Spam and the Do Not Call List

I have 2 intruders in my home and can’t seem to get rid of them. I suspect that most everyone else has the same 2 intruders. I’m speaking of telemarketers and spammers. I’ve figured out a way that seems to lessen the numbers of each that intrude upon my quietude.

I introduce the telemarketers to the spammers. I take the phone number of the calling person and do a quick Internet search to find out where they are so I can get city, state and zip code. I then open the email spam and press the inevitable link to some web site with a form . I have firewalls and anti-virus apps to protect myself. Once at the spammer’s site, I fill out their form using the telephone number and derived information from the telemarketer. I always use a street name of 2nd, or Main St., or 1st because towns almost always have one of those streets. I then submit the form.

It’s amazing how the frequency of phone calls has lessened. Another benefit is that the whole thing tickles me. I picture the telemarketers leaving me alone because they are busy responding to the spammers.

Goals and Objectives

Didja ever run into corporate America’s penchant for setting goals and objectives on a regular basis. They were to be SMART goals. SMART is an acronym (Annoyingly Cryptic References Or Names You Make) standing for Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant and Timely. Every time I got traded to a new manager I had to go through this nonsense.

I know that some people find usefulness in this goal setting exercise. I find doing so to be terribly limiting. I have an insatiable wondering that is constantly outside the boundaries of some set of predefined goals or objectives. Besides, the minute they are set every manager I ever had checked my name off the list and neither of us ever looked at them again. When I had a manager that would dredge them up later, I always made sure that my hallowed list of objectives either just listed what I was already doing or listed things I had done that I hadn’t mentioned to my manager so that they didn’t affect me.

I never hid my feelings about them to any manager, telling each that the whole exercise was a load of CRAP (Completely Ridiculous And Problematic). I’d then point out that unless I was specifically given the wherewithal to meet those objectives I was being set up for failure. I never found anyone who could definitively tell me how limiting my options to a predefined list benefited me or them. BTW, my way resulted in the development of productivity tools that were used across EDS when I got tired of repetitively doing the same things all the time. Had I been tied to a finite set of objectives, the productivity tools would not have been developed and shared.

‘Course maybe this resistance to structured crap was probably partially why I got traded to other managers so often. LOL

Standing In Line

It seems to me that we'd have FAR fewer people who needed help if we didn't have so many people standing in line to help them.

However, since we do have so many standing in line to "help", I may decide to join them by starting a self-help group for Female Gay Whales with Aids. I may never have to work again if I can get this group off the ground.

Rampant Outrage and Paradigms

It's interesting to me how quickly people embrace outrage at the drop of a syllable. Generally, in my view, if said outraged busy bodies, who's heads are so porous that there's no place for any convictions, would just keep their mouths shut whatever happened that caused them to press their outrage button would quietly blow over.

On the contrary, rather than quietly allowing triggered events to blow over, these selfish, inward looking people immediately foist their preferences upon others without ever realizing that they are inflicting their stilted paradigms on them. All too frequently their outraged anger just serves to violate the freedoms of others.

Talk about "optical rectosis"!!!!!!!

Calming Affect

I was told that L-Theanine, an amino acid derivative from the Camellia sinensis plant, has a natural calming affect and helps to relieve stress.  My Beloved sits next to a nice lady who finds it necessary to talk all the time.  This constant chatter gets in the way of the successful completion of assigned tasks.  I suggested that she might give the talkative co-worker a Theanine capsule and tell her that it will give you a calming affect if she will place it against one lip and hold it tightly in place with the other.

For some reason my thoughtfully crafted advice was shunned.

Thinking of the Trev

A short time after my son moved out of our home in Poulsbo, WA, he moved to Florida. I sent him "care" packages. In one, I placed a slice of cheddar cheese in a sandwich bag with the note, "I was sitting around cutting the cheese one night and thought I'd share it with you." The package and cheese made it safely to him although he said that the cheese was gross.

Opinions!

I freely admit that I have so many opinions that some of them are bound to be wrong.  If I don't get the data needed to change them, I'll keep them.  However, if another's "data" consists of nothing more than their preferences, I'll keep my opinions because I know the data upon which my opinions are based.