Did I Come on Too Weird?

Quite a while ago now I met a guy at one of Flannery's art events. It turns out I remembered one of the projects he worked on from the Maker Faire - cool rolling metal orbs that communicate with each other. We got to talking and he said I should borrow an audio book of his and I said he should borrow Neuromancer by William Gibson.

The following Monday he called me at work (I'd given him my card), but as per usual at work I had zero time to talk and told him I would talk to him later. The next day I found that his email to me had gotten stuck in my work spam service, and the day after that I emailed him to see if he wanted to get together to exchange SciFi media.

I didn't hear from him for a little over a month, and then last week I got an email from him saying he's posted the audio book to his website so I could listen to it. In his email he made what I assumed to be a spellchecker joke about whether the book was called Neuromancer or Necromancer, which is what spell check always suggests.

I downloaded the audio book and wrote him back to thank him and offer to get together to lend him the William Gibson book. Curios as to what a Necromancer actually was I did some googling. It was not what I thought it was, and I made the following joke:

And it's [the book] definitely Neuruomancer. While spell check might urge you down the path of Necromancing, don't trust it. On the bright side Necromancer has something to do with summoning demons. The bright side being that I assumed that it has something to do with romantic necropheliacs.

Necropheliac: "She seemed a little cold toward me."
Necromancer: "Well did you bring her flowers?"

I haven't heard anything since. What do you think? Did I come on too weird?

Mail for Charles?

We get a lot of mail for the people who used to live here, and normally I just recycle it. But I do read the envelopes to see if maybe it's something I should shred. So while I was reading envelopes today my interest was peaked by the a letter from the Trident Society offering me a "Free Pre-Paid Cremation!"

Just the name Trident Society got me wondering what this letter was all about, but the enticing but contradictory Free Pre-Paid Cremation made me open it. (Just as a quick aside, isn't prepaid one word? My spellchecker says it is.)

Turns out they don't just offer a free prepaid cremation to everyone, you have to enter to win it. I suppose everyone needs to be disposed of at some point, but I'm uncomfortable entering to win a free cremation. I want to give somebody money before they cremate me. Otherwise what motivation do they have to wait? Maybe I would view this as a more exciting opportunity if I were older. Right now it's about as enticing as receiving socks and underwear on your birthday, bur morbid.

Not Funny

This is my least favorite work joke. I've just finished being helpful, or doing something for somebody that they really should have done themselves, and somebody says to me, "I don't care what they say, you're the best."

What am I supposed to say to that?
"Who's they, and what have they been saying?"
"Give me names and we'll go kick some ass."
"Tee hee. You're silly!"
"Luckily it's your opinion that really counts."

And when we're within 30 days of just laying off a bunch of people the joke loses the last semblance of fun it may have had.

In Explanation

For those who do not know who Midge is, and perhaps did not receive our Christmas card this year, this post is for you. Midge is the tall, fit looking one on the right. Clayton is the short pudgy one on the left. In real life Clayton is athletic and Midge is a bit on the girthy side, but that, of course, is the joke.

From Christmas 2008

Please click for a better look.