Happy Halloween everyone!

Can you guess who???

Confessions (& Tips) from a Twittaholic

Twitter is misunderstood. There is nothing evil or dorky about it. It is cutting edge, and way cool. If you want to be informed, about anything and everything, you need to use Twitter.

Simply put - for me, Twitter is my real-time newspaper, covering ALL of the latest breaking news, worldwide, being reported by millions of people…to millions of people.

I like to be involved in receiving as well as passing that information along.

Twitter is the fastest way to share one's thoughts…in 140 character increments. Each update or Tweet, is limited to 140 characters.

Tweeters (those who use Twitter) circumvent that 140 character limit in a number of ways. Most tweeters use tricks like shortening their words, eliminating punctuation, using common abbreviations as well as Texting abbreviations (like 2 instead of to, too or two, or ur instead of your), and URL shorteners. Tweeters also post links to longer stories, videos, pics, blog posts, etc., etc. all of which would exceed the 140 character limit.

I think of my Twitter page as my own personal newspaper. If you go to twitter.com/tarathralls, you can read my past "Tweets" (a "Tweet" is similar to a Facebook "Status Update") and you will see that my "newspaper" focuses on Ecology, Politics, Activism, Vegetarianism, Indie Music, Photography, Graphics, Blogging, Twitter apps, Unusual and Interesting News, Humor, and Quotes.

Usually a Quote can fit into that 140 character limit. For most of the other info, I will usually post a link to the full article, which is online somewhere else on the Internet.

I "follow" other Tweeters on Twitter who have similar interests to my own. If one of them posts an interesting or news-worthy Tweet, I will "Re-Tweet" it to my followers. This is done very simply, by starting your "re-tweet" of their information with this formula:

RT @insert_tweeters_name_here

So say, I post a link to my blog, and it looks like this:

tarathralls My latest blog post "Why I Tweet" > http://bit.ly/tt-blog <

You can ReTweet it like this:

RT @tarathralls My latest blog post "Why I Tweet" > http://bit.ly/tt-blog <

You have now shared my Blog link with your followers.

You can add your own information to the post, too - if you haven't used up the 140 character limit yet.

The above post (in Italics) is 75 characters long, however, when you enter text into your "Twitter Update" window (the big box where it says, "What are you doing?"), Twitter subtracts each character from that 140 character limit, and tells you how many characters you have LEFT, so a Tweeter would say that the above post has 65 characters left, rather than how long it already is.

So, you still have room and can add a comment, or a qualifier to the above post if you want.

You could perhaps, change it a bit, by making "my latest blog post" read, "Latest Blog Post" - since YOU didn't write it, and are just passing the info on, it is not necessary for it still to be in there for the ReTweet:

RT @tarathralls Latest blog post "Why I Tweet" > http://bit.ly/tt-blog <

plus, you've gained a few characters, and you now have 68 characters left.

So you could put in your own recommendation if you'd like, say:

RT @tarathralls Latest blog post "Why I Tweet" (great info) > http://bit.ly/tt-blog <

(aw, thanks!)

Now your post has 55 characters left.

You can also add a "qualifier" to it - like a word or phrase that will describe what the post is about. Then if others have similar interests, they can search that qualifying word on Twitter, and find all similar posts using that word.

These qualifiers are called "hash tags". A "hash tag" is always prefaced by the symbol "#". Typical "hash tags" would be #news #politics #michaeljackson #twitternews.

Anything can be made into a "hash tag" by putting the numbers symbol in front of it, however, it is wise not to make up your own hash tags too frequently, as they were created to be a search tool and not meant to be used as a witty commenting tool (I know, it can be hard to resist the urge).

Too many hash tags clog up the system, so try and stick with what is the obvious or common ones. Sometimes people will use a hash tag as a way to comment on a story, say putting the hash tag #thisonesadoozy at the end of their post, or something along those lines, however that is not a REAL hash tag that would ever be searched by others.

The hash tag concept is to make it easier for the Twitter user to find information, and useless hash tags are just that - useless (except for a 15 second laugh, which is about how long your Tweet will show up on someone's feed before it gets knocked off by the next ones).

Okay, so your Tweet now has 55 characters left, and you want to add a qualifier or two to it, to help other Tweeters find it. You can add #blog #twittertips and #socialmedia. So now it looks like this:

RT @tarathralls Latest blog post "Why I Tweet" (great info) > http://bit.ly/tt-blog < #blog #twittertips #socialmedia

Excellent! You still have 23 characters left!

At this point, I would post the Tweet, even though there's still 23 characters left. Here's why.

1) You ALWAYS want to leave room for someone to Re-Tweet your Tweet. So you need to leave enough space for them to put a RT @yourname before your Tweet. My Twitter name (tarathralls) plus the "RT" and a space before (but not after) the "@" equals 15 characters (RT @tarathralls = 15 characters), so you will see that I almost always leave 15 characters unused so my Tweets can be Re-Tweeted. You will need to count up your Twitter name to decide how many characters you need to leave unused to get your posts Re-Tweeted.

2) Someone else who is Re-Tweeting your Tweet might have a good Hash Tag to add to it that you haven't thought of. This gives them a bit of space in which to do it.

Sometimes, when posting a Tweet, you might have a link that you want to share, but it's really, really long. There are now a bunch of web sites that shorten URLs, so the link will take up much less space. I, personally, use bit.ly, but there is also tinyurl, and many others, too. Just google URL shorteners, or read other people's Tweets and see what they are using.

For instance, the link to my YouTube videos is a bit long:

http://www.youtube.com/psychedelictara

(Give me a break, my band played at Woodstock, so I claim the right to be "Psychedelic")

Cute name, however, a long URL. So I went to bit.ly.com , and made myself the following custom link that will also take you to my youtube page:

http://bit.ly/tt-videos.

Very handy.

Different people use Twitter in different ways.

Some people have Etsy sites, and only use Twitter to announce that they have posted a new item on Etsy, or to post what they are working on, to keep their followers informed.

Celebrities use Twitter for a number of reasons, to get feedback from their actual fans, or interact with them as regular humans. I would imagine that it can be pretty lonely being a celebrity.

Twitter gives anyone the ability to comment on anyone else's post with an "at reply". This is when you reply to someone's post by typing

@their_twitter_name

So say Dave Matthews posts that he is working on his new album. You could post:

@DaveMatthews I love your music, do you have a name for it yet?

Your message will actually come through on Dave Matthews feed, and there's a chance that he will actually be at his computer at that moment and see it, and maybe even, possibly respond to you! Very exciting! I personally follow Alyssa Milano (very politically active) Joy Behar, Bill Maher and a few other celebrities that have similar interests to my own.

Although it says "What are you doing?" at the top of your Twitter home page, I think that Twitter has become much more than Jack (the founder) intended. I sometimes think that he might even be upset that we are not using Twitter to just tell people what we are doing, and he's lost control of his social experiment!

Twitter has become a remarkable, real-time tool for feedback, communication, and so much more. The Iran elections were actually influenced by Twitter users, and Twitter was THE only place that was able to get information. When all the bigger news organizations were blocked out, regular people who were Twitter users were updating their Twitters, and keeping us informed about the carnage that was going on there at that time. It was literally, THE ONLY MEDIA SOURCE, to get any information.

Other people use Twitter for straight-up Marketing. I find this a bit tiring. I am not on Twitter to get products sold to me. If I want advertisements, I can just turn on the TV, and get all I need. I go to Twitter to be informed and entertained, as well as to inform and entertain others. That's all. No sales gimmicks for me please, but there are many that just use Twitter for that purpose.

There are many uses for Twitter, and I'd be curious to know other ways that people are using it. Please inform me of how you use it, I'm interested.

Twitter is also a good place to meet, interact and chat with people of like mind. I have met many people from all over the world with similar interests to my own that would never have found me (or I them) on Facebook. The "hash tags" really help facilitate that.

And finally, there are gazillions of Twitter helper apps you can use to make the best use of Twitter, and categorize and analyze all your data and followers. The basic Twitter web site is not as developed as it could be, and has some short comings that 3rd party apps address.

Currently, I am using a combination of Tweet Deck, Twitter Karma and as of today (my NEW rave, fave) Spezify.com to aid me in my Tweeting.

Tweet Deck is a handy application that makes it a bit easier to Reply and ReTweet than it is on Twitter itself. On Twitter, there is no ReTweet feature that automatically puts the Tweet in the update window for you, you actually have to copy and paste it in. Tweet Deck will do that for you, plus give you the ability to go to the Tweeters web site in a new window, which is really handy. There are many other features - I suggest downloading it and playing with it to see if you like it.

Twitter Karma sorts out for you how many followers you have, and if you are following them back. Many people try to increase their number of followers, and see no worth in following people who don't follow them. This is a tool to weed them out. I also use it to see if someone is following me who has a Tweet that I want to Re-Tweet.

And Spezify.com is a tool I just found TODAY that is blowing me away. Enter any word as a search term, and it will bring up articles, web sites, posts, blogs, etc. that have used that word in real time, right now. So you can really stay informed with it. It's amazing, really.

I also use a Text Editor to help me keep track of my posts, past and future. I have four different TextEdit documents that I always keep open, so I can keep things all tidy.

1) Already Tweeted (with the date and time of the Tweet and how many Characters were left in the Tweet)

2) Possible Tweets (here I gather information that I plan to Tweet about later)

3) Quotes of Note (I gather quotes from the people I follow, and use them to lighten the mood by sprinkling them in between my political rants, etc. lol)

4)#FollowFriday lists (this one will probably be rendered useless by the new feature that Twitter just introduced this week - Twitter Lists), but until now I have created long lists of Tweeters in different categories that I follow, and post links to on Fridays with the #FollowFriday or #FF Hash Tags, but for now, I wouldn't worry about this one, and instead, I recommend learning how to use Twitter lists > http://bit.ly/twit-list < at this point!

I am learning new stuff about Twitter daily. I do not claim to be an expert, I've been tweeting since last April, and have learned a few things in that amount of time that I wanted to pass on to you…I hope you learned something!

Happy Tweeting!!

FOLLOW ME at http://twitter.com/tarathralls

We're still in Iraq? WTF?

Okay, is it time to march? I am very confused by Obama. One day I feel like, fuck, yeah, he's awesome...then I switch to "give him time, give him time", and then I find myself wondering if we've been duped by a very clever warmongerer who is bought and owned by the big corporations, just like every other politician.

Didn't Obama PROMISE to get us out of that illegal and indefensible Iraq War? Didn't he RUN on that? Isn't that why he was chosen over Hillary? We the People wanted OUT OF IRAQ, and Obama promised to do that. So why are we STILL THERE?

Obama just never mentions it. He quietly keeps funding it, "troops" keep dying (I love the way they're called "Troops" - so maybe we won't realize that we are talking about actual humans who lost their lives), and the Left, who elected him, watches and waits.

First off, there's the illegality of this war. Then we have the rapes of our American female soldiers, then there's the uncounted army of Paid Mercenaries that we have over there, the unbelievable amount of US Dollars wasted and lost over there, the huge amount of Iraqi casualties, and the widespread and pointless decimation of a country.

Why are we fighting these wars? They can't tell us the truth. It's about the OIL, peeps. OIL and MONEY. The politicians have been paid by lobbyists from all the corporate entities that profit from these wars - the munitions companies, the companies that supply food, gas, uniforms, medicines for the soldiers (and "contractors") over there, etc. to KEEP THESE WARS GOING...and the American people just stand by, and watch. War is good and profitable for the rich, I guess.

Seems like those who disapproved of the war from the start have become numb, or sedated. I'm sure that all those millions of people that felt compelled to march right before we attacked Iraq still disapprove of this war - why is nobody speaking out about it?

When does it end? When do we do the polite thing and get out of someone else's country? When does the Left get mad, and frustrated, and speak up about our horror and disapproval of the US' behavior in Iraq? When have we had enough?

When do we MARCH?

You call this Health Care Reform?

Health Care Reform - what bullshit. The current bills being discussed won't work to get the insurance companies to lower Health Care costs!

Let's face it, both Schumer and Obama took HUGE contributions from the Insurance/Pharmaceutical industries and they are not FREE to do the right thing!

Plus, most of the American people don't even know that the Public Option will only even be available to a very small segment of the population (approx 12.5-15 million people) at its BEST. How could this be enough of an incentive for the Insurance companies to lower their rates?

The Insurance Companies are getting 48 million new customers or something, so they can afford to lose 12-15 million of them to the Public Option, rather than cut their rates for the rest of us.

This is such baloney, how the Reps and Senators are all saying, that now NOBODY will ever have to be without health care again, isn't that fantastic?

Where do these elected officials think the people who couldn't afford Health Care before are going to get the money to afford it now, oh ye, Public Servants, who all have the luxury of Federally Funded Health Care? BTW, let's not forget that these same congresspeople get to vote on their OWN PAY RAISES, too, PLUS once they leave congress they still will be earning over $100,ooo per year, for LIFE! Nice, huh?

The mandatory Health Care plan was a huge reason why I was very wary of Obama way back when.

I went from supporting Kucinich (he lost me after the "Flying Saucer incident"), to Edwards (damn, I'm pissed at him, he had some FANTASTIC and EXCITING ideas for both Health Care and Education Reform...now I understand why the press never gave him any play - the reporters all already knew about the affair, and that he wouldn't have a chance once the story got out). Then I moved on to Hillary for a few months, and finally ended up voting for Obama - but with Obama I was always worried about two things:

1) His promise of MANDATORY HEALTH CARE, whether one could afford it or not

2) He was never really enough of a Pacifist for me - he was at least going to get us out of Iraq wasn't he (???), but he was quite bellicose about Afghanistan, and it worried me (BTW: why are we in Afghanistan again? - but that's another whole post).

Anyway, this "Public Option" fiasco has been going on for months, and we just recently were informed that it won't affect almost all of the US population, so what's the big Bru-Ha-Ha about? Why so much energy wasted on this made-up issue.

I don't know, but I feel a little - depressed, dejected and "de-hoped" these days.

Rocket launch could have fed millions

NASA Rocket launch cost $400 mill for 2 minutes in space, but, hey, there were "over 700 sensors" recording data.

Wow, somehow I can't stop thinking of all the needy Americans who could have used that money right here on earth!

In the beginning...

They say the universe is infinite...it has always been...and will always be. That's a hard concept for me to wrap my tiny brain around...