N00bs, Nitwits, and a Cyber-Stalker

n00bs: If you are on the van-goth list you'll know what I am talking about here. How can a person manage to subscribe to a mailing list and not know how to unsubscribe? Especially when there is a link to the unsubscription instructions on every e-mail. Too many people, most people really, can't be arsed to read anything through to the point of being able to figure out the most rudimentary things for themselves. Yet these same people demand to be served when they fail to figure things out. It isn't "Where are the unsubscription instructions?", "How do I unsubscribe?", or even "I can't seem to figure out how to unsubscribe." Just "UNSUBSCRIBE!!!". RTFM, n00b.

Nitwits: I opened up a can of worms agreeing to do one little thing for a not-so-former-anymore client. I was asked to add a few fields to a simple little routine that maps documents from one document management system over to another. The routine just takes what it is given in plunks it into where it is told to plunk it. So I added the new source fields and gave them a list of all the possible destination fields that could map to. Now I am getting questions about why the data being transferred over isn't what they expected. I have introduced them to the acronym GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out).

Cyber-Stalker: by default I have anonymous comments screen on my journal entries. Yesterday I got a bit of a strange one:

beautiful picture nice to see your still around .

still thinking about you never really forgot about you.

merry christmas m barrick.

Erm. OK. It was from a Vancouver Telus ADSL account (154.5.27.222). With no clue who it could be I chose to unscreen it since it just seemed like an out-of-the blue comment from somebody I used to know. Then I got another message off this first one saying:

do you remember me michael rene barrick

I'll give you a clue; you once kissed me in an underground parking lot

beside a fire alarm sounding door and when we kissed as we left

the door the alarm sounded and you were so cute you said it was

the heated moment of passion meaning our kiss set it off ... It was

on the night of a 12 midnight gallery opening....at the old location...

I so don't remember this. I don't even know if she means the Smash gallery or 12 Midnight's old space on Alexander St.

I rescreened both comments because there is a good chance this might be lunatic I dated briefly about twelve years ago. Given that it could be this total nutbar I'm not sure what to do here. Anybody else and saying, "Sorry, I don't remember setting off a fire alarm in a parkade" would be fine, but with her it could be a problem. But ignoring her could also be a problem. I don't need a girl that used to carry a 8-inch knife in her purse waiting on my doorstep because I didn't answer her. Oh, fuck it. Psycho or not, I'd rather know who it is than worry about it.