Twitter

Tweet, tweet.

/ Lisa / 2 Comments

This post has been a long time coming. Lately I’ve been feeling a bit over twitter, made more so because of the platforms that I use to tweet,  because they essentially suck.

The one that I probably use the most is Twitter for iPhone. A few months ago it was updated with some rather significant changes. I understand why Twitter has updated the apps and web with wanting to streamline usage. Any official twitter app essentially has the same interface. Even though this makes it easier to switch between the various applications, I still prefer the old version of Twitter for iPhone.

Reasons for why I dislike it:

1. You can no longer swipe across a tweet and get quick reply, retweet, favourite, etc buttons. I loved this. Now, you have to go into a tweet and wait for it to load, because it does take a little bit to load now, before you can perform any actions. Although, I did just download the update today and swiped across a tweet because I still want to do it, and it did it! I was all, “WHAT?” so it looks like they have put back a few things they had removed.

2. People show up in your timeline with what they put as their “name”, not their @ name. Some people write some pretty weird things in there. So now I don’t know who half the people showing up in my timeline are.

3. The progress bar when sending a tweet has disappeared. This was a great indicator of whether a tweet would send or not. Now it’s not there and you kind of can’t tell if the tweet has failed to send or not. And let’s be honest, this actually happens quite a lot.

4. Direct messages now appear under “me” instead of a similar button appearing like mentions (sidenote: what is with ‘mentions’ now known as ‘connect’?) So now you have to go into “me” and then click on DMs. Slightly annoying.

5. Switching accounts is so much harder to do nowadays. In the old version it was as simple as hitting “settings” at the top left and you could go change accounts. Now you have to go into “me”, scroll down, then hit “switch accounts” in order to select which account you want. It is no longer intuitive and actually annoying, because it does not allow for quick changing between accounts.

6. No longer saying whether someone follows you or not when you look at their profile. It’s a pretty handy feature because I don’t want to look like a twat when talking to someone who doesn’t follow me, especially when I’m private.

7. Swiping to get back to your timeline. Yes, just hitting the ‘connect or ‘home ‘ button does that. But this is what I got used to. I don’t like change. Why fix something I it’s not broken? Also, sometimes I’ll look like a twat trying to get the swipe working, kind of like trying to use the swipe on a Mac touchpad when you’re actually using a mouse. And windows.

8. Not saying which account you are one. Where there is now the twitter bird at the top used to be which account you were tweeting from. It’s a bit frustrating trying to determine which account I left the app on instead of just seeing it at the top.

So does anyone know of an app which is like the old version, free, and allows for multiple accounts?

To tweet or not to tweet?

/ Lisa / 4 Comments

I am contemplating amalgamating my twitter accounts.

Currently I have two @splatdevil and @lisarapley.

@splatdevil is on lockdown because I don’t see it as a very professional twitter account. It does not portray the person that I am wanting to put forward, but in saying that, it is who I am. At times it could go a little overboard. It is really a “friends” account, whereas @lisarapley is a professional “work” account. (Not that I actually have a job.)

These days you have to be careful with what you put on the internet, because with a quick Google search you can find anything. In fact this blog probably doesn’t cast me in a very good light, which is why I have been blogging less. The whole, putting less of myself online.

Which is where the idea of deleting one account came from.

I also rely a lot on twitter. It has literally taken over my life in the last two years. Sure, I didn’t have much else to do, but I’m wanting to change that. I’m sick of being unemployed and I feel I’m getting the short end of the stick sometimes.

I guess there are two ways I could do it.
1. Keep @splatdevil, but follow everyone from @lisarapley that I don’t follow; change my name (most likely to lisarapley) and unlock my account.
2.Vice versa – keep @lisarapley and follow everyone from @splatdevil that I don’t follow.

The second one seems the easiest, there is less to do. But the issues I’m coming up against – I will lose my tweet count from @splatdevil if I do that.

I’ve put in two years of work on that one and have made some fantastic friends through it. I have almost 38k tweets. Could I really undo all of that with a simple click of my mouse?

Another is, would people know it was me? Deleting @splatdevil and following all I did over on @lisarapley, would I get back the people that I have followed and become, somewhat, friends with?

There are other options. I could delete both and start afresh. People have done it. Or I could make @lisaraply my main account and cut down on the amount of people I follow on @splatdevil. That would turn it in to a strictly “friends only” account, which might not be a bad thing.

I want to do something and having only one account would be awesome. But in this world where I have submerged myself in social media and the career that I am trying to get off the ground, is having one account realistic?

What are your thoughts? Do you have multiple accounts? If so, what do you use them for? Am I worrying over nothing? Tweet me or leave a comment below.

Chur.

Twitter is so much more.

/ Lisa

I hate it when people say, “It’s only twitter, get over it.”


For some people, twitter is so much more than a social networking site, or a stream of random people’s comments, or breaking news from that day.


For some, it is a way to communicate with friends, to discover new things you love and to meet new people.


Twitter is so much more.


For me, I have found so many new and awesome friends through twitter. Up and down the country and overseas. People that I wouldn’t have necessarily met in my normal day-to-day life, have become some of my closest friends, or just the people I go to for opinions.


I even met by boyfriend through twitter (Actually Formspring, but I’m going to maintain Twitter.)


Yes, there are a few creepy people I have encountered along the way, but mostly the people are nice and care about the people they talk to on a regular basis.


What I don’t like about twitter, is the drama.


There can be so much of it, when it really is unnecessary. Twitter can be very high school, a lot of the time.


Yes, it would be nice if everyone could get along and live as one big happy twitter family, but the reality is that people do unfollow you. It’s just one of those things that goes with twitter. Not everyone can like everyone’s thoughts/tweets, but it does get to you when someone unfollows you, who you considered a ‘friend’.


Some people may ask how you could ever consider anyone on twitter a friend, when the majority of the time you haven’t even met them.


Well sure, most of the people I consider my friends from twitter are people I have met in real life, some I haven’t yet had the pleasure of, but I’m sure it is only a matter of time. Or, those that I do talk to pretty much every day on twitter and have even gone so far as adding them to Facebook or IM.


When people who say ‘get over it’, well, it sometimes isn’t that easy. Because you might actually consider that person a friend, who you talk to fairly regularly.


But then one day, they no longer follow you. Now what could you possibly have done wrong? Because, yes, that thought does fun through your mind and I’m sure there are plenty people out there reading this and thinking, ‘but it’s only twitter’.


You obviously don’t know how awesome or how many friendships you can make by just having an account.


And yes, as I said, not everyone gets along with everyone, but when one of your twitter friends decides to unfollow you, sometimes it’s like losing a real life friend too. Which is not so easy to get over.

< Insert really awesome witty heading here. >

/ Lisa

Once again, I haven’t done much with my day. I’m starting to wonder whether anyone actually cares. Of course no one cares. I’m writing about myself. That’s the most boring thing of all.

Either way I am going to continue writing these inconsequential posts, because it means that I am writing something every day. Even if it is just bollocks.

Although today, I got thinking. John Key announced the general election is to be on November 26 this year. I’m actually kind of excited. I’m a politics nerd. I can only hope that I can get into a newsroom before then. The chances are high, it being 10 months away and all.

However, the point I am trying to make is, that @Harfish suggested I begin a politics blog. He said I should call it “The Apathetic Journalist’s Election Coverage”. But me being me, I need to tweak it a bit and thought of calling it: “The Apathetic Journalist’s Guide to the Election”.

It could be really cheeky and smarmy. I could even do some posts like “A Day in Parliament”, because I’m going to be spending a bit of time in Wellington this year because of Man Piece.

It would keep me writing and be about a topic that I have a passion for and knowledge of. Seems like a done deal actually. Guess I just have to create it. But if anyone has any other ideas (as I am still in the planning stages) let me know, either in the comments below or via twitter.

Well that was a bit of a detour.

I managed to kind of clean the other half of my room. The half that wasn’t really messy, just had a lot of stuff piled on top of each other. But in doing that, I decided to put some handbags on TradeMe to get rid of them, because I never use them anymore. Plus, it gets me a bit of extra cash, which I’m kind of lacking lately. <insert angry rant about being unemployed, again>

Oh, and what a perfect segueway into my next angry rant – another job rejection. It comes from a fairly large paper. Not going to name which. Its’ rejections now number three. Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop trying with it, because it is not the winning rejector. Another fairly large paper is winning with five.

KEEP TRYING, YOU’RE GETTING THERE.

Anyway, Mother had eye surgery again today, so Father and I went up to see her after he got home from work. She seems alright, was a bit dopey, but we don’t know how the surgery when yet. Should find out tomorrow when she comes home.

Then I decided to get Hells for dinner, because by the time we got home it was almost 8pm. Father had bowling,  so I got it delivered. The delivery dude totally judged me.

F U BUDDY.

It was one of those, looks you up and down and doesn’t say anything silent judging, where you just know they are doing it.

I do have to admit I was paying close attention to him, because I was kind of checking him out. I tend to do that ever since I first saw that episode of Gilmore Girls when it’s Rory’s first night at college. They get a whole heap of food delivered to her dorm room and they have various criteria they need to rate on each of the chosen take-aways. One of the criteria that is rated is the hotness of the delivery guy.

IT’S A LEGITIMATE SYSTEM.

Moving along…

Didn’t do any job applications today. I think I overdosed yesterday. Will do more tomorrow, as I have nothing planned in the evening (not that I ever have anything planned in the evenings) but tonight just kind of got away on me by doing other stuff.

<Ends>

I might be an emo-dick, but I gain a man bitch.

/ Lisa / 4 Comments

Today, I was an emo-dick. Not ashamed either.

I really don’t know what’s going on with me lately, I’ve just not had a good week at all. It kind of all culminated in me having a spontaneous cry in the shower. In which I actually felt better, sort of.

I can theorise as to why I’ve been feeling in a funk and most likely I would be 100 per cent correct on those theories.

The first would be looking for a job. It’s really starting to take it’s toll on me and with that I start thinking why does the world hate me so!? Seriously, I had a job and then I got “let go”.

RAW DEAL OR WHAT.

I’ve talked about this a lot and at the time I was fine, but it has now been two months of joblessness again. It probably wouldn’t be so bad if I had actually worked all of last year, but I didn’t. By the time I started to look for work, I’d already had six months off and then it took me about that again to find one. So sure, partly my fault, but I was not in the right frame of mind when I finished uni to work and I wouldn’t have done anyone any favours.

I gained a lot of ground while working and when I finished work I jumped straight into looking for one so that I could find one as soon as possible and not lose the momentum I had gained.

Alas, I feel I’m starting to lose that momentum. Which ultimately results in me feeling like an emo-dick.

HUZZAH!

Yeah, not really.

So all I can do is just ignore the bad thoughts running through my head and continue applying for jobs. Surely one will come along eventually. It has to. I’m awesome (I’m not being biased here, people actually tell me so. Totes legit).

ANYWAY…

So yeah, I spent the day lying on my bed doing nothing and kind of sleeping.

Although, I did manage to get Father addicted to pop-tarts. Yeah…

TOTAL WIN.

Other big event of the day was @jethrocarr and I made our relationship twitter official.

IT’S NOT OFFICIAL TILL IT’S TWITTER OFFICIAL.

We even went all vomit worthy cutesy and changed our profiles.

You can proceed to vomit now.

He will henceforth be known as either Boyfriend or Man Bitch. I am yet to decided.

ACTUALLY! VOTE NOW!

Seriously, tweet me or comment below. From now on, what will Jethro be called on here?