Do you ever suddenly remember some recent occurrence like a conversation, but can’t figure out whether it really happened or whether you dreamed it? I was cooking the other day, and suddenly the details of a recent conversation washed in. We were talking about Alanis Morrissette’s song Ironic, and someone said that nothing in that song is actually ironic. I remembered saying that irony wasn’t saying the opposite of what you were feeling, that that was sarcasm. I couldn’t think of a place I’d recently been where I could have had that conversation, so I think I might have dreamed it.

Now I just “remembered” a conversation where I was saying there was no way the upcoming movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen would be true to the comic book, because the latter is so politically incorrect (plus the movie would be too damn good). The only reason I suspect this is a dream is that I’ve recently been reading LXG in bed.

Most dreams are so outlandish or extraordinary that it’s easy to tell them apart from reality. When something really odd happens in a dream, I actually realize I’m dreaming, telling myself “Nah, this can’t really be happening”. I recently commented on Blork’s page that I dreamt I rejected Keanu. Ok, THAT’s a dream.

But these days I can’t tell the difference, so I guess I’m going through a dull dream phase.

Lyrae recently asked if she was the only one around who googled old friends.

No. The practice was first introduced to me by a friend who would google people he would meet and find interesting. I initially thought that was a bit stalker-esque, but now I do it whenever I want more information on a new person, and yes, when I wonder whatever happened to so-and-so.

Last summer, this led me to having dinner with my now-married very first boyfriend, an evening I would describe as odd, and full of nervous laughter and silences. It was extremely bizarre to see, over a decade later, a larger, altered version of someone I once knew, a stranger who knew all sorts of peculiar things about me that I myself had forgotten.

Meeting someone in person when you’d only known them online used to be weird, but now it’s almost completely normal. I say “almost completely” because I still get strange looks when I say “this is my friend X, I met him online”, but less and less. Meeting my fellow bloggers was actually much easier than having dinner with my friend of over ten years ago, someone I’d known quite well. In the real world. I realized with some alarm that I had more in common with these online people. But this is becoming normal.

Boris recently questioned the distinction between the online and the offline world, and I have to agree. The online/offline distinction is no measure of the reality of the interaction. The main reason why I took up blogging again was because of the lack of social contact that resulted from my hiatus, both online and off.

What’s the best way to generate an RSS feed if I’m using Blogger, not Blogger Pro? Thanks.

My colleague Denis is sitting at his desk, looking pensive. I breeze in quickly and loudly say “He’s gonna do it. He thinks we’re a royal pain in the ass, but he’s gonna do it”. Then I hear a confused, disembodied voice say “what was that?”.

Denis, who was on the speaker phone with a client, says “I’ll call you back” and hangs up. Hilarity ensues.

Should I be offended?

In two weeks we are hosting an annual conference, where representatives of each of our clients come and spend a week in Montreal, review developments and attend meetings. Two years ago at this conference I made a speech about recent developments in documentation and training.

This year, I’ve been invited to help in the following fashion: I’m to take the spouses shopping, and on a tour of Montreal.

Hey, I love the idea of getting paid to shop, but shouldn’t they have gotten more of a girly girl for that?

On my way home from Bill’s on Friday night, I decided to follow the race’s itinerary to see where the uphill parts would be, and plan where I would need to pace myself. The thing started at the Tamtam site on Park, then west on Pine, up Côte-des-Neiges (the scary part) past the Oratory and U de M and back through Outremont. I went to bed early, worrying I hadn’t eaten adequately. The night was restless, and I kept dreaming I forgot my pledge money, I got up late, I forgot my bib, my timing chip, I got lost, hurt my knee, etc.

Got to the race early and watched as hundreds of “serious runners” in high tech gear were drinking high tech sportsdrinks and going through elaborate preparatory routines. “What have I gotten myself into?” I thought, remembering my stupid little training routine (2-3 times around Parc Lafontaine, 2-3 times a week) and my pizza dinner of the night before. I munched on a power bar and tried not to think of the Côte-des-Neiges hill.

Then they announced that the medal ceremony would be at 10 am, one hour after start time. I was planning on taking 1h10 just to do the race! I reminded myself that my personal goal was just to finish it. I wondered in what state I would finish, if I did.

And then it started. And before I knew it, the Côte-des-Neiges bugaboo loomed ahead. Amazingly, it turned out to be the most encouraging part of the run! I was surprised to see many of the “serious runners” stopping, panting, walking, stretching all along the hill. As I slowly jogged up, my mind kept thinking “I’m not the worst!? I’m not the worst!”

And the rest was pure fun. Crossed the finish line at one hour, two minutes and couldn’t stop repeating “I’m so happy! I’m so happy!”. Can’t wait for the next one.

So I head over chez Bill for movies and ‘za tonight. I ring the bell, she comes down the stairs not realizing I can’t see her through the window. So she feels the need to explain “Sorry I was holding my bosom there, but I took off my bra before”. I reply, “Ew. So you mean the only thing between your guys and me is…” and she says, “NOTHING!”, suddenly flashing me.

I scream briefly, then say “uh, uh, erm… uh… (long pause) how do I say this… I’M BLOGGING THAT”.

You know, the only other people I’ve ever encountered who had sudden urges to flash were some weird kids in grade school. Bill is over 30. Imagine how weird she was in grade school.

Tomorrow morning is my 10K run. I was quite stiff this week from Ultimate. People looked at me a little strangely when I gathered sponsorships for the run, seeing as I walked kinda funny, sometimes hardly at all. Nevertheless, this little adventure has allowed me to raise 271.55$ for the Telethon, and to get myself into hopefully good-enough shape. Thing is, I trained mostly by doing laps around Parc Lafontaine, and every time I did the Rachel segment, I would look at Mont Royal, which seemed like Kilimanjaro, and think “maybe I should have trained for hills”. But it’ll be okay. I hope.

Off I go for an evening with Bill, lots of carbs and water.

Over Victoria Day weekend, my friend Mimi went to Tim Hortons in Cornwall, and ordered Turkey and Wild Rice soup, and a donut. The donut was stale, and the soup had – I love this – a feather in it. Disgusted, Mimi complained to the staff who took her number and promised the manager would call her. He didn’t. Mimi has now written to Tim Hortons corporate, and awaits an answer.

Last year, lightspeedmom wrote to Superclub Videotron, to point out that films were too often considered “new releases” many months after their video release. She used the central web address that was on the plastic bag to get in touch with them. She got a badly spelled reply from the local manager who berated her for writing to the corporate headquarters instead of talking to him.

Last summer, T was bitching about how Cool FM had great programming in its first six months, but promptly became another CKMF – a change of formula they proudly trumpeted. I encouraged him to write a letter to express his disappointment, and an eloquent and respectful letter he wrote. No reply.

I also got no reply when I wrote to Expedia, a company through which I book a LOT of travel, personal and business. I told them that as a faithful client, I was disappointed that residents of Quebec were never eligible to enter the contests in which they raffled off trips.

See, I like the idea that with the Internet, it has become easier for consumers to express themselves to large corporations. My question is, does it work? I would imagine that companies would love to hear from us, if only because it’s not good business to do otherwise. And I believe that so much, that I think the experiences cited above are exceptions. Am I right? Have you ever written to a relatively large company and received more than a form reply?

Hey Mimi, if not the donuts, at least we know the soup was fresh…

UPDATE: As I was writing this, Mimi forwarded me an answer she got from Tim Hortons. They were very apologetic (they were “shocked” about the feather) and thankful for the feedback. They wanted to be provided with more details to investigate the matter further. Well, what do you know…

No matter how many new MP3s I add to my various playlists, it seems the same songs keep coming up over and over again. So today, I decided to take all of them, regardless of theme, stick them in a monster playlist and put the whole thing on random shuffle. A kind of feel-good rainy Thursday mix.

Note to self: don’t mix The Offspring, Joe Dassin, Radiohead, Benny Goodman, Claude Dubois and The Bangles on a full stomach.