blog/block

After I wrote a frivolous column with my thoughts on moving out and living on my own, I received a couple of e-mail from others in the same situation, and one from someone who, in long Bible-thumping discourse, told me that I was a harlot who was going to burn in hell.

He then insisted that I reply to indicate that I had indeed read his e-mail. Possessed by the devil or Miss Manners, I did. All I said, very tersely, was: "Thank you for your feedback."

That opened the flood gates. Now he wants to invite me to church [he gave me the bus numbers to take there, too!], meet me to discuss God with me [he gave me his handphone number!] and lend me books to read.

MS told me to block him. Or was it blog him? I'm doing both, just to be sure.

On a similarly religious note, I took part in a telephone survey over the weekend, simply cos I was a sucker for these kind of things, and also cos I had been on the other end of the line before and know how difficult it is to get people to spend time answering questions on how often you buy candy [yes, that was part of this survey which ate up 20 minutes of my lazy Sunday].

Another portion of the survey, by this woman whom I suspect is an auntie reading from a prepared questionnaire with less-than-fluent English, was about recall of TV adverts.

She would recite the product name, followed by a brief synopsis of the ad, and I was supposed to respond "yes" or "no" to seeing it.

"Music Street VCD. The life and times of Poppy John Paul Two..." she droned.

"Who?" I interrupted, thinking it was some hiphop gangsta rapper like P Diddy Sean John that I was not with it enough to have heard of.

"Poppy John Paul Two..." she repeated, not unkindly, like I was an extremely slow child.

The light bulb went on in my head: "Oh!!! Pope John Paul II."