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

[sabotai]

Looked at a condo today and it's perfect. Was told it already has multiple offers (it's been on the market 3 days) and to give my best offer since they're doing a "beat and final" offers, or whatever it's called. The asking price was already close to my limit, so I did the best I could (~3k above asking price). I doubt I'm going to get it and it's back to the waiting game.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Looked at a condo today and it's perfect. Was told it already has multiple offers (it's been on the market 3 days) and to give my best offer since they're doing a "beat and final" offers, or whatever it's called. The asking price was already close to my limit, so I did the best I could (~3k above asking price). I doubt I'm going to get it and it's back to the waiting game.

BAFO - best and final offer

sometimes also

BARFO - best and really final offer

Good luck. Hope you get it.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by molson

It's so great to not have to deal with a rental car on vacations.

Holy crap. I guess we vacation very differently. If I tried this, I'd probably spend $5K on Uber. We generally drive 400-500 miles during our vacations (that's after we get there). I can't just sit around in one place for a week. We're going to NM in September and will be staying in a different hotel every night and visiting about 3/4 of the state.

[Lathum]

I have a control thing with driving, plus horrific claustrophobia. I have used other peoples UBER on rare occasion. We were in Miami for a work trip for my wife going to dinner with another couple. He called an Uber and somehow I ended up behind the driver in a chevy cruze despite being almost 6-2. I literally was panicking and almost had to have the driver stop on the freeway in Miami at rush hour and jump out of the car.

My reluctance actually comes from a situation I had about 6 years ago. We were in California and my wallet was stolen. someone used bu debit card to pay for Uber. I was able to contact them just to be told they refuse to give out any info on the person despite having their name, address....I am not a fan of doing business with companies that let people openly commit felonies.

[stevew]

call Uber Comfort or better at least and cancel/bail if your driver has less than 1000 rides...especially if it's a woman driving a minivan. Also wise to log in and see if there are actually always drivers around your area. You might want to leave at 7pm but if it's a low population thing it might take awhile.

[stevew]

And it's a sad accomplishment, but I do actually have a 5.0 uber driver rating(498 of my last 500 rides are 5*s) with 6000ish rides completed.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by stevew

call Uber Comfort or better at least and cancel/bail if your driver has less than 1000 rides...especially if it's a woman driving a minivan. Also wise to log in and see if there are actually always drivers around your area. You might want to leave at 7pm but if it's a low population thing it might take awhile.

I was playing on the app and did see some different options. I live in NJ where it is crowded everywhere. I pulled up where we are headed and someone could be here in 6 minutes.

[stevew]

you can book the driver to show up at a certain time but usually they're going to be like 10-15 minutes early because the booking system is flawed.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Holy crap. I guess we vacation very differently. If I tried this, I'd probably spend $5K on Uber. We generally drive 400-500 miles during our vacations (that's after we get there). I can't just sit around in one place for a week. We're going to NM in September and will be staying in a different hotel every night and visiting about 3/4 of the state.

Hey! We just did that last year. Where are you going? FYI: we just drove a full day to start our portion of the trip rather than flying because, well, COVID and we live in Texas. We also did whole home Airbnbs all along the way because, again, COVID. We might do it differently if we were going now, but we tried to stay outdoors as much as possible and tried to be as safe as we could since our son couldn't get his vaccine yet.

Our trip was Houston -> Carlsbad -> Roswell/Ruidoso (late waking and travel day) -> White Sands -> Albuquerque (couple days: biking, Petroglyph, downtown Santa Fe) -> Bandelier -> Angel Fire (couple days, seeing a lot of things I saw as a kid in the Enchanted circle: Taos, Rio Grande Gorge, Red River, Angel Fire resort) -> Capulin -> Palo Duro -> home. We also did some goofy stuff like the UFO shaped McDonalds in Roswell, McGinn's PistachioLand, the giant blue whale in Santa Fe, and Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo because, well, it was a road trip.

SI

[stevew]

Back to dentistry, they want to take out all of my wisdom teeth. I'm 46, I don't have any pain back there and I strongly doubt they have shifted in the past 20 or so years. Yeah, I don't have a long history of dental x-rays, but I feel like I would have noticed if they were causing issues. Anyone else had their wisdom teeth pulled this late, or were you all normal people with good health care who did it in your early 20s?

[cuervo72]

I had it done...sometime in my 30s I guess? Yeah, I didn't really get it either. They were all in and everything seemed fine.

[stevew]

mine haven't broken through the skin I believe. so it's somewhat major oral surgery.

[Qwikshot]

Originally Posted by stevew

Back to dentistry, they want to take out all of my wisdom teeth. I'm 46, I don't have any pain back there and I strongly doubt they have shifted in the past 20 or so years. Yeah, I don't have a long history of dental x-rays, but I feel like I would have noticed if they were causing issues. Anyone else had their wisdom teeth pulled this late, or were you all normal people with good health care who did it in your early 20s?

I had my wisdom teeth taken out I think in my early 40s due to a cavity.

I had very severe migraines that I didn't link up to my wisdom teeth. When they were removed, the severity went down.

I still get migraines but I can generally eat and somewhat function.

So if you have migraines, or headaches, or tense jaw, or soreness under the eyes, they may be impacting from the wisdom teeth.

I never put two and two together.

[flere-imsaho]

RE: rideshares

At my last company (which, hoo boy, I really need to tell you all about when I get the time) I did a lot of travel, mainly to Europe, and they had us use Blacklane for all ground transport when we were over there.

I have never felt more pampered. It was great. It also cost a ton, which lessened my surprise when I found out after a couple of years that we had money issues (though the CEO routinely chartering a private jet and not telling the Board about it was probably more of a contributor to that, but clearly the key was commercial and manufacturing not talking to each other, so we were building product that we weren't selling, and selling product that we weren't building, good times).

Anyway, for instance, one super rainy morning (like 5 AM) in downtown Hamburg I come down to the lobby with all my stuff to check out and head to Frankfurt and there's a dude in a suit with an umbrella waiting for me, who takes my luggage and ushers me into the back seat of a Maybach.

Anyway, I look upon all that pretty fondly these days, when the extent of pampering myself is "oh, someone rescheduled a meeting? I can take a 30 minute nap on the couch."

[flere-imsaho]

Admittedly, taking a 30 minute nap on the couch in the middle of the workday is pretty good.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Hey! We just did that last year. Where are you going? FYI: we just drove a full day to start our portion of the trip rather than flying because, well, COVID and we live in Texas. We also did whole home Airbnbs all along the way because, again, COVID. We might do it differently if we were going now, but we tried to stay outdoors as much as possible and tried to be as safe as we could since our son couldn't get his vaccine yet.

Our trip was Houston -> Carlsbad -> Roswell/Ruidoso (late waking and travel day) -> White Sands -> Albuquerque (couple days: biking, Petroglyph, downtown Santa Fe) -> Bandelier -> Angel Fire (couple days, seeing a lot of things I saw as a kid in the Enchanted circle: Taos, Rio Grande Gorge, Red River, Angel Fire resort) -> Capulin -> Palo Duro -> home. We also did some goofy stuff like the UFO shaped McDonalds in Roswell, McGinn's PistachioLand, the giant blue whale in Santa Fe, and Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo because, well, it was a road trip.

SI

This is going to be a pretty cheap vacation. We're flying and I used a companion certificate to get a free seat for my wife. I had over 150K IHG points, so I think I'm spending a total of $100 for 7 nights at 7 different hotels. We're flying into Albuquerque, driving down to Carlsbad, then staying in Alamogordo outside White Sands, then west to Silver City area, then back to Albuquerque on the north side, then Los Alamos to be close enough to get to Taos area, then Santa Fe. That's the basic sketch. Only thing I really have to pay for is the car and food.

[AlexB]

I’ve never heard Adele’s speaking voice before tonight. I knew I didn’t like her singing voice, but sheesh, I think I’d rather listen to her sing for 60 minutes than hear her talk for five

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Dutch locals vow to pummel Bezos' yacht with eggs if famed bridge is dismantled : NPR

Typical Rotterdam humor.
Still, how frickin' high must the masts be to be unable to get underneath the bridges in the center of Rotterdam? Somebody must have made a design error.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Looked at a condo today and it's perfect. Was told it already has multiple offers (it's been on the market 3 days) and to give my best offer since they're doing a "beat and final" offers, or whatever it's called. The asking price was already close to my limit, so I did the best I could (~3k above asking price). I doubt I'm going to get it and it's back to the waiting game.

Real estate agent texted me today that they're going to make a decision Monday. At least I don't have to wait a long time to be disappointed.

[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Still, how frickin' high must the masts be to be unable to get underneath the bridges in the center of Rotterdam? Somebody must have made a design error.

The ship's three masts are apparently too high for the bridge's roughly 130-foot clearance.

So, ~100 feet, maybe?

Information I found online indicates the yacht, which would be the world's largest sailing yacht and like cost ~500B USD, is almost 500 feet long, with 3 masts.

[henry296]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Real estate agent texted me today that they're going to make a decision Monday. At least I don't have to wait a long time to be disappointed.

It was a long time ago, but i was in the same situation and outbid the other person by $100 by going over asking price.

[Ksyrup]

So I just ran across the Simulation Football League... being televised. It's apparently an AI v AI league using All-Pro Football 2K8, 20 individually owned teams and players based on real human beings.

And again... televised.

I'm getting waaaaaay too old.

[Lathum]

Channel?

[JonInMiddleGA]

That rapper Kodak Black was shot (in the leg) in West Hollywood last night is not surprising.

That it happened at Bieber's after-party, moreso

[bhlloy]

Cue the jokes about if only somebody had better aim….

[NobodyHere]

Mint Tea is delicious

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Channel?

Next Level Sports. On DirecTV it's 623. Never heard of it before. I was looking for something else in the 600s and ran across it.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Next Level Sports. On DirecTV it's 623. Never heard of it before. I was looking for something else in the 600s and ran across it.

Seems like the perfect thing to check out at 2 AM 14 beers deep while betting on Korean horse racing.

[Ksyrup]

Definitely. It's like a real broadcast of a graphically simulated FOF game. Team owners submit detailed game plans and the simulation runs it while actual announcers call the game. I only stayed on it for 2 minutes until I Google it and then picked my jaw up off the floor. I suppose it's not that bizarre given esports being televised but this goes a couple steps further.

[molson]

I'd really like to see capes become mainstream. I'd like to wear a dashing cape to court.

[cuervo72]

I didn't know you were Frank Costanza's lawyer!

[Edward64]

Per The Incredibles, no capes. You can get sucked into jet engines that way.

[molson]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

I didn't know you were Frank Costanza's lawyer!

It didn't catch on because his cape wasn't dashing enough.

[albionmoonlight]

I spent the morning navigating through various automated phone menus and/or spending it on hold.

I suspect that one of the things that really rich people get with the more expensive places that they do business with is getting an actual helpful human to pick up the phone and talk to them after one ring.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by molson

I'd really like to see capes become mainstream. I'd like to wear a dashing cape to court.

You should hear Izulde's cape story. It involves people running and the police!

[molson]

Capes can't help but provoke adventure!

[Kodos]

Just stay away from wood chippers and the like.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I spent the morning navigating through various automated phone menus and/or spending it on hold.

I suspect that one of the things that really rich people get with the more expensive places that they do business with is getting an actual helpful human to pick up the phone and talk to them after one ring.

Really rich people have people to make phone calls for them.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Just stay away from wood chippers and the like.

So no wood chippers and jet engines. I think I can manage that, when balanced against the benefits.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by henry296

It was a long time ago, but i was in the same situation and outbid the other person by $100 by going over asking price.

Buying something for $100 over asking price sounds like a dream. I picked the worst time to buy, but buy I must because I am slowly losing my mind living where I am right now. Renting would be be an option, wouldn't be the worst thing to rent for a year or two and try again later, but rent is sky high and there's not a lot available there either. Most places with available units have recent horrible ratings and are in areas I don't want to live.

I didn't get the awesome condo I saw last week. I saw a "good enough" condo with a much lower asking price today and made an offer. 2 days on the market and already had a few offers, just like the last one. We'll see...

[stevew]

I’m a sucker for those restoration YouTube channels where they turn some rusted out piece of garbage back into a championship grade slicing knife. But the other day I’m watching one where they (probably) spend hours rehabbing a pair of rusted out scissors. Like scissors are 3/10$ these days and fabric/hair cutting ones are probably like 30-50$ for a more than adequate pair. So like why are we dumping $30 worth of rust removing chemicals to save a pair of shit scissors that are still shit even now that they’re sharpened.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by stevew

I’m a sucker for those restoration YouTube channels where they turn some rusted out piece of garbage back into a championship grade slicing knife. But the other day I’m watching one where they (probably) spend hours rehabbing a pair of rusted out scissors. Like scissors are 3/10$ these days and fabric/hair cutting ones are probably like 30-50$ for a more than adequate pair. So like why are we dumping $30 worth of rust removing chemicals to save a pair of shit scissors that are still shit even now that they’re sharpened.

Because they have viewers like you. How much money do you think the guy made off of the video?

[sabotai]

Searched youtube for "restoring old scissors"

Rusty Japanese Scissor Restoration - 3M views, 2 Years Old
Scissors Restoration [Decay Stopped – Black Scissors] - 2.1M views, 2 Weeks Old
Old Rusted Scissors Restoration - Tool Restoration | Mister Patina - 245K views, 1 Year Old

Three different channels definitely made a damn good profit.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Searched youtube for "restoring old scissors"

Rusty Japanese Scissor Restoration - 3M views, 2 Years Old
Scissors Restoration [Decay Stopped – Black Scissors] - 2.1M views, 2 Weeks Old
Old Rusted Scissors Restoration - Tool Restoration | Mister Patina - 245K views, 1 Year Old

Three different channels definitely made a damn good profit.

Random searching says that Youtube pays $5700 per million views. If true then I need to consider a career in restoring scissors.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Took the garbage can up the hill (driveway) for the first time since I got sick.
Fuck me.

Tomorrow evening I drive more than a few miles for the first time in a month. Naturally, it's supposed to be raining.

I sure hope that goes easier than garbage night did.

[shinebrights]

Originally Posted by NobodyHere

Random searching says that Youtube pays $5700 per million views. If true then I need to consider a career in restoring scissors.

wow
thats a lot

[stevew]

It was the one with 2.1 million views. Obviously all these channels do it for the content views and money. I just need to stop reading the comments cause people in regards to these types of vids act like the video maker has restored Excalibur or something. My YouTube history is all restorations, metal casting, baseball card openings, sneaker reviews and Sopranos clips. I need to find new hobbies

[sabotai]

Offer on the good enough condo was accepted. Now I get to go through a month of paper work and nonstop anxiety. I wish I could turn my brain off and just go through the motions, waking up a month and a half from now having just moved in. And hopefully I get as lucky as Jon's kid and get a place so quiet that I don't even notice that anyone else lives there.

When the housing market crashes and all your homes lose a ton of value at the end of March, sorry.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by sabotai

When the housing market crashes and all your homes lose a ton of value at the end of March, sorry.

Congrats.

When Covid started becoming news, I remember thinking the market is going to crash (it did), the economy will go into recession (it did), people are going to lose their jobs (they did) ... and there'll be a lot of house for sale signs.

Instead, home prices have gone up.

I guess its because of lack of home supply, job losses didn't impact white collar as much, government bailouts that have helped companies retain employees etc. But it's still weird how it turned out, I would have bet money that real estate would have crashed due to unemployment.

[Ksyrup]

We're having some new flooring put in, and I swear, this is worse than moving. Rather than just boxing shit up and forgetting about it until you're in some new, clean place with a fresh start, you have to find a place for stuff that you will unpack in the same places the following week.

Fortunately, we're just replacing our master bedroom carpet with hardwood and redoing the entire upstairs carpeting, but it still sucks. The worst part is the kids' rooms and 3rd bedroom. Mack's room is a mess and she still lives in it, and Caitlin's is like going through memories from 15+ years ago up until a few years ago, now that she no longer lives here but doesn't have room for all the shit she accumulated living at home.

I'm having a fun Saturday morning/afternoon, is what I'm saying. And I still plan to run 7+ miles at some point.