Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Mar 13 2002

I brought in a glass bowl for Office Turtle today….

I brought in a glass bowl for Office Turtle today. He seems happier now, and always turns to face the light. He looks out the windows until The Vampires arrive and shut the blinds, after which he turns around and faces the glass door at the end of the office which is the only remaining window to the outside. Misery loves company. Especially in a dark office.

I have a meeting tomorrow night with a local publisher. I have no idea what they’re going to offer me, but I am not expecting too much. I suspect that they either have the wrong impression of my book or they want me to indulge them by writing something completely different for them. I guess I’ll find out, but I’m not terribly hopeful about it.

Has anyone noticed how Hotmail has changed their language, so that if you send mail to someone’s non-Hotmail address, it says “your email was sent to xxx”. It’s almost pouting when it says that. But if you send something to a Hotmail address, it will perk up and say something like “your wonderful email has been sent express on a red velvet pillow to your esteemed friend xxx and is already being read by them!” The implication is, of course, that simply ‘sending’ email is inferior service and isn’t worthy of those who aren’t members of tha exclusive club of a billion or so people who use Hotmail. It’s just like that “You’re visiting a site outside of Hotmail. Please close this window to return to Hotmail” crap that makes me believe that the folks at Hotmail think that they’re dealing with a bunch of morons with the intellects of mops. The sad thing is that they probably did market research to come to this conclusion, which means that the majority of Hotmail users probably are not actually more intelligent than most kitchen utensils.

In other news, Brian’s and Dean’s brilliant show of resistance to societal restraints by smoking in the no-smoking section of Buca Buca last night made a real impression on me: It made me wonder why people start smoking at all. Yeah, I know, it looks cool, but so does a nose ring, but you don’t get addicted to a nose ring (or do you? I really have no idea). But the thing that strikes me the most is how people talk of “Understanding the Smokers’ Mind” as if it’s some sort of lifestyle choice, like riding a Harley. It’s an addiction, but several decades of intense marketing have given smokers a mystique-filled defense against any intimation that their addiction is no different from any other addiction. So I don’t understand the Smoker’s Mind. Oh, NO. It’s like not understanding the Jerry Springer Show, Pauline Hanson, or people buy SUVs. There are just some things I don’t want to know.

I finally completed my “100 Things about Poagao” list! Now you can know so much about me it makes me downright uncomfortable. The things I do for you people. Honestly.

posted by Poagao at 9:52 am  

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