Mair Spam

I have already mentioned that I'm writing daily posts about song lyrics on my other blog, in honour of February's Let's Get Lyrical literacy campaign. These posts seem to be attracting unprecedented levels of spam, and I wanted to share some of the comments with you.

Someone who identified him or herself as Online Casino said of my Def Leppard post (in which I suggested that Pour Some Sugar on Me might refer to early onset diabetes):

I like the helpful information you provide in your articles. I will bookmark your weblog and check again here frequently. I’m quite certain I will learn many new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!

Thanks very much, Online. I do try.

World Spinner left the same cryptic comment on Bon Jovi's cowboy fantasies and also Vanilla Ice's hair:

Here at World Spinner we are debating the same thing……

I'm glad to hear that the eighties are still controversial.

Hemen Perekh asked of my post on Gary Numan living in his car:

Why are young Indians committing suicide ?
As per India’s National Crime Records Bureau Report [ 2009 ], every day,
- 8 committed suicide due to poverty
- 7 committed suicide due to unemployment
And NCRB found that nearly all of these were less than 29 years of age.
As long as Indian Authorities continue to treat such desperate acts of unemployed as “ Crimes “, is there any hope for 3.5 million young Indians graduating from colleges each year ?
Or are the Authorities waiting for these jobless to rise in a revolution and throw them out ?

To be honest, Hemen, I haven't really looked into it. But it all sounds very worrying.

The casual sexism of Rick Astley prompted Caryn Brennenstuhl to comment:

This actually answered my drawback, thank you!

I can only speculate wildly as to what Caryn's drawback might have been - presumably she was undecided on whether she should break up with Rick Astley - but nonetheless I am happy to help.

Carla Escher remarked of my nonsensical reminiscing about the Backstreet Boys:

I’m impressed, I must say. Really not often do I encounter a blog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Your concept is outstanding; the difficulty is something that not enough people are talking intelligently about. I am very completely happy that I stumbled across this in my search for one thing relating to this.

Carla, your words have moved me deeply. I firmly agree that there are not enough people dedicating their spare time to educating people about the lyrical misdemeanors of a group of pop has-beens. Maybe together we can right this wrong.

Suknia on my fairly dull 'there is no irony in the song ironic' Alanis post:

Please write something about your wedding! You should search more information about color wedding dresses. [link] There you can find much more information about weeding dresses.

Sorry to disappoint, but if you had read the post you would realise there was nothing about my own wedding in there. And although I confess to being somewhat intrigued by the concept of a 'weeding dress', I'm afraid I don't have a garden, so it would be surplus to my requirements.

Locksmith Boston on *NSync and their dirty paps:

Hi, i think that i saw you visited my site so i came to “return the favor”.

I did no such thing. I don't live in Boston and my locks are all working fine.

I’m trying to find things to improve my website!I suppose its ok to use a few of your ideas!

Oh do you? Which ideas would you be honing in on here?

Simply want to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity in your post is just cool and i could assume you are an expert on this subject.

Sadly, no. I'm more of a passer-by on the subject of *NSync. But I do know that Nick out of the Backstreet Boys (who came FIRST, by the way) used to say in interviews that his favourite food was pizza. No idea whether he was telling the truth or not, though.

And on that bombshell, we have reached the end of my spam folder. Well, not the end. But those were the more interesting ones. Maybe I'll make this a regular feature, sort of like reader's letters. Or maybe I won't. You'll just have to wait and see.

Moving With The Times

After somewhere in the region of 6-8 months of umm-ing and ahh-ing, I have purchased an iPhone 3Gs. This is on the grounds that if I want to be a proper social-media node, I need to have the capacity to read and upload breaking news as I sees it.

The main thing that swayed me was the newest deal from 3, and the offer of financial aid as a birthday gift from my lovely parents.

So I phoned o2 for the PAC code as I wanted to keep my current number, and spoke to a chap who was phenomenally pissed off with me for picking the cheaper deal.

"I can't give you any direct comparisons," he seethed, "but like, there is a reason why they're cheaper, you know? Like with us you get UK only call centres, better coverage..."

That's as may be, but you're offering half the amount of data, 400 fewer minutes, and charging £60 more for the handset...

"All I would say to you is just phone up their customer service and just compare the difference between us."

"OK," I said truthfully, given I was going to call them anyway in order to give them the PAC code.

"And you've got 14 days to opt out, which is something," he closed darkly.

Next I phoned Winston in India. Well, he had an Indian accent, he might have been in Livingston for all I know. The call took longer to get through than the one to 02, as if trying to prove angry o2 man's point. But when I got through dear old Winston was ever so nice and polite. He asked me how I was not once, but twice. And he claims my number will be transferred by Tuesday.

The ball is in your court, Winston. Use it wisely, lest angry o2 man get the last, bitter laugh.