I've been subscribing to RSS feeds like crazy lately, and it's been giving me an incredible new resource for news and information. And - because I've been using Mozilla Thunderbird and organizing everything meticulously, I'm not actually overwhelmed, I just feel like I have everything at my fingertips. (though you have to get over the fear of having piles of "unread" stuff in your folders) Kinda like discovering Google all over again.

Then I got to thinking - most people don't know the difference between a browser and a tennis racket, so if RSS is really going to live up to it's potential as a mass information tool, someone has to slow down and explain it all.

Here's the laymans scoop -

RSS stands for "Rich Site Summary" or sometimes "Really Simple Syndication"... nice huh? But all you need to know is that it's a way for you to subscribe to a website that publishes periodic information, like weblogs or news magazines.

Next Fifteen Communictions is one of Europe's biggest PR firms. When someone mentioned their name to me, I naturally turned to Google to find out more. I searched and searched and found absolutely nothing, which really baffled me. A few minutes later I realized my mistake: I had been googling for "Next 15" and not "Next Fifteen".

My guess is that there are so many websites with "Next #" linking a page that Next 15 just get's lost in the void. Nonetheless, this is particularily troubling because they happen to own the domain www.next15.com which I would have thought might help them out. Does Google do something tricky when numbers are in the search phrase?

blah how is it possible to be so stinky?

A good friend of mine, Eric Martin, has just published his second novel "winners", and threw a dandy launch party last night at Cafe du Nord. Eric read a bit from the book last night with a musical beat and I have to say it sound's great so far, so get on out and pick up a copy.

My good friend Anna G down in Austin, along with Kim Francis have just launched a new Austin music and activism site (blog in disguise), which I set up for 'em in exchange for lodging and beer during SXSW. It's called Girlstown Productions, and it's pretty cool. If you know anyone who's into music, Austin, or activism... check it out.

Despite being dismayed at the banality of having the same cloned store everywhere, I kinda like Starbucks once in a while. But I've always been annoyed at their silly terminology for cup sizes: Grande, Venti, and whatever the other one is. I always proudly ask for a medium. Turns out, this behavior makes me an "antiventi". I'm also a bit of a "hesitipper" unless the change is so small (two cents for example) that the tip would seem insulting and I actually wait for the guy not to be looking so I can just toss the pennies in the jar. You could do some serious psychological studies in a Starbucks. Banterist has more.