Yeah, ditto, Arizona Department of Public Safety. A month or so after I got my first smart phone I got an Amber Alert at 2am on a weekday about some snatched little girl… in Yuma – 190 miles away. Yup, I’m gonna throw on some clothes, since I sleep nekkid, pad out to the end of my driveway, and spend the rest of the night looking up and down my residential street for a white Ford F-150, license plate AAA 1234.
I figured out how to opt out of Amber Alerts later that morning.
Ongoing minor grumble: earbuds.
99% of what you find on the market is the kind with the round silicone plug that you jam into your ear canal, and the plug stays in there via friction, or something, or so they say. I find these:
There are wired earphones that sit in the outer part of the ear. Apple Earpods come to mind. Samsung makes (made?) some too, where there’s a little silicone nozzle that points into the ear but does not actually jam in there and gather earwax. (see 3, above). Those are hard to find but I’ll periodically buy a bunch of them from Groupon (only place I’ve ever seen them, actually) - and they’re especially nice because they allow finer volume control with my Samsung phone than third-party brands do.
But what about bluetooth? I tend to go to sleep with an earbud in one ear, but there is almost NOTHING that does not follow the “jam the plug into the ear and gather earwax” form factor. Some cheap Chinese Earpod knockoffs out there, that wake me up after 2 hours because the battery has died. One JVC product that has crappy controls and dies after a couple months (and has been discontinued). And I’m sure not gonna spend hundreds of dollars on real AirPods for this purpose, as I would lose them on the first use.
Am I really the only person left on the planet who wants outer-ear earbuds?
You’re not. Samsung used to make these earbuds that had a formed silicone wrapper that nestled snuggly between one’s tragus and ear canal, so they were almost as secure as jam-em-in-your-canal earplugs, without all the various and sundry issues (with which I am in total agreement). There was a free pair with my Galaxy 6 (so you know it’s been awhile now)
They came with a 3.5mm jack AND a built-in volume control, so I didn’t need to keep them charged and I could control my music’s volume without fumbling about on a screen.
They can’t be found anymore, though I can find dozens of knockoff brands made in a country famous for making knockoff brands, and those have proven to be as fragile as a glane pane’s ego.
Are these the ones you mentioned? They’re the ones I have ordered quite a few times. Dunno if they are truly made by Samsung, or are fakes, but they do the job. I wish there was a bluetooth version (a “wired bluetooth”, where the two buds are connected to each other)
Here they are at Groupon
Another mini-whine:
If you all heard a loud shriek and very, very heartfelt cussing from somewhere on the East Coast yesterday about 9 AM, it was me stubbing my toes, badly. I don’t think I broke any of them - last time I had a broken foot it hurt a LOT more - but it sure hurts to walk and I’ve got a nice bruise developing. I see a podiatrist tomorrow.
One of the toes already had a bruise on it - I think from dropping something on it a few weeks ago. I have a vague memory of that. I’m such a klutz that unexplained bruises are not uncommon.
The Galaxy S6 versions were a bit more formed than that, and my experience with buying those S7 versions suggested they were fragile counterfeits, but if it works, it works?
I’ve been using jam-em-in-your-canal “wired bluetooth” headsets, but ones that have a silicon “stick” that helps secure the earbud better. Then I use the smallest gauge “wrapper” provided. I still have to put them in my ear, and they’re not ideal for keeping outside noise out (but I’m okay with that unless I’m trying to screen out a rambling loon) and they still… ah, accumulate “product” let’s say, but it was the compromise I was willing to make.
I’ll provide a link later if there’s any interest; at the moment I’m procrastinating instead of dealing with this mountain of bureaucracy.
For normal working-around-the-house stuff, I like the jam-'em-in-your-earbuds, because they block noise well. But I fall asleep with earbuds in (usually a book read by a calm Brit), and then I like the outer pod buds, because they’ll fall out and I don’t have something crammed in my ear all night. The downside is hunting through the covers for them in the morning. I’ve had good luck with cheap stuff like this.
I have been tapped to provide a meal to a large group of people on Monday morning to start off Lab Week. And as of this moment, there is no budget. I’m about to have to organize a pot luck, which……FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
You could consider the jawbone conducting headphones.
They are generally used by runners and people who want to listen to music but still be able to hear other things. They don’t stick in year ear so avoid the grossness and are not too bulky so may be ok to fall asleap with.
Pesonally I found the experience a bit weird but maybe worth looking at.
I want a dwarf lemon tree for our living room. I have had citrus trees twice before and both times a pet has chosen to use them as porta-potties. While we don’t have the same pets that killed the other trees, we still have cats and cats are jerks. Not wanting to kill another innocent tree while attempting to keep the cats out of the dirt, we are trying different things with a dirt filled bucket to see if we can actually keep the cats out.
Currently I have a bucket full of dirt and covered with rocks in front of my living room window. It just really makes the room.
I’m not sure I am putting this in the right place. I don’t really have an argument. I’m mostly just horrified.
My sister married a black man. She is white. Several years ago, my sister, her husband and their three children took a road trip from Phoenix, Arizona to Kansas City, Kansas. Part of that trip included a stretch through Oklahoma while her husband was driving. As they were passing through a small town, they noticed that they were being followed by police. Soon, more and more police cars joined them and officially stopped them near the outskirts of the town. There was no obvious reason for them to pull them over, especially not with so many police. The exchange between them was tense. Fortunately, whatever my sister and her husband said to them satisfied them because they eventually let them go.
The reason the police said they stop them? There was an air freshener hanging from the rearview mirror.
And, today, even though I knew about this and what happened to Daunte Wright, it just occurred to me that the exchange between the police and my family could have go so much worse. I thought I understood a little what black people are going through with the police. I just realized I don’t know shit. Not even a little.
Nope, you are not. Not by a long shot.
I have a pair of Aftershokz Trekz Titanium headphones and really like them. They do take some getting used to - they go around the back of your head and rest on top of your ears and the speaker part just sort of sits on your temples. But they’re great for when I go for walks, I can bluetooth music from my phone but still hear traffic noise and other stuff going on around me. Not sure how well they would work for sleeping though - they might get knocked loose too easily.
I got to deal with a perv hitting on me at work today. Not “flirted unnecessarily with,” I mean full-on gross, creepy comments, like asking if I come with the order, and inviting/telling me to climb into the back as he was preparing to drive off. (Background: I mostly bring curbside delivery orders out to customers waiting in the parking lot.)
Because I never know what to say in the moment, I fell back into tersely polite customer service mode … which I feel just plays right into his little power-trip game, because I didn’t stand up to his bullshit in the least. Just reiterated what his total order cost was, etc.
I’m pissed at myself, of course, for not standing up to him.
I’m pissed at management, because he pulls this horseshit every time and absolutely nothing is done to protect us. There’s a note in his file (“overly friendly” 
) and he’s notorious enough that a female manager scanning his order in a while ago muttered, “Oh, I hate this guy,” but is he banned? No. Can I order him off the property? No.
What can I do?
Not much … except get rage-drunk and practice various scenarios, so that when he shows up again, I’ll know what to say.
It won’t be “fuck off,” either. I’d probably get fired for that.
But if I know in advance and am not taken off balance, I’ve perfected a cold, emasculating tone (think “Can we behave nicely?” as spoken by Satan’s kindergarten teacher) combined with what I’ve been told is a death glare of doom.
If your employer won’t do anything about it report them. Your employer has a legal obligation to protect you from sexual harassment. As far as who they are reported to, that will depend on where your workplace is located; typically those complaints are made at the state level. It’s clear that your employer knows that this customer is problematic and is doing nothing about it, and that can very easily land them in a precarious legal position.
Thank you! I had not considered that option, and I sincerely appreciate you bringing it to my attention.
If nothing else, that gives me some leverage ("I would hate to have to report ongoing sexual harassment to the state … ") against this feeling that nothing is being done.
Don’t tell them you’re going to do that! You might find yourself laid off or “constructively dismissed”. (And yes, you could try to sue for wrongful termination, but it’s hard to prove that sort of thing and takes a long time.)
I’m not positive, but I think this is the sort of thing you can report anonymously. If your state has a labor relations board, that’d be a good place to start.
What sucks the most about this is, “ongoing documentation” means being being a whiny ninny.
I brainstormed with a couple other girls, basically “how do I fend this off LOL” and one suggested getting a notebook to document each incident.
Gah. Lemme give this perv more time out of my personal life.
Is this something men do?
Go spend personal money to buy a notebook, and take time to document date/time/person/incident/details for every time you’re sexually harassed at work? Knowing in advance that this will happen and that you’ll be required to provide proof?
Just in case the incident moves forward?
No?
No, I’ve been through what I can retrospectively say was sexual harassment from customers (I’ve worked retail jobs before) and even as a guy it’s often not pleasant being hit on by a woman customer. But it wasn’t often and never repeated.
I also had touchy-feely coworkers but never enough that it made me miserable.
I’ve had to document violence though, that sucked. From a coworker. He got transferred, not fired (thanks to nepotism).
I’m not sure it’s clear that I am ANGRY THAT THIS HAPPENED and that I don’t really feel like being a crossed-at-the-ankles demure about the whole thing.