Joseph Mallozzi's Weblog

April 29, 2021: NFT’s, Camemburgers, and rude behavior!

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A friend of mine is wading into the speculative NFT market.  Now for those of you who don’t know what an NFT is  – “A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files” says wikipedia.  To those still scratching their heads – welcome to the club.  My friend purchased an NFT which, he informed me, is an exclusive sports-related clip.  This led to the following exchange (click the image for full-size view):

I mean, I would but it hurts my brain.

I told him I was going to get an NFT of Charles Barkley getting off the team bus.  How much do you think that would be worth in three years?

Anyway, here’s my friend trying to explain NFT’s to me…

Hello-mr-thompson

Food, on the other hand, is something I DO understand.  Yes/No?

I dub thee The Camemburger!

Had another Powder Mage pitch today.  I want to say it went well but, truly, there’s no way to know.  I mean, everyone was polite and asked thoughtful questions.  Nobody stifled a giant yawn like that time I pitched MGM, or hung up partway through the discussion like the creator-director of that financially-challenged “trailblazing” green-screen production (Inn all fairness, in the latter case I WAS pointing out the logic inconsistencies in the pilot he must have spent at least most of an afternoon writing, so I suppose it was understandable).  Anyway, hopefully time (and the execs we are pitching)  will tell.

Question for the room: What was the rudest behavior you have been witness to in a zoom, phone or in-person meeting?

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17 responses

  1. Timothy R. Heistand Avatar
    Timothy R. Heistand

    Rudest zoom behavior i have seen is while in a meeting someone who left their mic on (and not presenting or even talking) decides to take a phone call and yack it up on the other end

    Reply
  2. gforce Avatar
    gforce

    I look at NFT’s as the ultimate (so far) way of separating money from people with too much of it and too little sense. It makes me think of a quote that I once read that Bitcoin was “Beanie Babies for libertarians.”

    Anyway, if I was going to base my opinion of that burger on that picture, it would be a hard no. I mean, it’s like looking into a mouth where dental surgery gone horribly wrong.

    I don’t know that I’ve ever been part of a Zoom or in-person meeting where someone was horribly rude. I’ve had people be extremely rude in one-on-one phone calls (such is life in IT), but nothing I can remember in a group setting. I do remember when Zoom first became a thing last year that sometimes meetings where anyone could join could sometimes attract trolls that would then spam the chat with all kinds of racist, sexist crap. But they were quickly booted, and the hosts quickly learned how to moderate those joining.

    I think the rudest behaviour I saw were people (I’m thinking one in particular) who would talk so much they would literally take up the entire 1.5 hour meeting without anyone else getting to say a thing. They were so in love with the sound of their own voice, I guess. Of course, when it’s a manager, it’s much worse.

    Reply
  3. Scott Jann Avatar
    Scott Jann

    I just listened to a podcast where they said explaining NFT is a negative explanation: you can unroll the acronym but they’re left with their original question plus another: what is fungible?

    https://overcast.fm/+SIxpbX7sQ/03:18

    Reply
  4. The Old Payroll Tax Lady Avatar
    The Old Payroll Tax Lady

    Saw someone picking their nose!

    Reply
  5. Colleen O'Shaughnessy Avatar
    Colleen O’Shaughnessy

    I have very little experience with Zoom or video meetings beyond just hanging with friends, but people that can’t put their phones aside during in person meetings drive me crazy. What can be so important that it can’t wait a few minutes? I don’t understand the constant need to text. We have lost the art and importance of giving our full attention to another human being. Instead of making life easier, smart phones have turned us into info junkies and slaves for fear of missing out. Personally, I rarely look at or answer my phone except for scheduled times and never in the presence of someone else who expects my full attention.

    Reply
  6. Line Noise Avatar
    Line Noise

    An NFT is like a digital signature or autograph. Imagine an artist paints a painting. That painting is worth something because it is unique. There is only one of it. Now the artist starts producing high quality prints of it. The artist could run off hundreds, thousands or even millions of copies of the print. They’re all identical and essentially worthless. The artist can sign a limited number of prints and that gives them some value because the artist has “endorsed” the prints as “authentic”. There is a finite number of signed prints.

    Now imagine the artist creates a digital artwork. An image or a video. They (or someone else) can essentially make an unlimited number of copies that would be identical to the original. This renders the original worthless as there’s nothing to differentiate it from the millions of other copies. The artist can create an NFT token on the blockchain that acts as their digital signature. That token is unique and cannot be replicated. It says that whoever owns the token has the right to claim that their copy of the digital artwork has been endorsed by the artist as being the “original” or one of a limited number. It’s the provenance of the artist endorsement via the NFT that gives it value.

    I could create an NFT for the Mona Lisa but it would be worthless because I’m a nobody. However, if the Louvre decided to create an NFT for the Mona Lisa it would be worth good money.

    I assume the NFT your friend has bought was created by whatever sports body the Boston Celtics belong to. It has provenance.

    Even so, NFTs are a highly volatile market and the only winners out of any of this when it all comes crashing down will be the brokers!

    Reply
  7. Kris Eshleman Avatar
    Kris Eshleman

    I’ve had a LOT of rude behavior aimed at me in person over the years. The most common was others (especially bosses) not taking anything I said seriously in regards to my physical health. I’ve been rudely cut off, watched people roll their eyes at me, even turn & walk away while I was talking.

    The rudest thing was my so-called midwife telling me that it was MY fault I got preeclampsia during my only pregnancy, & to top off that shit sundae, she then continued to tell me that my health wouldn’t have deteriorated so much of I’d just done what the doctor told me to do.

    Note: I did everything my doctor told me to do. My health snowballed FAST. But apparently, since no one at the OBGYN practice at the time has seen a case as bad as mine, well… OBVIOUSLY it was all my fault, right?

    Answer: it wasn’t.

    Happy end note: my son (and I, of course) survived his induced at 12 weeks premature birth. He’s now 23, & even though my health was wrecked, I wouldn’t change a damn thing… other than telling that idiot midwife where she could stick her holier than thou attitude sooner.

    Reply
  8. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    NFTs. Yo no comprendo!

    For the last 3 years I worked, most of my workmates and the home office was up in New Jersey. All communications were by phone, Skype meetings, or video conferences. The only rude behavior I witnessed was a person, sitting with me, just out of camera range texting family and watching Youtube videos during meetings. I thought that was pretty rude and unprofessional… until I started doing it too. Except I was playing games on my phone.

    Reply
  9. Tam Dixon Avatar
    Tam Dixon

    Yeah, NFT is over my head….

    I’d try the Camemburger.

    I don’t have many Zoom calls and the ones I did have, everyone was well behaved. I look forward to everyone else’s stories. Hopefully, there aren’t any XXX ratings like that NYP reporter. 😉

    Reply
  10. drea Avatar
    drea

    NFT’s? Dont really understand em either and the more i hear about it the more it sounds simply like some highly ridiculous pop trend. Remember when Pet Rocks was a widely popular fad? Lots of people all across North America purchased one thinking it would eventually become a highly valuable collectors item. Those pets have since found new homes and purpose at the bottom of ponds for fish to poop on.

    Rudest behavior? Hmmmm. I’ll need to ponder a while and get back to ya.
    I’ve always thought it depends on ones personal or cultural perception and definition.
    From my pov, rude is when someone busts into a room and starts talking to you while
    you are on the phone and does not apologize or cease once they realize you are indeed engaged in conversation with someone else. Or, when someone unapologetically cuts the line of 10 people waiting to order in the coffee shop.
    Having grown up on Long Island I’d often hear visitors from the south or midwest U.S comment
    how rude New Yorkers are. Albeit, they were often mistaking a native new yorkers unapologetic
    outspoken nature and jagged edged sarcasm as rudeness. Similarly, when some tourists visit Paris
    they confuse an emotionally cold, (straight to the point ,matter of fact, arrogant personality),
    or authoritative attitude, as rudeness.

    If someone hangs up on you midway in a phone conversation without saying goodbye
    90% of the time the rude behavior is not solely the fault of one individual vs the other.
    It’s because you are: A. An agressive telemarketer, who won’t take no for an answer.
    B. Talking so much or so fast the other person cannot get a word in edgewise.
    Or C. They are doing so in reaction to an unapologetically cold, arrogant, or otherwise highly critical, seemingly condescending, overtone. Sometimes, when someone is too emotionally cold or blunt in their criticism or negative opinion and does not take the time to explain or make the effort to balance it with anything positive, humorous, or constructively offer any basic methods or concepts to improve what they are criticizing, it can be perceived as rude and make the person on the receiving end feel as though they are disliked and are being disrespected by the critical individual.
    In another example,
    If aunt Bertha shows up at your door unannounced horribly distressed about the ongoing behavior of your drunkard uncle Ernie and you tell her your’e running terribly late for an important appointment but 10 minutes later she’s still rambling on and crying in complaint non stop though you politely tried to get her to stop and you’re not the type to abruptly raise your voice to your elders.
    Does your rude action of stealthily slipping out the back door while she’s in mid sentence
    really warrant her labeling you as someone with poor manners who cant be bothered to show a little empathy for someone in emotional distress? Meanwhile, from your POV, it is ‘she’ who was demonstrating poor manners.

    Reply
  11. FargateOne Avatar
    FargateOne

    To answer your question. I was young lawer in Income taxes provincial department and wrote a legal opinion for deputy-minister (the boss of the boss of my boss) . A meeting is schedule so I can explain my opinion. I sat in his office with my boss. He took a copy of my text that I begun to explain. He stood up going at the corner of his desk and listened to me for 1-2 minutes. Then, very slowly, while I was arguing, he slowly dropped the paper in his office trash can while continuing to node his head to show his great interest in my work…It was 40 years ago …and still remember vividly what I planned to do to him if it would have been without consequences for my job…and legall!

    Reply
  12. shiinyhula Avatar
    shiinyhula

    Rudest of all time? Would be 8th grade bestie who was chattering away at the lockers while I was making goo goo eyes at my crush and he was making moony eyes at me, and she suddenly blurted “wait…do you guys LIKE each other?” I have never felt my face burn like fire as it did that day, such gruesome embarrassment that it was immortalized in my diary. TBS’ Chad takes me back to all those cringe moments.

    Powder Mage sounds so good, I just blew through the Shadow and Bone series and then read the books in about 2 days, I’m trying to get through the Nevers but it’s not grabbing me like awesome The Irregulars did. I also blew through Condor yesterday, so fun to see Melissa O’Neil steal all her scenes.

    Reply
  13. DP Avatar
    DP

    One problem with NFTs as an investment is the demand for them is different than was the demand for cryptocurrency, which was necessitated by the oppression of competing currencies that could be confiscated or otherwise thwarted.

    Another is people are just looking for a use for blockchain because it’s a buzzword, like they were doing with VR/AR before that. That would create an over-supply of investors.

    Another issue is the supply. Can it be limited by algorithms, regardless of how much history is yet to be made? Will competing platforms flood the concept?

    These are just the negatives from how my tree-pollen soaked brain works. I’m sure there are positives, too.

    I did hear a story recently where people could open a communication channel to a parallel universe created at the moment the device was activated. Those had some investment potential since, if they did something like open a channel to someone’s deceased spouse or show the consequences of political moves, the supply of those channels could never be increased.

    Reply
  14. DP Avatar
    DP

    Someone let off a long fart in an IEP video call once. Everyone acted like they didn’t hear it (except me, because after it went on for a while, it started seeming like a prank). There was one guy looking off to the side and I suspect that guy thought he was muted.

    Also, I was using a kid’s room for a video call the other day and as soon as I unmuted myself and began talking, the guinea pigs noticed I was in the room and started screaming for treats.

    Reply
  15. Ponytail Avatar
    Ponytail

    Thanks everyone for the detailed explanation of NFTs. I still no comprendo! That means, I ain’t buying it.

    Okay, I think the winner so far is DP’s screaming guinea pigs zoom story. Too funny!

    Reply
  16. PBMom Avatar
    PBMom

    I don’t have any Zoom or phone experiences of people being rude. But @KRIS ESHLEMAN — I had a midwife do the same thing to me. When my hard labor went 28 hours and 1 hour of pushing (despite me asking multiple times to be transferred to the hospital because I felt something was wrong), and then my son Patrick came out blue, limp with no reflexes, and I started hemorrhaging (and she did call a second nurse to come in to help), at my follow-up visit she told me how disappointed she was in me and that she felt that the sexual abuse by my father was to blame for my lack of progress. I told her well gee, I thought it was the fact that she put us in a class with other parents who had delivered a baby before, only helped me figure out how to push in one position, and her inability to listen to me and transfer me when I asked to be transferred.

    Later on when I found a new OB/GYN to care for me, he saw who delivered Patrick and I explained what happened. He was the chair in the OB/GYN department at the hospital. He told me that she was denied privileges because the committee felt she made bad decisions. Too bad that wasn’t something they reported to the Texas Medical Board so I could ask about her record when I was interviewing midwives. My son went on to have multiple disabilities, some of it in part because he was born blue, limp and no reflexes.

    Reply
  17. Drea Avatar
    Drea

    Had to give it some thought, due to lack of sleep and all the stress causing my brain to work slower.
    Not sure it qualifies as the rudest personal experience, but it’s one that obviously disturbed me enough for it to remain on my brain.

    A couple years ago, before the first tumor derailed my life, followed by the pandemic, followed by cancers return, followed by the perfect storm of more unfortunate unpredictable events,
    I decided to try my hand at dating again. Unfortunately the quality and incompatibility of those i was meeting only strengthened the desire in the part of me that preferred to remain single.
    One day, a good friend asked about why i gave up dating and what my needs in a long term companion and possible spouse would be. After explaining my short list, her eyes lit up excited and she loudly exclaimed, as if she had just won a power ball jackpot, that she had the perfect guy for me! She said his relationship requirements, personality disposition, lifestyle, values, etc etc were all an absolute perfect match. She was so convincing, i let my guard down and for the first time in a very long while allowed myself to genuinely dream there might actually be an excellent relationship fit waiting for me.
    One of the biggest requirements i told her is he needs to have an extremely busy life and not be home much needing my attention because I too was extremely busy. Thus, much of the time when I am home on downtime i crave alone time and dont have the necessary energy to tend to another persons desires and needs. This is a huge ask. It’d have to be someone who’d be okay with my only being physically and emotionally present 2-3 days per month, sometimes even less!
    But somehow, miraculously, the next day i get a phone call from this so called perfect match.
    Sure enough, he is indeed one heck of a busy guy. So much so ..he explains as we are chatting that he is dashing around the house getting ready to head out the door for a business meeting. He’s not running late but he does prefer to be well prepared and arrive ahead of schedule to settle in. I also silently made a positive mental note at the flawlessly chivalrous, gentlemanly, manners he immediately demonstrated.
    The conversation is going great and we are both openly enjoying it immensely. Then suddenly, just shy of 15 minutes into this first time call, while he is enthusiastically relaying an amusing personal story, I hear what sounds exactly like someone taking a pee. It’s confirmed when i hear the toilet flush, followed by the faucet running in the bathroom sink. He does this without missing a beat in relaying his little anecdote and does not even bother to acknowledge it let alone apologize for not simply saying “hold on” and placing the phone somewhere out of ear shot while using the toilet!

    Albeit, I suppose it could be argued that this is not considered rude in whatever culture or environment this guy grew up with. Much in the same way some NY Italians think it’s a compliment to loudly belch at the dinner table after a meal. Even in polite mixed company or at a restaurant during a business lunch meeting with a potential client whose respect and professional patronage they are trying to earn.

    Reply

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