@tangofoxtrot: “we’re creating the 10 commandments on the web. 2 column tablet. Only displays in Moseszilla” 09:23 PM March 22, 2008 from web

@guykawasaki: “Sperm in your hair isn’t terrorism?” 06:07 PM March 17, 2008 from web

The Twittosphere is listening to you…

Don’t keep those funny Tweets/comments to yourself. Expose your friends’/foe’s funny and embarrassing comments to wasoverheard. Here’s how it works:
1.) Start following wasoverheard on Twitter.
2.) Wasoverheard will automatically follow you back.
3.) Listen in for stupid/crazy/witty stuff your friends say.
3.) When you hear something cool, direct message wasoverheard with @(person who said comment) and what they said, and the comment will be posted for all of wasoverheard’s followers to see. This will be posted anonymously, so you shouldn’t have any problems getting away with it.
4.) Laugh at your friend’s pain. Or don’t. That’s really up to you.
5.) Wasoverheard is a community project. The benefit of following it is a constant stream of funny one-liners flowing through your Twitterstream.

I have no idea who started wasoverheard, but I would like to thank the guys at b5media for pointing it out to me. Too funny!

What did I learn at SxSW Interactive? Although I saw some interesting speeches, particularly from Frank Warren and Charlene Li, what struck me most was being able to meet the people I see online. Technology is amazing. It connects people. But if you sit behind your computer all day, you will not understand the subtle nuances to human interaction that you understand by meeting and interacting with people at a face-to-face level. That is what South by Southwest Interactive offered me.

At one point, I ate dinner with Dave and Erik from Nashville, Cian and his girlfriend (argh, name escapes me but she was a jeans designer) from London, and Graham from New York. It was a great time sharing with people who appreciate technology but use it to reinforce connections made in beyond a computer screen. We did not know each other before SxSW, and yet our use of Twitter, the internet, and a bunch of good jokes ensured we always had something to talk about.

If anything, it taught me that we have a long way to go in this world if we want to truly use social media effectively. At this point, we are a bunch of early adopters communicating with other early adopters. We are the elite. It is good to connect with early adopters to build and exchange ideas. As social media becomes easier to use and more accessible, we will see more “non-techie” people contributing their ideas to our lives with ease just by using social media tools. What tools will we use ten years from to ensure that people from all circles can communicate effectively? We are already seeing every social media site seeking to be the de facto standard social media site in its niche. How do these varying standards create social cliques on the web? How do these cliques raise the level of our collective knowledge by the forces of collaboration, and how do they take away from it by pigeon holing us into one group?

Five out of six people at that table use Twitter. Would I keep up with these people as easily if they only sent updates via MySpace? Probably not. They are thousands of miles away and communicating with them quickly would require me to login regular to a site I do not frequent often. Will we all be on Twitter in ten years? I have no idea. Did I have fun and do I think they are worth following? Yes I do.

Apparently the fortune cookie was right. We live in very interesting times.

I read a Duncan Riley article in Techcrunch that well regarded blogger Susan Reynolds is undergoing surgery today for breast cancer. Although I am not familiar with Susan or her blog, I remember what it was like to go through my own sister’s cancer experience and I wish her and her family the best during this hard time. Our peas are with you!

Why peas? Read an exerpt from Reynolds’s blog, Boobs on Ice:

When I discovered a very thick area in my breast I called the doctor. The next day I was in her office. A half hour after that I was in the diagnostic radiologist’s.

A full afternoon and multiple stab wounds later we had a variety of samples of malignant tentacles of tissue that were on their way to the lab.

I was in a little pain – it would increase as the local anesthetic wore off – but left his office with a soft cold pack in my bra.

To keep bleeding down & relieve pain I’d need to keep things cool. Traditional ice packs are hard and heavy. As much as I try to be a good sport I’m not into having a brick sitting on my chest.

Enter a bag of frozen peas.

I tucked it in my bra, took a picture, and was ready to tell the story later that night. That bag of peas added a touch of lightness to what could have been a sad and serious tale.

* A bag of peas was something everybody could relate to.
* Some people love them, some hate them, some use them for their own injuries.
* A bag of frozen peas was a vehicle for conversation and let people tease me instead of having to cry.
* It let people share instead of bemoaning.

I napped a lot during the first few days after the biopsy. The news was sudden and stunning after all and my body was being assaulted.

Mmmm peas for lunch?

When I fell asleep with peas in my cleavage I’d wake to the smell of freshly cooked peas. That made the story funnier, and more human. Of course I shared it because what is life but a series of stories.

After enough cooked peas I moved on to baggies with ice cubes or larger gel-packs which truth be told still are too big and too heavy to be comfy but help with pain.

The peas however live on in the form of stories from others about their use of pea-packs and the line-up of twitter avatars sporting peas in support of my struggle.

This makes them a comfort in more than one way

You can follow Susan through her Twitter account. Give your support by adding peas to your Twitter avatar, and don’t forget to donate to the Frozen Pea Fund!