RSS Revised, More Twitter, and a Podcast

I went back to Google Reader and deleted all the BBC feeds I subscribed to a few days ago. I realized I just wasn't going to have time to read them every day. I replaced them with the URLs of my co-workers blogs so they would be easier to check. I found a couple of new posts, but then discovered I couldn't comment from within Google Reader. I understand from a fellow blogger that you can post comments directly from the RSS feed using LiveJournal. That would be much more convenient.

Last night my husband introduced me to a podcast called The Sword and the Laser. It is a Fantasy/SciFi podcast. They announce the book they are going to discuss, then after awhile have a podcast where they discuss the book. I recognized lots of my favorite books. It is hard to find people (besides my sister) who have read and enjoyed fantasy and science fiction. It is definitely the underdog genre in the library world--just look at the minuscule science fiction section in my branch! Only the westerns have smaller shelf space! I'm always happy to find a patron I can help with recommendations. Unfortunately, sci/fi fans also tend not to return their library books and there go my favorites, out the door, never to return. Anyway, the point is, I added the RSS feed for the podcast to Google Reader and I got the upcoming book today: Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franco. This book is elfpunk. I've read some of the Dresden Files and Emma Bull; is supposed to be similar.

So last night my husband was sitting on the couch listening to the Sword and Laser podcast with me and then he says "They just found ice on Mars! There could be life on Mars!" He'd just gotten a tweet from the scientists on the Phoenix Mars project. Well, I think that is just the coolest thing. So now I'm following the Tweets from Phoenix Mars as well. In his blog this morning, my husband says he thinks that was how the news got out first: through Twitter. Because of that, the twitter page containing the tweet might be considered an historical record! See his blog at http://friendstoldme.blogspot.com.