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[Golfhaus]

I called the cable company to get service installed in the house. I called them back not ten minutes when I realized I'd forgotten to get the DVR.

I swear, the DVR makes television so much better, but it's like crack. You can't not have it. I get pissed when I'm listening to the radio and hear something, and reach to rewind it.

[wombat]

I guess the DVR would solve my problem, remembering shows for me. I do think about it frequently. But the obstacle is... calling the cable company.

I wonder if they are aware that they lose business, from someone who wants to give them money for something that is like crack, because it is such a pain to call them?  Are they ignorant or are they making so much money that they don't care?

[side_show]

In Socialist Canada, cable company calls you!

No, seriously, the cable company calls us whenever they're offering new services - it's really not all that annoying, since they already have our business it's pretty low pressure.  Also we have call waiting on our TV, so we can avoid whoever we want without tearing our eyes away from whatever we're watching.

[theinevitable]

I wonder if they are aware that they lose business, from someone who wants to give them money for something that is like crack, because it is such a pain to call them?  Are they ignorant or are they making so much money that they don't care?

I feel like you are in the minority, in that you are not desperate for more TV.

[Nabubrush]

Also we have call waiting on our TV, so we can avoid whoever we want without tearing our eyes away from whatever we're watching.

Wow. I never heard of that shit. Are you sure you don't live in the US? That seems like a quintessentially American innovation.

Apropos of nothing, does it bother Canadians when people in the US refer to themselves as American? Because of you folks living in North America too, I mean.

[side_show]

Yes, when I heard this was offered, I thought "What the fuck?" but it comes free with our phone plan, and it's really really nice since we're usually watching something news-like around dinner time when all the call centres go into overdrive, so we've already avoided a lot of suffering.  Plus, now that mum knows I have call display she doesn't call two dozen times in a row until I pick up.

Re: Americans - The one thing I found interesting at that international conference I went to was that no one confused Canadians for Americans.  I really thought that would be common, but not once did I get confused for American.  Once or twice for Australian, never American.  If the Asians were going to lump us into a large group, it was Westerners, which included Europe, Canada, and all of America.

[AugustWest]

Are you talking about Caller ID that shows up on the TV?  If so, my parents have this.

[wombat]

Re: Americans - The one thing I found interesting at that international conference I went to was that no one confused Canadians for Americans.

I have often read travel advice that suggests that if you go somewhere that doesn't like Americans, you should say you are Canadian.  So, you're saying people are not that easy to fool?

[jaydub]

All they'd have to do is ask you who the premier is, or what the Canadian political parties are, and they'd know that not only are you American, but you're a lying American.

[linnea]

All they'd have to do is ask you who the premier is, or what the Canadian political parties are, and they'd know that not only are you American, but you're a lying American.

HAHAHAH!!!

But yes, smells, that is true. A lot of my friends have said that they're Canadian while traveling abroad. Thanks, United States ugly Americans, for giving the rest of us a bad name.

[side_show]

Well they didn't confuse any of the Canadians for Americans, but they did confuse the nice Americans for Canadians fairly often.  There was basically one American there who was the stereotypical American-abroad-type (expecting special treatment, ordering people around, rude at every opportunity - total Hunts moves at every turn) who came with her partner and those two were constantly referred to as "the Americans" with the roll of the eyes.

Also, yes, I have caller ID on TV, but we have visual call waiting on the TV as well.

[theinevitable]

probably one of the happiest moments of my life... was when I tried to speak Italian in Italy, and a guy started talking to me in Spanish. Apparently I speak every foreign language with a Spanish accent. My Arabic and Latin teachers can attest to this.

Also: one of the Chaperones thought I was one of the Italian students. That one is harder to explain.

[iron_felix]

When I'm abroad I just tell people I'm British.  Thanks to my accent, they're usually more inclined to believe that anyway, even back here in the States.  However, when you are in Europe and you are tall and have fair skin and blond hair and blue eyes, if you keep your mouth shut you may get mistaken for a German.  Depending on where you are, that can be even worse than being outed as a Yankee.

Back when I was a kid my family went on a trip to Northern Italy.  At one point we stopped at a nice cafe on Lake Como, and the waitress there presented us with a menu in German.  We explained that we were British, and she apologized and came back with an English one.  While deciding what to order, we noticed that all the prices on the second menu were lower than they were on the first.

A bit less flattering than if they had thought we were Spanish, but I guess that's just how it goes.

[RMJ12345]

However, when you are in Europe and you are tall and have fair skin and blond hair and blue eyes, if you keep your mouth shut you may get mistaken for a German. 

My blonde, blue-eyed younger brother Isaac was 14 and already six feet when we went to England and Paris when I was sixteen, and he would regularly have people greet him "Guten tag!"

To which he would enthusiastically respond "Hello!"

On another note, my youngest brother, who is only 13, is already six foot two and fast coming up on six three. And he's got Nicole Richie's waist. I'm seriously related to some weird hybrid of an NBA superstar and Jughead.

[pmcd9]

I've been to England several times and I never hid my national identity.  Everyone seemed to treat me very nicely.  I wonder why I wasn't stereotyped?

Why would a Canadian be upset that Americans call themselves American?  That is silly.