A Butterfly On The Wall

“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!” – Muhammed Ali

The Heavyweight Champ. Photo courtesy of PredictEm.

I was going to title this post “A Fly On The Wall”. The problem is that when flies aren’t on a wall where do they like to hangout? The picture that immediately popped into my mind was that of a fly sitting on a steaming pile of poop or a fresh road kill. This is not the visual I’m going for. Please delete the unsanitary snapshot and replace it with the image of a lovely, striped butterfly gracefully moving its wings as it rests briefly in anticipation of the next flower it will feast upon.

As your friendly neighborhood butterfly I enjoy secretly listening to the conversations around me. This stealth reconnaissance has yielded some fascinating information I would never have discovered had I asked a direct question. I highly recommend developing this talent. This is not to say that if the conversation is of a highly personal nature I want to hear it. There are conversations that cause me to make a quick exit out the nearest door. I don’t want to know the results of your colonoscopy or your recent bout with extreme flatulence. Recently, however, I overheard a useful conversation my son was having on the phone with a friend.

“No, don’t post it to Facebook. Facebook is a pain in the butt; no one will see it on your wall. Use Twitter. Then everyone will know where and when we’ll all meet-up.” Continue reading “A Butterfly On The Wall”

Navigating the Facebook Timeline

By now most of you have probably seen the new Facebook timeline. As a developer I’ve been using it for the past several months and have long since gotten used to it, though it did take some time to figure out a few of the settings. The most annoying of which is that Facebook would like to share everything with everyone. Big Brother would be proud.

In this Tutorial Tuesday post we’re going to guide you through the timeline settings, and in the process show you how to avoid posting something that you might not want to share with the public. Why you would post it on Facebook in the first place is a question you will have to answer for yourself.  Continue reading “Navigating the Facebook Timeline”

Ed’s Casual Friday: Things to know about facebook

When I first digitally self-published a book one year ago last month, my entire “online presence” consisted of an email account I checked maybe twice a week. Now, of course, there are blogs, boards, and any number of social media venues where I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time on a daily basis. And basically, they are all pretty weird.

There is a unique etiquette to virtual places like facebook which in some cases are quite different than any sort of “real world” interaction. Sometimes, it’s not. I took me quite a while to get used to a lot of it, but now after a year or so I have come to some conclusions. What follows is thus some of Ed’s Handy Things to Know about Facebook. Some of these will likely apply only to writers, some is good to know for everybody, and some of it might be worth keeping in mind if you ever happen to find yourself outside of your home, interacting with “real” people. Enjoy. 😉 Continue reading “Ed’s Casual Friday: Things to know about facebook”

Should you have Klout?

I’ll try to make this short and to the point. I’m going to talk briefly about something that is either (A) a worthless timewaster or (B) the next big thing.

As always, I’ll put out my disclaimer— I’m not an expert in Klout. I happen to toy with it and, more or less, actively participate. Behind the scenes here at Indies Unlimited, there were discussions as to what, who, how and why of Klout, so here we go. Continue reading “Should you have Klout?”