A couple pics: A tree on a house half a block from our house. A tree across the road in front of the Methodist Church a mile down the road. The line at the Home Depot this morning (they were letting five to ten people in at a time).
As far as I’ve been able to gather there was no serious loss of life. Although given that 40% of Galveston chose not to evacuate, maybe their should have been to clear up the gene pool of all the people who don’t care about survival. Our house came through pretty good. We lost a bunch of tree limbs, and it remains to be seen if one of our largest trees will remain strong. We lost a whole side of our backyard fence as well, but that’s it. Other than being without power, we are fine. We have food, water and each other.
Thanks to all the folks who sent me good wishes through Twitter and Facebook. Especially to those who follow me on twitter and helped get me information about the drinking water in Houston or how to board windows. Yet another strike against those who still want to dismiss social networks and online friends as a waste of time and not “real.”
We have power, internet and air conditioning at the church so I’ll be able to charge the IPhone (which gets no signal at home), check email and Twitter, and keep food cool.
I feel like I had a bunch more to blog, but it escapes me now.
This entry is in two parts. First -what Twitter is and how it works. Then why you might enjoy and be enriched by Twitter.
What is Twitter?
At its simplest Twitter is a website at www.twitter.com. You can do two things with this website.
1) Create an account and periodically answer the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less.
2) See how other people have periodically answered the question “What are you doing?” in 140 characters or less.
But before you can really start using Twitter you need to sign up for an account. Do this from the main page by clicking the link that says, “Get Started - Join!” After entering a screenname, password and email you will be asked if you want Twitter to search your email address book to find people you know who are already on Twitter. This only works with certain webmail services and not all email addresses. This is a safe and easy option for connecting with others through Twitter. You can skip this option by clicking on the “skip” link.
Now you are ready to write your first Twitter entry (this is sometimes called “Tweeting”). Just type whatever you are doing in the blank box and hit update. Congratulations on your first Twitter! The other thing you’ll want to do is find some people to “follow”. Following someone simply means that their Twitters will automatically show up on your Twitter home page. You can search for people by name using the search box at the top of the page.
For example, if you want to follow me type my name, Shawn Coons, in the search box and click the search button. You should arrive at the profile for my Twitter account. In the upper right hand corner there is a smaller box that says “Follow,” if you click it then you are now following my updates. If you click on my account name “shawncoons” you will go to my Twitter page and see all my recent updates. You can also see all the people I follow on the right hand side. If you put your mouse cursor over one of the little pictures of the people I follow (don’t click yet) then a little box will pop up and tell you who they are. It is possible they may be people you want to follow as well. If that’s the case then you can click on them to go to their page and follow them.
So why should anyone care what you or others Twitter?
Here is why I follow the people that I do.
1) Because I know them and I am interested in what they do. I’m interested in their tweets. Following someone is just like seeing them face to face and asking, “So? What’d you do today?”
2) Other people I may not know personally, but they have interesting, funny or informative tweets. I get links to great videos, new IPhone apps, breaking news, and pictures from other planets. Some of these folks are: Darth Vader, CNN Breaking News, or the Mars Rovers.
3) It’s also a great way to interact with people quickly and briefly. You can reply to anyone simply be including @ followed by their user name. For example, I could tweet “Tell me your favorite color,” and you could tweet “@shawncoons blue.” Others also use it for recommendations or questions. “What movie should I see tonight?” “What is a good IPhone app for keeping track of receipts?” “Anyone want to go to dinner tonight at General Assembly?”
If you still don’t get it then take a look at the video below, and if Twitter still doesn’t interest you then it may not be for you. But if you are interested, then head on over and create an account. Follow me and find some others to follow. Breathe in Twitterspace for a little while and see if you start enjoying learning more about the people around you.
