Do you subscribe to this blog through RSS?

Did you know that July 1st, Google is discontinuing Google Reader? You should know, of course, as it hasn't been a secret, but just in case you didn't, you might want to start looking for some alternatives. I've chosen Feedly as mine, as it has both a web and mobile application version, is free, and allows you to migrate your feeds very simply. You might find one that better suits your needs, but it does really well for me. There are some alternatives listed at: Goodbye, Google Reader. Here are 5 alternatives. I hope you keep reading this blog, and if for some reason RSS is dead to you, there's always the web version or mobile version of this page to look at as well. If you go to this page on your phone, it should automatically bring up the mobile version, although you can choose the web version by the link on the bottom of the mobile page. Or, you can scan the QR code to the left on the sidebar to bring up the mobile version and bookmark it. Enjoy, and as always, I'd love to have feedback on how to make this better. I'm nearly at 9,000 posts and in October I'll be starting my thirteenth year of blogging. Thank you to those of you who read this.

Reason #326 for subscribing to your own blog in a feed

Almost every time I write a post, I spell check it, then preview it, scanning it for errors. But invariably there is the occasional mistake, and I've found the best way to catch such mistakes it to read the post in my Google Reader. That catches about 98% of them. Another 1% are caught by my friend YKWIA. But since I usually have Google Reader open at home, I get the early warning fairly quickly so that I can change the text before too many people see it. So if you see a glaring (or not-so-glaring) error in your reader, chances are it either has been or will be fixed shortly (I can't blog at work, so I have to wait) on the actual blog. But if the mistake's still there, feel free to comment. I hate making grammatical or spelling mistakes because I'm such a card-carrying grammar police member. Misplaced apostrophes and typos bother me quite a bit. I'd rather admit the mistake and fix it as soon as possible than to have it staring out into the aether of the Internet for years and years.

I wonder

why my feed subscriptions through Feedburner have dropped by 1/3 in the last few days. Is it too much gay stuff? Not enough library-related stuff? Are RSS readers just fickle, subscribing then moving on? What? Let me know!

I have high hopes for tomorrow

in terms of getting some of the things done during vacation that I meant to when I took it. I don't have to work at job #2 until four and have no plans with anyone prior to then. The general plan for the rest of my 'vacation' (subject to change):

Thursday 10/2

9:00 Wake up, breakfast
9:30 Begin notes
12:30 Finish notes (3 hours), Lunch
1:00 Clean kitchen (incl. taking out trash and cleaning refrigerator)
2:00 Clean Living room (incl. finding a place for boxes of books on floor)
3:00 Clean Bath
3:30 Get ready for work
4:00 Work
10:00 Off work, go to friend's
10:30 Do reading
12:00 Get other friend
1:00 Go home, sleep

Friday 10/3

8:00 Wake up, get ready
9:00 Catch bus to horse farm excursion
12:30 Back at hospital, check on detail for report, finish report and submit
1:00 Go to friend's
1:30 Errand with friend
2:30 Watch Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day with friend
4:30 Go to work
5:00 Work
9:00 Off work, back to friend's
9:30 Do reading
12:00 Get other friend
1:00 Go home, sleep

Saturday 10/4

9:00 Wake up
9:30 Do notes
11:30 Finsih notes (2 hours), get ready for work
12:00 Work
10:00 Off work
10:30 Do notes
11:30 Finish notes (1 hour), sleep (unless I'm not finished with notes; if that's the case, do extra)

Sunday 10/5

8:00 Wake up
9:00 Prepare for game
1:00 Game
8:30 Finish game
9:30 Do notes
11:30 Finish notes (2 hours)
12:00 Sleep

Monday (10/6) back to work at job #1...

Somewhere during the weekend there is the task of taking and/or picking up a friend to/from work, but I don't know his schedule yet. But that would be late at night or early morning--generally midnight, 3 am, or 7 am).

Also at some point, I have to catch up on my RSS news reader (Google Reader) because I have over 500 stories on it. Gack!

As part of this whole Library 2.0 thing

with the webcast and the class, I finally got around to using Google Reader as an RSS aggregator to subscribe to different blogs without having to go to each and every one. Google Reader allows you to 'share' particularly interesting posts with others, and then list some of them on your blog, which I have done up above. So, if you're wondering what I'm reading, that's a snippet. Click on 'read more' in the widget to get more posts. Most of what I'm reading through the aggregator is library-related. So if you'd like to get a snippet of library literature and I haven't posted about a story here, you may want to try that.

I'd like to blog more tonight, because I have several things to blog about, but I'm tired and should probably head on to bed. Perhaps tomorrow....

One last thing

One of the RSS feeds I subscribe to is 'MedTerms Word of the Day'. Here is the one for March 5th (okay, so I'm behind). I'm including this because it might just be perfect for Cthulhu some day.

Eisoptrophobia: An abnormal and persistent fear of mirrors. Sufferers experience undue anxiety even though they realize their fear is irrational. Because their fear often is grounded in superstitions, they may worry that breaking a mirror will bring bad luck or that looking into a mirror will put them in contact with a supernatural world inside the glass.

Mirrors and other reflective surfaces have long been associated with the strange or the bizarre. For example, in Greek mythology, Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in the water of a fountain. He thought he was seeing the image of a beautiful nymph. Unable to embrace or call forth the image, he pined away and was eventually transformed into a flower. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, a novel by Oscar Wilde, a portrait of a handsome young man begins to deteriorate, reflecting the corruption of the man's inner being. The portrait becomes a mirror reflecting the state of the young man's soul. The man eventually commits murder and suicide.

"Eisoptrophobia" is derived from the Greek "eis" (into) and "optikos" (vision, image, sight). Other English words derived from "optikos" include "optic" (relating to vision) and "optician," a technician who designs eyeglasses according to a prescription.

MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
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