It's been that kind of week. Ottawa's transit workers are on strike, smack in the middle of Christmas shopping, university finals, and a heavy snowstorm. Those not hung up in traffic have been struggling everywhere on foot on unploughed sidewalks. Everywhere looks like narrow mountain trails worn by many weary boots. My normally cheery on-line horoscope has been rather gloom-and-doom regarding the end of this week. Seems there's this Gemini full moon in direct opposition to the sun sign of Sagittarius and we all need to tread carefully, particularly Sagittarians. In addition, this full moon is unusually close to earth. I saw it last night, glowing through the cloud cover like a spectral snowball. I've decided to stay close to home today and be extra cheerful.
Too bad I didn't follow this advice a couple of evenings ago. The Resident Fan Boy has a Sagittarius cousin who has retired to Utah after a career with the US Embassy (in various countries). She's like most Sagittarians I've had the pleasure to meet: lively, conversational, fond of travel, rather tactless, and ironically enough, easily hurt. She's one of those email correspondents who doesn't send messages all that much but enjoys forwarding jokes. This is usually harmless enough, although I've seen most of the stuff before. Lately she's been forwarding virus warnings. You know the ones: THIS HAS TURNED UP ON SNOPES! Send this to everyone on your email list! The Resident Fan Boy dutifully looked up the key words of the warning on Break the Chain and sent her a polite email telling her that the hoax had been drifting around on the internet since 2001, at least. I don't think she replied.
A day later, I was at the computer when she sent another one. Once again, I sent her the link at Break the Chain, showing the hoax email almost word for word. She did write back to me, saying that her cousin's husband was very computer literate, and so she had reason to believe this was genuine. I thought anyone sending email hoaxes, especially when it's so easy to check their veracity, could hardly be called computer literate. And here's where I goofed. I said so. To a Sagittarian. Oh dear. Well, I got two emails back, and I've deleted them. I guess we're out of her will...
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5 comments:
crikey, but i hate those chain mail things... during the past year or two i've been getting a ton of them, particularly the political ones -- easily disproved. you know, "Hilary Clinton refuses to meet with Gold Star Mothers" which even the Gold Star Mothers' website said was completely false. i used to send a link to dispute each of them to the sender, but they're oblivious most of the time... now i don't waste my time.
sorry to hear you're having a few troubles up there -- we in the US always seem to think everything is orderly, polite and completely smooth in Canada. our own little mythological land up north!
how is RFB doing? recovering well? and did you ever get your dvds of Doctor Who working? for some reason that has been preying on my mind.
my word is "carkro" which sounds like something mounties eat when they're on patrol in the wilderness!
Our piqued American cousin is now back to sending jokes and videos --- to my husband only, so I know I'm in the doghouse. I wish I could manage to be more upset about this; she's not an awful person by a long stretch, just a bit tactless. I find sending disproving links usually has the effect of stopping the flow of misinformation to me, at least. No matter how carefully I word the correction, it's still a correction and seen as a slight.
The city bus strike has now gone to federal jurisdiction because we have one bus route that crosses the Ottawa River to the province of QuƩbec. Seeing as Parliament has been prorogued until late January (our prime minister is trying to prevent getting ousted by a coalition of other parties), we may not get bus service for quite a while...
Resident Fan Boy is back at work -- which he gets to by means of a 45 minute walk into town. I just hope he doesn't get knocked down again.
We've replaced the remote for the upstairs television, so can access special features on Doctor Who. We've purchased what we believe is a multiregion DVD (they're very difficult to get now, as they're being outlawed) for downstairs, but the Resident Fan Boy has yet to pluck up the courage to install and programme it.
Those damn urban-legend e-mails are one of my biggest pet peeves.
During the weeks leading up to the election, my BFF kept forwarding these crazy-ass anti-Obama things from some wingnut friend of hers. Finally, I retaliated by sending back my favorite Sara Palin jokes and blog pieces, which were in abundant supply. Those e-mails from her dwindled in a hurry. She's a smart lady and could not in good conscience abide the truth of what she was seeing everywhere she looked. She tried out a couple of "Oh yeah?'s" but soon peace was restored. And we're still friends, thank the ordered universe.
That must have been a real quandary for you, Volly, since they were being sent by your best friend, and it's such a touchy area, isn't it? One of the people I would trust to the ends of the earth sent one of those bogus "email everyone on your list about this psycho out there" warnings, and I gave her the "Break the Chain" treatment too. She took it very well (and she's a Leo!), but that's one of the reasons she's on my trusted list. Cousin Sagittarian has been ticked off with me before, and I suspect she'll forgive me in a year or two...
region free dvd players are being *outlawed*? i better get myself a backup unit then... i absolutely need my region-free so i can play all those dvds i order from the UK. glad to hear that the RFB is back to work (and such a long walk too!) and that the requiste equipment to watch DW features is back in action. keep warm up there and keep posting!
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