Nooo! I don’t have the wrong number! Give me Bob!

Here I go again, babbling about wrong numbers. No, it’s not about what we say when someone else gets a wrong number, or people not listening to answering machines in people’s homes. This one happens very rarely, but it happens. I volunteer at a Distress line, a phone line that people phone when they’re upset, need help of some kind, or are outright at the end of their rope. I also have to answer another line that people phone if they need emergency shelter. I answer this line by saying, “Emergency shelter line.” This becomes important.

I picked up this line the other day, and answered it just the way I said I do. The voice on the other line didn’t miss a beat. He said, “Yeah can I speak to Robert?” Sometimes people get confused when they call this line. They think we are one of the shelters or that we can connect them with individual people at agencies. So I asked him where Robert worked. He said, “Oh, is this not RME Engineering?” Does RME Engineering sound anything like Emergency Shelter Line? Come on, it wasn’t like he called somewhere and the person just said, “Hello?” I swear people are in their own little worlds nowadays. But, should this surprise me? No.

I’ve also had telemarketers call the distress line trying to sell me magazines. I understand some of them aren’t actually able to hear you until a couple seconds later, but this one could definitely hear me. There was no pause, no automated dialing. He would have heard what I said. If I ever have the misfortune of being a phone drone, if I ever dial a number where the person answering says “Distress Line,” I will just apologize, say I have the wrong number, and move on. Really, there’s no hope of a sale. The most you’re going to get is a stern explanation that you’re tying up an important line and a quick goodbye.

Some people insist they in fact have the right number. That’s fun. I had a friend whose number was just slightly different than the university, and they got so many irate people yelling “Why aren’t you answering the phone like the university?” It happened every day. They even had to put the university’s number on their answering machine because I guess they got a few irate messages too. Come on people! If they’re not answering the phone like the university, news flash, they probably *aren’t* the university!

So, are people going deaf? Do we all mumble when we’re answering the phone? What is it?

The Warbling Whore is Gone!

I can explain I can explain. I know at least one person besides Steve and I will know what I’m talking about. Have you ever fallen asleep with CTV on and been awakened with a horrible start by this horrible singing at 6 a.m. Something about…if the sun, doesn’t shine, to mo rooooo? I can’t synthesize the horror of that song when you’re sleeping. Sometimes, the same voice bellows something like, I’ll be way-ay-ay-aiting! I know the first time Steve and I heard that little number, Steve jumped up and shut off the TV. I woke up because he jumped up so fast and asked him what was wrong. He said something like, “I’m trying to shut off that warbling whore!” I think those obnoxious songs have something to do with War Amps, but I’m not sure. At any rate, she’s awful. I’d have to wonder if being shaken awake by the test pattern would be more pleasant.

But this morning, after falling asleep with the TV on, when it came time for her to sing, something else came on! Maybe, just maybe, she’s gone! Let’s hope! After that attrocity, even those Body Break things are a relief!

The Return of the Gutless Wonder

I don’t know if anyone remembers my post about a girl aledging a police officer sexually assaulted her, not filing a formal complaint, bitching when the Special Investigations Unit didn’t come to her doorstep to take her statement and then practically convicting the guy she accused of assaulting her by throwing crap all over the net aboutit, including his name.

Well, the Special Investigations Unit did eventually end up coming to her doorstep and taking her statement, they did a four-month investigation, and they came to the same conclusion that I think everyone did that heard this twisted tale. They actually worded their conclusion quite strongly. They said the alligations were false. Not unsubstantiated, but false. As in “nope, absolutely didn’t happen. Move along, nothin’ to see here.”

You can tell the police chief is tired of this whole thing. I mean, she has not made her side look credible at all. People representing her have been seen downtown burning effigies of this police officer. A fine way to make your side look logical, calm, and rational. She has made veiled threats that if the investigation doesn’t go well, there may be retaliation. Now it’s over, and I’ll admit what he said in the paper sounded a little over the top. He said something to the effect of, “the officer has suffered the most anguish in this whole thing.” If I could see inside the girl’s head and knew that she was lying, then I’d agree with him. But if there was a chance that she still believed it happened, even though it never did, but it was the way she felt, that’s kind of a presumptuous statement to make.

She doesn’t know when a game is over, though. She said to a reporter in an email that it just proves that you can do whatever you want if you have a badge in this society. She says she’s going to pursue other avenues. It would have been nice if she’d actually taken the first step instead of the police taking it for her. She’d better watch out, because she may be in for a few surprise next steps on the police’s part. How long do you think it’ll be before she’s the defendent in a libel suit?

Boobytrapped! Update

I realize that tomorrow, the original post about this will drift off the main page. So, here’s a link to it again.

I got another email about it. They said they’d seriously look into why OCR software packages, packages that turn the printed word into text, thus into something the computer can read, demand the password and tell me what others can do if they want to read the same things. They even asked me for what package I use. Plus, they said they’d do a better job of describing their images with instructions like, “do like this.” on them. So, there’s hope. Hopefully that wasn’t webmaster speak for, “We’re doing nothing of the sort to change the site, but we’ll tell you we’re working on it so you’ll shut up and go away.” I don’t think so, though.