Universal Chat Thread

[Dragon Lord]

Well, I didn't have it sitting outside. I had it inside right next to the front door so all I would have had to do was open the door and hand it to the guy, but as I mentioned, he never even bothered to knock. I could have left it on my front porch per Amazon's return instructions, but I don't trust my neighbors across the street at all (just back in October one of them got arrested, which required the county's fucking S.W.A.T. team to show up and get him) and didn't want to risk leaving it out there for several hours.

Like bro just knock and I'd open the door and hand it to you and you'd be done in the same amount of time. It would not have been that much of a hassle for them other than he probably didn't want to bother having to take the package with him.

One thing I will say is that Amazon's instructions for UPS pickup returns are contradicting. At one point they say you can (not need to) leave it on your front porch/step for the driver, but then a few lines down it says that an adult (21+) needs to be present for the pickup.

[ShiraNoMai]

I think they get paid by accomplishing a delivery quota, so the more they can cut corners to achieve that, the more likely they'll do shit like that. Thank you, corporations.

Been seeing some depressing news today. Hope everyone has a good day/weekend regardless <3

[Moonface]

@Dragon Lord: I don't like the idea of leaving packages outside at all anymore ever since porch pirates became a more known thing. Even if my direct neighbors are fine I don't trust everyone else that may come past my front door and see a package sitting there. Especially when there was a case of someone's packages being stolen I think last Christmas.

Any packages I've returned to Amazon have always been through Whole Foods drop off. I go with that though because there's one right by my college campus so I don't have to go out of my way to do it.


My coworker is sick yet again, this time with COVID, so once again I was asked to cover for her. They wanted me to go in tomorrow morning to throw the frozen truck but I declined; after the nightmare that was covering at Christmas I'm really burned out on the idea of covering for a third round in less than two months. x.x
I just wish that I wouldn't keep feeling guilty about not wanting to go in and that I could just let it go since it's not like I'm obligated to cover every shift every time.

[ShiraNoMai]

This is the year Moony takes care of himself! Always remember capitalism does not care for you and never will. Put your care and attention into things that do.

[Moonface]

@ShiraNoMai: Yeah, it just gets hard to not feel bad for any co-workers who I'd like to help out but doing so is at the expense of myself. It's just a double edged sword that I just need to figure out how to healthily deal with.


Ugh, I have a Twitch stream on which is playing videos from CES 2024 and dear lord it's depressing to see the stuff being pitched. Stoves with 7-inch smart screens, cars with overlays on the windshield, and whatever other ghastly things that have been shown but haven't cemented themselves in my mind. I think the only cool thing I saw was the new LG TV that can be transparent to let it blend in better with a room, even if it's a gimmick I'd never care to use myself.

[Maniakkid25]

So I just found out some bullshit about my bank. See, if my account drops below $100, I eat a maintenance fee. I had been under the impression that that means if my statement rolls to the next month, and it's below that threshold, I eat that maintenance fee. It turns out that no, if it drops below that threshold AT ANY POINT in the statement period, I eat the maintenance fee! So, I'm good and mad now, and looking for a new bank. Anyone got suggestions (I'm with TD Bank)?

[Moonface]

I wish I had a suggestion for you @Maniakkid25, but alas my bank (PNC) does the same thing where if my account goes below a certain amount, they charge a fee for it. They also instantly charge you if you go negative, which feels stupid to me to give no grace period for it.
However, it does appear the fee they charge is a lot less than your bank, with the maximum looking to be $25 but you do have to maintain a minimum of $300 which is higher than your bank. There are some more finer details about how it all works which are probably just best explained by them, and this page seems to have everything about it: https://www.pnc.com/en/personal-banking/...t-all.html

Edit: Just realized you said if you go below $100 you get a fee, not that you pay a fee of $100. Unless the fee is a lot higher than what PNC does (or PNC just doesn't instantly penalize you) then going for them with their minimum of $300 is probably a really bad idea.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah I get penalized monthly at Citi Bank for not having a bill to pay through them. They have three fucking quantifiers for their shit: 1) Don't go under the threshold 2) Have a direct deposit incoming monthly and 3) Have a bill paid directly from the account. It's $12 a month so I just eat it, it's my personal account so I'm less inclined to give a fuck but still, that is annoying as shit.

[Moonface]

@ShiraNoMai: I was going to question if it has to be a bill specifically or if it can just be any purchase but given that a purchase would use a card and not take directly from the bank account itself I'm guessing you have to have an actual bill attached to the account? That's so stupid when anyone who is living with their parents or just doesn't pay the bills directly with their own account would have to pay that charge just to have an account with that bank.


So my dad just messaged me with this and I've been sitting here just dumbfounded by it for the last ten minutes:

I asked what they cleaned themselves with and apparently they were carrying a pack of toilet rolls and just cracked them open to use.

[Mr EliteL]

I only just entered this topic today and that happened?! Ah, Friday...wait dang I missed that (good) it must've happened after I finished at 1PM that day. Then I heard nothing of it yesterday nor today when I was in, what the heck? Still, WHAT THE HECK?!! He really needed to go I guess and well, the bogs are literally the other side of the store from the frozen aisle. But wow, just...wow.

Also big F to bills, banks and money in general.

[Nebulous]

I reached 100 posts!

[Mr EliteL]

Congrats on the milestone, Nebulous. How have you been?

I had a kind of gruelling shift yesterday on my own yesterday, but luckily it was only for 6 hours and got through it fine and now I have three days to relax until Thursday, Friday and Saturday, off Sunday I hope, in Monday, off two more days, in Thursday then a full week off to enjoy Tekken 8. Yay I guess. Let's hope I didn't jinx it and I have to be in one of the days I'm off or something.

[Moonface]

I only just entered this topic today and that happened?! Ah, Friday...wait dang I missed that (good) it must've happened after I finished at 1PM that day. Then I heard nothing of it yesterday nor today when I was in, what the heck? Still, WHAT THE HECK?!! He really needed to go I guess and well, the bogs are literally the other side of the store from the frozen aisle. But wow, just...wow.

I highly doubt the guy was just taken short and chose to just do that because they wouldn't reach the toilet. If that was the case they would have surely done it in the aisle where they got the toilet paper or at least tried making their way towards the toilets rather than away from them.


So screw Google with their constant need to try and take down ad blockers. YouTube is practically unusable currently because if you try to play a video, regardless of whether it's on YouTube or an embed off-site, your CPU usage will go through the roof if an ad blocker is detected to the point your PC performance tanks until you close the tab. I wish they could just get through their heads that the current ad system is garbage and needs to be way less intrusive.

[ShiraNoMai]

It's so awful. I'm literally trying to use YouTube for work and cannot because it lags everything to a halt. I also think websites like Shutterstock are also employing some kind of shit with that as well because I notice that tab in Chrome also eats up a metric ton of browser RAM.

Also that dude was very clearly on drugs, there's just no other explanation for it. That or he had a real problem with the store as a whole and used this as a way to make a point.

[Frank]

I pay for YouTube Premium and experienced the same issues. I just made sure to white-list YouTube to fix my abnormal CPU usage.

Obviously, if you don't have Premium the ads will be an issue.