I Lied Back There in February

Just when even I thought I'd had enough, I add to my list. I have been using Twitter for mini-blogging (just random thoughts or things I've done here at work that I will soon look at for my May monthly report to my super), but lately Twitter has been crashing and showing us all that cute picture of the tiny birds hefting a whale in a net. I love Twitter. I love the name, I love the vocab in general (on Twitter you post a "tweet" and the other people who post are called "twits" ... at least by me). There are associate applications such as Twirl and Twubble. But if you want to post a photo, instead of just a link, you have to go to TwitPic.
FriendFeed outpaced them. Like Plaxo, you can feed other mini-blogs, photoshares, bookmarks but you can also mini-blog on FriendFeed. Sooo, I started shifting slowly over there. Then I noticed that there's another mini-blog on the block and I'm trying it out. It's called Plurk, and the name and the logo are about the creepiest around. BUT, and it's a big "but" as you can see, BUT you can add photos and videos. I, of course, added Bob's latest latest video (he has two new ones now). I've noticed some other people making noises (on Twitter) about Plurk. Plurk has a timeline style. I'll see how it goes as it fills up with the thous- um, hun- um, several contacts I have. I had to unsubscribed from a contact on FriendFeed because I got feeds from his friends as well and he was already a power user of Twitter and FriendFeed. I couldn't find posts from anyone else!
If you visit Plurk, I apologise about the logo. It's a cartoon drawing of a headless dog with a bone sticking out where its head should be and its tail wagging. You have been warned. I just think it's creepy. The drawing of the vicious cat is okay though. I mean, that's fair comment.
If Twitter can't get its act together (it's painfully slow even when it is running and not all its features are working), I will probably have to move, but it will be with a heavy heart.

Just When You Thought ...

Finish the sentence as you like. (... you had all the social networking you needed; ... the internet was driving you crazy; ... the internet was driving Marf crazy ...)
Are you troubled by too many social networks to post to? Do you spend all your time making the same boring posts to Twitter, jaiku, Pownce, Facebook, plaxo, tumblr, (deep breath) Frazr, beemood, meemi, gozub, mumpa, (inhale) MexicoDiario, feecle*, fanfou.com? Me neither. But for those who do! there is an answer! There is HelloTxt!
Don't get me wrong, I'm not rushing to sign up for this. Yes, I subscribe to Twitter (very handy for keeping track of what I'm doing for the monthly reports - "Oh, right! I did that special storytime in December!" - and recording amusing but brief anecdotes "Child goes into puppet theatre, picks up puppet and says, Git outta mah house, bitch!") ... and Facebook and plaxo, but Twitter already automatically feeds into Plaxo and I've embedded Twitter into this blog. You know, at some time I have to stop! No, really. No, I know you don't believe me. I'm not going to do it. Not even to find out what "feecle" could possibly be. It boggles the mind, of course. But I'll find some other way to figure out what it is.

*It's a Japanese site, like Twitter, I think. I had to make sure that it was what it was and I wasn't misreading the logo. All of these seem to be similar to Twitter - many in different languages as you can see if you click on the links. I didn't find mumpa.

Plaxooooo

Ha ha - Plaxo tries to be funny.

Let's see, how many websites do I subscribe to that are supposed to control the clutter in my life? Bloglines is supposed to aggregate my RSS feeds. ClaimID wants to manage my on-line identity. Google wants to host my e-mail, photos, videos, blogs, groups, etc. I have at least six e-mail addresses that are current.

Now Plaxo wants to coordinate my calendars, address books, and all the other little social networks that have me scattered like seed beads after the cat's been playing on my work table. What a great idea! I'm more scattered on the internet than seed beads after my cat's been playin' on my work table. If only ...

Well, I have to say this much, it did coordinate my calendars. Now I can add something to my Yahoo calendar or the Plaxo calendar and it will appear on both. I don't see it showing how to differentiate between business and personal calendars, though.

There is also a feed that shows everything I entered as one of my websites (that I was able to enter - I can't get it to recognize thingie, Bloglines, or Blogger ... ironic because I have a Plaxo widget on this page now!). This is called Pulse. It will not only show my additions to these sites (when I post more photos to Flickr, mini-blog to Twitter, etc.), but also when my contacts do. It will even check my address books to see if anyone else therein is signed up for Plaxo. I was surprised to find my cousin's son, my friend in Hong Kong, and good old Jane Connor at the State Library! You can also p-o your other friends by having Plaxo invite them, which I haven't done for Yahoo Messenger or anything else, so I'm not about to start.

Just so that I don't feel this has made my life any more stress-free, there is an option to have count-downs to events on your calendar! 54 more days to my husband's birthday!
No pressure, Plaxo!!!


Oooo, look! The editor of our local paper has been sucked into my social vortex! This is the business version of the Pulse page. On the left you can see that I can select other feeds: everyone, friends, family, just little me ...

The calendar, showing what's up for tomorrow, and the infamous countdowns.
Oh, no! What am I getting Bob for his birfday??!!
I've got my cursor over the Yahoo link to show that it last sync'd
with Plaxo almost three hours ago.