I'm constantly impressed by some of the pithy, droll and sarcastic bios people write for their Twitter profiles. I thought it was worth sharing a few of my favourites:

@derekandkong: Born at a very young age I realised almost immediately that I knew very little.

@keithpitt: web developer (Ruby on Rails), geek, gamer and robot from the year 2143

@TheBloggess: I have friends in spite of myself.

@Cathie_Tranent: I am a wife I am a mother I work I blog I photograph I design tshirts I'm tired

@Wang_Wang (panda) : Black and white bear. Omnivore. Likes travel, eating bamboo and origami. I'm endangered, but I party like a rock star.

@bludgingwriter: Trying to finish writing a book while the TV brings up the three kids

@teedubya: ... SEO Jedi. Uber bullshittapotomous. Social Shaman. Pompous Windbag. I'm kind of a Medium Deal.

Unfortunately, we don't always notice these bios, as we visit Twitter.com less, instead using tweet tools such as Hootsuite. These tend to disconnect you from the bios, background images and other individual touches that people use to represent themselves. It's worth checking in to Twitter.com now and then to take a good look at your tweet pals.

Have you ever noticed that on social networks the spelling can become, well, a little sloppy?

What does this mean to you? Does it tick you off? Or do you believe that it’s part of the fast-paced, casual atmosphere of the social media environment?

With tweets, I can forgive a typo – particulary if it’s from a mobile application. Those tiny keys on your mobile aren’t always your friend, are they?

But it’s absolutely unforgivable if somebody creates a Facebook group and has mistakes in the group name. So I’ve very happily joined the Facebook group: I’d join your group but there are spelling errors in the title.

Now, I’m no grammar queen. I’ll leave that to my good friends at Leviathancomms. Heck, I know I shouldn’t have started a sentence with ‘but’ (as I did earlier in this blog).

But spelling when you’re creating something, when you’re promoting a business online, when you’re writing about yourself and building your own personal brand? Come on!

I’ve noticed that age makes no difference. I looked up a former colleague on Facebook and read her profile. She had listed her children’s names without capitalising them. She’s in her 50s. What had possessed her? She wouldn’t have let happen in an office document. Why let it slip through on the internet, where people search for you and, frankly, judge you?

It gets worse when texting lingo and shortcuts enter the fray. A family member’s status updates are barely decipherable. Take these examples:

Wld lyk 2 know wtf....happend 2 my hotmail n facebook accounts, it said username/p-w unknown..lyk wtf...so i had 2 reset em both

OMFG..Im getting SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO frustrated, trying 2 load a pic bt its taking 4 eva cuz everytym I load a pic frm my dig. Camera its huge..YYYYYYYYYYYYYY????????

One final thought: social media is about sharing. You’ve joined in because you’ve got something to say. If you want people to read your message, slow down and get the spelling right.

I'm still to play with Google Wave ...

... but one thing I am hearing from Google Wave newbies, is that they're 'lonely' there.

At least, that's my interpretation.

I've seen tweets and comments like: 'Why is nobody waving at me?' 'I'm here .. now what?' and 'Um, I have Google Wave. Anyone want invites? Maybe I can finally make it a fun thing if I have contacts".

Like any online social or collaboration tool, it doesn't make sense unless you have your peeps there with you.

It reminds me of when I started out on Twitter. Landed there, set my profile, wrote my first tweet .. and, then what? It took me a while to follow people who tweeted anything meaningful with me. To build up contacts (and understand the context).

But after a few lonely forays, where I felt like I was butting into people's conversations, Twitter became a lively meeting place for me, full of knowledge-sharing and new (crazy) online friends.

Today, I'm still hearing Twitter newbies complain that they "don't get it". I always remind them: you need to stay on; reply to people; interact. It's not all about posting your own thoughts or links. It must be two-way.

I'm convinced this will happen with Google Wave. When it reaches its critical mass, it will take off. It's built around interactions - and that's pretty darn hard when you've only got a few mates there. It may be lonely now, but watch and see it evolve.

(Oh, and invite your friends, help them learn with you along the way .. and wave at me!)

I'm on holiday.

I wish my brain could be on holiday with me.

I've got one week's leave before beginning a new job. One week - seven days. Nice, right?

Not really. See, in my mind I've reduced that count to five days - cause you don't count the weekend. I already have weekends. And then, I'm a mother with two sons. They're not on holiday: but they do return from school at 3.30pm each day. And I drop them at school at about 8.30am every morning. So I'm only on holiday from 9am to 3.30pm, for five days.

That's a smaller window of time. What with lunch, playing around on my social networks, doing the odd bit of housework, trying to exercise, going to the dentist, doing some long overdue gardening and getting lost in online banking ... that leaves me precious little time to do Holiday Things.

What are Holiday Things?

Why, that would be: walking on the beach. Reading a novel. Sipping cocktails. Going outlet mall shopping. Having a massage. Going out for a latte. Rolling over in the morning and going back to sleep. Visiting little antique stores or bookshops I've never seen before ...

How am I supposed to squeeze that in?

My brain leapt to this pessimistic calculation almost immediately on deciding to have a week off. The joy was shaved in two (or five, or ten, or whatever the calculation is).

Why can't I just let good enough alone? Why can't a week .. be A Week?