peaces

Ahhhh … What a great weekend.  No reason.  Just was.

I struggled yesterday, trying to get my thoughts together for a simple video blog.  I recorded about four different segments.  Just trying to “check in” because it had been a couple of weeks and some friends from the YouTube community were wondering where I’ve been.

It’s just not as easy to record, upload and edit video as it is to post a quick blog entry.  Especially with my older computer and free editing software.  I’m grateful for what I have.  I just can’t do exactly what I want it to do.  Perfectionist.

So I just kept giving up hope of posting a video this weekend.

Then PBX and I hooked up the webcam to send PBX-Jr. a video message and it inspired me to record a quick vlog.  I’ve been inspired to be “quick” before but this was truly a quick vlog.  No editing, no makeup, no notes, very low quality. Total old skool vlogging.  I uploaded it to YouTube and headed out the door to join the Piper-play.  When we came in, it was loaded and live.  Easy-peasy.  The way vlogging, true vlogging, should be.

Now, interestingly, I feel more free.

I can work on my sketch comedy spoofs (I wrote a great one Friday night) and music videos without pressure.  And I can post a new Freeepeace Features — featuring 3 channels I think deserve attention.  So far it’s been a hit with my subscribers.  Because I haven’t posted in a while, they’ve been asking about new features. Slacker.

I really like the pockets of communities I’ve crossed into.  I don’t solely identify with just one YouTube community which is great for the weekly features.  I’m meeting some really interesting people of all ages and videoing styles.  I like that we share our experiences and bounce ideas off each other.  I love love LOVE the collaborative effort.  Some of my future videos will include other YouTubers. Kinda cool.

I’ve also spent a lot of time learning a few cover songs.  Having fun experimenting with styles, tempo and such.  Nothing fancy. Nothing extravagant. Everything creative. Life’s blood.

Went to the beach today with PBX and the dogs.  She biked.  I skated.  The dogs were pulled in a baby trailer behind her bike.  Piper went psycho, wanting to be out running.  Sounded like a seagull … or, a tortured, suffering, dying, screaming child.  We did capture a bit on video but O.M.G. people were scared.  PBX kept telling folks we captured a seagull.  No joke about the similarities in sound.

It cut our bikepath stroll in half.  Hunny did okay in the trailer, for her first time.  She wasn’t happy with it, but she suffers silently, unlike drama queen PiperBoy!  oy.

I haven’t checked the video so I don’t know what was actually captured.  We shall see.

Still it was nice to be out in shorts and a tank top for the first time this year.  Talk about pasty white skin. Ugh.  Can anyone recommend a GOOD no-sun tanning creme?  I’m not a dog walker anymore.  It shows, in more ways than one.

Whoa. Much longer blog post than anticipated.  This is probably why I should update daily.

Some of you have seen the little box in my sidebar that answers the question: What Am I Doing?  Many of you know what that is.  Some of you don’t.  Hell, I didn’t know what it was for the longest time.

Twitter is basically a microblogging site that allows you to post updates in 140 characters or less.  That’s it.

When I was first introduced to Twitter, I went blindly and created an account as instructed.  I posted my first tweet (that’s what they’re called, probably because it sounds a lot better than twit.)  Then I just kind of sat there, waiting for something to happen.  Unsurprisingly, nothing happened.

Then I searched for other tweeters in my email address book.  I found two and followed one.  Then I saw a fellow blogger’s update on her sidebar. I followed her.  For a while, there were just a few of us.

Suddenly - and I mean suddenly, as if it was the very next day, there were loads of third-party applications that helped me make sense of Twitter.

Then just last week I found an interesting social media guru and clicked to follow him.  A moment later I received an email saying he was following me.  And a moment after that, I received another email congratulating me on being his 1,000th follower and that he had recently promised to feature his 1,000th in his blog.  He did - along with all 999 others -  the guy goes crazy with linkage! It’s awesome.

And now, there’s no going back. I’m addicted.

I’ve made use of the third-party sites to help streamline some things (and of course, I’m still learning).  Like, making tiny url’s to announce a new blog post or interesting online article, and tweeting photo links from my phone.  Yes, I can tweet from the road.  I can tweet a picture of traffic, an accident, a beautiful rose garden or a picture of the actual suit worn by Robert Downey Jr. in the movie IRONMAN.

The other great thing is I can reply to others and vice versa.  Once that starts, there’s potentially no end.

Thanks to Twitter and those I follow, I’m keeping up with news, politics, learning more about social media and finding new music to enjoy. And seriously, that’s just today - and it’s all right there, in one place.

So come join the fun. Or at least check it out.  After you create an account, be sure to go to settings and allow all replies — that way if someone you’re not already following replies to one of your tweets, you’ll get to see it and have the option to follow and/or reply back.  Yay for community.

Useful Info

Replies in Twitter begin with the @ symbol.  So if you were to send something to me from your account on twitter.com, you would put this before your text: @freeepeace

You can tweet from the twitter.com site, IM, phone or any of the 3rd party applications like a browser toolbar or desktop tool. Whichever works best for you.

There are many options for website/blog widgets (like the one in my sidebar). Choose and customize yours.

There’s (of course) a facebook application too.

Helpful Links

Follow me on Twitter 

Create Tiny URLs from Firefox

Upload pictures using twitpic 

Follow any Twitter conversation with Quotably

Awesome video: Twitter In Plain Language 

I’ll post more useful info / helpful links as time goes on.

If you have a favorite link or application, or just want to share twitter stories, leave them in the comments. I’d love for this post to be an ongoing Twitter resource.

Whaddya say?  Do you twitter?