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

Dave

Staff member
I’m lying in bed. Well, sitting up in bed. Every time I try to recline even a little I start to cough. Nothing tastes right. Not sure if that’s the COViD or the gallons of mucus currently rushing throughout my system. So I’m hungry but I can’t eat. I’m exhausted but I can’t sleep.

I do love being sick.
 

Dave

Staff member
Oh, and if you sit up coughing and grab for the water bottle on your bedside table, TRY and remember earlier you were drinking diet root beer. And hadn’t finished it. That was quite the surprise!
 
$2 if you don't have a Scene card too. Nothing "extra" if you have cineclub, but that's $9.99 on it's own anyway. It's like they're actively trying to drive people away.
When Landmark opened up (with their pop machines that have diet Mellow Yellow, something not available in Canada any other way that I know of and one of my favourite drinks heh) nearby I was so stoked to never step foot in a Cinaplex again.
 
When Landmark opened up (with their pop machines that have diet Mellow Yellow, something not available in Canada any other way that I know of and one of my favourite drinks heh) nearby I was so stoked to never step foot in a Cinaplex again.
Cineplex owns all but one local theatre here that plays current-run movies so I'm out of luck otherwise. And Cap 6 is just far enough away, downtown so we'd need to pay for parking and, honestly though I didn't think it possible, is run worse.
 
I have had intestine clearing diarrhea all week and today I finally took a semi-solid shit and oh my God everyone, it was like the clouds parted and the sun came out after the biblical flood.

I guess this shouldn't be a rant, but I've had to be within 20 seconds of a toilet all week and it's finally over.

Also, it just crested 30 degrees outside (86 f) and I wish it wouldn't.
 
Last edited:
I don't have air conditioning, though you being in Texas means that chances are you won't have it either for a good portion of this summer.
That’s a misconception, the Ercot grid got a lot of bad press last year in February, but the Texas power plants are built to try to mitigate the effects of high heat, but we’re not built for (what most here describe as) extreme cold. The parts of Texas, so far, that have had grid induced blackouts are not part of the Ercot grid. Yesterday they issued a conservation notice, because of expected high demand for power, but passed with plenty of reserves available. There is actually quite a lot of wind generated power throughout the state, but the conditions we’re having don’t generate much wind, so that generation availability is pretty useless in the hottest part of the day.
 

Dave

Staff member
At some point between visiting Sam in Washington in 2020 and visiting Sam in Washington in 2021, my dash cam got hit or pulled or whatever. Just put the dashcam into the new car and wanted to download everything from the saved media. Every video of our last trip was of the sky. Sometimes some treetops can be seen. Once I saw a bird.

Rear camera was set just fine so I guess we can view the scenery if I play them backwards?
 
At some point between visiting Sam in Washington in 2020 and visiting Sam in Washington in 2021, my dash cam got hit or pulled or whatever. Just put the dashcam into the new car and wanted to download everything from the saved media. Every video of our last trip was of the sky. Sometimes some treetops can be seen. Once I saw a bird.

Rear camera was set just fine so I guess we can view the scenery if I play them backwards?
"Old man points camera at nothing" is a classic, good job.
 
SWEET SAFFRON-did I have a MORNING!

Decided to take the 9:52 train today, which usually gets me to 30th street at 11, but JUST MY LUCK-I got on the train that had to stop three to FIVE times for oncoming trains, making me get there 30 minutes late at 11:30. Know when when my movie started? ELLEVEN THIRTY! AND to add to the shit sandwich of my day, because some douchebag sat in my seat instead of his fucking assigned seat, when the popcorn and drink I ordered went to my mother fucking seat, he said "Yeah, I didn't order this" so they sent it BACK, THREW IT away, and I had to get replacement concessions, bringing me back to the theater RIGHT as that weird blonde lady talks about how fucking awesome theaters are when all you want to do is watch Thor fight a sword wielding lich!

Plus I had 15 dollars on my Duncan gift card, and I wanted to get a sandwich before going to the theater, UGH-CURSE YOU NJTRANSIT!
 
Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, theaters are over. I watch at home unless someone else drags me out.
I'll believe theaters are over when I have to stop paying $30 to see a new release. MY ticket price at my local is $5 AND they'll mix me up an excellent Dark and Stormy for the show for a few bucks more.
 
I'll believe theaters are over when I have to stop paying $30 to see a new release. MY ticket price at my local is $5 AND they'll mix me up an excellent Dark and Stormy for the show for a few bucks more.
....what disturbing fantasy land do you live in where you can watch a film for FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS?! For me a movie and snacks is like 30 odd bucks, god DAMN you're a lucky duck !

Seriously, teach me the incantation, I can easily move to the fifth dimension if it means not spending so damn much on movies! Especially 3D movies, where the glasses only make the movie look normal unless you're not wearing them.
 
....what disturbing fantasy land do you live in where you can watch a film for FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS?! For me a movie and snacks is like 30 odd bucks, god DAMN you're a lucky duck !
Gateway Film Center (Columbus, OH's home to independent cinema) does $5 movies on Tuesday until 5pm and you get a free small popcorn. They also do a nice discount for tickets and food for current and former Buckeyes any other time if you show them your Student ID.

They also do an unlimited movies + popcorn + food discounts membership for $15 a month. That basically pays for itself you're gonna go more than once a month and gives you access to members only film events. Considering they are always doing classic film series and events, this is great way to see classic movies on the big screen in restored prints.
 
Gateway Film Center (Columbus, OH's home to independent cinema) does $5 movies on Tuesday until 5pm and you get a free small popcorn. They also do a nice discount for tickets and food for current and former Buckeyes any other time if you show them your Student ID.

They also do an unlimited movies + popcorn + food discounts membership for $15 a month. That basically pays for itself you're gonna go more than once a month and gives you access to members only film events. Considering they are always doing classic film series and events, this is great way to see classic movies on the big screen in restored prints.
...yeah...I'm literally drooling at this deal I can not get as Philly/Jersey based.
 
Right. So. There are some big road works happening around here, whole new main road put in with tunnels and bridges and other roads are becoming one way, yet others are being completely replaced with parks and such.
Obviously, not every change is a great success. Obviously, some of these things will only make sense or be a positive after everything is finished. And some things may get worse - some specific trajectories might be longer or more troublesome.
Now, the local Facebook* group is quite political and driven by the opposition. (For clarity's sake: the ruling body of our city is a mixed list of the Green and the Liberal party, with assistance from the Socialist-democratic party and the Christian-conservative party. The only opposition is the extreme-right-wing-fascist party. Y'know, the type who adored Putin, wants all people darker then #D7897E sent back to their own country, and thinks gay people are OK as long as there's Muslims around to oppose, but shouldn't bother normal folks. Yeah, we didn't beat Hitler hard enough last time. Anyway.) Fair enough. So, as you can imagine, lots of people there hate all the new changes, and are spewing venom. Me, I'm....a bit ambivalent, in that I like most of the ideas behind 'm but think some bad choices were made and, of course, lots of things are going wrong in the first few phases.
One road that's now been finished and is open, has these lights:

1658333299724.png


Yes, that's a green and a red arrow, both pointing forwards, for two different lanes.
Now, the reason is, that on the other side of the crossroads, there's only one lane. Having both green at the same time would have people try to merge on the crossroads, or cut each other off, etc. A better solution would have been to have two lanes at the other end and merge 'm 100m further down, sure, but I guess there wasn't enough space for that.(Also, I'm not commenting on the "red and green for the same lane in different directions" bit -that's just plain stupid). Now there's a whole movement that this is too unclear, that this is illegal, that this is dangerous, that this is confusing, that this is wrong, that the city council is really incompetent if they think this is ok, etc etc.
I've been fighting all day about this. It's legal, it's possible, it's in the Belgian road code, it's not all that confusing if you just think for 1 second, and it's a much safer option than having people merge in the middle of a crossroads.
And man, the reactions...Half of these people need to have their driver's license stripped away. And I sincerely hope some of these are paid trolls, because, sheesh. The amount of doublethink and rhetorical BS they use is...impressive.




*Since when does spellcheck only recognize Facebook with a capital letter? It USED to be a company name, now it's a website - the company is Meta. A website address does NOT merit a capital letter, it's not a name.
 
Right. So. There are some big road works happening around here, whole new main road put in with tunnels and bridges and other roads are becoming one way, yet others are being completely replaced with parks and such.
Obviously, not every change is a great success. Obviously, some of these things will only make sense or be a positive after everything is finished. And some things may get worse - some specific trajectories might be longer or more troublesome.
Now, the local Facebook* group is quite political and driven by the opposition. (For clarity's sake: the ruling body of our city is a mixed list of the Green and the Liberal party, with assistance from the Socialist-democratic party and the Christian-conservative party. The only opposition is the extreme-right-wing-fascist party. Y'know, the type who adored Putin, wants all people darker then #D7897E sent back to their own country, and thinks gay people are OK as long as there's Muslims around to oppose, but shouldn't bother normal folks. Yeah, we didn't beat Hitler hard enough last time. Anyway.) Fair enough. So, as you can imagine, lots of people there hate all the new changes, and are spewing venom. Me, I'm....a bit ambivalent, in that I like most of the ideas behind 'm but think some bad choices were made and, of course, lots of things are going wrong in the first few phases.
One road that's now been finished and is open, has these lights:

View attachment 42027

Yes, that's a green and a red arrow, both pointing forwards, for two different lanes.
Now, the reason is, that on the other side of the crossroads, there's only one lane. Having both green at the same time would have people try to merge on the crossroads, or cut each other off, etc. A better solution would have been to have two lanes at the other end and merge 'm 100m further down, sure, but I guess there wasn't enough space for that.(Also, I'm not commenting on the "red and green for the same lane in different directions" bit -that's just plain stupid). Now there's a whole movement that this is too unclear, that this is illegal, that this is dangerous, that this is confusing, that this is wrong, that the city council is really incompetent if they think this is ok, etc etc.
I've been fighting all day about this. It's legal, it's possible, it's in the Belgian road code, it's not all that confusing if you just think for 1 second, and it's a much safer option than having people merge in the middle of a crossroads.
And man, the reactions...Half of these people need to have their driver's license stripped away. And I sincerely hope some of these are paid trolls, because, sheesh. The amount of doublethink and rhetorical BS they use is...impressive.




*Since when does spellcheck only recognize Facebook with a capital letter? It USED to be a company name, now it's a website - the company is Meta. A website address does NOT merit a capital letter, it's not a name.
1) I avoid local Facebook groups, Next door, etc. like the plague because they are such cesspools of the worst of humanity. You are a brave or foolish bird.
2) There will always be a subset of people that will rail against change, no matter how well-thought or beneficial it might be, just because it is a CHANGE. Logic be damned; fear is taking the wheel!
 
I'm really tired of getting into an argument where someone throws out what sounds like bullshit statistics but can't back it up.

Because then they argue it's on me to "prove them wrong" or "do my own research."

No. If you're providing stats and someone challenges that, it's on you to back it up.

Maybe academia has spoiled me because that's what you should expect there in a proper discussion.
 
I'm really tired of getting into an argument where someone throws out what sounds like bullshit statistics but can't back it up.

Because then they argue it's on me to "prove them wrong" or "do my own research."

No. If you're providing stats and someone challenges that, it's on you to back it up.

Maybe academia has spoiled me because that's what you should expect there in a proper discussion.
Look, I'm sorry, but 76% of scientists and even 83% of all statisticians say that the onus of providing proof is on the one who did not posit abnormal numbers first.
And 96.7% of all forumites here agree, too. So clearly you're wrong.
 
Look, I'm sorry, but 76% of scientists and even 83% of all statisticians say that the onus of providing proof is on the one who did not posit abnormal numbers first.
And 96.7% of all forumites here agree, too. So clearly you're wrong.
And that's only @Cheesy1 that agrees with me.

Full disclosure: it's because I pay him to agree with me.
 
Having to remain polite and civil is sometimes hard. We're discussing a customer's setup. Right now they supply information through A and some department of ours wants it to be delivered through B. Fair enough.
Except, the customer's system cannot handle B. It's literally impossible. There's no way to do it. It isn't supported, it isn't coded in, it isn't even technically possible to try and add it in or something.
So this is a mail chain about 5 meters long by now, with Sales, Operations, Clearance, us (CT/IT), Customer Service, and the customer's own IT.
I've shown in the paperwork half a dozen times that while they may prefer B, A is not against our regulations, and it is compliant with our internal guidelines.
I've shown that this setup was done with agreement of Ops and Clearance and that they've been using it for literal YEARS without issues.
I've shown that the customer is changing to a new system in May anyway and that adding in B will be no problem at all at that time.
I've shown that literally HUNDREDS of other clients also use A and it isn't a problem.
And the response I get is "you know, we can go back and forth on this all day, but in the end, they need to do B, and maybe we just need someone to look into this who knows what they're talking about. I'm no IT, but maybe we're wasting a lot of time and this really is just ticking a box in a menu"
HEY FUCK YOU YOU NUMBSKULL. I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT AND IT IS NOT. IT IS NOT POSSIBLE. IT CAN'T BE DONE. If you're not an IT specialist, maybe don't try to give IT advise to the IT support? Maybe just maybe just stay in your fucking lane?
I had to rewrite my reply a few times before it was toned down enough that it wouldn't get me an invitation to coffee with HR, and it's still pretty much "don't bother asking me again, if your scanners can't handle A, maybe update and change your scanner".

How hard is it to be at least somewhat polite and not call the person you're talking to an incompetent idiot? Especially when, frankly, I'm a lot of things, but not that.
 
Top