Un is Un, no?

I am bombarded with enough unwanted emails that I have grown quite adept at scrolling to the bottom of the page and finding the link labelled unsubscribe.

I click on it, and it takes me to an Internet screen that asks me what I want to do. Well, since I clicked on unsubscribe I probably want to unsubscribe, don't I? I, therefore, click on "unsubscribe from all emails" or equivalent, and then a screen comes up and asks me why I don't want to receive these emails anymore.

Sometimes I am to fill in with a word or phrase, and sometimes I am given several choices. My favorite one is, "The content is inappropriate." Almost makes it sound like they're sending me porn, doesn't it?

So, I click on whatever answer I like best at the time, whereupon some sort of message pops up -- sometimes telling me they're sorry to see me go, often telling me how to subscribe again if I should ever change my mind, but usually just assuring me that my effort to unsubscribe was a success.

And within ten minutes they send me an email telling me I won't be getting any more emails from them.

Sheesh.

Well, here we go

Toward the end of December, I promised myself that in the new year I would post more often on this here blog thing, aiming at something like three or four times a week at minimum. So far this year, I've published four (count 'em) blog postings, all in January. And here we are halfway through March.

Part of the problem is not having much to say. Occasionally a good topic will occur to me, and five minutes later I've forgotten what it was. I guess I need to carry paper and pencil with me wherever I go.

Another really big problem is the inordinate amount of time I spend folding paper. I love to fold paper. I love it so much, in fact, that I have started a second blog, called Fugitive Origami. (Click here to go there. It will have more content soon.)

I decided a few months ago that anybody with serious origami ambitions needs to be able to fold a decent crane, so I practice making cranes almost every day. My wife liked them so much she told me I could "leave those all over the house" if I wanted to. So far she has not admitted she regrets saying that. I haven't reached 1000 cranes yet, but I plan to get there.

My real passion is folding boxes. I love folding boxes so much that I don't know what to do with all of them. Sometimes I fold a box just because I want to fold a box, and then I throw it away. Right now I am struggling with some of the modular box designs by my idol, Tomoko Fuse, but I have finally mastered a relatively tricky one-piece triangular box of hers. Makes me proud.

So, that's all the excuses I've got for now.

And speaking of ambition, I read a quote this morning that I liked so much I want to share it here. Asked what she wanted to be, a young child wrote, "When I grow up I want to get a hat and put it on."

'Tis the gift to be simple.