Twitterings and Odds & Ends

I’ve posted nearly 900 messages on micro-blogging service Twitter. Each update is limited to 140 characters. I use it to post quotes, single sentence thoughts, and more personal updates. It also serves as my Facebook status update.

Here are some recent Tweets:

• Reading the Bible. No, not The Economist, the religious one.
• Not everyone should include a middle initial when signing their name. Generic names must. For others it depends – sometimes it’s pretentious
• I’ve lost track of the number of people I’ve inspired to close social transactions with "take care." It’s a great all-purpose line.
• Small airports don’t sell water after security, which tortures waterholics like myself. TSA should require a water vendor after sec
• I find listening to music rarely changes my mood but can intensify whatever mood / emotion I am already feeling at the time.
• "I can be bought. If they paid me enough, I’d work for the Klan." – Charles Barkley
• "We are in the business of kicking butt and business is very, very good." – Charles Barkley
• Minneapolis airport en route to Wisconsin to give a couple talks. Do twin cities have big Japanese pop? Signs in eng and jap
• idea for what to name a bar: "Pacific Standard Time" – patrons could abbrev to PST.
• Great ad placement by Zappos: the bottom of TSA bins that go thru x-ray.
• Co-founder of RealClearPolitics today at Claremont: Obama and McCain have 14,000 lawyers btwn them ready to litigate on election day.
• Just got back from dinner where Karl Rove spoke. He’s been on campus all evening. Not surprisingly, a smart guy.
• I think I called a wrong number, but got this hilarious voicemail greeting. Call: (906) 875-6770. Spoof mental hospital.
• Especially in teenagehood, girls heavily discriminate in favor of similar physical attractiveness when picking friends.
• People who wear glasses and fancy themselves smart like adjusting / touching the frames.
• Testimonials with just the first name or just initials look worse than no testimonials at all.
• Christopher Hitchens in a debate on the existence of God: "There are no statements worth arguing here; all you can do is underline them.”
• Every time I read the FT I think of and pine for int’l traveling — it was my main source of news while overseas.
• Philip Roth, Tom Friedman, Bob Woodward, Stephen King, and Malcolm Gladwell all have bks coming out in the fall.                        
• When you expose yourself to an expert’s work, you feel both inspired by what can be and depressed by your own lack of natural ability.             
• "Once you have a mission you cant go back to having a job." – Shai Agassi, frmr SAP exec
• "The sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room." – Pascal, Pensées, 136.
• Zinger from Palin: "I guess being a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have real responsibilities."                            
• "In part, conservatism believes you can’t perfect humans or society. Suspic of do-gooders who think they can, who underrate complexity."                            
• Facebook has rendered the "happy birthday!" note un-special. People get inundated on their b-day. Unexpected greetings are best.
• September in non-coastal Southern California: waaay tooo hot. Am I really doomed to only being able to thrive in SF-like, foggy climates?
• Southern accent in children is endearing.                              
• I’ve seen more fat people in last hr in Pigeon Fordge, TN than in last month in all SF.
• Just ate hickory smoked pig shoulders (smoked for 11 hours) with BBQ sauce. Feeling very Southern.
• Participated in Laughter Yoga session today — totally bizarre and very amusing. You laugh with others for 30 minutes: http://tiny.cc/etxVt

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I’m speaking in Waterloo on October 4th and have some time for dinner in Toronto that evening before my flight. Email me if you want to meet up.

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I’ve been blogging for more than four years. Check out the "Best Of" page of selected posts from the archives. Some good stuff.

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