The Trouble With Twitter

Quote of the day:"In a gentle way, you can shake the world." ~Mahatma Gandhi

Song of the day: Turn The Car Around [Shattered] by OAR

Date: June 21st, 2009

State of mind: running in circles.

While on twitter last night, following more news of protests and violence in Iran, I ran across a tweet with a video of a Basij HQ that was on fire due to a gas leak. The tweet claimed the facts about the video where "BBC Confirmed" and unthinkingly, I re-tweeted it. A few moments later, I was asked, "Confirmed by BBC where?" Good question. One I should have asked. But it was about 2 in the AM and clearly I wasn't asking the right questions and after an unsuccessful search for any confirmation I went to bed without addressing my tweet. And maybe that is why my unconscious brain wouldn't let me attend the red carpet premiere of Serenity 2. Gorram brain. Screw you!
Anyhow, as it is a day later, all I could find about the video was a discussion on PersianHub.org where several posters discussed the video and a few heard the same calls by people who must have called into a BBC show to discuss it. Not sure what that means. It might just mean that the video was aired on a BBC news program somewhere, but that doesn't mean the BBC confirmed what was in the video either. And today, CNN put up links to the video as well. Does that mean CNN confirmed the facts of the video, that is was indeed a Basij building and that 5 members of the Basij were inside and perished? Or are they regurgitating a video that is being widely spread on twitter? Who is creating the news, and who is checking that it is all correct? I have no clue. And it's making my brain tired.
Videos of the protests in Iran are streaming out as fast as the citizens of that country can make them and upload them, so there is no disputing that unrest is happening. Groups are gathering in large numbers and they are being met with violence. The rest? Who the hell knows! Ann Curry (also on twitter) posted a warning about forwarding unconfirmed news, but now I wonder how to know the difference. I suppose with all things it's best to take everything with a grain of salt.
And to hope for the best for all those people.

And if you are following me on twitter, you may have noticed that my avatar has gone green and that many other people have done the same. "Sea of Green. Sea of Green." It's one of many mantra being used by those protesting the results of the June 12th election. Green was the color of Musavi, the main opponent against current President Ahmadinejad. The results, which seemed to be announced way to quickly to be real since they were individual hand written ballots being cast, apparently gave Ahmadinejad the win by a landslide. However, there are many (also I guess, unconfirmed) reports of major election tampering. I've read tweets by people that saw ballots being burned, that ballot boxes that were being delivered from polling places to wherever they were to be counted had been opened and all the boxes that had been opened were 100% for Ahmadinejad. No matter how popular a leader is, that's just completely unrealistic that 100% of the people would vote for him or her. I mean, you have all met the human race, right? We don't 100% agree on anything. So, I can understand the anger and frustration. It seems the fraud was so blatant as to be insulting. (Not that subtle fraud is any better.)
Does this, and my avatar color, mean I want the winner to be Musavi?
No.
I have no clue who would be a better leader for the country of Iran. I'm from NY. What the hell do I know about Mid-East politics? How should I know what would be best for the people of that country that I actually don't know a lot about. Or, anything really. All I know about Iran is what I remember hearing about during the Iran Hostage Crisis when I was a kid and what I read in the graphic novel Persepolis, and one article that was in the Smithsonian a few years ago. (It spoke of how the "Death to the USA" propaganda was a heeded by the population as we do the Pope here. Mostly ignored as background noise and that a majority of the population felt that blaming the US for their problems was just a tactic by a government that wasn't doing anything for them. And it also mentions that after 9-11, many candle light vigils were held on our behalf. How come that was never mentioned on the news here? At least, that I recall...)
My empathy with those people in Iran isn't about wanting their guy to have been the winner. It's about recognizing that they are demanding that their government be better than the leaders they have are. They are demanding what they were promised, an election, one where the actual winner of that election become their new President. I don't think that's too much to ask.

Accounts I am following on Twitter with videos and information about the protests in that country:
https://twitter.com/ProtesterHelp
https://twitter.com/madyar
https://twitter.com/persiankiwi
https://twitter.com/Change_for_Iran
https://twitter.com/globalvoices (Which has news from all over the world as well.)

There are simply too many videos and articles to link here that tell the whole story. Frankly, it's overwhelming. I think when the minds behind twitter asked the question, "What are you doing?" I don't think they ever conceived of the day when the response would be, "Witnessing revolution." Despite how much the events of Iran will not effect me personally, I still have the same general feelings I did during and right after 9-11. I was pinned to the TV as the coverage of what happened continued almost non stop for three weeks and as this horrific thing was unfolding I still had to go about my daily life. I went to work, when shopping, did as many mundane things a person could do all while people had died and others were dealing with the aftermath. It's a mind frell.
And all I can really do, is hope for the best for those people.

Edit, to add:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Irandecision 2009 - CNN's Unverified Material
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Jason Jones in Iran

Guess The Daily Show is ahead of me by a few days.

Show quote of the day: "Doctor, I'm well acquainted with human characteristics. I'm frequently inundated by them, but I've trained myself to put up with practically everything."

@twitter #fail

Quote of the day: "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster." -- Friedrich Nietzsche (quote found on twitter. Posted by @gojiro

Song of the day: Separate Ways by Journey. No, I'm not kidding.

State of mind: Baffled, but willing to tinker.

Date: Not Friday ... but it is some day’s Tomorrow.

I've been scribbling notes for days on this blog post because there is so much to say about twitter. Which I think is some form of irony. And all because Red commented her frustration on following some conversations while on twitter. Inspired by that frustration, I started a listing all the features, some twitter lingo, twitter events like Follow Friday and #hashtags, finding articles both pro and con twitter all for a thorough post on this, the latest net phenomenon. I even have a new favorites folder labeled “twitter”, several post it notes of ideas scribbled while at work, a few hand written drafts… and then I remembered K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

She just asked about following what others were saying. How about I just answer that, hmm?

It can be annoying, trying to follow a conversation on twitter. Especially now that the minds behind twitter have decided to take away the option of seeing all tweets by those people you follow, even if it is an @reply to someone you do not follow. Before, you could choose to see all their tweets no matter to who or to only see those to you, to anyone else on your list, or those tweets not designated for anyone in particular. Truth be told, I had mine set to only seeing those tweets to and from people on my follow list because seeing all of the half conversations between one of my followees and someone I didn't follow clogged up my feed and I don't have as much time as I used to for web browsing (aka: time wasting). (This thanks to a cyber snoop at work. Now when I don't have actual work to do or when I take a break, I have to resort to daydreaming or playing Freecell because neither are online and "take up the company broadband". Pu-lease. If that were the case, why would have have installed a key stroke recorder? I can't even use Word at work to compose a letter (or blog post) without someone else being able to recreate it at their leisure. So, if it's not about our broadband usage and if we can all get our work done and do a little online shopping on our breaks, then WTF!? ... Pfft. Whatever.) Um, anyhow... A lot of people liked the option to see all tweets by anyone they followed because as the Robert Frost poem says, 'way leads to way' and they were able to find other interesting people by stumbling upon their page via @reply tweets. They figured, if someone they liked enough to follow found merit in someone else, maybe they should too. Now those tweets don't even exist for them and I've read it said that it's like being at a party with one ear clogged up from a sinus infection or one half of the room speaks a language too high pitched to register. How fun does that sound? All of twitter is one large conversation. Why would twitter make it impossible for people to mingle with as many other people as possible? (Yet, they are going out of their way to offer the accounts of celebrities as the ones to follow when you join up, rather than let people find followees organically. Because, let's be honest... aren't celebrities the only people we, the dirty uncouth masses, should care about following?)

Sorry. Got a bit ranty there for a moment. Back to the simple:

However, even though twitter took away that option there are still an obnoxious amount of conversations that are a pain to follow because you have to keep hitting the "in reply to..." button and read the conversation backwards. But back in the day (like a few months ago) I recall there being a twitter app that made it possible for tweets to be organized in threads that made it easier to follow who was saying what to whom and in the order they said it. Tweetree.

So, there you go, Red! Tweetree.com. Check it out and I hope it helps.

See? Easy.

The rest, I'll post later.

Except I do want to say this:

I do love it. It is a random site, inspired into creation by the status lines of AIM users and their witty reasons why they were AFK (Away From Keyboard). Despite my ranting above and as has been said on t-shirts, twitter is not a chat. And according to one of the creators of twitter during an interview on The View, it also isn't a social networking site. It isn't MySpace or Facebook. I can follow whom I choose and can choose who follows me. It isn't automatically mutual, forcing the Internet and everyone on it together with some kind of electronic passive aggression. Honestly, sometimes I expect MySpace to spontaneously burst out into Kum Bye Ya. Guess what? The entire Internet is not all friends. Shocking, I know.

I use twitter to follow news sites like CNN, the NY Times, and Global Voices that update with the latest goings on, entertainment sites with movie and TV insider info, NASA in many forms, some celebrities (mostly famous for roles they played on one Whedon show or another), some fictional characters, one cat, and people I've run into on multiple message boards. I've found quotes, poems, pictures, funny You Tube videos, stories of the odd and incredible, images of galaxies far far away and images of our own Earth in action. Before, browsing the Internet was a solitary thing. But with twitter, it kind of feels like the Internet is talking to me. It is odd because MySpace and Facebook are designed to connect people, yet with twitter I feel more connected to the Internet as a whole, as if it is a living entity with actual people on the other side of my screen, where as those other two sites just make me feel like someone sitting at home tinkering with a website.

Plus, instead of randomly surfing the web, I can tailor my twitter so that the things I'm interested in come to me, which I find pretty efficient. Well, as efficient as a time waster can be.

Show quote of the day: “Do you know how hard it is to clean clown makeup off a bone saw?”

Found on Twitter. (A place holder. ;) )

The Internet hates me.

Quote of the day: "Only vegetables are happy." ~ William Faulkner

Song of the day: American Eulogy: Mass Hysteria/Modern World by Greenday

State of mind: frustrated with technology

Date: May 24th, 2009

Just went over to CyberCityBibliotheca and I can't post a new topic or respond to anything in any of the threads. Is that why it's been so quiet? (As compared to what, I don't know... ;) )

I finally get my email back, but now I can't chat with folks on my own frelling message board. WTF?

Anyhow, I started a twitter account for CyberCityBibliotheca under @CyberCityBooks. The intent being when new threads were started, I'd post the link to anyone in the twitterverse, maybe get some new blood. (And by new, I mean people that won't give me crap for being a fan of Nathan Fillion. ;P )But seems that would be pointless if no one can actually post.

And I still don't know why some people can't register onto the site. Twichie never could and LL's brother (oh god, there are more of them!) couldn't either.

Frak.

Frell.

Frelling frellity frak.

So... what's up?

Show quote of the day: "I'm here for you, you brave little soldier. I know your pain. Come here! You're too precious for this world"

Locked Out

Just an FYI, I locked myself out of my email account. Don't ask. So if any one has to email me, I can be reached at NYPinTA @ gmail dot com.

Show quote of the day: "They're carrots! Medicinal carrots."

Sneak Attack

Quote of the day: “Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.” ~Arthur Miller

Song of the day: Lost by Coldplay

State of mind: reflective.

Date: April 18th, 2009


John pushed me down. Just knocked me down on my face on a rainy day. What did I do to deserve such harsh treatment? I think I know...

Originally during the back and forth to nail down details of my trip to Boston, I suggested we all meet up for lunch- my treat. And I did mean it. But on the actual day, Michelle couldn't come and we never really did decide on a place to eat. So when John finally made it to Borders Cafe on Church Street, and not the Borders book store at some mall, no solid plans had been made and I had stuff I wanted to put in my car that was just around the corner and thought we would find someplace to go from there. But after we dropped off my stuff the wind really picked up and I wasn't thinking of lunch, I just wanted was to find a place out of the weather to sit down so we could figure out what we were going to do, and I spotted a cafe across the street that seemed to fit the bill. Inside it was overflowing with other people that apparently had the same idea and was incredibly noisy, which made it hard to concentrate so when I heard John say he was thinking of getting something else besides a coffee, I thought he meant one of the cookies or cupcakes they had on display at the front counter. I hadn't noticed they sold sandwiches as well. In the chaos, he ended up in front of me and he ordered first, then I ended up at another register to order my hot chocolate so even though I had offered to pay for lunch in our emails, I didn't realize he was getting lunch right then and he ended up paying for his own.
That must have been my mistake. My Waterloo...
After "lunch" we decided to head over to an area in Boston that he was familiar with so we could go on a small tour and take lots of pictures. It was a short train ride and on the other side of the river the wind had let up so walking around outside wasn't that bad. One can not be from the North East and not be able to handle a little rain.
First we walked around outside in a park that I'm sure will be pretty in a few weeks, looked at the space a duckling statue should have been, and got some cool shots. (We also passed the infamous doorway to John's work were the local homeless like to leave... presents, but I didn't take a picture of that.)



Then we went to a very large mall, mostly because it was indoors and walking in the rain was getting a little old.



After walking the entire mall, we ventured again outside and took the last few shots of the day before I had to get back to my car and John had to get back home, so at his suggestion we started along a surprisingly deserted street. He claimed there were more signs and interesting things to photograph and I, like an idiot, followed along.



And that was when I "tripped" and I found myself face first on the sidewalk, my knee taking the brunt of the fall. I lay there for a moment stunned, sure I broke something. My arm, my glasses, maybe my umbrella. However, nothing was permanently damaged. He helped me up, which I suppose is only right, and I insisted that I had to sit down. The only place nearby that looked open to the public was a sushi bar. I hobbled inside and threw myself down on the bench in the corner, then began to laugh. I had to! I had to pretend I didn't know what he had done. I acted as if it was all my fault and that I hadn't seen that the sidewalk was in two levels and my foot kept going when I thought it should have hit pavement, throwing me off balance so that I fell over... it was an Oscar worthy performance. But being the amateur actor that I am, I distracted John by ordering some sushi, which turned out not to be sushi at all really, and a pineapple smoothie, and John got a passion fruit smoothie. After eating and deciding that I was all right enough to walk, I paid for everything and we left.
Why would I offer to pay for the smoothie of my attacker, you might be asking. Well, we had to get back to my car and I really didn't feel like getting shoved in front of the train.

Show quote of the day:
"Lost my mojo."
"Have you re-traced your steps?"

Place holder. (You Tube clip.)

More later. (From me, not You Tube.)