Tweeting to the MAX

I realised something yesterday: I can put sleep on hold in order to allow things to 'go down'.

I'm particularly referring to yesterday's (last night's, even) bout of Twitter warfare. Recently, I gave in to peer pressure and started up a Twitter account, justified as it was by the idea that perhaps, just perhaps, I could build up some sort of following through which to diffuse news of my writing life. Insofar, I have a large number of spambot users, a great number of people I actually know, and some writers who can hold their own in conversation. Naturally, I pwn them all, but no matter.

It was as I launched myself into yet another fray that I seemed to reach the optimum level of Tweeting wittiness. (And those are the words of someone else, not me. It isn't just me being egotistical again.) This was, mind you, at 0100 local time - so just into today. I managed to sleep eight hours last night. Good going, for me. Unfortunately, just as I reached the peak of excellence, I was struck down by Twitter itself.

Apparently, there's a limit on how many Tweets any one user can post within a 24-hour period, because at 0145, it told me: 'You have surpassed the daily Tweet allowance. Ha ha ha.'

This was in itself hardly a setback - if I so wished, I could have set up a new account and gone on with it using that instead, but the debate had ended in my victory already - but it irked me that Twitter had stopped my ranting mid-rant. Just so that I could have a legitimate reason to complain, I branded this a disruption of free speech. This is, obviously, a severe and (supposedly) outrageous occurrence. To be forced to wait a further eight hours before Retweeting something... Ugh. It's truly awful. Infernal system.

What really got me was: "There's an upper limit!?" The idea that they could impose a limit on how much I could Tweet seemed a little ridiculous. Ridiculous, that is, until I realised just how much I had actually Tweeted within the space of three hours.

Suffice to say, my sixty-odd followers got a surprise when they next checked on their feeds.

I can safely say that I have indeed Tweeted to the max, and for this I bestow upon myself the antsy title of 'Resident Twitter User'. This is where I would self-advertise, but The Editor's just removed all of it. (Note from the Ed: You're welcome, Pixels. You knew that, when you returned, I would too.)

Goodnight, everyone. See? I told you that this blog wasn't dead yet.

Regards,
   Pisces

Too Long!

Too long, we have suffered in silence. Too long, we have done nothing against those who oppress us. But now, we rise up against them - injustice shall crumble 'neath the might of our swords, tyranny shall smash under the force of our hammers. And with these same tools, these tools that brought down an empire of evil, we shall build a world of peace and joy.

And that is how I return to AWDKOF.

Yes, I'm back, and probably not just for a brief stint. Gads, I forgot how much fun this whole blogging thing is. Here, pass me the joystick. I want to joyride this blog of mine around the universe.

Surprisingly, even without ANY of our authors' presence, the blog has been doing remarkably well. Not as well as when we had everyone and everything operational, but at about 60% normal capacity. This in itself is astonishing. People obviously get pulled in every day by the various keywords I place in pretty much every post I make - keywords I place in the hope that we do indeed pull in some people searching Google for a keyword or phrase. I've checked the stats. My favourite - and second from the top in the list of 'Most Searched Terms' - was 'screech owl'.

On that note, it has just turned 01:30 (going by the 24 hour clock) in Scotland, and that means that my bed is calling me back to its warm embrace. Also, Twitter decided to stop me Tweeting after I passed the 'daily limit for sending Tweets'. What the hell is that all about? A post for another time, perhaps.

Peace out, peeps, and, if I don't return - even though it's obvious that I will - have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.