Like Life, This Is A Work In Progress...

And always subject to change, critique and presumably, abusive emails?

Nice pointless laugh for your day, I hope?

§ That's a Cool Idea! §

You know what the biggest problem with email is? It's the fact that the recipient misses out on the tone...

"Hi" - the quotes means I'm actually talking to you

(Hi) - it's an afterthought

Hi! - I'm excited to see you

Hi? - I can't hear you

Hi - I'm thinking of saying hello

Hi - I'm emphasising it

HI - I'm shouting at you

Yep - almost all the old-school metadata is there...

Except sarcasm.

You have to hope that your recipient knows when you mean it, and when you're ripping on them: Therefore, I propose the introducion of...

§ Sarcasm marks - they're a great idea!!! §

Simply place your text between two squiggly "S" things - §, (or maybe $?), and you're telling the reader that it is sarcasm, and they don't really have to § Ask for a raise for that good suggestion §, or believe you when you say, § I would never call you fat! § or when they reply,  § Yes, you do have a big readership of your §§ riveting §§ blog... §

You can even "Air-Sarc":

And yes, I know it looks like a Diana Ross & the Supremes dance move - § That's Not Gay At All! §

Set a Thief to Catch a Thief - or Just Vote For One

We have an election in NZ soon...and I don't mean at the Chinese brothel (Do you know someone with "electile dysfunction"?).

This blog could get long and political, or I could just say what all human beings have known at all times in history, and yet always been powerless to change:

Politicians are liars.

"The only time Phil Goff & John Key agreed on something...and also told the truth."

Unfortunately, it's hard to vote for a liar, wish I could help, but in the principle of Constructive Pessimism..."You can't Win, You Will Lose, You Can't Get Out Of The Game".

Knowing is half the battle, folks!

Let's talk PORN...

Pertinant Old Radio Nonsense, that is...

I think there's too much "Thinking outside the box" these days, instead of good old fashioned thinking inside the box. Basic "common sense" is being replaced with lunacy by whatever the 21st century folk describe as Yuppies (Yes, I am from THAT generation...) think will get them ahead by being bold and daring to split infinitives where no man has split infinitives before.

The funny (Well, peculiar, I suppose) thing is, that the places where this lunacy is highlighted for us all to see it in it's Y-fronted glory is in the world of satire.

Terry Pratchett, Jasper Fforde, Douglas Adams...

Or for those who don't have time to read, Monty Python, or my old favourites - The Goons.

These good folk show us how common sense makes sense, by making it seem ludicrous. They also make the ludicrous apparent by making it seem sensible.

I recently heard "Bridge Over The River Wye", and this snippet really gets to thecore of what I'm saying here:  

For all the Gen-Y Yuppies (Genies? Jennies?) out there - let's build bridges across the river, instead of trying to be the first to think outside the cludge by building a pontoon along the length of the Kwai.

On a separate note, I have once again shrunk my head to 72 dpi...

No One's Reading This, Are they?

Right, I've got my drinking hat on...

Yes, Google and their kin are storing yattabytes of our pics, vids, blogs and odds...

But who will ultimately give a rat's posterior?

My Facebook page is chocka with a tonne of posts from one friend, who posts ceaselessly, barely lightly tainted by the rare comment from my 3 dozen other "friends" - some of whom are bands who friended me because I downloaded their free sampler (Love it, but won't pay for more of the same, cos I'm a stingy sod)

My Google+ is like a ghost town, and serves well as an alternative to "invitees only" email as so far I have no spam on it.

How can Google expect to compete with Facebook as a social network any more than Bing! can compete with Google as a search engine? I don't want to end up communicating 3 times with the same people! I'm gonna stick with the system that's already the most comprehensive.

This isn't "hate mail" aimed at Google, Facebook or ven my old pet-peeve, Bill Gates; it's just an observation that we have the opposite of "Victim of their own successes" here...the biggest fish in the pond is what he is, because there's not enough food for the other fish to eat & get big.

It's like the old corner stores that used to complain that the supermarkets were undercutting them. Basic evolution - if you can't compete, you won't survive...

Tough cookie.

(The last line was not intended as a pun....but it would be good if it had been)

Well, it was nice chatting with you - if you're there?