What Grinds Your Gears? :) - Page 442

*Leo656* · 01-07-2021, 07:15 AM

Update: Amazon reinstated my account. Whoooo.

Now just waiting to hear about the car insurance thing. Fingers crossed.

*Vegita-San* · 01-17-2021, 02:25 AM

Used to be on about 10 mesage boards. they where my escape from a dull social life. then leftism and SJW nonsense came, and one by one, they started to whittle away. then there where only two, this site and he-man.org. the latter is slowly becoming more argumentive and insulting...and finally I requested to remove access from their political section and I think i'm done with the site finally, after joing in 2000. seems alot of the older members feel the same way and vanished faster than I did.

There was a real noticeable shift when that new she-nah show premiered. you where supposed to instantly like it and not question anything bad about it. if you did, you got 'warnings'. They also 'censored' words like SJW as if it where as bad as the F word. how childish can one get?

there are getting to be less and less places where one with an open/super logical mind can just go to relax.

*Leo656* · 01-20-2021, 09:15 PM

The plug wires for my Sega Master System came today... but I can't get it to work.

Like, it WANTS to work - sometimes I'll get some noise, or some colored bars on the screen, and I did get the Sega logo to come up for a couple seconds on one of the games, but mostly it's a black screen. I've cleaned all the carts a bunch of times and I tried cleaning the connectors inside the console a little bit and it did start "trying to work" more often after I did that, but it still won't actually kick in. Could be that it just needs a super-deep cleaning or maybe the pins need to be replaced, I don't know.

Looks like I'll be mailing it out for repairs. I *think* I know a guy who can do it - he offered to fix my Xbox but I don't know if he works on other systems. Otherwise I'll just keep looking around.

At least I know the wires I bought are the right ones.

*Andrew NDB* · 01-20-2021, 09:43 PM

Is anyone else suddenly having trouble tagging people in Facebook pictures? I've been unable to for a week. Is this part of Zuckerberg combating tyranny or whatever?

*Leo656* · 01-20-2021, 10:47 PM

Depends, sometimes it won't let me tag someone the first time but if I go back and try to Edit the post it lets me. I'unno.

UPDATE: Yeah, apparently from what I've been reading this console definitely needs to be either sent out for repairs OR just outright replaced, whatever is cheaper.

The problem could be any one of about a half-dozen things, all of which require taking the console apart and soldering stuff. AND depending on where I'd have to send it and how much the repairs might cost, it might be easier to just have my buddy refund my money and just get a "Tested - Works!" one off of eBay for about $150.

It sucks because my friend wanted to help me out; I got the system and a stack of games for $120. I'm assuming the games will work in a functional system, so I guess it wasn't a total write-off and I don't plan to ask for ALL my money back; but spending ANOTHER $150 isn't appetizing. But I might have no choice.

Waiting to hear back from a guy who might be able to fix it. If he can't, there's one other place I found online that might be able to. And if that's gonna cost too much to fix I might just have to bite the bullet and get a "new" one.

BAH! I wanted to play some Shinobi. Ah well. I'm not super-mad, I'm just disappointed. And so's my buddy.

*IndigoErth* · 01-21-2021, 04:09 PM

Why does the numbing from the dentist always take so long to wear off for me... They always say "about another hour" and I told the guy...or several. Four hours seems to be typical.

Just the upper lip still feeling it a bit, so finally gave up and tried to eat something.

At least it is letting up now, but the nerves in those teeth are pissed off about the fillings. >.< Fun times.

*MsMarvelDuckie* · 01-22-2021, 08:12 AM

At least that will pass. I'm STILL having issues with the nerve in the finger I cut back in December. Severed the nerve, now it is super sensitive to cold or pressure there, but one whole side of the rest of that finger is permanently numb. Makes holding things or doing fine movements with it sketchy at best.

*IndigoErth* · 01-22-2021, 11:13 AM

You really did a job on yourself.

Should form a club with my brother-in-law. He permanently did a similar number to one of his on a ladder at work some years ago and ended up with an infection and surgery to get rid of that and reattached some tendons clear up into his wrist. Been troublesome ever since.

*MsMarvelDuckie* · 01-25-2021, 07:38 AM

That's one club I'll pass on joining, lol!

*sdp* · 02-04-2021, 05:32 PM

I lost all my tabs in a crash today, I swear I was "eventually" going to go to them. Months of tabs with information I wanted to gain now gone forever with no way of recovering them.

I have double the ram available now though, I didn't want to have so many tabs anymore but..

*IndigoErth* · 02-04-2021, 06:14 PM

Isn't the bookmark feature still a thing...?

Grind... work taking longer than expected/intended because this was apparently the day to buy cards in that store and had people in the way and underfoot (and messing it back up) about 75% of the time and a lot of them take forever. You'd think "social distancing" was supposed to be a thing even.

*Autbot_Benz* · 02-09-2021, 11:27 AM

My Favorite Food show Good Eats is coming back with a new season. Last Season Aired on Food Network which I have via Cable. The New Season is airing on Discovery + another streaming service

I am so sick of streaming services. Keep **** on cable

*IndigoErth* · 02-10-2021, 04:02 PM

Another one?

There's a couple other shows I've seen ads for also saying they were moving to that service. One of them one of the zoo shows from Animal Planet. I think Property Brothers is the other.

Agree with you entirely. Why not either keep streaming programing original and stop stealing existing cable shows, or just don't trap them only there for a limited audience. No one wants to buy every damn streaming service whose content they probably aren't going to watch 85% of, so that seems like such a stupid business plan in the long run.

I dread the day I have to pay extra money for one just to see a new TMNT show...or more likely forced to look for it though other avenues if I don't want that service.

And my own particular grind from a couple days ago being stupid Comcast/Xfinity terminating the Norton Anti Virus and offering their customers zero virus protection now (cute!), claiming their "advanced security" via rented modem is somehow just as good or better. (Big surprise, it's not.) Awful, idiotic move by them.

I guess it was ending Jan 1st, though it seemed to last until Monday for me/us, when I suddenly got the rude awakening of it shut down. (Yeah, Norton, you suck too for making your program also totally disable!)

On the up side, I am grateful to have found that Avast's freebie still supports my old OS, if not with as many bells and whistles, but if we have the basics we need... awesome. And doubly grateful I'd put it on my mom's computer a while back, as just a temporary extra scan, and had not removed it, so I didn't have to fight with that pain in the neck computer to try to reinstall it.

*Leo656* · 02-10-2021, 07:54 PM

There's an oft-told joke (at least I hear it fairly often):

"Man, there's so many damn streaming services, nowadays. I can't keep track! I wish, like... I wish someone would just take ALL the streaming channels, y'know? And just like sell you ALL of 'em in one big package, and then you could watch whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted! THAT'S what I want, man!"

"...That's cable. You're literally talking about cable, Steve."

It's true, though. "Streaming services" are bullsh*t. People call it "progress", because they don't have to "waste time" or "waste money" on scrolling past/paying for channels they don't watch. It's not "progress" at all; add up all the major streaming networks, now, and you end up paying more than you would for an all-inclusive monthly cable or satellite package with thousands of channels.

It's all bullsh*t. A scam. They charge you a "smaller" price per service to "eliminate the clutter" but you actually end up paying MORE money for a lot less content when all is said and done. And I cannot f*cking believe that people not only fall for it but they trip over themselves to gush about how much "better" it is this way. Dumb!

All it really is, is that every ten years these companies gotta upsell you to some new service model. In the 80s it was cable. 90s it was satellite. 2000s was all about "bundling" your cable or satellite with your phone and internet. Now it's about "cutting the cord" and "eliminating clutter" while paying $10-15 a month for each one of 5 or 6 different streaming services. It's all just one big hustle and they hope nobody stops to do the math.

*IndigoErth* · 02-10-2021, 09:31 PM

Given how common streaming as become, I just wish that cable would finally give in and decide that in their own best interest in keeping customers it would be beneficial to switch their own stupid model and finally allow people to choose from a menu of channels, to have what we actually want and tailor our own bill. Instead of being forced to buy the most costly one with a crap ton we won't watch but need because it's the only one that includes all the ones you do.

You'd think streaming could at least be the pressure cable needs to become better itself.

Bad enough we also have Comcast for both our cable and internet and of course they aren't going to give us a discount after taking away Norton.

*Leo656* · 02-10-2021, 10:00 PM

It's like paying for a gym membership. In reality, you're never gonna use the pool, sauna, or tanning bed... but you might. So it's just easier for everyone to offer one big all-inclusive option at a flat rate; that way if you want to take advantage of all those "extras", you already have them. If a person takes a "bare bones" option upfront and then later on decides they want to "level up" and get more extras, it's more work and hassle for everyone later.

I understand why cable companies do it this way, because at one point when my one gym was struggling, we experimented with "tiered" membership options instead of the "One membership, one price, you get everything" model we had for years. We had Basic ($20/mo., no group classes or free training sessions), VIP ($30/mo., one free training session and up to three group classes per week), and VIP + ($50/mo., three free training sessions and unlimited group classes). Sounds great in theory. But it didn't work.

What happens is, everybody says "I just want the Basic, I'm never gonna use any of that stuff." So you give it to them. And then eventually, they DO want that stuff, or at least some of it, BUT they don't wanna pay for it. You explain the tiered membership structure again, politely. You remind them that they can upgrade their membership at any time, but these amenities will change their monthly fee. And what do they say? "C'mon. C'mooooooonnnnn."

We quickly scrapped it and went back to the $40 flat rate/all-inclusive membership, because it saved us a lot of aggravation and arguing/"negotiating" with the customers.

It's no different with cable. "I don't want HBO or Disney Channel." Until you inevitably do. And then someone has to go into your account and update your settings and your billing. And then there's a computer glitch one month and your extra channels accidentally get cut off when it reverts to your old pre-upgrade settings. And then you bitch out the guy or girl on the phone who's trying to figure it out, as if it's all their fault.

It's just much, MUCH easier all the way around to charge a flat rate and give people everything, whether they want "everything" or not. It saves a lot of time and hassle on the back end. That's why they eventually started doing things that way in the first place.

I had a lot more empathy for customers and their insistence on personalized options just to suit them, before I spent 10 years doing customer service as part of my gym job. Everybody swears they're the one person who's gonna be the exception to the rule, and they wanna be treated special. But they're 100% of the time gonna do the exact same thing everybody else does, so just charge 'em the goddamn flat rate and tell 'em to like it or lump it. They'll grumble about it but you're gonna save COUNTLESS hours of arguing with them later on. I figured that out ages ago, and I'm just One Guy. So it's not hard to figure out why these companies do things that way. It's just common sense.

...Comcast is the sh*ts, though. You have my sincere sympathies on that.

*IndigoErth* · 02-11-2021, 05:12 PM

Eh, not just convenience with them...cable is crafty about it. They know the channels people tend to actually want and they split some of them between different packages, so you're either going to get one you love and have to say goodbye to another you also really want...or pay for the most expensive package, along with a ton of other channels you legit won't watch, just so you can have both that you do want.

I'm sure that will become reasonable around the same time as -- grind segue -- stupid low info state government nonsense will.

By which I mean I got my taxes done, but had very little appreciation for the low amount of info on ensuring the unemployment tax waiver is applied, stating no more than to enter the amount on line 36...as if most people still do it by hand and aren't using TurboTax, etc that don't give you a line 36.

(Note so any similarly annoyed people... check the PDF first before submitting it.)

2/21 -- Knew I wouldn't have a chance in hell on those eBay bids...

At least the one ending today and another tomorrow while I'm at work ended/is ending higher priced than if I just buy right from the source instead. But I was hoping to find a better price after waiting a year or more for one to turn up...

2/24 -- Of course, after it was still available from the publisher all these months and I finally give up on eBay, just suggested to as a b-day gift... and now it's suddenly no longer available from the publisher anymore. Cute, Universe, I hate you, too.

*IndigoErth* · 03-03-2021, 08:53 PM

For kids and adults who need to avoid it, wouldn't you think there would be more sugar free options for holiday candy? It's like, you can look at it online, you might even be able to buy it online for a ridiculous price that isn't worth what it is, but you sure can't find it in the wild.

My Walgreens doesn't even seem to have the Russell Stover sugar free marshmallow eggs this year. Though they had the hearts for Valentines, so that as the only option kind of gets boring anyhow...

Wanted to get my mom a little something, but been kind of at a loss. Russell Stover sugar free jelly beans seem to exist, but of course no where actually in real life. (Only online, but not on Russell Stover's own site, go figure!) At best, Walgreens has little bags of not at all Easter themed sugar free Jelly Belly beans...that of course Walmart hasn't restocked and would have probably been a little more reasonable price. Because goodness knows since they aren't regular jelly bean flavors she probably won't like them anyhow. (And Walgreens only had 3 so I dare not wait on it hoping for Walmart to actually come through.)

Really, what are you supposed to do for a diabetic who shouldn't have it? I really feel for children who have to miss out on much of it.

Granted, most kids are probably happy with extra toy substitutes. But I've not found it easy to figure out just a small holiday appropriate thing that would be appreciated by an adult in lieu of candy. I did this week buy a somewhat vintage (80/90s) Wedgwood egg trinket box off of eBay, and is a brand she has admired in the past. I just hope it seems like enough along with the Jelly Bellys and maybe a small little pack of the Cadbury mini eggs... very small.

There are others of those egg trinket boxes by that company, so hoping if she likes that I might be able to make a tradition of it and get her another one next year.

*MsMarvelDuckie* · 03-04-2021, 07:26 AM

Gear grind- Netflix having a GREAT series, that even wins an emmy in it's first season, and then got canceled that same day, with the story left unfinished. I am, of course referring to The Dark Crystal AoR, which hubby and I just finished watching last night. I mean, it had a decent "ending", but having read the novel of the story back when the series came out, I know there is more to it, and just- why??! I remember only a little bit of the full version in the book, because I flipped through it once or twice at WalMart when it came out. But now.... So many questions left unanswered, and just because it apparently was too "niche"? This was a fantastic series! A few minor quibbles regarding inconsistencies with the movie (namely, the General's "fate") but I wanted more of this!

*IndigoErth* · 03-04-2021, 10:03 AM

What?? Noooo....

Just why.

I've been waiting and waiting for it to hopefully one day announce that a second season is intended, albeit maybe very delayed because of the pandemic.

Ugh. Figures. I share in your disappointment.

Well, since you know more and I guess there is no spoiling the series now, then do tell... is it ever revealed that the main characters are the parents of Jen or Kira?

I should have known that Rite Aid pulling off a miracle and having those darn Russell Stover jelly beans and actually being worth the trip to go look (because how often is a trip to a store to hunt for something ever worth it?) would be countered with something else that sucks instead...

01-07-2021, 07:15 AM	#8821
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	Update: Amazon reinstated my account. Whoooo. Now just waiting to hear about the car insurance thing. Fingers crossed. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

01-17-2021, 02:25 AM	#8822
Vegita-San Emperor Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5,915	Used to be on about 10 mesage boards. they where my escape from a dull social life. then leftism and SJW nonsense came, and one by one, they started to whittle away. then there where only two, this site and he-man.org. the latter is slowly becoming more argumentive and insulting...and finally I requested to remove access from their political section and I think i'm done with the site finally, after joing in 2000. seems alot of the older members feel the same way and vanished faster than I did. There was a real noticeable shift when that new she-nah show premiered. you where supposed to instantly like it and not question anything bad about it. if you did, you got 'warnings'. They also 'censored' words like SJW as if it where as bad as the F word. how childish can one get? there are getting to be less and less places where one with an open/super logical mind can just go to relax. __________________ 'Wrong, April. We've Been upgraded to Women hating TROLLS' ?The force is not female, the force is not male, the force is for everyone?

01-20-2021, 09:15 PM	#8823
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	The plug wires for my Sega Master System came today... but I can't get it to work. Like, it WANTS to work - sometimes I'll get some noise, or some colored bars on the screen, and I did get the Sega logo to come up for a couple seconds on one of the games, but mostly it's a black screen. I've cleaned all the carts a bunch of times and I tried cleaning the connectors inside the console a little bit and it did start "trying to work" more often after I did that, but it still won't actually kick in. Could be that it just needs a super-deep cleaning or maybe the pins need to be replaced, I don't know. Looks like I'll be mailing it out for repairs. I think I know a guy who can do it - he offered to fix my Xbox but I don't know if he works on other systems. Otherwise I'll just keep looking around. At least I know the wires I bought are the right ones. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

01-20-2021, 09:43 PM	#8824
Andrew NDB Weed Whacker Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Auburn, WA Posts: 29,278	Is anyone else suddenly having trouble tagging people in Facebook pictures? I've been unable to for a week. Is this part of Zuckerberg combating tyranny or whatever? __________________ [ ODYSSEY \| ORIGIN \| THE IMAGE/VOL. 3 CONCLUSION \| THE SHELLSHOCKED PODCAST \| ON FACEBOOK ]

01-20-2021, 10:47 PM	#8825
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	Depends, sometimes it won't let me tag someone the first time but if I go back and try to Edit the post it lets me. I'unno. UPDATE: Yeah, apparently from what I've been reading this console definitely needs to be either sent out for repairs OR just outright replaced, whatever is cheaper. The problem could be any one of about a half-dozen things, all of which require taking the console apart and soldering stuff. AND depending on where I'd have to send it and how much the repairs might cost, it might be easier to just have my buddy refund my money and just get a "Tested - Works!" one off of eBay for about $150. It sucks because my friend wanted to help me out; I got the system and a stack of games for $120. I'm assuming the games will work in a functional system, so I guess it wasn't a total write-off and I don't plan to ask for ALL my money back; but spending ANOTHER $150 isn't appetizing. But I might have no choice. Waiting to hear back from a guy who might be able to fix it. If he can't, there's one other place I found online that might be able to. And if that's gonna cost too much to fix I might just have to bite the bullet and get a "new" one. BAH! I wanted to play some Shinobi. Ah well. I'm not super-mad, I'm just disappointed. And so's my buddy. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know." nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

01-21-2021, 04:09 PM	#8826
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	Why does the numbing from the dentist always take so long to wear off for me... They always say "about another hour" and I told the guy...or several. Four hours seems to be typical. Just the upper lip still feeling it a bit, so finally gave up and tried to eat something. At least it is letting up now, but the nerves in those teeth are pissed off about the fillings. >.< Fun times.

01-22-2021, 08:12 AM	#8827
MsMarvelDuckie I Married a Duck! Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: The bowels of Hell, Texas(otherwise known as Decatur) Posts: 8,772	At least that will pass. I'm STILL having issues with the nerve in the finger I cut back in December. Severed the nerve, now it is super sensitive to cold or pressure there, but one whole side of the rest of that finger is permanently numb. Makes holding things or doing fine movements with it sketchy at best. __________________ "You IDIOTS! You've captured their STUNT doubles!" -from "Spaceballs" "Where Science ends, magic begins." -Spiral, Uncanny X-Men #491 My various stories and fan-fics are now here- https://m.fanfiction.net/u/4770494/#end

01-22-2021, 11:13 AM	#8828
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	You really did a job on yourself. Should form a club with my brother-in-law. He permanently did a similar number to one of his on a ladder at work some years ago and ended up with an infection and surgery to get rid of that and reattached some tendons clear up into his wrist. Been troublesome ever since.

01-25-2021, 07:38 AM	#8829
MsMarvelDuckie I Married a Duck! Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: The bowels of Hell, Texas(otherwise known as Decatur) Posts: 8,772	That's one club I'll pass on joining, lol! __________________ "You IDIOTS! You've captured their STUNT doubles!" -from "Spaceballs" "Where Science ends, magic begins." -Spiral, Uncanny X-Men #491 My various stories and fan-fics are now here- https://m.fanfiction.net/u/4770494/#end

02-04-2021, 05:32 PM	#8830
sdp Megan Fox = April Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Tokio, Italy Posts: 9,999	I lost all my tabs in a crash today, I swear I was "eventually" going to go to them. Months of tabs with information I wanted to gain now gone forever with no way of recovering them. I have double the ram available now though, I didn't want to have so many tabs anymore but.. __________________ *Bye* *TMNT !!! I'm unaliving tonight* Click to join The Drome Discord server

02-04-2021, 06:14 PM	#8831
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	Isn't the bookmark feature still a thing...? Grind... work taking longer than expected/intended because this was apparently the day to buy cards in that store and had people in the way and underfoot (and messing it back up) about 75% of the time and a lot of them take forever. You'd think "social distancing" was supposed to be a thing even.

02-09-2021, 11:27 AM	#8832
Autbot_Benz Hellblazer Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: Ventura California Posts: 8,287	My Favorite Food show Good Eats is coming back with a new season. Last Season Aired on Food Network which I have via Cable. The New Season is airing on Discovery + another streaming service I am so sick of streaming services. Keep **** on cable __________________ I respect what FW cartoon did for the turtles franchise but it is the most overrated and hard to watch of the 3 turtles cartoons.

02-10-2021, 04:02 PM	#8833
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	Another one? There's a couple other shows I've seen ads for also saying they were moving to that service. One of them one of the zoo shows from Animal Planet. I think Property Brothers is the other. Agree with you entirely. Why not either keep streaming programing original and stop stealing existing cable shows, or just don't trap them only there for a limited audience. No one wants to buy every damn streaming service whose content they probably aren't going to watch 85% of, so that seems like such a stupid business plan in the long run. I dread the day I have to pay extra money for one just to see a new TMNT show...or more likely forced to look for it though other avenues if I don't want that service. And my own particular grind from a couple days ago being stupid Comcast/Xfinity terminating the Norton Anti Virus and offering their customers zero virus protection now (cute!), claiming their "advanced security" via rented modem is somehow just as good or better. (Big surprise, it's not.) Awful, idiotic move by them. I guess it was ending Jan 1st, though it seemed to last until Monday for me/us, when I suddenly got the rude awakening of it shut down. (Yeah, Norton, you suck too for making your program also totally disable!) On the up side, I am grateful to have found that Avast's freebie still supports my old OS, if not with as many bells and whistles, but if we have the basics we need... awesome. And doubly grateful I'd put it on my mom's computer a while back, as just a temporary extra scan, and had not removed it, so I didn't have to fight with that pain in the neck computer to try to reinstall it. Last edited by IndigoErth; 02-10-2021 at 04:15 PM.

02-10-2021, 07:54 PM	#8834
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	There's an oft-told joke (at least I hear it fairly often): "Man, there's so many damn streaming services, nowadays. I can't keep track! I wish, like... I wish someone would just take ALL the streaming channels, y'know? And just like sell you ALL of 'em in one big package, and then you could watch whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted! THAT'S what I want, man!" "...That's cable. You're literally talking about cable, Steve." It's true, though. "Streaming services" are bullsht. People call it "progress", because they don't have to "waste time" or "waste money" on scrolling past/paying for channels they don't watch. It's not "progress" at all; add up all the major streaming networks, now, and you end up paying more than you would for an all-inclusive monthly cable or satellite package with thousands of channels. It's all bullsht. A scam. They charge you a "smaller" price per service to "eliminate the clutter" but you actually end up paying MORE money for a lot less content when all is said and done. And I cannot fcking believe that people not only fall for it but they trip over themselves to gush about how much "better" it is this way. Dumb! All it really is, is that every ten years these companies gotta upsell you to some new service model. In the 80s it was cable. 90s it was satellite. 2000s was all about "bundling" your cable or satellite with your phone and internet. Now it's about "cutting the cord" and "eliminating clutter" while paying $10-15 a month for each one of 5 or 6 different streaming services. It's all just one big hustle and they hope nobody stops to do the math. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know."* nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

02-10-2021, 09:31 PM	#8835
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	Given how common streaming as become, I just wish that cable would finally give in and decide that in their own best interest in keeping customers it would be beneficial to switch their own stupid model and finally allow people to choose from a menu of channels, to have what we actually want and tailor our own bill. Instead of being forced to buy the most costly one with a crap ton we won't watch but need because it's the only one that includes all the ones you do. You'd think streaming could at least be the pressure cable needs to become better itself. Bad enough we also have Comcast for both our cable and internet and of course they aren't going to give us a discount after taking away Norton.

02-10-2021, 10:00 PM	#8836
Leo656 The Franchise Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: nWo Country Posts: 27,696	It's like paying for a gym membership. In reality, you're never gonna use the pool, sauna, or tanning bed... but you might. So it's just easier for everyone to offer one big all-inclusive option at a flat rate; that way if you want to take advantage of all those "extras", you already have them. If a person takes a "bare bones" option upfront and then later on decides they want to "level up" and get more extras, it's more work and hassle for everyone later. I understand why cable companies do it this way, because at one point when my one gym was struggling, we experimented with "tiered" membership options instead of the "One membership, one price, you get everything" model we had for years. We had Basic ($20/mo., no group classes or free training sessions), VIP ($30/mo., one free training session and up to three group classes per week), and VIP + ($50/mo., three free training sessions and unlimited group classes). Sounds great in theory. But it didn't work. What happens is, everybody says "I just want the Basic, I'm never gonna use any of that stuff." So you give it to them. And then eventually, they DO want that stuff, or at least some of it, BUT they don't wanna pay for it. You explain the tiered membership structure again, politely. You remind them that they can upgrade their membership at any time, but these amenities will change their monthly fee. And what do they say? "C'mon. C'mooooooonnnnn." We quickly scrapped it and went back to the $40 flat rate/all-inclusive membership, because it saved us a lot of aggravation and arguing/"negotiating" with the customers. It's no different with cable. "I don't want HBO or Disney Channel." Until you inevitably do. And then someone has to go into your account and update your settings and your billing. And then there's a computer glitch one month and your extra channels accidentally get cut off when it reverts to your old pre-upgrade settings. And then you bitch out the guy or girl on the phone who's trying to figure it out, as if it's all their fault. It's just much, MUCH easier all the way around to charge a flat rate and give people everything, whether they want "everything" or not. It saves a lot of time and hassle on the back end. That's why they eventually started doing things that way in the first place. I had a lot more empathy for customers and their insistence on personalized options just to suit them, before I spent 10 years doing customer service as part of my gym job. Everybody swears they're the one person who's gonna be the exception to the rule, and they wanna be treated special. But they're 100% of the time gonna do the exact same thing everybody else does, so just charge 'em the goddamn flat rate and tell 'em to like it or lump it. They'll grumble about it but you're gonna save COUNTLESS hours of arguing with them later on. I figured that out ages ago, and I'm just One Guy. So it's not hard to figure out why these companies do things that way. It's just common sense. ...Comcast is the shts, though. You have my sincere sympathies on that. __________________ "I left some words quite far from here to be a short reminder... I laid them out in stone, in case they need to last forever..." "But hey... I'm not telling you anything that you don't already know."* nWo Tech: The Official Thread Poison of the Technodrome Forums https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxr...awnHgDz1ceDcfA https://theroxxshow.blogspot.com/

02-11-2021, 05:12 PM	#8837
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	Eh, not just convenience with them...cable is crafty about it. They know the channels people tend to actually want and they split some of them between different packages, so you're either going to get one you love and have to say goodbye to another you also really want...or pay for the most expensive package, along with a ton of other channels you legit won't watch, just so you can have both that you do want. I'm sure that will become reasonable around the same time as -- grind segue -- stupid low info state government nonsense will. By which I mean I got my taxes done, but had very little appreciation for the low amount of info on ensuring the unemployment tax waiver is applied, stating no more than to enter the amount on line 36...as if most people still do it by hand and aren't using TurboTax, etc that don't give you a line 36. (Note so any similarly annoyed people... check the PDF first before submitting it.) 2/21 -- Knew I wouldn't have a chance in hell on those eBay bids... At least the one ending today and another tomorrow while I'm at work ended/is ending higher priced than if I just buy right from the source instead. But I was hoping to find a better price after waiting a year or more for one to turn up... 2/24 -- Of course, after it was still available from the publisher all these months and I finally give up on eBay, just suggested to as a b-day gift... and now it's suddenly no longer available from the publisher anymore. Cute, Universe, I hate you, too. Last edited by IndigoErth; 02-24-2021 at 01:30 PM.

03-03-2021, 08:53 PM	#8838
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	For kids and adults who need to avoid it, wouldn't you think there would be more sugar free options for holiday candy? It's like, you can look at it online, you might even be able to buy it online for a ridiculous price that isn't worth what it is, but you sure can't find it in the wild. My Walgreens doesn't even seem to have the Russell Stover sugar free marshmallow eggs this year. Though they had the hearts for Valentines, so that as the only option kind of gets boring anyhow... Wanted to get my mom a little something, but been kind of at a loss. Russell Stover sugar free jelly beans seem to exist, but of course no where actually in real life. (Only online, but not on Russell Stover's own site, go figure!) At best, Walgreens has little bags of not at all Easter themed sugar free Jelly Belly beans...that of course Walmart hasn't restocked and would have probably been a little more reasonable price. Because goodness knows since they aren't regular jelly bean flavors she probably won't like them anyhow. (And Walgreens only had 3 so I dare not wait on it hoping for Walmart to actually come through.) Really, what are you supposed to do for a diabetic who shouldn't have it? I really feel for children who have to miss out on much of it. Granted, most kids are probably happy with extra toy substitutes. But I've not found it easy to figure out just a small holiday appropriate thing that would be appreciated by an adult in lieu of candy. I did this week buy a somewhat vintage (80/90s) Wedgwood egg trinket box off of eBay, and is a brand she has admired in the past. I just hope it seems like enough along with the Jelly Bellys and maybe a small little pack of the Cadbury mini eggs... very small. There are others of those egg trinket boxes by that company, so hoping if she likes that I might be able to make a tradition of it and get her another one next year.

03-04-2021, 07:26 AM	#8839
MsMarvelDuckie I Married a Duck! Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: The bowels of Hell, Texas(otherwise known as Decatur) Posts: 8,772	Gear grind- Netflix having a GREAT series, that even wins an emmy in it's first season, and then got canceled that same day, with the story left unfinished. I am, of course referring to The Dark Crystal AoR, which hubby and I just finished watching last night. I mean, it had a decent "ending", but having read the novel of the story back when the series came out, I know there is more to it, and just- why??! I remember only a little bit of the full version in the book, because I flipped through it once or twice at WalMart when it came out. But now.... So many questions left unanswered, and just because it apparently was too "niche"? This was a fantastic series! A few minor quibbles regarding inconsistencies with the movie (namely, the General's "fate") but I wanted more of this! __________________ "You IDIOTS! You've captured their STUNT doubles!" -from "Spaceballs" "Where Science ends, magic begins." -Spiral, Uncanny X-Men #491 My various stories and fan-fics are now here- https://m.fanfiction.net/u/4770494/#end

03-04-2021, 10:03 AM	#8840
IndigoErth Team Blue Boy Join Date: Jun 2014 Location: U.S., East Coast Posts: 15,242	What?? Noooo.... Just why. I've been waiting and waiting for it to hopefully one day announce that a second season is intended, albeit maybe very delayed because of the pandemic. Ugh. Figures. I share in your disappointment. Well, since you know more and I guess there is no spoiling the series now, then do tell... is it ever revealed that the main characters are the parents of Jen or Kira? I should have known that Rite Aid pulling off a miracle and having those darn Russell Stover jelly beans and actually being worth the trip to go look (because how often is a trip to a store to hunt for something ever worth it?) would be countered with something else that sucks instead...