RSS Readers – Feed Me!

I’m not sure how many of you guys read a bunch of different blogs, newspapers, and other sites with regularly updated content, but if you’ve tried you know that you can spend a huge amount of time just checking the sites to see if they’ve been updated.

I just wanted to suggest that everyone use an RSS reader to aggregate all the different media sources you check, so that you can have all your content in one place, regularly updated, for easy reading. Conceptually, think of how you can subscribe to Podcasts in iTunes, only instead of audio (and now I guess video) content, you do it with text. It’s basically the same thing, and I think most aggregators also handle media files.

I personally use Google Reader to keep up with all the different blogs and news sites I try to follow. It saves me a ton of time. A lot of people like to use Bloglines. I believe Firefox even has an aggregator built into it, though I don’t use it. If you want one that isn’t web-based… well, there are just so many. I used to use Mozilla Thunderbird, which is also a pretty good email client. There are ton of different RSS feed aggregators out there, and I haven’t really done much experimenting. Google Reader works for me, and it’s nice because I can access it at any online computer, just like my beloved Gmail. So, sniff around for a good reader that you like. Start subscribing to content, and see how much time you save if you’re already surfing around to several of the same sites regularly to check for updated news, sales, deals, gossip, reviews, essays… etc.

(Oh, and if it’s not too much trouble, subscribe to my blog, too. The feed link is at the bottom of the page.)

Today I Ran, and I Ran Angry

Course: Treadmill Heart Rate Zone Intervals
Distance: 2.9 miles
Mood: aggravated

Completed this run after lifting weights, so I wasn’t 100%. I was aggravated because I was watching CNN as I ran and they had an Asian journalist and an Asian Virginia Tech student talking about how the Asian community in general and the Korean American community in particular all feel a collective sense of shame over what happened. “All my Korean friends, they all seem to be very unified and do lots of things together and are really tight with each other, so, yeah, they feel, like, ashamed that this happened.”

Bravo guys. Way to go. Way to reduce this horrible incident to identity politics, and thank you so much for feeding the flames of ignorance and bigotry. I applaud you Mr. I’m Asian and a Journalist So Therefore I’m An Authority and Speak for All Asians, and you, Mr. I’m Asian and a Virginia Tech Student and I Know Lots of Other Asians Including Some Koreans (But I’m Not Korean) So Therefore I’m An Authority and Speak for All Asians (including the Koreans).

I can’t even begin to understand what goes into making someone do what Cho did. I don’t think anyone ever will, especially now that he’s gone. All we’re left with is a lot of pain and grief and “what if’s” and disturbing writings and recordings by someone who clearly needed some help. I understand that our country grieves collectively through the media (we seem to do a lot through the media). For the most part, I’ve been very surprised by the integrity of the reporting – I haven’t seen anything reported that gives undue focus to the fact that Cho was an Asian or an immigrant. Most of the coverage has been focused on trying to understand what happened and has rightfully given respectful air-time to the grieving students and families.

But then these two yahoos got their airtime.

/rant.