(Originally Written Tuesday, February 7th, 2006)

Hey Hoss, time to learn the rules of MSN.

Online means online. When you're set to online it's because you want people to talk to you.

Busy means you are in the room (or at least in the same building as the computer). It means you don't want people to talk to you but that you want to talk to certain people if you need them.

Be right back means you've gone to get the door or something and literally means you'll be right back. It's the wrong setting if you're going to be away for more than fifteen minutes.

Away means you are not in the same room. I'll repeat this one YOU ARE NOT IN THE SAME ROOM. Good for class.

On the phone should be pretty obvious as should out to lunch.

Appear offline is for when you want to be offline but don't want to sign out and sign back in again later.

Because of this I only talk to people who are set to online on MSN. If you're set to busy or on the phone I'll talk to you but only if you start the conversation. Anyone talks to me while they're away I'll just ignore them. Of late the away thing is my pet peeve. But this is good, you may like this. One of my...let's call her acquaintance because friend is not a good word for her, sent these messages when I was set to away and when my screen name was "be back at 6:00". I took out her name for her sake.

A: hi 

Me: AutoMessage: I'm in class, I should back 'round 530 or so. Leave me a message.

A: how do u think you did on your exam1? 

A: do I seriously have to go "online" for you to talk to me? 

A: ???? 

A: you stink.. hahah no you dont.. but message me back whenever you get this 

A: ????? 

A: ???? 

Me, five hours later: Hey. The reason I didn't answer you was cause I was away. That's actually the reason that I had my status set to away. Cause I wan't here. 

I know, I know. I’m probably asking for too much here. It’s like if I told everyone to switch to Yahoo! Messenger. I would tell you that it’s better and you would say MSN is better. I would tell you that YIM (Yahoo! Instant Messenger) loads faster, has free avatars (as opposed to the Bluenotes pay for ones you get from MSN) comes with an online radio attached to it (MSN only allows you to display you’re current song, YIM lets you listen to the radio for free), gives you free voice and web cam (so does MSN but the box is much smaller for MSN and there’s a voice lag), and of course offers the same things as MSN (picture sharing, online picture sharing, online blogs, etc, etc, etc). The counter argument is the same thing. “But my friends use MSN”. Sure YIM is better in every conceivable way but MSN is more used. It’s out standing. It’s like Betamax tapes! (For the uninitiated, Betamax tapes are just as good as the VHS tapes the DVD has now replaced. The only difference is that back then you couldn’t record VHS tapes with a video camera but you could record with a Betamax).

So what’s the point of today’s long rant? The major points you should get from reading this are as follows. One, don’t abuse the MSN away thing, or rather do and I won’t talk to you. Two, get Yahoo! Instant Messenger and get your friends to get it too. I have it, have had it for years. My address is bobba_g2002 is you feel like adding me. Lastly don’t write long LJ rants before supper because low blood sugar makes you angry…or at least makes me angry. I’m going to go eat now.

I showed this rant to a friend before posting it. She asked me why I didn’t just boycott MSN and tell people if they want to talk to me to use YIM. That’s a really stupid question, Anne. No one is going to switch on my account. I mean, come on. Hardly anyone talks to me on MSN as it is. Stupid Anne.

Love, as always,

THE DOCTOR