A birthday wish across Facebook is the worst of all possibilities. Any e-card available online, no matter how cute or well done, is second worst to that. Because both of those require no thought or no real feeling at all on the part of the sender, so they are void of anything personal, an automated reminder and electronic response doesn't cut it. They're actually offensive, they prove the sender is not thinking at all. Not one bit.
I nearly missed my brothers birthday. No time to send anything hardcopy. This birthday greeting must be electronic. What a bummer.
c/p greeting and immediate response to it follows.
Subject: my hair stood up
And I’m all, what? What? What?
And a beautiful woman’s disembodied voice said directly into my ear,
IT’S YOUR BROTHER’S BIRTHDAY !!!!!
Oh. I know that.
Happy birthday, James.
Happy birthday to you.
You smell like a monkey
And you look like one too.
THAT’S THE WRONG SONG, YOU DOPE!
Fine.
Happy birthday to you Jim.
Rose are red and violets are blue
You’re a great husband
And fantastic father too.
Remember I love you
And God loves you too.
THAT’S BETTER
Man, that disembodied beautiful woman’s voice sure is loud.
--------------------------------
Thanks great birthday wishing
I would say ever but just this morning my wife gave me a deep felt happy birthday greeting. Then at 4:30 am our 6 year old Daniel gave me a happy birthday and a kiss on the lips with a have a good day today wishing . Then amazingly our 4 year old Nathaniel came to the living room wiping the sleep from his eyes wishing the same happy birthday daddy have a good day. Surely it will be a good day with 4 super cool wishing before 5Am. Thanks.
Likewise, another friend said that he would get back to me in a week about a project we considered doing together. But there was no getting back. This is typical. He is a difficult person even on good days. One never knows what exactly goes on inside his uniquely troubled mind.
subject: Perseids meteor shower
Are you in town?
Is everything okay?
Are you well?
Apparently the Perseid meteor shower is an annual thing in August. Expected to be greater this year. Because, reasons.
From Washington Post:
This year, the International Meteor Organization thinks that number may increase to about 150 meteors an hour. Other astronomers are calling for up to 200 meteors an hour.
That seems like a lot. Best viewing, according to them is Thursday and Friday.
Oh, just now, checking the spelling of Perseid I saw this:
Jupiter's Effect Will Make Perseid Meteor Shower One to Remember
[That is my oblique way of asking why he didn't return in accordance with his stated intention. It's not a fair thing to do. SNAP OUT OF IT!]
Immediate response:
It's interesting that you asked me if I'm okay. I have been in a deep dark hole for the last week or so. Just down. Sleeping late and no energy. Not good.
But, I'm on the rebound and starting to function in a positive way.
I'll be in touch soon.
Thank you.
21 comments:
The only thing an ecard shows is you thought...at the last second.
The worst however is sending an ecard late. Better not send anything than that.
Jeepers. I walked into Lem's place this morning and there's blood all over the floor, smashed tables and broken bottles everywhere, bullet holes in the mirror over the bar and that looks like couple of dead bodies over there underneath the Trump signs.
I must have missed a hellofa brawl. I hope there's video on Liveleaks.
Well thanks, Chip.
I didn't expect anything, but it's nice you remembered.
I'm against greetings. They're a bother because a response is called for, and I was happy before.
There's more interesting stuff to do than service formal relationships.
Actual relationships are great. They're not filled with greetings though.
You never say, "Hi"?
Hi as casual interaction is a transition move, from not being there together to being there together, yet allowing civil inattention to continue. It's not really a greeting in the Chip sense.
Probably it comes from need to indicate no intention to mug, rape or rob.
Hi at the beginning of an email is to frame it in letter form, with what that allows in style and content.
Lots of non-greeting use of greetings.
It has been kept civil, Rabel. Like the recent unpleasantness between the states.
Hi
Hello, you blot on the landscape
That's more or less in P. G. Wodehouse somewhere.
Try a hi passing a random person in an airport. There will be confusion.
But if they're in the departure lounge alone and you join them with a hi, there's no confusion, it's just I'm here with you in the normal departure lounge beginning of the crowd.
A reassurance.
All I was expecting was yes or no.
What would a yes have meant for a negative question?
I grew up in the northeast where people are on the lower level of the spectrum as far as greeting others as they walk past. NYC is the worst. I loved it when I moved to the Midwest[KC] in the 70's and found folks quite friendly. I can read people quickly. Since I walk ~10 miles a day I walk past many people if I take an urban route. If someone looks very shy I'll just smile. Otherwise, I will always say, "Hi, hello, howdy, etc." Wisconsin and Minnesota are some of the nicest folks in the country. But, north to south, the Midwest is the friendliest part of this great country.
rhhardin,
I didn't expect any response from either one. That's what was so surprising. In both cases I had already written several times with no response at all. They're both rather busy and involved with other concerns. And that's fine. But this time they both shot back immediately, within hours. They both had something they wanted to say back.
I only send them to ease my own guilt and get some cheap pseudo-respect, so this attempt to ruin my ease in doing that is offensive. It's probably racist and culturonormative facism.
I don't send any greetings. I only send money and only electronic. Nobody really resents that no matter how thoughtless. People anxiously await my thoughtlessness like kids on Christmas eve.
Chip greetings are occasions for an interesting blog post, no matter what social obligations they impose on the recipient.
I always call hams claiming to be low power (qrp = 5 watts or less), doing a national parks on the air thing (NPOTA), or summits on the air (SOTA), because the conversation is extremely short so it serves as a kind of liveness check on the radio, and the poor bastards are hoping somebody is interested in marking the occasion of their being on the air.
Otherwise, in the case of regular high power at home hams, you find yourself having to make small talk with the guy.
I've tried telling hams that my new tiny transceiver occupies the spot on the computer desk where the coffee cup used to go, so I have a really tiny "shack" and now drink coffee with my left hand, but nobody seems to appreciate that small talk. It's too off-the-custom.
The custom is power and antenna, and if you're sending morse code, age and what you retired from.
I don't give them that but mention that I was off the air for 53 years there. That leaves something not fitting quite in.
I'm operating with a license I got when I passed a test at age 12.
That and pilots' licenses don't expire.
Ham operators and pilots do, however.
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