In which I grumble while trying to figure out what to do after I wake up to my cat wandering around with a mouse in her mouth. Mouse mutilation not an option.

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Though I completely failed at organizing my bookmark mess today (no thanks to delicious.com for failing to send me a password reset link when I requested one)…

I found an old favorite bookmark of mine that I hadn’t visited in a few years.  OMG!

I am (unnaturally) excited that I found out Boomshine is available for the iPhone.  Let me take a breath and try to explain why I’m so excited.  This simple zen little game has been a familiar friend when I just don’t want to think or talk.  Usually I resent distraction, but mousing my way through seems to nail the exact combination of  audio and visual goodness that brings the little hamster that runs the wheel inside my head to calm.  Though the web-based version is cluttered with google ads and generally not aestheticly pleasing - save for the flash window itself - the iPhone/Touch application is all I could have dreamed of (if I were the type to dream about electronic games).  It’s friendly, it’s simple, it’s pretty, and it’s incredibly direct.  You fail, you know it, the game doesn’t make a big deal of it.  You beat the level, there’s no fanfare.   Admittedly I’m projecting here.

And to top it all off, I finally got my long awaited Google voice (formerly GrandCentral) invite.  I can now be reached at (424)242-GEEK.  I am a happy nerd.

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I believe twitter, like many websites and platforms, social or not - is a personal experience.  When I first heard about twitter a few years ago I didn’t get it.  When I signed up for it, I still wasn’t convinced I needed or wanted to look at or use it.  Over the past year and a half twitter has come to mean a lot of things to me personally, many of which may not be the same 2, 6, or 12 months from now.  I’m not going to write a love song about it or try to define it here.  I am also firmly against dialogue about right and wrong ways to use a tool, in fact I think a lot of the twitter babble and buzz has turned more people off to twitter, than on to it. But, that is another story entirely…

There are many great articles, videos, and books out there to get started.  I put this together because I’m having this conversation more and more often and thought it might be useful for those who ask (and maybe to some who don’t.)

Here are some of the ways I have personally found twitter valuable:

Subscription

Keeping up to date on topics relevent and interesting to me.  Follow and Unfollow is simple.  If your twitter stream is boring you, then you probably need to dig a little deeper or drop some of the accounts you are following.

Staying in touch with friends (and many others)

Though I think facebook is brilliant and powerful, what works best for me is to to limit facebook to people I have spent "face" time with on some level.  I prefer to use twitter a bit more broadly.

Networking

I am not shy, but I am not without my share of social jitters and often feel out of my comfort zone at a party, conference, or "networking event."  There is something a lot easier about meeting someone who you know "something" about, even though you may not KNOW them.  For many this can feel "creepy" at first, but I would counter that creeps are everywhere and if you have a single friend in this world, you took a chance somewhere along the line.  Part of what has always pained me about "networking" is forced conversation and the stock questions and topics you (too often) find yourself talking about.  When one person in a conversation has been following the other, or even if its simply the ability to follow them on twitter after meeting in person, the discussion often skips past a lot of that painful b.s.

Blogging

I’m a journaler.  I like having a record of my past.  Through 140 character updates I have been able to record links I find interesting/funny/useful quickly.  I share observations, photos, videos and otherwise burden the world with my babble.  This is made incredibly easy by the ability to compose a simple text message to the number 40404 or through the countless excellent twitter applications you can install on your phone or computer, or simply by going to www.twitter.com.

Resource

- I use twitter more and more as a news source or prompt to seek out information.

- Search  http://search.twitter.com  See what others have to say about you, your brand, or anything.

- Post a question.  Maybe someone in your network knows.

Limits

I realize blogs (and blogging) are not for everyone and since the advent of "twitter like" status updates on facebook I have had many folks tell me that they simply don’t care to know about others.  While this baffles me, I think no one who’s actually said this to me fundamentally means it …the 140 character limit and flexibility to follow as many people you want (or don’t want) provides a quick way to scan bite size bits of information.  If you have no time for twitter, try making a habit of checking it while on the toilet (be careful - don’t drop electronics in the bowl or tub and practice good hygiene please!)

Text Messaging

I have found twitter to be indispensable while at conferences.  Where I may not have phone numbers or email addresses for people I meet or want to give my own out readily, I have both arranged meeting places/details and gotten information on everything from schedule changes to where I needed to be via twitter direct messages (ie: DMs).  You can set twitter to allow direct messages (read private messages) to come as text messages to your cell phone.  If you have someone’s username and if they are following you, simply texting D username to 40404 will send a private message to someone.  In my experience, most folks have DMs set to go through to their phones and this has replaced about 25% of my use of email.

“But…I have nothing to say”

• Sign up - www.twitter.com.
• Choose to be yourself (or not).
• Choose to protect your updates if you want to restrict who views what you post.  You can always change it later.
• Use a photo.  If you don’t want your mug online…choose something. anything.  no one likes the default avatar.
• Allow twitter to cross reference your email and facebook contacts.  This allows you to see who you "know" is already on twitter.  Follow the prompts correctly and it will not spam your address book and no one will be the wiser that you are on twitter (if you are still hung up on that)…unless you choose to follow someone.  There is a setting in twitter that allows a user to determine if they want email notifications when they have a new follower.
• Be patient or jump right in.  If you have nothing to say, don’t.  You might find youself wanting to respond to things you see.  Simply post a message with @username or hit the rounded arrow next to a post - this acts as a reply.
• Click on things.  You can see the accounts that others follow.  When you find an account worth following, see who they follow, and so on.
• Browse www.wefollow.com, one of many "twitter directories"

"I don’t understand what I’m looking at!"
 

The twitter interface is a good place to start.  The basics:

Keep in mind there are many ways to interface and interact with twitter, consider using an application - twitter.com/downloads

Check out Twitter for Dummies or any of the other many resources out there.  This is by no means a comprehensive "how to."

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Being “let go” from a job is unsettling, disruptive and just downright strange.  I could feel it coming and fully understood the inevitability, I even packed and brought a bag of things from my desk home the night before I expected that dreaded call to come from the boss’s office.  Before I left for work on Friday I grabbed an extra duffel bag so that I wouldn’t have to ask people for bags or boxes and drag out the awkward “packing of the desk” for those around me.  I’ve seen many layoffs over the past nine years.  Some fueled by the dot.com bubble burst, some acquisitions, some related to the economic downturn after 9/11, and many in the past year.  I was prepared in some ways, but couldn’t allow myself to fully accept it in regards to my own harsh financial realities

The conversation itself was surreal, made slightly less painful for me as I had chanted a silent pep talk to myself during the commute and while I wondered when the call would come or if I was just being paranoid.  I had an amazing opportunity to work with and for people I genuinely like and respect.  I was very lucky for that fact alone, let alone all that I learned during my tenure with my former employ.  I was determined to stay positive and almost wanted to make them feel better about it as the four of us sat there awkwardly having “the talk.”  I smiled.  They probably thought I was a lunatic or happy to leave, which I wasn’t.  I know how difficult it is to end a relationship, any relationship, and I just didn’t want them to feel any worse about it.

I packed up my desk and personal files quietly, and thought of all the times I wasn’t the one who had been given a manila folder with a separation agreement; sitting at my desk in the craze of the grind, acting like all was well when clients called,  trying to think of the right things to say, how I could help, and dreaded when someone broke down crying.  I was stealth, I sat in front of my computer with something like 60,000 emails filed in Outlook.  I started to delete them and then realized they were backed up on servers anyway and that I had nothing to hide, and so I left them.  I cleaned the cache of my browser for any saved passwords, picked up my bags, and headed toward the door.  There were hugs and words of encouragement, but mostly I honestly felt okay and tried to resolve putting off panic until the next week.

Since I knew I’d be leaving early one way or another, (summer fridays = early dismissal) I had made lunch plans to meet some friends at the Shake Shack in Madison Square Park, but first had to head to Brooklyn to drop off the contents of the nearly 3 years of my last work-life.  I lugged two big bags homeward and felt as though I was wearing the working wounded equivalent of the scarlet letter on my chest.  When I got home I broke the news to my cat, she wasn’t impressed.  I tried to respond to all the heartening replies and direct messages sparked by stating I’d lost my job on twitter (from my phone as I had been in the elevator leaving my former office.)  I called my Mom at work and probably ruined her day.

As I left my apartment, I grabbed a package of “Hello My Name Is” badges.  On the first one I scribbled UNEMPLOYED.  That felt harsh, so while I was on the subway I struggled with a concise title for what I “am.”  First I thought, Media Marketer, but that seemed too generic, Then I thought Media Production and Strategy…hmmm, sounded a little trite, Project Manager, yes, but that could mean anything. I thought about the titles I’ve held in the past - Creative Operations and Marketing Intelligence, but still wasn’t satisfied and I was running out of labels to write on.  Finally, once I’d made it to the park and run the dilemma by my friends, they chose the one they liked best, and we scribbled MEDIA STRATEGIST FOR HIRE on the label and slapped it on my shirt. 

My friends’ sense of humor and kindness inspire me to keep mine on straight.  They accept me and even appreciate me for who I am, job or not.  I spent the afternoon with amazing women, some of us gainfully employed, some of us not.  I never imaged I’d be laughing so soon after basically having begun the second, different sort of break up of the past few months.  The afternoon wore into happy hour and then dinner, and I was astounded as more friends joined us, the generosity of everyone as they treated for cabs and drinks and dinner.

I think of people with homes, cars, and things they saved up to buy and are at risk of losing, and families with children they have to worry about feeding and clothing.  It’s hard to feel bad about possibly having to leave my beloved apartment and neighborhood and possibly needing to move in with my parents, even though it is and will be fundamentally unpleasant - I refuse to lose track of how incredibly blessed I am.

I had sent out my draft resume to a few friends before I’d left my apartment and before I even got back I had feedback waiting for me.  I had one friend tell me she spent the day wracking her brain trying to find ways she could help, she and husband, unemployed as well, offered for me to use their washer and dryer in order to save money at the laundromat.  I did my weekly grocery shopping and keeping in mind that my paycheck will run out and I cannot live on unemployment alone, I tried to buy as much food as possible spending as little money as I could.  I sacrificed quality and though I’d thought about it before, it really terrified me that people make those decisions every day for themselves and their families.  I attempted to eat my first cheap pot pie and literally couldn’t stomach it.  I made a comment on a twitter and immediately had an offer for a tokbox conversation and brainstorm.  I caught up with a friend across the country and she gave me great actionable advice.  I took notes about how the grocery sales start on Tuesday and that the tilapia at Trader Joe’s is not as bad as their salmon.
(post on all the tips I received and find myself coming soon)

When I finally had a good cry out of total exhaustion, it wasn’t out of feeling sorry for myself of self-pity or even panic, I cried out of being so overwhelmed with how fantastic, amazing and wonderful my friends and family are.  Don’t worry about saying “you’re sorry” about this, if you’re close to me, you’ll know there are and have been far more upsetting things in my life - but like everything else in all our lives, we’ll get through it.  Personally, I hope to always choose grace and appreciation over bitterness and wallowing (though I won’t say I won’t have my moments) and everyone around me has taught me, it’s not exactly my default setting.

Enough of the sap, I have to get my résumé in order.

As my wise friend Laura once said:
“F-this Oprah nicey-nice puppy dogs and ice cream stuff. I’m all motorcycles and machine guns."

photo thanks to @bronwen

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Valentine’s Day gets a bad rap.   I am just about 4 months late putting togther a video of my lovely friends celebrating the occasion…albeit in total abject denial with a party commemorating the state of Oregon -

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