Usually, I run Seesmic in the background while working, so my Facebook and Twitter feeds come up in one window that I can see easily and pay attention to when I want to. Today, the flow of the work day has been occasionally interrupted by a “Who Dat” tweet, or a “Who’s going to the game?” note on Facebook. My Joe Horn jersey’s in a bag behind me and I’m going straight from work to the game, so I didn’t need a lot of prompting to get excited at the start of the day, and having Saints messages ripple through the day has only ramped things up.

               

Last week, I mentioned Twitter 101, an introduction to all things Twitter at Loyola. I now feel semi-hosed and apologize to anyone who got involved with this through me and shares that feeling. Really, I came away with the impression that the whole event was a ploy by Naked Pizza to get 150 people to try their pizza, and anything having to do with Twitter was secondary. It was only discussed for its marketing possibilities (for as long as I was there, but some who stayed say that remained the thrust), and one of the things that most needed to be addressed wasn’t. “Twitter expert” Tiffany Starnes spoke of how to Twitter, but no one I heard talked about how to read Twitter.

Those who are skeptical can’t see the forrest for the reports of what someone had for breakfast. I think of Twitter as a scanner or CD radio – a lot of information’s being put in the world through it, and if you try to follow it too closely, you’ll get lost in the details. I tend to monitor it, skimming – something easily done when the posts are 140 characters or less.

In this way, Twitter mirrors the Internet, where the interesting and valuable is surrounded by continent-sized clumps of trivia. It also, like much of the Internet, represents efforts to get conversations started by putting thoughts into the world and hoping for a reply. I won’t argue with anyone who considers this a lot of talking with little listening, but since listening is also a dying art, I wouldn’t hold the marginal coherence of the tweets crossing your screen against Twitter; what you’re reading is a few hundred people trying to start conversations at the same time.

Carl Wilson at Zoilus.com wrote of his preference for Facebook, and I find it more satisfying in ways. But because I know everybody who is following me on Facebook, it feels insular. We might not all share values and backgrounds, but I know what values and backgrounds I share with each of my Facebook friends. There are more people I don’t know following me on Twitter than people that I do know, making the experience closer to a reach out into worlds and communities I don’t know. That doesn’t automatically make the twitterers’ breakfast interesting, but there’s also the possibility that it might be.

               

I’ve been told that undertaking mental challenges like sudokus and crosswords helps to fight the onset of Alzheimer’s. If so, Voodoo Music Experience is doing its part to help keep you lucid longer by releasing its schedule on Twitter as a series of word scrambles. Yesterday I got Ween, Eagles of Death Metal and Trombone Shorty, but one of two stumped me (but I was always lousy at scrambles).

If you don’t want to play, check out our special Weekly Beat Friday morning, when we’ll have the full lineup.

               

After a weekend of Twitter reports from Tehran reporting on the uprising in Iran while the government tried to shut down media and Web sites, CNN’s morning show wrapped with the anchors joking about whether or not TV’s covering Twitter too much, teasing a story for later in the morning. One of the two – the guy – acted like Twitter’s kid stuff and trivial, and the other – the woman – giggled as if he’s right.

               

 

I’m not sure that the person who Twitters as MayorNagin actually is Mayor Nagin, but he reads like him. Today he offered his brief critique of Bobby Jindal’s rebuttal last night:

Man, what was with Bobby Jindal’s speech? Even my critics know I’d be better in the delivery dept. I’d throw you all a memorable line too.

It’s funny because it’s true.

               

 

Last night, it seemed that adding the stretch of Magazine from Jefferson to Napoleon added 45 or so minutes to the parade route. WDSU has a brilliant solution for impatient paradegoers – a Twitter feed that relays the status of the parade including its whereabouts. You can also follow the parade’s progress by computer, but who takes their laptop to a parade?

               

 

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