Happy 7th Birthday Twitter

Cast your mind back to 2006 – the year that Daniel Craig made his debut as the first blonde Bond, Coldplay won Album of the Year at the BRIT Awards, Sven-Göran Eriksson’s England team were knocked out of the World Cup quarter-finals, and Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 80th birthday.

It was on this day in 2006 in San Francisco, California, Jack Dorsey (@jack) first tweeted. Twitter now has more than 200 million users worldwide (10 million of them in the UK), and sees 400 million Tweets sent every day.

Individuals and organisations from worlds as diverse as fashion, football, politics and pop music have embraced Twitter over the past seven years and made it their own, 140 characters at a time.

But what about Twitter’s lacklustre social media peers? It’s precursors; like Friends Reunited, Bebo, Faceparty and MySpace – the ones the precocious winged chatterbox pushed out of the limelight? The ones left glassy-eyed and unloved, shuffling aimlessly in the old people’s home of cyberspace? Do they even exist?  Well, yes, even though Twitter elbowed them out the way, some of them are still clinging on. Just.

ZX10R Two Wheel Enthusiast Highway To Heaven

 

Ian Johnson

Ian Johnson sadly passed during the night on Thursday 29th April 2010.  Ian was involved in a tragic motorbike accident two weeks prior to his passing and never recovered from his injuries and left behind his partner, Julie and two twin girls both of who have learning difficulties. It is with this in mind that his wishes were that any donations were to go to a worthwhile charity that has particular meaning to Ian and his family.  In addition to this very worthwhile charity, Ian’s family also asked for another organisation to benefit from any donations.

 

Blackfriars School in Newcastle-Under-Lyne, which is a large special school of around 190 pupils from the age of 10 to 19 with a range of physical, learning, medical and sensory needs who come from North and Central Staffordshire and the Unitary Authority of Stoke-on-Trent.

Ian was a respected and well liked member of the biking community, and an active member of the  ZX10R Bikers Forum – For All Two Wheel Enthusiasts .  He joined the site in 2008 and actively engaged in all topics.  His main area of expertise being bike apparel and equipment.

As Manager of Stoke Hein Gericke he offered seamingly endless advice on what and what not to look for in any item of clothing or equipment.  He actively encouraged discussion about how his store could improve its shop and organised regular bike events to promote not only his shop but biking in general.

Ian will be sadly missed but always remembered.

 

Church Of The Silly Billyness Has Died

If you were ever on Faceparty then you would have come across a great guy called ‘Cyrus Jude De Souza’.  He made everyone laugh and no matter how bad your day was his sillyness soon made you smile.  When Faceparty then closed to anyone over the age of 30, which at the time was most of Facepartys members, we all slowly moved to Facebook, where Cyrus re set up his Church of the Silly Billyness.

In 2009 he added pictures from his Spinal Fusion X-Rays and told his friends

”had the operation as had a worn disk through wear and tear! It was a 3 hour operation and 10 days in hospital. Will take up to a  year for fusion to take place”.

But despite his own personal pain with bad health especially towards the end of 2010, he was still there for everyone to make them smile with his fun, quotations, music and conversation plus his amazing pictures and photography art work.

His last message on his Facebook profile said:

”I have not been well the past few months (long story)….remember me in your prayers.*COCO LOVE*

Cryus died March 6th, 2011.  Its reported by friends on his wall that he apparently  fell down the stairs and banged his head later died in hospital

The funeral will be held at:

St. Antony’s Church, on St. Antony’s Road.
E7 9PB.  Forest Gate.  East London.
on Tuesday. 22nd of March 2011

His Facebook wall is over flowing with loving messages and music from friends and loved ones, he was a great friend to many around the world and will be sadly missed.

My friend of our church of the silly billyness will never be the same.  From Faceparty to Facebook his funnyness came.  Many friends along the way he made, but now he has gone and set up his church amongst the angels.  Hope they are ready for his smiles and fun, because here on earth, everyone will always miss him and his clown face, all his friendship and crazyness fun.

In The Arms Of an Angel – Sarah McLaughlin