in which i get a dm from scott simon

canon digital rebel xsi

Really, I was only trying to help get the word out about an amazing story. I am a big fan of NPR, and Weekend Edition, and Scott Simon¹. I am still not sure what exactly happened, or if anything more will come of it. I still love Twitter, and I think it is a very powerful tool. Maybe I need to use this experience to harness it's power a bit better.

Oh, and for those that don't use Twitter, DM stands for direct message. As the name implies, a direct message is a tweet that is only seen by the person you send it to. It's a way to communicate with someone without cluttering up your friends' Twitter stream.

Last night I saw a tweet from Scott Simon, host of NPR's Saturday Weekend Edition, about an group in New York raising money for Thanksgiving dinners for the needy of New York.² Here is the link. I had also seen an earlier tweet by Mark, the head of Invisible People, talking about how we tend to go crazy this time of year feeding the homeless, but forget about what they need even more - housing and jobs.

So I tweeted this, thinking maybe something might happen. And boy did it ever. I think in part because Mark tweeted this. Oh dear.

And suddenly I found myself in Oz. Right around that part where the Scarecrow starts making snide comments about the Apple Trees to get them to give up their fruit. I saw a notification that I had received a direct message. I was shocked to see it was from none other than Scott Simon.

I tried to message Mark, but Tweet Deck was having issues. Instead, I tweeted this, since I couldn't direct message Scott Simon, as he doesn't follow me.

Then I saw a tweet from Mark, asking if I had heard something. I tweeted back that I had, and that his tweet about Scott Simon not being real or engaging got his attention.

I should point out that in between Mark's initial tweet, and the message from Scott Simon, I tweeted this. Of course I made the mistake of not mentioning the actual Twitter account, so it probably wasn't seen by Scott Simon.

There was also a bit of a discussion about how people should use Twitter. I tend to agree that there aren't any rules, and people can use it how they wish. I learned this from following Warren Whitlock, co-author of Twitter Revolution. Mark feels differently, and that's okay too. I honestly can't imagine trying to manage a Twitter account with a million followers.

I ended things with this tweet. My heart was still racing.

As I said, I don't know if anything more will come of this. I would like to point out though that Scott Simon recently gave a speech at TedxMidAtlantic about the art and importance of story telling. You can view it here. Ironically that is exactly what Mark has done with InvisiblePeople.tv - he has allowed homeless people to tell their stories. Mark traveled the country, talking to homeless people, with no more than an iPhone, and about $100 (along with a few sponsors like Ford and Hanes).

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¹And I hope I haven't left a bad impression, because Scott Simon is friends with Daniel Pinkwater, and that would just be awful.
²I later found this tweet from Soraya Darab, of the New York Times, about the NY food drive and retweeted it.

on the night stand :: The Yggyssey by Daniel Pinkwater.

on veteran's day

canon digital rebel xsi

I know that at at least one of my grandfathers served in the military. It is possible they both did. It just wasn't something really discussed.

My father was drafted for Vietnam, but he was rejected because of his flat feet. And maybe also because he was partially deaf in one ear (and maybe because the U.S. government realized giving him a gun was a bad idea). I often wonder what would have happened if he had gone off to war. My mom saved the clipping from the newspaper that showed his name on a list of local men that had been drafted. I once found it tucked away in a photo album, lost long ago. But beyond that, it wasn't mentioned.

Growing up I remember getting the day off from school. I might have gone to a parade when I was little, but if my Mom had work, it was a scramble to figure out what to do with us.

When I worked and I got the day off, I'm sad to report that I used it to prepare for Thanksgiving. I have always been offended by the sales though. I never understood that.

This year I have noticed a lot more companies offering specials for just for veterans. I know Applebee's gave away free meals today to veterans. A way of saying thank you for serving our country. I think this is more in line with the spirit of the day.

I also think it is important that people using today as an opportunity to bring to light some of the many problems that often plague our veterans. For example, there are estimates that many of the homeless out there, are veterans (in fact numbers I saw today were saying about 25%). And of those, over 3/4 of them have mental illness and/or drug addiction. There are also major issues regarding getting proper health care for veterans. One study found that over 2500 US veterans died last year due to lack of health insurance.

This four-minute interview sums things up. Meet Dale. He will make you think about how we should be treating our veterans.

Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you how I got messaged (DM'd) on Twitter by Scott Simon (yes, the guy from NPR).


on the night stand :: Moleskin Daily Planner 2010 (Large Red)