It’s been quite a while since I’ve been here. I’m terrible about keeping up. Some of it is on account of being too busy, and some of it is on account of being too tired. Actually, I think what happens is that I am too busy, and then by the end of the day, because I’ve been so busy, I’m too tired. Sometimes going to work really drains me. But now, I have a week off for Spring Break, and I’m psyched up about that, so I’m going to try to post something here every day, and see if I can’t get back in the habit of posting to my journal.
For today, I’m just here to say…I’m back! And I will also make a couple more observations. One of the things I’ve been busy with is, of course, the podcast. Russ and I continue to do that, and enjoy it. Also now, I’m going to be starting a new blog shortly, called Adventures in the Marvelous Zone, which will be my take on Marvel Comics. 
Being married to Russ, his enthusiasm for comics has been contagious, and I’ve been infected with the bug! I’ve started writing some blog entries about the earliest Marvel comics, and I’m enjoying that so much—not only enjoying the writing about them, but enjoying the stories even more than the first time I read them. There is so much in these stories! But I’m not going to say any more just yet. I hope to have the blog up and running by the end of this week, and when that happens, you can go there to see what I’m talking about, if you like.
Now, one more thing tonight: this is a thought I’ve had for a while. As we work on the podcast, we are trying to get oursevels more involved in Twitter and Facebook, to get our name out there, so people who like Dark Shadows will know we exist and they can come to our website to listen to our podcast. I have to say this upfront: I have never been a fan of Facebook. I just don’t understand how it works. And now that we’re on Twitter as well, I have to admit that I don’t really understand that either (though it’s not quite as confusing as Facebook is to me.)
When I try to deal with Twitter and Facebook, I feel so old, and old-fashioned. Cos I just don’t “get it.” I don’t know what all the hoopla is about. And honestly…I just can’t figure it out. It’s really weird, because I can do blogs and journals, and I can even do a PODCAST.. but I just can’t get the hang of Facebook.
But there is one thing I’ve noticed about Facebook and Twitter (Twitter especially), and that’s that I think to a large extent it’s not really so much “Social Networking” as it is “Social MARKETING.” There are so many people that have something to “sell,” something they want you to see. It’s so much about getting the word out. Yes, I admit, that’s exactly what we are doing on those sites. I’m just amazed at how many *other* people are doing the exact same thing. I would estimate that at least 80% of the people we see on Twitter are only there to tell you about what they’ve got, what they’re trying to “sell” to you (even as we are trying to “sell” our product to them.) It’s kind of funny, actually…in a sad kind of way.
My initial thought about Twitter was that phone commercial from a couple of years back, where the dad is sitting on his back porch, and entering into his smartphone: “I’m…sitting…on…my…back…porch.” That’s what I originally thought Twitter would be all about, people posting inane things about their lives. Boring and inane observations. I almost would have preferred that. But instead, I find it a little discouraging that people are not just there to talk to each other as much as they are to tell and “sell.”
And the whole idea of “twitter,” the word is like a bunch of birds just chirping away. That’s really what it is. Everyone’s chirping, but I don’t know how many people are actually listening. But you know what? There’s so much chirping going on around us all the time, that you couldn’t possibly listen to it all, all the time. It would drive you mad. So you have to be selective, you have to choose what you listen to, what you watch, what you read, what sites you visit. If you don’t, you’ll be on total information overload.
This is the world we live in.
