Octopus Overlords

gilraen wrote:

AWS260 wrote:Dial-a-Swede.

To gin up interest in the Scandinavian country, a Swedish tourism agency created the Swedish Number, 46-771-793-336, a single phone line that connects international callers to randomly selected Swedish volunteers to chat about whatever is on their minds.

They did the same thing in Brussels (I think), except they installed several specially-marked phones in public squares-and-what-not, and basically let any passerby answer them. It was on the news a while back.

Caller: Hello, anyone there?
Swede: Ja shure, this is Sven Svenson.
Caller: Hi Sven, is your refrigerator running?
Swede: Oh, you betcha.
Caller: Better go catch it! *click*

Jaymann wrote: Caller: Hello, anyone there?
Swede: Ja shure, this is Sven Svenson.
Caller: Hi Sven, is your refrigerator running?
Swede: Oh, you betcha.
Caller: Better go catch it! *click*

it's not Dial-A-Minnesotan. (but i would volunteer for that.)

Socialism is phone sex!

Rip wrote:

Skinypupy wrote:This is just a WTF story all around. Louisiana Tech hires Tyler Summitt, the 23 year old son of legendary coach Pat Summitt, as the head coach of their women's basketball team. Two years later, he abruptly resigns after impregnating one of his players. Journalists start writing about how this somehow "tarnishes" his mother's legacy.

There is not a single person involved here that showed even a semblance of good judgement. The school for hiring a 23-year-old as a head coach (I don't care who his mother was). The coach for sleeping with his player (and vice versa). Anyone who tries to connect this back to Pat Summitt.

I wonder which one?

The blurry pixelated one probably.


Have to love his "apology:"

"I am profoundly disappointed in myself for engaging in a relationship that has negatively affected the people I love, respect and care about the most.

"My hope, plans and prayers are to repair those relationships. I am appreciative of the opportunity I was given to coach at Louisiana Tech. I am heartbroken that my time has ended in Ruston, but because of my respect for the institution, it is best that I resign. I am hopeful the media and the public will respect the privacy of my family and me as we deal with this difficult situation I have caused."

"I blame my past self, who isn't me, for doing something that's generally OK but in this case has some bad consequences.

Blah blah I BELIEVE I GOD blah blah. Random expression of gratitude. I am doing the school a favor by resigning. Now leave me alone, you jackals."

Still better than the "Mistakes were made, and I'm sorry people felt bad" we usually get.

Do you suppose Chewbacca goes "AAAAAAAWWWWWWWW fuck, not that fucking lightsabre, again" when he sees it. I think Lucas once said Star Wars was the story of the droids but I think it's really the story of Chewbacca and the Blue Lightsabre.

Thats so cool. Sci-fi turns into reality again.

*shiver*

Its just frog orgy.

Rip wrote:

Skinypupy wrote:This is just a WTF story all around. Louisiana Tech hires Tyler Summitt, the 23 year old son of legendary coach Pat Summitt, as the head coach of their women's basketball team. Two years later, he abruptly resigns after impregnating one of his players. Journalists start writing about how this somehow "tarnishes" his mother's legacy.

There is not a single person involved here that showed even a semblance of good judgement. The school for hiring a 23-year-old as a head coach (I don't care who his mother was). The coach for sleeping with his player (and vice versa). Anyone who tries to connect this back to Pat Summitt.

I wonder which one?

As if this story needed more WTF, the player that he reportedly impregnated (at least the one everyone thought it was) isn't actually pregnant.

Daehawk wrote:Its just frog orgy.

Those aren't frogs.

Skinypupy wrote:

Rip wrote:

Skinypupy wrote:This is just a WTF story all around. Louisiana Tech hires Tyler Summitt, the 23 year old son of legendary coach Pat Summitt, as the head coach of their women's basketball team. Two years later, he abruptly resigns after impregnating one of his players. Journalists start writing about how this somehow "tarnishes" his mother's legacy.

There is not a single person involved here that showed even a semblance of good judgement. The school for hiring a 23-year-old as a head coach (I don't care who his mother was). The coach for sleeping with his player (and vice versa). Anyone who tries to connect this back to Pat Summitt.

I wonder which one?

As if this story needed more WTF, the player that he reportedly impregnated (at least the one everyone thought it was) isn't actually pregnant.

Ahhh, Ashley.

Skinypupy wrote:

Rip wrote:

Skinypupy wrote:This is just a WTF story all around. Louisiana Tech hires Tyler Summitt, the 23 year old son of legendary coach Pat Summitt, as the head coach of their women's basketball team. Two years later, he abruptly resigns after impregnating one of his players. Journalists start writing about how this somehow "tarnishes" his mother's legacy.

There is not a single person involved here that showed even a semblance of good judgement. The school for hiring a 23-year-old as a head coach (I don't care who his mother was). The coach for sleeping with his player (and vice versa). Anyone who tries to connect this back to Pat Summitt.

I wonder which one?

As if this story needed more WTF, the player that he reportedly impregnated (at least the one everyone thought it was) isn't actually pregnant.

Your description isn't quite accurate the way I read the story. Armchair sleuths were trying to figure it out by asking them all and she came out on Twitter to say it wasn't her - which is not the same as saying she was the one involved with him.

Are they ever going to stop calling the women college players the "Lady [School Mascot]s"?

El Guapo wrote:Are they ever going to stop calling the women college players the "Lady [School Mascot]s"?

Pretty much never. The men's team would hate it if people actually got confused.

At least my school (Texas Tech) went with Lady Raiders rather than Lady Techsters.

ESPN's site doesn't distinguish from the main mascot when you head to the Texas Tech page, but does for La Tech.

Isgrimnur wrote:

El Guapo wrote:Are they ever going to stop calling the women college players the "Lady [School Mascot]s"?

Pretty much never. The men's team would hate it if people actually got confused.

At least my school (Texas Tech) went with Lady Raiders rather than Lady Techsters.

ESPN's site doesn't distinguish from the main mascot when you head to the Texas Tech page, but does for La Tech.

I mean, why don't we be super clear and also call the men's team the "Male [School Mascot]s"?

Silent Running


What do you think of when you see that?

Wouldn't it be more Gentlemen XXXXXwhateverXXXX

dbt1949 wrote:Silent Running


What do you think of when you see that?

The movie.

dbt1949 wrote:Silent Running


What do you think of when you see that?

A submarine rigged to remain quiet.

i.e. "Rig ship for Silent Running"

Rip wrote:

dbt1949 wrote:Silent Running


What do you think of when you see that?

A submarine rigged to remain quiet.

i.e. "Rig ship for Silent Running"

This. Way back in the day I read a bunch of books set in the Pacific theater. I think one may have actually been called that. I was never clear if it was related in any way to the movie.

TheMix wrote:

Rip wrote:

dbt1949 wrote:Silent Running


What do you think of when you see that?

A submarine rigged to remain quiet.

i.e. "Rig ship for Silent Running"

This. Way back in the day I read a bunch of books set in the Pacific theater. I think one may have actually been called that. I was never clear if it was related in any way to the movie.

If it is this book

I have it and it is very good!

After some internet sleuthing... no. Apparently that movie isn't even about submarines. It looks like I confused it with Run Silent, Run Deep. Which was not based on the book I was thinking of.

I did track down the author that I remember reading. Robb White. His stuff is mostly young adult. Up Periscope is probably the one I'm thinking of.

It was fiction and young adult, Rip. So I'm sure it was very different from that book.

So nobody thinks of the song by Mike and the Mechanics?

Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?

It's an excellent song, but not the first thing I think of when I hear the title.

dbt1949 wrote:Silent Running


What do you think of when you see that?

I think of the SF movie, but I do it while playing Silent Hunter III.

dbt1949 wrote:So nobody thinks of the song by Mike and the Mechanics?

I hated them in the 80s. Just not my sound. I only found out the other month that it was started by a guy from Genesis and such.

I also think of the movie when I see that name though the sub game plays a bit into it too.

The thing that sucks the most about dealing with my mother in law's slow slide into eternity, is having to deal with the ex. It just rips all the emotional scabs right off. :-/

Default wrote:The thing that sucks the most about dealing with my mother in law's slow slide into eternity, is having to deal with the ex. It just rips all the emotional scabs right off. :-/

I am so friggin tired right now.

I am seriously struggling to maintain a professional demeanor with something at work; something on this scale has never happened to me before. I can have three executives breathing down my neck while I'm troubleshooting a server outage and not break a sweat - but this is making me crazy.

I've got a user that I caught watching inappropriate materials at his desk. He was also caught by the HR Director after I advised him. He was told three times to stop bringing in his own laptop that he was using to watch it. In any other business, he would have been canned immediately... but apparently he's irreplaceable and they can't find another technician of his caliber to replace him. That was months ago.

Fast forward to this week, and the guy's got a problem with his company laptop. The solution is a 5 minute call to a vendor that supplies the software in question. All he needs to do is call in, open a web browser, allow them access, and walk away so they can troubleshoot. He's just too damn busy to do that. The site he works at is 20 minutes away by car. Since I don't really want to drive 40 minutes round-trip to make a phone call for someone, I advised that the task was simple and he should be able to handle it himself and wiped my hands of it. That was two days ago. Today I get an email from the manager's assistant telling me that this guy's manager wants me to come in and make the call for him.

It's completely irrational, but I'm fuming-angry at this. It's the completely wrong time to not be a "team player" (given that they're laying people off here) - but being told that I need to spend the better part of an hour doing performing an absolutely non-technical, simple task for someone that shouldn't even be working here is driving me insane.

I need to find some way to re-center myself and get over it.

Define "inappropriate."

Octopus Overlords is inappropriate at work, but I do it anyway.

McNutt wrote:Define "inappropriate."

Exremely vivid motion pictures encoded for web viewing that contain consenting adults performing acts.

Paingod wrote:I need to find some way to re-center myself and get over it.

I love stuff like this. Because I always imagine how much I'm getting paid to do something so menial. And then I imagine my boss in a meeting trying to justify to their boss why they had me do whatever it was they felt was so important. If you want to give me my calculated hourly rate to drive 40 minutes round trip and open a web browser? Awesome.

I understand both sides. When asked to do it directly, I'm going to push back. When the higher-ups sign off on it for me to do it anyway, I shake my head and do it, because that's what clueless bosses are for. If I have top cover, I'll do it with a shake of the head.

It comes from being in the call center and fighting with callers, only have my boss either tell me to do it, or take the call and do it themselves anyway.

Remus West wrote:I am so friggin tired right now.

Yesterday, as was heading out the door at work, I was informed I'd have a presentation today. Just a little ditty in front of the entire medical staff and managers. So get home, do homework with the kid, do laundry/ironing, get 2 hours of sleep, prepare presentation starting around 2am, come in for the 7am meeting. And today is also the day I move in to my new office. Packing bixes and waiting on IS. Someone remind me why I wanted a more aggressive career track.

The good news haven't had any caffeine yet so I have that ace in the hole if necessary.

When I get home, I take the kiddo out to celebrate her report card. Actually looking forward to that big time.

Smoove_B wrote:

Paingod wrote:I need to find some way to re-center myself and get over it.

I love stuff like this. Because I always imagine how much I'm getting paid to do something so menial. And then I imagine my boss in a meeting trying to justify to their boss why they had me do whatever it was they felt was so important. If you want to give me my calculated hourly rate to drive 40 minutes round trip and open a web browser? Awesome.

See, maybe if there was some backend play - some amusement to be had - but all I have is my unchanging salary, unpaid mileage, and wasting 40 minutes driving to open a web browser for someone who by all accounts should have been fired long ago. No one's signing off on anything, no one tracks my time. I just try and not expend it poorly.

Maybe the company that takes control of his laptop will stumble on some offensive material and file a harassment case against him/your company...