In the latest issue of Wired, Clive Thomson discusses Twitter and the cumulative meaning of its data, as opposed to the banality of each individual entry.
Perhaps I'd learn to samba.
But the true value of Twitter — and the similarly mundane Dodgeball, a tool for reporting your real-time location to friends — is cumulative. The power is in the surprising effects that come from receiving thousands of pings from your posse.So, yesterday, I gave it a try by twittering to myself (that sounds slightly dirty) by jotting down notes throughout the day. And now here I post the twitters, minus timestamps, plus bullets, divided by pi:
When I see that my friend Misha is "waiting at Genius Bar to send my MacBook to the shop," that's not much information. But when I get such granular updates every day for a month, I know a lot more about her. And when my four closest friends and worldmates send me dozens of updates a week for five months, I begin to develop an almost telepathic awareness of the people most important to me.
- drinking coffee, waking up, chatting with leah
- taking a vacation day today :-)
- saying goodbye to leah, as she heads off to work
- reading online news, rss feeds, email
- reading magazine in the bathroom...
- recording beatboxing video (i got mad skills)
- going to take a shower
- eating kashi granola with soy milk
- watching great videos on zefrank.com (thanks, william)
- going outside to do yard-work
- playing with dogs and cleaning garage
- pulling weeds in the backyard
- having an organic yard/garden is a lot of work
- one day i'll have gardening skills like this: www.humblegarden.com
- scooping dog poop (sigh)
- cutting grass (frickin' hot)
- sweating profusely
- going inside, cooling off, drinking water
- reading rss feeds, email
- writing blog post about ze frank
- going to get some oil and stuff for the lawnmower
- walking around evil wal-mart looking for oil
- listening to two guys flirt with one another across isles
- found oil
- back home, drinking gatorade
- checking email
- going back outside to sweat profusely
- cutting grass - again
- drinking gatorade - again
- fixing weed-eater - it works!
- weed-eating - woo!
- ran out of weed-eater line - crap!
- back inside, cooling off and drinking gatorade
- reading email
- eating lunch - grilled chicken, hard boiled eggs, banana
- taking 2nd shower of the day
- writing blog post about lucas aquirre
- listening to brian eno's another green world
- watching my dog roll around on her back outside
- watching my cat run around the kitchen table
- having a glass of red wine
- adding an amazon wishlist to my blog sidebar
- i hope strangers buy me stuff
- talking to my sister and nieces via skype
- saying hello to my wife, who just came home from work
- playing warioware on the wii
- watching the news
- eating dinner - portobello burgers, asparagus, potatoes
- talking to my sister, brother-in-law and nieces via skype
- watching peter o'toole film, venus
- in bed, reading underworld by don delillo
- going to sleep
Perhaps I'd learn to samba.
