Random Rants: --... ---.. Don't expect others to convert it for you.

[rah]

That's what the was for. Quite familiar with your pigeon crap stories.

 

[AdamCrock]

Where would I have a porch? I live in an apartment building, and there are two ways to get in here: Either through the door, which leads to a hallway, or via the balcony which is far enough above the ground that if I fell off it, I'd probably break my neck.

And don't say the drone could deliver to the balcony. I don't use my balcony because A. Mobility issues; it's unsafe for me; and B. The pigeons took it over last summer and it's full of pigeon crap. Also, in the winter we're not supposed to open the windows or balcony doors because there's a danger of the pipes freezing (they run along the length of the outside walls in the living room and bedrooms). So that's potentially October-April when we wouldn't be able to get deliveries via the balcony anyway.

And that's supposing the apartment even has a balcony. All of them do in this building, but not all apartments have balconies.

Agreed drone delivery would not be so great in Your case unless we could have rooftop landing->staircase elevator. (You could be sure however that the delivery attempt was genuine - machines don't "yet" know how to lie). But I'm affraid there are other issues with drone delivery as well. For instance currently our drivers start their rounds taking ~150 parcels per region. Drones are not yet designed to take such hauls so they would have to return to base each time after delivery is made. So there are 2 issues here : time and fuel.

 

[Dachs]

working at Mickey D's is stressful

historian

get it

EDIT: I need to be punished for this joke.

I teach high school English.

Anything you can share? Sounds like there's an interesting story there.

Can you please elaborate more about this issue? To be angry at a coworker is one thing but to former coworker that sound like (s)he did a conspiracy

Nope, sorry. Thanks for asking.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Small rant: I was testing a bunch of ballpoint pens to see if they were working and one of them kind of exploded all over my hands. (It's happened before, so at least I was able to get the blue off my skin.)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Small rant: I was testing a bunch of ballpoint pens to see if they were working and one of them kind of exploded all over my hands. (It's happened before, so at least I was able to get the blue off my skin.)

Yikes, what brand of pens are those?


Well, I finally found out just what the parcel contains. It's two hardcover Gillian Bradshaw books, bought from an Amazon Marketplace seller I've used several times before.

Canada Post referred me back to the local post office, and after a round of us yelling at each other over the phone, she told me to find the tracking numbers on my order forms/receipts and she'd tell me if any of them matched. But she had a lineup of customers there so I'd have to call back later.

So I found them and called back later - nearly 2 hours had gone by and both of us had calmed down somewhat. She finally dropped the "I can't tell you anything because privacy of the sender blah-blah-blah" (honestly, sometimes I think the privacy rules that were put in are designed to make life as inconvenient as possible for the person who is the recipient of goods/services) and got the thing out of the back room and described it to me: A heavy parcel that felt like 2 books, and when I asked if they were heavy enough to be hardcover, she said yes. Then she told me the seller's name (printed on the wrapper) - and BINGO. I know who sent it, I know how much they cost, and I know that there is no way in hell that I still owe money on them.

So what we agreed to is if I can contact them and get them to take the C.O.D. charge off the books, the person at the local post office can send them back to the sorting plant and have them delivered properly, as they should have been. But carriers don't collect money anymore, so this is why I got the card telling me to go to the post office.

It's amazing how many times I had to explain that talking to Amazon itself about this would be useless. They have nothing to do with the Marketplace sellers, who just pay a fee to use Amazon's website, and that the outfit I'd bought these books from were one of many secondhand book sellers who sold on the Marketplace.

The only time when Amazon would care is if a seller turned out to be dishonest. The sellers really want those 5-star reviews of their service, because if they dip below a certain percentage, they can be kicked off.

So I emailed the seller and asked why they imposed a COD charge, explained that this has resulted in the post office refusing to deliver to my home, I can't get to the post office, and in any case, there should never have been this extra charge in the first place. I told them that there are 12 days remaining of the 14 days the post office will hold these books, and if the COD charges aren't withdrawn, the books will be shipped back to them (as I refuse to pay this), and I will be demanding a full refund.

I haven't mentioned the 1-star rating they'll get if this happens, but I'm saving that for if they are less than cooperative when I hear back - hopefully by Monday. Since the Marketplace sellers depend on 5-star ratings to be allowed to sell there, the sellers usually do everything they can to avoid pissing off the customers.

I have no idea why this happened. It could be a mistake, or maybe someone miscalculated the postage and decided to try to get some back. Either way, I don't care. All I want are the books I paid for, for the amount listed in my cart when I checked out.

 

[Takhisis]

I teach high school English.

I'd give you a RL hug if I could.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Agreed drone delivery would not be so great in Your case unless we could have rooftop landing->staircase elevator. (You could be sure however that the delivery attempt was genuine - machines don't "yet" know how to lie). But I'm affraid there are other issues with drone delivery as well. For instance currently our drivers start their rounds taking ~150 parcels per region. Drones are not yet designed to take such hauls so they would have to return to base each time after delivery is made. So there are 2 issues here : time and fuel.

Considering the roof is probably full of organic pigeon waste, I would not want to get deliveries up there.

Not that tenants are allowed up there anyway (no penthouse suites in this building!).

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yikes, what brand of pens are those?

Dollar store pens.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Rant: my mother decided to rearrange all my books without my permission when I told her I had them in a certain order for a reason. Now I don't know where any of them are!

 

[Traitorfish]

The proliferation of "geek culture" as a marketing device leading to actual geeks believing that they are the core audience for major studio features and television series with audiences in the tens of millions is only one of the irritants of life in 2019, and a relatively benign one in the grand scheme of things, but, boy, is it persistent one.

Related rant, geeks responding to the proliferation of "geek culture" by turning actual geek culture into a serie of "pro" or "anti" orientations on aforesaid major studios products, instead of actually celebrating its origins in the work of scrappy misfit creators on the margins of pop culture, in the bizarre and wonderful converge of counter-culture weirdos and paid-by-the-word pulp hacks, is probably an even more benign irritant, but one that really gets to me on a personal level.

Geeks take "geek culture" altogether seriously and yet, somehow, not nearly as seriously as they should.

 

[old_andy]

The proliferation of "geek culture" as a marketing device leading to actual geeks believing that they are the core audience for major studio features and television series with audiences in the tens of millions is only one of the irritants of life in 2019, and a relatively benign one in the grand scheme of things, but, boy, is it persistent one.

Related rant, geeks responding to the proliferation of "geek culture" by turning actual geek culture into a serie of "pro" or "anti" orientations on aforesaid major studios products, instead of actually celebrating its origins in the work of scrappy misfit creators on the margins of pop culture, in the bizarre and wonderful converge of counter-culture weirdos and paid-by-the-word pulp hacks, is probably an even more benign irritant, but one that really gets to me on a personal level.

Geeks take "geek culture" altogether seriously and yet, somehow, not nearly as seriously as they should.

Reading this in a Scottish accent made me totally geek out.

 

[Snerk]

Define "actual geek".

 

[Kyriakos]

The proliferation of "geek culture" as a marketing device leading to actual geeks believing that they are the core audience for major studio features and television series with audiences in the tens of millions is only one of the irritants of life in 2019, and a relatively benign one in the grand scheme of things, but, boy, is it persistent one.

Related rant, geeks responding to the proliferation of "geek culture" by turning actual geek culture into a serie of "pro" or "anti" orientations on aforesaid major studios products, instead of actually celebrating its origins in the work of scrappy misfit creators on the margins of pop culture, in the bizarre and wonderful converge of counter-culture weirdos and paid-by-the-word pulp hacks, is probably an even more benign irritant, but one that really gets to me on a personal level.

Geeks take "geek culture" altogether seriously and yet, somehow, not nearly as seriously as they should.

What i personally find worrying in "geek culture" is the concurrent issue of diminishing rhoticity.

 

[Traitorfish]

Define "actual geek".

People who have made a sincere attempt to read Stranger in a Strange Land before giving up and reading the Wikipedia summary, rather than just going straight for Wikipedia.

 

[cardgame]

Giving up? It's not like it's a hard book?

 

[Traitorfish]

Giving up? It's not like it's a hard book?

Yes, it's 400+ pages of a libertarian weirdo expounding on free love and psychic aliens. It is a slog.

 

[Birdjaguar]

The proliferation of "geek culture" as a marketing device leading to actual geeks believing that they are the core audience for major studio features and television series with audiences in the tens of millions is only one of the irritants of life in 2019, and a relatively benign one in the grand scheme of things, but, boy, is it persistent one.

Related rant, geeks responding to the proliferation of "geek culture" by turning actual geek culture into a serie of "pro" or "anti" orientations on aforesaid major studios products, instead of actually celebrating its origins in the work of scrappy misfit creators on the margins of pop culture, in the bizarre and wonderful converge of counter-culture weirdos and paid-by-the-word pulp hacks, is probably an even more benign irritant, but one that really gets to me on a personal level.

Geeks take "geek culture" altogether seriously and yet, somehow, not nearly as seriously as they should.

Like the beats, hippies and yuppies before them.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Small rant: I was reading a fanfiction that was marked as complete, but turned out to have been abandoned instead. This wasn't mentioned anywhere in the summary.

 

[cardgame]

Why do I get the feeling that you are describing yourself as "actual geek" @Traitorfish

 

[GoodSarmatian]

People who have made a sincere attempt to read Stranger in a Strange Land before giving up and reading the Wikipedia summary, rather than just going straight for Wikipedia.

That's ageist.
I read Stranger in a Strange Land to completion in 2003 when Wikipedia (according to Wikipedia) existed, but I wasn't aware of it.