Twitteration

So I cannot believe I am microblogging on Twitter. When Twitter first came into the world of technology, I was probably the BIGGEST critic! I am very personal and when it comes to someone knowing what I am doing ALL OF THE TIME, I'm just not having that! The issue with twitter, like many web-based social networking sites, it is what you make of it. somebody can tweet before every event they do in a day, while others can do it here and there. I have the attitude that if you want to know what I am doing, then call me! And If I feel like it's your business, I will tell you! The only social networking I have done is MySpace, and it has been to keep in touch with old friends and family.
I am a critic of Twitter and facebook and sometimes myspace, but we have the technology so we might as well have fun with it. I am only Twittering and Blogging and creating a Facebook and photo sharing with Flickr because I have to for one of my Masters courses. I will have to say that this is making my family extremely happy. Being an Athletic Trainer I do not have much personal time. I do not get to call my family often and fill them in on life like they can each other on a daily basis. I think that microblogging can be very useful and fun as a social hobby. My family seems to enjoy the different ways that they can communicate with each other and friends, and they are enjoying having this unusual contact with me as well. Microblogging can also be useful in many professional arenas as well, however I would not use it in my career. As an Athletic Trainer we uphold a level of confidentiality for the sake of the athletes, university (or place of work), and ourselves. If I were to microblog about professional issues it would be very vague if anything at all. We are held to certain standards by HIPPA and such where everything we say and do should not be in ear shot of anyone outside of our sports medicine team. Even text messages, emails, and memos need to keep personal information regarding athletes and cases out of the radar. The only time I personally use a name or exact information is in conversation straight from my mouth. Emails and text messages always have the name abbreviated and the issue in "code language". Microblogging could be useful in some professional settings, but I see it more as a social event than actually useful in business. Welcome to the world of microblogging! I will see if my feelings change over the next 5 weeks!

Just Flickr-ing Around

In the past, showing my youth a little here, I have used photo sharing sites. You would think that I would be a pro at these sites, but I am no where near it! This week has been rough for me: having found out that I had a large fracture of the anterolateral tibial plateau of my left knee (on Monday) and that I needed to have surgery ASAP (on Tuesday). I did not have much time to prepare myself. As I am maximizing my time off of my pain killers to get some work done I decided it would be a fun day to explore Flickr. As I am sitting here with my leg elevated creating my profile, my two little boys (Christian and Talon) are creating havoc around me. They seem to have a new project each day, which revolves around either socks, toys, the back patio, or destroying anything and everything that I doing. I found it quite perfect to turn my computer around and capture an "innocent" image that was going on around me. I posted this image on my Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kristin_wood/) and added a description that said "Yo brother, what is the metal contraption that Kristin uses to have 4 legs like us?" When the boys constant attempts of trying to crawl on my post-op brace and sniff my knee continuously fails, they chose a new goal... to try to climb up my crutches that are strategically placed near me for convenience and easy access. In watching this go on around me I only wish that my life was so simple that I could find ways, like them, to create complex games and play "how can I destroy this?"! Must be nice to be so cute that it is hard for somebody to yell at you!