Extra, Extra (day of) Rants all about it (Feb mini-rants)

Wait, what?!? You can’t mean that if I’m supposed to join a meeting at 11pm, I can hit a SN00ZE button and then I don’t have to join the meeting until, what, 11:09? Really?
And then, what, I find out what I missed? Or is it that I’m the person who called the meeting, and everyone waits for me? And then everyone’s late for lunch hour?

Whenever I called a meeting, my boss was aware of how many were in the meeting, what he was paying them per hour, and how much money we were (potentially) wasting on “quickly touching base”.
And, yes, he’d enumerate the costs to anyone who had a less-than-crucial meeting. It was a good lesson for a young manager.

Seems late for a lunch meeting

Thanks everyone for the advice. We aren’t actually completely without income. We are just without the bulk of our income. I made about 2/3rds of the income coming into the house. We do have a little money coming in from my husband’s income and now from my unemployment claim.

Job hunting sucks. I am apparently bad at writing resumes because I got rejected for having no hands on experience with equipment. All I have is hands on experience with installing equipment. Maybe that guy just couldn’t read. But it sucks that he makes decisions on whether or not people have jobs.

Dishwasher is in and on its second load. It only took 3 days, 2 trips to the hardware store, a LOT of cussing, sweat, and my son in laws help 'cause his hands are stronger and steadier than mine.

Ranty, I’m changing my “advantage” plan 'cause none of them carry my inhaler and the one I have allowed $100 whole dollars for a pair of glasses.

Very glad to hear that it’s installed and working! :slight_smile: I definitely sympathized with your situation as mine is the same age as the house (around ~11 years now) and I fear the day when something will explode. The removal and installation hassles for a new dishwasher would be enormous, especially for an aging Old Fart like myself.

I was fixing dinner this evening, prepping a batch of chicken enchiladas while the oven was preheating. Next thing I know the oven started beeping and the display said something like “Fault detected - press Start to reset”. I turned the oven off then tried to turn it back on, but the display said “Function not available.” Then I started smelling an electrical burning smell. So I finished prepping the enchiladas then wrapped them up and put them in the freezer. So much for dinner!

We just replaced the dishwasher back in October and the washer/dryer around Christmas. I do NOT want to have to spring for another major appliance right now.

My guess is that the thermostat failed and the oven overheated, because it was set to 350° but sure felt a lot hotter than that when I turned it off. I’m hoping it’s an easy fix for a repairman when I call on Monday.

From one old fart to another word.

I’ve got my fingers crossed for you. Stoves are not cheap these days.

Friggin’ nothing is, that’s for damn sure.

I dunno. I can get a 2-ounce bag of chili-cheese Fritos from the vending machine at work for the low, low price of $2.75. /s

From what I’ve read, it’s apparently common for companies to use a computer system to weed out resumes, which results in experienced people like you being removed from consideration due to a lack of “appropriate” keywords. I remember seeing resumes not long ago that just had a string of seemingly random words (usually at the bottom, but sometimes worked into the opening statement) in an attempt to get by these systems.

This is really a picky annoyance, but why is it that in almost all TV series and movies, whenever someone is supposedly carrying a full cup of coffee, it’s completely obvious that there is nothing in the cup? At least put some cold brown liquid in there so when you set it down it goes ‘plunk’ instead of ‘plock’.

http://wsj.com/lifestyle/careers/if-humans-wont-read-your-resume-should-you-let-the-robot-72bb641c

Does the robot like cat pictures? You can make them small enough that the humans can’t see them.

Alternatively, applicants can use AI to optimize their resume and cover letter for every job description.

Home warranties are generally considered not worth it, given that they tend to fight or delay any kind of repair or replacement if they can. Friends of ours had their HVAC system totally die on them, about 5 years ago, and it was WEEKS before they were able to get it replaced. They had further trouble with the replacement system; I don’t recall what happened with that.

On the other hand, I know several people who’ve been very happy with theirs; one neighbor was extolling their service. Another friend had some kind of repair coverage on her place, which came in useful when there was a leak from a valve to the toilet in her guest bathroom (I actually found the leak; good thing I was there or it might have been days before it was spotted).

Anyway: I’ve never heard of a mortgage company including such a plan in the monthly payment; we’ve had numerous mortgages over the years and it was never even brought up as a possibility. I suspect you could drop it, if you liked - though obviously right now it’ll be good to have! Figure out the total you’ve paid over the years, and see if it has turned out to be a net benefit or loss.

That sounds like a lot of money and a lot of work. I have time to put in the work but no money. UGH.

Just start with ChatGPT, Bard (now Gemini) or one of the others.

So last night I’m in the kitchen cooking up a few things when a little teeny spider appears from behind the stove and scurries across the top of the control panel. It’s really tiny and almost cute, but I’m not a fan of arachnids of any size. Lacking a suitable instrument of destruction immediately at hand, I squished it with my finger. It was so small that the remains just kinda disappeared.

Except that I was simmering a pot of beans right under the eventful proceedings. I’m convinced that the remains of the deceased most likely fell into the pot of beans, though nothing was visible either on the beans or anywhere else on the stove top. It seemed like a silly reason to throw out a whole pot of beans simmered with sauteed onion and barbecue sauce that was almost ready along with all the accompaniments.

And that is how I ate a spider last night. Probably. If you’re going to eat a spider I recommend Bull’s-Eye Old West hickory smoke barbecue sauce.

That’s one of your four for the year.