Mission Mission

Guys. I was reading the excerpt from Nick Bilton’s forthcoming book about how Twitter was started in The New York Times and I realized something. I might have invented Twitter. I mean, I know I didn’t, but look at these pages that I blogged about a few years ago, it’s almost eerie. I explained my process in my previous post:

A long time ago in this very land (sometime in 2003) I sat alone in my living room, looking out the window onto Guerrero Street and wondered how I could connect with the people of the neighborhood, hear their thoughts, start a dialogue, without having to actually leave my house and face people in real life. Yes, it sounds sad and lonely. Whatever. The point is, I didn’t know about hyperlocal blogs or anything, so I made do with what I had. Which, apparently, wasn’t much. I figured I’d have to do some fishing.

One morning I tied a piece of paper onto a length of fishing line, attached a pen at the end and lowered them both out the window. I left my house for the day and when I came home that night I reeled the paper in (pen gone).

GOOD MORNING. (if evening, please reverse)

GOOD EVENING (if morning please reverse)

I mean, the bland prompt, time stamp, emoticons, timeline, it’s kinda weird. Before you jump all over me and explain why I didn’t invent Twitter or even Facebook, I know. But, maybe it demonstrates why something like that was ready to take off, that we were all ready to begin communicating in this specific manner. I guess I won’t sue. It’s not my style. And all I did was hang a piece of paper out the window. I guess I could have tried a little harder.

Or is he . . . ? He deleted this tweet shortly after he tweeted it. Maybe because it could be seen as criticizing Twitter on Twitter? Maybe because he would seem hypocritical to be concerned about San Francisco’s shifting demographics? Who knows, maybe he was hacked. Maybe he meant it in a positive way, that the Twitter IPO could finally clear out any remaining undesirables. Wait, wait, maybe I’m being too harsh on ol’ Newsom. It was just an ellipsis with an extra dot. Who can know what meaning lay beneath that fourth little dot . . . . ?

Congratulations to @ronjamesfisher, I guess. At least someone is a winner here.

Seeking the thrill ride of your life?  Read Humphry Slocombe’s Twitter from start to finish and get so. fucking. stoked.

Whoever writes this thing is having a dance party RIGHT NOW.  They just tossed an ice cream scoop into the air, did a spin, and caught their scoop right into the cone, all whilst singing into the scooper like it were a microphone.

Seriously, are you as fun as this?  Follow them @humphryslocombe.

Zomg!  The things you learn trendspotting on Twitter (no big deal)!

I assume I’m behind on this one, don’t judge:

Call me crazy stupid or whatevs, but I never realized Dolores Park was dorth of the Panhandle.  Hmm.

Link.