Micro Blogging is the New Blogging

Condensing life into little 140 characters. That takes Effort!

I am a "Johnny Come Lately" to Twitter. But its appeal is finally sinking into my cyber center. Seeing the effort it takes to distill my mile-a-minute thought process down to a blip (or Tweet, I should say) on a screen. And then to cast that pebble into an ocean that is rough and rocking with another million pebbles being tossed in simultaneously from just about anywhere a phone or the internet can reach.

But how to make our individual "plunk" into that massive sea... significant? Therein lies the challenge.

I prefer a keyboard, a quiet night at home, and the power to compose, edit, ruminate, upload, reconsider... and finally POST.

But that is yesterday's method. Today it is Tweet, Follow, Re-Tweet #hash_subject and just BARELY being able to keep up with the inbox on my text service as it is flooded with notifications.

Revisiting all the tweets of one day can be a brain lock at the end of the day - you really do need to do it in "real time" to keep on top of it, but who can do that if you are working or (heaven forbid) driving somewhere.

So my tip-toe journey from the wild life of Bethesda commuter boy (ha, ha) to the forensic research assistant of a newly formed Holistic Dream Team is causing me to sit and reflect on how to incorporate my insatiable Cyber needs (mainly to have any participation) into a way of life that is more balanced, Hol-some (as in holistic) and well rounded.

The easy piece is that my Guru is one of my most avid Tweachers. I follow her tweets somewhat fervently and live for those magic moments we engage in a brief Tweetversation. Anyone else I get around to reading is gravy. She is a Queen of Dharma and we can interact with her on Twitter as @ahkonlhamo but mostly I try to pass along the bright light she offers with pith instruction tweets (if you seek enlightenment) peppered among quotes, captivating debate and belly-laugh humor.

Finding my own niche on Twitter is still evolving.

So I jump in with the Twitter crowd. I search for #gay, and #Athens, and #Glee and #holisitc and #rentheads and it is funny because you start to realize that the redux of our representation down to a list or a short phrase causes us to get VERY efficient at self evaluation. In a millisecond I have to decide "do I agree with this or disagree, will others be entertained or benefited by this or not" and thus you can see where a double Libra might drive himself near to bat-$hit crazy stopping to evaluate one tweet while 6 other appear in succession.

So I am being gentle with the process... finding my way along the corridors of Re-Tweet Street, and also trying to noodle out how to use Twitter for the purpose of being a useful global citizen. Being thus requires skill, saavy, and gut wrenching honesty.

No such room for explanation on Twitter. Make it Quick. Make it Count, Make it stick!

I could not reduce this whole idea to a Tweet, so there you have the basis of this blog post - but if any of you are on Twitter and have not connected with me... well you know how to find me. That's right @bowdawg !

In lieu of "hugging it out" tonight - I leave you with a symbolic song of yester-year. I was 4 when it was popular so obviously discovered it later in life. In a dharma teaching none-the less by Jetsunma. And then tweet me your thoughts on the matter (that will be a nice-n-tight little 140 character synopsis of your response to this classic song!) Oh and if you just cannot connect to the retro vibe at all - I will post below it a hip little ditty I just discovered JUST today through... WaIt FoR iT.... TWITTER!! : D




Peace ya'll...