Inner Dialogue
Most people think it's crazy to talk aloud to oneself (sans cellphone) but it came as a surprise to me that the idea of an inner dialogue is foreign to a lot of people as well.
I admit it: I'll occasionally say something to myself aloud - usually when I know no ones there to stare at me and think I'm crazy. Once a girl caught me saying "I-S Three hunn-ed" in a parking lot. I liked the sound of that. I'll mutter commercials to myself, usually to cheer myself up:
"Own one and then you'll understand."
"On the road of life there are passengers and there are drivers."
"It's not more than you need. It's more than you're used to -"
"Dogs love trucks."
"Yes you can."
"So you're sticking it to yourself?" (this one comes with the gesture)
But the thing I do rampantly that I thought was common is emailing myself. It started off in college when I realized that instead of putting a paper I'd written on a floppy disk and then taking it to the computer lab to print, I could just email it to myself and there it was for the printing when I got to the lab. Not only that but the storage was permanent, chronological, and searchable.
It's not unusual for me to send a few emails to myself each day: little reminders, websites that look interesting, phone numbers I cannot forget, even passwords for sites I'm trying out.
Actually, it goes a bit farther than that. I've made what I call a "shelving" system out of email. I've got a Yahoo! Email1 account that I've set up a filter on for any time a subject line contains "shelf:" When I see something interesting, but can't get to it, I shelve it. If I have an idea for something that I don't want to forget I shelve it. Permament storage, chronological, and searchable.
As wierd as people might think I am for maintaining an inner dialogue, I think people who don't are the ones who miss out.
1If you haven't had the chance to experience the new Yahoo! email beta, let me say this: Gmail, Hotmail, whatever - not even in the same league.
8:31:25 PM 
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