So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

[tonyb]

Your eyes don’t matter, as well as anyone else’s but the patient‘s, imho.

Of course, and I would never argue otherwise. I’m not telling anyone what to do with his or her own body. But people cannot insist on how others perceive them. If I am put off by it, that’s my business, and your take on it doesn’t matter.

 

[Trenchfriend]

If any newsman says "Bio Diversity" again, I will puke all over my desk...

 

[Zombie_61]

^^^^^
I’d join her for a cup of coffee.

EDIT: But then, I just saw a couple photos of her taken recently. She’s obviously had “work” done. I find women more alluring when they don’t mind looking their age.

When her name was mentioned upthread I took the opportunity to look at a few "recent" photos and wasn't quite sure, but a second look and your opinion have convinced me she has; the paralyzed "Charlie McCarthy" upper lip is a dead giveaway. Fortunately, it seems she hasn't taken it to an extreme, and, yes, if the opportunity somehow arose I think I would most certainly enjoy sharing coffee and a bit of conversation with her; I just can't imagine her ever agreeing to such an encounter.

 

[tonyb]

If any newsman says "Bio Diversity" again, I will puke all over my desk...

Why?

I’m not suggesting you don’t have your reasons, but I’m left to wonder what those reasons might be.

 

[Who?]

But people cannot insist on how others perceive them.

I agree with that statement, but in todays society, many of the loudest voices insist on exactly that, they shall decide and dictate how others will perceive them.

It is off-putting to me.

 

[tonyb]

I agree with that statement, but in todays society, many of the loudest voices insist on exactly that, they shall decide and dictate how others will perceive them.

It is off-putting to me.

We owe one another the space to walk peacefully through this world. Too bad we don’t always grant that.

But granting others such consideration doesn’t extend to approving of the choices they’ve made for themselves. If a person wants a swastika tattoo on his forehead and to turn the whites of his eyes black (it’s been done), well, let’s just say he wouldn’t be my first choice for a seat partner.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Why?

I’m not suggesting you don’t have your reasons, but I’m left to wonder what those reasons might be.

It's the new favorite trendy word for docus, news and so on, here, so you could get sick of hearing it again and again.

 

[LizzieMaine]

As far as perceptions of others is concerned, part of living in a society is being willing to admit that your "perceptions of others" may, in fact, be wrong. In which case, a polite acknowledgement of that would seem to be in order. I have no emotional attachment whatsoever to the idea that my perception of another person's identity must trump their own, and am happy to be corrected if I happen to get it wrong.

 

[tonyb]

As far as perceptions of others is concerned, part of living in a society is being willing to admit that your "perceptions of others" may, in fact, be wrong. In which case, a polite acknowledgement of that would seem to be in order. I have no emotional attachment whatsoever to the idea that my perception of another person's identity must trump their own, and am happy to be corrected if I happen to get it wrong.

Often, though, there is no “in fact.” My aesthetic preferences, for instance, are mine, and other people’s are theirs. There might be generally accepted norms, but there is no objective truth in such matters.

A person’s dislike for the manner in which some present themselves (you can find a lot of that around here) doesn’t grant that person license to be rude or to deny fair treatment. Just as I am not free to impose my perspectives on others, they aren’t free to impose theirs on me.

 

[tonyb]

On any given day I get at least a few junk calls. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t answer the call if I don’t recognize the number, or if the number is blocked.

My voicemail greeting tells callers exactly that, and I ask the callers that have business with me to please leave a message and that I’ll return the calls as soon as is reasonable.

But I’m more than annoyed by some outfit that dangles the prospect of $170K in employee retention funding, courtesy of our federal government.

They leave messages. Real people, reading from a script, and not recordings.

They’re persistent. They call a couple-three times per week and leave voicemails, which I am left to delete.

It feels like I am being asked to be complicit in a hustle. It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to suspect exactly that. The only business I would ever have with them would be the sort of business I’ll have nothing to do with.

 

[Edward]

On any given day I get at least a few junk calls. It’s gotten to the point that I don’t answer the call if I don’t recognize the number, or if the number is blocked.

My voicemail greeting tells callers exactly that, and I ask the callers that have business with me to please leave a message and that I’ll return the calls as soon as is reasonable.

But I’m more than annoyed by some outfit that dangles the prospect of $170K in employee retention funding, courtesy of our federal government.

They leave messages. Real people, reading from a script, and not recordings.

They’re persistent. They call a couple-three times per week and leave voicemails, which I am left to delete.

It feels like I am being asked to be complicit in a hustle. It doesn’t take much reading between the lines to suspect exactly that. The only business I would ever have with them would be the sort of business I’ll have nothing to do with.

I got rid of my landline last year, which was great. I only ever had it for home internet, so when the chance of much faster, fibre-optic service with no need for a landline phone came along, I jumped on it. 99.9% of the calls we used to get on the landline were junk calls. I'm ex-directory and on all the 'do not calls', but of course it's one thing having those data protection rules and another in practice. I'm fairly rigorous about not giving out my number, but it's not always easy to avoid. I've always had far fewer junk calls on the mobile number for some reason, though - even though it's the only one I use (I never even knew the landline number). It's been a couple of years since I last had a junk call on the mobile - I like to think I've been blacklisted. I found with one persistent call centre, asking if I could put them on hold for a minute, and then setting the phone down and just seeing how long they would hang on for, worked very well - after two calls, they stopped bothering. During the long period of PPI flogging calls, I started saving the numbers with a warning. When they did call me again, I took to lifting the phone and saying angrily "Look, it's done, but there's blood everywhere!" Not had one of those calls in a long, long time now.

The single biggest phone related annoyance in recent years for me has been an increasing work colonisation of my private phone. My employer does not provide a mobile telephone, however for their convenience it is assumed that I a] have one, and b] am happy for them to impose work-related usage of it for the hated 'two factor identification security process', and their expenses app (yet another case of an admin function being transferred to academic staff - used to be you handed in a form and admin filed it on the system. Now we have to do it ourselves. The whole thing is designed to make it as inconvenient as possible to claim money back, clearly in the hope that we'll not bother a lot of the time.

 

[tonyb]

Legal but nonetheless deceptive marketing promotions from cell service providers.

“Gift cards” (not actually a physical card at all) that, it turns out, can only be used for the purchase of the cell provider’s goods and services (at full retail, of course). And then, when you switch carriers, they bill for the entire dollar value of the ”gift,” even though half of it was never redeemed.

My wife spent two hours and thirty-three minutes on the phone and got nowhere. I visited a company store and the snooty twerp working there got me nowhere. But once I finally got a number where I might find a person who might have the authority to address the matter I, after another hour and seven minutes on the phone, may have found resolution. It might take up to 24 hours to get email confirmation, she said. But at least there’s some sign of hope.

It’s enough to have a person suspecting that the hassle they put a person through is deliberate. It has me believing the company figures that a significant percentage of the people they burn will just throw up their hands in frustration and eat the loss.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

Legal but nonetheless deceptive marketing promotions from cell service providers.

“Gift cards” (not actually a physical card at all) that, it turns out, can only be used for the purchase of the cell provider’s goods and services (at full retail, of course). And then, when you switch carriers, they bill for the entire dollar value of the ”gift,” even though half of it was never redeemed.

My wife spent two hours and thirty-three minutes on the phone and got nowhere. I visited a company store and the snooty twerp working there got me nowhere. But once I finally got a number where I might find a person who might have the authority to address the matter I, after another hour and seven minutes on the phone, may have found resolution. It might take up to 24 hours to get email confirmation, she said. But at least there’s some sign of hope.

It’s enough to have a person suspecting that the hassle they put a person through is deliberate. It has me believing the company figures that a significant percentage of the people they burn will just throw up their hands in frustration and eat the loss.

I frequently receive offers from one or another marketer offering a "free gift". I wonder when it became necessary to qualify "gift" with "free". Is there another kind? If I pay for something, can it be a "gift" (unless I plan to give it to someone else)?

And while I'm on the subject, when did "gift" morph from a noun to a verb? I must have been sick that day.

 

[LizzieMaine]

About the same time you were "tasked" to do something rather than "assigned" to do it.

 

[tonyb]

About the same time you were "tasked" to do something rather than "assigned" to do it.

I’m guilty of that myself.

As with most newer usages to which a person might take exception, the battle is already lost.

 

[ChrisB]

There's nothing more stupid than AI, especially Autocorrect that's always trying to second guess you.

If there is such a thing as artificial intelligence, then there must also be artificial stupidity.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Yes, that looks like what they sell here in the U.S.. Horrible stuff!

Tried it now, just for fun. Meh, less interesting stuff. I still prefer standard (low fat) quark

 

[Edward]

Legal but nonetheless deceptive marketing promotions from cell service providers.

“Gift cards” (not actually a physical card at all) that, it turns out, can only be used for the purchase of the cell provider’s goods and services (at full retail, of course). And then, when you switch carriers, they bill for the entire dollar value of the ”gift,” even though half of it was never redeemed.

My wife spent two hours and thirty-three minutes on the phone and got nowhere. I visited a company store and the snooty twerp working there got me nowhere. But once I finally got a number where I might find a person who might have the authority to address the matter I, after another hour and seven minutes on the phone, may have found resolution. It might take up to 24 hours to get email confirmation, she said. But at least there’s some sign of hope.

It’s enough to have a person suspecting that the hassle they put a person through is deliberate. It has me believing the company figures that a significant percentage of the people they burn will just throw up their hands in frustration and eat the loss.

We recently had a problem with our isp. Customer service at the frontline was woeful. Five days in, my wife found an email address for the CEO and contacted him directly. We now have a direct point of contact in the Executive Complaints Team overseeing our issue, temporary access via a different route while they sort the problem, and a promise of no bill this month....

 

[tonyb]

September 15

 

[Edward]

September 15 View attachment 451403

I'm old enough to remember when Halloween was sacred. Now this......