I very rarely drink coffee. Like maybe once or twice a year. This morning I decided I wanted some coffee so I brewed a pot. I looked for my Thermos but it wasn't in the cabinet where I usually keep it so I asked my wife if she moved it. That apparently was the wrong thing to do. You see she has recently stopped smoking and it's pretty clear that asking her anything about anything is an insult to not only her but her entire family lineage. After ducking some unique language and dodging some expletives I spent the next ten minutes looking for my Thermos to no avail. After trying to find anything that would seal I gave up and dumped the entire pot down the sink since I had no way of getting it to work with me.
When I got home she remembered moving it to the closet in the spare bedroom.
Nick Comstock said:
When I got home she remembered moving it to the closet in the spare bedroom.
...and you don't see the logic in that? You monster!
Of course, nobody else reading this would have looked there either.
It's hard to enjoy after work adult beverages when you're trying to keep the basement from turning into a lagoon via a very leaky basement window.
Mike
SuperDork
9/20/18 10:30 p.m.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
That's a fair decision. My goals are mostly things like "play Yessir by MF Doom on Spotify," "navigate home with Google Maps," and "text my wife I'm on my way."
I don't think these represent an excessive cognitive load, and, when the assistant gets it right, (which isn't often) I feel I'm ahead of prior experiences with complex in-car systems like navigating MP3 folder structure (is the latest podcast episode LEFTRI~2.MP3?).
Huh I might've bought a Dashbot...
Back to the bank not restoring my money, I've realized that this last one-time surprise loss of money has put me into a financial death spiral which at some point will become unrecoverable. I've been trying to estimate when that will be, and it could be as early as the end of October. Needless to say it's looking more and more unlikely that I'll make it to the Challenge this year. Why can't hackers focus on ripping off rich people and corporations who would never even notice or be inconvenienced by 3-digit amounts of money disappearing? Why does the bank have to complete this investigation before they restore my money when it was their screwup that allowed the last theft to happen, with a card that I wouldn't have had access to unless I copied it before I knew it was hacked, at which point they'd already taken it from me? Why did I have to put all the pieces together for them in this investigation last time we met? Why will even the branch-level managers at these banks continue to get bonuses that exceed my paychecks despite this horrifying ineptitude?
GameboyRMH said:
Huh I might've bought a Dashbot...
Back to the bank not restoring my money, I've realized that this last one-time surprise loss of money has put me into a financial death spiral which at some point will become unrecoverable. I've been trying to estimate when that will be, and it could be as early as the end of October. Needless to say it's looking more and more unlikely that I'll make it to the Challenge this year. Why can't hackers focus on ripping off rich people and corporations who would never even notice or be inconvenienced by 3-digit amounts of money disappearing? Why does the bank have to complete this investigation before they restore my money when it was their screwup that allowed the last theft to happen, with a card that I wouldn't have had access to unless I copied it before I knew it was hacked, at which point they'd already taken it from me? Why did I have to put all the pieces together for them in this investigation last time we met? Why will even the branch-level managers at these banks continue to get bonuses that exceed my paychecks despite this horrifying ineptitude?
That sucks. How much will it take to get you out of the gravity well of the 'death spiral'? And is that <= to what the bank has held? Do you have any inkling of how long it could be before that money is returned?
(this is why I always pay electronically with credit cards, or PayPal, not debit cards.... NO you can't touch my actual account!). And PayPal doesn't have my bank info. (they do have info on an account I closed years ago...)
Greg Smith said:
That sucks. How much will it take to get you out of the gravity well of the 'death spiral'? And is that <= to what the bank has held? Do you have any inkling of how long it could be before that money is returned?
(this is why I always pay electronically with credit cards, or PayPal, not debit cards.... NO you can't touch my actual account!). And PayPal doesn't have my bank info. (they do have info on an account I closed years ago...)
Right now, about $400 would get me out of the death spiral, and the bank is supposed to return $750. So the point of no return is where the escape amount (which continues to climb with credit card debt I can't pay off) exceeds the owed amount. On the 12th I was told I should get some news in about a week. Nothing yet. Sad truth is that after all the supposed deadlines that have come and gone, I can't assume I have any realistic idea of when the money will be returned.
My card got scraped at an ATM, and I think I've figured out which one. It's in tinted-window booth that would make it relatively easy to fiddle with the machine in privacy, and when I used it the buttons seemed stiff. I gave it a look-over when I noticed that, and nothing seemed out of place. The other one I used before the original theft was in a very public area near security cameras.
I don't have my debit card linked to Paypal either, I never use it online and rarely use it at points of sale.
That's crazy, my debit card info was stolen and used too order Amazon a few months ago. My bank had the issue resolved and my money refunded in 5 days.
Minor rant: somehow last night I cut the inside of my thumb and now it hurts Every time I grab something.
java230
UltraDork
9/21/18 11:07 a.m.
Employees are the biggest pain in the ass to owning a company. I rely on them, I keep the jobs rolling in, I need to hire more people but anyone worth anything is employed, I have a huge backlog of jobs I need to get to...... Working under the table makes them more money so they quit. Berk me.
Just looked and I can get the HFP (honda factory performance) suspension for my car for only $600. 10mm lower, stiffer springs and better damping, OEM quality. Sounds great.
I can't afford it right now.
mtn
MegaDork
9/21/18 12:26 p.m.
dropstep said:
That's crazy, my debit card info was stolen and used too order Amazon a few months ago. My bank had the issue resolved and my money refunded in 5 days.
US Banks have to follow much more stringent (or at least much more enthusiastically enforced) laws and regulations.
That being said, this is why I don't even have a debit card anymore. I had too much time in bank risk and saw the [internal] fraud reports every week. The amount of credit card skimming is insane. I almost never need cash anymore, and the 2 times that I have needed it I was able to get it very quickly and easily. Worst case scenario I can get a cash advance with my credit card.
How exactly the heck can a seller in Hong Kong offer an SPST rocker switch for $1.25 with free shipping??? I have to pay the post office almost 3 bucks to ship via first class package to a domestic buyer. What are we doing, subsidizing foreign sellers on ebay???
Stefan
MegaDork
9/21/18 1:42 p.m.
1988RedT2 said:
How exactly the heck can a seller in Hong Kong offer an SPST rocker switch for $1.25 with free shipping??? I have to pay the post office almost 3 bucks to ship via first class package to a domestic buyer. What are we doing, subsidizing foreign sellers on ebay???
No, but their government is.
Stefan said:
1988RedT2 said:
How exactly the heck can a seller in Hong Kong offer an SPST rocker switch for $1.25 with free shipping??? I have to pay the post office almost 3 bucks to ship via first class package to a domestic buyer. What are we doing, subsidizing foreign sellers on ebay???
No, but their government is.
We are, too. Look into the United Postal Union and the USPS attempt at getting around those ridiculously low rates with the ePacket system which is still a really bad deal for us.
Duke
MegaDork
9/21/18 4:03 p.m.
Currently feuding with DW. Also been at work for 2 days and a night straight with only about 2 hours at home, 1 of which was all the sleep I got last night. It's almost quitting time. I'm not looking forward to this evening.
Mike
SuperDork
9/21/18 4:23 p.m.
In reply to eastsideTim :
I just listened to a planet money podcast episode about this . It's insane.
The sound for the LSU game on DirectTv/EspnU is no E36 M3 almost three seconds ahead of the picture. 'QB is on the fun...first down...' Uh. It hasn't even been snapped yet.
Banks can be weird, i once almost had my car reposessed for being 6 months ahead on my payments. Apparently some idiot saw i made a $1000 payment, recinded it because of something odd, didnt put it back in my account, saw i didnt make a payment in 33 days(because i was 6 months ahead FFS) and sent my info to someone to reposses it. The tow company called me and i gave them an earful, called wells fargo and gave them an earful too. In the end the local bank manager got the person at fault fired and it all got figured out but it was a pain.
Another time i paid my sellers fee on ebay early. So being the stupid corporation they are they tried to take it out of my bank again, and again, and again. 7 times in total. Woke up in the morning to a -$400 balance that i didnt authorize. My bank refunded everything, including overdrafts the second i got in there. Paypal tried to tell me that i authorized all the payments and they couldnt do anything. Ebay still says i owe them sellers fees, which they have recieved and caused me problems.....so i dont sell on ebay anymore
Mike
SuperDork
9/23/18 12:42 p.m.
In reply to ThatsNoUsername :
I had a similar experience with the CU that was financing my wife's truck. When it was paid off, they kept drawing funds, and when that was cut off, they started sending warning letters. Several months passed of fighting and me calling customer service and treating then like I was the bill collector, since they hadn't released the title. Visited branches. People were refunding fees and incorrect drafts, but not actually solving whatever was wrong.
My wife finally caught someone who fixed the issue.
If I had it to do again, I'd give them two tries to correct it, then file with the CFPB.
Amazon's add on item policy is annoying me, I have colored bicycle chains in my cart for 2 old bikes I'm putting together and the red one is an add on item. The issue is everything in this order ships from outside vendors so there's no way to get it shipped without buying some E36 M3 I don't need!
I need to finish bolting the subframe in teh S60R instead of berking around online.
Rant: I fully expect to need to take the trans back out anyway.
Clutch on the Evo has started slipping, just in time for the 'Slush series' autocrosses.
Wouldn't bother me if I hadn't replaced it, I dunno, 15 thousand miles ago.
Car is set up for BS (AKA almost entirely stock) and does 80% of it's AX duties in the wet, can't even blame something cool like excessive power.
Barely stayed awake the whole drive home. Stopped to nap for an hour at a rest area, even.
Got home three hours ago, can't sleep.