Conundrum Alert: My "To Do" list is getting in the way of my "To Do" list.

Or, what to do when your to dos are getting in the way of what to do

The theme of today's blog post is prioritization.  As all four of my loyal readers know, I have a personal trainer. One motto of my personal trainer is that we should address our needs before our wants.  Sounds simple enough, I concluded upon hearing this sage piece of advice.  For example: I "need" to drink 70-100 oz of water each day, therefore, before I take a sip of coffee in the morning, I first swallow two Dixie cup shots of agua.  Case in point, I have addressed a need before a want.

Now, enter real life stage left.  Real life is messy and tends to blur what you need to do, with what you want to do.  If your life doesn't do this, please let me know what meds you're taking because I want some.  Before I start my work day (any day really), I try to figure out what I need to do and what I'd like to do.

What I needed to do today was:

A. Write a reference letter for a couple friend of ours who are adopting a baby
B. Finalize travel arrangements to go to Bouchercon
C. Invite people to my house on Sunday to go apple picking
D. Write a novel
E. Go to the dentist
F. Exercise
G. Figure out how to market a novel (see D above: "Write a novel")

By the time I piddled away a good chunk of the day on my list, I had hope that some of the items would morph into a want and by the very definition, would drop off my "To Do" list.  Sadly, that was not be.   I needed to do it all.

Enter paralyzing, overwhelming feeling stage right.

Once I got over my initial analysis paralysis, I managed to accomplish much of A-G today, with the  notable exception of D, for which I wrote nary a word.  As for G, "Figure out how to market a novel", I have a good list of stuff to consider, which in itself has given rise to a new "To Do" list.  Such a phenomenon I like to call a "Nested To Do List", as one item in the original "To Do" list has wrought another entirely different "To Do" list.  I have come to the conclusion that I am plagued by these "Nested To Do Lists", as though I haplessly continue to bring home pregnant guppies to add to my already overstocked aquarium.

So what's a fella to do?  I guess come morning I'll make a new "To Do" list.  Tell me, how do you prioritize your life and keep track of all the stuff you have to do?  Inquiring minds want to know.

How to start your novel, or not.

How to start your novel, or not

Step 1: write some words (text editor, pen/paper, back of a Dunkin Donuts receipt etc.)

Step 2: Repeat Step 1

I was looking for a shocking opener for today's post.  Something to grab the reader's attention and NOT let go.  The truth is, writing a novel really is that simple.  Writers write.  That's the only way you're going to get from A to B.  You have to just start writing and keep going from there.  It's sort of like working out in that way.

Afterwards, you'll revise, rewrite and revise some more.  If you're really serious about your craft, perhaps you'll show your masterpiece to your wife, husband, or for the more cautious amongst you, the family pet.  That's when you'll either be plagued with self-doubt, or replete from their glowing praise.  Then after you're really (really) serious about it, you might try to get an agent, or maybe go the self-publishing route.  Whatever your journey to literary heights may be, I'll be assured of one thing:  you at least did Step 1 and Step 2 (unless you used cmd-c and cmd-v to copy/paste and plagiarize your tome).

Now, just for a moment, I want you to forget about Step 1 and Step 2.  There are a couple additional steps that I take before I start writing a novel.  These precursor steps work for the thrillers I write, but I'm not as confident they're a must do for literary fiction, romance books, zombie sagas or cooking yarns, but perhaps they'll do.

My precursor steps to writing a novel are:
Precursor Step 1: Get yourself a good "what if" question
Precursor Step 2: Define your McGuffin


When we put it all together, the steps to writing a novel flow as follows:

Precursor Step 1: Get yourself a good "what if" question

Precursor Step 2: Define your McGuffin

Step 1: Write some words

Step 2: Repeat Step 1

Step 3: Fix the words you wrote in Step 1 and Step 2

Step 4: Show your work to the family pet (if said work is still suspect) or family member/friend (if not)

I'll elaborate a bit on the "What If" question here.  Fabuolous author (full disclosure, my father as well) Michael Palmer describes the "What  If" as follows:

"Preparation for every one of my books begins with a simple, one sentence (two at the absolute most), "What if" question. For example, creating The Patient began with the question: What if the most ruthless terrorist in the world had a brain tumor and needed surgery? For Extreme Measures, the question was: What if there was a drug (like the one described in Wade Davis's wonderful book, The Serpent and the Rainbow) that can make you look dead to a trained physician even though you aren’t. For The Sisterhood, I asked: What if there was a secret society of nurses dedicated to mercy killing? The “What if?” is the absolute beginning of each of my books. I work hard at crafting it, and then submit it to my agent or editor for scrutiny. The reward for that initial meticulousness is that I get to start on the long and harrowing road to a 400 page novel with clarity. I also have a brisk, tight way of describing my book to the publisher, an interviewer, or anyone else who asks."

The "What If" is essentially your book's guidepost, because a novel is a rather long journey to undertake without basic cartography skills.  If you don't have something that boils down the essence and core value of your work, you run the risk of adding stuff to your literary concoction that detracts from the flavor you so doggedly tried to release.  The "What If" showcases the point of your story--in other words, why should a reader be interested in what you're saying.  

Since the "What If" question fleshes out the big idea which defines your work, I'll be as bold as to suggest that you consider it a red flag, worthy of a story rethink, if yours doesn't at least raise an eyebrow or two.  Most of your story will flow from this central question, so it's essential that it be well crafted. From it, will come the characters in your yarn,  what's at stake in the book and most importantly, the conflicts to ensue.   I spend a great deal of time contemplating the "What If".  Once you have it down, then you've got to answer the other key question: why will the reader care?  Enter the McGuffin.

Author note: musings about the McGuffin I'll save for another post.   

Have you ever tried writing a "What If" question?  If so, I'd be keen on knowing your experience with the technique.

Danny's Getting Fit: Journal Entry #3

Danny's Getting Fit--Day 3

For those of you expressing concern over my health, I regret to inform you that I'm still sick.  The good news is I'm convinced it's not H1N1 (formally know as yadayadayada).  But I'm not 100% healthy either.

Today, I went to the trainer, half expecting to get a note to go see the school nurse and with any luck get my mom to pick me up so I could go home early.  Instead, he suggested I lift heavier weights for fewer reps., explaining that while I'm physically not at my peak, my strength hasn't really been affected by my cold.  What is impacted, he went on to say, is my endurance.  Now by "my" what I mean all of us, because we're all human and having a cold zaps water from muscles while our body engine heats up to fight off infection, which in turn saps our endurance, but not our strength.

Now to the workout:

For pulldowns, I did 150# for 10 reps.  Back on 9/5 most I could muster was 140# for 7 reps.  (cue Rocky theme music . . .)

Next up was the dreaded seated row.

I dread the seated row because the dang bar pulls at my hands and I have to use paper towels just to hold on to it.  But even sick, using a makeshift glove, I managed 150#/10 reps., which was 10 pound, 3 rep. improvement over the first time I did the exercise.

By now, I was really tired.  I was quite wobbly doing the bicep curls and I felt my back tweak out a bit while lifting.  I skipped the core/ab routine (which was supposed to be some sort of torture type crunch) but still did the post lifting cardio bit (burn baby burn).   Afterwards, I felt like hell.  But a good kind of hell, you know.

New fitness tips to share:

1. It's advised (not by me, mind you, but by certified folks who know this stuff) to always have a complete protein with every meal.  Complete proteins are basically anything that comes from an animal (including dairy), but you can also mix food to create a complete protein.  Don't ask me how you do that because I haven't a clue.  Today, I got a new recipe for a high protein nut mixture that I was told creates a complete protein because of the mix. Unless of course these are animal nuts, which I don't believe them to be.

Danny's High Powered/High Protein Nut Mixture

1. Soybeans (dry/unsalted)

2. Sunflower seeds

3. Almond slices

Note: You can add raisins/M&Ms or salted nuts for flavor but keep them to a minimum. 

I promised to elaborate on this salt thing as well.  Refresher from earlier posts: Salt = Bad, Potassium = Good.  Here's what I've learned on the topic: Apparently, there is the law in nature called the law of highest concentration.  I don't know if it's a real law or not, but let's assume for now that it is.  Below the skin, in the subcutaneous layer, the body stores sodium.  Below that, are cells which help to form muscle tissue.  If the body has a lot of salt (sodium/NA) I guess what happens is that you become bloated as the water moves to the area of highest concentration in the body.   In essence, you fill up the subcutaneous layer with water, thus bloating your skin.  This I'm told is bad.  By decreasing your sodium intake and increasing potassium levels, water will move to the cell layer and actually help pull your skin tighter.

So, let's say for all intents and purposes that my science here is completely flawed.  What isn't flawed, is that the less sodium you consume is probably a good thing and might make you less bloated.  Again, bloating, for the purposes of this post, we're assuming to be bad.

Some products with low sodium/high potassium are:

Mrs. Dash

Jim Beam's Marinades 

Here's a link to a table of foods that are high in potassium. 

In summary:  
Weight Loss-3 pounds (mostly because I'm sick and haven't been eating gold fish).  Strength Gain-a wee bit (despite cold)  Daniel Craigness Gain-0 (but I will shave today, so that should help some) 

Authors note:  I love tortilla chips and sea salt potato chips and there is a good chance I'm not going to follow this advice.  With that said, I'll do my best. 

Danny's Getting Fit: Journal Entry #2

Interval Training Day!

(Authors disclaimer: look, I'm a terrible proof reader.  I do my best, but as you'll soon read, it's not always good enough.  So while pursing this post, please forgive (or at least let me know) any typos, missing words, dangling participles or other failings on my part and you'll be none the worse for it.)

Day 2.  Interval Day.
Progress on achieving my Daniel Craig physique is proceeding as expected; with expected being at an imperceptible pace.  Today was an interval running day.  Unfortunately for me, I think I'm at the beginning stages of a cold, or if my hyperactive imagination has anything to say about it, the start of an H1N1 (formally known as swine flu, but thanks to the ongoing PR efforts of the people who farm pigs/swine for a living, no longer called that) illness.   Chances are, it's just a cold.

I don't know about you, but working out when I'm under the weather turns something that is already tedious into something that is all the more so.  But it's that feeling of accomplishment afterwards, when all is said and done, and I can pat myself proudly on the back for the effort, knowing that I have at least fourteen hours to go before I'm slated to do it again. That's what inspires me to push through the misery.  So push I did.

Because I'm not feeling 100% healthy, I throttled the run back a bit.  I kept it at a 20 minute run.  Normally, I do the following:

Warmup 1 minute @ 10:30 minute miles

1st Interval Set
1 min. 10 min. mile pace
1 min. 8:30 min. mile pace
1 min. 8:00 min. mile pace
1 min. 7:30 min. mile pace

Then I start another set.  For the last set (I do 4 sets) I finish with a 1 min. sprint at a 7:00 mile pace (I've been running 18 minutes after that heinousness is blessedly over), then I do 1 min. at the 10 min. mile pace and 1 min. at the warmup pace.  20 minutes and its done. It's the equivalent in cardiovascular benefit to a 50 minute run (I've been told).  At this point, I want to keel over and die.  Some benie but yeah for me anyway!

Now, you don't have to run at this pace to get the same workout.  It's all about your heart rate.  Optimal for this sort of training is an interval that takes your heart rate from 60% max to 90% max, then back to 60%.  Here's a link to a calculator that can help compute your target heart rate.

Here's another link to learn more about interval running on a treadmill.

I'm told that running after weightlifting is better for weight loss and that running intervals is best for cardiovascular health.  If you ask me, both hurt the same.  Apparently, what the intervals also do is jump start your metabolism so that you burn through calories faster.

Quiz time!  Should you run first, then lift weights?

Thinking . . . thinking . . .

The answer is, no.  I guess it's counter productive because cardio will burn through the glycogen stores first, then attack the fat, while weightlifting will burn through glycogen stores first, then cannibalize muscle.  Creepy, I know.  So running before lifting is actually counter productive to your goal, because you'll end up burning muscle lifting if you've used up all the glycogen doing cardio beforehand.  If the science is off here, I've at least got the concept right.

Now, don't get me wrong.  You want to STRETCH your muscles before you lift weights.  What your muscles want is oxygenated blood.  So instead of cardio before you lift, you could do a warmup set with weights, stretch that muscle while breathing in deeply (6-10 times, each side) to get blood with loads of oxygen flowing to the muscle.  Then do you heavier weight sets.

Last night's failing (a photo essay):
It is hard to live by the rules of Daniel Craigness, as evidenced by this picture.  In it you'll see a beer and my son's pretzel goldfish, which I consumed last night (after dinner).  So I did my run today.  The benefit of running (while sick) was that I didn't lose ground.  But because of last night's "fiesta con salty fish" I suspect I didn't gain much either.  Who cares?  I'd rather eat goldfish then look like Daniel Craig anyway.

In summary:  
Weight Loss-0.  Strength Gain-0  Physique Goal Reach Gain-0  Goldfish Consumed-Plenty

Next post I promise to talk about why potassium rocks and salt doesn't, but that's enough for now.

Need Wanted: Interpret Daniel's Dream

The dreams I have, the ones I remember most, are the ones that happen early in the morning.  Not sure if that's true for everybody else, but it sure is for me.  To set the stage, let's rewind last night to about 5:00AM.  My oldest woke up wanting desperately to take a shower.  This isn't a dream mind you.  This happened (as he would say) in real life.  Not sure why, but he was insistent on getting in the shower at that time.  I was more insistent on him going back to sleep.  We negotiated back and forth a bit, his words mumbled by the early morning confusion, while mine were affected only by the mouth guard I wear a night because I grind my teeth.  Eventually he relented, opting to get into my bed in place of a shower.

We tossed and turned a bit until we both fell fast asleep again.  Then came the dream . . .

(if this were a movie/TV show and not a blog, this is where images would shift, things would get fuzzy, the music would change to an ominous mood providing several visual cues that we're entering a dream sequence now would ensue)

I'm living in the same town I live in today.  I'm guessing that's were I am, because I'm not sure what town it is, but in my dream it feels like home.  Right away I know that something is wrong.  I've left the pizza that I was supposed to bring home to my wife at somebody's house.  The house where I left the pizza was a friend I suppose, but I don't know this person from my real life.  The guy in my dream looked a lot like Roy Scheider, who is definitely not a personal friend of mine, though I do admire his acting chops immensely.  Jaws especially.

Anyway, I got the pizza home and I intended on sharing it with my wife.  But she was busy doing all sorts of other things (eating pizza not being one of them).  She couldn't make time for even a bite.  I kept walking past the pizza (now on the kitchen counter) and whenever I passed by, I'd nibble at a slice.  I passed by the kitchen counter a lot apparently.  Eventually there was one slice left and I took a bite of that one too, gulped upon realizing that was the last piece of pizza and my wife hadn't had any yet.

Then I realized something else.  When I picked up the pizza up from Roy's house it wasn't a full pie.  In my dreamy mind I could remember Roy saying something like--"it's almost all there".  I figured Roy had a couple slices still at his house that were technically my slices.  I didn't hesitate calling him back to ask if I could come over to get them.

When Roy answered the phone, in the backround I heard his teenage sons yelling they had to leave  for school.  Suddenly, I felt very awkward and foolish about wanting to go back to Roy's house to pick  up a couple left behind slices of pizza.  Despite my hesitancy, I asked Roy if I could drop by and pick them up.  An awkward long pause ensued.  Eventually, Roy said I could.

The dream ended with my retrieving the slices from Roy's house, Roy commenting on the effort I put out to get those slices back and his questioning why I just didn't go to the pizza place and order a new pie for my wife.

Then I woke up.

I realize it's easy to say: "This dream means you're a nut case (nut bag, cuckoo-head, whack job whatever)".  I'm hopeful for more thoughtful insights of the subconscious interpretations, so if you have any, please share.

Danny's Getting Fit: Journal Entry #1

This will be a on-going series of journal type blog posts, interspersed with my other musings. The focus here will be on my personal mission to get fit.  With these entries, I hope others might benefit from my experience.

So with that 411, let the fitness journey begin.

Danny's Getting Fit-Day 1
Actually it's day 15, but for the purposes of theses posts, let's call it day 1.

Normally I do not go by Danny.  I go by Daniel.  It was a conscious choice I made as young man, after falling in love with Elisabeth Shue (aka Ali Mills) in the Karate Kid.  Remember-Daniel with an I, Ali with an L.  But I go by Danny whenever:

a. I'm drinking beers with my band mates (hasn't happened for about 18 years now)

b. I need the encouragement because what I'm doing really blows and I don't want to do it anymore, as in--"Go Danny!  You can do it!"

So for the purposes of getting fit, I will hereby refer to myself as Danny.  Because let's face it, working hard at getting fit requires A LOT of encouragement.

Next you should know that I have hired the services of a personal trainer.  Why did I do this?  I mean lifting weights isn't too hard to figure out.  Push down on bar.  Move heavy plates.  Repeat.  After months of working out at the gym and reading different "how to" books and blogs and such I wasn't getting any fitter or stronger.  I invested in a professional who promised to teach me:

1. How to get stronger and more conditioned
2. How to eat right to stay stronger

He went on to say that it's up to me but if I really wanted to do it, I could have washboard abs and a Daniel Craig physique, to which I naturally responded, 'Hell Yeah!' without having a clue what it would take to get washboard abs and a Daniel Craig physique.

I must confess, having a professional trainer explain to me the do's and don'ts, the why's and why nots of this and that makes a HUGE difference in the results.  Yes, it isn't cheap.  Perhaps for the cost of a personal trainer I could drive around in a much nicer leased car.  To that, my wife smartly pointed out when I brought up the subject of cost, "sure, you can drive your out of shape self around in a nicer car.  Sounds like a good plan."  If sarcasm doesn't translate well in a blog post, please note, she was being sarcastic.

For these posts I'm going communicate what work I did, what gains I made and my nutrition plan.  I'll try to keep them short and sweet so they're easily consumed.

I have three weight training days.

They are:
1. Pushing days: bench press, seated military press and triceps pulldown
2. Leg days: squats, leg lifts and hamstring curls
3. Pulling days: lat pull down, seated row and biceps curl

We do a different abs workout each day that works a different set of core muscles.

I'm told we break it up this way because it will maximize building muscle and give me a full body workout over the course of three weight training days.

I run 4x a week.  2x I run right after lifting weights because I'm told I've burned all the glycogen in my muscles and an aerobic work after weight training is automatically a fat burning workout.  So 20 minutes at a slow pace, say 10 min. miles, is the equivalent of a 40 minute run at the same pace.  More bang for my buck!  The other 2 runs are interval runs and I'll write about those on interval days.  By the way, intervals blow.  Really hard.

Today was leg day.  Leg day is my least favorite day because it hurts immensely.  By immensely I mean, I wish it would end before it began and I would denounce my love for Elisabeth Shue, God and Country if it would.  That of course is only in the heat of the moment.  The good thing about leg day is I don't have to run after.  So here's a breakdown of today's pain/gain:

Smith Squats
I keep a workout journal.  I think it's a must have so you can visualize your progress.  The first day I did Smith Squats as they're called, my max weight was 140 pounds for 12 reps on 9/2.  Today, 9/16, I did 180 for 10 reps.  That's a really substantial jump in a short amount of time.  And you know something, I felt a lot stronger today then the first time I did it.

When I lift, I try to do 15 reps. at each weight.  There is benefit to failing.  There is massive benefit to failing.  But more on later in another post.

Leg Extensions
I managed 115 for 12 reps. today (9/16).  When I started my best was 110 for 10.  YEAH FOR ME!

Leg Curls 
I got 115 for 10 today (9/16).  When I started my best was 110 for 10.  So again, YEAH FOR ME!

I'm eating six meals a day and soon will experiment with carb cycling.  More on  nutrition to come, but to keep this as compact as possible I'll tell you that today I plan on cooking chicken breast (cut up) mixed in with Jim Beam teriyaki sauce (low sodium is KEY, but more on that later) and tons of veggies.  For lunch I'll have rice with it.  For dinner, I'm just going to have the mix.  Why?  More on that later too.

This is an education for me in fitness and healthy eating.  My trainer, Jean-Paul Cafarella C.P.T. (603) 557-4767 says that I can get "ripped".  And I believe him.

That's it for today.  I hope you found this interesting and useful for you.  Leave me a comment and let me know.  I'll continue the journal so that we can motivate ourselves to a fitter us together.

Your effort means nothing if it's not "Brady Effort"

Tom Brady: Alien life form, or just insanely determined?

Obviously, Tom Brady is not an alien.  Although it's arguable he possesses superpowers unlike any found in 99.99% of all humanity.  But let's assume for a moment that Tom's DNA is no different than your DNA, or mine.  What makes Brady so great?  Forget if you will, Giselle (just for a moment, OK). Don't ponder the past with Bridget either.  Let's focus on Brady and football.  How does Tom Brady and football relate to me, you may wonder? Chances are you are not Tom Brady.  Chances also are that you are not even an professional NFL quarterback.  There is a much higher probability that you are working IT for some software company, a Internet person at some startup, into finance, a writer, travel industry, whatever.  I'm assuming for the purpose of this post that you have either a) a job, or b) a passion.  

If we convert Tom Brady into a mere mortal and make him, Tom Brady the accountant and not Tom Brady the football player, I am willing to bet that Tom Brady would still be a star accountant.  Why would that be?

You hear these sound bites from Brady (and others) often on ESPN or whatever sports program you might be watching:  "I work hard." "I believe in my team and coaches."  "Blah, blah, blah."

I'm suggesting where Brady is concerned, that these are more than just sound bites.  When Tom says he works hard, I'm willing to bet that he works harder than EVERYBODY ELSE.  When Tom says he has to earn respect from his teammates and coaches, not expect it, I'm willing to bet that he tries harder than EVERYBODY ELSE to earn it.

With that in mind, here are some tips I'm offering to help "Brady" yourself.  Note: I don't necessarily follow these tips because I'm not Tom Brady, but if I were to follow them, I might just experience more success on and off the "field o' life".  

Daniel's 3 Tips to "Bradying" Yourself:

1. Don't expect anything.  Earn it.

I used to get frustrated a work when my ideas weren't being pushed to the head of the queue.  I would blame everybody else for not seeing "the genius" that is me!  Then one day I decided to change my point of view. I said to myself, "look if the idea isn't taking shape it's not their fault, it's mine."  Either I haven't earned enough respect to get the idea pushed through, or I wasn't being effective in communicating it.  When I got rejected (20+ times for my fiction) I didn't blame the publishing industry for my failings.  I blamed myself and pushed harder to overcome their objections with higher quality output, eventually landing a publishing deal.  So respect isn't a right, it's a privilege and Brady knows that well.

2. Do your best.

This I know is pretty dang trite.  But it's one of those easy to say, harder to do mantras.  At the end of a day, I strive to feel physically and emotionally spent.  I want to experience that fatigue because it means I pushed myself to my limit.  I recently started working out with a trainer.  He's helping me with strength and conditioning.  After my work sets, he'll ask me to do pushups.  When I couldn't do even one pushup, he smiled and said simply--good.  He was testing to see if I had pushed myself as hard as I could push.  For Brady that sort of effort is a reflex, like our breathing air.  He's practiced living with a do your best philosophy for so long, it's natural for him to do every minute of every day.  For most of us, it takes a conscious effort to do until instinct eventually kicks in.

3. Failure is good.

Tom goes out expecting to win.  He believes he'll help his team win every game.  But when he loses, it doesn't shake his core belief in Tom.  He reflects on it.  He feels the sting of disappointment mightily.  He uses that hurt to push himself to new levels.  So Tom isn't afraid of losing.  He's more afraid of not caring deeply enough about losing to push himself to new heights.  Everybody runs the risk of failing at something.  But if you face those fears and turn it into a force for personal change--now that's the Brady way.  The subtlety of the Brady way is in knowing the difference between the fear of failure as a motivating factor and fearing failure as an inhibiting one.  

Now, I don't know Tom Brady personally.  But just watching him play football tells me enough about the man to believe that yes, he's quite possibly an alien life form, with a sick work ethic, who's not afraid to fail (even though he fears failure) and who believes nothing is guaranteed except your personal commitment to yourself.  Preachy I know.  But inspiring nonetheless.

What's your take on success at work and life and the Brady Way?  Would love to read your thoughts. 

Oh Qwitter! Follow Me, Don't Follow Me!

It's been gnawing at me for a few days now.  I get what Twitter is all about.  It's a cool, simple and often fun way to check into the thoughts of people you find interesting.  The trouble is, I'm often not that interesting.  Now, I don't know about you.  Maybe you're always interesting.  Maybe soon as you wake up and brush your teeth, or whatever you do, interesting and witty observations about topics of supreme relevancy just come to you.  That doesn't happen to me.  I'm usually making cream cheese toast (sans crust) or lying on the floor encouraging my daughter to roll.  My wife may ask, "didn't you make coffee?"  And I'll say something like, "no, do you think I should Tweet that?"  And she'll say something like, "No, how about Tweet this!"  And then she'll do something with her finger that I'm pretty sure you can conjure up a workable image.

But I feel compelled to "Tweet" because I have followers.  Don't ask me how I got them because I'm not that interesting.  But I do my best to Tweet things people will find interesting (or at least not boring/obnoxious).   The idea of somebody following you one day, then not following you (or unfollowing you) the next, to me is akin to them saying--"well, I no longer believe you're going to say anything interesting ever again."  So when somebody "unfollows" me on Twitter, I can't help but take it personally.  I mean it's not a professional rejection.  I don't get paid to Tweet.  Perhaps my personality doesn't translate well into 140 characters.  Maybe I don't really care.  I mean, if I stopped Tweeting tomorrow, I doubt a rift would form in the space time continuum.   But were I to attempt to stop my cream cheese toast making obligation, well I assure you, time and space would shift in dramatic, near awe-inspiring ways (at least inside my house).

Still, why does it hurt so when I'm "unfollowed"?

Why should I care that somebody quit on me?  Thanks to Qwitter, you can now find out the who and even when somebody stopped caring about you.  It's a good chance that person was a spammer whose account had been shuttered by the folks at Twitter.  But I've had the unpleasant occasion of attempting to direct messaging somebody who was following me and I them, but received instead a message explaining that I couldn't message that person because the 'insert username of cad who unfollowed me here' isn't following me anymore.  That bitter sting of rejection was a cold reminder that even anonymous "friends", whom I haven't spoken with in person for over twenty-years, can hurt your feelings if you're too sensitive about such nonsense.  Which I admit to being.  As a resolve, I must thicken my skin.  So I say: follow me or don't follow me.  Sorry, R.E.M., but I still don't get what 'I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush' means.


Words into action:
Follow me on Twitter here.
Don't follow me on Twitter here.

Bottom line is that Twitter is here to stay and I'm going to use it gosh dangit, even if my only followers are wondering where their cream cheese toast is at.

What's your take on the Twitter Following/Unfollowing phenomenon?  Comments wanted.