My tweets are being retweeted by random tweeter’s. Is that what you call them? People who ‘tweet’ are ‘tweeter’s ‘, right?
Anyway, it’s a Wednesday nite. Again… Mid-week writer’s block. A couple of weeks ago, my boss was at a food tasting with me, and she said this: “Oh my God Aly, I’ve never seen you write before!”
I find it sad that we, people, tweeters, face-bookers, and the latest, goggle ‘buzzers’, are in fact, forgetting how to read books, and definitely how to write. Gone are the days when you used to read a book on the loo.
I used to read a book every two days, sometimes one a day. First, were the Ladybird stories like Peter & Jane, and all the fairytales of course. Sweet Valley High was a big part of my early teen years, before I moved on to stealing Mill’s & Boon from my Grandmother’s collection! We then had a trade session at boarding school ofย ‘Romance Novels’ and extensive collections of Archie Comics. John Grisham, Jilly Cooper, Sydney Sheldon… the classic’s by Oscar Wilde… ahh… Those were the days.
Now I find myself shortening my words to fit in a tweet. ‘Never mind’ becomes ‘nvrmnd’, ‘late becomes L8, and goodness only knows how I even understand myself.
Keeping up with the world. Keeping up with technology. Is it dumb-i-fying us and bringing death to the english language?
The last book I read took me a month and a half to read, and it was called Waiter Rant. It was a real life account of a waiter who blogged, and it was turned into a book. So does that mean anybody with a computer can write? Or are real writers still the ones who pick up a pen and paper?
I challenge you to pick up a pencil or pen, and WRITE something. No typing, no computer, no keyboard. Just WRITE something. A full paragraph, 250 words, in complete sentences. Get back to me and let me know if you managed.
Hmm… Where do I keep my pencils?
x aly
February 18, 2010 at 9:21 pm
Waiter Rant… good read? i’ve seen it mentioned somewhere before… spaked my interest a little, but it wasn’t enuff for me to hunt it down tho’ …
February 19, 2010 at 10:17 am
Waiter rant is really good! It’s shocking what goes on behind the scenes at restaurants – well written, intelligent but with a lot of graphic/foul language at times… ๐
March 3, 2010 at 7:26 am
what goes on behind the scenes at restaurants… hahah… i’ve heard some pretty shocking stories myself from personal friends who’ve done the “chinese restaurants in a western country” thingy during my uni days ๐
as for your pens/pencils on paper WRITING challenge… 250 words paragraph is asking too much!!! ๐ i do have pages and pages of lists and notes scribbled on pieces of paper when i’m on the phone and had no access to a PC (or when notepad took too long to load) … does that count? hehehe
March 2, 2010 at 11:15 am
I think I went through most of the books you did.. although I found my cousins M&B stash when I was 9 ..ahaha.. I used to write alot.. being chief editor of both my high school and one of my university magazines.. and dabbled in poetry for a while.. but with my current hectic lifestyle .. no time… but I am determined to get through at least 3 books per month..am squeezing in the reading sessions during “empty” times ..like waiting for ppl etc..hehe
March 2, 2010 at 12:11 pm
Hehe – it’s funny, I think a lot of people had the M&B phase – ‘discovering lust’! Good luck with the reading… My aim, to finish my current book before the end of the year! xx aly
March 2, 2010 at 12:35 pm
ahaha.. good luck with that.. am ‘ploughing’ through Relentless by Dean Koontz at a snail’s pace right now.. will definitely try and get a copy of Waiter rant ..
March 2, 2010 at 1:28 pm
caught the comments notifications in my inbox, came to kepoh … and while waiting for the rest of the page to load, your first line caught my attention (not that it didn’t the first time around, just that it didn’t register)
“My tweets are being retweeted by random tweeterโs. Is that what you call them? People who โtweetโ are โtweeterโs โ, right?”
I think people who ‘tweet’ are ‘twits’ … correct me if i’m wrong…
March 2, 2010 at 9:33 pm
I was trying to be polite ๐ because I did not wish to admit that, I, indeed, have failed miserably at resisting being a ‘twit’! ๐
March 3, 2010 at 8:35 am
ahaha … “tweets” and “tweeters” are, IMHO, indeed correct (though by accident) in the context of “the chirping sounds of a small bird” (tweet) and “a small loudspeaker” (tweeter) – after all when we tweet, we are but a small sound in the millions of tweets going on, yet it has the ability to broadcast to many who’re listening, like a loud-speaker ๐
problem is, u can’t register nor trademark the name “tweeter” cos tweeter is a generic term for speakers… i’m guessing that’s why it was named “twitter” instead.
however, they probably also realised that it might not go down very well with the general population if they were to call the people who use the twitter service ‘twits’ ๐
“i have many tweet followers” vs “i have many twit followers” ๐
“go check out that tweet” vs “go check out that twit”
ROTFL
hmm… in retrospect perhaps “go check out that twit” might garner more curiousity ๐
p/s: for the benefits of those who might’ve taken offence at my earlier statement… i was just being cheeky, i certainly didn’t mean to imply that you’re a twit for being on twitter… HAHAHAHA…