I've noticed that I'm not really an early adopter, even though I think of myself as one. The most I can aspire to is that I'm aware of (trendy) things pretty soon after they're introduced, but using them is another matter altogether. For example, I was aware of RSS in its initial My Netscape incarnation, but I didn't start using it (via an aggregator) until mid 2002. Similarly, fancy (and clever) JavaScript-based UIs have been possible for a while, but I only really got into it this year (early experimentation notwithstanding). It took me a year to finally see the light with Bloglines. Movable Type? A year and a half. The list goes on.

As further proof of my laggardnesses, only recently (i.e. today) did I make the switch to del.icio.us, the social bookmarking site that all the cool kids are using. My previous solution to this problem was a "To-do" folder in my bookmark toolbar, to which I would add items and (much more rarely) visit and/or delete them. del.icio.us may not change that behavioral pattern, but at least now I can ignore my "oh, this is interesting" links while safely knowing that they are all tagged and ready for searching at some later date. And to be safe, it all gets backed up nightly.

Given my recent progress, expect me to use Flickr in about six months.