Random Thoughts That Don't Deserve Their Own Thread Go Here

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Welcome back.

I was gone?

[claphamsa]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

I was gone?

what did you do?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by claphamsa

what did you do?

I went camping.

[JediKooter]

So you WERE gone...

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

So you WERE gone...

Yeah but I came back last Sunday, and then was really busy at work all week.

[TCY Junkie]

I sat down at Arby's. This guy was walking around behind me restless. He walked up to the counter and asked if there was someone in the restroom. He was told something. Then he walked up to the door and tried to open it for 5 seconds giving it several tries. Then he gives up and goes into the ladies restroom. Fast forward til they leave about ten minutes later and his buddy that was sitting with him decided to check the door since no one had come out. He opened it instantly. Then they started laughing as they left. I'm guessing he tried at least once before he asked the lady that worked there so it disturbed me when they jumped in the truck and he was the one driving.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Yeah but I came back last Sunday, and then was really busy at work all week.

Hmmmmm...interesting.

[Lathum]

I just ate way to many cool ranch doritos.

[terpkristin]

So I have a Brinkmann 4-burner grill (Home Depot house brand I think), about a year and a half old, and I got back from vacation to find that burners 2-4 weren't lighting. Some investigation showed me that the piece that distributes the gas from the first burner on to the second burner was broken off (no idea how). Went to the Brinkmann website today and within minutes was able to find the replacement part, for $5.

I would like to recommend Brinkmann grills to everybody. Any company that makes a website that easy to use (instead of having to find the button to shut off some obtrusive audio and then meander through multiple levels of useless crap) deserves my $$.

That is all

/tk

[terpkristin]

Dola,
Also, I want a hamburger. I have not craved/wanted a hamburger in a very very very long time. Alas. All I have in the house is home made chicken cacciatore and baigan bharta.

/tk

[cartman]

a lot of those pieces are either cast iron or not-very-well coated metals that tend to rust out really quickly. My grill is 6 years old, and I had to replace all of the burners and most of the interconnects this summer.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by cartman

a lot of those pieces are either cast iron or not-very-well coated metals that tend to rust out really quickly. My grill is 6 years old, and I had to replace all of the burners and most of the interconnects this summer.

Yeah, I figure it's something like that but I couldn't find any obvious wear spot where a weld went bad or something rusted or glue went away. Not that I mind, it was a $5 part, I bought 4 assuming it'll happen in the future. For a $200 grill, I'm not going to complain.

And their website was so freaking easy to use, that's a mega bonus for me. I've had a lot of bad experiences buying parts for broken toys or trying to FIND parts.

/tk

[Mustang]

I'm getting a cold, its 90 out and I'm on my week of vacation. Great.

Wife got me a meat grinder/sausage stuff for my birthday so, not all bad.

[Suicane75]

I've always been jealous of good spitters. I used to see dudes just hock majestic, fountain like loogies and always be a little depressed that I couldn't match their size or liquidity. Seeing Raul Ibanez shoot out a water bottle sized capacity of torrenting spit with seemingly little effort really brought up some old feelings of inadequacy.

[stevew]

*YOU MAKE ME feel like I'm living a TEE NAGE DREEM

[JediKooter]

Another cable company rant (ignore if you want):

So, I've had Comcrap for about a year and a half, maybe a couple of months more than that. My bill has gone from about 78 a month to 161 a month. No change in services, no premium channels, no pay per view, no dvr, not getting more channels than what I was from the beginning and basic internet service. 161 freaking dollars a month. They are gone as soon as I find out if I can get Dish or Direct TV from my property management company. I can't remember which, but, one of those two has a promotion right now for free HD for life if you sign up with them.

161 dollars, are you kidding me??????

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Another cable company rant (ignore if you want):

So, I've had Comcrap for about a year and a half, maybe a couple of months more than that. My bill has gone from about 78 a month to 161 a month. No change in services, no premium channels, no pay per view, no dvr, not getting more channels than what I was from the beginning and basic internet service. 161 freaking dollars a month. They are gone as soon as I find out if I can get Dish or Direct TV from my property management company. I can't remember which, but, one of those two has a promotion right now for free HD for life if you sign up with them.

161 dollars, are you kidding me??????

Ouch, have you tried calling and bitching? That seems to work for our customers...

[sterlingice]

For Verizon, my bill did that, too, because everything is an introductory rate which creeps up, particularly at the 6 month and 1 year mark

SI

[cartman]

Always say yes if Paris Hilton offers you gum.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

Ouch, have you tried calling and bitching? That seems to work for our customers...

That is definitely the next step. I just saw my bill this morning and thought that it had to be a double billing or something like that. My rates have (not surprisingly) gone up 3 times in the last 3 months.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

For Verizon, my bill did that, too, because everything is an introductory rate which creeps up, particularly at the 6 month and 1 year mark

SI

Oh no, I took that stuff into account. The only thing that was under a introductory rate was my internet service. That went up 10 dollars.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Another cable company rant (ignore if you want):

So, I've had Comcrap for about a year and a half, maybe a couple of months more than that. My bill has gone from about 78 a month to 161 a month. No change in services, no premium channels, no pay per view, no dvr, not getting more channels than what I was from the beginning and basic internet service. 161 freaking dollars a month. They are gone as soon as I find out if I can get Dish or Direct TV from my property management company. I can't remember which, but, one of those two has a promotion right now for free HD for life if you sign up with them.

161 dollars, are you kidding me??????

Weird.
FiOS consistenly costs me $130/month for 3 recorders (1 HD), cable with extended HD channel package and faster than normal internet (because I got the extreme HD package I get the bumped internet). Sometimes they bill me only 90 or so, but then the next month it is 170, so I think their billing cycles sometimes fubar.

I work in the industry. I would not recommend satellite TV to a friend.

/tk

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Weird.
FiOS consistenly costs me $130/month for 3 recorders (1 HD), cable with extended HD channel package and faster than normal internet (because I got the extreme HD package I get the bumped internet). Sometimes they bill me only 90 or so, but then the next month it is 170, so I think their billing cycles sometimes fubar.

I work in the industry. I would not recommend satellite TV to a friend.

/tk

I wouldn't complain about Comcrap if for every time they jacked the price, there was some sort of improvement or they've added more channels, something, anything.

Here's a breakdown of my monthly bill:
Digital Preferred - 16.95 (You have to have this to get HD channels)
Standard Cable - 64.99
HD Technology Fee - 8.00 (apparently HD Technology is complicated for Comcast)
Modem Lease - 5.00
Internet Service - 54.95

And then all the extra taxes and service charges they tack on. I've never had Dish or Direct TV, but, I've been to friends houses that have had it and I don't notice a difference at all. Why do you not recommend it?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

I wouldn't complain about Comcrap if for every time they jacked the price, there was some sort of improvement or they've added more channels, something, anything.

Here's a breakdown of my monthly bill:
Digital Preferred - 16.95 (You have to have this to get HD channels)
Standard Cable - 64.99
HD Technology Fee - 8.00 (apparently HD Technology is complicated for Comcast)
Modem Lease - 5.00
Internet Service - 54.95

And then all the extra taxes and service charges they tack on. I've never had Dish or Direct TV, but, I've been to friends houses that have had it and I don't notice a difference at all. Why do you not recommend it?

I'd call them and see about getting your services bundled. Something doesn't seem right there. I know here in SoCal (Time Warner Cable) you should be able to get what you have for around $85 bucks plus the 8 or so bucks for a cable box.

It sounds to me that your bundle expired or something.

[Ksyrup]

I have no issues with satellite. Rarely goes out and the HD package is way better than TWC offers. I pay around $120 on DirecTV for 5 boxes (2 HD, 1 HD DVR), sports pack, HD pack, DVR service, and Total Choice Plus ( which I think is an old package they no longer offer but the pricing appears to be identical to what I'd get if I chose a new package with add-ons).

[cartman]

I've had DirecTV since 1997 and have been extremely happy with it. I do realize that it is all dependent on the birds staying aloft, and if one is lost, then a great bulk of the channels will go offline. But until that happens, I'm a big fan.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

I'd call them and see about getting your services bundled. Something doesn't seem right there. I know here in SoCal (Time Warner Cable) you should be able to get what you have for around $85 bucks plus the 8 or so bucks for a cable box.

It sounds to me that your bundle expired or something.

I would love to pay 85 dollars.

Going back a couple of months of bills, I found that the rate for my internet went up 12.95 (the special price expired). I did see that they raised the cable rates and the HD rates twice. Looking on their site, even new customers are getting raped. I only have internet & cable and the new customer offers (that are comparable) are 69.99 and 79.99 for 6 months and then are jacked up to 109.94 and 126.89 per month. The only difference between the two are, 20 more digital channels and On-Demand for the more expensive one. I don't see any HD included in those offers.

I think either way, bundled or not, Comcrap has just priced themselves out of getting my money, unless they can offer me something better than that. I'm willing to pay 90, but, that's about it.



Cartman & Ksyrup: The only things I've heard is if the weather gets really bad (thunder storms, lighting, hail) it will screw up the signal. I live in California, so that's not even a concern here. Is that pretty much what you guys have experienced?

Oh and something like Hulu + Roku + Netflicks is not an option for me as I can not watch live NFL games or baseball games through any of those services, nor can I watch any (well, my guess, about 90%) of the TV shows/channels that I like to watch.

[cartman]

Yeah, it has to be a really bad thunderstorm to the southwest of my house for me to lose the signal. And even then, the longest it was out was 10 minutes or so.

[sabotai]

247.2 pounds is my weight today.....That's the highest I have ever seen on my scale. *sigh*

Time to stop making excuses and get to work.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by cartman

Yeah, it has to be a really bad thunderstorm to the southwest of my house for me to lose the signal. And even then, the longest it was out was 10 minutes or so.

Ah ok cool. Definitely don't have to worry about that where I am. I think the only problem I'll run into is an earthquake.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

I wouldn't complain about Comcrap if for every time they jacked the price, there was some sort of improvement or they've added more channels, something, anything.

Here's a breakdown of my monthly bill:
Digital Preferred - 16.95 (You have to have this to get HD channels)
Standard Cable - 64.99
HD Technology Fee - 8.00 (apparently HD Technology is complicated for Comcast)
Modem Lease - 5.00
Internet Service - 54.95

And then all the extra taxes and service charges they tack on. I've never had Dish or Direct TV, but, I've been to friends houses that have had it and I don't notice a difference at all. Why do you not recommend it?

I played a little hardball with a pair of Comcast agents over chat when we signed up so our costs aren't too bad. I did some online reading at the time and found that if you have a competitor in the area (AT&T/Verizon), you can play this us with them and say you're going to switch once the conversation gets going. You just have to be willing to follow through with your threat and/or be willing to sit through another half hour with agents, trying to negotiate again if you fail.

Unfortunately, where I'm at, it's Comcast or nothing so I didn't have much room to negotiate.

SI

[Ksyrup]

It has to be a big downpour for our satellite to go out, and even then, it's only sporadic. When we lived in Florida and could get 30 minute downpours, then yeah. we might lose it for longer, but that was rare (and even rarer here).

[cartman]

1994 is the worst year ever, Kurt Cobain died and Justin Bieber was born!

[Greyroofoo]

Originally Posted by cartman

1994 is the worst year ever, Kurt Cobain died and Justin Bieber was born!

However the original X-Com was released that year!

[Masked]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

Cartman & Ksyrup: The only things I've heard is if the weather gets really bad (thunder storms, lighting, hail) it will screw up the signal. I live in California, so that's not even a concern here. Is that pretty much what you guys have experienced?

I've lost the signal once for about 2 minutes as a result of the weather here in California.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by Masked

I've lost the signal once for about 2 minutes as a result of the weather here in California.

Was it a unusually bad storm for here that did it? Even then, 2 minutes isn't bad at all.

There was a stretch of about 2 months with Comcrap at about 1 in the morning the signal would just stop and my box would try reboot for about 45 minutes. They never could figure out what the problem was.

[DataKing]

Piping hot coffee belongs in a mug or cup, not on your thumb.

[Swaggs]

I can't believe it is already September.

[sterlingice]

No kidding. Same feelings here

SI

[Passacaglia]

Overheard in the elevator:

"I can't wait for football. I can't watch baseball anymore. Fucking Manny Ramirez doesn't even speak English. Did you know he's only 5'5"?"

[TCY Junkie]

I don't like people that can easily get to my knees either.

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I played a little hardball with a pair of Comcast agents over chat when we signed up so our costs aren't too bad. I did some online reading at the time and found that if you have a competitor in the area (AT&T/Verizon), you can play this us with them and say you're going to switch once the conversation gets going. You just have to be willing to follow through with your threat and/or be willing to sit through another half hour with agents, trying to negotiate again if you fail.

Unfortunately, where I'm at, it's Comcast or nothing so I didn't have much room to negotiate.

SI

Weird, your post and Ksyrups post never showed up until now...

There is at&t in the area. So, I can definitely try to use that approach. I have no problems switching actually as I have no loyalty to Comcrap at all. Hopefully a satisfactory resolution will present itself soon.

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

It has to be a big downpour for our satellite to go out, and even then, it's only sporadic. When we lived in Florida and could get 30 minute downpours, then yeah. we might lose it for longer, but that was rare (and even rarer here).

That totally makes sense. Especially since a torrential down pour here probably happens once every 3 years, so I think I can live with that.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by cartman

1994 is the worst year ever, Kurt Cobain died and Justin Bieber was born!

Maybe Bieber is Cobain reincarnated!

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Maybe Bieber is Cobain reincarnated!

You should be banned for speaking such blasphemy!

[DataKing]

Bieber was spawned March 1st, and Cobain died April 5th, so no worries there (unless an astral DeLorian is involved).

[SirFozzie]

here at work, our building is a sprawl. They basically took two office buildings and built a connector between the two of them, and turned it into one big building..

Most of the global tech support for my company is on one side of the building, which makes finding parking on that side of the building fun, especially when you come in mid-day, like I do for my shift.

Over the last few years, parking has dwindled (the company made a visitors only section (never full), Car Pool section (Never used), some spaces were lost because they installed a liquid nitrogen container for cooling the data center.. the list goes on and on.

Well, today, I get in to work, start going on the merry go round that is finding a space you don't have to walk 20 minutes to get to our work area from.. (there's three rows of parking on this side of the building, and there's so much demand that people end up parking on the curbing between rows, where there's no parking spaces, etcetera).

Lo and behold, on the second row, fourth closest to the door, an open spot!

Start pulling in...

WTF, they put a sign up?

"Reserved for Policy Committee"

Are you *@_$&_@ kidding me? Ten spaces in an already overcrowded parking lot, gone? (and this is a 300 or so spot lot, that has like 350-400 in it)

So, as I back out of the space, and spend the next ten minutes going round in circles till I find someone leaving and take their spot, the following thought runs through my mind.

From:Me
To: Members of the Policy committee
Subject: A proposed policy...

Hi folks, I have a proposed policy.. I propose you stop taking our #@%*)@% parking spaces away!

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by JediKooter

I've never had Dish or Direct TV, but, I've been to friends houses that have had it and I don't notice a difference at all. Why do you not recommend it?

Without getting into details too specific, the long and short of my disdain for DTH satellite anything is that it's not conducive to a good user experience except under ideal conditions. It IS good for distribution to places with multiple large dishes with multiple sources, the signals that then get further distributed (for example, I think FiOS gets their main feeds from satellite feeds and then distributes them via the fiber in their own way, this is a good use of satellite distribution). At this point in time, the satellite technology, combined with FCC rules and considerations for the "unsightliness" of dishes (especially where condo associations or HOAs are concerned), we're kind of at the limit of what they can do. If you live in a place that has relatively little weather, and no trees, and can have 2-3 dishes for optimal pointing, it's not bad.

Between rain and snow mucking the signal, high winds mucking with the pointing and mucking the signal, and satellite outages/failures, combined with the fact that there's only so much you can do with a dish or two of that size, it's never something I'd recommend. Regarding failures, I think it's possible that there may be more in the "near" (next couple years) future as the first/second generation of satellites starts to age and are not completely replaced. To boot, replacement satellites have a lot more capacity but are then pushed that much harder in terms of distribution of channels sold to various users, you end up relying on fewer amplifiers overall. Nevermind ZombieSat... Personally, I've had some really bad experiences with high winds in particular screwing up reception, when I had no choice but to have satellite TV. Rain was bad (but not as bad as it was say 5 years ago), and thankfully at the time I didn't get large snow/ice buildup.

But satellite TV is light years better than satellite internet, which I would only suggest getting if there's absolutely no other way to get internet access (3g cellphone internet is sometimes better than satellite internet).

But in the end, that's just me. For my money, I'd call Comcast and threaten to leave them and see what they can do. Or drop cable entirely and rely on Hulu, Netflix, etc (but admittedly I don't watch a lot of TV...now that XBOX is getting ESPN, it will be harder to justify cable in general).

/tk

[JediKooter]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Without getting into details too specific, the long and short of my disdain for DTH satellite anything is that it's not conducive to a good user experience except under ideal conditions. It IS good for distribution to places with multiple large dishes with multiple sources, the signals that then get further distributed (for example, I think FiOS gets their main feeds from satellite feeds and then distributes them via the fiber in their own way, this is a good use of satellite distribution). At this point in time, the satellite technology, combined with FCC rules and considerations for the "unsightliness" of dishes (especially where condo associations or HOAs are concerned), we're kind of at the limit of what they can do. If you live in a place that has relatively little weather, and no trees, and can have 2-3 dishes for optimal pointing, it's not bad.

Between rain and snow mucking the signal, high winds mucking with the pointing and mucking the signal, and satellite outages/failures, combined with the fact that there's only so much you can do with a dish or two of that size, it's never something I'd recommend. Regarding failures, I think it's possible that there may be more in the "near" (next couple years) future as the first/second generation of satellites starts to age and are not completely replaced. To boot, replacement satellites have a lot more capacity but are then pushed that much harder in terms of distribution of channels sold to various users, you end up relying on fewer amplifiers overall. Nevermind ZombieSat... Personally, I've had some really bad experiences with high winds in particular screwing up reception, when I had no choice but to have satellite TV. Rain was bad (but not as bad as it was say 5 years ago), and thankfully at the time I didn't get large snow/ice buildup.

My biggest concern is the condo association at the moment. I haven't noticed any dishes, but, the way the place is set up, I might just not be seeing them. As for weather...it does get windy where I am at, at times. Rain, pretty much none. Snow, never. Ice, maybe once in a blue moon. There are trees, but, the way the complex is set up, it's on the side of a hill so, there may not be too much of an issue with line of sight, unless it has to be pointed to the west where there is a HUGE hill and the dish would have to be pretty much pointed straight up because of how close I am to that hill.

But satellite TV is light years better than satellite internet, which I would only suggest getting if there's absolutely no other way to get internet access (3g cellphone internet is sometimes better than satellite internet).

But in the end, that's just me. For my money, I'd call Comcast and threaten to leave them and see what they can do. Or drop cable entirely and rely on Hulu, Netflix, etc (but admittedly I don't watch a lot of TV...now that XBOX is getting ESPN, it will be harder to justify cable in general).

/tk

I would never go with satellite internet. My mom has it (she has no choice) and it is just horrible. It will be down for days at a time. I am definitely going to call them and see what I can do. I've looked into the Hulu, Netflix, and others, and it just doesn't work for my viewing habits. Oh well.

[stevew]

I hate motorcycles. I don't want to see your ugly face and mullet. Put the helmet back on. Your pipes are too loud.

[Suburban Rhythm]

Day 1 of kindergarten yesterday...not so bad. A little bit of tears, but my daughter did OK. When she got home, she did tell us it took so long for her to get home today since they did alot of different things.

Day 2...disaster. I literally had to chase her through the yard, pick her up, and put her on the first step of the bus. And toss her backpack to the driver.

Nowhere to go but up, right?