Google Reader in Plain English

The folks at CommonCraft have done it again. This time, they have made a quick video about one of my favorite tools for reading information on the web, Google Reader. I’ll let them explain it to you.

I currently have 253 subscriptions in Google Reader. I can’t say that I read each and everything that passes through, but there are certain RSS feeds that I do pay closer attention to than others.

Do you ever open up a newspaper and scan the headlines? Then perhaps you read the byline to get a little more behind the story, and only then do you decide to actually read the rest of it. There are many times when I use it in that capacity, especially when it comes to various feeds from news organizations that crank out a lot of items in just a few hours.

This is how I keep on top of things, even if it’s just a quick glance.

I’m a blogger in Canada who can vote in the U.S. elections

It is curious, isn’t it?

With that dig on bloggers, I thought that I would point out something that struck me funny about McCain, being the hockey fan that I am.

If the need arises and the range is close, Mark Salter will edit John McCain in midsentence. After 19 years at each other’s side, neither man gives it a second thought. When a writer for The New Yorker was interviewing them last year about their latest best-selling book, the talk turned to hockey and the Arizona senator’s admiration for Wayne Gretzky[wiki], who coaches the Phoenix Coyotes. “Wayne Gretzky is one of the all-time best American athletes!” McCain proclaimed. But even before his boss finished speaking, Salter had spotted a slip-up: the hockey legend is from Ontario. “Yes,” Salter interjected, “Gretzky is one of the best American athletes … from Canada!” [newsweek]

We’re in the home stretch for the 2008 U.S. presidential elections, and this will be my first time to vote in a federal election as a U.S. citizen and a permanent resident of Canada.

I’m trying to get everything in order to get my voting out of the country lined up so I don’t miss the boat. If you are one of these such people, be sure to check out the Federal Voting Assistance Program. The site is dedicated to folks like myself to get information about how to get your absentee ballet by the time the elections hit in November.

With Obama choosing Biden as his running mate, the end is in sight for this battle. And as a blogger, I hope I can put out the message to those U.S. citizens around the world to pickup on your opportunity to help shape the future of the world, no matter who it is that you would rather see win.

This would include third, fourth, or fifth parties. In fact, if you have someone you’d rather write in, I say go for it. I once had a buddy put down Trent Reznor[wiki] for president with Henry Rollins[wiki] as VP.

What a glorious world that would have been.

The point is that you have the right to vote. That power is your voice to say how you want things to be ran, and this applies to any country with some form of democracy. With the possibilities of a Canadian election on the horizon, this notion has greater baring than just my home country.

To go along with the spirit of the elections, CommonCraft produced another great video about the elections, putting the whole process into plain English of how the U.S. president gets elected.


Electing a US President in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

There you have it. Now get out there and rock the vote.

Podcasting in plain english

I spent a huge part of this past weekend cranking out a bunch of podcasting content for Happyfrog during EPIC in downtown Vancouver. I’ll make a post about that soon (because it was an amazing experience), but this just popped up on my Twitter feed. Since it’s all about podcasting, I couldn’t pass it up.

So here is “Podcasting in Plain English” by the great folks at CommonCraft. It’s another great creation by these folks to help explain cool internet things in much simpler ways.

A basic understanding of what podcasting is, minus the gritty details. Trust me, that’s harder said than done. Good job, Leefevers.