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

[cartman]

with a name like that you'd think she'd be can't miss

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Wimp! I did it with no anesthesia. Talked to the doc the whole time, watched it on the screen. Of course, I'll admit that the nurse kinda tricked me into not getting the anesthesia by indirectly challenging my manhood. But it honestly wasn't that bad. Tad uncomfortable at times but nothing I'd call painful. More weird than anything.

Seriously?

I also had an endoscopy, so yeah, put me out.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

Been taping Celebrity Wheel of Fortune. Yeah, I know, but it's decent filler for days when my brain is fried and I can't deal with Jeopardy! and don't feel like watching reruns of Raymond.

Watched the episode with Tori Spelling last night. Yikes.

I didn't watch the episode - honestly, after seeing her I couldn't - but I was late in flipping to something else and it was on, and I saw her, and ... holy hell. I've always thought she was ugly, even back when she was young. But now, between age and all the work she's had done, the only thing I could think of was the dude from Mask (the Cher movie). Seriously, she looked just like him.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Seriously?

I also had an endoscopy, so yeah, put me out.

Yes, it's true although I was obviously kidding about being a wimp. The nurse asked if I wanted it like there was a choice, and then she told me most men can handle it, so I guess I was like, "I'm a man, I can handle it!" And I did. The nurse who took care of me afterward was thrilled because she basically had nothing to do but tell me to get dressed and kick me out of the building 5 minutes after I finished.

[Ksyrup]

While on the subject of people who have had way too much work done to their faces...

I don't know if anyone watches Gold Rush, but Rick Ness's GF is on the show and ... wow. Not what I was expecting at all. I really like that dude, he seems down to earth, so the last thing I expected was someone who looked like a washed up pole dancer who had $100K of plastic surgery performed by Dr. Nick from the Simpsons. She looks like Lady Elaine from Mr. Rogers.

[stevew]

how do you get out of 18 month federal grand jury duty?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by stevew

how do you get out of 18 month federal grand jury duty?

What kind of trial takes 18 months?!?

SI

[stevew]

It's my wife and you have to meet like a few days in a row every 4-5 weeks or something. And even though we get reimbursement, the courthouse is like 60-70 miles away.

[Ksyrup]

A grand jury doesn't sit for a particular trial, they meet periodically to hear evidence on various cases and determine whether there's enough evidence to support an indictment.

[CrimsonFox]

Watch out where the huskies go
and don't you eat that yellow snow

Great googily Moogily!

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

What kind of trial takes 18 months?!?

SI

chocolate trial

[Edward64]

Happy for Camilla (& Charles) and her eligibility to be Queen. It does seem to be true love. Assume the Queen is planning to resign/abdicate/transfer the crown jewels soon, and setting up the transition for Charles & Camilla?

William and Kate seem to be doing great also.

But Harry, need to get better publicists & advisors. Or just STFU.

[CrimsonFox]

You can now take a course in Taylor Swift at NYU for some reason

[flere-imsaho]

Gotta justify those tuition fees somehow....

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

You can now take a course in Taylor Swift at NYU for some reason

BRB enrolling at NYU

[flere-imsaho]

See?

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Our 20yo microwave crapped out yesterday. We could just go the simple replacement route - find one that's about the same size, same trim kit, and be done. But while we're doing this - we figure we should check if there's something better. However, we haven't bought a microwave in years so we're not sure if there are any bells and whistles worth getting or if we should just go the cheap route.

It was one of those built "into the wall" with a trim kit so we're kindof stuck with the same size one we had before (1.1-1.5 cu ft) unless we wanted to go carve up our walls for a larger one (we don't). So we're a bit limited - no snagging some super fancy 2 cu ft one that can double as a second oven or whatever. But are there any new cool features that are worth the cost that we don't know? Or things we should definitely make sure to get/watch out for?

SI

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

I recently had to replace our microwave and did a bunch of research and the overwhelming answers to that question were:

1. No, they're basically all the same, and a big part of the reason is that they're all basically made in the same factory in China.

2. You should also have a toaster oven because today's models can do a lot of stuff you used to do in a microwave, but a lot better (e.g. reheating anything that you want to come out crispy).

Just an update on this still-yet-to-be-completed process of replacing our microwave. I have used more profanity than is healthy in the last week and some of it may slip in here. You have been warned.

As before, our house is about 20 years old and had a built in GE microwave. It recently gave up the ghost but, hey, well done, good and faithful servant. I mean, it's the cheapest "appliance" in the kitchen. Really, it's only nominally an appliance - it occupies this place between real appliance (fridge, stove, oven, dishwasher) and countertop small appliance (toaster oven, coffee maker, Kitchenaid, etc). I mean, geez, you get them along with mini fridges and that's all you really need in the dorms. It's also cheap - like a "good" one only cost between $200-$300 right now, even in supply-chain-ageddon. So, no big deal, right?

I typically do the buying for large ticket items in my house. My wife abhors shopping and I go at this as you can imagine I would. Put it all in a spreadsheet, tally up the variables and the costs, possibly wait for a sale because I'm a cheap bastard, and voila - new item. Even if it's not the perfect item, I have convinced myself that because I did my homework, I made the best purchase with the information I have at the time so no regrets.

To start, silly naive me did a couple of searches for "made in the USA" and microwave. The options out there are Amana commercial grade ones - lke the ones you'd find in an office break rooms. I'd actually consider them, despite having dials and no timer buttons. Sure, they carry a premium cost, but I bet they last a long time. Unfortunately, they're all too small - we're looking to replace a 1.6 cu ft unit with maybe a 2.2. The largest they have is 1.1 so SOL there.

American brands? Japanese brands? Korean brands? All made in China and, yeah, like flere said, probably all made in the same factory. Also, there's little variance between anything you see from all the major brands and across price points. Remember that "stop turntable button" that was on seemingly every microwave 10-20 years ago? Nope. Do you want volume control on your beeping sound? How about turning on/off the display light? I think a couple of them have that and I think all are over $400. I mean, none of it is really important but I'm just trying to give you an idea how uniform these things are. They have practically all the same modes as a microwave from 20 years ago, too: defrost, popcorn, meat-- Wait. Who the fuck cooks meat in a microwave?!? I mean, not reheats - like actually cooks meat on a microwave?!? One of the companies showed heating salmon and asparagus on their promos. WTF, man? Everyone knows you don't reheat fish in the microwave, you monster.

There does appear to be one "new" setting that's kindof common: sensor reheat. In theory, based on the amount of steam, it turns the microwave power up and down to heat things more evenly and will auto shutoff when done. Sound good! No more molten outside and frozen core. Of course, if you read the reviews for these, it won't work if you have your food covered (hope you like cleaning the inside of your microwave) and, even then, it will sometimes char your food. You know what? I know how to put things around the edge of the plate and I think I can manually manage hitting 3 numbers and start. Been doing it for 30 years. This is not progress.

Then there's the planned obsolescence problem. If I could place a bet that whatever one I've buying won't last 20, I would bet my mortgage. I'm going to be lucky to get 5 years out of modern ones, probably less. What if I just want to pay more to make the problem go away? Nope. Hell, the reviews seemingly get worse the more you pay. Sure, you get your timer off button and, I dunno, potato mode but they still die just as soon. And people are, naturally, unhappy about that. Pay $150 and it craps out in 2 years, you expect it. Pay $500 and it does the same, yeah, you're going to be more pissed.

But we haven't even gotten to the most fun part of all of this: trim kits. For those of you unaware, a trim kit is a shitty, overpriced piece of plastic or metal-painted plastic that you put around a countertop microwave so it looks like it belongs in your wall. You know how your current stove looks like it's built into the wall? No, that's all part of the appliance illusion. For instance, our microwave sits above our oven and below some cabinets but it looked built in. Was there some magical custom part that makes it do that? Nope? Shitty carpentry by the previous owners, a couple of screws, and this shitty ass expensive piece of flimsy material bolted into the wall. If you're lucky, it might have some vents on the top and the bottom.

Once we took off the old trim kit (again, farewell, quality piece of heavy metal from 2003), we found that it was just an old countertop microwave. It's was sitting on metal rails in an unfinished void of particle board and drywall with notches where the builder or appliance installer clearly measured nonce and cut thrice. The rails are basically there to give the unit some clearance for the vents and to make sure that the microwave face lines up with the hole in the trim kit.

We could just reuse the old trim kit and find a new microwave that fits in there, right? It's just a standard size or there are a couple of standard sizes, right? Looks like there's just 27" trim kits and 30" trim kits. Finally I lucked out... or did I? It turns out there are three measurements when it comes to trim kit: external size, internal size, and cutout size. Wait, what? So, external size is mostly standardized: the piece of plastic is either 27" or 30" wide.

What's that internal size? Basically, that's the size of the microwave face. You want that to be just slightly larger than your microwave and it has to be the right height and width, when sitting on those darn aforementioned rails, otherwise it's going to look all crappy. So, can I take my old GE trim kit and put an LG microwave I like in there? Nope, too tall. How about the Samsung? Nope, too wide. Fine! I'll just pay more and get the GE? NO! What?!? How about the smaller size GE? Nope! Any GEs? NOPE!

You sly mother fuckers. This is your con. This is a whole goddamned industry. There's no standard size so that every time you get a new microwave, you have to pay way too much money for one of these piece of shit trim kits. If you're lucky, a series of microwaves works for one trim kit: like the Panasonic 9xxx series. Some companies literally have different trim kits for different microwaves. Like any consumer electronic, they refresh them every couple of years so even if I bought a Panasonic 9-series this year and it died in 4 years, I couldn't reuse the same trim kit for the Panasonic 10-series or whatever in 2025. I'll have to buy the trim kit that's slightly different sized for the 10-series. In short, even if you went with a cheap $150 microwave, you're out another $200 for the goddamned trim kit. AND YOU GET TO DO THIS EVERY TIME.

Did you forget about cutout size? I have not! For some reason, even this is not standardized. Literally the hole in your wall is not a standard size. If the hole is too small, the frame can't sit in the wall. And if the hole is too big, there's nothing to screw the mounting screws into. Different companies have different cutout sizes so if I wanted to get a different company's microwave, I need to get out my saw cut into the paneling in my kitchen. I have to be mother fucking Bob Vila just to install a microwave. A MICROWAVE!?! Just a reminder: this is the thing that we trust college students to cook with; the thing that even though they cook popcorn that specifically has the word "microwave" in the name; the thing that caused a grumpy me and many others to end up out in the snow in pajamas at least a half dozen times of the year because of incompetent use.

Finally, if the average review for an item on Amazon or Best Buy is a 4.5, artificially inflated by spambots. The average for a microwave is a paltry 3.5, at best. The average review for a trim kit is 1.5. Remember, kids, you can't give lower than a 1. So for every BS 5* score, there are 7x 1s. Across all goddamned brands. THESE FUCKING GUYS! And they're full of good stuff like "specific trim kit for this microwave has 1/2 inch gap all the way around microwave" or multiple entries of "trim kit rubs against the door when installed" or "have perfectly sized cutout and microwave is still half inch below trim kit". That. That shit right there is what you're paying between $150 and $250 for because you don't really have another option. There is no generic brand.

I forgot to mention that even if I accepted that, fine, I'll throw down $700 for GE's overpriced mediocre microwave and overpriced, shitty quality trim kit... it's backordered until May! I wouldn't know until May if it fit and it would still suck just as much as a $150 microwave on a TV tray in my dining room. Though there's one sketchy guy with only 10 feedback, 1 of them negative, on eBay selling the stupid thing open box with no refunds for $200. And I'm half tempted to try. This is the madness I've been driven to.

My wife has noped my favorite idea right now, which is just to put a $150 microwave into the void and call it a day. She has also put a kibosh on my next best idea, which is to kidnap a GE engineer, force him at gunpoint to build a universal and adjustable trim kit, and then make the plans available on the web so any idiot with a 3D printer can save themselves this insanity. It is a mortal lock that even if the hostage standoff ended with me suicided by cop, I will have contributed more to society than Galileo, Newton, Einstein, and DaVinci combined. And I would get a better place in heaven than anyone, maybe save Jesus himself, for the suffering I prevented. Archangel Michael: "I'm sorry, Mother Theresa, but there's a new guy about to arrive who is going to get your mansion".

I think I now understand why, multiple times a week, there are so many stupid ass people with seemingly more money than brains talking about their kitchen renovations on the neighborhood Facebook page. It's because they started this process and it went from "Yay - Only a $200 microwave" to "Damn, $700 including the expensive one with the trim kit" to "Shit, where's Al Borland" to "GODDAMIT, I'M JUST GOING TO RIP YOU OUT AND SALT THE EARTH WHERE YOU USED TO SIT". Fuck everyone involved with this entire industry.

SI

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Everyone knows you don't reheat fish in the microwave, you monster.

I've never reheated fish any other way in my life. And if you put in the right container, it's indistinguishable from freshly made. (at least with salmon and trout, the only ones I've done)

But we haven't even gotten to the most fun part of all of this: trim kits.

Having dealt with two built-ins, I knew where you were gonna get steamed (pun intended)
.

My wife has noped my favorite idea right now, which is just to put a $150 microwave into the void and call it a day.

She's wrong ... but she'll have to learn that for herself same as every other wife.

[sterlingice]

I haven't been this pissed about something trivial in a long, long time. I appreciate the commiseration, JiMGA

The fish comment was more towards the "fish in the break room microwave" thing that's not socially acceptable.

SI

[flere-imsaho]

1. You don't reheat fish. It's too delicate. You cook it and you eat it. Done. Fin. I will not be taking questions at this time.

2. I'm glad I'm not the only one who builds a spreadsheet for purchases.

Anyway, quality rant, would read again.

[RainMaker]

You don't microwave fish in an office. Perfectly acceptable at home.

[Lathum]

We go away with my parents to Nantucket every year and at least 1-2 times on the trip my dad nukes left over fish for breakfast.

[RainMaker]

About 6 months back I bought a can of Wendy's Spicy Chicken flavored Pringles at the grocery store and I haven't been able to find them anywhere since. They were incredible.

Does Pringles do limited edition flavors or is this just one you can only buy in certain regions? Can't find any good info on it.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

About 6 months back I bought a can of Wendy's Spicy Chicken flavored Pringles at the grocery store and I haven't been able to find them anywhere since. They were incredible.

Does Pringles do limited edition flavors or is this just one you can only buy in certain regions? Can't find any good info on it.

From the original press release back in May 2021
Billed as a limited-edition offering ....

I think I saw some at maybe Walmart not all that long ago, best bet is probably catching the end of the run being closed out somewhere

[stevew]

I think if you know dimensions, you can have some dude at a stainless sheet metal place cut you out the exact sized trim you would need for whatever microwave you wanna buy. These guys are probably really good at this stuff. Maybe I'm just way wrong on this, but I feel like they could create this for you.

corollary-
Maybe if you just eat it on the store's microwave and trim kit, you buy 2 microwaves and just leave the one in the attic until the first one craps out?

[stevew]

My dishwasher just shit it. I could probably wait for service which will invariably lead to divorce waiting for the guy to come. So I guess I’m replacing it. These seem to only last 2-3 years around here.

[CrimsonFox]

I'm a monster. I make popcorn in the office.

[albionmoonlight]

Originally Posted by stevew

My dishwasher just shit it. I could probably wait for service which will invariably lead to divorce waiting for the guy to come. So I guess I’m replacing it. These seem to only last 2-3 years around here.

Even this might be hard. I knew someone who had to wait weeks for a dishwasher on backorder due to supply chain issues. She did have some specific things she wanted. But according to her, the pickings were much slimmer than normal.

Good luck!

[albionmoonlight]

I know that we have a lot of puzzle-heads here. I thought this was really cool:

Fun little trick in the Sunday New York Times crossword yesterday: the central theme clue was "The better of two sci-fi franchises", and regardless of whether you put Star Wars or Star Trek, the crossing clues worked pic.twitter.com/NS4LDxwxxl

— ℳatt (@matttomic) February 7, 2022

[Ksyrup]

We bought a new dishwasher last November from Best Buy. Waited about 3 weeks, got it installed in early-mid December. Selection wasn't great - we wanted a Bosch but they were months out of stock from anyone we talked to, so we got a Samsung. Also bought a microwave and that took 2 months to get installed.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I know that we have a lot of puzzle-heads here. I thought this was really cool:

Fun little trick in the Sunday New York Times crossword yesterday: the central theme clue was "The better of two sci-fi franchises", and regardless of whether you put Star Wars or Star Trek, the crossing clues worked pic.twitter.com/NS4LDxwxxl
— ℳatt (@matttomic) February 7, 2022

That's pretty slick

SI

[stevew]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

We bought a new dishwasher last November from Best Buy. Waited about 3 weeks, got it installed in early-mid December. Selection wasn't great - we wanted a Bosch but they were months out of stock from anyone we talked to, so we got a Samsung. Also bought a microwave and that took 2 months to get installed.

I grabbed something in stock. Within 2 years I’m hoping we either sell or renovate so this dishwasher hopefully will last until then. Ideally I would have sprung for a drawer dishwasher, but those are all way out of stock at the moment.

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by albionmoonlight

I know that we have a lot of puzzle-heads here. I thought this was really cool:

Very cool.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by sabotai

Going to be buying a Condo soon. Got my W2, did the pre-approval thing, and now I play the waiting game. Been looking on Zillow just about every day for the last 3 months and can count on one hand how many times I saw a good one in any of the areas I'm looking to move to come on the market. And prices have shot up over the last year.

I have terrible timing.

Well, I guess I've officially started the process. I'm looking at a (IMO overpriced but the market is what it is right now) place on Thursday. First condo/townhome in a month that's come available that is what I want, and where I want, and doesn't need any significant amount of work. So even though the price is a little higher than I wanted to spend, I figured I'd jump at it and see what happens.

[CrimsonFox]

"We need to talk about Cosby."

Do we REALLY now?

[stevew]

NYC couple busted in record setting $3.6 billion Bitcoin scam - New York Daily News

I'm like obsessed with how bad of a rapper this girl is.

Woman Arrested in Alleged Crypto Laundering Scheme Also a Rapper - Rolling Stone

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5kg0sbDidbIHRpYknx0csK

I think her youtube stuff was taken down.

[stevew]

Obvious NSFW shitty rap music

[RainMaker]

So is the reason they stayed in the US because they wanted to be some viral internet stars? I mean if I had swindled billions, I would probably just move to a country with no extradition treaty and live like royalty.

[flere-imsaho]

Wait, hold on, do you mean to say that the video is not a parody?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

"We need to talk about Cosby."

Do we REALLY now?

Can we talk about Bruno?

[stevew]

This one is even worse, and the ending is such a self own.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by flere-imsaho

Wait, hold on, do you mean to say that the video is not a parody?

[QuikSand]

made it like 7 seconds in, feel pretty good about it

[Lathum]

I finally gave in and signed up for Uber. Wife and I are going to a show next weekend and both want to be able to drink a decent amount.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

made it like 7 seconds in, feel pretty good about it

I made it 20, then just jumped to the end. I just want to know who the fuck would watch that and think "damn! This my JAM!"?

[CrimsonFox]

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

[Ksyrup]

College softball (D1 anyway) kicks off today and really starts up in earnest this weekend. Feels really strange not to be gearing up for weekend trips, or having nothing but an outside viewing/rooting interest.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I finally gave in and signed up for Uber. Wife and I are going to a show next weekend and both want to be able to drink a decent amount.

just don't be a loud annoying asshole during said show

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

just don't be a loud annoying asshole during said show

It is actually a sing along with Bowling for Soup in a club thats capacity is about 100 people so I think the point is to be loud and obnoxious.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I finally gave in and signed up for Uber. Wife and I are going to a show next weekend and both want to be able to drink a decent amount.

You've never taken a rideshare before? That's impressive.

I had to look at my stats from the apps out of curiosity. 75 Uber rides and 73 Lyft rides that I've paid for. I've probably taken about double that total. 1 in a self-driving vehicle in Vegas. 5 different countries. Longest rides about 35 miles each, one from Dana Point to Anaheim, and one from a Broncos game in Denver out to the suburbs. It's definitely changed the way I've travel, and encouraged drinking. It's so great to not have to deal with a rental car on vacations.