Clarity
Glad I’m not from a swing state (Part II)
Posted 19 Nov 2008
Events, The Little Things | Leave a Comment
Following on from my previous post about absentee voting in the recent US presidential election, I thought it would make sense to follow that up with some of the details about the delivery of the absentee ballot. It came via email – which is brilliant – but I do wonder about the system as a whole given the second email that I received from the Cook County Absentee Department.
Read email containing details of absentee ballot.
And so that you can see that I am not making this up, I’ve also produced a screenshot of my Yahoo email inbox which shows the arrival of the two emails in question:
Glad I’m not from a swing state
Posted 18 Nov 2008
Events, The Little Things | 2 Comments
I have been dying to write this post since I first received the emails, but I didn’t want to jeopardise my ability to vote in the recent US presidential elections. As a voter registered in Illinois, my vote – whichever way I cast it – would certainly not have delivered the state’s electoral college votes to Barack Obama, nor would they have taken them away from him. Illinois was his home state and that Illinois would vote for him was a foregone conclusion.
That said, you can imagine my concern when I first received an email about the status of my absentee ballot.
Review the first email.
The somewhat suspect email was followed five minutes later by an only slightly less suspect email.
In the end, I did get a ballot sent to me via email (that story will be tomorrow’s post) and I did post it off and I presume it was counted properly. But I just wonder how the conversation at the Cook County Absentee Ballot Office was on that afternoon when the first emails were sent.
Clerk: Ok, boss, I’ve sent that email about the absentee voting process to all the registered absentee voters.
Supervisor: Great! Oh … Did you make sure to proof read it – and to send it from an official email address?
Clerk: Um … do you think that’s important?
Supervisor: Yes. Very. Are you saying you didn’t send it from our official email address?
Clerk: Um …
Supervisor: Well, in that case, proof read the draft first, and then re-send it, but from our official email address. And don’t mention the first email – if we ignore it, perhaps everyone else will too.
Honestly, I feel like the two emails I was sent were part of one of those brain-teasers: how many mistakes can you spot? So, how many can you spot?
Dear Spammers: You’re barking up the wrong tree
Posted 17 Nov 2008
Daily Life, People, The Little Things | 4 Comments
This is an open letter from the editors of chickenmonkeydog to all spammers who leave comments on our blog:
Dear Spammers of Porn Advert Comments:
Please do not leave comments on our blog advertising videos of dog sex, even if those movies are available for free. In fact, please don’t leave us adverts for any sex movies. We’re just not interested. Furthermore, we’re fairly confident that our readers aren’t terribly interested either. (And if they are, I am sure they don’t need us to show them where to find such videos.)
To be perfectly honest, our technical editor is becoming frightened of discarding your spam of late as your video offers are growing increasingly violent and disturbing in nature. For the sake of our staff, please do stop sending us these ugly offers.
Thank you,
The Editors
chickenmonkeydog.com
NOTE: Our technical editor has used Photoshop to blur the swearword in the advert comment; otherwise it is as it was submitted.
Welcome to London
Posted 11 Nov 2008
Commuting, Places, The Little Things | 4 Comments
It’s 6.35 am on a Monday morning. You’ve just arrived in London’s Heathrow. It was a long, bumpy flight from Chicago, Melbourne or Mumbai and frankly you’re knackered. On the flight over, as you reviewed the paperwork for the business deal you’re in London to finalise, you developed a sense of concern over the professionalism of your new partners. Are they looking to cut corners? Do they only go the shortest distance required? Are they cheapskates?
Through baggage claim, past customs and into the arrivals lounge. Which driver did your new partner send for you?
I know thee, therefore I hate thee…
Posted 7 Nov 2008
Language, The Little Things | 2 Comments
If one is familiar with the phrase “familiarity breeds contempt“, does that mean one must be contemptuous of the phrase?
