It’s a rainy Thursday morning in Harlem (although monsoon might be a bit more descriptive of what we’re experiencing *LOL*) and I’m taking stock. I’m not nearly as self-sufficient as I want to be. The easiest way would be to commit myself to The Job, but I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. (Yes, I’m still looking.) That in and of itself is a difficult enough prospect, but I’m also noticing that no one I know seems to have found that stride either - especially up here in Harlem. I know people who have jobs they don’t mind, but I don’t know anyone employed at doing what they really love doing. That’s always been my focus.
(This was originally going to be two tweets - so much for that *LOL!*)
I returned to Twitter because I wanted to recommend it to friends and family as a way to maintain a web presence and social network that was easy to use. I had an account before but got bored and deleted it. (Besides, I’m used to maintaining a web presence regardless of its ease of use.) Some folks recently approached me about setting up ‘websites’ (that means so many different things) so I thought about recommending Twitter instead. It had been a while, so I created an anonymous account to scout out the features and followed people that interested me. My plan was for it to be a temporary thing; I wasn’t trying to establish permanent connections here with people I already knew.
I liked the changes I noticed. It’s easy to control what appears in your timeline - your home page at Twitter. Any user can send you a public reply unless you block (which I don’t hesitate to do if something seems fishy) and whether or not that reply appears on your timeline is up to you. (I highly recommend reading this FAQ for more information about reply settings.) You can also send and receive private direct messages.
I tweet because it’s fun and lightweight. My vintage laptop likes it much more than other social networking sites.
I don’t tweet for numbers. People like Oprah, Ashton Kutcher and his wife Demi Moore have hundreds of thousands of ‘followers’ and follow very few people themselves. I can’t relate.
I want to read what the people I follow tweet into my timeline, so I usually look for people who share similar interests. Sometimes that makes for interesting reading, but not always. I don’t follow someone to return the favor, but if someone follows me I’ll always take a preliminary look. I’m not trying to minimize the number of connections I make, but I am trying to maximize the relevance of and the communication between each of those connections. I’ve probably thought more about my process than the designers intended, but different people tweet differently. My timeline remains interesting to me and easy to manage because of the choices I make.
People I follow tend to:
have interesting tweets about what they’re doing (or thinking)
share my interests
tweet moderately and sporadically, from their phones and from the web
have full profiles and cute avatars
be people I know
have usernames that resemble their names
also correspond with other people, whether or not they’re followers and whether or not it’s me
People I don’t follow tend to:
primarily tweet about their jobs (even if they work for themselves)
primarily tweet to link to their blogs
be followed much more than they follow. I get the feeling they don’t actually read their timelines.
tweet about getting more followers
either have too many tweets or not enough tweets
have incomplete (or non-existent) profiles
only reply to other tweets
wear bikinis in their avatars
People I block tend to:
have one tweet with a link and do much more following than they are followed
have usernames that seem automated (ending in a 4-digit year)
Some of these are hard and fast rules, some aren’t. Sometimes I’ve even gone completely random looking for people to follow, but that doesn’t really work. I’m trying to keep it interesting and fun, but there are no guarantees. As Twitter gains popularity, I predict that keeping my timeline interesting and fun will become more difficult. Like anything else, I’ll do it until I’m bored of it.
For contrast, here’s the last time we did a full close-up on a beauty contestant in a similar predicament:
Personally, as an openly Black gay guy, is our world safer for kids (who may or may not be lesbian or gay or bisexual or transgendered, but who get teased for being so to the point that theycommitsuicide) because this particular white openly gay celebrity chaser tried to railroad this particular white, blond beauty pageant contestant into his belief system? Something tells me, no.
Yes, we do need marriage equality (which is really just equality) in America. Any two consenting adults should be afforded the same rights and class privileges of …
… but if kids can’t even grow up within a safe environment to make those adult choices for themselves, who does that help?
The ability to disagree as adults is another issue. Perez Hilton (both a fake name and an homage to the type of celebrity he chases) wasn’t trying to have an intelligent conversation about marriage equality with an equal. He was judging her and knew the title of Miss USA could depend on her answer, reducing the importance of marriage equality down to a predictable publicity stunt. Well, there you go. You chose to act like a crackhead trying to bumrush someone on the street for a dollar - and she said “No.” I’m sure that the legions of activists and politicians who struggled to actually make marriage equality a reality in our lifetime will stand with me to applaud your tireless efforts. Especially at such an illustrious forum where conversations between straights and gays aren’t exactly high at the top of the list of things to do. Thanks so much for representing.
Seriously, our kids need us to be dedicated to making sure that there’s a place for everyone at the table and that we’re communicating with each other - not diversity because it’s a trendy way to attempt to shut people up who you assume do not agree with you.
This particular woman said, “No, you will not.” Because of her religious beliefs, she opposes same-sex marriage. It was a fleeting moment, but she knew the game and decided to play it. Yes, ultimately she’s saying, “People like me are normal and people like you are not.” - which looks like inequality to me. Still, what happens when people like her become teachers and other adults who supervise children and when one of those children look to someone like her for support because other kids are driving them to question whether or not they should continue to live because they might be gay? (Yes, it’s a run-on sentence; that’s why I blogged it.) The truth is that scenario is more real than it isn’t: unfortunately, kids committing suicide because either they question their sexual orientation or have it questioned for them isn’t a new phenomenon. Even if that supervisory adult (or another kid) chooses to support that kid, that usually happens within a framework that doesn’t support either of them. And many adults who don’t support kids like this are just fucked up uncaring people who just happen to have jobs supervising children. Heteronormative? Okay. Although that’s probably the way that most of us got here, heterosexuality has never been nor will ever be the only way we exist sexually. No matter how many buxom cheerleaders, musclebound touchdowns or beer commercials you throw our way. Instead of artificially stratifying ourselves into red and blue states, let’s make sure we all have a chance to define what is normal within our own lives and that little people all get chances to grow up into big people who are afforded opportunities to make adult decisions.
I began this year just right *wink* (and without gunshots). And I witnessed the inauguration of our new President with some friends. There were tears that probably resembled many of the pictures you’ve already seen - but none were mine. I’m not sure what to feel, but the world is changing. (I guess some of these would qualify as ‘celebratory’ … *grin*)
President Obama has a whole lot of work to do. I sure hope that the White House’s Office of Public Liaison is listening to encouragement, dissent, and everything in between. Is our economy really in the toilet? Well, unemployment is up in every state. I’m not quite sure what to make of that either, but it seems to be an opportunity if you want to work and you want to do pursue work that you really like. (Especially if you’re a blogger in the D.C. metropolitan area. Why do so many of the larger D.C.-based blogs suck? You know who you are - if not, just read your comments. Or lack thereof.)
There’s a cute meme going around in Flickr; a couple of days ago, I complied. No, I’m not the technophile I used to be, but I think I’ll always be a geek. (Which, I just realized, rhymes with ‘freak’ …) But I’ve never had a job in technology that didn’t feel like it was at risk. Not working is disheartening, but I can’t relate to keeping up appearances just to stay afloat either. Finding work is turning into something that looks like finding peace, which isn’t something that anyone else can offer. Health insurance? Well, that’s a good question.
Finally, a bit of levity that proves YouTubeis digital television:
I almost didn’t go because I didn’t feel like pretending to be smarter than I really am, around a bunch of my folks, all in the name of ‘our recovery’ (all the sighing is so much more convenient that way, I guess). I don’t want to be shady; I’d rather shine a light, as much as I can, as tired as I am. I went because I knew there’d be people there who know how to love me, to hug them and maybe shake the hands of a few people I don’t know. If you don’t know me by now, well, there’s always the archives …
Yes, it does, even though it’s been about a year, it still hurts. The completely different interface. All the new template tags and templates, so many more templates. All those plugins of yesteryear, rendered utterly useless. And the more you customized any of it - ouch - the more you felt the loss. Many bloggers I know that used it either stayed with the version they had or chose to start over with other software instead of upgrading to Movable Type 4. Or if you were like me, you stopped blogging altogether. Playing around with Tumblr and Vox and ranting from time to time on MySpace just wasn’t cuttin’ it anymore, so it’s time to bite the bullet.
I came across this post from Patrick Beeson and decided to give it a try. I’m really impressed; it makes a tremendous difference in how fast Movable Type runs. Too bad Dreamhost’s MT support is, well, a bit archaic - but oh well …
This might just be the thing that inspires me to get back to it …
No, I don’t want to be an activist anymore either. There are many other ways that I’d rather be spending my time and energy, too.
For instance, I want to take even more beautiful pictures and exhibit them in galleries and museums all around the world. I want to spin house music and classics at parties that exist wherever we are and help people feel a higher high, a spiritual love through dance. I want spend lots of time with my nieces and nephews (and perhaps my own children, someday), teaching them everything that I know and encouraging them to be their own personal best. I want to continue to define and redefine my own personal best and strive toward that vision. I want to luxuriate in the fruits of my labor and revel in my own self-actualization, too.
I have food
I can’t eat
I can’t sleep
I’ve tried to sleep
I can’t sleep
I have to sleep
I need my rest
but I can not rest
yet.
They say it’s presumptuous
to call yourself an artist
or to call yourself brilliant
but I am an artist
and I am one
of the most brilliant people that I know.
That’s why I can’t sleep.
I can’t sleep when I know
that I can make a difference
that I have made a difference
that I can make more of a difference.
I can’t sleep when I know
he’s performing tonight
at fucking Madison Square Garden
while somewhere in another square
someone is begging for help
someone is begging to be saved
someone is begging for her life
someone like me.
I’ve been bashed, too
but we go on.
I haven’t slept much
I don’t like the way I look
I need a haircut
and a shave
and a job
and to clean my house
I am furious
I am shaking as I type this
I don’t like the way I feel
but we go on.
