LinkedIn: Tight Spaces

AS THEY APPEARED ON LINKEDIN

“Two Things – Linkedin (I guess I only have 43 characters! Actually the number keeps changing – LinkedIn, that needs some work. Now I have 144. Run with it.) First, I really feel uncomfortable giving apps permission to access my address book. Since there are several in my book who really don’t like me. And run for cover when messages from me appear. Think it was Google? – that sent something I wrote to everyone in my address book. That’s really bad. Plus privacy issues – still mulling over that one, as we become globally united. However, I am perfectly content with the NSA spying on me. less

In 600 Words Or Less (Figured it out. Includes spaces. I’m not gonna make it.) Second, the iPhone update. Initially I thought it splendid. Wow. It anticipates my thoughts. How cool is that? Soon thereafter, I saw trouble blooming ahead. Like, Spellcheck, which is determined to correct you, according to its Style Book, and you end up saying things you never intended to say. Aside from that, it’s basically stupid – gets all confused with initial letters and fails miserably when it comes to common sense. (Hey! Why am I surprised?) Yo, Apple! Incredibly annoying update. less

This one’s shirt (see?) and sweet. “LinkedIn” (incidentally that’s NIT in the Apple’s dictionary. They don’t care. Lower-case? Absolutely! Thus, vigilance is required on the part of the writer. Maybe linkedin and Apple can cut a deal though? LinkedIn endorsements. Even if I personally know someone and it’s suggested I endorse a particular skill – if I’ve seen that skill practiced, I find it morally imperative to sustain my ethical balance. Can’t mess around with that! At the opposite end, why would I want to endorse an American poet for his Microsoft skills? less

Last thoughts. LinkedIn has no formatting! And I have a fetish for precise paragraphs. Hop on that one, linkedin. And throw in some Italics! Still, I can’t refrain from doing it. I guess that’s called “wishful” thinking. I think Facebook needs a byline. And, I think I found it! Wasn’t me, though, who thought it. And I would’ve loved to see the author of that thought still alive today, still thinking. Here it is: FACEBOOK. “I am a deeply superficial person.” (Andy Warhol)less”

REVIEW

Start throwing numbers at me at I have no idea whether I’m going backwards or forwards, up or down, and I will panic. So yesterday, when I started posting the series above, I noticed the number at the lower right hand corner of the page, and I’m going in my head: “Is this arithmetic problem about addition or subtraction?”  At first, I thought I had like 60 words —that many allowable on any post.  Then, the number on the bottom of the page kept changing.  But what was going up?  And what was going down?  I was confused (one of my innate gifts) and my sense of navigation, which is abysmal, wasn’t doing me any favors.  I began to feel frustrated, dizzy, and anxious.

As for editing and condensing, I have no problem doing that. I like doing that.  Mmmmm. Yummy!  So there I go, picking words here and there, and reducing the number to the least possible to fit within the criteria required. But what was the criteria?  That was the question that went unanswered yesterday.  Were we talking about the number of words?  Or the number of spaces? Eventually, I deduced (wow) it was the spaces they were counting, and not the number of words. Cause I’m thinking …  No way there’s 600 words here.  Plus, I was eating up space with the spaces between my paragraphs, and that was the evidence I had been searching for — Delete = More Space;  Add = Less Space. I sure was proud of my math skills!  At this very moment, I have used 638 words, here.  And that includes everything above, the quoted stuff from LinkedIn through here — now, 652.

In addition to that, while you are composing (WordPress also has its own formatting problems, I confess.  And I have whined and moaned about those, as well.) you are led to believe that you’re formatting, your paragraphs, will appear once published as they appeared while composing.  That’s an outright deception, however.  And I can’t stand deception!  Everything is up for grabs, once you hit that button.  Thoughts are misplaced. Sentences have gone astray.  Where are the connections?  Where are the critical breaks? And so, instead of structure and order, your thoughts come under the governance of Chaos.  Now I have no problem with Chaos —in fact, I find it rather compelling — but not when I’m writing.

And at this point, I’m just too damned tired to explain any further.  But consider this a mere pause, and not the end of …

Tight Spaces.