What's the method to your madness?

In chatting with some of you (and by chatting I mean either reading your blogs, reading your tweets, or actually tweet-chatting) I've realized that not everyone reads (or comments on) blogs in the same fashion.

Being a naturally curious (read nosy) person, it got me to wondering - what is your preferred method for reading and commenting?  Kathryn, I know, has a very complicated system regarding comments - one that works great for her but would probably drive me crazy (and yes, Kathryn, your post on it totally spurred this one on - so instead of stealing it outright, I just thought I'd borrow the idea.  You can have it back when you return that shirt you "borrowed" while hanging out in my closet the other night.).  Kathryn also once explained to me how she reads blog - but it sounded complicated too.

Me? I'm glad you asked.  I like to keep things nice and simple (quit snickering!  For the most part, I do like to keep it simple - really!  Okay, there are times I might make things over complicated - like deciding that the front flower bed - which according to everyone else was perfectly fine - needs to be completely re-done.... again...which with any luck we'll be moving forward on that project bright and early tomorrow).

Anyway, the preferred method to my madness is to log into my Blogger Dashboard - which from all my reading doesn't seem to be used by anyone but me.  It looks kinda like this:

Note to self: get a new profile picture - STAT!

What I like about the Dashboard is that it lists the most recently updated blogs that I follow on the right along with a snippet of the post.  On the left, it lists all the blogs I follow in alphabetical order.  The list of blogs I follow is particularly handy - since Blogger sometimes, completely out of the blue, picks one or two blogs and decides that I don't need to be updated when they post anymore.  With this format, I can quickly find those that are affected and click on their blog name to see if they've posted anything recently.  It's very helpful - because like I said, sometimes Blogger can be a bit pushy about what it thinks I need to read. Note to Blogger - stop that, it's annoying.

What I also like about this format is that *everything* is right at my fingertips.  If I want to check in on "followers" (as Blogger insists on calling them - I think of them more as "friends") I can just click on the followers link and viola!  There they are - ready for me to go visit (unless of course, they don't have their webpage linked to their name...which, just so you know - some of you don't, which may explain why I never visit - I can't find you!).  

If I want to re-design my blog (shudder), it's right there.  Check on Blogs of Note (note to self - you haven't done that in a while), it's right there.  If I want to post something completely random (like this post) - you guessed it - it's right there.  If I post something and then have writer's remorse, I can delete it before anyone sees it (hopefully) because it's right there.  If I am feeling extremely smart, I can even check stats from right there - I don't do that often though because I don't understand stats.  But it is fun to see where visitors might be dropping in from - like the one from Latvia - if I'm reading the stats right - they've visited 8 times! I wonder how a Latvian found me? 

I know that some of you utilize Google Reader; which I've tried - but it just seems far too cluttered for me.  Basically, I suppose, this is a long-winded way of asking - what's your preferred method?

Oh - and while I'm thinking about it - go check out your profile and make sure your blog is linked to it (and if you love me, link up your email address too - since that's my preferred way to respond to comments) so that I can come visit you.

And yes, I realize this is the lamest post ever but since I spent so much time piecing together that screen shot (I couldn't get it all in on one screen) - you get it anyway.