.Bard

Smoke break with the dogs

Originally uploaded by bugeyedmonster

Fan boy alert! The following post is a really disgusting ode to a web celeb. That doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile, it just means I don’t wanna hear from anyone about what a fan boy I am. I acknowledge this fact, and I’m cool with it so... Nyah
Just a quick note to express how much I really admire @garyvee. I love his work on WLTV, the way it opens up the world of wine to the uninitiated and continues the education of the slightly educated (me, for instance). I dig his social media advocacy, and the way I learn something new from him almost every time he turns on his web cam. And, as of tonight, I completely DIG the fact that he actually appreciates the accolades and attention heaped on him by we teeming masses.

He sent out a tweet letting asking for people to add WLTV badges to their sites/blogs/etc and, partially because I thought it was a great idea, and partially because I’ve been working for around ten hours and wanted the distraction, I had it done in a couple minutes flat. Straight away, I sent him an email, with a link (as requested). I figured that with the deluge of emails like mine he must be getting I wouldn’t hear anything back for quite some time (if at all), but imagine my surprise when BANG less than 5 minutes later I had a personal reply from the man himself.

That’s just awesome. I don’t think I need to explain how awesome that is to anyone who’s ever tried to contact anyone with any sort of public profile.

I’m humbled to “know” you, Gary, and I’m happy and proud to display my new WLTV badge.

So, for those of you that haven’t noticed: Twitter is pretty much hosed.

See:
the getsatisfaction thread and
Twitter FAIL Day 3: Communications Breakdown

You may have this problem, and have yet to realize. In fact, I’d say that the majority of people who have this problem don’t know they have it (as the problem appears to be systemic, and there are only 272 people so far watching that thread).

Ok, so, if it’s documented, and twitter are apparently working on it, the question has to be asked: Why am I here bitching about it? Haven’t the twitter guys stated they’re working on it? Isn’t twitter a free service anyway, thus rendering them immune to claims of “bad service” based on the fact that we’re only really getting what we’re paying for.

Well.

Apart from registering myself as one of the few, the proud, the affected on getsatisfaction.com, and the occasional bitchy tweet on the topic, I’ve sat idly by. Mainly because I expected not only some sort of real communication on the topic from the twitter people, but also a quick resolution, as the whole problem seemed to have been an after-effect of the planned outage they undertook on the weekend (and, we’ve all been there). This, by the way, echoes the sentiments of a lot of people on getsatisfaction: Hello? Rollback?

Finally, though, after reading a reply to the thread on getsatisfaction by one mhutchin I started to get my back up. I became inspired by my annoyance and that of the other people on the thread. The thing that really started to bug me, though, was communication, or, the lack thereof. Aside from the ONE response to that thread, twitter have officially said nothing about this issue. This ires me greatly, particularly coming from a company who base their entire success or failure on the use of the software they write as a communication tool. It’s not as though they don’t know how to reach us all, basically. The thing that still amazes me is that a lot of my followers and some people I follow -- including some very “high profile” (read, lots of followers) people -- still seem to be only just finding out about the problem.. TWO DAYS ON. This is largely because twitter themselves appear to be living in some sort of vacuum (think of an ostrich, with it’s head in the sand).

As a long-time sysadmin, and sometimes developer, I know all too well the value of communication. It’s amazing what you can get away with in terms of outages, and things being horribly broken, as long as you keep patting the users on their collective head and telling them it’s all going to be all right, whether you really believe it or not. I’m not talking about lying, per se. It’s not about the message, it’s about people’s perceptions. If you’re still talking, and reassuring people, they feel loved, they feel looked-after, and they feel like their own personal concerns are being addressed. This last point is of particular import where twitter is concerned. Twitter has become something very much like what I’m sure the original developers wanted: It’s become an important personal communication tool. Microblogging isn’t like ‘blogging. It’s something much more up-to-the-minute and personal. It’s a shared conversation. It’s IM and ‘blogging combined. What’s worse, it creeps into your life in a very pervasive way that few other tools can (I’ve never sat across from my wife at dinner and commented on a blog, but I assure you that in the early stages of my fascination with twitter this happened on more than one occasion, with a tweet that arrived to my phone, much to her chagrin - and I’m sure I’m not the only guilty one there). We, the constant users of twitter, have become an army, much like those annoying kids with SMS messaging on their phones. We’re addicted, we’re engaged, and we’re starting to get a little unruly. We want action, or at least the appearance of it, and we want it now.

Thus, to twitter.com I have this to say, finally:

Pat us on the head, patronize us if you must, just please let us know we still matter, and that we can continue our shared conversation soon. The simple fact is that what you’ve created can be great, and that it’s shown us a method of communication that we enjoy, and that has become very important to us. The unfortunate reality is that now that we’ve had a taste, we’re going to continue this conversation, this interaction. The question remains whether it will be through your service, or through any of the hundreds waiting in the wings to scoop up a bitter, disillusioned user base for themselves.

UPDATE:
Twitter have finally publicized the outage with a link from their homepage and a blog post. This is exactly what we needed. Also, the word is getting out! Look here and here. Also, the number of people following the thread on getsatisfaction doubled over night! I’m glad to see that people are aware of the problem now.

UPDATE:
FIXED, apparently! Thanks to all at twitter

Office 1

Originally uploaded by Kerri McCrorey

This is a picture Kerri took yesterday of my new man room (read: home office). This is the first time I've ever had a room "to myself" in our house. It was Kerri's idea. As I'm working from home full-time now (yeah baby!) she thought I could use some space to myself (this idea came to her in a flash when I had a bit of a meltdown after barely leaving our bedroom, where my desk used to be, for three days).

She really is too good to me.

This room, however, is more than just a personal space for me. It represents much more. This tiny little 10'x12' room is a giant leap for our cause to move to SF Bay. You see, it is the last room on the schedule of rooms to be improved before we sell the house. We only finished it last saturday, and twice this week Kerri had realtors around. I can hardly believe, after a YEAR now of working on the house, that we've finally done it. Finally crossed off all the work we wanted to do (bar a couple of little tasks). It has taken so much longer than we wanted, and probably so much longer than it needed to, but none of that seems to matter. We got here. We've had help from the kids, and help from friends, both of which I'll always be grateful for, and it has been some of the hardest work I've ever done (not to mention the gargantuan effort that Kerri has put in). There were times when it seemed so hopeless, that neither of us thought we could ever get this done. There have been setbacks, problems, countless little domestic tragedies along the way, but we got here, as a team. We're incredibly proud of ourselves.

Anyway, see her photostream for more pics of our hard work, and let us know if you want a private viewing ;).

SF Bay, here we come!

After the rain

Originally uploaded by bugeyedmonster

The view from my desk

Jack's window time

Originally uploaded by bugeyedmonster

Sometimes I need help avoiding work. Enter Jack the wonder kitty.

I win!

Originally uploaded by bugeyedmonster

I won $5 from @twittermethis

Working from home!

Originally uploaded by bugeyedmonster

I'm such a lucky guy

ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK KU! ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK KU!

ESPN - Kansas vs. Memphis - Recap - April 07, 2008

I've already spammed twitterberg about this enough, but I had to put something here for posterity. My beautiful boys in red and blue DID IT. They topped Memphis by what was really just a free throw to take the championship for the first time in 20 years. I was 12 last time they did it, and I remember it vividly. I didn't take off my Kansas shirt for a week after the last time. It's probably just as well that I don't have any KU shirts that fit me at the moment.

I could not be happier.

Loco Moco aussie style!

Originally uploaded by bugeyedmonster

Mrs 4ft makes the best damn loco moco in history please note the aloha shoyu bottle in the background! I'm so lucky.