All Posts Categorized: ‘People and Places’

My Take on Twitter

  • Written by: Jen on October 14th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
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  • One year ago: Sick Triscuit
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So many people still do not get Twitter so here is my take:

I was forced to get a Facebook account in order to work on an API project for a client. After a few months of using it for then personal stuff – I got completely sick of all the garbage. “X person played Y game”, “Z bought you a drink”, etc. For some people that is great – and fun…just not for me. I did walk away thinking – “I really like the way I can keep up with certain people (family, friends, etc) when they update their status. I also did not like the fact that all of your content is “stuck” in Facebook. Let’s say you get tired of Facebook – all your photos, updates, etc are not exportable. You lose everything you put in there.

It was nice finding out what my sister was up to, what cool new restaurant my cousin tried, or what some of my friends were doing last weekend. I found myself staying in better touch both using Facebook, as well as actually calling them to talk about what they were up to.

From there – I looked into Twitter and started using that for increased interaction with the people I really cared about hearing about/viewing their quick pictures, etc. Basically – you get status updates from people you care about. It is not what most people think either “I am getting coffee”, “I am walking to work”. Some people do write those updates, but if you start following someone or actually use Twitter – you will see most people actually write something interesting. Using Twitter – I keep in contact with friends/family, and interact with people I normally would never interact with and enjoy getting to see first hand photos from some of my favorite TV personalities, have conversations with family, and learn about new stuff from people I choose to follow. Basically – I get the best of Facebook (the status updates) minus the garbage I hated…and on top of that, everything is exportable – and can flow right into my personal blog. This way – if I decide in a few months/years Twitter is not for me, I can dump it and keep my content.

Not sold? Hey – it is not for everyone. But it is pretty cool to get a timeline of what you thought was interesting/important at the time and then look back on it at a later date. You can make what you want out of it and for me…it has been interesting, I have learned a lot, and I enjoy making new connections!

http://www.twitter.com/thejappler

Random Fridays: Chicago 2016 No More

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Well – after three years of waiting/planning for this day and 70 million dollars spent…Chicago got out in the first round of voting for the 2016 Olympic location. I am completely stunned we got knocked out and during the first round at that. I had it all planned too…all my construction friends would have plenty of work, my family and friends would fly in for the big event, my son Evan would be 10 and actually be able to appreciate them, and so on.

Chicago is a fantastic town with all kinds of gems that people who have never been here don’t have any clue about and it is a bit sad to me that the world will not see our city for what it really is (our lakefront, great neighborhoods, amazing food, nice people, clean streets, world class architecture, etc).

Perhaps it was not meant to be, but man…I was really looking forward to it!

Random Fridays: Olympics in Chicago?

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I have been anxiously awaiting the news of whether or not Chicago will get the 2016 games and it looks like some others are getting antsy as well. The Chicago Tribune put out an article “Chicago awards contract to clear Olympics site” today that makes me even more hopeful. Of course there are plenty of rumors going around, but this makes it sound a bit more promising!

So many people have little or no expectations for our great city and I would love for the world to see what all we have to offer. We have an amazing (perhaps great) lake, an unforgettable skyline, some of the nicest people, and some pretty interesting history.

Sure the traffic will be out of control and it will be a bit overwhelming, but the excitement, jobs, and the opportunity to see some events in your own city would be amazing.

Let’s just hope we get some good news in October!

Thursday Linkfest: June 18, 2009

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This week flew by – but I actually found a number of links very interesting over the last seven days.

Random Fridays: Train Surfing

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Event hough I do not live near the ocean, I still enjoy surfing as much as anyone else (and have ever since watching the movie North Shore).

There is something very satisfying and exciting about catching the perfect wave – everything clicks, and you just seem to almost fly – or at least that is how it feels for me. Where am I surfing? I am surfing on Northwest Highway and I call it “train surfing”. For those that do not know this – Chicagoland has a number of commuter train lines and I happen to drive on a road parallel to the train tracks for about 10 miles every morning. If you can catch it (“the wave”) just right – you can literally go through almost the entire 10 miles without hitting a red light (there are several).

Every once in a great while – if you get in a position to follow an express train – it will cause all the lights to change with you so that you can go straight through. This is something I have only done a few times – but like any great wave – it is all about the chase.

Glam Scum

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I have recently become a fan of a DJ by the name of The Scumfrog and have really enjoyed his podcast called “Glam Scum International”. If you like electronica/club/vocal trance – give him a shot. Make sure to check out episode 8 first (my favorite so far).

Socializing on the Web

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We have all seen or heard of a lot of the web’s big social web sites (Facebook, MySpace, online dating, etc) but the other day when I was in the car listening to the radio – I was a combination of disturbed, somewhat impressed (with the idea that this market was targeted not the actual web site idea), and shocked that someone created a new site for socializing/dating with a whole new hook. A site for setting up “Married Dating & Affairs” (The Ashley Madison Agency) which even guarantees 100% satisfaction. Please note I am personally very against cheating or having an affair. I personally believe if you are unhappy with a relationship – it is best to get out before it gets worse. We have all seen the movies and heard the stories – affairs are nothing but trouble. I know people are always trying to make a buck – but where do you draw the line?

I was disturbed that there is now a place to easily go and seek out someone who is married and wanting an affair – and at the same time, I was also somewhat impressed that someone saw the need/market and built this site around it. Perhaps the people using it will finally be open about it on the “first date” rather than after they lie about their marital status until a few dates in and then open up the can of worms to the person that thinks they are single too.

My initial thought: “Go sanctity of marriage!” Even though I would never use the service and would hope none of the people that I know would – my only hope is that people will at least come clean and promote honesty (even though it is with strangers instead of your “partner”).

Even if you do target an audience successfully for something that is not socially acceptable and illegal, I only would hope you are responsible enough not to throw it in people’s faces with billboard ads for all to see (kids especially) with messages like “Life is short, have an affair”. I was not terribly upset with the company until I saw that advertisement which tends to promote having an affair instead of promoting their web site which is more geared towards people that have already made the choice to have the affair.

What are your thoughts?

Completed: One Life Goal and One 2009 Goal

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Every Easter my family went to Myrtle Beach for a week to two weeks and we stayed in my mother’s cousin’s beach house. Alone, that was exciting, but what was mesmerizing was this thing called “cable”. Sure – cable was around when I was younger, but my parents thought channels 2-13 were enough for us. I would love going to Myrtle Beach and then watching this crazy comedian named Gallagher. Ever since I first saw his great Sledge-O-Matic – I decided I had to see him live…and I am finally going to next month. He is coming to the Chicagoland area and I am totally excited to see him in action.

Another goal of mine – has been to finally start releasing some WordPress plugins and I did that earlier this week by releasing SDAC Related Content – a highly configurable, cached plugin that allows you to show related posts by category at the end of your posts or pages that does not make any database changes (perfect for WordPress VIP). I have a few more plugins that will soon be released as well as some themes. I just need time :)

Neighbors

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I have had some beef with my neighbors in the past. They have weird habits, refuse to shovel a foot of snow on my property, and are generally strange…but I have to say the last week has given me some hope. On Thursday we had to call 911 for Evan (cracked his head on something and got a bouncy ball sized bump on his head that kept growing and growing as we went back and forth on who to call… Within a few minutes of the crew getting to our house, one of our neighbors a few houses down ran up the street to ask if the baby was ok. Another neighbor left us a card, and another neighbor left us a sticky with her phone number and a message.

I was pretty impressed and happy that we had people that actually were concerned. To those people who will never read this…thanks ;)

Favorite Presidential Quotes

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Since it is Presidents Day – I thought I would share some of my favorite presidential quotes.

George Washington:

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.

Abraham Lincoln:

Perhaps a man’s character was like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing.

Leave nothing for tomorrow which can be done today.

Lyndon Baines Johnson:

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: “President Can’t Swim.”

Any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a good carpenter to build one.