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Topics - primefactor

#1
My FC recommended that I throw this question out to the DS community. He's sure someone might have a helpful tip. Here's the situation:

One of the places on which I advertise for new clients for my math tutoring business is on Craig's List. I have had good luck with them, but one annoyance keeps rearing its ugly mug. More than half the responses I get are from scammers who use a cookie-cutter format which goes something like this: (But, y'know, without the sarcastic bits I've inserted...)

"Hello, teacher! I am writing you from a far away country that I may or may not be able to spell. (Please disregard the fact that my email address bears no country suffix...) My child will be spending time alone in the US, staying with a nanny/family member/family friend. I desperately want for you to teach my child, even though I don't know a darned thing about you. Please tell me the amount you will charge me for a large block of tutoring time, so I can send you a bogus cashier's check, then either send you one for too large an amount and ask you to send me the difference, or tell you that due to circumstances, my child will not be coming, could you please send back your own check for the amount I sent you."

I get DOZENS of these. First I thought they were legit, and wasn't it strange that so many people had the same story? Then I got wise and cautiously told them I deal only in cash, in person. Then I started to get downright cranky, and send them back scolding emails, telling them that if they got a little tutoring for THEMSELVES, maybe a year from now they'd have a marketable skill and could make money honestly. I know it's spitting into the wind, yes... I know I should delete their emails and let it go. But I was wondering...

Is there any way to do something via email that would be as annoying to them as they are to me? I was musing about it to darling FC, and he said put the question up to the DS folks, they're clever.

Any ideas?
 
#2
 This is a song by one of the Jacksons, I can't remember which. LaToya, maybe? What the heck is a "hot centipede," anyway?? The part about crawling in the bathroom window is especially creepy.[font color="#666655" face="Verdana" size="2"]

Centipede
Centipede

Your love
Is like a ragin' fire, oh
You're a snake that's on the loose
The strike is your desire

But when the centipede is hot
You're bound to feel the fire, huh
And when the centipede is hot
You're bound to feel the fire

I feel, oh, yeah
A longin' for your touch
Like you crawled into the bathroom window
To give him all your love, ho

Like a centipede that's hot
The fire is in your touch
Just like a centipede you've got
A lot of lovin' to touch

Don't you know in the quiet of the night
Is when the snake is in the crawlin'
And the moon starts to glow then disappear
When the time is really right
Is when the centipede is crawlin'
You'll be crying in the night so many tears
And you're crawlin' like a centipede

Centipede

You came, oh
To strike him with your touch
Like you crawled into the bathroom window
To bite him with your love

Like a centipede that's hot
The fire is in your touch
Just like a centipede you've got
A lot of lovin' to touch

Don't you know in the quiet of the night
Is when the snake is in the crawlin'
And the moon starts to glow then disappear
When the time is really right
Is when the centipede is crawlin'
You'll be crying in the night so many tears
And you're crawlin' like a centipede

Centipede

In the quiet of the night
Is when the snake is in the crawlin'
And the moon starts to glow then disappear
When the time is really right
Is when the centipede is crawlin'
You'll be crying in the night so many tears

In the quiet of the night
Is when the snake is in the crawlin'
And the moon starts to glow then disappear
When the time is really right
Is when the centipede is crawlin'
You'll be crying in the night so many tears
And you're crawlin' like a centipede

Centipede
Centipede
Centipede[/font]
#3
If you wanted to drive someone a little bananas with one of those cute/annoying internet videos or songs, what are the most sticks-in-your-head candidates?

The Kitty Cat Dance and Badger Badger Mushroom come to mind. Cuppycakes has formidable "earworm" powers as well. Suggestions?
#4
Has anyone ever played a card game called "Himalaya"? I found it at a thrift store and the rules are missing but it looks like fun -- sort of like a mountain-climbing version of Mille Borne. I have searched the internet for rules to no avail. The company that made the game no longer exists. Anyone know it?

I usually have good luck with weird old card games from thrift stores. That's how I got all messed up on Briscola...
#5
I know everyone's got one, and having just been fired by a creepy little goblin-man to whom I gave two-and-a-half-years of butt-kicking performance and faultless loyalty, I would find it soothing to read other people's stories. My tale of woe, crammed into a nutshell, is that I just returned from a week's leave, in which I went to California to take care of my grandmother. When I left, I was golden, the rockstar barista who hung the moon, according to the Goblin. When I returned, I swear this is not a joke, he told me that the way I go above and beyond is "undermining" him. He says the little things I do (like cutting people's bagels in half if requested, asking "How is your drink? Let me know if you need anything," taking the drink to the tables of elderly customers instead of making them pick it up, keeping the steam pitcher in the fridge so the milk foams better, bringing in Hershey's Kisses to put on top of the cups in the week before holidays, the list goes on...), these "extra" things make customers "expect too much." He even said that it really annoyed him how I learned on the internet how to make latte art with the foam. He said that was "just doing my own thing." Silly me, I thought it was customer service or something. So, I thought this all sounded funny, because why after years would this suddenly become a problem? Then I figured out what the real reason behind my firing was. If people will help me to exorcise my anger and betrayal by supplying some stories, I will tell you in my next post what the reason was. (And I swear, it will be a much shorter post!)
#6
Discover Seattle! / Math & Science
Feb 08 06 08:07
Is anyone interested in discussing math or science topics? News, questions, puzzles, stuff like that? Does anyone have a good math/science biography? One friend of mine is OBSESSED with Tesla (dear God, not the band!). Her answering machine message asserts that he is "hotter than a centipede." I recently enjoyed The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, about uber-weirdo Paul Erdos. He is the one who said, "A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." Mmm... coffee.