Wabi Sabi Me Twitter

So I’m More Like Hitler Than I Thought…

August 8th, 2008

A few days ago, I was Twittering from the Emergency Room with my daughter. While it was scary at the moment, the ER docs treated her immediately and everything was eventually fine.

In the meantime, praying and tweeting was all I could do as I held my daughter’s hand while she lay half-asleep and swollen on the hospital bed. People I know intimately in real life, and those I don’t even know their real names, sent comforting sms and tweets of encouragement. It was a Godsend.

I’ve always touted the value of online communities and social networks and the real life benefit they can bring. But now it is official.

I’m one of “those” people.

Posted in Twitter | 2 Comments »

Estate Planning for Parents

June 3rd, 2008

Twitter mom, Alexis Martin Neely, gave sound advice for parents on this morning’s Today Show. Her book Wear Clean Underwear helps busy parents tackle the tough job of estate planning.

As a solo parent, I especially like the “Family ID Card” which, in case of an emergecny, alerts others to the whereabouts of your children.

Posted in Family-Work Balance, Twitter, Mothering | No Comments »

THANK YOU TWITTER

May 27th, 2008

My fast and crazy ride to a professional graduate degree came to a grand conclusion on May 16th, when my family and I celebrated my graduation. It was a looong, hot day sitting through two commencement ceremonies and naturally, I tweeted throughout. At the time I did not know that anyone was taking notice of my commencement tweets, so imagine my surprise three days later when I checked my email and saw the responses.

Thank you so much! It was a special day, made even more special thanks to my TwitterBuds

THANK YOU

Originally uploaded by Werner Schnell

Posted in Twitter | 2 Comments »

Microblogging with BrightKite Part II

May 22nd, 2008

So why do I find BrightKite so useful?

I like to use Twitter when I am traveling, so that family and friends on both ends of the journey can keep an eye on us. It is a small thing, but surprisingly, I take comfort in knowing that if the worst happens, at least there will be a last tweet from which to send out a search party.

With BrightKite, my roadtrip updates look like this:

and this:

I also like BrightKite’s mapping capability, especially when using BK via SMS on the iPhone. Once you check-in to a city text @City, State, you can then search for local businesses text ?Business Name. You will then receive a list of addresses and you can select which one you want. Don’t tell BK, but I use this SMS option frequently, even when I’m not updating, as it is faster than waiting for my iPhone’s Google Map to load.

So does BrightKite make Twitter obsolete?
No, ~~Twitter’s frequent downtime makes Twitter obsolete~~ not by any means. If I just want to share a random thought that isn’t specific to my location, I still use Twitter.

I’m also careful not to perturb my TwitterBuds with boring check-ins. Unless I’m using BK to post a note or a picture, my basic check-ins stay on the BK platform. I have witnessed other users send their check-ins to Twitter and it quickly becomes spam-like. How interesting is it to just see an address?

BK does have a few areas that need tweaking:

It would really add to the sense of community if users were able to comment on each note or photo directly. I’m hoping this is another goody that BK has in the works, as it will make their microblogging platform more like a true blog, in that each note or photo can become a conversation with comments from other users.

Last but not least, ocasionally BK’s mapping fails, which can be pretty darn irritating. Twice I have tried checking in to Never, Neverland but BK’s map just can’t seem to find it. Again, BK is only in the Beta, so I’m sure that when they work out all the bugs, it will have no problem locating Never, Neverland, Point of No Return, or Denial.