Carl Setzer

Every so often I read something on twitter which infuriates me, filling me with horror and revulsion.  I long for the power to remove such wretched souls, deleting the parasitic blight. However, I know that is not my path. Reveling in rage only fills me with misery. I seek the right response, though,  one which shows them the destruction they wreck. Perhaps, someday, such shall be found. Until then, the best I see is to act with kindness to their victims.

Laying upon my couch this lovely sick day, Twitter has been a dear friend (autocorrect changed "sick" to "suck"; might be something there). Yet, there's a tyranny present. I grab my tablet to look up self-publishing options (Kobo vs. Amazon). Then I came back to myself some time later, trying to remember what I was doing. Just one tweet popped up, and my mind was gone. So, exploring those options, I struggle. Amazon has a larger audience. However, do I want to align myself with them? What are my expectations of a company? I interviewed with Amazon a few years ago, plus I did several projects with them back in the mid-90s. So clearly I find then tolerable. Yet, they are getting gargantuan, which I suggested find concerning. Writing-wise, at this point I'm planning on assembling a collection of my poetry. It's been requested of me, and it sounds rewarding. Plus, I've been meaning to put side short-stories out, too. So I think this would be an interes...

Been thinking about the mighty Twitter. Why do I like it so much, yet others I know hate the platform? One key thought: chaos. For me, the beauty of Twitter is it's chaos. This manic, crazily shifting feed of information delights me. Yet I understand how this could be a hard style for others. I specifically, deliberately follow smart and creative people without millions of followers. The people I follow will grab anything a celebrity would say (that's interesting) early enough for me to still be in the front of the thought curve. I value unique thinking over most anything else. Twitter is more global. Maybe it's my follower curation, but my list does a great job of giving me a global view, more so than I'd ever see reading a US based news org. If I need order, I have Google or Bing. And Facebook gives me a good look into the macro interests of our culture. Twitter trend to be where I see the cutting edge thinking, the leading stories. And I love that.

I keep hitting Twitter's 2k follower limit. Perhaps I need to garner a massive number of followers and achieve uber-Twitter status. At this point, though, I need to sort through my lists and drop a few. Some choices will be easy. No tweets in an extended period of time? Gone! A topic I lost my interest in? Likewise. Just a few of my criteria. So, I hope nobody takes being unfollowed personally. I find myself trapped by my technology's limits, just like most folks.

We have a bear running around the Seattle area . Amazing for a bear to racing around our urban confines. What's fun, though, is how the social media scene is taking this and running with it. Twitter has a few threads: #bearalert and #seattlebear . Also, someone has started posted to Twitter as Seattlebear . If you're interested, you can go to seattlepi.com and vote on a name for the fella .

Another of my chums has abandoned Twitter . For him, the problem boils down to communication. The platform blasts out 140 character tidbits, a pretty small droplet of information. Twitter's strength is for the mobile, sending these small info drops from moment to moment, wherever you are. Such things are the FreeRoxana campaigns utilize this amazingly well. For many of us, though, perhaps most of us, Facebook is better. It's easier to control who sees what, you can post more information, and for many of the key platforms, there are robust mobile applications. Twitter is still a valuable tool, but it looks like it is starting to shake out, as far as who it is valuable to.