I get some really awesome spam emails at work. Most of them are in Chinese or some weird computer language with funky symbols, but the ones in English are extremely amusing. Today, one asked me this:
"Tired of sunbathing in clothes because you are too fat?"
I felt that was a little harsh, and it really did a number on my self-esteem. I mean they could have just told me I could lose weight easily with a miracle-inducing Acai berry mixture. They didn't have to go ahead and draw attention to my uber-obesity*, which often causes me to lounge around in 90 degree weather with full fabric coverage from head to toe. Seriously, spam. You're breaking my heart.
*Ok. I'm not really uber-obese. But if I were, you could bet that email would drive me to chow down on krumpets and inhale a 2-liter bottle of coke.
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Showing posts with label email. Show all posts
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Thursday, April 2, 2009
No, you are not excused
Today I received an email from a colleague with this "disclaimer" at the bottom:
Please excuse any typos as this was sent from my blackberry
Apparently the standard (and sickeningly promotional) "Sent from my BlackBerry Hurricane-or-whatever-its-called" is not enough anymore. Now we must make excuses for our inability to take correspondence seriously, and our impatience that leads us to send emails from our phones rather that waiting until we are at a computer and in a good position to communicate.
Of course, I know smart phones aren't all bad. We live in a fast paced world. Sometimes you really need to close that deal before noon, and your phone is the only communication device you've got on hand. Smart phones help businesses run smoothly and keep us in touch with people we otherwise wouldn't be able to get a hold of, and I'm all for that.
What makes me angry is that I'm being asked to excuse your behavior, when you really have no right to demand that of me. If the disclaimer had said, "Sent from my thingamajigger; may contain typos," I'd be okay with that. You're simply warning me. But to take it one step further and ask me to to go ahead and overlook the fact that I'm not important enough for you to spell-check or use proper punctuation, well that's going too far.
What's next? "Please excuse my use of annoying abbreviations?" Or "Please excuse the fact that I can't take enough time to actually type out a complete sentence?" Maybe just a blank email with "Please excuse this email, as something in my bag hit the send button accidentally and I don't actually have anything to say to you."
Oh to live back in the day when people wrote long, emotion-filled letters to each other. Now that's correspondence.
Please excuse any typos as this was sent from my blackberry
Apparently the standard (and sickeningly promotional) "Sent from my BlackBerry Hurricane-or-whatever-its-called" is not enough anymore. Now we must make excuses for our inability to take correspondence seriously, and our impatience that leads us to send emails from our phones rather that waiting until we are at a computer and in a good position to communicate.
Of course, I know smart phones aren't all bad. We live in a fast paced world. Sometimes you really need to close that deal before noon, and your phone is the only communication device you've got on hand. Smart phones help businesses run smoothly and keep us in touch with people we otherwise wouldn't be able to get a hold of, and I'm all for that.
What makes me angry is that I'm being asked to excuse your behavior, when you really have no right to demand that of me. If the disclaimer had said, "Sent from my thingamajigger; may contain typos," I'd be okay with that. You're simply warning me. But to take it one step further and ask me to to go ahead and overlook the fact that I'm not important enough for you to spell-check or use proper punctuation, well that's going too far.
What's next? "Please excuse my use of annoying abbreviations?" Or "Please excuse the fact that I can't take enough time to actually type out a complete sentence?" Maybe just a blank email with "Please excuse this email, as something in my bag hit the send button accidentally and I don't actually have anything to say to you."
Oh to live back in the day when people wrote long, emotion-filled letters to each other. Now that's correspondence.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
