Today I cleaned out the last of the “big” site feeds from my Bloglines subscription. You know the kinds I mean: the slashdots and diggs and boingboings and metafilters and reuters and CNNs, etc. I have so many “little” feeds to read that I find that the big prolific “professional” ones all just stack up unread anymore.

I’ve been finding that more and more of what I’m enjoying the consumption of is generated by people just like you. In fact, if you publish a blog (or comic or website or whatever) and you’ve ever left a comment here or have been in email contact with me, then it actually is you generating the content I enjoy.

See, I’ve had a long-standing policy of subscribing to any feed I find belonging to someone who took the time to make it obvious to me that they read my stuff. When I started subscribing indiscriminately, I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out, but I’m very glad that I did. I’ve found so many really great things as a result that I no longer have time for the regular old “media-created” Internet.

I’ve now made the decision to limit my Internet reading time to only content created (or linked to) by individual people, which ought to prove interesting. If there’s a great article on CNN, in theory I’ll still see it — despite not being subscribed to the feed — because someone in my network of feeds will find it great enough to post about it.

So now comes a formal plea: if you read and enjoy any of my drivel, chances are I’ll enjoy anything you post, so for heaven’s sake, please let me know about it so that I can expand my network further. The easiest way would be to just post a comment, making sure to fill in the “website” field, but you can simply drop me an email with your address if you’d rather.

Alternatively, if you don’t currently post things on the internet, but do read stuff by other people that you think I’d be interested in, by all means let me know about them as well.

Thanks for helping to change my information consumption strategy.

Know those email recommendations Amazon frequently sends out informing you of a new item it thinks you will like because Hugh Jackman was somehow involved in its creation? (“You were recommended this item because come on, everybody loves Hugh Jackman.”) I just got one informing me that there’s a new “art house comedy” starring Hugh Jackman playing in select theaters around the country.

I’d been weary of Amazon’s email recommendations for some time now — honestly, those Hugh Jackman tube socks I bought were stiff and uncomfortable; I could practically see right through them — but this new one pushed me over the top. The item advertised isn’t even available on Amazon (not to mention the fact that it isn’t even an “item” to begin with), but they’re encouraging me to pay for it anyway? It was time for this to stop.

Being the straw that broke the camel’s Jackman, this email finally convinced me to click on that “You don’t want to get emails like this from us anymore? Just click here” link I always see. It (eventually) took me to a page where I could select the types of communication I want to receive. After deselecting every type, I noticed an additional checkbox that said “receive no email from Amazon.” That being exactly the goal I was trying to accomplish, I quickly checked it and clicked Submit.

Here’s what the next page said:

Your E-mail Notification Settings have been saved.

You will receive an e-mail confirming your choices.

I hate ordering things online. Waiting for tracking information and wondering when my shipment will arrive wreaks havoc with what little bit of patience I can claim to have — which is less and less as anxiety takes its toll on me. I generally just wait until I can pick up whatever it is that I want at some physical location — at a higher price, naturally.

Sure, this just puts the thing in my hands considerably later than if I had just ordered it and waited for its arrival in the first place, but my brain doesn’t seem to understand that distinction.

What I’d like to see is a “surprise ordering” service where I can: create a wishlist of things I plan to purchase at some point, set a maximum (and minimum) monthly spending limit, and input my credit card information. This service would then periodically order things for me — without telling me about it — so that when a package arrives, I won’t have been expecting it, getting all anxious.

Anyone feel like making this system for me? If so, just make sure you don’t tell me about it until it is functional….

The DVDs from James Randi’s Amazing Meeting 4 are now available.

If you heard some of the talks via the podcast feed I was providing and want to experience the rest of them, now’s your chance.

Info here.

The 6 disc set is $69, but that gets you video of every speaker’s talk plus extra bonus features.

If you found out about The Amazing Meeting from my now-defunct illicit podcast feed and feel like telling the folks at the JREF that, perhaps it might help them to realize the potential of actually podcasting TAM5 themselves. (Or, at the very least, not take legal action against people who were doing the work for them…)

Also, if you are planning to attend TAM5, it’s even more important that you tell them how you heard about it.

I’ve been growing my hair out for some time now.

I hate how unruly my hair gets when it gets long, but my goal was to get a good picture of me looking like Jesus. I don’t really have a good reason for wanting to do this, it’s just that every time I make drastic changes I wish I had documented it in some funny way before losing the ability to. I realize this is stupid, but I figure that it’s as good a motivation for a hairstyle as any. Plus, it’s a great excuse to be lazy in the “shaving” department.

It’s just about time for a haircut, so I present to you my Jesus picture:

(Click for larger… way larger.)

I don’t expect anyone to be healed or anything, but be sure to drop me a line if you experience anything miraculous.