If you want to highlight posts/threads in Newest Nodes or RAT View you can add extra CSS ³ to do so.

For instance I'm highlighting myself and some authors I prefer to ignore.°

Furthermore: I'm using a Nodelet Hack in JS to fold all threads in RAT ², so you could exempt those you wanna "track".

NB: AFAIK does RAT have a max time window, hence if you only log in in yearly intervals this approach will fail.

°) "negative" interest ;-)

updates

²) see Free nodelet hack: Auto-Fold threads in RAT for special browsers

³) see RAT Style Settings