Twitter.com is not just fluff. There’s a fair share of “Making a sandwich” and “drinking my seventh Starbucks,” there’s also a lot of useful ways to use Twitter.

A few ways i’ve seen Twitter be a useful little web app.

1. Comcastcares - Comcast has a person on twitter who scans twitter for complaints about Comcast. I’ve done my fair share in the last 3 months. Comcastcares actually responds, and apparently is a customer service big wig who can make things happen and get problems resolved. This is a great customer service tool, even if you’re usually pissed with the service by the time you make a post on twitter (tweets as us nerds call them)
2. I put up a post on twitter about how I love getting food from our CSA share (community supported agriculture - we own a share with some friends and get a bag of veggies straight from the farm each week). One of my twitter friends was interested but had never been able to get connected to a farm before. I was able to quickly pass on info to her and hopefully she’ll be supporting a local farmer soon too.
3. A while back I posted on twitter that I was working on some new web strategy ideas. A twitter friend, and well respected authority on the issue, responded that she would review my strategy docs and give feedback. It was very helpful in framing this new project. 
4. Had a friend who needed a recipe for chicken breasts. Hit reply, great dinner.
5. Book suggestions
6. Music suggestions
7. Software suggestions
8. Idea sharing
9. Link sharing
10. Useful work-related connections

1. Just when you think you have the right answer, you find out there is no right answer.
2. You don’t know what loud means, until you go to lunch with our staff.
3. Life is more fun, when you put your differences out on the table and don’t expect everyone to conform to your way of thinking.
4. We all really do just want to be loved. Just what that love looks like is often different.
5. Diplomacy is the act of listening, before making your case.

Now that I’m back in the states and trying to settle into regular life, I find there’s a host of things I miss about France. Here’s a few:

1. A more conscientious lifestyle around consumption.
   - Grocery stores charge you to take a plastic bag. (I was a great re-user)
   - People are smaller (from the moment I stepped off the plane in Chicago, the American Epidemic of Obesity was glaringly obvious. We clearly consume more.
   - Just my observation, but there is far less plastic in France. Coke comes in bottles, even my Yoplait yogurt I bought at the grocery store came in small clay pots.
2. Walkable communities.
   -Maybe it’s just because we were always in the city, but everything seemed walkable. In the city of Paris, it’s claimed that there isn’t a building that is farther than 500 meters from the metro (subway).
   - I assume mass transit requires less energy consumption than everybody driving their own car.
   - I could generally find anything I needed within a 15 minute walk/bus/subway/rail ride.
3. Open-air cafes everywhere.
   - I like being able to get an espresso, a coke, or a bit to eat at an open air cafe that always seemed within walking distance.
4. Way less advertising.
   - Aside from at bus stops and train stations, there was very little large format advertising. I never felt inundated except by ads for the Sex in the City movie.
5. Soccer is always on TV
   - Even with French commentators, soccer is still my first love. I loved watching it all the time.
6. Coke in the bottle. Daily.
7. Beautiful architecture all the time.
   - A beautiful mix of the modern and the ancient. There’s very little “old architecture” in Minneapolis. So many classics were torn down in the city planning movements in the 20th century, especially in the 50’s and 60’s. In France, buildings are either built in the same style and beauty of 200, 300 or 400 year old buildings, or it goes in a very modern direction. The mixing of the two is quite intriguing to me.
8. Everyday fashion is way better.
   - Again, landing in Chicago, the frumpy midwesterner became obvious.
9. Is it me, or are the groceries cheaper?
10. Lot’s of time alone with my wife, waking up whenever I do naturally.

I listen to a few hours of podcasts each week. I love podcasts more than most other types of media. I listen while I work, while I drive, while I cook. Podcasts aren’t going anywhere, you should find some you like. Here’s some that I like.

1. MacBreak Weekly - I’m a Mac nerd, as you’ll see from later choices. When Merlin Mann is on, you can count on a few deep belly laughs. On the TWIT Network with Leo Laporte
2. This Week in Tech - Love Leo Laporte. He’s a great old skool radio guy who understands new media. The Twit Network has 3 in my top 10. 
3. Mosaic - Erwin McManus essentially has one message: God has placed infinite potential in each of us and it’s there to be utilized to advance his kingdom. Are you going to do it? He’s a great story-teller and motivating leader. I’ve actually made changes in my life by listening to Erwin. 
4. KCRW’s Left, Right and Center - I love politics, despite everything I hate about it. Left Right and Center gives a  28 minute round-up of the week’s political highlights from different perspectives. Way better than watching CNN. 
5. TEDTalks - TED is all about ideas. Inspired talks by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers.  
6. Net@Night - I’m always interested in what’s new with the web. Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte talk about the new sites, site buzz that’s current to the web. Sometimes a bit to chatty on the personal side, but I don’t mind that either.
7. Loaded - Natalie Del Conte does a great job delivering the day’s tech news in 3-5 minutes. Her show use to be a bit more personal before she moved to CNet, but it’s still good. Search for loaded under CNet Tech Shows or Cnet Loaded in the itunes store.
8. Mac OS Ken - Ken Ray delivers the Daily Mac News with humor, wit and a genuine love of all things Apple.  
9. NPR’s Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.  - What can I say, I’m an NPR news nerd. I love this show.
10. Woodland Hills Church - Greg Boyd is still the smartest thing that can speed talk a sermon mixing hermeneutics, metaphysics, lots of fancy other words and the true passion of christ like no one else can, making sense to the doctoral student and the high school kid at the same time.

1. 2007 Taxes
2. 2006 Taxes (really? Yep. really.)
3. Have a date night with my wife.
4. Order 2 iMacs and 1 Macbook Pro)
5. Get iCal Server working (or wait till the OS X Server Update comes next week).
6. Get some new directional signs printed for church on Sundays (it’s always a shuffle when you’re worshipping at a school.)
7. Read Pop Goes the Church
8. Figure out where we’ll go in France when we have 3 free days before Sarah’s surgery (Sally and Markus want to fly us to Germany for the weekend…why not?)
9. Get some much needed updates to the church website.
10. Finish off a design for the new Mosaic Youth Website.