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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Who does Google think I am?
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
Reading on the Ship recently, I noticed the Google ads beside the column. Now, I am retired from schoolteaching and living within sight of an arm of the Atlantic Ocean. And I am warden of a small (tiny) Anglican congregation.
So why does Google think I need an agency in Cincinnati to print our bulletins?
Why do I need outreach from the Saanich Baptist church, over 4000 miles away on Vancouver Island?
I wondered what strange, probably questionable site might be called "YouCat" until it turned out I was reading a site devoted to RC Youth Catechism.
And, given the historic architecture of our small church (it is open all through the summer as a museum piece, and we can't change it significantly), why do I need a Church Architect?
At least these all have something to do with religion, unlike the ad I had a few times for Gas Turbine parts (!), but isn't Google supposed to be smart enough to find ads that might match the profile I assume they have?
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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HCH
Shipmate
# 14313
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Posted
I have ads for a Master of Sports Administration degree, a Ship of Fools mug, Reform magazine and one that says "Become ordained today".
At the moment, none of them interest me much (perhaps the mug more than the others).
Posts: 1540 | From: Illinois, USA | Registered: Nov 2008
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LeRoc
Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216
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Posted
I only get Reform Magazine and the mug.
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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)
Posts: 9474 | From: Brazil / Africa | Registered: Aug 2002
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Stumbling Pilgrim
Shipmate
# 7637
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Posted
I've currently got one for oil rig jobs (I live in the West Midlands) and UK death records ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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Stumbling in the Master's footsteps as best I can.
Posts: 492 | From: England | Registered: Jun 2004
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Not sure. It's in Spanish.
I get this problem with Facebook - it throws up some bizarre suggestions for ads, sometimes in other languages. There was a spate of them being in Polish for a while. I've no idea why, as I've no Polish contacts or connections and haven't even attempted to learn the language.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
I have these offers right now:
- a 'Bible Timeline Chart (all 6017 years)' which must be caused by an argument with some Yeccies
- Church Incense supplies, as I have declared myself baptised in the RCC.
- Free Hypnosis/NLP course, from correspondence off-Ship regarding NLP which has to be considered as something that came out of California in the seventies (people & music OK, everything else: hmmm).
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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balaam
Making an ass of myself
# 4543
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
I only get Reform Magazine and the mug.
So do I. That's the default if you use AdBlock.
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Last ever sig ...
blog
Posts: 9049 | From: Hen Ogledd | Registered: May 2003
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Miffy
Ship's elephant
# 1438
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Posted
This evening, it's giving me:
Anti-Ageing Secrets
New Ways to Claim PPI
Uk Genealogy Records
Children's church lessons
No surprises there then...well, not sure about the last one.
I've also on occasion had ads exhorting me to take out a funeral plan. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
As for Facebook it's the usual skin-ageing, tummy-tucking, teeth-whitening crap. Sigh. ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
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"I don't feel like smiling." "You're English dear; fake it!" (Colin Firth "Easy Virtue")
Growing Greenpatches
Posts: 4739 | From: The Kitchen | Registered: Oct 2001
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
I get one for medical coding jobs, ho hum... elsewhere, though, I am besieged by wedding gown ads. ??? And for a while there it was all plexiglass containers. Still, it beats the RL snail mail ads, which are apt to contain "herbal Viagra" crap in the Vietnamese language. Apparently my real life name sounds to them like something a male would choose.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
I ever get any of this exotica. FB is currently timidly suggesting I might want to treat my allergies and send my money overseas. The Ship throws in 'Free Word of Prophecy'. So, those millions in Nigeria - yes or no? Casting out dust mites in the name of The Lord? Bet it won't tell me.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
Some pages only draw one ad, but the threads draw four, IME.
I've just had something from a search engine, claiming to be Digital Heroes of the Search World, or something.
And this thread drew: a eBook conversion kit (for formatting, not salvation), The Book of Mormon (not the play), a Chronological Bible Study, and "Hey, Sandra Bullock Lied".
Which, basically, is getting close to Weird Al's "Midnight Star"
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Whereas, to me, it's just offering Jobs in Retail.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
I just have the mug, Reform magazine and a genealogy website.
When I visit one politics site I get 'mature dating' which seems to consist of middle aged busty blonde women wearing very small Lycra dresses. I guess I'm not very representative of the usual demographics for the site. Though I have also on occasion got 'uniform dating' there so I must be sending out mixed messages...
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
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Posted
Recently an innocent and inconsequential email to Lady J drew the attention for four companies offering varieties of marital/relationship/sexual counselling ... and a skydiving school.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
Shaadi Muslim dating agency seems to follow me around the internet. I am not sure where it came from as "Islam" and "dating" don't really feature in my day to day internet browsing.
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Mili
Shipmate
# 3254
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Posted
On here I got an add for a company offering 51 free marketing ideas - I assume because I have been posting on the heart sinking words and phrases thread where many of the posts were to do with marketing jargon.
On FB I had an ad for rosehip oil which I have never used in my life and wouldn't even know what to use it for and an ad for a Creativity Mindset Mastery course. This course is only for artists of all types and again that's not me. I could gain "mastery over my creativity and a solid success plan for my art" if I attend, which sounds very heart sinking and like something that would kill all creativity, even in the true artist.
Posts: 1015 | From: Melbourne, Australia | Registered: Aug 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
"Fitness Singles. Meet local singles 80+."
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Wesley J
Silly Shipmate
# 6075
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Posted
Perhaps worth looking into, just to see how often and how many of the supposedly fit oldies you can chase around the block. Have them sign over their earthly belongings to you first, though. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Be it as it may: Wesley J will stay. --- Euthanasia, that sounds good. An alpine neutral neighbourhood. Then back to Britain, all dressed in wood. Things were gonna get worse. (John Cooper Clarke)
Posts: 7354 | From: The Isles of Silly | Registered: May 2004
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
For some reason best known to itself, Facebook regularly gives me "The Dollar Shave Club".
Is it trying to tell me I need more Immac?
![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
FB is offering me a free night, with butler service, in a swish-looking hotel ....in Chengdu, China.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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Eigon
Shipmate
# 4917
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Posted
Facebook have been targetting me with suggestions for comfy slippers for the over fifties - if I were thinking of buying slippers I'd far rather go for the ones I saw on Fashionably Geek recently, in the shape of the space shuttle or Batmobile!
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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.
Posts: 3710 | From: Hay-on-Wye, town of books | Registered: Aug 2003
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luvanddaisies
the'fun'in'fundie'™
# 5761
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Posted
I discovered that Facebook can be persuaded to stop giving me adverts for various dieting faddy bollocks by searching for Pro Ana and Thinspiration. All the weight-loss adverts melt away, but sadly having been shed they only stay off for two or three weeks.
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"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." (Mark Twain)
Posts: 3711 | From: all at sea. | Registered: Apr 2004
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Google wants me to become a minister today! Does that come with a pay increase?
Also there is an offer for 40+ Catholic dating. Oh, here's a new one...advertise with J S Paluch, Catholic company, calendars, church bulletins, advertising.
Apparently Google doesn't mind that I'm a Methodist! ![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
The stupidest ads I get are for the hotels whose wifi I've logged into because I've already stayed there.
As a translator with a wide range of subject matter, I keep Google pretty confused. At one point it gave up and offered me mostly ads for private detective agencies.
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Firenze
Ordinary decent pagan
# 619
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Posted
Boots. That's all it can think of - I must need Ugg boots.
Posts: 17302 | From: Edinburgh | Registered: Jun 2001
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MrsBeaky
Shipmate
# 17663
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Posted
Here on the ship I get Reform magazine, the mug, occasional invitations to "get your own prophecy" and all sorts of stuff about finding property and women here in Kenya.....
On a related note about 12 years ago my husband somewhat foolishly amused himself by filling in a market research form that came through the door. He created all sorts sorts of fictitious characters living at our address and we were inundated with junk mail about products ranging from viagra to animal grooming via wine and hair spray. Oh dear
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"It is better to be kind than right."
http://davidandlizacooke.wordpress.com
Posts: 693 | From: UK/ Kenya | Registered: Apr 2013
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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492
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Posted
I get ads in Swedish on fb: I haven't been anywhere near fluent in Swedish since my first year at university when I took the course at Cal with an eye to meeting a beautiful girl when I was an exchange student at the University of Lund. I know few phrases but I cannot even count to ten in Svenska!
My mother did have a Swedish car once...
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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.
Posts: 30517 | From: White Hart Lane | Registered: Oct 2002
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Chocoholic
Shipmate
# 4655
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Posted
Facebook has started offering me he London gin festival ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif) ![[Hot and Hormonal]](icon_redface.gif)
Posts: 773 | From: London | Registered: Jun 2003
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no prophet's flag is set so...
Proceed to see sea
# 15560
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Posted
It's possible to completely disconnect google so that the ad-blocked ads you're not seeing are not tracking anything at all. "Self-destructing cookies" doesn't work on all browsers which destroys cookies and tracking data as soon as you leave a page, but setting browser defaults to destroy everything on browser close does, though you can usually decide to retain passwords and form data. You don't get automatically logged in but the fields are full. I see no ads on any webpages except rarely, which means the ad-makers have tried to defeat the counter measures. (Chromium and Iceweasel browsers, which are open-source versions of Google Chrome and Firefox).
If you really don't want to be tracked, there's the Tor Browser Bundle, which is how wikileaks and Snowden did their online things. I use it occasionally just because it's available; it will think I'm Dutch, German, Russian, and in various other countries.
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Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
\_(ツ)_/
Posts: 11498 | From: Treaty 6 territory in the nonexistant Province of Buffalo, Canada ↄ⃝' | Registered: Mar 2010
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
Facebook is currently offering me ads for Amazon, featuring the DVDs I recently put in my basket ... which seems a bit pointless.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Bob Two-Owls
Shipmate
# 9680
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
Facebook is currently offering me ads for Amazon, featuring the DVDs I recently put in my basket ... which seems a bit pointless.
I get that a lot, I think it feeds off Amazon's "frequently bought together" offers. However, since I often buy the frequently bought together offer I always seem to have what they recommend.
Posts: 1262 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Kitten
Shipmate
# 1179
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Posted
I just got:
10 mistakes that ugly women make that drive men away
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Maius intra qua extra
Never accept a ride from a stranger, unless they are in a big blue box
Posts: 2330 | From: Carmarthenshire | Registered: Aug 2001
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bib
Shipmate
# 13074
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Posted
I have no ads on this site. Maybe it depends where you live.
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"My Lord, my Life, my Way, my End, accept the praise I bring"
Posts: 1307 | From: Australia | Registered: Oct 2007
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
I'm noticing age deflation. "seniors dating" being for over 40s. Since when was over 40 "senior"?
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Lucia
Looking for light
# 15201
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Posted
Out of curiosity why don't people use ad blocking software? I know a few sites need it turned off to function correctly but I have no trouble with the vast majority and I can't see the attraction of having the webpage you are trying to read cluttered up with ads.
Posts: 1075 | From: Nigh golden stone and spires | Registered: Oct 2009
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
In part because ad revenue helps maintain a lot of sites, this leaky old boat included. If everyone blocked ads then that would remove a revenue source that many sites depend upon. Besides, how would you contribute to threads like this?
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Sioni Sais
Shipmate
# 5713
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
I'm noticing age deflation. "seniors dating" being for over 40s. Since when was over 40 "senior"?
Only in the dating context, but it shows that they have never heard of U3A.
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"He isn't Doctor Who, he's The Doctor"
(Paul Sinha, BBC)
Posts: 24276 | From: Newport, Wales | Registered: Apr 2004
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Lamb Chopped
Ship's kebab
# 5528
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Posted
now I'm being offered "How to Do It Yourself," with the "It" unspecified. Sounds ominous to me.
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Er, this is what I've been up to (book).
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!
Posts: 20059 | From: off in left field somewhere | Registered: Feb 2004
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storage jars
Apprentice
# 14021
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Posted
well, I'm being offered the "WWE Survivor Series Free!" if I sign up for....something or other. Sorry, got bored reading it. They wasted their money on that ad.
Posts: 31 | From: chch, new zealand | Registered: Aug 2008
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
Facebook has recently taken to asking me to "like" a page called I Love My Grand-kids.
I haven't even got any ordinary kids ...
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Arabella Purity Winterbottom
Trumpeting hope
# 3434
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
I'm noticing age deflation. "seniors dating" being for over 40s. Since when was over 40 "senior"?
In most of the churches I've known, you have to be over 50 to be no longer considered "youth."
I'm getting suggestions for IT jobs I might like. In the USA.
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Hell is full of the talented and Heaven is full of the energetic. St Jane Frances de Chantal
Posts: 3702 | From: Aotearoa, New Zealand | Registered: Oct 2002
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Alan Cresswell
Mad Scientist 先生
# 31
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Arabella Purity Winterbottom:
In most of the churches I've known, you have to be over 50 to be no longer considered "youth."
And, they still have to admit to having a struggling youth ministry.
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Don't cling to a mistake just because you spent a lot of time making it.
Posts: 32413 | From: East Kilbride (Scotland) or 福島 | Registered: May 2001
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
Hey, a new one (to me): "Aerial Acrobatic Equipment - supports, trapezes, hula hoops, etc."
Maybe I won't have to be a WalMart greeter, since I will be able to fly in, like an arthritic Peter Pan in lumbersexual clothes!
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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Horseman Bree
Shipmate
# 5290
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Posted
Plus, when I went back to the previous page, I was then being offered advice on Civil Union laws in Illinois, a bit unexpected since I have been married (straight) for 37 years, and that in a province on the Atlantic coast.
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It's Not That Simple
Posts: 5372 | From: more herring choker than bluenose | Registered: Dec 2003
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