(no subject)

We went and saw Star Wars Episode III last night.

It sucked less than Episodes I and II.

... but not much less.

It might have worked pretty well as a silent movie - at least we'd have been spared the wooden acting and seat-squirmingly bad dialogue.

LJ can be exasperating at times.

My friends' page has blown up (again) for no apparent reason.

This story is probably satire, but...

Being a nerd/geek myself I can sympathize with the poor kid, but on the other hand this was a serious choke.

A spelling bee finalist got tripped up on the word "girlfriend".  (See article.)

Heck, 13, gamely tried to spell “girlfriend” for several minutes, asking its origin (English), definition (“a favored female companion or sweetheart”) and for it to be used in a sentence. Bee Master Michael Winchester provided Heck with the sentence: “You will never have a girlfriend,” prompting the boy to break into tears and run off the stage.

The flood has turned to a trickle

We're getting nowhere near as many telemarketers calling as we were as recently as three weeks ago, and I think at least part of it can be attributed to our new answering machine message.

When somebody calls, and we're not around to pick it up, this is what they hear:

[ring] Brrrrrp.
[ring] Brrrrrp.
[ring] Brrrrrp.
[line out of service tone] Beeeeep boop beeeeep
[robotic voice] Hello, this is telephone number.
[pause] ...
[ring] Brrrrrp.
[robotic voice] Hello, the electricity is on!
[female operator voice] Your call can be completed as dialed.
[male operator voice] Your call did go through.
[robotic voice] Hello, sound level okay!
[pause] ...
[answering machine beep] Beeeeep!

I'm guessing that if they get past the "out of service" part, the rest should confuse them enough to remove us from their call list anyway.  It's a sound theory on paper, and so far it seems to be working in practise.