Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

One of my cousins has had some massive health issues over the last few years (heart issues- he would be waiting for a transplant but they won't put him on the list until other issues are resolved since they worry he wouldn't survive the surgery). I just found out from my parents who are in town for the weekend that he was let go from his job (he was a HS theater teacher, and his health issues have meant he just couldn't do the job) at the end of the school year- and that like a day later his wife told him she wanted a divorce and that he could have custody of their 3 kids (2 teenaged girls- who apparently overheard all this- and a pre-teen son) because she didn't want to have to deal with them.

I've never liked his wife- from the first time I met her I've said she's a self-centered bitch who only cares about herself- but it had seemed like through my cousin's health issues she had finally been behaving closer to a decent human being. Looks like that was completely not the case. I can only hope that the stress from all of this doesn't end up killing my cousin... he's an infinitely better human being than his wife could ever be. If there were any justice in this world, she'd have a massive stroke and be a compatible organ donor for my cousin. 

No other way to say it other than that sucks.  If he hasn't found a family law attorney, he really needs one.  Spousal support and child support should be first on the list.

So my buddy helped me swap out the front hubs on my XR4Ti in prep for a track day this coming weekend. When trying to get into the car while against the garage wall, he kicked in the speaker grille.

Sigh, I'll add it to the to do list for this winter.

I really wish my wife would stop buying this garbage furniture.

In reply to wae :

Let me guess: white painted, barn house, distressed, cottage, crap paper mache, sawdust ...

LOL 

In reply to tester (Forum Supporter) :

In this case it was a flat-pack bookcase that she got from an auction site that deals in Amazon returns.  While this one was at least actual wood, it had already been assembled once before.  Missing hardware and all the screw holes were wallowed out.  It seems like I went through half a box of toothpicks.

I'm making this rant on behalf of all the truck pullers that worked at Fayette County Fair this year. 

$8 payout for a class winning truck pull. 8 freaking dollars. It cost 6 times more than that just to enter the truck in the event, before all the other associated costs. Not even a trophy, just a "checks in the mail" followed by an $8 check a week later. No E36 M3, they had to mail it, because someone would have gotten hurt otherwise. 

And now next year when nobody shows up, the fair is going to be all surprised Pikachu face, and find a way to blame the pullers. 

wae said:

In reply to tester (Forum Supporter) :

In this case it was a flat-pack bookcase that she got from an auction site that deals in Amazon returns.  While this one was at least actual wood, it had already been assembled once before.  Missing hardware and all the screw holes were wallowed out.  It seems like I went through half a box of toothpicks.

I learned pretty quick that if I was gonna buy furniture from there my max bid was a dollar or two with the expectation that it would end up in the trash. I've got lucky a few times but I don't expect it to be good.

Scott_H said:

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

One of my cousins has had some massive health issues over the last few years (heart issues- he would be waiting for a transplant but they won't put him on the list until other issues are resolved since they worry he wouldn't survive the surgery). I just found out from my parents who are in town for the weekend that he was let go from his job (he was a HS theater teacher, and his health issues have meant he just couldn't do the job) at the end of the school year- and that like a day later his wife told him she wanted a divorce and that he could have custody of their 3 kids (2 teenaged girls- who apparently overheard all this- and a pre-teen son) because she didn't want to have to deal with them.

I've never liked his wife- from the first time I met her I've said she's a self-centered bitch who only cares about herself- but it had seemed like through my cousin's health issues she had finally been behaving closer to a decent human being. Looks like that was completely not the case. I can only hope that the stress from all of this doesn't end up killing my cousin... he's an infinitely better human being than his wife could ever be. If there were any justice in this world, she'd have a massive stroke and be a compatible organ donor for my cousin. 

No other way to say it other than that sucks.  If he hasn't found a family law attorney, he really needs one.  Spousal support and child support should be first on the list.

Unfortunately I doubt he's even considered that as apparently he's putting all of his energy into trying to get her to change her mind and stay. He's always been head over heels for her and overlooked so much horrible behavior from her. I would have hoped that her saying she didn't want anything to do with their kids would have finally gotten through to him, but apparently not. I'm guessing that he thinks if he doesn't make it that the kids would be best off with their mother, but it seems likely they'd be far better off with her not around at all and their grandparents and extended family (my other 2 cousins and their parents live within like 15 minutes of them, and there's a strong chance that my cousin will end up moving back in with his parents- who have a massive house that can easily house them all- if he can't find a new job soon). Hell- my wife and I adore their kids, and if it really came down to it could take them in ourselves (not a likely scenario though as we live 10 hours away from where they currently live and don't particularly want to move to where they are).

My hope is that he'll stop fighting the losing battle of keeping her around and happy and starts focusing on his kids and his health- I think not worrying about keeping her happy alone will go a long ways toward improving his health- and gets better enough to get on the transplant list, gets a transplant, and lives a long, happy life.

EvanB said:

wae said:

In reply to tester (Forum Supporter) :

In this case it was a flat-pack bookcase that she got from an auction site that deals in Amazon returns.  While this one was at least actual wood, it had already been assembled once before.  Missing hardware and all the screw holes were wallowed out.  It seems like I went through half a box of toothpicks.

I learned pretty quick that if I was gonna buy furniture from there my max bid was a dollar or two with the expectation that it would end up in the trash. I've got lucky a few times but I don't expect it to be good.

My general rule when it comes to those places in general is to not pay more than half what the item originally cost after accounting for the (usually considerable) "buyer's fee" they tack on (with a few exceptions for things that are more unique and useful- which for me usually translates to 'LEGO'). 

Ashyukun (Robert) said:

EvanB said:

wae said:

In reply to tester (Forum Supporter) :

In this case it was a flat-pack bookcase that she got from an auction site that deals in Amazon returns.  While this one was at least actual wood, it had already been assembled once before.  Missing hardware and all the screw holes were wallowed out.  It seems like I went through half a box of toothpicks.

I learned pretty quick that if I was gonna buy furniture from there my max bid was a dollar or two with the expectation that it would end up in the trash. I've got lucky a few times but I don't expect it to be good.

My general rule when it comes to those places in general is to not pay more than half what the item originally cost after accounting for the (usually considerable) "buyer's fee" they tack on (with a few exceptions for things that are more unique and useful- which for me usually translates to 'LEGO'). 

My general rule is that if it's in "appears new" status, I'll take a flyer on it since you can open it up before you leave the site, test it out/inspect it, and if it isn't actually in "new" status, you can decline to take it and they'll refund you.  Anything else, though, it's got to be damned near free.  I think one time my wife bid on a thing that was in whatever their open box status is and when she opened it up at home, instead of the thing, there was a well-used, old, dirty shovel.  I can't recall what she thought she was bidding on, but it was definitely not a shovel.  Upside, we got a halfway decent used shovel for, like, $1.37.

Dear architectural firms,

Stop putting 8' tall all glass doors in high-traffic areas. 

While they work perfectly in a law office or other small office setting, they do not work perfectly at the main entrance to an office building. 

If you put them in a hospital, I'll go ahead and call you an idiot. They don't even work well in a doctors office. 

The panels are close to 200 pounds. Then you hang it on CRL's cheapest pivot and closer set and wonder why they only last a year or two. Oh never mind, you don't wonder because you are gone by the time the owner realizes what E36 M3 he has bought. 

Stop it!

As an add, automating one of those all-glass doors is almost impossible. I can't mount a push or pull arm to glass without some Neanderthal shattering the door when he slams it open. 

To anyone preparing to build a building. Don't let them do it. There are nice doors available that aren't complete maintenance nightmares. Either spend the big money to put those in or stick with the inexpensive doors that may not be as pretty but will work for decades. 

Edit: I don't know which one of you decided putting these in the front of a Target was a good idea but you should be flogged. This is the definition of a maintenance nightmare. 

In reply to wae and Ash and Evan :

What site are you talking about?!

Hmm this racing class has been seeing decreasing participation over the last decade, what should we change to solve this?

 The Facebook group: nothing! I've been racing this class for 40 years and if you make me spend 1 penny on safety or performance upgrades I'm gonna throw my toys and leave.

In reply to dculberson :

The one here in town is bidfta.com.  I don't know if they're just a local outfit, regional, or national.  But be warned that it's a tough drug.

Project manager sends me a teams message asking about the status of the part of the project that I'm in charge of.  I give him a detailed explanation of what has been completed, what challenges have cropped up, what is being doing to resolve those challenges, the anticipated timeline for that resolution, and a summary of which of the next steps in the project can be completed and which will need to wait based on the issue that we've run into.  It was a couple paragraphs that were, in my rather unhumble (yet accurate) opinion, quite well-written and easy to understand.

His response:  Could you put that in an email and send it to me so I can send that update out?

Like... you can't just copy and paste yourself?  The berkeley is wrong with you, jackass?

There is so many cheap chineseum items on Amazon, I don't know how to find decent ones that I can trust. This is okay for a lot of things, but not for everything.

I want a decent fingertip blood O2 sensor*. I bought a cheap one, and it varies too much in its readings to provide useful data. There has to be a middle ground between $250 medical grade and $10 cheapo. Can I please get a decent one for like $30-$50?

...

*I strongly suspect that my recent health issues are related to blood O2 levels. That exerting myself uses up my blood O2 levels and they drop suddenly from 98%+ to <95%. But I want to gather good data to take to the doctor.

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

While their delivery times can't match Amazon, I picked one up from Monoprice, as their inventory seems to at least be somewhat curated.  Haven't used it enough to give it a thumbs up or thumbs down though.

I hate to be the miserable old guy at work that says I told you so but damn they make it hard sometimes. Mega corp has flipped management at a site I have been involved in for almost 15 years. Actually this is the 4th leadership team since 2018. They don't want to hear what I (or anyone that isn't in the new regime) has to say. 3 times in the last week things I have directly proposed and been rejected has been regurgitated by new management as their idea. Nice job new team, in most cases the wording wasn't even changed. In one case we have wasted months that will be key to making the company successful on deliveries. The same people that told me the ideas sucked and we shouldn't do it will be breaking their arms to pat themselves on the back while beating on me to get the project done faster as it is critical to success. 

Somehow it is surprising that a new team of management, regardless of how good they are, may not see all the pitfalls of a manufacturing process that takes ~12 months in their first 6 months on the job. 

In reply to Karacticus :

Thanks for the heads up. I might still order from Amazon for the faster shipping, but the one they offer is the same design as one I was eyeing but not quite sure about. (It has a clearly different design from the glut on offer.)

dculberson said:

In reply to wae and Ash and Evan :

What site are you talking about?!

Yep, bidfta is the one. There are two warehouses within a couple miles of my house so it is convenient. 

I've slowed down a lot but have had a couple good wins. $50 for a "appears new" off road bumper for a XJ Cherokee, turned out to be brand new but for a new Tacoma. Sold on FB for $400 after a couple hours. Recently won a handrail for my deck for $3-4, turned out to be a pack of 4 coated stainless rectangle tubes used for deck railing that retail for around $180, used one for the hand rail and have 3 left to figure out something for. Stuff like that makes up for the misses. 

In reply to dculberson :

hibid.com is the umbrella site that the ones I usually look over are under. There's I believe a <yourstatehere>.hibid.com for all of the states (know there's ones for KY and MO at least) to get closer to where you are, and then you can search for ones within a radius of your zip code. I'd not seen bidtfa before- it doesn't look like they have any (at least currently) here in Lexington though.

I've gotten a lot of random stuff- some very useful things for The Dancer's non-profit, some cheap real & knock-off LEGO, some car parts (I got a complete, un-opened loaded replacement shock/strut/springs for one of our friends' SUVs a ways back), our 200W solar panel, a bunch of 3d printer filament, and other random things. It's rare that I'll go on the site looking for something specific and find it, but I'll usually browse through the listings for upcoming auctions and find lots of interesting things and put them on a watch list to see how they go when they get closer to the auction closing. 

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

There is so many cheap chineseum items on Amazon, I don't know how to find decent ones that I can trust. This is okay for a lot of things, but not for everything.

I want a decent fingertip blood O2 sensor*. I bought a cheap one, and it varies too much in its readings to provide useful data. There has to be a middle ground between $250 medical grade and $10 cheapo. Can I please get a decent one for like $30-$50?

...

*I strongly suspect that my recent health issues are related to blood O2 levels. That exerting myself uses up my blood O2 levels and they drop suddenly from 98%+ to <95%. But I want to gather good data to take to the doctor.

I have this one. It's a ring that is wearable and tracks blood ox for 12-16 hours and will chart it to take to a Dr. 

Mine fluctuates all over the place at night. I've seen it as low as 80 in my hands which is why I wake up with numb fingers. 

O2Ring Oxygen Monitor

Beer Baron 🍺 said:

There has to be a middle ground between $250 medical grade and $10 cheapo.

This is my complaint about so so many consumer products.

Here are some $100 ikea/target/garbage shelves.  Oh, you want some that wont fall apart the first time you fart near them?  Here's a less functional design for $1400.

 

NY Nick said:

I hate to be the miserable old guy at work that says I told you so but damn they make it hard sometimes. Mega corp has flipped management at a site I have been involved in for almost 15 years. Actually this is the 4th leadership team since 2018. They don't want to hear what I (or anyone that isn't in the new regime) has to say. 3 times in the last week things I have directly proposed and been rejected has been regurgitated by new management as their idea. Nice job new team, in most cases the wording wasn't even changed. In one case we have wasted months that will be key to making the company successful on deliveries. The same people that told me the ideas sucked and we shouldn't do it will be breaking their arms to pat themselves on the back while beating on me to get the project done faster as it is critical to success. 

Somehow it is surprising that a new team of management, regardless of how good they are, may not see all the pitfalls of a manufacturing process that takes ~12 months in their first 6 months on the job. 

FYI there is an entire subreddit for venting about your corporate overlord :)

In reply to Beer Baron 🍺 :

Stay off of Amazon. Especially for health related items. You dont want knock-off cheap bullE36 M3 and your health in the same sentence.  I avoid that site like its Chernobyl.