Twitter for the Tweet-less
Friday, April 10, 2009 at 07:58AM Yesterday, my friend Kim was bemoaning the fact that just when she had determined to spend less time online, she discovered that many of her friends had been bitten by the 'Twitter bug.' I, too, have determined never to feed the beast that is the Twitter feed, mostly because of the time factor but also because my life is just not that interesting to anyone other than me and my family.
Anyway, Kim and I were chatting in the comments and decided that we would do a 'day in the life' sort of post. Kim suggested calling it 'Twitter for the Tweet-less.' Below is the record of the ordinary, unremarkable day I lived yesterday, a testimony to the wisdom of my decision not to Tweet.
6 am—alarm went off. Fell back asleep praying.
6:05—cell phone alarm went off. Must get up and take pills.
6:06-6:20—Make coffee. Feed and water dogs and morning doggie duties. Boot computer. Pour coffee. Stand at the window in awe of how different the side yard looks without that big tree. Dream of how it is going to look once the leaves come out. (will they EVER come out? I am impatient for spring)
6:20—log in and check email. Nothing needs a response. Read daily chapter—today is Hebrews 12. Read chapters 9 to end of book. Check Google Reader. Leave comment for Kim Shay. Twitter the day?
6:30—Tom is out of the bathroom. Time to fix breakfast. Eggs and toast for Tom and sourdough toast for me. Newspapers and discussion of the headlines. Rahm Emmanuel worth 11 million? Really? $18 for a hot dog in Chicago (lobster), $7 for a side of asparagus, over $14 for a piece of carrot cake? Indulgent in this economy or any economy.
7:00ish—unload dishwasher and clean up kitchen. Make bed. Straighten up house. Toss laundry down the laundry shoot where it will languish until someone needs underwear. (laundry is the most dreaded household chore, after all) Listen to Don and Roma’s morning show as I go about my business. They’re celebrating the Passover Sader in the White House? Why? They’re not Jewish! Rep. John Spratt, head of the House Budget Committee trying to defend the new budget. Sorry, I’m not buying his defense. The bottom of the hour news tells me it’s time to get busy on my study.
7:30 Organize all my resources and prepare my notes for today’s study in Hebrews 9:23-28. I’ve read everything but I feel unprepared and my thoughts are disjointed. Reading is not the same as studying. Pray and get started, Kim!
8:15 I am finished with vs. 23. Interesting that Calvin doesn’t have that much to say. Coffee is cold, switch to water. Get Sam up and in the shower. Take dogs out to go potty. Telephone call from Tree Service. Coming to finish the maple in the back yard this morning after all. Better go move the cars to the street. Called Tom.
8:41 Back to the study. Verse 24 notes.
9:00 School starts. Go over yesterday’s work, teach math lesson.
9:30ish Shower
9:45—finished with shower, hair, makeup (what I call ‘dab and stab’ –a dab of moisturizer and a stab of mascara. ) While in shower, planned dinner. Pork steaks on grill, spinach salad, some kind of potato dish. Trip to freezer in basement for pork steaks. Lunch? Coneys. Back to study. Finish up verse 24.
10:45—finished with notes through vs. 27. Need to take a break. Take pictures of today’s tree trimming. They are almost finished cleaning up the mess.
10:51—time to get this finished. One more verse to go. There’s a lot here.
11:10 Finished with notes. Time to pack up book bag and start getting Jake’s lunch ready. Don’t forget to take bread for Dorothy and Carol. Listened to Rush in the kitchen while making Jake’s lunch.
11:40—check email. Check Google Reader. 24 posts to read. Not time for all of them. Instead, decided to download pictures of tree removal/trimming from camera for a blog post after I get home from study this afternoon.
11:45—back out to kitchen to heat up coney sauce. Uh, oh. Those hot dog buns in the drawer? They were hamburger buns. Change of plans: turkey sandwich with Monteray jack cheese under broiler on hamburger buns with tomato, lettuce, and mayo and a few Fritoes on the side.
12:00 Lunch half hour. Ate and talked. Walked around the yard together inspecting the trees and noticing signs of spring. Making plans; patio furniture to come back out this weekend. Probably time to repair the lawn where the dogs have killed the grass over the winter.
12:30—check email
12:40—left for Dorothy’s and Bible study
4:00—home again. Walked in the back door and checked to see if the pork steaks were thawed. The meat was nearly thawed, but it was round steak, not pork steak, so I have to adjust again. Some days are like that. Called Tom. The round steak went back in the fridge to be transformed into Swiss steak tomorrow, and tonight we’ll get a hamburger at Wendy’s. That’s good. I’m really tired—mentally tired mostly.
Our study was really good, as always. I really treasure the time I spend with my friends over the Word of God. We’ve been at this study for two years now, and summer is rapidly approaching. Our hope is to complete Chapter 10 and then break for the summer.
4:18 I’m going to check email and ‘hit the couch’ with From Age to Age, by Keith Mathison until 5 o’clock. Hope I can stay awake!
4:52—never made it to the couch with the book. Took a short detour to the Highway and then Sam asked me to watch his newest short movie. He keeps teaching himself new things. I’m proud of him. He is a very self motivated person—intrinsically motivated. He manages to find a way to accomplish amazing things with really crummy and outdated programs. I admire that in him. Also, I remembered that one of the dogs threw up on the rug right before I left for Dorothy’s and I only took time for a quick clean up. Out comes the carpet shampooer. . .no rest for the weary. I’m just glad I don’t have to cook.
5:00ish—I’m going to turn on the radio and clear off my desk and get it organized so I can do some work when we get back from Wendy’s. I’m excited about a piece I’m working on but I still need to work out some spacing problems.
5:45—off to Wendy’s. Why do Wendy’s hamburgers taste so beefy? Other than Taco Bell, I’m not nuts about fast food, but Wendy’s hamburgers are yummy!
6:15ish—home, again. Take pill. Off to the drawing board to work on Deuteronomy 4:35. Played with some different inks. I like walnut ink best (nearly always do!) but I’m waiting to hear the client’s color preferences. Listened to Sean Hannity on the radio while I was working. Did President Obama bow to Saudi King? Did the White House lie when they said he didn’t? Somali pirates, Secretary of State Clinton’s non-response, Black Caucus in Cuba; what in the world is happening to my country? Classical music would be more conducive to lettering, I’m thinking. Or maybe Celtic.
Tried out several layouts but just wasn’t happy with any of them. Sam suggested an arrangement of words that retains the meaning as well as integrating the showcase words. Go Sam! It’s 8:15 and I think it’s time to cap the ink and clean my nibs.
8:33—Time for jammies and robe. Forgot to post up tree pictures to blog. Too late now. Forgot to post up Cross Quote. Too late for that now, too. Sam’s watching a movie; I think I’ll join him. Pirates of the Caribbean—World’s End. Time to check email one last time, leave a few comments at my calligraphy discussion board and log off. **I’ll fill in the rest of my thrilling evening in the morning.**
**Let’s see. Trying to remember. Puttered around a little straightening up and putting away. Tried to read but was too tired to concentrate. Watched the end of Ace of Cakes. They were making a cake that looked like a giant Milk Bone box. Had a glass of Riesling before bed. Washed face, brushed teeth. In bed by 11ish.
Not much there that's Twitter worthy, is there? Honestly, I’m not tempted to share the content of my days for the world to see ever again. It took a lot of time. Time is a commodity of which I need more, not less, so Twitter is definitely not for me. ( I confess I considered titling this post, "Move along, citizen, there's nothing to see here.")
Kim from Hiraeth
Ironically, my husband just sent me an email from the publishing/printing trade re: Twitter, which included two links to disparate articles about Twitter. He asked me, "Why do people feel the need to twitter? I don’t get it." I waxed philosophical in my response to his question:
The need to feel significant? Or to think what they are doing (or not doing) is significant? To feel noticed in the modern world? I don't know. . .
Nobody's life is all that interesting. Snippets, yes, from time to time.
I think the people who twitter would be better served by keeping a personal journal or personal blog. There is more permanence in what you have written down in a journal or blog. If you twitter your life away, it will be lost amidst everyone else's mundane twittering. You could never go back three or four years to relive something. Memories would be swallowed up in the unremarkable. And isn't that what people are trying to avoid? Getting lost in the shuffle of modern life? I don't know.
I'm curious. What do you think about Twitter?
Kim from Hiraeth
Another Twitter follow-up:
NEW YORK -
Experience the Passion of Christ — in 140-character bursts.
In a marriage of Christian tradition and digital technology, Wall Street's Trinity Church is using the micro-blogging service Twitter to perform the story of Jesus Christ.
The main characters will tweet the Passion play for three hours beginning at noon on Good Friday. The feed also can be delivered to mobile devices or e-mail addresses.
The lower Manhattan Episcopal parish also is offering a Web version of the Stations of the Cross.
The church was founded by a small group of Anglicans in 1697.
Reader Comments (10)
I choose to remain twitterless...
It's funny how truly ordinary our days seem when we make a running list of events. I noticed that as I compiled mine on paper throughout the day. But, I like ordinary. God is in the midst of the ordinary. Yes! God is in the midst of the ordinary! Good point!(I like ordinary, too)
Wish I could have joined you and Dorothy!Me, too! You'd love our study. I know you would, and I'm sure you would have a lot to contribute!
Please, please, may I join the Twitterless society? We could start our own "ordinary" club. I confess that I do not have the Tweeting gene though I've tried. Posting a snippet makes me feel like I'm tying my thoughts to a helium balloon. Up, up, up and away they're gone forever. Or till the balloon strangles a goose somewhere.
Anyway, I've actually gone to blogging what would be a twittering post. So does that mean I'm "bleeting" or "twigging"?I like twigging!
Oh, p.s. I did love hearing about your day that involved work on a certain verse! I'm soooo excited!
I am feeling like I barely have time to blog let alone Twitter. But all that busy-ness and my days are still mainly ordinary. And you know what? I like them like that too! Kim in On, you would fit in with our ordinary group doing a study of an extraordinary Book!
Twitter is growing on me.
At first I thought it was pointless and most of my tweets were days or weeks apart and I'd tweet some variation of "I don't get twitter..." I mean, who wants to know that I'm vacuuming or grocery shopping or whatever throughout the day?
But then I started using it more like I might use texting on a cell phone to send messages to people and all of a sudden it's starting to make sense. I've had some very fun twitter conversations with people way far away from me. Comparing it to texting on a cell phone helps me understand a little better
I don't think it wastes time, really, at least not the way I've been doing it. I don't follow very many people and I don't tweet constantly throughout the day. I don't think I've ever done more than 10 tweets in a day and that doesn't take much time out.
We'll see....I'm still kind of in the testing mode on it. I never did do Facebook because I knew that one would suck me in.I have a facebook, but I never do anything with it.
I try to twitter. But it just doesn't work. Or fit. Mostly I feel silly and unable to take the pressure of coming up with a pithy, witty some-thing to post. Facebook, same deal, though I try more often there.
All that to say, I loved this post! I love ordinary and I find great encouragement in the ordinary lives of others also seeking to glorify the only One extraordinary!
I'm like Kim--wish I could join your study too! Me, too! You would be welcomed and I know you would enjoy it. Friends and the Word--not much better than that! :-)
I can't imagine keeping a written log of my day, much less find somebody who'd be interested to read it! But I couldn't even keep up a blog, so I guess that makes sense. I like ordinary things too and I like my life, but....goodness!....to twitter about it just doesn't make any sense at all to me.I miss your blog. . .sniff.
I enjoyed reading about your day. Early morning Bible reading and then the radio -- me, too! There are a few shows (like 4) that I like to catch during the day. I never can listen to them from start to finish, but they usually just repeat the same stuff every hour anyway.
I twitter, but I don't remember to do it every day. I rarely have anything twitter worthy. I did enjoy twitter when the presidential debates were happening. I sometimes have twitter going when I'm watching something and I know my "friends" will be watching, too. Sometimes the chatting during an event can be fun.
I don't twitter. I don't come up with pithy statements on Facebook either. Lately, I've hardly had time to read! But if I did twitter I think it would BE about the ordinary and the beauty of it in the face of the disasters and dangers of this world. Your day sounds like an ideal day- full of close encounters with the Lord, your family and your art. Mine would be about the same except there would be a whole lot more baking!
I have a Twitter account - I got sucked in during the elections - but I haven't been that involved in it. It is most useful in the context of texting. I had a couple of tweet-exchanges that I thought were beneficial, and the one thing it offers that probably makes the most sense is the access by cellphone (because there are those who have their Tweets sent to their cell phones), but otherwise, .... meh. In the interest of full disclosure, I also have been sucked into Facebook. I'm not that jazzed about it either, although it does allow for a little more privacy, so there is a bit more sharing than can be done on other sites.....
I just tell people that I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century about this stuff. Those who know me well understand (and agree)!! :)