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DMala |
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Sleep is overrated
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Reged: 05/09/05
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Posts: 3989
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Loc: Waltham, MA
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Re: What the HELL is wrong with people.
04/17/13 06:48 PM
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> And sorry to everyone else I've offended here.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I wasn't offended by anything you posted. Personally, I don't have any problem with a little spirited discussion of current events in the 'Bin. For me, banishment to the War Room is only warranted when threads devolve into 300 posts of people calling each other names, or when people bring up the same topics over and over again to the point of trolling.
> FWIW I've been to USA for business
> (IEEE 802.11 working group back while 802.11n was in planning phase). The vast
> majority of the people I dealt with were pretty awesome. There were a few downers,
> though. The thing that sticks out was this time in Santa Monica when I wanted to use
> a payphone and didn't have change. Asking random strangers for change near payphones,
> vending machines, train ticket machines and other coin-operated apparatus is pretty
> normal in Australia. I had my wallet out, and when a random person walked by I held
> up some $1 bills and asked, "Got quarters?" She said, "I'll give you quarters because
> you're Australian, but it's not safe to open your wallet around here." Is it really
> that dangerous in Santa Monica? If so, that's sad in itself, and if it isn't really
> that dangerous, it's sad that she was so scared. Anyway, it's a trivial thing, but
> it's stuck in my mind.
The first issue is that you went to California, which is technically part of the US, but actually exists on a different plane of existence. 
Second, in some cities, there is so much begging and panhandling that people automatically get weirded out by anyone asking for change. Even waving a bill doesn't help, because the classic scam is you ask for change, and once someone has their money out, you start in with the sob story about how you're just a couple of bucks short for a bus ticket or whatever, and wring a few dollars out of them. It's easier to just not bother than risk getting sucked in and have to try to disengage yourself. I know when I need change for something, I just go into a store and either ask for change if they seem nice, or else just buy a roll of mints and break the bill that way.
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