Of the different ways to forward RSS to email, I've found that simple systems like RssFwd and Rmail are easier to work with but less configurable, while full-featured systems like FeedBurner and FeedBlitz are more complicated because they're so configurable.  All in all, RssFwd did the best job of simply delivering RSS items via email in a relatively timely manner, though there were delays of several hours in some cases.  FeedBurner and FeedBlitz are too full of cruft and self-promotion, and they generally lack any useful configurable options (like when to send what, how it should look, etc.).  Of course, the internal, site-specific solutions like Subscribe2 for WordPress work the best because they email new things as soon as they're published, not as soon as a 3rd-party site's robots notice new material. #technology

I grew up on a plot of land that had 8 apple trees and 3 pear trees, all of which were "organic" and wild, meaning they required (or rather, received) no help from us yet grew and produced fruit annually.  There were at least 3 different varieties of apples, including a small red variety with a shiny skin, a medium-sized red variety with a rough skin, and a small green-skinned variety.  The pear trees were all the same type:  Bosc, which is a brownish-colored variety with rough skin.  Every fall, there was a pretty sizable fruit harvest in our backyard, but we rarely partook of very much of it.  I would usually go around to my favorite trees (the small, red-skinned apples and the bosc pears) and knock a few down with a soft soccer ball.  My parents would usually get a few buckets from two of the medium-sized red trees and make a few gallons of apple sauce.  But other than that, the rest of the fruit was left to feed our plethora of backyard wildlife. 

Ever since I've been in the habit of buying fresh fruits and vegetables, I've bought red delicious apples.  I think it's because they're the least like the ones I grew up with.  They're big, sweet, and shiny, unlike the ugly, sour apples that fell off our trees.  I've also developed a habit of buying and eating bosc pears, which used to be rock-hard and unpleasant to eat.  They're still pretty rough fruits, but their hardness prevents them from rotting quickly, and they're much more palatable when cut up.  It feels weird paying for something I used to be able to get for free. 

I've gone apple picking (for money) a few times in the recent past, and I can't help but feel bad about it.  Growing up, I had essentially unlimited access to all the free apples I could eat, but I often didn't take advantage of it.  One good thing about apple picking, however, is that the smell of an apple orchard with apples lying on the ground brings me right back to every September of my childhood. #food