Are You Notaninja?

For the past couple weeks I have been receiving calls from “Unavailable” with an 877 phone number. Sometimes 3 or 4 times a day. I figure I got on someone’s dialer list to buy some unsolicited product. So I ignore it and life goes on.

But today was different. They actually left a message like my voicemail requests that they do! It’s from T-Mobile saying I need to call them or risk losing my account, and that when I call I should reference message 100. Okay, fine. I’ll do that.

So I sit back for a bit of dinner, watch some TV, read my email and RSS feeds for the day. Eventually I figure I’ll give them a call back.

I navigate my way through their IVR system and get to speak with a person easily enough. I explain about the message that I received and he asks me for my T-Mobile phone number. I politely explain that I don’t have an account with them, at which point he seems a bit perplexed. He asks for the number at which I was called, which I gave him, and not surprisingly nothing shows up. I ask how my number can be removed from their dialer account and am told that there is nothing that can be done since my number isn’t in their system.

So, if I keep getting calls from them, what do you think I should do? Post your response in the comments. Creative answers will be awarded bonus points. If it’s good enough, I’ll actually answer the next time they call while I’m home and document how it goes right here.

Because of the recent email discussion involving Peeps, and the fact that Easter is coming up fairly soon, here are a variety of Peep related links.

Peep Cartoons
Lord of the Peeps
Peep Photoshop contest (Fark.com)
Peep Research
More Peep Research

I’ll add more as I find them.

Update (3/25/05): And a very important one at that.

A device to make your own Peeps. Now that is fucking cool!

And hopefully amuses you.

Who put the Coke in the Pepsi machine?

I don’t normally have too much in my refrigerator. A week to ten days worth of goodness is usually the most you will find there.

So tonight when I was pulling out a few things to cook dinner, imagine my surprise when I see a container with something dark in it hiding on the bottom shelf, all the way in the back. I pull it out and it moves around a bit, kind of like gravy. I’m trying to remember why and when I would have made gravy as I open the container. The realization that I have never made gravy hits me about the same instant the aroma does.

That was one of the strangest smells I have ever encountered. I’m still not sure what that container held when it started down the evolutionary path, but it’s gone now. Thank goodness for disposable containers.

Why do we insist that everyone parents the children of today except for their actual parents?

Take the latest ‘outrage’ over a sting operation that had children buying M (Mature) rated video games. Last I checked there were no laws stating retailers had to restrict purchase of these items.

The ratings on these games are part of a voluntary rating system established by the software industry to help parents be informed about what they or their kids are buying.

From one of the ‘concerned parents’ in the article: “If I’m concerned that my kid is buying these video games, the company is doing a service by stating what its policy is.” Where does a 12 year old get $50 to buy a game, let alone $150 to buy a console on which to play it? I know I rarely (more likely never) had $50 to just go and buy a video game when I was a kid. How about you monitor what your kid is buying and what games they are playing. How about you not hand her $50 to go buy a video game without knowing what she is purchasing. Why is that so unreasonable?

It is interesting to note that they hold Target up as a good example because they keep their M rated games locked up in a glass case. Umm… In case they haven’t noticed, Target locks up all of its games in a glass case (except for various ‘value’ and clearance titles). It’s to prevent theft, not to keep M rated games away from the kiddies. And that’s only the console games. PC games are out in the open just a few aisles away, including these horrible M rated titles that are going to corrupt the children.

I applaud the fact that stores like Target and Best Buy have a voluntary program to not sell Mature rated games to kids. But that doesn’t mean they have a greater responsibility than the parents in monitoring their children’s purchases.

Update: It looks like someone is trying to help educate parents, which is a good thing.