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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Blog tagging... and The Three Investigators

Yes, there's a link between the two items in the title. A tenuous one, admittedly, but there you go. I've never been blog tagged before, but for those don't know, it's kind of like a chain-letter, only more acceptable. We've all received chain letters — emails that suggest we send on this "important message" to ten other people. Frankly those are a total waste of time, not to mention the fact that they clog up email systems (as they're designed to do). The theory with chain emails is that you send an email to ten people, and those ten people send the same email to another ten people each, and so on, until suddenly — within a mere six rounds — a million people have received this pointless email! It's a very serious bit of spamming, and yet a lot of people think it's cute and funny because the email normally contains some mildly amusing joke or a "heart-warming" story. Be warned, those of you who play a part in the chain email game — you're just helping to slow down and clog your own email server.

On this subject, I complain about spam like everyone else, but I also complain about not-so-obvious spam caused by kind-hearted but misguided deeds — such as when someone sends me an e-greeting card. On receiving one I immediately think, "Oh, thanks — you've just given my email address to a website business and most likely given them permission to send me a load of adverts in the future, not to mention selling my address to other companies." It's hard to complain about this to someone who's just sent me an e-card though, so I mumble my thanks and bang my head on the wall.

Now, my good friend Heather in Australia sent me a blog tag yesterday. I jokingly grumped about it, especially when she said is was "bad manners" in the blogging world to ignore a blog tag. Really!! And I bet the originators of the blog tagging idea came up with that idea too, in an effort to shame those who don't comply. A two-pronged attack — send out blog tags, and also start a rumor that it's bad manners to ignore blog tags. Very clever (he said, rolling his eyes).

That said, on this occasion I'm happy to comply. Partly because it's my first blog tag and I'm willing to give it a try, and also because — unlike chain emails — in theory you end up with inbound links to your site (that is, if everyone follows the rules). Oh, and I couldn't bear to offend Heather by ignoring it. :-)

The rules...

• Link to the person that tagged you.
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.
• Tag six people and at the end of your post, link to their blogs.
• Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Okay, so now I need to link to the person who tagged me. That was Heather, of course, and actually she's already linked to herself from a comment in the previous post, but I'll do it again here anyway. So here's a link to Heather's Blog. I've already posted the rules above, so now onto Rule 3...

Quirks and habits...

1) When I'm really enjoying a meal, I tap the plate twice with my knife. I never knew I did that until my best buddy Neill pointed it out one day. Now I do it deliberately (as well as unintentionally) and say, "Mm, two taps fresh!" (I wonder if anyone remembers/knows the commercial with the Indian guy who would say, "Two thumbs fresh!")

2) While watching TV, I'll get up to move things that "shouldn't" be in my periphery: a door standing wide open when it should only be slightly ajar to allow the cats in and out; one of my daughter's shoes in the middle of the floor; clothing draped over the end of the sofa; a light on that isn't normally on; even some unknown shiny object on the floor that gleams annoyingly while I'm trying to focus on the screen.

3) When I'm deep in conversation while driving, I will happily sail right past the road I'm supposed to take. When I'm thinking about which way I'm supposed to be going, my end of the conversation turns into, "So... er... I went to... er... I was on my way to..." Apparently I can't mix driving with talking. And yet, I can drive and talk on the phone for ages and never go wrong. Why is that?

4) When I receive a book from eBay, and my wife sees it, I seem to have got into the habit of saying, "A real bargain, this!" Even though it might not be that cheap.

5) When I buy a burger and fries, my fries have to be piping hot. I'll be sure to test one the moment they're handed over the counter, and if it's not perfect, then I demand fresh ones. The server who gets the fries ready and puts them on the side while waiting for the burger to come through had better be warned — I'm not having those fries! Letting fries got cold should be MY choice, and no one else's.

6) I will NEVER get over the sense of satisfaction when receiving checks in the mail for website work. Sheer joy. :-)

Who I'm going to tag...

Nigel at Moonraker Nights, because he doesn't post enough and this will hopefully give him a prod!

Ming at Ming's Busy Days, because she's probably the most likely to excel in this kind of thing.

Neill at NeillRees.com, because he's got a new blog (eagle-eyed visitors will notice his template is very similar to this one, because I set it up for him) and because he likes to write.

There are some others I could tag but won't, because I don't feel comfortable doing so. By the way, Nigel, Ming and Neill — I won't be offended if you totally ignore this tag! :-)

And now back to the link to The Three Investigators, as hinted at in the title of this post. I'm reading The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy (no mystery there, my Mummy used to whisper to Daddy about me all the time) and by coincidence there's a technnique that Jupiter Jones employs to find out information. Fatty should listen to this — it's a great idea! It's called the Ghost-to-Ghost Hook-up. Jupiter phones five of his friends and asks if any of them have seen such-and-such (like a man with a crooked finger and thin mouth, driving a black Bentley). He also asks his five friends if they can ask five of their own friends the same question, and each of those friends are asked to ask five of theirs, and so on. Any information should be reported back to Jupiter Jones.

In theory it's a great idea, and should spread the word about the city in a matter of hours. Invariably this helps Jupiter, Bob and Pete solve their mysteries. But there are some problems. First, it relies on each friend phoning five others, IF they have five friends to phone. What if one of his friends is Billy No Friends? And what are the chances that the same circle of friends will be called time and time again by other friends participating in the same scheme? If Joe phones five of his friends, he'd have to tell each not to phone the other four, just to avoid repetition. That could be a nightmare, especially after a couple of rounds of calls:

"Right, I'll phone John, Joe, Simon, Brent, and David — what? You already spoke to Brent? And Colin already spoke to David and John? Are you sure? Well, all right, I'll replace them with George and... oh, how about Sue and Pam? They know already? Your brother called them? Who else did your brother call? ... No, I don't know them, but I think Don knows the sister of Charlie's friend, so..."

Seems to me that it would be a logistical nightmare within a relatively small city limit!

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