OK, so I’ve decided that I hate my feed reader. Why? Because I simply can’t keep up. I have too many feeds in there, and I jsut can’t keep up with all you people! And then, see, because I”m like some kind of frustrated perfectionist, if I can’t do it the way I want to do it, then I don’t do it at all. Kind of childish, maybe, but there it is. And so, I’ve decided that I’m not going to use my feed reader anymore, and instead I am going to do the old-fashioned, manual check of the blogs I like to read regularly.
And so, that’s what I’ve been doing. Little by little. I’m trying to catch up.
And, in doing that, I stumbled upon a series of posts by Richard over at Alas, called My Daughter’s Vagina. Intriguing title, yes? And so, I started reading. Richard is a beautiful writer, and I’m enjoying these essays very much. So I thought I’d share, in case y’all have been slackin’ lately too.
go read ’em:
There is a new service you might want to try, called AideRSS. You give it a feed and it will only spit out the “most popular” posts for that feed. This presumably cuts down on a feed’s volume. And you can tweak the returned results a bit, too. Maybe you should give it a try.
http://www.aiderss.com
And you’ll never catch up on all your readings doing it “by hand”. It will take longer that way. If you’re falling behind, there comes a point where you just have to admit you can’t read every single word. When that happens to me I just skim through the titles of posts and only stop if it sounds interesting.
It’s daunting. But you have to be ruthless. I’m not going to be able to read everything word for word. And I think really hard every time I’m about to subscribe to something new. I currently have 210 feeds in my reader, and it’s pushing it!
Hmmm, maybe I’ll go and weed some out…
Thanks for the kind words! I have been reading around your blog and I like it. I will be back.
hello. reading blogs takes a few hours a day.
great for procrastination, terrible for getting real things done.
this latest cycle, i have 40 blogs with earmarked posts i “have” to read. have to, have to, have to!
the internet is an addiction for sure.
Thanks for the suggestion, Matthew – I’ll check it out.
Richard – you’re most welcome! come by anytime.
Donna – I’m right there with you. And what’s worse, I feel like I miss out on things when I take a break from reading! I hate to be left out! (pout)
A very illuminating read. It makes me ponder on how my sexuality evolved to what it is today, and the influence my parents had on me: my father with his typical Honduran macho silence, and my mother for whom sex is usually taboo, except for some occasional laughter and jokes she’s shared with me.
Thanks for bringing it out to my RSS reader! Like you once did, I spend too much time scanning the RSS headlines every day. I need to weed it out, but it’s so addictive!
there were a few times i had to clear all posts as read. it was easy and less painful than you’d think.
thanks for this link!
marina
http://www.objectifythis.com
TG: Why have we not connected in soooooo long? Was it something I said. I heard you moved. You’re gonna have to tell me all about it.
Peace
Aaron – glad you liked it. I”m always happy to point readers in the direction of good blogging.
good point too – I think it’s good to think about our own sexualities, how they have developed, and how much control we have exerted over that process vs. how sexualities have been influenced/controlled by others.
donna – thanks. I’m thinking about it. I just can’t keep up with the blogs who have like, 8 bloggers and all of them write something at least once a day. they might just get booted off the list altogether.
Marina – my pleasure!
FreeSlave – I’ve missed you too! I’ll email you when I get this elephant off my chest. The move is next week. I”m not nearly ready, mentally, physically, emotionally. not at all. I’ve been saying goodbye to friends. I don’t like it. how’ve you been?
Good, very good. Holla when you get a minute.
On the topic of RSS feeds, I use a facebook app mostly… and soon, Microsoft Outlook 07 which is simply amazing. I keep meaning to e-mail you, but haven’t. So don’t hold your breath for it, it probably won’t come until September sometime. I’m something of a procrastinator.
Ali – yeah, no worries. I’ll look forward to hearing from you whenever you get around to it! 🙂
As for Facebook, not a chance! I’ll have to check out Outlook 07 – I was never much of an outlook gal, but used the express version. I think I’ve got the new one here somewhere… would be good for calendar stuff yes?
FS – will do.
Yes, the expanded calendar features in 07 are amazing as well — you can now make more categories, just in case your life doesn’t fit into the 5 or 6 from the previous versions. 🙂 And the reminders are less annoying in 07 too.