Finally last night I have registered our phone number to www.donotcall.gov to hopefully stop the incessant calling of telemarketers, solicitors etc. This will be good for 5 years. Imagine the expiry will be on 2010! Sounds bliss to me. How effective is it really? I will find out in 30 days.

We might have all kinds of problems in the Philippines but not this. I got the full brunt of the calls when I first arrived here in the US. Since I had to be jobless for 6 months and mostly stayed at home, I had to fend off these calls myself. From credits card companies, promise of vacations in exchange for attending their "seminars", newspaper and magazine subscriptions,  cable companies, surveys, charities, fireman, juvenile delinquents, retired policemen solicitations (believe it or not) etc. Even the credit card company that we are using is one of our more frequent callers trying to convince us to upgrade. But no can do. Back then it would at  least number like a total of 10 calls a day. No kidding!

Yes, I could have let the answering machine take messages but sometimes I'd think it would be Tom calling, or my high school or my mom's friends or relatives here in the US, or potential employers at that time while I was job hunting. Partly the reason why I'd answer the phone I was also curious. But oh boy, I am no match for these seasoned callers. It's like throwing a doe into the lion's den. But I got to admit that it was good practice for my verbal english and comprehension with all the accents and the colloquialism encountered. One time Tom had to ask what country was the telemarketer was calling from and he was informed India. Wow, no wonder, since it was already like 10:00 in the evening.

Tom mentioned to me that he read an article that said about the calling centers in India of how shocked they were at the number of rude americans they get entangled with, but who can blame them? It really is very intrusive. If they were in the shoes of the people here they would feel the same way.

I hope to see the end of this exactly a month from today. Just this evening we received 2 already. Sigh.

Currently listening to: Ben Folds' "Landed"
Currently reading: Catherine Coulter's "Midsummer's Magic"
Currently watching: Motorcycle Diaries