Was It Good For You, too?

I found this cartoon pretty illustrative of where we've all come to, with the advent of MySpace and FaceBook, not to mention LinkedIn and others.

Yes, I too have succumbed to having my presence on the worldwide web, as those reading this can attest. I have probably four (that I know of) email addresses, three of which I check regularly. There are probably a few more linked to telecommunications companies (like Verizon) which offer you even more addresses to use. My favorite is becoming Gmail, with very few unwanted intrusions, my least favorite has become Hotmail, where some things sent NEVER arrive, yet nothing I can do seems to work in blocking spam and scam.

I've become an expert on African scam letters, however I've never even remotely considered answering one. Who knew so many people were trying to wire millions out of Africa to total strangers, and willing to give those same strangers (or suckers) up to 30% of these purloined funds. Lately my faith in the U.S. Military has been challenged by the number of alleged Army and Marine noncoms who have some of Sadam's gold husbanded away. Lately they all seem to be deployed in Engineer brigades.

The best part of African scam letters are how overly flowery and faithful the writing styles can be. Proof positive that the British empire left Africa with a school system that still teaches the King's English - I'm thinking it's more 19th century style than Queen's English 20th century prose. Just watch your newspapers for jungle coups, massacres, or 3rd world airline plane crashes, and within 12 months you'll have "ripped from the headlines" scam situations from distant relatives (often sole survivors) who need your help to liberate millions. If they're that darn rich, why not fly from Sierra Leone to Mexico City, then just walk over like everybody else. Bearer bonds fit nicely in a backpack with your water bottles.

But, I digress - let's get back to social networking. I'm not sure where it started for me, perhaps when somebody invited me to be LinkedIn. That happened around the time I was Linked Out (retired), and the race was on. Idle hands may not be the devil's workshop, but they're certainly wedded to the keyboards of boredom. Hopefully, my writing and social networking commentary will bring an occassional smile to your face and chuckle to your voice.

If I "invite" you to be a friend, forgive me - I may indeed not know what the hell I'm doing, but I'm doing it prolifically to be sure.