Random thing you loathe right now.

USPS's absolutely effed up handling of packages, otherwise known as "Throw it on a truck, any truck". Here is the tracking for a package that was shipped from Medford Ma, to my town in MA ~10 miles

December 25, 2020
In Transit, Arriving Late
Your package will arrive later than expected, but is still on its way. It is currently in transit to the next facility.

December 24, 2020, 8:38 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
ATLANTA-PEACHTREE GA DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 19, 2020, 1:15 pm
Departed USPS Regional Facility
MIDDLESEX-ESSEX MA DISTRIBUTION CENTER

December 19, 2020, 6:36 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
MIDDLESEX-ESSEX MA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
December 19, 2020, 6:03 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility

BOSTON MA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
December 19, 2020, 4:11 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility

BOSTON MA DISTRIBUTION CENTER
December 18, 2020, 5:26 pm
USPS in possession of item
MEDFORD, MA 02155

GA != MA

We had 3 my mom sent this month, on the same day. 2 never got tracking beyond being sent. But they showed up only 2 days late.

The other had tracking updates every day, went from Greensboro to Charlotte and back to Greensboro while the other 2 were getting delivered. It ended up 5 days late.

I'm telling you, 10 miles? I'd hand-carry the thing (I do this with the occasional bill I need to pay by check, a rarity these days).

Electronic Medical Records. Why, you ask? because when your tablet crashes and reboots in factory reset mode, you are royally f*cked and can't get any work done. Especially when someone at the company decided that for security reasons you can't have the program loaded on your home computer. I understand this for the average healthcare worker. I'm married to Robear, dammit. My computer is slightly less secure than Fort Knox!
Ok. I'm done. Thank you

Amazon customer service.

This is a new one, they have always been extremely helpful in the past, even issuing gift cards just for shipping delays and stuff.

Today Immortals Fenyx Rising is $29.99. I bought it on Dec 8 at $40 from them. Still haven't opened it, so within the return window, even without the holiday Jan extension. I asked customer service to give me a $10 credit, so I don't have to reorder today, return the old one, go to the UPS store, cost them shipping both ways, etc. And they refused!

We don't offer post-sale price matches. Bullsh*t, they've done it tons of times. There's web sites everywhere with people successfully doing it. And especially in this case, with the large return window for the holidays until Jan.

Kind of makes me want to buy games from Best Buy instead, as they even have an official policy for the 30-day price match.

Stele wrote:

Amazon customer service.

Snip.

I'm guessing your not playing on PC, but if you are with the Epic store coupon it's also 30 bucks.

My loath. GTA Online. Tried playing a few heist missions with friends. It's just bad. The only fun part is screwing around on the map and random stuff happening. The actually missions are trash. Last one we did was infuriating with a stupid difficulty curve and fail condition. Honestly angry at the stupidness. Not including all the weird/bad design choice and overall low quality stuff in it.

I don't understand how a game designer sits down and says "okay, first we have the player sit in a matchmaking queue until a team is formed. THEN we show all team members a five minute explanatory cutscene".

Every game does this. I don't get it.

Unskippable cut-scenes! How is that a thing in a triple a game, much less GTA. Especially on ones that repeat when you fail.

I mean the cutscenes are usually skippable - but the match can't start unless everyone on the team skips. And there's always one. Then someone else gets tired of waiting or disconnects, and then everyone goes back to the queue to start from scratch.

GTA does this, Overwatch does it, every game does it. Makes no damn sense.

Stele wrote:

We don't offer post-sale price matches. Bullsh*t, they've done it tons of times. There's web sites everywhere with people successfully doing it. And especially in this case, with the large return window for the holidays until Jan.

I had a similar issue when I bought my Vega56 from Amazon. I bought it at the beginning of a month, and a week later they had it bundled with Division2 and WWZ for all AMD GPUs. So I reached out to see if I could get the bundle as well, and they refused. So I put in a return, and ordered the same card with the bundle. I had it shipped to be picked up at the Whole Foods nearby. On the day I got the delivery notice I went to the back of the store to the lockers to retrieve it, then walked to the front of the store with the return paperwork for the first card and sent it right back.

fenomas wrote:

I mean the cutscenes are usually skippable - but the match can't start unless everyone on the team skips. And there's always one. Then someone else gets tired of waiting or disconnects, and then everyone goes back to the queue to start from scratch.

GTA does this, Overwatch does it, every game does it. Makes no damn sense.

Rocket League doesn't!

The cut scenes in gta online are unskipable as far as I can see. Even if you are alone. We had a mission we were failing that had one in the middle. So got to see it over and over.

Still annoyed by the online. Thought about it from a design perspective. They basically built the missions like single player ones. Then converted them to multi. Which causes problems. Not counting the really bad bugs or hackers.

How the potential inheritance of money and/or property can affect people. I don't understand. I look at both and I shrug my shoulders. I also simply accept the wishes. Maybe it's because I have less to begin with. Maybe it's because I prioritize kindness and care. Those with so much more are by comparison driven by further gain and could care less about feelings and respect. It's horrible.

RnRClown wrote:

How the potential inheritance of money and/or property can affect people. I don't understand. I look at both and I shrug my shoulders. I also simply accept the wishes. Maybe it's because I have less to begin with. Maybe it's because I prioritize kindness and care. Those with so much more are by comparison driven by further gain and could care less about feelings and respect. It's horrible.

In our society, kindness is considered week. You know the phrase nice guys finish last? Some people actually believe that.

Thank you for being someone who values kindness.

Many people in our society equate wealth with self worth. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but it’s a fallacy. This type of thinking leads to unkind behavior.

We have some of that crap going on in our family too. Two spouses of family members are drooling over the potential inheritance from a family elder. I’m not privy to the amount of money, nor do I care. The people who ARE privy have hinted that while it IS a very large sum of money, once you split it among all of the benefactors it ends up being a less than life changing sum of money; hardly enough to make a fuss over. The gold diggers don’t believe it though. They’re convinced that it’s a massive amount of wealth.

One irony is that the family elder whom I’m speaking of is staying in a very expensive care facility and that supposed trove of wealth is being used up rapidly. And that’s what the money should be used for.

I hear you, Rawk. We had that issue in my family with my grandmother, and it really turned sour. The turning point was when my family put our foot down and said "we don't care what you think, it's her money, and she is going to be as comfortable as possible in her final years." Really broke the relationship between my mom and one of her brothers. They have not yet really reconciled, and it's been 5 years now since she passed comfortably.

Uggh! Painful.

I had an issue logging on to my work laptop this morning. I'm not sure of the chain of events that caused it, but it got bad enough that my helpdesk couldn't even see my computer. The solution is that they have to send me an entirely new laptop.

After a week off, and a TON of stuff to get done, they tell me that I may have my laptop tomorrow but probably Wednesday. If it gets here too late Wednesday, I basically have one day to get a metric fk-ton of work completed.

We had a split in our family last year when my grandmother passed as well, though thankfully it was just one cousin that barely reached out to us anyway. She was only getting anything because her dad died a few years back and he was never removed from the will (she blew through that inheritance years ago), so his kids got his portion split between them. Lots of drama over what amounted to (IIRC) something around $30k. She won't speak to me again, because my wife cussed her out after she nearly got me fired while trying to get information about the inheritance (called me about 15 times in an hour while I was in a meeting, after just getting hired the week before). I'm not upset, as the only conversation I'd had with her in 20 years was her telling me how hard it was to be a military spouse, completely ignoring the fact that I've been one for about three times longer than she has been.

Today's loathe: kids' attitudes. Sigh.
Yes, I know this is all totally age-appropriate reactions. Yes, I know that I'm being a good dad when I ask my kids to do things, and it's okay that I give them consequences for their choices. But man. They such hurtful things when they talk back. In the last two days two of my three kids have said they hate me. My crime? Turning off their video games until their room was clean.
I am a 43 year old man and I was basically in tears crying to my Dad that being a dad was hard. He really cheered me up by laughing and reminding me that I was an asshole at their age, too. He then really laughed when I told him my 12 year old called me an asshole not 30 minutes ago.
So yeah. I love my kids, but some days I loathe parenting.

My kid (6) tells she hates me in response to being disciplined.

Yes, it's age appropriate, but you also have to translate it from kid-emotion to adult-emotion. Me saying I hate you is a different thing from a kid saying they hate you. Adult hate is a durable thing - kid hate is ephemeral, not to mention is usually "I hate what you did, not "I hate YOU"

"Good.... Let the hate fill you... We have cookies on the dark side.... When you finish your chores..."

I mean, you gotta be the adult when they can see you, but that doesn't mean you have to live down to their expectations. Even tween anger can be fun, viewed from a certain angle.

Saw a mouse last night. Massive cleaning effort starts today. Throwing out any food not still sealed. Calling my landlord. Knowing that this problem won't be going away any time soon.

The entirety of IndyCar, for being gross misogynistic sh*tbags. And also because the racing is, and always has been, trash. But mostly due to that link.

r013nt0 wrote:

The entirety of IndyCar, for being gross misogynistic sh*tbags. And also because the racing is, and always has been, trash. But mostly due to that link.

Goddam that’s effed up! WTF?!

RawkGWJ wrote:

Goddam that’s effed up! WTF?!

It's so bad. Unsurprising, but bad.

RIP MF DOOM. Man 2020 can f*ck right off.

New Year's fireworks freaking out my cats.

I drove from Waterville, Maine, to Maybrook, New York non-stop, and my balls are so freaking sweaty.

MaxShrek wrote:

I drove from Waterville, Maine, to Maybrook, New York non-stop, and my balls are so freaking sweaty.

Gold Bond those bad boys.

Just found out a patient of mine decided they couldn't go on and attempted suicide. I understand their reasons. It was not depression related. I believe assisted suicide is a viable option for individuals like this who have disease processes which will only lead to more suffering. My heart hurts.