Have to Dash... will be back soon...

Just a note to the group-- I've got to dash for a few days and help make a way into the world for my new nephew, so I won't be around for a few days. (Actually, I've missed everything since yesterday, too.)

I'm going to do a quick update before I leave-- yes, it's very late, and I have a 3-hour drive ahead of me :P

And you can probably tell by the nature of this post that I can't form a single cogent thought to save my life. I'm not even sure if I'm spelling this right. Oh, well. Must dash.

Diane-- let me know how your Duran^2 Experience was-- email me with the details, cuz when I return, I'm going to have to "mark as read---" I'm betting there'll be over 500 messages I'm going to miss. Oh, well, it's for the best. ;-)

Toodles! rich.

Jane: All I want is to make beautiful things!

[email] (paperpusher) wrote:

Turns out there were only 198, so I read them all, but found no regaling of Duran Duran experiences. :(

On a more positive note, my nephew was born on Thursday at 2:53PM, EDT. 8 pounds even, 20.5" long (for those of you who like to keep track of such things.) Both Mother and Son are doing fine. I had to come back today though, just in case that stupid hurricane heads my way. A blown-out rear tire in the middle of Nowheresville later, I finally got home.

In celebration, a friend of mine and I found a local "pub" (it's one of those pseudo-pubs, IYKWIM) that serves Guiness Stout on draft, and had a couple of pints in celebration. Yum. :)

Now, of course, I must get ready, just in case that stupid hurricane Dennis makes its way here. :P I've been through so many, I've lost count. (Now you know why I wrote that fic!) But first, I need about 16 hours of sleep. I bet Trent wakes up before I do tomorrow. :-D

groggily, uncle rich.

Daria: "I always knew that I would die in Nowheresville"

Jane: "But I didn't think I'd die there quite so soon."

Congratulations! On being an uncle, that is. Kids are great. I love being an Aunt... You can spoil them all you want and then when they act up you can just give 'em back! :)

Wow, here we're lucky, no earthquakes, hurricanes, twisters, major floods, giant mudslides, or avalanches... all we have to deal with is the toxic air, water, and land...

Marie

"The curtain rises on a vast primitive wasteland, not unlike certain parts of New Jersey." -Woody Allen

[email] (MarieRoss) wrote:

Thank you very much. Now all I have to do is get my half-stick of dried Juicy Fruit gum, and I'll be good to go.

If I may ask, where are you? (I'm in North Carolina, the state that's only behind Florida for hurricane frequency. Blecch.)

rich.

Tiffany: "Oh, no. Wind, hair."

paperpusher wrote:

Sorry about the dearth of such a posting. The aliens have taken my creative energy and refocused it onto my schoolwork, where it has been languishing, crying out for a new focus. No, but seriously, I'll get to it. When I send out a review on Tiger I'll CC a copy to you...or to the newsgroup...whichever you wish.

Hey, congratulations. On the new nephew, I mean. Uncle Rich. ;) As for the car trouble...man that sucks. Sounds like both of us are "Road Worriers" now though. ;)

Oh, you're making me long to return to England even *more*. One of the best parts about my visit there was going inside a pub and just being there. It's so vibrant and beautiful and all. Oh, and the pint of brew...tasted icky IMO. But the food was good.

Impossible. Trent, wake up before *you* do? Huh. And what's the next thing that'll happen, "Daria" becomes a musical or something? (huh? that already happened? oh. [looks down at the ground]) ;)

Reminder: duck phones are best. ;)

Diane

lol. are you using the same meaning of the word "pub" as i do? lol. ;)

<snip>

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly: <snip!>

Excellent! Congratulations! Good stuff all 'round! And here's to hoping you don't have to go through your twelve millionth hurricane.

OK, I've been looking at this for ten minutes: What the hell is IYKWIM? I'm going to feel stupid when someone tells me, indubitably...

Pfffffft. Trent wake up before *anyone?* Impossible! *sings* It's impossible... *gets knocked unconcious by some unknown benefactor of humanity*

-Mindy

"Daria, you're giving me a headache!!" -Quinn Morgendorffer, "Daria"

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

mindy asks:

Wild Guess: <If You Know What I Mean>??

Mindy wrote:

I actually figured it out: If You Know What I Mean. There are so many of these little things that usually I ignore them. IYKWIM.

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

Hey, I was right. I feel stupid. IYKWIM.

-Mindy

"Daria, you're giving me a headache!!" -Quinn Morgendorffer, "Daria"

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

[email] (Mindy) wrote:

Thanks. Fortunately, I had a full-size spare, or I might be trapped in a town that makes Fremont look cosmopolitan. It took me 5 minutes to find it on the map. Scary.

We'll see. The winds have definitely picked up, but I think we're going to miss the nasty bits.

Everyone else already told you, I know, but I'm lazy, so I use those sorts of abbrevs....

You're right. Someone called me at noon. NOON! With a computer-related question. Damn. I'm still short about 6 hours on sleep.

rich.

Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.

Jake: Jefferson!

Helen: Stalin.

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

The nerve of some people. Someone called me at nine AM today about switching my long distance service to MCI. Why do those people call during the day anyway? They have all the info gathered from their spy satellites, you'd think they'd realize, "Hey! There's no one in the house that's not comically underage!" But no, they have to call and ask if I'm authozied to change my long distance service. No. I'm 14. I'm not even authorized to put holes in my own body yet, let alone something earth-shaking like change my long distance service to Mindless Cronies International.

-Mindy

Dcode: Ap D+ T7 Wl Q++ Fn^Fr O- Or+Os+Od m-- c MV-- C5X F:101,308 BBd FCJ -DT-- q fJ^fM^fO(Artie :-P) Find the Daria Geek Code at http://www.geocities.com/TelevisonCity/Taping/3017/

[email] (Mindy) wrote:

The trick is to make a game out of telephone solicitations. The game consists of this-- see how long you can get them to "just hold on for a sec" while you get some needed documentation. Then go into another room for about 5 minutes. Repeat. One of my friends kept a telemarketer waiting for about 20 minutes that way. Still a record among my little group. ;-) Mysteriously, he doesn't get many telemarketers calling him anymore. Apparently, word gets around. :D

rich.

Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.

Jake: Jefferson!

Helen: Stalin.

On the mountaintop, [email] spake thusly:

They're fun to play with when they don't wake you up. I like to ask them about their service then switch accents on them every few seconds. Confuzzles the hell out of them, especially when the accent's either really good or really bad. 'Nother good one is to say that the person in charge will be to the phone in a moment and then give the phone to a pet (loud animals are best). Or you can be an actor. A friend of mine pretends he's figuring out a plan for world domination with a group of Freemasons. When I do that, I prefer to act as though the telemarketer has interrupted a Satanic ritual. Strangely, we don't get as many of them as we used to here. *shrug* The ones that call, though, always call at gay hours. >_<

-Mindy

<snip stuff about telemarketing>

This is why I rarely answer the phone.

However if I do, and they're selling long distance, I tell them I don't have a phone. Of course, they almost always point out the incocistancy there (ie we're talking on the phone) at which point I get belligerent and say YOU CALLIN' ME A LIAR... and so on. However if it's someone offering me a credit card, I usually just say that credit is against my religion, and that I'll pray for their souls.

Or I just hang up.

I stopped telemarketers from calling me simply by telling them how poor we are, how we have to live on oodles of noodles, how many corners we have to cut, and so on and so on until they would finally a desperate break for freedom and hang up. After a few times... they don't call anymore. <knocks on wood> Of course, now I have to deal with pledge drives and charities... they're worse; they believe what they're saying... :)

Marie

"No good deed ever goes unpunished." -Brooks Thomas

In article ,

The best way I've found to limit the intrusion of telemarketers is to get caller ID (if availible), then you know if the call is someone you want to talk to (and if it doesn't give you a name and phone number, you don't want to talk to them). It also helps you to avoid annoying people that you DO know ;)

Mike Quinn wrote:

Yeah, but those annoying people always seem to leave a lot of really long, boring messages, over and over and over. And they never seem to get the hint... *sigh*

rich. (who gave up screening his calls a long time ago.)

Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.

Jake: Jefferson!

Helen: Stalin.

paperpusher wrote:

I don't have that problem..... a lot of times they don't even leave a message on my voice mail. With the options I have, if they just block the name and number it doesn't ring my phone at all. And if it says -UNAVAILABLE- I don't answer. Saves me no end of dealing with their crap. And if they DO leave a sales message, that's where the magic of voice mail comes in... as soon as I realize it's a sales message I just hit "delete" and that's that. That also comes in handy when the collection agencies call looking for the person who had this phone number before I did. I think they all got the message though, as they don't call very much anymore.

Oh well, that's enough of that....

Marty Charter Member, Secret Underground Bummer Culture Silver Grove, KY Chapter

[email] (MarieRoss) wrote:

"Charity bloodsuckers!"

"No, it's the fashion bloodsuckers." ;-)

rich.

Jane: You know, I don't know why people say we have a bad attitude.

Daria: Screw 'em.

In article , [email] wrote:

Congratulations! On the new nephew, not the hurricane. I was recently welcomed into the Uncle fraternity myself recently when my sister had her baby girl late last year. Brothers and sisters may fight while growing up, but something like this makes it all worth while.Enjoy it, I spoil my niece all the time now and I'm sure you'll do the same, after all they have to deal with the kids after we leave:-) Seriously congratulations again!

Also a (somewhat)new uncle, A.J.