June, no, NOTHING! (Monthly Mini-Rants)

The BBQ Pit
1

Continuing the discussion from …Bring May Glowers (Monthly Mini-Rants):

I found another YouTube video which was a mini-documentary and the narrator can’t pronounce things properly. This time it was so bad I couldn’t watch it.

It was a video on the Jurassic Park movie series. The narrator kept pronouncing Michael Crichton’s last name to rhyme with “kitchen”. After the 3rd time I gave up.

I figured that if they couldn’t take 5 seconds to Google how to pronounce the creator’s name properly, I can’t trust anything else they’re saying.

2

… I still fucking hate 2FA.

3

Now that I’m retired and almost 70, I thought I’d finally treat myself to something I’ve wanted for decades: some white gold earrings with teeny diamonds in them. Nothing too huge or expensive, just little subtle stud earrings.

I went to Shane Co. (“Your friend in the diamond business!”) and found some beauties that wouldn’t break the bank. Got out my card to pay for them, but the salesman said I first had to fill out an online form to “create an account at Shane Co. for your convenience!” I said I’d opt out of that and just sell me the jewelry, please. But he said they couldn’t do that. It was the online forms or no sale.

So that was a big negatory. The last place I heard of that wouldn’t sell to you without harvesting your data was Radio Shack. I thought a big jewelry company wasn’t that cheesy. Well, I didn’t need earrings anyway. I saved a good chunk of change.

4

Very mini rant. I sometimes hate how dependent I am on high-speed internet. 95% of my entertainment comes over the web, be it streaming from services, streaming from my or my friends PLEX servers, gaming, news, what have you. I’m about to shut down my cable modem and router (in about 15 minutes) since we’re replacing the flooring (old carpet and tile) on that level of the house starting tomorrow. Sure, I’m going to try ( :crossed_fingers: ) to set them up on an alternate outlet, but who knows if it’ll work. I can and will fall back to cellular sources (phone and tablet) but our location is in a tower shadow, so I’ll be dropping from 400ish Mbps to 10-15 or so. Suddenly it feels like the world is smaller and more remote, even if it’s only going to be 2-3 days.

Dependency sucks!

5

Me too. It’s really annoying when I log into an account on my desktop and I have to enter a verification code sent to one of my email accounts or to a text sent to my phone. Especially when after I enter the code I get told that my device is now verified for the next four months. Or until the next time I log in a week later.

6

My mini-rant: people that post very much NON-mini rants in this thread.

The monthly mini-rants is for silly first world problems. We gather here to shout obscenities at our TV then get another beer. Not to grieve for dead siblings.

If someone has a rant or just needs commiseration about some major life crisis, it deserves a thread of its own. One where the tone can be properly respectful to the gravity of your situation. Whether it’s here in the Pit (“I pit the bastard who ran over my dog!”) or in MPSIMS (“I need a hug; my dog was killed by a car”) is up to you.

But not here among the complaints about 2FA, or internet dependency, or idiot YouTubers. Or idiot Dopers who still can’t play this game.

Harrumph!

7

Mom has gone from imminent death to severe but stable, to being moved out of the hospital and into a rehab facility. Obviously, we are thrilled that she has recovered. However, she is basically in denial about having a colostomy bag. She does not check the bag for leaks. She hasn’t memorized the list of foods she can no longer eat. While she seems to be doing work to recover lost muscle and get mobile again, she won’t really admit that she has a colostomy bag.

We have not told Mom that she can no longer live on her own. For years, it seemed like she could. After an entirely preventable crisis requiring life-saving surgery and a respirator, we can no longer trust her to take care of herself. My sister has been trying to get Mom to move into an assisted living facility in Jacksonville for years. Mom doesn’t want to lose her independence and extremely active social life. If we tell Mom that she will never be going back to the condo, she will likely become severely depressed and her recovery will stop.

I thought that it was settled that Mom would be going to assisted living in Jacksonville. My sister said that if I could find a place in Philadelphia that fit our criteria, Mom could go there. Besides the fact that I will be able to see her more often, of the relatives she told us to contact as soon as she was conscious, before she was even off the repsirator, all but one live in the Philadelphia area. Mom also very much wants a Jewish facility. There are none in Jacksonville. I am certain there are a few in Philly. Mom is a big Eagles fan. I’m assuming it is easier to watch all their games on tv in Philly. Mom is also a huge fan of the Mummers. I know from previous years that is vastly easier to watch the Mummers’ Parade in Philly. I need to get some more information on Mom’s insurance and our monthly budget and I will begin looking. I may start a thread asking for help.

Mini Rants

I missed the annual home made pizza gathering of an elderly friend. He loves the Marx Brothers. I got him a two record set of their performances. I was going to give it to him at the party.

My beloved and I were going to attend a free Beltane event with a local pagan group.

The same group had a twilight tour through a cemetery. I missed that too.

Today was the West Philly Yard Sale. A bunch of people in the area just selling stuff. I could have gotten furniture I need for a very low price. I could have found more stuff to give to friends. It seems likely that I would have found a bunch of great stuff for very little money.

In other news, I accidentally destroyed my Xfinity router a few months ago. They offered to send a new one at no charge. They said it would take three to five business days. I cannot do my job without internet. They said there were no Xfinity stores in my area.I asked how far the closest one was. They gave me the address and hours and I told them I would pick up a router that day.

It only took about half an hour to get there. I got a brand new router and installed it easily. Later that week, a box from Xfinity showed up. I didn’t know if I would be charged for this router they sent by mistake, or if they wanted it back immediately. I tried calling them. Everytime I answered questions truthfully, I got a dead end. If I lied about why I was calling, I got a different dead end. I could not find a menu option that fit. I could not find a way to talk to a human being. I tried the website. It was no help either.

This past week, Xfinity sent me my monthly e-mail with my bill. If I do not return a router (I’m assuming that it’s the one in the unopened box. It could be the one that I have been using. I need to check the serial number to be sure.) by June twentieth, I will be charged for it. Also, on Xfinity Internet Essentials my monthly fee should be $14.95. My bill this month is $45.71. Normally, I would check to be sure which router need to return and head to the nearest Xfinity store. I am still in Florida. If there is way to get a human being on the phone to discuss this problem, I haven’t found it. If there is a way to solve this problem on the website, I haven’t found it.

I am briefly flying back to Philly for my beloved’s birthday. I may or may not have time to fix this and a few other problems while I am there. I would definitely have time except that we will be staying in a hotel in a beach town for at least two days.

8

I apologize. Your post was not there when I started writing mine.

Also- My e-mail provider has started using 2FA. I hate this and would opt out if possible. Yes, 2FA is useful even necessary for some things. But this is just annoying.

9

I recently got a new phone. I neglected to set up 2FA before I turned in my old phone, and now it’s a whole thing. They won’t email or text or call with a code; can only use the app (the other university I teach at will call, email, or text). In order to add my new phone to the app account, they have to send a code to the app, which I can’t log into without having the code.

At some point I’ll have to call IT and sort it out, but right now I’m on break so I’m just not logging in.

10

If your mom is a reader, there’s a very good book by [Jewish, since your mom seems to care] actress Barbara Barrie about her adjustment to life with a colostomy more than 25 years ago. It’s very positive and upbeat, and an easy read. Might be available as an audio book?
Don’t Die of Embarrassment: Life After Colostomy and Other Adventures

11

Thanks! Mom is definitely a reader. Once she was off the respirator she asked us to bring two books from the shelf in the guest room.

12

My mom was laid up and said it was okay, as long as we kept her well-stocked with novels, puzzles and vodka.

13

Sigh. No other jacks worked. Nothing but my phone and tablet until Wednesday though I’ll be tethering / mobile hotspot much of the time. Soooo slow.

14

You know what’s most annoying? That the accounts that are the least important are often the ones most insistent on it. My natural gas provider, for example, insists on it, even though the only thing you can do after you log in is see how much you owe on your gas bill and, optionally, pay it. Heaven forfend that some hacker should see how much natural gas I consumed last month and, even worse, pay my bill! What are these idiots thinking?

While I’m at it, I also pit Google’s hypersensitivity to security. OK, for some people, having their email hacked could have some bad consequences, so a certain amount if caution is warranted. But Google acts as if my personal Gmail account contains a mother lode of Top Secret information that could fatally jeopardize national security. I wish to assure Google that what it mostly contains is dinner arrangements with friends and notifications of overdue bills that I once again forgot to pay. I think national security would remain standing even if this vital information was leaked to the general public and international spies got hold of it.

15

Mispronunciations might be a sign that the narrator is AI.

16

It’s not though, I’ve seen the narrator in other videos. I think it’s more the sign that they are young(-ish).

17

What makes you think Google knows how to pronounce anything? I say this as someone who was discussing how Maps was totally screwing up pronunciation of both town & street names we heard her enunciating last night; & not even that-hard-to-pronounce ones.


The @#$% who invented MFA should be beaten, waterboarded, shot, stabbed, hung, drawn & quartered…& then tortured!

  • A) My bank - if I logon from my PC (where I prefer to do banking) I need a longish password & then I need my phone to get a code; however, if I use the app, I only need a short PIN to get in. :thinking:
  • B) If I log into certain systems from my work phone I also need to enter the code from the authenticator app, which is also on the same phone, making it MA, not MFA since all authentications are on the same device. While we’re at it, why does the authenticator app need face ID to open & then face ID again after I enter the code < 10 sec later?


    We got dispatched to a rescue last night, we took our utility (similar to this random internet pic) towing a long, dual-axle trailer. We were in the right lane on the two-lane interstate with lights & sirens on doing 10ish mph over speed limit because you don’t take something that long that fast because as Dana Carvey/George Bush used to say, “Wouldn’t be prudent”. The car in front of us pulls to the shoulder to let us pass & our driver moves over partially into the left lane to pass when I car coming up behind us lays on his horn. Ummm, do you not see all of the red flashy/blinky lights? Do you not hear the siren wailing? Do you not know you are supposed to yield to emergency vehicles?
18

Two more 2FA stupidities:

Both universities I teach at require 2FA to log in to more or less anything. That second factor is always my phone. Even if I’m logging in on my phone. So if someone gets their hands on my phone and bypasses my lock screen security, that’s not doing much.

One of the universities (which is somewhat easier to deal with since they’ll email as well as use the app) requires me to do the 2FA authentication twice to access my email. Once to log in to the main dashboard and again to open the email client. Unless I’m on my phone, in which case my email is just available to me full time. I had to do it once when I set up the account, but never again. Super secure.

19

When I look up “Michael Crichton” in Google, the first result is for Wikipedia, which has the pronunciation of his name in it. You don’t even need to click on the link, as it has it in the preview, which starts like this:

Michael Crichton … John Michael Crichton (/ˈkraɪtən/; October 23, 1942 – November 4, 2008)

I think Google can give you the pronunciation because I checked, so I know it does.

20

So on Saturday afternoon, I notice my new fridge, now 6 months old, is sporting a notice on the control panel to replace the water filter. A straightforward task so far as I can tell. I changed them many times on my old fridge, which was harder because the filter was located at the bottom of that unit. I have a new filter for the new fridge in reserve, so I think, “'Tis the work of but a moment! Let me handle this minor task!” Ha. Ha, ha, ha.

I dutifully broke out the owner’s guide, reviewed the instructions and followed them to the letter: Turn off the icemaker. Press the old filter till it pops out, remove, align the new filter, press it in till it clicks, then prime the new filter with a glass of water (expect splashing, which it briefly did), then run water through the new filter for 4 minutes to clear out impurities. I even timed the 4 minutes on my microwave timer which was handy for the task.

All goes well up to this point. Then I attempt to turn the icemaker back on.

The fridge goes nuts. The control panel lights up like the landing strip for a UFO. The display shows the freezer temperature ticking down: -1, -2, -3 and so on, all the way down to -7. I touched nothing that would cause this!

I try to contact (so-called) Customer Service. But it’s Saturday, and they’re not open because fridges don’t break on the weekends, I guess.

I tried everything I could think of and finally cut power to the fridge to see if it would reset itself. It took quite a long time, and it mostly seems like it has. But the temperature for the freezer is still at -7, I can’t reset the ‘Replace Water Filter’ countdown or turn the icemaker back on.

How nice it would be if something could just go right for a change! Really? A degree in Engineering required to replace a water filter in a fridge?

Service appointment scheduled for Wednesday. < Grumble! >