For years, my morning routine involved thumbing through our local paper over a cup of strong coffee. And while we still subscribe to the paper, I admit I’ve gone the way of most everyone else in that my new morning routine involves thumbing through the worldwide web instead.
Every morning when I power up my browser, AT&T Yahoo! gives me the quick news flash on anything major that might have happened while I was sleeping. If the world has been quiet, it will instead tell me how to shrink my energy bills, or warn me about 5 things not to do during a job interview. After that, I set the “news” aside to make my internet rounds.
Facebook is first on the list. It’s where I’ve managed to collect my family, friends, coworkers, readers and fellow writers all in one spot. And a couple times a day I check in to see what’s happening with everyone.
I check out my “favorities” page over on eHarlequin then it’s on to Twitter.
One of my favorite sections in the daily newspaper was the comics page. It seemed after reading the headlines–which were usually pretty depressing–I needed to end on a high note. These days, my internet version of the funny pages is LOLCats! I’m completely hooked on LOLCats!
What are LOLCats! you ask? Basically, they are pictures of cute adorable cats and kittens that people have captioned, often hysterically. (There is also LOLDogs! for you dog lovers)
Here’s a recent example:
I follow LOLCats! on Twitter, as well as several other cites; CNN and Newsweek, in case I missed any major news since I last left AT&T Yahoo!. I follow Joel Stein, a columnist for Time, as well as Governor Arnold Schwarzenneger. In the event any major news involved “Coleefornia”, I’d like to get his take on it. Bob Vila give me tips on what to do with the 20-year-old house we just bought, and Garden Web will give me the heads up when it’s time to get my tomatoes planted.
And, of course, I follow a host of Blaze authors. Note: Kathleen O’Reilly is exceptionally helpful in locating retailers who are giving away free stuff. Alison Kent is a wizard at tracking down who’s talking about women’s fiction. They’re both good ones to Twitter-follow.
So as you can see, my viewing habits are about as eclectic as everything else in my life.
Which has me curious. How about you? Do you make daily internet rounds? And if so, what sites do you visit?
Entries (RSS)
(C) I start my day with my email, then it is off to Facebook, followed by Myspace. Next I trot over to to check in with Janelle Denison, Carly Phillips, Leslie Kelly and Julie Leto and then Blaze Blogs.
I check in with most of them several times a day to see what everyone has to say.
Eventually I have to do other things like write and take care of housework but when I have a moment to spare I am out there surfing! LOL
I know, I do the same. One of my worst habits is going back to sites over and over during the day. It’s become a habit. I try to tell myself that visiting in the morning then once again in the afternoon is plenty, but can I listen? Nooooo. LOL
I have such a set “tour” in the morning — I check a website called The Canvas (message board community), then I hit The Query Shark, Redlines & Deadlines, the romance forum I host at the Writers BBS, The Blaze Blog, Edittorrent Blog (love that one), the writing forum at eHarlequin, and then news at Cnn.com and the newspage of Google and round it out with a quick stop at Facebook. It’s down to a science and can pretty much get through it in about 30 minutes or so unless something very cool is going on, then it might take longer.
Julie
“when something cool is going on” Isn’t that true? I visit Dear Author every morning, and when they get onto a hot topic that I find particularly interesting, I can find myself rapt for hours! It’s tough because I want to hear what everyone is saying, but I don’t always have the time to read all 100 responses.
Hmm… haven’t heard of Dear Author before. I’ll google that and check it out. I think most of my online time (when not chatting with long-distance friends at night) is split between writing boards, but I love the edittorrent board. Lots to learn there. Not into the Twitter thing as someone mentioned below. Have a Facebook that I tap into occassionally. I like that better than MySpace.
Julie
I’ve never heard of editortorent either! You’ve got me intrigued–as if I need more places to go. LOL!
Unlike most, I am not into either Facebook or Twitter. Frankly, I’m tired of hearing Twitter be the subject of every radio/TV program. JMO
Firstly, it’s Plotmonkeys, then Blaze blog, Jill Shalvis’ (LOL) blog & DearAuthor. Others just occasionally. More than anything I like publishing info news.
Patricia
I admit, once I got set up on Facebook, I don’t Twitter much anymore. And I seriously don’t know how people keep up when they follow hundreds! I do like how you can get notices when someone updates a blog or site. That’s nice. But communicating with it can get cumbersome for sure!
My home page is igoogle for the news, then I go to my mail and lj pages. After that it’s MySpace and facebook. That’s when I start multitasking by reading all the author blogs I also follow. If I have time I go to APOD, Authorisland, dA and Romance Divas Forum.
I really like how Facebook now allows us to group our friends into categories. That’s been a huge time saver so that I don’t have to scroll through lots and lots of posts.
romance blogs mostley adn sports blog
I miss the days of the big fat newspaper and spending the a.m. sprawled in a chair with it. But yes… I tend to read the NYT online now. I check the headlines there first and usually click through to a handful of things before I consider myself ready to face the day. I hit Facebook most days too. EHQ and MySpace are a few times a week, and then a handful of my friends’ blogs. I try to be disciplined about surfing as much as reading though… I could get lost in both for mega hours and I need to make sure I 1) write and 2) walk through real life so that that I’m not just reading about how to tame clutter and prune rosebushes, but actually doing those things on occasion.
Balance has been a huge issue for me ever since I started writing. It’s been 5 years now and I think I’ve finally got a good mix going where I’m staying in touch on-line, but not getting carried away. It was a long process of trial and error to get there though!
I get sidetracked by following links and ending up on YouTube and watching videos. I think I’m going to set a timer and limit my online wanderings. (O)
I like the idea of a timer. I’m like you, I start out in one place and before I know it, I’m watching Jon Stewart videos.
I still do read the paper in the morning, just the sports page though. Then I come online to see what happened via Yahoo. Then I go to my email, then myspace, twitter, eHarlequin, here, and several author’s blogs.
LOLcats is cute! They have some really good ones.
I confess that the newspaper is all for my hubby, who is still internet-illiterate. That’s a good thing, though, as we only have one PC and the last thing we need is BOTH of us surfing the net. I’m envisioning us Twittering each other from separate rooms to ask what’s for dinner. LOL
well my routine is the same every night when i get online. i would during the day but my five year old protests and wants to play games on my laptop. ( i dont think so!)
Email
facebook
Loveisandexplodingcigar
eharlequin
blaze blog
stephanie bond
occasionally myspace (since i found facebook i have lost the zest for myspace!)
thats my nornmal routine, if i wander onto youtube im looking at zumba vids for an hour, or if i get on ebay and see whats hot im sunk for another hour. I try not to do that at all.
happy surfing everyone’
jody