I’m not going to try and hide it anymore: I’ve been in the thrall of a torrid love affair for the past year, and it has been consuming every moment of my day, every single inch of my personal fabric. I’ve been so wrapped up in this new affair that my first love of my life—this blog here—has suffered and has even gone through periods of long neglect.

So today, I’m doing the morally correct thing and coming out with the details of my more-than-year-long affair with Twitter, with hopes of making amends with all the other web properties (Flickr, Upcoming, Squandrous, Last.fm, blogTO, and Eloquation to name a few) that I have been ignoring over the past several months.

I’ve spoken about Twitter before here on Eloquation, but was afraid to profess my undying love out of fear of repercussions. At that time, the world wasn’t yet ready to embrace my love of Twitter, but I now feel like the time is right to introduce my web mistress

Twitter has succeeded in bringing me pleasure unlike any other web application has before because of the low barrier to entry, the high value of return for time spent, and its ability to sit in the background until I really need to get some tweet lovin’. Unlike the other web applications I have been involved with, Twitter doesn’t keep me chained to my browser, but instead gives me my freedom to explore by staying with me through SMS messages on my mobile phone. With the help of Twitter, I have been able to express myself in a more lucid, concise manner, and Twitter has also helped me increase the quality of my conversations with some of the people around me.

I’m not the only person that has been caught up in a love affair with Twitter, but I don’t get jealous when I learn of other people involved with the application. In fact, I encourage other people to tryst with Twitter so that I can learn from their experiences and share in their thoughts.

Other lovers on the web have written odes to Twitter: some say that an affair with Twitter can make you smarter and more productive, while others claim that Twitter will drastically improve your life. They’re both true. Here’s a short list of what Twitter has brought me in the past year alone:

• Web application help;
• A confession booth;
• Political opinion;
• Social drinks;
• A web developer;
• Cheap stuff;
• A few dates (no link for those);
• Design inspiration;
• Breaking news;
• A good laugh;
• More blog visitors;
• Time management;
• Happiness.

As much as Twitter has given me, it has taken some things away as well, as any mistress is wont to do. After all, I know spend much less time doing other things on the web: I could argue that Twitter is ruining my blogging. My mobile vibrates with Twitter updates dozens of times an hour, sometimes disturbing social engagements. There are times where Twitter is so smothering that I think “I love Twitter, but I have to quit it.”

Those thoughts pass quickly. Any good relationship is able to realize its faults and work through them, and Twitter and I have a lasting, fulfilling relationship that can persevere through absences and adversity.

So I’ve come clean and professed my love for Twitter. There is no reason for it to hide in the corner of my web life anymore, and I’m letting Twitter come center-stage. I’ll keep blogging, linking, opining, and taking photos, but if you’re really looking for me, I’ll be with Twitter.

Are you a fellow lover of Twitter? We adorers must stick together: let me know and I’ll follow you on Twitter as well.

The Guardian Book Review this past Saturday had a wonderful feature entitled Christmas books past present and future where they asked prominent authors to elaborate on their favorite books that they have received, given, or plan to read during the holiday season over the years.

Not only is this is a wonderful exercise to discover the personalities of famous writers, but also an interesting look at the significance of literature in shaping the memories of our Christmases over the years. I really enjoyed this nugget from Anne Enright:

“When I was still at school, a boyfriend gave me Wuthering Heights and The Complete English Poems of John Donne for Christmas. What a fabulous double blow that was to a young girl’s heart. Who knew? Up to this point he had merely been good at rugby. I read them over the holiday, thinking that he had, somehow, written them himself — and not only that, but he had done so with me in mind. It made me feel a bit peculiar, this discovery that men have souls, too. Of course, I realised, when we met again, that he had not written them himself, so that was a bit of a letdown. It was not because he had soul, it was because he had such impeccable manners. I had no manners at all, but I was suddenly loopers about Donne. And the moral of the story is: kick it high, but not out of the park.”

In the spirit of the Guardian feature, I’ve decided to share with you all a few of my own thoughts on Christmas books: past, present, and future.

Christmas Past

My family has never celebrated Christmas, so while I received many books for birthdays and other occasions, I never really did receive any books during the holiday season. five years ago, however, I went to a girlfriend’s place for Christmas dinner and was given a copy of Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays With Morrie by her brother, and it turned out to be the best Christmas present I have ever received (and subsequently given to others as well).

Albom’s book was a reminder that our memories and learnings are often tied to important people in our lives: a message that resonated strongly within the 20-year-old me that had spent the early part of the holiday season trying to figure out the purpose and meaning of his life. It was the Christmas gift that not only brought some clarity, but brought some perspective—truly a gift that still keeps on giving.

Christmas Present

It’s true, even I often get caught up in the commercialism of the holiday season. Which is why I’m giving a few of my friends a copy of Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us—one of my favorite books I have read in all of 2007—as a Christmas gift this year.

Weisman’s book, though it may seem at first like a doomsday novel, is full of expressions of gratitude and appreciation, two sentiments that are particularly relevant during the Christmas season. Not only does its premise (of humanity being wiped off the face of the earth) make the reader give thanks for their current existence, but it also provides reason for hope that there is possibility for a more beautiful and sustainable future. Looking past the horror of human extinction, the reader of The World Without Us can truly come to look at the beauty of human existence.

Christmas Future

Unlike many of the authors in the Guardian article, I don’t have access to manuscripts of books that are yet to be released, so speculating on future Christmas books may be a bit difficult. I am, however, excited about the prospect that two people I really admire—Khoi Vinh and Tara Hunt—are currently writing books themselves. It’s always nice to know that friends are exercising their creativity and making their thoughts heard in the print world.

And in the end, isn’t that what Christmas is all about: celebrating in the achievements of friends and family?

We’re already deep into November, so I’m going to have to apologize for not posting this sooner. Then again, there are still about seven good weeks of movie-watching left in 2007, and in an effort to help guide you through the most intense part of the cinematic year, here is my list of fifteen movies to watch before the end of the year.

A quick note: I’ve only picked good films to include on this list. I’ve seen a lot of duds that are about to be released as well, but you can just ask me about what movies to avoid by email or in person.

What I’ve Seen

American Gangster (November 2)
The film is gritty but is crafted with finesse. Denzel clearly outshines his own performance in Training Day in this film, and Russel Crowe is underused but still remarkably good. One gangster movie that is going down in film history that you don’t want to miss.

No Country for Old Men (November 9)
After Ratatouille, this is clearly the best film of the year. The Coen brothers have managed to create a film which will keep you on the edge of your seat, but has enough humor to make sure you don’t die of a coronary from the intensity of the action. Plus, Javier Bardem is probably the creepiest guy you’ll ever see on screen.

Margot at the Wedding (November 16)
Noah Baunbach’s most recent film is nowhere close to being as good as his 2005 masterpiece The Squid and the Whale, but some solid performances by Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and surprisingly, Jack Black, make this movie entertaining and endearing all at the same time.

I’m Not There (November 21)
To be honest, I wasn’t the biggest fan of this movie, but then again, I’m not a huge Dylan fan. Every Dylan fan I have met that has seen this film, however, is touting this as one of the best movies of the year, and I’ll admit that Cate Blanchett was particularly good in her portrayal of the musician.

Juno (December 5)
When they are teaching Writing Comedies 101 in film school, I seriously hope that Juno is a required movie to watch as an example of brilliant comedic writing. Jason Reitman takes Diablo Cody’s phenomenal script and makes it come alive with the help of a career-defining performance by Ellen Page, who happens to be one of my favorite actresses.

Atonement (December 7)
It wasn’t the best adaptation of Ian McEwan’s poignant novel, but the story is strong, the set design is lush, and the costume design is just divine. Worth it for the escape as well as the fact that it is guaranteed to make you cry.

Persepolis (December 25)
This film is proof that animation is sometimes the best way to tell a difficult and layered story. The drawings are simple but the visual technique is perfectly suited to this tale of a girl growing up in Iran during political upheaval. It is easily one of my top five films of the year.

Cassandra’s Dream (December 28)
Woody Allen may not be able to create masterpieces like Annie Hall anymore, but his recent Match Point and now Cassandra’s Dream prove that he still has the knack for creating a solid and enthralling film. I’d argue that Allen could have done more with the immensely talented cast, but he still pulls off an engaging and interesting thriller, and a perfect end to the movie year.

What I Want to See

Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium (November 16)
I’m not completely sold on this film just yet, but it does star Natalie Portman and was shot entirely in Toronto. I’m willing to give it a shot, hoping that its whimsy in magic will be a good respite from all the seriousness of the meetings I’ve been having over the past few weeks.

The Savages (November 28)
My crush on Laura Linney not withstanding, Tamara Jenkins is a fantastic storyteller and Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the most impressive actors of his generation, so it makes sense that this family drama will be poignant and intense.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (November 30)
If there’s one thing I regret from this past September, it was missing the screening of Julian Schnabel’s film at the Toronto International Film Festival. I’ve heard the film is nothing short of genius, and was a favorite at this year’s festival in Toronto as well as at Cannes.

The Golden Compass (December 7)
Polar bears that fight and talk, and a world where every human is accompanied by their animal spirit guides: that’s the backdrop for this film based on a fantastic novel by Philip Pullman. I want to see it just to see how they pull off all the stunning effects and magical worlds.

The Kite Runner (December 14)
Khaled Hosseini’s first novel was one of the best books I have read in the past decade, and I was skeptical when I heard it was being converted into a film. However, I have been hearing great things about Marc Forster’s adaptation of the book, so I’m looking forward to seeing if he has been able to capture the inner turmoil of the novel without making it too melodramatic.

Sweeney Todd (December 21)
The dynamic duo of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are at it again, this time in a musical about a serial killer barber. Yes, a musical about a serial killer. If that’s not enough to entice you to watch this film, the desaturated look and the excessive amounts of blood should be big selling points as well.

There Will Be Blood (December 26)
From what I hear, there won’t be much blood in Paul Thomas Anderson’s new movie, but there surely will be lots of oil. Couple that with drama, intensity, and assured stunning performances by Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano, its almost certain that this will be one of the most-anticipated films of the year.

What’s Next

January is usually a pretty drab month when it comes to cinema, as all the studios have pushed out their Oscar contenders for release before the end of the calendar year.

While J.J. Abrams is still releasing his much anticipated Cloverfield on January 18, I’ll be using my time in January to gather my thoughts on the past year in cinema. I’ll be posting some thoughts on my favorite films and likely Academy Award contenders on this site early in the new year.

If all goes well, I’ll also be launching a new film site which will feature a round-up of all the movies being released each week, so look out for my launch announcement in January.

This is the last film-related post you’ll be seeing on Eloquation for about two months. (Don’t worry, I’ve got quite a few posts lined up on other topics coming up for this site.) In the meantime, happy movie-watching!

I arrived in London last Friday a little tired, a little stressed, a little frazzled, and more than just a little upset. My flight from LaGuardia was delayed by several hours, I was still recovering from illness that was impeding my sleep, and worst of all, my luggage was lost and Air Canada was not being very helpful in trying to locate my bag.

Thankfully, that was the day I met Abdul. Abdul was my taxi driver that not only drove me to the clothing store to by new clothes, but helped me with my shopping, drove me back to the hotel, and waited in the car to drive me to my meeting after I was dressed.

Apart from the wonderful service he provided, Abdul was my hero that Friday for several reasons. First, he was able to see my distress and accommodated me accordingly: he stopped for coffee, he suggested places to shop, he let me take my time when I needed my time.

Second, Abdul made me feel like a friend rather than a passenger. He asked me about my troubles, he encouraged me to sit in the front seat, and he even helped me pick out a new sweater.

Finally, Abdul was my hero that Friday because, despite my dour temperament, he taught me so much in the few hours I spent with him.

See, Abdul moved to London from Afghanistan ten years ago to escape the war. He is still working on the paperwork to bring his wife and kids to London from Pakistan.

Through our conversations, Abdul shared some of his life stories with me, and through them I was reminded of a few lessons:

• There is no substitute for hard work. Abdul attributes his survival and success in London to the fact that he put his heart and soul into his work. Success is dependent on how much you’re willing to work on your task.
• There is a time and place for frivolousness. Abdul sees so many people who spend more on going Friday and Saturday nights than they make in a five-day work week. There is a time and place for fun, but it is important to keep it in context of your life’s priorities.
• Everyone you meet is a vessel for learning. Abdul told me that he learns something new from every person that sits in his taxi. Because of this, he sees passengers not as clients, but as launchpads for discovery and exploration.

In a few short hours, Abdul was my friend, sympathizer, and teacher. By the time I got to my meeting that evening, I had forgotten about all my travel woes and was ready for a productive weekend ahead of me.

So I’m writing this today to say thank you to Abdul. Sometimes kindness, compassion, and insight can be found in the most unexpected places.

As many of you know, I was in New York this past week for the 2007 Future of Web Design Conference, where I had the opportunity to I had to listen to several fantastic speakers and meet a lot of the people whose work I admire.

Sadly, I couldn’t stay for the second day of workshops because I had to fly to London for meetings—which also explains why I’m posting this so late—but I did manage to learn quite a bit from the speakers on the first day of the FOWD conference. I’ve decided to put my one or two key learnings from each session here in this post, but as always, it is impossible to consolidate a whole day of sessions into one blog post. There was so much more to take away from the conference than the points below, and I strongly encourage you all to check out the conference next year.

Finding Inspiration

Joshua Davis showed us how technology lets him create things that would normally take an eternity to make.

• Difficult is easy, simple is hard: obsess the details.
• Find your voice: if you’re using someone else’s voice, you’ll run out of conversation pretty quickly.

Taking Your Site Mobile

Brian Fling helped us remember that mobile design and development is really easy.

• The mobile web will revolutionize the way we all gather and interact with information in the next three years.
• Understand your medium, and be sure to design for the user’s context.

Web Application Usability

Ryan Singer went through the steps of crafting clear user interfaces and told us about having Edward Tufte as an inspiration.

• Language is the most underrated part of interface design: language is the most powerful tool for displaying and conveying information.
• Speak your users’ language: talk like a human.

Beautifying the Web with Illustration

Cindy Li spoke about abstraction through illustration.

• Images translate content when words can not.
• Illustrations can tell more words than even a picture can.

AJAX & Design

Jonathan Snook demonstrated how Ajax helps applications mimic the desktop software experience.

• The future of the web is now, and that future is Ajax.
• If the interaction you create is not immediately obvious, it doesn’t work.

CSS3 and What Could Be

Jina Bolton showed us some of the great things that we can expect in CSS3 and how it will help designers and developers. To be honest, I don’t know much about CSS, but Jina’s presentation got me interested in learning about CSS and its future. Check out her CreatingSexyStylesheets site for more resources.

Destroying The Web 2.0 Look

Elliot Jay Stocks ranted about bevels, reflections, gradients, and other design cliches.

• Web 2.0 is not a design aesthetic.
• From now on, the only companies that can use a reflection in their logo are the ones with the word “reflect” in their company name.
• Design cliches will always exist: understand why they exist, for whom they exist, and how to avoid them.

Good Practices in Newsletter/Email Design

Matthew Patterson reminded us that the only reason HTML emails generally look so bad is because designers ignore them.

• Just because we are designers doesn’t mean we can tell people how to use technology.
• We may not like HTML emails, but that doesn’t mean they’re going away.

Flashturbation

David Martin told us how using Flash does not necessary mean a sacrifice to usability.

• In order to be successful, we need to tone down the effects and focus on value.

Community-Centered Design

Jeffrey Kalmikoff entertained us all by telling us how to make sure we keep bringing the “crazy-awesomeness.”

• Without the designers, the “internets are a snooze-fest.”
• Keeping things fun keeps your community coming back.

Building a Brand through Design

Lea Alcantara told us of how a brand is like a person, rather than just a logo.

• You build credibility for your brand through consistency.
• Branding is a conversation between you and other people: brands are made by what people say about you and not what you say about yourself.

Inside The Designer’s Studio: IMDb

Ryan Sims and Keith Robinson took a shot at redesigning the IMDb website, and talked to us about the process.

• Always have a solid, yet flexible, process for your work.
• The only things standing between you and your vision are the tools you use to realize it.

The highlight of my trip? Meeting Bronwyn Jones, by far one of the most talented writers I have ever come across. She’s just as nice in person as I had imagined her to be, and I’m happy I had the chance to tell her how much her work has inspired and influenced me in my own work.

All in all, I’m extremely glad I had the opportunity to attend FOWD 07 this year, and I’m already looking forward to next year’s edition. If you have any questions about what I wrote in this post, drop me an email. I promise to get back to you as soon as I return from my travels this month.

I originally posted this to Squandrous, my tumblelog, this past Saturday, but someone I suggested I post it here as well. Seeing as how I posted my Tumblr wishlist on Eloquation a few months ago, I guess it is fitting I post a follow-up here now. So here goes, my thoughts on Tumblr 3.0 as of last Saturday.

It has been a few days since Tumblr announced version 3.0 of their popular tumblelogging application, and as many of you may know, I use Tumblr to power Squandrous. Because of that, I’ve been very interested in the new features and the progress that has been made in the application to get to version 3.0, and have been playing around with the new functionality for the past few days.

Now that I’ve got a good grasp of the new features of the tool, here are a few thoughts I want to share with you all.

Things I Love

• The new look. Not only is the new design extremely clean and simple, but Tumblr has done what every site should have been doing in the first place: creating websites that are usable on a mobile handset rather than creating a special mobile version of the site.
• Markdown text styling. I do have a tendency to think in HTML sometimes, but I absolutely love editing text on the web in either Textile or Markdown formatting. The ability to use Markdown has increased my posting speeds, allowing me to format complicated posts (like this one) with relative ease.
• Collaboration with Vimeo. As most of you know, Vimeo has been my video sharing tool of choice from the day it launched. I don’t use video much, but when I do, the quick integration between Vimeo and Tumblr will make life much easier.
• Lack of comments. I’m no fan of comments on blogs, so I’m definitely not a fan of comments on tumblelogs. I’m glad the folks at Davidville decided to focus on other features rather than comments in this release.
• Audio player. Now that’s a sexy looking flash audio player. It’s about time Tumblr got audio, and I’m really happy that they implemented it in such a classy way.

Things I Can Learn to Love

• Channels. The idea has promise, and I can already think of some fantastic uses for it. The problem is that nobody is using them yet, and the people I want to use them with aren’t Tumblr users.
• Archives. I’ve been clamoring for archives for a while, and I quite like the way Tumblr has decided to deliver them. It would be nice if they used our custom templates and offered a link back to our homepages though.

Things That Get No Love

• Friend posts in dashboard. I love having my friend posts in my dashboard, but sometimes you just need to hide them to focus on your own posts. Looks like this version of Tumblr doesn’t let you do that.

Things I Would Love If They Make The Next Release

• More granularity over your RSS feeds. I’m not too worried about importing RSS feeds, but I would love to have more control over what gets published in my feed. Specifically, I’d love Tumblr to provide a digest feed: I post several times a day and my feed often gets overwhelming. A daily digest would be much nicer for people who subscribe to my content.
• Post scheduling. The back-dating of posts is a nice touch, but it would be great if I could put a date in the future as well. I’m a huge fan of post scheduling.

I think that’s all for now. All in all, I think the new Tumblr release is absolutely fantastic, and I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of it in the near future.

On an complete aside: Davidville, the makers of Tumblr, also makes one of my favorite web apps ever. Senduit is by far the best way to share large files online with noobs that don’t know a thing about FTPs and things like that.

I’ve been stewing over this for a few weeks, but I still haven’t gotten over my astonishment over the news, so I decided to write a blog post. Please forgive me if this comes across as a rant, but in all honesty, that’s exactly what I’m doing here.

A few weeks ago, a middle school principal in Oak Park, Illinois decided to ban hugging in her school. Her rationale behind the decision? She claims that, “hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls.”

I may be slightly biased here (as even my job title on my blogTO business card lists my profession as “hugger extraordinaire”) but I firmly believe that banning hugging will have a detrimental effect on Percy Julian Middle School. Not only does this prohibition give students another, extremely-simple way to subvert authority—I can already imagine the tales of covert hugging groups assembling near locker 143—but it will also lead to long-term unhappiness and eventually, dissension in the school.

Here’s the bottom line: the simple act of hugging is by far the most honest and comforting action that exists in our emotional toolbox. (And I don’t mean those half-@ssed man-hugs here: I’m referring to real, personally-involved hugs.) The act of hugging is not only based on trust and openness, but also relates to humankind’s natural need for comfortable physical contact.

Let’s look at the actual mechanics of the hug: by opening up our arms, we expose our torsos to the person across from us, leaving the core of our bodies susceptible to incursion. The simple act of hugging is then inherently an act of trust, allowing another individual to have access to us when we are most emotionally and physically vulnerable. Similarly, the physical mechanics of the hug is an indicator of support and reassurance. The act of wrapping our arms around someone’s body is a tangible demonstration of the carrying metaphor: by “propping-up” someone’s body by wrapping our arms around them, we are telling them that we are willing to reinforce and support them anytime that they should fall. It is no surprise, therefore, that the hug is such a reassuring and powerful physical action.

Breaking away from the elemental physicality of the hug, the true power of a hug comes from its emotional investment. On the first episode of Pushing Daisies (my new favorite show on television), one of the character referred to a hug as an “emotional Heimlich.” The metaphor makes sense: the hug is the universal revitalizer, bringing people back to life when they feel emotionally despondent. A hug has the power to hold a multitude of expressions in one action: reassurance, support, encouragement, pleasure, love, sympathy, delight, empathy, understanding, cognizance, goodwill, concern, mercy, tolerance, and even pity. Because of this, I would argue that the hug is the most valuable of all outward displays of emotion: it has a wider usage than the kiss which is reserved mainly for expressions of sexual intimacy, and is much more involved than the simple holding of hands.

All that being said, I return to my original matter: banning hugging in a middle school will only lead to an atmosphere where basic human emotion will be throttled and strangled. Instead of prohibiting the hug, it would perhaps be more advantageous for principal Victoria Sharts to invest in better crowd-control and time-management education for her students.

But hey, who knows? Maybe principal Sharts is just in need of a good hug herself.