Tim Peterson's Blog

After practicing for a quartet with people from church last Monday, we were sitting around talking in their living room. They asked what my job was, and one of them jokingly suggested telemarketing. He gave an example of what I might say, in a suitably bored voice: “I don’t suppose you want to buy a computer, do you?”

This brought to mind the following, excerpted from a chat on April 10th, 2005:

* Tim rarely makes phone calls, but found himself treated a bit rudely on one call he made recently…
Jared: Oh?
* Tim placed a call. The phone rang, and a woman picked up.
Tim: I began by saying, “Hello, is this the ______ residence?”
Tim: Then she hung up.
Jared: WAS it said residence?
Jared: And they just hung up because it was you? 
Jared: (kidding)
Tim: Yes, it was.
Jared: Heh.
Jared: How nice.
Tim: The first time I tried I must have done it wrong, since I got a number out of service message. The second time, I was hung up on. I tried again, and this time got someone to listen to me. I was soon told that I was hung up on because I sounded like a telemarketer.
Jared: Heh.
* Tim needs to work on his phone greetings.
Jared: Apparently.

The jury seems to be out on whether I’d make a good telemarketer. (My opinion is that I wouldn’t dream of becoming one.)

I wrote the following paragraph just before Thanksgiving, but I forgot to post it.

The mother of an IVer or two works at Crossroads, where I usually eat when I’m at RIT. She often waves or says hi when I go by the salad station where she works. Last week was finals week, and this week and the next are break. This means, of course, that nearly every student has gone home (or the equivalent thereof). But not me. I’m still working, since CIMS, including their co-op students, doesn’t follow the academic schedule. When I walked into Crossroads this afternoon, there she was working. When she saw me, she made a weird face and said, “What are you doing here?!” “I’m working,” I replied. “Aren’t you going home this week?” I explained that I lived locally, so it didn’t matter. “That explains a lot of things.”

RIT has two weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s, but I only have a week and a day, so I’ll have four days of similar quiet before everyone comes back on the 8th.