Audio: ticked off at telemarketers!

(As I wrote this, I felt the need to SAY what I was writing... it took me the whole frigging day to figure out how to record *and* how to upload it onto the blog. Ugh! But I managed! Yay! So to listen to this post, click here! (Then click play on the Yahoo!MediaPlayer console) Enjoy!

When we moved to Springfield over 2 years ago, we very quickly found out that the phone number the phone company gave us had previously been 'owned' by one "Morten Harket" (not his real name, obviously) (anyone actually know who this is? -- No Googling!!).

Reverse Look Up told me that Mr Harket was a rather old person who lived in downtown Springfield, while all the telemarketing calls we received for him indicated he suffered from poor health. I speculated that he had passed away recently, and that the phone company had immediately recycled his number instead of letting it 'cool' for a bit.

At first it was just annoying, getting all these calls for Morten. I would politely say that we just got assigned the number; no, I have no idea how to contact him; please remove his name and number from your database. Most callers obliged.

One set of callers, however...

These were the diabetes-related calls.

And they kept calling.

The calls would come from 'blocked' numbers. The person on the other end was invariably Indian (which by itself wasn't an issue, don't get me wrong) who often seemed to be calling from his local coffee shop or something. Often he'd be having a conversation with someone else while making the call, and would start the conversation with me all laugh-y and unprofessional-like. And as soon as I said that "this number is no longer associated with that person, so please update your database accordingly," he'd go, "Oh. Are *you* diabetic, ma'am?" "Anyone in your family?" and really insist on just digging for information. Umm yeah, like I'm going to allow that. So *I* would dig in and say "Please just remove this name and number from your database." They in turn would insist on knowing my name, as if they couldn't move forward without that bit of information.

I refuse, they insist, and round and round we'd go.

Exasperated, I've asked to speak to their supervisor before, only to be told that they don't have a supervisor. And they won't give me their name or any information about their operation unless I tell them my name first. How fucking childish is that?

anyway...

I have NO IDEA what they are selling, I never let them get to their spiel. Excuse me for insisting that "this is not the diabetic you are looking for; move along, move along."

The second-to-last call received from this ilk was a few months back, and it was a bad one. After going through the whole rigmarole of 'please remove Morten Harket's name and number from your database' the guy kept insisting on wanting to know my name, and I refused to furnish it; he kept insisting, I kept refusing, always repeating "please just remove this name and phone number from your records", then he turned nasty andsarcastic asking "So, you don't have a name, is it?", or "Your name is "Doesn't matter", is it?". I actually used the f-word on him and hung up.

Come to think of it, it's been a while since I've had to field such calls.

Until yesterday.

And this call, my friends, has upped my anger levels to greater heights, because ... wait for it... they asked for "Kosh Naranek, who according to our records, is diabetic."

What. The. Fuck.

[I immediately figured that they finally got Morten Harket's name off the list, but left the phone number... and some genius did a reverse look-up of the number, got Kosh's name, and just put his name where Morten Harket's was]

I was pissed.

Big big.

I was very curt about "Your records are wrong. He is not diabetic, I am not diabetic. No one in our family is diabetic."

One small funny thing during this recent conversation? The guy's weird Brit/American accent slowly degenerated into an Indian accent.

The guy kept asking 'Are you sure no one is diabetic?"

And hey, whaddaya know, the guy kept asking for my name.

After receiving nothing but "No"s from me, he had the gall to ask "Where is Kosh?" when I'd already said at the beginning of the call that he was not available.

Then he asked for my name again, saying "I already have Kosh Naranek's name, may I have your name too?".

"Dude. You already have more information than you should ever have. You are also wasting my time and have invaded my privacy enough. You have no need for my name, and I am not giving it to you. For the tenth time, please just remove this name and number from your database."

I am only calling you for the first time, ma'am. (D'oh! Hyperbole was LOST on this one!)
Can I please have your name?
What's your name, ma'am?
Come on, what's your name?

"I am not giving you my name. Please remove my husband's name and phone number from your database. I'm hanging up now."

Then came this gem: I would luuuurve to know your name.

"Wha? Dude, you have got to behave-- you know what, it doesn't matter. I'm hanging up now, goodbye."

Bloody hell.

They all have this pseudo-flirty slimy attitude, but this one really rubbed me the wrong way... probably because I was so pissed at them now having Kosh's name in their system.

I think we are just gonna have to put our number on the Do Not Call list *and* screen all our calls, because I do NOT want to have to deal with these %$(*-ers again.

I just wish I knew where to lodge a complaint, not that I have any information about them apart from what I've just shared with y'all...

Of course, I could use the honey instead of vinegar route the next time, and get them to speak their spiel, and maybe get a name & phone number to call back because after all, my husband is the person they really wanna talk to ... and THEN I'd have somewhere to start ... ... although I don't know what I'd do next without a Garcia or a McGee around to dig for me, eh?

Yeah.

I really really hate these guys.

What about you?
Have you gotten similar calls?
Wanna tell me how you dealt with them?

TK-217: an introduction

Hi, I'm TK-217, also known as Trooper Tripp, newly assigned by TK-421 to the Naranek household in Springfield (IL), USA, Earth*.

Did the Naraneks include me in the Census?

* NOTE: ... I suppose I should be thankful to be assigned to this version of Earth.

You see, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I used to hold the rank of Captain, on an Earth just like this one. I was in charge of security of the Empire's experimental biological warfare laboratory in the Mojave Desert: the scientists called it Project Blue; my superiors called it A-Prime.

Then something went wrong for Fay Wray and King Kong, and we got the flock out of there.

I certainly wasn't responsible for the leak, but when the few surviving locals started calling the supervirus Captain Trips, General Starkey decided the coincidence to be too great, and that I had smuggled the virus out into the population, how else would my name get associated with it otherwise? Typical CYA behavior! But I suppose when you're staring down the black muzzle of Lord Vader's helmet, you might have a tendency to pass the blame on down instead of owning up to your own faults.

What happened after, I'd rather not dwell upon. Let's just say it's been a long road, getting from there to here; It's been a long time, but my time is finally near. Mine has been an arduous journey of starships, enterprising engineers, and treks through the stars.

My primary objective right now is to impress my handler lynne naranek Her Meanness the Minion of Death and Destruction with my prowess and intelligence and whatever other skills she expects of me in my capacity of bodyguard and travel companion. My fate, and future in the Empire and Clone Army, rests in her hands.

It's not been going so well, though. During the recent St Patrick's Day celebrations I guarded her as well as I could from a sea of green-clad drunken boors. Wasn't my fault I tripped over that necklace of beads!!

I was still reeling from the swill they call Bud Light.

I didn't fare much better the next time around, either: something about Bloody Mary Mafia?! They say I tripped and fell, and could barely walk straight. I don't remember any such thing, but whaddaya know, they took pictures.

Good thing I had my helmet on, because my cheeks were burning in shame.

I'm not making excuses for myself, but I have to say that my poor performance might have something to do with the weird out-of-scale size of things on this version of Earth. For example, I swear I caught sight of an R2 unit that might have been 100x my height -- didn't they come up to my waist before? So any alcoholic fumes might also be 100x more potent than what I'm used to, right?

Uh-oh. Her Meanness wants to play Bejeweled Blitz again. I've gotta go.

TK-217 signing off!

Where I was, in photos

Here's a quick photoessay of where I was over the past two weeks:

It started with Xmas in Atlanta, GA:

(no, not everyone on this pic was on the trip, many were from Atlanta and its neighboring 'burbs)

followed by a long drive to a rather cold and dreary Panama City Beach, FL

(what bird is this?)

... but it turned sunny the next morning...


... so on our way to Mobile AL we stopped by a lovely beach...

... for footsoaking and jumping in the cold (don't let the sun fool ya, it was COLD!)

In Mobile I was amused to see not-so-creative variations of this sign at most of their rec centers:

Our trip then took us to Columbus and Atlanta, Georgia; lunch on one of those days was at a Buffalo Wild Wings ("let's play hollywood!"), where I was dared to eat one "sizzling" sauced wing (the highest on their hot sauce heat scale)...
... I can only say it had the heat, but there was no ...body... to it. Sure it made my lips and throat burn, but there was no ...satisfaction... to it. Tasted like concentrated tabasco, and I hate tabasco. Ugh.

Then back to Atlanta where we celebrated New Year's with much noise and rejoicing...

... so much so that most of us didn't sleep till 3, 330am. Of course, the next day was the long journey back... but it dawned once again nice and sunny...
... which made the trip pretty tolerable. It had been a fun trip, and I got to know the 13+ people, plus those who hosted us here and there, much better indeed.

Then I came back to Springfield, and all too soon was driving Kosh to work at 6 in the morning, peering through an ice-encrusted windshield that defied the scraper...


... and today I had this much snow to clear off of the car...

... and it continues to fall, wouldn't surprise me if when I go out again I'll have the same amount of white stuff to clear off again!

... so even as I had grumbled about the cold weather we'd had throughout our "escape from the winter cold" trip, on hindsight I see it had still been much more pleasant than what awaited my return.

Okay, I am SO ready for summer now.

Or a trip back to Malaysia, LoL!

Whaddaya say, Kosh? ;)

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

Springfield, IL: Land of the Horseshoe!

MS Office clip art

The weekend after Thanksgiving, a friend from college (you may remember some references to a KTN?) and her bf visited us here in Springfield. She had indicated they'd like to take us out for dinner, to a place that was typical of or uniquely Springfield.

I tapped the power of Twitter for ideas, and received a few great suggestions, which you can see in Springfield, IL: What's for dinner?; in the end we decided to go to D'Arcy's Pint for the horseshoe.

No, not the u-shaped metal that gets nailed to a horse's foot... the specialty of Springfield:
Above is what Kosh ordered: The Supreme Seasoned ground beef on Texas Toast, covered in french fries, smothered in spicy cheese sauce, with a sprinkling of tomatoes and scallions, and spicy tabasco-like dipping sauce on the side. I thought it was okay, but missing something (probably the bacon!). I totally loved mine, tho, which you can see below:
They all look the same, don't they? So take my word for it, the photo above is of The Gobbler, the Thanksgiving special comprising turkey on stuffing covered in french fries smothered in cheese sauce. Y. U. M. I opted for the ponyshoe (it's supposed to be half a horseshoe), can you even tell?
We both took half of our food home! It made for a good lunch the next day after Bloody Marys :)

I still wanted to have a breakfast horseshoe ... just add some eggs between the meat and fries, oh and switch the fries to hashbrowns... like so:
This is from yesterday's brunch at a local diner called Sunrise Cafe. I was talked into getting a full horseshoe by the waitress ("... it's only a dollar more for double the food... besides, you can take home what you can't finish!"), and totally anticipated taking home half again... but...
... I musta been hungry, because by the time we were done, our plates were empty (apart from the large glob of velveeta-like cheese that I couldn't bring myself to finish). Kosh had ordered a chicken fried steak with "American fries" (elsewhere I think they are called country potatoes?) and eggs with a side of pancakes. His plate looked like this:
All gone. ... ... we weren't even hungry for any food until almost 8 hours later. Gee, I wonder why??!! :p ... ... and with food like this, I think we're gong to have to keep an eye on this!:

The Scale by crossfire

Ugh.

Now please excuse me while I go find something else to eat, LoL! :)

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

R2D2 in Springfield!

Back in May 2007, in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the debut of Star Wars, the United States Postal Service had a stroke of major creative genius and converted a select few of their mailboxes into R2D2.

I was reminded of these nifty mailboxes last week when I scoured sxc and flickr for images of Malaysian, Swiss and US mailboxes to complement a post about World Post Day, and was pretty geeked out by how cool these R2D2 mailboxes were.

Way back when, I had heard rumour that one such mailbox was somewhere in Chicagoland: seeing as we're at the end of 2009, I figured all R2D2 mailboxes had since been transformed back into their 'usual' colors, and I kicked myself for not having looked for one when I had the opportunity.

... so imagine how overjoyed I was to stumble upon R2D2 here in Springfield!!

Pity about the graffiti, though.

Have they no respect?!!

If you want to see this for yourself, head on over to downtown Springfield: R2D2 will be waiting for you on the south west corner of 5th and Washington.


HAPPY HUMP DAY!!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed or subscribing via email. I'm on Twitter too!

an update from Springfield, IL

The naranek household has been in Springfield for almost a month!

... so, what have we got to show for it?

On the social front, Kosh and I met up with Mocha Momma again (we'd met once, a little over a year ago, at Davecago; she'd also helped me stay slightly sane while doing the apartment hunting!). We should have met more/other Springfield twitterers but were a little late getting there :p Hopefully time will be on our side next time!


After the meet-up, we walked around a bit of downtown historical Springfield: we'd missed the Farmers Market, but there were plenty of other booths due to the International Route 66 Mother Road Festival going on that weekend. I'll be doing a small write-up of this at a malaysian abroad soon, stay tuned!

Later that day, we also dropped by one of Kosh's colleagues who had invited folks over to watch some college football game. By the time we got there (do you see a trend here?!), the score was 0 - 30 so the 6 or 7 couples who were there were just chatting over hors d'oevres instead. It was a bit painful. Didn't help that almost all the ladies were in various stages of pregnancy: guess what the main topic of conversation was? :p

... and in case you were keeping track, yes, all that happened in the one day, LoL! What about all those other days we've had since getting here? They've been spent slowly unpacking and settling in: partly procrastination, partly strategy to not activate my allergies.



Here's the pile of "to be whittled down one box at a time whenever Kosh has the time" boxes that's taking up a whole bunch of space in what is the dining room (or extended kitchen) area. Most other boxes are pretty much unpacked and torn down already, and this place is certainly coming along well.

More, better, photos to come.. later... In the meantime: have a great weekend!

If you liked this post, please consider subscribing to my feed or subscribing via email. I am also a malaysian abroad!