As I was browsing the internet today I found a gem amidst the noise in the internet. I found a very useful service called Feedland.
Lately, I am attempting to move away from the reels and short (aka. Brain Rots). I am instead trying to include slower forms of entertainment in my life – reading articles or watching long videos.
Just recently I wrote a tutorial on RSS and some tools I have started using. You can read it here : RSS – Consume internet consciously. In it I mentioned a challenge of finding free RSS reader software that can seamlessly switch between laptop and mobile.
Feedland solves this problem. It is free and web based. So this allows you to keep updated with your favorite websites via RSS feeds both on your mobile and laptop.
About Feedland
Feedland is created, maintained and hosted by Dave Winer. He is also the creator of OPML format.
OPML standardizes sharing of RSS subscriptions links across the web. This enables easily exporting and importing of RSS list. It can be thought of as playlist of websites.
Coming back to Feedland; Feedland is a website which has the features of twitter, RSS reader and Goodreads at one place. You can use this site to post your thoughts just like Twitter.
However, it’s core strength is the RSS reader. Each user can add 250 new RSS feed. The “new RSS” needs some clarification. If you are following an RSS feed that someone else is already following on the platform then it doesn’t count as a new feed.
This large limit of 250 feeds along with the special condition makes Feedland clearly the best choice when it comes to the number of websites one can track.
Along with this, Feedland also allows discovery of new websites. One can see what other users are reading. Alternatively, one can also create OPML files and share it with others. This discovery feature is similar to what Goodreads does for books.
1 min quick start guide
Although there is a comprehensive guide at Feedland Docs, here is a super quick way to get started.
Go to the website and it will present “Login in WordPress” prompt. You should be able to use google signon in there.
Add RSS feeds to follow. You have a few options here
Click Tools -> Add a few feeds. This will randomly add few feeds to your list
Click Tools -> Reading List -> Feedcorps list -> check on the checkboxes: FeedCorps list is a list of pre curated reading lists. Checking the boxes will add all feeds under the category to your list
Click Menu -> Subscribe -> From an OPML file: If you already have an opml file just give its path. Else use mine
Enjoy reading
Click Menu -> My news.
In Closing
Feedland offers a web based RSS reader. It has fewer restrictions compared to the commercial RSS reader options.
I would really like to see this platform grow. More users would mean that we can subscribe to more feeds. It will help also help us to discover better content on the internet.
The aim of this guide is to act as a very short guide to this fantastic website. If there are any queries, feel free to leave a comment – I will do my best to help.
I have had three sleepless nights. Every hour of lost sleep supposedly drops IQ points significantly. I don’t worry much about it since mine wasn’t a significant number to begin with.
I am in one of the two places which I call as my hometown – Madurai. I have many childhood memories attached to this place. I like this place since it kindles those memories back to life.
Divine food = More sleep ?
The prime attraction here is the Meenakshi temple but my divinity is with the resturants around this area. The food here in Madurai is absolutely the best.
The Biriyani, my favorite food is even more favorite when it comes from here. Mutton Chukka is another delicacy which I enjoy. The “Jigarthanda” dessert to close the course is the perfect anesthesia.
Jigarthanda Ice cream
A heavy round of hogging these tantalizing mouth watering food makes me drowsy. The drowsiness is amplified due to the tiredness of the travel. I am even more exhausted because of my packed schedules of meeting my relatives during the day. I am now running on fumes, hungover and yearning for sleep.
It has been 3 days since I got any sleep longer than 5 hours. I find it difficult to sleep because of the sun, the mosquitoes and a photo frame.
The Sun
The temperature here is uncomfortably hot by the day. It is averaging around 37 degree Celsius. The sweat keeps dripping from my forehead, even with two fans on. I couldn’t manage to sleep for more than 15 mins during the day.
The Mosquitoes
The nights bring with it the mosquitoes. There are so many and that one can never kill enough. These blood thirsty vampires are not repelled by the repellents. They continue to hum near the ears making it difficult to sleep. Any attempt at swatting them ends up with me giving a tight slap to my own cheek!
Their bites? Always in the most inconvenient places. The hardest place is near the elbow. The skin there presents an unique challenge. It is like a cloth when the arms are straight and won’t provide necessary grip to give it a deep relieving scratch. If you tighten it by bending at the elbow then the sharp angle makes it difficult to get a satisfactory scratch on the itch.
Photo Frame
Today, my third day, I was too tired to be disturbed by the heat or the mosquito. Today, there was the incident with the photo frame which woke me.
My aunt wakes up at 4am. I had been complaining to my aunt about the lack of sleep. She tried to be careful and left the room without making much noise. Before she left the room she thoughtfully increased the speed of the fan.
I had no idea that this fan had a Turbo mode. It started a violent tornado and this sudden wind briefly woke me up. But I could manage to quickly fall asleep.
The tornado nevertheless continued. It kept moving things and finally the photo frame fell. It fell with a loud thud. I shot up, wide awake.
After an eager month-long wait, my gift to myself finally arrived — the legendary “Casio Royale”. I gifted myself a “Casio Royale” to celebrate the successful outcome of the months of effort put into the admission process.
It’s time to bid farewell to my old Casio F91w for the new upgrade, Casio AE1200. I still love digital watches. What is its super power? It tells time just like what a watch is supposed to.
I got into the habit of always wearing my watch from my mom. Initially, I wanted to emulate her. Now it is so much of a habit that you can essentially call it a prosthetic. I hardly ever remove the watch. It stays on my body 23 hrs a day. The colour of my arm is a testament to it. So, a new watch would make for a perfect gift.
I needed a watch which was light, low maintenance and rugged. Just as an upgrade I wanted to have world time. I am feeling international now. I reasoned that I need to check at least two different time zones constantly without having to subtract 4.5hrs or worrying about DST.
This watch in addition to these features also provides 5 alarms. Provision to toggle DST(daylight saving time) for each time zone separately. Quickly switch home time zone, stopwatch and timer. Two bright leds. I think the only feature it lacks is the ability to launch missiles!
Smart watches can do a whole lot more. I have quenched my curiosity for these watches by gifting my wife one. But I couldn’t make myself to like it.
Firstly, I expect a watch to tell time. Just when you need to check time, smart watch might remind you that you have been lazy and walked only 1000 steps today. It sends you on a guilt trip instead of telling time.
Then the watch face. Unlike the smart watches the vintage watches can’t have their faces changed by a theme change. The design of each aspect of the watch face had to be deliberate and usable and yet fashionable to be liked by the majority of the population. So you can feel assured that the designs function well.
Finally, the biggest problem with smart watches is that they need constant charging. Smart watches are a joke when it comes to this department. The longest you can expect for a smart watch to remain charged is around a month or two. Contrast this to my earlier F91W or the new AE 1200 which has a battery life of 10 years! They will out last the straps of the watch itself.
Making a good product takes a lot of effort. The model AE1200 was launched in 2012 and my previous watch F91W in 1989. The attention to detail like the change of beep sound when you complete loop through all modes, the choice of buttons to control modes, the led placement and the accuracy of the clock is very inspiring. It tells you that there was a team who engineered the product so well that it survived the test of time for so many decades.
Today I am feeling very proud wearing this watch. I had to source it from someone who traveled from US. The third thing which I have ever imported in my life. The first two were a Kenwood Radio and an ADSB dongle. It was totally worth the effort and time.
One day I would love to engineer a product as refined as this – just like those brilliant minds at Casio behind these watches.
As of the time that I am writing this guide, I haven’t formally finalized any WG. But I am pretty close to it. Yes – I am still anxious.
I have managed to get a few replies in spite of far fewer offers available due to my age. A lot of WGs have an age constraint so I am able to apply to only roughly 30 % of the total available WGs.
Few people have contacted me asking how I am managing to apply and get replies. This blog might serve as a guide to those interested. If you are interested to know how my journey has been so far then you may read House Hunting! and House Hunting – II.
This guide is particularly oriented towards wg-gesucht.de website. I guess you can use these tips for other websites as well.
The first step in looking for apartments is to define the areas where you are willing to stay. If you have no prior information of the area then it can be quite challenging. In this step we will try to find places which are within your acceptable travel times.
We will do this using google map.
Open google maps on web and search for your university. This is where we would want to travel everyday
Click on directions and click anywhere in the screen. This should give you the direction from the clicked spot to the university.
Choose mode of transport as public (I am assuming that’s how you will travel)
Now zoom out to a comfortable level and drag the source point using your mouse. You will notice that the time to the University gets updated as you drag the source point on the map.
As you drag the source point make note of the cities which are within your acceptable travel time. These will be your target list of cities
Creating filter
The availability of WG in the wg-geschut website is very dynamic. There are constantly new WGs being added and removed.
In order to efficiently search the WG I recommend setting up search filters. Search filters help you to quickly repeat a search. Along with this you can enable email alerts on the search filter. This way as soon as new WGs are added you will get intimation on the mail.
This step is easier on mobile app than website. Mobile app provides some features which are missing on the website.
In the following steps we will create multiple filters. Each filter shall cover the cities noted in the previous step with some overlap between the filters.
Start a search by clicking “Start your search” option on the home screen. Click on the filter option on the top right. Set the following filters.
Age and your gender: Set your age and gender as you may not be eligible for all the rooms.
Gender of flatmates: It is quite common for boys and girls to share an accomodation. If you don’t want to then make sure to set that filter
Move in date: You can start looking for 1 to 2 months in advance of your actual move in date. They are often ready to negotiate.
Personal preferences: Pets allowed, Smoking etc.
Search area: Click on it and a map will appear. Select the cities that you have noted in the previous step. Set the radius greater than the city.
Save this filter by clicking the save option. Name it by the city you centered your map around.
Repeat step 6 and 7 for each city in your list. Ensure that the radius of each filter is large enough so that it overlaps.
Now if you go to your saved searches you should have multiple filters listed. And anytime a new WG pops up in the city you will be alerted via email.
Writing Emails
Before we start with writing the email, we need to get our mindset right. Read the next section which has helped me.
Following this we shall create templates so that we can easily send the mail to many.
The Mindset
I was able to increase the number of responses I got by a simple change in mindset. I switched from – “How can I get a room to stay?” to “How can I prove to my future roommates that I am a good choice?”. The focus is on them and not on me.
So ask yourself this question, next year when I will be renting the place out what information would I need from the applicants? These are the questions that people currently living their also have in their minds.
Some information that you might want to provide are: your age, your ethnicity (we are not trying to be racist but just as a form of info), language, hobbies, habits etc. Every human will have a range of tolerable behavioral range and one wouldn’t want to be stretched every single day. A compatibility check is of highest importance.
Try to provide a complete picture of yourself and let them profile you. If they find you as a good fit most probably you might also find them as a good fit for you.
With this mindset now create a detailed 1 page Resume. Remember that this is not a Resume for job. So cover the points which were discussed above. Also add in your photo if you are comfortable.
Template
E mail templates are really useful feature in wg-geschut website. You will soon be contacting a lot of people. Write the template in English if you don’t know German.
Write the template in such generic fashion that you should be able to send this without modification to anyone. Cover important details like your move in date/month. Don’t forget to mention that you are flexible with your move in date.
The idea with the template is to quickly import the template and personalize the mail for the advertisement. You should be able to personalize by adding just one paragraph and make the mail relevant to the ad.
The Email
Now that the template is available we shall use this for every reply.
Add the template as a reply to every ad you are interested.
Read the advertisement carefully. There are sometimes some special questions or actions (like type “Pineapple”) mentioned in the ad. This is done so that they can easily differentiate between spams and interested applicants.
Personalize the template.
The rule of thumb is to write the email in German unless if you figure out that the language of the person who has advertised. Writing directly in the language of the advertiser will surely increase the chances of getting a reply.
Translate your English mail to German as needed.
Attach a detailed Resume about yourself as an annexure. The resume was created in mindset section.
Replies
Now if you have done the things right people might be impressed by your openness. They would appreciate your efforts and write you a reply.
Try to respond to them as early as possible. Keep them informed if you are already in touch with someone and finalizing. They also understand that your are house hunting with many people. But do not ghost them. Request them to wait if you are waiting for conclusions in one discussion.
Home Tour
Always request for a home tour if you manage to get a reply. If you have earlier said that you are willing to negotiate the move in date then now is the time.
These two options work for me.
You can request them to sublet the room between the period the room becomes free to the date you are willing to occupy.
You can yourself sublet it if you can get the contract done.
During the tour apart from seeing the apartment try to connect with the advertiser at a personal level. Simple questions like what course they study? or how is it there? Goes a long way.
They are also students like us. And it will help to already build connections even if you don’t want the room.
Contract
I have not crossed this stage yet. I will have to come back and update this section once I finish. But some points I have gathered so far are
Don’t transfer any cash until you sign the contract
Questions to ask
Notice period to vacate the apartment
Deductions if any when vacating the room
Possibility to sublet (with registration)
Deposit amount
Final Thoughts
Getting a WG is challenging. The demands are high and the availability low. Be patient and courteous.
The blog gives you tips on how to increase your chances. It also gives you tips on being efficient on the platform.
This is the first step of being a student and it already teaches you to be humble. As a student we will soon be asking our teachers a share of their time and experience. House hunt teaches us how to ask for things the right way.
Hope you find nice place to stay and nicer companions to enjoy your stay.
I had my interview and it was quite nice. If you don’t know what interview then read about it here – House Hunting!
It was about time, and frankly, I was quite nervous. It had the mild adrenaline rush that one gets before interviews. I have come to appreciate it when I feel like this. It tells me I have prepared and I care.
It was time and I did not get the call. After waiting for 7 extra minutes I messaged and then the video call happened. The call connected.
There were nervous giggles on both sides. They were trying to set me (in their mobile screen) up on a chair I guess. It helped calm the nerves a bit. I could see them and they could see me but we weren’t talking yet. One sensory input at a time! I like it.
I feel it would have been little awkward for them as well. Unless they are doing it regularly. It reminds me of the first interview I conducted after I joined my last company. I was sweating more profusely than the interviewee.
The call started with some greetings. The German guy sitting in the sofa between the two girls initiated the questions. He asked me about myself and why I am traveling to Germany.
Bingo! First question was not out of syllabus! I have rehearsed this question many times in my mind. I have been trying to answer the very same question to myself since the last 6 months. The answers flew naturally. I hope it was convincing as well.
Then a few questions on lifestyle went well. I am not a party animal of any kind and that suited them too. The average age of my prospective roommates would be around 31. So they were happy to hear that I won’t be irresponsible.
The call lasted for roughly 15 mins. They offered to show me around which I denied. I’d seen the house before. I take it as a good sign.
I’m looking forward to having them as my roommates. They looked cool and the two Germans might even be a good opportunity to learn German.
They told me they will get back to me in the next week. Till then I need to be patient.
I couldn’t contain myself. I messaged him asking for some indications at least. If it is a clear “no”, then I will have to continue my house search. I have one short term accomodation waiting on my reply. I am told it looks pretty positive and he will confirm tomorrow.
Of course, there is no concept of arranged marriage in Western world. For Westerners who don’t understand arranged marriages, worry not, this is a quick primer for you.
After the current experience of house hunting in Germany, I thank my stars that I did not have to go through arranged marriage. To understand why I say that let me explain the housing situation in Germany first.
The Institutes have limited accomodation and they prefer to give it to Bachelor degree courses. This accounts for only 4,000 lucky students out of the 40,000+ students in the university. The city of Erlangen itself has a population of 120,000. So, getting a place to stay is difficult.
I have already received a rejection for the university accomodation – the first in the string of rejections that followed. I am currently looking for a place to stay in the open market.
Germans call shared apartments WG (pronounced as Vee-Ghe). These are regular apartments where each person has their own room and the residents share common areas like the restroom and kitchen.
Here’s how the process works. There are a couple of sites out there where people post the availability of WGs and we can apply. The application procedure is similar to a marriage application in Shaadi.com (Indian arranged marriage site) with a short Bio-Data. They would like to know you before they talk to you.
You need to apply with a Bio-data. There will be hundreds of application for beautiful WG. You need to attract the attention of the roommates with an interesting Bio with skills you bring. You need to vibe with them!
Then the current tenants will look for compatibility with you. If they shortlist your bio-data, they add you to a queue. You get to see the WG on a video call.
If both parties like the initial communication then the roommates would like to have an interview with you.
If you are older than 35 the number of WGs available reduces drastically. I have applied to more than 75 apartments! Tenants have ignored me more than 65 times and rejected me outright 10 times.
After all this, I think I have made it to the final interview for one apartment. The interview is tomorrow with my prospective room mates – 1 Indian lady, 1 German lady and 1 German man. I am more nervous than a 36 years old unmarried bride at the matchmaking event.
Westerners find the concept of arranged marriage difficult to understand. So, just re-read this blog. Replace WG with bride/groom and roommates with in-laws. Then you have it: an arranged marriage!
The world was changed by TikTok. Those short videos are wrecking havoc in my life. I am trying to free myself of this addiction. I hope I have found a solution. I will share the method with you. You can also try it in case you have same problems as I do.
This blog is going to be long, so feel free to skip to the sections you find necessary. I will write about how “Shorts” have impacted my life. I see RSS as a solution. We will briefly discuss RSS before getting into my preferred tools. Finally, for people who are newly starting with RSS, I have section with some useful sites to follow.
I was never a fan of TikTok. I considered it unworthy to even have an account. I could not understand how such short videos provide any information – I wasn’t even sure they are enjoyable. Similarly, I didn’t have an account in Insta as well.
I always revered Youtube. Unfortunately 2 years back, around 2023, they added the shorts section. Now I not only watch 2.5 hours of continuous reels but also have Insta account.
This has had detrimental effect on my focus, time management and my ability to find joy. Firstly, due to the kick which I derive out of these 1 min videos, I can’t tolerate longer videos.
Secondly, each short doesn’t ask for much commitment to watch but finally I end up feeling guilty for wasting 2 hrs.
Finally, these shorts throw one climax after another. After watching 5 best catches, winning moments, wickets, dives etc in just 5 mins, I find to hard to sit through a 3hr T20 match. The reels overstimulate me and I get disappointed that none of the catches in the entire match was as thrilling as those 5 mins in the reel.
I want to take control of my life. I want to feel the joy of suspense of watching a long match instead of feeling bored. I want to feel awed by the next stunt instead of considering it banal because I have seen 100 similar stunts in reels.
I feel I can solve this by slowing things down. I want to consume information more consciously and deliberately on the internet. But I find it difficult because the algorithms are so powerful. One look at the screen and it magically hypnotizes me to start swiping the reels.
RSS to rescue
RSS which stands for Really Simple Syndication was invented in 1999 and still lives. It lives a low key, less flashy – underground sort of life but still powers a lot of things.
Closest analogy to its functioning is that of a social media website. The website keeps us informed about the latest posts from people we follow.
RSS does the same but for everything except few social media sites. You can keep a watch on any website like news, blogs, podcast, video platforms etc. and get notified when content is added.
All this can happen from one single application and ideally you would never have to “BROWSE” the internet. So when you don’t meander wildly you won’t stumble upon one of those reels. And you will rescue yourself from wasting hours swiping at it.
Technically, RSS is a protocol that can be used by applications to display updates in their website (“Feed”). When RSS links are accessed it returns an XML files with sections defined as per protocols. It is not very convenient for humans to read it. So, applications are needed to display the content comfortably. Read ahead to know the software I use.
Setting Up RSS
As mentioned above we need an application to fetch the feeds from the RSS links. We would also have to find those RSS links in the first place. There are many ways to do it but I only write about the methods I use.
If this is your first time then you can simply follow my method. If you are experienced and you have a different way, then please use the comment section to inform us about it.
My choice of RSS Reader
There are many RSS readers available. In the RSS reader of my choice I ideally look for the following features:
Free
No restriction on how many RSS links I can follow
Ability to organize them into folders
Compatible with Linux, Windows and Android
Sync across platforms
Unfortunately, I could not find a single tool which meets all my needs. As a result, I resorted to the following two different tools – one for mobile and another for laptop. However, I mostly use the android version mostly, since my mobile is constantly with me.
Feeder (There are 2 Feeder. Use the one in the link)
Cons with the free versions
Lack of common app: There is no common app between mobile and laptop platforms
Sync issue: Doesn’t sync across platforms even when using same application. i.e. If you have been reading on your windows PC and then you switch to Linux it won’t tell you which links had been already read.
Alternatives
Remember, our aim is to stop swiping. These shorts are most effective on mobiles so just using RSS reader on mobile phone adequately reduces the problem. At this point of our addiction lets not worry about syncing RSS. Baby steps first!
Nevertheless, I will mention some commercial options which sync across multiple platforms. If you have money to spend or you are willing to work under the restrictions of the free versions that the paid software come with, then you can try.
I mentioned before that RSS have gone a bit underground. So it is often hidden from plain sight. Some sites might provide the link directly. So simply look for RSS symbol (like at the bottom of this blog). If it is not evident then I will tell you two methods that I am aware of to uncover the RSS links.
The first one is using the paid apps mentioned above. These often have a tab which provides you with a single click option to subscribe to RSS depending on your interests.
The problem I faced with this approach was that I would impulsively subscribe to a lot of feeds. Then there will be too much update and I can’t follow it. I stop using the RSS because there is just too much to process.
The other approach which I have come to like is the slow painful approach. See I told you I wanted to slow things down.
Visit the website, podcast, YouTube channel or news channel or anything else that you regularly visit.
If you are using Feeder
Press the three vertical dots at the top right
Select add Feed
Enter the URL of the page you visited
Click “Search”
It might discover the RSS link and display. Feeder might fail in getting RSS link. In that case use the next method
Select the link that you wish to follow
If your are using chrome on Laptop you can use plugins to identify RSS links. I use Get RSS Feed URL Extension in chrome
Simply click the extension in the desired page. If it has an RSS link, it will display.
Deciding what to follow
The main idea of the whole blog is to stop Browsing internet via a Google search. So every time you visit internet be conscious and observe what you are watching.
If you are watching a video on YouTube get conscious and ask what are you enjoying. If you would like to see more of it then research for more creators of similar content. Go to their channels and retrieve its RSS link.
If you are watching news then get conscious. Ask if your trust the source. If yes then find RSS link for that news channel. You might also want to have counter opinions. So, find those channels with a counter opinion and get its RSS links.
Repeat this until you can finally get everything in your RSS app. You shouldn’t need to sieve to the large volume of internet data soon.
Useful RSS sources
If you are starting this list might help your set up your RSS feed. Some places where you can find RSS are
News and magazine websites
YouTube
Reddit communities
Blog sites
Blogroll.org: This site has a collection of blogs. Most have RSS links
Of course this blog has one as well. The link is in the footer 😉
Conclusion
I have felt that I need to distance myself from the short video formats. It is having detrimental effects on mental well-being. I try to distance myself from it until I can achieve the necessary self control.
RSS feels like an effective solution because it allows me to be on the internet while keeping the distractions away. I also keeps me up to date with my interests without any manipulative algorithm. Building up my RSS Feed list is also helping me be more aware of what I am consuming.
The steps to setup the RSS in this blog might help others with similar challenge as I face. For the beginners, these RSS ideas might provide some inspiration on building their RSS list of feeds.
