Maybe I'm just emotional right now...
written by Allan on February 19, 2009
Thursday Feb 12th my wife and I had our second child. If you're following me on twitter (@lessallan) you probably already knew that. I streamed 50 seconds of my wife's face during the csection using Qik and it was featrued on techcrunch and mentioned on TWiT. It was a weird couple days. The Houston Chronicle also called me and interview me about the video.
The writer asked "so 750+ people follow you on twitter and you streamed this video for them? Do you even know them?" I was taken aback. I replied that I know these people. I may not know everyone of them like I know my best friends, but these people are my friends. Some even know me better than my "real friends." It seems like people think twitter is a toy, but I feel like I've developed some real relationships through it. When my daughter was born I had several hundred "congrats tweets" back. Know what? It felt really freaking good.
I know that...
- FearMediocrity is expecting his first kid, he's excited and nervous at the same time, I think he'll be a great Dad.
- gloriabell tries to help someone everyday, she's amazing. She's feeling oddly about her Dad dating again.
- NewMonarch is doing amazing things with his product Storenvy.com. He's the type of guy you want to be successful.
- digitaljhelms named his second son "Jedi." Seriously awesome. His oldest son turned 2 in early Feb.
- eoghanmccabe has great opinions on business and web apps, I highly respect him. You must read his blog posts twice to soak in all the awesomeness.
- dneighbors everything he touches is dangerous. I love his work, and he also has a kegerator by his pool, I am jealous.
- alexknowshtml is a class act. He shares his love of community, business, marketing with everyone.
- necessarym is a very funny designer gal in Atlanta. Sadly one of her cats passed a few days ago. We're thinking about her, wishing her our best.
The non-tech world hasn't realized while the exchanges are electronic the relationships are real.
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Allan loves his family more than breathing. He lives in Panama City, Florida & grew up washing cars at his family's car washes. Oh and Allan hasn't worn underwear since 2004.
5 Comments
I agree completely. Just by a chance of me waking into a BOAF meeting one evening at RailsConf I met Steve. Steve made that RailsConf for me and I couldn’t help but check out more of his business and that led me to to Allan.
You guys are a shining example of what a couple of friends can accomplish and Its a joy “hanging” out with you guys.. on twitter and in real life.
What seems odd to me is that people cant believe we have these relationships with people all over the world via twitter and IM, etc. when these same relationships have been taking place for years albeit via the long distance phone call. The only difference is now via Twitter, its a more public conversation.
Another thing they dont “get” is that when you do actually meet these people we converse with on Twitter, they are really great people!
Our friendships are not bound by the constraints of our neighborhoods and city limits anymore. I for one am thankful for it as I have met some really great people via Twitter that I would have never met before without it!
Thanks for mentioning me, you’re awfully sweet. I enjoy “hanging” out with you guys on twitter, too!
For what it’s worth, I think the birth of a child is a beautiful thing to share. If we had videoed Caedmon’s birth, I probably would have posted it on youtube. I guess people only think it’s okay to share it if you’ve got TLC editing it and distributing it to the masses. Kudos to you for bringing birth out of the realms of the closet and reality TV. :-)
I’ve made some great friends via twitter and they’re a constant source of comfort and motivation to me. :) I think they know me better than my friends in real life.
I think having virtual pals via twitter or other platforms are important to people like me who are working solo. It could have been a lonely journey, but twitter made a whole world of difference.