New Things I Like

1) NetNewsWireLite. I've never really liked RSS readers. Sage for Firefox had gotten buggy, and live bookmarks aren't manageable (or updateable) beyond a certain scale. But this one works, it's super-well integrated with broswers (Firefox, Camino, or Safari) and it's free. I'd been keeping Safari and Firefox both open so I could use Google Chat and read RSS. Not any more.

2) Peel. An MP3 blog reader with a built-in music player. You can play mp3s from music blogs one after another, like it were a radio station, without even navigating to the site.

3) Babble. A web magazine, put together by the people from the online sex mag Nerve, about nontraditional parenting. Kori Gardener from Mates of State contributes a column ("Band On the Diaper Run"), and there's a great feature called "Notes From A Non-Breeder." This entry, about a young man who wants children with partners who don't, is one of the better web pieces I've read in a long time. And I may make a separate post on the Alternadad debates, which have also spilled over into (among other places) David Brooks's column in the New York Times and New York Magazine.

It's crazy to me that people my age are suddenly as interested in nonvanilla parenting as they used to be in nonvanilla sex, but it makes a certain kind of sense. In Philadelphia, the Gayborhood and once-funky Bella Vista are now full of strollers, maternity shops, and a Whole Foods. Plus ça change.