Random Thoughts
Here’s a random selection of thoughts and observations that have bubbled up in my mind lately that individually do not warrant a blog post. They’re of no particular import, but if you’re looking for a way to kill a few minutes while you pretend to work, here you go.
I’m really liking Google+. I barely use Facebook any more, but for some reason G+ makes me actually want to use it. The whole “circles” concept seems so obvious, I don’t know why it hasn’t been done before. I hate the way that Facebook assumes that you want everyone to see everything you do. Once more of my friends and family are on G+, and once they implement a few more features and iron out a few bugs, I think it will be awesome.
Conversely, I’m finding that I have a serious Twitter deficiency. I just don’t think I’m wired the right way to be a good tweeter. I very rarely find that I have something to say that can be expressed in 140 characters. At least, not something worth saying. The common advice for Twitter users is “be interesting” and also “be natural,” which basically means “be naturally interesting,” and that’s just not something that everyone can pull off. I know I should be tweeting more, but between a lack of brief bon mots and the fact that I can’t get to the site from work, my tweet rate is pretty tiny (and so is my follower list). If you’d like to follow me, I’m @shawn_gustafson. I will try to be natural and interesting, but I can’t promise to do them both concurrently. Or frequently.
A Dance with Dragons came out yesterday. Unfortunately, I’m only half-way through A Storm of Swords in my re-read of the whole series, so it’s going to be a while before I can dive into the new book. I hope I can avoid spoilers, but that pretty much means avoiding the Internet.
We went to the local renaissance faire last weekend. I wonder if the earliest ren faires actually had a Renaissance theme, because the modern ones sure don’t. They’re really more Medieval, with a bunch of other periods thrown on for good measure. And that’s just the performers and vendors. When you throw in the costumed attendees, you basically have an outdoor sci fi con. On this visit, we saw fairies, anime characters, vikings, a steampunk guy, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember. Once I saw a trio of klingons in full uniform and forehead prosthesis. Anything goes at those things.
Okay, that’s all for now. Time to go see what Jon Snow’s up to.
Shawn
I am a terrible tweeter too. So you are not alone. I live in Toronto and work at a fine dining restaurant. And in the 4 years that I have worked there, one time 3 Blue Jay players walked into the restaurant and I almost tweeted about that; but since I don’t follow baseball, I had no idea who they were… Then there was the night that Jery Ryan (Seven of Nine) walked in and that was pretty cool… but considering none of my other friends are geeky enough to know who she was, well, it was no surprise no one noticed my tweet.
Yeah, it’s hard to gauge what is worth tweeting about. I tend to err on the side of caution and assume that no one is interested in what I have to say. And I certainly don’t want to be one of those people who floods their feed with inane minutia. But tweets are fleeting by their very nature. I probably don’t need to be so reluctant to post stuff.
I have a hooded robe made out of burlap, so that I can go to the Renn Faire as a leper.