The worst (best?) auto-reply I've ever seen

I challenge anyone to share a more offensive auto-reply than this one. I'm not entirely sure what message this person is trying to convey, but the message I'm reading is, "I don't mind wasting your time by asking you to read this entirely superfluous email note to tell you that I don't want to waste my time reading what could potentially be an important email from you."

The best/worst part of the email? The sender suggests sending a text message an alternate method of communication in case what you orginally sent was important, but then doesn't include a phone number. 

Worst_auto-reply

Bonus challenge: Can you guess what the sender's profession is?

 

 

2012: Slowly Turning Savage

Maybe there’s a beast...maybe it’s only us - Simon, Lord of the Flies

 

Over the weekend, Kevin Kless died after being beaten to death by four men - four blocks from my home. The only explanation so far is that the men “may have thought Kless had been yelling at their vehicle.”

Is this how we now deal with conflict? This saddens me.

Also this weekend, we went to a movie. Truth be told, the movie wasn’t very good. Regardless of the quality, the experienced was ruined by the people behind us, who insisted on talking the entire time. Am I ridiculous for being afraid of asking them to be quiet? You tell me, I live in a city that needed a curfew all summer due to random flash mobs that gathered to beat up random strangers. When we left, we discussed the possibility of not going to the movies any more, or maybe only going to our local independent cinema.

I used to love the shared experience of films, it didn’t matter who you were, for two hours, you were in the same room with everyone else, experiencing the same thing. I hate thinking about only going to films where I know “people like me” will be.

Is this how we now survive? This frustrates me.

I know we consider ourselves the smartest, the strongest, the greatest, but is it true?  Are we able to call ourselves a civilized society solely on our ability to make unprecedented leaps in technology? When I look around, I don’t see refined, I don’t see civilized. I see savages.

Is this how we now define civilized? This angers me.

I am sad, angry and frustrated and I have no idea how to fix any of it. I don’t believe change will come through blog posts alone, but I do want to talk about it more. This is a complex problem and one we can only solve together. If anyone has any suggestions for what I should do to help fix what I see as a big problem, I’m all ears.

While I know this is a situation that requires more than just heartfelt words, where else do I start? If I could say one thing to everyone in my city and have them truly hear what I was saying, it would be:

Take Care.

Take care of yourself. Take care of the people around you. Take care of your city.

 

Top 5 things I've been thinking about lately

5. If you could solve one (and only one) of the world's problems, which one would you choose?

4. I missed out on Burning Man. I'm still excited by the thought of going, but devotees talk about how much it's changed. What's going to be the next big shared experience life changing yearly event? I want in on the ground floor, please. I hope it's something involving good weather. 

3. I'm just as keen about exploring the next town over as I am traveling around the world. You don't have to sit in an ashram for three months or sail around the world to learn something new. 

2. What evokes pride in your town? In your community? I'm mostly thinking about this because I'm shocked at how little people seem to care about where they live (where I live, in Philly). What is the relationship between taking care of the community around you (be it taking part, or just not shitting all over it) and education? Arts? Access to basic necessities? What am I missing? How do you fix a problem like this?

1. Would you rather have incredible financial success and remain anonymous or become a big deal, but only make enough to get by?