The roundup could have occurred. But since I have become reliant upon Bloglines for my influx of information and since I have attempted to be somewhat neat in the way I organize my many feeds through this process, this attempt at organization has resulted in my downfall. I intended to merely click the boxed plus box to expand the Books section of my feeds, but I somehow clicked the word “Books” instead, resulting in Bloglines opening every single goddam one of the hundred or so feeds that I rely upon in the framed window.
Bloglines does not have an undo function for this.
Thus, any new information I receive from the blogosphere will have to wait until time has passed.
I suppose I could mark everything as new. But I am too lazy to do this. And I would have to systematically do this for each blog.
I suppose I could switch to Google Reader. But since there is no Bloglines export, this will involve work. I am also too lazy to do this.
Thus, because of a foolish misclick and laziness on my part, there shall be no roundup at the stroke of midnight. I am sure there are interesting stories, blog posts, and other assorted information I missed.
My dog also ate my homework.
A relative is dead.
I believe I may have come down with something, but you will not hear it in my voice.
I’ve had a personal emergency. (I’ve used this excuse before and when I have arrived at work the next day, I remain silent and appear morose, maintaining a very serious expression. The idea here is to suggest by this appearance that something serious and possibly life-threatening has happened and, if co-workers pry, you can let loose a casual detail. Some perfunctory detail about a fistfight with the fuzz. Some blur about hundreds of dollars gone. As excuses to miss work go, this one is probably the best and the least subject to question.)
My dog drank from the poisoned tap water.
He tried to molest me while installing cable.
I had a severe operation at the hospital. Don’t worry. It won’t affect the health insurance rates.
There is a loud beeping in my head. (I like this excuse better than “I have a migraine,” which is strangely unconvincing even when it is true.)
They shot up the guy next door and the police are holding me for questioning.
I anticipate oversleeping by about eight hours.
Bloglines has a bullshit interface.
[UPDATE: Okay, some initial experiments have begun with Google Reader. Have managed to export from Bloglines. Thanks to the commenters!]
The Call by Yannick Murphy: The always interesting author of Here They Come and Signed, Mata Hari returns with a novel that whips up a worldview from a rather quirky set of limitations: namely, the call logs that a veterinarian maintains as his son is unexpectedly put into a coma and an unforgiving economy denies him work. What emerges is a surprisingly optimistic, often funny, and very moving account on how one family uses acceptance and forgiveness as a way to atone for hard knocks. (
Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber: Forget Franzen and Eugenides. If you're looking for a social novel that counts, Diana Abu-Jaber is the author you're looking for. Building from the free-form exploration of consciousness and identity in Crescent and the gripping procedural structure of Origin, Abu-Jaber's latest novel is her finest, equally fluent with gutterpunk culture and smarmy real estate men. It has been suggested by The Washington Post's Ron Charles that you will likely gain some pounds while reading this novel. This is certainly true. Abu-Jaber's description of food is so precise that it often made me want to do more cooking. But I very much admired the way in which Abu-Jaber presents all her characters as unwitting victims of rough capitalism, which permits them some dignity even as they perform terrible acts.
The Last of the Live Nude Girls by Sheila McClear: This memoir isn't so much about the decline of the Times Square peepshow, as it is about one young woman's efforts to pull herself up by by her bootstraps when presented with few economic options. Filled with self-introspective candor and a quiet dignity, McClear's story is one that might befall any of us in these volatile times. While McClear does get back on her feet, her book leads one contemplating the terrible fates of other young women now moving to New York and falling into deadlier vocations. (
Bloglines ate your dogma’s karma?
Well, I have to disagree. A bit. They make it hard to do things, but I’ve gone with Google Reader three times, and each time I go back. On dial-up, BL is faster.
They just went through a minor outage in which certain RSS feeds were going through (such as my website, which, with 13 readers, is catastrophic). A look at their forum showed a lot of people in the same boat. I also found, there, a note from one of the employees, saying they’re working on it. It was the only notification I saw, despite sending in a notification of the problem.
Anyway, if you want to switch to Google Reader, here’s how. Scroll down your list of feeds. At the bottom of the window, under “Additional Features”, you’ll find “Export Subscriptions.” Click that. Save the file to the desktop.
Open Google Reader. There should be an “Import Subscriptions” link. Click on that and browse over to the file on your desktop. That’s it!
Google Reader has a Bloglines import. Check out “Import/Export” in the settings.
Also Google Reader = much better than Bloglines for my money. Switched, never looked back.