I’m always amused by the ads that pop up on my gmail. Privacy advocates like to cry about how I’m surrendering my liberties and being exploited by advertising magnates, but for me, it’s really pretty entertaining–what off-the-wall ads will I be served today? They must be successful, these crazy ads that appear, but I wonder what people are thinking when they click.  Are they really looking for something, or just bored? Or curious?

I’m looking at a sponsored link right now: Are You a Good Sister? Take our quiz and find out for sure!

I can’t think that anyone legitimately believes that the almighty Mr. Internet can make that determination. I also happen to know (thanks to some days of serious boredom) that Mr. Internet won’t likely reveal his secrets in any event without a valid e-mail address that just may be later used to sell you some discount online pharmaceuticals.  Satisfy her tonight!

It’s a diversion, though; a cosmo quiz for the less risqué and desk-bound. Like the love match? Where you match your astrological sign up with your other’s sign and see how you line up? Yeah, I’ve tried that. Compulsively. I might even have it bookmarked. Not that I believe it; it’s just fun.

If my sponsored links and my own time-wasters are a fair sampling, there’s a lot of garbage on the Internet. This makes me wonder if all the recent hype about expanding the namespace is really worth it. At the Paris conference I was meant to go to last week, the gears started moving to allow new top-level domain registrations more easily; to allow dot-whatever because, the argument goes, there’s so much demand for new names and .com is running out. Whether or not people agree kept me occupied for most of the day. It’s on my brain, what can I say.

I think I’ll get a faster answer to whether or not I’m a good sister come Wednesday, when my youngest sister comes down from New York to spend an extended Fourth of July weekend being a tourist in a city that really goes all out this time of year. She’s an intern up in NYC this summer, and I intend to visit her … soon? But until then, I’m busy plotting our exploits here. I’m so so so excited to see her; it’s been since Christmas, which really is too long. It’s a strange shift to go from seeing someone every day, rain or shine, to living states and miles and highways apart. 

I haven’t yet decided whether or not I’m glad that she’s 21 now. Yes, we can go out—fun, to order a drink with my baby sister! But since she can go out, I feel like we will, all the time, just for the novelty of it. My sister can drink. Being 21 hasn’t changed anything but the venue, which sometimes worries me. I remember being an intern, and going out in the city every night; all the time, every night—it’s just what you did. Drinking till crazy hours, and still getting up for work the next morning. Summertime, fun bars, cool people. Party on!

Now, I hate to say it, but something of that shine has worn off. Going out and getting trashed every night? Not exactly my agenda. [Aside: when did I get all old and uncool? When did I start dreading youth’s knock on my door? WTF, self?]

I think we’ll draw a good balance; she really is a good kid. Just to cover the bases, though, I have now in plentiful stock here apartment-side (a) white wine; (b) vodka; (c) kahlua; (d) malibu. All of her favorites. On the nights we stay in, she can pour hers strong and sleep it off, and I can just take a taste and still be functional at work. A win-win.

Who knows, maybe I’ll put in a bid for a new website: magda.awesomesister. HA. Ahahaha.