The Very-Many-Questions-Not-Worth-Their-Own-Thread Thread ΛΕ

[MaryKB]

OMG that is so heartbreakingly beautiful.

 

[Samson]

Can an amateur do a patent search and have any reasonable expectation of success? Success would mean that given that you find nothing relevant, it is more likely that there is nothing than you have just missed it?

 

[warpus]

People have given me gift cards to Walmart and I never turned my nose up at them.

I don't advocate for any nose raising when a gift card is presented to you, although I can see how my post might have been interpreted to imply that. It's a gift and gifts should be respected. Nobody has to give you free stuff, so you should probably be grateful.

Instead I am saying when somebody goes out spends the time and thought to make the gift personal and unique, and hands you something that in some way pertains to your interests and/or personality, and it's all ready to go, and you can open the box and start playing with it right away. Wow. That's so much better than me going shopping, even if it's a store I really like and I have free money to spend.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Buying gift cards for presents are acceptable for gamers in my opinion. A lot of times you don't know what games they already own. That and a lot of gift cards can be used to pay for online gaming subscriptions or microtransactions.

I agree with Warpus that you shouldn't complain about gift card presents but at the same time, in general they are less thoughtful.

 

[warpus]

My brother in law bought me a steam gift card as part of my christmas gift last year. I ended up spending all but 5 cents of it on 6-7 games or something like that. I sent him an email, wrote out every game I bought, after hunting down deals after a couple days or whatever, and finding games I would want to play. Showed him far I stretched his giftcard and how much these games are usually worth, explained that the big ones were on my wishlist, etc.

As I was playing the games I realized that when I was playing them.. I did not think of my brother in law. There was no special connection between this particular game and me and my brother in law. Whereas if he has hand selected the games himself, and I enjoyed the game, then .. that's just .. different. That's a cool connection. I could call him up and we could bond over that!

I also really value my time. If somebody goes out of their way to spend their time to find cool custom tailored stuff for me? That feeling is what gift giving is all about. People caring about you and spending not only money but also time and thought on you. It's great to get a gift card, of course, and it's great that this person knew which stores you like to shop at. But somebody really going out of their way and putting their valuable time on the line for you, I really appreciate the sentiment, even if the gift is something I don't really like. It will make me think of that person whenever I look at it, and it will make me smile, and remember good times spent together. I see as a gift card gift as a more utilitarian gift, which I always really appreciate as well, but it just doesn't seem to evoke the same emotions and the same connections for me.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

@warpus You should tell your brother in law about that experience. Not in terms of "what's wrong with gift cards," but in terms of "I want your gift to be something that brings us together." Because even if you didn't think of your brother in law while playing the games (and, seriously, if a game leaves you attention span that can roam to your brother in law it isn't a very good game) the games did make you think of him.

 

[warpus]

@warpus You should tell your brother in law about that experience. Not in terms of "what's wrong with gift cards," but in terms of "I want your gift to be something that brings us together." Because even if you didn't think of your brother in law while playing the games (and, seriously, if a game leaves you attention span that can roam to your brother in law it isn't a very good game) the games did make you think of him.

As a family we've gotten lazy with gift giving at Christmas time. I guess. There are just all these new kids, and things, people are much busier, and together as a family we decided to do a much more relaxed gift giving thing. It's been working out well enough I think, I think this is going to be year 6 under the new regime (or so).. but I agree that a bit of this personal touch is what is missing.

See, we use a website, which matches you up with someone, and shows you their wishlist. Now that we no longer live in a poor communist country and in the paradise that is Canada, we have all we need, and a lot of luxuries on top of that. Paintings, bikes, glasses with designs on them, and all sorts of things. There aren't many things we need, so we sort of decided to just each year make a list of stuff we need or want.

I have noticed that my parents in particular started adding a personal touch these last couple years, or maybe even since the beginning of the new Christmas regime I suppose, knowing their kind and generous nature and all.. So basically they will buy you stuff on your list but then also other stuff. Nothing big, just personal touches here and there. Parents also buy presents for their kids, spouses, etc.

It works but for the most part, between adults who are not SOs, the gifts are things we know we're getting, etc. I wonder how we can mix it up so that personal touch can be re-gained. Although perhaps it is just a case of everyone being so busy it just can't happen every single year. I wonder if they would accept a "no wishlists allowed every 3 years" compromise. That might actually be something that would be interesting to try, so I will suggest it to the family elders. I can see my sister being against it because she is about to give birth to another child, and 2 seem really crazy so I have no idea how they're going to deal with a 3rd and still have time for anything else

 

[Mouthwash]

Why do servers in restaurants wait until you've just taken a huge bite before approaching you to ask how things are going? Is it something they're trained to do? Really I've no idea why this happens every single time.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Why do servers in restaurants wait until you've just taken a huge bite before approaching you to ask how things are going? Is it something they're trained to do? Really I've no idea why this happens every single time.

Industry requirement. Servers who wait until you can talk usually get fired for dereliction of duty.

 

[warpus]

I bet it's so you feel bad (since you can't respond coherently since your mouth is full) and end up tipping more. It probably backfires when people get annoyed though, so it's probably just coincidence. Then again, who knows, maybe that's how waiters are trained: "20% of people will get annoyed and tip less, but everybody else will tip more! Keep annoying these people and guilt them into giving you money"

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I suspect that it has to do with the fact that when you are sitting in a restaurant you are pretty much always somewhere in the process of taking a bite. Trying to hit that tiny gap between swallowing and shoving in another fork load would require immaculate timing, beyond the skill set of the average person.

 

[Synobun]

Just give them a thumbs-up.

 

[warpus]

Just give them a thumbs-up.

Lol this is what I was doing about 12 hours ago as I was in the middle of a bite. Two thumbs up when I was asked "How is it?".

I think I do this about 50-75% of the time. I never really thought about it, but they do seem to more often than not pick inopportune moments to ask you these questions.

I have an idea. If something isn't okay, I will flag you down. Go look after something else for now and leave me alone to eat.

 

[Hygro]

Why do servers in restaurants wait until you've just taken a huge bite before approaching you to ask how things are going? Is it something they're trained to do? Really I've no idea why this happens every single time.

We need to know right away if something is wrong or you won't pay us, and we're not going to watch everyone at the table chew their food to wait for the moment everyone can talk.

 

[MaryKB]

Something to remember, if you're not eating alone, you may be the only person chewing when he or she comes to ask your table how you're doing.

 

[Snerk]

Why is google charging me ~$1 every time I use my visa card to buy something online?? It comes up at GOOGLE *SERVICES. I'm not using any of their services when I'm buying something completely unrelated to google. Can I stop them stealing my money somehow?

edit: Ok ok please dismount, gentlemen. Turns out it's probably a temporary thing in google pay and it's not actually charging me. So yeah. Hmm.

 

[Arakhor]

Talk to your bank. If anyone is passing unauthorised charges, you have the right to get them reversed.

 

[Synobun]

Talk to your bank. If anyone is passing unauthorised charges, you have the right to get them reversed.

He said dismount! Dismount, he says!

 

[MaryKB]

edit: Ok ok please dismount, gentlemen. Turns out it's probably a temporary thing in google play and it's not actually charging me. So yeah. Hmm.

Oh yes, you may often see $1 authorizations pending on your card, it's that company verifying your information and you shouldn't see it post. They're just checking to make sure your name and address match, just as extra security before putting your real payment through.

 

[Snerk]

Talk to your bank. If anyone is passing unauthorised charges, you have the right to get them reversed.

CFC is my bank. CFC Bank of the Intermemes Corp. Hygro vouched for them. They have all my money now. I'm sure they're legit.

He said dismount! Dismount, he says!

Too late. When Arakhor mounts you know there'll be hell. Them hooves will stamp and them heads will roll.

Oh yes, you may often see $1 authorizations pending on your card, it's that company verifying your information and you shouldn't see it post. They're just checking to make sure your name and address match, just as extra security before putting your real payment through.

Yeah they win this one. But I'll catch them up to no good eventually.