When I was working at UWM, I had a lot more time available to me to write in my blog– I woke up just about as early, but I would have a good 2+ hours at home for web-surfing, blog-writing, and coffee-drinking. ((God, those mornings were nice.  Damn.))  I would also invariably have some time at work, as well. ((I was busy, but ungodly busy.))

Things have obviously changed, and I’m going to try to take some steps to get back on the horse.  I’ve been enjoying the weekly sports podcast with Josh (even if *you* haven’t :P), and I’d like to keep doing that.  I’m starting to wonder if a solo podcast (or *gasp* video) might not be a bad idea.  I’d like to solve the equipment issues I was having with the Bocko & Kyle podcast once and for all and try to get that rockin more often, too.

Still, it’s hard to create content on the Internet if you have nothing significant to say.  I could talk about some of my own things, but that’s only entertaining for so long.  You need some of your work to be commentary on the news and events of the day.  That’s why my morning webbie-time used to work out well with the blog.  These days, there’s no way I can get through all these feeds I decided I should follow.

And that is why I am going to purge my feed reader.  I mean, purge the crap out of it.  Here are a few stats on my netvibes page:

• I have 65 feeds
• 16 of them are for news
• 9 for sports
• 13 are podcasts or miscellaneous video sources
• 10 are blogs of people I know
• the rest are a potpourri of webtainment whose origin I can’t recall

Come with me, if you like, as I comb through and pare these down.  Ideally, I feel like I could roll with about half as many.  I think 32 feeds is more manageable.  Maybe to make it a little harder on myself, I should shoot for 25.

Starting should be easy.  I’ll say good-bye to the feeds that I never even read.  So, farewell to:

• MythTV news – it seemed like a good idea at the time.
• The A.V. Club Hater – I enjoyed you in print.  On the can.
• Evernote blog – If I start using Evernote regularly, maybe we’ll meet again.
• Portableapps.com – I can just visit your website time to time.  And I will.
• Financial Aid podcast – I listened to you once, subscribed, and never listened again.
• White House.gov photo gallery – you lost your luster post-inauguration
• Reuters Top News, video.  Meh.
• Reuters Tech, video.  Double-meh.

Next, bid adieu to the feeds that time forgot.  I loved you once, but it’s over now:

• WordPress DB Backup Support Forum – your developer fixed you, and now all is well.
• Pirate’s Log: The Musings of Droste – he who has ceased to muse?  At least on that blog…
• Convergence Tangent – I can follow the tweets to new posts.
• Amber on the Road – the road ended.
• The Inane Rantings of a Total Hack – let us know if you ever rant again.
• Reetsyburger’s Refuge – I would like to read it; I would.  But I’d be kidding myself.
• Sky Blue Waters – Gone the way of the War Pigs.
• mandolux – let’s face it; I get my wallpaper from digitalblasphemy.
• Washington Post opinions – If there’s a good one, some one will tell me.
• Onion Radio News – the Onion News Network is funnier, because they can say “fuck.”
• Journal-Sentinel Sports (general) – I get all the same stuff in the team-specific feeds.
• SI.com (general) – see above.

Some other random stuff to get rid of:

• Feeds to things on my own site.  Like I don’t know when those things get there?
• Ditto for my flickr stream.

That makes a huge difference.  I have a couple things I could use some help on:

• I have an AP New tab and a Reuters News tab.  Which should I keep, if either?
• If neither, news from where?

This helped.  Hopefully, more to come.