One Good Thing

There are so many good things to write about, it’s hard to pick one. So, here’s one: Yesterday, I gained another 25 followers on Twitter. This makes me happy. I’m not exactly sure why, but it doesn’t really matter why. I spent most of the day yesterday, Labor Day, developing my SNS sites, or at least checking them, and writing little tweets and posts. I had four tabs open on my browser: email; Twitter; FaceBook; and Google. I would check my email, and respond to mail. Then I would click on the next tab, and check for new Tweets, and maybe send out a new tweet or two, and count my followers. Then I would check in with my bourgeoning social life on FaceBook, read the recent posts, respond to a few, maybe upload a photo. Then it was back to check my email, open up my mail, follow the links back to FaceBook, or just read the comments. Then I would click the Twitter tab and tabulate my followers, check the new tweets, and follow my followers (assuming they weren’t just some lame-o company spamming my tweet box or a beautiful woman looking to meet “single men”). When I grew weary of tweeting, I would go back and check my email again, and follow the links back to FaceBook or reply to friends who were writing real emails to me. You get the idea. Keeping up with just two sites can be a full-time job. Yesterday, I decided to just indulge, and rack up a few new followers, and do some writing, getting a little creative with my twittering. 

I am developing my own Twitter style: I try to mix it up. For example, who wants to read a bunch of tweets that are just re-tweets (RTs) of other tweeters’ tweets, or tweets that harp on a single theme? Some Twitterers tweet continuously, ad nauseum, about all the amazing things on their amazing commercial sites, some of which are interesting, but a lot of which are just plain boring, or stupid. Some tweeters tweet about their boring lives, with little cryptic messages about when they’re meeting their friends, or whatever. Another category of Twitterers tweet or RT Quotes, some of which are boring or cliched, some of which are funny or interesting or actually inspiring. After a while, you get to know people’s styles; relentlessly self-promoting, passionate, trite, hilarious. It’s all there. 

As I said, I like to mix it up. Sometimes my tweets are just, like, what I’m doing right then. After all, the question Twitter asks of you is, “What are you doing?” Sometimes, I just tell them. “I’m sitting at Cafe at La Strada, waiting for my girlfriend…” or whatever. Sometimes, I tweet about some environmental issue I care about; one of my hashtags (#+word or phrase) is #envirotip, and I proceed to tweet something like, “#envirotip: air dry your hands,” to encourage people to use less paper, and so on. Or I will RT a tweet about an environmental group or cause. Sometimes, I will direct people to my main blog (pauljimerson.blogspot.com). Sometimes, I will crack a joke. Sometimes, I will respond to somebody else’s clever or profound tweet, perhaps adding my two cents. I have even been known to add a photo here or there on TwitPic. As I say, I like to mix it up. Who wants to be boring?

One of the people I follow is “American socialite Kim Kardashian,” who has, according to the latest news clip I just copied and pasted from the internet, “revealed that she is desperate to have a baby after she went shopping for clothes for her sister Kourtney’s unborn baby.” OK, I have a small weakness for celebrities. Normally, I don’t indulge in celebrity worship, but, Kim Kardashian – how can you not worship this woman? I mean, really! (Paul’s not-so-secret secret: I put a photo of KK on one of my blogs! It just happens to be one of the most beautiful photos of a woman I have seen in a long time. And she’s flashing a peace sign (albeit backwards!)!) Some of her tweets are actually pretty interesting, and one of them was inspirational, helping me sort through a problem I was dealing with. So I’m not just a KK sycophant (not that she would ever respond to one of my tweets…). I’m not one of those people!

Another celebrity I follow is Jon Stewart, one of my favorite Late Night News Comedy Show Anchors. He doesn’t tweet much.

I also follow The Onion, where I get all the news I don’t get from JS. I follow the NYTimes, but their news is such a downer! The New Yorker Magazine is also on my follow list, and when I have time (when I’m not tweeting KK), I might check out one of their links. 

I’m also following a few comedians, like Chris Rock, who still has yet to tweet me (he doesn’t tweet anybody). What a snob!

Which brings me to one of the points of Tweetiquette: it’s good form to follow people who follow you. You don’t want to slavishly follow this Rule of Thumb, but generally I make a point of following followers. Everybody wants to get more followers, and there are some Tweeters who tweet primarily to follow and be followed; follow me and I’ll follow you. One hand washes the other. It’s kind of cheating, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. It’s also good form to thank people for following you. 

Some of the people I follow are just regular people who like to tweet. I guess. I also follow and am followed by people who are passionate about protecting Mother Earth, and I make a point of seeking out those people and following them, the better to encourage people to be more conscious about behaving in an environmentally responsible manner. (Are you still using paper towels, even after reading my tweet about air-drying your hands?!?) 

One of my favorite tweeters creates Twitter art, using punctuation marks to create patterns within the tweet. Did you know that there is now a whole genre of Twitterature? Some people write novels – or serialize others’ novels – 140 characters at a time. I have thought about creating very short stories of only 140 characters, but have not done it yet. I do try to make my tweets exactly 140 characters long. Sometimes. I also try not to use a lot of irritating abbreviations. The way I see it, if you can’t say it in 140 characters, say it in FaceBook, or write a letter (?!?) or a broadside. One of the things I like about Twitter is that it forces you to be succinct. And economical. And I like economical writing, despite that fact that this piece is kind of rambling and, like, really long. If you’ve read this far, you’re probably about ready to quit. I’m almost done.

I just realized that I have to click on the the Twitter tab to see if I’ve got any new followers. Gotta go! Happy Twittering!

A New Feature: One Good Thing

Some guy on NPR reported on a study that showed that the best way to make yourself happy is to think about something good that happened to you yesterday. I should have written down the name of the guy and the study, but let’s no dwell on what I didn’t do. What I did do is start thinking about the ramifications of this idea. I’m big into Positive Thinking and Gratitude, and have been trying all sorts of techniques to stay positive. The mind is a terrible thing, after all. Training one’s mind is on ongoing, even lifelong, pursuit, and difficult at times. I thought I would start a regular post about remembering one good thing (at least) that happened each day, write it down, and remember it the next day. Hey, it can’t hurt, right? I’d love to be able to say I’ll do it every day, but I know myself too well to think I’m going to do it every day. So, with that, I’ll start my semi-regular entry with this:

One Good Thing that happened yesterday that I’m grateful for: I got to spend three hours at the beach in Pacific Grove, on a gorgeous summer day, photographing sea otters and waves and just being surrounded by the uproarious Pacific Ocean (not too pacific yesterday).

Today’s Good Thing: Listening to the ocean while sitting on my Crate&Barrel couch in my apartment next to my lovely girlfriend while we both taptaptap at our laptops. No, this isn’t multitasking!

So, that’s it for my first One Good Thing entry. I’ll be posting them as often as I can. I hope you find some inspiration or amusement from these posts, and I’ll be more positive. I promise.