SquidRoad

Less RSS = Less Learning

Been wondering what's been making me cranky the last few months.

Now, before you start shootin' holes in my feeling, let me submit that when I'm not learning something new, I get really, really bored. (For the record, busy does not equal bored.)

It's been about nine months since this fiasco happened and all my RSS feeds went Google Way. Aaargh. That's a challenge when a lot of your learning happens by following, oh, a few hundred blogs.

 
Also a few months ago, I mentioned how I'd gone kicking and screaming to Twitter. What pushed me over the edge was the idea of microblogging, following others' blogs and then pushing my own (or others') information in 140-character bites in an effort to share.

But it's really not the same.

While it takes a lot of content browsing to find what you want via RSS feeds, finding valuable content via Twitter is truly like looking for a needle in a haystack. It takes much, much longer and yields much, much less.

So imagine my information drought of the last several months. Heck, I'm surprised I can still read at all.

Exit my old RSS reader app. (Fine-- go to Big Brother Google!). Enter....enter...well, I'm trying a whole bunch of stuff. For starters, NewsFire and Times (screen shot shown, above).

NewsFire behaves more like my old sellout tool (I'm not at all upset about it)--makes it easy to drill down into it if you want to, although scanning info requires a few more brain cells (still looking for those). With Times, what you see is what you get--in a very slick interface. If you want to feel like you're reading the paper but online, this is your gig. Beautiful GUI...I nearly fell for it, but it's just a bit too pretty for me.

As much as I love good design, when I'm looking for information, that's all I need. Of the two RSS readers I'm trying, so far it's NewsFire.

And I'm reading three-syllable words again. That can't be all bad.

Don't forget Haiti

Less than a month after the Haiti earthquake, barely a sliver of media spotlight remains on this tiny country.

In our world, we don't know how to deal for this long with the level of turmoil facing our neighbor-to-the-south. Working for an organization that serves the developing world, it's hard not to be hyper-aware of Haiti and all her pain. It remains a good chunk of my job right now.

Having coworkers there who are also dear, dear friends and who get no break from this nightmare breaks my heart all over again. And finally today, the unknown status of a colleague buried under rubble... changed. His remains are on their way home pending confirmed identification.

It's simply too much.

Jesus said,

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. (Matthew 11:29-30, The Message)

The developed world is spoiled rotten--us especially. Little do we realize that 99% of the world doesn't live like we do. The fact is, most carry heavier burdens by their 5th birthday than most of us will see in a lifetime.

That's true of Haiti on a good day. For that reason, we can't let her fall off our radar. The road to recovery will be long. There will be steps forward and back. But we must come to her side and stay there.

In the smallest way, each of us can do something to support our tiny tropical neighbor, just 800 miles off our Florida caost, with love, prayer, hard work, hugs, letters, emails, tweets...you name it.

Whatever you do, don't let the media or anything allow you to forget Haiti. Whether you choose to give, help or just send a virtual hug to someone there, encourage this nation and her people.

Just don't forget her.