Column: Spamalama ding dong

About once a week I will go through my spam folders to check to see if I might have missed anything someone may have sent.

Every once in a while I catch something that is important and it is well worth it even if I have navigate through a mess of strange emails. I have four addresses that I use, and earlier today I went through all of them. While trying to delete some of the messages today I found some I had missed from letters to the editor prior to the election in November so I still miss stuff, but I usually find it before its too late.

It was interesting to see some of the things people have sent in a matter of 24 hours. Just today I had someone talking about how the biggest side affect of marijuana being dry mouth, someone sticking up for Greg Gianforte, a person bad mouthing Greg Gianforte, a coupon for a Chinese place I've never eaten at, a $500,000 business loan proposal, a coupon for a potato with a personal message, 'four super hot girls' who want to meet me and of course the Nigerian scam. The list goes on and on, but those are some of the interesting ones.

There were also the emails that are from what appears to be a known sender, but is usually a virus. I learned the hard way never to open a zip folder from someone you know with no explanation behind why they sent it. Viruses can be nasty and difficult for everyone involved.

It's great in this day and age that there is spam filters because it truly does help.

It would however be great if we could get some of those filters applied to all aspects of life.

There are plenty of do not call lists, but it never seems to work for the business phone at the Ledger. There are at least five times a day when someone who can barely speak English asks for the business owner. There are also the times when someone asks for the lady of the house, which is a really strange thing to ask for when calling a business. Maybe they think they called a brothel? In the day and age of VOP phones, a lot of phone calls that shouldn't slip through.

It used to be cell phones were safe from the drama of calling, but I'm starting to get this call where a female caller says that she dropped her headset and offers a great vacation deal.

The filter would also be great just being out in public, especially on vacation. If someone is going to be rude at front desk of a hotel, they could be filtered out and the next employee could assist me. Would probably eliminate the really awkward conversations we all have in public.

I'm not huge on small talk, but will chat with people I don't know sometimes as long as it doesn't get weird. At that point I want to run far away. I had someone come into the office the other day and started to tell me about UFO's. I was slightly amused at first, but when he started getting into detail I really wish I had my spam folder.