Stuart is the DDL resident Geek Dad and claims New York as his birthplace. Currently, though, he resides in New Jersey and is a husband and father of two as well as a huge Disney World, Springsteen, Yankee, and NY Ranger fan. He wakes up and goes to sleep thinking about Disney World. He listens to Disney podcasts to and from work and at night before sleep. He drives his family nuts talking about Disney and is always planning their next Disney World trip. In addition, he is known to always volunteer to help extended family and friends plan their next trip. Stuart's personal blog is disneygeekdad.blogspot.com. He can also be found on twitter by following @disneygeekdad.
It was the beginning of August in the summer of 2008. I was sitting up in bed on a dreary dark cloudy day just a little over a week before my next visit to Disney. I wanted to be there in the worst way so much so I became demoralized, depressed, and discombobulated. I was falling into the depths of despair! Worse yet it was Monday morning and I had to go to work. Oh no! What was I going to do? If I couldn’t be at Disney right then and there I would need something to lift my spirits, something to cling to until the Magical Express bus would drive me through the gates of Heaven, Walt Disney World.
I got out of bed, sat down by my computer, and started to surf the internet looking for answers when I remembered every Monday there was a new Anita Answer column at AllEars.net. I thought she would have the answers for me. So, with a couple of clicks of the mouse I was there but, it was too early in the morning for the new Anita Answer column to appear. I remember saying to myself, now what? Then my alarm clock sounded. It was on ipod mode which just happened to be set to the latest WDW Radio Show podcast.
That’s when I decided to check out the latest Disney World information on the WDW Radio Show website. It was there I noticed this cute bloated blue bird. There was also something written by Lou Mongello along the line of an invitation to join and follow him on twitter. I couldn’t help but think what is this thing called Twitter? I clicked on it and it brought me to the site. My curiosity took over and I decided to sign up for a Twitter account. Once joining, I immediately started to follow Lou’s tweets. It was soon after I discovered there were others out there just as enthused and passionate about Disney as myself.
In the beginning I was slow and cautious at trying out Twitter and it was months before I really started using it to communicate with other Disney fans. Since then I have found it has opened up a whole new world for me and I have made many Disney friends some that live practically in my own backyard and others on the opposite end of the world.
One of the things I’ve learned about Disney fans from Twitter is you won’t be able to find a finer group of individuals anywhere who are more caring and considerate of others. I’m hoping this summer on my next Disney trip I will get to meet some of the people I’ve gotten to know on twitter and who I now consider my friends.
I’m sure I speak for many I’m sure I speak for many Disney fans in saying I would love to see a worldwide Disney fan tweet-up day sometime in the very near future.
Contributed by: Stuart S. (NDD #47). Stuart is our resident Disney geek and creator of Disney Geek Dad.
this is such a great post, Stuart!
As I told tweeted to you last night, Lou is also the reason I joined Twitter..i saw that little blue bird and thought “well, this could be FUN” … and i have to say “thanks, Lou!” because I have met some of the most amazing, incredible, magical Disney people! I love the Disney Twitter community! 🙂
Stuart, great post! I like you need my daily dose of connected with Disney. I like many others have gotten connected thru Lou, and others like J.L. with their sincere committment of all things Disneys. Also I was a little uncertain of twitter but I am finding it easier to intereact with others! See u on twitter.
Happy I could play a very small part in helping to feed the obsession, Stuart! Keep up the great work, and of course… Keep Moving Forward!
Traci,
Its always a pleasure reading your comments. Thank you!