[andi*pandi]

Well I feel sheepish. swiping left works. It's a very tiny icon on the lock screen. I just never noticed when it reappeared or in what ios update!

[subego]

Places which carry Häagen-Dazs Cookies and Cream around here like to alternate it with Pistachio for some unfathomable reason. Always a crap shoot which one is in stock.

Edit: speaking of Häagen-Dazs irritants, holy shit… Peanut Butter Pie was the best flavor ever and they got rid of it. Friend of mine got me six pints for my birthday one year.

[Waragainstsleep]

If a store over here stocks HD at all, Cookies and Cream is the one flavour you can guarantee they'll stock.
Strawberry Cheesecake is the best one though. Cookies and Cream is meh.

[subego]

HD ceded the American Strawberry Cheesecake market to B&J decades ago. Not available here.

It’s probably the best B&J flavor. Top five at least.

[Waragainstsleep]

Never seen that flavour of B&Js here. I can't get into B&Js in general, their flavours feel too busy somehow but also too similar to each other. All the ones we have are some mix of chocolate and vanilla ice cream with various bits of chocolate in it.

[subego]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

I can't get into B&Js in general, their flavours feel too busy somehow but also too similar to each other.

An excellent observation!

[ghporter]

Our local grocery giant, H-E-B, has been rearranging the store closest to us. This is an “extreme rearranging,” and involves even changing how wide the aisles are, as well as changing where they put various grocery and sundry items. And by “various” I mean “essentially everything.”

I really like H-E-B as a grocer, and as a company in general. And their performance through the pandemic AND last year’s freeze here have cemented that. But…

I asked one of the staff the other day if “all of this reorganization confused” her. “Oh, yeah. We’re all lost.” Like their shoppers, the staff will get used to the new set up, but it’s a pain.

[Spheric Harlot]

They did that at my main supermarket few years ago. Drove me NUTS.

Especially since they also changed what products they stock (different markets of the same chain will stock very different product variants depending on the (affluency of the) neighbourhood).
We got stuff where one product type of a fixed combination would be available from several brands, but another not at all.

In my case, dishwasher salt and dishwasher glass clear fluid were available from several brands, but the actual detergent was not listed at all. They had several brands of all-in-one tabs, but those were useless to me, since I'd been running the dishwasher "old-school" on those separate products, and couldn't use tabs until the other tanks were depleted, anyway.

After a year and a half, I can *finally* find the cereal aisle on the first try.

Still drives me nuts why they have sliced, packaged cheese in two places - once between and vegan salami/meat substitute and the butter, and once at the far end of the supermarket, by the cream cheese and joghurt. Actual salami and meat are in a different area altogether, mind.

I do realise that there's probably a highly optimised probability pathway at the heart of that, which maximises my walking distance and the number of features and products I need to pass to get to what I need, but meh - this is the "minor irritant" thread.

[subego]

Is the cheese in the vegan section non-dairy?

I’m thinking they’re separated so there’s no confusion over whether you’re buying cheese or… something else.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by subego 

Is the cheese in the vegan section non-dairy?

I’m thinking they’re separated so there’s no confusion over whether you’re buying cheese or… something else.

No. There is no vegan product in either cheese section. One is only packaged sliced cheese for bread, the other is grated cheese, halloumi, grill cheese, processed cheese, Velveeta… AND sliced cheese for bread.

[ghporter]

Item: the use of turn signals is NOT optional. Most, if not all US states' vehicle/transportation/highway laws are modeled after the "Uniform Vehicle Code and Model Traffic Ordinance", crafted by the National Committee on Uniform Traffic Laws and Ordinances (last revised in 2000). You can look up any state's traffic laws and find essentially identical language for everything from signage meanings to, yes, turn signal use. And they are mandatory.

It seems like most drivers don't want to "give away" their intentions by using their signals until they are actually making their turn or lane change. It's like they're saying "I meant to do that," instead of "I'm going to do this." Grr.

I had worked up a rant about calling every knit cap in the world a "beanie," but I'm going to let that go for now. Life is too short to spend that much time focusing on how wrongly wrong the wrong people are.

[subego]

I usually call them “watch caps”, but don’t object to “beanie”.

I unreservedly recommend Turtlefur beanies.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by subego 

I usually call them “watch caps”...

That’s seriously old school. That’s what my dad called them, and he was in the Navy in WWII.

[ghporter]

It’s what the label on mine says…. No frills, all wool, warm but ventilated.

Sure, you can roll the edge of a watch cap until it is essentially a beanie, but why?

[ShortcutToMoncton]

It’s called a touque motherfuckers, listen up

[subego]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

It’s what the label on mine says…. No frills, all wool, warm but ventilated.

Sure, you can roll the edge of a watch cap until it is essentially a beanie, but why?

Yeah. For me, a required trait of beanies is they don’t cover the ears (e.g., propeller beanie).


Edit: when it comes time, I’d seriously consider dumping the wool for turtlefur. They’re the comfiest thing ever, don’t smell funky when wet, and warm enough on its own for the top of the head to well below zero. However, I should mention I bought 4 of them 20 years ago and haven’t needed new ones. I have no idea if they’ve lost the magic.

[subego]

Originally Posted by ShortcutToMoncton 

It’s called a touque motherfuckers, listen up

Toques have their advantages, but watch caps take rough handling very well. They can get stuffed in a pocket and still come out presentable.


Edit: ignore the above, I’m a moron. I thought toques were something else.

[reader50]

I've been reading news stories. That are nominally written in English. But glitches keep standing out. I've seen each of these multiple times:

key: Newsprint -> what I expect to read

"sending aircrafts to eastern Europe" -> aircraft is singular and plural. "aircrafts" is not a word.

a heroic deed -> an heroic deed
a honorable mention -> an honorable mention
a historic occasion -> an historic occasion

When I was in school, you usually use "an" rather than "a" before some words that begin with "H", with exceptions. But increasingly, H does not get special handling. Did someone announce the change, and I missed it?

On the plus side, routine misspellings have mostly faded out. Those were really bad 10-15 years ago. Maybe autocorrect finally fixed the texting generation.

[subego]

My personal style guide uses “an” when the “h” is silent, and “a” when it’s not.

So, it’s a heroic deed but an honorable mention.


Edit: my thought process is it has to mimic spoken language or it’s going to trip up the voice in your head.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by reader50 

a heroic deed -> an heroic deed
[…] -> an honorable mention
a historic occasion -> an historic occasion

These are all fine.

This one is not: "a honorable mention"

[subego]

“An heroic deed” only works if you drop the “h”. AFAIK, no major dialect in America does this.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by subego 

“An heroic deed” only works if you drop the “h”. AFAIK, no major dialect in America does this.

a) I've known Americans who did (including my history teacher).

b) English is widely natively spoken outside of America.

[subego]

Your history teacher sounds like a spy.

[reader50]

Since "a hero" is fine, I'm willing to give them "a heroic deed". But I'm not comfy with the others, and they seem to be dropping "an" in all cases.

I've certainly seen a lot more examples over the past few months. Just started thinking about the pattern over the past week. Or I'd have a longer list of examples.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

I think the general trend is to drop the an. Language is alive.

[subego]

It’s still going to jack-up an internal monologue if it doesn’t match the sound it proceeds.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Yeah me too, it’s a heroic internal monologue

[Laminar]

It's always jarring to me when a writer purposely avoids writing, "a whole 'nother level" with something more clunky like, "a whole different level," or "another level entirely."

[subego]

What a wholes.

[ghporter]

If it doesn’t sound right said out loud, it just ain’t written right. That rule worked in both “formal written communications” in the Air Force (formal memoranda - “Air Force letters”) and in technical writing (training materials for use in the classroom and materials for use by a student at some other location). Since I retired, it’s worked well in all of my other “formal” writing, such as case summaries and the occasional letter justifying some sort of equipment, specialty referral, etc.

This is not to say that the wording or flow of words would sound like my own speech, even my speech as an instructor in a classroom. But if it didn’t sound correct, it wasn’t correct. Typically, the two most common style guides I used were 100% with me. These were “The Chicago Manual of Style” and the Air Force’s “Tongue and Quill.”

“The Tongue and Quill” turns out to be a very good guide for writing any nonfiction anything. It walks you through the whole process - better than any college writing course I ever came across. It misses some relatively arcane details of style, which Chicago tends to fill in very well.

[andi*pandi]

My company uses an acronym which for many years everyone pronounced as a word. Then there was new branding and it was decided the acronym should be spelled out when pronounced: MNOP for example. So instead of "A MINOPP Product" it's now "An M-N-O-P Product". Since em begins with a vowel.

[subego]

Choice was corner store or grocery store.

Grocery store might have the right cream for my coffee, but the wrong ice cream.

Corner store might have the right ice cream, but only half & half.

Chose grocery store. Wrong cream, but better than half & half. Also got Voodoo chips and limeade, so not a total loss I guess.

The blueberries called out to me, but another minor irritant is there’s no way to tell if they’re any good without sampling them.

[ShortcutToMoncton]

Originally Posted by andi*pandi 

My company uses an acronym which for many years everyone pronounced as a word. Then there was new branding and it was decided the acronym should be spelled out when pronounced: MNOP for example. So instead of "A MINOPP Product" it's now "An M-N-O-P Product". Since em begins with a vowel.

Acronym vs initialism

[subego]

Shit… my pho-to is suddenly closed today.

[andi*pandi]

Well, did you decide for try something else?

[subego]

Went with a different place. It was pretty good, but they cheap-out on the meat, even though I got extra.

Just had a bowl from my regular place to make things right. I’m phobsessed.

[ghporter]

So I’m at a medical facility, at the lab, and they’re taking people based on the number they pulled when they checked in. And after a 90 minute wait, my number is next.

And this woman (older than me, so she should know better, and should have been brought up better) who just checked in storms up to the desk - where they are literally about to call my number - and spends almost 10 minutes whining and complaining that she doesn’t want to have to wait for her number to be called because “reasons”.

The woman was griping because she showed up at 11AM for freaking FASTING LABS. Ummm. Makes me think she’s a self entitled bully who can’t handle having to follow basic Kindergarten, “take your turn” rules. But I got my stuff done and jetted so I wouldn’t run into her again.

At least when I did get to the desk the folks there thanked me for my patience.

No, they didn’t have the staff to have a bouncer. That would have been pretty awesome. “I’m sorry ma’am, but if you continue to try to cut into the line, I’ll have to escort you out.” Yeah…..

[Thorzdad]

The missus went to buy/download tax software tonight. The Mac system specs requires up-to-date Safari. No problem, her MBP is good to go. So, in Safari, she clicks the checkout button and gets...a blank page. No place to enter a credit card number, no name field. Nothing. So, she tries it in Firefox. Same deal, a blank checkout page. Then, she tries Chrome and it all works perfectly.

I mean, if your system specs specifically says Safari, shouldn’t at least the damned page you buy the shit software work in Safari? Chrome has become the “works best in IE” of yore.

[reader50]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

The woman was griping because she showed up at 11AM for freaking FASTING LABS.

I have never heard of a fasting lab. Is it a locked room with chairs, but no food? If there are multiple people locked in, it could be called a Cannibalism Test Lab instead. Which sounds way cooler.

[andi*pandi]

^hee

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Then, she tries Chrome and it all works perfectly.

I mean, if your system specs specifically says Safari, shouldn’t at least the damned page you buy the shit software work in Safari? Chrome has become the “works best in IE” of yore.

On the phone with the bank recently, something wasn't working, I was using firefox, and the phone tech trotted out the "works best in chrome or IE" excuse. I told him that "in our year of our lord 2022 the browser should not matter" and that IE had been phased out by microsoft so even if I did have a pc it would be Edge. Then I tried it in Chrome with the same result. They were stumped.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by reader50 

I have never heard of a fasting lab. Is it a locked room with chairs, but no food? If there are multiple people locked in, it could be called a Cannibalism Test Lab instead. Which sounds way cooler.

Sadly, there’s nothing at all cool about “fasting labs.” They’re blood tests taken after the person has fasted for at least (depends on the doctor/test/lab) hours, usually at least overnight.

This includes the kind of lab people who don’t control their diabetes well need to see how badly off they are - fasting blood glucose. Some other metabolic tests require fasting as well.

My biggest gripe about my (not so) passive aggressive PITA is that, since she KNEW she had to not eat until she had the blood drawn, why did she show up at 11am? I’ll add that this is a military hospital, so she’s probably a retired GI’s dependent wife, and has had to demonstrate some sort of personal discipline for many years. Her behavior points to a specific archetype of dependent wife that deserves its own, extended, rant discussion.

[Brien]

Why do 90% of recipes online seem to have paragraphs of lead in? Just give me the damn recipe!

[subego]

All the 2022 Adobe splash screens are fug.

[Thorzdad]

Originally Posted by Brien 

Why do 90% of recipes online seem to have paragraphs of lead in? Just give me the damn recipe!

Clicks and SEO.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by Thorzdad 

Clicks and SEO.

This. A lot. And even if you turbo-scroll past ‘em, those ads get counted. I’ve started using “incognito” browsing to look at recipes, DIY stuff, and a bunch of other subjects.

Really, when PINTREST starts showing stuff you looked at on Amazon, it’s time to pinch off that data stream.

[Thorzdad]

Apparently, if one is running a Mac and MacOS of a certain age, you cannot get into Apple's support community anymore. Nor, can you log into your Apple account in iTunes (also of a certain age).

The iTunes issue seems to stem from having 2FA enabled. It accepts my login name/password, but then sends a code to my phone to enter enter into the field iTunes is supposed to display. But, this version of iTunes has no clue about 2FA, and, thus, doesn't provide the field, which means I cannot enter the code, which means I can't get into my Apple account in iTunes.

So, I headed over to Apple's support communities to see if anyone else has dealt with this problem. There, it takes my login credentials, sends a code to my phone, and puts-up a field for me to enter the code. That all goes perfectly. But, then I get hit with a "Terms of Use" page, in which I dutifully click "Continue". I then get an "Apple Support Communities & Privacy" page, with another "Continue" button, which I click...and get sent back to the "Terms of Use" page. Click "Continue". Get the "Apple Support Communities & Privacy" page again. Click "continue. Get the "Terms of Use" page again, and over, and over, and over. Death loop.

[Laminar]

It's been several years and I still can't figure out the Podcast app. Apparently the hardest thing in the world to do is to keep listening to an episode I've already started. I guess Browse is where it shows me a bunch of podcasts I don't care about. Library shows me not what I've subscribed to, but maybe any Podcast I've ever listened to? Listen Now is a combination of Browse and Library that shows me absolutely nothing I care about. And if I scrolled back to last year and started an episode, there's no way to continue listening but to once again scroll way back in time and find that same episode again? That's not something I can do in the car. I've listened to a lot of half episodes.

[Doc HM]

Pet hate:
Companies that react to having racist or other phobic content on their social platform, Yes I'm looking at YOU all of social media, by saying
"We do not allow hateful or illegal content on our platform"

Well you do, because it's there. You mean "our terms and conditions prohibit it". You also mean, "but we don't care enough to resource stopping it adequately", neither of which sound anything other than what they are.
But at least aren't verifiable untruths.

[subego]

The company which makes all my home automation hardware looks to have gone belly-up. The dimmers pop every now and again, so once I’m out of spares, that’s it.

At least I have it all locally controlled. The cloud people are totally out of luck.

[reader50]

You can still buy new VCRs on eBay. Unopened models that haven't been made in 20 years.

If your home automation company is/was at all popular, you'll be able to buy new spares for some time. Prices will gradually increase as the stock gets smaller.