Letters to Friends
Are The Rules to Email?
THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE... (I HOPE...) THERE'S ALWAYS HOPE...
The Questions, Long Version...
PG... M (PG13)... R (PG17)... X... XXX... HELL...
(seriously... there's a lot of funny stuff that isn't "G" rated... and then some hard-to-believe-it's-really-out-there stuff that is totally illegal... personally, I want to know just what is out there - all that is out there - because to me, ignorance is more dangerous than knowing what might be dangerous... and some places in this world and on the web are actually dangerous... and the only way to protect anyone from what might be offensive or dangerous to them is to know what's out there... I have no idea what might offend you and I do not want to offend you, so please let me know...
* * life begins when the egg lets the sperm in . . .
WAIT!!!...
"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
The Questions
Letters to Friends
Are The Rules to Email?
I was bored one day... actually, I'm bored every day... I wake up bored, sleeping is seldom exciting as I seldom dream, or at least I have few memories of dreams... probably because life is a dream to me, but that's a whole other letter... anyway, I don't stay bored long because I can amuse myself with just about anything... you may have noticed... here I pondered the nature of email and found that in all my correspondence, I had a lot to learn about tastes and preferences of people to whom I wrote... I decided to ask those lucky (or not) people in my address book just what they thought and what poured out was the following... may you find it an amusing, or at least un-boring way of spending some time... what follows is The Email Test...
First: EMERGENCY EXIT!... in case you find yourself losing your mind or pulling out your hair because you thought you enjoyed babble but did not realize you might not have been prepared for as much babble as you might find here, return to this spot (it's near the top of the page, don't worry, you can find it) and click on the emergency exit to return to the index...
Ok, now The Questions (the full explanation of the test {with all the silly babble anyone in their right brain expects from me} produced these questions... if you have no time for babble, well, that's why the questions leave out the babble {hmmm... would this be a duh!... or a doh!... moment? J
anyway, if time or interest in babble is limited, disregard the babbling part of this email please... on the other hand, if you enjoy babble, skip the short version part because the questions are basically the same and you don't want to spoil the effect of all the words {do ya?}... the only reason I include the questions separately is you might want to answer them and since I haven't set up a form for you to answer them here, you'll have to copy and paste them into an email and it's easier if the questions are pulled out of the babble if you wish to answer them...
but first, read all the babble or the babble might lose it's effect... and nobody likes babble without effect, right?... oh what the heck, even if you like babble, follow the links, just don't read the short version, ok? (don't worry, you'll be warned... actually, for babble lovers, following the links is the best path as it's the longest to the babble, you see?)... of course if you've already found yourself screaming for the babble to stop, maybe you should just go to the emergency exit or you could just click here:
Questions ...
hi again :) ... oh wait, you wanted just the questions, didn't you?... with apologies, click here: the questions, short form
THIS is part two...
the long version, (of part two, but you know that already) of the test of this address book... if you already read the first part, then you can read this just for fun or to get to know me better)... bear with me please as I do my best to make this test as painless (and humourous, but hopefully not meaningless... though sometimes the meaningless can be humourous and then the meaningless is ok I guess... for me at least... but this is not meant to expound on what's ok with me, it's meant to find out what's ok with you J ... so... J
first, I'll repeat the apologies (as sincerely meant as before... I mean, just cause someone's in a good mood and wants to play with words and try to have fun on paper doesn't mean the words are any less sincere... it's actually a challenge to read between all the babble and find the true meaning sometimes... for those who enjoy words {like me} the game is fun... but for those who don't want to play {well, that's why there is a short version J} ... some consider it a fun challenge that is, some don't)... so to those who don't...
this apology is especially to anybody even slightly uncomfortable or offended or bugged or not smiling because this is a generic letter to everybody - or because you don't want this unprofitable or meaningless-to-you stuff in your mailbox... the purpose of this email is to find out just that (among other odd information cause I'm a curious child and like to find friends who believe in getting to know you and getting to know all about you cause getting to like you and getting to hope you like me is fun and why I am here and we can't know if we are getting to like each other unless we start getting to know each other so... understand why I'm asking questions now? LOL LAM J
I'm trying to figure out why you are in my address book and whether you want to stay there or not... seems I had a feature called "automatically put people you reply to in my address book" checked... I just unchecked it, but just a little too late for some of you J ... since this is being send to everybody in the book, I know some of the answers for some of you and most of the answers for a few of you and none of the answers for most of you... you may be listed in my address book because I responded to you for some reason... I am not even sure who some of you are (are you? J
if you know I know who you are, then just answer the questions for the fun of it... you don't have to tell me you know I know who you are {unless, of course, you really want to}... J ... but if you don't tell me who you are and I am not sure who you are, well, you may get mail you don't want and I sure won't know what you do want unless you tell me... yup...
it is possible (likely even) that some people are just too busy with life or at work (and if you're at work I guess this is how I'll find out I have your work email address in my address book LOL J or are actually not people, but mailing list robots (nanu nanu klackto nicktu verada whatever) or mailing list administrators or just not interested in me or not compelled to word play or charged per message or have a negative reaction to silliness (I believe there was an in depth study done by Dr. M. Python, University of Wallawazoo) or green hair and purple freckles and all of these are probably very legitimate reasons (not that you need a reason, after all, it's your mailbox) for not wanting me to just pop into your mailbox for no apparent reason other than to attempt to share a smile or some other thought that I might consider worth sharing at any given moment J
I'm also trying to learn how to use this computer and various email programs and I welcome help and information... sometimes doing something is the best way to learn (like I figured out how to hide all your addresses by using Bcc... but I'm still trying to figure lots of other things out like how to see the list I put in the Bcc after I send the mail using Bcc... and how to have a "group name" show instead of all the different individual email addresses if I want to send mail to a group or I want to hide addresses to protect privacy and all... guess if you are a mailing list administrator {and not just a computer program for a mailing list} you'd know what I mean and I would appreciate anything you'd tell me J
and I'm trying to figure out how to format mail so it doesn't change format after I send it - or copy and paste it... and... well, like I said, I've got a lot to learn J
so I'm sending this to everybody... rather than just delete you, I'm asking you J ... and now, finally, the questions...
1. want to stay?... in my address book, I mean...
feel free to expound on why, or anything you want to expound on, but don't feel compelled to... I mean, this isn't a challenge to your creative genius or anything J ... it's just a simple question that seeks a yes or no answer cause I don't want to bug you with mail if you don't want it... but if your creative genius (we all have one, at least, really... some have more than one... some only let theirs out when they're sleeping... some use theirs for good, some for evil, some for profound meaningful contributions to the universe, some for nonsense {who me?} ... some just hide it so well they forget where they put it)... but anyway, if it or you do feel inspired to respond for any reason (friend?... comfort?... therapy?... profound intense in depth discussions?... wild passionate food fights?... free hugs available at the door... Animaniac marathons?)... well, I just wanted to let you know that I welcome anything else you might want to share...
2. do you want something forwarded to you if I think it's informative?
of course what's informative to one person (like, um, me - in this case) may be meaningless to another (could this be you?), so this is a subjective question and yes, you are the subject being subjected to it for your subjective answer J ... I do quite a bit of learning and browsing the web and libraries and record stores and star gazing and all sorts of places in my free time (and that I have way too much of, according to some people, these days)... never know what I might find... so if you tell me what you're interested in, I'd be glad to pass along something J
3. do you want just any old (or new) silly mail I might choose to forward?
well here too, one person's silly is another person's life quest... you know, something might be funny or interesting to me, but I've been known to be a little "different"... some might say weird, some might say hello, some might say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, but it's intended to be harmless fun, indubitibly, even J
4. do you want plain text or rich text/HTML?
some programs can only read plain text and there's a feature in the address book that's supposed to "send plain text only" to you if I check your address, but I don't know if this feature works yet... but that's irrelevent if you can only receive plain text and that's part of this question I guess... if you can read it, do you want rich text/HTML email if you have said yes you want email from me... if you said no, you don't want email from me... I wonder why you're still reading
5. do you want graphics in your email?
as I explore the web I find all sorts of images and sounds and I find them fun and if you do too and you can receive them in email, let me know what pics or sounds are most fun for you and I'll include them if I find them if you want them... if you can only receive files as attachments, then I'll send them as attachments when I find something I think you might enjoy - if you want, I mean... this is about your preferences, answers, that is... you might think this is about questions, but actually, it is... until you answer J
6. do you want all email "G" rated only?
please choose how far I should go:
7. do you want a limit on the size of an email?...
pick a number, any number... 50K?... 100K?... 200K?.. 500K?... 1MB?... 2MB?... I know I don't want to sit vegetating in front of the screen while 3MB attachments download (I'd much rather sit vegetating in front of the screen chatting or creating an innocuous or irreverent email) - unless I know and want that attachment at that moment... that's one of the features I miss most from the Eudora email program (it let you leave email over a certain size on the server for later retrieval, just downloading the header info so you'd know who it's from and how big it was}... anyway, your choice again... that's the point of this "test") ... after all, with email, just as in life, bigger is not necessarily better J
8. do you want a limit on the number of emails you get from me in a day?...
I don't expect to send more than a few a day to anybody, and sometimes I won't email for a week or more... but heck, what if I found lots of stuff I thought you might like or want?... save it all in one huge email and send it all together?... but what if you want graphics?... or just like a lot of mail?... so once again, it's your choice... I've always found that it's so much easier to interact comfortably when some initial boundaries are set... so hopefully this email will help us set some (hey, that was serious) J
9. is there anything else about formatting email I send to you that will make it easier or more comfortable for you and your computer?
the point for me is communication and sharing... and if we don't get our email compatible, we're missing the point... and I know I certainly have tons to learn about email and this computer... I hope anybody who knows more than I do will help me learn (teach me, teach me)... and I'll share what I know too J
10. please tell me anything else you want to tell me J
I welcome it all... even enjoy those ICQ rumours, if you know what I mean... it lets me know who's using their brains and who's using their heads for storage space LOL J ... and really, it's so much easier and faster and more healthy (for me at least) to click delete than to raise my blood pressure or let anything bug me... I mean, why let anything that doesn't really have any power over me have power over me?... I like my happy mood and I choose to keep it most of the time, no matter what the world sends my way J
11. I mean ANYTHING J
see, I'm on line to have fun and find friends... I understand that some people are on line strickly for business sometimes or some people - all the time (in which case you're probably not reading this and if you are, maybe you're looking for fun sometimes and don't let yourself know you are)... I figure if I choose to do some business on the web down the road, I'll get a different email address that's "all business" and at that email address I'd answer "no" to a letter like this (presuming other babblers ask)... so if you're open to sharing words and finding on-line (or off-line, if you're near enough and want to visit) friends (and you don't already call me friend), then I hope to hear more from you - all about you - and encourage you to ask me anything you want to know about me... I like to think of myself as open book... and there's a lot to read in this open book I am (maybe not all nonsense either, but then, you can come and decide for yourself) J
well, if you read this far and you decide to respond, thank you for helping me organize my address book better...
hope you find smiles here, there, and everywhere J
I'll be kind and give only the brief closing signature (my friends {and some other unintentional victims} know what I mean LOL LAM J
enjoy it all,
(even the typos J
ric
. . . life's pupose begins when we let a friend in * *
something to say?... write to me - candor@writeme.com
or 2119422 / childinside on ICQ
* * now if I could only get this heel clicking thing down pat * *
PS... if you want to copy and paste the questions (yes, that short version you've heard tell of), click here: The Questions, Short Version (really this time)
GET BACK
MAIN ENTRANCE
WRITTEN GARDENS
FRONT DOOR
WRITE TO ME J
and now,
babble lovers stop and click
HERE!
but if you're really sure you just want the questions without the babble, then with as little babble as possible for me, these are the questions, just the questions...
and nothing but the questions:
1. do you want to stay in my address book?...
if no, please just click reply and type "no" and have a wonderful life (explain if you want to, but I don't wish to impose)
2. do you want forwarded mail like jokes or generic letters or insightful information or even just plain old (or new) absolute nonsense simply intended to inspire a smile or anything?...
if no, please just click reply and type "no" and then say whatever you want... I mean about any limits ou want to set on email...
3. do you want plain text or rich text/HTML?
4. do you want graphics in your email?
5. do you want all email "G" rated only?
if no, how far do you go? (select one: PG... M... R... X... XXX... HELL...)
6. do you want a limit on the size of an email?...
if yes, how big is too big? (select one: 50K... 100K... 200K... 300K... 500K... 750K... 1MB... 1.5MB... 2MB... 2.5MB... 3MB...)
7. do you want a limit on the number of emails you get from me in a day?... in a week?... in a month?...
8. is there anything else about formatting email I send to you that will make it easier or more comfortable for you and your computer?
9. please tell me anything else you want to tell me J
thank you for helping me organize my address book better...
hope you find smiles here, there, and everywhere J
ric
that's it, the short form... and if you read it then you only have yourself to blame for making the next part (part two of part two J redundant and boring and redundant and boring and repetitive even... but now, for those of you who have the time or inclination to read babble for whatever reason you choose, the long version.
~ Bertrand Russell ~
GET BACK
MAIN ENTRANCE
WRITTEN GARDENS
GET OUT
WRITE TO ME J
1. Do you really want to skip the long version of the questions?
2. Do you have something personal against babble or are you just short on time or patience today?
ok, these are not actually The Questions... I just wanted to give you one more chance to reconsider, I mean, you might not be as anti-babble as you think... are you sure?... ok, so if you really wants to spoil all the babble, you can go straight to the short version of the questions by clicking here: The Questions