Retraction and Apology

A few months ago I ranted and railed against Twitter, and now I'm back to grovel and ask your forgiveness for my misgivings and infraction against mobile social networking technology. That's right. You read it right. I was wrong, and I'm sorry.

I gave Twitter a look-see go around, and finally found what everyone has been raving about. It's so much better than Facebook, which is so much better than MySpace. Thus, it trumps them all! The mobility of TwitterBerry on my Blackberry is so much more awesome than the limited aspects of Facebook I can easily access from my phone.

Mostly, I like the briefness of Twitter. Facebook is all encompassing of my social networking life. And, I've found that my "friends" are mostly people who are eavesdropping on my life. They don't want to "talk" to me or comment on my comments or photos. They just want to steal peeks at pics of my life and not ever have to actually engage in conversation or interact with me. I call that eavesdropping, and it's not polite. Thus, I'm a convert. So, please forgive my shortsideedness on this issue. I apologize.

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Why is Everyone So Twitterpated?!

I think almost everyone I know Twitters, and I just don't get it. For those of you who don't know, again I went to Wikipedia to share with you...

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users' updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers). Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow anybody to access them. Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or external applications. The service is free to use over the Internet, but using SMS may incur phone service provider fees.

Since its creation in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Twitter has gained extensive notability and popularity worldwide.  Estimates of the number of daily users vary, because the company does not release the number of active accounts. In November 2008, Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester Research estimated that Twitter had 4-5 million users. A February 2009 Compete.com blog entry ranked Twitter as the third most used social network (Facebook being the largest, followed by MySpace), which puts the number of unique monthly visitors at roughly 6 million and the number of monthly visits at 55 million, however only 40% of users are retained. In March 2009, a Nielsen.com blog ranked Twitter as the fastest-growing site in the Member Communities category for February 2009. Twitter had a growth of 1382%, Zimbio had a growth of 240%, followed by Facebook with a growth of 228%

For starters, I just don't get texting. I did begin texting, only when someone else texts me, after getting my BlackBerry in October. The full keyboard made it not such a huge pain to send texts, but I still don't understand why I can't call or send an email. I'm much more comfortable with those. And, a quick call takes me much less time than a text. I know I could send tweets from my computer, but then, wouldn't I just want to send an email?!

Secondly, I don't know anyone who wants to get up-to-the minute news on my daily life. "Changing a diaper now. It's green and gross," just doesn't sound like the kind of news that everyone I'm wirelessly connected to via Sprint wants to hear about. What happened to having a personal and/or private life? Is it that I'm just not as interesting as all the other millions of people using Twitter on a daily basis? Or, are those millions of people not near as busy as I am on a daily basis?

I've heard of people using Twitter when at a restaurant. If they've never been to to the restaurant, they send a tweet requesting the best items from that menu. I'll just stick with asking the waiter or being spontaneous. I do have a mind of my own, sometimes.

 

However, I did find myself using Twitter last week for the first time. The Longhorn baseball team was playing in the regional tournament again Boston College. I assumed they would win the game and didn't stay home that night to follow it. When I returned home around 11 that night, I checked the local newspaper website to find that the game was in the 19th inning! Holy Cow! I tried to get the radio station carrying the game, but they were on to their regularly scheduled Fox Sports program. I ended up following the reporter covering the game via his Twitter updates online. I was maniacally refreshing the page every few seconds as he gave a play-by-play commentary all the way through the 25th inning. It was a historic moment that I'm glad I didn't miss, but I can't believe I was a part of it via Twitter. I was so close to signing up for Twitter just so that I could go to bed and receive the tweets on my phone instead of sitting at my computer until after 1 a.m. But, I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Do you Twitter? Why or why not? Please enlighten me as to why I seem to be in the minority on this new technology.

Hook 'Em Horns

On Saturday, my Dad, sister and I made our first visit to a UT softball game.

We may look like friendly spectators, but the outcome was so favorable for the Longhorns that they should sign us to some type of endorsement deal to be there at all games. 

From these great seats, we watched the Lady Horns score a record number of runs in a conference game. 

And, it's nice to see this on the scoreboard, especially when we're playing sixth-ranked Oklahoma. Final score: 15-6. Hook 'em Horns! 

Misty Water-Colored Memories

I read an article today about how inexpensive it is to travel to Hawaii right now. Apparently the struggling economy has caused the airlines and hotels to lower their rates and add incentives like extra night for free in a hotel stay. I was already nostalgic and thinking about the islands because we had a mini geography lesson with Abigail over the weekend as we discussed where Texas is and also where she was born, which happens to be Hawaii. Then, this article made me take a trip down memory lane and I thought I'd take y'all with me and dig out some old pics from our last hurrah on the islands.

We lived on Oahu, but were fortunate to be able to do some island hopping a few times. The first was Christmas 2003 spent on the Big Island with Daniel's family. But, a few weeks before we moved back to the mainland in 2005, we spent some time on Maui and absolutely loved it. Not only is the island gorgeous, but it's so serene and secluded and everything you think paradise should be. 

Abigail and I on a roadside on the north shore of Maui

Daniel and Abigail at a creek in the 'Iao Valley State Park

Abigail at the Maui Ocean Center

Stephanie and Abigail in front of the 'Iao Needle

Ahhh... We miss the islands. We're so fortunate to have had the last eight years to travel and see so much of the country and live in wonderful places. I wouldn't trade our experiences for anything!

Week in Review

I don't know about y'all, but it's been a long, hard week for me. It could be the time change on Sunday that's thrown me for a loop, but I'm guessing that the serious overtime at work is what has taken the wind out of my sails. There's also the fact that my final yearbook deadline is tomorrow and I still have 17 pages to put together that I haven't even begun. I'm just hoping that parents and teachers have submitted enough photos for me to be able to fill the pages, when I finally get around to it tomorrow night. Oy! 

The great news of the week is that it rained! Yes, RAIN!!!! We are in a serious drought and desperately need rain. It started raining around midnight Wednesday and didn't stop until sometime today. It's cold and nasty and muddy and dreary outside, but we are thanking God for blessing us with some rain. It's only rained (rather, sprinkled) a few times since we moved here, and poor Cooper didn't know what to think about all the rain on the drive to school this morning. He was fascinated! Poor child. It's too bad he didn't have the experience of living on the west coast, islands and east coast (won't ever remember it) with us where rain was such a common occurrence. 

Tonight we treated ourselves with a movie to give mommy a chance to veg out and relax with my babies. I've mentioned my love for the Red Box vending kiosks before, but I'm even more in love with them now. I've created an account at their website and can reserve my movies online so I don't have to be disappointed when I can't find what I want to rent at the kiosk. AND... I'll get a text message with a free rental code every Monday. AND... I googled "red box codes" and found several codes for free rentals we used tonight. Awesome! Red Box already rocked my world, but if it's free, I can't think of anything better for entertainment. I doubt we'll ever grace the doors of Blockbuster or Hollywood Video or will pay a dime to Netflix again. 

On a less sunnier note, the reality of our country's economic status was shown to me last night at the weekly prayer and praise service we attend.  Three men, in the group of about 20 adults, had been laid off at Dell yesterday. There were hundreds of layoffs in the area yesterday, but it's more evident when someone you know is touched by the events rather than when you just read about it in the paper. What was amazing to me was that these men were clearly praising God last night. One gentleman was so fortunate that he was able to share scripture via email with a colleague in Japan before he got the news and was escorted from the premises. I can certainly respect that faith. 

Many of recent times I have discuss the current economy, the subject is focused on the government and markets and news, but this time it is the man who kindly greets my family each week and just last week was so excited that his first grandchild is on the way. These times are not about government bills or a President, but rather people. Please be in prayer for the many families who have lost an income. I think we should focus our energy, thoughts and prayers on the people rather than the government. 

Last Sunday we set out to lunch after church and found ourselves meandering around without cravings or an idea of somewhere we wanted to eat. After much driving, indecision and rumbling tummies, we headed north to the small town, or maybe just a blip on the map, of Walburg. It's 35 miles north of Austin and does have a couple of stop signs but not even a red light to alert you of its existence.

I had read about this German-American restaurant, cleverly named The Walburg Restaurant, and we were interested in trying something different so that's where we headed. The Sunday buffet of bratwurst, schweinebraten, sauerbraten, and wienerschnitzel, followed by red cabbage, sauerkraut, catfish, shrimp, grilled Salmon on rice, homefries, spaetzle, brisket or ribs, meatballs, jaeger gravy and baked bread was right up Daniel's alley. I wasn't so adventuresome, but the chicken fried steak was one of the best I've ever had. Yummy! It was a pleasant adventure in the quaint little town. 

This building was built in 1882 as a mercantile supplying the local farming community with dry goods. The original owner had migrated from Walburg, Germany, hence the name of the town. Now, it's a restaurant that seats 250. There can't be even half that many residents in Walburg, so it must be popular in the surrounding areas. 

We hope to go back sometime on a Friday or Saturday night when they have live music. It looks like fun...

In the warmer months, they have an outdoor biergarten I'm interested in seeing. For all you future visitors, I hope you like German food!

JAM Sandwich - Smashed by Pam

You could certainly have labeled us TV-aholics at other times, but it's been quite a while since we've had the time (or desire) to be addicted to the boob tube. Between the kids, work, housework and more entertaining options, we just don't watch it much. HOWEVER... Our DVR is permanently set to capture 30 minutes of some of the most creative and entertaining TV -- The Office.  We sometimes have a few episodes accumulated by the time we can get around to seeing Michael and the gang's antics, but it never fails to disappoint. 

Thanks to the Moores, we now have another way of enjoying the beauty that is The Office. 

You're eyes aren't deceiving you. That's Michael Scott's mug on a die. For Christmas, Maggie, Ted and Kevin gave us a trivia board game for our favorite sit-com. We finally broke it out earlier this week, and it was, obviously, an entertaining match.

Pam (me) in one corner...

Jim (Daniel) in the other corner...

And, this was no JAM sandwich! Pam kicked Jim's tail. Yea! I answered a correct trivia question for each category, collecting a Dundie Award in each color as I trekked across the board. I will be honest, though... The key to my win was not being over-confident. Throughout the game, you can choose to be asked the Assistant to the Regional Manager level questions or the Regional Manager level questions. Of course, I was out to win and always took the Assistant to the Regional Manager level questions. Daniel, thinking he was so much more knowledgeable than I, took only the Regional Manager questions until he realized that he wasn't getting any correct and was very far behind me. By the time he wised up, it was too late. See, Hardy, just because you've seen all the BBC seasons of the original Office, doesn't mean you're smarter than me!

In the end, I collected all my Dundies and the Save the Rabid awareness bracelet to school Daniel in our first round of the game. Go me!

Hallelujah!

I wish I could cue the Hallelujah chorus as these images load onto your screen. Granted, these were taken almost two weeks ago, and gas is as low as $1.68 per gallon around here now, but this was a landmark day in my mind.

I remember in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that the pundits were spouting off saying that gas would never dip below $2.00 per gallon again. I can't say I didn't believe them, but I'm elated they were wrong.

When I was driving my suburban from South Carolina to Texas in June, it was painful to have to run my check card twice just to fill my tank up. Since most stations cut off purchases at either $75 or $100, it was quite some time that I either left stations with less than a tank of gas or had to make two transactions to fill up. Now, I can fill up and not even come close to $100 or even $75! That's enough to put a smile on my face.

Going Green?

Not completely. Maybe I'll be a sage green, but not all the way green. 

I've always had an issue with the mounds and mounds of plastic bags I end up with after bringing home a load of new groceries. It seems like such a waste, and I hate seeing them strewn along the side of roads. Fortunately, our local IKEA has a donation box where they collect these pesky plastic bags and recycle them. I've been collecting my own mound of suffocation-risk bags and planning to drop them off next time I'm there. 

But, I think I'm done collecting the bags. I've decided to jump on the re-usable cloth bag bandwagon. I'm a little surprised at myself. You see, I'm not an Al Gore groupie and I still drive a gass-guzzling SUV.  But, this issue just seems to make sense. 

However, I'm a little peeved about one thing. I don't want to actually buy the bags. I know I have no choice, and I will buy them, but I don't want to. Since the neighborhood grocery stores currently pick up the tab for the millions of plastic bags we use to carry away our grub, shouldn't there be some kind of kickback to those not costing them money? I mean, I want some actual "green" for being green. I propose a discount to those not taking the free plastic bags. If the grocery giants didn't have to buy the plastic bags, they would be making more of a profit. Do you really think they don't build in the cost of their supplies to the prices you see on your receipts? I shouldn't have to pay for the bags everyone else is taking and tossing. Or, I have another option for the Waltons and their less wealthy counterparts. Give the bags away for free. For one month, each shopper can pick up 10 bags per shopping trip. After that month, the plastic bags and free re-usable bags are gone. It sounds reasonable to me. We're working together to be sensible, right?