Thing 9

1. My experience with blogs has been mostly what I hear... Also, I find myself at a loss in filtering through the mass of blogs to create my "circle." However, I feel that a good starting place might actually be the Edublogs award winners. Past winners would be worth spending the time reading and sifting through to find those relevant to my interests/needs. Even the nominees are worth a look. In light of this, I think this one would be the easiest to use to get started.
2. Syndic8 wasn't so much confusing as overwhelming. The site design made me feel like I wouldn't like it before I even took a good look.
3. I think, perhaps Topix.net would be immediately valuable in classes. Whether you set up feeds concerning a "unit" of study, or simply had a topic of the week, what a great, simple, and most importantly, focused way to hook your class up to real-time info on what's happening