They still make good old fashioned answering machines. You can pick one up for $20.
I never answer the phone. I screen all my calls through the machine. I can hear them as they leave the message. If it is someone I want to talk to, I pick up. If I’m busy or don’t want to talk or it’s a telemarketer, I let them leave a message.
A lot more useful to me than voicemail.
I don’t get this one either. Some of my biggest on-going working environment problems (when I worked IT) were created when I innocently suggested ways to reduce processing time or streamline processes. When someone gives me a suggestion like that, I’m always “Hey, cool!” and I remember it as a positive learning experience.
But way too many people act like you’ve pissed in their coffee over such things. :rolleyes:
I make women cry.
I can’t give a straight answer. (But then I feel that no one ever actually asks questions that can be satisfied with a simple answer). So my favorite answers are “sort of”, “kind of”, and “maybe”.
I don’t play coy. If you ask me if I need help in the kitchen, and I say, “No, thank you,” that is not a secret code word for “Yes, please come in and stand right behind me while I play with sharp knives and take hot pans out of the oven.” If you offer me a piece of cake, I will say either “yes” or “no,” which, surprisingly, means “yes” or no." If I offer you a piece of cake and you say “no,” I will say “OK.” I will not say, “Oh, please, you must have some, I baked it myself, it’s sooo good, just a little piece, it’s low-fat, you’ll hurt my feelings if you don’t have any, I don’t want to have all these leftovers, I thought you liked my cooking, it’s just going to go to waste.”
If you want to play a game, there’s Monopoly and Scrabble in the closet.
Some folks at work do this. I and a couple of Asian guys here are more likely to bring in banh mi or noodles or curry rather than sandwiches, and a couple of the older secretaries must comment on how “weird” and “yucky” our food choices are.
[ul]
[li]I correct their grammar.[/li][li]I quote Shakespeare & Chaucer. Not a little, but a lot. (I’ve been known to have an entire conversation where everything I said was a quotation from Shakespeare.) (Okay, I also quote extensively from Better Off Dead–“Man, now that’s a real shame, folks be throwin’ away a perfectly good white boy” and Radio Days–“Hahk. I heah the cannons woah. Woah. I heah the cannons woah.” Okay. You get the picture. [/li][li]If I don’t feel like going out, I don’t go out, even if they’re all trying to lay a guilt trip on me about it.[/li][li]I tend to find a lot of things funny that most people don’t, which is why I’m the only one in the theatre laughing at odd lines here and there.[/li][/ul]
I’m blunt and refuse to sugar coat anything with my friends. Don’t want to hear exactly what I think, then don’t ask.
I talk to loud. People tell me to whisper and I try… my voice just doesn’t get the concept.
No matter how much I try to get the paper in the recycle bin under my desk, a bunch always ends on the floor.
Oh I’m sure there is more… I just can’t think of them.
To clarify (so I won’t be judged negatively), it’s a two-way battle. My friends find my preferences equally unpleasant. Obviously they have no taste.
Me, too, especially when I’m tired (which seems to be a lot lately). My daughter & family (daughter, son-in-law, and grandson Angelboy) are staying until they get back on their feet. Tensions occasionally run high, so I’ve been biting my tongue quite a bit lately.
Love, Phil
I tend to give WAAAY too much information about myself to my friends. They probably don’t want to know everything about me but I can’t help it. My boyfriend is much worse about this kind of thing than I am so we tend to say very inappropriate things and only realize it afterwards.
I talk very loudly. I have a partial hearing loss and I can’t really hear myself so I have to be shushed by the people around me, though in all fairness I am getting better about this as time goes on.
I am a solver. It is difficult for me to have people tell me what is wrong in their lives and just sympathize, I always have to offer solutions to their problems. I have to bite my tongue sometimes to keep from doing it.
Me , too. I’m sure they get tired of my self-doubt and I try not to advertise it. But…they know.
I have a 38 year old body (39 on Thursday…urk!), a 22 year old mind, and the sense of humor of a 14 year old boy. Farts? Bwahahhaha! I’m sure my neverending stream of jokes once I have a few gets old, and some are pretty gross. But I don’t care. Gotta be me!
I’m bad about calling people back. I hate talking on the phone. Email or facebook, please!
I’m 15 minutes early for everything in my life, and I expect punctuality from others. It grates on me to wait for the same people over, and over, and over…
Sigmagirl: and what you said. Exactly.