#140conf (aka “140 Characters Conference”) brought to you by Jeff Pulver will be taking place in NYC on June 16-17. It’s the place to be for those passionate about Twitter and its role in business, communications, EVERYTHING. The cast of characters [some presenting, others just making an appearance] consists of many big names in the Twitterverse and across social media. It’s not to be missed [if you can help it]!

And fortunately for those who are currently experiencing financial constraints and cannot justify the costs of attending, there are thirty scholarships that Jeff is making available. Details about the #140conf Scholarship here. I am applying for one of them, as are a few others I know, so hopefully we’ll be able to attend!

I’m in LA today. It’s good to be away from home. It keeps me from just wrapping myself up in a blanket and staying in all day long, casually browsing job listings on Craigslist or LinkedIn on the laptop.

RV and I arrived yesterday afternoon. Alex was kind enough to pick us up from the airport, and we started off our trip by trying out Kitchen 24 in Hollywood. Basically, a fancy version of a diner. The servers wore pink pants, and I had french toast for lunch.

Most places we check out SHOULD be new while we’re down here since I’ve not been lived here since 2004, and my last trip was several months ago. After walking around in the neighborhood, I can say there’s a lot to see just within a few blocks, so we’ll be entertained for the few days we’re here. We spent a few hours hanging out at the apartment, playing Little Big Planet. YES, they have that game here! I’ve been obsessing over the Sackboys for some time now, so that was pretty exciting. While time-consuming, it’s fun to see what the characters can do.

When Jen got home from work, I told her about Kogi BBQ being on Vine, possibly nearby, and we looked it up right away. Turns out it was just a block up! We immediately headed outside to get in line for it, totally expecting a reaaally long line. It was actually not too bad of a line, and we had our food in hand in 20 minutes. It’s basically a taco truck with Korean-style meats that announces its location using Twitter [@kogibbq]. My review: here.

Since I’ve been following all these food trucks and carts lately, I’ve decided to start a new Twitter account for that purpose. Follow @hungrysuki for my foodie adventures, my first one being Kogi BBQ!

After the delicious KBBQ tacos, burritos, sliders, and dessert [Yeah, we ordered a shit-ton!], we hung out [aka painted their new apartment bathrooms] until finally deciding to go out. Ended up downtown at Bar 107 where we caught up with a few others to finish off the night.

Wondering what today will bring… aside from the guaranteed boozing madness that will ensue tonight at the joint birthday party that was the real reason we flew down for the weekend! Can’t wait!

So I went and bought an iPhone in January. The main reason for switching away from my reliable network at Verizon was the wide variety of applications available. Carrying the iPhone was like carrying a mini computer around. Since I don’t spend a lot of time talking on the phone, only having text messages and applications [useful and not] seemed like a great idea. I don’t regret the decision to switch, even if it means a few dropped calls here and there with the parents.

Ever since I started using the phone and downloading applications, I’ve been meaning to write reviews of the applications downloaded. Once the reviews are written, I’m deleting the apps I’m not actually using. I hate the clutter!

For this first review, I went ahead and found four free Twitter applications. For the most part, you can do the same things within each application. So I’ll just focus on what I like/don’t like about each.

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TwitterFon from Naan Studio: This is my favorite of the bunch. It loads quickly and is very easy to use. It’s fairly simple in design and doesn’t clutter the page. You input your account information on the Settings page, and you are set. Clicking on an individual Tweet brings you to the user info page. If there are links within the tweet, clicking on the tweet on the user info page will bring you to all the links in the tweet. I like that it doesn’t open up into a new browser, and you can easily navigate your way back to TwitterFon.

Let’s see. What else? There are no advertisements. It’s open source. While your Twitter page will only show the most recent tweets, you have the option to load all stored Tweets. I also like that you have the option of setting it to scroll to the first unread tweet on the page. The background color for the tweet is different, so that you know which ones are new. Makes for easy following. NEAT.

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Twitterific from Iconfactory: First off, a cute icon! They try to be user-friendly by having helpful hints that pop up with instructions on how to use the application. Double-clicking takes you to individual Tweets. You can scroll through these individual tweets by sliding along the page. It’s an option to have, but I think for me, the list view is more useful. There is a mini browser within the application, which allows for browsing while you’ve got the application open. However, there’s also the option of opening up a page in Safari.

Twitterific Premium is $9.99, which seems a little hefty for a Twitter application. There are advertisements in the free version, but they are not so annoying that I’d readily spend $9.99, even if it was to support artists and developers. I’ve read other reviews. It’s not significantly different from the free version.

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Twinkle from Tapulous: Again, cute icon. When you turn your iPhone sideways, a world map pops up, showing the latest tweets. It does a live update as it receives each of the tweets, which is neat to watch. I like that there’s a whole network of Twinkle users in addition to the people on Twitter that you can send messages to, even though I’d probably not use the option. The application is more colorful than the others and has cute little chat bubbles, which is alright, but doesn’t really add value.

There is one thing I don’t like though. It doesn’t show all of your tweets. If you have a lot of them and you haven’t been checking them, they don’t all show up on the page. I don’t know which ones are included for viewing… As of 13 hours ago, the response from Tapulous is that the number of tweets displayed, as well as tweets already read, are not YET an option. Sounds like there will be more changes coming. For now though, I’m not all that intrigued by the fancy colors and twinkling.

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Twittelator from Stone Design: This was a last minute download as I hadn’t heard of it until today. Of the four, the name of this application is the one I like least… The Groups page is rather plain looking, but it takes you to: Friends’ Tweets, My Tweets, My Replies, Everyone’s Tweets, Featured Tweeters, Bookmarks, etc. The pages are simple and not too cluttered. Pleasant to the eye. You have the option of sliding your finger along the screen to scroll, OR use the down arrow.

There is a paid version of this application – Twittelator Pro for $4.99. It’s got Dingbats fonts you can add to your tweets, several themes you can apply to the application, and sub-groups for quick messages to a group of friends.

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After trying all four of these out, it’s clear which one is my pick – Twitterfon. I wanted something simple and functional. I wanted something quick and sleek. I didn’t need the fancy bells and whistles. But who knows? Others might.

Now to delete the excess!

In case none of the four are appealing, I’ve also heard good things about Tweetie too.

Sometimes I just do not have more to say than a few phrases or sentences that amount to fewer than 140 characters [size of a typical Twitter/Plurk]. Other times, I’ll write essays. Usually, I don’t because it’s hard for me to stay on topic for so long. I leave the long paragraphs for Yelp reviews where I can sneak in a little bit of personal experience with commentary on a given business.

Several questions I thought about recently:

1. What is your blog about?
Nobody ever told me that I needed a topic. It’s about my life and my observations on life. Nothing spectacular. It serves as a way for my friends to keep an eye on me. It’s also useful in reminding myself about my life. I tend to forget. Isn’t that sufficient?

2. Who are you with?
I’m with my friends. I’m with myself. What does it matter? But seriously, I attend these techie parties because I am just interested. I also seem to get along better with those not in my industry. I do need to find a better answer for the question though. It is also funny to witness changes in attitude once someone [who was all up in the party to network] finds out you’re not in the industry. It doesn’t happen often, but there were a few cases. Amusing.

Sidenote: This site makes my day: Totally Looks Like… Famous People and Celeb Look-A-Likes.

• is glad the “older” button works now. #
• jazz and studying. #
• frozen – why did i not wear gloves? #

• Pmogging. Oh my! #
• I love potstickers with thin crispy skins! Nom nom nom. #
• eye has been twitching today. :( no good. #
• plurk? http://tinyurl.com/5suppj #
• there is potential with plurk. it offers more options. grouping friends/followings. might be okay with the timeline after all. #
• Gmail is having issues. Guess I’m going to get my much needed sleep. #
• It’s still buggy, but it went from a few beta testers to way too many in one day. #
• annoyed with plurk. anti-flood rules. PSH! #
• cold inside and out. #