…At the Sound of the Beep
“Hi, you’ve reached Stewart Grace and I can’t come to the phone right now, but if you woud leave your name, number and a brief message, I will return your phone call just as soon as possible. Thanks and have a great day!”
Leaving a voicemail on someone’s cell phone has got to be the most pointless exercise in today’s world. Every cell phone will tell you who called, so is it really necessary to leave a message if the phone was already on? If I call someone and get their voicemail, I’ll only give it about a 50% chance that I’ll actually leave a message, and even when I do leave a message, the chance of doing anything more than identifying myself and saying ‘call me’ is quickly approaching zero.
So, why then do people leave messages? Inevitably that person will return your call, and you’ll only have to explain yourself again. I’d just rather save the effort and only explain things once. However, some people still like to leave messages – and long ones – which brings me to my next point.
Cell phone providers are screwing us over. They only give you so many minutes each month to use however you like, but if you get someone’s voicemail, they take every possibly second by making you wait through each of their 700 pre-recorded messages before finally giving you the beep. I love it how they first take 10 seconds to tell you that you will be connected to a voicemail system. Is that really necessary? Can’t I figure that out by the away message the person I’m calling already left? Then they tell you how to leave a “call back number”. First of all, I have no idea what one is, and secondly, has anyone ever left one? What is possibly the reason for that? If you call my cell phone, the number is already stored in the call log – no call back number needed. Finally, they tell you your options after leaving a voicemail. They actually feel the need to remind us that after leaving a message we can just hang up. Who on this planet couldn’t figure that out?
I say all of this to sum up the evil cell phone industry is only trying to keep us on the line as long as they can before giving us the beep, that way we only have two seconds to leave an actual message before they start charging us for the second minute. Those greedy little bastards.
But enough bitterness towards the cell phone providers – how about those fake greetings people record for the rest of the world to hear? “I’ll return your call as soon as I possibly can”. What a crock. You’re going to return calls whenever you dang well feel like it, and in some cases, that’s why you’re hearing their pre-recorded greeting – because they didn’t want to talk to you in the first place!
The World Series of………
Is it just me, or is the term “World Series” being thrown around just a little too much these days? Baseball originally coined the term, and I was even alright with the “World Series of Poker”…. But I have to draw the line after hearing about the “World Series of Domino’s” and the “World Series of Darts”. Unfortunately, they are all televised by ESPN, and I even watched Domino’s once. I still can’t believe the announcers pulled off the broadcast with a straight face. Where is ESPN 8 – “The Ocho” when you need it?
Back to my original point though – when will the use of “World Series” end? After baseball, the term seems to refer to mostly bar games… So, after the ‘World Series’ of each individual event, will people then qualify for the “Bar Olympics”? Maybe they can run a Bar Tri-athalon consisting of Flip-Cup, Beer Pong, and Darts. Though putting them in that order would probably be a bad idea…
Fashion – Part II
I have this dilemma. It’s too hot to wear any shirts that are too heavy, and long sleeves are just out of the question. This leaves me with only a selection of t-shirts to wear on campus every day. However, I really only have two different kinds of t-shirts. Do I rock out with my old dated (late 1990’s) fraternity shirts that prove I’m way to old to still be fratastic, or do I wear *Auburn* shirts on Georgia’s campus? I’m damned if I do, and damned if I don’t. The classic catch-22.
I’ll go ahead and think outside the box for ya – it’s time for more t-shirts. I get it…. But here’s the doozie…. Would buying a shirt that said Athens, Ga be considered selling out? I still refuse to wear the Georgia ‘G’.
Fantasy Football 2006!
Nellie just emailed everyone about this year’s draft, and I can’t even begin to communicate my level of excitement for this year’s fantasy football leauge. It’s the most fun I have all year! The added bonus this year is not having an actual job to get in the way of fantasy football – I’m gaurenteed not to get fired. I swear, someday, someone in our leauge will get fired for spending too much time on the internet durring football season… This year, it can’t be me!
Last year I finished with a Divisional Championship, and second place in the league. My goals for 2006 are to win it all and to finally beat Stephen Scouten (I’ve yet to beat him lifetime…). It’s a tall order, but I’m ready.
Let the trash talk begin!!!!!!!!
Fashion – or a lack thereof.
I’d like to think that I’m a little fashion concious. Not over the top, but enough not to ever embarrass myself either. Enough to know what Seven’s are, but not enough to actually ever wear them.
So, as you can imagine I don’t pick up on every fashion trend. The biggest example of this was the capri pants fad a couple of years back. When they first came out, I just didn’t get it. Were they shorts? Were they pants? I mean really, pick one and go with it. Three years later, I’ve accepted the fact that they are trendy and I no longer feel the urge to debate one’s sanity for wearing fabric of such questionable length.
That is, until I saw a pair of capri pants on a DUDE. Honestly, I threw up a little bit in the back of my mouth. A couple of days later, I saw *another* guy in capri’s. Let’s be honest, they might as well have been wearing skirts. Now, you may be questioning all that is right in this world as I did, but as it turns out, the guys in capri’s were both European members of my MBA class. Those Euro’s a wild and crazy guys.
I can only hope that I never become as fashion forward as the Europeans.
http://www.askaninja.com
Quite possibly the funniest thing I’ve seen in a very long time. Similar to Space Ghost I believe, though I’m not real familiar with space ghost….
Free podcast also available on iTunes.
Marketing
Although none of ya’ll probably noticed, we had a bit of a technical problem that didn’t allow me to post anything for the last couple of days… Everything should be working again though!
Marketing is one of the classes I’m in this half of the summer, and it’s interesting because the class is comprised of the eleven month MBA’s, as well as the MMR (Master of Marketing Research) students. I think the MMR’s hate us. Mainly because most of the MBA’s don’t have the marketing experience that they do (myself not included), and because we have people that ask stupid questions…. And then there’s Jay who consistently finds horses to ride untill they die, and then persists on beating said horse for a good 20 more minutes…. Though in our defense we don’t like the MMR’s either.
One female MMR in particular has a voice that constantly remains at a volume level of ‘eleven’. It’s an 8am class, and she sits right behind me…. she’s a talker too…. I jolt every time she opens her mouth….. Both of us sit near the MBA peanut gallery, where we make fun of everyone else… a lot. This particular female MMR even said at one point today (in that annoyed female tone) ‘ya’ll are totally out of control’. Which only spured things on. =)
Ok, so my background is marketing, and I still don’t see the point in getting a master of marketing research. If it’s just something you really love, then that’s cool… but otherwise.. isn’t that a really specialized field to concentrate in? I really hope they all love marketing research because if you ever wanted to do something other than marketing research, your master’s degree becomes useless…..
Dr. Kumar, our professor, is originally from India, and has a distinct Indian accent. One of the MBA’s is also from India and has a thick Indian accent. I wonder if the two of them ever have trouble understanding each other’s english in class?
The quote of the day came from Dr. Kumar himself describing the value of brands – “It’s the act of selling nothing and collecting margins for it” It’s genius I tell you – evil genius. I like it.
Just Like Mr. T – I Predict Pain!
I wonder why in the midst of so much going on – I have nothing to say?
Seems like everyone is writing up a storm in the blogosphere… Melissa’s posted recently, Emily is cranking it out these days, and Betsy is well… still Betsy (the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in word count). At least I’m still ahead of Dalton 
After finishing half of my summer classes last week (aka hell on earth) and trying to detox last weekend, I’ve had the hardest time getting back into the groove of self torture to kick off the second half of summer classes. The good news is that the second half of the summer will not be nearly as bad as the first half. The bad news is I still have to work.
Just two and a half more weeks… then it’s over! Then I’ll go to the beach… and hopefully to New York to visit John… I probably should call him to see if he’ll be around then….
Random
After hitting a lot of the main restaurants here in Athens, I’ve come to the conclusion that DePalma’s is by far the best one.
A large blue ink pen exploded in my hands today… So if over the next few days you notice something’s not right with my hands – that’s why.
Mark has an arsenal of ice cream in our freezer…. It has been calling me…. and now I have succumbed to it.
Loca Luna
Friday night I was back in Atlanta for the first time in several weeks. The guys in my old small group were headed to Loca Luna for Sarah Canterbury’s birthday party, and after eating with my parents I joined up with them.
I had the strangest and most wonderful feeling Friday night… I love Atlanta and eventually want to return there, but right now it does not at all feel like home. I’ve only been gone for a month and a half maybe, and I get this overwhelming feeling that I’m not supposed to be there right now. Visiting is great and everything, but it’s really cool to feel like I’m exactly where I need to be. As crazy as it sounds, Athens, and the people here, really do feel like home to me.
Here are some pictures from Friday night -
1) Me, Dr. Dave, Gator Dave
2) Leigh, Dr. Dave, Me
3) Drew, Gator Dave, Dr. Dave, Me, H. (guy in the back is H.’s friend, don’t remember his name)
(Yes, we made fun of Dr. Dave’s shirt….. all.. night.. long.)
