Mystery begins to unravel

Gloria Perez.

This is the woman who apparently used to own my new phone number. I've received several more phone calls for this woman from various agencies since I last posted, all of which have helped to unravel the mystery that is Gloria Perez.

I last posted about receiving phone calls from what sounded like a law office. After receiving another one this morning and almost every week day for the past week, I decided I had the call the number back to get them to stop. I discovered the number belongs to Encore Receivable Management, which is a credit and debt service. Translation: They are creditors who handle debt collection for various companies. According to their Web site, they specialize in the markets of communiation services (wireline, wireless and cable), financial services (banks, credit cards and whatnot) and retail companies. I'm not sure who Ms. Perez owed money to. My guess is either a bank or credit card company or a cell phone company, which is why I now have her phone number.

So, although the debt collector service was very telling about my mystery person's past, I was a little disappointed that I wasn't receiving phone calls from law offices. That is, until I actually received a phone call from a law office. The law firm of Linebarger Goggins Blair & Sampson called the other day and wished to speak to Ms. Perez. A quick Googling of this law firm didn't reveal much. Only that they appear to be based in Dallas, as their firm name appeared in the Nov. 9, 2005, minutes of a Dallas City Council meeting. Not too helpful, but at least the stakes for Ms. Perez have been kicked up a notch to legal action.

I have a feeling this will be an ongoing saga as I continue to receive phone calls from various businesses, law firms and debt collection services for Gloria Perez. As annoying as the calls are (especially when they're only recorded messages), I'll admit it's been a rather fun mystery thus far.

Stop harassing phone calls from creditors

I had my phone number changed recently to a local number. As the old number went away, I thought about who would get that number some day. I wondered if they would ever get calls from companies or salespeople asking for me. I didn't even cross my mind to wonder who's number I was getting now. At least until the calls started coming in. Just hours after changing my number, when only about 4 people knew the new one, I received a recorded message from what sounded like a law firm asking me to call this number for information. I, of course, did not. I've since received the same call almost every day but have yet to answer again. This morning, I received a recorded message from Hollywood Video alerting me that I had outstanding items on my account. Nevermind that I don't have an account with Hollywood Video. But apparently, the former owner of this phone number did.

Side note to all recorded messages: You're making this very difficult on me. If I had received a call from a live person from either of these numbers, I could have easily explained that the person they were trying to reach no longer uses this phone number and to remove it from their list. As it stands now, I would have to call them back, waste my cell phone minutes, to correct someone else's mistake. I won't do it.

I have to wonder just whose number I inherited. Why do I receive phone calls from what sounds like a law firm? What movie did they check out and not return? Why did they change phone numbers? Probably to dodge annoying phone calls, only to leave them to me. Thanks a lot, random person. Thanks a lot.

Tech support needs some tech support

My phone rang this morning. First I noticed it was an Abilene number. Then I noticed it was coming from an on-campus phone line. I answered. An awkward sounding student "Hello, this is [insert name I forgot] with Team 55." He knew my name and asked if that's who was speaking. Then, he asked if I recently put in a request for help because I was having trouble connecting to FastWeb, or something like that. Now, I don't even know for sure what FastWeb is. I can only assume it has something to do with the campus network. I wanted to say, "Why, yes. Come to think of it, I have been having a lot of trouble connecting to the campus network ever since I graduated and moved to Corpus Christi. Y'all really need to expand the campus network so I can connect seven hours away." But I didn't. I was nice, said I had graduated and it wasn't me who made the request. He said it must've been someone else with my name. Yea, I guess so.

Interstellar introspection

First, they decide Pluto is not a planet, now this:

Software Changes Armstrong's Moon Quote

Now, granted, I'm a word person. So the fact that fact that Neil Armstrong's grammar makes the news makes me happy. But I've also been a bit of a space enthusiast since a very young age. I can remember using several research opportunities in school to do something about space or the space program. So to find out now that the quote that every school child learns could have been wrong for 37 years is a little disappointing.

I'd say this is two pretty major space-related revelations in a month. Like so many other things, maybe these also tend to come in threes, so I'm holding my breath to see what we find out next. Maybe Yuri Gagarin wasn't the first man in space. Maybe the moon really is made of cheese. I'm holding on to hope for a different moon revelation though, when we'll find out that the man in the moon -- the faint outline of a person's face seen on the moon from Earth -- is not a phenomenon created by the hills and valleys of the surface of the moon, but is in fact an actual man.