You Might Well Think This Was A Progress Report
- about the James Holland work 'Cassino 44', about the epic battle fought there in order to be able to capture The Eternal City, and if I prod Art into semi-sentience -
But No! we are not focussing on this work, although as is typical for one of ol' Jim's books, there's a lot of maps at the forefront as well as aerial panoramas. Wh
ANYWAY whilst I may be pronouncing it 'Rome', it's actually spelled 'Roam', which my 'Collins Concise English Dictionary' defines as: "To travel or walk about with no fixed purpose or direction". Today's Intro concerns 'Roam' as the term used of mobile phones, the Devil's Digital Devices in Conrad's opinion. Art!
Satan using WhatsApp
A mobile phone user will accrue roaming charges when using a cellular network that is not their home one, and they can accumulate pretty steep charges very quickly, especially if they are unaware that they're actually roaming.
So, our Intro today comes from 'Karma Stories', a Youtube channel run by Rob The Canadian, and the story posted by 'Frigofla', another Canuckistanian, who worked decades ago at a call centre for a South Canadian ('American' if we're being formal) cellular company. Roaming charges were always a business nightmare for the call centre staff, and Frigofla gives an example of roaming charges along the Gulf Coast. Art!
You might pick up a tower on Roaming, and be paying $3.25 per minute, so a 30-minute call could rack up $100 in charges, which people would be very unappy about. The call centre staff would give a credit the first time this happened to people complaining, and warn/caution/educate them about checking the 'Roaming' notification on their phone display. Art!
Or just do without the horrid things
Normally that was it, if it happened a second time then the user paid the bill in full, except - seemingly because they were based in British America ('Canada' if we're being formal) and thus the embodiment of Nice - if the bill came in at under $25, meaning that the user was trying to avoid large roaming charges, they would also give them a credit for that. Awww! Art?
The video clip, from which this is a still, shows Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney making introductory statements in Japanese, utterly wowing the Japanese President and the audience, too.
ANYWAY AGAIN Frigofla said their favourite call centre madness featuring roaming charges came when they had to deal with Bitchy Entitled Abuser, hereafter BEA. She was calling to challenge her roaming charges because she had a cell phone plan that covered the whole of the United States - using the formal definition here as otherwise things would get confusing. You'll see.
Frigofla, as any call centre operator would do, checked BEA's bill and yes, she was fully covered for the whole US. However, the three Canadian provinces she had been to were not covered. This is where things got surreal. Art!
Frigofla explained this, whereupon BEA informed them that Canada was one of the 50 US states. No, they were not joking, they were in deadly earnest. Frigofla, countering this by stating that they were IN Canada, was called 'stupid' and told to get a supervisor. The call was escalated to the supervisor, then the senior supervisor, then the project director and finally to the site director, none of whom could convince BEA that Canada was not an US state.
Possibly because she had racked up over $900 in roaming fees? That they were not going to get a credit for. Art!
She then screamed she was going to end the service. Frigofla, possibly enjoying a bit of schadenfreude, informed BEA that she was still liable for the $900 and an early termination fee of $200 for each line she had. She had five. So that's another $1,000 to pay, which provoked so much swearing and screaming from BEA that another supervisor, listening in to the call in sheer disbelief, came over and disconnected her. The site director had her lines immediately cancelled, both as per her request and the verbal abuse.
Surprise! BEA refused to pay the outstanding total, which then accumulated fines and was sent to a collections agency, the sum now reaching $3,500. Or four times her original charge that she could have paid, instead of being a screeching bottomhole. Art!
'a screeching bottomhole'
BEA tried ringing the call centre several times, only for them to refuse to speak to her and tell her she needed to speak to the collections agency. Frigofla took one of her calls and had trouble speaking properly thanks to sporting an enormous malicious grin.
The story as narrated ends there. I can add that the collections agency would likely take BEA to small claims court, and if awarded judgement, garnish her wages, put a lien on her house and car whilst freezing her bank account. One way or another, they are getting that $3,500. What you might call Roaming In The Glomming.
Once Again My News Feed Comes Through!
In generating content that I used to get from the bizarre items Temu threw up on 'The Daily Beast's website. Now we have the MSN-generated mystery tat. Art!
To judge from context, I think the 'Corvette' they are talking about is the car, not the small naval warship, as the small naval warship would have a class name to identify itself. Conrad is unsure quite what a 'Differential side yoke cap' is and why you'd need any kit for it, let alone a heavy duty one. Art!
A Corvette differential side yoke. It all becomes clear.
Actually no it doesn't, I was lying. Still no idea.
'Falling Skies' Season One
Conrad saw this, but so long ago that I only recall a few scenes. I also note that the Professor limits his deep knowledge of military history and how it applies to the resistance of Hom. Sap. to alien invaders for a single speech so far. Art!
It came out in 2011 and ran for five seasons, so they did something right.
Today, it looks out of date in that nobody is using drones, which is me being a bit snarky. I also wonder how long ago this alien invasion occurred, as the resistance are using cars and motorbikes and petrol has a limited shelf life.
Here's More Not-So-Gentle Shoeing
Back to the Canuskistanians again. It seems that Pierre Poilievre, the leader of their Conservative Party, has proposed a coalition of English-speaking countries, i.e. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, as a new league to deal with the Trump and post-Trump world. Notably omitted is South Canada, as this country under King Piggy is the one causing all the problems. The news page also had a new, unflattering picture of Fat Caligula. Art!
Don't forget, a la John Bolton, this is Trump at his best after half an hour being made up, and another 90 minutes concealing his bald spot. He looks about ten minutes away from just keeling over, hence leaning on the doorframe. If you're such an alpha male, Don, do a 50-yard sprint. Or even 25. J D Vance thinks that's a really really good idea.
Finally -
Ending with another Biercism.
"Daring, n: One of the most conspicuous qualities of a man in security."
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