Far be it from me to disparage e-readers. I have a ridiculous number of them. I just wanted to use the Fire for solely one purpose: to use my cross stitch app. I wanted to do that because doing it on my phone has sent me into compulsive Internet use and is ruining my life.
Normally I wouldn’t hesitate to jailbreak if necessary but I can’t abide the slow charging time. It has a micro USB port but the micro USB doesn’t exactly fit. It’s bizarre.
I bought a Galaxy Tab A9. Older model I guess. Don’t care. Just want to cross stitch.
That’s good to hear! I’ll probably also play YouTube videos and track my habits and such. No email or messages, no Dope, not a machine that can distract me, but something dedicated to my favorite things. (For some reason I don’t use YouTube compulsively, just recreationally.)
It’s a little 8.7" and I need nothing more than that.
You just made me think of something. If you’ve not been screened for sleep apnea, maybe look into it? My daughter just got a new CPAP machine after hers went bad 2 years ago(!) and was stunned at how much better she is now. Never mind if you’re already on top of it!
You don’t give up! It’s vital for everyone to learn to swim. It’ll come; he’s just there yet. Every year here in my city there are kids/teens who drown in the little in-city lake who didn’t learn to swim but wanted to join the other swimmers. Some are immigrants or Black children who were never taught, but some are teens on the spectrum.
Thank you so much for this! It’s really helpful. I’m hoping that the sheer value of the diesel engine that’s in it will offset the age of the truck somewhat, but this info gives me some avenues to follow.
The truck will be coming home, it’s currently still on the flatbed in the tow company lot because (the guy said) a hydraulic hose broke and they need to get it fixed Mon before the rolloff will function. Not entirely sure that story is true but not a damned thing I can do about it, plus the truck can’t be stolen and there’s nothing to steal out of it.
You have all my sympathy, and best of luck. You know where to find me if you want to pick my brains at any point. And again, the costs aren’t fun, unplanned expenses never are, but just darn happy you (mostly) only have to deal with the property damage, not injuries. Small blessings, but worthwhile ones!
Great! My daughter had to do a new sleep study - which is now done in your own home - to get a new CPAP machine. They found out she stopped breathing 110 times an hour. Anything over 30 is considered severe! She’s now been sleeping with the new machine for two weeks and says she can’t believe what a difference it’s making.
A curse upon all credit cards that require your cell phone number for verification!
I am currently overseas and wanted to buy tickets to an attraction using their website. No problem until I put in my credit card information because they ask you to verify the transaction, all fine and good but the only option is for them to send you a text message to your cell phone number. The number that does not work while you are overseas and can’t receive the text. They could, of course, offer to send an email, a verification to their phone app (which can only be unlocked with a bio-metric), or a phone call to your home phone number (I have VOIP so this would work), but no. It has to be your cell phone number, and trying to use Google Pay to do the transaction won’t work either. So after trying to different cards, and google Pay I finally had to make use of local contacts to buy the tickets. Yes, I finally was able to do so, but it really irritates me to no end how a cell phone number is required for this type of verification. There are various authentication apps you can use (I use two for my work) and their own apps, and text messages are not as secure as some would like to have you believe, but that is the default, because reasons.
Back in June I volunteered to chaperone at my local high school’s “Project Graduation” an event that takes the graduating seniors, sends them to an “undisclosed” location for a night of alcohol/drug-free partying. In this case, an indoor arcade with rides, go karts, video games, etc.
The way it works for chaperones is you plan to arrive at the school during the graduation ceremony (6:30pm). You take up station at your assigned bus once graduation is over, check to make sure no contraband goes on the bus, and ride with the kids to the location. Some light management during the event then ride back and your responsibilities are done. I finally got back to my car at 4:30am.
That’s when I saw the parking ticket. You see, we have no overnight street parking in my town (with a few exceptions) but were told that they “don’t ticket” that night precisely because many adults and students who park their cars for the heavily attended graduation event will not get back until 4:30am.
So, I plead not guilty, and in the text field tell them that I was volunteering that night to support our graduating kids. They came back a few days later to tell me to go fuck myself, and pay the ticket. Maybe not in those exact words, but the sentiment was there.
Oh, the police know about the event, they block off the roads around the high school and participate in an hour long parade through town to see the kids off.
I’m considering naming and shaming our local prosecutor and judge who signed off on the guilty verdict. I may change my mind, but right now I’m feeling particularly salty about this $35 poke in the eye. I went into this whole thing with a “Trump sucks and my country is disappointing me, howsabout I do something nice for the community” and feel a bit screwed over.
It seems to me that the problem isn’t the prosecutor or the judge, but the person who told you it was okay to park there. You believed them, and they weren’t correct. That’s the person I’d be annoyed with.
For darn sure there’s a disconnect in there somewhere. Finding who or what failed between the police, the school, parking enforcement, and the person who told you it’s OK to park overnight is job 1.
Once you know who goofed, the range of next steps and possible remedies will be obvious. There’s no point in seeking remedy from the wrong party; they can’t help even if they wanted to.
I mean… yes this is true. OTOH, there is literally no place to park besides a nearby street, and I believe that the volunteers trying to organize a safe and fun night out for 13 busloads of kids don’t need to be saddled with arranging parking for the chaperones.
I bet a full third of our police force are personally involved in the graduation events, with the bus route and night out being one of the most anticipated events in the town’s annual calendar. We probably had more people cheering on these students as they left town than were watching that squeaky tank in DC.
People make mistakes, they fall down on the job, they fail to communicate, and that’s ok, we’re all human. I’m OK with the organizers and even the police / parking enforcement people not being in sync with the ticketing policy. Shit happens.
But… when you are reviewing a ticket and see that the accused was parked there by necessity to provide support for the graduation event that keeps kids safe, drug and alcohol free, and has been a beloved rite of passage in the town you serve for over 30 years, and stamp “Guilty”… you’re making a conscious decision. The people who made this particular decision are the only ones empowered to give me relief, and decided against doing so in the only method of requesting relief that I am offered.
I’m not worried about who goofed because the prosecutor and judge didn’t goof, they looked at the evidence and decided.
I’m just feeling like an idiot today. I worry about things I said or did that made me look stupid. Sometimes I get carried away and think about all the times I said or did something stupid. I think I’m just tired.
But I heard this quote I thought was pretty good:
“The best way to accurately predict the future is to take action to create it.”
It was in the context of doing work when you’re struggling with your mental health. Made me think, okay, maybe the future of my life isn’t certain doom. I have some control over the outcome.
Also I love my son but oh my God he’s five. And all that entails.
I have spinal surgery scheduled for Thursday. It was arranged in June. Today the hospital let me know that my insurance still hasn’t okayed it yet. I’ve already made all the arrangements, scheduled time off work, transport, etc. The surgery is clearly necessary* and all the records confirm this; all the possible options (physical therapy, etc) have been exhausted, etc. Hospital thinks insurance will okay it at the last minute.
Not really a huge biggie, since the surgery will happen, but I’d really like it to happen per my arrangements.
*My physiatrist (back doc), after offering many months of non-invasive options per x-rays, took one look at my MRI and said, “I’m giving you the name of a good neurosurgeon.”
