Thursday, May 19, 2011

And Your Bird Can Sing


Apparently the young people these days are using something called "Twitter" which has been around for five years or so, almost as long as this blog. Some people call it a "micro-blogging service". From what I hear every "micro-blog post" (or "tweets" as aficionados call them) can only be 140 characters or less. That's crazy! How could I blog about every blunder I make in a typical day's racing in only 140 characters?

But my blogging mentor is a great twitterer or tweeter or whatever the right word is. (You do have a blogging mentor don't you? Every blogger should have one. If you're as old as me you should have one at least 30 or 40 years younger than yourself.) Anyway, my blogging mentor came back from a blogging conference the other day (yes - such things really do exist) and was raving about Twitter parties, and the power of Twitter to promote your blog, and a lot of other stuff I didn't understand.

So I've been experimenting with Twitter in the last few days. I've been writing some "tweets". As I understand it the word "tweet" means "a short burst of inconsequential information" or "chirps from birds". I read that on the Internet so it must be true, and that's why Twitter has a bird logo, I think.

"Inconsequential"? Why would I waste my time writing "inconsequential" stuff? That makes so sense at all. I am a very consequential blogger.

Anyway, I've been playing with Twitter. I've been tweeting like a little inconsequential bird. Actually I must have been tweeting a lot because, as of right now, Twitter tells me that I've made 102 tweets and I have 204 Twitter followers. Wow! Who are these people? And why are they following me? I am lost and I have no idea where I am going. Please stop following me. It will do you no good. Besides it's spooky.

I've been making some very consequential tweets like passing on (aka retweeting I believe) words of wisdom I heard from other birds. And I've been tweeting about almost every new post on Proper Course, and some old blog posts, to those 204 people following me around. I really don't know them. Maybe they don't know about my blog? They might like some of my old posts. You never know.

And I found a way to show my tweets in the sidebar of my blog over there >>>> No, up a bit. Got it?

Of course if you are already here it's of no use to you whatsoever to see a tweet about the latest post on Proper Course. You already know how to find that. But I also find it convenient occasionally to tweet about some cool link or video I found in the "twitterverse" (I think that's what they call it) that blog readers over here may not have seen before. It's a lot easier to tweet about something like that than to write a whole post about it here. So please do check out that Twitter widget (I think that's what it's called) in the sidebar occasionally.

Wow. This post has gone on for a lot longer than 140 characters already. See what I mean?

Anyway, if you want you can tweet too. Or as the Beatles uncannily prophesied... about 40 years before the invention of Twitter... And Your Bird Can Sing.



8 comments:

O Docker said...

The trouble with jumping on a hot new thing five years after it was a hot new thing is that all the good curmudgeonly cracks have been made.

O Docker said...

And count the characters in my last comment. That should be good for a free hat.

Tillerman said...

I copied your comment into Twitter and it said the number of characters is "-1". I think it's trying to say you owe me 1 hat.

O Docker said...

There must be a hanging chad somewhere. I demand a recount.

Smilicus said...

Love Twitter, but use it more for work than for smilicus stuff. Do follow a lot of sailing people on it. Now following you too. Guess which tweeter I am...

Pandabonium said...

How's your bird?

Tillerman said...

Smilicus- I'm guessing you are "wines with heart"? Right?

Tillerman said...

Panda - my "bird" is fine thanks. She sings all the time. I think she's happy. When she stops singing I wonder what's wrong.

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