A hilarious collection of exchanges between telemarketers and the author, who decided to stop hanging up on unwanted calls and start having fun. Entertain yourself as you experience Origami Cheese Wheels, Belok The Star Warrior, The Drainage, and many more transcriptions of actual interactions. How many times will an overseas call center call back to offer 'medical compensation' after the author tells them he has tumors on his wings? How far past blatantly absurd can the author push it before telemarketers hang up? And what did a family of raccoons do to the author's imaginary dog in one twisted exchange? Grab yourself a drink and prepare to spit it out laughing as you experience Price Check On Blood, Super Power One Twenty, Potato Salad Therapy, and dozens more.
Let's face it: telemarketers can be annoying. Even "telemarketers" hate getting telemarketer calls. Whether they're legitimate businesses, pollsters, or unscrupulous scammers, one fact is universal: when people repeatedly call at all hours, day and night, it can be maddening. After a friend pranked Haven Riney by signing him up for tons of college-recruiting forms, he began receiving up to a hundred phone calls daily. He put his number on the Do Not Call List... he told pesky callers to put him on "their" lists... he yelled, screamed, begged, and pleaded... but nothing worked. Finally, he decided to waste "their" time instead. Riney's lightning-quick wit, sharp comedic timing, and endless patience culminated in the hilarious collection of transcripts presented here. Every call is real, each funnier than the last. Getting mad does no good. "Messing With Telemarketers" shows why it's better to get "even."
When a bomb detonates outside a Harvard law school building, killing several including a law student who was counseling Jackie Kelvinski, a woman trying to get out of an abusive marriage, Jackie is afraid that the bomb was set off by her unstable husband. Annie Squires, an investigator helping her out, tries to convince her that's unlikely, but Jackie's not listening. And before the Cambridge police get very far in their investigation to determine who could have committed such a crime, a second deadly bomb explodes, this time at a Cambridge courthouse. The bomb narrowly misses forensic neuropsychologist Dr. Peter Zak, late for a meeting inside. Peter, suddenly closer to the action that he'd like to be, agrees to help the police by profiling the bomber from some anti-government fliers found at the crime scene. But were they really written by the perpetrator? Or is the bomber's motive more personal, perhaps directed at Jackie, or Peter, or another target? Delving deeper into the mind of the criminal, Peter must work quickly before more lives are lost, including possibly his own. Guilt, G. H. Ephron's thrilling psychological suspense novel, is a fascinating and surprising novel about motive and murder, survivor's guilt and criminal culpability--and trying to stay one step ahead of a killer.
Non-response in sample surveys can have serious consequences on the accuracy of survey results. This study shows how high response rates can be achieved, even in the Netherlands, a country notorious for its low response rates. As an introduction, an overview of groups that generally have low response rates and the possible causes of their lack of response is presented. The emphasis is on non-response bias that occurs when non-response behavior and survey outcomes are correlated, independent of background characteristics. The Hunt for the Last Respondent will be of interest to survey methodologists, market researchers, survey sponsors, and survey statisticians, as well as anyone interested in survey quality.
About the Book Millions of Americans have epilepsy. At age 34, Holly Eckert joined them. From the day she discovered that, through many years, her life became a journey of personal growth and self discovery. Why was this happening? What should she do? Who was she now that she seized? These were only a few of the questions she asked herself in the face of her new reality. Holly’s walk with chronic illness became one of awakening and healing. In it, she learned many lessons in life while confronting the flaws, failures, ignorance, and corruption permeating the American medical industry and sensing, first hand, the resiliency of the human mind and body. Daily tending to the chores of chronic illness, she scoffed at the paradox between the medical industry's responses and her own life's experiences. Over time, Holly realized that illness can play important, positive roles in a human life. Traveling her path where health and illness intertwine, it became clear to her that illness can give as much as it takes away. This convinced her that when allowed the time and space to be ill, a person can find true health again, a real life phenomenon rarely discussed by doctors and patients. In Seized – Searching for Health In the United States, Holly tells the story of her journey with illness. That well-told, personal tale provides a lens through which a reader can explore the common experience of searching for health in the United States. Who would have imagined that it would be a dance artist who does so well exploring the many dimensions of illness and the failures of the United States’ healthcare system, but that’s precisely what happens here in Seized. About the Author Holly Eckert grew up in a small town in the mountains of Idaho where she learned to dance from a former ballerina with the New York Ballet who also lived there. After high school, she took her scholarships and went to The Evergreen State College. There she combined dance and social sciences to create her own integrated studies program. Her education prepared her to go to Seattle and pursue her artistic mission of exploring substantive topics inside the art of dance. Winning awards and praise for her artwork, Holly pursued her passion with passion and made choreography about things like the experience of fear and the injustices of the US prison system. She was healthy and strong into her mid-thirties, when one day, she suddenly began seizing uncontrollably. Epilepsy quickly overwhelmed her life. It sent Holly on a diverse, personal journey. On her travels, she discovered many new things about herself, and as she did, she learned more and more about the potentials for healing that exist inside the human body. She also learned a great deal about the tragic failures of the United States' medical system that often inhibits these possibilities from being realized. Knowing that she liked to write as well as dance, Holly decided to tell this story through words not movements. Her readers continually give her praise for her efforts.
As seen in the HBO docuseries THE VOW: A jaw-dropping insider look into the world of the so-called "Hollywood Sex Cult" NXIVM chronicling the rise of enigmatic cult leader, Keith Raniere, from its "Patient Zero," his former girlfriend and test subject for his coercive control techniques. Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada and elsewhere, to do his bidding and pay millions of dollars to participate in his self-improvement methodology. But where did Keith Raniere begin? Enter Toni Natalie, Keith's Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere's methodology and the first one to escape. THE PROGRAM begins with the origin story of NXIVM, follows its rise to international prominence, and takes the reader into the downfall of Raniere through Toni's eyes. During this time she bore witness to the evolution of his methodology, including his use of sex, blackmail, and employment of psychological tools such as neuro-linguistic programming to control and punish those who would not heed his wishes. She uniquely details the fortunes lost and the lives left in disarray that she witnessed contemporaneously, including members of DOS, a group of women coerced into sexual acts under the guise of a "women's empowerment" inner circle, whom Raniere exercised extreme control over directly and through his lieutenants. But far from being a victim's story, in the spirit of Erin Brockovich, Toni's is a nuanced narrative of a multi-dimensional woman saving herself, and then working tirelessly to help other women do the same for themselves. Today, Toni is happy, reunited with her son, and surrounded by friends and family--it is this perspective that makes her such a unique storyteller.
Telemarketing has come along way since it began over 50 years ago. Written by a seasoned professional, this book will detail the history of telemarketing, how business has changed over the years, the best way to recruit the top talent, telemarketing scams, why the art of Working From Home is dead and why some call centers fail when others succeed. Written by a professional who has 15 years of multi-national outbound telemarketing experience. Learn how to succeed as a telemarketer from his words.
An intercontinental romance goes off the rails big time in this steamy second chance story from the Hot Scots universe. When a former Marine and a Scottish lass meet, it's lust at first sight. But American Gavin Douglas never counted on Jamie MacTaggart's family butting into their romance. His old wounds and her burly brothers keep getting in the way. The stress of an intercontinental relationship doesn't help either. If you've read the Hot Scots, you know how Gavin and Jamie's story begins and ends. But what happened in the middle? How did everything go so wrong? Find out in November 2023. How to Lose a Lass is a Hot Scots prequel novella that fleshes out the story of Gavin and Jamie's rocky road to their happy ending.
A contemporary New York noir coming-of-age story - Nineteen-year-old Hootie has been in trouble all his life. An outsider, his father was Crow Indian; his mother is black; but Hootie is neither black, nor white, nor Latino, nor Asian. When he meets Bubba Yablonsky, the biggest white man hes ever seen, at a subway station in Harlem, he knows somethings up. Then Bubba opens fire at an innocent rat before offering Hootie money and a place to live. But whats the catch? And what else who else has Bubba shot?
These essays are gleaned from articles published in Wichita Falls Medicine, the Wichita Falls Times Record News, Private Practice, and one from the unlikely pages of the Archives of Internal Medicine. I threw out some I thought were awful. Other than that exercise in self-protection, they flew from the computer in no particular order. I chose them if they made me smile.
