Shelfari Sucks

See below for the text of an email I sent out to all of my contacts in my gmail account. (If you are reading this, you probably got this email...). I joined Shelfari and thought I was inviting a few friends to the site. It has a feature similar to Linkedin that allows you to see all of the contacts you have already in the site. Except, when you invite those friends, you will also invite ALL of the contacts in your email box unless you catch it.

I am incredibly frustrated and also embarrassed I fell for it AND it sent to all of my email contacts. All of them. Business, friends, frenimies, Amazon.com customer service...AGHHH. How very frustrating.

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Good morning,

I apologize for the emails you may have received inviting you to join "Shelfari" from me. I received an invitation earlier this week and joined with the intent to invite a few of my friends with whom I discuss books. Instead, Shelfari invited all of my email contacts.

Shelfari offers a "friend friend" service which imports your email address book to a) determine who else of your email contacts is on Shelfari and b) help you invite those who aren't. This is similar to other networking sites, so I took them up on this. It found a couple of my friends who were signed up and I clicked on the "invite friends" button before realizing it had imported my entire gmail address book and it was sending to ANY and ALL of my email contacts.

At the time I was embarrassed and horrified. I do not appreciate random forwards or invites, I don't believe anyone does. I consoled myself thinking "No terrible harm done, one email is generally forgettable and perhaps I'll reconnect with some people."

Then yesterday, it came to my attention that a "friendly reminder" was sent on my behalf for anyone who had not signed up for the service. Shelfari began to spam on my behalf. I am personally mortified. I had no idea they would begin to spam ALL of the contacts in my email.

Therefore, I write this email as an apology and a warning. I apologize for the emails from Shelfari. It was not my intent to spam, and hopefully this will be the last email on the subject. If you do sign up for Shelfari, do not choose the "find friend" option without "deselecting all." This was a sneaky trick on Shelfari's part and I fell for it. Please google "Shelfari spam" for more information if you are interested.

Again, my apologies.

Regards,

Kimberly

FYI: To protect yourself and prevent any future Shelfari invitations, go to http://www.shelfari.com/actions/emailoptout.aspx.

We'll make great pets

Many of you are familiar with my two beloved dogs Tycho and Ella. I have posted a couple times about my freakish and lovely goldfish. I have recently added 18 pets to my condo. 17 of them are fish and one of them is a vacuum cleaner.

The 17 fish are community tropical fish- some betas, a pleco, a flying fox and some tetras. They are very cool and I love them. I picked them up last week and have been watching them every night which very quickly puts me to sleep. They are a lively bunch but peaceful, and I don't believe anyone is eating anyone else, which is very important.

The vacuum cleaner is Roomba. I love Roomba. If I ever become a professional athlete, I would court Roomba's sponsorship. If you want a pet but don't want the mess of a dog or cat, get a Roomba! I got Roomba thanks to my friend Emily- who was extolling the virtues of her Roomba which she bought off of woot.com. She emailed me a couple weeks ago saying Roomba was on Woot...so I emailed John to confer about buying one. We bought one. And now, I don't have to vacuum anymore. Instead, I turn on Roomba and he* does it for me. So, right now, Roomba is cleaning my dining room. Yea! I love robots!

As for me & life...this week was stressful but ended well. My job is awesome. I am so glad to be out of G and into consulting again. Seriously. I couldn't be happier working for a client, having the satisfaction that I'm doing good work for them and then getting feedback that I am delivering what they want from me. Yea to consulting.!

The LSAT prep is going well. I should be studying right now, but I spilled water all over my lesson 1 and 2 books. So- I'm letting it dry a bit and then back to logic. The class is really breaking my brain and how I tend to think- so I find myself doing this:

If you are Ella, you hate Roomba.
If you are Roomba, you hate dirt.
Therefore, if you are Ella, you hate dirt.

This doesn't actually work because Ella loves dirt and rolling in it...but according to the LSAT logic...I think this is correct...at least I hope.

John is in CO- things are going well for him...more on that front later. I should go check on Roomba - it is beeping at me. And I should go check on Ella. She hates Roomba so she is sequestered in the back bedroom. Otherwise she chases and bites Roomba...funny to watch, not so efficient for cleaning my floors.

-kksw

*This is very important. Emily is of the firm belief that Roombas have genders, and hers is male. After watching mine a couple times...I have to agree.

I'm writing posts. Readers, where'dya go?

So, I've been posting like a madwoman. Especially compared to the first few months of this blog. But...I'm guessing from lack the of traffic, comments from friends, emails from family and paparazzi outside my door that I have an audience of maybe 2. And that would be me checking my own witticisms at work when I'm bored and Courtney. Hi Courtney! Miss you!

So - a coupla comments tonight. Firstly, Baptiste Yoga nearly killed me tonight. I didn't realize I could sweat quite that much. I need to replenish, replenish, replenish. I may not pee for a week.

Secondly, check this: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/sixwords.html. Lifting directly from the article "Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work." So Wired asked a bunch of authors to do the same. I am now trying to come up with a story for the title of my goodbye email. (See ya later, I'm outta heeeerrreeee...Woman returns to mountains, less oxygen...Yes, I'd leave regardless, shouldn't you?...Don't love a job, love yourself....)

Thirdly, things going on at work are really...crazy...and just goes to show how little you can trust corporations. I learned this lesson less than a year after I started working as a corporate stevedore when my beloved company laid off most of my friends, and this was less than a month after 9/11. I know I am about to start working for yet another corporation, albeit this one is much smaller. However, my suspicions are confirmed, you can only trust yourself in the corporate world and you should never, ever sacrifice yourself or time with family for a money making machine. The machine doesn't care. Ever.

I'd like to close this on a happy note...with a little shout out to Boxer Rebound. If it wasn't for the wonderful people at Boxer Rebound, we wouldn't have our sweet, handsome boy Tycho.

If you are in Chicagoland, Illinois or southern Wisconsin, and you're considering a dog, or know someone who is considering a dog - please check them out. They will match a dog with your living situation, with your personality, with the personalities of your other pets and possibly with the personalities of the other pets you are considering. They have hearts of gold and are saints to do the work they do. Personally speaking, my life was pretty good before but has become incredibly enriched with my boxer boy.

Just look how HANDSOME he is! (Not to mention goofy, lovable, patient, stubborn, hilarious...just the best!)

Have a great rest of your week. Oh, and Happy Autumn!

Outside looking in?

Just finished watching The Devil and Daniel Johnston a fascinating documentary about an outsider artist/musical genius (?) plagued with mental illness and unrequited love...which has me thinking again about outsider art and what makes a person an outsider or an insider in the art and music world...and also checking out Daniel on iTunes...the most interesting cover of his music was performed by the Eels...quite fitting. E gives it the best of his gravely, haunting voice. In fact, as I was watching the movie, I kept coming up with different artists I wanted to hear covering his music. Don't get me wrong, Daniel does a fine job...but his voice can get a bit...tiring...even it is part of his genius.

So, then, outsider art...had me thinking about late greats like Wesley Willis and Henry Darger (both Chicagoans) who were appreciated more after their deaths than before. I was browsing the Daniel Johnston website and was looking at the art, half serious about purchasing just based on how much his art may appreciate in the future. But then...do I like it enough to hang on my walls? Is it art?

It's just an interesting question - one that I know there are phds and curators and collectors will all "answer"...what is art, what makes it outsider, and how is talent really defined...or does talent have to even be there for it to be art? What gives it that edge that helps it leap from drawing on notebook paper to $1200 masterpiece. What makes someone like Willis, Darger, Johnston or Tiny Tim an acceptable commodity?

Anyway...after some time on iTunes listening while contemplating outsider musicians...I would recommend checking out the "Outsider Music" collection on iTunes...and introducing yourself to my new favorite - the Langley School Music Project. Super surreal to hear them singing Space Oddity...

And, speaking of outside...we had a building yard sale this weekend! We sat outside for 2 days selling all of our crap at crazy discount prices. John and I made enough to pay for a movie and 2 dinners this weekend. 25% of proceeds were donated to our building...we raised over $100...enough to pay our electric bill for a month. Thanks to the neighbors who participated for making it a success. We're looking to return again in a month to sell some of John's outsider art he keeps housed in Indiana...and by outsider art I mean t-shirts and old frying pans...and maybe this little hooligan....

Secret Obsession

My Sunday morning ritual is...get up, get dogs out, begin tea ceremony and then shuffle in to the office to check Postsecret which is updated every Sunday. John likes to make fun of me because of this obsession, but personally I find it to be a comforting ritual. I'm not the only person in the world with secrets and also that my secrets aren't that uncommon. (Don't ask what they are, then they wouldn't be secrets.)

So - I have also enjoyed this page LolKitties (or something like that). I love the phrasing...and how each of the kitties has some sort of odd accent...at least when I read it out loud to myself.

So- some genius put THIS together! Ta-Dah! http://lolsecretz.blogspot.com/ Brilliant!!

Enjoy.

Also - I just made the connection that the singing telegram girl in the movie Clue is also in the Go-Gos. Go figure.