Unknown Name 888-888-8888... or, I'm Not Picking Up If I Don't Know Who You Are!

RRRRRRIIIING....RRRRRIIIING...
Huh??...oh...

I'm coming, I'm coming...(lurching upward and forward to phone)...

RRRRRRIIING...RRRRRIIIING...

Okaaay, Okaaaay, (looking at caller id)...

"NO NAME  888-888-8888"

Oh, for Chrissakes, here we go again...

RRRRRIIIING...RRRRRIIIIING...

Turning my back on the phone, fingers in ears, muttering,
"I don't hear you, la-la-la, don't f.....g hear you!!!

Grrrrr, sound familiar?  Well, it looks as though every kook in kookdom has now figured out a way to use our natural curiosity against us yet again.  I know, because I have actually picked up these calls in the past and was rewarded with, "Are you so-and-so?  This is Company No Name.  You're bill is overdue..."  Well, no s...t, Sherlock.  I know it's overdue, and the check is in the mail...blah-blah-blah...it doesn't matter, they'll be calling again tomorrow.

Or, "It's charity Boo-Hoo, and how would you like to give just 10 bucks to do whatever-we-need..." Tell you what, how about you pay my bill from No-Name ~ then I'll be more than happy to give you money...blah, blah, blah, and I hang up...but it doesn't matter, because they'll be calling back tomorrow, too.  I would like to feel sorry for these poor schmucks that dial the numbers, but I pretty much don't care anymore.

Then again, and especially now, there's the.."Hi, I'm Candidate Dick Head...blah, blah, blah, my message, and I could sure use your vote on November 2nd.  God Bless America."  Mister, call me again, and you'll be hoping to God that I don't scald your ears off with my rather colorful dialogue.

But the worst is the silence when you first say hello, then the tell-tale clicks that tell you a computer just dialed your number and there's a scramble to get a real person on the line to start the bulls..t ...I learned to hang up after the first hello...that is, before I stopped answering the no-name numbers at all. 

So much for being at all curious or kind in our society today.  You can't pick up the phone, access a website, or go out in public without wondering if you are going to be hassled in some way; it doesn't matter how much you explain or act nice, or finally just tell them to leave you the hell alone.  Being polite, having manners, common courtesy, none of it matters.  It's either ignore the ring, push the delete button or stay at home.  Practice the law of disengagement.

Or not.  Engage at full speed, or even just at half-speed.  Jump in with both feet, then die early from stress-related dis-ease.  Whoopee.

And no-call lists are a joke; if they work at all, they usually keep the companies you want to call from calling you, and every example listed above continues to be able to call because of some legal loophole. 

I wonder how parents teach their kids now; Now Johnny (or Jill) go out, my child, explore the world, seek out information, learn all you can...but don't go there/do that or explore too much because some monsters are real, and people just don't give a s..t.  I remember watching that realization dawn in my own children's faces and it broke my heart.    

No, it's just not worth it to even pick up the phone anymore ~ if I want to talk to you, I'll tell you to do us both a favor and just call my cell.  I'm really picky about who I give that number out to; it only goes to those that are my true friend and family ~ my own little corner of the world where kindness, consideration and courtesy still are alive and well.

That's all for now,                                                          

Susan

Fanning The Flames, or, What About Them Saints...I mean, Colts...I mean, um...ADS!!!

Well, right off the bat, I have to tell you I'm not a Superbowl fan.  It's not that I don't like sports; just not football.  Baseball's my game.  And regardless of the sport, I'm not happy about watching it on any screen - I much prefer watching it in person.  Most of the time, I work when the Superbowl is playing - that way, if my teams make the World Series, I can get payback.

While I was at work last Sunday, I happened to look up at the nearest screen - and I was appalled.  It was one of the infamous Superbowl-mercials.  This piece of ...um ...work involved some poor schmuck with a bra on his head being browbeaten by his significant other to the point where he couldn't watch the game.  Huhhh??  A little later, another gem lit up the screens with the browbeaten men putting up with all sorts of horsesh*t just so's they could play in their man-car.

Really?!?  REALLY?!?  What the f*** is THAT?!?  Just when I think we're getting somewhere in the equality area, something like this comes along.  Now, to be fair, I pulled up the Super Bowl commercials and watched them - almost all of them - and I have to say that there were only a few like this group.  One or two were even going the other way, and were disrespectful of men.  Still, even one is too many.

In a time when rape and all other manner of violent crimes against women are up, wouldn't it have been more prudent, (and definitely more tasteful), to depict women and men having a good time without demeaning one or the other?  Why does it have to be that women are either bimbos-without-brains or the scheming wife/girlfriend just bent on giving the poor man in question a hard time about doing whatever it is he pleases?

Greed, that's why.  Airing dirty laundry, that's why.  The rubber-neck syndrome: we'll all look when going past an accident - now, ask me why this is.  Go ahead, ask.

Hell, I don't know.  In the multitudes of studies done on this very thing it basically comes down to we are attracted to the adrenaline rush associated with trouble/violence/death/destruction/chaos.  Good things are boring, according to the studies.

Well, here's a thought.  Maybe it's time to be bored.  Maybe it would be better - especially in this time of rising societal unrest, (cool words; basically everything is screwed up and will be getting screwier), to have the good stories, the ones of humankind at their best at the beginning of the newscasts instead of at the end.  There is a set of commercials I really like: it basically shows people doing some little thing for someone with somebody else looking on, and then that somebody goes on to do something nice, too.  Why not more of that?  Or at the least, some more funny ones about the duck and Elmer Fudd.

Or maybe I just like my fantasy world.  Here's something, though.  Changing our thoughts changes our actions.  Change our actions and others may think about it, catch on and maybe change their actions as well.  If enough people change their actions, the society and then the world will change as a result.

It would be a good start.

That's it for now,

Susan

We Care So Much, Don't We?

Okay.

I never promised to make friends with this blog... and this would be why.

I believe in getting people to think ~ although I never promise to be nice about it.  I try to not make promises I can't keep.

So, here it goes, in a very non-politically correct way~

What the #%!&$%! is up with this Haiti thing???

Look, I'm not totally an idiot ~ I get it that there is extreme suffering, homes and lives are ruined, and the ability to save someone ~ anyone ~ alive grows lesser by the day.  That would be the last thing I would wish on anyone ~ and I hope and pray that Haiti and her people come out of this disaster as soon as possible.  But COME ON...

When was the last time three presidents called on all of us to reach deep, the Marines were deployed and the Red Cross ponied up millions of bucks for the hundreds of thousands of people living in their own private third-world hell right here in this country???  If anyone has any doubts, just go to the nearest reservation to you.  Or go on a road trip to the Appalachias.  Visit the Four Corners area in the Southwest.  Or go visit some of the really small towns in the deep South.   Have we really become that unphased by the suffering around us that we have to go to another country to find it??  Really??

I'm sure if we all thought hard enough, we would realize we all know those places in our towns and cities where no-one looks each other in the eye, and people tend to look as though they've bought their clothes from the nearest thrift store ~ or dragged it out of the trash.  We would remember seeing those people on the fringe of our vision ~ when we looked up long enough from our Blackberrys and iPhones ~ reaching into the nearest garbage can to pull out the soda and beer cans for the extra change and maybe a little bit of food someone else threw out so the hunger was just sightly less intense.  Those figures that walk down the edge of the road, bags full of their lives carried on their shoulders and often their loyal dog walking beside them.

I'm not saying that we should rush out and pour our well-earned cash into the nearest panhandler's hands.  I rarely give money to the beggars with their signs standing on the side of the road.  I'm more likely to give them a burger for lunch, or if they tell me they need gas, get them a can.  I don't like giving a handout ~ I much prefer giving a hand up.

Nor am I saying we shouldn't give whatever we want to whomever we please.  I just ask that you remember that suffering doesn't just happen in times of great tragedy.  Or in some other place.  Really look around you and you can see that tragedy has degrees, and there are many living in that state around us all the time.


That's it for now,                                                                                                                           
Susan

Stressme Street... or, it's ten o'clock - do you know where your money is?

Well, well, well...or maybe not so much.  Brought to you by the letters F*** off, or maybe even F*** up, or possibly F***me, and by the numbers Doingit2u and Doingit2u1moretime.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, in Mr. Banker's Neighborhood...you are all mine, really all mine, (okay, so I'm mixing my kiddie programs - don't like it, write your own).

I wonder, since I don't watch these at all any more - my babies are grown and living their own lives - do they ever go into the real life situations that most kids - or parents, for that matter - deal with?  Say kids, today we're going to talk about foreclosures.  Can you say foreclosures?  Do you know what those are?  Can you say a** deep in debt?  What about I-have-no-idea-how-I'm-going-to-pay-the-bills-and-we-may-be-living-on-the-street-soon?  Do you know what that means, boys and girls?

But of course you do, we all do.  It's the waking up every day wondering how you're going to make the bills today, tomorrow, next week. next month.  Because you have exhausted the orifices that you can pull money out of.  Realizing you've paid your bills and have nothing left for little things like, oh, I don't know, food.  Knowing a holiday, a birthday, an anniversary, (pick one of the above or add your own), is coming and all you can afford is a card, (one of the cheap ones).  That is, if you save up.

When I look at my own situation, I get whiny, but then I really look and I get thankful.  Thankful that I still have a good job; I still have to decide what bills get paid and what bills will have to wait, but at least we're not on the streets, thank the gods.  I have to put up with the embarrassing phone calls to the people I'm supposed to pay and let them know I'll be late with their money, but it's a late payment and not a no payment.  Dinner out means McDonald's not Olive Garden, but it's something.

And I have to remember, I wasn't as responsible about my spending when it came to credit cards, either.  As I'm sure most of you can understand and identify with, I saw and I bought without thinking a lot more often than I should have, then, as the money got shorter and shorter, I made the fatal error of using credit cards to pay other bills, (finally, other credit card bills - ack!).  As a result, I've removed credit cards from my life.  Just can't have them, or I'll use them.

So, if I can take personal responsibility for my actions and take steps to correct them, why can't others?  Like our friends, the bankers for instance; what would happen if I was not only drowning in debt but I went and asked my friends the Feds for money, they gave it to me, and I spent all their money on retreats and bonuses for myself?  Then I went back to my friends and asked for MORE money?  How is that financially responsible at all?  Then to cap it all off, the banks then have the nerve to charge their customers even worse rates, all in the name of the mighty god, Business.  My thought would be: if you want to be solvent, get responsible, dammit!!  Stop giving big bonuses to your management when you are a** deep in debt!!  Stop doing idiotic things like charging the little guy, (that's me), $35 dollars for a 77 cent overdraft!!  Yes, you heard me right - all in the name of their god, Money.  It was my mistake, yes, but $35 effing dollars for 77 cents?!  Come on, haven't they ever heard of the term can't squeeze blood from a stone?  What the...is up with that?!  #%@&#!

Almost makes me want to go live way away from people and start storing my money in my mattress and burying it in the backyard.  No dividend, (all 23 cents a year), but no overdraft either.

Hmmm...could be something to that.

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood
A kick in the pants will do you good...

That's it for now.

Susan

Well, here goes nothing ... I'm in!!!

Finally!!

This whole setting-up-the-blog thing has been verrry interesting.  The first three times I attempted to make a blog, I couldn't even get into the system!  I'd get to the page for naming the blog and the html, blah-blah, and I had no friendly sign, no arrow, no nothing to allow me to actually create the damn thing.  I finally was able to get in tonight through a series of complicated steps that I will never be able to recreate again in this lifetime.

*Sigh*

It's times like these when I really would like to ...

Hmmm, I wonder if computers hear you when you curse - and laugh their computer butts off ... damn technology.


That's it for now,
Sue