Privacy and Other Invasions

So, for several weeks now, I have been getting a call from some automated system on a daily basis. Sometimes multiple times a day. Supposedly, it is from some guy named Alex who is trying to reach me (yeah, like he has a clue who I am) and offers absolutely no reason why he is trying to reach me, and gives me an 800 number to call him back on.

Yeah, like I'm going to do that.

The Caller ID on my phone lists the guy as "Illinois Call", calling from 847-281-3020. After doing a brief search for the number in Google, I came up with a couple references to other people being pestered in various ways from this number.

WTF?

You would think that after several weeks of calling with no return call, they would stop calling. But their automated dialer must be pretty stupid, because it doesn't even know to wait for my answering machine to stop talking before delivering its speach. For the longest time, I had never heard the first half of the message, because I was always pulling it off the answering machine...which has a pretty long greeting (with instructions as to which voice mail box to use whether the caller wants to talk to my wife or to me). But I decided to pick up the phone one day when I saw the number pop up on the Caller ID (yes, I screen my calls...for this very reason) and finally heard the whole message, though there was no more information in the first half than there was in the second half.

The next thing I want to try is to record and play back the "disconnected number" tones and see if their automated machine is smart enough to remove my number from their dialing list. Or, perhaps I'll just keep letting them waste their money on unanswered long-distance calls.

Anyway, on to more pleasant topics.

Halloween is coming! Halloween is coming! I am never prepared. I always want to do something on Halloween, but never seem to get around to it. Our lives are just too busy and distracted. But I am *really* feeling the itch for a change, since right now I just seem to be in a rut. But here it is, late in the month, Halloween is approaching, and I don't have a clue what to do. You would think that here in the San Francisco bay area, doing something for Halloween wouldn't be a problem. And it probably isn't. I'm just not very connected to any of the local scenes - I've never been very social - so it could turn out to be just another boring evening at home for Halloween (especially since it is on a Monday).

But who knows? I thought it would be fun to at least go somewhere in costume. My wife says she wants to, too, but she hadn't made any plans, yet. Perhaps I need to step up to the plate and make something happen. I hear there is supposed to be something like 250,000 people congregating on Castro Street in the city on Halloween night. I went down to check that out one year and it was pretty interesting - lots of very interesting costumes, and some very...interesting...people down there. But that's just too many people for me, and I have no creative talent when it comes to things like costumes, so I couldn't compete with what I saw down there.

But, anyway, I got online last night just for fun to look for costumes. There doesn't seem to be much out there. I guess if I'm going to go in costume, I want a complete, professional deal. I have always fantasized about being made up to look like some reptillian alien - a very realistic-looking one - and going up to people's houses and ringing their doorbells (as if I am trying to figure out what the thing is that I am poking at on the wall outside their door) and emitting some alien screaching scream when I see their face at the door, and running away. I just think if I saw something like that at my door, that would scare me a lot more than Frankenstein holding a candy bag.

As far as commercial costumes, there seems to be a lot more cool stuff for women than for men. I came across this very cool costume while I was perusing a web site:



I think that's one of the coolest costumes I have ever seen. I think if I was a woman, that's what I would wear this year. But it's $159! I thought it might look cool on my wife, so I showed it to her. But she just kind of frowned and asked, "why do you like that?" I'm thinking, shit, if she doesn't like it, maybe I'll just get it and wear it, myself.

Why not? It's Halloween, right?

I'd probably be too chicken to actually do it. But would a real man have the courage? Oh, the irony! Besides, it's $159. It may as well be $2,000 as far as that goes. It's kind of hard to buy things when you're broke. Oh, well. Maybe things will be different next year. Maybe I'll find a job AND a costume and actually do something for Halloween. But I haven't completely written off this year, yet -- there's still time to figure something out.

Speaking of Christmas (huh? What? Who said that?)... I was in Target the other day after my wife saw this hilarious inflatable green monster in front of someone's house (sorry, I don't have a picture) that she had to have and was told it could be found at Target. We couldn't find one. However, on the wall - on all the shelves on this wall - behind the Halloween products, were Christmas decorations. There was even an animatronic reindeer that kept swinging its head from side to side. And it had lights all over it. It wasn't too far from some Santa displays, among other things.

I guess Thankgiving is a non-holiday. But, GEEZ, you would think they could at least wait for Halloween to come and go! Christmas isn't until the end of December (dare I say, "for Christ's sake?"). I can't stand the Christmas season, and I just want to go away when it comes around. Christmas brings out the worst in people, not to mention the worst crowds. The only reason Christmas Day is any good is because then we can all collapse from the stress that leads up to the day and finally crash for 12 hours.

What a farce.

Anyway, Halloween is coming. Let's focus on that for a while! :-)