Public Service Announcement

I'm procrastinating on inputting all my scribbled changes into a medical article I've been copy editing/proofing. After nearly 30 pages talking of hemispheric lesions, sorting out format issues and third person passive sections....yes, I want a break!

I thought I would contribute to that housekeeping mode we tend to get in at the beginning of every new year. Some of you are already hooked into Google Reader, but I just want to make a plug for it for all of you who aren't. I suspect there are many of you without readers since I'm able to see how many hits my blog gets each day - and there were a lot of regular hits during the month I didn't blog!

I love my Gmail account with Google.com and like my iGoogle homepage. I choose what to put on it and can even choose a pretty picture background for it. There are no ads. That's the best part. Mine looks like this: (remember you can click to enlarge)
I chose the Tommy Hilfiger background, not because I'm so preppy, but because I liked the photos of nature it rotates through. I have a snapshot of my email inbox, the time and date, local weather, news, a game, and my Google Reader. Google Reader (or any other reader you sign up for - OR you could sign up for the RSS feeds and get all new posts to your email box) saves time.

A lot of friends have blogs for their families, or projects they're on, or trips they're taking, or there are other blogs that always write about a subject I like, and so on. There are many. I don't have time to click through all my bookmarked blogs all day long to see if there are updates. If you follow more than 5 blogs, you probably don't want to spend time clicking either. My reader box on my iGoogle page, basically my homepage, is basically an inbox for all new blog postings on the blogs I follow. When I open Google Reader in it's own tab it looks like this:
Then there are all sorts of fancy things you can do if you have a Google Reader and your buddy has one. You can share articles and sign up to see all the articles your buddy deemed worthy of sharing. If your buddy doesn't do blogs, or have a reader, you can easily click on a post and email it to people in your address book. Super easy. Saves a lot of clicking time. Keeps everything in order so if you're gone for awhile and the AutoBlog posts a million posts on Chevy Pickups and you're not interested, you just click on 'mark all as read'. I digress.

Basically, get a reader if you keep up with more than 5 blogs. I like the Google one because it has lot sof nice and user-friendly features, and it's inbox fits onto my homepage. This will help us all keep our time spent online down, or at least more efficient, this year.

In other PSA news: If you buy a coat and it has a short cut/flap/vent at the bottom of the back of the coat, please make sure you remove the tacking! Manufacturers often sew a few stiches to close the opening to protect the garment until it's purchased, but oh if I only had even 50 cents for every coat I see where the tack hasn't been cut!! Total pet peeve of mine. The guilty parties are 60% men and 40% women. So don't think you're exempt if you're female. I've also seen it on Mercedes-driving businessmen and bike-pedaling students, so yes, you better check your coats!

ok, PSAs over for now, back to editing!