Cartoons aren’t always too far-fetched. Check out the lump on my head from an encounter with a gardening tool.
Video: Encounter with a Garden Implement
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Alpine Air Video
The things I saw but couldn’t capture on video.
This morning, I got an e-mail message from the folks at Alpine Air. Regular readers may recall that I visited them last week in Alaska for a job interview. And although I was onboard one of their helicopters for three incredible flights, I didn’t have a camera handy on any of them.
Fortunately, another passenger not only had a camera, but a video camera. This Mac user put together an incredible little movie of his flight — done with iMovie, perhaps? — and put it on his iWeb Web site.
See it for yourself at http://web.mac.com/stansfieldb/
Pacific_Rim_Tour_Blog/Alpine_Air_Alaska_Video.html
The most amazing thing about this video is that I turned down an opportunity to fly in such a beautiful place. (I know, but it was a career thing.)
Look closely when the flight departs the Alpine Air ramp at Girdwood and you’ll see the airplane I photographed on the ground there.
Many thanks to the maker of this video, Brian Stansfield, and the folks at Alpine Air for forwarding the link to me.
Twitter and the Strikeout Rule
How I decide when it’s time to stop following a Twitter friend.
I don’t follow many people on Twitter — less than 100, in fact. I think part of the reason for this is that when I follow someone, I follow him/her. I sit at my desk with Twitterrific running on the right side and, thoughout the day, I peek at it to see what’s going on with the people I follow. I respond a lot, which I know is falling out of favor these days. But that’s because the people I follow are my office co-workers, so to speak. They keep me company while I work and, like any workplace environment, social conversation is part of the picture.
Enter, the Abusers
Anyway, because I read all the tweets of the people I follow — well, at least all of those that appear in Twitterrific while I’m at my desk or on the Web when I happen to take a peek with my Treo — I see patterns in the way they tweet. I wrote about this at some length last June. (Is it that long ago already?) And I soon discover which ones have joined Twitter for purely self-promotional reasons.
You know these people. Almost every tweet they make is a link to something they’ve written. While I’m guilty of using Twitterfeed to automatically tweet about new blog entries as I post them, these folks often go far beyond that by repeatedly tweeting the same damn links, sometimes over several days. This wouldn’t be so bad if what they were linking to was something worth reading, but often, it’s just more self-promotional crap.
These people don’t last long as my Twitter friends.
Three Strikes and You’re Out
To make it easier to identify the Twitter friends who are most guilty of using Twitter primarily (or, worse yet, exclusively) for self-promotion, I’ve developed the Twitter Strikeout Rule. It’s very simple and can easily be applied by anyone who knows the rules of American baseball.
Here’s how it works:
- Each time a person tweets, he’s “at bat.”
- If the tweet is entirely self-promotional in nature, that tweet is a strike.
- If the person has three strikes in a row, he’s out. (That means I simply stop following him.)
The way I see it, my life is already bombarded with advertisements. One of the few places I can get some relief is in my own office, at my desk. Do I really need to see an endless stream of self-promotional bullshit from the people I let into my workplace? Of course not. So I merely push them out.
Once of the nice things about Twitter is that it doesn’t tell people when someone has stopped following them. That’s nice because it means I don’t have to insult anyone. They don’t even notice I’m gone. Most of these folks have far more followers than they deserve anyway.
A Home Run
Taking the baseball analogy a bit further — heck, why not? — a Twitter Home Run is a tweet that’s really good. Usually it’s a link to a video or blog post or plain old Web page that is funny or makes you think or teaches you something really useful.
Sometimes — but rarely — its just a plain linkless tweet that does the same thing.
Merlin Mann (@hotdogsladies), for example, has the uncanny ability to pop these things off more often than anyone else I follow. Here’s one from a while back that I favorited:
Starting a blog solely to make money is like learning ventriloquism to meet girls.
John Gruber (@gruber) writes the funniest rants. Sherrie Holmes (@sherrieholmes) can be hysterically funny. Tom Negrino (@negrino) comes across as a very funny, grumpy, old guy. (Sorry, Tom. I know you’re not old. But you must admit you write grumpy tweets.)
Think about the achievement of using 140 characters or less to communicate something memorable, something to make a reader laugh or think. That’s pretty special. It’s something that all serious Twitter members should aspire to.
But then again, that’s just my opinion. What do you think? Which of your Twitter friends hit home runs? Use the Comments link or form to tell us.
More on Twitter
I’ve been using Twitter for about a year now. (The first blog post where I refer to it dates back to March 21, 2007.) I’ve tweeted 3,806 times since then. Most tweets come from Twitterrific, but I also tweet right from the Twitter Web page at my desk or via text message from my Treo when I’m out and about. Amazingly, I still enjoy it. I’ve made a bunch of real friends and have strengthened my relationships with people I knew before Twitter.
If you’re interested in reading more about what I have to say about Twitter, you might find these articles interesting:
Do NOT Call!
Put your phones on the National Do Not Call list.
Got this from my friend, Tom, a while back and forgot to share it. Give it a try — it can’t make things any worse.
Apparently, once protected cell phone numbers have been released to telemarketing companies. Their calls are not only annoying, but depending on your call plan, you can be charged for their intrusion.
To help prevent this, call the National Do Not Call list, from your cell phone, at:
888-382-1222
It’s very easy, and blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked.
Pass this on to others you know too… Tom
Snow on the Mountains
A look out my window.
I spent just about all of yesterday in bed, fighting the flu. It didn’t matter much. The weather outside turned nasty at around noon, with low clouds, rain, wind, and hail. Temperatures were in the high 40s for most of that time.
As I suspected, while we were getting rain, the mountains north of us were getting snow. This morning dawned clear and bright with a view of the snow-dusted Weaver Mountains about 15 miles north.
This shot was taken from our upstairs front window with a 55mm lens.
Snow on the Weavers isn’t very unusual. I’d say it happens 5 to 10 times a year. In almost all cases, the snow is gone by midday. Once, earlier this year, it lasted 2 or 3 days.
Today remains cold — it’s only 40°F right now at 8:45 AM. But the sun is out and I expect the snow to be gone soon.