I had a pretty satisfying dream last night! I dreamed that I'd gone out to dinner with a bunch of people -- some of whom appeared to be former high school and college classmates; I have no idea where others came from (one looked a bit like an extra from some cop drama) -- and had a generally decent time hanging out with them. What made the dream feel especially great isn't that part of it, though, but rather how I felt about it after I woke up.

See, on the rare occasions that I actually spend time with people, any enjoyment I have during the experience is usually muted by the aftermath. Sure, it might be kinda fun while it lasts, but there's almost no prolonged benefit for me. It's not as if I'm building lasting friendships with these people; I always end up spending more money than I'd like to spend (I'd like to spend nothing); and I typically don't leave with anything tangible to show for the monetary and temporal loss (though if I remember, I'll try to squeeze in a photo or something -- at least then I have a keepsake of sorts). (more...)

The franchise reboots.

I hate this feature. Now, apparently there are a lot of times that it does ask valid questions that people can legitimately weigh in on -- such as "Are campaigning politicians visible enough?" and "Who should pay for the volcano disruption?" and "Should dogs be banned from parks?" Even "Should the rules for Scrabble be changed?" is appropriate, though it does seem a bit trivial in comparison to other issues addressed on the site.

But for some reason, whenever Have Your Say shows up in my headlines feed, I get some question that actually has a proper answer -- whether we definitively know it or not -- such that soliciting opinions on the matter is silly and pointless. For instance, following Ricky Martin's announcement last month concerning his sexuality, the feed linked "Does 'coming out' affect careers?" It's not necessary for anyone to "have their say" on this -- the question is a simple yes/no one, though one could elaborate upon it to discuss how coming out could affect people in different professions and so forth. In any case, however, people shouldn't be voicing flat "opinions" so much as looking at past cases, how people and the media and celebrities themselves react to suspicions of homosexual activity, and making relatively informed inferences concerning the topic.

And then there's today's question: "Do aliens really exist?" Maybe, maybe not -- but how the fuck would we know? The first question asked at the end of the piece is similarly irritating: "Are there aliens out there capable of communicating with us?" Again, how the fuck should we know?! Of course, there might be people who actually know the answer to this question (assuming it's in the affirmative), but it's not directed to them and I doubt they'd share their secret government knowledge on an online forum anyway. The final question -- "If they exist, should we avoid making contact with them?" -- is more appropriate for an opinion question, however, as it essentially asks about people's beliefs and fears concerning extraterrestrial policy as opposed to asking them to provide their opinion on a yes/no question.

I think my problem with these such questions comes down to the wording -- if it asked "Do you think aliens exist?" I'd likely be a lot less annoyed.

P.S. Everyone knows aliens exist. We've been aware of the Doctor's visits to the planet since the 60s!

Seriously, this is one of my most despised errors.

I may have to expand these into a full poem or song someday...

Count down from ten, but stop at three
I'll wait for you in the sea
with sharks and shrimp alongside me
and drowned doves in a plastic tree

or

and treasure chests that need no key

Hmmm.