Tags: buzzword bingo, geekery, social media, twitter, web 2.0

Twitter is the insanely popular buzzword everywhere right now. But what is so great about Twitter?

It depends on what you want to get out of it.

Many people use Twitter to stalk celebrities. I’m sure that’s great, as far as it goes. I do follow some celebrities that I know won’t follow me back. (But not this one:)

O

Many more people use Twitter to advertise their business. I have seen a lot of successful (to me) podcast novels launched using Twitter in combination with a lot of other intensive advertising. I know many other people who use Twitter in combination with Etsy to sell their handmade goods. Both of these have worked very well, from what I’ve observed. (Wanna buy my Etsy stuff?)

I would say that the main reason I personally use Twitter is to chat. It isn’t an IM but it has evolved to be pretty close to one, with the @ commands and direct messages. I originally started following podcasters, to tell them I liked their shows. But many of them have become closer acquaintances now. I’ve met them! Still, it’s not the same thing –  ”knowing someone via Twitter” does not make them a close personal friend, even if you do know their dog is sick and they got a latte for breakfast.

That being said, it is still a great way to form connections!

Far and away the most highly lauded app I have heard people speak of is Tweetdeck. I claimed I would research and talk about a bunch of applications people suggested, but it turns out I am too lazy. I will just say that this app turns your screen (though two monitors work even better) into columns of streaming Tweets that you can group by various topics/etc. Sounds useful to me!

I will also mention that the Twitter plugin I use with Firefox is called Twitbin. It sits in the bottom tray, and if you click it, it opens a slim column on the left of your browser, where you can watch/post/interact with your Twitter stream. And then close when you’re done. Very handy and simple.

But I have to go now – someone just Twittered that he was doing a live show on Ustream!

Tags: buzzword, geekery, jawbone radio, social networking, tweet, twitter, web 2.0

Saturday I went downtown to a local arts and crafts show, which was severely hampered by 40mph gusts of wind. I ended up buying a few little things: a uranium glass bottle, and two copper bowls.

Copper Bowls and a Bottle

The Test Subjects. Control on Left.

Making a Note Here: Huge Failure

As you can see, the control marble that is authentic glows wildly under blacklight. And the new bottle… does nothing. EPIC FAIL.

So there you go. Even a fake Sonic Screwdriver can be a useful tool!

Tags: antiquing, geekery, mad science, uranium glass

(The title was a riff on the delightful podcast of Paul Tevis, that you can find here.)

As mentioned in the last journal I bought a card game, called Rage. I also bought Farkle, and played Save Doctor Lucky. (Note: not Kill. You lose points if you accidentally say Kill.)

Now, Rage was very fun, even though I don’t like trick taking games. The fun part was the company I played with. Farkle was less fun, because I lost, and I’m not always a good sport – and it was so hard I had to make a house rule to add an extra die. We also tried it with two extra dice, but that made it too easy. Save Doctor Lucky worked surprisingly well, considering we only had 3 people. I used a chunk of glass that looked like an ice cube for Doctor Lucky’s meeple. I didn’t think about how ironic that was, on the Titanic. 

I was playing with my family. And it turns out that shorter games work better with them. Much as I wouldn’t have minded buying a copy of Wealth of Nations or Pandemic, I can’t see many of my local friends playing it. (Not counting my game group – they are actually an hour away so I don’t consider them “that local”.)

Here are some more fairly-quick-to-play games on my radar screen. If you have any experience playing these I’d love to hear about it. (Also I shall be checking out BoardGameGeek.com)

• Fairytale, (Zman seems to have a lot of good games!)
• Earthquake (out of print, I think)
• Fist of DragonStones (out of print also, I think)
• Alibi, and
• Elixir.

Tuesday I began a game of Spirit of the Century, a storytelling game of pulp action heroes! Let me just say that any game that involves crazy scientists with explosives (note: they were not the enemy!), and fighting ninjas on a train in 192- is 100% supreme in my book. The game play may be podcast, and I apologize in advance for my own voice and annoying (to me) laughter. But I do not apologize for picking on Chance Random, the Improbable Man With The Strange Arm Of Living Wood That He Inexplicably Got From Mysterious Druids Under Cardiff* Being a woman of [mad botanical] science (in this game, especially), that bothers me to pieces. The next time we play won’t be until April, but I’ll be working on my maniacal laugh.

 *Perhaps that is not his official title.

Tags: board games, card games, Evil Hat, family games, geekery, maniacal laughter, pulp heroes, SotC

I went into the semi-local (I do have one store closer) game/comic store, in our mall. I was looking for a copy of the card game Rage, since I’d just played it and it was a fun (and quick) game for a group – especially a group that doesn’t have the patience for me to set up Seafarers of Catan.

When I went in I made a beeline to Rage, which happened to be right near the front of the store. That was entirely too boring, to find what I was after in the first ten seconds, so I did a thorough wandering of the store for probably a half hour. Sadly I didn’t find anything else to buy.

But at one point the proprietor said “Can I help you?” So I asked if he had any green-stuff, and he pointed it out. (I didn’t buy any, but once I use mine up now I will know where to get some!)

He asked me, “Please, tell me that is for you.”

I cleverly replied “What?”

He said, “Please, tell me you’re the sculptor. We need more gaming girls!”

I, fortunately, was the one that was going to be sculpting – but I find it funny that in a world where a woman ran for president of the United States it’s still shocking when one walks into a game store on purpose.

Tags: comic book store, gamer girls, gaming, geekery, girls