Anonymouswizard's Random Banter #227 and Free Cup of Tea

[The Fury]

I wholly agree with you here, especially as dealers have a depression for overcharging, which is not on the mechanist's end. Dealers can also help one specialize, which can be valuable.

I feel that I should clarify that service departments at dealers aren't quite the same as sales departments. As mechanics, we usually perform routine service and inspections and recommend further service based on what we find during these inspections. From there it's up to the service advisor and the customer whether or not to go through with the additional repairs.

Repairs at dealerships do tend to be more expensive, but this is usually because dealership repairs are done with OE parts which are often more expensive. There are independent shops that use cheaper parts, but they can be a little more dicey depending on what's being done.

Being a tech at a dealership does allow someone access to OE training as well, which is pretty handy.

Not to say I wouldn't take the Jiffy Lube job if that was all I could get. I've definitely done worse jobs, I'll just be a little salty about working at a place that mechanics tend to meme about.

[Insane Jeenyus]

I don't really agree with Insane. Experience at a less reputable mechanic is better than no experience.

dealerships would be an excellent source of employment, just keep a close eye on the integrity of your character, "Bad company corrupts good character"

For the record, I did not say to forsake possible employment with a less then reputable employer.

[Aotrs Commander]

For FRACK'S SAKE. I just was forced by Windows to enter a "Hello PIN" AGAIN just so I could get into the the system and DELETE IT AGAIN.

[EXPLETE]'s SAKE Microsoft, TAKE. THE. HINT. That's the third time I have turned that setting off IMMEDIATELY after being forced to use it, stop turning it on!

It's bad enough I had to sign in with my password twice in two freaking days (once again, this morning it maes my Dad clearly didn't get to use the computer because it was on but not logged in).

I.

WILL.

NOT.

HAVE.

A [EXPLETIVE] PIN.

FOR. MY. OWN. COMPUTER.

I have a password, and that disrupts thing ENOUGH already when you force a sign-in instead of booting up, I'm not changing one problem for another one which means another pointless thing to have to write down and search out every time.



I would lodge a formal complaint, but OF COURSE MS - like most companies - are making it as difficult as possible for customers to lodge complaints; and their compliants system is currently borked as well, apparently. Suuuuuure, MS. any excuse eh? Funny how a massive, massive company like yours can afford to have all this stuff all this "virtual agent" crap. but when it isnt working properly, funny how you can't manage to find a single email address to hand out in place, isn't it?



EdIt: I can see we're off to a good start, since Firaxis apparently for no reason, changed the launcher for X-Com 2 (from Steam) and, of course, it meant I needed to reactivate all my mods again. Seriously, X-Com Chimera's been out for what, two-three weeks, why NOW?

(And THEN I had to click Wndows Defender to allow X-Com 2 to run, SERIOUSLY, the hell GIVES this morning...? X-Com 2 hasn't had an update, I'd had have seen it!)


Edit edit:

FRACK. AWESOME.

Apparently? This new launcher for X-Com?

Is BROKEN.

Meaning aside from it not loading mods, it doesn't even LAUNCH THE GAME.

Nice, Firaxis, NICE.


And no work-arounds function. (Oh, you can BET I submitted a support question, though I was cold but polite (far more than I was here), though at the end, I did note I was "extremely displeased."

CLEARLY this launcher ws not tested and should NEVER have been deployed and ABSOLUTELY should have been delayed until normal workign conditions resumed, because I can quite clearly see this was a slapped rush-job and wheover authorised the deployment (and/or whoever psuhed them to do so) ought to lose their heads.



"Currently we are experiencing a high volume of tickets, which means reply times may be longer than initially expected." REALLY? I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY, fracknuggets.



Edit edti edit: After a good deal more fuming (because, apparently, THIS is the back-breaking straw), I had one last try, because apparently the FRACKWITS who designed the UI for the new launcher? Hid War for the Chosen behind a drop down on the play button. Real smart, numpties, real smart. WftC, at least seems to load with mods; though the poor frackers playing vanilla (or Long War 2) are going to be completely stuffed. And how stable this will be is, I guess a matter for conjecture.

[understatement]

I confess to using 2+ hours of my life watching Backstroke of the West. Hands-down, the best Star War movie ever.

[factotum]

For FRACK'S SAKE. I just was forced by Windows to enter a "Hello PIN" AGAIN just so I could get into the the system and DELETE IT AGAIN.

I don't understand why this keeps happening for you? Windows has literally never asked me to enter a PIN on top of my already existing password. I use a local Windows login rather than a Microsoft online one, though, do you?

[Aedilred]

I confess to using 2+ hours of my life watching Backstroke of the West. Hands-down, the best Star War movie ever.

That's not a confession, it's a boast.

I haven't watched the whole thing but I have watched a fair bit of it.

[el minster]

For FRACK'S SAKE. I just was forced by Windows to enter a "Hello PIN" AGAIN just so I could get into the the system and DELETE IT AGAIN.

[EXPLETE]'s SAKE Microsoft, TAKE. THE. HINT. That's the third time I have turned that setting off IMMEDIATELY after being forced to use it, stop turning it on!

It's bad enough I had to sign in with my password twice in two freaking days (once again, this morning it maes my Dad clearly didn't get to use the computer because it was on but not logged in).

I.

WILL.

NOT.

HAVE.

A [EXPLETIVE] PIN.

FOR. MY. OWN. COMPUTER.

I have a password, and that disrupts thing ENOUGH already when you force a sign-in instead of booting up, I'm not changing one problem for another one which means another pointless thing to have to write down and search out every time.



I would lodge a formal complaint, but OF COURSE MS - like most companies - are making it as difficult as possible for customers to lodge complaints; and their compliants system is currently borked as well, apparently. Suuuuuure, MS. any excuse eh? Funny how a massive, massive company like yours can afford to have all this stuff all this "virtual agent" crap. but when it isnt working properly, funny how you can't manage to find a single email address to hand out in place, isn't it?



EdIt: I can see we're off to a good start, since Firaxis apparently for no reason, changed the launcher for X-Com 2 (from Steam) and, of course, it meant I needed to reactivate all my mods again. Seriously, X-Com Chimera's been out for what, two-three weeks, why NOW?

(And THEN I had to click Wndows Defender to allow X-Com 2 to run, SERIOUSLY, the hell GIVES this morning...? X-Com 2 hasn't had an update, I'd had have seen it!)


Edit edit:

FRACK. AWESOME.

Apparently? This new launcher for X-Com?

Is BROKEN.

Meaning aside from it not loading mods, it doesn't even LAUNCH THE GAME.

Nice, Firaxis, NICE.


And no work-arounds function. (Oh, you can BET I submitted a support question, though I was cold but polite (far more than I was here), though at the end, I did note I was "extremely displeased."

CLEARLY this launcher ws not tested and should NEVER have been deployed and ABSOLUTELY should have been delayed until normal workign conditions resumed, because I can quite clearly see this was a slapped rush-job and wheover authorised the deployment (and/or whoever psuhed them to do so) ought to lose their heads.



"Currently we are experiencing a high volume of tickets, which means reply times may be longer than initially expected." REALLY? I CAN'T IMAGINE WHY, fracknuggets.



Edit edti edit: After a good deal more fuming (because, apparently, THIS is the back-breaking straw), I had one last try, because apparently the FRACKWITS who designed the UI for the new launcher? Hid War for the Chosen behind a drop down on the play button. Real smart, numpties, real smart. WftC, at least seems to load with mods; though the poor frackers playing vanilla (or Long War 2) are going to be completely stuffed. And how stable this will be is, I guess a matter for conjecture.

{scrubbed}

[Aotrs Commander]

I don't understand why this keeps happening for you? Windows has literally never asked me to enter a PIN on top of my already existing password. I use a local Windows login rather than a Microsoft online one, though, do you?

MS account password, since that was necessary to get it autheticated after the last (or previous, I forget) HDD change, given the problems I had at the time (they basically generated me a new key).

(I will re-iterate what I said at the time that happened; the gentleman on the phone at that point of the company were efficient, competent and knew what they were doing, and I felt they seemed unreasonably pleased that I was being polite an reasonable, which probably meant they were used to getting a lot of flack. Now, if they could manage that with the rest of the company, MS would be frellin' golden.)

I suspect it happens when they do an update or smething, though I don't remember it being "update and shut down" last night, but I could have missed it if I was only paying half-attention.

[Jasdoif]

Apparently? This new launcher for X-Com?

Is BROKEN.

Meaning aside from it not loading mods, it doesn't even LAUNCH THE GAME.

Nice, Firaxis, NICE.


And no work-arounds function. (Oh, you can BET I submitted a support question, though I was cold but polite (far more than I was here), though at the end, I did note I was "extremely displeased."

CLEARLY this launcher ws not tested and should NEVER have been deployed and ABSOLUTELY should have been delayed until normal workign conditions resumed, because I can quite clearly see this was a slapped rush-job and wheover authorised the deployment (and/or whoever psuhed them to do so) ought to lose their heads.

"Funny" thing: the update immediately before the new launcher, about a week and a half ago, just plain crashed due to a missing executable. It looks a heck of a lot like one still-in-development component got pushed out by accident, followed by a frantic rush to move forward to recover; because as near as I can tell the primary/only point of the new launcher is to shove 2K's other games in people's faces, and that suffers if people are too infuriated with the launcher to care.

[BisectedBrioche]

Ughr, a customer yelled at me because I asked him to wait behind the line (he apparently thought he was off the hook because he just stomped up and tossed the money on the counter). The next customer leapt to my defence by saying "He's only doing his job!".

I'm getting so fed up of retail.

[PopeLinus1]

Ughr, a customer yelled at me because I asked him to wait behind the line (he apparently thought he was off the hook because he just stomped up and tossed the money on the counter). The next customer leapt to my defence by saying "He's only doing his job!".

I'm getting so fed up of retail.

Ugh, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. That just sounds so... degrading. Even more so than retail work sounds normally.

[BisectedBrioche]

Ugh, I'm sorry you have to deal with that. That just sounds so... degrading. Even more so than retail work sounds normally.

It's basically what my experience of retail is at the moment. Getting misgendered no matter how well I think I pass that day, and getting yelled at for enforcing the store's lockdown measures.

[LaZodiac]

Ughr, a customer yelled at me because I asked him to wait behind the line (he apparently thought he was off the hook because he just stomped up and tossed the money on the counter). The next customer leapt to my defence by saying "He's only doing his job!".

I'm getting so fed up of retail.

Aw, I'm so sorry Brioche. That's awesome! They probably think they did a good job by defending you too... that sucks.

I hope one day you're able to get out of retail so you don't have to deal with this nonsense.

[The Fury]

It's basically what my experience of retail is at the moment. Getting misgendered no matter how well I think I pass that day, and getting yelled at for enforcing the store's lockdown measures.

For what it's worth, having seen the pictures that you've shared of yourself, you don't look like a "he" to me.

[PopeLinus1]

It's basically what my experience of retail is at the moment. Getting misgendered no matter how well I think I pass that day, and getting yelled at for enforcing the store's lockdown measures.

I'd love to say we have it across the pond, but... No. No we do not. No we certainly do not.

[Insane Jeenyus]

For what it's worth, having seen the pictures that you've shared of yourself, you don't look like a "he" to me.

I ditto this response.

[BisectedBrioche]

For what it's worth, having seen the pictures that you've shared of yourself, you don't look like a "he" to me.

I ditto this response.

Aye, that's what a lot of people say (I mean, just that very morning I was chatting with my cis colleague about bras, and she was scoffing at the idea I'd need plastic surgery to look feminine).

Problem is, getting unambiguously misgendered is enough to ruin my entire day at the best of times.

[LaZodiac]

Had an interesting experience today, which I will copy paste from chat programs here instead of writing out uniquely because I'm tired.

Spoiler: Canada dot text

Show

so, I went to pick up medicine today
and I have a fun story to tell!
me and Mom went to get a mcdonalds burger after getting my medicine since I was hungry and she wanted a drink after acing a job interview
so we go get our burger, go to pay, and
the person ahead of us paid!
so
WE pay for thet person BEHIND us
and as we're driving out we see the people who bought for us idling to organize food
so we stop near them and are like
heey
thank you!
and THEY tell US
they had THEIR food paid for
so they just did the same
and when we told them we did the same
they told us "oh then we owe you!"
which is a ****ing Canadian ass thing to say.
Mom joked about NAAAW, not at all
and we drove off smiling and saying have a good day.

[Fyraltari]

AH! I finally got my laptop back! (I handed for repairs like three days before everybody got locked up inside.)

[Aotrs Commander]

Work today was continuing the process of getting the newly-completed Aotrs starfleet (at both starships and 6mm/fighter scale) ready for realise, which means doing all the vessel write-ups. (Because all releases have to have accompanying fluff, even though the expectation is that probably no-one will use it, but that's not the POINT.)

Said write-ups which need a bit more than the two or three lines most of them have had for a quarter of a century... So I've managed to only get three ships done, and one of THOSE is one of the five Too Big To Have A model...!


So, naturally, this process ended up with me having to go back and make sure I'd defined all 10 generations of the Aotrs starfleet in Accelerate and Attack's tech tree; which meant back-working from the current 10th generation - Tech Level 9) backwards. Fortunately, generation 4 was really just generation 3.5¹, so it actually all fitted quite nicely, with a bit of a squint, but that's wlasy the way when you try to simulate something as a game-mechanic system, isn't it?




¹Generation 3 was something of a ball's up. The 10th generation may have a reputation for being undefeated, but that's co's the Aotrs has already MADE all the frack-ups over the centuries, and because there is no haemoharrging of the skill base, they don't make the same mistakes again the next time...

[Insane Jeenyus]

LaZodiac, that is absolutely awesome!

[LaZodiac]

LaZodiac, that is absolutely awesome!

It really quite was. I hope stuff like that happens more, make the world a bit brighter.

[The Fury]

Some conversations with a friend led me to rethink some of my problems. So, that said-- this is going to be me being kind of gloomy again. I'm sorry.

Spoiler: If you'd rather skip me being morose, go ahead.

Show

I don't really relate to people very well and I feel like I get rejected a lot. Occasionally my friend will reassure me by saying that "people in Oregon are like that."

This led me to think that maybe I wasn't socialized properly for my personality? I'm Oregonian and as a people we're sort of cold and depressive, I am too, I think. We're also pretty passive-aggressive and faux-friendly, which I try to not be. Oregon is also one of those places where everyone is from somewhere else and nobody intends to stay-- everyone is just here on their way to somewhere else. I feel like I'd leave too, if I had someplace to go, but I don't. Maybe I would if I were smarter, more driven or more talented.

I wish that I was better with people leaving. I wish that I was better at understanding when people don't want me around. My friend's comments also make me wonder about other places... Are there places where friendship and love are easier to come by and easier to keep? Maybe in another universe there's a better, happier, healthier version of me that grew up in a place like that?

Offsetting the gloominess, here's a joke.

A minister, a priest and a rabbit walk into a blood bank. The rabbit says, "I think I'm a Type-O."

[Jasdoif]

Spoiler: If you'd rather skip me being morose, go ahead.

Show

I don't really relate to people very well and I feel like I get rejected a lot. Occasionally my friend will reassure me by saying that "people in Oregon are like that."

This led me to think that maybe I wasn't socialized properly for my personality? I'm Oregonian and as a people we're sort of cold and depressive, I am too, I think. We're also pretty passive-aggressive and faux-friendly, which I try to not be. Oregon is also one of those places where everyone is from somewhere else and nobody intends to stay-- everyone is just here on their way to somewhere else.

Huh. If that's really true about Oregon in general, then Portland must be way worse than everywhere else here that I remember; Salem was sort of close, but it didn't give me quite the same "uncomfortably sterile" vibe.

[Aotrs Commander]

Urrrgh. So, having FINALLY done what I THINK is all I'm actually going to add for 3.Aotrs (sans a bit of domains write up and finishing the Summon Bestiary), I started the labourous process of spellchecking and paginating the other documents.

Foolishly decided I would bite the bullet and ACTUALLY do proper page references for the feats, using the spreadsheet I use for spells.

Realising OF COURSE, that unlike the spells, the feat list document helpfully has superscripts after the feat names for stuff and the some of the feats have tags in the titles. So, I thinks, easy find/replace, yes? Then all the feats from my index in the word document will have a page reference.

No. No, of course it took me the rest of tonight to just get the GENERAL feats sorted out (admittedly, that is 30/50 pages of the feat list and 75/130 of the feats document, YES I have a list of feats 50 pags long, seriously what did you expect at this point afte porting half of pathfinder into probably 2/3 of 3.5...). As, of course, I had to down down the list and find all the ones that had a spelling mistake or the wrong apostrophy (I don't even on this one Word and Excel). Fortunately, having set up my spreadsheet so it automatically says "flag" on the ones that aren't right, it's fairly easy to track them down, but there's still 1216 general/combat feat to work down...)

Tomorrow, then - assuming I don't spend several hours on the phone again - I MIGHT even get through the rest of them and MAYBE get the spellcheck done of the classes/class features doument (they have enough page breaks that I shouldn't need to do much if any paginating, though) then just a final pass through the powers and I might actually have something to look at printing out/sending to my players.

(I won't print out just yet, because you KNOW the second I do I'll find I need to do something else, and there remains a slim possiibility that one or two of my players might even read bits of what I'm sending them and find the inevitable types and stuff I've missed... I mean, I hardly expect them to be so board as to read all 900-pages and such, but... Maybe a little bit after nine months of solid graft, you know...?)

[PopeLinus1]

Spoiler: If you'd rather skip me being morose, go ahead.

Show

I don't really relate to people very well and I feel like I get rejected a lot. Occasionally my friend will reassure me by saying that "people in Oregon are like that."

This led me to think that maybe I wasn't socialized properly for my personality? I'm Oregonian and as a people we're sort of cold and depressive, I am too, I think. We're also pretty passive-aggressive and faux-friendly, which I try to not be. Oregon is also one of those places where everyone is from somewhere else and nobody intends to stay-- everyone is just here on their way to somewhere else. I feel like I'd leave too, if I had someplace to go, but I don't. Maybe I would if I were smarter, more driven or more talented.

I wish that I was better with people leaving. I wish that I was better at understanding when people don't want me around. My friend's comments also make me wonder about other places... Are there places where friendship and love are easier to come by and easier to keep? Maybe in another universe there's a better, happier, healthier version of me that grew up in a place like that?

Try Shangri-la.

In all seriousness though, I was curious, so I searched for data on the subject. What I found wasn't perfect, but I managed to find a map of the US based on how many people said they ween't married on there taxes, which isn't a exact match for this situation, but it was the best I could find.

What I said for Oregon was that around 50% of the population was unmarried, which is quite a bit, but not that much compared to other states like Louisiana, California, and New York, which approached 55%. Heck, 50% isn't any more than my home state, Missouri.

The states that had the least unmarried people living in them were Utah and Idaho, which is probably because of the high Mormon population, so if you are looking for a place where love comes easier, I wouldn't recommend using these stats unless you're interested in changing religions.

I couldn't find data for friendships, but personally? Without any had data on the subject I can't really say if the people of Oregon are more distant. They could be, sure, but the cynical old me is inclined to think that people are just becoming more socially isolated everywhere, not just Oregon, and this has been happening for years.

Chin up, The Fury, we might all be alone, but we're all alone together!

[Anonymouswizard]

Some conversations with a friend led me to rethink some of my problems. So, that said-- this is going to be me being kind of gloomy again. I'm sorry.

Spoiler: If you'd rather skip me being morose, go ahead.

Show

I don't really relate to people very well and I feel like I get rejected a lot. Occasionally my friend will reassure me by saying that "people in Oregon are like that."

This led me to think that maybe I wasn't socialized properly for my personality? I'm Oregonian and as a people we're sort of cold and depressive, I am too, I think. We're also pretty passive-aggressive and faux-friendly, which I try to not be. Oregon is also one of those places where everyone is from somewhere else and nobody intends to stay-- everyone is just here on their way to somewhere else. I feel like I'd leave too, if I had someplace to go, but I don't. Maybe I would if I were smarter, more driven or more talented.

I wish that I was better with people leaving. I wish that I was better at understanding when people don't want me around. My friend's comments also make me wonder about other places... Are there places where friendship and love are easier to come by and easier to keep? Maybe in another universe there's a better, happier, healthier version of me that grew up in a place like that?

All I can recommend is, maybe see if you can get a telephone appointment with a mind doctor? They'll be able to point you towards resources that could work, mine's enrolled me on a good anti-social anxiety course (which I need to remember to complete). While we can offer hugs and support, a proper psychologist can tell you if you do have a problem, and help you start overcoming it.

Offsetting the gloominess, here's a joke.

A minister, a priest and a rabbit walk into a blood bank. The rabbit says, "I think I'm a Type-O."

Here's one to cheer you up:
A horse walks into a bar.

Spoiler

Show

The barman asks them 'why the long face?'

Spoiler

Show

The horse replies 'my wife just died.'

In other news, I might be being poly at the moment. Yes, it's all above board, the holdup is the fact that it's not like I'm going to find another person who wants to date me.

[DataNinja]

In other news, I might be being poly at the moment. Yes, it's all above board, the holdup is the fact that it's not like I'm going to find another person who wants to date me.

I mean, you have infinitely more people wanting to date you than the last time you said you were sure nobody would want to date you, so, hey, the statistics are in your favour.

[Insane Jeenyus]

A minister, a priest and a rabbit walk into a blood bank. The rabbit says, "I think I'm a Type-O."

That's a good one! I like it!

[SZbNAhL]

In all seriousness though, I was curious, so I searched for data on the subject. What I found wasn't perfect, but I managed to find a map of the US based on how many people said they weren't married on their taxes, which isn't an exact match for this situation, but it was the best I could find.

What I said for Oregon was that around 50% of the population was unmarried, which is quite a bit, but not that much compared to other states like Louisiana, California, and New York, which approached 55%. Heck, 50% isn't any more than my home state, Missouri.

The states that had the least unmarried people living in them were Utah and Idaho, which is probably because of the high Mormon population, so if you are looking for a place where love comes easier, I wouldn't recommend using these stats unless you're interested in changing religions.

You'd also need to account for unmarried cohabiting couples, who'd be more common in states with more liberal social outlooks like California and NY. That'd probably be doable with census data, but the US census website is a nightmare for getting coherent information out of and I'm really lazy writing job applications.

A minister, a priest and a rabbit walk into a blood bank. The rabbit says, "I think I'm a Type-O."

That was excellent.