I like cats...
Dont even think about it...

Batteries Not Included

Posted on Friday, 15th April 2005 at 12:23am



I was standing in Dicky Smiths today, contemplating what cables to purchase to increase productivity and decrease the amount of times that I knock my head on the desk above me and swear like a banshee whilst plugging in USB or headphone cables, when I overheard an elderly lady talking to a salesman about a USB thumb drive…

Old lady: Where do you put the batteries in?
Salesman: Nowhere, it doesn’t need batteries, you just plug it in.
Old lady: Ohhh.
The salesman nods and smiles.
Old lady: But what powers it, it must take batteries, really small ones it looks like.
Salesman: Nope.
Old lady: Are you sure?
Salesman: Yes.
Old lady: Hmm. I don’t know about this, it must take batteries; I’ll have to ask my husband.
Salesman: Ok, come back when you find out if a thumb drive takes batteries.
Old lady: Oh, I will.

I love old people. :)






















24 Responses to “Batteries Not Included”

  1. Noodlez Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 1:07am

    Damn n00bs :)
    Actually, that sales guy sounds like a bit of a n00b.

  2. Event Horizon Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 1:26am

    Heh, cute :)

  3. yoli Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 2:19am

    Old people are wonderful, she seemed very sweet. :)

    (Found this through the Bloggies page, in case you were wondering. Very nice site! The little monkey is great.)

  4. Keith Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 3:59am

    Funny stuff. I wonder how the converation between her and her husband went:

    Old Lady: Pawpaw, you know that Thumb Drive thingy little Jacob wants? Well, the salesman says it doesn’t need batteries!
    Old Man: Mother, you know them salesmen will do anything for a sale. It doesn’t need batteries? How’s it work then?
    Old Lady: Mmmm, hmmm. That’s what I told him. N00b.

  5. nikkiana Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 4:16am

    Boo to the sales guy for not being able to explain why it doesn’t take batteries. :P

  6. Kitta Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 4:29am

    Keith, what about the conversation between them and Jacob:

    Old lady: Jacob, I know you wanted a thumb drive, but we had some trouble finding the right batteries, so we got you something much better…
    Jacob opens his present.
    Old man: It’s a floppy drive!
    Jacob: Oh… Yay.
    Old lady: Look, it’s internal and has a green LED, which I hear is funky these days.
    Jacob: The excitement… it’s just… too much.
    Jacob mutters “0|d13z” under his breath.

  7. kris Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 4:34am

    Its no wonder old people drive slow after hearing them think so slow.

  8. el baloO* Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 7:56am

    hahaha, a flopy… =D

  9. Ramses Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 8:19am

    It’s a well documented, but little-publicised fact that old people actually DO know everything. They are also highly skilled drivers and have an extremely well-developed sense of mischief. However, they are extremely good at hiding these traits from the layman, which bestows on them greatly enhanced powers of irritation.

    I have it on very good authority that the following exchange was heard in the old lady’s house when she arrived home:

    Ethel: I went down to Dick Smith’s today to give that n00b salesman the shits.
    George: Really? Good on ya, Ethel! How did it go?
    Ethel: Well, I had him going for a little while, but he didn’t really bite in the end.
    George: Shame…
    Ethel: Yeah, shame.
    George: He’s not cut out for customer service then?
    Ethel: Nah.
    Ethel: OK, I’m off to pull out of parking spaces at high speed without looking, then trundle off in the middle lane at exactly 12 km/h below the speed limit.
    George: That’ll f**k ‘em.
    Ethel: Yeah. Damn straight.

    I am in awe of old people, and hope to become one as soon as possible so that I too can bug the crap out of know-it-all teenagers and young adults.

  10. Mark Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 10:26am

    lol, if it’s Dick Smith Rockingham you’re talking about I’m not surprised. Those dudes are total n00bs doing a n00b trade in n00balicious products. Dick Smith must be rolling in his grave.

  11. Chris Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 1:05pm

    After reading I went on a quest and found this. If they actually sell for $30US… I gotta dig all of mine out.

  12. Spyder Says:

    April 15th, 2005 at 8:48pm

    “Dick Smith must be rolling in his grave”…
    I didn’t realise Dick Smith was dead

  13. Jackson Says:

    April 16th, 2005 at 1:48am

    Hah! Like the husband is going to know anymore about a thumb drive.
    If he was a “true” salesmen and not the altruistic fellow that he is the batteries would have come in the form of an iPod battery extender.

  14. Nina Says:

    April 16th, 2005 at 5:43am

    I would have told her that the “computer” powers the thumb drive and then convinced her that she needed a new computer, if I were the salesman.

    (I’m new here, BTW — you have a very nice site. =))

  15. kartooner Says:

    April 16th, 2005 at 9:10am

    Whenever I see an older person (mid-60s to 70s), I always want to drop everything and just hug them. If they seem grumpy then I have to convince myself it wouldn’t be advisable. ;)

    Have you ever looked at an old man or woman and focus on their features - smooth out their wrinkles in your mind - wondering what they looked like when they were younger? I tend to do that as well.

  16. Bob Says:

    April 16th, 2005 at 8:19pm

    [ slowly turns up hearing aid and askes Kitta to repeat herself ]

  17. Lauren Says:

    April 17th, 2005 at 7:10am

    I love old people. My grandad has had a computer for years now… stil doesn’t understand ‘minimize’ just closes one window before opening another.. and then wonders where it’s gone

  18. Mark Says:

    April 18th, 2005 at 12:13pm

    lol. Spyder - Dick Smith isn’t dead, but we can totally dig a hole for him and get him to roll around in it some if that makes things easier on your mind. I’ll tee it up for Thursday.

  19. Dante Says:

    April 18th, 2005 at 2:28pm

    They were both right and both wrong equally actually. USB thumb drives do have batteries. You just can’t change them, when you plug them in they “recharge”.

  20. Dante Says:

    April 18th, 2005 at 2:34pm

    Woops I take that back, I”m thinking of my ipod shuffle =P

    Not every usb drive is like that.

  21. nicole Says:

    April 19th, 2005 at 7:33am

    That is so funny!!

    Reminds me of the time a nanna on the bus had just got a mobile, it started to ring and she tapped me on the shoulder asking “which button do i press? the green or the red?”.

  22. Ella Says:

    April 19th, 2005 at 4:06pm

    LOL I think Tandy went out of business, which is a shame, because it made staff at Dick Smith look good! Actually, Dick Smith in Adelaide used to have some damn foxy (and knowledgeable) staff. Don’t know whats happened!

  23. Richard Says:

    April 19th, 2005 at 5:41pm

    Err… ‘thumb drive’?
    Is that what we call a ‘memory stick’ or do I finally have to face the fact that I’m not as young as I feel?

  24. Kitta Says:

    April 21st, 2005 at 12:16am

    Ramses, you’d make a great old person.

    Nina, I got the feeling he really couldn’t be bothered.

    Kartooner, I do that more than I’d like to admit.

    Dante, you can change iPod batteries if you have a few hours to spare and a replacement battery.

    Ella, Tandy is still alive and kicking in W.A., Dick Smith and Tandy are under Woolworths Limited, so it’s pretty much the same stock (even the item numbers are the same) under a different name.

    Richard, ‘memory stick’ is the name of sony’s memory cards. Thumb drives are the name given to small memory drives that are about the size of a thumb, but people call them a variety of names.




Leave a Reply

If you have any questions, comments, recommendations, feedback or constructive criticism on this entry please feel free to leave a comment, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Try to stay on topic, I'd rather you email me thoughts that are off topic. If you're a troll who is in a foul mood and just wants to feel superior by flaming me, don't bother, comments from those who don't know how to criticise properly will be deleted. This is an unsolicited advice free zone. I love comments, chit-chat, musings and banter, but please keep my comments free of unsolicited advice. If I want your advice, I'll ask for it. Failure to leave a real name or email may result in your comment not being posted or being deleted and if it's kept up you will be banned. Comments do not reflect the thoughts of the owner of this site and they may be edited or deleted if spelling, coding or factual mistakes are present.

Line and paragraph breaks automatically of course, IP's are logged and you may use these HTML/XHTML tags in your comment(s):<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>







6 current viewers | 26465 unique hits since March 2008
3,820,000 unique hits from July 2002 to March 2008 | Page created in 2.712 seconds
WordPress | Contrast Hosting | XHTML 1.0 | CSS | Syndicate | Copyright 2002 - 2008