So…maybe it’s just me, but I have yet to figure out a simple way of searching for people’s accounts on Twitter in order to befriend/follow them. It’s been a long time since I had to hack a URL to do this sort of thing¹ and it bewilders me every time.

Anyhow, I want more twitter friends. You can find my page here and add me if you like. I’m even considering making my updates public, which is unusual since I tend to be a relatively quiet and guarded person. Twitter is entrancing me in new and unusual ways. Is it a mini-blog? Is it a chatroom? Is it an instant messenger? Is it a link sharing service? It’s being used as all these things and more, and it’s absolutely fascinating to see what people will do with such a simple tool.

Twitter + The Coop

Speaking of Twitter, I’d like to see it integrated with The Coop sometime. Being able to post/receive twitters that way would be pretty slick. Having a Joga-like notification system (that can be easily turned on/off to minimize unwanted distractions) would be neat, too.

Since I’m on the topic, here are a bunch of other ideas I have for The Coop:

• integrate Skype for one-click calling
• use it as a Web feed handler so as to subscribe to friend’s blog feeds and get update notifications through it
• use it as a microformat handler for phone numbers, addresses and the like
• be able to tag your Coop-mates into groups for quick multi-person sharing of links and files (?)
• IM integration for quick and easy IM-status notification
• one-click “send mail to…”
• one-stop “update all my statuses at once” functionality
• view friend’s status regardless of service — twitter, facebook, whatever
• etc. — the list goes on and on really

I doubt these are all phenomenal ideas, but The Coop has a huge amount of potential as an integrator/aggregator for any/all services and such that can be grouped by person. I find it all quite exciting.

Unfortunately, I still haven’t taken the time to learn how to hack add-ons (at this point I’m sort of waiting for FUEL), so I have zero ability to actually follow through on my 3am braincrumbs. In the meanwhile, I’ll keep watching Twittervision.

Note: The Coop source is available in public SVN, as Myk mentions over here, if you’re interested in hacking and contributing.

¹ - This is actually a lie. I hack URLs almost daily, but it still bewilders me.

My favourite new way to burn piles of time I should be using to do something more useful like sleep. Or work. Twittervision.

For those who haven’t realized, I don’t syndicate my full blog feed to planet.mo. If you’re interested in the random non-work things I write about, my full feed is available over here.

Today was a travel day — back from a week in Mountain View where we had all manner of fun and I got to see a bunch of my coworkers I only get to see every 3 months or so. After a week away (left last Saturday, played tourist Sunday, worked/played 8am-10pm M-F, home again today) I’m just really, really, really tired.

Tomorrow I’m going to sleep as much as humanly possible, and when I can’t actually sleep I’ll sit in bed watching TV and playing with my brand new Playstation Portable. I’ve resisted buying this particular game device for a long time, but was finally sold when a) they dropped the price (it used to be $300, but it’s down to $170), and b) I heard about Puzzle Quest. Puzzle Quest is, essentially, Bejeweled crossed with a tactics-style Role Playing Game. It’s very much as if someone sat down and designed a game just for me.

I played Puzzle Quest on the plane from San Jose to Chicago, then again on the plane from Chicago to Ottawa. I just played it again for a while, probably putting in, all told, about 6 hours today. It’s terribly fun and I’m still absolutely awful at it, so this isn’t a “master in 5 mins get bored in 3 days” sort of game. Mm, games.

I also picked up Loco Roco because it’s just about the cutest game ever made. I giggle like a fool pretty much the whole time I’m playing, which is worth every single penny. The Loco Roco flash site there is pretty nuts, so here’s the Metacritic page as well.

While playing tourist last weekend I managed to fill a 1gb flash card with photos of various bits of California. We did this crazy roadtrip through the mountains, down to Monterey to see the aquarium, along 17 Mile Drive to Carmel where we tootled around town a bit, then all the way back up the coast to San Francisco by way of Highway 1. The weather was absolutely perfect. We seriously considered staying another week, but maybe next time. At least it’s not actually snowing in Ottawa right now, unlike when we left.

I’ll post the pictures to my Flickr account when I’ve processed some of ‘em. Now, however, I think I’m going to go pass out.

Lemons and stuff didn’t do the trick. Made a run to the pharmacy. Welcome to my (reversed because PhotoBooth is just like that) world.

I feel like crap.

Woke up with a sore throat this morning after seeing a friend last week who is now just getting over a nasty but short-lived cold. Imagine my joy. Now I’m eating Cold fX like candy and drinking lots of my homemade “go away cold die die die” tea:

Ingredients

• 3-4 c water
• Two thick 2″ pieces of ginger root, peeled and chopped
• Two garlic cloves, crushed
• One whole lemon, sliced thinly (including peel)
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder

Method

Throw it all in a pot and boil for 5-10 mins. Strain a mugful, sweeten with honey, steel yourself for the oncoming pepper/garlic hit, drink. Top up the water in the pot and leave to steep on the stove, then reboil and have more later. Add more lemon, garlic, ginger, pepper as the day wears on and you continue drinking this strangely tasty concoction.

Friggin’ colds.