internet) life more fun.

I won't try to explain Twitter. I've learned over the years that explaining new technologies that have never had application before are very challenging to understand. My parents swore up and down that Tivo was completely unnecessary when they had two VCRs and they never missed anything they wanted to watch. My brother and I bought them a Tivo anyway. They kicked and screamed for about the length of time it took to download the program schedule to the Tivo. Today you couldn't convince them to ever get rid of it. Other examples of these "hard-to-explain-to-your-parents" technologies are the iPhone, RSS, Blogs, etc. Once you find a use for them, you wonder how you could have ever lived without them.

If you want the best "explainer" I have found for Twitter watch this very short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o (youtube version)


Does anyone care what I do from email to email or from post to post? I have never had anyone email me and say "What are you doing RIGHT NOW?" or "Why haven't you blogged lately?" My friends and family understand that I contact them when something is going on...not when I've just switched brands of toothpaste or found the cleanest public bathroom in Portland or mowed the lawn in circle patterns. What I'm getting at is that the details between email or phone calls are important to store and talk about later.

I would argue that by not keeping a little information about yourself stored up and told later, you are destroying the romantic aspect of your life. When we store up a bunch of mildly important events and later tell them to someone else, we have the opportunity to embellish the story to make it more interesting...even if we stretch the facts a bit. This is what life is about. If you knew every aspect of my life before I had the opportunity to tell you personally, I would be an incredibly boring person.

Believe it or not, I do think Twitter is EXTREMELY useful...but probably not for me. If I were a teacher, I could use Twitter to inform my students that the geography assignment will be due in 2 weeks instead of on Friday. If I were a sales manager I could let sales people know that the new sales presentations have a typo on them and not to use them. And so on. If you have information that "impacts" others I think you should seriously consider Twitter. 

As for me, I wish I could find uses for Twitter in my life...but alas I can't. My Twitter page at the time of this post says it all:

• My first cell Tweet - about 7 hours ago from txt
  
• Actively experimenting with twitter - 10:11 AM Apr 22nd from web
  
• Learning about twitter - 8:47 PM Dec 18th, 2008 from web
  

Hopefully when you read this (maybe years from the actual post date) our page http://twitter.com/nicoleandjeff doesn't contradict everything I said . . .

I Did This Once And Pat Has Done This HUNDREDS Of Times

The other day I was asked to help the chief engineer at KRCW by accompanying him to a transmitter site out in the mountains of south east of Portland. Pat has either driven, snow catted, snowmobiled, and snowshoed to this transmitter literally hundreds of times. He is one of those guys that 99% of what he does is unseen (and under-appreciated at times.) I made the below video on a whim (20 minutes on iMovie) to "dramatize" my ride up there. Seriously though, it is a LONG haul and driving a snow cat is no easy feat (I tried for 10 minutes.)

A very special thanks to Pat who included me on this job and allowing me to experience something that very few have had the opportunity to experience in person. Pat is a humble guy who will never ever admit to the amount of behind the scenes work he does. He works hard for the sake of keeping your television signal top notch.



(I will try to improve the quality of the you tube video as soon as I figure it out.)

Stress, Traffic Jams, And Shopping Lists

I was emailed the below video a couple of days ago and it affects me every time I watch it. Though the message is Christian based, the concept is one that everybody can grasp.

Last year (around this time) we learned about how much money is spent "around" (double meaning) Christmas and how little of it actually trickles down to those who need it. Of course water is one example as cited in this video, but you could easily find somebody in your own neighborhood that could use help (time, money, friendship, etc.)

I post this video for those who feel like something has been missing during Christmas (and a couple of examples of what they could do.)

An Anthropological Introduction To YouTube

My wife and I found this to be extremely captivating (but beware...it's almost an hour long.) I believe that this is one of the most important videos of 2008 (and it's not even about global warming climate change!)



Special thanks to Peter for sharing this with me!

Your insights welcome . . .

Video From Mexico

I want to say thanks to Ryan who put this together. Video editing is one of those things to a "not-knower" would seem to be the easiest thing in the world. Those of us who have put video together (especially from hours of video footage) know that something like this can take weeks or months. Ryan managed to finish this in record time.

I'd also like to note that not only did he shoot video while in Tecate, but he also was there every step of the way hammering, cutting, and sweating with the rest of us. One second he would be on the roof nailing down plywood...the next he would be shooting video...moments later he would be right back up there hammering away. I am truly grateful for his double duty...without him this below video wouldn't be possible.

Direct Link Here: http://www.vimeo.com/1398644


Below is the embedded version...which may take a while to preload depending on your connection speed


Tecate, Mexico, Summer 2008 from Grace Missions on Vimeo.