[subego]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Tail in makes it a lot easier to see other cars coming down the lane when you're pulling out. Backing out of a slot is always a touch-and-go situation, especially in busy lots.

In other parking lot irritants...The [email protected]#^% F-150/Ram/Silverado truckyachts that extend three feet out into the lane because they're just.too.damned.big to fit into reality.

Yup... backing in is much safer than backing out.

In a big lot, I’ll avoid the problem by parking far away from the door.

The minor irritant then becomes my passengers, who behave as if a 200 foot walk is like the march through Egypt.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

All green stars.

They did a server migration on us without advance warning. The new server was missing an image library, so I temp-fixed the broken image with green stars.

Fixed now. Though post caches might take time to cache up.

[...deleted...]

[ghporter]

Almost as bad: someone recently used the public toilet, had a HUGE event, used almost all of the tissue, then failed to flush the thing. An inoperative "automatic flush" mechanism is not an excuse here.

Also ran: the "gent" who used the thing before me either has DTs, or it's so small there's no way for him to aim...or both.

[Thorzdad]

Discovered over the weekend that Kroger stores now charge a fee for using a card at their self-checkout stands. W. T. F??????

[subego]

Originally Posted by subego 

Kroger

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Kroger

Motion is seconded.

[andi*pandi]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

self-checkout stands

If we have not mentioned this then it needs to be said: self-checkouts suck. If businesses want me to use self-checkout, my rate is $45/hour. Free labor isn't free.

[Laminar]

But I'd pay $45/hr not to interact with a cashier, so it all evens out.

[subego]

When it comes down to it, for me it’s about not waiting.

My Kroger owned Mariano’s has 18 self checkout lanes. No way they hire 18 cashiers. They can’t even hire a stock boy.


That said, I do want to kick those machines in the virtual teeth. They’re programmed to be as annoying as possible.

I don’t think I’ve ever muttered “just shut the **** up” to a human cashier.

[andi*pandi]

There's no place to put things, no conveyor belt, and 9 times out of ten it's broken and you need a person to reset it or register a coupon anyhow. CVS hires a person to stand there and watch you use the self-checkout so you don't steal things. Maybe instead just have that person be a cashier?

Plus:

"remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. remove the item from the scanning area. "

[subego]

The self-checkouts at my Mariano’s (owned by Kroger) have the opposite phrasing. They’re all “please place the item in the bagging area” in an obnoxious, “hurry the **** up” tone. If it didn’t do that, I would have no complaints. They’re spacious enough for me, but I never get more than a basket’s worth of stuff.

[mindwaves]

I'm ok with them and sometimes I do prefer them over a human.

What also slightly annoys me is the naming of law firms that uses the last names of 2-4 people instead of a normal naming scheme. For example, instead of Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Ford, we get stuff like Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear (Yes, I know Ford is also a surname but it is not a string of surnames and it is nowhere near as common as almost all law firms follow this weird naming scheme).

[P]

It is common in businesses where all the value in the business is in the skill of the employees. You want to keep those employees any way you can, so you make them partners, put their name on the building, what they want. I have no connection to the legal profession, but I have friends in advertising companies. When the valuable employees decide that a certain company is no longer the place to work, they leave. Whatever new place they start at gets more business from the skill of the people who joined it, and now needs more people. The people who left begin to recruit their old coworkers, and suddenly it is a race out the door. All the value in the old company is gone overnight. I imagine that it is the same in law firms, where leaving lawyers might bring their clients to a new company.

[Waragainstsleep]

I think law firms tend to be partnerships rather than limited companies or other types of entity. The partners have to buy in when they are made partners, the rate or share goes up as they go from junior to senior to named etc. When they leave the firm pays them what their share is worth. You want to be named as that's the way to build your reputation in case you want to start your own firm someday. Though I'm not clear what difference that really makes over being a named partner as you'll like still have partners in your own venture. I guess you can pick yourself as being the managing partner or something.

[subego]

My fair city’s recycling center hours. This is the only one.

[andi*pandi]

seems paltry.
do they at least do pickup?

[subego]

They do. This is for things they won’t pick up, like batteries, computers, paint, fluorescents, etc.

[andi*pandi]

Ah. We have that every other month on a saturday morning when invariably there's something else going on.

[Laminar]

Maybe it's just me or I'm doing something wrong, but I just noticed that if I'm on YouTube and watching a video and hit the back button, once the browser goes back a page, the video I was watching shows up as a pop up in the lower right and keeps playing. If I backed out of a video, I don't want to keep watching that video. I need to figure out how to stop that...

[reader50]

Happens if you click a YouTube link too. New page comes up, but old video keeps playing in corner. Seems tied to their recent redesign, which I dislike across the board.

They blew up the video thumbnails so much I have to shrink the page to get the normal horizontal count. Which makes the text squinty. Of course there isn't an option to use the old version. Of course there isn't a user control to adjust thumbnail size. And of course, there's no checkbox to stop playing vids from following you like a stalker.

[Thorzdad]

We shop at Aldi for a lot of basic stuff, one of which is paper towels. Apparently, there was a problem at Peoples Paper Products Camp 12 when the rolls we are working through were produced. The perforations are incomplete. On every sheet, the perfs go about half way up the roll, then stop. There's a long space where there are no perfs in the paper, and then there are perfs to the end of the roll. The result is, when you tear a sheet from the roll, you end up tearing a chunk out of the next sheet.

First-world problem, I know. Right up there with resealable bags of cheese where the zip-seal rips away from the bag instead of unzipping.

[Laminar]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

We shop at Aldi for a lot of basic stuff, one of which is paper towels. Apparently, there was a problem at Peoples Paper Products Camp 12 when the rolls we are working through were produced. The perforations are incomplete. On every sheet, the perfs go about half way up the roll, then stop. There's a long space where there are no perfs in the paper, and then there are perfs to the end of the roll. The result is, when you tear a sheet from the roll, you end up tearing a chunk out of the next sheet.

This happened with the last pack of paper towels we got at Costco. I don't think the perforations were incomplete, but they were weak and every towel brought half the next one with it.

First-world problem, I know. Right up there with resealable bags of cheese where the zip-seal rips away from the bag instead of unzipping.

This happens with the cheese I get from Trader Joe's.

I assume it's the same supplier for all grocery store generic products.

[andi*pandi]

ziplock on bags of carrots that never zip nor lock again.
ziplocks on frozen products that you rip trying to open the first time because there's not enough perforation.

I hear you.

[...deleted...]

[subego]

Originally Posted by Laminar 

This happens with the cheese I get from Trader Joe's.

I assume it's the same supplier for all grocery store generic products.

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

ziplock on bags of carrots that never zip nor lock again.
ziplocks on frozen products that you rip trying to open the first time because there's not enough perforation.

I hear you.

Originally Posted by And.reg 

The bags inside of cereal boxes don't close, they rip open inconsistently, and the contents inside often spill into the box, outside the bowl, or onto the floor. And especially for the big bags, it's a royal pain to fit the remaining cereal into other bags (e.g., zip/tie bags) that aren't big enough.

[ghporter]

Yep. I use scissors on all sorts of things, cereal inner bags included. And especially "tear here" packages. These typically do NOT open the package in an acceptable manner, and I'm more likely to damage the zip closure at the same time. So out come the scissors and these packages open properly, whether they want to or not.

[subego]

Bonus use is when your family size bag of Funyuns or whatever gets near the bottom, cut off the top half of the bag.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by subego 

... family size bag of Funyuns ...

Where can you get these? All I see around here are the usual 7.5 oz packages or smaller.

[subego]

There doesn’t seem to be a true and honest family size, just the 6 oz. vs. the 2½.

[ghporter]

We do the same thing with corn chips. We roll the tops of the bags over and close them with one of those spring clip thingies, which helps the chips stay fresh. Once we get far enough into the bag, we cut the top half of the bag off and it's much easier to deal with.

Pro tip: while not required, the wide "chip clip" style bag clips are much more efficient than trying to use something narrower. It takes a lot more folding and finagling to get a narrower clip to properly close a large bag, and I'm never really sure I've gotten it right, but the wide clips, usually 6-8" wide, work fine.

[subego]

Obligatory shout-out to clothespins for budget snack bag sealing.

[reader50]

Last week, I ordered a couple items from Kmart. Total high enough for free shipping. So ... they ship the 2 items in separate packages, from separate stores.

This morning, I ordered another couple items. Again, free shipping. And again, shipped in separate packages.

These guys are *trying* to go out of business. Basic efficiency - select stores that have all order items in stock. Route order to nearest such store, to go out under one shipping charge. Or select randomly among stores with all order items. Split shipments should only happen if no store has all items.

[...deleted...]

[andi*pandi]

Some places they still exist because that's all they have. Target must not be interested in their locale, or walmart. I used to like them.

I think the one in Auburn still exists, or did Walmart finally kill it?

[mindwaves]

Stores not selling short-sleeve t-shirts or shorts in winter/fall. I understand it is cold and there is less of a demand, but why not keep 15% of the store with these items during this period instead of 0% as I see now. Surely people wear short sleeve shirts in tropical areas like I am now and not wooly jackets and hoodies and sweaters all of the time. So annoying and so difficult to shop.

[Laminar]

When I order from Amazon, they don't send me an order summary that includes what I purchased, only a link to go to their site and see my order list. I assume this is so they can drive up site activity and force more opportunities to show me related items or other stuff to buy. But sometimes I just want to search through my email to figure out when I bought something, and not rely on being able to load Amazon's site at any given moment.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

Stores not selling short-sleeve t-shirts or shorts in winter/fall... So annoying and so difficult to shop.

Are you just looking for cheap, basic tees? If so, see if there’s a Michaels near you. They have tons of tees in different colors. Mostly Gilden brand. They sell them for screen printing, but they make just good basic tees, too. Highly affordable.

[mindwaves]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Are you just looking for cheap, basic tees? If so, see if there’s a Michaels near you. They have tons of tees in different colors. Mostly Gilden brand. They sell them for screen printing, but they make just good basic tees, too. Highly affordable.

Thanks, but mostly, I'm looking for a basic solid color polo shirt. Something cheap but can wear to the office. Almost impossible to find these days.

[Thorzdad]

Ah. Polos, not tees. Yeah...hard to find right now. You could go online, of course, but most of those are going to be pricey (like Lands End, for instance.)

[andi*pandi]

That was just going to be my suggestion. Lands End, LLBean.

[subego]

This is verging on major.

Had a radiator pipe blow, but that’s not the irritant. At least right now since it’s been fixed.

They had to tear a bit of a hole in the floor to fix it, which is over a crawl space. That’s not really much of an irritant either. It’s not noticeable unless you look.

I’ve got a rat in my apartment. Almost positive it came in through that hole.

[reader50]

Why didn't someone crawl through the crawl space, and fix it without cutting holes in your floor?

Temp fix for the hole (assuming it's smallish): stuff it with steel wool (or brass wool). The metal wool cuts their gums if they try to chew through it. Dab some caulking on/through the wad before putting into place, so it will lock into place. Prevents critters from pushing it aside.

[subego]

Excellent suggestion with the wool! We used that when rats were eating our old studio. Well, that and some neck-breakers.

Right now, I’m waffling about plugging it up because I don’t want to trap the ****er in here without some way of getting rid of it.

They did use the crawl space, but there was a period before they knew it was there. Also, it was really the steam pipe which did the number on the floor. By the time it got shut off, all the wood surrounding the pipe had already rotted away.

No rush to fix it (until now) because it’s off in a corner under a radiator cover.

[subego]

Pic of the hole.

Bonus irritant: the obnoxious color temp of the streetlights they just put out my window.

[reader50]

Plug the holes, and set traps. Or borrow a cat.

Everyone thinks it will run back outside to its home. They don't. Once they find a nice place, with food and good temperature, they're home. They have no loyalty or fond memories of the outside. Leaving the hole open lets the relatives follow him in.

[subego]

I could be wrong, but I’m hoping the crawl space filled with radiator pipes is warmer than my apartment. When I had cats, one of them would camp out on the the crawl space cover.

Maybe there was something lying around to snack on because I’m a slob, but I can put a clamp on that.

I’m definitely going to get traps and wool, but I’m just too wiped out to do anything about it tonight. The only problem I’d have with plugging the hole is not having traps yet.

[subego]

Random bad idea... throw food down the hole.

[mindwaves]

Umbrella bags for when you walk into a shopping center on a rainy day. Complete waste of plastic. Just shake your umbrella dry in a safe area and put it in your bag (in another bag if you must) or just carry it.

Airport gift shops here. If I buy 5 boxes of cookies, they all get placed into one big bag along with 5 other smaller bags to be given out as gifts. I always refuse the smaller bags.

[Thorzdad]

We're under a boil water order as of yesterday. No guess when it will be lifted.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

We're under a boil water order as of yesterday. No guess when it will be lifted.

I remember when the US used to be part of the developed world.