New Blog Gadgets

I've added a few features to the blog that will hopefully make it more user-friendly:

Labels: I've finally gotten around to labeling or tagging the subject-matter of each blog entry. You can look at the bottom of each blog post and see the subjects; if you're interested in more of the same subject, click on that label, and all the posts with the same label will come up. You can also look to the right-hand column for the list of all labels, and click to read all the posts with a particular label.

Reactions: Under each post is a mini-poll, letting you click on your immediate reaction to what you read. All the posts have the same choices, so it might not fit particularly well, but it's a chance to let me know what you think without having to comment. I hope you'll still comment, though!

Followers: OK, this has been up for a while, but I'm hearing from some folks who have SOOOOO many favorites listed that they can't always find what they want! If you become a follower, blog updates show up on your blogger homepage, so you can have all your frequently read blogs in one place by becoming followers of those blogs.

Quick Email: This one has been there for a while, but maybe you haven't known what it is -- that little envelope with an arrow at the bottom of each post. Just click on it and you can quickly and easily send the blog post by email to anyone you want. That would include forums or yahoo lists that you are on. I'd love to have more readers now that I think we've built up a really great body of information, so I'd love a little word-of-mouth advertising from you! Feel free to post a link to the blog on any list you're on, or tell them about an infuriating thing I've said that they should set me straight on, or post an excerpt from a blog post that you think might be interesting to the list members. I'd appreciate it!