Archive for July, 2010
Too Much RSS Reading
Chris Brogan gets it right when it comes to reading RSS feeds
Unless it is. I was having a conversation with a real estate friend the other day, and he asked me where I found the time to read all the various blog articles that I read at any given time. I told him that it was part of my job to be in the know and to share useful information. He said that he sometimes couldn’t find the time. I challenged him back by asking, “Will it really improve your business, reading all those feeds?”
We read on autopilot at times. We read because consumption is part of what the web gives us in nonstop streams. We can find something to consume endlessly and never hit a wall. Sure, one site might not produce information fast enough for us, so we’ll subscribe to hundreds of sites, plus what our friends share with us, plus what Twitter shares with us, etc.
But for most of us, staying current on several dozen (or several hundred) news feeds isn’t our job. It’s a way to feel current, but it doesn’t always positively impact our decisions and plans.
How addicted are you to checking for NEW on the web? And what if you “fasted” for a few days, so that you only checked on Mondays and Thursdays or similar? What would that do to your other productive needs?
I have complied a massive amount of RSS feeds. The amount of feeds that I have is 2000+ feeds between two Google Reader accounts. I am literally the expert on designing custom Topix and Google News RSS feeds. I have spent significant amount of my spare time to learn master the art of writing custom Google News and Topix RSS feeds.
I usually spend a significant portion of my spare time at looking at the results of my Topix or Google News feeds. On the weekends, I could literally spend hours looking at the RSS feeds that I have created.
As Brogan stated in his post, you should not spend all of the time on RSS feeds. It is not necessary to stay current on every political or technology issue. Instead of spending all day of Saturday looking at RSS feeds, I could watch a movie or go walk on the beach. There is more productive uses of time than just spending time looking at RSS feeds
I do not think that RSS feeds result in social isolation. It is easy for me to get motivated to go on Burning Man campout or a hiking trip with the Sierra Club. Even on Saturday where my group of friends are not doing anything, I will go to a speaker meeting so I can see my friends in the program.
RSS feeds do get in the away for me in engaging in online dating. I think online dating is a chore and I will explain more about that in a future post. I would rather look at the information on a RSS feed than trying to engage into social conversation with girl that I do not even know on a online dating website. I feel that a “normal’ girl would not date an autistic, recovered alcoholic, and Burner. Therefore, I just stay from those sites because they will not “get” me. The intrigues of DC that I read on RSS feeds are more interesting than trying to find love from some dating website.
In conclusion, RSS feeds are incredible way to get a voluminous amounts of news and information, but they can be time-consuming and a unproductive task if they are look at after a long time. They can prevent you from engaging in other activity like watching movies because you always feel that you have to be on the computer looking at the RSS feed. I need to heed to Brogan’s advice and cut my RSS consumption to engage in new interests and hobbies. I also need to try to date online instead of looking at the RSS feeds. I am hiding from my fear of rejection and I should not hide from that fear.
Cruelity To Dogs
There is one thing that I do not like and that people who harm dogs for sport. This guy harmed a dog and he got three years in prison as sentenced by a federal judge as reported by Fox 21 CW. The dog died by a man tying a rope around the dog’s head and dragging it from the back of a pickup truck until it was dead
What a cruel way to kill animal. I think the sentence is way too light. I think he deserves five years plus five more years for prior felons. Normally, I consider myself to have far more lenient views on criminal sentencing than the general public, but dogs have a special place in my heart and therefore, I think he should get more time than he was actually to sentenced to.
The Worst Place To Be Unemployed In The USA
The worst place to be unemployed is the city of El Centro , California as reported by KYMA. My question is what event is going to get all of the jobs back? Deporting all of the undocumented workers back to Mexico is not going to do it. I read that a guy wrote that massive infusion of goverment investment in infrastructure is the solution even if it means that we have to have higher inflation rate due to deficit spending. Is better to have a job with rising inflation or be unemployed for a long-period of time with the country going into a deflationary spiral? Which of the two scenarios would you pick? There is no easy way out of this problem.
Judge Calls Killer Arrogant And Controlling Con Man
The San Diego Union – Tribune reports
“SAN DIEGO — A North County man convicted of killing his on-again, off-again girlfriend — a popular court reporter — by slashing her throat, was sentenced Monday to 26 years to life in prison.
Jonathan Scott French, 41, was convicted in May of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Jennifer Stark, 43, a mother of two who worked at the Vista courthouse. Her teenage son found the body July 31 in her Carlsbad home.
French flew into a rage and killed Stark after seeing a text message from another man on her cell phone, according to testimony during the trial.
Several of Stark’s family members said that French presented one image to the public, while attempting to hide his violent impulses. They cited evidence from the trial that indicated French had a history of failing to keep his anger under control.
Superior Court Judge Peter Spinetta, a retired judge from Contra Costa County who presided over the trial because the local judges had a conflict, agreed. He said during the sentencing hearing that French remains a danger to the public.
“You are indeed a narcissistic, controlling, manipulative, sociopathic con man who has demonstrated time and time again that you are unable to control your anger when you are slighted in the slightest ways,” Spinetta said.:
If the state is ever to release the Mr. French, Mr. French would have to prove to the State Board of Parole Hearings that he has taken dramatic action to work on his ego and anger. He would have to prove to the State Board of Parole Hearings that he can live a quiet, simple and, humble life that is centered on sprituality. He would have to show that he can be useful to society and why it is more productive to keep him in general society than locked-up.
I do not think Mr. French is going to receive a spiritual education in the California State Prison system and will not be capable of answering deep, philosophical questions that require deep introspection and honesty. Therefore, my bet that is he will not be released unless he gets help from a external, third-party that will provide him the resources to answer the subject questions with honesty and clarity.
I do not think anybody is going to show this man mercy and work with him to overcome his personal defects in prison. Therefore, I will think that he will die in prison just like so many killers before him did.
Emotional Insecurity And Elysium
I went to the festival called Elysium over this weekend expecting it to be a time to party. Rather, it become a place of self-discovery and place where I had to learn how to learn a lot about myself and life. I eventually had to leave the event because I had a lack of confidence in my own value.
Is this War Worth It?
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Eight American troops died in attacks in southern Afghanistan, including a car bombing and gunfight outside a police compound in Kandahar, officials said Wednesday as the Taliban push back against a coalition effort to secure the volatile region.
A suicide attacker slammed a car bomb into the gate of the headquarters of the elite Afghan National Civil Order Police late Tuesday in Kandahar, a NATO statement said. Minutes later, insurgents opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Three U.S. troops, an Afghan policeman and five civilians died in the attack, but NATO said the insurgents failed to enter the compound.
The special police unit, known as ANCOP, had only recently been dispatched to Kandahar to set up checkpoints along with international forces to try to secure the south’s largest city, the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
The dead civilians included three Afghan translators and two security guards, Kandahar provincial police chief Sardar Mohammad Zazai said.
Eight people killed. I have beginning to really the question the purpose of this war. Is the war becoming a grave for United States troops where the war is not accomplishing any thing.
If we are fighting over unemployment benefits, shouldn’t we use the money used for the war to extend unemployment benefits? Is there a better use of money than fighting a war where the best outcome is a stalemate?
These are questions that American people need to answer themselves when they vote in November.
New Ways To Smuggle Weed
I heard all of kinds in smuggle weed in the US but the AP reports there is a new way to smuggle weed in.
EL PASO, TX —
An unusual load turned up in a washing machine in El Paso.What was packaged as a new washing machine yielded about 66 pounds of marijuana during an inspection at a border crossing.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says a pickup hauling a washer, in a cardboard box, drew additional inspection. A CBP statement Tuesday says agents at the Bridge of the Americas on Friday discovered numerous marijuana-filled bundles concealed inside the appliance.
The 50-year-old male driver, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, has been detained in the drug-smuggling investigation”
A washing machine? I think the dope runners are getting a little too desperate or they are getting creative. In our country, people want their dope and the smugglers will give us our dope and they will use every method under the sun so the smokers will get high.
Economic Uncertainity
At least, Dr. Doom (aka: Nouriel Roubini) who predicted the financial crises had this to say about the recovery
Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist credited with predicting the financial crisis, said that government bonds of countries such as Germany, Canada and the U.S. will represent a haven from increasingly volatile markets in coming months.
“It is going to be a period of economic and financial fragility,” Roubini said in an interview in Aix en Provence, France. “The short-term and long-term debt of countries not yet subject to sovereign debt concern will be havens,” he said.
The global economy will slow in the second half as deficit- reduction measures, notably in Europe, sap demand, Roubini said. U.S. growth will ease to about 1.5 percent by the end of 2010, about half its potential, while the euro area’s expansion may stall, he said. As a whole, the world should avoid a double-dip recession, he said.
“The next few weeks and months will be a time of volatility as the market surprises on the downside,” he said. “It’s a pretty ugly picture. The macro news from the U.S., Europe, Japan and even China is disappointing. Credit spreads will widen.”
Roubini spoke at a meeting of France’s Circle of Economists
For some reason,a double-dip recession has given me some anxiety recently. While my job is not in danger because we have about two year backlog of audits, it still has ruin my serenity this week.
Recently, the news have started to give an emotional reaction to it so I starting to pay less attention to it. The constant talk of unemployment and recession can wear you out even if you are not going to lose your job.
Fear of economic insecurity is something that I have just to accept. There is nothing that I can do it and I cannot control the circumstances so I should just accept it and move on with my life. Constant worrying about economic insecurity is no way to live my life.
Maybe, I need to get back to daily reading of the Big Book and 12X12 to ensure that my spiritual recovery is in tact. That is best way to fight off this fear.
I guess we are just going to accept that there is sluggish economy is not going anywhere but at least, we are not falling off the cliff yet. And I need to accept that and not let my serenity get interrupted by that.
Deep Purple Rocks
Deep Purple knows to how to rock. I would love to see them back the day. The one thing that early 1970s had was good rock and there was no short supply of good bands for that generation.
Crisco's Corner 