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

[RainMaker]

I also had a similar incident with Expedia many years ago. They told me that I would be credited back and I forgot about it. Couple months later I realized I never was and basically double paid.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

YES!

Hotels.com told me to take it up with the hotel, the hotel tells me to take it up with Hotels.com. I eventually just charged back my purchase through Hotels.com and it worked.

Ok similar runaround here. I may attempt to charge back both just to see the world burn.

[stevew]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

And from Googling, they were the first one (and most bitched about one) to drop the stick.

Fuckin need to bring that stick back.

[21C]

I am getting leg cramps more and more often during the night. Some of them are so bad that the only way to relieve them is to get out of bed and stand upright.

It is probably related to dehydration but, whenever I drink a lot of water during the day, I get up to piss multiple times through the night. So swings and roundabouts.

My googling of this indicated that this is more common for older people. FML

[Ksyrup]

I stopped using those aggregator sites when I had a bad experience the second time. I can't remember the situation, but I needed flights that combined two airlines and everything was great until one of the segments was cancelled. I called the airline to reschedule and they refused and told me to go to Expedia or whoever it was. I threw a fit and they finally rebooked me after getting the run-around for about 30 minutes. So I just stopped dealing with those sites altogether.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Can you use 2 crackers to get a uniform spread?



Sure, having a bunch of stupid red plastic sticks floating around is not good for the environment and we all know that. But we also all know they used that as an excuse to save 1.5c on each package. The eco-friendly was just scapegoat.

SI

Seems like a little wooden stick would work just fine. Like they used to have for those little ice cream containers.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by 21C

I am getting leg cramps more and more often during the night. Some of them are so bad that the only way to relieve them is to get out of bed and stand upright.

It is probably related to dehydration but, whenever I drink a lot of water during the day, I get up to piss multiple times through the night. So swings and roundabouts.

My googling of this indicated that this is more common for older people. FML

I had a similar issue with my hamstring. It was brutal. Try eating a banana before bed, the potassium will help.

Also I recommend valerian root. You can get it anywhere supplements are sold. It is a natural relaxer. Can also try Pedialyte before bed.

[21C]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I had a similar issue with my hamstring. It was brutal. Try eating a banana before bed, the potassium will help.

Also I recommend valerian root. You can get it anywhere supplements are sold. It is a natural relaxer. Can also try Pedialyte before bed.

Where is the Like button on this board?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by 21C

Where is the Like button on this board?

Ha! Lets wait and see if it works.

One other thing, I use a foam roller on my legs. Sit on the floor with your legs out and hands propping you up, then one leg at a time move forward and backward across the roller. several times.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

I stopped using those aggregator sites when I had a bad experience the second time. I can't remember the situation, but I needed flights that combined two airlines and everything was great until one of the segments was cancelled. I called the airline to reschedule and they refused and told me to go to Expedia or whoever it was. I threw a fit and they finally rebooked me after getting the run-around for about 30 minutes. So I just stopped dealing with those sites altogether.

I like to use them to find a good price and then book from the actual vendor site. So, basically, use Expedia or whatever to find the best car rate and then go to Hertz to book it.

SI

[cuervo72]

Ah good, so it's not just me with the night leg cramps.

[Lathum]

I will never understand people using their car as a memorial to a dead loved one.

[miami_fan]

I went on a field trip with my 8th grader today. We went to an academic center where they learned about budgeting, financial literacy, and other financial "adult" things. I don't know how the center made these determinations, but each student had a scenario where they were either single or married, had children or not, had either a high school diploma, bachelors or masters degree, had a job, yearly and monthly salary and was given a FICO score. They then went to various "businesses" to learn about what services they provides and the cost of those services. Think, groceries, insurance, child care, etc. Then they had to create a budget based on money they had after taxes and whatever savings they decided to do beforehand. Finally, they had to spend based on what they needs or wanted while staying within their budgets and income.

Holy shit! That was an eye opener. Yes I know, financial literacy is low throughout the country. I know my memory is bad, I swear my oldest and his peers knew more about some of this stuff when he was the same age. Some of it was a bit silly. Of course the majority of the kids made sure to budget for the premium internet while not being able to pay for some place to live. Most of the kids did not budget any money for health insurance. Again, makes sense as they are still invincible in their minds.

A couple things stood out. The number of kids who did not budget for anything car related was higher than I expected. My son is already talking about getting his learner's permit on his next birthday. I asked a couple of the kids and one response I got from one of the kids was that he planned to Uber everywhere. That makes sense if that is how you know to go from place to place.

The second thing that stood out was how the kids knew adult work arounds (legal and illegal) for whatever they could not afford or did not want to spend money. If they could not afford the house they wanted? Well they would just move in with someone. Couldn't afford insurance? Drive without it. If they were married and felt they food bill was too high compared to what their single friend spent? Then they had to get a divorce. One girl was shocked when she (as a single mom in her scenario) saw how high her child care bill was. The girl sitting next to her suggested that she get an abortion. Yes I know that it not the way that works but I don't feel like it was my place to tell her.

I learned a lot today.

[Lathum]

Did they factor in crippling student loan debt for the ones with higher education?

[miami_fan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Did they factor in crippling student loan debt for the ones with higher education?

Yes, all of the college graduates had debt that they had to pay back . It was explained that they could avoid that debt by getting scholarships, working and paying for the class themselves or having someone else pay for college. They also had to apply for mortgage and car loans and were approved/denied based on their credit score. The shock for some of the kids when they found out their loan for their Mustang was not only denied but they did not qualify for any loan based on their salary was palpable. It really was a good program for the kids if they take it to heart.

[sterlingice]

That's a pretty cool workshop. We talk about kids needing to know that stuff and having classes for it and that's not a bad simulation. A good one would be that you have to do it like 4 different times in 4 different situations to compare what each is like and the life differences. Either way, it's a good idea.

SI

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by miami_fan

A couple things stood out. The number of kids who did not budget for anything car related was higher than I expected. My son is already talking about getting his learner's permit on his next birthday. I asked a couple of the kids and one response I got from one of the kids was that he planned to Uber everywhere. That makes sense if that is how you know to go from place to place.

I'm seeing less and less teens interested in getting their license at 16. That was almost a gateway into adulthood when I was that age, but now kids see it as more of an inconvenience or just simply unnecessary.

[Lathum]

I love Wednesday. It’s soup day and I get to use my immersion blender.

[molson]

UPS now requires (in my situation at least) for me to pay to pickup a signature-required package at the UPS facility. Or I can stay home from work and they bring it to my house for free. I'm feeling spiteful over this and might just have the package sent back.

Edit: Yup, $7.99 for the privilege of driving out to the airport facility to get it rather than having it delivered to my house.

[flere-imsaho]

I've been doing a really good roasted red pepper soup with my immersion blender the past few weeks.

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by molson

UPS now requires (in my situation at least) for me to pay to pickup a signature-required package at the UPS facility. Or I can stay home from work and they bring it to my house for free. I'm feeling spiteful over this and might just have the package sent back.

Edit: Yup, $7.99 for the privilege of driving out to the airport facility to get it rather than having it delivered to my house.

UPS is thee worst.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

UPS is thee worst.

FedEx

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

FedEx

+1

[21C]

Originally Posted by molson

UPS now requires (in my situation at least) for me to pay to pickup a signature-required package at the UPS facility. Or I can stay home from work and they bring it to my house for free. I'm feeling spiteful over this and might just have the package sent back.

Edit: Yup, $7.99 for the privilege of driving out to the airport facility to get it rather than having it delivered to my house.

I have been getting most of my packages delivered to me at work.

I am lucky with the postal service because if I get a failed delivery at my home address then I can just pick it up from the post office which is a short walk from my place.

What is annoying with Australia Post is that I will often get a "missed delivery" even when I am home. Apparently it is more time efficient for them to leave a card than to buzz me in my apartment and wait for me to come downstairs.

When I got failed deliveries with courier companies then I would often have to go to their depot to pick up my item. But they have been getting better with this. I can now arrange to have it delivered to an alternative address which is so much more convenient.

[flere-imsaho]

Of course, the thing the meme doesn't convey is that while UPS will give you that as tracking, the likelihood of the actual delivery time matching the day, much less the time, is not high.

[Ksyrup]

FedEx might as well not even pretend to have tracking. I get a ton of packages, and any time they come from FedEx, it still shows on the tracking page that it's waiting to be picked up even when I know it's supposed to be delivered within the next day or so. It'll be in "pick up" status for 4-5 days when that's clearly not the case. When they do update it, it's so out of date that it's useless. And then of course, when they miss the shippers expected delivery date, it still tells you at 10pm that it's expected that day even though it was never on a truck that day at all.

Useless.

UPS is much better. I don't have many issues with late packages, but getting status updates, FedEx is big swing and miss. Repeatedly. That is their system, it's not just a one-off. It happens every single time.

[stevew]

Lasership is really awful. It's last mile stuff.

[Atocep]

Most of my issues with UPS have been around the holidays when they hire the temp drivers.

FedEx has been consistently bad for as long as I can remember.

OnTrac is hands down the worst experience I've actually had with any of them. I had Amazon remove them as a delivery option for my account it was so bad.

[Kodos]

FedEx was screwed once Tom Hanks's plane went down.

[molson]

I paid the UPS extortion fee, and the website now says my request for them to hold the package has been accepted. But it doesn't tell me WHERE it's being held. I know where I used to pickup packages years ago. But it looks like my decision to give in on this is going to result on time spend on hold on the phone today. Wonderful.


99% of packages are just left at the door. It's not a great neighborhood and there's a lot of package theft, but we do have some well-placed bushes that conceal the front porch from the road. I know people follow the trucks around to steal just-delivered packages, but, that hasn't happened to me yet.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

FedEx might as well not even pretend to have tracking. I get a ton of packages, and any time they come from FedEx, it still shows on the tracking page that it's waiting to be picked up even when I know it's supposed to be delivered within the next day or so. It'll be in "pick up" status for 4-5 days when that's clearly not the case. When they do update it, it's so out of date that it's useless. And then of course, when they miss the shippers expected delivery date, it still tells you at 10pm that it's expected that day even though it was never on a truck that day at all.

Useless.

UPS is much better. I don't have many issues with late packages, but getting status updates, FedEx is big swing and miss. Repeatedly. That is their system, it's not just a one-off. It happens every single time.

180 degrees opposite my experiences in Georgia. I've long figured it was very geographical tbh.

Unless you were dealing with Airborne. They sucked EVERYwhere.

[stevew]

Music copyright is something I should have been interested in a lifetime ago. It came out yesterday that Dua Lipa possibly copied the hook for Levitating and I can only imagine the exposure on this. 1.69 billion streams on Spotify. I imagine this is a 100 million dollar case?

Dua Lipa sued by Artikal Sound System for plagiarism on Levitating. Did she? (comparison mashup) - YouTube

[Ksyrup]

I like the "Did she?" as if there's a question. I mean, c'mon.

[GrantDawg]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

180 degrees opposite my experiences in Georgia. I've long figured it was very geographical tbh.

Unless you were dealing with Airborne. They sucked EVERYwhere.

Really? Every time I get a package sent from Fed Ex it is either late or delivered to the wrong house. Heck, I had a large check left on my neighbors doorstep by Fed Ex. Never had a single problem with UPS. Amazon sometimes, but not with UPS.

[Ksyrup]

BTW, here's Rick Beato's review of the Dua Lipa thing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Really? Every time I get a package sent from Fed Ex it is either late or delivered to the wrong house. Heck, I had a large check left on my neighbors doorstep by Fed Ex. Never had a single problem with UPS. Amazon sometimes, but not with UPS.

Yeah, I haven't had any reliability worth a damn from UPS -- not in Monticello, not in Athens -- in over 20 years now. They're barely better than USPS anywhere I've been in a long time.

Fed Ex? The only issues we really ever have with them are the occasional crazy loops that are attributed to staffing shortages (you know, the pkgs that go from Memphis to Atlanta to Louisivllle back to Atlanta back to Memphis back to Louisville and THEN finally to Athens). But that's only happened a couple times.

[Ksyrup]

Ha, reading through the comments in the Beato YT I posted above, someone mentioned that she also ripped off INXS on Break My Heart (which I'd never heard either). So I looked it up, and sure enough, the music in the chorus of her song is basically the main musical rhythm pattern of Need You Tonight. Now, it's not as obvious as the one above, because it sounds like it might be in a different key and there's a slightly different chord progression at least in one small section, but it's basically the same rhythm pattern and sounds pretty much the same.

[Kodos]

Yeah, that was pretty blatant. The ripoff of INXS was at least more subtle.

[cuervo72]

That's way worse than the Gaye/Thicke deal.

[Lathum]

God I hate scammers.

My 75 year old widowed next door neighbor showed up at our door a couple hours ago, beside herself. Very frazzled and told us that she is in trouble and "they" are on her phone and computer. After some time I was able to determine she had some kind of spyware that popped up and told her it was Windows and her computer was infected. She of course called the number and was told her bank account had been hacked and they were transferring her to her bank. She was then told 9K was taken from her account and they need her to go to get gift cards to fix the problem. They told her they would even stay on the phone with her. She said she was tired and they told her they would call tomorrow, At this point she came to our house. We called the bank, confirmed there was no unusual activity. I then went to her house and ran anti virus scan on her computer and closed all the pop up windows. One thing that worries me is it appears she may have established a link with someone, but it may have just been for show. She was able to access her bank account, change her passwords etc...Feel bad for her, she was really rattled.

[thesloppy]

I went into a convenience store today and there was some kinda freestanding Bitcoin ATM in there.



Who is making cash-based crypto purchases at the convenience store? Like, if you're buying crypto, why would you want to do it physically, in $20 chunks?

Maybe it's just intended as something like a proxy bank account for all the fringe folks without addresses/ID? I guess that's a potentially large market & useful purpose. I am fascinated.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Lathum

God I hate scammers.

My 75 year old widowed next door neighbor showed up at our door a couple hours ago, beside herself. Very frazzled and told us that she is in trouble and "they" are on her phone and computer. After some time I was able to determine she had some kind of spyware that popped up and told her it was Windows and her computer was infected. She of course called the number and was told her bank account had been hacked and they were transferring her to her bank. She was then told 9K was taken from her account and they need her to go to get gift cards to fix the problem. They told her they would even stay on the phone with her. She said she was tired and they told her they would call tomorrow, At this point she came to our house. We called the bank, confirmed there was no unusual activity. I then went to her house and ran anti virus scan on her computer and closed all the pop up windows. One thing that worries me is it appears she may have established a link with someone, but it may have just been for show. She was able to access her bank account, change her passwords etc...Feel bad for her, she was really rattled.

you just got a million heaven points

[21C]

Originally Posted by 21C

I have been getting most of my packages delivered to me at work.

And then I screw myself because I order from Amazon (Australia) on a Wednesday evening and select the option to deliver by Friday so I select to deliver to my work (high school).

My delivery window comes up as "deliver by 8pm" but school ends at 3pm so I wait and wait . . .

Thankfully the delivery is made at 4:15pm just as I was ready to cut and run.

[NobodyHere]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Of course, the thing the meme doesn't convey is that while UPS will give you that as tracking, the likelihood of the actual delivery time matching the day, much less the time, is not high.

Amazon's tracking tells me I'm the next stop for the delivery guy and has a map of where he's supposedly at.

ETA:

And my package has been delivered.

[21C]

I get a rambling message from my brother on FB messenger. It could be from him if he had been drinking but it sounded like a bot message so I check to see if he sent it. He says yes so I am worried that he sounded melancholy. I ask him if he is OK and he thinks that I am questioning his sanity.

I then have a video chat with him for a while where he seemed fine (but more than likely had been drinking).

When I end the video call, he sends me a message "did i sound sane?"

I reply with "You sounded like you normally sound . . ."

[Atocep]

I have a package coming Fed Ex. Originally scheduled to be delivered last Wednesday. It's obviously late, but their tracking has said it's been on the truck and out for delivery every day since Friday.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I have a package coming Fed Ex. Originally scheduled to be delivered last Wednesday. It's obviously late, but their tracking has said it's been on the truck and out for delivery every day since Friday.

I'm curious about something: are you typically a late in the day delivery? One thing that seems to be happening a lot lately based on what I've read is that packages get loaded but not delivered because the volume is so high that drivers literally don't finish their routes. And apparently there's nothing about late delivery that gives a package a higher priority, so the cycle just repeats.

Another thing I've read happening is trucks being loaded, only to have no driver show up.

Also, seems that ground deliveries (handled by contractors for "last mile") are in considerably worse shape than their next-day/2-day stuff (handled by actual FedEx employees).

FTR, I'm not defending them (or any delivery company), I just see so much of this sort of thing (here and elsewhere) that I try to make any sense out of it at all.

[stevew]

I just got a LaserShip package from Nike today that I ordered on Saturday night. But some other random stuff will be in limbo for a few extra days. I'm assuming they shipped the shoes out of a local store or something?

[henry296]

Originally Posted by stevew

I just got a LaserShip package from Nike today that I ordered on Saturday night. But some other random stuff will be in limbo for a few extra days. I'm assuming they shipped the shoes out of a local store or something?

Probably, it or could be from different warehouse locations when there was not a single location that had all of the products you ordered.

[albionmoonlight]

I stayed in a hotel last night. And there were no outlets anywhere near either of the end tables. That’s weird, right? People have been carrying devices that they like to charge overnight and keep by the bed for over a decade now. It wasn’t a huge inconvenience. Just something it seems like a hotel would have dealt with a long time ago.