This mini-rant could also have gone into the “bad software design” thread.
To get permission to visit hospital operating rooms, my employer has asked me to complete a background check, and there’s an online process to complete (“KnowYourPeople”).
It lists documents that you need to go show at a local post office, and unfortunately there was an issue getting my birth certificate accepted. I’ve spent hours investigating whether birth certificates can be re-issued (not really), whether I need to get my name changed by deed poll (UK official name change) etc, on top of the time required to go to the post office.
Then it turns out joke’s on me.
On the page with the list of documents, if you scroll to the bottom and click “I do not have these documents”, it doesn’t present a “Sorry, we can’t proceed without these documents” page, as you might expect.
No, instead a new page opens that lists trivial stuff like bank statements that you can bring instead.
I loved Rogue, but as I remember it was tied to clock speed so when I got a new, faster computer when I walked into a new room the monster would come at me from across the room & kill me before I even had a chance to pull out my weapon.
Sorry to both of you! I have no basis for calling anyone else’s pasttimes pathetic, given I’m someone who binge reads mysteries from the 20’s.
I remember playing Rogue! Such old memories are being dusted off…
Does anyone remember a “visual” game from that era where there was a single stationary screen with a puzzle formed by using ascii characters with differing behaviors if you touched them? Like capital Os were unstable rocks that would tumble down out of piles if jarred, and zeroes were stationary rocks? And < and > and ^ and v were arrows that would shoot off in the indicated direction until they ran into something, maybe triggering the hit item to react according to its nature in turn? I think the goal was to get all of another symbol collected/freed from some arrangement somehow? without your player-character being smushed by a falling rock or immobilely trapped or some other disaster. There were a whole bunch of levels, plus an editor so you could create your own puzzles to share. I played a lot of that, but I don’t remember its name at all.
Oh, as a BTW, I went back to one of the links, which had a huge directory of all the games in alphabetical order, and found they had my second game, too! Yay! I’ve never heard anything about that game ever, and it’s basically ungoogle-able since there were at least three other games of the same exact (obviously too generically obvious) name. One of those was released decades later, a commercial video game that was apparently pretty successful, meaning if anyone ever did review it or such, such comments are swamped beyond discovery by the later game. Now I can rest happy my complete oeuvre as a game creator is properly archived for posterity.
Right now? Sure! Given I just read a step by step walkthrough of all the puzzles.
Before that? Well, my mind works the way it works, so probably, allowing for alot of ‘now, exactly what order did I need to do those steps in?’ trial and error.
yup, that’s what I remember (from 30ish years! ago). If I buy the game from your link can I play it on my PC or do you need other software/console to play it?
Here’s another game you might like … Laser Tank.
A slightly more graphical game than your description, similar to sokoban (in fact some levels are pure sokoban), and an editor so you can make your own levels.
My roof is leaking. The roof that I just had installed in 2022, and am still paying for. It’s leaking. And the roofing company that did my roof has a special place on my list of companies I will never use again, because of how truly awful my experience was with them.
And now, I have to call them tomorrow so they can honor my warranty. I would rather have a root canal done with a rusty butter knife than to ever have to work with these people again. But, I’m hoping to get my roof repaired, and that my warranty also covers the water damage to my ceiling.
Thanks for letting me rant… There will probably be a follow-up.
The bus has regulars. We kindof know each other.
Theres a guy I’ll call Ralph. He wants to know where you’re going, what you bought, not his business.
If you don’t spill, he’ll say, “you’re mad at me.”
Today hes on the bus.
His birthdays next week.
Hes getting money from a lot of people. Gift cards. Pastors taking him out to eat.
He tells me the exact birthdate, “In case you want to get me something.”
I can’t afford to get myself anything, why would you imply I should buy you something? Hes not my buddy.
People!
Damn! My gf is planning a porch rebuild for one of our porches. She has gotten estimates. Last night she mentioned it’ll be a bigger job than originally planned; since the new porch roof will tie in with our regular roof, she is getting a new roof as well.
WTF?!?! I just had a new roof put on the house when I moved in. It was part of my being added to our deed. Turns out twenty years have flown by since then. New roof every 20 years?
I think my last roof made it for 23 years. Yes, I’ve lived in the same house that long.
It’s supposed to rain today, but the roof people are about to go put a tarp on my house, so at least the leaking will stop until they can get everything fixed.
Unlike my original install, dealing with them has been great so far! I hope this all goes well.
be warned that the water could go behind things. you many see a leak dripping, but the water could split and go behind a wall and create a mold situation.
as a kid, there was a leak in my bedroom that dripped from the ceiling. until i did a decor change (good bye fake wood panels and rose wall paper) we did not know it also went down the paneling. lovely multicoloured mold.
I hope you get prompt service from them – a leaking roof is very distressing and needs to be dealt with fast. (ETA: Good to see in your update that they’re installing a temporary tarp!) Hopefully it’s just a minor isolated problem. It’s possible, for instance, that snow, ice, and rain and spring freezing/thawing conditions can push ice around and create a channel for water through and around roof vents. If you live in warmer climes, it still could be a simple problem with a roof vent.
X amazes me. Now theres a conspiracy about how there was a 2 minute silence before the boat crash in Baltimore. And the captain was from Ukraine.
They are reading too many “mystery” books.
I asked a co-worker to help me prepare a contract and sent them the document I wanted them to base it off of. Instead of using the one I EMAILED them, they took it upon themselves to dig through the data system and find some out-dated, un-helpful document with a “similar title” from 2009 and use that instead. They sent me their draft all proud and excited…and I had to break the news to them that they did not follow instructions and are going to have to re-do all that work in the way I originally told them to do it. And now the client is calling me incessantly asking for an update…so not only will I be the one who looks bad for the delay, but I will end up working late to get it done because someone else screwed up and didn’t listen to instructions. Ugh. Hate this kind of thing.
I had jury duty for the second time in my life this week. The last time was 25 years ago in San Francisco, which consisted of sitting around for a few hours and then being dismissed. I had the express version this time - broken up by a goddamn hour-long train ride.
Here’s the thing … when I got the jury duty notice I didn’t really read it very carefully - I just knew I had jury duty on March 27th. So on March 26th I looked up the address of the courthouse downtown to make sure I was going to the right place, but the address was actually for East County Courthouse way the fuck out near Gresham. No car anymore, an hour commute to get there … standing around in the cold rain waiting for trains and walking blocks in the rain to get to the building … etc.
Going through security took 4 minutes - it was like an airport. I had my vape pen in my pocket, but it’s legal so I put it in the bucket with the rest of my stuff and now I’m locked in a federal penitentiary somewhere near Gitmo.
Just kidding, they didn’t care. The rest of my visit lasted one minute where the lady at the information desk told me that the case has been settled and my jury duty has been fulfilled and I wouldn’t be bothered for at least another two years.
We talked some more about it. She is strategizing. The roof that I paid for is a great roof. It is in its prime. My gf recently was executrix for an aunt’s will and has received a huge (in my eyes) inheritance. We are 65. She’s retiring soon.
Basically, she can afford a new roof and figures “while they’re up there”. Plus, this way when we downsize in ten years the house will have a relatively new roof for resale value.
An alt conspiracy theory is that the fuel was ‘spiked’.
It seems far fetched though; when did they last refuel?
Also, the tin foil hats are also saying that the ‘All Indian Crew’ under orders from Modi ( who does big oil business on the down-low with Russia ) was ordered/paid to do it.
