How to Read Blogs, Especially Mine

If you like reading blogs, I recommend using a blog reader. There are several; I use Google Reader. It treats blog entries a bit like emails. It keeps track of which blogs you want to follow, removes ones you've read, and automatically updates when the blogs do. It's great.

I have three active blogs; it's easier to keep up with them with a reader:
    http://jimdavies.blogspot.com/
           I try to update this weekly. It has news about my life in science and the arts, as well as analyses of intellectual problems.
    http://jimdaviesidentifies.blogspot.com/
            This is a blog for cool things I find on the internet. It's rarely updated-- I use twitter more often.
    http://jimdaviesrants.blogspot.com/
            I'm not a negative person, but sometimes I just need to rant. Rarely updated.

Since the last two are rarely updated, it's kind of a waste of time to check them online very often. This is another reason to use a reader.

I also use twitter, which is like a blog, but restricted to messages 140 characters long. It's for funny quips, observations, updates on what I'm doing, and interesting web links. To subscribe, go to twitter.com and subscribe to "twitterjimmyd" which is my username.

The great thing is, you can subscribe to a twitter feed through Google Reader, as though it were a blog. Awesome!

I use ping.fm to post to twitter, and, simultaneously, to update my myspace and facebook status. So if you're friends with me on facebook, you might see my tweets there. If you're like me (I have over 500 friends) you will miss some in the deluge. So if you don't want to miss any Jim Davies, use Google Reader to follow my twitter account.

I will post a version of this every year.