Note to all those people who have heard me talk about RSS news feeds: I saw your eyes glaze over when you were pretending to be interested in what I was saying. Still, try out this beta version of a “blogging portal” called Kinja that is supposed to offer a way “casual internet users” can browse weblogs without actually having to surf around to weblogs. Sort of an RSS newsreader with training wheels and none of those tech buzzwords like, “RSS newsfeeds.” You can read about it here. (Via too many sources to mention them all.)

Back on topic: Okay, enough of those April Fool’s Day posts. Here’s some great for-real news. The Custom Publishing Council, the tiny-little association that I and a few others helped to form in 1997, yesterday announced it has doubled its membership to 58 companies in the past two years. (And growing.) I am very proud of my friends (and sometime competitors) who have worked to keep this group together, focused and fun. And for the record, I think Lori Rosen rocks.

Kerrying weight on my shoulder: Can you imagine my surprise yesterday when I got a phone call from the Kerry Campaign inviting me to fly to Boston to personally observe his rotator cuff operation in order to provide a blogger’s view of the procedure. I was very honored to experience the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity of personally observing a presidential candidate not talk for an entire 45-minutes. Kerry was very polite to everyone in the O-R. He didn’t break in line or ask anyone the question, “Don’t you know who I am?” However, he was already sedated when I arrived and did nothing but just lie there. While it’s been reported that he said, “I hope I didn’t reveal any state secrets,” when he awoke, I’ll have to admit that from where I was standing by the defibrillator machine, I thought he actually said, “I hope I didn’t forget to reveal the secret that I’m a Vietnam vet.”

At first I thought it was strange they wanted me to personally blog Kerry’s surgery. However, I learned that his staff had been analyzing presidential preference polling data and discovered that Bush’s approval numbers started heading back up immediately after I blogged a meeting with him a few weeks ago. Apparently, they were hoping I could do the same for Kerry. Hope I helped.

Blogging business model: I’m happy to report that the rexblog will be doubling its staff with the addition of fellow Nashvillian Jacob James Bornick who will become this blog’s director of sports marketing. Bornick has lots of experience in e-commerce and has been tremendously sought after for his ability to generate hundreds of sales all over the country. He will assume his new position in 3-5 years.