RSS- so simple!

I am continually feeling inundated by the amount of information, usernames and passwords that I am adding every time I click into learning 2.0. However, I hope that the RSS feeds will work for me. I feel bad when my sister asks if I've seen something new on her blog and I haven't. Now I should get a little nudge that lets me know when she's posted something new. I would like to know if setting up a little "alarm system" is possible or do you have to check your bloglines account?