'Twas the Night Before Christmas

'Twas the night before Christmas, and my blog was amiss
Not one Morris(s) was lurking, neither Partee nor Chris;
The posts were written and developed with care,
In hopes that commenters soon would be here;

The Twitterers were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of trackbacks danced in their heads;
And me in my helmet, and rossgram in his hat,
Had just settled down for a virtual chat;

When on my Skype App there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the keyboard to see what was the matter.
Forty-three windows were closed in a flash,
Along with sixty-five firefox tabs clogging my cache.

The screen paled my skin with its ghastly glow,
As those with with 12Seconds most assuredly know,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a collection of friends, I highly revere.

With a little old driver, so lively and keen,
I knew in a moment it must be Trey Reeme.
More rapid than a Trabian cursor they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

"Now, SHARI! now, SHEVLIN! now, HARDIN and BLISHEN!
On, DIXON! on ROBBIE! on, WYMORE and WILLIAM!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"

As sharp as a Pilcher and kind as a Ginny,
As playful as Jimmy and as cute as Mac Mini;
So up on my screen this collection they flew,
With a sleigh full of comments, and a few laughs too.

And then, in a twinkling, I saw on my screen
A beautiful picture from Kelly and Matt Dean.
Just one of many beautiful kids born this year,
To Hostettlers, and Reemes, and Trotters, and Chatfields (soon, I hear).

As Gracie and Landon and Avie reveal,
Friendships on Twitter are most certainly real.
Comments and tweets and trackbacks are great,
But connections with people carry the web's most weight.

I sprang to my bed, gave my wife a big kiss,
And she whispered softly "Is there something I missed?"
"I'll blog about it later if I find time to write,
HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!"

(I'm not much on rhyming, so sorry if I didn't put your name in here. No disrespect was meant. For example, you try rhyming Gerbino, Williams, LaFlamme, McAlpine, Henkel, Garland, McSpadden, Randolph, or Meek with...well, anything.)

Pizza Hut Requires SPAM Opt-In?

Pizza Hut has decided forced email opt-in is perfectly acceptable for customers who choose to order online. News flash: this tactic is not acceptable at all.

I couldn't imagine requiring my credit union members to sign up for our electronic newsletter just to be able to use our drive-through windows. Or, what if my grocery store required me to give them my email address to use the 12 Items or Less checkout lane? Would that be OK for you? Of course not.

Nonetheless, that's exactly the type of thing Pizza Hut is doing to customers who attempt to order online. At the end of the PizzaHut.com registration Page 1 (of 2), you are required to opt-in to receive email solicitations, offers, etc. from the red roofed pizza giant. Are you kidding me?! Forced opt-in to SPAM?!? For making your job easier?!?

Pizza Hut has every right to ask for permission to send me marketing material - I don't blame them for that at all. What in the world makes them think, however, that forcing me to "receive information about Pizza Hut® coupons, promotions, announcements, events and specials" is OK?

Not only am I not going to accept that agreement, I'm going to go find something else to eat...like a Papa John's pizza.