# Leap Year? More like CREEP Year! February minirants. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 1, 2020, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325 "2020-02-01T07:01:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/61 "2020-02-12T13:20:04Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > It got to where i would just go to the damned office and pay in person every month. I really really like autopay! True, one really does have to make sure there is money every month, but it does save a lot of agony. Ooo, that sounds like adulting. My boy’s not into it. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/62 "2020-02-12T13:41:18Z")
There is a particular type of item I collect that is pretty darned rare–I’m sure the collector community is only in the dozens. A couple of weeks ago I got up for work and noticed an email from eBay about one of my saved searches. I saw that someone was selling a lot of 28 of these for a Buy It Now price of a hundred bucks. He also had a different lot of 18 for a lower price. I considered asking him the details and then realized that they were heavily underpriced (their going rate is about $10 eacy), so even if there were a few duplicates with my collection, I would be way ahead, and also time was of the essence. I checked his feedback and clicked “buy” and waited. And waited and waited. On day 1 he thanked me and said he would pack it all off the next morning. The days passed. No tracking number appeared. I asked about that and he said it was handled by eBay and there wasn’t one. Another week passes, he eventually sent a tracking number, which perpetually showed “label printed, not shipped” Yesterday was the day when eBay was going to step in to resolve this. I sent one last note, lamenting the stalled tracking number. He said “I got a note from eBay that it was delivered yesterday.” I immediately sent him a screenshot of my “label printed” screen, to which he responded with a screenshot of his “package delivered” note. _??? I don’t live in Kentucky, I live in New Jersey!_ “Didn’t you buy both lots?” “No, I only bought the one with 28. I didn’t need the Christmas ones.” So, yes, he accidentally shipped my stuff to the other guy in some faraway land (Kentucky was some kind of hub before the international hop). Some happy guy will open a box and find close to 50 of these items bought for a fraction of their true value. If he’s a decent fellow he will realize he has something that doesn’t belong to him and send it back to the seller, but it’s a slim chance. The seller apologized profusely and gave an immediate refund, and I don’t hold this against him–it’s something I could have easily done myself–but it still stinks. These are rare and I won’t find a set like that for that price again. On a positive note, these items were not lost and didn’t fall into some random stranger’s hands–most people would just throw them out without knowing what they were and then they would be lost forever. Better they are in the hands of a collector. ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/63 "2020-02-12T15:10:28Z")
Within six months my thyroid tests went wacky. Now I have to get an ultrasound. Both sister had theirs removed. Father died of thyroid cancer. Oh boy… ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/64 "2020-02-12T15:13:05Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > My mother has been hospitalized since Sunday. She was unresponsive today and the doctor asked me if she wanted extraordinary measures. She does not so we are meeting tomorrow about hospice care. This is not a surprise. She is 92 and has had serious problems this last year and she has been going rapidly downhill since the first of the year. I was in the process of looking for an assisted living place (she was living alone in her own home). It was becoming more than I could handle. > > My rant such-as-it-is is that I’m now going to have to listen to the weeping and wailing of family members who haven’t done their share of taking care of her the last several years. I’m the oldest and it all fell on me. My mother never expected things of my brother and he took advantage of that. She would never ask him to take off work to take her to the doctor or for tests because he was a man and he was busy. (She has absolute 1950s beliefs in male/female dynamics.) He never volunteered to help out though he would sometimes if I insisted. Usually, it was just easier to do it myself. And, yeah, that’s partly on me. > > \ I’m so sorry you’re going through this. There’s nothing worse than having to make everyone feel better when you’re dealing with grief yourself; add to that all you’ve shouldered and you must be exhausted. I hope everything goes well for you and is easier than you were expecting. ---
**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:** [February 12, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/65 "2020-02-12T16:17:57Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Ooo, that sounds like adulting. My boy’s not into it. Remember what I said about letting him fail? This was an opportunity to let him fail. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2020, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/66 "2020-02-12T16:46:32Z")
I know, I know! Maybe next time. :o ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2020, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/67 "2020-02-14T15:38:47Z")
Three people I know have had heart attacks this year. All of them are younger than me! Now with every twinge I feel I immediately think it’s a heart attack. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/68 "2020-02-16T14:04:47Z")
TMI warning. I caught Mr. brown’s intestinal virus. He was sick for three days last weekend, and now it’s my turn. Last night I heaved up everything I’ve eaten for a week, together with everything I will eat for the next week. This was followed by major diarrhea. I’m humiliated to say that I shat my sheets at 4 a.m. today. They’re in the washing machine now. Haven’t done that since I was two years old. The diarrhea is the worst I’ve ever experienced. It’s like I’m doing colonoscopy prep or something. Come to think of it, “diarrhea” isn’t the right word for it. It’s more like “peeing out of my butt” every ten minutes. As soon as Mr. brown wakes up, I’m sending him out for Immodium and some sort of sports drink to replace all the minerals and salts I’m losing. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/69 "2020-02-16T16:49:20Z")
We were watching the Dodge Brothers YouTube channel last night – farmers in Iowa – and he was giving pregnant heifers a vaccine to keep their in utero calves from getting scours after they were born. Then he explained, "For those of you who don’t know what scours is, well, imagine the result if you managed to eat a half-gallon of ice cream, a quart of chocolate syrup, and two liters of soda – that’s scours. ---
**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:** [February 16, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/70 "2020-02-16T20:57:18Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > The diarrhea is the worst I’ve ever experienced. It’s like I’m doing colonoscopy prep or something. Come to think of it, “diarrhea” isn’t the right word for it. It’s more like “peeing out of my butt” every ten minutes. > > As soon as Mr. brown wakes up, I’m sending him out for Immodium and some sort of sports drink to replace all the minerals and salts I’m losing. Ugh, I did that during chemo [imagine your entire digestive tract being one long road rash, because it is inside it never clots off … \*sigh] I was told by my doc at the time to do as a single dose, 3x a day 4 immodium washed down with a dose of kaopectate and 2x a day some hyperimmodium that has atropine in it. He was originally shocked that I was doing that much immodium until I pointed out that junkies were doing 30-100 immodium to get the opioid effect and they didn’t tend to die of that in the short term. Continued until I pointed out that through research no med was going to stop the runs as I pointed out I had no effective gut lining at that point in time, so we halted treatment for a week to give it a chance to heal up enough to finish the last 14 treatments. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/71 "2020-02-16T22:16:22Z")
You know what I hate? I hate grown ass adults in a pissing contest about who was the most precocious reader in elementary school. Whatever adult in their life convinced them that being the bestest reader in 3rd grade set them apart from mere mortals did them no favor. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2020, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/72 "2020-02-16T22:30:36Z")
This really defines “fixed mindset” versus “growth mindset,” doesn’t it?! ---
**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:** [February 16, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/73 "2020-02-16T23:10:20Z")
I’m not sure I’m cut out to be a professional indexer. This course is kicking my ass. Of course, I’m not actually trying to \*be \*a professional indexer. I’m trying to make the indexes I create for the documentation I write better than they currently are. But there doesn’t seem to be a course tailored towards technical writers. This is what’s available, and now I’m stuck trying to index a (very badly written) document about the NAEP’s Economics Framework. All sorts of both education-industry terminology and economics terminology, neither a subject area with which I’m familiar and all of which I’m finding it difficult to disentangle and determine what’s important and what’s just kinda there and no one will care about it. Yes, I’ve been working on just this part of the test off and on all weekend (about 10 or so hours by now, mostly spent in rereading the damn thing because I’m not retaining any of it, which should tell you just how incredibly \*boring \*it is). This is worth 40% of the test. I’m trying to arrange for tomorrow off. And my cat won’t shut up. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2020, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/74 "2020-02-17T00:12:28Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > But there doesn’t seem to be a course tailored towards technical writers. This is what’s available, and now I’m stuck trying to index… Technical writing is such a rich, fascinating field. There’s _got_ to be a better way to learn it! A local tech college? A course online? [Lynda.com](http://Lynda.com)? Just watch some YouTube videos? A podcast? Take a writer out for breakfast and pick their brain? Or do what I did…just start doing it. (As a designer always stuck waiting for copy, I finally asked “Hey, anybody mind if \*I \*give it a shot?”) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/75 "2020-02-17T00:26:06Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > You know what I hate? I hate grown ass adults in a pissing contest about who was the most precocious reader in elementary school. Whatever adult in their life convinced them that being the bestest reader in 3rd grade set them apart from mere mortals did them no favor. Right. I was the best reader back then, and shit - look at me now. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/76 "2020-02-17T00:31:53Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > You know what I hate? I hate grown ass adults in a pissing contest about who was the most precocious reader in elementary school. Whatever adult in their life convinced them that being the bestest reader in 3rd grade set them apart from mere mortals did them no favor. Maybe you can modify one of those “My child is an A+ student” bumper stickers to read “My child is a top reader, but I’m still a moron” and give them the bumper sticker without saying a word. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2020, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/77 "2020-02-17T00:51:25Z")
> [@teela\_brown](#): > > TMI warning. > > I caught Mr. brown’s intestinal virus. He was sick for three days last weekend, and now it’s my turn. > > Last night I heaved up everything I’ve eaten for a week, together with everything I will eat for the next week. This was followed by major diarrhea. > > I’m humiliated to say that I shat my sheets at 4 a.m. today. They’re in the washing machine now. Haven’t done that since I was two years old. > > The diarrhea is the worst I’ve ever experienced. It’s like I’m doing colonoscopy prep or something. Come to think of it, “diarrhea” isn’t the right word for it. It’s more like “peeing out of my butt” every ten minutes. > > As soon as Mr. brown wakes up, I’m sending him out for Immodium and some sort of sports drink to replace all the minerals and salts I’m losing. Forget the sports drinks. Open up a can of beef stock (chicken will also do). Sip on that and you get the electrolytes without the sugar. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2020, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/78 "2020-02-17T01:01:21Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Technical writing is such a rich, fascinating field. There’s _got_ to be a better way to learn it! A local tech college? A course online? [Lynda.com](http://Lynda.com)? Just watch some YouTube videos? A podcast? Take a writer out for breakfast and pick their brain? > > Or do what I did…just start doing it. (As a designer always stuck waiting for copy, I finally asked “Hey, anybody mind if \*I \*give it a shot?”) Tech writing I have covered, I’ve been one for about 25 years now. It’s the indexing I’m trying to learn now. As I said, there’s no such thing as an indexing course that focuses on technical writers or on how to index technical manuals. [I actually, apparently, already make pretty good indexes, or so say the SMEs who use my documents (“Anytime I look for a topic, I find it in the index!”).] I just thought I could improve on things like term selection and formatting and cross-referencing and organizing so that I’m not 40 levels deep instead of, at most, 3 and ideally 2. So I talked my boss into letting me take a course in indexing, but the only one I found was an online course from the ASI. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good stuff, but it’s focused on people who make a living from indexing and who are working in a lot of diverse fields. I’m never going to use the big indexing programs, or need to know how to index a range of periodicals, or how to cite bibliographic references. The principles transfer, is what I keep telling myself. Right now, I’m trying to figure out how to approach indexing this government-written document (and _boy_, does it show). The document is providing information to people who have to create the NAEP Economics test in their state/municipality/whatever level this is, but the audience for the index is supposed to be “general”. Seems a bit incompatible. I suppose I could argue that the test creators are the “general” audience, in this case… ---
**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:** [February 17, 2020, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/79 "2020-02-17T01:03:08Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Forget the sports drinks. Open up a can of beef stock (chicken will also do). Sip on that and you get the electrolytes without the sugar. Premade broth has a \*lot \*of salt, which can be an issue for some people, such as those with heart conditions. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2020, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325/80 "2020-02-17T01:27:40Z")
I’m not a basketball fan and I’ve got nothing against Kobe Bryant, but can we call the world leaders together and negotiate an end to the mourning over him? Fine, it was sad and he was probably a good dude, but this perpetual mourning is getting a little too much. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leap-year-more-like-creep-year-february-minirants/847325.md?page=5)