How to read the news for fun and profit*, in 3 easy steps!

So, a few people have, at some point or another, asked me how on earth I find some of the crap I've mentioned here. I've also been asked on at least one occasion how (basically) to read the news and find out What's Going On. So: for those of you who care, I shall summarize it like this: the internet. (I just used two colons in one sentence, and I'm not certain I should do that.)

1. Bookmark things. I have a toolbar of my most-visited websites, or you can just make a subfolder if that floats your boat. GoogleNews is my start page, which lets me know early the morning if anything monumental has happened while I sleep. Then as soon as I get the chance I just glance at each front page: Yahoo! News, the Times, the Inquirer (for local news), BBC, the Guardian, Feministing, MediaMatters, and BoingBoing.

2. Find what works for you: obviously if you're, say, a young conservative man (and you know who you are, sir), you're probably not going to be interested in regularly reading a feminist blog. Similarly, I have very little interest in getting news from the Fox News website.

3. Talk to people. There are a few forums and bulletin boards I hang out on, too. I'm not going to link because that would reveal my SuperSecretIdentity, reveal my SuperSecret plot to violently overthrow the American government, and compromise national security (Hey, wiretapping FBI guys! How's it going?) But sites like Fark are good, too: generally a bit on the entertainment side rather than news, but you can A) find some interesting links there to real news, and B) see what people way outside of your typical circle are saying.

That's basically it. Once you figure out where you're going, it doesn't take that much time, and reading news and being interested builds strong bones and teeth. So do it!

*seriously, I don't know how to profit from this. Boo-hoo.