2009.03.03 Tuesday
boy in the mumble and Tree Hugging Overload
I've started using a couple of new things online recently.
(New Mumbreeze card!)
I've joined Twitter a few weeks ago like, I think millions of people have as well. I knew about it for much longer and I didn't have any intention of joining it, but then I started checking Twitter pages of friends and after a while, I wanted to join in. I'd never been a fan of chatting online and hardly ever chatted unless if it was for work or a friend prompted me to do it. I mostly try to avoid having to chat if possible. Twitter on the other hand feels totally different from chatting. For one thing, you can post whatever you feel like any time, but it's not (unless you're responding directly to someone) directed at anyone in particular, so you're not requiring anyone to respond. Likewise, you can look at other peoples' 'tweets', but you don't need to respond to it unless you fee like it. So, looking at your Twitter page is kind of like sitting down with a dysfunctional group of friends. Everyone is tweeting whatever they feel like and some of them, you have no idea what they are talking about, but that's actually more interesting than people chatting with each other. There's nothing as bad as having to listen to a bad conversation, but if it's something written by a single person, there is no small talk involved and it is more informative. Anyway, I wouldn't write about it here unless I wanted more people to know that I am on Twitter. So far I've got a few friends and some other people I'm following, but I think I could do with a few more. There are some people who tweet every little thing they do and it's a bit too much to follow and I don't keep them in my list, but I wanted to see if I'll gain some new people to follow by writing about it here. Likewise, if you're on Twitter and want to check me out, you're welcome. I don't think I'm the most interesting Twitterer out there, but then I think I'm not the most boring either. I tend to be kind of all over the place as far as subject goes, but I think my top subjects are bicycle, environmental issues and artwork. If you're not interested in any of that, then my tweets might be super boring for you. Anyway, feel free to follow me on Twitter. Add me to your list and then delete me if you're not into it. I won't take any offense at all. If you add me, I will check your page too (unless it's private) .
(Mt. Tabor Park, Portland)
The other thing I've been doing online (for 4-5 months now I think) is the Google reader. I may have written about it a while ago, but It's a Google tool that lets you keep up with all your subscribed blogs, so you can browse through all your favorite blogs without having to go to each site. If you like to read a lot of blogs, this is a good tool to do that with. I'm sure most of you know that already though. With Twitter I could use more activity, but lately dealing with Google reader have gotten me a bit overwhelmed. I know exactly why this is too. I started following Tree Hugger recently through the reader. I really like a lot of the articles they have. The problem is that they upload so many articles everyday and even if I take ample time going through my reader updates, I can never seem to get through all of them. If I can skim through the titles and only read the most interesting ones, maybe I can get through all of them, but they all look pretty interesting to me so that I want to at least read a little bit of most of the articles. Anyway, so I'm in a strange situation of having access to a lot of interesting reading, but not having the time or the mindset to be able to go through all of them. If the number of unread articles get to be too much, I will just have to set the status to "all read" and just forget about all the information I might have missed in them. Maybe it seems strange to you that I am interested in environmental issues at all. Wouldn't it be more appropriate if I recounted some psychedelic dreams I had here? For me though, I'm interested in the environment mostly for selfish reasons. I want to live in a world that feels good basically. My idea of what that world would be like has changed as I've gotten older. I didn't care much for nature when I was younger, but as I grow older, I seem to crave the charms of nature more just as a lot of people do. When I was younger, I didn't really like doing the same things as most people and if people said flowers are pretty, I questioned that statement. I guess maybe I'm not such a rebel anymore and I have come to appreciate nature through first hand experience. Anyway, so the world that feels good to me is one where nature is thriving much more and human civilization is in harmony with it. I think though that the way we are living is destroying the environment and we're getting further and further from my dream world. Maybe it's futile, but still I like to think that we can turn things around. Sites like Tree Hugger, while not all their writers might have high aspirations for a better world, does contribute greatly in sharing news and ideas about our environment and I think the more of us that are better informed can bring change for the better. I've gotten way off track, but that's sort of why, I am stubborn to not to dismiss all the articles in the ever growing list of unread updates. Anyway, Maybe I could just get better at reading them and I won't worry about this any more.
(New Mumbreeze card!)
I've joined Twitter a few weeks ago like, I think millions of people have as well. I knew about it for much longer and I didn't have any intention of joining it, but then I started checking Twitter pages of friends and after a while, I wanted to join in. I'd never been a fan of chatting online and hardly ever chatted unless if it was for work or a friend prompted me to do it. I mostly try to avoid having to chat if possible. Twitter on the other hand feels totally different from chatting. For one thing, you can post whatever you feel like any time, but it's not (unless you're responding directly to someone) directed at anyone in particular, so you're not requiring anyone to respond. Likewise, you can look at other peoples' 'tweets', but you don't need to respond to it unless you fee like it. So, looking at your Twitter page is kind of like sitting down with a dysfunctional group of friends. Everyone is tweeting whatever they feel like and some of them, you have no idea what they are talking about, but that's actually more interesting than people chatting with each other. There's nothing as bad as having to listen to a bad conversation, but if it's something written by a single person, there is no small talk involved and it is more informative. Anyway, I wouldn't write about it here unless I wanted more people to know that I am on Twitter. So far I've got a few friends and some other people I'm following, but I think I could do with a few more. There are some people who tweet every little thing they do and it's a bit too much to follow and I don't keep them in my list, but I wanted to see if I'll gain some new people to follow by writing about it here. Likewise, if you're on Twitter and want to check me out, you're welcome. I don't think I'm the most interesting Twitterer out there, but then I think I'm not the most boring either. I tend to be kind of all over the place as far as subject goes, but I think my top subjects are bicycle, environmental issues and artwork. If you're not interested in any of that, then my tweets might be super boring for you. Anyway, feel free to follow me on Twitter. Add me to your list and then delete me if you're not into it. I won't take any offense at all. If you add me, I will check your page too (unless it's private) .
(Mt. Tabor Park, Portland)
The other thing I've been doing online (for 4-5 months now I think) is the Google reader. I may have written about it a while ago, but It's a Google tool that lets you keep up with all your subscribed blogs, so you can browse through all your favorite blogs without having to go to each site. If you like to read a lot of blogs, this is a good tool to do that with. I'm sure most of you know that already though. With Twitter I could use more activity, but lately dealing with Google reader have gotten me a bit overwhelmed. I know exactly why this is too. I started following Tree Hugger recently through the reader. I really like a lot of the articles they have. The problem is that they upload so many articles everyday and even if I take ample time going through my reader updates, I can never seem to get through all of them. If I can skim through the titles and only read the most interesting ones, maybe I can get through all of them, but they all look pretty interesting to me so that I want to at least read a little bit of most of the articles. Anyway, so I'm in a strange situation of having access to a lot of interesting reading, but not having the time or the mindset to be able to go through all of them. If the number of unread articles get to be too much, I will just have to set the status to "all read" and just forget about all the information I might have missed in them. Maybe it seems strange to you that I am interested in environmental issues at all. Wouldn't it be more appropriate if I recounted some psychedelic dreams I had here? For me though, I'm interested in the environment mostly for selfish reasons. I want to live in a world that feels good basically. My idea of what that world would be like has changed as I've gotten older. I didn't care much for nature when I was younger, but as I grow older, I seem to crave the charms of nature more just as a lot of people do. When I was younger, I didn't really like doing the same things as most people and if people said flowers are pretty, I questioned that statement. I guess maybe I'm not such a rebel anymore and I have come to appreciate nature through first hand experience. Anyway, so the world that feels good to me is one where nature is thriving much more and human civilization is in harmony with it. I think though that the way we are living is destroying the environment and we're getting further and further from my dream world. Maybe it's futile, but still I like to think that we can turn things around. Sites like Tree Hugger, while not all their writers might have high aspirations for a better world, does contribute greatly in sharing news and ideas about our environment and I think the more of us that are better informed can bring change for the better. I've gotten way off track, but that's sort of why, I am stubborn to not to dismiss all the articles in the ever growing list of unread updates. Anyway, Maybe I could just get better at reading them and I won't worry about this any more.