Jackhammer on my head

I recently got back from a big Lindy Exchange and have much to talk about.

But for the moment, let me raise the unique issue of a Cranium-Fetish'd Cat.

When sleeping over at some random girl's place (more on that later), I suddenly felt something warm and fuzzy attach itself to my cranium, whereupon I heard loud jackhammering noises. Attempting to move my head was futile (the cat was stuck), and forcibly lifting the cat resulted in the feline repositioning herself on the back of my neck where her "purring" was like a heavy vibrating furry dust brush, though I admit I haven't actually slept with a heavy vibrating furry dust brush to make a fair comparison. Anyway, is this cat normal, or did my otherwise charming hostess happen to raise a mutant creature?

Loving computer viruses

Virus! You have done me a great service, and I thank you. You have humbled me and exalted me, both. Virus, you are the gift that keeps on giving. You are the Santa of the e-generation. Your viral nature has made my holiday season, and I will never forget you, Virus. I will also never again install a plug-in from a Web site I?ve never heard of, and I thank you for that as well.

Merry Christmas, Virus. Let's have lunch.

- Salon.com writer Nick Altebrando, extolling the not-oft-seen benefits of computer viruses.

HOW much spam?

I went away for a weekend, and in just two-and-a-half days, I received 487 spams. *487!*

I had turned off spam pre-filtering, but still... 487 spams. Even when my main spam filter (SpamNet) is activated, 30% of spams still get through and at least 5-10% of my non-spam e-mails are marked as spam, so it's a lose-lose situation.

I wish I knew what the right solution would be.

Is it technical? Could we conceivably charge people one-tenth of a cent for every e-mail they send? Or perhaps charge senders $1 by default, unless they are listed in our addressbook or we affirmatively waive the fee?

Or are legal moves (at the federal level) the answer? Would spamming be a civil offense? Criminal offense? And what would the degree of 'consent' look like?

Definitely no easy answers :-(

Is it real or is it Photoshop?

I'm wondering how much of this is real vs. photoshopped silliness.

With news agencies increasingly coming under fire for "embellishing" news and entertainment videos and photographs, is anyone else worried about what's Real and what isn't?

In the meantime, though, check out the link above. Even if only a fraction of the photos are genuine, it's still good for quite a laugh. As the title says, Only in America! :-)

I hate technology

About an hour ago, I had just written a brilliant entry for this blog. Insightful, funny, and all that other stuff that I may be exaggerating about just a tad, but... hey, it doesn't really matter anymore...

BECAUSE THE DAMN ENTRY HAS GONE POOF INTO THAT GREAT E-NIGHT!

Do you ever wonder whether we're actually saving much time or effort overall with technology vs. that good ol' pen and paper we used to use?

Sure, there are some wonderful things we take for granted now that we'd be very sad without. Like Google. And blogs like this, of course!

But if I actually totaled up the number of hours I spent monthly in Frustration, it'd... well, let's just say it'd be a lot of hours.

- Updating software.
- Troubleshooting why software doesn't work like it's supposed to.
- Trying to translate godawful help documents (if they exist).
- Calling or e-mailing [ISP / Wireless phone company / online music service] to correct overbilling or (justifiably) bitch about lousy service or frequent service outages.
- Realizing that 3 months of your Outlook calendar has just been erased.
- Realizing that the last backup you did was 2 months ago, before entering in a couple dozen holiday-oriented dates.
- Dealing with spam.
- Apologizing to friends you didn't reply to because their note got buried amidst and/or deleted with spam.

I know, I know... this is all hardly part of a novel gripe, that computers were supposed to make our lives easier but they end up causing us to kick random objects nearby instead.

But I'm an uber-geek. I'm supposed to LOVE technology. I evangelize this stuff, teach this stuff, share this stuff.

And yet, on evenings like this when my creative efforts go poof with little warning, I hate technology. And I hate being a hypocrite.

Say my name, say my name!

You know how some stuff goes better with butter?
Or with Van Halen?
Or with snowflakes?

I think greetings and compliments go better with one's name.

Let me explain.

When dancing, I think it's much nicer to hear "Thanks for the dance, Adam" instead of just the more-common "Thanks." It seems to flowly nicely at the invitation-end, too... as in, "Donna, would you like to dance?"

When it's someone I don't know well, I'm flattered that they remember my name, and it seems I'm not the only one who feels this way. I recently saw two beginning follows (dancers) and greeted them by name, and both were surprised and clearly happy that I remembered them.

I think it's nice to hear one's name even from friends or people that have known you for a while. I'm not sure why, but to me at least it does feel good... hearing "Hey Adam!" rather than just "Yo!" or "Hey!" Maybe it brings me back to a time when sitcoms were actually funny, and people shouted, "Norm!"

And while some may disagree, I'm not hurt at all when people ask my name for the second or seventh time. If they care enough to know my name, I think that's great. And I don't think anything less of folks who have trouble remembering names, since I know this is one of my weaknesses (I'm working on it!) and yeah, it's tough when you dance with 30+ people in an evening!

What do you think? Do you feel similarly good when people refer to you by name, or do you instead cringe, visualizing your mom chastising you "Marvin K. Mooney, will you PLEASE GO NOW!"?

A naked suggestion

I always knew that Europeans were pretty casual about nakedness, but as seen by this sign in a Spanish youth hostel, they're even encouraging people to flash their toilets!