What a twit!

Yesterday night, in a moment of weakness, I did what I would consider a very bad thing. I gave in to temptation in a shocking way. For in a moment of thinking it might be a good idea, yep, I did what I'd been holding back from doing since its viral release onto the net years ago:

I created a Twitter account. :-/

I blame the events of the last few weeks, from a couple of weeks ago and Leeds being promoted, yesterday's Championship play-off and the Radio One Big weekend, to Champions' League and Over the Rainbow finals, its all been ripe times for possible Facebook updates. However spamming people's recent updates in a place they're not expecting just doesn't seem right and it was all just getting too tempting. So damn you social media! You might have won this time but I held on for a good long while... I'll be a good sheep and join back in line with the flock for now, but not before I've gotten this off my chest... for if a blog wasn't enough by itself as a means of publishing too much personal information onto the web, now I've set myself up for doing even more of it in 140 character batches. In such a circumstance this post would have only made it as far as:

 "Yesterday night, in a moment of weakness, I did what I would consider a very bad thing. I gave in to temptation. Yep, in a moment of thinkin" 

...and what sort of street talk is 'thinkin' and what sort of update is that? Waffling is therefore likely to be cut, except in extreme bursts. Explanations are to be omitted, except in follow up tweets.  So is that what my mind has sunk to - thinking in short sentences? Well yes and no. On occasions it gets distracted well before 140 characters, and sure, often I could probably express an opinion in 3 words or less, so 140 characters is probably a step up!

I'm not too sure on the benifits of Twitter except to reach out into the wider global consciousness of sharing random things but there is only one way to find out for sure. The one thing I do know it will bring is an opportunity to keep up with the rest of the worlds netaholics: those who prefer not to spend their time typing for an hour at a time. So fair do's, I've taken the leap. It might eat into my time a little but at least I'll be able to reply to what Stephen Fry is playing with and what Chris Moyles had for breakfast... why did I sign up again?

I'll be trying to tweet regularly and will be happy to follow my blog-readers or twitter-readers - is that what they're called? I'm a twitter n00b, can you tell?

So if you'd like to follow me, my Twitter page is: http://twitter.com/LifeformNamedSi 

As well as whatever I end up tweeting, I'll also be providing updates from there of when I have a new blog post up here. Also, to bring twitter to my blog (for those of you still fighting back the urge - if there is anyone left?) you might have already noticed that there is now a little feed on the sidebar here with a couple of the most recent updates. I apologise in advance for scaring or offending anyone; I'll try not to but you never know!

Happy Tweeting.

Northern Ireland... back to the future.

As a nervous 18 year old, flying toward Belfast city airport, I remember leaning my head on the side of the plane looking out of the window through the dancing sprites of light at the land below. I had no idea what would await me in Belfast with a girl I had only met once before in a city hundreds of miles away.

What I did know is that I had a fluttering stomach, and was filled with the most optimism I had ever had. I’d also never felt such a longing to be with anyone more than I did that day. More than I could have ever imagined before we had originally met and she had become a part of my life. Several years later, those memories and feelings from that day and many others are as clear and as strong as ever.

Now settled with her in N.I with the wedding planned for later this year I feel I have probably overcome the biggest first hurdle in life and one that I didn't realise was such a big thing until it happened - finding a sense of belonging with another and fulfilling the desire to love and be loved.

That may all sound a little sickly (bokey as they say around these parts) especially if you don't have a significant other at the moment but as with anything in life, I believe it is our experiences that make us who we are and what makes life... well, life.

And that brings me to why I've decided now to blog of my future experiences. The reason is threefold:

1. Living in a society that is still so strongly influenced by Religion, National Identity and a sense of ‘them and us’, as a humanist and agnostic I would like to record my experience whatever there is in store.
   
   
2. For anything that might be seen as a rant – I agree with Stephen Fry and because he puts across his views so much more eloquently than I could ever dream to type, I would recommend listening to the following of his podgrams:
   
   Stephen Fry’s Podgram Compliance Defiance
   
   If that doesn’t tickle your fancy, suffice to say the gist is “When something bubbles inside you, you have to get it out” and I would for sure like to bring it back to reason when I feel that way, so I figure giving 'typing it out and sharing a little' a go might be a good form of therapeutic release.
   
   
3. I read a lot of blogs and I wouldn’t mind hopefully adding something worthwhile to the mix or at least giving it a good try.

So that’s why I'm going to put pixels on the page. On that note, it’s probably time to get back to the future... let’s hope it’s a good one!