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

[JonInMiddleGA]

Credit where it's due: both occasions I've had to talk to internet tech support for Charter have been nothing but successful & even downright pleasant.

I'm still not planning to let them anywhere near my television service, but the internet folks have been spot on thus far.

[Matthean]

A computer passed the turing test thus fooling 30% of people into thinking it was human.

A Computer Program Has Passed the Turing Test For the First Time

[sterlingice]

I'd think this result a lot bigger deal if it weren't just 1 in 3 people, say 10 out of 30. But 1 out of 3 seems like such a small sample size and it could just be one "defective" human

SI

[stevew]

Should not have eaten those nachos last night.

Also PNC Park has a shockingly bad selection of food. Once you get past the Primanti Bros it's just a collection of shitty overpriced hot dogs and burgers. Like even accounting for stuff being radically overpriced it's not like any of the food is must have.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by stevew

Also PNC Park has a shockingly bad selection of food. Once you get past the Primanti Bros it's just a collection of shitty overpriced hot dogs and burgers. Like even accounting for stuff being radically overpriced it's not like any of the food is must have.

Didn't you just describe pretty much every athletic facility ever? Especially once you gave the "except for X" disclaimer.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Didn't you just describe pretty much every athletic facility ever? Especially once you gave the "except for X" disclaimer.

Not really, most of the modern ballparks have great food selections.

I was at Great American this weekend and they had all kinds of stuff, including a fresh market that had fruit, yogurt, juice, etc...basically a convenience store.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Not really, most of the modern ballparks have great food selections.

I was at Great American this weekend and they had all kinds of stuff, including a fresh market that had fruit, yogurt, juice, etc...basically a convenience store.

I guess I was thinking more along the lines of the quality rather than selection. I mean, in the c-store example, it's (presumably) not like you were thinking "OMG, this is the greatest $8 mini fruit cup EVER".

Turner Field, for example, has bbq, made-to-order tacos & burritos, pizza -- stuff beyond burgers & hot dogs in other words -- there's even a pseudo food truck from Waffle House ... but I don't know that there's really anything particularly special about any of it.

A little Googling turns up similar stuff -- beyond burgers & dogs -- at PNC Park too. A $14.50 grilled cheese sandwich, veggie stuffed pita, smoked tomato risotto, a lobster BLT, and duck confit grilled cheese on Texas toast.

*The article credits those items to Aramark, so I'm sort of assuming they're aren't part of the Primanti Brothers options that Steve excluded.

[stevew]

I didn't see any of that stuff other than the BRGR place. Would have killed for a chipolte knockoff or some kind of BBQ.

The Primanti's sandwiches are actually a pretty "fair" deal as far as park food goes. I think they're like 6 or so bucks at the store but like 8.50 in game. Not too bad. Also they had the quaker steak and lube wings stand but I can't see who would want to get all greasy and saucy in the stadium. Would need some serious wetnaps.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'm getting really tired of having the power go off every time we have even a moderate thunderstorm. So far so good but it's happened I think 3 or 4 storms in a row now so it feels like just a matter of time.

The issue isn't lightning strikes, the problem is that the utility companies have stopped doing their traditional (at least most of my lifetime) preventative tree trimming so anything on the main line feeding these neighborhoods that hasn't been buried is basically sitting in the middle of a aerial forest all along the roadside. It's f'n ridiculous.

[ColtCrazy]

Managed to accomplish 3 things I had never done before: get a concussion, wear a neck brace, get a CT scan. Would love to tell you it was doing something daring, but it was just me knocking this 39 year old head on the ground while playing touch football with men 15 years younger than me. Ah, age, the cruel bitch.

[Matthean]

Netflix’s Response To Verizon’s Cease And Desist Letter

[cartman]

This might deserve its own thread. We are coming up on an epic sports weekend. The World Cup starts, the US Open tees off, NBA Finals, NHL Finals, and the College World Series.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by cartman

This might deserve its own thread. We are coming up on an epic sports weekend. The World Cup starts, the US Open tees off, NBA Finals, NHL Finals, and the College World Series.

And more importantly, it's just 76 days until college football season kicks off

[korme]

Tended bar last night, late night. Woken up at 8:30 AM to a loud crashing sound. Startled, I get up, nothing is different. Then, I hear loud voices outside. I check through my peephole... and sure enough, my pot smoking hippy neighbors got their doors KICKED THE FUCK IN from about 10 cops doing a search warrant.

[korme]

Just looked that story up, wasn't sure if you were joking. I don't think so. I think these kids were just into heavy drugs or something.

I've now checked my mail (empty box), taken out a half bag of trash, and moved my car from one spot to another. Keep being a nosy bastard, finding excuses to go into the hallway and listen in

[cartman]

Lucky for you they had the right address, and what you saw when you looked out the peephole wasn't a battering ram heading your way.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by korme

Just looked that story up, wasn't sure if you were joking. I don't think so. I think these kids were just into heavy drugs or something.

I've now checked my mail (empty box), taken out a half bag of trash, and moved my car from one spot to another. Keep being a nosy bastard, finding excuses to go into the hallway and listen in

Find a cop and ask them, you live in the building and have a right to know what is happening.

[Chief Rum]

Originally Posted by cartman

This might deserve its own thread. We are coming up on an epic sports weekend. The World Cup starts, the US Open tees off, NBA Finals, NHL Finals, and the College World Series.

And regular season baseball!

[korme]

I asked one guy what the search warrant was for and he said he couldn't give me that information.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by korme

I asked one guy what the search warrant was for and he said he couldn't give me that information.

Tell him you are a sovereign citizen, and you demand he tells you the information. Be sure to have someone recording it.

[Lathum]

I find listening to the radio stressful at times. The worst is when I am flipping around and find a song I kind of like. I always have the dilema do I stop and listen or do I keep going through my presets. I am always worried I will listen, then change over to hear the end of a really good song. IT always makes me feel like I settled. The problem is if I flip and find nothing I then miss the decent song.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by cartman

Tell him you are a sovereign citizen, and you demand he tells you the information. Be sure to have someone recording it.

And for the best results, be sure to say those things in as douchey of a way as possible.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by cartman

This might deserve its own thread. We are coming up on an epic sports weekend. The World Cup starts, the US Open tees off, NBA Finals, NHL Finals, and the College World Series.

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

And more importantly, it's just 76 days until college football season kicks off

I'd gladly take a regular college football weekend over the upcoming "epic" weekend any time.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I'd gladly take a regular college football weekend over the upcoming "epic" weekend any time.

Meh. There's more to life than just football.

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Meh. There's more to life than just football.

True.

There's also recruiting season

[sabotai]

If you're like me and you're cynical at all about relationships and people in general, what you should definitely not do is go to reddit and peruse the Relationship subreddit....

holy shit...

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

True.

There's also recruiting season

I know it's mostly in jest, but I do detest that we've gotten to a point where football bleeds over into all other seasons. I guess that must be what it's like in other countries around soccer.

SI

[ColtCrazy]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I know it's mostly in jest, but I do detest that we've gotten to a point where football bleeds over into all other seasons. I guess that must be what it's like in other countries around soccer.

SI

Yeah…I would agree with you. This is generally a down time for football, but here you have OTAs and the like and it's nearly constant. Soccer is the same…transfer rumors and coaching moves. Someone has to be eating all this stuff up.

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by sabotai

And for the best results, be sure to say those things in as douchey of a way as possible.

And be sure to insist they stop their court-ordered operation until you know the truth!

[molson]

Originally Posted by sabotai

If you're like me and you're cynical at all about relationships and people in general, what you should definitely not do is go to reddit and peruse the Relationship subreddit....

holy shit...

I occasionally enjoy subreddits that make me more functional and effective as a human relative to the population. I wish my girlfriend was into reddit though, and particularly that subreddit, she'd think I was the greatest boyfriend in history.

[Draft Dodger]

so, for years I've had a guy mistakenly using my gmail address to sign up for stuff. I've gotten birthday invitations and a bachelor party invite. I got a rental contract. I'm on the Ted Nugent mailing list and the Mitch McConnell mailing list. I know the guy's name and where he's from but I don't know how to contact him (other than my own email address, natch). So I mostly just ignore them.

A couple months ago, I got confirmation of his match.com signup complete with his password (nice security!). I don't know how that all turned out for him, but I'm thinking not so good as today I got the confirmation that he signed up with milfaholic.com (again, complete with password). Good luck, other me, hope that works out for you. oh, and youngpinkibruhh and ZipTheArtsyFox would like to see a photo of you. And HoneySuede just viewed your profile.

In other news, I would not recommend going to milfhaolic at work, if the profile pictures in the email is any indication.

[stevew]

My wife has some dude that uses her gmail by mistake like that as well. I can only assume he had her same prefix @hotmail, and old habits are hard to break. She's even received money via paypal that the guy's father has sent him for birthday gifts and such. The other day they sent her information about his auto insurance claim.

I would at least try to send him a message @yahoo or @hotmail and tell him to knock it off.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

so, for years I've had a guy mistakenly using my gmail address to sign up for stuff. I've gotten birthday invitations and a bachelor party invite. I got a rental contract. I'm on the Ted Nugent mailing list and the Mitch McConnell mailing list. I know the guy's name and where he's from but I don't know how to contact him (other than my own email address, natch). So I mostly just ignore them.

A couple months ago, I got confirmation of his match.com signup complete with his password (nice security!). I don't know how that all turned out for him, but I'm thinking not so good as today I got the confirmation that he signed up with milfaholic.com (again, complete with password). Good luck, other me, hope that works out for you. oh, and youngpinkibruhh and ZipTheArtsyFox would like to see a photo of you. And HoneySuede just viewed your profile.

In other news, I would not recommend going to milfhaolic at work, if the profile pictures in the email is any indication.

SI

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by stevew

I would at least try to send him a message @yahoo or @hotmail and tell him to knock it off.

I have tried to track him down before (and don't want to send a blind email). But I think I may have gone past the point of no return, now that I have to explain that the naked photos meant for him have been coming to me

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

so, for years I've had a guy mistakenly using my gmail address to sign up for stuff. I've gotten birthday invitations and a bachelor party invite. I got a rental contract. I'm on the Ted Nugent mailing list and the Mitch McConnell mailing list. I know the guy's name and where he's from but I don't know how to contact him (other than my own email address, natch). So I mostly just ignore them.

A couple months ago, I got confirmation of his match.com signup complete with his password (nice security!). I don't know how that all turned out for him, but I'm thinking not so good as today I got the confirmation that he signed up with milfaholic.com (again, complete with password). Good luck, other me, hope that works out for you. oh, and youngpinkibruhh and ZipTheArtsyFox would like to see a photo of you. And HoneySuede just viewed your profile.

In other news, I would not recommend going to milfhaolic at work, if the profile pictures in the email is any indication.

DD, it is a moral imperative that you go on milfaholic, match and other sites, edit his profile and post the results here.

[PilotMan]

All this should be moved to the online dating thread.

[Draft Dodger]

I am really tempted, I won't lie

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

so, for years I've had a guy mistakenly using my gmail address to sign up for stuff. I've gotten birthday invitations and a bachelor party invite. I got a rental contract. I'm on the Ted Nugent mailing list and the Mitch McConnell mailing list. I know the guy's name and where he's from but I don't know how to contact him (other than my own email address, natch). So I mostly just ignore them.

A couple months ago, I got confirmation of his match.com signup complete with his password (nice security!). I don't know how that all turned out for him, but I'm thinking not so good as today I got the confirmation that he signed up with milfaholic.com (again, complete with password). Good luck, other me, hope that works out for you. oh, and youngpinkibruhh and ZipTheArtsyFox would like to see a photo of you. And HoneySuede just viewed your profile.

In other news, I would not recommend going to milfhaolic at work, if the profile pictures in the email is any indication.

There are about 4 people who have thought mckerney@gmail is their email address. As a result I've got vacation photos, account info for satellite internet service, scanned copies of bills, shipping info for some guy's assault rifle, and messages with titles like, "5 pounds Heavy Poly Plastic Pellets Reborn dolls for sale" and "How to Dress to Flatter an Apple Body Type | eHow.com".

On my main email address I don't get nearly as much, only thing I've been signed up for lately is a mailing list for a country club in Australia.

[Logan]

Damn it.

Maybe have mentioned it here once or twice, but my wife and I adopted two kittens (brothers we named Leo and Hank) back in October. She always had cats growing up, I was never a cat person, but knew they would end up being a part of our family at some point. Fast forward to now (or really, months ago) and I love those two like crazy. Never would have thought I'd say that.

So a few months back, we realized that one of them had gotten much bigger but the other (Leo) hadn't gained much weight. We thought maybe he was just the runt of the litter since he seemed to eat a ton, definitely more than his brother. But about a month ago, he threw up for the first time since we we first got him and then did so pretty much every week (not food, just acid type stuff). Did some googling and thought maybe he caught a parasite or had a tapeworm which would make all the eating and no weight gain make sense. Figured it was wise to take him to the vet.

Appointment was on Friday and they took some samples but when the vet checked him, he could feel a mass on his abdomen. Recommended an ultrasound and x-rays, which thankfully they were able to squeeze in this morning (next actual available opening was July 14th). My wife took him over and was going to wait for about an hour for the results...I had a bad feeling and left work also and headed over in case we were going to get bad news.

About 10 mins after I showed up, we saw the doctor. The ultrasound images get sent out so we won't know the official results until tomorrow, but based on the x-ray, he's 95% sure it's a two-inch tumor and Leo has lymphoma. There are some smaller masses in there as well. The vet is really surprised as cancer in cats this young is pretty rare, but it does happen.

My wife is a mess of course but we're holding out hope on the slim chance it's something else that is treatable. If you would have told me a year ago I'd be feeling this way about a cat, I'd have said you were nuts.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

so, for years I've had a guy mistakenly using my gmail address to sign up for stuff. I've gotten birthday invitations and a bachelor party invite. I got a rental contract. I'm on the Ted Nugent mailing list and the Mitch McConnell mailing list. I know the guy's name and where he's from but I don't know how to contact him (other than my own email address, natch). So I mostly just ignore them.

A couple months ago, I got confirmation of his match.com signup complete with his password (nice security!). I don't know how that all turned out for him, but I'm thinking not so good as today I got the confirmation that he signed up with milfaholic.com (again, complete with password). Good luck, other me, hope that works out for you. oh, and youngpinkibruhh and ZipTheArtsyFox would like to see a photo of you. And HoneySuede just viewed your profile.

In other news, I would not recommend going to milfhaolic at work, if the profile pictures in the email is any indication.

God I swear this post could have been written by me. Not the milfaholic part, but the match.com stuff and the random other stuff also. Hilarious.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Very sorry to hear Logan. Went through lymphoma with a very dear cat. FWIW, in our case the chemotherapy was expensive but effective and gave her a good quality of life for almost two additional years. Awful situation no matter what though, my sincerest condolences.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Very sorry to hear Logan. Went through lymphoma with a very dear cat. FWIW, in our case the chemotherapy was expensive but effective and gave her a good quality of life for almost two additional years. Awful situation no matter what though, my sincerest condolences.

Thanks very much. We'll start exploring options once we know for sure. My wife works with children with cancer so quality of life, both with and without treatment, will obviously be a major factor. Sorry to bring up tough memories but do you mind if I ask how your cat was doing at the time you found out about her diagnosis? Our little guy seems to be pretty happy and content all things considered, so that will surely play a part.

Belated condolences to you guys as well.

[Radii]

hah, there are coutnless people who think rdixon is their gmail address. My favorite was someone signing up for a local adult friend finder type service in new Zealand. I actually have a secondary gmail address that I only use in case someone else has already used my e-mail by accident at a site. My myfitnesspal.com user handle is like that, some guy in his 50s used my e-mail and I just let it go.

I did "hijack" an account once to re-claim it as my own by getting a password reset. It was for Pandora. Whoever was using it before had a terrible taste in music and wasn't paying for it so I didn't feel bad about it at all.

Lastly, one guy who has e-mails sent to me has friended me on gchat and asks me about once a month to be on the lookout for something to forward to him. His name also is R Dixon, somehow when he created his gmail account he thought it would be a good idea to just add an extra vowel into the middle of his last name and that would not cause people problems. For example, instead of rdixon at gmail, he is rdixaon at gmail. That's not exactly it, but you get the idea. Who could have possibly thought that to be a good idea!?!?

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Logan

Thanks very much. We'll start exploring options once we know for sure. My wife works with children with cancer so quality of life, both with and without treatment, will obviously be a major factor. Sorry to bring up tough memories but do you mind if I ask how your cat was doing at the time you found out about her diagnosis? Our little guy seems to be pretty happy and content all things considered, so that will surely play a part. Belated condolences to you guys as well.

Callie was presenting pretty much fine prior to diagnosis. That always seems to be our luck, go to the vet for something routine or minor and get hammered with some awful diagnosis out of the blue.

fwiw, I didn't mean to jump straight to chemo quite so abruptly (was overly stream of consciousness for me to hit that topic immediately).

I really just wanted to make the point that it can actually be legitimately productive & helpful, that there really is a good quality of life possible during & after. Remission does happen, although with cats it's sadly rarely (almost never?) permanent.

The expense is a really tough call to make (IIRC, about $3000 for just the chemo course, plus the visits, tests, etc.) In our case however it was no question, this was the cat that stayed within arms reach of my wife at pretty much all times as she recovered from her own cancer surgery. She was simply too loyal & loving for my wife to do anything other than try to repay that as best we could.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Radii

Who could have possibly thought that to be a good idea!?!?

RDixon, obviously

[Logan]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Callie was presenting pretty much fine prior to diagnosis. That always seems to be our luck, go to the vet for something routine or minor and get hammered with some awful diagnosis out of the blue.

fwiw, I didn't mean to jump straight to chemo quite so abruptly (was overly stream of consciousness for me to hit that topic immediately).

I really just wanted to make the point that it can actually be legitimately productive & helpful, that there really is a good quality of life possible during & after. Remission does happen, although with cats it's sadly rarely (almost never?) permanent.

The expense is a really tough call to make (IIRC, about $3000 for just the chemo course, plus the visits, tests, etc.) In our case however it was no question, this was the cat that stayed within arms reach of my wife at pretty much all times as she recovered from her own cancer surgery. She was simply too loyal & loving for my wife to do anything other than try to repay that as best we could.

Thanks for sharing. No worries on the chemo discussion, I was already thinking about it on my own and figured it would come up if anyone had personal experience (and may have even triggered it from you by talking about it being something else that's "treatable).

[korme]

ESPN got a makeover I see.

[Matthean]

The One Thing You Never Noticed In “Back To The Future”

[sterlingice]

Actually, I had seen that before. There are quite a few easter eggs like that in BTTF and, lamentably, not as many in BTTF2 or 3

SI

[molson]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Actually, I had seen that before. There are quite a few easter eggs like that in BTTF and, lamentably, not as many in BTTF2 or 3

SI

If you don't think that kid creepily pointing to his package in BTTF3 isn't a solid easter egg, I don't know what to tell you.

Creepy Kid from Back To The Future 3 points to his flux capacitor - YouTube