Why I tweet

I'm pushing towards 4,500 tweets, which I find a little hard to believe.

I signed up for Twitter relatively early in the game -- July 31, 2008. That seemed to be the year that a lot of the people I tweet the most with got chirping.

But I had a slow start. I didn't really see the point...or maybe the point wasn't the same in 2008 as in 2011 -- or even in 2009, when I reactivated my tweeting life.

I love Twitter now for browsing the news, exchanging teaching information, and keeping up on some favorite sites like The Oatmeal, Brain Pickings, and Chez Loulou.

I can also indulge in fun mini-conversations with the lucky members of my "friendsandfam" list...whenever I want.

Also, for some reason Twitter is not guilt-inducing to me.

I feel bad when I don't come up with good blog post ideas (in fact, I'm feeling that way right now.)

I feel guilty when I don't keep up with my real Facebook friends; even though I've ruthlessly eliminated hundreds of peripheral "friends" and stupid games from my newsfeed, I still have trouble keeping up.

And let's not even talk about Google Reader, or "keeping up with stuff on the Internet" hell.

Twitter seems easy come, easy go...and full of fascinating information.

How do you feel about it?

Just saying...

I almost wonder if all the political finger-pointing at Sarah Palin and co. (which I haven't hesitated to participate in) may be masking the real issue.

For the moment, we can't really know if the deranged criminal responsible for the Tucson shootings was directly -- or even indirectly -- influenced by right-wing rhetoric.

We DO know, however, that he was able, apparently legally, to buy the now-infamous gun that contained so many bullets.

Instead of so much debate about whether this tragedy was caused by the vitriolic political climate, it might be nice to see a little more discussion of gun control out there.

Just saying...