Twitter is where its @

Do you Tweet? I decided to give it a try a while back because some of my blogger friends are on twitter and it seemed like a harmless diversion. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, Twitter is a social networking platform that is more like a constant stream of Facebook status updates (none of the other distracting stuff that clutters up Facebook like quizzes and games and constant junk, AND no adds which is what I like about it.)

Anyway, I have been on Twitter for about six months and for most of that time had about 15 people following my updates which were sporadic at best (maybe one or two a week if I remembered. Then about three weeks ago I stumbled upon a new app for twitter called TweetDeck which I really love and unfortunately I have it running all the time in the background of my computer and every time someone sends a twitter update my computer "tweets".

I started out just following my blogger friends like Rufus and Patrick Madrid and Adoro, and Curt Jester, but then I realized that I could follow some of my favorite celebrities. Now I follow Wil Wheaton, and Kevin Pollack and Stephen Fry and Dr Will Miller (from the Bob and Tom Show). Sadly, I even got sucked into the twittering juggernaut that is @aplusk (ashton kutcher) who has pretty close to two million followers which is really ridiculous.

Suddenly, and I am not quite sure why, but I think maybe it has something to do with adoro calling me out last Friday, I have gained nearly 30 followers in the last week! I am gaining four or five followers a day?!?!?!!????? I am humbled and chagrined at the same time. I feel compelled to say witty or profound things and I have nothing witty or profound to say. So I just keep saying what I normally say. If they follow me it is what it is.

Twitter is sometimes fun; I have had a total blast following Ethan Suplee (Randy from "My Name is Earl") and his family on their trip to England and Ireland, he is quite funny and engaging as he tweets about how his daughters are reacting to English food and culture.

Twiiter is sometimes educational: I have been pleasantly surprised that Matt Damon is interested and supports ethical stem cell research. In the past two days he has posted links to articles on how to get stem cell lines everywhere other than embryos. Go Matt!

On the other end of the spectrum, Will Wheaton is a huge hockey fan so stick by stick tweets of each play-off game have been more than I could take. The rest of his tweets are fun to follow-- usually. Thank God there is some time before Hockey season is back on again.

Oh well, if you enjoy social networking, you might want to give Twitter a try.

Pax

GO:New Media Monday (Adjusted for Vacation Time) Liturgy of the Hours on Podcast

Some of you may know that I love the Liturgy of the Hours but have a difficult time remembering to do it without some prodding. I have found that I love to use my IPod to do morning and evening prayer, but I really miss the Office of Reading.

Today while listening to Fr. Roderick's Daily Breakfast podcast from last week (I am usually about a week late listening to his podcasts) I found out about a podcast from a group called Catholic Classes which does the Office of Readings via Podcast, so of course I quickly subscribed to it and am downloading this week's readings as I type this.

Now my daily Office is complete. Morning and evening prayer and the office of reading is all I really need. I do a modified examen as my night prayer, and the rest of my prayer is a running conversation with God (usually, sadly apologizing to him for my judgmental thoughts about the people around me, but I am working on that.)

I hope you all can benefit from my interesting new media find.

Pax

GO New Media Monday

So you all know how much I love my iPod. I have found that I am absolutely addicted to podcasts and at one time was subscribed to way too many. Now I have paired it down to ones that I actually listen to on a regular basis, and get something from.

In searching the SQPN website the other day I discovered that you can actually get the Daily Mass as a video podcast download. How cool is that? If you know you won't be able to get to mass you can download it to your mobile device and take it with you. This Mass is from Boston and the quality of the video and audio is amazing.

I used to teach the kids in my religion classes that the cool thing about being Catholic was that somewhere in the world there was a mass going on 24 hours a day. Now in this amazing age the mass is a close as your iPod, on demand. If you can't get to the Mass you can take it with you. I love this.

Pax