The Daily News

LFCA Latest Issue: Friday, September 25, 2009.

Latest Post on BlogHer: Parenting after Infertility.

My Status: Fed Josh's almonds to the squirrels. They needed them very badly.

Friday, April 17, 2009

Friday Blog Roundup

Tweetroll link updated at the bottom

I have fallen in love with Twitter all over again. I first fell in love with Twitter when I finally understood Twitter. I communed with Twitter. We became one. And then we were on a break from one another. It was a little awkward when I'd swing through to read updates. There really wasn't a good reason for the break. I think Twitter was a little bored with me and I had changed and suddenly, we weren't a great fit--me being too wordy, Twitter being too controlling.

And then I just had this craving for Twitter recently and Twitter welcomed me back with open arms and all is forgiven and now we're just grooving with one another. Twitter says something and I laugh hysterically. And then I say something and Twitter pees a little in his pants (it's okay, he can't control it and he takes precautions knowing that it's going to happen). And then we throw our arms around each other and declare ourselves best friends forever.

Are you on Twitter? Can we be friends? Do you have your blog listed in your Twitter profile if your sign-in name differs from your blogging name? Does Twitter do that thing with you where he sort of is giving you a massage and you start wondering if he has feelings for you, but then he says something that makes it completely clear that he doesn't have feelings for you?

Or is that just me?

Here is where you can find me on Twitter. Let me know where you are if you're over there. In fact, let all of us know below in the comment section and also find new people there to follow.

In fact...

You knew this was coming...

I have created a form. If you click over and fill it out, I will add a Twitter section of the blogroll listing Twitter accounts in the ALI community.

Twitter Blogroll Form

Here by known as the Tweetroll

That way, people can find like-journeyed Twitter feeds to follow. If you want to be added to the big blogroll, add yourself there. If it gets too long, I'll create a separate list. I would do the same for Facebook, but people don't use FB as publicly as they do Twitter. And you can still add a Twitter feed to the list even if it's private as long as you'd like to gain new followers.

Is anyone else having a love affair with Twitter? A hateful silence? Complete, cold indifference?

On a Twitter side note, I noticed a cool Tweet Me button at the bottom of posts on Lori's blog. I clicked on it and it took me to my Twitter status bar and it had filled in all the retweeting information for the post including a title and a link. All I had to do was hit "publish" on Twitter and it tweeted her post.

I decided I needed this on my blog too (and hells yeah, if I write something you think people should read/know about, hit that button and Twitter it). So I tried to add the code and obviously, I'm not as bright as Lori because I messed it up 3000 times. Finally, I wrote the Tweetmeme people and by fuck, they wrote back a few hours later with an answer. Then I emailed a second question and the same helpful person gave me an answer.

I don't know about you, but good customer service buys my loyalty and admiration. I love Tweetmeme. There, I've said it. I'm having another affair--a three-way with Twitter and Tweetmeme. In a week filled with tea-bagging, this should not raise any eyebrows, n'est-ce pas?

So add it to your own blog to make it easier for people to Twitter your stuff and click on my buttons (always at the bottom of the post) when the spirit moves you.

*******
The Weekly What If: What if G-d started only accepting prayers in Twitter and you could only Tweet him/her once a day (@G-d)? Could you keep your prayers to 140 characters? With limited space, would you ask for things or simply praise him/her? With the inability to use protected updates because G-d only follows back people with public profiles, would you be willing to state your prayers so openly where people could link to them in even in years to come? Would you do it if there was a site that ripped apart people's prayers, mocking them (but your prayers would still be heard by G-d even with the ego bruising)?

*******
I am also having a reoccurring love affair with chocolate egg creams. I am a really impressive chocolate egg cream maker. My one pet peeve? People who take something really simple and enjoyable and suck all the joy out of it. Who tell you that you must drink it in a certain amount of time to get the full flavour or use a certain brand of syrup or who want to debate where it originiated.

It's a drink. I want to put it in my mouth. I want to swallow it. I want my body to do whatever it does to it, and I want to pee it out. And that's pretty much it.

*******
Re-reading that, it makes me sound a little bitter about that love affair. I'm sorry chocolate egg creams. I do love you. Really, I'm not angry at you. I'm just angry at people who hear that I made a chocolate egg cream and need to tell me all about the best way to make one.

*******
And now, the blogs.

Getting There has a gorgeous note to a friend that she will never send outlining all the things she needs to say. She admits: "I want to be the person, who says 'yes, I can do that' rather than dreams up excuses to avoid anything that smacks of commitment or having to do something that is out of the ordinary. I want to stop having nightmares about things that could go wrong. I don't want to panic about going out with friends." It is the final line of the post that really drove home the reason why we need friends--especially some outside the experience--to listen when we are going through our darkest times.

I Want to Be a Mommy has a heart-twisting post about her daydreams; a dual set of dreams that depend upon each other even though they can be pulled apart. She writes: "I feel as if I've spent my entire adult life reaching for that gold ring that is forever just out of my reach." I think a lot of wisdom comes at the end of this post as well--an understanding of why we plan and how it can be a positive and negative influence. A very eye-opening post.

Everyday Stranger has a post about knowing that something is missing without knowing what it is. It is definitely a mood post, where the words create that very same sense of emptiness in the reader and is therefore impossible to capture in a brief paragraph. Click over to read in full--you won't be sorry that you spent the time considering if you've experienced this feeling yourself.

Lastly, Arcane Matters has a brilliant post (and yes, it was on Thursday, but I didn't read it until the weekend so I'm counting it with this Roundup) on becoming an adult and how we view ourselves. My favourite thought was "I suffer from thinking REAL life is going to start any day now. Like this life, this day, this moment doesn’t count. This isn’t real." As someone who still constantly thinks of herself as a recent college grad, this post resonated for me.

The roundup to the Roundup: I love Twitter, do you? What about Tweetmeme? Answer the Weekly What If. What is your stance on chocolate egg creams? How do you feel about people who take them too seriously? And great posts to read. See you on Saturday for Show and Tell, most likely giving a tutorial on egg creams with the best syrup to use and minute details into the history of the drink.

Update:

I started the tweetroll and it is linked to within the larger blogroll. You can access it directly here or via the blogroll.

23 comments:

Mrs. Higrens said...

For those of us who are unenlightened - egg cream? As in raw eggs?

niobe said...

Twitter: I just don't get it. I mean, I'm on it and, when I remember, I post stuff. But I get absolutely nothing out of it.

Lollipop Goldstein said...

Ooops--no--it's chocolate syrup, seltzer, and milk. Which I know sounds gross if you've never had one, but it's sort of like a fizzy chocolate soda.

Jo said...

niobe, I completely agree.

In fact, I checked me email last night and noticed several bloggers have added me to follow. . .and I though, gee, I feel really sorry for them since I haven't updated in, like three weeks, and probably wont' remember again for three more.

I just don't get much from it.

Kristen said...

I popped my Twitter cherry about a month ago and I'm addicted. Perhaps it's just another way for me to feed my tendency to overshare.

Thanks for sharing that button! I will certainly have to add that to my posts too - if I can figure it out.

JW Moxie said...

Twitter makes me feel like a twit. Well, at least for now. I don't really have the time or the mental capacity to add in another addiction. I might try it out over the summer.

m said...

I heart twitter, but just like real life and my virtual life, I feel pulled in all different directions. My tweet name is NOT my blog name but I have a twitterfeed on my blog. My blog is NOT the website I publicly post on Twitter - it's a different one and my twitter profile is more an homage to my professional life, rather than anything going on in my insides.

When it comes to posting tweets, I am a bit guarded (no announcing the coming of AF), simply because I have such a mish mash of people following me - lots of neighbors (pretty strong tweet following here in my little town, with "tweet-ups" (aka monthly gatherings which usually includes beer)), work colleagues, folks from the non-profit sector, oh yes and bloggy friends. All following for different reasons. And half of those folks don't "know" me like you all do. And frankly, don't need to.

I started tweeting when I had public blogs that needed traffic, and I guess I just stuck around. And then I started a completely different twitter account for work. Because life isn't confusing enough.

Jennifer said...

Twitter scares me. I don't know why - maybe it's just that I recognize my technology addiction. Once I start I may not be able to stop.

Incidentally, I have the same thought about the chocolate egg cream...

loribeth said...

Not on Twitter (nor on Facebook)(yet). I feel like I spend entirely too much time on the Internet as it is. Never heard of egg creams either (& I assumed it had eggs in it too, lol).

nycphoenix said...

Twitter: I'm nycphoenix. Love it but my crackberry is being stoopid so I've been a little slow on it lately

What if: I can absolutely tweet my prayers every day. In fact I'm going to start doing that:

AM Prayer: I can't. You can. I'll let you.
PM Pray: I couldn't You could. Thank you.

I'm going to put a post up asking for help as we look at IVF the Third!

areyoukiddingme said...

I am cold and indifferent to Twitter. Or, I was on Monday. And then Ashton Kutcher got involved and now I'm fairly certain that I will never Twitter. Plus, I think it's more for people who have BlackBerry's or iPhones and I have neither of those. Also, I am frequently wordy.

Brenna said...

What Loribeth said. :) But the egg cream--oh my, does that ever sound YUMMY.

..al said...

I did not get Twitter initially...but hanging on, I have rediscovered it as well. My twitter account does not link straight to my IF blog, and not all my tweets are fertility vents...

I think its like having a verbal scrapbook, capturing trivia, holding moments together...

Care said...

I don't tweet, or twitter, or whatever the right term is. I don't FB either. Have no desire to, although differnt reasons for not twittering vs not FB'ing. Twitter, well, I guess I just don't get it. I feel old now.

And I have never heard of chocolate egg creme, and would have guessed it to have eggs as well. Who knew?

HereWeGoAJen said...

I like Twitter. It gives me something to do when no one is posting. It could really use a little more length though. (Of course, then I'd want more...) I just had to be careful to not add too many people because then I couldn't keep up with it and I MUST keep up with everything.

luna said...

I do tweet and like it for capturing single random thoughts not worthy of or ready for a blog post. I use it mostly to follow news or funny bits than to keep up with people. most people I know (non-IFers), use it to promote their work.

I think it can be annoying to read the most inane things (I'm not a FB-er either). and it's bizarre that ashtonk has more followers than CNN. but I like it for reading one-liners from people I'd never have occasion to read otherwise.

I also look there before jumping into my reader sometimes. so I like knowing if someone has a new post. but if I go a few days without, there's no way I'm catching up. once it's gone, it's gone. I won't look back more than a few pages...

Guera! said...

My foremost thought about twitter is that, like Facebook, it's awfully self indulgent. I don't get much out of sound bites in any form they might take. I need details, stories and long, lyrical musings about whatever is going on in someone's life...not just quips. I want substance. I say all that as a preface to my next statement. I just don't care what's going on in people's lives every second of the day. But I do care about the stuff you can mentally bite into, relate to, question, explore, or just be provoked to thought or taken places you never thought you would go. Twitter to me seems like microwaved food. It's quick, it's over fast, it's deeply unsatisfying and is replacing real "meals" at a dinner table.

Tiger said...

Happy Friday :)

Baby Smiling In Back Seat said...

Twitter: No. I'm not even managing everything in my life now; adding another time suck is out of the question.

Egg cream: You once (during Harriet the Spy BBBB) promised you'd make me a chocolate egg cream. I'm in -- as long as you can use lactose-free milk. I'll be at your house in 10 weeks -- fire up the blender.

What if: Easy peasy. 140 characters? I only need 14.
"Healthy babies." I'm a one-trick prayer pony.

I can even do it in 10 or less.
"Babies OK"
"Don't die"

Coffeegrljapan said...

I love the possibilities of twitter. Especially now that we're living overseas. I wish more people I know would twitter so that I'd have some clue what they're up to (in a ho-hum, daily basis kind of way). The kinds of things that we'd normally catch up on over dinner just can't happen from this far away, so I feel like I'm missing out. I think the reverse is true too. I find that Twitter is much more useful to me for posting updates now that I'm so far removed from family and friends and they have no idea what my daily life and activities looks like over here (without that once a week call on Skype and really you can only cover so much in one call a week).

nh said...

I don't get Twitter - or rather I don't want to get Twitter. One more thing to waste my time on - maybe I'll decide differently at somepoint!

What if:
Help me cope.


& thanks for mention in the round-up - still need to sort out things with that friend...

Bea said...

Haven't really got into Twitter. Signed up, tweeted about three times... really I have to hold myself back or I'll be on here all day. So twitter is like facebook for me, a bit.

Bea

Nancy said...

Twitter is great isn't it? Takes my mind off the day-to-day stuff. My twitter is nancy_newmoon. I hope you guys follow me, I'd love to know your twitter names too.