My Morning On Twitter (Or "Tweeting the Day Away")

Fact: I am horrible at resting.

It's been quite a week trying to recover from Saturday's "I got a concussion falling in the shower" incident.  I have a constant headache which sometimes rages into high gear, I can't concentrate enough to read a book (I know, I can't believe it either), I pretty much hate television, and it was a huge disaster when I attempted to go back to work yesterday (I threw up, my headache exploded, and I got sent home and told to rest until I was well).

Just to reiterate, I'm horrible at resting.

So I figured I'd spend the morning on Twitter, since it's a social networking experience that I haven't used as much as Facebook.  I mean, I tweet sometimes (usually links to blog posts or retweets of cool things other people far wittier than I say), but I never really got immersed.

It's been an interesting (and yes, restful) morning.

First, if you're interested, you can find me here on Twitter (I suspect after this morning's experiment, I'll be spending more time there).  As long as you're not a crazy porn kind of thing, I'll follow you back.

So here are my specific observations, interactions, and such following a very eventful few hours ...  I'm setting it up as kind of a bulleted summary since, as mentioned before, I'm struggling with concentration.  I'm going to start at the beginning of my morning and just sort of share what happened.

* I started out by posting a link to my post yesterday, asking the provocative question, "Should Stephen King have shelved Rage?"   There were no retweets, although I think it's a very cool piece, arguably one of the best things I've written in recent months.  I was informed, however, that the post made it onto The Stephen King Daily.

* As I have an obsession with celebrities, I tend to follow a lot of them, just because it's interesting.  I keep hoping I'll get a personal response from a bona fide celeb one of these days, but no dice so far.  I added Jenna von Oy after reading about her new venture into blogging on People, leaving a comment: "So exciting! Blogging definitely opens a whole new world with tons of connections, help, and places to vent angst ;-) Welcome!"  


* I also attempted to interact with Alec Baldwin, his daughter Ireland, Sarah Silverman, Dara Torres, and Rose McGowan.  I figured it was worth a shot, although I definitely recognize that celebrities have more exciting things to do than Tweet with a high school English teacher from New Hampshire ;-)

* I had a really interesting exchange with DogWalkBlog beginning with his comment, "Time to figure out how to make a living without the Internet. Dependence on all this tech is stressing me the hell out."  I told him about my recent positive experience with the internet, and we had some cool banter about tech highs and lows and how pathetic it is to have "I fell in the shower" be an explanation for how one gets a concussion.  Oh, and the double entendres popping up all over Romeo and Juliet ;-)

* Some people are really cheerful in the morning, notably Melissa Foster, Sandi Krakowski, and Annie.

* Henry responded to my standard angry insomniatic rant something like, "The pain meds didn't help you call asleep?" (he's since deleted it, so I don't remember the exact quote). I, of course, responded, "Well, I could call, "Asleep! Asleep! Asleep!", but it didn't help me FALL asleep :-( Love your "just woke up" texts <3"


* I had a little back and forth with the very cool Simon Jadis about my "Cullenesque tendencies" since I'm hating sunlight these days.  He could relate ;-)


* Poor Conservative linked to an article talking about how Guantanomo detainees have a tendency to return to lives of terrorism when released.  I noted, "Kind of like American prisoners returning to the proverbial "life of crime"?"  I have an innate urge to antagonize political extremists, but I didn't get any sort of response.  I was kind of hoping for a debate on that one since my point is extremely valid ... c'est la vie.


*  I got some great random useless information from UberFacts, including
   - "If you type 'illuminati' backwards, followed by '.com' in your address bar, you end up at the U.S.    
     government's national security page."
   - "A whale's penis is called a "dork."”
   - "There are at least 100 chemical reactions taking place in our brains every second."
   - "There are 12 calories in a tablespoon of semen. Same as eating 4 Tic-Tacs."


* I complimented Frank Marcopolos on the title of his book, shared mine, and was informed by him that Unbreakable is the title of a Bruce Willis movie.  Dammit, back to the drawing board ...


* I figured I'd continue the theme of pieces I write that no one comments on by referencing my recent ZL piece on the Komen Foundation/Planned Parenthood debacle.  No response.  Still no comments, either ;-)


* Vive le Nerd and I had a fun exchange about the craziness of CAPTCHA.  I mean, type in "penus" or "foxsexppo" to prove you're not a robot?  Come on ...


* dLittle Prince gave out props to educators on Twitter, one of which was yours truly.  Very cool :-)


* I posted a link to a post I wrote some time ago asking for assistance with the novel I'm working on.  No response.  Clearly, people either ignore my links or I really suck ;-)


* I had some great political dialogue with Marshall Talk, mostly about the dichotomy between big businesses claiming the need for tax cuts and those of us regular folk just scraping by.  Really interesting conversation, actually ...


* Aspiring country musician Doug Briney was talking up his debut CD.  I Tweeted him that I'd try to check it out, and he sent me a Tweet back thanking me.  He was very polite and legitimate, so if you're a fan of country, definitely give him a listen :-)


* Dan Krokos tweeted, "My mom just sent me her first FW: email ever. It was a nice one about puppies but this is a slippery slope."  I replied that it reminded me of the first text message my mother ever sent: "howdoispace" (Dan tweeted me an LOL in response).

So I've talked kale with rightingteacher, toilet paper rolls with Selah, the double-edged sword nature of the internet with Ray Banks, and cameltoe with Jade Harley.  There were other small conversations, too, but I'm losing concentration here ;-)

I guess the bottom line is, Twitter is a lot of fun.  I find that, with Facebook, a lot of people know me in real life, so I tend to hold back saying things sometimes.  Interacting with complete strangers on Twitter was much freer.

So final conclusion after a few hours on Twitter?  Not a bad way to spend a morning.  

And I rested lots while in the midst of this fascinating experiment and study ... win/win :-)

Interesting Reading ...

I love to read blogs. Love, love, love it! I don't always have the time to leave comments and such (although I'm making more of an effort, because I know that I LOVE to read comments...not a hint or anything ;-)), but I do a lot of blog-reading.

Which is why I think Natalie from Mommy of a Monster and Twins is a genius for posting not just a list and descriptions of good blogs, but for specific noteworthy posts she's come across in the past week. Therefore, I'm stealing her idea (hopefully she doesn't mind).

The first one is kind of a cheat, since I wrote it. Still, I'd like to share with as many people as possible the story about the middle school girl who posted on Facebook that she wished Osama bin Laden had killed her math teacher. There's conversation going on over at Zelda Lily where it's posted, so feel free to discuss it there or here.

Do you find the word "moist" to be offensive to women? Evidently, some women do, and an exploration of why this is equated with ... womanly parts instead of, say, brownies, is extensively explored here. Very interesting read!

I suppose on some level I knew that dandelion wine actually existed. However, I never dreamed that I'd get to see what it looked like (in different stages of creation, even), and especially getting a recipe that I'm *gulp* contemplating giving a try.

For those of us that are writers, description is an area of concern. Do you want to be bare bones like Hemingway? Effusive? How much is too much? Now, thanks to this post, I'm thinking a lot about description in my own writing (and, by the way, my own approach is that I try to use dialogue to convey description).

The magic of childhood is explored extensively in this post. Taking the time to remember the good times and the bad (and the worst) is always a good thing to do, and the pictures here are priceless. I left a comment there that was pretty much a blog post in itself, just because I was so excited by the memories evoked.

I love to hear the parenting woes of others. Goodness knows my own children drive me to distraction at times (currently, Addie is still dragging her feet about getting her first job and Belle is being Belle--which, if you're a Boston Red Sox fan, is akin to "Manny Being Manny), so it's always nice to hear about the tribulations of others, particularly when they're presented in such an interesting and humorous way.

Even though I'm known for being a reader, I also love movies. I don't like TV, but I'm a huge fan of movies. Like, all movies (except ones adapted from books, which is a different conversation). This is a great reminder of some of the great RomComs out there :-) Netflix is going to love me this weekend!

There are, of course, a multitude of other great posts, but my mother is freaking out because the printer isn't working, so I have to go do my tech support thang.

What do y'all think of this idea? If you like it, I'll do it more often :-)