It's official. E-mail is destroying interpersonal communication skills. Between the inability of many people to spell correctly, the spate of acronyms and 'shortcuts', and the idea that it's impossible to convey 'tone' in an e-mail - personal communication has taken a turn for the worst.

I posted an ad on Craig's List for the 'backup' monitor (from the 'backup' computer - duh.), and listed it at $85 or best offer. Now - I'm willing to go $75, and take a bit of a loss (I bought it for $100) - but I honestly haven't used the darn thing more than an hour since I got it. Combined with the fact that the 'backup' computer is now, effectively, a large paperweight, I really don't need it. It's still a good box, and at 21", great for any kind of graphics or design.

I posted the ad last night, and I've received 5 e-mails already inquiring as to its' availability. The last one was a very terse 'would you take $50?'.

Without thinking, I fired off a response saying 'no, $85 is firm.' I'm still a little raw from the whole 'boat sale' episode....where, last year, I posted my dad's boat for sale for $1400 or b.o. Some assjack e-mailed me with an offer of $500. I responded - politely at first, saying, no - too little. This sniveling little trash monkey e-mailed back with 'well, how about $600?'

This went on for a week or so - e-mails, raising the offer about $50 each time to a max of $750. I finally fired off a note saying 'look, if you're going to insult me, I'm not selling the boat to you for any price." 'Dre Thor' (his e-mail name) fired back, saying 'hey, just trying to do business. I'm a businessman..."

Needless to say, I still own the boat.

The greater point is that - e-mail doesn't allow you to 'frame' your communication in any kind of emotion. Too often, we fire off quick notes, chuckling at our cleverness, or nodding thoughtfully at our consideration, when the recipient simply looks at our missive, and interprets our words in a wholly different manner. What was sent as 'teh funnay' becomes an insult. What was sent with caring thoughtfulness becomes cold and emotionless.

Don't EVEN get me started about spell check, though........

Yay, Wednesday.

More snow forecast.
No response regarding teh job search.
The U *still* hasn't purchased servers for the application I'm working on.
I'm out of coffee.

On the plus side, I got a good night's sleep last night - not by design, mind you. I feel asleep while reading to The Boy - who is suffering from yet another cold - and The Lovely Bride woke me at 10 to come to bed. I staggered downstairs, shut off the laptop, and wandered back into bed, asleep before 10:30.

Crazy.

A foot of snow yesterday.
My paper, ripped to shreds by my prof.
No response from the 'evaluator' of my priors.

:finger