Not just Traffic Problems but Happy Tweets Too !!

There are all sorts of tweets flying about the interwebs these days… some move people to social change… others connect friends and family… I have found the business, government and even television tweets to be some of the best follows of all.

Travel and Traffic

Washington State DOT (WSDOT)
WSDOT Seattle area traffic (wsdot_traffic)
WSDOT mountain pass (wsdot_passes)

One of my favorite columns in Tweetdeck is reserved for the ‘adventures’ of both the construction crews and safety crews of our state Department of Transportation.  No longer are they the “people of the orange cone” causing traffic backups for endless construction without mission or end.  With the companion web site these follows provide great short and long term information about new projects, inspections, and ongoing maintenance.  They are also frequent Flickr posters and have given me a whole new appreciation for the tireless efforts to keep the passes open welllllll past spring.

Recipes, Specials, and More

Grocers and Food Products

PCC Natural Market (PCC)
DRY Soda (DRYSoda)
Fred Meyer Stores (Fred_Meyer)
Tillamook Cheese (TillamookCheese)

I have found several grocers and many many food products to follow on Twitter… I love the DRY soda brand and love hearing about new locations where this well crafted beverage can be found.  Need a new cheesy thought? Following Tillamook brings a great variety of easy, fast options while PCC many not have as cheesy a recipe offering they are WAY more interactive.  Several times I have not heard of an ingredient in a recipe they post and the helpful staffer tweets back information on which store might have it or if it is vegetable or mineral.

Fred Meyer is a prolific mass market store, but they are very forward acting on recalls… not only do they tweet links to thier web page updates during the large recalls, but print messages on the bottom of register tapes of loyalty card members who have purchased recalled items, and during the nut recall last year even made outbound IVR calls!

Where is that rolling party today?

Restaurants of all Sizes

Marination Mobile (curb_cuisine)
Church’s Chicken (ChurchsChicken)
Seattle Yelp (YelpSeattle)

From THE mobile Hawaiian Korean truck that rolls through the Seattle streets, to the fried chicken of my youth there are amazing restaurants posting daily specials, coupon offers, and event pictures.  I used to follow about 20 different places and then simplified it all by following Seattle’s Yelp Ambassador, Katie S, and her adventures around the area.  I’ve yelped my way to elite status this year and met all sorts of new tweeple at some great events! (but that is a different Netweaving post!)

Twitter is a great way to check out future road trip stops!

Cupcakeries

Trophy Cupcake (trophycupcakes)
The Yellow Leaf Cupcake (TheYellowLeaf)
Cupcake Bakery & Deli (cupcakedeli)

Yes they are all the rage… but they are also a $3 investment in the unknown.  We love to checkout the amazing rainbow of flavors and styles everywhere we go (Cupcake Country).  Some of my favorite cupcakeries on Twitter are the wedding / catering / partying powerhouse Trophy (with retail locations in Wallingford and University Place Mall) and the up and coming new shop over on 4th Avenue, The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company.

Where Trophy has kids party toppers, The Yellow Leaf has french press coffee and amazing loose tea combinations.  Both have solid cupcake flavors with The Yellow Leaf being a bit more spontaneous… at least it seams that every day they tweet a new flavor!

The Cupcake Bakery & Deli in Eastern Washington is on our “To Try” list.  It’s just a couple of months old and we can’t wait to make the yearly wine press raod trip in the fall so that we can give them a try.

I hope you are inspired to find the twitter treasures in your area to help you find great shopping, great eats, and a safe trip!

… or maybe even you… 40 yrs ago?

There once was a time when channels turned off

Stacking several volumes of the Encyclopedia Americana to just the right height?

Listening to Walter Cronkite explain how long the test pattern would be on the screen?

How long you would have to adjust your Super 8 camera?

How long the transmission might last? If there was one at all?

We had a HUGE 17 in black and white television on a rolling stand so positioning was easy.

Making sure that the room was dark enough took some doing… I have vague memories of my parents putting towels in the top of the windows and pushing furniture across the bottoms… they have 13 windows across the back of the whole house in one long open room with and open balcony to the master bedroom… dark was not an easy thing… it took what seemed like forever to get things ready.

It was oooh sooo worth it.

The picture was SO clear… not even as bad as a rainy stormy day when the antennae on the top of the house would never be in just the right spot for very long.

Oh the fun of Super 8

Just to be safe we even ordered the ‘official’ Super 8 version from CBS news… my mom still has both our taping and the ‘official’ one.

Finally there was a happy celebration for everyone to talk about… for weeks! For just a while people forgot the endless war… and the looming Russian threat… it was a happy, family filled day.

How do you and your family remember that day?

Photos are from I am Charley and Wonderlane

How many people did you have breakfast with today?

I watched 50, helped make suggestions to 12, and followed 1500+ all in the space of 7 hours.  How?  Through several tools used in conjunction with Twitter.

I follow the amazingly perky and visual Andrea B (cyberetto) and enjoy following her Flickr photographs through her Daily Lifestream Digest.

Last night Andrea posted the most amazing photo of Coffee & Croissants and it got me thinking… what is everyone else having for breakfast around the Twiterverse (the collection of people who use Twitter around the world).

I attached the Tag “globalbreakfast” to the photo and proceeded to search out others sharing the same meal in different ways around the globe in 2 ways:

TweetDeck Search and Cloud used together.

Twitpic Public Timeline – you can refresh the page and ‘watch’ the new photos as they are posted.  This is not for the meek… somewhere someone in the world is A. Drunk, B. Partially Naked, C. Proud of Something Gross… but it can make for good people watching.

Tweetdeck / Twitscoop Integration – The multi-tasker’s paradise becomes super flexible when you toss a seach next to the cloud!  I didn’t think to grab a pic when I was spreading the love but it did generate a peak of 20 tweets at a time :-)!

I cluttered up the stream by using the #globalbreakfast tag when asking people to join in… but once I got enough pictures I started sending a link to the GlobalBreakfast tag page on Twitpic instead.

Why?

I reached out and I met people. Tweet that you don’t know what you want for breakfast? You would have gotten a Tweet from me suggesting you look at the collection of pictures for ideas… started a bunch of great conversations!

I made Andrea smile and we shared a group forming experience few get to see… by using her picture as a calling card (take a picture of your #globalbreakfast and join http://twitpic.com/1d0es and others around the world) she got 1000+ views in an hour!

I had a chance to start the conversation about starting the day with a hearty breakfast and continue the conversation about Clean Drinking Water (CDW) for all.

I don’t intend to do this every day… but Friday night / Saturday morning seems ripe for the picking… I have started to research global / national efforts to ensure a healthy breakfast for all.

Did you know that Feed the Children in the UK is having a Eat A Breakfast Save A Life Day 2009 the week of 23 February 2009? Right now that seems like the front runner for my message next week… but I’m open to suggestions / enhancements / debate :-)!

This week a family took their children out, someone ate at Azeteca, and a father prepared breakfast for the family all in the time it took for my husband and I to order (picture on the right) and be served (picture on the left) our hearty breakfast… who will be eating with us next week… and more importantly…

How do we bring the conversation of a good breakfast and clean drinking water to the GlobalBreakfast table?

****July 20009 Update

Twitpic has disabled the ability to tag photos.  I have not found another service that will provide the same collage / sharing feature yet.

As I’ve mentioned before… One of my favorite ways to keep in touch with my online network is through the microblogging tool called Twitter.  At the beginning of the holiday season I sat down and created my 2009 Men of Twitter Calendar.

Coming up with the list of women has been much… much… much more difficult!

With the holiday tree in the front window and a blanket of snow on the ground today seems like a great time to pass around a tray full of rich connections full helpfulness and light …  It was really difficult to get down to just 12… and I may just slip in a couple of others that would have graced the holiday squares:

January

Valerie Gonyea (vgonyea)
Biana Babinsky (bianababinsky)
Jan Tallent (jantallent) 

I may not know where I will spend New Year’s Eve, but I know that the menu for the long football-filled weekend will be infused with the great meals Valerie, Biana and Jan creates… how can you tweet a recipe?  Easy… mix these 5 things, bake this temp J… longer creations do take email… but a wonderful community emerges when you tweet what you are creating for dinner.

Each of these women have amazing business and tweet with humor and community concern… but this holiday season it is their sense of community stew that keeps me warmest. 

February

Karen Swim (karenswim)

Few people can turn a phrase as well as Karen let alone craft so much caring into 140 characters!  I met Karen through online networking groups, but have come to cherish the time we spend ‘chatting’ on the weekends.  A tireless entrepreneur who is a great example of building a strong personal online brand.

March

Lisa Dilg (pprlisa)

Wildly funny and serious (sometimes in the same tweet) Lisa is like a fresh flower peeking out from under the snow.  I have gained many great follows from her suggestions and discovered some great blogs from her retweets.

April

Debrah Micek (CoachDeb)

Deb is a warm breeze blowing in from Hawaii… she helps all her followers embrace the power of online marketing through her myriad roles –   lecturer, blogger, author, radio host… way more titles than I can think of… she is also a member of the twitter puppy club and taught us all the power of networking when she tweeted about her dog eating a box of chocolate and we all learned (thankfully in time) just how dangerous it was.  

May

Beth Kanter (bethkanter)

Debbie C (snax)

Beth and Debbie are amazing forces in the world of online non-profit collaboration.  Beth – in the use of Web 2.0 tools by organizations around the globe.  Debbie – in the needs of the gulf area.  I met Debbie while helping with the 2008 Hurricane Information Center project and have continued to be blow away by the force of hope and help she has brought to sooooo many organizations!

June

Kim Beasley (kimbeasley)

If you are looking for a mid year change to your online business Kim is a great follow.  She is a world class site designer and business transformation expert.  Her tweets are funny and informative… she also runs a great mind mapping group on Facebook that helps both novice and expert organizers of thought.

July

Heather Gardner (Heathergardner)

It’s so easy to gloss through life in the summer.  How often do you read a blog post that encourages you torun NAKED through the sprinkers?  This warm and engaging lady behind a great recruiting blog shares her California adventures in work / family balance while bringing a personal touch to the 2.0 world. Her “Working With a Recruiter 101” post should be required reading for everyone. 

August

Five Husbands (fivehusbands)

I first came across this eternal well of hope and possibility through a comment on a post entitled “Depression Clouds Everything” on Jason Alba’s blog.  Divorce, ending unemployment, worker discrimination, children issues, and the Ohio economy all sprinkle through her tweets.  She has recently found employment again (yippee!) and continues to serve as a great cheerleader and advocate for those struggling to keep on.

September

Irene Koehler (IreneKoehler)

Like the ladies of January Irene is a great food follow, but she also brings the regional current events touch of Karen Swim, along with the recruiting / HR discussions of Heather Gardner…. so she is a great all around follow… but don’t order yet… there’s more to the Ginsu set…  Irene has started a great ‘Can I Help‘ service on twitter (in conjunction with her blog) this year that everyone in the twittersphere should follow…. follow the link for the ‘rules’ and join the hottest new trend in netweaving –> grateful assistance :-)!

October

Susan Beebe (Susanbeebe)

Susan is very active in the PMO (project management office) community and brings color and humor to both Friendfeed and Twitter. With over 20 feeds streaming into her Friendfeed stream (including 3 twitter profiles) she has really optimized her online work flow and is a great professional and personal follow.

November

Barbara Howard (TheRecipeBox)
Sally Witt (DrSallyWitt) 

As the holiday’s approach I find myself reaching multi-task overload.  One of the ways I love to relax is by listening to Barbara and Dr Sally on Blog Talk Radio.  Both ladies send show and blog updates on a regular basis and during these hectic days of fall I would much rather keep up to date by tweet than by RSS.

December

Carol Deckert (caroldeckert)

Carol is an amazing coach, netweaver, and motivator. She is connected across the internet, but her random positive thoughts and todo’s on Twitter are always a spark for action:

I hope that you find this list helpful in building out your network of great follows… but in the spirit of the season of sharing… who do you follow that changes you world in ways you would have never imagined when joining Twitter?

JULIE’S JOURNAL IS HOLDING A PILLSBURY GIVAWAY!

In honor of the Pillsbury Home is Calling Campaign, Julie’s Journal is giving away three Pillsbury Home is Calling gift baskets, which consist of:  

1. Coupon for Pillsbury refrigerated crescent rolls
2. Magnetic coupon holder
3. House-shaped mouse pad
4. Pot holder
5. Cookie sheet
6. Bread basket
7. Lovable Pillsbury Doughboy figurine.

It’s a noble cause too because Pillsbury is giving groceries to a food bank, a pound for every person that is sent their web commercial.

Visit http://www.juliesjournal.com/2008/11/24/pillsbury-gift-basket-giveaway/ for your chance to win and to also to find out who you can help those less fortunate.

Are you sure you water doesn't need you?

As a former Appalachian, former water chemist, and former water utility consultant I am very passionate about helping those that live without the luxury of clean water.

So today I am starting a blog tag about clean water… and since many organizations don’t have blogs of their own… here are 5 organizations and 5 blogs:

World Water Day

Every year in March people from around the world bring light to the problem and organizations that support the dream of clean water

Global Water Foundation

Another global organization that funds grants for water improvement projects around the globe.

If you think that everyone in the USA has clean water think again:

Living Waters for the World

Mission opportunities to help build water systems… Appalachia is listed just after El Salvador and before Haiti

I Love Mountains

Did you know that people are taking the tops off of entire mountains to get at coal… think strip mining on steroids… and that is destroying the water ecology and threatening both people and flora and fauna… go to the bottom of the page to see how you can help.

Rivers Foundation 

Helping keep rivers and waterfront habitats clean and healthy in the Americas… not directly drinking water related… but if you surf through the related sites and see just how many states have trouble with rivers and lakes you have to wonder how much longer we have before it’s ALL our water that’s contaminated / more expensive to clean / harder to find.

Here are the blogs that I have tagged based on their past support of the above organizations.

1. End Poverty Blog

2. Take Part Blog

3. Moose Poop on the Lawn  [(A Pastor with a wandering Moose :-)]

4. Global Water Foundation on MySpace

5. PDX Green

BUT Please consider yourself Tagged!

What resources do you know about that support clean water?  

How can we work together to end thirst in our lifetime?

Just because I am not aware of your passion for clean water don’t hold back!! Add a comment, write a post, and join the netweaving effort to help the fabric of resources save all our water!

New to a game of blog tag?  Here is how it works:

1. Write a post on your blog tagging 5 online resources helping promote the fight for clean water.

2. Add a comment below linking to your post 

3. Let those you tagged know that they are ‘it’ and encourage them to continue weaving our informational quilt.

(Photo is the work of viZZZual.com and is used under Creative Commons License)

I never really have given any thought to the clutter in our house.  It’s not ‘carve a walkway through the livingroom’ but if I lived in the south again I would change my living room habits :-).

Ever since the show aired earlier this week The Carpenter and I have been walking though the house in the evening and deciding on the next space to start on.  We are big fans of FlyLady  and tackle one room each week for deep cleaning BUT we have never taken the time to explore a vision for each room.

Like many people the kitchen is the center of our home.  So we gave some tough conversation to what is working and what is not about our counters and our drawers… we agreed that the drawers all work… everything is in it’s place, we know where everything goes, and it is used in the general area it is stored.

Here on some thoughts on how I brought a great deal of balance and joy to my life in 3 of the drawers:

No 1 Drawer

When at the stove a love to dig into my top drawers, one is for spices and potholders, but the real magic lives with the tongs!  My life was transformed when I spent $10 on 3 different tongs and found one that fits how I work.  It’s just the right length, the scallops grip in just the right way, and the closure jiggles with a flick of the wrist.  I now have 8 of them.  I never run out. I can have 4 pots on the stove and 2 dishes in the oven and still have a pair for each!

I am also a whisk fanatic.  They must be silicon coated, and no 2 are alike. Like the tongs, I never run out, and none cost me more than $5.  Need to take a knife of a picnic?  I have knife safes for each blade from the days when I didn’t have the counter space for the perfect block.  There are still some specialty knives (and a fish bone puller) but everything is used either on the stove or the cutting board that rests on the counter above.

Wine closures, equal and gum… what a combination… but I always seem to run out of equal and gum in my purse and somehow this has become the storage for the refills.  I didn’t even realize they were in the same drawer until I looked at the picture :-)!  

Pizza, Pasta, and Dip Drawer

Next down the stack is a drawer that mixes stove with cutting board / prep needs.  Plenty of spoon rests and even the hand held vacuum sealer… but dip mixes and ‘finishing’ toys all have a place here. A bit more crowded and a bit less used… BUT everything you would need to scrape or cut, or dice that is not covered in a knife block or drawer No 1. 

Joyous Junk Drawer

Yes, this is my real junk drawer.  It is my only one.  It lives between the dishwasher and the door to the pantry / garage.  There are some handy items (picture hanging hardware, emergency wind up light, label maker) and some last thought items (lint brush, cough drops, picnic napkins).  

The real joy comes from the box of grease pencils ( that way I never run out), the spare remote control (yes, the Westie used to eat that many of them), and the stash of chocolate.

What small items always go missing?  What aggrevates you the most when you can’t find it or have to go AGAIN to the corner store to replace *it*.  That is what I stock in my junk drawer.

What do you stock in yours? 

What will you tackle during the clutter challenge?  What visionary things are you learning this week?

Given the big day tomorrow, I thought it fitting to start off November with my favorite Obama quote, which comes from the introduction section in The Audacity of Hope:

“No one is immune to the call to find common ground.”

I like this quote because epitomizes the idea that you should appreciate the perspectives of others, something I’ve written about before. 

I have always looked at election day as 2 events:

• A chance to make my mark on the same ream of paper that started in 1789.
• A chance to ensure that women will continue to have the right to vote.

I don’t think of myself as a feminist, but my Grandmother Parker never missed a chance to tell me that she served 50 years for the Red Cross, but could not live long enough to get a 50 yr Republican pin. Every primary, special, and general election she would remind me that participation was not optional.

This shaped my view of this country as much as her stories of the depression, blackouts in Baltimore during WWII, and living in South Carolina with 3 small children and no accent.

How do you look at election day in your country? State? City?  How has it changed your views of how we work together and what we fear in each other?

Hover over pictures to learn more about the steps and the progress

No matter where I have lived I have upgraded cabinets, installed new tile and made even a rental house my home. The transformations played out above run the range of an hour to a year, but they all have a powerful thing in common – Freecycle, clearance items, and Second Use.

I hope that the pictures and descriptions will inspire you to enjoy your current house by making it you very personal home!

Projects Completed in a Day  

Yard Transformation

We have 3 perky puppies and a wonderfully well planted yard.  Postings on several local www.freecycle.org lists, and a colleague with an unwanted kennel helped created the barriers that keep the dogs happy and the plants living.

Garage Transformation (Part 1)

The door from the garage to the kitchen was moved to the laundry room / hot water heater niche before we even moved in.  It was the first step in creating an entry DMV for groceries and coats so the perky dogs stay inside while The Carpenter can have the garage door open all day long if he chooses.

Dinner Room

Not everything has required tools.  We transformed a quilting / piano room to a cozy dining room thanks to my grandmother’s furniture (both sides) and ‘lending’ our bedroom side table lights until we hang a ceiling light.

Projects completed in a Weekend

Mobile Laundry

Project 2 prior to moving in.  The laundry hook ups traveled up the wall to the master bedroom closet.  Plumbing folks at Loewe’s and Home Depot helped us navigate the world of plastic plumbing… we have always had copper before.  This Old House had great suggestions for washer hookups that only let water flow through when the appliance is turned on.

This was done in conjunction with demo of the lower laundry room so it was easy to reinforce the floor both from underneath and with plywood and tiles from above.  There are no shakes and the doors can stay open even when both machines are running and we are sleeping.

Guest Half Bath

None of our bathrooms came with a medicine cabinet. Rather than put an industrial cut / scrape / clean up station in the garage we picked up a discounted cabinet at Lowe’s and used paint from a mystery shop to change the mood to a calmer shade of pale.

Completed in a Year

Garage Transformation (Part 2)

Being married to The Carpenter has it’s upside (free labor, jar opening service, winter cuddles) but he comes with a large of wood flaked dust for baggage :-)!  One of the key features of any home is room for The Carpenter to play AND room for my vehicle to be out of the weather.  

To make the floor easy to maintain we rolled our own floor covering thanks to the oops pile at Lowe’s.  2 gallons of the goop cost just under $100 (marked down from $75 each), but the jury is hung on value.  It is starting to flake in some out of the way places, but the high traffic areas have held up OK. Application, with drying periods, took 3 days.

To facilitate pegboard happiness and a dust free Buick the third pay was segregated into a separate room.  The wall took 2 weekends to build, and the entire garage took 6 weekend to finish the walls, ceiling, and trim.  It was not a small undertaking, but the results are amazing.  While the color is not for everyone, I find the calm light blue relaxing and enjoy getting out of my truck each night.

It has made more of a difference than I would have ever imagined!

THE Pantry

This is by far the largest project we have climbed. Some days even literally.  The Carpenter built some custom cabinets to fill in what we were able to find at Second Use and even had to make 5 doors.  If I didn’t have his skills to call on we could have paid a little more and had a set that fit the space.

My cooling racks have a home, my wine has a home, our dog leashes have a home, all of the BBQ tools have an off season home. This space is a full expression of what I hold dear in food preparation – stand mixer, bread machine, food processor, cell phone charging station.

Every day when I pass from the blue garage to the grey pantry I am surrounded with an instant peace and sense of belonging.

Maybe it’s a new coat of paint… or installing crown molding for the first time… there are projects little and big that can lift your mood and bring you ‘home’ at the end of every day.

Since the holiday tree is up at the mall this would be a great time to look back over those that have enriched my network the most …  It was really difficult to get down to just 12… and I may just slip in a couple of others that would have graced the holiday squares:

January

Phil Burns (Phil801)

Not a day goes by that I don’t notice if Phil hasn’t posted… or hold my breath when a tweet comes in… He is an amazing father who has faced the challenge of having 2 children with life threatening illness with tenderness and courage.  He is a great programmer who struck out on his own to drive great changes in the Web 2.0 blog relevance (TagJungle). Please check out www.liftingupserenity.com for the latest blog posts and a chance to help this family navigate this steep road of everyone I follow there is no one that deserves warm thoughts more.

February

Vincent Wright (VincentWright)

In the dark and cold days of February the groups that are fostered by the careful hands of Vincent send warm thoughts and funny experiences from around the globe.  Vincent tweets about great articles, interesting snip-its from list members, and great new job resources.  He is a recruiter of diverse talent in addition to a social networking coach and cheerleader.

March

Mario Sundar (mariosundar)

Social networking maven for for the popular site LinkedIn during the day and great TV an movie reviewer by night.  His new product and current event tweets always have a happy spring in their step.

April

Warren Whitlock (WarrenWhitlock)

Warren navigates the storms of the ever changing on-line ecosphere to evangelize bringing your personality to life in a professional manner… he promotes a good breakfast and clean water for all as a way to break the ice creatively and drive meaningful conversations with everyone he meets.  Lecturer, blogger, author, radio host… way more titles than I can think of… always interesting and refreshing.

May

RichRecruiter

Not too rabid Phillies fan that lives and works in a part of New Jersey that I used to roam which reminds me just how great it was (sometimes) not to pump my extra cheap gas.  Great comments on current events, blogs about his company on MySpace, and uses Twitpic to share cool slices of his home.

June

Robert Scoble (Scobleizer)

Following Robert is like a year round summer vacation.  Great techie current events, and awesome video posts.  Has a weekly show on the impact of technology on how people work, and captures interesting road trips around Silicon Alley and the world.

July

Terry Bean (TerryBean)

A great positive energy comes through every tweet from Terry.  He messages about the vibrant Detroit social media network and great efforts to change the referral market. Reaches out often across the Twitterverse with great questions and interesting ReTweets. I think of conversations with Terry like meeting an old friend at the ice cream social on the town square.  Great stories of how the summer is going and happy outlook toward the future.

August

Christopher Hoyt (TheRecruiterGuy)

Tweets on the evolution of social media and recruiting and all the great things that he has changed in his corner of the recruiting world.  And just when he sends something really thought provoking… he is off to spend time with his daughters… the ‘back to school’ shopping trip isn’t on Twitpic anymore… but trust me… his humor is not to be matched!! Also, since he is in Texas… he gives a great summer perspective :-)!

September

Jason Alba (JasonAlba)

Creator of JibberJobber, an online contact management system that helps me keep track of the people, companies, recruiters, and job posts I come across. His books are great references for using both Facebook and LinkedIn to your best advantage. His tweets follow his lecture circuit and family adventures.  If only every CEO was so accessible the world would be such a happier place!

October

Brett Nordquist (Akula)

I found Brett by searching on BrightKite for people in my town.  What a find!  His blog is very fun and I love hearing the latest adventures that he has around town with his wife and kids.  Better than following the chamber of commerce!

November

Andrew Badera (AndrewBadera)

An amazing programmer, gearhead, organi-phile.  I love trading farmers market finds as much as thoughts of how to find the missing wrench in the block and following Andrew reminds me of many great Devs I met during my time hanging around MIT. Wicked shaaap and wicked funny!

December

Dave Matthews (DaveJMatthews)

Yes, that Dave Matthews!  He tweets through his global travels and used Twitpic for interesting artwork and snapshots of far off lands. And every once in a while he sends a great nugget of thought that makes me think about my day, my family, and my life in a different way:

I follow about twice as many women as men… so I don’t know if I can pull off a list of only 12 women… but in the meantime… who do you follow that changes you world in ways you would have never imagined when joining Twitter?