Saturday, May 19, 2012

My Shrinking Tweet Project

Today I concluded my "shrinking tweet" project, begun on 1/1/12. It was a fun and challenging project to do, and is also (for me at least) an interesting sort-of-journal of the first four and a half months of the year.

Here it is:

1/1
For 2012 I am writing a daily tweet, starting at 140 characters, with each successive tweet shorter by one character. This is the first one.

1/2
This is the second in my series of ever-shortening tweets. Perhaps eventually they won't be so self-referential. Perhaps that's inevitable.

1/3
140 characters is actually plenty to use for expressing yourself. Of course, now I only have 138. I think I'm beginning to hyperventilate.

1/4
So I followed Huffington Post here, but I was so bombarded with tweets that I unfollowed them. It's crucial to keep a balanced tweetflow.

1/5
I'm down to 136 characters in my ever-shortening tweet project. I will end by tweeting one character. The floor is open for nominations.

1/6
I'm down to 135 characters today. I've put my tweets on a diet for New Year's! I wonder what a tweet eats? Just a few bytes, I suppose.

1/7
With each day's tweet being shorter by one character (this one is 134), it's getting harder to pack them with meaningful content. See?

1/8
I've seen "The Muppets" four times now and am intrigued by the copy of Bernstein's "Joy of Music" displayed prominently on the piano.

1/9
Burton loved "The Muppets", and has gone from "Why do you like them so much?" to "Do you think they'll bring back The Muppet Show?".

1/10
It's the second week of 2012! How are all those resolutions going? If you've already broken them, I say just wait for 2013 to come.

1/11
Ten days in on my shrinking tweet project. This one has 130 characters, a savings of ten characters! I pass the savings on to you.

1/12
So I guess I have an unspoken rule not to use text speak in my shrinking tweet project. That would make it too easy. mayb l8r tho

1/13
So one of my tweets is missing. This ever happen to you? My tweet of 1/2/12 doesn't appear on my page. Kind of ruins the effect.

1/14
My shrinking tweet project would be more effective if Twitter showed a character count. I could cheat and you wouldn't know it.

1/15
Two weeks in on my every-day-a-shorter-tweet project. This one is 126 characters. This could get interesting. In a few months.

1/16
Beauty and the Beast 3D is in theaters. But it's been playing at Disney World daily for the past 20 years...and sans glasses!

1/17
If I really wanted to make my tweet-shortening project difficult, I'd do it without the letter "e". Like the novel "Gadsby".

1/18
Dog my cats, us Fotts is lovin' Volume 1 of Fantagraphics' complete Pogo. Walt Kelly were a natural born brown-eyed genius.

1/19
The Belcourt just screened "Being Elmo" and now has scheduled "We Need to Talk About Kevin" and "Clash by Night". Sequels?

1/20
Day 20 of my shrinking tweet project. I start each morning with a bowl of Shrinking Tweets. Part of a balanced breakfast.

1/21
Starting on 1/1 with 140 characters, I have posted a tweet a day, each shorter by 1 character. Why? Because we like you!

1/22
Using hashtags in this shrinking tweet project would be cheating. I could throw one in if I needed an extra #character.

1/23
Every day a shorter tweet. If "brevity is the soul of wit", can't you just feel my tweets getting funnier and funnier?

1/24
Listening to "Pacific Overtures" in great anticipation of Blackbird Theater's Nashville production next month. Yo-ho!

1/25
My shrinking tweet project will finish on 5/19 with my tweeting just 1 character. Should I then work my way back up?

1/26
Our "All the World" and "Scaredy Squirrel" are ALA/ALSC 2012 Notable Children's Videos! Thanks to the Bigfott team!

1/27
Why does "T.G.I. Friday's" have an apostrophe? Like there's some restauranteur named Thomas George Ichabod Friday?

1/28
How many songs about rainbows are there, actually? I can think of six. That's including "The Rainbow Connection".

1/29
Down to 112 characters in my shrinking tweet project. Starting to feel the pinch. I must think smaller thoughts.

1/30
Wow, January almost gone! What's next? Oh yeah, February. Kind of reassuring how that works. Good ol' calendar.

1/31
Burton is now mourning because Lego Universe ended last night. Way to hook kids and then dump them flat, Lego.

2/1
Costco had "Shakespeare in Love" on Blu-ray for $8.99. Impulse buy. How could I possibly not? It's a mystery.

2/2
I suppose the mark of Twitter Fame is when your number of Followers is higher than your number of Following?

2/3
Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday. Is that six more weeks of winter, or of what we've been having?

2/4
I wonder if you could sell product placement in your tweets? What an absolutely ridiculous COCA-COLA idea.

2/5
Don't you think that on February 29th, Twitter should let us write 141-character tweets? A man can dream.

2/6
Question: How is the "Pogo" comic strip different from a tweet? Answer: Tweets only have 140 characters.

2/7
It's too bad Coca-Cola never had their own "throwback" product. Would "Diet Coke Throwback" be Tab? Ew.

2/8
I should hire a ghosttweeter to write my tweets for me. Maybe I already have one. Yes...maybe he does.

2/9
I've loved H.R. Pufnstuf ever since I saw "Kaleidoscope" at HemisFair in San Antonio when I was four.

2/10
Starting on 1/1 with 140, each of my daily tweets has been shorter by 1 character. This one has 100!

2/11
At 99, my shrinking tweet character count is now in double digits. Single digits will not be noted!

2/12
Nashville, you have 1 more weekend to see Blackbird Theater's production of Pacific Overtures! Go!

2/13
Burton and I can't go past a display of talking toys without pausing to set them all off at once.

2/14
Happy Valentine's Day to my beautiful wife Laura Jane Bigbee Burton Fott! Our 23rd one together!

2/15
There are 95 characters in this tweet. I got married in '95. A random coincidence? I think not.

2/16
Watched "The Wizard of Oz" on Blu-ray. After seeing Oz, the Scarecrow packs a pistol! How odd.

2/17
Perhaps the Scarecrow's pistol in "The Wizard of Oz" is really a water gun? Watch out, Witch!

2/18
Excited that Ringo Starr is coming to the Ryman on 7/7, his bloody birthday! Peace and love!

2/19
Show idea: Semi-neglected & under-developed corporate mascots. The Bunny Bread Bunny stars.

2/20
This tweet has ninety characters. I'm applying the other fifty toward a novel I'm writing.

2/21
Even as I tweet and enjoy others' tweets, I can't figure out exactly why this is popular.

2/22
What was Twitter like before so many people joined it? "Boring and lonely" I'm guessing.

2/23
I joined Pinterest. I have no idea. Thought it was another name for the "Pinter pause".

2/24
Going out now for Ringo tix, right from the Ryman box office. Take that, Ticketmaster!

2/25
We saw the Oscar-nominated animated shorts, and I think I am rooting for "Wild Life".

2/26
Incredible that the Mac has a 15% market share in the US. I remember the days of 2%!

2/27
Saw "Lost and Found" over the weekend, an excellent animated short from Studio AKA.

2/28
I thought "The Artist" was just dandy. But Best Picture? "The Muppets" was better!

2/29
Today is Leap Day. A magical, Brigadoon-like happening. February with a hangover.

3/1
If we just add 59 seconds to each day, we won't need Leap Day. Much better plan.

3/2
Since 1/1, each of my daily tweets has been 1 character shorter. This 1 has 79.

3/3
Poltergeists make up the principal type of spontaneous material manifestation.

3/4
Following some celebs on Twitter makes you glad you don't actually know them.

3/5
I had one scrambled egg and toast for breakfast. In case you were wondering.

3/6
C'mon! Let's make this the best 3/6/12 EVER! (Sorry, 1912. You're history.)

3/7
I try to avoid politics, but I just can't stay mute any longer: I Go Pogo.

3/8
Good morning world! Sleep well? Any strange dreams? Ooh, that's so weird!

3/9
"The new iPad" is .11 pounds heavier than the iPad 2. That's a negative.

3/10
With "the new iPad", I guess Apple no longer numbers hardware releases?

3/11
This 70-character tweet is exactly half of the maximum length allowed.

3/12
Shrinking tweet project is officially "over the hump". 69 characters!

3/13
A puppy? Yeah, just what we needed! 7 cats, 2 goats, and now 2 dogs.

3/14
Our cats are Indy, Shadow, Dash, Petunia, Sparta, Keypot, and Mary.

3/15
Our goats are Milo and Buddy, and our dogs are Cornelia and Missy.

3/16
The best thing about the "Pufnstuf" movie: The score is terrific!

3/17
At six, I hated that Pufnstuf had a different voice in the film.

3/18
The word "characters" sure does have a lot of characters in it.

3/19
Some tweets can be pointless and without intrinsic merit. See?

3/20
Reading the Steve Jobs bio. On my iPad. Home court advantage.

3/21
Sixty characters/Is just barely sufficient/For writing haiku

3/22
Happy birthday, Stephen Sondheim! (Yeah, Lloyd Webber too.)

3/23
Disney: Release seasons 4 and 5 of The Muppet Show on DVD!

3/24
My tweets are growing shorter daily! As am I, supposedly.

3/25
Looney Tunes at the Belcourt in original 35mm yesterday!

3/26
Following a 55-characters-per-tweet limit. No speeding.

3/27
Don't forget: To legume makes a leg out of you and me.

3/28
My tweet project can be called "constrained writing".

3/29
I'll smell the roses...but do I really have to STOP?

3/30
Dreamed about Meryl Streep. She was terrible in it.

3/31
I am not the very model of a modern Major-General.

4/1
This shrinking tweet project is too hard. I quit.

4/2
Is Hungry Hungry Hippos one of the Hunger Games?

4/3
We have too many pets. By "too many" I mean 11.

4/4
With only 46 characters, what would YOU tweet?

4/5
45 characters. Getting kinda cramped in here.

4/6
All work and no play makes Galen a dull boy.

4/7
Opry Mills's Sweet CeCe's has Junior Mints!

4/8
Nutty Professor in Nashville! Thanks, Mac!

4/9
"41 characters of Twitter on the wall..."

4/10
40 characters! Who needs that other 100?

4/11
It gets harder to say much of anything.

4/12
Nashville Film Festival starting soon!

4/13
This tweet has exactly 37 characters.

4/14
Now aiming my tweets toward "pithy".

4/15
But I'll always settle for "terse".

4/16
Don Hertzfeldt. Belcourt. Tonight.

4/17
Shrinking tweets, now very tight!

4/18
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

4/19
Meaninglessness has its appeal.

4/20
My Lava Lamp needs a new bulb.

4/21
This tweet has 29 characters.

4/22
antidisestablishmentarianism

4/23
I have a Kermit marionette.

4/24
My tweets are almost gone.

4/25
1 score and 5 characters.

4/26
I am a man of few words.

4/27
This is my daily tweet.

4/28
Beauty is Embarrassing

4/29
Coherency may suffer.

4/30
What more can I say?

5/1
Circling the drain!

5/2
I'm a bit peckish.

5/3
Is this thing on?

5/4
Today is Friday.

5/5
¡Cinco de Mayo!

5/6
14 characters!

5/7
Almost there!

5/8
RIP Maurice.

5/9
Sleep well?

5/10
I am here!

5/11
I'm cool.

5/12
Morning!

5/13
Mom Day

5/14
Tweet!

5/15
I am.

5/16
Yes!

5/17
Hi!

5/18
O!

5/19
1

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