New Year, New Resolutions and Twitter

My sympathies to any and all of our readers who had too much fun last night…umm, make that last “year”. Also, to those who said ‘howdy’ to 2010 with a legal blood alcohol level, congratulations! You get to remember more of the festivities and you enter the new year with more brain cells intact than the real revelers.

We stayed up to usher in the New Year, but then we stay up to usher in each new day so last night wasn’t too different. It’s being bloggers-without-jobs that dictates our way of life: up till one a.m. in order to put the blog to bed so it will be ready for the new day while we’re still snoozing.

The Baron is always, but always, the first one up. Without fail he rises with the sun; he doesn’t ever seem to need any time to get used to being vertical and awake. Me, I need re-entry time to get used to noise and light and smells (e.g., coffee). Then there is my constant companion, that darn fibromyalgia pain. The big question every morning is, “so where are you going to reside today, Auntie Myalgia?” She picks a spot and settles in. Today it’s bilateral, in the gluteus maximus muscles which comprise me tush. Which means sitting on a heating pad to write this post.

Has anyone made New Year’s resolutions they’d be willing to share? Do you take bets on how long it takes you to fling your resolute self aside and go back to your old habits? Habits are so much easier to live with…

Is anyone willing to help me with my New Year’s resolution?
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Before giving you the particulars, let me explain the rules for any annual resolution: most important, it has to be outside my comfort zone, but it has to be something I’m actually capable of doing, given some effort. Second, the scheme has to be within our budget. One year I made a resolution to buy a gun and learn to shoot the darn thing. Turns out that guns aren’t cheap! A friend told me that his method of acquiring firearms was to wait until about April 12th or so. At that point, many people who are hard-pressed to pay their taxes sell their guns to pawn shops and good bargains can be found. I didn’t realize that a “bargain” meant three hundred dollars. Sheesh.

Then there is the matter of my generalized body pain. Fibromyalgia limits my strength and flexibility, though I do work out some (not enough, but some). However, my doctor started laughing when I asked if he thought I could handle the recoil without suffering for it later. In his opinion I could, if I were willing to give myself a week to recover between shots.

So much for my dreams of being the next Annie Get Your Gun. More like, Annie Use The Darn Weapon To Bash The Deer Over The Head. Still, I continue to look longingly at Masuer Medic’s Ugly Gun Sunday offerings. I like pink guns; he doesn’t.

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Which brings me to this year’s resolution: to sign up for Twitter…and then learn to use it. I’m so far behind the curve on this one that I can’t even see the other horses. And the Baron doesn’t have the time what with editing the book he’s working on and keeping up with the rest of the blog. Nor does he have the inclination, dear man. I know when it’s time for DIY and this is one of them.

I see it now as a necessity. Funny how that works with new gimmicks. You can do quite well without them, thanks anyway, but then a moment comes when you realize, “well, if I had this, then I could do that”, whatever “that” is in your case. Where Twitter is concerned, this stuff is old hat to many of you. Until now, it was a no-go area for me. However, that has now changed: Twitter translated itself into a necessity when I learned that Mauser Medic is going to be deployed sometime this year. Big gulp! But if I were on Twitter, see, I could put him on the list of blogs I follow and check up on him. Besides, I’d get to see more of his “Ugly Gun Sundays” posts.

Remembering to check out the blogs I like is a real stumbling block for me, one for which Twitter has built a work-around and it suits me to a T if I can manage to overcome the other "T", i.e, technophobia. As with any new learning, that can divert you from something you might otherwise enjoy.

If I want to see what the Anchoress is up to, it's now easy peasy. I just put her on my "Following" list; so much easier than waiting for her page to open (our internet satellite can be real cranky sometimes). And I can follow many of the blogs on our sidebar now, without having to open them every day. Even if I had the stamina and mental focus to do that, there aren’t enough hours in the day. However, it will take a while to add people to my Twitter List.

That’s where y’all come in. All of y’all with blogs, I mean. Anybody who's just dying to be on my “I’m Following” list, leave a comment with your home page URL in the comment thread. Please, if you can, actually link the URL so I have only to click on it (saves some pain in my hands to just click). When you open the comment box, look up at the directions above that blank message box; you’ll see the template. Cut and paste it into the window. Then, in the first section of the template, substitute your URL between the quote marks. Just delete the htp://mywebsite.com in the template (be sure to let the quote marks remain) and substitute your own URL in its place. Where is says My Title simply type in the name of your blog. If you’re not sure you’ve done it right, hit the “Review” button. However, I remind you how unpredictable Blooger is, so make sure to copy your comment before hitting either “Publish” or “Review”.

If the HTML is confusing, just email me with your info. However, I’d recommend that you fool around with the template first. Learning a tiny bit of HTML code isn’t hard. I’m proof of that.

Our ISP owner sent me to the Twitter Guide Book. She also suggested a download for managing your Twitter account, but I’m not there yet. First I’ll study the guide.

Now that I’m registered as dymphnagates (plain ol’ Dymphna was taken a long time ago), Fausta walked me through getting set up with Twitter Feed, for which I am most grateful. It feels like a maze. Actually, it feels like I’m back in high school and it’s the first day of classes and I keep getting lost. Back then, I worried about being cool. Now I just wonder who will win this combat: me or Twitter.

And what could be next? Facebook? One thing's for sure. If I'm learning to do this stuff, it has surely jumped the shark.