Year of Gratitude - Day 130 - Twitter

Twitter offers up all kinds of stuff in a 140 characters or less. When I first started, I used it as a way to track words that I looked up. Then I started getting into news, creating lists, following comics and talking to other librarians. Right now Twitter is where I go to get the latest and greatest on Big Data. Live-tweeting hilarious situations is great. I don't really interact with that many people, but the way I use Twitter just continues to change. Heck, for the last year I've also been using another account for work!

One must be careful what one shares on Twitter. I just made my account public again after about a year because I was told that someone looked me up and felt I had very "colorful" language. I'm an adult. If I want to say "fuck" here and there, I can. I am sorry to those who are offended. Just kidding, I'm not sorry. You are more than welcome to ignore my existence, though.

Follow me at @evagro.

Year of Gratitude - Day 100 - BBC News

I don't watch a ton of videos online, but I always watch the ones posted on BBC News's Facebook page. They are terrific. Like this:

They also have really spectacular photo galleries,  and do a nice job with their social media in general. And, well, I think the British are hilarious.

Technology Slave

Somewhere in the virtual world, an old friend of mine named Kevin A. Wells wrote about his online habits - what he does, what websites he visits, etc. I thought this was a great idea and stole it, except I added a few more dimensions of technology. What can I say?

As writing always helps me understand things better, I thought this would be a good way to learn about my online habits, my constant need to be connected and my addiction to electronics. I want to have written proof of how completely and hopelessly addicted I really am to my technology, especially my computer, the Internet, my iPod and my glorious BlackBerry. Don't get me wrong, these addictions aren't detrimental to my health, relationships and other stuff like bad addictions are. I like to call all these items productivity tools and such. Besides, acceptance is the first step to recovery.

So, on an average day:

1. I wake up to my BlackBerry alarm. I check the weather on it and then take a quick glance at my GMail. Next, I check out my to-do list. Then I get out of bed.
2. If I exercise, I listen to my iPod. Sometimes I'll do yoga classes found free on the Internet.
3. While I wash up and get ready for work, I listen to my iPod conveniently located on my little iPod dock.
4. After that, I turn on my computer and immediately open iTunes to update my completely absurd amount of podcasts. I'll never get to half of them. I totally don't care. I need them there. Just in case.
5. To get to work, I either get on my bike and listen to iPod or plug iPod into the car stereo. I hate my life if I forget iPod at home.
6. At work, I sit at a computer for a better part of my day. I open my work email and work with our Integrated Library System called Millennium for all kinds of library things.
7. When I get a second at work during downtime, I open up GMail to more thoroughly review anything important. Sometimes I'll chat with my mom through GChat.
8. When the email is officially done with, I get to the Google Reader. Again, I have an absurd amount of articles, recipes, poems, quotes, podcasts and blog posts to sift through throughout the day. If I don't check it by 6pm, it's well over a 1,000 items to check.
9. At every break I check the BlackBerry for missed calls, messages, etc. I also check off my To Do's as I complete them. The calendar, which syncs with my Google Calendar, is also checked obsessively.
10. I go home at night, sit at my computer and read the feeds that I clearly couldn't get through at work, generally like 900 items. (This step is optional, especially after I work a late shift.)
11. I check my Gmail again and my Google Calendar for the next few days. I plan out my days and anticipate when I can do what. At this time I also fill out my "Food Journal" which sometimes really makes me feel ashamed, but I think that's the point.
12. I also check Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, my blog stats and my Twitter account. Come Fantasy Hockey season, I'll be all over Yahoo! as well.
13. Finally, I turn the computer off and open up a book. This may seem like when I disconnect, but it's not. When I find a word I don't know, I pull out the BlackBerry and cruise to Dictionary.com to find the definition. Then, I Twitter it.

So, after reviewing my 13-step routine, I have decided that it's fine. I know, lots of people are looking at it and going, "Wow, she's sick." Yet, this is how I keep my life together. I keep on top of the news, read poetry, look through witty and helpful quotes, talk to my family and friends, stay organized and manage my life. I use a lot of stuff to do that, but that's how it's done.

LinkedIn: My Take

On the long passed recommendation of T-Bone, I finally joined LinkedIn, whose mission is "to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have." I was ashamed it took this long, but after a week of using it, I'm not completely convinced I was missing out on anything particularly critical.

My connections list is not a bad piece of work, but I have had trouble adding some of my most important contacts; some of my past clients have told me that this site is blocked by their work. Another thing I kind of don't like - no, wait - hate is this email connection business. If I wanted to just email these people I would use my friggin' email. That's why I want them to get the message on LinkedIn, not in their email box.

Finally, I have already talked to a couple of people that are having trouble recommending me (insert "you suck" jokes here). I have asked them and they have had trouble with the link and the website keeps dropping errors on them. That's nice: I'm trying to get recommendations and it's only frustrating the people that I'm asking. That's real nice. Hence, the "social" part of this website is awkward and not fantastically user-friendly, at least not for me and my peeps just yet.

Of course, I scoured the Internet to see what others are saying and it's a mixed bag. Some people love it. Some people think it's lame and boring. Some find incredible opportunities with it and others are just on it to show up. Right now, I'm just using it as an online resume, mainly because I'm a bit to lazy to put one together myself. Check out my public LinkedIn site at http://www.linkedin.com/in/evagro.

Here's some additional reading you might want to check out about LinkedIn:

• The LinkedIn Conundrum - an interesting piece about some legalities and sticky situations; quite possibly the reason some of my clients can't access all areas of LinkedIn.
• Nielsen: MySpace, Club Penguin growth static, LinkedIn soaring
• LinkedIn is *NOT* Facebook for Grownups - nice comparison between the two by the Free Range Librarian. Good comments, also.
• LinkedIn vs. Facebook, 6 Months Later
• 100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn - lots of interesting ways to make LinkedIn work for you. I should probably take a closer look myself.
• Are you LinkedIn?
• Study: men more likely to use social networking for business

MySpace shapes up, a little

Admittedly, I do have a MySpace account. Very sad, I know. Since I've joined Facebook, I haven't been checking MySpace very much at all. Still sad, I know. For the first time in a long time, I posted a MySpace blog. My entire MySpace account, including my blogs, are only visible to my friends. Recently, I wanted to post bulletins with the Knowledge is Cool link, but found that the code was being automatically redirected to...well, I don't know where to, but it wasn't the right link.

Today, I found out what was going on. It seemed that MySpace was developing a warning for every single link that appears on comments, bulletins, messages and blogs. Basically, as soon as you click on the link, a new window appears and tells you that this external link and you would be leaving MySpace when you click it. It asks that you verify you trust the link and gives you the opportunity to either follow the link or return to MySpace.

THIS IS AWESOME. I can't tell you how much hacking, phishing and other crap goes on with MySpace. It happens because people don't think twice about clicking on links. It pleases me to see MySpace making them think twice about it. It's about time.

Twitter: what the heck is it for anyway?

I don't know how I got talked into Twittering, but I did. At first, I used it for telling people what I was doing. That got old in a hurry and made me think: "Seriously, does anyone give two [insert expletive here] that I'm about to make coffee? Or that I'm going to do anything else for that matter?" I hardly cared that I was making coffee, why would anyone else?

Then, I twittered what I was reading. That kind of got lame, too, since I haven't had much time for reading and found that I was twittering the same book over and over.

Finally, I actually found something that I could get into, enjoy and share: vocabulary. I have posted vocabulary blogs in the past, but those are just a little strange. When I microblog vocabulary, I have to type them out, copy their definitions and then share them. All of those things help me learn the word better than just looking at it. I also note from which book I pulled the words from, keeping a log of when I'm reading what. This idea came from this post called Hot Trend: Microblogging on Twitter.

Click here to check out my Twitter page:


OK, so microblogging sounds like another silly waste of time and I've been TRYING to talk myself into giving up Twitter, but there is something about it that I believe in. Even though I found Twitter useful for a practical purpose of my own, I still want to know what other people use it for. I was surprised to find that there are plenty of ways to put Twitter to work.

• Emergencies. I was quite surprised to find that people were "tweeting" during emergencies, but it makes sense. It's quick, easy and allows a person to get to the point quickly. The author of the article Turning to Twitter after China quake had first heard about the quake through Twitter. In another instance, Twitter was used as a support tool for students who were involved in a lockdown at their school. Read the Chronicle of Higher Education's article called, 'Twittering' During a Campus Lockdown.
• Librarian questions. I've heard that if you have a lot of librarians in your 'Followers' list, you can ask a quick question and get an answer in a pinch.
• Wayne State Events. This is definitely the coolest thing and I wish that more universities would follow suit. Anyway, when Wayne State tweets, it informs me that there are events happening, like Bob Woodward or Amy Goodman coming to campus. Very, very cool.

What else do people Twitter for? If you know, let me know.