The Planets Align

You know the old saying..."You gotta keep all your ducks in a row"? Well this weekend I was thinking it's high time to get my ducks in a row, so to speak...

It was "serendipity that killed the cat", to butcher another old saw...OK, I'm just fooling around now...sure we're having another cool summer all across the Northern Hemisphere, but it has less than nothing to do with the alignment of the planets in our Solar System.

Sometimes I'm a rational, old fashioned Linear Thinker...If "A" is + (positive) and "B" is + (positive), then I'm Positive that I'm Right again! Ha! or on the right track anyway...and so on, and so on, right through the alphabet...ad nauseum...

Other times...like after a long hard weekend, or during The Dog Days of Summer, my Right Brain takes a powder (OK, a vacation if you like...or a 'stay-cation' if you must) and I become a more "relational" or horizontal thinker...leaps of faith, tangents, long lost ideas...all are welcome and orbit my consciousness like heavenly bodies in a deep space star system.

Call it fuzzy logic...call it whatever...sometimes serendipitous thinking reaps tons of fun, and the occasional comedic gem...alas, this time my thought wanderings did not reveal comedy gold. Just a slightly bemused move of my mug in the direction of a wry smile...the corners of my mouth didn't exactly lift in a smile, rather they widened a little, like they were getting ready to smile, but couldn't make up their mind whether to smile or smirk...

When I wrote the blog on bears and wild boar, it all started when I saw a tweet from @PlanetSki that touted the first article in the chain of stories.

It dawned on me that all us planets should stick together...then it dawned on me that on the internet, the concept of friends is truly skewed...even "friends" are often not even acquaintances, but a strangely choreographed string of "clicks" leading to... *DING* ..."Friend Request Accepted" I guess it's a funny way to run a virtual railroad?

So I guess that "getting my ducks in a row" should really be phrased "getting my planets to align" in CorduroyPlanetSpeak...or maybe "getting my planets in align" OK, I lost it all for a nanosecond there...

Getting My Planets In Align
Twitter is the micro-blogging service that is finally coming of age. Once derided as the online hangout of the famous (and famously deluded and self-unaware) who think their every thought and deed are of interest to the world, Twitter seems to have matured.

TV actor Ashton Kutcher, @aplusk (That 70's Show) was the first tweeter to reach the one million followers mark in April 2010. @charliesheen, famous TV Train Wreck hit a million followers in under 24 hours about a year later, also the first to complete the feat. President @BarackObama participated in the first "Whitehouse Twitter Townhall" in July 2011. During the FIFA Women's World Cup soccer finale, twitterers world wide sent 7196 tweets per second, another record!

@secupp the author and journalist said today: "Twitter has democratized the delivery of the news"

I think it's fair to say that Twitter has arrived...or matured...or found it's niche...whatever...as of March 2011 there are now 200 million Twitter users worldwide.

Twitter's first "Twitter Republican Presidential Debate" takes place Wednesday July 20th at noon PDT, moderated on Twitter by @secupp

Tune into the debate by following @140townhall on Twitter, or online at http://140townhall.com/

I've found Twitter to be very valuable when I'm grooming My Mountain. As the Graveyard Guru, I need to know when it's going to stop snowing so I can formulate my gameplan so as to be ready with the most corduroy on the trails when we turn the lifts at 9AM for our skiers and snowboarders.

I've tried several Radar Apps on my iPod Touch, free apps and paid apps, and while they are pretty to look at, they seem to be quite a bit behind real-time info...hence not as useful as I'd like.

I've found that Twitter gives me the most up-to-the-minute info, and the Twitter App is free.

I follow @MagnifeyeRoads who tweet the CalTrans Interstate 80 electronic signs every time the message changes. On storm nights, I can infer when it will stop snowing on my mountain by watching these tweets as they follow chain controls' march up the hill...good enough for me!

@MangifeyeRoads' website has all the Trans-Sierra Webcams too.

See what I mean with the Dog Daze? I ran my virtual railroad into the Twitter Ditch before I lined up my planets! Here they are so far (I'm like a wandering planet looking to orbit a friendly star in a nice neighborhood), I haven't found a PlanetBaseball, or PlanetGiants...yet...

Twitter exceeds at coverage of LIVE events, be they politics, revolutions, or sporting events. @CorduroyPlanet  follows:

@PlanetSki
The Europe based All Things Skiing, Snowboarding, and Alpine Living Around the World website

@planetcycling
This is the home of cycling on Eurosport, the French Sports TV Network that's available in 59 countries and 20 languages.

@Planet_F1 
All things Formula One, brought to you by Sky Sports Network the British Satellite Broadcaster.

These are just "the planets"...I also follow several of the bike racers, directeurs sportif, and teams on Twitter. I blame @lancearmstrong I started following Lance during his comeback TdF in 2009. At the time he was the only rider on Twitter, and he tweeted every morning and after each stage...it was but a glimpse of the riches to come, Thanks Lance!