2020s
- Twitter used to be a lot more fun. I don’t remember there be so much hate and anger on the platform for the first several years.
- Twitter is still a great way to connect with people around the world that have information or perspective you are interested in.
- Twitter regularly feels to me like a breakout product stuck in a company that can’t figure it out. They should be fighting the bots and trolls more.
- Twitter is a weird social network because every user of Twitter has a different experience based on the people they follow.
- Avoid Twitter Trends like the plague. Don’t use Twitter to get your news.
- Twitter has gotten much more complicated. Threads are the newest thing adding complications.
- It is amazing how many of Twitters product features originated with conventions that their users adopted and then they productized.
- Twitter has a small number of incredibly passionate, probably addicted, users.
- I’ve left every other social network but I haven’t left Twitter (wait, I guess LinkedIn is also a social network now). I have deleted my archive, and I no longer follow anyone and instead use Feedbin to follow accounts. i try to limit the amount my social graph is visible. But I still find value in Twitter.
Kicking off our family New Year’s Eve with a French 75 and getting the fondue started! 🥂 Sinatra, Brubeck, and the New Standards are on shuffle. 🎶
Fondue is our tradition for New Year’s Eve. Cheese Fondue to start.
Then the Tenderloin fondue.
We also play Clue every New Year’s Eve. This year Mazie won!
Tyler completed his LEGO® Nintendo Entertainment System™ project in just three days! He got very focused on it and worked through all 2,646 pieces. The finished project is very cool. The cartridge slides into the console and presses down just like an original Nintendo does. The controller feels normal sized in your hand and the cable disconnects.
The TV was a big part of the project and it operates like a track that you turn a handle and it moves. Mario is on a slide and bounces around on the course as you move it.
Here is the scene before going into the TV.
See console done and beginning.
Making some more Wicky Thing Candles tonight. All candles made with 🔥 and ❤️. 😊
Lucky enjoying her 1st Birthday with one of her favorite bones! 🦴 🐶
I finished my LEGO® International Space Station Christmas project. This was a fun LEGO to assemble. 🛰
Tyler is making great progress on his “biggest ever” LEGO® project. The Nintendo Console, Super Mario Bros cartridge and the Game Controller are assembled and look cool!
I took the top off to show how the cartridge action works.
Lucky (Bernedoodle) is right at home in the snow. ❄️
The kids are starting their biggest LEGO® projects ever. Mazie is building the IDEAS Grand Piano with 3,662 pieces and Tyler the Nintendo Entertainment System™ with 2,646 pieces. These will be awesome when finished! 😲
We’ve made a tradition of making Tammy a custom puzzle for Christmas. With some help from her sister Michelle, they put it together. It is built off of our Yellowstone trip.
Best can coozy ever.
Ready for Christmas! I’m slightly infatuated with all things Swedish, and love these Adam 7 Swedish candelabras.
Working on “bottom starting” the Big Green Egg. It’s frozen shut and I need to make our traditional Christmas Eve tenderloin steaks! 3 °F 🥶❄️🔥
One of my favorite things at Christmas is filling this wall with the faces of friends & family as we receive cards. We get to have all of you “with us” for the Christmas season. This year it has meant even more with the pandemic. 🎄
Yesterday morning there was no snow and we were thinking out hopes of a White Christmas we’re in vain. Today we have plenty! ❄️
Winter Solstice 2020
Today we “celebrate” the Winter Solstice. Here in Minneapolis the sun will rise at 7:48 am and set at 4:35 pm. We’ll get 527 minutes of daylight, the least we will get for the last and next few months.
Much is said about Minnesota’s cold and snowy winters and mostly I find those just fine if not great. Snow can be fun and so pretty. It can be a challenge to overcome as you drive and get about, but one we are sort of proud of. The cold is okay with the right gear. And both of them make for delightful winters inside and out, with a nice cup of hot cocoa and hopefully a fireplace to warm up inside. Maximum Hygge!
But I’m not a fan of the dark. In a typical year I go to the office in the dark and leave in the dark. One upside of being at home with the pandemic is getting to experience more of the limited sunlight. I shouldn’t complain too much as I know there are many who suffer from seasonal affective disorder in this time of year. I only wish that we had more time to be outside.
So I had a thought today of celebrating the Winter Solstice as a bigger deal. Try to turn that frown upside down of sorts and make an event of our shortest day. I’m starting by writing this, and will be getting the kids into it in some form. In the process we can also note the march of longer days to come!
We watched The Christmas Chronicles: Part 2 tonight. Good sequel to the first one. Great family movie heading into Christmas. 🎄🍿
Twitter 14th Anniversary
How about I celebrate with a blog post instead. 👍
Twitter notified me today that it was my 14th Anniversary on Twitter. I signed up on Wed Dec 20 21:25:24 +0000 2006, claiming user number #82,903. This was before the big unveiling at SXSW in 2007. My very first tweet (although they weren’t called tweets then), sent shortly after setting up the account…
On a conference call!
I love that. 😂 You can’t see that on Twitter because I use TweetDeleter these days to delete all of my tweets after 60 days, and I purged all 8,000+ tweets from my profile. I grabbed a complete archive of my Tweets before doing that though so I can still see them. That first tweet was the 1,443,783rd message on Twitter according to the backup. I’ve had Pinboard’s Twitter archiving turned on since Aug 25 2008 so it has most everything archived as well.
When Twitter first launched it was very silly. Most early users didn’t understand what it was useful for. I remember giving a presentation to a bunch of news people showing them how Twitter could be used as another channel to distribute news. That same silly product now has a protocol to hand over the Twitter account between one President to the next.
Some thoughts on 14 years of Twitter:
I haven’t authored any content on Twitter for over three years now. I write everything on micro.blog and then it cross-posts that to Twitter. I still see a lot of engagement on Twitter though and I do keep connected to people with it.
My hope for Twitter is that it finds it’s footing, it sheds the hate, rid the bots which would easiest by moving to a paid model. I keep thinking a Twitter where every user pays $5/mo or $50/year would be amazing. Maybe ditch the likes too, and try to get rid of the popularity contest.
Tyler tonight shared his favorite YouTube gamer Mr. A-Game’s birthday, which was a little surprising to us that he knew that. So Tammy asked him what her birthday was. Tyler failed the test. 😬
Lucky looking good after her trip to the groomer.
Set a back-to-back 30-min PR today during Sundays with Love! 415 kJ, +7 over yesterdays 408 kJ. This PR was credit to riding with a bunch of friends — thanks to northstar007 (649 kJ! 🤯), Matthew01, MNjhawk, hectorguatemala, recheni77, 612Sarah for riding! 🙌 Tête de la Course! #FitByFifty
