Swine flu or your FW:

This will be brief(ish) and paranoid.

I hate FW: emails, especially when you know they're going to be something idiotic that you've seen before (when you were young and still opening them).  I've been saying for about a year that if I wanted to spread a computer virus quickly across the US, I would package it in an email with puppies, angels, possibly something holiday themed, add a paragraph of good cheer or a clever but predictable surprise ending to some story, and perhaps demand that you send it back if you are really my friend and probably name it something like "Inspiration" or perhaps "An Angel For You".

While my gut tells me some of this really is 40+ white ladies who have learned to use the e-mail sending around things that make their friends smile and think of them, some is also a lot of it is just a means to distribute low or medium level viruses, trackers, cookies, trojans, whatever.  Thus, unless it's something funny and (personal) and not a forward, don't even bother sending it to me, it's going in the trash.  Like swine flu, FW:s tend to be a disease that hits the youth and elderly pretty hard.  Children seem to become immune to it at some point, but older folks often will iron-grip this genre of email til the end.  Would Jesus send this email to 10 people to prove he believes in his own magical powers?  Doubtful.  He might have better things to do than wasting his valuable time forwarding dancing cherubs to his contact list.  In this case, if J-man isn't trying to give me a computer STD, neither should you.

Come to think of it, every time I receive a different rendition of a video in my inbox of someone dancing in a leotard to "single ladies" that also feels like a virus, but of the stomach variety.  It was only hot when Justin and Andy did it...

Oh, and un, forward this on to 15 people before 10pm tonight and I'll send you a prize!  Seriously!  This one lady didn't do it and her friends MISSED OUT AND IT WAS TERRRRRRRRIBLE!