# August August minirants! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 1, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068 "2012-08-01T16:21:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/241 "2012-08-12T03:31:12Z")
> [@SnakesCatLady](#): > > [[[ **purplehorseshoe** }}} - you and The Other Shoe are in my thoughts > > If I may be so bold as to ask of all of you…whatever you do to contact whatever deity you think fondly of - please send prayers, healing thoughts, etc to my friend Sophie. Her youngest son and a friend were involved in a car accident early this morning. Her son Thomas is being held overnight for observation but they think he’s going to be ok. Pretty banged up and they had to cut him out of the car. His friend MIchael, who was drving, may have a broken neck and broken back; he was ejected from the car. > > Thank you. {{ **purplehorseshoe** }} and {{ **Sophie** }} and {{ **Michael** }} Prayers are currently going out to YHWH, AhuruMazda, Minerva, and all the gods I can think of (and Coyote the Trickster God, just 'cause he likes to keep up on the gossip). Hey, my friend Steve, who’d been given up on and moved to hospice is now awake and cracking bad jokes with his kids. So ‘medical miracles’ happen… And since my prayers obviously did it, y’all are in pretty good shape now… ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/242 "2012-08-12T06:48:29Z")
Thomas isn’t doing as well as I thought; he has a broken hip and bleeding on the brain. Michael is in a coma. Sophie lost her 13 year old son 15 years ago in a “gun accident”. Apparently the kid stole a loaded handgun from his uncle’s dresser drawer - then pointed it point blank at Josh and fired. Killed him instantly. I am praying she does not have to go through the loss of another child. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/243 "2012-08-12T10:59:18Z")
My thoughts and heart are with you and your husband, HorseShoe. That sounds very scary. Hang in there. We’ll be here if you need us. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/244 "2012-08-12T17:00:55Z")
Thanks, all. This is no longer the right place for this, however.[Follow me](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=661847) over to MPSIMS if you wish. I do very much appreciate the good wishes. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/245 "2012-08-12T19:04:39Z")
OK, Aunt Flo, you old biddy. You can pack up and go home now. I’m quite tired of you. Plus also, **(((((Horseshoes)))))** ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2012, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/246 "2012-08-12T19:26:11Z")
I’ve typed out a couple of mostly incoherent rants about my husband, and they’re too long and rambling, so here’s the TL/DR version: Just because there’s money in the checking or savings account, you don’t have to spend it. There’s no extra points for reaching a zero balance every single pay period, dammit. Also? We really don’t need and couldn’t afford a CB radio. Really. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/247 "2012-08-13T00:44:43Z")
sends more prayers and thoughts to the horseshoes > [@Nava](#): > > I understand the logic of cooking first thing in the morning, before the world outside becomes an oven: you can have the windows open and let the heat dissipate out. OK. But damnit, anybody making the whole neighborhood smell like roast chicken at 9am should at least invite the neighbors! I can so get behind this rant, and I choose to not eat meat. Some weekends, I go out on my deck and the neighbor’s under me are smoking something. I hates them! Its even worse when they see me and offer me some of that falling off the bone pork. > [@MissTake](#): > > I think I taught the predictive text assholes to recognize cussing. > > Rant two: This is an inner ring suburb. Not really the best place to let cats roam. So a huge Fuck you to whoever it is that let Whiskers out last night. The little bastard came to my house and sprayed against my front door. I have a full screen outer door, so it hit the screen then sprayed the storm door. > > Now I have three cats freaking out at the door. I cleaned the urine up and sprayed the anti-cat pee stuff, but still. I can’t calm them down and I can’t have the door open to get fresh air in here. Fuckers. I’m behind this rant as well. Whiskers is probably intact and marking his area. Idiot pet owners are idiot pet owners. Did you spray some anti-pee stuff down the inside of the door…where it goes up and down? > [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > I’ve typed out a couple of mostly incoherent rants about my husband, and they’re too long and rambling, so here’s the TL/DR version: Just because there’s money in the checking or savings account, you don’t have to spend it. There’s no extra points for reaching a zero balance every single pay period, dammit. Also? We really don’t need and couldn’t afford a CB radio. Really. :mad: I am offering up sympathy…and wondering why he needs a CB radio. I could probably ask around and find a working but unused one if you want. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/248 "2012-08-13T00:49:19Z")
Goddamn it. Money down the fucking tubes. Just pisses me off. My sister and brother in law gave me their old printer. An Epson CX9400. The cartridges were low, so I buy a new black ink cartridge for $18. FUCK FUCK FUCK. Stupid motherfucking piece of shit won’t print unless ALL of the cartridges are operational/non-empty. So I go drop $39 for the 3 color cartridges. Won’t print black, won’t print red. I go through the head cleaning routine about 5 times. Still won’t print black or red, and now it tells me these goddamned NEW cartridges are running low. How the fuck can they be running low when it hasn’t printed a single fucking thing??? I mention it to my sister. She says “Oh, we forgot to give you the extra cartridges? Here they are!”. So I have extra cartidges NOW, but I just pissed away $57 on ink and the stupid piece of shit isn’t printing anything and probably isn’t going to be functional. Which means the extra cartridges are fucking worthless to me, but hey, if I’d have had them before I’d be less pissed off because I wouldn’t have wasted over $60 (with the tax) on shit that doesn’t work. And I really have about 10 pages of shit that I NEED to have printed by next weekend. FUCK! ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/249 "2012-08-13T01:29:54Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Goddamn it. Money down the fucking tubes. Just pisses me off. > > My sister and brother in law gave me their old printer. An Epson CX9400. The cartridges were low, so I buy a new black ink cartridge for $18. > > FUCK FUCK FUCK. Stupid motherfucking piece of shit won’t print unless ALL of the cartridges are operational/non-empty. So I go drop $39 for the 3 color cartridges. > > Won’t print black, won’t print red. I go through the head cleaning routine about 5 times. Still won’t print black or red, and now it tells me these goddamned NEW cartridges are running low. How the fuck can they be running low when it hasn’t printed a single fucking thing??? > > I mention it to my sister. She says “Oh, we forgot to give you the extra cartridges? Here they are!”. > > So I have extra cartidges NOW, but I just pissed away $57 on ink and the stupid piece of shit isn’t printing anything and probably isn’t going to be functional. Which means the extra cartridges are fucking worthless to me, but hey, if I’d have had them before I’d be less pissed off because I wouldn’t have wasted over $60 (with the tax) on shit that doesn’t work. > > And I really have about 10 pages of shit that I NEED to have printed by next weekend. > > FUCK! If I recall correctly, inkjet printers “clean themselves” by forcing ink, and a LOT of it, through the print head. Problem is, it uses up a great deal of ink (3 or 4 cleanings will go right through a cartridge) and it won’t help if the holes are blocked. They make cleaners for the print heads; use that instead of the printer’s self-cleaning routine. I think they only have it to use up ink that much faster and make you buy more, not because it helps clean the print head. Printer makers make their profit in the ink, not the printer. (I went through a lot of ink before I learned that, and it never helped. I went through a couple of printers, too, because I couldn’t get the printer head cleaned. Eventually, I gave up and bought a laser. I’m much happier now.) ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/250 "2012-08-13T01:34:03Z")
Yeah, I’m just kicking myself for dropping $60 I didn’t need to spend on this crap. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/251 "2012-08-13T01:39:07Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Goddamn it. Money down the fucking tubes. Just pisses me off. > > My sister and brother in law gave me their old printer. An Epson CX9400. The cartridges were low, so I buy a new black ink cartridge for $18. > > FUCK FUCK FUCK. Stupid motherfucking piece of shit won’t print unless ALL of the cartridges are operational/non-empty. So I go drop $39 for the 3 color cartridges. > > Won’t print black, won’t print red. I go through the head cleaning routine about 5 times. Still won’t print black or red, and now it tells me these goddamned NEW cartridges are running low. How the fuck can they be running low when it hasn’t printed a single fucking thing??? > > I mention it to my sister. She says “Oh, we forgot to give you the extra cartridges? Here they are!”. > > So I have extra cartidges NOW, but I just pissed away $57 on ink and the stupid piece of shit isn’t printing anything and probably isn’t going to be functional. Which means the extra cartridges are fucking worthless to me, but hey, if I’d have had them before I’d be less pissed off because I wouldn’t have wasted over $60 (with the tax) on shit that doesn’t work. > > And I really have about 10 pages of shit that I NEED to have printed by next weekend. > > FUCK! Ink Refills. Do your self a favour and get friendly with a local ink refilling business. Seriously. I refill my own with black ink and pay for the shop to do the refills with colour because they are way more finicky and messy. The colour refils are about half the price of new, and well for a big bottle of black ink, and a syringe I spent about 12 dollars and I had I don’t know 6 or 10 refills from one bottle. I use a cartridge about 5-8 times before it just doesn’t take ink properly and makes a mess… some people get more than a dozen uses, I am sure with care and cleaning I could to. (I go through times where I use two cartridges a week, then months where I don’t change the cartridge at all, that probably affects longevity.) As a bonus there are less of those cartridges floating around in landfills too. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/252 "2012-08-13T01:56:18Z")
Honestly, if I don’t get this fucking thing working, I’m looking at buying a new printer. My old one was a piece of shit with overly expensive cartridges that _motherfucking expired and didn’t work anymore after a certain period of time_, and I’m not wasting another dime on this one if I can’t get it going. Been looking at printers on-line at Best Buy and Walmart. Looks like I can get one for $49 or $69 and it even includes the cartridges. Looking at what those cost too just to make sure I don’t buy anything where they’re fucking $30 apiece for the black ink alone. The ones at that price are wireless capable and one of them is airprint capable if I want to print from my iPad (no idea why I would, but what the hey). Hell, that’d be about, or less, than I spent trying to get this ‘gift’ working. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/253 "2012-08-13T02:05:42Z")
Just for your information the cartridges that come with a printer aren’t as full as the ones you purchase later. Maybe buy a new one, but stock up on DYI ink. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/254 "2012-08-13T02:11:56Z")
_Caveat emptor_, **Chimera.** Unless I’ve been misinformed, the cartridges that come with brand-new printers have a very limited amount of ink in them. Think 10%\* of the ink that you’ll find in a new full-priced cartridge. The idea is to rope you in with the hardware and sit back and collect profits on the replacement cartridges. I’ve also heard that there’s new, anti-refilling technology being built into some cartridges; a chip on the cartridge counts how many pages have been printed, then bricks it. I’m not sure if the chip can be hacked to allow the user to reset the counter. \*That figure is one I just pulled out of my ass. I’m sure someone will be along with the correct figure if we just wait for a bit. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/255 "2012-08-13T02:36:20Z")
Yeah, I’ve been looking at what the cartridges cost. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/256 "2012-08-13T02:50:54Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yeah, I’ve been looking at what the cartridges cost. Seriously, look into a laser printer. When you compare the per-page costs of an ink jet versus a laser, the laser is way, way cheaper. I bought a Samsung all-in-one color laser for under $400 about 4 years ago, and it hasn’t treated me wrong. Granted, the toner costs about twice what ink does, but you get about 10 times the page count, I think. And you don’t get a clogged print head even if you don’t use it that often. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/257 "2012-08-13T02:55:28Z")
$400 is way out of my price range. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/258 "2012-08-13T06:44:35Z")
> [@flatlined](#): > > I am offering up sympathy…and wondering why he needs a CB radio. I could probably ask around and find a working but unused one if you want. Apparently, we “need” a CB because we are traveling tomorrow. Through the wilds of… Interstate 10 to New Orleans. With four cell phones. And I may kill him before we get out of the driveway. Operation Overlord went off with less hassle than trying to pack this stupid truck. (Seriously. I have a plan. A behind-schedule plan, since I had two migraines this week, but it’s a perfectly reasonable plan, in which people, dog, and immediate needs and comforts are inside the truck, while non-immediate stuff is on the hitch. If my sweetie wants to help, he can get the fuck out of my way. He already “helped” enough by buying a CB and antenna when he was just supposed to get an oil change. And he wanted to help some more by buying another tarp tonight… Which we might need, to wrap the body before disposing of it in a convenient bayou along the way.) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/259 "2012-08-13T09:35:03Z")
Lacunae, you might want to look into getting an eight-track tape player instead. Or maybe a jumpsuit with wide lapels. In other words, there may be less annoying ways for your hubby to get his 70s rocks off. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2012, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068/260 "2012-08-13T11:09:52Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > WTF? Now I’m getting political calls from BIRTHERS! _BIRTHERS!_ When has a single member of my household given the impression we’re that fucking stupid? Between the fucking Dems calling my household three times in three days (after I told them not to five times) and now this shit it’s going to be a really hellish election season. All of a sudden I am getting Obama email spammage, like 8-10 emails a day from variously Michelle, BArak and names I don’t recognize but are probably named political flackeys for them. Dudes, just because I am a registered republican it does not mean I am willing to fucking give ANYBODY money. Fucking shit, they begged something like 100 fucking MILLION DOLLARS for their campaigning. What the fuck are they doing with the money they need to keep begging more, wiping their asses with it instead of toilet paper? > [@Lucky\_13](#): > > She wants to sleep in my room, but also wants to be let in and out as she pleases. What, do I have to install a fucking cat door on my bedroom door so I can get some goddamn sleep around here?:mad: Why do you have to sleep with your bedroom door closed, strange male housemates? Hell, we took the bedroom door off the hinges and put in a curtain [tiny tiny house and a wheelchair. Doors suck.] > [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > We really don’t need and couldn’t afford a CB radio. Really. :mad: i didn’t know anybody still used CBs … all the trick drivers I have seen are yacking on cell phones.😕 > [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > Operation Overlord went off with less hassle than trying to pack this stupid truck. It’s a guy thing. I have a feeling Overlord was planned by WAAFs, WAVES and WRENS. :dubious:😃 > [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > And he wanted to help some more by buying another tarp tonight… Which we might need, to wrap the body before disposing of it in a convenient bayou along the way.) Friends are willing to help, real friends help hide bodies … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/august-august-minirants/630068.md?page=14)