Google Reader, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Last week I finally switched my primary email account over to one with my new last name. Yes, it took me almost a year, but I receive a lot of emails from various places and I didn't want to deal with the hassle of switching everything. I recently updated my resume, however, and thought it looked unprofessional to have my former last name on my email address.

Funnily enough, I'd already created the new email account. I did it shortly after MM and I got back from our honeymoon. I even set it up so all my emails were forwarded to that account, so I could begin making the transition. But then I spaced it out and got lazy and didn't want to deal with it, so I let it go. When I opened the new account for the first time in almost a year earlier this week, I almost fell over. There were over 24,000 unread emails in there. 0_o Yikes! It took me almost 4 hours to get them all sorted and cleared. About 3/4 of the way there I thought to myself, "Self, WTF are you doing? You already have all these emails saved in your other account!" Uh, yeah..sometimes I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed. *facepalm*

Anyway, the biggest concern for me when switching accounts was my Google Reader. For those of you not familiar (and I hope there aren't many of you, since I think GReader is like the greatest invention ever) Google Reader is a free service offered through Google where you can subscribe to various links. I have more than 400 subscriptions in mine, ranging from blogs to news sites. Almost all websites now have an RSS feed, and GReader keeps them nice and organized and all in one place. It's grand. Or it was. But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself...

After snooping around a bit I realized you can now import/export your feeds. This made me very happy, because I wasn't looking forward to manually transferring all my feeds over. All I had to do was export my feed list and import it into the new account. Easy Peasy. Except there's an issue. For those of you who haven't used GReader before and aren't familiar, here's what it looks like:

(click to enlarge)

Recently, thanks to a suggestion by Marg, I organized all my subscriptions into different folders. I think I have a total of 12 different folders, and I classify my subscriptions by type and how I often I read them. Anyway, as you can see, there are thousands of unread messages in there. What I want to direct your attention to, however, is the sidebar. See how each blog is highlighted and bold? That tells me there are unread items. In this account, the only blogs that show are ones that have unread messages in them. So my sidebar isn't cluttered up by a bunch of links that haven't been updated.

In my new account, however, that isn't the case. Now all of my subscriptions are listed on the sidebar, including the ones that haven't updated. So now it looks like this:


(click to enlarge)

See how there are subscriptions in there now links that aren't highlighted? It's freaking annoying, because now I have to scroll through numerous links just to find the ones that are updated. It really disturbs my sense of order. There used to be a button that would allow you to see only the updated subscriptions, but that button is missing now. I tried going through the account settings to find a place that would allow me to fix the problem, but I've found nothing.

I realize this isn't a major issue in the grand scheme of life, but it's frustrating and annoying. It's gotten to the point now where I don't even want to open my GReader. Which means I'm not keeping up with all of you. Which pisses me off. I have blog-hopped some lately, but I don't have a lot of extra online time right now, so I'm not visiting as many of you as I would if I could read all your posts in one place. Grr.

I posted yesterday on the help board, but so far I haven't gotten a response. I really hope this is just a me issue and something that can be easily resolved. If not I may have to dump GReader all together and move to Bloglines or something.

Did you hear that, Google? I just might defect to the enemy camp! *shakes fist*

Any of you know a fix for this? I'd really appreciate any help you can offer. Or maybe you know of a better program? Bloglines or something?

More First Day Fun with MM

Today is MM's first official day as a motorcycle cop. He's finished with pre-training, training and post-training, ordered his nifty boots and is more excited than any kid I've ever seen on Christmas morning. He's really sick right now (some kind of chest/head cold) but he's still gone to work every day. Why? Because he just couldn't miss a day of riding his new motorcycle. But poor MM had another first day mishap.

About an hour ago he sent me a picture via text. A picture of his very first traffic stop as a motorcop. Isn't that cute? He took a picture! Of course I wasn't expecting what I got when I opened it....

You see, poor MM didn't put is kickstand down all the way and while he was at the window talking to the people he pulled over his bike fell over. Right there.

Excuse me while I LAUGH OUT LOUD.

Poor MM.

Only MM

I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but MM recently applied for and was accepted into a new position in his department. A motor position. As in, motorcycle. Yes, that's right, MM is now a motorcycle cop.

Heh.

He moved into the traffic department the first week of January and began pre-training the last week in January. Last weekend when I met with the So. Cal Bloggers MM was on his way to a two week training course. When he gets done with that he'll have a week of post-training and then he'll get his nifty boots and be a real-life motorcycle cop. Which is hot. And..hot. Srsly.

I have concerns about this, mostly because I think he's going to be bored in traffic. MM is an adrenaline junky. Which works well for him considering his chosen profession. But I think as time goes on he'll get bored pulling people over for traffic violations. Since he's now stuck in this position for 3 years, it's kind of a moot point, but mark my words..he's going to be sorry.

Anyhoo...That's not the reason I'm writing this blog today (though I would like it noted - for the record - that I said he'll get bored with it. Kthx?). The reason I'm writing today is because MM doesn't have the best of luck when it comes to "first days".

For example: His first day on patrol after training - his very first day by himself - he forgot to lock his shotgun in all the way and when he slammed on the breaks 5 minutes after getting in the car it flew out of the holster and smashed his MDC (the computers in cop cars).

Poor MM.

Example #2: This past Sunday. He drove down to his hotel room and pulled under the portico right in front of the front door so he could go check in. He got out of the car, locked it, and walked around the back of the car to get his stuff out of the trunk.

About 20 minutes later he called me, sounding rather sheepish and embarrassed. I was hanging out with Daphne at Borders (we'd already finished our So. Cal Blogger meet up) before I headed over to meet MM (we'd made plans to meet for dinner earlier in the afternoon since his hotel wasn't too far from where I met the girls for lunch). He laughed kind of uncomfortably and said, "Uh, we might have to cruise over to one of my friend's house after dinner, ok?"

Why, you ask?

Because when he put his key in the trunk after first arriving at the hotel it snapped off inside the lock.

hahahahaha

Ehem.

Poor MM. He had to go inside and explain to the front desk clerk that he'd have to leave his car there until he could get another key. She said, "Do you want me to call AAA?" but he told her no and said he was going to get a spare key from a friend.

Oh, did I forget to mention what car MM was driving? I did? Silly me...

A unit. As in, a police unit.

Yes, MM snapped the key to his PATROL CAR off in the trunk and had no way to get inside the car to move it.

Niiice.

Srsly, only MM...

So Cal Blogger Meet Up.

This Sunday, 11 of us So Cal Bloggers (and one honorary blogger visiting from the East Coast) met up for lunch. We ate, we drank, we talked smack about books that sucked and raved about books that didn't. Then we met up in the parking lot and exchanged books. It was wonderful. If any of you are able, I suggest organzing a meeting in your area with fellow bloggers. There's nothing better.



Since everyone else has already blogged about this (I'm the last one, I think) I won't bore you with the details (again). I will share pictuers no one else has, though...heh.





From L to R:Blanche, Me, Lori, Daphne, Tracy, Lisabea, Wendy, Rosie, Nikki, Alice, Renee

This is what happens when you put scores of books in front of romance readers.

Rosie, Renee and Daphne
Wendy and Alice
Alice and Lisabea say goodbye *sniffle*

You know we can't just grab the books, we have to discuss them, too
Rosie and Lisabea say goodbye *another sniffle*
Blanche and Nicole

Do you see the pile of books? We might be a bit obsessive.

Many thanks to Tracy for taking our leftovers to the library and donating them (I soo didn't want to bring those back home).

Ladies, thank you for a wonderful afternoon. I had a delightful time. Lisabea, I hope you come visit again soon.

To all you other bloggers out there..if you're coming to So Cal, let us know. Lisabea was the reason for this get together. Who knows, you might be the reason for our next.

Srsly..W.T.F.?!?!?

Remember how I live in CA? SOUTHERN California? In the freaking desert of Southern CA?



Why the eff did I wake up to snow? Again?



That's it, I'm moving to Hawaii. Or Mexico. Or somewhere it doesn't effing snow!!









Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

Riddle Me This, Batman

From the Yahoo! Home page today:

The mother of newborn octuplets says she had six embryos implanted in her fertility procedure — far more than industry guidelines recommend under ordinary circumstances — and was well aware that multiple births could result.

"I wanted them all transferred," Nadya Suleman told NBC's "Today" show. "Those are my children, and that's what was available and I used them. So, I took a risk. It's a gamble. It always is."

"It turned out perfectly," Suleman added in a portion of the interview broadcast Friday.

Other portions of interview are scheduled to air next week.

The interview and public documents obtained by The Associated Press lifted the veil of secrecy in which Suleman shrouded herself after the Jan. 26 births.

So..a woman decides she wants kids, and has invitro done.  5 times it works for her, including giving her twins once.  So she does it again, and purposely gets pregnant with Octuplets (for those of you playing at home, that's 8 babies).  Strange, but I've heard of stranger things.  Oh, except that's not entirely true. Not after I read the rest of the article.

The 33-year-old single, unemployed woman has been harshly criticized for having a fertility procedure and risking multiple births when she already has six young children, including twins.

So..how does a 33 year-old single, unemployed woman plan to support 14 babies?   And what kind of doctor would allow her to implant that many at once? 

I guess I don't understand how one person can care for that many children and give them the time and attention they deserve.  I can appreciate having a large family (kind of) but that's just ridiculous and excessive.  Why don't these people think about what they're doing to their children? 

I'm not saying she doesn't love her kids, or that they won't feel the love. But realistically, how does a single woman care for 8 babies at once?  It's just not possible. A woman only has 2 arms.

Is it just me?  Srsly?