Saturday morning: Tweeting for news and entertainment

Woke up this morning at about 6:30, as the lights and air conditioner stopped running, so I unplugged all computers (avoid power surge when it comes back on), grabbed my trusty Blackberry, and tweeted and Facebooked inquiries. Then looked up Xcel's number, called, and waded through automated messages - yes, I am calling about a power outage. Okay, here's my phone number. Xcel already knows about the outage and predicts that it will be fixed by "about 11:33 a.m." Right. And they'll call to tell me if that time changes by more than an hour and call to tell me when power is back on. Now that sounds like a good system—I'll see whether the calls actually come.

As I listened to Xcel's automatons, the first Twitter response came in from @kar_nel - "yes heard load crash, local substation seems to buzzibg n then sirens - near Snell-Summit" We went off to Dunn Brothers for coffee and wi-fi access, and shortly Twitter informed me that the power was back on at Snelling and Summit. Then Allen Hooper stopped by our table and confirmed that power's back in our neighborhood, too. Sometimes you go and get the news, and sometimes the news walks up to you. Both Twitter and a real-person report (though still no call from Xcel) - guess we can go home!

Meanwhile, Twitter also provided entertainment, with a sequence of tweets from Sheila Regan last night:

• One reason brute heart sounds so good: they have a kick ass sound guy

• I just don't get why people think moshing is fun.

• Dancing, to me, is fun. Pushing and getting pushed? Not so fun

• That being said, I appreciate the energy.

• I just moshed. I was getting bored, so I decided to join in. Ow.

• Ok people. If there is someone flying in the air above you, for god's sake put your hands up.

• Dancing in the back is more fun. More room.

Mary Turck

Mary Turck (editor@tcdailyplanet.net) is the editor of the TC Daily Planet.