Until recently, I found it exhausting to juggle all the online “faces” of me. The social networking thing was just completely out of control. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been evaluating where I spend my online time (socially speaking) and where I enjoy being the most.

I wanted to do the 80/20 thing on social networking (the same way I’ve tried to apply it to other portions of my life). What I didn’t expect was to get all tied up with a massive time-suck while doing so. But, stuff happens.

It all started when I rediscovered Tumblr…

My Tumblr Experience

I’ve had a Tumblr account for forever, but it was just sitting there… like so many of my social identities. Recently, I wondered if I could use it as the “go to” place for all my online snippets and info. My experiment has become my own little monster. It sucked up alot of my time for a few weeks. I was always tweaking the layout, getting my own URL, trying new ways to get the information up there quickly and easily.

I fell in love! It’s so easy to post, so quick, and with a sidebar RSS here on WB, it makes my updates insta-matic!

I’m not willing to go with ONLY a Tumblr Blog — although the thought has been tempting. Using it really brought me into the “soundbite” era — and I now appreciate media catering to the “television-commercial-length-attention-span” I once despised. Gone are the overwhelming urges for long, verbose blog posts. (I’d rather just grab something interesting (or bizarre) that I find and slap it up on my Tumblr.)

Blogging on the Fly: No — REALLY!

Having a shortcut on my Firefox browser makes it easy to grab my online finds and share the golden ones. (If you want something to get ALL your social networking options in one place, try Sharaholic.) I also purchased Tumblrette for my iPhone (for $1.99) and find that having a quick and easy way to post when I’m out (including quick snapshots from my iPhone’s camera) makes me use the Tumblr blog much more often. It’s probably the best 1.99 I’ve ever spent at the apps store.

Tweaking it so my Twitters are automatically included, and so my blogs here on WB are also auto-magically added (along with other social networking automatic updates) has resulted in Tumblr becoming my personal online mashup.

I know that when I get time, I’ll be tweaking it more. I’d like to (eventually) host it myself — I’m not even sure if that’s possible yet. The brief research I’ve done hasn’t turned up any simple methods to accomplish this. In the meantime, visit my ever-evolving tumble log over at angelaallenparker.com.

And if you are just starting to blog… it’s a great “leg up” on the process. Tumblr makes blogging really fun. And it’s low-maintenance and it’s multi-format friendly. It’s a great way to create your own online “mashup” and can even be used to organize research and online finds (if you use your tags intelligently).

Now, I’ve “whittled down” my online time Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts and I don’t spend much time on them anymore. The others are there, and I add them to my profiles, but I don’t really spend time with them. (I can’t… all my extra time is spent on my Tumblr!)

One of my clients sent me the following photos from a recent event. I thought it was cool, and ask his permission to post them on my blog. Here, Bruce Entwisle, President of Harry Miller Corp chats with John and Cindy McCain:

When I asked where the “cool chick” was, he said Sarah Palin was on a plane to Alaska.

I’d like to address this to the lovely woman (and her understandably quiet, seemingly embarrassed husband) who took little screaming Junior to Wild Oats in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday.

Dear Mother -

No, I did NOT roll my eyes at your child. Had I rolled my eyes at anyone, it would have been at you. My sister tells me that I exude disgust without the need to roll my eyes and that I’m terribly transparent. She’s probably right. My apologies. Obviously, you misconstrued my total disgust with eye-rolling. I’m not sure how that happened.

However, having a child in a public place that screams at that decibel rate and in that particular key (I think it was a high c, although no glass actually shattered), is not ok. Perhaps you have been led to believe otherwise. I can understand that you may have been instructed incorrectly at some young impressionable age, but you are surely old enough to know better by now. If not, you may want to seek professional help.

To yell at me, “There’s no reason to roll your eyes, he’s just excited!” does not eliminate your responsibilities to others (many of whom WERE rolling their eyes, BTW) who must share the public space with your adorable child. Did it not occur to you that it was strange that you had to blurt that well-practiced line so quickly while Junior was taking a breath before screaming again? He nearly cut your mini-speech off with his tireless squeals.

At what point did it become ok for your child (or anyone else) to invade the sanctity of my personal space in such an offensive manner? The old adage about your freedom to swing your fists stopping at the edge of my nose also applies to my ears and your precocious child’s vocal cords.

I would understand if it was a sudden outburst and you scrambled to educate your child on how to be a better, more sensitive individual and a more pleasant member of society. Instead, you opted to condemn those of us who were surprised by your incredulous incapacity to even recognize a problem. Let me tell you a little secret…  just because your child wants to be the center of your attention and your world does not mean that he should automatically be thrust into the spotlight in ours. There, I said it. Believe it.

I realize it’s old fashioned of me. I realize that I’m not “cool” with the new trends toward lenient parenting. I’m an old fogy. That’s ok. I can live with that. I actually like that my own young daughter’s mouth physically dropped open in disbelief as your child expressed himself.

But if you had not been so quick to jump — if you had not had that comment a little too “at the ready” — perhaps you may have noticed the entire fresh produce section stop in their tracks and turn to stare when Junior demanded center stage. He truly is hard to ignore. Bravo for you!

If you want Junior to be the center of attention, you might try for a more subtle approach. Perhaps a talent or a skill. Maybe he will be an amazing adult… but somehow I think he may need a little more guidance than you are obviously willing (or able) to offer.

Do him a favor, do yourself a favor, do the rest of us a favor… discover a better way for him to claim his fame. And, if you can’t control his abuse of other people’s eardrums, leave him at home. In fact, why don’t you stay home with him and properly adore him at close range and in private?

Your husband appeared to be mannerly … maybe he could do the shopping.

note: photo courtesy of morguefile.com, artist: xenia.

There are many things that the iPhone is, but there were a few nagging things that the iPhone wasn’t. This holiday weekend, while helping my father set up his iPhone, I found a few of the missing pieces.

First and foremost is a decent and FREE ebook reader. I wanted one that would permit me to read the classics AND my own library of ebooks. Enter the winner…

Stanza – you can pick it up in the apps store and you can go to Lexcycle.com and download a desktop version for your PC or Mac. It even handles Kindle formats! I’ll be playing with it more later, but I wanted to share it with any of my readers who have been seeking a quality ebook reader.

Pages turn with a tap in either direction (or a finger-swipe) and you can adjust the size of the font without being required to scroll left to right on the iphone to read the lines. It breaks them for you automatically.

It’s a sweet little app that allows you to download free books from a sizable online library when you are out and you can personalize the contents on your iPhone by adding your own if you pre-plan enough to load them up before leaving home.

And did I mention it was free?!?!

YOUR ebook library now showing on your iPhone

Sending Instant Messages on the iPhone

Another missing piece was a good multi-platform IM manager. Enter Palringo – Vocal Instant Messaging.

Granted, the lack of background apps on the iPhone are a pain for this type of “always on” platform — but I’m just happy to have a non-web-based app with which to shoot off a quick note to my clients/peers/family. I tried a couple of the earlier attempts, and found them sadly lacking. This one seems to be solid, responsive and pretty as well. I’m still playing with all the options.

Taking Notes on the iPhone

I’m less than impressed with the notepad that Apple ships with the iPhone. It takes forever to find and load my old data (and it’s not that I have tons of pages, I only have two or three entries at any time). I wanted a note taking app that would take my info in whatever format I wanted to use — typing, scribbling, voice, whatever.

Wishes do come true… YouNote (in the Apps Store) gives me exactly what I need. I only wish I could get these out of my iPhone and onto my desktop or sync them with a web app so I could use them on my Mac too. I’m just now discovering this little app, but I’m already in love. The drawing feature using a fat finger, produces an impressive thin, responsive line. Bravo!

More Cowbell… errr… Games!

As far as games go, I’ve discovered a few cool ones this weekend as well. Check them out by name at the apps store:

• Hanoi – great ancient (classic) puzzle. Free.
• Asphalt4 – Not free, but worth the bucks (and I have NEVER liked driving games). I just wish the iPhone was actually the steering wheel, that would be even cooler.
• reMovem free – This one is terribly addicting. Pop all the bubbles to clear the board. Curse when you get down to one lone bubble. Rinse. Repeat.

Enjoy!