RSS Doesn't Appeal To Me

A couple of years ago one of my faithful blog readers (I used to have a dozen or so) asked that I enable a feed option in the control panel of my blog so that he could use his RSS reader to read my blog amongst others. I had no idea what it was, so I went out and got an RSS reader and added a few blogs. Then I got bored with the concept, and went back to reading blogs and news sites "the old fashioned way". These days, RSS is built right into your browser and allows you to create "Live Bookmarks" of your favorite sites.

Recently I decided to give RSS another chance. I went out to several of the blogs which I frequent - all of which have an RSS feed. I added the feed to a live bookmark. For a week or so I tried using those live bookmarks in place of the regular bookmarks.

But here are my problems with RSS.

• Using a live bookmark takes you to one story at a time - I'm sure if I used an RSS reader of some sort this would function better. As it is, I have to load one story or posting at a time. And I am going to read all of them anyway.
  
• Feeds don't reflect the blogs design - I actually like to see how people decorate their blogs. Some are pretty simple and stick to the templates, barring any photographs, videos, etc. Others go all out on spicing up the site design. But that is all stripped away with an RSS reader.
  
• Going straight to the story is like going straight to what you need at the auto parts store - I like to go to the counter, inspect the part(s) I have ordered in, and then wander around for a bit. Then I remember to pick up all the little items like brake cleaner and a fuel filter. When skimming over a blog you might pick up a story that interests you which you may not have otherwise seen.

So there you have it. Why RSS is a lousy idea in my opinion.

I woke up this morning with a splitting headache which is no doubt a result of the drastic weather change we are having here in Ohio. It's been switching from heavy rain to light snow and then back again for several days. Last night I sat in the rain for a couple of hours working on the brakes on my Bug. It probably didn't do any favors for the sinus buildup. And although the "brake-line surgery" was a screaming success - bleeding the brakes was a complete failure. It seems that I lost all liquids overnight to a slow drip, which allowed air to fill up in the drivers side of the Bug. I can't bleed the wheel cylinder on that side, because the small bleeder screw has been beaten to a pulp by old age and rust.

I woke up first thing this morning to order a new cylinder. Now I wait. It should be there in a couple of hours.

And I will probably sit in the rain all night again installing it, then have to go to work miserable.

The things I do for that car. :-)