Big Brother

No, not the craptacular reality show, the original Big Brother. The one that's watchinyou.

I don't think of myself as a super paranoid person. I mean, back in my younger and more smoky days, I did have visions of the Scooby Doo van in full cartoon form coming at me in my peripheral vision. That was ages ago and before I even knew about the internet, modern technology and the evils of market research. These days I swear internet usage is nothing but a tool for gathering a profile for marketers to use. I love to shop so that doesn't bother me, but isn't it kind of creepy that you think about everything you do and the consequences of doing it?

Just last night, the phone rang and a survey guy was on the other end. Normally those guys call while I'm in the middle of making dinner and I cut them off quickly, but I wasn't doing anything last night and figured they may get paid by the number of surveys they complete, and given the economy, etc., I was going to help the guy out. I am not exaggerating when I say that I answered at least 100 questions about long distance, local phone and broadband internet service. I started getting antsy and asked the guy "Are we nearly done?" and he got all huffy, exhaled strongly and said "Ma'am, I am going as quickly as I can". I laughed at that point because here I am trying to humor the guy and make him a buck and he's getting pissy with me. As I hung up the phone, I shook my head because I knew that I had just guaranteed myself more phone calls by getting on their "didn't hang up for 10 minutes" list.

This morning I turned the tv on and fired up my laptop and didn't pay a lot of attention to what channel it was on. Turns out I was using the 700 Club broadcast as my ambient noise for an hour. Can't wait to see what the consequences of that little mistake will be!