Friday, May 1, 2009

More on RSS Feed Readers

My original post to this under-achieving blog involved using RSS Feed Readers, such as Google Reader. Amazingly, I did not due justice to the significant contributions an RSS feed readers can make to our lives. I was young and naive, but don't fret. I am 36 days older now and clearly, far more experienced than when the original post was written. Here's my latest knowledge:

Star your favorites:

Here are some things I know: 1. I am not a strong reader. 2. I do not have an abundance of time. 3. I have 4 kids who suck the energy out of me on a minute-by-minute basis. 4. I am not that smart. 5. My weekly "honey-do" list resembles a dissertation. 6. My boss is very, very demanding and expects me to put in at least an 8 hour day (the nerve!).

So you get it. I don't have time, and even if I did, am I really smart enough to read all this? (Rhetorical question, please do not post or send responses to this question. I'm fragile.)

As I pointed out in the original post, a feed reader can change all of this. However, I'm not sure if I did an adequate job of explaining how. Well, here's how:

Once you've subscribed to your favorite blogs, news sources etc., you will be given brief abstracts of the articles or postings in your reader. You can breeze through these quickly. If it is not something of interest, keep moving. If it is something that strikes your fancy, click on the yellow star in the corner. This will store the post/article as a "favorite" for your viewing pleasure at a later date. So I do this daily, then on a Friday night (insert my wife calling me a loser here) after the kiddies are down and I have no energy to do anything physical, I get caught up on my starred items.

Tags:

How do we keep track of things we've starred and read in case we want to refer to them later? At the bottom of each post/article, in the right hand corner, you will see "add tags." Simply click on this and enter a key word for the article. You will then notice on the left-hand side, google reader has put all of the articles that you've "tagged" in a folder.

For example, my next post will be on twitter (please try to keep your composure). I tagged all of the posts/articles in my reader that were relevant with the keyword "twitter." I now have a folder with several resources for my next post, and for future reference.

My suggested song of the day is Gordon Lightfoot's Sundown. A 1974 classic, it's just good stuff. For another tremendous tune in a similar genre, check out Jim Croce's You Don't Mess Around With Jim.

The Red Sox swept the Yankees. That felt so good I'm gonna say it again. The Red Sox swept the Yankees. The Bulls have played in one of the best series in the history of the NBA. And I'll tell you what, no matter how game 7 goes, I'll still be very happy with the Bulls. That being said, if the Bulls lose game 7, I will be extremely angry with the Bulls.

No comments:

Post a Comment