Octopus Overlords

5:30am conference calls are not a good way to start a Friday.

Skinypupy wrote:.. conference calls are not .. good ...

Fixed (for my personal situation that may not in fact be true generally)!

I had 15 conference calls over the last 4 days, some as long as 2 hours. I had two more scheduled today before they were cancelled in a hail of another delivery's "get it in now" meetings.

I just got done with a conference call with a consulting company over in India. So, heavy Indian accent, via cellphone, via VoIP, via speaker phone, with my bad hearing meant I understood about every 4th word. It was a painful, painful hour and a half.

But I understood enough to understand that I'm not going to go with their service offering.

Today I wore a jacket to work for the first time this fall, and now I have Shallow Gravy running through my head. Bonus!

hentzau wrote:I just got done with a conference call with a consulting company over in India. So, heavy Indian accent, via cellphone, via VoIP, via speaker phone, with my bad hearing meant I understood about every 4th word. It was a painful, painful hour and a half.

I have a weekly conference call with several customers in Singapore. After more than a year of doing this, I still have calls where I'll be lost for entire sentences. I have a little panic moment every time they stop talking when I have to decide if they're asking me a question or not.

What's particularly galling is this only works one way. They have no trouble at all understanding us.

hentzau wrote:I just got done with a conference call with a consulting company over in India. So, heavy Indian accent, via cellphone, via VoIP, via speaker phone, with my bad hearing meant I understood about every 4th word. It was a painful, painful hour and a half.

But I understood enough to understand that I'm not going to go with their service offering.

We just checked a message on our machine here at work. It was left by a nurse at the home taking care of our aunt. Between my brothers and I we understood who the call was about, other than that the nurses accent pretty much made it impossible to understand.

Last year I bought a MLB jersey direct from China.

Now I'm getting guilt from halfway around the world

Hello Scott,
i am Hebe from http://www.jerseysfinal.com" target="_blank
Hope you are fine , my friend .i have sent many email to u ..but u not answer me ..i feel very sad..jerseys sold out ?
The guest satisfaction to jerseys ?
now my website have many new jerseys on sale ..do u want to order more ?i will give u a discount ..ok?thanks..

They sound so lonely.

It would appear that my boots have decided to stop being boots and start being flip-flops.

I should have known better. After a month of listening to her discuss her friend's wedding that is tomorrow, the dress selections, etc., I kept wondering why I was off the hook and hadn't been asked to attend.

When reviewing the plans and her work schedule, she was convinced that she had asked me at some point, just as I was convinced that said conversation was not in my memory at all. So I will be going to the wedding tomorrow night in Fort Worth at 6 pm.

Ordinarily I get out of going to weddings and similar social affairs because I don't have any nice clothes, and that was the excuse that I proffered to avoid this Sunday's nuptials between two people I've never met. But it turned out that the couple is encouraging 1960s costumes.

Crap. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be 1960s-era dress clothes, because I'm wearing my dashiki.

I had to look that up.

Rip wrote:

silverjon wrote:At least it's not about shoes?

I find myself wondering if it was the thread about spilling coffee on shoes that made the internet think we are a forum for people with shoe fetishes or something?

Lock means I can't reply in-thread.

I wonder how bots determine their themes. I can't for the life of me figure out how my other forum has become a target for spam about renovating your kitchen in the UK. And those posts get put into the creative writing section. It's like they're currently better at finding each other than anything that's a legit part of the forum.

Isgrimnur wrote:I had to look that up.

Doesn't everybody have a dashiki? With its tie-dye pattern and gold brocade, nobody will guess that mine is really from the early 70s. Fashionably anachronistic!

I thought it was one of those fuzzy hats the Cossacks wore.
Or maybe that dance that the Addams family brothers did.

I just saw God Bless America. It's been a long time since I laughed that much watching a movie. A VERY dark comedy.

It's so good to laugh. Glad it was fun for you dbt

Trying to think of the last movie where I laughed out loud and I can't remember. We watch Modern Family on TV and that gets us laughing a lot but a movie, humm I don't know.

So this morning as I was walking in my boss' boss called me "buddy." As in, "good morning, buddy!"

Ugh. Don't do that. First, you are not my buddy you are my boss. Second, we don't pal around or go for beers after work. Third, and perhaps most important, if you call me buddy then immediately all sorts of alarm bells start going off and I start wondering if my job is on the line and you are trying to be friendly towards me because you know the hammer is poised to fall.

Brian wrote:So this morning as I was walking in my boss' boss called me "buddy." As in, "good morning, buddy!"

Ugh. Don't do that. First, you are not my buddy you are my boss. Second, we don't pal around or go for beers after work. Third, and perhaps most important, if you call me buddy then immediately all sorts of alarm bells start going off and I start wondering if my job is on the line and you are trying to be friendly towards me because you know the hammer is poised to fall.

Sorry, sport.

WPD wrote:Sorry, sport.

Ha! My coworker made the exact same joke.

Brian wrote:

WPD wrote:Sorry, sport.

Ha! My coworker made the exact same joke.

Maybe I'm your co-worker?

WPD wrote:

Brian wrote:

WPD wrote:Sorry, sport.

Ha! My coworker made the exact same joke.

Maybe I'm your co-worker?

Spoiler:

I'm not.

OR AM I?

Nope.

I saying stuff like that.

WPD wrote:

Brian wrote:

WPD wrote:Sorry, sport.

Ha! My coworker made the exact same joke.

Maybe I'm your co-worker?

Spoiler:

I'm not.

OR AM I?

Nope.

Are you his cleaning crew?

Remus West wrote: Are you his cleaning crew?

Brian wrote:So this morning as I was walking in my boss' boss called me "buddy." As in, "good morning, buddy!"

I'm old enough and gray enough to start calling people "son." The occasion hasn't arisen yet, but I'm looking forward to it.

I've always wanted to be that guy, using a cliche to call everyone. I tried on "Pallie" for a while but it never stuck. Maybe I should I give it another try.

In other news, thanks for the office. I've spent a total of ten minutes of the last five hours in here today. Those ten minutes have been spent digging around for stuff individually (and writing this post) that is needed about 5000 feet away... Right next to where was, where I used to keep stuff, and right in the middle of everything.

I find myself calling people in their 40s "kids".

Ah high school humor. One of the kids wrote a note to another and was trying to get him to read it out loud. It read "I am sofa king we tod ed". The kid he was trying to get to read it was smart enough not to read it but is still trying to figure out what the trick was.

My kids just beat me in Candyland... the four year old won in three turns, legit. She's obviously a ringer...

Baroquen wrote:My kids just beat me in Candyland... the four year old won in three turns, legit. She's obviously a ringer...

Ice cream, 2x Purple, 2x Purple?

stessier wrote:

Baroquen wrote:My kids just beat me in Candyland... the four year old won in three turns, legit. She's obviously a ringer...

Ice cream, 2x Purple, 2x Purple?

It was whatever is under chocolate mountain... wasn't the ice cream cone in this version... looked like a bon bon or something... then double blue, and double green I think... I think she's ready to turn pro.

my daughter put a star on the back of the cards for the special places in candyland. so we always know when they are on top of the pile. There is one extra card with a star, a single yellow, so sometimes the star can fool you.

Lunch of scrambled eggs, hot Italian sausage, and shredded cheese in a failed omelette attempt, but tasty nonetheless.

I often fail at things like omelets or burritos but end up with a tasty mess that's just fine for me.

Our local donut shop is making absolutely amazing pumpkin cake donuts with a big loop of cream cheese frosting on top. They're unbelievably delicious. I am not going to be ready for them to stop doing this once we're out of fall pumpkin season.

I want a new Cadillac. I think the taxpayers owe me one.

My day for odd calls. Just got one saying hello sir this is computer technical support. You are having problems with a slow computer, correct? Strong Indian accent made it believable tech support though, I will give them that lol. I had a great time with him on the phone and got my wife hysterically laughing. But wow, it's like the Nigerian email except over the phone. Alert your older relatives, I know a few who would have fallen for it.

I fell for it. He knew my address and made it sound like he was from MS.
Later when I figured out the scam he wouldn't take no. When he asked why I didn't want it I told him I thought it was all a scam.
He still wouldn't take no so I hung up on him.

Most pointless pointed website ever?