Spam is annoying. Receiving the same spam 12 times is more annoying. Receiving offers for work that, well, could pretty much be used only to for nefarious purposes? What's the purpose?

This one keeps arriving. I find it completely annoying, in as much as it keeps arriving. Filters FTW, but come on. F'ing spammers.

You need to submit your resume for this?

I was interviewed for a sidebar in a Fast Company article about gender issues in tech. I am about to go out and buy a dozen copies of the issue.

I walked to the post office today to mail a letter that had to be postmarked today. I asked for it to be hand cancelled so that I could take a picture of it and have a record that I had mailed it on time. After I asked if I could take a picture of the cancelled stamp, I thought the reaction of the woman behind the counter quite odd: she nearly refused to let me take a picture. She held on to the envelopes (I had given her two, even though I needed only one to be cancelled), and hesitantly pushed the one I cared about to me. "You can't have any one else in the picture," she told me, as she released the envelope. Both of the envelopes in her hand were mine. I had just handed them both to her. I'm pretty sure I could take a picture of both of them if I could take a picture of one of them. Her reaction was just plain weird.

The only thing I can think of is that she didn't want me to run away with the cancelled stamp. Which also doesn't really make much sense to me, since I clearly wanted to mail the envelope.

shrug

Before me in line, as I was waiting for the hand cancellation, was a guy talking to the Postmaster. "If I send unsolicited email," he started out, "to you without your consent, I'm violating a law, and I get fined. Yet, you deliver all this mail to me and I can't stop it. Why is that?" He went on for a while about how he receives all this junk mail when he leaves for two weeks, and it's this giant pile, and he doesn't want any of it, why don't they stop. The Postmaster tried to explain how once mail is in their hands, it is their responsibility to deliver it. The first guy didn't want to hear it, and became more agitated.

I wish the guy had realized his analogy was flawed. The post office isn't the same as the guy sending the spam email, the post office is the ISP that delivers the email. Would the guy be ranting to Google about delivering the spam to him? He might complain about bad poor spam filters, and switch to a different ISP provider or set up filters of his own, but he wouldn't be screaming at Google about *sending* the email. I'm not sure why he thinks the Post Office is responsible for the mail sent, when it's the spam/junk senders.

The sad part was that if he just shut up for 30 seconds, the Postmaster would have given him the resources he needed to remove his name from various junk mailing lists, reducing his mail pile. I used one about 8 years ago and went from about 36" of mail a month to about 6" of mail a month, most of that wanted. The company I used (Green Dimes) isn't in business any longer, but 41 Pounds is. If I were that guy, I'd start there or maybe Catalog Choice.

For some odd reason, PF Chang's discontinued its sliced ahi tuna appetizer. I have no idea why, those were tasty bites.

They did, however, replace it with a delicious poké and avocado on wonton appetizer. It is wonderful. A mouth party of delight with every bite.

The packaging, however, is not so wonderful.

Instead of five wontons with the tuna and avocado on top, they deliver five wontons with five individual containers full of tuna an avocado.

As someone who often wants to bring her own dishes to restaurants that use only disposable dishes, I find this excess of plastic overwhelming and unnecessary. I won't be ordering this dish to-go again, that's for sure.

The lesson here might be "Dine in."

Or maybe, "Cook for yourself."

I went to the urgent care clinic this morning. I've had a fever for the last three days, thankfully starting after XOXO had ended. I'd call it my XOXO flu, except that I am unsure what it really is. Three days of fever, including headache, chills and vomiting? Yes, urgent care it is.

I struggled a bit with the intake receptionist. I handed her my insurance card, paid my copay, then stood there as she told me my insurance card wasn't valid, it was for 2012. No, I said, it was valid FROM 2012, not expiring in 2012, but she insisted. "Look," I eventually said, "I don't care about the insurance card, can I pay cash? Or credit card, here's my credit card. I've been coming here for 15 years, I just want to be seen." Apparently there's a form you can sign for "established patients without proof of insurance," which says the patient is responsible for payments. As I signed it, I wondered when patients aren't EVER responsible for payments. Seemed weird. Are you sure you're responsible for the payments? Are you REALLY sure you're responsible? Are you REALLY REALLY sure? Yes, I'm f'ing sure, just let me see the doctor already, or I'll take off this mask, lick my hands, touch you, then cough all over you.

Not really. Didn't think of that last part until now.

Turns out, the insurance company FORGOT THE SECOND D IN MY NAME. GDMF how many times is that F'ING D going to screw me in this lifetime? I love my name. It's an awesome name. It pisses me off sometimes.

Anyway.

I sat in the examining room for all of maybe 40 seconds before the doctor came in and introduced himself. He did it this way, "Hi, I'm Doctor M---. I hear you're here for a bad cold?"

My first reaction was, "No."

My second reaction was to suppress the question, "Do you always diagnose your patients before even meeting them?"

He had a piece of paper that said I had a fever for three days, white mucus along the back of my throat, was wearing a mask. He didn't know about the chills. He didn't know about the nausea. He didn't know about the repeat incidents, this being the third time in as many weeks I've been knocked on my ass with fever, chills, nausea, sore throat, aching chest and swollen lymph nodes. He didn't know about the massive headaches three weeks ago that led to my taking tylenol like candy. He knew none of this, but immediately, without knowing anything other than my fever, that I had a bad cold.

Okay, yes, when you hear hooves behind you, don't expect to see a zebra when you turn around. I get that. Go for the simplest explanation, it's likely correct. However, you can't diagnose an illness from a piece of paper.

To his credit, after listening to my lungs and asking more questions, he did a couple tests to see if I had strep (I don't, thankfully) or staph (I don't, thankfully). I appreciated that he did the tests, but I am not confident he did anything more than confirm his paper diagnosis. My throat still hurts. I'm still achy. I'm still feverish. I'm still eating very little. I'll be much happier when I can start running again.