One of the sort of exciting, sort of traumatic elements of switching computers — including switching operating systems, web browsers, and storage systems! — is the opportunity to recreate my computer world. It turns out that my former RSS reader doesn’t work in Chrome. This is not so much of a problem really — I wasn’t all that fond of it and I’ve thought for a long time that I should switch to another one. But it’s tough to get motivated to switch something so basic because, ugh, what a lot of work. It’s so much easier to just stick with the familiar, even when the familiar is not so satisfying. But now I have no choice. The question is: do I keep the old computer open while I copy each and every blog over to the new system or do I just start with the few blogs that I remember and let my RSS feed once again evolve organically? Honestly, it feels like a serious dilemma. I haven’t made a decision, but I suspect that not making the decision will turn out to be a decision.
The new RSS reader, feedly, currently with only two blogs in it, seems quite nice, though. I particularly like the simple way that you add new blogs: they get a little icon in the bottom corner that lets you click and add them to the feed. Huh, I should probably check and make sure that my blog has said icon for other RSS users.
But the real question ought to be: what are the two blogs? If I can only remember two blogs off-hand, they must be my favorites, right? They are The Passive Voice, to my mind the single essential self-publishing news site (because he’s a great compiler of other people’s important posts), and Captain Awkward, a great and interesting advice site. I’m sure that I’ll be adding other blogs as I remember them and miss them or stumble across them again, but those are the two that apparently are my “can’t miss” reads.
In other “can’t miss read” news, Robin McKinley has Kindle books on sale for $1.99, including her classic retelling of Beauty and the Beast, as well as Sunshine, the only vampire book that I’ve ever loved. (Vampires = overgrown mosquitoes. Yuck.) If you haven’t read these books — well, any of the books that she has on offer for $1.99 — it’s a wonderful opportunity. And if you have read them, it’s a great chance to add the ebooks to your collection. I’ve been ruthless in paring down paper books in the last decade, but I still own all of the books that she has on sale and yet I bought each and every one of them because I was so pleased to have the chance to get them in ebook version. Then, of course, I wasted my entire afternoon reading. But you should do the same. 🙂
Probably about to lose some time to your two favorite blogs but why not – I’m sitting in the sun.
I hope you liked them! Captain Awkward has fascinating comments, too.
I love feedly! Enjoy.
I haven’t gotten used to it yet, but it seems nicer than the one I used to use. Switching everything is really sort of challenging, though. I feel like I’m in the stage of moving where the excitement has worn off and you just want to know how to get to the grocery store without getting lost. 🙂 (This is probably worse for me than it is for most people because I can get lost on the way to the grocery store even when I’ve lived somewhere for years!)