I am not in the mood to take adverse reactions to this, thanks. Comments not welcomed on this post.
A Few Helpful Hints, a.k.a., Take This and Be Thankful
How to Most Painlessly and Effectively Avoid Research Calls
1. Put your name on the Do Not Call list. This is for telemarketers (people who sell you things via telephone), and does not apply to research.
2. Once you have done this, if you get a phone call from someone you don't know, unless something is wildly amiss, they are not telemarketers. Answer the phone; ignoring their calls will ensure they call back at least once a day either until their project is over or until you show some indication that you would prefer not to participate. If you don't mind that, do whatever you want. Assuming you answer, be polite to them and assume they have something relatively valid to say. For example, many institutions use independent research firms (who may show up as private callers or introduce themselves on the phone as from the research firm) to take complaints from customers who have shown in some way (i.e., through their activity with the company) that they may be unhappy. Their call may be directly pertinent to you.
3. Hear the intro out. Find out what they want. The intros are designed to be short and will take very little of your time. Do not hang up on them: they will usually call back. (Also, if you continue to ignore their calls, again - you have not given a verbal refusal, for all they know you're on vacation or in the shower, and they will call back.) If you are not interested in participating, refuse, and ask (politely, as so many do, you'd be surprised) to have your number taken off their call lists. (Research firms have their own do-not-call lists; as the Do Not Call laws exempt these firms - making any threats to sue a futile and laughable offense to all in the call center ["I'm getting sued again today! Who wants to be my lawyer this time?? Hooray!"], the firms have their own lists. If you make this request you will henceforth be removed from all call projects coming from this firm. Any form of "Please put me on your do not call list" is a magic phrase that will almost certainly quickly shut up any caller and cancel any further attempts to ask you to complete any studies in the future.
Thank you, and have a nice day.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
I believe!
I have tried to watch so many meteor showers in my day. Really. I've had lots of shooting stars pointed out to me, and still had never actually seen anything. I finally declared watching meteor showers a futile endeavor, renounced my belief that they exist to the human eye and, well, gave it up for dead, so to speak.
However, I was convinced by more than one person (most of them relatively attractive, which never hurts) to go up to Vivian Park last Sunday night and watched the meteor shower, from about 11:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. (I was going to get up at 3:30 to go, which I agreed to because of the pure adventurous nature of getting up at 3:30 a.m. to head up the canyon, but my phone [alarm] died; it was a good thing I'd gone up a little early.)
For the first time in my life, I saw - not even just one - but tens of shooting stars. Some followed by really strong trails of debris, even - long trails of white, undoubtedly astronomic Wendy's cups and used Kleenex being shaken off these meteors as they shot across the sky.
Anyway, yes, Virginia - shooting stars do exist!
"...You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed in December
I promised you I‘d set them to verse so I'd always remember
That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee ..." --"Emily," Joanna Newsom
However, I was convinced by more than one person (most of them relatively attractive, which never hurts) to go up to Vivian Park last Sunday night and watched the meteor shower, from about 11:30 p.m.-1:30 a.m. (I was going to get up at 3:30 to go, which I agreed to because of the pure adventurous nature of getting up at 3:30 a.m. to head up the canyon, but my phone [alarm] died; it was a good thing I'd gone up a little early.)
For the first time in my life, I saw - not even just one - but tens of shooting stars. Some followed by really strong trails of debris, even - long trails of white, undoubtedly astronomic Wendy's cups and used Kleenex being shaken off these meteors as they shot across the sky.
Anyway, yes, Virginia - shooting stars do exist!
"...You taught me the names of the stars overhead that I wrote down in my ledger
Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades loosed in December
I promised you I‘d set them to verse so I'd always remember
That the meteorite is a source of the light
And the meteor's just what we see
And the meteoroid is a stone that's devoid of the fire that propelled it to thee
And the meteorite's just what causes the light
And the meteor's how it's perceived
And the meteoroid's a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee ..." --"Emily," Joanna Newsom
Sunday, August 19, 2007
just an announcement
I finished Harry Potter 7 today. (Yeah, I know I was slow - I started rereading #5 a week or two before #7 came out. I didn't remember much at all from #5-6, so I knew #7 would be better if I took care of that first.)
Man, that was good.
Man, that was good.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
the State of the Union
I work in a call center now (we aren't telemarketers, just research).
When did it become okay, in America, to hang up on people, ever? What do these people's kids think when they see their parents hang up on us? What on earth does that teach?
I do confess, however, I did hang up on a guy once. I mean, in this job. He only got out half of his "g*d*" before I was gone. I hold that this was probable cause.
When did it become okay, in America, to hang up on people, ever? What do these people's kids think when they see their parents hang up on us? What on earth does that teach?
I do confess, however, I did hang up on a guy once. I mean, in this job. He only got out half of his "g*d*" before I was gone. I hold that this was probable cause.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
mmm?
Lately, food in any great quantity (read: a normally-sized meal, with a curious exception for restaurants or maybe just food I don't eat at home) often makes me sick. This annoys me, mostly because it renders me hungry all the time. IV, anyone?
I'm not posting this to stir any great worry, p.s. I'm just fed up with this (heh), and - come, now - isn't it fun to share annoyances with the world?
I'm not posting this to stir any great worry, p.s. I'm just fed up with this (heh), and - come, now - isn't it fun to share annoyances with the world?
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
happy fourth of july
Once upon a time, there was a girl named Olympus. She was tight inside with indecision all over the place.
She liked boys who weren't good for her, boys who were, and boys who were in between; she just wasn't sure which were which. They weren't really any help in the decision, either. Sometimes she wished she could read minds so she could tell where she'd be wasting her time and where she wouldn't.
She wanted to get a (real) job, but didn't know where she wanted to be. She wanted to have a home, but couldn't until she got that real job. She didn't quite want to relinquish her freedom for a commitment like that just yet. She was willing to, but a little scared, too. She didn't want to become a power-suit woman, but she didn't want to hang out forever, either. It felt precarious to settle into somewhere she didn't know she'd get to keep (that went for boys, too).
She wanted direction in her life, but knew she should make her own decisions and then confirm them, too. That balance was hard sometimes.
Besides working and finding a job, she wanted to watch movies, read books and make friends. In her desire to put her whole self into each thing, she realized she'd have to make a few choices.
She wanted to walk, talk or blog about all this, but she wanted to go to sleep, too. Sleep hadn't gotten very high priority lately. Maybe that's why this post came about.
She liked boys who weren't good for her, boys who were, and boys who were in between; she just wasn't sure which were which. They weren't really any help in the decision, either. Sometimes she wished she could read minds so she could tell where she'd be wasting her time and where she wouldn't.
She wanted to get a (real) job, but didn't know where she wanted to be. She wanted to have a home, but couldn't until she got that real job. She didn't quite want to relinquish her freedom for a commitment like that just yet. She was willing to, but a little scared, too. She didn't want to become a power-suit woman, but she didn't want to hang out forever, either. It felt precarious to settle into somewhere she didn't know she'd get to keep (that went for boys, too).
She wanted direction in her life, but knew she should make her own decisions and then confirm them, too. That balance was hard sometimes.
Besides working and finding a job, she wanted to watch movies, read books and make friends. In her desire to put her whole self into each thing, she realized she'd have to make a few choices.
She wanted to walk, talk or blog about all this, but she wanted to go to sleep, too. Sleep hadn't gotten very high priority lately. Maybe that's why this post came about.
fireworks
Possible symbolic references:
Man's search for meaning
Francis Scott Key's view while writing The Star-Spangled Banner
Social networking usage
This was a post because I wanted to post, not because I had anything real to say. I was just playing this game tonight because I played it a lot in high school (the "try to find something symbolic and utterly useless in any object around you" game), and I thought it would be fun. Turns out it was fun, but was too easy ... nearly cliche - so much so that I didn't include almost any of what I thought of. "Colorful explosions" aren't exactly a rare descriptive tool.
Maybe I have stuff to say, too, but not right now. Suffice it to share this, and the fact that I bought The Fugitive and The Client today for six dollars each. Yay hooray.
Man's search for meaning
Francis Scott Key's view while writing The Star-Spangled Banner
Social networking usage
This was a post because I wanted to post, not because I had anything real to say. I was just playing this game tonight because I played it a lot in high school (the "try to find something symbolic and utterly useless in any object around you" game), and I thought it would be fun. Turns out it was fun, but was too easy ... nearly cliche - so much so that I didn't include almost any of what I thought of. "Colorful explosions" aren't exactly a rare descriptive tool.
Maybe I have stuff to say, too, but not right now. Suffice it to share this, and the fact that I bought The Fugitive and The Client today for six dollars each. Yay hooray.
my roommate lived kosher for a month, once
I shopped for/with her a lot of times ... and so, the Unilever brand gets me every time. Every time I see that little "U" on my shampoo, or like on that bar of soap I just opened, I think, "Hey, this is kosher. Good, good."
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Russian national interest (which, incidentally, I know nothing about)
Well, folks, it's happened again! Apparently I am impossible to read. I seem to baffle the teeming masses with surprising consistency - what's so confusing? Maybe it's the fact that I feel myself an open book, but the things I keep in and let out for tact or the comfortability of others sometimes seem to be set at random. Eh. I'm convinced you can't take people on anything but experience with them, and I doubt I'm any harder than anyone else. I just seem to hear it a lot.
For now, we'll just rest comfortably in the words of my friend T (not Mr. or Grand Master - this is a different guy) who warped what I think is Winston Churchill's WWII quote about Russia to say: "Girls are a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in *bacon (cuz I like bacon)."
Oh, yes. Tonight, I am that girl.
On an unrelated note (I assure you), my whole hall smells like beer.
*Not that kind of bacon. Geez.
For now, we'll just rest comfortably in the words of my friend T (not Mr. or Grand Master - this is a different guy) who warped what I think is Winston Churchill's WWII quote about Russia to say: "Girls are a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in *bacon (cuz I like bacon)."
Oh, yes. Tonight, I am that girl.
On an unrelated note (I assure you), my whole hall smells like beer.
*Not that kind of bacon. Geez.
Friday, June 15, 2007
welcome to another round of Jazz with Olympus
from my notes on a scrap piece of paper, at a jazz club
Holy cow. That first growl of the 1st trumpet sent of choke of excitement up my throat.
That sax looks like it was just unearthed, it's so caked-over-looking! Those seem to be the most throaty ones ... their lead sax just gave the cutoff! Haha ... and they just introduced their headliner sax soloist as "an interesting combination of saxophone and person." A Thad Jones piece next. Their bassist JUST USED A BOW. Their pianist is wearing a newsboy-Uffish hat. This band is so CHILL ... but with chops. The trumpets are playing way the heck in these upper registers, but quietly. By the way, I'm having catfish in a jazz club. Snap. This food is amazing, but I'm kinda annoyed by the distraction it provides, haha. Their pianist is RAD. "In a Sentimental Mood." Man! I love ballads. This sax - it's cliche - but it croons. But the cymbals with the tinkling - but actually not all that high - piano gives it the perfect background. I can't believe I'm here.
"Monkey Business" - Thelonius Monk - most of these are arranged by the same guy, who must have had some Kenton influences on his ballads - I know, everything comes back to Kenton with me. I told D I was most at home at this other thing we went to a couple weeks ago - a really thoughtful play - but that was until now.
The band is really warming up now. Um, my fries are cold. Dang this fabulous music. What the heck is this circus-sounding thing in the middle? Ha! Laughed out loud. They introduced the chart "Inside Out" by saying, "I'm not going to say anything, just gonna let it speak for itself." Lay off the freaking highest note on the keyboard, HA! I love it. Holy cow, man, work that slide, why don't you, mr. trombone soloist? Fastest, cleanest maneuvering I've ever seen. I love these bone mutes. D says they're probably straight mutes. And, there goes the first clarinet solo. I love anything Benny Goodman-esque. Next song, "Splankie," by Basie. I saw Basie's band in concert back in high school. mmm. This one is starting out with a really sparse sax solo (the throaty one) (tenor). It's really interesting, actually. Now, he's getting a lot busier and slowly climbing higher in pitch, too, while the band gets stronger. Ohh man.
Next song: "Remember This." The pianist can't find his music ... "why don't you just play it?"-band member "come on, just give him back his part."-lead sax. Um, he is, actually. Going to just play it. He's gonna do the whole thing by ear. I imagine they've played it enough times that if he can just get the key, he'll be all right. I wonder if he'll solo - my bet's yes. Their bone soloist right now looks kinda like a bigger version of a guy I used to work with. Also, I wonder if the two British guys at the table behind us came drunk? Um, yay for the piano, by the way. Check one for me - I was right - his solo was short and rad. Now the soprano and bari saxes are soloing together! We had dueling guitars in high school, but this!
Last song: "Battle Royale," by Ellington. This bari sax just pulled off the "obnoxious low blare." Sweet - that's talent. A lot of beginners attempt that because it's obnoxious, and therefore funny, but I guess once you've been around for more than a year or two it gets old and becomes the mark of an inexperienced soloist. However, somehow, this guy just did it, but with enough sensitivity, tact, and musicality - his choice of where to use it didn't sound like chance and because he was out of ideas, which is the reason most beginners use it - it was imposing, but only to the degree he wanted it to be. Way to be, man. That's really talent.
HOORAY for that clarinet! This throaty sax I LOVE - he just did this triple-tonguing thing on the same note - yay. And, the end.
Sorry for the disjointedness, there. When everything comes at you at once, what can you do? Man. I tell you what. Made me wish a little for the length of the Maynard Ferguson concert, even though it was so intensely long at the time. Tonight was quality stuff. Also, to be cheesy, let's dedicate this post to those who should have been there tonight.
-olympus
Holy cow. That first growl of the 1st trumpet sent of choke of excitement up my throat.
That sax looks like it was just unearthed, it's so caked-over-looking! Those seem to be the most throaty ones ... their lead sax just gave the cutoff! Haha ... and they just introduced their headliner sax soloist as "an interesting combination of saxophone and person." A Thad Jones piece next. Their bassist JUST USED A BOW. Their pianist is wearing a newsboy-Uffish hat. This band is so CHILL ... but with chops. The trumpets are playing way the heck in these upper registers, but quietly. By the way, I'm having catfish in a jazz club. Snap. This food is amazing, but I'm kinda annoyed by the distraction it provides, haha. Their pianist is RAD. "In a Sentimental Mood." Man! I love ballads. This sax - it's cliche - but it croons. But the cymbals with the tinkling - but actually not all that high - piano gives it the perfect background. I can't believe I'm here.
"Monkey Business" - Thelonius Monk - most of these are arranged by the same guy, who must have had some Kenton influences on his ballads - I know, everything comes back to Kenton with me. I told D I was most at home at this other thing we went to a couple weeks ago - a really thoughtful play - but that was until now.
The band is really warming up now. Um, my fries are cold. Dang this fabulous music. What the heck is this circus-sounding thing in the middle? Ha! Laughed out loud. They introduced the chart "Inside Out" by saying, "I'm not going to say anything, just gonna let it speak for itself." Lay off the freaking highest note on the keyboard, HA! I love it. Holy cow, man, work that slide, why don't you, mr. trombone soloist? Fastest, cleanest maneuvering I've ever seen. I love these bone mutes. D says they're probably straight mutes. And, there goes the first clarinet solo. I love anything Benny Goodman-esque. Next song, "Splankie," by Basie. I saw Basie's band in concert back in high school. mmm. This one is starting out with a really sparse sax solo (the throaty one) (tenor). It's really interesting, actually. Now, he's getting a lot busier and slowly climbing higher in pitch, too, while the band gets stronger. Ohh man.
Next song: "Remember This." The pianist can't find his music ... "why don't you just play it?"-band member "come on, just give him back his part."-lead sax. Um, he is, actually. Going to just play it. He's gonna do the whole thing by ear. I imagine they've played it enough times that if he can just get the key, he'll be all right. I wonder if he'll solo - my bet's yes. Their bone soloist right now looks kinda like a bigger version of a guy I used to work with. Also, I wonder if the two British guys at the table behind us came drunk? Um, yay for the piano, by the way. Check one for me - I was right - his solo was short and rad. Now the soprano and bari saxes are soloing together! We had dueling guitars in high school, but this!
Last song: "Battle Royale," by Ellington. This bari sax just pulled off the "obnoxious low blare." Sweet - that's talent. A lot of beginners attempt that because it's obnoxious, and therefore funny, but I guess once you've been around for more than a year or two it gets old and becomes the mark of an inexperienced soloist. However, somehow, this guy just did it, but with enough sensitivity, tact, and musicality - his choice of where to use it didn't sound like chance and because he was out of ideas, which is the reason most beginners use it - it was imposing, but only to the degree he wanted it to be. Way to be, man. That's really talent.
HOORAY for that clarinet! This throaty sax I LOVE - he just did this triple-tonguing thing on the same note - yay. And, the end.
Sorry for the disjointedness, there. When everything comes at you at once, what can you do? Man. I tell you what. Made me wish a little for the length of the Maynard Ferguson concert, even though it was so intensely long at the time. Tonight was quality stuff. Also, to be cheesy, let's dedicate this post to those who should have been there tonight.
-olympus
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Player 2 has entered the game
Uffish: was it you that called to say you'd seen a zombie?
Olympus: Um, yes.Uffish: whaaaaaaaaaaaat?
Olympus: And, just to let you know, that's the best sentence anyone has spoken to me today.
Uffish: ha-HA!
I am the winner!
Olympus: Now, I will explain myself.
I saw a zombie. That is all.
Just kidding. but I was walking, and I passed this woman (this was before I passed the guy who was drinking out of a bag and singing The Temptations really loudly)
This really pale woman, I might add. I kind of smiled at her, and she just looked at me - woodenly, would be the best way to describe it - and her eyes were a little bloodshot, or so my memory thinksshe didn't smile back
she just sort of passed me.
So I called you to tell you about it.
And that is all.
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