Replanting the RSS forest
I considered letting Google Reader's end be the end of RSS for me. My relationship with RSS has been mixed over the years. There have certainly been tender, loving, "I can never be without you" moments. But there've also been bouts of abuse on my daily attention budget. Through all that, however, I stayed.
And rather than divorcing myself from RSS completely now, I'm taking a more constructive approach. I'm in the process of reimagining the role RSS should play in my life. More on that later—someday/maybe.
If you're looking for help, Mac Power Users episode 143, "RSS and Replacing Google Reader" is a great resource. My good friend Gabe Weatherhead is also in the middle of a series on Google Reader successors.
Right now I'm using Feed Wrangler. There are things I really like about it and things that I don't. But it's causing me to use RSS very differently than before, and that alone is enough for now.