11-18-2013, 05:21 PM | #961 |
Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Not where I want to be ...
Posts: 15,254
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Grrrr! stupid aggressive telemarketers! They're irritating enough, but there are some decent ones out there ... aaaaand there are the really nasty ones. This guy called and tried to sell me on home improvements with a non-stop monologue (how did he breathe?) I finally broke in and said that we had a handicapped child and we were in debt from major medical stuff. He said "well, that's no problem because I show you're pre qualified for credit!" I said that we didn't need to get into more debt, and no thank you. He said oh, it's no problem at all, you really need these improvements to make your house worth more, and just kept aggressively talking. Most people will at least say oh I'm sorry for your medical issues, but NO, this was one of those truly obnoxious people. I said "and get into MORE debt?! Goodbye!" and hung up. Grrrrrr!
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. I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ñá ë?* óú éä ïöü Öñ É Þ ð ß ® ç å ™ æ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lómë! Aurë entuluva! |
11-18-2013, 05:55 PM | #962 |
Half-Elven Princess of Rabbit Trails and Harp-Wielding Administrator (beware the Rubber Chicken of Doom!)
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Not where I want to be ...
Posts: 15,254
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and another grrr - government officials! We're trying to start getting some benefits for our handicapped son because of the overwhelming medical costs, so I call a number and tell them that he is handicapped - he has no legs, but he is fine mentally - so they transfer me to developmental disabilities! (i.e., mental disabilities). Maybe because they thought his legs didn't "develop"?
Anyway, after about 7 phone calls, I finally got someone that knew something, and I think we might be able to get some help!
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. I should be doing the laundry, but this is MUCH more fun! Ñá ë?* óú éä ïöü Öñ É Þ ð ß ® ç å ™ æ ♪ ?* "How lovely are Thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts! ... For a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand outside." (from Psalm 84) * * * God rocks! Entmoot : Veni, vidi, velcro - I came, I saw, I got hooked! Ego numquam pronunciare mendacium, sed ego sum homo indomitus! Run the earth and watch the sky ... Auta i lómë! Aurë entuluva! |
11-19-2013, 01:30 PM | #963 |
Elf Lady
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In the lands where mountains are but a fairytale
Posts: 8,588
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Well, that last part is good at least.
I never listen to telemarketeers. And if they won't let me tell them so politely, I hang up.
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Love always, deeply and true ★ Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. ★ Friendship is sharing openly, laughing often, trusting always, caring deeply.
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11-20-2013, 08:29 AM | #964 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: N?n in Eilph (Belgium)
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God, annoying telemarketeers, I hear you.
I'm always polite because, hey, they've got a job to do. But sometimes... Last time I had a woman on the phone who was trying to scare people into ordering tap water analyses from them. I politely tried to decline. But no.... not good enough. She tried to up the scare factor, did I know what was in the water?! Now, I studied water recycling and treatment in college pretty close-up, so frankly I know what was in the tapwater and even how it's treated. Maybe I should have said that instead, but I tried to be shorter and less arrogant so I said we cook our water anyway. And then she was like but OMG you throw away all the good minerals and nutrients! At that point I thought: nutrients? In teawater?! Weren't you the one trying to convince me in the first place that our tap water was poisonous? Seriously? So I gave up and told her I was going to hang up and wished her a nice day. I fumed about it quite a bit later, the gall of some people, trying to scare people off tap water so they can make lots of money off people's fear. Water analyses aren't exactly cheap, depending on their scope. |
11-24-2013, 08:09 AM | #965 |
Princess of the Noldor (and Administrative Empress of the Lone Islands)
Join Date: Apr 2008
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So what is the nutritional value of poison?
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11-28-2013, 08:47 AM | #966 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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Yeah. Heck, in toxicology everything's a poison, depending on the dose. An overdose of just plain water can kill and has. Vitamins too. But I don't think she knew that much of this. I suspect she got cooking vegetables and cooking water mixed up. She obviously had heard something about cooking removing nutrients but didn't appear to remember how it quite worked.
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12-30-2013, 03:36 PM | #967 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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'Dear' customs officer,
A hefty and very obviously totally arbitrary 'import tax' is just what I needed to make my holidays complete! I'm almost surprised none of contents of the package stayed behind in your sticky bureaucratic fingers. Legalised theft appears to come quite naturally to you, after all. Heck, I guess I should count myself lucky you were satisfied with a whooping third of the package's value. Could easily have been more. I hope you enjoy your thirty pieces of silver. Happy new year and kindly go and sit on something sharp. |
12-30-2013, 06:50 PM | #968 | |
Salt Miner
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: gone to Far Harad
Posts: 987
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Quote:
Unless of course your item is an electronics good, in which case my government will divert it for a few days in order to insert some kind of malware into it. Merry Christmas! |
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12-31-2013, 08:04 AM | #969 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
Join Date: Jan 2002
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I think you misunderstood me. It was ordered online and shipped as it was a special item I never would have found in any store here. But since it arrived from abroad, it goes through customs all the same. I could see on the tracking website my package had been at customs for almost a week, so I had already an inkling something was up. (Funny how you can see a package whisking across an entire continent in mere days, while it will sit at the border of a tiny, tiny country for longer than it took to traverse a continent.)
The nasty thing is that customs can get the post office to demand their taxes for them. Meaning you get your mail man at the door with the package in hand and he can't release it to you unless you pay the custom tax. You can't yell or complain at your post man because he can't do a bloody thing about it either. All you can do is shut up, pay and grumble about it later. The thing is mostly, I don't mind paying taxes when they're due, but these were so obviously random and excessive. They claimed it was a VAT charge but I've had similar items shipped with no charge so it isn't the item itself that triggered the taxation and VAT on them should have been only 6% on the main item and 21% on the rest, not a bloody 33%. Also I only seem to be charged these taxes around new year which makes no sense other than customs officers wanting to reach target quota instead of applying actual rules. The last thing is... disturbing. If that's what happened to my other package, I wish the NSA good luck in loading malware on what were to be my nephew's wooden dinosaur toys... |
12-31-2013, 01:21 PM | #970 | |
Salt Miner
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Quote:
You can’t blame them for trying, right? |
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12-31-2013, 07:55 PM | #971 |
High King at Annuminas Administrator
Join Date: Oct 2003
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Sorry. Got them working for me on where you keep all your chocolate.
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My Fanfic: Letters of Firiel Tales of Nolduryon Visitors Come to Court Ñ á ë ?* ó ú é ä ï ö Ö ñ É Þ ð ß ® ™ [Xurl=Xhttp://entmoot.tolkientrail.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=ABCXYZ#postABCXYZ]text[/Xurl] Splitting Threads is SUCH Hard Work!! |
01-02-2014, 05:23 PM | #972 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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I'll be keeping my eyes on them toys (they actually arrived on new year's eve) just in case an antennae to transmit data pops up when they think no one's watching. But if the eyes suddenly start to glow red, they've probably installed Skynet by accident instead and we're all doomed anyway.
Hah, good luck with that one. You think I'd risk crossing the border with that?! With them impoundhappy custom people?! Nosirree. |
01-02-2014, 05:39 PM | #973 |
Elf Lady
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In the lands where mountains are but a fairytale
Posts: 8,588
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You've been watching too much Dr. Who :P
My cats just tortured (and hopefully for it) killed a fly. They are such tigers when their opponents are much smaller than them and can fly :roll:
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Love always, deeply and true ★ Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. ★ Friendship is sharing openly, laughing often, trusting always, caring deeply.
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01-02-2014, 06:35 PM | #974 | |
Salt Miner
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Quote:
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01-03-2014, 11:38 AM | #975 |
Elf Lady
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Posts: 8,588
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Good lord, I hope someone starts using their brain before implementing that one! o_O
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Love always, deeply and true ★ Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. ★ Friendship is sharing openly, laughing often, trusting always, caring deeply.
...The Earth laughs in flowers ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"... |
01-06-2014, 08:44 AM | #976 | ||
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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Maaaaybe.
But still. Government and software are not a match made in heaven. Quote:
(I should really stop calling her kitten, she's twelve, even if she 's just smaller than the boys.) Quote:
But then, if it is true that the nuclear launchcodes in America were for a long time 0000... I stick to my previous point about governments and software. |
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01-06-2014, 02:06 PM | #977 |
Elf Lady
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In the lands where mountains are but a fairytale
Posts: 8,588
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*nods in agreement*
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Love always, deeply and true ★ Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. ★ Friendship is sharing openly, laughing often, trusting always, caring deeply.
...The Earth laughs in flowers ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"... |
04-16-2014, 08:14 AM | #978 |
The Chocoholic Sea Elf Administrator
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Gaah, I think I pulled a muscle. Hurts so freaking much when I cough. And I need to be lugging full cardboard boxed around in two days. Gaaaah.
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04-16-2014, 12:44 PM | #979 |
Elf Lord
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: The Internet
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I’m feeling discouraged by the fact that I will have to work much harder (an estimated 2.5 x more productive) than my white male peers in order to have the same opportunities in my field (synthetic organic chemistry). Unless something drastic happens in the next few years (and culture shifts are never drastic). I'll have worked an average of 80 hours/week for around 10 years, only to very likely be held back by something outside my control.
I know that if this is really what I want then all I can do is to keep trying my best. But small reminders of continued inequality are bringing me down. And these reminders are only getting more frequent as I advance to higher levels.
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04-16-2014, 02:01 PM | #980 |
Elf Lady
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: In the lands where mountains are but a fairytale
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I'm sorry, Earn. That's no fun. Good luck with the lugging!
TolkienFan, what kind of inequality do you mean? I'm afraid I can't really picture it. Education is pretty equal most of the time.
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Love always, deeply and true ★ Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. ★ Friendship is sharing openly, laughing often, trusting always, caring deeply.
...The Earth laughs in flowers ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Hamatreya"... |
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