[Rant] Minor Rant III: For a Few Hollers More

You guys may remember the tale of the Angry Google Translator I told before. If you don't recall, here's a recap:

Part 1:
Dear translator: What the hell made you think you can hand in a Google translated document? Did you think I wouldn't be able to recognize a machine translation? Did you think I wouldn't be able to PLUG THE TEXT INTO GOOGLE TRANSLATE MYSELF AND COMPARE IT???
Part 2:
Update to this. We wrote an email to the translator, politely going, "Hey, we noticed some problems with your translation this time, and some of it sounded like it was machine translated. Did you run into any problems during this translation that you'd like to talk about?"

Basically, we wanted to say "we're on to you" without the translator losing face.

She wrote back saying, and I paraphrase, "HOW DARE YOU IMPUGN MY HONOR GOOD SIR! I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I SLAVED LONG AND HARD ON THAT TRANSLATION! I ABSOLUTELY DENY EVER USING ANY MACHINE TRANSLATION TOOLS! I RESENT YOUR ACCUSATIONS VERY MUCH!"

And we're all like, "Okay, bitch be crazy, let's never talk to her again."
Part 3:
I am feeling a strong sense of "you can't make this shit up" right now.

Notice that I am quoting a rant of mine from October 2014. After the last email exchange between my company and this particular translator, there was no contact between us for... let's see... 17 months. And then today she emails back again, basically saying, "I AM STILL WAITING FOR AN EXPLANATION FOR WHY YOU THINK I USED MACHINE TRANSLATION! I CHALLENGE YOU TO FIND A TRANSLATION PROGRAM THAT CAN MATCH THE QUALITY OF THE TRANSLATION I GAVE YOU!"

For anyone curious, here is a snippet of her translation, completely unedited, in its NDA-risking glory (I may delete this part of this post in the near future):
(On second thought, snipped removed. Just trust me, it's really bad, like "all your base are belong to us" level of bad)

I want to email her back and say, "Show your translation to a native English speaker. Go ahead. I guarantee they will say it looked like you had a stroke halfway through every sentence." But instead, my supervisor says we're just going to ignore her.
Bonus to part 3, mildly encrypted using ROT13:
Our translator's glorious output, mildly encrypted with rot13:

Gur cerivbhf vaqhfgel vf na vaqhfgevrf bs bar cebqhpg, naq gur shgher vaqhfgel vf na vaqhfgel jvgu znal nccyvpngvbaf oybffbzrq yvxr zrephel fcvyyrq nyy bire gur sybbe, naq vf irel qvirefvsvrq, va juvpu gurer jvyy or n ybg bs vaabingvba.
And today we come to part 4. This particular translator was fired after that last incident, and we haven't given her any cases for over two years. Well, today I saw a familiar name in our online test translation system. Yes, it appears a certain someone has decided she wants to try again.

The thing is, though, her performance in the test translation is actually kinda good. Some minor errors, but on the whole it's decent enough. But no, I'm not letting her back in here, not while I'm around. (gandalf_you_shall_not_pass.jpg.png.pdf.exe)
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Amazon, Friday: "Order in the next 10 hours and get it sunday!"
Me, Friday: "Sunday, huh? Guess I better have it delivered to the house, then. Normally I have stuff delivered to work because I'm always goddamn there and I don't want packages sitting out."
...
Me, Sunday: "I think I'll check the package tracking..."
Amazon: "Transferred to USPS for final delivery. You'll have it by 8pm today!"
Me: "..."
Amazon: "...what?"
Me: "You goddamn imbecile. USPS DOESN'T DO THE THING ON SUNDAY. Why didn't you say you'd be sending it via USPS when I ordered? I'd have known there was no way in hell it'd get here sunday then! Fuckin' amazon. Now it's gonna get here MONDAY while I'm at WORK and it's gonna SIT OUT on the PORCH all god damn day where my degenerate neighbors can steal it."

 
Amazon, Friday: "Order in the next 10 hours and get it sunday!"
Me, Friday: "Sunday, huh? Guess I better have it delivered to the house, then. Normally I have stuff delivered to work because I'm always goddamn there and I don't want packages sitting out."
...
Me, Sunday: "I think I'll check the package tracking..."
Amazon: "Transferred to USPS for final delivery. You'll have it by 8pm today!"
Me: "..."
Amazon: "...what?"
Me: "You goddamn imbecile. USPS DOESN'T DO THE THING ON SUNDAY. Why didn't you say you'd be sending it via USPS when I ordered? I'd have known there was no way in hell it'd get here sunday then! Fuckin' amazon. Now it's gonna get here MONDAY while I'm at WORK and it's gonna SIT OUT on the PORCH all god damn day where my degenerate neighbors can steal it."

USPS does do the thing on Sundays for Amazon. I've had items arrive on Sundays before.
 
Amazon has Sunday delivery through USPS. If they say it’ll get there it probably will. Check your mailbox if it’s small enough to fit in there, and beware that their Sunday delivery vehicles have a different schedule so it won’t come at your regular mail time. If it’s larger than your mailbox they’ll drop it off on your porch.
 
I'm kind of a Michael's regular and I thought I had seen everything there. But no...

Last week when I went in, a couple had a huge St. Bernard walking with them and her puppy in their cart. I went right over and before I could pet the dog, she head butted me so I guess she wanted me to. The puppy whined and then I was petting them both while I talked to their "parents". Both dogs were well behaved and super friendly. Neither were barking.

I went off and did my shopping and while in the line up, I could hear people complaining around me. When I got to the cash, the family with the dogs was there, and we spoke again. Once they left the store, every customer but me flipped out at the cashier helping them. Each cashier patiently told them that Michael's is a pet friendly store. That wasn't enough for anyone. Some were just loud, but the old lady next to me was all hands on hips, red in the face, and spitting while she yelled. What if she were severely allergic? It appears you aren't ma'am. What is she were terrified of dogs? It appear you aren't ma'am. If you can't be without your dogs for a $&@*%#¥ hour, you have mental issues etc.

What's wrong with people? The dogs hurt no one and we're better behaved than the customers screaming at the cashiers.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
USPS does do the thing on Sundays for Amazon. I've had items arrive on Sundays before.
My order arrived today, and I am out in BFE.

I did not believe them either.
Amazon has Sunday delivery through USPS. If they say it’ll get there it probably will. Check your mailbox if it’s small enough to fit in there, and beware that their Sunday delivery vehicles have a different schedule so it won’t come at your regular mail time. If it’s larger than your mailbox they’ll drop it off on your porch.
Ordered Amazon that promised Sunday delivery.
Can confirm.

--Patrick
Literally just got a USPS package delivery this morning.
I've never had something delivered sundays but I don't want to feel left out.
Well slap my mama and call me spanky, it did come today.
 
Well slap my mama and call me spanky, it did come today.
I get Sunday Amazon deliveries all the time. And yet my neighbors still look at me like I'm an idjit when I go out to the mailbox on a sunday afternoon. I got the Amazon app, you dorks. I know there's something in there before I head outside.
 

fade

Staff member
I've been out mowing the lawn when the Amazon Sunday delivery shows up. The person wasn't wearing a uniform, and the van was a plain, unmarked white Ford Transit Express. Naturally, this was a bit weird, so I researched it, and read somewhere that there are subcontractors who do the actual delivery.
 
Amazon, Friday: "Order in the next 10 hours and get it sunday!"
Me, Friday: "Sunday, huh? Guess I better have it delivered to the house, then. Normally I have stuff delivered to work because I'm always goddamn there and I don't want packages sitting out."
...
Me, Sunday: "I think I'll check the package tracking..."
Amazon: "Transferred to USPS for final delivery. You'll have it by 8pm today!"
Me: "..."
Amazon: "...what?"
Me: "You goddamn imbecile. USPS DOESN'T DO THE THING ON SUNDAY. Why didn't you say you'd be sending it via USPS when I ordered? I'd have known there was no way in hell it'd get here sunday then! Fuckin' amazon. Now it's gonna get here MONDAY while I'm at WORK and it's gonna SIT OUT on the PORCH all god damn day where my degenerate neighbors can steal it."

My biggest problem with Amazon not saying up front whether it will come UPS or USPS is that I don't receive USPS service at my house (too rural) but I do receive UPS service here. Anything coming via USPS has to come to my PO Box, which of course UPS cannot deliver to.
 
Today I learned that the big project I've been working on at work was done completely incorrectly, and I need to start over. My fault, I didn't check the specs and requirements before I got started. I'm really pissed at myself.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
Sooo we just had our big annual holiday toy drive, and from all indications, it has been an unmitigated clusterfuck. The receptionist and traffic director are out so I've been helping answer the phone while I work logs, and I've fielded at least a dozen calls from women who signed their kids up but the toys haven't gotten to them. I mean, I know we're ridiculously short-staffed, and the lady we put in charge of running the thing this year was the shortest of short timers with one foot out the door and was always a useless ditz to begin with but...

... oh hey, I think I found the fucking problem.
 
Yeah, answering calls while working on logs, not writing stuff down properly, forgetting stuff...It's a big problem. No wonder she ran away :p
 
Here I am again, on a Sunday, in the office doing work. I have been coming into the office and working on Sundays for something like the last eight or ten weeks. Partly it's because I have a lot to do and I haven't been able to get it done on workdays. Partly it's because I'm a lazy bum and I haven't been getting my work properly done on workdays. The worst part is that coming in on the weekends never works out well because I always just sit here, unmotivated and working really slowly, until I shuffle off home in the evening.

Though coming in on Sundays does mean my wife can't drag me to church, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
 
Boss: "Hey Bhamv, since you're the head of your department and have additional duties now, we're looking to reduce your editing workload. The standard workload for editors is 8,000 words a day, but we're going to drop you down to 6,000 or less."

Me: "That's cool. Although looking at my case list, it appears I have 27,000 words due today."

Boss: "Huh. How about that."

Apparently I am more than 4x as awesome as I'm expected to be.
 

fade

Staff member
My credit card number was stolen at Monoprice, or at least somewhere in the transaction with them. This sucks. Someone ran up a bunch of charges.
 

fade

Staff member
I find this particularly annoying, because Monoprice is kind of a Good Guy company in my view, and if it happened there, it really erodes my trust.
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I find this particularly annoying, because Monoprice is kind of a Good Guy company in my view, and if it happened there, it really erodes my trust.
Apparently back in 2010 their website got hacked and huge numbers of client credit cards were stolen. Maybe history is repeating itself.
 
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