the irony is only bitter now
Remember how I was getting email that didn't belong to me, because some other victoria p. thinks my gmail address is her gmail address (note)? Well, today I got one about online bill payment and it had an "if you received this email in error" phone number on it. So I called and told them, I AM NOT THIS VICKI PERSON YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO REACH. FIRST OF ALL, I HAVEN'T CALLED MYSELF VICKI SINCE I WAS FOURTEEN!
Ahem. I did not actually yell, or say that second part at all.
Unfortunately, all the CSR had as a contact for the person (the account holder, aka, other!victoria p.) was the email address, so she had no way of tracing it back to the person, and since I don't have the account number, as it is not my account, their system won't let me escalate it to a manager, who might have access to a phone number or address.
WHY SO DIFFICULT?
I ignored it when it was signing up for things like Sephora Insider or *gag* Frederick's of Hollywood. I can delete those or mark those as spam easily enough, but she apparently DOESN'T REALIZE that the email she's giving her credit card bill paying service ISN'T HERS. This means I'm probably going to get a ding in the next day or two from gmail as she tries to change the password ON MY ACCOUNT. Which, BECAUSE IT IS MY EMAIL ADDRESS, she won't be able to do. At least, she shouldn't be able to do. I mean, someone who DOESN'T KNOW HER OWN EMAIL ADDRESS should be unable to hack into my account, right?
Otoh, now I want to write about a character called Vicki Person.
***
This Slate essay on why we root for the underdog has been linked a couple times on my dwlist, and I think it makes some salient points, but I think they all danced around the most important point, which, at least in terms of sports fans, is SCHADENFREUDE.
For example, I root for the Yankees to lose not just because they are a behemoth and any team is an underdog against them, but because it PLEASES ME when their fans have to deal with the agony of defeat, something which I, as a Mets fan, am all too familiar with (and have had lorded over me for many, many years). (Note: I don't actually root for the Yankees to lose, because I don't hate the Yankees, particularly; I find their fans, en masse, kind of obnoxious, though I like many individual Yankees fans just fine. My mother, otoh, grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. She never ever ever roots for the Yankees and wouldn't even if they had Jesus on the mound and Mother Theresa playing third. She made my father convert to being a Mets fan when they got married.)
Also, and he didn't mention this either, I root against, say, the Flyers or the Penguins because the Flyers are the team that beat the Rangers in the last game of the season, thus denying them a playoff spot, and the Penguins knocked them out of the playoffs last season, and also I don't like Sidney Crosby. So there is some residual team loyalty involved in a lot of cases. (Otoh, some teams I just like - I always root for the Devils and the Red Wings when the Rangers aren't around. Yes, it's likely I'm the reason your team is not doing well this year. Sorry!)
Otoh, sometimes we do root for the team that beat our team, because it allows us the comfort of believing in the "team of destiny" fairy tale, by which nobody was going to beat the Saints, for example, because they were the team of destiny this year, or because it allows us to say, "Well, we were beaten by the world champs and nobody else could beat them either!"
I realize this is just personal and anecdotal, but I think a lot of the underlying emotions of sports fans are pretty transparent. And crazy. Did I mention the crazy?
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/165242.html.
people have commented there.
Ahem. I did not actually yell, or say that second part at all.
Unfortunately, all the CSR had as a contact for the person (the account holder, aka, other!victoria p.) was the email address, so she had no way of tracing it back to the person, and since I don't have the account number, as it is not my account, their system won't let me escalate it to a manager, who might have access to a phone number or address.
WHY SO DIFFICULT?
I ignored it when it was signing up for things like Sephora Insider or *gag* Frederick's of Hollywood. I can delete those or mark those as spam easily enough, but she apparently DOESN'T REALIZE that the email she's giving her credit card bill paying service ISN'T HERS. This means I'm probably going to get a ding in the next day or two from gmail as she tries to change the password ON MY ACCOUNT. Which, BECAUSE IT IS MY EMAIL ADDRESS, she won't be able to do. At least, she shouldn't be able to do. I mean, someone who DOESN'T KNOW HER OWN EMAIL ADDRESS should be unable to hack into my account, right?
Otoh, now I want to write about a character called Vicki Person.
***
This Slate essay on why we root for the underdog has been linked a couple times on my dwlist, and I think it makes some salient points, but I think they all danced around the most important point, which, at least in terms of sports fans, is SCHADENFREUDE.
For example, I root for the Yankees to lose not just because they are a behemoth and any team is an underdog against them, but because it PLEASES ME when their fans have to deal with the agony of defeat, something which I, as a Mets fan, am all too familiar with (and have had lorded over me for many, many years). (Note: I don't actually root for the Yankees to lose, because I don't hate the Yankees, particularly; I find their fans, en masse, kind of obnoxious, though I like many individual Yankees fans just fine. My mother, otoh, grew up a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. She never ever ever roots for the Yankees and wouldn't even if they had Jesus on the mound and Mother Theresa playing third. She made my father convert to being a Mets fan when they got married.)
Also, and he didn't mention this either, I root against, say, the Flyers or the Penguins because the Flyers are the team that beat the Rangers in the last game of the season, thus denying them a playoff spot, and the Penguins knocked them out of the playoffs last season, and also I don't like Sidney Crosby. So there is some residual team loyalty involved in a lot of cases. (Otoh, some teams I just like - I always root for the Devils and the Red Wings when the Rangers aren't around. Yes, it's likely I'm the reason your team is not doing well this year. Sorry!)
Otoh, sometimes we do root for the team that beat our team, because it allows us the comfort of believing in the "team of destiny" fairy tale, by which nobody was going to beat the Saints, for example, because they were the team of destiny this year, or because it allows us to say, "Well, we were beaten by the world champs and nobody else could beat them either!"
I realize this is just personal and anecdotal, but I think a lot of the underlying emotions of sports fans are pretty transparent. And crazy. Did I mention the crazy?
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/165242.html.
people have commented there.