611: Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to send Delivery Confirmation
I'm being ignored. This is not a drama whoring "PAY ATTENTION TOO ME!!!2!" statement but an observation of a certain trend. The problem is, it's faster, cheaper, and sometimes the only option to buy gifts online and have the seller ship directly to the gift recipient, rather than to get it locally, pack it myself, wait until morning [most days], then make a post office run. A secondary problem is, in either case, if I'm forced to mail a present, unless the recipient tells me in some fashion that it got there okay, I have no idea if it even got there or if I just flushed money down the drain for no reason. [I'm not the type of person who will just send something in the mail and say, "Out of sight, out of mind." I like to know that I actually gave something I give to someone, kind of like how I like to know my bills got paid.]
Naturally, I put a lot of stock in advice columns and recognize that once a gift is given, it's not my concern whether the recipient appreciates it. However, if it doesn't even get there, that's no good to anyone--the recipient doesn't get a [hopefully] nice surprise, and I don't get the benefit of feeling good that I've given something to that person. On top of that, I only have a certain time frame to notify the seller/post office if it got lost, so it really becomes a discourtesy if I've told the recipient to expect something and that person doesn't even acknowledge that something arrived. Will I have to run around and pull strings to get the package back, or at least a refund? It's a lot of extra worry, especially if I've gotten something relatively expensive, like a DVD box set.
jenova_silver posts about EVERYTHING, so anything I send his way that goes astray, I will know ^^ My folks [read: Dad, since he has the Work Internets] are pretty good about letting me know in at least a couple days after they get it, but my brother almost NEVER says he got anything I've sent, though he's told me he checks his e-mail every day X( Needless to say, it's discouraging sending gifts to people who don't offer any feedback--while a Thank You is proper ettiquette, I'd even accept a "hey i got it" note =p and if my present goes on to gather dust, get regifted, or become landfill/recycling bin filler, that is not my concern, so long as IT'S THERE
...
I'm trying to decide what to post about next. My friend Annaleise wants to come visit a couple months from now, but I don't think there's much more to say than that, and this so far is only about half what I usually post, even accounting for unnecessary carriage returns...
Hmm.
Okay.
I've started well into "The Lives of Christopher Chant" [second book in Chrestomanci, Vol. 1], and it's already disappointing... not because it's bad, because it's good, but because it's annoyingly similar to what I had slated for my 2008 Nano effort. I've already been disheartened by having B2S1 compared to FMA, because I don't like people thinking I ripped off FMA intentionally :/ The truth--which no one has any reason to believe, but it is truth--is I've only changed the location of the final scenes, who the primary antagonist is, and Alex's personality from what I originally wrote circa 1993, speaking in general terms. Oh, and who dies XB and yet, because FMA came out before I could finish the book, by virtue of there being certain scientific nods and story elements that are similar, it seems as though mine is a deliberate rip-off.
...well, come to think of it, I remember reading Sheska's part in the story and thinking she was a great character, then realizing that would be good in my book, but because it fleshed out Darian's abilities and why he can do what he does. I'm pretty sure that's all I took, and I could have taken that from ANYWHERE 9_9
...so, in admitting that, I've doomed the whole book to being a derivative X/ though I hope it's not the "Jumanji in Space!" that is Zathura, that kind of deal |:'
...okay, that's good for today. Peace outside %)
Naturally, I put a lot of stock in advice columns and recognize that once a gift is given, it's not my concern whether the recipient appreciates it. However, if it doesn't even get there, that's no good to anyone--the recipient doesn't get a [hopefully] nice surprise, and I don't get the benefit of feeling good that I've given something to that person. On top of that, I only have a certain time frame to notify the seller/post office if it got lost, so it really becomes a discourtesy if I've told the recipient to expect something and that person doesn't even acknowledge that something arrived. Will I have to run around and pull strings to get the package back, or at least a refund? It's a lot of extra worry, especially if I've gotten something relatively expensive, like a DVD box set.
jenova_silver posts about EVERYTHING, so anything I send his way that goes astray, I will know ^^ My folks [read: Dad, since he has the Work Internets] are pretty good about letting me know in at least a couple days after they get it, but my brother almost NEVER says he got anything I've sent, though he's told me he checks his e-mail every day X( Needless to say, it's discouraging sending gifts to people who don't offer any feedback--while a Thank You is proper ettiquette, I'd even accept a "hey i got it" note =p and if my present goes on to gather dust, get regifted, or become landfill/recycling bin filler, that is not my concern, so long as IT'S THERE
...
I'm trying to decide what to post about next. My friend Annaleise wants to come visit a couple months from now, but I don't think there's much more to say than that, and this so far is only about half what I usually post, even accounting for unnecessary carriage returns...
Hmm.
Okay.
I've started well into "The Lives of Christopher Chant" [second book in Chrestomanci, Vol. 1], and it's already disappointing... not because it's bad, because it's good, but because it's annoyingly similar to what I had slated for my 2008 Nano effort. I've already been disheartened by having B2S1 compared to FMA, because I don't like people thinking I ripped off FMA intentionally :/ The truth--which no one has any reason to believe, but it is truth--is I've only changed the location of the final scenes, who the primary antagonist is, and Alex's personality from what I originally wrote circa 1993, speaking in general terms. Oh, and who dies XB and yet, because FMA came out before I could finish the book, by virtue of there being certain scientific nods and story elements that are similar, it seems as though mine is a deliberate rip-off.
...well, come to think of it, I remember reading Sheska's part in the story and thinking she was a great character, then realizing that would be good in my book, but because it fleshed out Darian's abilities and why he can do what he does. I'm pretty sure that's all I took, and I could have taken that from ANYWHERE 9_9
...so, in admitting that, I've doomed the whole book to being a derivative X/ though I hope it's not the "Jumanji in Space!" that is Zathura, that kind of deal |:'
...okay, that's good for today. Peace outside %)