Abuse of the red exclamation point

I have a few office-related pet peeves, like use of the term "ramp up," and people who do the drop-by when they have a task for you, when emailing it would've been more efficient.

Ok, my list is growing a mile long as I type. But one of my biggest pet peeves, and the one I want to mention today, is abuse of the red exclamation point that marks an email "urgent" in Outlook.

I use the "urgent" symbol in very few instances. Usually, it means my web site is dead or dying. It might mean that someone is on fire. That's really about it.

There seems to be some formula at work for predicting the likelihood of an "urgent" abuser. Like, if they use it more than twice in a week, it signals a developing habit of early and often use. I correspond with a vendor who's escalated her use to the point where she uses it when she re-sends or correctsemails, rather than just saying "disregard the last email." At least, that's the only sense I can make out of her pattern.

And then there are some of my favorite clients, for whom no response can be soon enough (that is, until you ask them to do something in return). I have one whose default email setting is on exclamation point. In fact, I would like to buy her some notecards with red exclamation points decorating them, so she could extend her harrassment to snail mail. It could become her signature style.

Just one more example. We seem to give away a lot of old office furniture where I work--lab tables from the 50s, chalkboards, squeaky old chairs with springs that poke you in the butt. I guess it's good we have the $$ to upgrade. Some people mark their furniture giveaway emails and the inevitable "test tube caddy has been claimed" follow-up message as urgent.

I see this as a symptom of the growing problem with people just disregarding email. For the moment, we've escalated the message as far as it will go.

While my lima beans gently simmer

Hey blog, what up?

Once again, it's been too long. I might as well admit that lately, I've had thoughts I didn't really want to broadcast to the world (not that anyone, not even Jojo or spammers, reads this any more). On occasion, I've actually used this collection of dry, thin material that I mark with a stick that has liquid that comes out of it. The word for it escapes me, as does the word for that round, hot thing that appears in the sky every couple of weeks and gives off a bit of weak light.

I spent all of today in a workshop about emerging technologies, which made me remember you, blog. The workshop was very interesting, although my capacity for new ideas was spent by noon. What can I say, I'm slow on my feet. I like to go back to my cave and think about things for a while. One of the most interesting things to me was about visual representations of tags that show the weight and popularity of different subjects. I love this way of finding out what's on the most people's minds.

This system is not too far of the way I think of my mind--lots of words floating around. Some are huge and red and pulsating. Some are tiny, italicized whispers.

Well, I just burned the hell out of my hand with some molten rice, and my lima beans have stopped simmering. I turned up the heat, and now any second I'll hear the sizzle of the pot boiling over again.

In other somewhat recent news, my friends and I cooked an incredibly delicious paella a few weeks ago. I don't think I had viewed it as something I could accomplish (much like the web site I launched this summer, which I truly did not believe would happen until about two days before. I think I just expected to lose my shit and quit or be fired). It was time-consuming but not hard, and it helped that several people were contributing both energy and instructions. One friend kept turning up the burner, and another friend would follow behind him and turn it back down.

Oh, what else was I going to say? This is the problem with waiting too long between posts. No one, not even me, wants to read something this long. One of my friends suggested today that I just blog about my many moods and opinions related to coffee. I could talk about where at the moment the coffee was in my body (9:30 am: brain; 9:50 am: bladder), when I needed more (always), when I felt it hitting my stomach and scraping off a bit of lining.

I like this idea.

As usual

Don't look now, but I think the holidays are finally over.

I should clarify that my holidays weren't shabby at all. I went down to Florida for eight days, which turned out to be just a hair too much family-togetherness. But really, it was ok and fun. This year was a turning point for my cousins when all of us, ranging in age from 16-39, finally got it together enough to sort of act like civil adults (although that started to fall apart as the novelty of being together wore off).

Also, I came home and had a New Year's party that involved a band (or at least, two people with guitars), vodka shots and fire. The neighbors put on a fireworks show, so we enjoyed that, too. I'm pretty sure it was the Best New Year's Ever.

THEN, I went back to Florida to surprise my dad for his 70th birthday. It's a good thing he's clueless, because everyone in my extended family knew I was coming back, and yet we managed to surprise him deeply and completely. It was worth the cancelled and delayed flights, threat of tornadoes and my yelling at airline representatives to get there.

But I'm glad to be home. I missed: 1) my car 2) my house and 3) my bed. I'm not even all that sad to be back at work. After a while, when left to my own devices I start to float into a realm of formless lethargy. If I'd been at home more, it would've been different b/c there's always work to do at home, but when you're staying at your parents' vacation house, it starts to feel like that weird purgatory time between semesters during college. It's kind of good to get back to routine, although I'll be ready for another vacation in a matter of weeks, if not days.