I almost feel bad when I choose to unsubscibe from email lists. It becomes part of the daily life experience to get solicitations from MusicToday, MusicFirst, MusicDirect, DirectMusic, InSound, mYOUsic, iTunes, MusicGuy, TunesDirect, Muzak, etc. Then it's gone and a part of me misses it. These hard-working companies just want my money and then I go and tell them to stop doing their jobs. It probably hurts their feelings.

Of course, things don't always end without some lingering feelings. My latest canceled subscription was for a flowers website, and a very nice one at that. I have used their services a couple of times in the past and very likely would in the future, but I don't send flowers very often. Virtually never, actually. When I do, however, I know where to go order them. The reminder to celebrate Independence with a bouquet of USDA organic carnations is uneeded, as is a reminder to show Mom how much you really love her with a dozen roses from a small garden in Himalayas.

A little bit of guilt did creep in, though, with their automated response to my unsubscibe request. It basically read, "We have fulfilled your request. We apologize for any inconvenience you might have been caused." A small part of me wanted to cancel my request and sign up for as many flower-based email notifications as I could, just as a way of thanking them for being so polite. I didn't, however.

Inconvenience? They're taking it a bit hard I think. While it may have occasionally been less-then-exciting to see a new email pop up on my computer or phone, only to find out that Valentine's is only 174 days away and it's never too early to start planning, I never saw myself as "inconvenienced". If it had been that bad all along, I would have unsubscribed months ago. Yes, I'm rationalizing my ultimately futile efforts to make things work out between me and the flower company email list.

Life is all about streamlining these days.

Sorry, I would write more, but the Cleveland Indians just reminded me via email to vote for Grady Sizemore's inclusion in this year's All-Star Game. Duty calls.

Contentedness is a strange thing, a relative and strange thing. It can dissolve stress, alter personalities, promote world peace...you get the idea. It's easy to let one bad thing overshadow many great things, but the inverse is also possible, albeit more difficult. Sometimes a couple of good things can go a long way, even if they're seemingly insignificant. OK, this little "moment of introspection" is now over.

Building on a previous entry, today featured some more valuable training at work that will help prevent me from running red lights, driving while intoxicated and intentionally endangering myself and others. I haven't even broached sexual harrassment training, but I know its coming soon enough. I could hear a video in the other room with such award-winning lines as "Hey Jane, how about we hang out after work" and "Hey Jane, you're looking good in that green dress".

To sum up today's lessons:

"Hijackers and their accomplices sometimes lie in the road as a ploy to attack unsuspecting motorists. Be wary of stopping in these situations."

Maybe sometimes the hijacker is meant to get you. It might be the only way.

Why can't "good ice" just be the "normal ice" from now on? I've never worked in food service, so maybe there's a really good reason. Do those type of icemakers cost more? Does it not go well with certain types of drinks? Does that ice melt faster?

I think most everyone is familiar with the "good ice" by now. Each of the past two days, I have overheard people during lunch at adjacent tables commenting on the restaurant we were in having "good ice" or as one person called it, "Sonic ice". If you didn't know what I was talking about before, maybe you do now. It's those little pieces of ice that are somewhat barrel-shaped, or if you'd like a completely random reference, shaped like Cap'n Crunch cereal. It's the "crunchy" ice, but not crunchy in the will-destroy-your-teeth-and-line-your-dentist's-pocket kind of way. While it is crunchy, I'd also say it's "fluffy" in a way.

At this point, if you still don't know what I'm talking about, you can stop reading for now. Go ask the first person you see to give a better explanation of "crunchy fluffy barrel-shaped Cap'n Crunch Sonic ice" and see what they say.

Surely someone in an important position with restaurants and other ice-dispensing facilities across America thinks that this ice is the good ice. If everyone made an effort to have the good ice, then places that didn't have it would stick out and people could start choosing their dining options based on that criteria. It could rank up there with type of food, price and quality as a sole determining factor on where a nice meal would be enjoyed.

I know I always think better of a food establishment when it has good ice. Of course Sonic has proven that good ice goes well with any of their 1831* drink combinations, but many others have seen the light, including my lunch destinations of the past two days. I just don't like feeling like I'm having to "drink around" my cubes of ice and invariably, you're going to have those big chunks of ice stuck in the bottom of the cup, poised for an avalanche onto your mouth area when you tip too far.

Franklin, Tennessee is clearly a city on the move.

*Note: I can't remember how many flavor combinations Sonic has. This is a nice number, though.

I'm not sure what is more repetitious and less fun, quitting a job or starting a new one. Certainly there are fun elements in both, but the constant answering of the same questions over and over is less than enjoyable. At least the questions on both ends are pretty easy to answer, but I wonder if it starts to show that I've obviously got a rehearsed answer for pretty much anything.

I've thought about answering every single person differently, but never in front of other people who got a different answer. It would be a nice experiment to see how long it would take for people to ask me why I didn't mention my 3 children before, or what it was really like living in a cave in Maine. Eventually I would gain a reputation around the office as a pathological liar, or better yet, a social outcast that should be avoided at all costs and mocked constantly in private/public conversation. That doesn't sound like "career development", though.

If people began to avoid me, though, I wouldn't be able to be instructed on how to do everyday tasks that clearly I have no concept of. It's great how starting a new job is seen the same way as being born unto this world. All of sudden, all knowledge of things like making copies, turning on computers and locking doors is completely lost. Obviously most people are just being helpful and that's an icebreaker of sorts since the world is so politically correct now that people are afraid to talk about things that are actually interesting. I have yet to be asked straight-forward human interest things like where I went to school, how old I am, if I'm married, etc. I guess these are loaded questions these days and clearly I'm sensitive to answering them. Instead we talk about computer screen resolution, the sturdiness of cubicle walls and whether or not you key in two zeroes at the beginning of the client number on the copy machine.