My night on Twitter

I spent last night on Twitter. By that of course I mean I spent the night watching tv with my phone beside me occasionally checking the words of wisdom coming from some amazing people.

Because Twitter and the people on it can be amazing. A night on Twitter can be a life changing experience. It truly can . Last night is a case in question. I managed to go through a wide range of emotions last night all due to the information imparted to me via my phone screen.

It started off when my beloved Wests Tigers won. There were quite a few fans tweeting congratulations and talking about player performances. Curtis Sironen made his first grade debut. People my age remember his dad, Paul as one of the best Tigers players to ever play the game. Tweets about the nostalgia felt by some fans nearly made me well up with tears. It is a just a game perhaps but capable of giving us some lovely heartfelt moments.

Then it would appear Eurovision was on tv. On SBS here in Australia to be precise and just about everyone I follow on Twitter was watching, and tweeting and making me laugh hysterically. I was not even watching, had never intended to and probably never will but these tweets were clever, funny and basically left out any need for me to watch the program myself. It was all unfolding on Twitter. It has happened to me before. I never have to watch the program qanda as my Twitter stream reliably informs me what is happening.

In any case back to Eurovision. Of course there was the odd tweet about the human rights record of the host country but that didn't seem to bother anyone. They kept the jokes up regardless.

Everything from urging the Azerbaijani entrants to make a run for it to questioning what would happen to next years Eurovision if Greece won. Not to mention that the outfits, including one very big pair of trousers were discussed (for 'discussed' read 'had the piss taken out of.') as did the hair and props etc. Surprisingly most remained quiet about the actual singing. If you don't believe such musings can be entertaining then type #sbseurovision into the search in Twitter and see for yourselves.


So Sweden won. I think it was rather an anti climax as the tweets stopped pretty much when it was clear who would be winning. Did the best team win? I have no idea. It seems irrelevant.

Then it was race time! Yes the Monaco F1 Grand Prix was on tv and Twitter last night. Having been laid low with a nasty bug and coughing so much it was hard to sleep I was staying up to watch it. I was ensconced in my warm bed with my toddler asleep beside me (don't ask...) about to watch the race. I found a few F1 twitter fans to follow to help me enjoy the race.

One in particular stood out. At one low point during the race he announces he is off to put fish cakes in the oven and then proceeded throughout the race to inform us of the status of his meal including his observation that the Red Bull pit team can change four tyres quicker then he can move from the couch to the kitchen and turn two fish cakes. He timed it. His Twitter name is sniffpetrol. Go and find his tweets. Even now after the race is over you will still laugh.

As much as I have enjoyed watching the racing this year after an hiatus from viewing the sport I cant remember laughing so much during a sports broadcast and it had nothing to do with the commentary.

So Mark Webber won. So what an day! A great Tigers win, Sweden wins Eurovision and an Aussie wins in Monaco! All is right with the world!

Except of course it was not and is not. I could not, as much as at times I would have liked to, avoid the more serious stuff on my Twitter stream. A retweet from someone I follow made me aware of an horrific situation going on in Syria. Yes while the jokes flew around Eurovision, children were being beaten to death in Syria. There was an amazing person,I don't know their gender, for some reason I imagined they were female, sitting in her home in Syria whilst chaos rained around her and she was tweeting about it.

Her updates were terrifying and devastating. She spoke of the sounds of the soldiers, the constant gunshot and rumblings. She tweeted pictures of a photographer who was killed filming the carnage, pictures of happy children before the violence broke out. I learned that children were being slaughtered and the claim was 'self defense.' No help was forthcoming. There were no UN monitors in sight. There was no medical assistance. Field hospitals were being targeted by the shelling. At one point she causally describes a weapon she can see and asks whether anyone on Twitter can tell her what it is.

It broke my heart and made me weep. All this while I was also laughing about fish cakes of all things.

So here I was. Sick certainly but warm and comfortable watching very privileged young men ( ok and Michael Schumacher, a privileged not so young man...) sitting in very expensive cars driving around a picturesque peaceful principality that just reeks of wealth and prestige. Every now and then the cars would pass under the massive signs for the Monte Carlo Casino or whizz past the opulent building with a bright blue swimming pool atop it. At times you would not have been surprised if the crowd had been holding up signs saying 'We are all very wealthy.' with a smiley face drawn underneath. They cross to the pits and show the worried faces of the crew as rain threatened. Could be disastrous. Completely. The stress must be awful.

First world problems huh? You betcha. How many of this pit crew had witnessed a baby being beaten to death? How could I even imagine checking my Twitter feed whilst typing furiously wondering if each tweet might be my last as I was in the middle of a war zone?

So as much as I enjoyed the race and the Eurovision jokes I wonder how many people knew what else was going on in the world? Whilst Swedish people celebrated and champagne was flowing in Monaco, citizens in a place that is geographically not all that far away were being slaughtered.

So as I turned the TV off and put my phone away I found I could not sleep. Many things going through my head. How great that the Tigers are winning again, our national anthem being played in Monaco. Not to mention my fears for myself. Will I manage this week? What with my chronic fatigue symptoms and this flu I have been struggling. But my thoughts kept going back to a person in Syria. Sitting like I was, perhaps even with a child beside them. One they would protect with their lives. How much easier it was for me.

I try and imagine. What if I could not venture outside for fear of being killed? I envisage hearing the artillery, gunshots, stampeding soldiers who may or may not stop outside my front door. The cries of the wounded, the screams of the grieving mothers, the silence of the dying. In my head is that dead baby and children. How can this happen in the world?

So my night on Twitter was a mixed bag to say the least. It perhaps changed me just a little. Those of you who do not use Twitter perhaps do not know the power it can have. It is an eye into the world; all the good, the hilarious and the bad, often the very very bad.

So last night Twitter made me think, reminisce, laugh, guffaw, cry and feel outrage. For that I thank it.

Judging a book by its cover.. or a Blog as the case may be

I should be writing a blog right now. I should be coming up with something funny or informative to share with the world. What am I doing instead? Fighting with Blogger! That’s right! I hate the way my blog looks and I have been trying to fix it.

I am still not entirely happy with it but decided enough is enough for tonight and it will just have to do. But I am frustrated. There are so many nice looking blogs out there so why can’t I get mine to look nice?

First of all there seems to be a limited number of designs I can choose so that is not helpful for a start. Of course I am trapped within the realm of blogger rather than being able to make my own webpage but perhaps that is best for now. I can’t remember the last time I did anything with webpages and I have forgotten most of the HTML I learned for Ebay and Mypace. Small steps I think.

So I decided I could at least add some functions to my Blog. My twitter feed would be a great addition and it was so easy. I just clicked on a little button and this nice helpful box appeared and I popped my Twitter name in there and then it was on my page.  But then it disappeared. WTF? Where has it gone? Oh the box is there and it says Twitter but the feed is gone. So I click on the helpful little button again and I notice for the first time that those boxes that keep coming up at the bottom of my screen are actually Internet Explorer telling me that it is editing the page to prevent cross feeding. There is nothing I can click on to tell it that I want cross feeding and to leave things the bloody hell alone!

So I have given up. I will dredge through Internet Explorer tomorrow and try and find some settings to turn off so it will not interfere with my blog appearance. Or I may just take the short cut and ask hubby how to fix it! He will know right? He knows everything. But then again it has been a while since he has done any internet stuff. He does the most complex 3d animation work but I bet when I ask he may well just look at me blankly and I will be left on my own.

So this is how it is now? Writing comes with the necessity to be able to work with these gadgets and thingybobs in order to make your page look good so someone will want to read it? Are there people out there that click on a link to a blog and then close the page without reading it because they think the blog looks so last year or there is no twitter feed box or labels listed? How do they know they are not clicking away from the next big thing in writing?

If there had been blogs at the time what would Hemmingway’s have looked like? Or Jane Austen’s? Would they have even bothered? What about twitter or facebook? Can you imagine the tweets from Charles Dickens? Or Oscar Wilde?  Social media can be a great thing but you have to wonder if it is necessary. People managed to be successful writers before the internet was even invented. Was it harder for them or was it in fact easier?

But we live in a society where we do have the internet and we do have social media and so I suppose I should cut the whingeing. I know full well of course that appearances do matter.  They draw people in. People are not so stupid as to keep reading if they don’t like the content but chances are the look of something has had something to do with them being there in the first place.

It brings to mind of course the old adage that we should not judge books by their covers. We all do of course often in the greater arena to which the term applies such as judging people by the way they look but also about books themselves. There is so much more to books these days. Covers are an art form in themselves. They are designed to sell books, to hook people. A great cover will make you pick up the book and then depending on the kind of browser you are you may buy it based on that alone or read the blurb on the back. That too has to be great. It has to make you want to read the book. Chances are of course that the blurb is the most well written part of the book but once you are hooked you are hooked.

I have in the past been influenced by covers. I actually admit here to the whole world that I have bought bottles of wine because I liked the look of the label. Pathetic I know but there you have it. Sometimes the wine is great, other times average and sometimes so bad I will never buy it again.

So what does it all mean? The saying of course indicates we should not judge things merely by appearances for good or bad. A lovely label might equal crap wine. A horrible book cover may hide a masterpiece of fiction. A badly dressed slovenly person may be the best friend you could ever have if only you gave them a chance.

All these things are true but as human beings we are attracted to certain things. What is nice and attractive is different for all of us of course but many of us can not help ourselves if we see something that is visually appealing. We should then perhaps once attracted, pay close attention. Where is the wine from?  Is this a genre of fiction I usually read? What does the blurb or first paragraph tell me about the book? Is this person as nice as they look or do I feel uncomfortable with them once I have engaged with them?

Wise words indeed but it still does not answer how we manage to find the gems in the rough. The boring looking Blog pages which are actually great reads . The books with hideous covers that are masterpieces. Or the people who look scary but are in fact amazing.  What will make us look deeper to find these or will most of us not bother? It would be nice to think my writing will stand out no matter how it is presented but if I’m wise then I will help it along and make it look as nice as I can.

So that is my job over the next few weeks. I will come up with a great picture and try and iron out the problems. At some point I will probably move to wordpress so I have more options and maybe create my own website. No doubt all this will be fodder for future blogs so stay tuned.

In the meantime have a think about what you judge by its cover and how does that work out for you?