OK, so when I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon last August, I was skeptical -- looked like a lot of boring chatter. And who would possibly be interested in anything I had to "tweet" about, anyway? But after nearly 9 months of twittering, I've changed my tune.
First, Twitter is an excellent way to follow trends and listen in on topics of popular conversation (rather like hanging out at a virtual water cooler), and I now use Twitter more than site feeds to see what's shakin' on the Intertubes.
I've also found that, while it can be hard for me to hammer out a whole blog post here, it's way easy -- and a heckuva' lot less daunting -- to dash off bitty 140-character updates. Plus, it's a quick way for me to remember articles, videos, and music for my own future reference. For example, when I hear a piece by a composer I'm not familiar with, I'll post a quick tweet like this one:
Then before I head out to the library to check out CDs, I'll look through my Twitter archive for ideas.
Even better than all the above, though, is that, thanks to Twitter, I've had the opportunity to meet and get to know lots of wonderful folks I otherwise wouldn't have. And for folks I already knew, it helped me learn more about them. It's great for following their daily routines, seeing when they're sick, stressed-out, happy, excited, struggling with pokey technology, figuring out what to cook for dinner ... all the little details that go into making up their lives but that you normally wouldn't hear about.
So, if you're on the fence about giving Twitter a spin, I encourage you to give it a try! (And give a holler if ya do.) :-D
If ya still need more convincing on just what in heck Twitter is all about and why it's of value, see the following:
"Mathetes is the Greek word for disciple, and the role of the disciple (per the Great Commission) it to make more disciples. I'd like to take the opportunity to award five other bloggers with this award and badge for acting in the role of a disciple of Christ. These five all share the message in their own creative ways, and I admire them all for what they do."
Winnership rules: Winners must pick five other 'disciples' to pass it on to, so here are my five picks in alphabetical order:
Causa Nostrae Laetitiae. I appreciate the effort Leticia Velasquez puts into sharing timely news stories and resources. I always learn something when I read her posts. You rock, Leticia!
Domine, da mihi hanc aquam! Philip N. Powell, OP is a shining example of Dominican Splendiferousness. Thanks for taking the time to share your solid homilies and insightful comments with us, Father!
Young Fogeys. Right there, ya gotta love a blog with a title like that. And Fr. Jay Toborowsky's postings run the gamut from serious to silly; always a good read.
So, I was boppin' around the blogosphere and just came across NaBloPoMo: National Blog Posting Month. The premise: You simply post something to your blog every day during November, which is a handy kick in the creative pants. And a lot less intimidating than what inspired it, NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. (Which I also think is Most Cool, btw.)
Unfortunately, as you can see by this post date, I'm joinin' the party a bit late, but what the heck. Speaking of joining, the only thing I'm not thrilled 'bout with NaBloPoMo is that you have to first create an account with Ning, and then you can officially join NaBloPoMo. I've nothing against Ning, mind you, it's just signing up there will result in Yet Another Username And Password I Have To Remember. :::sigh:::
Oh, in case you're wondering what's up with the bad grammar in the NaBloPoMo badge, it's an homage to the inspired hilarity of I Can Has Cheezburger? ;-)
Blog Day -- what a nifty event. The purpose: On 31 August, bloggers 'round the world introduce others to 5 new blogs they may not have heard of. While the 5 blogs I'm sharing aren't necessarily new -- they've been around for awhile -- they could be new to anyone who stumbles 'cross this post.
So, in alphabetical order, here are my entries ...
The Creative Tech Writer. I, too, work as a tech writer, and you've probably no idea what in heck that is. S'okay, nobody else does, either. I appreciate Jenny's musings on the industry.
Funfurde. Tagline: "Funky. Furniture. And. Design." This blog always uncovers stuff with the quirkiest, coolest, or just plain weird designs. Never a boring read.
HamsterTracker. Mathijs A. van der Paauw's site does just what the name says, it tracks his hamster, Lucy 3.0. See how far Lucy ran each day. Examine her stats, like max speed and total distance covered. Swoon over adorable pictures!
Holy Cards for your Inspiration, in which Micki shares a new holy card every day, along with a prayer or quote. I'm a total holy card junkie, so this site feeds my addiction nicely. There's a big variety of artistic styles among the cards, which I also love. Thanks for sharing all those lovely cards, Micki!
Melissa Rambles On, my pal Missie's blog. There's a huge amount of variety in her posts -- everything from knitting and sewing projects to cool Halloween-related links and musings on the nature of blogging. Good stuff.
CFotD #1: A huuuuuuge thanks to Fr. Jay Toborowsky for finding the following cool video, "A Day in the Life of Pope Benedict"! (It's in German, but really, who cares? It's the Papa!)
Well, what a dandy-fine surprise! Barb, sfo of SFO Mom tagged me, so of course I have to play along! An' awaaay we go!
"Wish You Were Here" Meme
Who are the five Catholic (or Christian) bloggers whom you would most like to meet in person, but have not (yet)?
:::putting on thinking cap and stroking imaginary beard:::
Lesse ... soooooooo many splendiferous faithful Catholic bloggers out there! OK, I'll see if I can mash 'em down into 5 ...
Barb, sfo of SFO Mom (Hey, Barb, if we both attend a Quinquennial, we could actually meet in person! Not sure if I can go to the one this summer -- you goin'?)
And I'm again shamelessly borrowing Barb's tagging method -- if you're named above, consider yourself "tagged"! Tho', it's not like I expect any of the above-mentioned folks (excluding Barb an' Maria) to actually read my lil' B-list blog. :-P
Updated: Well, I couldn't just do 5; I snuck in another one. :-P
Lured by the siren song of Blogger Beta's tagging feature (which they stubbornly insist on calling "labels", even though everyone else says "tags"), I switched over to give it a spin. I went through all my posts and tagged 'em, republished my blog to make 'em active, aaannnd ...
... kept getting the following error message:
org.apache.commons.net.ftp.FTPConnectionClosedException: FTP response 421 received. Server closed connection.
And not all of my posts got tagged -- some did, some didn't. (At least, that was the deal the last time I checked.)
I started searchin' through Blogger's help -- no luck. Looked through the Blogger Help Group -- lots of techno-gobbledygook that was beyond me. Did a general web search -- again with the technobabble.
:::stream of verybadwords:::
Yeah, yeah, I know it's a beta version and therefore has bugs. But still, I'm grumpy.
Back in August, Blogger added the ability to tag posts in their new beta version, and they've finally let us existing users play with it now.
So, I've been going through old posts and tagging them (handy!), but annoyingly, Blogger is republishing stuff to my site feed. (Gaah!) I'm also trying to figger out a way to get a list of my tags (or "labels" as Blogger insists on calling 'em) to display in my template's sidebar. What a headache! I've been spelunking for code samples through their Help section to no avail. (Can anyone point me in the right direction?)
As I flail around getting all that put together, I apologize for any code weirdness that may pop up. And the gosh-darned webfeed republishing with gobs of entries. :::grumble:::
I've long wanted to incorporate a way to tag and categorize my posts, but alas, Blogger doesn't support that feature. Happily, lots of smart folks have come up with work-arounds, and I think I may give FreshTags a spin. (A downside: It uses JavaScript, and not everyone has JavaScript enabled in their browsers.)
So, while I'm flailing around with that, the site and my posts may look wiggy for a bit. Hopefully, I'll understand everything perfectly and nobody'll ever see anything goofy. Realistically, there'll most likely be code goofs popping up everywhere until I figger it all out.
Anyhoo, ye be warned.
Edited: Well, what d'ya know? As soon as I posted this, I read Blogger's notice about their new beta features, one of which is the ability to tag and categorize posts. Looks like you have to create a new account in order to play with the beta stuff, though. :::grumble:::
One thing I absolutely love about this ginourmous tool called The Internet is the way it leads me into nifty things -- be they widgets or thoughts -- from folks I'd never have discovered otherwise. The latest instance happened just a few minutes ago when reading this RealTechNews post.
I hadn't paid much attention 'afore to all the chiclets that display at the bottom of every post there, but for whatever reason, I did today. So much color! So many icons among 'em that were new to me. Must ... click ... pretty ... squares ...
Clicking the co.mments one led me to Cool Find of the Day #1: "Use co.mments to bookmark posts you want to follow. It tracks new comments for you, so you don't miss out. You can see all the new comments from your tracking page, or subscribe to the feed." Well, ain't that a dandy-fine idea! Gotta poke 'round there some more, and also see if there are other comment-trackin' doodads out there to compare it to.
Reading through the site's blog lead to CFotD #2: This great article on the walls comin' down in the blogosphere, and how some established bloggers get antsy over what they see as new voices "encroaching on their land and their fortunes", and their resultant attempts to "circle the wagons against the newcomers". A most fascinating read that I never would've encountered otherwise.
Anyhoo, that be it for now. 'Scuse me while I click more purty chiclets ...
Spiffyness! I recently stumbled 'pon Amateur Catholic and was charmed by their aim:
"... Home of the Amateur Catholic® bloggers -- or as we like to refer to ourselves, the B-team. We don't write books or do speaking tours. In fact, we barely do our jobs. That's not to say we're unambitious though... You see, this coalition is just the second phase our blogosphere conquest. We suppose you could think of us as amateur crusaders too.
"... If you are Catholic and a blogger, but you don't make any money off your Catholicism, you're automatically an Amateur Catholic®."
Of course, I had to apply for membership, and I've been accepted! Thanks, guys! :-) Will be adding a sidebar link for 'em in a bit.
Oooh, ooooh! I mentioned earlier about lookin' for other Secular Franciscans in the blogosphere, and lo! I found SFO Mom, and I'm likin' what I see so far ...
Just came across CatholicBlogs.com, where you can "Search for articles from Catholic blogs, or browse the directory of Catholic blogs and RSS/Atom feeds. Hundreds of articles added daily." I have no clue how ya can get a site added to their search and just sent 'em an email asking about that. (I did poke around first!) Hope they'll send a reply, since I'd obviously like to add mine. ;-)
So, anyhoo, I played around there a bit and did a search for "secular franciscan" -- am clickin' through some of the results now. While I do like that you can save your search as an RSS feed, it doesn't seem to actually work, 'cause when I tried to view the feed itself -- no entries were in it.
Update 15-Jun-06: Spiffy! I got a quick and friendly reply from Tim at CatholicBlogs.com yesterday, and while I still don't know how sites get added to their search, he said they added mine! w00t! He also noted that the problem I had with saving searches to RSS feeds has been fixed, and it looks like it's workin'! :-)
With all the splendid, dandy-fineblogs of Dominicans out there, we Franciscans can't have 'em hoggin' all the bloggin' fun, now can we? Of course not! So, in the name of Dominican-Franciscan Parity :-P , I'm adding my lil' voice to the small-but-hopefully-growing Franciscan presence in the blogosphere. :::tentatively waves hello:::
Who am I? I'm Lisa, a Secular Franciscan living the USA; I made my permanent Profession in May 2006. My husband, Mike, and I are lifelong cat lovers and share our home with some fabulous felines. In my day job (cats must be fed), I work as a software technical writer with Lots Of Cool People. Some random bits in no particular order: I serve on my parish's web site committee; make and give away knotted twine Rosaries; have a devotion to Joseph, Holy Husband of Our Blessed Lady and Virginal Father of Jesus; read voraciously; and love eating sushi and napping with the cats. (My motto: "A Nap Makes Everything Better".)
Back in 2002, I dipped my toe into the Web waters when I designed 'n' launched my first personal web site about cats. While I enjoyed that, it was ultimately a bit unsatisfying to limit myself to cat- and animal-related issues. So, after much ponderin', I figured I'd start this site. I'm leaning towards discontinuing the other one altogether (which is why I'm not linking to it), and mebbe I'll incorporate some of the cat stuff from there into here. (We'll see. Depends on how ambitious I feel.)
As for what you'll find here -- Franciscany things, cats, St. Joseph, book and article reviews, silly links I stumble 'pon ... pretty much whatever enters my noggin'. Y'know, Typical Blog Stuff, with a Franciscan flavor. And I figured it'd nice to gather up things I've shared elsewhere into one location so I can quickly find it all again. (Hey, I'm lazy and don't like hunting around for stuff.) I also like having my own little spot where I can be silly, cranky, reflective, whimsical, goofy, dyspeptic, etc., whenever the mood strikes me.
Anyhoo, thankee fer stoppin' by, and hope to see ya again soon!
