But I guess it is, there’s a Monday Mission, anyway.
1. In my work Outlook inbox, I have 343 unread email messages. Most of them are newsletters I’ve subscribed to but not had time to read. It is a bit intimidating at this point, and I am tempted to delete them all and start fresh. But I am that way in many things, relationships, art projects, and more. Have you even just totally trashed something you were working on because it wasn’t going the way you wanted? What happened? Did you start over again? Was it
better?
In one of my mail folders I have 2492 unread messages, and that’s just one mailing list. I regularly trash a large amount of them, and only dip in to read the occasional one. I don’t want to unsubscribe, though.
I don’t think I’ve ever completely trashed something I was working on, though. Actually, that’s not entirely true, I have scrapped large chunks of code that weren’t working and started coding from a fresh angle, and that tends to be a good idea.
2. My friend was contacted out of the blue by someone from High School at his work e-mail. He wondered how someone found him and I told him to try putting his own name in Google.com to see what happens. Have you ever contacted an old friend out of the blue over the internet? How did it go? Have any old friends or lovers ever contacted you? Did it flatter you or freak you out?
I’ve tried to locate people I’ve lost touch with due to too many moves and not enough Christmas-card sending, but haven’t been all that successful (it helps if people have unusual names, the people in question didn’t). I was contacted pretty much out of the blue by an old pen-pal who’d found me on ICQ, and I was pleased to hear from him again, he used to write some good letters. The contact sort of petered out again, though. With e-mail there’s less of the obligation of “I had a letter from you, now it’s my turn to write” and therefore it’s a lot easier to just never get around to sending a message, somehow.
3. I am the forgetful type. I need lists. I need notes. Oddly, I’ve found if I write something down to remember it, the mere act of writing makes me remember it and I seldom ever refer back to the paper again. What is the most important thing that you have ever forgotten? Did it have any negative results? How did it all turn out?
What is the most important thing I have ever forgotten? Hm. I can’t really think of anything “important”. I once forgot to go to a concert I had a ticket for, which annoyed me greatly, both because I wanted to see the concert and because the ticket was obviously a waste of money seeing as I didn’t use it, but it didn’t have any consequences beyond that.
4. In America, we are currently suffering through an overdose of “reality” programs on television. Survivor, Fear Factor, The Amazing Race, Big Brother, The Bachelor and so on. Which of the “reality” television programs do you think you would have a chance at winning? Why? Would you ever actually consider signing up for one? Have you?
(Not only in America…) I might do alright in one of the survivor type things, I’m stubborn enough. I’d guess I probably don’t have the physical strength for some of the tasks, though, not that I really know what it is they get up to, I avoid reality shows like the plague. The only “reality” shows I watch are things like Idol/Fame Academy, and I would certainly have no chance at winning those.
And I’d never sign up.
5. Do you allow commenting on your blog? Why? Have you ever considered removing/adding that function? What was one of the worst situations you’ve found yourself in due to blog comments?
I like comments. I haven’t attracted any nasty ones yet, only some very weird ones. I don’t think I’d ever remove the function, I’d probably just laugh at any flamers anyway, so they’d be quite likely to give up trying to bug me.
6. Have you found any cool shareware/freeware applications/scripts/tools recently? Yeah? Tell me more!
Editpad is my new favourite text editor. That’s kinda cool. Other than that, Movable Type, of course, but that’s hardly a surprise, is it? (I LOVE MT!)
7. I’ve mentioned it here before, but one of my favorite terms I’ve heard a Minster use was when he refereed to a “pet sin.” Which is when you live your life right for the most part, but you have this one secret thing, this one bad thing that you do that is wrong for you to do, that you won’t give up, even though you know you should (and sometime criticize others for doing). Now I am not asking to know what it is, but do you have a “pet sin?” When did it start? Are you trying to give it up, or are you just reconciled to the fact that you will always have it? Would anyone think less of you if they knew about it?
Procrastination is hardly a sin, is it? I can’t think of anything else that I do that I really shouldn’t, certainly not anything I do in secret.