Funny and scary at the same time.

Odd how much different it feels when a human recognizes me personally from when the recognition is mediated by technology.

The first time the clerk at the dry cleaner shop went for the clothes before I gave her the ticket, saying, "You're Lois's husband, right?" I felt gratified.

On the other hand, one time I needed to replace a tire on our car to match the ones we had bought a year earlier in a big-box store, and told the guy at the desk, "Oops, I left the note with the specs in the car. Let me go back and get it."

He said, "No need. I can look it up." And he did, on the computer. Somehow it felt spooky that our tire-buying habits are archived in an electronic file. Convenient but spooky.

Human beings who live in small nomadic groups or in villages of 150 or fewer expect little or no privacy. Maybe we're headed back in that direction. Makes me paranoid just thinking about it.

"Club cards" make me paranoid... Randall's (Safeway), CVS, and a few others: they give you a discount if you let them track your purchases. That bothers me, so I try not to shop at those places.

I hate it when they ask for my phone number when I'm buying stuff.

BF collects coins. I ordered him a silver eagle, collector's coin, that he asked me for, from some coin place or other. They called me this morning.

Caller: Is this Flynne?

Me: Yes.

Caller: You ordered this blah blah coin?

Me: Yes.

Caller: Well, based on blah, blah, we think you'd be interested in blah blah coin..

Me: It's a birthday present for my BF.

Caller (confused): Oh really? Well, if you could give me...

Me: Nope, can't.

hangs up phone. If BF wants something else from these people, he knows how to get it.

Yeah it's lame the way these people want your info. Here's the solution: fight technology with technology. Get a google voice & use that for your spam phone number. Get a spare gmail account and then funnel that to a filter in your real gmail account that bypasses your inbox. Give this info to intrusive retailers. If actually need anything they send you, the search features will let you find it. Otherwise, your real stuff is undisturbed.