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I use RSS as a buffet, not a task list

I ran across this (very well done) post on hating RSS feeds yesterday.

It’s really well done and I appreciate the underlying notion: rss feeds can feel like “work” to be done.

But I’ve always viewed them as a buffet from which I can sample. Not as a task list. A place to graze.

I have absolutely no desire to consume everything on the buffet. Yes, I have some things I’ll eat nearly every time. But in general, it’s a broad selection from which I can sample, depending on my mood. I have no obligation to eat it all, and in fact, that might be considered unreasonable.

The stuff I always put on my plate first is in one folder. The stuff I don’t eat that regularly goes into another folder, from which I only occasionally peak. I even have feeds from my friends' blogs that I never read, as they’re not on topics I care about, or are a bit too influencer-y for my tastes. But I’ll occasionally pop in to mark those as read, giving me a second or two to scan for a (rare) life update or something surprisingly interesting.

There’s simply too much to consume in the modern era to ever consider some grouping of content as a task list. If your default is to view that as such, I think you’re going to feel especially overwhelmed in the modern world.

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I’m considering signing up for omg.lol almost entirely for the damn statuslog…

Are there any similar solutions I could use to quickly plant a status on my various sites? 🤔

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Reposts from my Hey World blog

I reposted several posts from Hey World to my personal website.

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Day 27: Surprise for challenges.micro.blog

This is Surprise Lake in Aniakchak National Monument, a collapsed caldera in remote Alaska that’s the least visited park unit in the country. I spent 5 days waiting for a short window to fly here via bush plane in 2019, so it’s a surprise that you made it!

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Day 21 Mountains for challenges.micro.blog: “The Great One”

Denali in the distance, with a canoe on a lake in the foreground
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Day 18: Mood for challenges.micro.blog

Four individuals in kayaks on the Colorado River; three are napping, one is reading a book.
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Day 17: Transcendence for challenge.micro.blog.

This is the spot where the mutilated body of a young black boy, Emmett Till—whose crime was being black in rural Mississippi during Jim Crow—was dumped, an event that transcended a “simple” race murder and helped to launch the Civil Rights Movement.

A dilapidated rusted bridge over a flooded bayou, with trees flooded along the banks and muddy water in the channel.
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I’m considering abandoning my general Mastodon account (I have another one that solely dedicated to travel/outdoor adventures) and moving everything to Micro.blog, where I’d also pull in my other fedi-posts and my blog posts from my primary website.

What drawbacks will I encounter?

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Shot this from inside my tent in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in February.

Day 13: Cactus for challenges.micro.blog.

Starry night scene with a FUCKING GORGEOUS organ pipe cactus lit by moonlight stealing the scene.
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Day 13: Page (Arizona 😜), for challenges.micro.blog

Horseshoe Bend in Arizona - the Colorado River incised a deep gorge in the red sandstone and has created a big looping bed in the foreground.
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Day 11: Sky for challenges.micro.blog

Ocean scene, two people in a kayak with dark clouds above them and sunset-lit clouds further above
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Day 10: Train for challenges.micro.blog - The most unique train car I’ve seen was this cut-out display at Steamtown NHS in Scranton, PA.

Cut away of a locomotive showing internal partsx
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Question, friends: if you happen across a misplaced slice of crispy bacon on a random sidewalk in your town, does the 5 second apply to the moment it was originally dropped, or does the clock start when you first see it? Day 9 Crispy of challenges.micro.blog

slice of bacon on the sidewalk
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Day 8: Prevention for challenges.micro.blog

Passenger seat of a car with a notebook, map of Texas, and a pair of disposable solar eclipse safety glasses.
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Day 7: “wellbeing” of challenges.micro.blog

View from the feet of someone lounging in a hammock near the edge of a cliff and a great vista
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Day 6: “Windy” of challenges.micro.blog

When I think windy, I think of the summit of Mt Washington, where they chain down the roofs of buildings and the site of the highest wind speed ever recorded on Earth: 231 mph.

Wooden building on summit that has chains from its roof to the ground and features a sign describing the record setting 231mph winds that were recorded here.
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Day 5: Serene of challenges.micro.blog

Ocean vista from hilltop, sparkling water, lush greenery, tranquil setting, perfect for relaxation.
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Foilage? Yeah, there’s a bit of that green stuff in Samoa…

Day 4: Foilage for challenges.micro.blog

Just an incredibly lush sloping mountainside of green foilage, spilling into a small ocean bay.
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How I Became A Cruiser Bike Guy

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Here’s what it looks like, @amerpie.

Downright absurd: I still haven’t posted about it on my website!

There’s a multi-layered backstory to all of this. One part of it is that my wife had secretly organized several friends to fly to Alaska for my last park, and our Aniakchak visit nearly ruined it.