On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:51:13 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> Ah, don't worry. You just gotta relax and... who am I kidding? Right
>>> now I'm sat next to the phone waiting for it to ring, even though I
>>> know it won't. :-| How dumb is that??
>> 
>> Go find something to do - a watched phone never rings.
>> 
>> If she phones and you're not there, she can leave a message, right?
> 
> She's at work right now. There's no way in hell she's going to call from
> work.

OK, so that is a little nuts. ;-)

> Also... my phone has a voicemail function, but I have no idea how it
> works. But I'll know she called, which is the main thing.

I'm sure you could find out, though. :-)

> (I'm not seriously expecting her to call, rather to reply to my SMS...)

That's also a possibility....kids these days seem to prefer texting to 
phoning. :-)

Jim

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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:26:07 -0400, Warp wrote:

> >   How else do they know who to send the bills to in your country?

> Because they're given a mailing address?

  And if the person in question does not pay his bills and moves to
another place?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:26:07 -0400, Warp wrote:
> 
>>>   How else do they know who to send the bills to in your country?
> 
>> Because they're given a mailing address?
> 
>   And if the person in question does not pay his bills and moves to
> another place?

Then they keep the deposit.  :-)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:28:59 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> On Wed, 22 Apr 2009 13:26:07 -0400, Warp wrote:
> 
>> >   How else do they know who to send the bills to in your country?
> 
>> Because they're given a mailing address?
> 
>   And if the person in question does not pay his bills and moves to
> another place?

Then it goes to a collection agency which tracks them down.

In the US, credit reporting agencies tend to have good data on where 
people are located as well.

SSN is not a universal ID in the US.  It's a taxpayer identification 
number and really nothing more.

Jim

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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> >   And if the person in question does not pay his bills and moves to
> > another place?

> Then it goes to a collection agency which tracks them down.

  And the easiest way of doing that here is with the social security number,
as it's an unambiguous unique identifier (and the government has your data
associated with it).

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_shyness
> 
> Maybe something like that.  Extreme fear of rejection was a bit part of 
> it.  I was always the kid the girls wanted to have as a friend so they 
> could complain about their boyfriends (or the other boys they wanted as 
> their boyfriends) to someone.

When *I* was a kid, "girls" were these mythical creatures that I'd never 
actually seen or interacted with before, but I desperately wanted to 
find one and keep her for ever and ever...

Of course, gradually I came to realise that girls are actually just 
normal human beings who are a bit special. Some of them are nice, some 
of them are arseholes. Oddly, attractiveness appears to be negatively 
correlated with personality... but it's only a general correlation, 
there is of course considerable variability.

Now, if I could just learn to not be terrified of all human beings, 
maybe I'd be getting somewhere! :-}

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Warp wrote:
> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>>>   And if the person in question does not pay his bills and moves to
>>> another place?
> 
>> Then it goes to a collection agency which tracks them down.
> 
>   And the easiest way of doing that here is with the social security number,
> as it's an unambiguous unique identifier (and the government has your data
> associated with it).

Yes. Here, if you refuse to give your SSN to (say) the phone company, 
they'll require about six months of deposit from you (i.e., about 6 bills 
worth of money), and they'll give that back after a year. And you'll still 
get sent to collections if you don't pay after that, and you won't get phone 
service without a big deposit next time even if you give your SSN. (That's 
one of the things those 300TB databases tracks.)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   There's no CD like OCD, there's no CD I knoooow!

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On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 09:04:45 +0100, Invisible wrote:

>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_shyness
>> 
>> Maybe something like that.  Extreme fear of rejection was a bit part of
>> it.  I was always the kid the girls wanted to have as a friend so they
>> could complain about their boyfriends (or the other boys they wanted as
>> their boyfriends) to someone.
> 
> When *I* was a kid, "girls" were these mythical creatures that I'd never
> actually seen or interacted with before, but I desperately wanted to
> find one and keep her for ever and ever...

Heh, dude, you *are* a kid. ;-)  Aren't you in your late 20's?

> Of course, gradually I came to realise that girls are actually just
> normal human beings who are a bit special. Some of them are nice, some
> of them are arseholes. Oddly, attractiveness appears to be negatively
> correlated with personality... but it's only a general correlation,
> there is of course considerable variability.

Indeed there is. :-)

> Now, if I could just learn to not be terrified of all human beings,
> maybe I'd be getting somewhere! :-}

You're making progress.  :-)

Jim

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On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 03:11:12 -0400, Warp wrote:

> Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
>> >   And if the person in question does not pay his bills and moves to
>> > another place?
> 
>> Then it goes to a collection agency which tracks them down.
> 
>   And the easiest way of doing that here is with the social security
>   number,

Maybe there, but not here...not everyone in the US has one.  Many people 
who live in the US don't, even though they're legal.

> as it's an unambiguous unique identifier (and the government has your
> data associated with it).

Over here we tend to be suspicious (some would say "overly suspicious") 
of the idea of a national identity database.  Governments around the 
world have demonstrated that they're not terribly good at keeping data 
that should secure secured.  Though the most recent examples I can think 
of are from he UK....

Jim

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On Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:45:44 -0700, Darren New wrote:

>  if you refuse to give your SSN to (say) the phone company,
> they'll require about six months of deposit from you

I think that depends on where you are in the US, though.

I don't recall ever giving my SSN to a utility company in the states I've 
lived in, and don't recall ever having to pay a deposit, either - even 
when my credit rating was bad.

Jim

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