You’re totally right - having a little history (more than just “setting up twitter…” “trying twitter…” really helps show that you’re, well, human and would be interesting to follow.

seriously though, thanks for your take and the heads up here on some of the peripheral twitter services. i’ll be checking them out as i continue to dive head first into the new social networking world.

a few observations i’ve made regarding twitter: the more original content you generate with your tweets, the more likely you’ll be followed back. also, the shotgun style of following 1,000 people right out of the gate (in addition to making you look like a spammer) seriously lowers the likeliness of people returning the follow. i think a more scoped rifle, if you will, approach leads to better results. i tend to do a location search for people in cities i play shows in and then go through and really check out the person i’m about to follow: website, blog, myspace, read through past tweets , etc. to see if its really someone that i have at least some sort of common ground with. so far i’m at about a 25% return follow rate which i think is pretty good from some of the other stuff i’ve read. i also waited until i developed some tweet history before searching out and following people. people need to get a feel for you and your style before deciding to get updates on the minutiae of your life. :) thanks for your blog iKeif!

peace–drew

I *love love love* that you call them out. More people should call out companies that do things - in the individuals eye - as hypocritical, as they put forth a face (i.e. “Do No Evil”) that is vague enough to be interpreted a google plus ways. I *think* it’s one way. you may see it as a variation of the same way, and reader X can see it another. That’s the problem with generic company policy like that.

Islamic terrorism genre is scary, but the psycho “Jesus Camps” scare the bejeezus out of me as well, but I haven’t sought out either genre on youtube - I am not interested in the latest jihad, nor am I interested in the latest brainwashing of American youth that’s just as bad (’kill yourself for Jesus, kids, it’s what God wants). I don’t search it, but it exists, and I like knowing that if in ten years I want to learn about it, I can, as scary as that is.

I wish Google/YouTube/the internet in general had a better rating system. My son (okay, he’s one and can’t type yet, I digress) doesn’t need to see this, but at a point in his life he should be able to research it for himself (with adequate knowledge being passed to myself, so I can help explain it, or at least have more information available to him) if he so desires.

I don’t like the blatant disregard for knowledge we’re giving it. Ignore it and it’ll go away is just wrong. But I digress again…

I’m with you. You keep caling them out on it, I’ll keep backing you up and raising questions. :-)

I’ll say this, though, you’re absolutely right. Lieberman was right to want these guys off YouTube, Malkin was right to refute them with their videos (as were many others, I’m learning from other commenters), and YouTube/Google is just plain wrong, wrong, wrong on most things when it comes to censorship.

I’ve been riding YouTube/Google really hard since I started seeing a pattern earlier this year, but I tried to ease up in the rhetoric on this one, since when I come down too hard on Google, for some reason I get called a fascist (I have no idea what the connection is, just that it happens).

Google does quality work. They also have a modern day hippie mindset and Paul Bucheit’s “don’t be evil” taped to their company motto. This garners them too much good will.

I hope that more folks will start holding their feet to the fire on this sort of stuff. The Islamic terrorism genre isn’t the only area where they really fail in their duties to uphold free speech and common decency.

I’ll keep calling them out as long as you do, deal?

http://blog.indecision2008.com/2008/08/25/breakfast-with-jon-stewart-part-one/

I fell in love with the Infinity Crossover.

When we started making those same trips as you - dog, baby, bags, parents - we did it a few times in the civic before we opted to sell my old car (1996 Civic) and got a 2005 Honda CRV - Now we can actually fit a stroller, groceries, kid and pet all in one trip for extended times.

I don’t deny the Smart Fortwo isn’t a family car, but I’d toss my civic and get it since, most often, if it’s more than me I’m in the CRV. This is my same argument for why I should get a motorcycle, but my wife’s a paramedic who’s seen the aftermath of “I didn’t see the guy on the bike” accidents.

The Smart cars are great. If you don’t have kids. Or dogs. Or have to transport anything other than an iPhone and one other person. I mean seriously, to me the *idea* is great: AWESOME fuel efficiency. But the car is terribly impractical, and I guess I’m not wealthy or Smart enough to have a third car that we use as a daily commuter.

I got a lease this time around because I’m holding out for all car manufacturers to get their shizzle together and apply that awesome fuel efficiency to vehicles that actually work for families, and don’t serve as an indulgent badge to economy self-righteousness. I can live without the horsepower (although my CX7 is spoiling me with it’s 244 ponies), but I won’t commit to buying a family mover that gets less than 30 mpg *city*.

Related: Dear Auto Manufacturers: Please take a page out of Johnathan Goodwin’s book ASAP –> http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/120/motorhead-messiah.html

Also, I blog because in becoming a parent, I have a much stronger, primitive drive to pick up a pillow and smother my own screams as the baby girl wakes me up for the 4th time each night. And somehow, getting to blog about it makes me feel better without all the messy overhead of self defenestration.