I am stuffed with gratitude and pie. I should go for a run, I should deal with the backlog of mail, I should write out my expense reports. I should write the next book.
But not right now. I am taking a couple of days off to read and drink vats of gravy.
I haven’t mentioned my mom here in a while because she’s been struggling with health issues and frankly, it’s been too sad to talk about. She is back in the rehab facility (the same place she was in August) and we’re hoping she’ll be home in a few weeks.
So as not to overwhelm her, my sister’s family ate Thanksgiving dinner with her, and my crew showed up with the pie.
Mom ate her dessert while wearing my two National Book Award Finalist medals. ‘Twas a sweet moment, indeed.
She liked the ALAN award, too, but pointed out that she could not wear it. Mother prefers bling that goes around her neck.
On a totally unrelated topic….
…..do any of you Twitter? Should I do this or will it be a massive timesuck? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
The medals are perfect for Thanksgiving.
I Twitter during certain events. For instance, I used Twitter during the debates and would’ve used it during ALAN, except that it wouldn’t work correctly on my phone. For day-to-day stuff, nah. My life is boring.
Oops, spoke too soon. Looks as if you can use Twitter to update your Facebook status, as well as use the Loud program to compile your daily tweets for LJ. Let me rethink this.
ack — don’t do twitter. it sucks you in and reduces your thoughts to inane one-sentence blurbs.
i’m sorry about your mom’s illness 🙁
Twitter is whatever you decide to use it for. For me, it’s a way to stay in touch with some friends, just a sentence we might exchange were we together, or funny observations in the moment we’d otherwise not get to share. If you only follow a very few people, it’s really not a big deal. If you follow many, it can get more busy — but it is your choice. It’s also a way to get news out fast about places to meet and the like.
Mostly it isn’t important except in those small friend-meaningful ways.
Your mom looks lovely in her bling. I hope she’s able to come home soon.
I just joined Twitter, and I’ve found that I’m twitting (tweeting?) with/to most of the same people who I facebook and lj with. Sooo….worth it? I don’t know. I was hoping it’d be a way to connect with readers. I’m not so sure.
I tweet. It’s a LOT easier than composing a long blog post when I don’t have time, but makes me feel like I’m staying in touch with my readers. I echo the tweets to my LiveJournal on a daily basis (using an automated system called LoudTwitter), and I’ve got GoodReads linked up to my Twitter page as well so that when I review or read a new book, there’s a tweet to say I’ve done it.
Who knows whether it’s worth anything, but it takes only an iota of my time.
Thanks for posting the picture! To see your beautiful mom wearing your bling makes my heart swell.
I use twitter. It doesn’t take too much time due to the 140 character limit, which can sometimes be a disadvantage if you have something longer to say. I mostly use it just for fun, to keep in contact with friends I don’t see on a daily basis, since I don’t use facebook or myspace. I would suggest only following people you really enjoy getting updates from, or else you can get overwhelmed with tweets and that’s when it becomes time-consuming; when you’re reading a hundred or so little blurbs.
That’s a very nice photo. I hope your mom is feeling better; here’s sending good wishes and prayers.
Twitter has easily become one of my favorite (and most successful) networking tools. Totally fun, but totally rewarding and useful as well. Here’s me: http://www.twitter.com/scottneumyer
I just joined twitter. I think it’s a fun and easy way to update people on small things. It’s nice b/c unlike facebook it doesn’t format the comment so it has to be about you. It can just a be a little blurb used to update on an event or post a thought that has just occured to you.
As far as useful, I’m more likely to read twitter b/c of its enforced brevity, but then again, it is something that can only really be used for short things.
I twitter! twitter.com/kreativrytr. It’s fun! It doesn’t suck too much time. Blogging takes way more. 😀
I hated Twitter at first, because it seemed like a huge waste of time. And I didn’t need another procrastination tool.
Then I signed up just to appease someone else, figuring I would never use it,
Well, I now love it! I don’t update a lot, but it is a great way to connect with other bloggers, readers, and writers. I can jot quick 150 word thoughts that don’t deserve and entire post, but do need to be shared. I loved getting updates about NCTE via Twitter. I followed the National Book Awards via Twitter. And you know those times when you just want to share something, but no one around you will get it? I update Twitter from my phone and get to share!
I don’t Twitter (Tweet?), but may now since I have my new toy (iPhone!).
I’m sorry to hear about your mom. She looks lovely wearing your National Book Award medals 🙂 Moms are forever proud of their children, aren’t they? Lots of good healing energy and wishes for a quick return home headed your way.
that is the sweetest picture 🙂
I hope she’s feeling better again soon. ♥
I just started twitter..something different to do. I somewhat like it.
I love Twitter 🙂
Disadvantages – if you follow too many people/feeds (like CNN, local news, various newspapers, etc), it gets insanely tedious to read everything and I just… end up not reading anything at all, really. But there is the @replies tab, which shows anyone who has replied to you, which is so, so nice, haha. So as long as you only add people of interest to you back, things probably won’t get out of hand to you 🙂 I try to follow too many people… I need to remove some of my friends because they update too much and just @reply friends 500 times instead of using Direct Message, so my page gets spammed :l I need to weed my list down to stuff I actually want to read, you know? So yes. Take it from me, hahaha. Don’t add too many people!
I do like Twitter. it’s fun! I prefer plurk, but not that many people use it…
Sarah Dessen has one, though!
I tweet!
But I may officially be following more tweeters than I can handle (about 2 dozen).
What I like about Twitter is how random and conversational it is. It’s a change of pace. (And if you follow Bill Barnes–billba on twitter–one of the Unshelved guys, you’ll get lots of laughs.)
I think you have far too much on your plate to be twittering away. I’m all for sharing but unless you’re at some live event, tis a waste of time.
Spend it with your mother, your family, your writing!
I have a Twitter account, and I really like it. It’s a quick way to update people on what you’re doing, and I love checking in to see what all my friends are up to.
LOVE the pic of your mom with your medals!
I think twitter is a neat way to keep up with people, but sometimes it eats up my time. I suppose it depends on your ability to stay concentrated despite distractions!
That is a lovely photo of your mom with the pie! (She and your family will be in my thoughts…)
🙂 Sarah
I love Twitter. It keeps me connected when I can’t spare the time to blog like I like to. I’m https://twitter.com/interactiver
I’m pretty happy with just the few sites I already have
I post pretty regularly on my own LiveJournal as well as a half dozen great sites such as yours (making sure the link in my name directs folks TO my own LJ.
And I have a myspace blog as well that has a neat little feature telling me how many hits I get per week
With just those and some tenacity– I have had more hits and comments from people checking my sites out
In the end, for me, an extra Twitter or whatever else is available in cyberland would be just more thing I’d have to keep track of, which in the end, would distract from my number one job–writing.
The few things I do have seem to work so I’m sticking with those.
Meh. I twitter when I think about it and don’t when I don’t. So many people are on twitter, they don’t seem to notice when you go long periods without a tweet, which is nice. No pressure.
Here’s a link to my “open letter to Laurie Halse Anderson” blog post. I figured of all people, you ought to know it’s there. 😉
http://jmprince.livejournal.com/88893.html?view=1078589#t1078589
I just got back from the California Library Association Conference, where Michael Cart recommended one of your books highly. 🙂
RE: twitter, I just wrote a rather lengthy research paper on it that outlines the uses it is being put to… if you’d like to browse through it, the pdf is right here. Please ignore the great number of minor errors, my editor went on strike. 😉
twitter and your mom
Hey I am so sorry about your mom. It’s so tough. I hope she is feeling better after that pie and wearing the bling bling. 😉
I use Twitter. It can be a time suck if that’s how you use it. At first I thought I needed to post to it all the time, which was so easy with my iphone, but within a very short period of time I grew really uncomfortable with posting all the time. It felt like a violation of my privacy that was totally self-imposed. So I stopped altogether for awhile. I started up again after a few weeks but I only post a few times a week now. I think it’s the kind of thing that you can do a lot or a little and I don’t think anyone blinks. It depends on your Twitter goals. There are some good articles (somewhere) about using Twitter and how the key is knowing what you are going into it for – being focused about the intent. (You know, so you don’t end up like I initially felt ;).)
All in all, I think it is useful as yet another networking tool for self promotion and to keep up with your peers/news/etc. I make sure not to post too much and usually I keep my posts promotional (i.e. “I just posted to my blog”, or “I’m going to the Grand Opening of Boston Handmade Downtown Crossing holiday shop tonight”. Once in while, it’s “my stupid printer is possessed!”. So you see, nothing too personal. It’s too easy to feel violated by technology sometimes! 😉
If you Twitter, I will have to follow you!
Take care. Your mom is so cute!
kathy
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