Introducing Head to Desk since 2003

[dawn_felagund]

Yesterday, I came into work to find my inbox full. Well, relatively full, for me, since I don't get a lot of email at work. There has been a spam email going around the agency, one of those that promises that Bill Gates will pay you $245 per person you forward the email to. (This one!) Well, some employee, in a fit of "intelligence," managed to

Comments

[heartofoshun]

I love it! That one is soooo old. I think I first received it (at work, of course) somewhere around the computerization of the most high tech offices (early to mid-80s? my memory fails me).

I liked the one with the supposed Nieman-Marcus recipe for chocolate chip cookies, which at least had some lasting social value. It claimed that you were getting a copy, "keep it a secret," of a recipe that could only be had by paying $500 to Nieman Marcus for it. (The "keep it a secret" advisory did not prevent people from spamming everyone the knew with it, including the entire email last of the major firms I worked over the course of about 10-15 years.)

[dawn_felagund]

I really try not to be a snob about my mad Internetz skillz ... but really, folks. Think! Even Bill Gates can't afford to give quarter- and half-million dollar rewards to thousands of people ... and how scary is it to imagine if the technology to "track" emails really existed!?

I do often wonder if people sit at home, eagerly awaiting the check Bill Gates owes them. Or if anyone has ever forwarded the email to the entire address book at their workplace and then quit dramatically a minute later.

I've never received the cookie recipe email. I know of it because I used to read on Snopes a lot (read: before I discovered fandom! :^D), but that one has avoided me so far.

I really do find it disturbing that, considering the amount of responsibility some of these people have, they aren't more intelligent. Of course, I suppose this is a symptom of a nation that is considering electing for President a candidate who brags about the fact that he doesn't know how to use email.

[heartofoshun]

It is scary. I have received, over the years, multiple copies of those that say: “Forward this email to 10 people in the next 10 minutes and you will have 10 years of good luck, if you do not you will have 10 years of bad luck.” I would receive it from people I had previously considered intelligent and thoughtful with notes like this prefacing it: “I am sure this is probably b.s., but I got really anxious when I read it and decided I ought not to take a chance. So here it is.” I would write back “Shame on you,” if I knew them well.

Sorry, I do not currently have a copy of the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe, but I still love the one for Toll-house cookies on the back of the chocolate chip package! OMG!

[hrymfaxe]

I would write back “Shame on you,”

Am adopting that answer! :D

[heartofoshun]

Feel free to do so. Just remember that people can be very delicate and irrational about these kinds of things! Superstition seems to be hardwired into the psyche of a lot of people.

[hrymfaxe]

I solemnly swear to use it with caution and delicacy. ;)

[dawn_felagund]

Superstition seems to be hardwired into the psyche of a lot of people.

It does, doesn't it? I wonder if there is an evolutionary explanation for that. *looks around for Pandemonium*

[pandemonium_213]

Superstition and magical thinking* certainly do seem to be hard-wired into our brains. Conveniently enough, in the midst of blogging about Dawkins' The God Delusion, I wrote about "natural born dualism" and the human predisposition to believe in the supernatural a while back:

The Accidental Deity and in particular, Is God an Accident? contained therein.**

The late (and great) Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan's book, The Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark addresses the problems of superstition nicely. Sagan's approach is also less shrill than Dick to the Dawk's is.

*Not that magical thinking or imagination is bad. In fact, it's probably good and necessary for our brain function. One just needs to know where the boundaries are.

**Disclaimer: I acknowledge my (lack of) belief system may be as popular as Sauron at a hobbit picnic (yes, I am inordinately fond of this stupid phrase) in some circles.

[dawn_felagund]

Thanks so much for the links. I've spent the last hour reading them--fascinating stuff!

This discussion is kind of serendipitous because I am currently working on my final essay for American Fiction and looking at Poe's use of psychology in his short stories; one of the points in my thesis regards dualism: that the psychology in Poe's stories not only represents but requires dualist beliefs to work. I got to go back to some of my old psych texts in providing some background on this and found a statement along the same lines as Bloom's research that "everyone begins as a dualist." This has always made intuitive sense to me; it's fascinating to see the science underlying the idea.

[dawn_felagund]

Hi, Talban ...

0;^)))

[hrymfaxe]

Why hello there!

[dawn_felagund]

That was really quick!

My Nelyo sees your Talban. ;)

(My Talban would be all over my Nelyo, but that's a whole different story ...)

*behaving now*

[hrymfaxe]

ROFL! I only have one image of Talban so he has to be King, Queen and Ace in this game. ;)

Please don't behave! ;)

[dawn_felagund]

talban has his own LJ from when digdigil and I used to RP my Midhavens characters. There are lots of images there that Jenni used to use for him, though Caspian is much closer to my own own mental image. ;)

Bobby and I RP my characters sometimes. (We call it "character development.") Tal is a world-class perv. Someday, I'm going to actually finish the stories, and everyone will be disappointed in how un-pervy Talban really is! ;)

[hrymfaxe]

Yeah you have to be careful with your flist, because we all have dirty minds and there is no one around to stop us. :D *goes to look at his lj* And also - Caspian and his horse were the contenders for the most pleasing eye-candy in that movie. I debated with myself all the way through. ;)

Oh speaking of icons! That one you have with the magnificent seven, is it one that is snaggable?

[dawn_felagund]

Caspian and his horse were the contenders for the most pleasing eye-candy in that movie.

Wot? No Peter Pevensie?? I often think that if we had Ben Barnes and William Moseley for Tolkien characters, there would be no stopping the deluge of slash communities! >;^)))

Oh speaking of icons! That one you have with the magnificent seven, is it one that is snaggable?

Yes! Just please credit aramel_calawen; she put it up for grabs a few years ago. :)