How boring and dull the world would be, if we never encountered people whose antics gave us a pleasant glow of self-satisfied superiority? Besides, without NPCs we'd have to think up our own Quests.
What I *really* wish I could mute forever, are those blasted phone scam call centers. The ones where the phone rings while you are in another room doing something involved and delicate, or up a ladder, on the toilet, etc.
You make it to the phone, pick up, and there's a few moments silence then an electronic 'pooik' sound. That was their autodialing system recognizing that you picked up, and now they have an operator free to handle this new victim (you.)
Then some voice with an Indian accent cheerfully announces "Hello, this is product testing center" or "Hello, this is the Microsoft security center" (Hint, there's no such thing.)
Sometimes, rarely, the silence extends for up to 15 seconds (none of their staff were free to take the call) and then the system delivers an electronic "Goodbye" (which curiously is always the exact same recording, and which is quite hostile and sarcastic sounding) and hangs up.
Never, ever, be nice to these people. Doing so will get your number bumped up into some 'potential sucker' category, and you'll get many more calls for a while. I don't like being rude to people (probably poor Indians struggling to do a shitty job in return for poor wages to stay alive), so I usually just hang up. At most say something sarcastic then hang up. The *one* time I lost my temper with this and shouted at them before hanging up, typical of my luck, was possibly a disaster.
http://everist.org/valentine/20180214-valentine-dumbarse.htmSometimes weeks go by without any of these calls. Sometimes I get up to 5 a day. Those days really are too much. Incredibly disruptive and annoying. I *can't* not answer the phone, as I'm first responder to an elderly person's medical/accident alert button, that produces an emergency phone call.
How is that this shit is even legal? I've tried that 'do not call' listing, doesn't do anything. Can we please have a geographical coordinate, and just nuke them?
The operator centers seem to be in India, so some telecoms carrier is doing business carrying their international traffic. Can't we find out WHO, and burn their buildings to the ground?