A Thousandfold

372 days ago, I joined Twitter.

I initially joined because I read about a lot of musicians and actors I was a fan of posting competitions and announcements of albums and tours exclusively through their Twitter accounts. I think I had about 5 followers in the first week, mostly spambots, and one @grum.

I had no idea that there was such a large Perth Twitter community until @grum convinced me to attend my very first @PTUB (Perth Twitter Underground Brigade) meetup. I met a handful of intelligent, intriguing, fun people that night and then realised that Twitter would be the perfect opportunity to meet some new people after leaving a very unhealthy relationship and pruning the tree of people I knew back then who were a terribly bad influence on me.

A few months in, I was entrenched in this exciting new world....I also realised there was also a dark side to it in the form of "haters", and those that sought the wrong kind of attention, which I made the decision to ignore. I met more and more wonderful, amazing people from all walks of life with much to share and much to learn from.

So we come to today, and I now have over a thousand followers (probably half of whom are spambots lol), some of whom have been there for me to share my sorrow on my darker days, and to celebrate my joy at achieving things I never thought I would a year ago. Some are now my dearest friends, and others I am beginning to have the pleasure of getting to know them better.

My thousandth follower was a Victorian called @jaseygalore - I was pleasantly surprised that a) he was a real live person and not a spammymcspamspambot b) he's Australian and c) quite a bloody good photographer!

I made a promise yesterday that I would do something special for my thousandth follower, so here it is in the form of a hastily written poem in my lunch break today :)

Hope you like, @jaseygalore :D

"A THOUSANDFOLD"

So I woke up this morning, and what sights did I see?
I did not see a tweeting bird on my windowsill;
There was no cute kitty trying to catch said tweeting bird, much to my sorrow.
BUT I saw nine hundred and ninety six Twitter followers looking back at me.

The next time I looked, I saw a thousand and one
It was more than likely that the thousandth was a spammymcspamspambot
But - could it be?! Could the thousandth actually be a real live tweeeting PERSON?
I clicked on his name, the blogless @jaseygalore, and he seemed quite fun.

His Van Gogh profile background spoke of his love of art to me.
And the photos on his Flickr page - well, they had me spellbound
Especially the one aptly titled "Flathead Cat Head".
I have a bit of an obsession with moody pet photography, you see.

Welcome to my online world, @jaseygalore
Strap yourself in, my dear boy
And get ready to take a trip on the rollercoaster that is my life
This past year there has been sorrow....but mostly joy, thanks to the people I adore.

And so I lament the continuing absence of a feline presence in my household.
At the same time, however, I count my blessings for the wonderful people I have met
In this past year - all through the typing of less than 140 words.
Al the tweet tweet tweeters that chose to follow me! Me, I be a lucky girl, I be a lucky girl a thousandfold.