Chain, Chain, Chain....Chain of Fools.

I hate e-mail chain letters. Since I've worked in IT practically all of my professional career, (ok, just for the sake of argument, let's pretend for the duration of this post that I'm a professional and that I have a career) I've seen just about *every* e-mail ever forwarded to anyone since the day personal computers were invented.

They all annoy me, but for different reasons. Mostly I hate the ones that I've seen ten times, no matter how funny they are, but I also hate the ones that attempt to tug on the recipient's heart strings, or faith strings, or superstition strings. I will confess to getting a kick out of it when someone forwarded me my own JC Penney post, though. That was unexpected and pretty funny.

Sometimes, if the info in the forward is false or incorrectly attributed, I'll respond with a link to Snopes, or reference some other web site in an attempt to educate the person who sent me the stupid thing. My other pet peeve with these things is that I really, really, really hate links that automatically start playing music, especially when music isn't mentioned anywhere in the e-mail. One minute you're sitting there minding your own business, the next thing you know, Celine Dion is crapping in your ears.

One of my coworkers constantly gets religious and patriotic e-mail forwards from one of her friends or relatives -- I can't remember which -- and she takes great delight in sending them to me if they are extra religious-y, because she knows if there's one thing I love, it's having someone else's feel-good religious views in my face. (Even if said views are of my own religion.)

For instance, here's one she sent me today that combines religion, government, music and the reading speed of a 4th grader:

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To: Johnny Virgil

From: coworker

Subject: This is really awesome!

ANDREA BOCELLI...this is awesome

I DON'T KNOW WHO STARTED THIS BUT IT GAVE ME GOOSE-BUMPS

When the screen fills up with words, then the words tumble to the bottom and new words start up again at the top of the screen.

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Pray%20For%20America/index.htm

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Because I don't like to click on stuff like this from my work PC, I sent it to my home address. Later that night, I clicked on the link, listened to the song and read along until glowing Jesus made his appearance. After that happened, all I could think about was this:

I'm pretty sure that was the gist of the message, anyway.

Also, I should totally make that into a T-shirt.