And They’re Off…

This morning Experimental Biology began officially, as did the tweet-off between Marty Frank, Executive Director of the American Physiological Society, and Dr. Isis, the shoe-loving, smoking hot science blogger.

I have blogged the rules on multiple occasions, most recently here. In short, the participants will try to sign up the most new followers on twitter between 8:00am PDT Saturday and approximately 6:00pm Tuesday. The winner receives all due accolades at a tweet-up in the Hilton bar at 10:30pm Tuesday evening.

So where is our starting gate?

• @ExecDirectorAPS:  142 followers
• @drisis:   1,115 followers

What do you need to do? If you have a twitter account, follow one or both of the contestants. If you don’t have a twitter account, what are you waiting for? Click on over to twitter and set one up; it takes about 2 minutes and a valid email address. Twitter identities are ExecDirectorAPS and drisis. Click on the links and then click the “follow” button. Really, they cannot make this any easier.

Either way, don’t forget to follow me (@PHLane) for updates on this horse race! Or, if you prefer a less “real-time” experience, I will blog updates at this site as well. Also, any tweets related to the meeting will carry a hashtag: #EB10. You can see what everyone is tweeting about EB by searching for this identifier; don’t forget to include it in your own updates!

Also, feel free to say hello if you see me in real life (IRL) at #EB10. I am easy to identify because I am not anonymous or pseudonymous, and my real photo appears on this site. My name badge has been blinged, including a cool pair of martini-sipping kidneys. Furthermore, I use a BlackBerry case that looks like what happens when a leopard gets bedazzled.

Who will win? Will the credentials of an Executive Director draw more followers? Or will the new, improved pants-free goddess prevail?

It’s up to you… Go tweet!

Fight Club Meets EB

As you may have heard, the amazing icon of hot science and shoes, Dr. Isis, and the fearless leader of the APS, Marty Frank, will start a twitter-war for world EB 2010 domination this Saturday morning. In earlier posts this event was described in terms of boxing matches or mud wrestling. Of course, #EB10 is in Anaheim, CA, a kinder, gentler place (even if it does have a professional hockey team nearby). Therefore, my final imagery for this challenge is one that seems much more California-like: tofu wrestling. Folks, you can’t make this stuff up (click on the photo and follow the link if you doubt me).

I am not going to repeat the rules in this post because I did that recently here (and originally here). Today you get to hear about the winning event!

The winner will be determined by yours truly at ~6pm PDT (just before the bar opens at the Renal Section Banquet at EB). The winner will receive accolades in the bar at the Hilton beginning at 10:30 pm PDT that evening. Look for me or Marty Frank (the goddess will be wearing an invisibility cloak). Hijinx and shenanigans should follow!

Keep following me (@PHLane) on twitter for updates throughout the meeting. And let the games begin!

Countdown to EB2010

One week from today I fly from the home quarters in Omaha to Anaheim, home of the original House of the Mouse and site for this year’s Experimental Biology (#EB10 for you twitterati).

In addition to the usual scientific stuff, the twitter smack-down between Dr. Isis (@drisis) and Marty Frank of the APS (@ExecDirectorAPS) begins at 0800 PDT on Saturday, April 24. Isis currently claims 1105 followers, while Dr. Frank has 139 followers. For those of you who do not wish to follow the link above for the rules, here they are:

The challenge: sign up new Twitter followers (Tweeple or Tweeps) during Experimental Biology in Anaheim.

I will certify the number of followers each has at 7:59 am PDT on Friday, April 23, just before on-site registration opens at the meeting. When a predetermined deadline has been reached, I will once again check the number of followers for each. Whoever has the most new followers will win. For those of you more mathematically inclined:

New followers = N(deadline) – N(start)

I am letting the fighters determine the “prize” which may also determine the deadline. For example, if a tweet-up with the loser buying drinks is involved, we should probably end on Tuesday to allow that event to occur. If clown services at some point in the future are involved, well, we can go to the last minute on Wednesday.

For those of you who have never experienced twitter, well, it’s about time! After all, the EB program is available for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch. Go to the app store and download Echofon, set up your account, and get ready to pick sides.

There may also be a tweet-up. What’s that? Someone will tweet a location and time to congregate. If you’re not tweeting, looking for that #EB10 hashtag, you may get left out of some fun!

So get ready, Anaheim- scientific gizmo geeks are on the way!

APS vs. Isis Slam-Down

No, the above photo is not a depiction of this year’s Experimental Biology meeting in Anaheim. It is labeled on Flickr as a Biker Mud Wrestling Party.

As of today, EB is one month away. I am awaiting official updates from the training camps of Dr. Isis, the Domestic and Laboratory Goddess, and Marty Frank, Executive Director of the American Physiologic Society. The contest will see which of these icons of physiology can enroll the most new Twitter followers during the meeting. The rules and other details are outlined here.

Dr. Isis recently acquired an iPhone; her daily tweets show increasing proficiency with the touch-screen keypad. The Frank camp is maintaining silence on his training regimen.

Only one month till EB; let the shenanigans begin!

More Thoughts From The Movies

The Gift

I always try to tell my kids something they can easily purchase for me when a gift is necessary. This past Christmas I suggested the DVD of Julie & Julia, a movie I never got to the theater to see.

On Christmas morning I found out both of my offspring had wrapped this one for me. My son described his sojourn to get that which his mother wanted. He traipsed from store to store, and had to “shove” a rather large woman to get the last copy at Best Buy. My daughter had just picked it up at Target where “they had, like, a million copies.”

Needless to say, I kept the one from my son.

The Movie

Reviews of the film raved about the Julia portions, especially Meryl Streep’s performance (big surprise there), but found the Julie segments wanting. I would agree that the story of Julia Child and her book for us “servantless Americans” soared, but the depiction of Julie Powell cooking and blogging her way through the tome also hit home for me (and who doesn’t love Amy Adams?).

Watching the movie got me thinking, because I used to cook. Not just throw stuff on the table, but plan real food prepared without a microwave. That stage of my life hit the yuppified 1980’s, so my culinary bible was not Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

The Book

On a shelf in the kitchen, where I keep the tattered cookbooks I use the most, sets an original copy of The Silver Palate Cookbook. A 25th anniversary edition is now available with color photos; my copy remains black and white, with line drawings and hospitality suggestions in the inner margins.

I remember coming home from work as a resident physician, telling my husband to eat some chips, and then conquering a wonderful, complex dish from its pages (after a much needed trip to some gourmet specialty shop). Cooking could be risky and creative, but no one ever died (unlike my day job).

I realized that with my youngest child 17 and ready to leave the nest, I could do some more recreational cooking again. I pulled my book off the shelf, and it fell open to Mediterranean chicken salad. This mixture of chicken breast, nicoise olives, tomatoes, and olive oil not only pleases the palate, but also provides a packable lunch and some of the best chicken stock you will ever use.

I am still exploring my cookbook again, often with Meryl/Julia playing in the background.

The Blog

If you are reading this blog, then you know that I am familiar with the world of Julie as well. This part of the movie did not get respect in reviews. My spouse cannot understand why I spend anytime online blogging (or tweeting, or anything else), and it seemed that many of the reviewers felt the same way.

During the film we also meet Julia’s pen-pal, Avis De Voto. Their first face-to-face meeting is depicted in the move, but Julia wrote volumes of letters to Avis before they actually met. Julia Child found a friend through written correspondence; how is that different from the friends I have found online?

Admittedly, many of my tweeps use pseudonyms, so I do not know their real-life identities. But how much does a real-life name matter when you need to bitch about your job or shout out a triumph? Not that much.

The Conclusion

I have watched this movie “several” times now, often while preparing some complex dish. I see the parallels not only between the movie’s characters, but also with events in my present, absolutely non-fictional life. And I blog about all of it here.

Bon Appetit!

Looks Like We Have A Fight!

We have a match, folks!

Dr. Isis, that shining example of spousal devotion, maternal instinct, red-hot science, and beautiful shoes, will be in one corner. Facing off against her will be Marty Frank, Executive Director of the American Physiologic Society, science policy guru, and all-around nice guy.

[Please note photo is an artistic rendition and not the actual participants]

Here are their current statistics on Twitter:

@drisis first tweeted November 4, 2008. She has 977 followers and has posted 3069 updates.

@ExecDirectorAPS began twittering July 21, 2009. He has posted 329 updates for his 111 followers.

The challenge: sign up new Twitter followers (Tweeple or Tweeps) during Experimental Biology in Anaheim.

I will certify the number of followers each has at 7:59 am PDT on Friday, April 23, just before on-site registration opens at the meeting. When a predetermined deadline has been reached, I will once again check the number of followers for each. Whoever has the most new followers will win. For those of you more mathematically inclined:

New followers = N(deadline) – N(start)

I am letting the fighters determine the “prize” which may also determine the deadline. For example, if a tweet-up with the loser buying drinks is involved, we should probably end on Tuesday to allow that event to occur. If clown services at some point in the future are involved, well, we can go to the last minute on Wednesday.

Rules? Do we really need rules?

Yes, the goddess can pull off a lot of wackalunacy with her cloak of pseudonymity. Marty must maintain some degree of decorum, but he has the bully pulpit that comes with being a recognized authority figure, at least among APS members.

Will institutional power trump general hotness? Will stilettos kick sensible shoes? Who will win? Who will bleed?

Stay tuned for more!

Happy Twitterversary!

At 21:20 CST today I will celebrate one year of tweeting.

When I enrolled, I could not comprehend the value of these short comments. Little did I know how twitter would become a part of my existence, complete with friends and colleagues who make me happy and sad and angry.

Until you try it, the whole concept sounds utterly ridiculous. What can you say in 140 characters, really? And how many people do you really reach?

At the time I write this, nearly 200 people follow my thoughts on twitter. If I tweet something particularly notable, my followers may retweet it, with the potential to reach thousands of tweeple in a manner of minutes. That impact is far broader and faster than an email chain.

I am now well over 2000 tweets. Some are interesting, many are drivel. But I have enjoyed them all.

HIPAA Meets Politics Via Twitter

The following story hit my mailbox yesterday, courtesy of HIT News. Seems a worker in Mississippi has lost her job by getting a little snarky with protected health information via twitter:

A simple tweet has sparked a HIPAA compliance and public relations mess at Mississippi’s University Medical Center, and an administrative assistant is out of a job as a result, reports a local TV station.

The controversy began when Mississippi governor Haley Barbour posted this tweet on his Twitter page: ”Glad the Legislature recognizes our dire fiscal situation.  Look forward to hearing their ideas on how to trim expenses.”

“Schedule regular medical exams like everyone else instead of paying UMC employees over time to do it when clinics are usually closed,” tweeted UMC administrative assistant Jennifer Carter. She had heard that the governor had come into UMC for a physical one Saturday three years ago, and that the clinic had to be staffed up with 15-20 workers just for his visit.

Next: Carter paid dearly …

Two days later, Carter was in UMC’s compliance office for violating HIPAA’s privacy provisions. The Compliance Department told her the Governor’s Office had tracked her down and told them to deal with her,” according to WLBT.

Carter says she was suspended without pay for three days and “strongly encouraged to resign,” which she did. She says she ”wasn’t really jabbing” at the governor.  ”That’s just what people do on Twitter.”

I explored a number of the links provided on the site, yet I have one big unanswered questions about the event:

Did the governor publicly acknowledge his physical or its results at the time of this appointment? Those in the public eye, especially in an election year(Barbour is up for re-election in 2011, so this event took place during his last quest for office), often have their physicals and then assure the public that they are in great health. If it was public knowledge that he had the physical, then I am confused about where the break in protected information occurred. Carter said nothing about his health, merely commented on the “unnecessary” costs the state may have incurred. Given security issues with a prominent government official, the situation described may have been the least disruptive for the medical center’s other patients. It could even have been a cost-effective measure when all other factors were considered.

If the appointment was not publicly acknowledged, then Carter’s tweet was clearly a violation of HIPAA, since knowing the date and circumstances of a medical procedure can compromise one’s privacy. Her defense- she ”wasn’t really jabbing” at the governor- seems silly. Clearly, she was questioning the governor’s judgment and priorities. Such “jabbing” would be protected speech… if a healthcare appointment weren’t involved.

Social media, like twitter, allow us to find our audience as never before. We all must remember our legal and moral responsibilities, and use these freedoms wisely.

On The Road Again

Tomorrow I hit the airport en route to Renal Week, the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Nephrology. After some administrative work, my week will be devoted to all things kidney. From the most basic science to the most novel clinical trial, 14,000 devotees of urine (or lack thereof) will be gathered to celebrate their favorite organ.

Attendees and other kidney fans are invited to Tweet the Week. We will be twittering about the meeting and other events surrounding it. I am sure Renal Week will provide fodder for this august venue as well.

I will also try to update everyone on the weather. After all, I will be in San Diego. I get to gloat at those I leave behind in Nebraksa.

A new podcast should also be available soon. I chat with current president Tom Coffman and president-elect Sharon Anderson about the ASN. Look for it and other meeting stuff on the site or in our iTunes area.

For the rest of the day, well, my brain has already flown west…

A Little Bird Told Me…

In late September, the football coach at Texas Tech outlawed Twitter for his team, as reported by ESPN:

Coach Mike Leach said Monday he has banned his players from using Twitter after one of his linebackers noted the coach's tardiness to a team meeting in a tweet Sunday, one day after the Red Raiders lost 29-28 at No. 12 Houston.

Now, publicly criticizing your coach for being late is not a wise idea, especially after a close loss. Marlon Williams, the linebacker in question, has learned an important life lesson. However, Leach goes on to make it clear that he just doesn’t get Twitter:

"I think that a guy who plays college football gets enough attention," he said. It's "a bunch of narcissists that want to sit and type stuff about themselves all the time. We'll put mirrors in some of their lockers if that's necessary but they don't have to Twitter."

Before I began tweeting, I wondered why people wanted to know what I was doing. It did seem silly and narcissistic, but then I signed up. Twitter isn’t really about what I am doing; it’s about pointing people to interesting things I have found on the web. It’s about spreading the word for an online petition or a fundraising event. It is about what my friends have found. It is just another form of communication, like the phone or email or texting.

Today one of our medical librarians sent me a link to a posting with 140 ways Twitter might be used in healthcare. We have already seen its power in political events, like the Iranian “elections” earlier this year.

The coach at University of Texas, Mack Brown, takes a different approach to Twitter and other social media, since he believes banning its use could be illegal:

"It would be a football rule and when they're students away from us, they really are under the guise of the university more than football," Brown said. "What we have done is encouraged them not to be on it. If they are on it, then they need to be classy and not put anything on there that they don't want their mom to read. These kids think that they're just in conversation with buddies, and that's public information."

Brown said he encourages Longhorns players to step back and think about the ramifications of what they post -- not just now, but in the future.

University of Missouri has promoted tweeting by Sean Weatherspoon, a senior starter. His tweets have not revealed any team secrets or inappropriate information, but they do give us a peek into the life of the college athlete.

Twitter can be used in many ways, and I have been surprised by its usefulness and entertainment value. Of course, I would never tweet if my boss were late to a meeting; I have learned something in my 48 years on the planet. I bet Texas Tech linebacker Marlon Williams never does again, either.

All quotes are from the coverage by ESPN.

Tweet the Week in San Diego

Those planning to attend Renal Week, the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, are invited to Tweet the Week. A lot of those signing up for the activity have not tweeted before. Some of the nuts and bolts of the service are obvious after the sign-up process, but there are ins and outs of the Twitterverse that may not be readily apparent.

Basics of Twitter

So you have a screen name (if not, click on the logo below; all you need is a valid email to sign up). Now it is time to create your profile page. Try to come up with a photo or image of some kind to represent you online. Put some information about who you are, but nothing you don’t want strangers to see. For an example, click on the Tweet the Week logo below; it will take you to the RenalWeek profile.

You also have to make a choice about whether or not to protect your updates. If you do not, anyone on Twitter can follow you and see what you put out there. You can go through your list of followers every so often and block anyone you want (like the half-naked women whose profiles list their favorite sex act), but you will also encounter a broader, more interesting swath of people this way. If you protect, then only people who you approve can see your updates; however, this means you will have to manually OK each and every follow.

For Tweet the Week, we have chosen to keep the feed closed. Some of the followers are closed, but most are public. RenalWeek is following all of the participants. Anything tweeted by RenalWeek will be visible only to official followers. 

Specific Tweet the Week Issues

If you are tweeting something general on your public feed, anyone who follows you will see it, including RenalWeek. If you want to send a message to RenalWeek that you only want the Tweet the Week crowd to see, you can direct message it. Do this by placing “D” in front of the screen name: D RenalWeek. If it is something of interest to the RenalWeek crowd, it can then be retweeted. Most twitter clients allow you to repeat someone’s tweet; this is how stuff “goes viral” and spreads quickly.

Mechanics of Twittering On the Go

You can tweet from a computer, and there certainly will be internet access in the San Diego Convention Center. Most stuff worth chatting about does not happen when you are near a screen. Luckily, Twitter was made for the mobile world, with a character limit shorter than a standard text message. You can register your cell phone and have tweets texted to you; this may drive you crazy after a while. You can also set it up so you can send tweets to the service via text message. Your usual text fees apply, so figure out ahead of time what this may cost you.

If you have a smart phone, you are in luck. BlackBerries, iPhones, and Pre’s all have Twitter clients that make participation easy and fun. There are too many to list here, and more popping up every day; a quick Google search will take you to lots of choices.

Even if you decide to limit your tweets to your laptop, you may want to check out a dedicated Twitter client. Many will let you group your followers or work with multiple accounts. I am using TweetDeck, and I have my personal account (PHLane; feed shown on the blog page above) and the RenalWeek account for Tweet the Week. A bunch of these are available; some may be downloaded via the Twitter web site, and there is a Wiki that lists many more.

I hope you decided to attend RenalWeek and to Tweet the Week with us. If you have any specific questions, ask in the comments below so others can share your answer.

Joys of Seniority

For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter (@PHLane):

1. Shame on you! You’re missing the wittiest 140 character updates available!
2. An update: due to a family medical emergency, the colleague working in my lab is not at the current meeting to present her work in about 90 minutes.

The poster arrived by FedEx this morning. I pinned it up and read it. And I’m in trouble.

See, Claudia Chaperon is interested in circadian rhythm and its potential relationship to cardiovascular and renal risk factors, especially in relationship to menopause. She was looking for a lab with the equipment she needed that could also help her learn RT-PCR techniques. I fit the bill, and i have a deepening interest in menopause from a personal standpoint.

I did suggest that she sample kidneys as well as the SCN, that teeny weeny part of the brain she samples for gene expression. And there is rhythmic gene expression with a 4 hour lag behind SCN expression. But I can’t say much more than that…

The great joy of seniority is I DON”T HAVE TO EVEN TRY. I can explain the situation and give them Claudia’s email for other “neurosciencey” questions. If I were a bit juinior, I would have spent my afternoon cramming, not enjoying a lovely day by the pool.

Now this is the real joy of tenure!

Photo courtesy of PhotoXpress.

On Meetings Large & Small

For the next few days I will be communicating from a conference on the role sex plays in the kidney and in cardiovascular disease in general.

I have commented at length on planning and packing for meetings, and on various aspects of larger meetings I have attended. These included Experimental Biology and the Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association.

Smaller meetings are different (duh). For about 3 days I will be with a group of people with very similar interests. We will talk together, eat together, drink together, and sleep together (in the same hotel, not the same room). These meetings are a great “breeding ground” for new ideas and approaches. While big meetings should generally include a personal session of touristy behavior, smaller meetings are more intense. And, ultimately, more valuable, even though some may see them as less prestigious than their larger brethren.

When I get bored, I will twitter about random thoughts (@phlane), and I will try to update the blog once or twice. I just finished my last book, About Face, and I should post another What I’m Reading on Sunday. After all, I will have time to burn in airports!

Career Maintenance in the 21st Century

Today I heard a story on NPR’s Morning Edition about social media and applying for jobs. That resume printed on heavy bond in a matching envelope is so 20th century… and we are almost a decade into the 21st! Sending a printed job application makes you look, well, old, or at least out of touch.

Some folks have found jobs through FaceBook or Twitter, but the most popular professional networking site is LinkedIn. This site allows you to set up a resume with current and past positions, education, more detailed descriptions of interests and job responsibilites, and a short status update similar to those on FaceBook.

The fun is just beginning! You can add links to your blog or other web pages. Apps let you share travel plans, books you are reading, and PowerPoint presentations or other documents.

The real power of LinkedIn is its networking. Using your places of education and employment, email address book, and interests, the site locates people you may know. You then ask them to “join your network” which is like being a “friend” in FaceBook. You can also ask your primary network contacts (your “friends” to continue the analogy) for recommendations. These can be viewed by others on LinkedIn to support your online resume. My public view is shown below:

Those who have joined LinkedIn can generate a bare-bones resume in PDF format as well.

Once you have set up your primary network and, perhaps, joined some groups, you can then arrange “introductions” via the service. Say you want to meet someone from Company X. You can search for Company X and identify people. The service reports those who are linked to your network. Secondary links are those connected to your primary network, and tertiary networks are one more step removed. You can request introductions via these links and eventually make contact with people.

A number of companies and headhunters use the service to find contacts who may want jobs they have or may be able to suggest appropriate candidates. When you sign up you specify what you want to hear about and how you want to be contacted. I am not actively job hunting, but I get at least one inquiry a month this way.

LinkedIn has been called “FaceBook for Professionals.” It is a useful tool for job hunting and career maintenance. If you are over the age of 18, you probably need a profile!

The Power of Twitter

This morning just before 11 I tweeted a link to a news story about how HSUS spends its funds.

After just 5 retweets by 6pm, it had been directed to the eyeballs of 997 followers.

Not all of those followers are unique, nor will all of them follow the link.

But I sure could not have emailed that link to almost 1000 people during that period.

Why Do We Twitter, ETC?

Why do we blog and text and Twitter and Facebook and email and everything else?

Ever since the first caveman picked up a rock and began grinding things on the wall, we have had the desire to communicate. I have been thinking about this alot, since my husband does not appreciate the current lines of communication. When I send a text or email to someone, he sneers. It seems I should pick up the phone and hear their voice, not settle for the "written" word transmitted electronically.

Last week I went to see the new stage version of Mary Poppins. I do understand that this is not a historical piece, but it did get me thinking about communication in the Victorian era. Pre-telephone people wrote notes. The rich had messengers to deliver these notes when needed. There were multiple mail deliveries each day. Mass media was the spoken voice or newspapers. When events occurred, paperboys hit the streets with special editions to get the word out. Those who could not read or afford the paper had to settle for what the boys yelled or what others told them.

The telegraph allowed our thoughts to be transmitted over longer distances, but the telephone was the next big change for personal communications. Remember the movie Meet Me In St. Louis? The family is excited and shocked that a boy is calling the older sister, Rose, long-distance. There is discussion about a possible proposal and whether or not one should marry a boy who would propose via an "invention." Sounds like my husband's attitude to email, text messages, and the whole social web!

Mass communications also changed through the 20th century, with the spoken word replacing text for immediate dissemination of news. TV and radio replaced the paperboy and the special edition. Newspapers became a once or twice a day publication. Now we are watching many of these papers die as the internet becomes the source of indepth news that they once provided. We can still get our immediate needs met with TV or radio, but we often go online when we want more than can be broadcast.

Personal communications have also changed, moving back to the written word. Fax machines first allowed us to send printed pages quickly, but soon we were emailing and texting information without ever printing it.

So in this brief, rather unresearched history of communications we have come around to written communications again. Some will last, like posts online, and others will evaporate into the ether as soon as the text screen is cleared.

So what will I tell my husband after this mental exercise? Things change - get over it! Some thoughts still require a face to face meeting (I put proposals, break-ups, and really bad diagnoses that I share with patients in this category). Because email and texts do leave a trail, some private conversations should be done face to face or by phone. Otherwise, I believe that anything I can say I can write. Or tweet.

Singing like a bird in spring

Earlier this week I wrote about Twitter. I admitted that I found some interesting twists, but I couldn't figure out why so many people love it. And I mean LOVE it, if they are really tweeting at the times on their messages. Last night my loving spouse, who doesn't really understand the power of text messaging, asked me to explain the Twitter thing. I finally admitted that I was still trying to sort out what was truly useful.

One of the people I follow is blackberryman. Through his posts I came to one on the use of microblogging in education. It's sort of vague, but does give me food for thought.

I'm looking for specific examples of uses of Twitter or other microblogs in education, particular graduate or medical school teaching. Leave a comment or a link to your site. Or tweet me!

Follow you, follow me...

I admit that I joined Twitter not having a clue what it was all about. For approximately a month now I have been tweeting, trying to figure it out.

My first followers were an SEO and other techies. I signed up to follow them, and I have learned a lot from what they post. They are currently at SXSW, a social networking conference in Austin (thank you Google for that information), and I've gotten ideas about how I can use this tool in various aspects of my life.

I then figured out how to make my tweets update my status on Facebook. This accomplishment led to the stream of "Pascale is..." posts that have increased the breadth of my followers. One night I posted that I was sitting down to enjoy a great old flick on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). Next thing I know, TCManiacs is following me. I signed on as a follower, and found out that all sorts of interesting sites and the daily theme and schedule are posted. What a great idea! As a classic film buff, this service alone makes me happy to be one of the tweeple!

Of course, as I look at what I post, I realize how mundane most of it is. As a physician-scientist many of my friends and family members think my professional life is exciting. Not true! Most of it comes out like, "finished at first hospital; now time for second institution." Or today's question: "Is anyone in Omaha still peeing?*" Yet people read these and sign up to follow. Makes me worry about some of them, cause I wouldn't generally follow the stuff I am writing.

Which makes me wonder why I'm writing it. In part, it's because I am still feeling my way through microblogging. Part of me still doen't entirely "get it," so I just keep plugging away. On the other hand, I've gotten a feel for some utility in just about a month, so maybe someday I will understand the rest of it!

Last week, there was a newstory in the tweets of one of my followees. A guy had been arrested, and he was described by his job titles followed by "He has 1,800 followers on Twitter." Is this a new factoid for our bios? Is it good to have 1,800 souls hanging on your every 140 character utterance?

One thing I did learn quickly was NOT to have every tweet SMS'd to my Blackberry. Instead, I pull up my feed periodically and read it when I feel like it. Otherwise I think I would go mad. I mean, do I really want to know that Bell, Book, and Candle was on this afternoon while I was working? When I can't do anything productive with the information?

If you have any other good uses of Twitter, please comment! I'm still learning about this phenomenon. In the meantime, remember that I am a Professor of Pediatrics with 15 followers on Twitter! (I finally made double digits this week!)

*I am a pediatric nephrologist, so this is a highly relevant professional question.

It's been an interesting 2 weeks since I last updated my blog. First, I've experienced every respiratory virus in the area since returning from vacation. At least they didn't spoil Hawaii!

Next, I spent a week on the clinical service. Lots of patients wanted my immediate attention last week, even though my head was imprisoned in snot!

I am beginning to explore other web venues for use in pleasure and business. I now have a page on FaceBook, primarily for personal stuff, and my page on LinkedIn for professional postings. I also signed up with Twitter (see tweets at right) although I must admit I don't quite get it. "They" keep saying how addictive it is, but it hasn't pulled me in the way FaceBook did.

I will keep playing with all of this stuff, because I am a bit of a techno geek. Maybe someone out there will share with me their use of Twitter (or similar microblogs) and how it makes their life better.

BTW, the photo above is a red-crested or Brazilian cardinal. Got a shot of this guy while we were climbing up Diamondhead.