Twitter Tweedle Dee

 The Writing Group suggested that Twitter was a good thing. I avoided it for thirteen years, which seemed sensible considering the occasional news items I’d read online. (Re: Twitter is a cesspool of horribleness. People suck. Avoid at all costs.) In addition to the dire warnings about humanity’s behavior and what happens when we’re allowed to use our opposable thumbs to type things on a keyboard, I had developed my own dark, weird, conspiracy theory about Twitter. (And Google, and Facebook.) They are responsible for global warming. Do you have any idea how big the server farms are to enable us to keep posting videos about babies, cats, and dogs doing cute things? And how much power they consume? The answer is a lot. A LOT.

Anyway, because the chances of me being proactive enough to write a unique Twitter entry are precisely zero, I have connected my blog to Twitter. Apparently WordPress will just send this entry here, to Twitter, way over there.

From there, I’ll see how long it takes before I lose complete interest. Wish me luck. And enjoy this video from Google that shows how big one data center is. Skip through to 2:04 so you can start saying, “Holy shirtballs. That’s big. Like really, really big.”

Turning Google into a Dictionary and Thesaurus

I’m not sure how many of you out there know about this trick but if you don’t... Yes, you can use Google as your dictionary and thesaurus.

First off, using it as a dictionary. Enter the search term: “meaning [word]” and Google returns a dictionary definition of the word. In  this example, I typed in the search phrase: “meaning writer”.
Apart from giving the definitions, it also pronounces the word (just click on the speaker icon).

You can expand the result by clicking on the gray arrow. This lists additional information about the word.

You can also use Google as a thesaurus. Type in the search phrase, “synonym [word]” and you guessed it–Google returns a list of synonyms for your word. In this example, I typed the phrase: “synonym writing”.

As with asking Google to return the meaning of a word, you can expand the result to view the origin, use of the word over time and a translation.

If you type in the search phrase “antonym [word]”, Google returns your word with a list of opposite meanings. In this example, I typed the phrase: “antonym fast”.

If you haven’t used this Google feature before, give it a try, because it’s going to save you time and angst if you need a quick reference while you’re writing.