Clear the (Tweet)decks!

So, the whole Twitter thing seems to have exploded of late. I don't want to climb aboard some early adopters bandwagon here, but I was using it last year for a bit then kind of fell out of it before coming back to it recently. I kind of like it as a mad-waste-of-time-displacement-activity-when-you-know-you-REALLY-should-be-doing-something-more-constructive application. I've been enjoying TinyTwitter on my new phone and have been looking at the other 'apps' (hey, get me!) lately too.

Tweetdeck is just marvellous. Having seen it as the "from" entry on a good number of posts I decided to give it a go yesterday and had a good old chortle to myself as the great Eddie Izzard started up a "so, um" thread whereby every post had to be preceded by the phrase "so, um" in an American-college-movie/Wonder Years stylee. Very amusing. Up to a point.

Tonight I decided to conduct a wee experiment. As I was going to be watching the (nearly always) excellent Grand Designs anyway I thought I'd have a Grand Designs thread window opened on Tweet Deck to see what happened...what a hoot. Why were all these people who were supposedly watching the show Tweeting away the whole time? Regardless, it was good value and really added to my enjoyment of the show.

My good lady and I watch and wonder every week for the "I just wonder..." moment, which is where the programme's host, the ever-erudite and unfailingly excellent Kevin McCloud praises various bits of the build, applauds the couple who've done the self-build, laments the planning process and then turns to camera to raise an eyebrow (two on a bad week!) and says something like: "I just wonder if maybe they should have dispensed with the zinc roof/gone with the underfloor heating/used local stone/bulldozed the whole carbuncle and started again..." in a very polite fashion. Easily the best bit of the show.

But what fun having the Twitterers running in the background. Dave Gorman spoke recently of the value of Twitter in "covering" the Brit Awards for him when he was doing something else and tonight I could really see it in action.

By way of background, tonight's Grand Designs involved a couple building an "earthship-inspired" home in Brittany. Some of the postings on Twitter were a joy:

Liking the house design on grand designs. Liking the cost of the plot. Liking the French planning laws. NOT liking the hippies who own it!
Another night of zero productivity... MasterChef rocks! {Come on the Matt!}... now a cool Grand Designs... the TV has got me :)
Grand designs and a cuppa! Sounds like my kinda evening!
Watching Grand Designs on 4. Thought 'oh oh! soap dodgers building a house from rubbish, Stig of the Dump stylee'. However, it's very cool!
Chilling out watching Grand Designs, wondering just when Kevin will express concern...
Is clenching his teeth at the Guardian reading people on Grand Designs who seem to be recreating a particularly annoying Orange advert...
Kevin McCloud just said "Dirt Bitch" on Grand Designs, I won't deny that I rather liked it, in fact maybe a little toooooo much
finding this episode of Grand Designs hard work. rather dislike the couple, and really sceptical of "earthships".
Grand Designs is making me grumpy now - lots of pseudo ethnic shite being spoken. Kevin's being suitably sardonic.
watching Grand Designs - Kevin is worried about the aesthetic - I'm worried about the hippies living in it

Saving the best for last though...

grand designs?! you get out of a house what you put in. they used recyled, tatty, shitty crap. oh, to my surprise, and look what happened!



Brilliant. Who needs the telly? Long live the Twits!

Thursday edit: just had to include this, the Grand Designs Drinking Game - another Twitter post.

All those things I should be doing...

Sitting at a computer keyboard awaiting inspiration (for what, percisely?) not really being one of them.

It happens a lot. I sit down, check a few emails, do a few vaguely useful things: check transport timetables, read Tom Morton's blog, read Dave Gorman's blog, maybe check the online banking and then it grips me. The web-forgetfulness. There's maybe a name for it, Microsoft Amnesia V2.0? Norton Insecurity? Either way, I can never seem to remember all the things I wanted to find out about. As the aformentioned Mr. Gorman once said:

"My computer is attached to the Internet. The Internet contains everything in the whole wide world ever. I don't know about you, but I sometimes find everything in the whole wide world ever to be a bit distracting."

Then, almost without warning and - almost inevitably at around 3am - it all comes out in a flood. I wanted to: find Charlie Connelly's new book on GreenMetropolis, check out the chords for "Wall of Death", see what Mike Nesmith's up to, follow that link I spotted earlier to Neil Halstead's new website which then makes me want to see where Mojave 3 are now and that'll then mean I'll have to see where the other (forgotten) great and good are now too - Swiss Family Orbison, Eugene Kelly - and Jim (James) Grant too. He was on telly the other night. Is he gigging? What about the Outsider festival? Are any acts announced yet? Belladrum for that matter? And Twitter. Is is worth bothering about? Should I investigate further? How do I get all those widgets on my blog? The BookJetty one I used to have was good but not quite right and I don't know if I can remember my login details. Aargh. Do you see what happens?

I need a lie down. Then I can get someone to take a picture of me lying down and use it to have a go at Obamicon-ing myself.

Because clearly I need to do that.