Some of you asked about the service I’m using to identify “unknown” or otherwise blocked numbers on my cell. It’s called TrapCall, and I found it thanks to someone on Twitter who’d posted a CNN article about the service. For the majority of the wireless providers, it’s free.
No more calls. None. Miraculously, it has stopped completely. Was this last caller an actual client? Hard to say, but my gut was saying no given the amount of detail in the call, the way it was delivered, and the familiarity of the voice. I’d like to think no organization or person would stoop so low as to resort to those tactics, but I’ve seen too much. It could, and probably has, happened.
But it’s been a week of weirdness. As I was explaining to one writing friend, the oddness seems to come at me like I’m magnetic or I have some orbit that sucks ’em in. This week I’ve had strange questions lobbed at me that were clearly not in my area of expertise – one was can you find me this particular bit of information? Sure – if I were a lawyer. When I put it like that, the asker said, “Oh, but the idea came from a lawyer.” Really? Then why are you asking me? Ask the lawyer! I know why. Lawyers charge for every conversation. Maybe I should, too.
Another weird question came in on Facebook yesterday. Complete stranger with broken English (and he’s going to try to convince me he’s legitimate) says he wants a freelancer to handle a project for him. Great, but the part that made me delete was “for a nominal fee.” I did ask – what do you think is nominal? I know what I think of it – I think it’s an attempt to get a grammatically-correct document from an English speaker for free. Fat chance. Been around that block enough times to know it’s not my neighborhood.
Let’s not forget the one former client who wrote asking my advice on what kind of caption I’d write for something (I kid you not). When I mused about how the client should delve into the similarities and come up with words that describe that particular image, didn’t I get a note back that said, “Really? What would you come up with?” Sorry – freebies R not us.
The full moon brings them out, doesn’t it?
AND the three retrogrades:
Saturn — life lessons — if you didn’t get it last time around, you get your ass kicked.
Venus — relationships (and not just romantic ones) get wonky.
Pluto — what’s hidden comes to light.
Lori, do you feel very Jack Bauer unearthing these hidden caller identities?
I find the Freebie Zone hard to navigate –
A) You want to create a strong proposal that demonstrates your myriad brilliant ideas and what you can deliver…. but, once done, you’ll never hear from them again. (Ever).
B) Leave all the details out and it seems a bunch of empty hype.
Happy medium, come out, come out, wherever you are!
ah but the moon was so lovely last nite! Here in san diego we had of all things some rain clouds… not many, just enough so my sister the moon got to play hide and seek with me for a bit.
Thanks for the link, Lori. I’ll have to check that out.
I have to admit, I usually don’t follow up (unless to say no, but some don’t even deserve that courtesy) on questions written in extremely broken English. Also my contact form on my website gives me their IP address and location. It probably sounds a little racist, but in my experience if they’re from India, they’ll want to pay Indian rates.