I’ve recently rejoined Facebook.

The first time I joined, it was as “Fairly Odd Mother”, and I quit after a few months when the whole “Facebook hates breasts” controversy erupted. I was lured back in by friends who kept telling me of everyone I knew who had joined. This time, I joined using my real name, maiden name and all.

Twitter has been my little pal for a while longer. It took me a while to understand Twitter, and most importantly, to build up enough people to follow to make it interesting. Now I’ve progressed to the point where my Twitter updates are on the sidebar of this blog. I even use Tweetchat when I want to focus on a single topic (like Battlestar Gallactica Friday night at 10pm; Tweetchat room #bsg).

So, which do I prefer?

On Facebook, I now have 119 friends which include my husband, people I knew in high school and college (and haven’t seen in over 20 years), my husband’s aunt, my brother-in-law, people I only know through the blogosphere, and an ex-boyfriend and ex-boss. My photos, bio and even a link to this “anonymous” blog is now splayed out for all those people to see.

On Twitter, I am following 354 people and have 514 following me. This is not because what I say on Twitter is so interesting, but rather I get a little lazy in following people back. At some point, I’ll probably follow most of those people too, except for Holy God, who I suspect isn’t really who I think it is.

When I write my little (140 characters or less) quips on Twitter, I think less about what people will think of me. First of all, I’m “Fairly Odd Mother” and not my “real” name.

Second, what I say will soon get pushed to the bottom of the page and not be sitting there for hours and hours for my “followers” to read and ponder.

So, if Facebook is like having a meaningful relationship with someone, where you tell them the “25 random things about me” and send them little gifts or “pokes”, Twitter is more like a “wham-bam-thank-you-man, get in/get out, hope-you-had-fun, now get the hell out of my bed” quickie. You may laugh, you may cry, but in the end you can walk away relatively unscathed.

I prefer the quickie.

That isn’t to say I dislike Facebook. I’ve learned a ton of things about friends, love seeing photos from people I don’t get to see in person nearly enough, and think there is something warm and fuzzy about getting friend requests from people I haven’t talked to in a while.

But, when it comes to which is more of a time drain, Twitter is where it’s at for me.

So, what about you? Do you have a preference? Do you use both? If one but not the other, why?

Or, if you use MySpace instead, what the hell are you thinking? Seriously, doesn’t it give you a headache?

Maybe I’m just too old.

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I’m in that “making a list and checking it twice” mode right now, so I’m going to take care of a few things that have been left hanging for too long.

A) Sus over at Wiggle Rooms gave me this nifty little award a while back. It originates from this site, Arte y pico, which must be a smart site because it is bilingual.

Sus wrote some super nice things about me, but my favorite part was this, “I’ve long been intrigued by home schooling. I don’t think I can manage it (though I’ve thought about it) but if I tried, I’d be calling Fairly Odd every day for encouragement and wisdom.” Here’s the deal, Sus: you try homeschooling, and I’ll give you my number.

I’m supposed to tag five bloggers. Recently, several of my blogging friends have gone underground. I’m not sure what this says about the blogs I read, but if you are a blogger who has changed your blog name to shake off family, gone to “invite only”, or just stopped posting lately because of the heat from those close to you, this one is for you too.

B) My former New England Mamas’ cohort Whirlwind (oh, yeah, news flash: New England Mamas is sort of gone. Will come back. In another form. I think. News at 11). . .anyway, Whirlwind tagged me for a meme that confused me at first but went something like this.

* Go into your photo files
* Pick your sixth file
* Pick the sixth photo in the file
* Post it on your blog and explain what the photo is.

If there was one more “sixth” in these instructions, I’d be convinced that this was some sort of devil plot. But, there are only two 6’s, so I’ll play along.

Here’s D with our GIANT remote that I mentioned in a post not all that long ago. It was on sale. And, it still works and is never, ever lost. Sometimes husbands buy silly things that turn out to be great. Sometimes.

(by the way, I love how Jilly is randomly standing there staring at her strange little brother and that contraption; I do not love how ugly and shiny and worn out our family room couch looks)

C) Finally, WAAAAAYYYYY back when, another of my former New England Mamas, Margalit tagged me for a meme where I tell you of Six Unspectacular Quirks of mine. You may find these quirks to be spectacular, but they are just ordinary quirks to me.

1. I have to make my bed every day. Even if I forget until 9pm, I will make it before I crawl under the covers. You may think this was how I was raised, but here’s the weird thing: while I lived under my parents’ roof, I never, ever made my bed. My mom did it every day. It wasn’t that I was lazy, it was that she was incredibly anal, and the site of a 10-year-old’s attempt at bed-making would have made her twitch.

2. When I sit on the ground, my legs make that “M” position around me that doctors tell you never to do because you’ll grow up deformed. I’ll correct my kids, but I still do it all the time.

D demonstrates; before he was corrected, of course

3. If a movie or television show gets too scary, I will ask whoever is next to me, “does she die?”, “is that going to blow up?” or whatever else is relevant, even if I know that they haven’t seen the show either. I also watch these scenes from behind my hands, peeking out between my fingers (Fairly Odd Father hates watching suspense movies with me).

4. I hate laughing until I cry, because I’m left with tears which make me feel sad.

5. I grind my teeth, or more accurately “clench” my teeth when I sleep. I’ve done it since infancy and have had dentists try to “fix” the problem by removing teeth, filing teeth, and inserting mouth guards. I’ll probably need surgery someday as I can hear my jaw creaking to open and close in the morning which just can’t be a good thing.

6. Put me in a roomful of cute kids and one ugly dog, and I’ll play with the dog.

That’s all I got.

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