I turn on the local news just for a minute or two before I go to bed each night The city government has voted in favor of a new arena in Chinatown. It may end up destroying a historic neighborhood. Reports are that it wall cause traffic problems and cost the local transit authority about $20 million a year. But, the 76ers said that if they didn’t get the arena they would locate to Camden in New Jersey. They were clearly bluffing as Camden is a hell hole and completely lacks the funding an infrastructure to build the arena the 76ers want, but we should be on the safe side. Of course, last time I checked the 76ers have never proven they actualy bring money into the city. But, it would be a shame to lose them.
I have to admit that despite my tech background I have some Luddite quirks, and one of them is to deposit cheques with a real live teller, which started recently when I had some fairly large government cheques to deposit and became a habit. But today I was at a branch (not my home branch) that, incredibly, had only one teller on duty, serving one guy who was apparently reviewing his entire lifetime financial history and there was quite a long lineup, which is rant-worthy in itself. Anyway, I gave up and used the ATM.
I was impressed by how much things have changed since the last time I used ATM deposit. Then, you had to enter the amount of each cheque you were depositing, and stuff them in an envelope that you fed into the machine. Now, there is no envelope and no need to enter the amount. Each cheque is scanned, an image of it is presented, and the amount is scanned right off the cheque. The receipt also contains images of the cheques. You young whippersnappers who somehow deposit cheques by scanning them with your phone won’t be impressed, but I thought it was pretty cool tech. Not sure how well this works with handwritten personal cheques.
Also, I almost didn’t go out today because the weather is crappy with light snow and slushy roads, but I’m glad I did. Christmas is just around the corner and now I can settle back with a Caesar and reflect on the fact that I’m well stocked with pretty much everything and hopefully I won’t have to venture out for anything in the madness that will be next week.
In the past week or so my Facebook feed has been taken over by sponsored posts. It seems like almost every third or fourth post is from some group I’ve never heard of. Most of them are from various science/nature groups, news feeds, and The Onion. While the content is interesting, I don’t understand why this is suddenly happening. Years ago I was occasionally flooded with posts trying to sell me crap I had absolutely no interest in, but the only purpose I can see with these is that they’re trying to get me to follow the group.
Is this part of some new Facebook algorithm to push followers toward groups? As I said, most of them are science or nature oriented, which would be of interest to me. (Although I’m curious what part of my posting history suggested that I might be interested in the two gay photography posts.)
My guess is that you have gay Facebook friends. I get a lot of posts that think I’m Jewish and interested in architecture, neither of which is the case, but I do interact with multiple Jewish friends and multiple people who are interested in architecture.
My 13 year old grandson lost his phone on the charter bus he takes each week to stay at school. This sucked, but people lose their phones. We made him go without for a few weeks. I have a replacement that he’ll get for Christmas. His mom, brother, and I need to be able to text and video with him while he’s away at the school for the deaf.
But now he seems to have lost his cochlear processor at school, and we cannot get a straight answer on where he lost it. The boy says it’s in his room at school, but the cottage staff say he lost it somewhere else and it cannot be found. He lost his other processer months ago at our local pool*. So now, he cannot hear at all, his speech is not great, and our ASL is marginal at best. It’s going to be an interesting winter break. Luckily he’s due for an upgrade so insurance should cover a new set of equipment. I surely can’t afford to buy the replacement.
No more losing things, kid.
*I didn’t let him wear it to the pool…that’s on his mom.
Nobody plays real Christmas music anymore! Up until sometime in the nineties, stores and malls played the beautiful old Christmas songs like “O Holy Night”, “Good King Wenceslas”, “What Child is This?”, etc.
No more. All you hear nowadays, everywhere, is vaguely Christmas-themed pop garbage which sounds like the same crap they play the rest of the year.
Most of the women sing in that hideous yowling style (I think it’s called melisma) that’s popular lately. Just find the damn note and stick with it, for Christ’s sake! If it was good enough for Jenny Lind, it’s good enough for you!
With this, and the fact that multicolored Christmas lights in commercial spaces or office building lobbies are now as rare as, well, affordable housing, it just feels like so much beauty has departed from the world. I feel like I’ve outlived my time and don’t belong anywhere anymore.
Coming back from ABQ, driving across the TX panhandle & up thru OK on a Fall Sunday afternoon we could get five radio stations. They were all either preachers, Jesus mus-ick , or the @#$%& Dallas Cowgirls game on. Why did multiple successive radio stations in Oklohoma have the damn Cowgirls on; it’s not like their even from their state? Hell, some good static would’ve been better
As a cyclist, we once came across something that’ll fit in a big ass…or another orifice. How? How does one lose their dildo out the car window at the exit to the state park?
I have also come across a wig, & separately, some extensions. Again do you not realize your hair just blew out the window?
I put out a trash bag so the lovely gentlemen could come pick it up & put it in the back of their twuck. A bit later I look outside & see a fork & some paper where the bag had been. I take the kitchen trash can & go outside to clean up the mess. not only did I find a ripped open bag that had raw chicken in it (so it’ll end up smelling if I leave it in the now-empty can) but there was a nice, fresh, large white splotch on the driveway. Damn crows!
Over the last few months, I’ve been occasionally seeing an ad during the news that’s for Ohio. As in ‘Ohio is awesome, you should move here!’
I grew up in Ohio. And while it pains me to say it, I can’t think of a single reason why anyone should move from where I am in the heart of NC to Ohio, especially now, and most especially young, educated people. I predict this ad campaign is going to be a pretty big failure.
no, they were two separate items. We left the ‘toy’ right where we found it, untouched by any of us because eeewwww.
I only cleaned up the trash that the crows picked out of my trash bag in my yard
Our small parking lot at work has some nooks and crannies not visible from the street at night. Druggies and crooks occasionally use it to drink, smoke, and dump unwanted stolen stuff. They keep getting their tools mixed up in the castoffs, so I’ve obtained some very nice screwdrivers and a pair of pliers, and a utilitarian switchblade/box cutter.
Definitely good guys to have in your Rolodex. (You DO still have one of those, yes?)
Two inches is … diminutive. What happens if someone takes an absolutely massive dump?
… ah, yes.
Ukranian plumbers, to the rescue!!
Very sad username/post combo.
Who the fuck are 76’ers?
It’s simply an option on my bank’s phone app. Poke a few buttons, take a picture of the front & the back, and then … what do the Brits say, Bob’s your uncle?
Works just fine, with my bank (W F).
I just deposited a handwritten check my parents snail-mailed me (which, while I appreciate the $ I really wish they didn’t do … porch pirates etc.)
{ twitches in retail horror }
You enjoy listening to it for an hour or two. Yay!
Some of us are subjected to it, nonstop, for 7-10 hours straight, for weeks on end. (Hi, Thanksgiving!)
The same rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock” over and over and over and goddamn over again.
How many FUCKING times is that damn kid gonna beat onnnnn myyyyyy drummmmmmmms.
I’m good with the new/crappy versions. I mean, yeah, they suck. But at least … at least it’s not the same saccharine shit that was covered in mold forty years ago.
Last week, on 2 different days, Amazon mistakenly delivered a bubblewrap envelope to my next-door neighbor’s side door. I didn’t recognize the door, so I reported them missing, and was refunded. But now that I realize which door it is, I have to wonder why the neighbors didn’t just walk them over. We’re on good terms. I’m going to ask next time I run into them, which is going to be awkward.
beat onnnnn myyyyyy drummmmmmmms. 