The Medusa Fora

There was NO point and click shen I was useing SPSS in the mid nineties. We had to go to the computer lab and use a UNIX terminal. Or it might have been VAX.

kmurray105 wrote:...VAX.

Geriatric.
Eldster.
Silverback.


VAX??? Well fnord me! Sure you didn't write your thesis in punch-cards (23,746 neatly filed in a hand-tooled wooden box) for compiling by ENIAC or UNIVAC???

Old man.

kmurray105 wrote:There was NO point and click shen I was useing SPSS in the mid nineties. We had to go to the computer lab and use a UNIX terminal. Or it might have been VAX.

Shake your cane at me why don't you? I know you can still use syntax in SPSS/PASW, but I'm only familiar with the point-and-click. Never had the chance to learn the syntax as I was tossed to the SAS dogs as soon as I set foot in grad school.

Turkeys are a nuisance bird. I say this after 10 hours of slinging twenty pounders today. My vertibra thank you. And only 6 more days of this fun.

Fer christ sake, don't chip a nail on your keyboard folks

dave 81 wrote:Turkeys are a nuisance bird...

Too true. During the somewhat strange time when we lived out in the country, our house was right next to a turkey farm. Gobble gobble gobble squawk all year. And then in the weeks leading up to Christmas, they put on the incredibly bright security lighting, in an attempt to stop people purloining their Christmas dinner for free. Massive pylons with lights piercing the dark nights of the rural winter. And damn, I think I just chipped a nail.

dave 81 wrote:Turkeys are a nuisance bird

...and the meat doesn't taste very nice.

Give me duck or a goose for dinner any time

Irishbookish wrote: A foreign representative British Gas ringing for the past owner of my house every week for the past two years despite me eventually threatening them with certain unemployment. The calls go like this:
This is British Gas calling, is Mrs. Gottajob there?
Nope, she sold up two years ago.
Oh, well can I be speaking to her then please?
No...because she doesn't live here anymore.
Mrs. Gottajob...can I be speaking to her please, Madam?
NO, she's DEAD. (she isn't really...)
Oh...are you the owner of the house?
YES but I'm NOT Mrs. Gottajob so take me off your blasted list and don't ever, ever, EVER call me again!!! GOT IT?
Yes surely, Madam, I am taking you off the list as we speak. Thanking you. Having a nice day.
Yeah, SURE...till next time.

Sounds like a Monty Python scetch.

dave 81 wrote:Turkeys are a nuisance bird. I say this after 10 hours of slinging twenty pounders today. My vertibra thank you. And only 6 more days of this fun.

Fer christ sake, don't chip a nail on your keyboard folks

Are those frozen birds? Jeez. Do you work in a butchers or a supermarket Dave? Sounds like a slog...

I've been doing landscaping/gardening in the lovely Aussie sun for the last wee while. Posions, 30+ temperatures and insane geriatric French emploers do not a fun workday make. But it's all bread and butter.

Hope your back feels better after the Hols are over.

Chip a nail on the keyboard? More like the other way round, given these cruddy talons I have on me at the moment. Off to the lav for a wash...

Doktor Avalanche wrote:Sounds like a Monty Python sKetch.

Perhaps it sounds like that as I used to write comedy sketches for radio many years ago. BUT truly these calls are real and that last one went was exactly as I wrote. Really a g g r a v a t i n g. Mind...having said all that they've not bothered us this week, YET.
We don't even have gas...

Irishbookish wrote:

Doktor Avalanche wrote:Sounds like a Monty Python sKetch.

Perhaps it sounds like that as I used to write comedy sketches for radio many years ago. BUT truly these calls are real and that last one went was exactly as I wrote. Really a g g r a v a t i n g. Mind...having said all that they've not bothered us this week. YET We don't even have gas...

Oh. My. God.

I had to admit, it did read a bit like a Mrs. Yeti Goose-Creature sketch from the old Flying Circus days. But... but... but... that was REAL? Un-edited?

You have my deepest sympathies. Is there not a really loud air-horn/siren gadget you could shriek down the phone at them to deafen the whites of their eyes until they desist?

CraigBatty wrote:Oh. My. God.I had to admit, it did read a bit like a Mrs. Yeti Goose-Creature sketch from the old Flying Circus days. But... but... but... that was REAL? Un-edited? You have my deepest sympathies. Is there not a really loud air-horn/siren gadget you could shriek down the phone at them to deafen the whites of their eyes until they desist?

Uh..not quite deserving of OMG status and nothing to be carried away by nor deepest sympathies required. At the risk of re-repeating myself, YES it was real and just one of many, many similar scenarios that many people probably have to endure, not just me but it is my turn to be Moaning Myrtle. Oh, and Mrs. Gottajob was created to protect the previous owners privacy and anyway sounded much more interesting.

Irishbookish wrote:Uh..not quite deserving of OMG status and nothing to be carried away by nor deepest sympathies required. At the risk of re-repeating myself, YES it was real and just one of many, many similar scenarios that many people probably have to endure, not just me but it is my turn to be Moaning Myrtle. Oh, and Mrs. Gottajob was created to protect the previous owners privacy and anyway sounded much more interesting.

Fairplay, Bookish. I was only exaggerating slightly, however. I had a demented 10 minutes from a Kafka play on the phone with Bangalore/Mysore the other day.

Having been on both ends of the phone (innocent home-dweller and telemarketer/call centre op), I am becoming older and crustier every day about the sheer unprofessionalism which some of these companies deploy in their call-centre protocols. It's generally not entirely the fault of the hapless caller (I've received some lovely abuse from Kiwis in my day as a caller for an insurance company), but if they don't have the gumption to work it out and hang up as we get more and more impassioned with rage, then Heaven help them.

Anyhoo... back to work... have a great day.

Rain... downpouring...buckets of rain. Wonderful.

Aye rather wet here also.

CraigBatty wrote:

dave 81 wrote:Turkeys are a nuisance bird. I say this after 10 hours of slinging twenty pounders today. My vertibra thank you. And only 6 more days of this fun.

Fer christ sake, don't chip a nail on your keyboard folks

Are those frozen birds? Jeez. Do you work in a butchers or a supermarket Dave? Sounds like a slog...

I've been doing landscaping/gardening in the lovely Aussie sun for the last wee while. Posions, 30+ temperatures and insane geriatric French emploers do not a fun workday make. But it's all bread and butter.

Hope your back feels better after the Hols are over.

Chip a nail on the keyboard? More like the other way round, given these cruddy talons I have on me at the moment. Off to the lav for a wash...

Yeah Craig, butcher/supermarket. 'Cept it isn't so super the last couple of weeks in November with our U.S. gobbler day fast approaching. Frozen birds, fresh birds, hams, 60-100 pound whole pigs for our Spanish clientele....you name it.
Reduce the workforce, and management has never been so rewarding. Heat wrap on the shoulder today. Sucks.