telemarketing, telephony, unknown

Caller ID and the Unknown

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Do you have caller ID? Do you get calls from the infamous unknown? Do you answer such calls?

I ask all these questions because one of my policies since I first got caller ID is that I don’t answer any call marked unknown or private – they go straight to voice mail.  I have at times gone so far as to program my computer network to automatically shuffle the unknown and private calls to voice mail so I am not disturbed by a ring.  I can then call back if it is warranted. The reasoning behind this policy is straight forward – if you want to hide your identity that is your privilege, but I reserve the right not to answer if you choose to do so. This is because more that 90% of the calls I get that register as unknown or private are telemarketers or pollsters. Calling my phone is privilege and if you are wasting my time, you have no business calling. These people do waste my time and so have no business calling and so … Note that this abuse persists even with the national do-not-call lists because of the political, non-profit, and “previous relationship” loopholes in the do-not-call legislation.

My policy works well for me and has not generally been a problem with constituents reaching me since I became mayor. The only problems arise from what I refer to as the telephony challenged organizations who have never set up their PBX or telecom system correctly and so show up as unknown by default. Usually such  organizations get a clue when no one answers their calls and eventually fix their system. However, there are two local organizations that seem destined to remain permanently clueless. Maybe they just don’t think it is important. Maybe they don’t want to talk to anyone and prefer to leave messages. Who knows?

The reason these two organizations are problematic is that they often need want to talk to me but haven’t fixed their systems. One of them is the local daily newspaper and the other is the local community college. The publisher of the newspaper and the president of the college are the unknown callers who have to leave messages. At least one of them will call multiple times before finally leaving a message. Both have been informed of the problem. The problem still persists years after they were informed of the issue and how to fix it. Makes me suspect they really just prefer to leave messages.

I’ll close by asking you – what would you do in such a case? Continue the current policy or give up time each day to telemarketers? I know what I have done, the question is what would you do?

games, generation, region

Games

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The group at diner last night included my wife, my mother, my mother-in-law, and me. Somehow the discussion got around to games and in particular the generational and regional differences in games. The discussion was interesting, but I’m going to concentrate on just a few of the games discussed here.

First there was “Olly, Olly, Oxen Free “. The interesting thing here is that my wife and her mother, both Minnesota natives, remember it under the variant name of of “Olly Olly Otzen Free ” (think of the scandahoovian diminutive of Olaf for the pronunciation of Olly). The MIL also remembered playing it under yet another variant name as “Olly Olly Otzenburger Free ” My mother and I remembered it in the “Ollie Ollie Oxen Free ” form. So there was a clear regional difference in the naming of what is the exact same game.

Then there was the perennial favorite “Duck Duck Goose .” Once again the split was by region with the Minnesota natives both remembering the game as “Duck Duck Gray Duck “, although I swear that my wife often pronounces it “Ray Duck” rather than “Gray Duck”. From what I can gather, if you grew up in Minnesota or the Dakotas, you call it “Duck Duck Gray Duck ” and otherwise you know it as “Duck Duck Goose “

Then came the first of the real generational differences. My mom and mother-in-law both recalled with fondness a game called “Auntie I Over ” that my wife and I could not remember ever hearing about. If you clicked on the name and read the description, you probably understand why it is a game that has disappeared from modern life.  Throwing a ball over a building at the opposing team is not a game that plays well in an urban environment. Mom and MIL both remembered several variants of the “Auntie Came Back” call if the ball failed to go over the building. All I want to know is what the call was for the ball stuck in the gutter?

We ended the discussion by reminiscing about several games that seem to have disappeared from playgrounds today. We all remembered “Red Rover ” and its “Pom Pom Pull Away ” variant. My wife and I could not remember our son ever having played either of those games when he was young. I suspect the possibilities for malicious play have demoted both of these games from the school playgrounds. I can remember “Red Rover ” being banned from recess in grade school when I was a kid, so it very well could be verbotten today. All it took was a couple of rousing games and the principal said no more – I suspect it was all the torn clothing that was the clincher. After all, we played dodgeball back then too, so it couldn’t have been the violence! {*grin*}

All of this leads me to ask the questions:

  • What games do you know that have names that vary by region?
  • What games do your parents remember that you don’t?
  • What games do you remember that no longer seem to be played by your children?
ads, AdSense, keywords, oddity

AdSense Oddities

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Do you ever look at the ads Google’s AdSense puts up on your page? Looking at the ads placed on your page gives some real insight into how hard it must be to find suitable places for some ads and how some of the AdSense ad space auctions must go.

You might remember that I wrote about breaking my tooth a few days ago and then making my subsequent dental appointment. Since that time I have seen nothing but dental ads on this page. Given the relative paucity of dental terms amidst all the other possible terms in this blog, I’m left to conclude that dental ads must have some interesting attributes. After all, before I wrote about my dental issues, I got ads for things like automobiles and how-to setups. Even one about the joys of scabies treatment (and boy oh boy must that be a hard one to sell via keywords). And after all the occurrences of the words dental and tooth in this post, I’ll probably be doomed to see nothing but dental ads for the next several weeks. Hopefully all my readers have bad dental health and will diligently visit the fine sponsors of the rampaging dental ads.

What do *I* deduce from the ads I see? Several things that may or may not be interesting to anyone but me in my peculiarly demented way of thinking. And for that matter the deductions may or may not be true. Caveat Emptor.

The first deduction is that the auction for dental terms must be fairly expensive relative to other ad types that might apply to this page. Otherwise the other terms should show up in preference to the current dental mania. Two other possibilities come to mind. It could it be that Colorado dentists are more ad happy than others and/or it could be hard to find occurrences of the dental/tooth keywords for ad placement. After all, I have only viewed the page from an ISP that can be attributed to Colorado. And I did use the words dentist, dental, and tooth.

The second deduction is that the regional division of the auction must be a bit coarse. I get dental practice ads for places like Summit county, Fort Collins, Greeley, etc. Given that those locations range from 250 miles to 100 miles from here, it hints to me that the auction may have included the word /region Colorado as a qualifier. At least one reader from the Summit county area emailed me that the ads must be prescient since they knew to target her with Summit county dental practices. I felt bad when I had to disabuse her of the idea of prescience by pointing out that *I* also saw the same ads out here on the plains. (For those who aren’t familiar with Colorado geography/locations, I am located on the eastern plains of Colorado in the area sometimes referred to as the armpit of Nebraska. {Look at a map! } On the other hand, Summit county is in the mountains in the area of the Key Stone, Arapaho Basin, and Breckenridge ski areas. About 250 miles apart as the automobile drives.)

So let me pose the question to those of you who use AdSense on your pages or who read blogs with ads by Google – do you see such odd spates of keyword/region mania? I intentionally used the word automobile four times (including the two in the paragraph)  in this post. It will be real interesting to see if automobile ads start appearing once in a while. Likewise will “ski area” trigger some hot dogging ads with snowboards?

halloween, weather

The Return of Nice

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Today is one of those oddities of fall weather on the plains – when it goes from cold and snow flurries to warm and sunny for a day. Unfortunately, it is predicted to be a one day warm spell followed by a return to standard fall weather. Gives a whole new meaning the phrase “enjoy it while you can.”

The change in weather brings to mind the coming of Halloween.  It is now less than a week before the little munchkins show up at the front door. Why does it seem like Halloween is always on a day with utterly miserable weather: cold, wet, and windy? It can be in the 70’s and lovely the day before Halloween, but the weather always seems to get worse right at Halloween.

We get between 30 to 100+ trick or treaters here at the house. The total number seems to depend on the press being given to the big local parties and the weather. The city sponsors a Halloween party at the rec center so that kids don’t have to go out trick or treating. The downtown merchants feature trick or treating in the stores. One of the local nursing homes sponsors a big Halloween party so that the residents can enjoy seeing the kids in costume. So if the weather is bad, the kids tend to be at the nicely sheltered parties. If the weather is good (i.e. just cold or blowy) then they show up at the house.

Given the variability of head count, it is hard to get the right amount of candy to give out. Get too much and you have candy around for ages. Get too little and you run the risk of tricks. Such a dilemma. This year it is even more problematic since I will be forced to eat all the leftovers by myself {*grin*}.  I guess I might be able to save some until my wife gets home for the weekend!

awards, community service, service groups, volunteers

Volunteers

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Tonight I was a guest at the volunteer appreciation banquet for Cooperating Ministries, a local services group. They do everything from aid stranded travelers, assist social services, and run a food pantry for the needy. Local government and an alliance of religious groups work together to help them provide these services. They have seen an increasing demand for their services in the last couple of years that has stretched their abilities to the limits. It is amazing how cheerful and hopeful all the volunteers are in the face of the trying situations they face.
The evening was pretty standard for such ceremonies – a great meal, some good visiting and companionship, a brief entertainment, and then the naming of the volunteer of the year. This years volunteer of the year winners (co-winners) were typical of the involvement of the volunteer corps.  One is a noted Red Cross volunteer, a sitting member of the school board, and of course a Cooperating Ministries volunteer. Makes you proud to know all of these people on a first name basis!
On a fun note, the theme of the evening was tropical. The theme sounded like a lot of fun until the last day or so as the temperatures dropped and the snow flurries hit. I was all ready to wear shorts and my Hawaiian shirt with a lei, but the coolness forced long pants. Mike Sperber, the director of the Cooperating Ministries program, is a fun loving joker and came dressed in Hawaiian shirt and pants. But then he was convinced by his staff to complete the outfit as shown. Note the hard shelled coconut bra and the charming grass skirt. Makes me wish I’d had a good camera with me. Mike shed the costume extras right after his welcome oration. Can’t say that I blamed him! They offered me a grass skirt of my own, but I graciously declined.
I always wonder how long service groups like this will persist. Like most service groups here, the volunteers are mostly 55+ year old people and those who are retired. If I had to make a guess as to the average age of tonight’s crowd, I’d guess 70+. What is going to happen in the next 20 years as the baby boomers in this service generation begin to pass into the sunset. There is a dearth of younger volunteers across all service groups in the area. Who will step up in community service roles in the future? It is a question that community leaders are pondering on a daily basis. Everywhere I go and talk to other community leaders, this is one of the hot topics. Some communities have already seen most of their service groups fade away. They also seem to be disappearing in populous areas even faster than here in the rural countryside. What’s the status of service groups like Lions, Kiwanis, etc. in your area? Are they growing and active?

Things Done Right