Come Monday...Sheldons Amongst Us

“Come Monday…” is a weekly series that will involve a review of, or commentary about, websites, movies, documentaries, television shows, sports, music, and whatever else may tickle my fancy at the time. Be assured that these reviews will be generally positive, as in accordance to the Jimmy Buffett song “Come Monday.” This is subject to change, however. In fact, I would be most derelict in my duties to neglect going on a rant every once in a while. For rants promote change, and change can be good—right? Therefore, since good is generally considered as being a positive force in 99.3% of the parallel universes that I am aware of, even a rant could be considered as being something positive, and a genuine hissy-fit would be even better (so I’m told).

It is said that it takes all kinds to make a world. There are some we could do without, however.

More specifically, we could do without the Dr. Sheldon Coopers of this world. Be assured, they are out there with no other purpose but to make your existence all the more miserable. For it is usually when you need help with something that you know virtually nothing about that you encounter them, and they take great pleasure out of driving that point right through one temple and out the other side.

If you have no idea who I am talking about, [Dr. Sheldon Cooper] is the name of one of the main characters from [The Big Bang Theory] on [CBS], and he is the epitome of an anti-social geek, which makes for great comedy on a television show. On the other hand, it is not so funny in real life.

Okay, if you insist, this is about some help I needed with how to stop following some blogs through [Google Friend Connect]. If you are still not sure what that is, you can see my widget over on the sidebar between the widget for [NetworkedBlogs] and [HighCallingBlogs].

Anyway, several blogs I have been following through Google Friend Connect have either been removed or gone private in the last few weeks, and it was driving me nuts that there appeared to be no way to remove them from my list of subscriptions through [Google Reader]. For when you start following a blog through Google Friend Connect, the [RSS feed] for that blog is added to your Google Reader. That is, unless you don’t use the service, of course.

If you don’t use Google Reader, I would highly recommend it. For it is a great way to keep up with the new (and old) posts from your favorite sites.

Anyway (again), it was really bothering me that I couldn’t just unsubscribe from the blogs that I was following through Google Friend Connect. For after I would go through the regular process to do so, there they would be back again the next time I opened my Google Reader.

When I searched for an answer, the only reasonable way (in my opinion) that I found was to click on my icon on the Google Friend Connect widget on their site, and then follow a few more steps. Yeah, it sounded simple enough, but it really isn’t an option when you no longer have access to the widget on their site.

Aha! It dawned on me one day (in the middle of night, actually) that one of the sites that I am subscribed to in the regular way (because they don’t have a Google Friend Connect widget on display) is run by someone who is supposedly an expert on all things [Blogger], which is owned by Google. Therefore, it made sense to me that they would probably be very knowledgeable about the subtle nuances to Google Friend Connect.

Oh, but what I did not take into account was that I was attempting to deal with a real-life Dr. Sheldon Cooper. For after taking the time (we’re talking about a while here, folks) to try to leave a comment with a clear explanation of my dilemma, I have it on good authority that it was ignored because I left that comment on a post about a totally unrelated topic. Hey, I even started the comment off with an apology for it being off-topic, but in the mind of nerdy narcissists, an unforgivable sin had been committed.

Thankfully, I was shown how to stop following a blog through Google Friend Connect, and it had been there, right in front of my eyes, every time I would click on one those sites on my Google Reader. For that annoying yellow bar that appears every time on these “followed” blogs includes a link to where I can manage the blogs I am following, and a few clicks later, all of those defunct sites were history.

No, I suffer no delusions of shaming the Dr. Sheldon Coopers of this world into wanting to be more likeable, but this has sure made me feel a lot better. Hopefully, it has been good for you, too.

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