As a recent …
Ok, an indication of just how old I am, I began this draft a week ago, and completely forgot what point I was going to make.
So get off my lawn, dammit.
Category: annoyances
Mailing lists
As I consider a move from G-Suite to a less spying laden provider, I am cleaning up my massive pile of email (a lot less of a mess than my significant other, I might add) I stumble across a lot of messages from mailing lists I have subscribed to over the last 15 – 20 years.
As an example, in 2008, I was considering buying a Mini, and during my research, I signed up for updates. I never did buy it, instead buying a far superior Honda S2000, but the emails kept a comin’ (I signed up for it so long ago, it was still an @mac.com address!)
So, when these come in, I am now going through the unsubscribe process.
Mini, GlassDoor, Seeking Alpha, and many many more were unsubbed. And the process continues. I did whittle my total email count from ~16k messages to less than 7,000 emails. By deleting rafts of messages that are not interesting. It was truly astounding how many of the daily NY Times headline emails I had in my archive (answer: Almost 1,000 that I hadn’t deleted.)
Pope MoysuhRC Cars – stripped screw redux
Well, I think I figured out why I stripped that fucking button head screw.
To facilitate the repair, I removed the steering post. It appears that instead of using thread locker (aka Locktite), the builder used cyanoacrylate adhesive. For the uninitiated that is super glue.
Continue reading →The high cost of illness
Recently, I spent a week in Barcelona at a trade show, where I worked the booth all day, pretty much every day. I must have had detailed discussions with literally hundreds of people.
No surprise that as I was leaving, I began to suffer from the initial effects of an impending cold.
By Monday I was sick. Sore throat, congestion, coughing.
Not long after I got the galloping cruds, my wife also came down with the sickness.
But this isn’t a post about the cold process, but instead the cost of the OTC remedies.
My early cold consumed most of what we had on hand, so I needed to go and restock.
On the shopping list:
- Nyquil – srsly, nothing is better to help you get to sleep if you have a hacking cough. The generics just don’t cut it…
- Mucinex DM – Again, there is no real substitute. Most of the other meds mix shit-loads of Acetaminophen (Tylenol). Not good, as it is pretty damn easy to get to doses that are hazardous to your liver…
- Day/Night Caplets. Here it is fine to use the generics. TopCare, the Raley’s white label works well, and saves a few bucks.
- Orange Juice – not sure that massive doses of Vitamin C help, but it feels good.
- Cough drops. Cheapies work well, as long as there is some menthol in them.
Total cost: $71.00
Hoooooollllleeeeeee sheeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiitttttt
That is a lotta bread for OTC remedies.
White trash neighbors
Living in South San Jose is pretty great, for the most part. Great house, mostly great neighbors, and amazing weather are all positives.
But the negatives come out twice a year. There are several rental properties in our neighborhood, and they are often rented by giant wads of fuck.
Case in point: Last night, New Year’s Eve, we knew there would be fireworks. There are always fireworks here, even though they are banned, especially on NYE and the Fourth of July.
It sucks for our dogs. They freak out, and no amount of sedation or other home remedies help. And that is with “normal” fireworks.
But last night, at 10:30, there was a very loud explosion. Apparently, our dirtbag neighbors have a source for professional fireworks. You know, the ones that are used by professional pyrotechnicians to put on the larger displays.
We often have fireworks, including the smaller mortars (the ones that lead to star bursts) that you can buy if you go to states that have loose fireworks policies.
The one last night was not one of these. It was the real deal. Its lifter charge (typically a black powder charge to boost it out of the launch tube until the main charge explodes and the visible star burst happens. This one was so powerful that it caused every car alarm on the block go off.
Joy, two freaked out dogs (Cerberus is usually unflappable, but even he came to hide with me in the dark.) What a great way to ring in the new year…
I have to admit that I was saying a prayer that the morons would blow their hands off.
I hope these assholes move out soon.
Roven ImagesShingles Vaccine
A couple of months ago, we lined up for our annual flu shot, and this year decided to get the shingles vaccine. Since both of us were from an era before the chicken pox vaccine, we both had it as children.
Continue reading →New Holiday Tradition – un-subbing from spam lists
Ah, Black Friday is here. The time when my email blows up with all the companies and organizations I have ever interacted with by email send me notices of their “mad MAD deep discounts” for the “official” start of the holiday buying season.
Yes, it is a veritable windfall of attention from the furthest reaches of the interwebz. Continue reading →
Things I don’t ‘get’ – Reality TV
The stubby fingered Cheeto colored, ferret wearin’ shit-gibbon aside, one thing that I just don’t get is Reality TV. My understanding is that the genre, while there are earlier instances, really got a jumpstart during a writer’s strike in Hollywood. The network execs just started producing unscripted “reality” shows, and they took off.
The formula was cemented with Survivor, and now you can hardly watch broadcast TV without having one of these trite shows in your face. Continue reading →
Things I don’t ‘get’ – Daytime TV
Perhaps it’s my age, or my introversion, or … whatever, there are many things that I just don’t understand.
Today, I will riff on television. being later-middle age, having grown up on a steady diet of television, I will admit to watching a reasonable amount of it. However, even with television being part of my life almost forever (to me at least), there are some things that are broadcast that I just don’t understand. Continue reading →
Shopping Cart Douchiness
Some things just piss me off. One of them is assholes who don’t know how to put their shopping carts in the corral area, and just leave them willy-nilly wherever they want to.
Lazy fucks.
I am sure you have seen this behavior before. It crosses class, and state boundaries. From the bargain grocers like Lucky, or Safeway, to the boutique like Trader Joes, or Nob Hill, and even to the swanky, over-priced realm of Whole Foods.
I see abandoned, or poorly placed carts, awaiting for the poor bagger who has to collect them. I know how hard it is to walk the 20 to 150 feet to drop the cart in one of the clearly marked collection points. You are worried that your frozen foods will melt, or that your lettuce will wilt, so you justify that you really can’t afford to delay your departure long enough to walk your fucking cart to the collection area. Continue reading →