Well, this is a new one. I've got a voicemail on my office phone that sounds like it's being spoken by someone with a severe speech defect of some kind (the stereotypical "retarded" type of voice). I can't make out what he's saying very clearly, but I'm pretty sure the last word is "hamburgers", which is followed by also-stereotpyical stupid laughing noises. I'm going to try to get an MP3 of this and put it on the web for others to review.
This reminds me of the time a few years ago when I answered the phone at home once, and some guy on the other end of the line started slowly counting. "One... two... three... four..." There was some kind of office noise in the background, and I said hello again a couple more times, and he just kept counting. I asked him what the hell he was doing, and he kept on counting, regardless of whatever I was saying. I kept trying to get a response out of him and finally gave up when he got to about nineteen, I think it was. Damndest phone call I've ever had. And what gets me is, I could tell it wasn't a recording.
Posted by Zathras at July 15, 2003 10:15 AMMaybe the government was testing out their wiretap of your phone line back then. You aren't of middle eastern descent, are you? :)
If you "disappear", can I have your stereo? :) :)
Posted by: Matt at July 15, 2003 10:37 AM*snicker* I told him he looks a bit middle-eastern... ;)
I actually noticed the weird calls when I was visiting this last time... At least two messages on his machine were of some odd fellow just saying "hello? hello? hello?" repeatedly, and I *believe* there was another doing something else, but I no longer can remember the details.
Posted by: Moggy at July 15, 2003 10:48 AMI get those "Hello? Hello?" phone calls all the time. I'm pretty sure it's telemarketers, since they're just about the only people who wouldn't hear my answering machine message before actually being connected to the machine itself (computers typically dial the numbers for them, then transfer the call to a marketer when they hear a voice, being too stupid to know when it's a machine).
Posted by: Zathras at July 15, 2003 03:40 PMThis is why I screen phone calls w/caller ID. It's good, esp. if an ex-girlfriend ya don't wanna talk to calls ya every 2 days...
Posted by: Shaw at July 15, 2003 04:23 PMZathras sez: "I get those "Hello? Hello?" phone calls all the time. I'm pretty sure it's telemarketers..."
Hmm. From what I've heard, the machines telemarketers use *can* distinguish between a machine and a voice, and when they don't, IME the salesperson sits silently on the other end of the line waiting for someone to pick up. The only times I've had issues with random *weird* phone calls is when the lines under the street got all screwed up and started crossing connections between houses.
"This is why I screen phone calls w/caller ID. It's good, esp. if an ex-girlfriend ya don't wanna talk to calls ya every 2 days..."
I just use my answering machine for that, also that way I can call people back if I'm busy doing something. :) As for having an ex repeatedly contact me, among other things I changed my number and cited research I had done to bring a successful lawsuit against him if he didn't bugger off. Never heard from him after that point.
Posted by: Moggy at July 16, 2003 12:53 AMI once got rid of a stalker by showing him my landlord's Chinese rifle and explaining to him that I could hit him from the second story window of the house next time I saw him camped out in front of my house. He quit camping out and he quit calling me.
(He had been calling me every half hour, camping out on the front lawn and ringing the doorbell every fifteen minutes, climbing over the back fence and staring in the kitchen window, going to my workplace and scaring the crap out of co-workers by asking them lots of questions about when I worked, hunting me down on-line, etc. This was all because I went on one (yes, *ONE*) date with him and then politely declined a second date.)
Posted by: Sparrow at July 16, 2003 04:16 AMDamn, and I thought my ex was nuts. Whoooo...
Posted by: Shaw at July 16, 2003 07:21 PMWhat Sparrow posted is a pretty good description of my ex, except he did it both when we were "just friends" *and* when we were a couple. Hint: if someone is behaving that way, agreeing to be his/her partner is not going to make matters better. :p
Posted by: Moggy at July 16, 2003 07:31 PMNo, it's not. It's not attractive whatsoever.
My ex did this when she "threw me back into the sea". So it was like chasing after a fish you just threw back . . .
Posted by: Shaw at July 16, 2003 08:10 PM