tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post3212535527511343933..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Phone Calls. Stimulation.Assistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-46876207461550618342020-11-24T14:05:12.558-05:002020-11-24T14:05:12.558-05:00I like the hanging up strategy. It sounds satisfy...I like the hanging up strategy. It sounds satisfying, even if it doesn't work<br />Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-28362792835153274992020-11-24T09:59:15.335-05:002020-11-24T09:59:15.335-05:00Program the numbers and names of everyone you know...Program the numbers and names of everyone you know into your phone, it doesn't take long - including the tradesmen that get your custom.<br /><br />I did this and now I only answer for calls with ID I recognize. The rest: I have found that if I answer and immediately hang up with no sound made, the spam calls fall off dramatically. Now I get only a few per week, where before it was quite a few per day. <br /><br />Thinking it might be the demon-dialer software just kicking my number out, but who knows? They are looking for a response and with this, there is none - just a click of the exchange machinery disconnecting - eminently unproductive.Aggiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11089648434324058300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-70016362618042046322020-11-23T20:00:54.886-05:002020-11-23T20:00:54.886-05:00There was a story of a man visiting New York (?), ...There was a story of a man visiting New York (?), who told his host he heard a wren. She, hearing nothing but traffic noise, was incredulous--how could he hear anything in that racket? He took a quarter out of his pocket and dropped it, and heads turned across the street. Not sure if the story is true, but it illustrates the notion.<br /><br />Even the notion that it's worth while to concentrate one's effort on this paper and pencil test needs to be learned.<br /><br />There are subtleties in both directions. When one of my daughters studied in Senegal, she found that one never announced travel: you were vulnerable and someone might witch you. She never learned if fear of witchcraft were still the motive or it was simply the custom. A number of times she showed up to an empty classroom. No teacher--and somehow the African students had picked up the cue that there was no point in showing up next week. The Americans didn't.jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-16857146961099549012020-11-23T18:49:42.265-05:002020-11-23T18:49:42.265-05:00An excellent counter. People from other eras woul...An excellent counter. People from other eras would consider us flighty and irritating. They might be right.<br /><br />OTOH, it would not just be timed tests, but navigating the decisions of a difficult, ever-emerging world that would leave them behind. Our "slower" students might keep up just fine in the schools of 1700, and even their best students might find all the semiotics of signs in the city and multiple problems to be negotiated at our schools to be a lot to handle. Wisdom and depth of knowledge...well, that's a different issue.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-79867765567821419042020-11-23T18:42:06.931-05:002020-11-23T18:42:06.931-05:00FWIW, I'm still getting an endless stream of u...FWIW, I'm still getting an endless stream of urgent messages about my auto policy and my VISA, and every now and then still getting one of those Chinese language messages from Chicago. (I hear they're warning me about immigration, but it's all Greek to me.)<br /><br />Looking at it from the other direction (do we ever do it any other way?) what would they think of us? Hyper? Despicably jaded?jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.com