Some TGIF Fluff: Tweetclouds as Windows of the Soul
Thursday, 24 April 2008 Clay Burell 
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It’s almost 6 p.m. here in Seoul, and that’s bedtime for this nocturne. Before curling up in Morpheus’ arms, I want to throw this screenshot of my Tweetcloud up here (thanks to Cathy Nelson for sharing that one). It’s an interesting little thing, this tag cloud of your most frequent tweet words. The largest words are most frequent from your tweet history, the medium fairly frequent, the smallest less so, but apparently still frequent enough to gain a space on your cloud.
The temptation to see it as a window to your soul – or your Twit-soul, anyway – seems a respectably objective hypothesis that, better still, opens up a bit of fun. So here’s the cloud, followed by a little playful (but sometimes pregnant?) poetasting:
The “self-promoter” (i.e., guy who likes to share his thoughts and seek yours in reply) inevitably tops the cloud with “New Post.” (Shamelessly) Guilty. (But note: We can promote others too, as below 
)
But I’m happy to see the next most frequent tag is “Thanks,” next to the thanked-for “@dmcordell.”
There’s lots of poetry there too. I especially like:
From the obsessive AP Lit teacher:
Check classroom – college coming.
From the secular naturalist mystic:
Day’s delicious design.
From the army veteran who ain’t above a little spicy naughtiness now and then:
Doing @dswaters? Easy.
(Sue, I think I know you enough to know you’ll ROFL at that one! 
)
From the 1001 Flat World Tales and Project Global Cooling guy:
Getting global, going google.
From the best teacher in me:
Learn learning.
From the guy who loves passionate students worldwide:
Life, @lindseak! Look! Love!
From the guy who likes the virtual cocktail parties:
Need network! Play, pln!
From the blogging evangelist:
Post posts, ppl!
From the Church of Poetry acolyte:
Reading real right.
From the guy who pines from Korea for his life’s love, China:
Send Seoul Shanghai.
From the guy who reads Dean:
Share @shareski.
From the guy who reads Sylvia‘s tweets from late-night jazz clubs:
Sleep, @smartinez.
From the guy who tried to pull his network into his classroom:
Sorry, @sschwister: story (student stuff). Sure.
From the guy who knows a true teacher:
@taylorteacher, teach teachers teaching.
From the guy who knows a smart librarian of the futur(a):
@technolibrary: tell.
From the guy who knows mashups:
Things think.
From the guy who blogs (almost) daily:
Thinking time today.
From the guy looking for young fires wanting kindling:
Wait. Want. Watch.
From the lonely groom in exile:
Wedding week.
From the guy who Will makes chuckle:
Weird wiki, @willrich45!
From the wannabee Whitmanesque bard:
Wish! Wonder! Work, world!
From the guy who just passed 500 posts in 16 months, after 25 years of writing almost nothing:
Write years.
If you want to play likewise, call it a voluntary meme. Link back here so we can also see your “twit soul.”
- From TweetClouds to TagCrowds – Another Voluntary Meme
- How Can Classrooms Use Windows-based PCs to Create Quality Multimedia?
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No. 1 — April 24th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Hey wait! You’re having entirely too much fun here.
You must now go and read two hours of Dostoevsky or Tolstoy.
Salut!
Christopher Sessumss last blog post..Losing Our Minds: Web 2.0 & The Between Years
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No. 2 — April 24th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
“Doing @dswaters? Easy” really does fit me as I often miss the punchline.
But one thing that really stands out is what is missing from your twitter cloud compared to mine and Dean Shareski. We’ve both been married a really long time and our partner features high in our tweets. Now I know that some are interpreting dominant tags as a sign of love with any term — in the case of our partners names it’s more likely an expression of fear (certainly in my case). E.g. Dean being told off about housework or me in trouble. I’m actually thinking of how I can do variations of his name so it doesn’t appear so highly (now this is getting warped).
Pleasing to note wedding featured well in yours
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No. 3 — April 24th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I’ve been looking up other people in my area and will then look at the first page of 10 posts to see if they say anything interesting or not. In theory I could use this to scan all their posts and find out what (over time) they comment on the most.
tankilos last blog post..tankilo: @yxes Blackberry Tutorial http://tinyurl.com/et9wr I use SMS on my bb but installed twitterberry as well http://tinyurl.com/2zeqxx enjoy!
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No. 4 — April 25th, 2008 at 5:33 am
@Christopher: Nothing like a little Dostoievski in the Springtime. (“Always Forward!” — wait, is that the 1st Infantry Div. motto, or my old MI one? You tell me, battle buddy.)
@Sue: I wonder if “to do someone” is only an American idiom? If so, you missed that naughty punchline too
Interesting comment about the “spouse” tag. Eeek.
@Tankilo: Yes, it’s a good little tool.
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No. 5 — April 25th, 2008 at 6:49 am
Now I have to go back and do mine while including the @. I’m a little afraid of that….look for it. I feel a new blog post coming!
Cathy Nelsons last blog post..Do you recognize these southern voices?
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No. 6 — April 25th, 2008 at 8:03 am
[...] I have found the most interesting is that of the tweet clouds I have seen so far, (Allanah, Clay, Cathy and mine) all have one prominent word in common “Thanks”.Join in the fun, what does your [...]
No. 7 — April 25th, 2008 at 8:21 am
[...] reading Clay Burell today and seeing his Tweet Cloud, I decided to rerun mine from earlier. Why would I want to [...]
No. 8 — April 25th, 2008 at 8:47 am
No Clay
to do someone is not an American idiom.
It may surprise you (but not really as we have sort of talked about this before) that language (both written and spoken) is a constant struggle for me. Which is probably even more amazing since I’m a blogger. Interpreting the true meaning of what is really being said for me is like being in a battle zone which is why I are well known to miss the punchlines. But people don’t realise this is why because unless you have this problem you don’t appreciate the constant struggle. Language seems so easy so how could it be so hard for some?
Sue Waterss last blog post..My Post On Facebook You’ve Been Waiting For
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No. 9 — April 25th, 2008 at 11:51 am
Clay,
When have I not wanted to play? Here’s my contribution to cloud-cuckoo land http://tinyurl.com/62ow4c
diane
dianes last blog post..Both Sides Now
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No. 10 — April 27th, 2008 at 8:44 am
[...] This whole writing blogging issue is interesting and is something I pointed out on Clay Burell’s tweetcloud post. [...]
No. 11 — April 27th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
[...] I float on tag clouds and blog fog Inspired by Clay [...]
No. 12 — April 27th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Beautiful, like magnet poetry. Here are a couple of mine:
PBL life cycle:
“projects puttered… results ripened…school sharing
local organic goodness purveyors:
“fantastic farmers: folks following fresh”
toms last blog post..Goverment says too many exams harmful; gives more exams
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No. 13 — April 27th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Nice, Tom
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No. 14 — April 29th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
[...] usual, I am a few days/weeks/months….years??? behind the wave, but I am joining the fun of the found word poetry with my tweetcloud. Can you tell that I am completely burnt out? There are so many important thoughts being [...]
No. 15 — April 30th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
[...] a lot of people seemed to enjoy the TweetClouds as Windows of the Soul meme, I thought this bit of serendipity snagged from some tweeted link might interest you as well. [...]
No. 16 — May 1st, 2008 at 9:52 am
[...] was reading Clay Burell’s blog the other day and came across a fun diversion. He’s decided to use his Tweet Cloud as a source for random [...]