I joined Twitter on February 14, 2009, just 3 years after it started. The whole purpose for my involvement was to promote this blog. A guy who ran a Red Barn site dedicated to the memory of the restaurant chain read my post about being a Red Barn employee and really liked it (his website is gone now so I can’t really direct you to check it out). He suggested promoting my blog through Twitter, so I signed up and picked a logo from the internet that was not me. My interest was in being somewhat incognito, so my own picture wasn’t used. Later, Vilified was added to the avatar, which was meant as a spoof of the 2009 introduction of Verified Blue Check people (usually famous).

Twitter was new and looking for its way. The iPhone was invented in 2007 and the Twitter barrage began. In 2009 it was just people feeling their way around. There were a gaggle of tweets about coffee, drinking, drugs, food and a lot of jokes. People were funny. Many comedians and wanna be comics joined and just tweeted funny stuff. The businesses, media, celebrities and politicians had not yet figured it out and were reluctant to get involved. It was fun then. Donald Trump came onboard in May 2009, which didn’t faze me because I was only interested in trying to be funny and getting likes and LOLs for my tweets.

My first name was BeefTongue, which had been used on AOL. This wasn’t meant to be of any sexual nature, it was just a cool name. My wife worked in a butcher shop and one day while picking her up from work, I noticed a beef tongue in the display case and started using it on AOL and made it my first Twitter name.  Then in 2011 the zodiac signs supposedly changed, and I went from being an Aries to a Pisces, so I began using the Twitter name NowAPisces. Within this post you can see some of the other names I used on AOL.

There were two competing services which provided validation for the tweets of the jokesters, Favrd and Favstar. Things were running smoothly, and I was having a great time, making the  Favstar Leaderboard quite often based on the number of likes of my tweets. I felt like a star.

There were Tweetups being held across the country, which were meet and greets of Tweeters, usually within a certain geographic region.  Then in 2012, I along with Kay Moore decided to have a Tweetup in Frederick, MD, which had a decent nightlife and was centrally located. The 2012 Frederick Tweetup turned out to be a great success.

About 125 people from all over the country, Britain, Canada and Australia, ascended on the town on October 12, 2012. On Friday night we had a pub crawl and on Saturday evening there was a comedy show, featuring comedic Tweeters displaying their stuff. Here you can see a collection of photos from Frederick Tweetup 1 & 2. Many people met new friends and the follows of each other intensified. Things were grand and Twitter was really, really fun at this point. We had Frederick Tweetup 2 the next year attended by a smaller crowd, and I called off the third one because the interest had waned.

Some months after the second Tweetup it came to my attention that the zodiac sign change was a nothing story and decided I needed a new name, not wanting to be the only idiot on Twitter who was concerned about the zodiac confusion. I like Albert Camus and eggs over easy, so the name CamusOverEasy became my last moniker for Twitter.

The use of Twitter as a platform for politicians began in 2008, with Barack Obama understanding the value of reaching a huge audience and other politicos began tweeting regularly, as well. Businesses, celebrities and media outlets really started flooding Twitter shortly thereafter and the end began. My attention to the inundation was not concentrated on what was happening because I was still in my comedy bubble.

The absolute bastardization of Twitter started after Donald Trump announced his run for the Presidency in 2015. My favorite site started becoming mean and nasty.

After Trump was elected in 2016 the Bully Pulpit was on my phone, laptop and desktop. The lies and hatred grew exponentially, and the left-wing and right-wing politicians started going at each other. After the 2020 election the whining and lying about the results led to so much more hatred and threats that Twitter had become a bastion of evil.

Then I started getting caught up in the mess, tweeting my own form of hatred and sarcasm toward the MAGA believers and I was a bit out of

control, becoming somewhat of a punk and smartass filled with snarky comments, still trying to be funny. My last Twitter page shows my influence and pretty much where I stood.

But there was one particular politician, Ronny Jackson, the former White House Doctor, who really got on my nerves. His tweets had nothing to do with policy, just accusations, innuendos and nonsense.  What bothered me so much is he is a retired Admiral who’s just a political hack. As a veteran I tend to honor other Veterans, particularly Officers, but here is an Admiral who wasn’t worthy of my respect. So, I reacted to his tweets in a mean way because he always made me angry.

Since Elon Musk took over control of Twitter, the attack on liberals is unabated. Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and others can be as mean as they want, without consequences. The Twitter Rules really haven’t changed, just the interpretation and enforcement of them. Tweeters were constantly complaining about Elon Musk’s takeover but staying out of the fray seemed like a good way of protecting myself by not slamming him. After all, he is the Free Speech Guy.

On February 26, I tried to sign on to Twitter and this is what I saw:

I also received an email with the attached Tweet explaining it was a violation of Twitter Rules to threaten anyone with bodily harm.

Now, it appears to me that no one is being threatened here. I was making a joke. My early Twitter experience got the best of me. I’ve tried appealing several times, but Twitter keeps telling me the “Twitter Rules” were broken, and my account will not be reinstated.

Frankly, Twitter has done me a favor. Since I had been tweeting for so long, there was this fear of loss if I were to quit. Now, I have no choice. Honestly, I’m glad it’s over.

With Love,

Bake My Fish