Comfort Zones

Hey it's Wednesday, Deep Day in my universe - you know - the day you discuss the meaning of life and all the other big stuff. 

I received an email the other day saying someone wanted to be my friend on Facebook.  It's a person I went to school with 30 years ago and it got me wondering whether having a Facebook page is a good thing or not.  I feel I'm probably enough of a cyber-geek writing a blog, without being part of a structured on-line community where you tell your friends what you had for breakfast and what colour your undies are. 

That's being simplistic I know, Facebook is a powerful social medium.  My Facebook page is a total non-event. I joined out of curiosity and now am probably regretting having a presence in that world. Sure, it's cool to link with other good friends, but getting that email out of the blue kinda had a bit of a stalker feel to it.  I also feel guilty for not being devoted to developing my page into a true reflection of myself. 

In fact, thinking about the whole joining process, one of the first thing that happened was that Facebook popped up a list of people I might know. The only way that list could have been created would have meant a dip into the email account The Boss and I share. How else could my suggested 'friends' list include his business clients? That also makes me squirm.

Yesterday I did something way outside my comfort zone - I complained. Granted, it was in email form and I'm not holding my breath waiting for a reply, but at least I did it. Go me!

What did I complain about? Well, prior to Christmas my car fried The Boss' GPS (it was on the roadtrip to pick up his pheasant eggs when Apple went broody). The GPS was one of those things you don't realise how much you use until it's gone.

As a keen consumer of Nescafe Espresso coffee, I was excited to get their monthly email newsletter inviting me to enter a competition with the prizes being 10 GPS units.  It was one of those competions where you actually need to string together an answer in 25 words or less about something inane.  These competitions excite me because I figure most people can't be bothered entering something that involves more than a couple of mouse clicks, so theoretically the odds of winning should be greater.

Well, the deadline for entries came and went, and I figured I must have missed out on a GPS (so much for the powers of positive visualisation).  Out of curiousity I found a link to the winners page for their competitions and there weren't any results.  The results were there from another competition that featured in the same newsletter, but not for the one I entered.  I checked again a couple of weeks later - still nothing. Looked again yesterday - nothing.  This really started to bug me as I had entered another one of their competitions prior to Christmas that required a bit of work, and those results had never surfaced in cyberspace either.  There was something dodgy going on here.

That's what prompted my complaint. I was polite, but pointed out The Boss and I love their products, hence my total disappointment with what had occurred. ......................................................................  Just took a wee pause to check they haven't updated their winners page, no changes to report.  I'll keep track of how many days it takes for them to either email me back or update their website.  This is Day One.

What I've learnt today;
1. That whole rule about 'i before e except after c' escapes me - is the correct spelling recieved or received??? I think I've used both options in this post.
2. The piggles were temporarily in total disgrace after selectively plowing up the ground in the hillblock of The Vineyard.  Luckily The Boss did some googling last night and discovered they weren't being a bunch of mindless moleplows, they were actually rooting out grass grubs. This good news doesn't change the fact that ring noses are now looming. Gulp!