Random Rants 79: [Impassionating Intensifies]

[Timsup2nothin]

I might not have even noticed mouse vomit.

Cat found another mouse. Cat is a better mouser than I would have thought for an indoor cat. Mouse got maimed, then flushed.

You'd notice if he had binged and purged an entire cat.

The most domesticated cat is one passing mouse away from feral.

 

[Cutlass]

The most domesticated cat is one passing mouse away from feral.

I've had cats that utterly failed to hunt butterflies.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I've had cats that utterly failed to hunt butterflies.

Butterflies are very challenging. They can, in fact, fly.

 

[Cutlass]

Butterflies are very challenging. They can, in fact, fly.

Sure. But you had to see the ineptness to really appreciate it.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Long and barely related cat anecdote. Open at own risk.

Spoiler :

I had these three cats...

One was a very lean, very aggressive male; the Siamese in all traits but color that is known as a "Bombay Black," though not a purebred papered critter, of course. Another was a somewhat motley street cat that we picked up after she had seemingly been hit by a car; rolled under not tire treaded, but roughed up pretty bad. We got her back to health and she went back to her mostly feral ways, but she stayed around us. She even submitted to being packed into the car and moved across town.

We lived a few doors down from the end of a street that dead ended on a freightyard. Across the street was an odd shaped lot that was over an acre, kept together because of the odd shape. Of course the guy who owned it was this old codger who had been there longer than dirt and had accumulated what amounted to a one man junkyard.

So the two mighty hunters kept us supplied with a steady stream of rats, rabbits, squirrels, birds. Sometimes they would bring a mouse, but when they did it was sort of a shamefaced apologetic gift.

Then there was the third cat. She was like those stuffed toys that are shaped like a triangle pyramid and have a face drawn on one point. Tapered from an, ahem, wide base, to, basically a pin head. Not the prime athlete among the feline set.

So one day she comes prancing into the house and with great fanfare swaggers up to my wife to deposit at her feet...a grasshopper.

 

[H4run]

I'm so tired today. Video editor and design division with the marketing cause problem, there are uproar from other company that our company plagiarized their video design, my boss called me and start shouting at the phone and want all of those who are related to be punished, and he ask me to investigate, and it turn out to be true, they follow their design video, I mean, why guys? this is so embarrassing. I told them if you want to get inspired or follow others design you better learn or read something about copyright, and I make sure my boss message is delivered to them.

Now I'm tired, my throat is hurt and fever also, but yea, at home I cannot sleep, and now prepare to play another game, that is my break.

 

[rah]

We have no mice so our cats get their fun by chasing the occasional fly. They are quite competitive about it. They have caught a few.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Rant: There's an ad on the radio where they thought it'd be cute to have some little kid do the narration. Instead, it's nearly impossible to figure out what they're saying. It hurts my head.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Rant: There's an ad on the radio where they thought it'd be cute to have some little kid do the narration. Instead, it's nearly impossible to figure out what they're saying. It hurts my head.

Honorable mention: adds that feature police or ambulance sirens at MAX VOLUME that freak you out for a second just to grab your attention.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I'm not even sure how those are legal. They could cause an accident.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I'm not even sure how those are legal. They could cause an accident.

It's allowed because the FCC has undergone regulatory capture in that it now represents business interests as a primary function of its existence. Similarly, we do have laws against spam calls but they are essentially unenforced because lobbyists have told the FCC they need to be allowed to do this or the economy will suffer. The FCC also championed broadband programs that were meant to fund IP's to go out and build internet infrastructure to bring the US in the 21st century but instead they simply passed most of that money onto shareholders without building the infrastructure and were allowed to do so because they told the FCC that was the best they could do and sanctions would hurt the economy.

EDIT:
And we do actually have laws against extremely loud, attention-grabbing advertisements on the radio and TV. As soon as they were passed, ad companies figured out loopholes that allowed them to go back to what they were doing before. The FCC knows this and doesn't care.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

A few days ago I got a spam text on my phone from the Conservative Party. I just deleted it. I have no idea how they even got my number, but I looked it up and political parties are somehow exempt from Canada's anti-spam laws.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I keep getting calls from the cable company Spectrum about a service appointment. I don't have Spectrum. It's been going on for 3 days at this point and I have tried to answer to correct them but it's an automated system that won't let me talk to an operator. Very frustrating for me and also I imagine for the person that needs their cable installed.

 

[rah]

Try pressing 0 during the automated call. Sometimes that will exit you to a human operator. Sometimes anyway.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I did, the first time it told me that was invalid, the second time it hung up on me. I might try # or * next time, if I even catch the call. I have my phone muted most of the time.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Rant: Trying to report the power outage yesterday was annoying. Called the power company, they told us to call the landlord. Called the landlord, they told us to call the power company. My mother somehow decided that throwing a tantrum was the best course of action.

I just took over calling them myself and finally the power company found a blown transformer nearby. (My mother insists it was due to her tantrum that they found it. Logic?)

 

[Cutlass]

Try pressing 0 during the automated call. Sometimes that will exit you to a human operator. Sometimes anyway.

As that became better known, many company disabled the option.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I don't know what I did but my back is killing me today. It started around noon and won't let up.

 

[rah]

As that became better known, many company disabled the option.

Yeah, it was supposed to provide better customer service, but it became too expensive

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Rant: There's an ad on the radio where they thought it'd be cute to have some little kid do the narration. Instead, it's nearly impossible to figure out what they're saying. It hurts my head.

This is just one of the reasons I realized that my idea of becoming an elementary school teacher wouldn't work out. All it took was one rehearsal for the school Christmas concert to make me realize that while I don't mind most individual kids, having that many around and not being quiet, would drive me nuts.

I'm not even sure how those are legal. They could cause an accident.

This is a point I keep raising in the CBC comments sections on the articles about Amber Alerts that go off at 3 am or other times and places. Some day someone is going to have a heart attack over this, or have a fatal car accident, and chances are that the alert won't even be relevant since the kid wouldn't be anywhere within hundreds of miles.

A few days ago I got a spam text on my phone from the Conservative Party. I just deleted it. I have no idea how they even got my number, but I looked it up and political parties are somehow exempt from Canada's anti-spam laws.

Call your MP (or provincial counterpart if this was a provincial party that texted you) and complain.

They're either working from records provided by your ISP, or other records (ie. if you ever signed an e-petition, answered a survey, or had any other contact with political parties; the federal Conservatives are particularly adept at getting hold of people's contact information from sources they shouldn't be accessing).

I keep getting calls from the cable company Spectrum about a service appointment. I don't have Spectrum. It's been going on for 3 days at this point and I have tried to answer to correct them but it's an automated system that won't let me talk to an operator. Very frustrating for me and also I imagine for the person that needs their cable installed.

Is that a real company? Just let them show up for the service appointment and then tell them you didn't ask for the appointment, don't want or need the appointment, and you aren't affiliated with them in the first place. And also let them know that since they harassed you to this extent, you never will be affiliated with them and they do NOT have your permission to contact you ever again.

Or it could just be a scam to get your personal information or sell you some overpriced contract, in which case you should never let them anywhere near your home or give them any information.