Editor, revised

I’m back from a short trip to Portland and Seattle, and I’ve got a few more days off to play around with this site.

Two immediate changes:

1. I’ve created a portfolio page, which you can access via that nav links above or by clicking here.
2. I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.6 after ignoring the prompts for several weeks. I’m happy to report it was quick and painless.

I’ll be back with a real post soon.

I’ve been holding out from getting a Twitter account for years. Recently, my resistance has been slipping because:

1. Twitter users transmit news faster than the news wires. Case study: Wednesday’s L.A.-area earthquake.
2. There are tons of Twitter tools out there to play with, such as twhirl and summize.
3. It’s beautiful in its simplicity.
4. It’s like IM from your phone and SMS from your computer all at once.
5. Many of my favorite bloggers use it and recommend it. (e.g. here, here and here.)

But then again…

1. I’ve already got a couple hundred friends on Facebook, and I can use my status message as a tweet.
2. Do I really need one more social networking account out there?
3. I have a hard enough time keeping up on my RSS feeds!
4. For news, how reliable is information provided via Twitter? Case in point: Subway Jared’s nondemise.
5. I’m doing everything I can to maintain a longer attention span; I can’t see Twitter helping that.

So, who out there loves to Twitter? Who else is holding out?

The other day I joined the club about how time-consuming it is to keep up with my RSS feeds. Why do I call it a club? Because a Google search tells me people have been moaning about this for at least three years. That’s OK. Although redundant, the exercise was cathartic.

And it yielded ideas. My friend Sara passed along the tip of organizing feeds by importance: must read, would like to read, entirely optional. 43 Folders shares a similar but more detailed take on this method.

A good idea, I thought, but can I really stand to throw away my careful categorizations? Well, I don’t have too. Google Reader and, I imagine, any decent feed reader will let you assign feeds to multiple folders/categories/tags. (Continues below the image.)

Here’s how I organized mine:

• !Must: Miss these and I’ll feel really guilty. Most have to do with my job and industry. The ! moves this grouping to the top of my subscription navigator pane.
• !S-R: These are Spokesman-Review blogs, and I must stay up on them. But I created a separate category because there are so many.
• !Like to: I can let these pile up and check them as I have time.
• !Gravy: Pure entertainment.

My other problem was retaining the information I read. No quick fix there. Now I just put faith in the brain that got me through college and grad school without too much sweat and trust I’ll retain anything ultra-important. And I use Google’s starring function or a del.icio.us bookmark to file away anything that might have reference value.

Why bother to repeat what 43 folders said so well? Maybe a different audience will find this post. Why do I spend time worrying so much about an activity that’s supposed to be leisure? In an industry that’s going through hull-puncturing changes, I’m pretty sure that that someone out there is going to come up with an idea that could help me maintain a livelihood in journalism or online media.

This morning I tried to catch up with my RSS feeds, my daily review of which fell apart during a particularly hectic week at work. It took me an hour to scan about 200 posts from the blogs and rss feeds that I’ve categorized as “new media” in Google Reader. That included reading in full those items that particularly caught my attention and visiting links that compelled me.

Now my rss reader tells me I only have 231 unread items. But what have I gotten for my effort besides that smaller number? A headache, and the feeling that I’ve been cramming for tests in about five different subjects the day before the exams. I’d have a hard time articulating just what I’ve “learned,” but I know it covered topics such as video production, the dire straits of the newspaper industry, citizen journalism, online April Fools gags, online publishing trends and several conferences related to this kind of stuff.

I would love to read a tutorial that goes beyond an explanation of using rss, such as embedded in my previous post about Common Craft, and learn expert blog readers’ tips for managing all this information and putting it to use. I think I saw one on a feed a few weeks ago, but, befitting my problem, I’m not sure where it went.

I love that there’s so many ideas and so much information bouncing around on the Internet. I just don’t want to use all of my free time trying to stay up with it. If you’ve got a suggestion, please leave it below.

For the third time in almost as many days, I’ve woken up to snow. The water-cooler talk about when winter will finally leave continues. (Answer: Not soon enough, and kicking and screaming then). I’m feeling an energy deficit; the falling snow has put me in a bunker mentality. So a perfect day to play around on the Internet. Here’s a sampling of where I’ve been wandering worth checking out.

Mastering multimedia: My boss and video mentor Colin Mulvany comments on the cultural shift at work in our newsroom. I get a mention. This is an inspiring read for anybody looking to build a video team.

Journerdism: Will Sullivan is hosting the Carnival of Journalism this month. This is a good place to get a taste of what journalism bloggers are talking about.

College Media Innovation: The tips here are just as valuable for working journalists as aspiring ones. On my list today: start building my “brand.”

New Yorker: Eric Alterman sizes up the uneasy and essential alliance newspapers have with the Web. Oh, and he basically rings the bell for the funeral of print journalism as we know it.

Secrets of Self-taught Web Developers: I confess: When it comes to learning web development, I’ve been dragging ass even though I realize it could turn out to be an essential tool for staying employable. Eric Hebert offers this list of resources perfect for people like me, and he presents it with the pitch-perfect voice of the sage, reassuring adviser.