Octopus Overlords

That bar is really tired by the end.

Strange thing....I got mail twice today. You know the other days I mentioned how Id see an official city us mail truck deliver stuff on Sunday? It was passed off and special mail or Amazon deliveries. I forgot to mention Im in the county and our mail carrier drives their own cars..jeeps or trucks or whatever. It had magnetic signs on the side and a strobe light on it to denote it as mail. It always runs before or around noon. Today it ran and I got my mail. But just now Im eating a sandwich looking at the window and that little official white with blue and red stripe city mail truck comes along and drops mail for me. I go get it and its simply my garbage bill. Nothing special. Not Amazon or anything.

So now its weird as its a both a city official mail car and Im getting two mail carries..one my normal rural one and this one.

It's a glitch in the Matrix!

By posting about this Ive probably doomed myself. Ive watched movies..I know.

I mean I dont know. Ive seen nothing...nothing I tell you!

It's the Frank Langella Effect!

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:04 pm

TheMix wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:43 pm

Paingod wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:38 pm Dear CompanyName,

When I'm on hold and listening to your looping chatter, please don't suddenly cut out to tell me I'm waiting. I know I'm waiting. Every single time it cuts out, I get a brief moment of anticipation at finally talking with someone. This is annoying to have happen over and over and over without actually talking to anyone.

Agree 100%. I hate when they do that.

and then there are the places that reset the hold music to the beginning every time this happens...

They need to just turn the music off. It will allow me to put it on speaker and actually do something else instead of spending 45 minutes listening to what sounds like the right side of a piano being recorded in a tin shack and being played back on a transistor radio.

I dunno about you, but I live for that sweet Cisco hold music.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 1:00 pm

Sudy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:45 pm
The queues that provide an ETA or position in line are nice though.

You believe that malarkey? It's like the Microsoft progress bar.

Lol... no reason it can't be real. But if it's not, it's still genius. Until some jerk on the internet suggests it's not.

I like the ones that force you to push a number to stay on hold..."If you'd liek to continue holding plz press 2" 2 2 2 2 2 Im still here 2 2 2 IM COMING OVER THERE!!!!

Sudy wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 7:44 pm I dunno about you, but I live for that sweet Cisco hold music.

Who all uses that. I hear it from a lot vendors.

any tweet/clickbaity article that has a headline of 'We Need to Talk About [insert thing here]" ensures i will not read it, much less 'talk about'

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 6:09 pm any tweet/clickbaity article that has a headline of 'We Need to Talk About [insert thing here]" ensures i will not read it, much less 'talk about'

You won't believe this one strange trick that experts don't want you to know people are talking about!

Thanks. You just tripped enough red flags to need a hard reboot.

Well, it finally happened last night. I had to turn on the air conditioner in my room. It will probably be on till November.

And today was the first day I didn't put on a jacket in the morning, so I don't have to remember to carry it in the evening.

Ever?

It is weird to have three people in the office but still doing a meeting over Teams from our respective distanced corners.

Only in the sense that you're having to go to the office. (Unless there's a separate need for that.)

LordMortis wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 9:29 am It is weird to have three people in the office but still doing a meeting over Teams from our respective distanced corners.

Depends, what did you eat for breakfast?

I was able to get Amazon Prime for $5.99 and the first 30 days free today .yay.

Free shipping and access to the most mediocre video service I've seen yet, though it has a huge collection (that cycles freebies often enough, but too often won't play anything).

Sudy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:08 am Only in the sense that you're having to go to the office. (Unless there's a separate need for that.)

Our need to be in the office is function dependent at any given time. I need to be here every Wednesday to do physical swaps of equipment. I can't speak to others. They aren't my circus. I try to be here only once or twice a week, thought the single biggest reason I didn't want to be here separated from the company two weeks ago. He was a below the nose mask wearer and no one called him on it. OtOH, the people here are getting more and more relaxed about mask protocols when it comes to zones and proper social hygiene so I am more and more inclined to only be here on Wednesdays and to go home and pick up the 2nd half of the day when from home when I can. The problem is I work on things a lot. And not all interfaces should have a VPN and remote access face when it comes to non things.

I've noticed the morning and evening commutes get a lot more busy in the last month. I think the genie is out and not going back, hence us being the worst state in the nation for COVID contraction for three weeks running... but this is moving away from being random toward being topical...

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:25 pm Free shipping and access to the most mediocre video service I've seen yet, though it has a huge collection (that cycles freebies often enough, but too often won't play anything).

I've never had a problem with it streaming through my Roku and have found some good things on it. Not as robust as other services, but not bad considering it's a throw in to the free shipping for my house.

stessier wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:02 pm

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:25 pm Free shipping and access to the most mediocre video service I've seen yet, though it has a huge collection (that cycles freebies often enough, but too often won't play anything).

I've never had a problem with it streaming through my Roku and have found some good things on it. Not as robust as other services, but not bad considering it's a throw in to the free shipping for my house.

Huh.

We just have an LG TV that has WiFi and the Amazon app built in. I've lost count of the number of times we loaded up Amazon and tried to watch two or three things before going back to Netflix.

I've never had an issue using Amazon Prime Video through either my Samsung smart TV or through AT&T TV.

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:15 pm I've never had an issue using Amazon Prime Video through either my Samsung smart TV or through AT&T TV.

+1, did not realize it was an issue.

Store bought tomatoes are damn awful. I hope I can get my tiller working so I can plant my own this year. Or wait on the farmers markets to open this year.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:02 pm I was able to get Amazon Prime for $5.99 and the first 30 days free today .yay.

Paingod wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 1:25 pm Free shipping and access to the most mediocre video service I've seen yet, though it has a huge collection (that cycles freebies often enough, but too often won't play anything).

Except that you now have access to The Expanse and The Boys. Make them be in your eyes.

Also, Daehawk - wasn't it you talking about a show about archeologists in Britain digging up peoples' back yards? That's Time Team, and Prime has the entire series.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 4:34 pm Store bought tomatoes are damn awful. I hope I can get my tiller working so I can plant my own this year. Or wait on the farmers markets to open this year.

What about someone who said tilling soil was bad for your garden. Since you can't till, maybe you should look into that.

Id rather till a spot around an old stump as I used to do. No till would cost more. Its already cheaper to buy tomatoes than grow them it seems.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 5:18 pm

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 4:34 pm Store bought tomatoes are damn awful. I hope I can get my tiller working so I can plant my own this year. Or wait on the farmers markets to open this year.

What about someone who said tilling soil was bad for your garden. Since you can't till, maybe you should look into that.

Me! That was me!

Tilling is the worst thing you can do for your soil. It kills off the mycorrhizae web and prevents other beneficial bacteria from forming colonies.

Now, if you are just growing plants in dirt, and you don't care about developing soil, your plants are gonna suck anyway and you should just find a good farmer's market.

Easiest thing would be to buy 10 lbs. of red wigglers and throw them down where you want your garden to be. Cover them with some cardboard with a rock on it until you are ready to plant. They will naturally till the soil. That's a start...then top-dress with a good cheap organic fertilizer the rest of the season. Find or make compost to add to the top-dress.

I like Tomato-tone. It does have calcium in it but I always use epsom salt and calcium nitrate in addition to prevent blossom-end rot. Cheap and easy and every year you do this the soil will improve.

If you want to talk about how I build soil for containers you better grab a drink, it will take a while.

In another lifetime you and I are neighbors and I'm just giving you pounds and pounds of worm tea and castings.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 4:34 pm Store bought tomatoes are damn awful. I hope I can get my tiller working so I can plant my own this year. Or wait on the farmers markets to open this year.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 5:41 pm Id rather till a spot around an old stump as I used to do. No till would cost more. Its already cheaper to buy tomatoes than grow them it seems.

Yeah, but they taste awful!

Jaymann wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:18 pm

ImLawBoy wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:15 pm I've never had an issue using Amazon Prime Video through either my Samsung smart TV or through AT&T TV.

+1, did not realize it was an issue.

My Hisense TV plays Prime video fine with the built-in app. It had a frustrating formatting problem that cut off subtitles, and there was no way to change it, so I just couldn't watch anything with extensive subtitles (I couldn't read the German or Japanese scenes in Man in the High Castle, for example). Then one day a firmware update magically fixed it. No complaints since then.

Amazon has a large movie library, with a lot more available on demand. Their movie section is very poorly curated, but I can usually find something I want to see if I have the patience to keep scrolling.

Before when I had full priced Prime monthly I got a free sub per month to use on Twitch. But this time its greyed out and I cant sub to anyone. Is this due to me having the 50% discount? I dont see how that would be a thing. My accounts are still linked.

I have no idea why it isn't working for you, but I can confirm that the Prime sub on Twitch is still a thing. I use mine every month.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:01 pm Before when I had full priced Prime monthly I got a free sub per month to use on Twitch. But this time its greyed out and I cant sub to anyone. Is this due to me having the 50% discount? I dont see how that would be a thing. My accounts are still linked.

Are you using a discounted 7 day trial or are you paying for Prime with a government / EBT eligibility? If it's the former I don't think you get full Prime benefits. If it's the latter, you should be getting full access to all Prime benefits.

Latter. It gave me 30 days free then next month will be $5.99

I'd imagine then that your free "trial" is gated in some way, but once that first $5.99 payment starts you'll have full access to everything.

FWIW, Counterpart starring J.K. Simmons is among the best series freely available through Prime Video, and ought not be missed by anyone likely to enjoy a cognitive science fiction/cold war espionage thriller: