a peek inside the fishbowl

I think this probably happens to everyone who has an account that reaches a certain milestone, but suddenly I’m getting a whole bunch more Twitter followers than ever before. I’m not one of those people who automatically follows everyone back. I spend about 5 seconds deciding whether I will follow someone or not. This is what runs through my mind:

• Has the person posted a photo of themselves? If it’s blank I automatically assume they’re a spammer. I also prefer photos of people, not logos, or cats, because I prefer to see a friendly face. Speaking of which, I have unfollowed people with gross and/or animated photos because I can’t stand seeing them in my feed. So pick a good photo of yourself and run with it.
• What’s the twitter handle? If it’s something like SunnyDay23765 I assume it’s a spammer and don’t read on.
• Has the person filled out a bio? Some people don’t bother, so I don’t bother.
• How did they use their allotted 160 characters for their bio? The bio is make it or break it for me. And this is where I confess that I don’t often follow people in insurance/car/real estate/pyramid-type sales. I don’t want to open myself up to the hard sell. Sorry, but it’s true. If you list yourself as a salesperson first above all other things I assume it’s your priority and that you’re just out to find clients. Be creative. Be yourself. Scratch that… be the Best Creative Version of yourself. And use good keywords too. If you love cupcakes and want to connect with other cupcake lovers, say so in your bio and they will find you.
• Has the person told me where they live? I am more likely to follow someone who lives in my home town. Filling in a location can also create some work/networking/interpersonal opportunities too, so if you are the kind of person who is looking to boost your Twitter followers, it might be a good idea to reveal where you are tweeting from.
• What has the person been tweeting lately? If it’s funny, relevant, insightful, or interesting, I am more likely to follow. I am also more likely to follow if there is a good balance of “look at me” tweets and tweets about other people. I have unfollowed people who talk about themselves ad nauseum. Twitter is a conversation, and I don’t want to follow people who just talk about themselves all the time. And don’t be a jerk. Because if I see you being a jerk (to me, or to anyone one Twitter) I will never give you my business. In fact, I’ll tell people to stay away from you because you’re such a jerk. Here’s a good exercise: open your twitter feed and look at your last 5-10 tweets. Do those tweets reflect the kind of person you are?
• I am lukewarm in regards to inspirational quotes from Gandhi, Einstein, Maya Angelou, etc. but I think opinions are mixed on this one.
• Has the person interacted with me? I may not follow the account at first, but if I sense that they’re listening and interacting with me I am more likely to follow.

If you’re on Twitter I’d love to hear how you decide who to follow.

p.s. I should probably mention that I’m @missfish on Twitter eh? :)

For awhile there, every Tuesday was Family Game Night around here. And then, for awhile, life got in the way and we totally forgot about it.

For me it’s very much an “out of sight out of mind” thing. All of our board games used to be stored on a shelf in the basement and as a result, were more likely to be forgotten. But not anymore! Our recent renovation gave us the opportunity to build a giant wall-to-wall floor-to-ceiling bookshelf and there’s ONE WHOLE COLUMN devoted to board games. I kid ye not. (Click on the wee image on the right to see a full-sized version.) The shelf goes waaaaay back, so those awkwardly long boxes fit in there perfectly.

Family Game Night is a good thing. I’m happy to do something as a family that doesn’t involved electronics for a change. And somehow we always end up laughing our heads off. AND, don’t tell my kids this, there is SECRET LEARNING happening too. Shhhh.

There is no excuse NOT to have a family game night anymore!

Last week we played a game called Amonia. The 11-year old smoked us all. It’s an excellent word association game and players with better recall will prevail. Regardless of my big loss, I think it provided some much-needed brain exercise for me.

Last night we played Word Thief, which was fun too.

This game is reminiscent of Scrabble. Players are dealt cards. Each one has a letter of the alphabet on them. Players use the cards to form words and earn points, but the twist here is that words can be “stolen” from other players. If someone takes an opponent’s word that person loses their points and the stealer makes a new word (or two) out of it and wins points. There are poker chips for scoring, which, oddly enough, was a big part of the appeal for the kids.

ONCE AGAIN the youngest family member walked away with another big win. Sigh. I am chalking up my loss to old brain matter okay? Or perhaps next time we should pick something harder so she can’t beat us. Hmm. Maybe Monopoly? :)

Does your family have a favourite board game? Spill it! I’d love to hear your recommendations.

We checked out a new trail last weekend and it was FAB. If you’re a cross-country skiing family and are looking for something new, try Green’s Creek in Ottawa’s east end. We discovered that it had everything we wanted in a cross-country ski trail: it was scenic, with speedy straightaways, curvy forest trails, and a couple of satisfying hills to boot.

The hill pictured directly below was one a good one. You zip down, turning as you go, right onto a bridge with open water underneath. (!)

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