23 Jul 2004 | In Passing...

23 Jul 2004

Submitted by eve on Fri, 07/23/2004 - 1:16am. Wisdom

"I was in a band where we had a rule, all guitar or drum solos had to be at least one cigarette long... And I didn't even smoke."
--A guy standing outside Taqueria Cancun

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Posted by Matt on Fri, 10/15/2004 - 6:52pm.

Also just because it's Friday, and even though the lyrics have little meaning to anyone other than me right now:

It won’t be long yeah, yeah,
It won’t be long yeah, yeah,
It won’t be long yeah, yeah,
Till I belong to you.
Ev’ry night when ev’rybody has fun,
Here I am sitting all on my own.
It won’t be long yeah, yeah,
It won’t be long yeah, yeah,
It won’t be long yeah, yeah,
Till I belong to you.
Since you left me I’m so alone,
Now you’re coming, you’re coming home,
I’ll be good like I know I should,
You’re coming home, you’re coming home.
Ev’ry night the tears come down from my eyes,
Ev’ry day I’ve done nothing but cry.
It won’t be long yeah, yeah,
Since you left me I’m so alone,
Now you’re coming, you’re coming home,
I’ll be good like I know I should,
You’re coming home, you’re coming home.
Ev’ry day we’ll be happy, I know,
Now that I know you won’t leave me no more.
It won’t be long yeah, yeah.

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Heh heh.

Posted by steff on Fri, 10/15/2004 - 9:35pm.

some guys just can't handle anticipation. *grin*

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This link goes all the way to 11.

Posted by slugbuggy on Fri, 10/15/2004 - 1:43pm.

This here page has an audio clip of the infamous Troggs recording session that was the inspiration for This is Spinal Tap, or at least the recording studio scene where they say "*******" and "****" a lot.

The page itself is safe enough but the audio has much cursing in it.

And, related Friday song:

Stonehenge, where the demons dwell
Where the banshees live and they do live well
Stonehenge
Where a man is a man and the children dance to
the pipes of pan
Stonehenge
Tis a magic place where the moon doth rise
With a dragon's face
Stonehenge
Where the virgins lie
And the prayer of devils fill the midnight sky
And you my love, won't you take my hand
We'll go back in time to that mystic land
Where the dew drops cry and the cats meow
I will take you there
I will show you how

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Classic moments in cinema :)

Posted by umrguy on Fri, 10/15/2004 - 3:21pm.

The intro (which may not quite be complete, but I got it from IMDB):
"In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing... "

And of course, afterwards...

"I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright? That tended to understate the hugeness of the object."

"I really think you're just making much too big a thing out of it."

"Making a big thing out of it would have been a good idea."

-There's someone in my head, but it's not me.-

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Good news on wrong numbers

Posted by Ben on Sun, 10/03/2004 - 7:39pm.

From what I remember the European cell phone model and the American cell phone model work on two very distinctively different pay schemes. On the European system, only outgoing calls are charged to the owner; which makes cell phones there more similar to American land-lines. Opppositely American cell phone plans charge for all airtime used. Since there is some FCC regulation regarding fair compensation for the minutes used, cell phone companies would be liable for the cost of the call - dependant on each individual cell plan, which ultimately makes a quagmire of administrative work for them. The end result is that non-compensated unsolicited cell phone calls are illegal. Getting a call from a telemarketer has been rare for me - only once in the past 5 years with the same cell number. Whereas when I had a landline, I recieved daily marketing. As a result, I haven't had a land line in two years. It should be noted that I do recieve unsolicited phone calls for marketing from companies I do indeed have a relationship with (student loans, credit cards, cable, and of course the phone company), but those are covered by some clause about current services having implicity consent.

I would think text messaging would be restricted similarly, but I think it is really too dumb and time-wasting for me, so I refuse to use the service.

-B

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Posted by Matt on Wed, 09/29/2004 - 7:16pm.

I realize this has nothing to do with anything, but has anyone else experienced a multitude of unknown peoples calling their cell phone? By "multitude," I mean grossly more than one would get on a regular land line.

I've had my phone less than six months and today I got a call from Atlanta, GA. Last month it was San Diego, and a few months ago I got one from the Pittsburg, CA Unified School District and also one from a guy who was distinctly ESL looking for a gentleman with a distinctly Spanish-based last name. An average of one a month. When I had a land line I got, maybe, one or two a year. Wacky.

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Cell Phone Annoyance

Posted by Desert Fox on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 10:35am.

Mine seems to attract a disproportionate number of fax machines. I only have the phone on when I'm in the field -- 3 to 8 days a month -- and I almost always receive at least one ear-splitting, car-crash fax call. Strange.

Cheers

*********
"Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit." -- Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto

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Cell Phone Spam?

Posted by Apple on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 9:25am.

At least twice a week, I get a call for Gary on my phone. It sounds like a big black guy, or it's someone who does a spot on impression of one. Twice. A. Week. As though Gary will somehow get his cell number back and answer his calls. It's more annoying, since it does eat my meager minutes up. If he'd just wait 'til after 7, it would be a tad less so. I've tried every answer in the book to stop the calls. "No, this isn't his number anymore. I've had it for almost a year." "No, Gary doesn't want to speak with you anymore since you started making passes at his wife." "No, Gary decided to cut off all contact with you since you started making passes at him." Nothing works. I get the same answer, "Oh, really? Ok, I'll try again later." NO, ya crazy bastard!

No telemarketers though. My sister does get the random telemarketer, 'cause her cell phone is her only phone.

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Ummm...

Posted by ParU on Mon, 10/04/2004 - 5:03pm.

Hi this is Gary, any calls for me?
My goodness, we used to do that scam back in the sixties... Sorry you're getting my calls Apple...
It's Amino world without Chemists

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Problem solved

Posted by Penny on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 1:52pm.

You know, this happened to me, only they were asking for Kay.
Finally, I told one person calling for her that if I ever found her, I was going to smack her around for giving out my number. You know how some people do that when they just can't say "no".

Turns out it was her sister. She told me Kay's actual number and it seems that a lot of people were transposing just two digits in her number and it turned into mine.

I haven't gotten one since!

I hope the same joyful thing happens for you!

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Annoying calls

Posted by marinerd on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 10:42am.

It sounds like the person just likes to annoy you--there's probably no Gary. I don't know but you could probably find out if it's possible to block calls from a specific number on your phone. I know you can do that on land lines. Your phone company could tell you. That's what I'd do!

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Hee

Posted by Apple on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 11:47am.

You know, you could be right. He's just calling to check if I have a new response he can possibly share with his friends, maybe even Gary. *G* Wonder if I'll ever see myself quoted here.

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Heh. Unknown peoples

Posted by Jon on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 9:20am.

I barely get anyone calling my phone, at all. Then again, I don't give it out to many people. That's changed a little since I got my shiny new phone, which gets better reception.

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Nope.

Posted by paul on Wed, 09/29/2004 - 10:34pm.

Sorry, but it appears to be you. I've only gotten a handful of wrong numbers on my cell phone, and that was from people misdialing. And I don't think the telemarketers will start calling cell phones. Can't you just see it?

*ring*

"Hello?"

"Hello, may I speak to Paul?"

"Speaking."

"Hi, Paul, I'm with the Richmond Times Dispatch. I was calling to see if you'd be interested in subscribing to the daily paper."

*long pause*

"You call me out of the blue, start using up my cell phone minutes, and then want to know if I want to subscribe to that substandard rag? You call me up and start costing me money, and then want to sell me something?"

"Well, I-"

"Does the phrase 'When hell freezes over' mean anything to you?"

*click*

Then again, there are probably idiots out there who are stupid enough to do it. Never underestimate the stupidity of marketers.

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Posted by Matt on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 8:57am.

It's already happening in Europe. Advertisers there are also sending ads as text messages.

Or at least, that's what I hear.

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Correction

Posted by umrguy on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 6:11am.

Never underestimate the stupidity of some of the people they'll reach, who will probably agree to whatever's being sold.

-There's someone in my head, but it's not me.-

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Reunion

Posted by Monk on Tue, 09/28/2004 - 12:43pm.

Oh joy! And then we can all start adding 'y's to any word correctly spelled with 'i's.

dryvying my trayn....hygh on cocayne.....

FreetheHamsters

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Heh.

Posted by paul on Tue, 09/28/2004 - 1:50pm.

I'm glad to know that I've made such a lasting contribution to In Passing. *gryn*

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Well, hellOO!

Posted by Intelligirly on Tue, 09/28/2004 - 12:21pm.

K the G! You're back. So where have you been?

This seems to be starting to look like old home week. Now we need Joe, Kat, Sluggy, Steff (I know where she is, but chances are no one else does), maybe a little naughtytimmycakes, and the variety of others who gave this place spice. Like, you know, Eve. *grynne*

I love Mike!

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I'm just curious

Posted by Kris the Girl on Tue, 09/28/2004 - 10:55am.

So, I went missing for a bit there while I had less than constant internet...but where's Eve? Did I miss a memo? Why haven't there been any new posts for 2 months? Is she alright? What's going on?
I'm not complaining so much as I'm curious. I'm sure there's a viable explanation--I just don't know what it is. Help!

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Eve...

Posted by ParU on Tue, 09/28/2004 - 7:28pm.

Eve's fine -- she's just working and traveling for work. She'll post when she gets net access (not through work, as they'd take a dim view of IP).
It's Amino world without Chemists

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Wunderbar!

Posted by Kris the Girl on Wed, 09/29/2004 - 1:28pm.

Glad to hear she's alright. Hope she's not too busy! =oP

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Adding to the random links...

Posted by paul on Wed, 09/22/2004 - 1:41am.

I saw this and thought it should go in here, being hamster related and all...

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Posted by Matt on Thu, 09/16/2004 - 9:30pm.

Adding this here for no other reason than it's the most recent post, I present this link. Judge it how you will.

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Feh

Posted by Ben on Tue, 09/21/2004 - 10:21pm.

strong chance this double posts with an Anne Onymous having posted this... heh - hope she didn't scoop me.

I'm sure I've posted this link before, but in the off chance I haven't... This reminds me of the galery of regrettable food - one of my most favorite websites ever.

If you ever have a lot of time on your hand all off http://www.lileks.com is worth the look.

Rockin' - slang, elypsis, useless parenthesis, poor hyphenation... its good to be back!

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Ben

Posted by ParU on Wed, 09/22/2004 - 9:15pm.

Glad to have you Ben! Have you joined CITYbagel yet (the Yahoo group for this website where you can be more open). Ask steff for an invite.
It's Amino world without Chemists

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*chuckle*

Posted by paul on Thu, 09/16/2004 - 11:34pm.

I remember this one from when it was at poundy.com. At the time I sent off an email to James Lileks, pointing out the similarities. Good to know that she's finally at least acknowledged his site as an influence on hers. I don't know if my tip to Lileks had anything to do with it or not, but...

Want another silly random link? Here ya go. Or maybe this. (Both are safe for work. But that doesn't mean that you won't occasionally see something like this...)

Oh, and just for you, daen...

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Berkeley!

Posted by Mike on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 8:48am.

Not particularly safe for work, but pretty educational nonetheless.

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Posted by Matt on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 10:24am.

Give a serious thought to those captions, people, because the person who posted those is spot on.

As Eve mentioned years ago, possibly the greatest bit of fun in Berkeley on Halloween is trying to guess who's dressed up for the day versus who's just like that.

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I love a parade!

Posted by marinerd on Thu, 09/30/2004 - 9:09am.

Nice link! We have a parade every year in a neighborhood of Seattle that calls itself The Artist's Republic of Fremont. There is always a big group of naked people in it, most riding bicycles, but most of them are younger and more attractive (and nicely painted) than the people in these Berkeley photos. But I'm sure the thought's the same!

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...

Posted by daen on Fri, 09/17/2004 - 6:32am.

Time hanging heavy on your hands, Paul?
*g*

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Posted by Matt on Mon, 09/13/2004 - 9:55pm.

Something kinda cool I spotted on my way home tonight:

A car license plate that read: SNARKY3

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My car??

Posted by ParU on Tue, 09/14/2004 - 6:16pm.

You saw my car?
It's Amino world without Chemists

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Posted by Matt on Tue, 09/14/2004 - 9:41pm.

Only if you're a University of Texas alumnus (with California plates).

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Well...

Posted by ParU on Wed, 09/15/2004 - 7:21pm.

Y'all know I went to grad school at Berkeley, but I coulda gone to UT. Y'all just ain't heard me talk.
It's Amino world without Chemists

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Hee!

Posted by Kris the Girl on Wed, 09/15/2004 - 1:31pm.

We went over the variations of "alumn-" the other day in Latin. It was fun to learn just how wrong schools are.
*grin*
you of course used the RIGHT suffix, which is a rare sight. Except for here at IP, I mean.

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Alumnae

Posted by Monk on Fri, 09/24/2004 - 9:21am.

a-l-u-m-n-a-e

I will not date the alumnae. I will not date the alumnae. I will not date the alumnae. I will not date the alumnae. I will not date the alumnae. I will not date the alumnae. I will not date the alumnae. I will not date the alumnae.

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Alumni...

Posted by ParU on Mon, 09/27/2004 - 5:39pm.

You know Monk you would've been in hog heaven on the flight I was on yesterday. Flying from the Bay Area to LA there were all these young ladies who obviously were alumnae. I spoke with one and she told me they were all USC sorority grads who'd come up to see the 'game' (USC vs Standford). I did think of you but somehow I couldn't figure out how to refer them to you. Sorry 'bout that.
It's Amino world without Chemists

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The Monk Signal!

Posted by Jon on Mon, 09/27/2004 - 7:36pm.

Geez, once the Monk Signal is shown, the Monked Crusader will shortly be on the scene. I thought the all-knowing ParU would realize that... :^)

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Posted by Matt on Wed, 09/15/2004 - 9:14pm.

I have a couple of new rants that have come up over the last couple of years. One of them is using the all-encompassing "alumni" to refer to any single *or* multiple graduates of a post-secondary education institution.

The other is (and this is mostly Dudweiser) macrobreweries advertising how "fresh" their beer can be. The short version of this rant is that if these people didn't insist on filtering out and killing off all the yeast (thereby killing the beer), the beer would taste just as good, if not better than it did, when it left the brewery.

That's all.

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Squeeeeeech....

Posted by brian65401 on Mon, 09/06/2004 - 6:06pm.

Hello? Excuse me?

tap tap tap

Is this thing on?

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Reading

Posted by marinerd on Wed, 09/08/2004 - 1:39pm.

I'm not even a young 'un, but I'm going through all my old Xanth books. I've read all but the last few of them before, but thought I'd start at the beginning. When I'm not cross stitching, that is. They're silly and fun, and light.

I hope everything is okay with Piers Anthony down in Hurricane Central. Fracto must be on the loose.

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Aye laddie...

Posted by ParU on Mon, 09/06/2004 - 9:50pm.

It's working. I just think all the young'uns are busy starting school.
It's Amino world without Chemists

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Huh.

Posted by Saint on Tue, 09/07/2004 - 9:14pm.

I dunno about the others, but this young'un has been reading The Years of Rice and Salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson. I finally finished today, and can resume the rest of my life.

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Huh indeed.

Posted by paul on Tue, 09/07/2004 - 11:09pm.

I've been reading "Post From An Undying Duck" by Brinkley Heffer-pfister.

Then again, I'm no longer a young'un.

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More Information

Posted by Gilgad on Thu, 09/09/2004 - 9:29pm.

Hi,
* peaks head out of the lurker's shadows and blinks at the bright light *
Hmm Books. Happy Happy. Anyway got more info or links on "Post From An Undying Duck"? I try to broaden my reading by following offhand recommendations like this but I cant find it on Amazon :-(.
Amazon has my huge list of books for me to read at some point. Which I cherry pick off whenever I can afford a new book ... although the book isn't always (or even usually) purchase from the almighty Amazon ... shipping to afar is expensive.
I tried Years of Rice and Salt got about ohh 3/4 of the way through and decided the pay off wasn't there. *shrugs*

Laters,

Gilgad

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...

Posted by paul on Fri, 09/10/2004 - 9:13am.

Okay... it doesn't really exist. It was an inside joke between myself and daen.

See, there was one night when I was having rather odd dreams. And just before I woke up I dreamed that I walked out of my bedroom into the living room (I'm in an apartment) and saw her sitting in the oversized blue chair, reading a book while her cat slept next to her on the seat. This is, in fact, a fairly normal occurence as she reads more than I do. There really wasn't anything more to the dream than that, except that the title of the book was "Post From an Undying Duck".

My girlfriend's reading tastes are a bit different from mine, and I had the impression that it was by some obscure British author. At that point I awoke and lay there for a second, with that title still in my head, and tried to make sense of it. Post? What kind of post? A letter delivered by post? Or maybe a post to a website? And what the hell is an undying duck? The more I thought about it the funnier it got.

Ultimately I wrote a short story for her based on this dream, so in a sense it does exist, but not as a book, and not by an Englishman with an obscene last name.

Heh. If you're really curious about it, email me (oldforger@yahoo.com) and I'll send you a copy of the story, although I suspect that it was more amusing to my girlfriend than it would be to anyone else...

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...

Posted by daen on Thu, 09/09/2004 - 6:46pm.

I keep hearing about that book. Any chance I can borrow your copy when you're done?

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Certainly.

Posted by paul on Thu, 09/09/2004 - 8:25pm.

Consider it mailed. *gryn*

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Reading

Posted by Desert Fox on Wed, 09/08/2004 - 10:30am.

I've finally been reading the Harry Potter series. Five books in five days. It's been a while since I did that. I figured since I'd finally read the Lord of the Rings series at the beginning of summer, I'd end the summer with another series people kept harping on me to read. Now I'm free to see the movies if I want. Next on the list: Contact.

Cheers

*********
"Life is too short for grief. Or regret. Or bullshit." -- Edward Abbey, Vox Clamantis in Deserto

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