Am I the only one who strives for the "I'm a big, badass, paramilitary hax0r phreak" image?

It's just not cool until people wonder if you're carrying an AK-47, a butt set, or a laptop, or a combination of the 3, and they fear all the possibile combinations of said devices, tools, and weapons in your more than capable hands.

Is anyone with me here? We could start a militia of disgruntled techies. That would be sooo leet. My parents would be so proud seeing me on 60 minutes brandishing more weapons than some foreign governments. :->

Actually, they'd probably never talk to me again, but hey. Either way, it's a fun goal.

And in case you're wondering, yes, I am insane this morning. w00t!

http://www.theonion.com/onion3821/life_jackets_issued.html

Ok, so I try to call the 248-920 exchange on my POTS line. (which is in the 248-683 exchange)
Note that these numbers are both in the Pontiac, MI ratecenter. If something is in the same ratecenter, It's ALWAYS local.

I get a "You must dial a 1 before calling this number" intercept (indicating it's a long distance call)

So I call the operator.
The operator doesn't know what a ratecenter is. (Isn't it neato that I know more about telephone billing than the operator? Does anyone else here when operator was a skilled position and the operators actually sat at consoles that could do things to the phone network? I do…)
Then the operator tried to convince me that all calls were supposed to be dialed as 11 digits with a one and described ten digit dialing to me.
I then said "If you dial a 1, it's 11 digit dialing"
"No it's not"
"Count the friggin digits!"
"Well, that's how it's supposed to be dialed for local calls"
"Not in Michigan it's not, we have toll alerting. I understand 10 digit dialing, and when I dialed it that way it didn't work. It claimed a local number was actually long distance!"
"Would you like to speak to your phone carrier?"
"I'm speaking to them right now! The announcement just before you picked up said "MCI"!!!"
"Sorry sir, I'm from Ameritech"
"WHAT!?!?!? I'm an MCI customer!"
"Yeah, let me forward you to their customer support line"

I call it and it's customer service for MCI, my local phone carrier.
They inform me that their repair offices are closed for the night (CLOSED!?!?!)
I get another number to call.

The person there informs me the numbers are in a DIFFERENT LATA and thus long distance.
I'm like "Excuse me, a different LATA?"
"Yes"
"They're in the same city…"
"Yea, that can happen sometimes"
"HOW!?! They're in the same AREA CODE!" (Note to those not familiar with telco billing, area codes almost always end at LATA boundaries..)
"I don't know sir, that's what the computer said"
"But the computer is wrong. The switches are literally a few blocks from each other!"
"I'm sorry sir, I can't change the computer"
"They weren't in a different LATA yesterday!"
"I'm sorry sir"
"Forget this, I'm calling the public service commission"
"Ok sir, have a nice day, thanks for calling MCI"

Whatever, time to call the MPSC.

Anyone know if I can get TDS Metrocom in Waterford? I'm highly considering switching to them.

I just thought this was really funny. I was out last night exploring and we got hungry and stopped at a Chi Chi's. We ate, and I went to the bathroom, and they had those urinal ad poster things there. One of them started out something like:
"Throw your cigars in the truck. Heck, drag them behind your truck."
http://www.armoredhumidor.com/

A quote from the page:
The Armored Humidor features a watertight, unbreakable case that meets military specs for high impact, humidity and immersion. Inside, Humidipak?s two-way humidity control responds to the outside climate to eliminate all fluctuations in humidity?preventing any loss of essential oils and flavor in your cigars while in the travel humidor.

heh, who the hell buys this stuff?