Essemess!

All across the globe
We message with each other
And make pants vibrate.


I was noodling through my phone yesterday when I came across the text message templates that come standard on the device. For the most part, the templates make sense. There's "In a meeting right now" and "I'm busy right now, will call later." Each of these are great templates, as you would send them in times that you wouldn't necessarily want to spend a lot of time typing. In fact, out of the eleven standard templates, nine of them were logical choices. However, there are two options that I have to question:
1) Happy Birthday.
I realize that my selection of friends is not immense. Weeks will go by during which not a single person I know celebrates a birthday. However, when someone I know does have a birthday, I'm willing to take a few moments out of my life to type the words "happy birthday." To use a template that already says "happy birthday" seems cheap. I know that the recipient would never know that it was nothing more than a template, but still...
Perhaps this is different if you have some seven hundred thousand phone numbers in your phone and you find yourself sending 1900 "happy birthday" text messages every day. But honestly, how many of you fall into that category? That's what I thought.
2) I love you too.
If not taking the time to write "happy birthday" wasn't bad enough, this one is truly the mark of a terrible person. If a person is willing to admit their feelings towards you via text message, shouldn't you honor that with a non-template reply? Let your heart speak for itself - don't use some boilerplate response programed by a complete stranger.
Perhaps you use the "I love you too" template simply because you're inundated with messages that say "I love you." If that's the case, maybe you should rethink how you're living your life. Someone's gonna get hurt, Lothario, and there isn't a text message template that says "I'm sorry."

Anywho, I should be off. Before I depart, here's Today's Joke:
Dunkin' Donuts pulls Rachael Ray ad after Muslim scarf complaints
Dunkin' Donuts has pulled an online advertisement featuring Rachael Ray after complaints that a fringed black-and-white scarf that the celebrity chef wore in the ad offers symbolic support for Muslim extremism and terrorism.
The coffee and baked goods chain said the ad that began appearing online May 7 was pulled over the past weekend because "the possibility of misperception detracted from its original intention to promote our iced coffee."
Critics, including conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, complained that the scarf wrapped around her looked like a kaffiyeh, the traditional Arab headdress. Critics who fueled online complaints about the ad in blogs say such scarves have come to symbolize Muslim extremism and terrorism.
The ad and the resulting criticism is reminiscent of a 1980's Dunkin Donuts ad in which Julia Child sold donuts to a number of blindfolded diplomats, who responded with lines such as "Iran, Uran, we all ran to Dunkin Donuts!" and "I'm a hostage to the great taste of Dunkin Donuts!""


Huzzah!


Tomorrow!