Quick summary: I’m giving up Twitter for 30 days. I normally tweet about the webmaster videos that we make. Please follow googlewmc on Twitter if you want to find out about new webmaster videos.
For the last few months I’ve been doing 30 day challenges:
- In May 2009, I walked 10,000 steps a day.
- For June 2009, I didn’t watch television for 30 days.
- For July 2009, I biked to work.
- In August 2009, I tried to read 15 books in 30 days. I only made it to twelve that month, but I knocked out three more later.
- For October 2009, I stopped using Microsoft software (both Windows and Office). That went so well that I’ve switched to Linux as my primary operating system.
- For November 2009, I needed something easy to do. I unsubscribed to Robert Scoble on both Twitter and FriendFeed. Robert is a fantastic guide to what’s new (and I like him personally)–if you’re just starting out there, he’s like training wheels to show you cool things. But back then he was going on about Twitter’s lists feature. It’s a fine feature, but I find talking about it as dry as dust, so I went Scoble-free.
- In December 2009, I went off caffeine.
So the question is: what to do for January 2010? Well, I’ve already been off Twitter for a week. I think I’m going to stay off Twitter/Facebook/FriendFeed for the rest of January.
Do you have suggestions for other 30 day challenges I should try? If so, leave me a suggestion.
P.S. We have some new webmaster videos almost ready. Normally I tweet about those instead of blogging them. So if you want to hear when those videos are released, follow googlewmc on Twitter.
Ten years ago this month I paused working on my Ph.D., eloped to a courthouse to marry my lovely wife, and went for a hastily organized honeymoon cruise in the Caribbean. Then we packed up everything we owned and drove from North Carolina to California to join a small start-up called Google. That means this month marks my ten-year anniversary with Google, too.
Evan a husband with a thick skull like me learns a few things over the years. So here’s a little piece of advice for the software-engineer-husbands out there: take a few days off for your ten-year anniversary. 
If you’re expecting an email reply from me, please be patient. I’m spending some quality time with my wife.
John Mayer had a good post about a “digital cleanse.” The idea is to step away from the busy, buzzy world for a week. John mentioned four ideas, but I’m going to try just one: “no use of Twitter or any other social networking site”.
That’s right, I’m going Twitter-free for a week. I don’t really use Facebook, so that’s not a problem. The only other social networking website I use is FriendFeed, so I’m cutting that out too. To keep me on track this week, here’s what I did:
- Tweeted that I was doing the digital cleanse and changed my Bio line to mention that I was doing the digital cleanse.
- Removed all Twitter apps from my mobile phone.
- Removed the Twitter and FriendFeed shortcuts from Chrome’s new tab page.
- Hard-coded a bunch of websites so that I can’t even access them. In Linux, you can type “sudo vi /etc/hosts” and add the following lines:
127.0.0.1 twitter.com
127.0.0.1 www.twitter.com
127.0.0.1 facebook.com
127.0.0.1 www.facebook.com
127.0.0.1 friendfeed.com
127.0.0.1 www.friendfeed.com
What these lines say is “Computer, when you try to use the domain name system (DNS) to resolve twitter.com to an IP address, hard-code the IP address to be 127.0.0.1.” Note that 127.0.0.1 is a special IP address that corresponds to your own computer. In essence, these entries make it impossible to browse to Twitter, Facebook, or FriendFeed. You might need to reboot your computer too for the settings to take effect.
I’m thinking that I might blog a little more now that I’ve stopped tweeting for a week, so I’m doing one extra step–I’m linking my blog in Feedburner so that when I publish a blog post, it will tweet a link to that blog post. Here’s how to do it:
1. Log in to http://feedburner.google.com/ and click on your blog’s feed.
2. Click on the “Publicize” tab and then the “Socialize” service on the left.
3. Add your Twitter account and select the options you want. Here’s how it looks:
Then click “Save” and that’s all you need to do.
So far, I’ve been Twitter-free for twelve hours. In that time, I’ve
- worked out
- taken down our Christmas tree, chopped it into sections and put it out on the street
- typed in three months’ worth of data for a project that I’m working on
- taken down our Christmas lights and packed them away
- stored all our various Christmas decorations
- run a couple loads of laundry
- put out the trash
- gone shopping and had a couple meals with my wife
Oh, and written a blog post. We’ll see how the digital cleanse works for the rest of the week.
Every year I like to ask what charities people are leaning toward.
So here we go: what organizations, charities, or good causes are you supporting this year? Lately I’ve been interested in transparency and reform in government, so organizations like the Sunlight Foundation, MAPLight (Money and Politics), and Change Congress are on my list. I’m also looking at Free Press and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
I’d also be interested in hearing about 501(c)(3) organizations that support open-source software, ideally with very low administrative costs. Does anyone know of good groups in that area?
Finally, is there a charity or group that wants to make videos of college journalism classes? Right now if a blogger wanted to take an online journalism class, I’m not aware of many resources in that area. I found a good book called Electronic Media Law that I like, but it would be nice if people around the world could learn the basics of journalism by watching a series of college lectures on video.
Okay, now it’s your turn. What charities would you like to mention, support, or call out?
Hey everybody, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Diwali! I hope that everyone has a wonderful festival of lights. It’s a good time today for introspection and reflection on the past year, and for hope for the year to come. Whether you celebrate with firecrackers, sweets, or appreciation for what you hold to be good and true–I hope you have a wonderful Diwali!
