From Twitter 02-17-2010

• 09:57:23: Good morning, tweeps and peeps. Ash Wednesday, supposed to fast but need to eat up the leftovers from last night's American Chop Suey.
  
• 10:04:25: @mhisham Fasting is a commendable habit which I got out of years ago, sadly.
  
• 10:26:14: @dahara I dunno who thinks buying a TV license is dumb, but you require a license to watch TV here in the UK--the funds support the BBC.
  
• 10:50:23: @mhisham If you're a RC I think it might be. Def of fast: one full meal, two small one that don't add up to more than the 1 full one.
  
• 10:50:36: @mhisham If you're Anglican, no, it's not compulsory.
  
• 10:51:32: @mhisham For the Orthodox, the fasting started Monday and includes no meat, eggs, dairy prods, oil, or something else. What do they eat?
  
• 11:12:21: @EboniMaleXXX The pics were great...thanx for posting!
  
• 14:14:29: Royal Mail are incompetent. No Economist (should have come last Fri.) & they have lost my prescription sent to my BG. Arghhh!
  
• 14:15:23: @EboniMaleXXX good afternoon from London. Hope ur insomnia gets better.
  
• 14:21:08: @KingofShaves Your survey is interesting but there is a problem: Q.3 should allow more than one answer but it only allows one answer.
  
• 14:21:40: @KingofShaves and Q.4 should have a choice "Never" if you have never bought online.
  
• 14:22:19: @KingofShaves And Q.7 allows you to click both "Yes" and "No"
  
• 14:29:07: Anglican Bp. of Ebbsfleet intrigues with the Vatican to go behind RC bishops to establish Anglican Rite: http://is.gd/8zQFt
  
• 14:46:07: @fonsus Sounds like he wants a proposition. If you want to make one, I think he'd accept it.
  
• 14:46:45: @KingofShaves Great. I am a former market research person so these things jump right out at me.
  
• 14:48:28: @fonsus Well, if you don't proposition him, you'll never know, will you? And he's right about your boyish cuteness.
  
• 22:08:51: @KingofShaves i sent it to nicky who started following me.
  
• 22:18:10: nice...powerful photo. http://tweetphoto.com/11696831
  
• 22:52:01: @hungskateboy no, defo not too many. there are never enough! thanx.
  
• 23:39:46: I'll bet the filling is hotter than the crust... RT @hungskateboy: im hot like a pop tart fresh out the toaster!
  

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Today's Twitter Observation

I have already separated my Twitter into two accounts, one for professional use (@cphtest) and one for personal use (@chrishansenhome). This has worked moderately, and I use TweetDeck for the former and twhirl for the latter.

So now my observation is on tweeters, rather than Twitter. I had to unfollow and block someone yesterday because she was tweeting perhaps every five minutes or so. That doesn't sound too bad: the BBC tweets more often than that. What is maddening is that she tweeted "facts" that were dodgy and trite sayings apropos of nothing.

The tweet that annoyed me was (paraphrasing): "The Canadian $2 bill shows the American flag flying over Parliament." I found this rather incredible, and a few minutes with Snopes discovered (with pictorial evidence) that the claim was false. I tweeted her directly with the link to snopes and a suggestion that she might want to retract it. No answer.

Then the stream of tweets with old hackneyed sayings started. I had had enough by this time and unfollowed and banned her.

My point? If you're going to tweet, for God's sake, tweet something that people might want to hear, don't tweet every 5 minutes with things that people have either already heard or aren't interested in, and if you're tweeting interesting facts, make sure that the facts are verifiable.

Otherwise, Twitter is a good way of keeping up with friends, talking in a lighthearted way about what's happening to you and around you, and getting early tips on news about which you might want to find out more. It is not a form of Internet masturbation for your own pleasure.

Just sayin'.