I follow several blogs and can’t physically navigate to all those sites every day just to check in. Some bloggers post regularly and some don’t. I found that the “don’t” blogs were getting ignored, even when they were written by people special to me.
Image via CrunchBase
When I discovered Google Reader, life was good. I could visit one site and check in on all my blogs. I could decide which I wanted to read and I could manage subscriptions easily. The list of my subscriptions in a sidebar showed me who had added a new post. Google Reader was a simple but practical solution for my blog viewing.
All was good until Google decided to cancel Reader. What’s up with that? Suddenly I needed a new RSS reader for my blogs.
I’ve spent some time researching ideas. Here are some options:
Feedly – my current choice. I was able to transfer my subscriptions from Google Reader seamlessly. I don’t have time to re-subscribe so this was important. I like the appearance of Feedly as more of a magazine layout, although sometimes Feedly’s guesses on what my priorities are vary greatly from what my priorities really are. Jury is still out on this one. I’m using it but trying others. It is web-based but also available on IOS and Android mobile devices, which I like.
Newsblur – I am trying this one as well. It was a bit more complicated to set up. Nothing serious but I had to log in a couple of times before I could get my subscriptions imported into Newsblur. Also, I am limited to 64 sites free and then I have to pay. I’m at 60 so we’ll see how this one goes. The format is simple without the slick magazine look but its similar appearance to Google Reader makes the transition simple. This one is web-based but also available on IOS and Android.
The Old Reader – Just as then name implies, this one is old-style. It is an exact replica of the web-based Google Reader. If you like simple, this may be your choice. I haven’t tried it yet. Two Reader trials are enough at one time. This one is only web-based, which is a mark against it for me.
Flipboard – I’ve used Flipboard on my IOS devices. I love the magazine look but I didn’t care for the magazine-look limitations. Articles were selected without regard for my reading preference and only the first paragraph or so were displayed, meaning I had to then download the rest of the article. This might be great for you. For me, it finally led to uninstalling the app. I want a reader focused on blogs rather than the wider range of news articles. You might want something different. But Flipboard is very cool-looking and I may try it again at some point. Flipboard is only IOS or Android.
Google Currents – Google’s attempt at a Flipboard look-alike, I’m told. I haven’t had time to check out this one yet. If you do, let me know what you think.
WordPress Reader – If you have a WordPress blog, you already have this. WordPress blogs offer a simple “Follow” button that is very easy to use. Read a blog and want to read more? Press “Follow” and the blog is now in your WordPress Reader. The Reader itself is beyond simple. I’d rather have a list of subscribed blogs in a sidebar so I can choose which I want to read at the moment. For now, WordPress Reader compiles all new blog posts into a list that has to be scrolled through. Barely adequate. There could be so much more offered after the ease of subscription. I hear rumors there are new features coming so we’ll see.
How do you read blogs? Has the loss of Google Reader impacted you?
Hollywood’s car chases keep getting faster, louder, more explosive and destructive. Where would we be if Jason Bourne hadn’t destroyed innumerable police cars, several taxis and a few SUVs?
But my favorite car chase included a few cell phones, corn fields and an arrogant thief.
After holding up a convenience store on the Interstate highway in western Nebraska, the young man leaped into his car and raced away. As his speed zoomed over 100 mph at times, he probably assumed he could outrun the State Patrol.
Soon he had the Patrol out in full-force following him into Colorado. The driver may have realized he couldn’t outrun their radios and that reinforcements were assembling in front of him.
So, as a couple of towns flashed by, hardly blips in his vision at his speed, he swung onto an exit and headed into farm country.
Out where only corn and wheat fields swayed in the wind. That ought to be secluded enough for him to escape law enforcement.
So the driver flew down dirt roads with no worries. He’d lost his trackers.
But he didn’t understand the nature of the rural mind.
Farmers tend those corn and wheat fields. And they know the traffic on those country roads. When an unknown car flashed by at high speed, a farmer grabbed his cell phone and called a neighbor. That neighbor called a neighbor.
Before long, the sheriff was alerted as farmers tracked the car careening through the farmland through cell phone calls.
While the racing thief thought he had outsmarted law enforcement, the network of farmers calmly plotted his course and helped the sheriff lay out a plan.
think the farmers were willing to block the road with their humongous tractors but the sheriff nixed the idea. What if there was shooting?
In the end, the sheriff and his deputies blocked the road ahead and behind because they knew exactly where their man had been. And was going.
The thief who thought he had outsmarted his pursuers hadn’t counted on the creativity of some farmers and their cell phones.
Although I’m learning to do video editing, I’ve done some video documentary shoots, and I know how to set up lighting for an interview, I am not planning to do a vlog anytime soon.
I know you didn’t ask but a friend of mine did. She wants to start vlogging on her blog site and asked me for suggestions. I had to face this facet of blogging.
A vlog is a basically a video blog. You can include video interviews, shots of you speaking rather than writing, even a movie of the impending snowstorm if that grabs you.
Since I know something about video cameras and editing and lighting, I promised her that I’d do some research.
My research consisted of a Google search: vlog editing free.
youtube (Photo credit: Sean MacEntee)
Although I’m learning to use Adobe Premiere and have dabbled with iMovie, I wanted something simpler for my friend. And I was surprised to find that YouTube offers a simple video capturing and editing option.
If you have a YouTube account, log in and locate a button at the top of screen labeled “Download.” When you click that button, a new screen offers a place to upload your file but also to create videos. Options include webcam capture, photo slideshow, Google+ hangout and video editor.
Assuming you have a web camera attached to your camera, you can select the Record button below Webcam Capture and start recording. If you want a video of yourself talking about your blog or your favorite cat or your take on the latest news story, YouTube can record your rant – er, your verbal essay – and save it.
Then select Edit under the Video Editor label and you’ll have a simple video editor for your use. You can’t do a lot but isn’t that the point of a simple video editor?
The videos you have uploaded to your YouTube account will appear in the upper left corner. That should include the webcam recording you just did. All you have to do is click on the video image and drag it to the line below marked by the camera at the left side. Clever, huh?
You can cut the clip, rotate it, add a title, include transitions. Simple but useful. Any sound that was imported with the video will remain and you can also add a YouTube soundtrack to your project. A preview window to the right allows you to watch your project as you edit.
Simple.
And, of course, YouTube makes it easy to save the edited video to YouTube. You can link it to your blog and, suddenly, you have your first vlog.
Simple. Free. YouTube. I’m not associated with YouTube in any way. I just discovered that this is a pretty simple way to get started in video work.
When our younger son turned 13, he informed me that, although he needed a new bottle of shampoo, he did not want the cheap stuff he’d been using for years.
“I want manly shampoo,” he announced.
English: The hair care aisle of a supermarket in North America. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I understood he might not want to use foofoo shampoo like lilac or rose, but what’s wrong with strawberry and coconut? If it’s good enough to be in dessert, it’s good enough to wash hair.
But I have not yet untangled the male mind. I thought, having two brothers, two sons and a husband, I could get some insight. I figured I could ask any of them and they’d interpret.
When my brothers were boys, they had contests to see how much fruit they could cram in their mouths. One day my younger brother stuffed so much banana in his mouth that he couldn’t move his tongue for several minutes. He had to wait for the banana to dissolve.
So, after we were adults, I cornered him. “Remember the banana incident?”
“Yeah,” he said drawing his words out like cold molasses.
“So why did you do that?” I thought I could get a key in decoding the male mind.
He lifted his shoulders. “I don’t have a clue.”
Some help that was.
One day I watched our 12-year-old son and friend challenge his 6-year-old sister to foot races. Every time the boys crossed the finish line before the little girl, they did a victory dance only matched by my mother when I came home with an engagement ring.
I described the scene at dinner to my husband. “Why would those boys get any joy out of beating a little girl in a foot race? They were older, faster, bigger. What fun was that?” Surely my husband could shed light on the issue.
He lifted his shoulders. “Testosterone causes brain damage.”
Like that was helpful.
Those stories clanged around in my brain as I stood with my younger son at the shampoo aisle. Still trying to learn about a guy’s thinking, I turned him loose. He was my newest study.
We came home with manly shampoo. He rushed to the shower. In the middle of the afternoon.
This was the boy who showered like the cowboys in the westerns: after every cattle drive. And we didn’t have cattle.
Still damp, he rushed out of the bathroom and held his dripping hair under my nose. “Smells manly, huh?” he said.
“Oh, yeah,” I assured him. Then he thrust his forearm in my face.
“Smell that.” Apparently he had manly soap, too. I told him he was very manly and he was satisfied.
I might ask what banana-stuffing, footrace whupping and woodsy shampoo have in common.
Apparently they’re among the pieces in building a man.
If I told you that a hero was someone who sacrificed for the good of others, you might nod your head but your eyes would glaze over. If you watched a hero rescue his daughter from kidnappers or save a city from villains, two hours could fly by and you would have just finished your popcorn.
We love stories. Riches of meaning and emotion come best through stories.
Whether it’s Frodo carrying the ring into Mordor or Will Smith detonating a hand grenade to protect the cure that would save mankind, well-conceived stories grip us.
The Bible is a book of stories. Most of its pages detail the adventures of kings and shepherds, prostitutes and prodigals.
And it is masterly written. The depth of word choices, repetition, significant action, rich metaphors – all these and more blend the narratives into powerful messages about people, their choices, and their God.
C.S. Lewis, no slouch in studying and writing literature, said once, “There is a…sense in which the Bible…cannot properly be read except as literature; and the different parts of it as the different sorts of literature they are.”
Powerful literature captures the heart and struggle of people. Paul Roche, who wrote The Bible’s Greatest Stories, commented that the events in the Bible “tell of mankind’s experience at its most moving and most memorable in words that go beyond mere chronicle: words that strike the heart and light up the vision.”
Words that strike the heart and light up the vision.
The mastery of words creates depth of meaning and The Bible has both.
Take a look at the story in Eden, where the man and woman lived in the freedom of an lush and bountiful garden. Their nakedness symbolized the innocence and safety of Eden.
The Garden’s beauty – the rivers, the trees, the lush fruit – revealed the nature of the Creator. They saw his handiwork and his abundance. Can they trust his judgment?
God asks them to trust him in command: do not eat the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good Evil. Could they trust his knowledge?
They trusted their own knowledge more, taking the fruit in at attempt to become like God.
Instead, their new knowledge exposed their rebellion. Shame caused them to snatch fig leaves in a desperate attempt to hide their nude bodies from each other and then from God.
God’s words, as he came to the Garden, tear at the fabric of what could have been: “Where are you?”
If you’ve ever witnessed the joy of a two-year-old racing uncovered through the house after a bath, you’ve seen what the man and woman knew in the Garden. Joy. Innocence. Freedom.
In choosing to experience evil, the pain of failure washed over them – and the reader. We want to grab the fruit: “Don’t eat this! You can’t go back!”
We are gripped by emotions and this story, delivered in precise and meaningful words, strikes our heart and lights up our vision.
A simple story masterfully told creates emotion and meaning.
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