A few days on Twitter - has it changed my life?

So, at the beginning of the week I had a Twitter epiphany - in short if I have nothing interesting to say on Twitter maybe I should just read instead of tweet. A few days on, here are the results of my experiment.

I began to follow NASA (Josh's recommendation), MLB.com (the baseball season being in full flow and with the All-star game voting in it's last week), Pixar (with Toy Story 3 coming out today in the US I figured they'd have plenty to say), Empire magazine (the only magazine I buy on a regular basis), Chris Colfer (the lovely Kurt Hummel in Glee), Neil Patrick Harris (guest star in Glee, former Dougie Houser MD and Tony awards host) and finally Kevin Smith (foul mouthed film director of Clerks, Mallrats and Dogma who also plays Silent Bob).

Unfortunately I had been off work sick since Tuesday and getting the laptop out was more effort than I could manage. Happily I had already downloaded the Twitter app to my phone which made keeping on top of tweets quite easy. Here's a rundown of who tweeted what....

NASA

"After the Soyuz docks, it will be the 1st time a long-duration station crew has included 2 women (Shannon Walker & Tracy Caldwell Dyson)."

Josh was absolutely right about one thing - NASA tweets on a frequent basis. This is the tweet I found most interesting but there were dozens to choose from. Could I have lived without this information? Yes, but it feels good to know it.

MLB.com

"Last night, Jamie Moyer (47 years, 210 days) became the oldest pitcher to beat the Yankees. Next oldest: Phil Niekro (47 years, 122 days)."

This was originally from ESPNAmerica but MLB.com retweeted it. MLB.com tweets all the time. Game updates, player updates, pieces of trivia like this, reminders to vote for your all-star team, fantasy baseball updates. Loads and loads. Can I live without this information? Definitely. In three days they only mentioned my team once and that's when they were (unsurprisingly) losing to the San Francisco Giants. They failed to tweet when we actually beat them in a game and failed to mention that the winning pitcher in that game was making only his second start. If I want information on the Baltimore Orioles I need to actually go to the Orioles homepage and find it there. It's no big surprise. They're a small team who are struggling and MLB.com usually focus on the big players (the Yankees, The Red Sox etc). Having said that it's always a pleasure to hear that someone has beaten the Yankees. And a 47 year old pitcher - wow!

Pixar

"In less than 6 hours, Toy Story 3 arrives in theaters! "

Well maybe in the States it does but we have to wait until next month:-( Actually I was disappointed by Pixar's tweets. They basically all said the same thing in a different way. I'm hoping once TS3 is out they will begin to tweet about films they currently have in the works which should be much more interesting. Basically I just felt like they were taunting me about how long I'll have to wait to see it!

Empire magazine

"And yes, as you might have guessed, Toy Story 3 is all kinds of brilliant. Full Empire review to go live tomorrow. #pricklepantsforPM"

Well obviously I'm jealous that they've seen it but I was also really pleased to find out when they'd be reviewing it. And I was also really pleased that they gave it 5 stars and a glowing review:-) Empire mostly tweet about new articles on their website - which I read most days anyay, but they occasionally have some funny office banter which they tweet about too.

Chris Colfer

"Apparently I died or something? Well, unless I'm having a Sixth Sense moment, I'm alive and well! But thanks for showing you care! :)"

Kurt is my favourite Glee character and Chris Colfer comes across as a down to earth, witty guy who can't believe his own luck. He's only tweeted once this week and obviously it's to clear up some internet rumour that's making the rounds but previously he's tweeted about the Glee live tour and about being backstage at Jimmy Fallon's show (btw if you find that interview on youtube he tells a story about accidently peeing in a prop toilet on the set of Monk....) He doesn't put a nose in his smilies though which I find a bit :-S

Neil Patrick Harris

"Getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame - awesome. Having it be in the same year as the Muppets - priceless."

NPH reacts to the news that he's getting a star on the walk of fame next year. He also tweeted about his birthday which was this week. He tweets quite frequently, which is nice, but he doesn't always have much interesting to say. Kind of like me but the odds of me ever getting a star on the walk of fame are slim......

Kevin Smith

I couldn't possibly quote anything Kevin Smith has tweeted this week and keep the PG status of this blog! The man is filthy minded...and really entertaining. KS made headlines earlier in the year when he was tossed off a flight in the US for being too large for his seat and where did he vent his spleen? Twitter of course. Earlier this week he tweeted positively about John Goodman's weightloss but generally he rants about everything...and he rants a lot!

So that was the great twitter experiment. Did I enjoy being a reader instead of a tweeter this week? Actually I did, but bare in mind that these are a few of the MANY MANY tweets I've read this week and these are the only ones I thought were interesting enough to write about. Generally it's full of cr@p and you have to sift through it all to find a few gems. Perfect if you're ill and have nothing better to do but I'm not sure I'd waste my time on a day to day basis. BTW the UL tweeted yesterday

"Daily #Varsity now available at the Tea Room - keep up with all the #mayball reports ... "

Stop the presses........