57 Channels

... and nothing is on. At least, not on most of them.

Well, it's a bit more than 57 channels, really. Just went through and cleared out my Google reader subscriptions, paring down 400+ blog subscriptions into just over 200.

First rule: Anything that hasn't updated more than once in the past year gets the heave-ho.

There were some blogs that I was subscribed to that haven't had an update in almost six years. Yeah... whatever you may have had to say, I think it's safe to say it's been said. The conversation is closed. This, sir, is an ex-blog.

Second rule: If your blog shows that you're a jerk, you go.

Now, rule #1 is pretty simple to apply. Rule #2... not so much. Really, rule #2 exists solely for a handful of people who's blogs looked interesting at first. Long-term examination of their topics, conversational tone and attitude have led me to firmly slot them into the "Man, what a tool" category.

Bozo bit flipped, in other words.

I have no reason nor desire to continue to pay any attention to those individuals. It's a free country, they can continue to spew their attractively-packaged ignorant garbage, but not in my direction.

Just in case you were wondering: it takes quite a bit for someone to annoy me to this point. Frankly, John Scalzi's political snark infuriates me sometimes... yet I still read Whatever. Same goes for Ken and Pat over at Popehat, who often manage to get under my skin from the opposite political direction. I regularly read blogs written by individuals with wildly different technical, political, or religious views than my own (sometimes, all three at once).

Heck, I even read stuff written by slope-foreheaded mouth-breathers who think that pluto isn't a planet. If that's not tolerance, I don't know what is.

In other words: if you actually manage to tick me off to the point that I want to ignore you, then really - you're a grade-A schmuck.

Just sayin'.