Thursday 14 August 2014

Utterly off topic: my other twitter account

G'day:
I try to keep my @daccfml Twitter account on-topic for CFML / IT type stuff: it's the Twitter adjunct to this blog. Sometimes I mess up and send off-topic updates from it, but on the whole I like to try to keep the off-topic stuff restricted to my other Twitter A/C: @dacactual.

One of the topics I comment semi-regularly on via @dacactual is my own lack of superstitious beliefs, and "gentle" piss-taking of people who have them. I often retweet messages from scientists, active atheists and pisstake accounts (@theTweetOfGod, etc) which represent my opinions, or I find interesting or funny. Sometimes I pass my own comments. I also talk / post about a bunch of other stuff on a semi-regular basis: movies I've watched, beer I've drunk, scientific articles I've read (particularly ones that challenge junk-science).



Yesterday someone who tracks that account asked me if there was any reason I'd recently ramped-up my "atheist" Twitter posts. There was none that I could think of, and I wasn't actively doing it. However it interested me that I might have been focusing on that sort of thing more than usual, so I've just tracked back the last coupla months to see what I've been talking about, to see if there were any trends.

I've catalogued four broad categories:

  • When I watch a movie, I post brief notes on it, and the score I give it on IMDB. Movie-watching is my chief hobby, after messing around on my computer.
  • Similarly when I have a beer I've not tried before, I post my tasting notes on untappd, and send a Twitter message about that. Beer-tasting would be my next main hobby after movie watching. Although I drink more beer than I watch movies ;-)
  • Whilst the next category is "religion", it's more "lack of religion", or observations about how daft religion can be, if one stops to think about it.
  • Science. These are retweets of science / science-skepticism topics I spot.
  • Other... rugby, football (the World Cup was on over this period: I don't usually give a shit about football), politics, stupid jokes I spot, etc
  • Note: the bit I mark as "Jordan" was when I got into a protracted conversation with Jordan about his religious beliefs. There was a lot of back-and forth on those days.

DateMoviesBeerReligionScienceOther
14/08/2014
13/08/2014111
12/08/20141
11/08/2014121
10/08/201413
09/08/20142
08/08/20143Jordan12
07/08/2014Jordan
06/08/20141
05/08/201412
04/08/201421
03/08/20142311
02/08/2014112
01/08/20141
31/07/201411
30/07/201412
29/07/201411
28/07/201422
27/07/20142
26/07/2014
25/07/2014111
24/07/20143
23/07/201421
22/07/20141
21/07/2014112
20/07/2014231
19/07/201421
18/07/2014213
17/07/2014113
16/07/20141
15/07/2014
14/07/20143
13/07/20141
12/07/201421
11/07/20141
10/07/20141
09/07/201412
08/07/20141
07/07/20142
06/07/201421
05/07/2014
04/07/2014
03/07/20141
02/07/20142211
01/07/201411
30/06/2014321
29/06/20142211
28/06/2014511
27/06/20142
26/06/20141
25/06/201411
24/06/2014
23/06/2014
22/06/201411
21/06/2014613
20/06/20145
19/06/20142
18/06/2014
17/06/201421
16/06/2014
15/06/201411
14/06/20146
13/06/2014113
12/06/20141
11/06/2014
10/06/20143
09/06/20141
08/06/201411
07/06/20141
06/06/20141
05/06/2014
04/06/20141
03/06/201412
02/06/201421
01/06/20141

So I guess there has been a slight up-swing in the last week or so, but I expect this is a transient thing. I did "follow" a person who is a noted religious skeptic & atheist last week as they followed me for some reason, and they post a lot of poignant stuff some of which I have retweeted. That might account for it?

There's perhaps a lot of religious-oriented shit in the news recently too, with the crap going on in Gaza, plus the IS stuff in Iraq. I get so angry at people using religion as an excuse to be pricks to one another. This will no-doubt influence me too.

Anyway, I'm posting this here as it's the place I've got for making-public tracts of HTML. That's the only reason, really.

Make of it what you will.

--
Adam