It never ceases to amaze me the extent to which manufacturers of expensive but high-volume products (most notably cars and laptop computers) will go to save a few cents. The tremendous cost and inconvenience to the consumer means nothing to them compared to the total of those few cents multiplied by the high volume, which they can use to give themselves million-dollar bonuses. 
Consider this my mini-rant contribution for the day.
A sysadmin where I work ordered a new laptop. And was amazed that he ordered it on a Friday, and found out that it was out for delivery on the following Monday. That’s incredible service.
He got the box, opened it to find… A mouse for the laptop. “The rest is on the way!111!!!”) 
Every time I get campaign literature from someone I like/support that includes a photo card, I put it on my fridge. 
But yeah, there are a few organizations that I’ve ended up unsubscibing from because of that absolute deluge of email.
I really don’t keep track of the snail mail, since all but two of the bills are delivered electronically; I flip through it every day to make sure there’s nothing important, then put it in the decorative basket, which I empty every month or so (stuff that I don’t want in the wild goes into the shredder, everything else goes in the recycle bin).
I’m getting ready for a flight to one of the small islands. The departure time is early which is nice but I wanted to get a soft drink for the flight.
The vending machine allows people to scan their phones for points from 7 million apps but no apparent way to bypass that screen and just select a drink. A native had no idea,either.
I have my banking accounts through US Bank. A couple years ago I got a Mastercard through REI which turned out to be issued by US Bank. This has been convenient because I could use the US Bank app to see the balance and make payments. Today for some reason it has disappeared from the app and has no apparent way to link to it. I tried through the “REI Mastercard” app but it says the account can’t be linked. I suppose I will call up customer service and tell them that if they want me to pay the bill they have to provide me with a way to pay the bill!
It looks like the reason your REI Mastercard disappeared from your US Bank app is that REI has switched to Capital One as the card provider.
Fedex fucks up again. The agent I talked to yesterday told me that they’d be delivering in the morning, no signature needed, just leave the fucking thing by the door. Nothing. Today claiming “local delivery restriction”. I got to and from my shop just fine. WTF? I need this part to start prototyping for a project that includes a whole bunch of other people too. I think their driver is just not doing his full route.
About the only way I get results when a FedEcchs driver decides to lie about delivery attempts is via social media (Facebook is my usual go-to in these situations).
Turns out this is the answer. Now I get to set all this crap up. What a pain in the ass.
Another shipping-related complaint, this time about a shirt for sale on Amazon. I have bought this particular shirt before, but the particular style/size/color I want is only available from one vendor and they can’t/won’t ship to California. They’ll ship to other states (Arizona, Arkansas, Florida), just not mine.
I contacted the seller and they said it ships from Amazon, ask them. I contacted Amazon and they had no clue. Oh well…
Thirty Nine Million potential customers that they can’t/won’t ship to is probably a poor business model.
Equally annoying are US merchants who won’t ship to Canada. Some will only ship to “the 48 contiguous US states”. The most annoying ones are those that will ship anywhere in the US including Alaska and Hawaii and even APO/FPO addresses, but not Canada.
This is just sheer stupidity and laziness. The ones who won’t ship outside the 48 contiguous states are so brain-dead that they can’t be bothered with potential added shipping costs, and the ones who won’t ship to Canada are obviously terrified of having to fill out a value declaration form. Perhaps they are terrified of anything that requires the ability to read and write, or, God forbid, maybe even think. The process is usually so simple that I’ve had no problem with many US companies shipping even extremely low-cost trivial little items across the border, where apparently they can take on the awesome overhead of writing a dollar amount on a form and still manage to make money.
Plus, in the vast majority of cases, Canada Customs won’t even bother charging duty even if the valuation is above the threshold amount. Usually much easier and cheaper to just clear it through, especially because so many items are exempt anyway. Yet to some US companies, shipping to Canada is equivalent to trying to smuggle contraband into North Korea.
Ugh, I am completely out of my element.
I don’t drink. As in, have never been drunk. Not religious, not because of negative experiences with alcohol(ics), not because of anti-alcohol family sentiment, it’s just how I turned out.
My ex wife didn’t drink either. Our friends tended to be non-drinkers, our families all knew their limitations, and so I have had almost zero personal experience with anybody being drunk since… God… college?
My ex and I divorced at the end of 2019. This February, sick of being in my house alone w/ my dog, I put out an ad for a roommate. In this I made very clear that I am very quiet, this is not a party house, I work constantly @ home, and even mentioned that I don’t drink. In short, in so many words, no college students (I live near U Texas San Antonio). I want adults.
Got a lot of responses (the rent is a really good rate), finally deciding on David, a 2-year recovering alcoholic who was thrilled to find a place to live with no temptation. He was even surprised as to how little sugar I consumed, saying “I thought people who don’t drink eat a lot of sweets”, which, I mean… ok?
Last week, after a turbulent period completely his fault, he fell off the wagon. And it sucks. He is argumentative and, worse… and I know this is small in the grand scheme of things… he. Just. Won’t. Shut. Up. Especially while watching TV.
And post-wagon he likes to antagonize me, which I have already spoken to (post-wagon) him about.
Today was typical. He gets up, showers by 9am, is drinking some sort of beer by 10:30. He puts on Pulp Fiction and literally spouts gibberish through the entire film. Not gibberish, it’s not like he is speaking in tongues or anything, but it’s a running stream-of-drunk-consciousness on the movie.
And I’m trying to work.
(Also, sometime, there’s a big bottle of clear alcohol in the freezer. Literally the first time in my life I’ve had such a thing in my fridge.)
I had a lunch date so by the time he started dancing with John & Uma, I had a valid excuse to leave. Gone for two hours, I come back… to find the movie paused at the scene where John and Uma arrive home the first time. Effectively, about 2 minutes had passed in the movie before he went to take a ‘nap’.
I get back on my computer (even though I wanted a nap as well) to finish the podcast script I was working on. He wakes up, starts the movie and starts doing the commentary again. It gets really bad when he starts insisting that the scene where Bruce Willis is in bed with Fabien is a dream. And, frankly, I just had to respond to this idiocy, telling him he was just wrong and… seeing I was finally paying attention to him, he started going in on this theory, purposely to get a rise out of me.
I try my best to ignore it, all I have to do is focus, right?, but he smells like beer, his beer smells like beer, he just won’t shut up, and when I pointed this out, he responded by saying he was drunk and this is how he is.
Right now I’m @ Taco Cabana. He put on Kill Bill, possibly my favorite movie of all time, and I did not want to watch him ruin it for me. He begged me to stay and I just told him that I am not interested in listening to him talk to the TV during my favorite movie. Which is when I got the answer above about ‘this is me drunk, you get to deal’.
Well, no, not in my house, motherfucker. You’re on a month to month and this shit had better end soon. I have zero desire to add ‘learn to deal with alcoholics’ as a life skill at the age of 55, and I’m not motivated enough to give a shit: You’re someone else’s child, not mine.
Sounds to me like you have good reason to terminate his rental agreement. I’m not a lawyer, so let’s see what the actual legal beagles say.
Eviction can be very different state to state, so start now. Give him formal notice. Expect it to be a long, messy sh*tstorm. Don’t give him a second chance, that will just prolong the agony.
I’ve had 4 roommates in the last 17 years. 3 were like yours and took forever to get free of. It would be worth consulting a local lawyer to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s. Don’t be surprised if you have to have a sheriff serve him eviction papers. In the meantime, protect your home and belongings, nothing is out of bounds. Once he is gone, change the locks.
My attorney wrote the lease. It’s a month-to-month and he said, today, all I have to do is provide him with a written notice of non-renewal.
Good move on your part. You’re way ahead of the game!
Still. Keep a locksmith’s number handy for the first hour after he’s gone. Don’t ask me how I know.
Ugh.
He woke up this morning finishing off the rum and whatever he was drinking last night. 8 in the fucking morning.
Thank God for me spending $500 at the outset for an attorney-written lease and legal advice. Would hate to be on a long-term lease with this situation.
Remove anything valuable/fragile/sentimental/etc to an offsite location before you let him know he has to be gone.
ETA: Maybe put up a nanny cam or three in public areas also.
Excellent ideas.
Yes, that $500 spent on lawyer advice was very well spent.