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

In reply to turboswede:

It is their fault when their sites don't operate on the only browser that we are supposed to have. If the rest of us have to suffer, so can they.

I'm not a fan of internal sites that force us to use unapproved software. Especially from software people.

If they think they are "fixing" the situation by migrating from the official browser to a better alternate so that more people complain- that doesn't help. We've had this situation for years, people have been complaining for years, and all that does is make our lives more of a PITA.

daeman wrote: I'm an shiny happy person! Went to my usual service station on my way home from work to fill up. I pull up at the only bowser open that's on the right side of my car and notic a young lady parked in the no parking zone directly in front of said bowser. The no parking zone is there as even without a car there it can be a bit of a hard swing to get past the pumps without mounting the footpath in front of the store. I see the lady parked beside me struggle to get past, and another person from the next pump over have the same problem. As I finish filling up I notice she's still parked there. As I walk past on my way in to pay, I shake my head and tell her she's parked in a no parking zone.... Nothing. I go in and pay, and surprise surprise when I come out, she's still there, playing with her phone. Can you please move? I ask her politely, and point out that she's in a no parking zone and it makes it hard for people to get out once they're done filling. "I'm just waiting for someone is" her response. I smile, "sure, I understand", but your still parked in a no parking zone and your making it really hard for other people to get out. But I'm waiting for someone she replied quite snarkily. That's fine, perhaps you could wait for them in one of the many empty parking spaces so your not inconveniencing everyone else? berkeley you, you're such a berkeleying shiny happy person, I don't have to move.. Whatever, your so rude I say as I turn and walk off, her ranting and cursing in the background. I ended up having to take a couple of bites at getting out of the pump, the temptation to floor it and side swipe her car was immense, but that would have actually made me and shiny happy person so I refrained All I can say is I hope karma catches up with the charmer, cause she'll deserve everything she gets.

If you had the time you should have blocked her in and used the same excuse she did. But... you are waiting for the police ticket agency to arrive.

rcutclif wrote:

StainlessWings wrote: EDIT: *snerk* I should buy this (assuming I could get it cheap enough- http://dayton.craigslist.org/cto/5133714877.html), paint it white, and deck it out like Ecto 1. SWMBO would probably kill me though, given she hates wagons.

That is truly awesome. I didn't even know they made corvair wagons. I'd rock it.

They made a dizzying variety of Corvairs: coupes, sedans, convertibles, wagons, trucks (these are particularly cool) and even vans. I most want a late-model convertible, but the wagons are quite cool too. Unfortunately SWMBO has a unreasonable distain for anything wagon-ish (or mini-van-ish) so unless I'm picking it up to flip or race buying one isn't very practical since she's stated under no circumstances will she be seen in one.

I made a E36 M3ty dinner

fritzsch wrote: I made a E36 M3ty dinner

Yeah, I kind of berked up the steak I cooked for our dinner yesterday (after we had a bitch of a time even FINDING a decent one at the store)... which unfortunately added to the pile of things weighing on SWMBO at the moment. I hate that there are things that it's simply impossible for me to fix or even do much of anything to help with besides providing a shoulder to cry on and holding her close.

My RX7 keys are attached to my 626 turbo keys, and they are lost. Haven't been able to find them for a week, and I am afraid that both cars are too old for the dealership to be able to cut keys given a VIN.

Congratulations neighborhood busybodies! Someone finally bought the old tire shop that you all hate and wants to fix it up! The building is pretty much only good at being a tire store and is an eye sore due to its crazy tacked-on construction. But wait! The new owner plans to redesign the building and make it into an office building! Isn't that wonderful!

No, apparently it is not. The building owner applied to the county for (and got) a zoning variance that changed his setback from 50' to 20'. The site is ancient and the newer construction nearby has a 20' setback. Nope, the neighbors all had meetings and filed petitions to "defer" any development until they can nitpick the owner's plan to death.

Guess what! The owner is fed up with your crap and will now resume renting the building to the tire business of the month. Good job making sure that the land will continue to be an eyesore and will negatively impact your precious property values.

This will also have an impact on the vacant lot next door (the one with a partially demolished foundation on it, so lovely). The building owner had considered buying that property to develop into a restaurant. NOPE! The current owner of the empty lot paid WAAY too much for it and is holding out til he can recoup his money (which is never). And so it will sit forever as well.

Streetwiseguy wrote: Still available from Miller...

^ This is the one I bought, for similar reasons as Jumper K. Balls, but I was very tempted by the Vintage Roadster hood though. I figured I'd just scratch it up, and plain black was ~$20 cheaper.

Even thought I didn't want any graphics on my hood, I still wound up putting a sticker on it.

fasted58 wrote: My new friend Marla wanted to feed me french fries at lunch at the crowded Wendy's yesterday. She's feisty like that. berkeleying gawkers, ain't y'all never seen salt w/ pepper before. Get the berkeley over it.

I went to school with a Marla. I hope this isn't the same one.

StainlessWings wrote:

fritzsch wrote: I made a E36 M3ty dinner

Yeah, I kind of berked up the steak I cooked for our dinner yesterday (after we had a bitch of a time even FINDING a decent one at the store)... which unfortunately added to the pile of things weighing on SWMBO at the moment. I hate that there are things that it's simply impossible for me to fix or even do much of anything to help with besides providing a shoulder to cry on and holding her close.

I don't know what method you use for cooking steak … (if you do it on a grill, please ignore this info)

cast iron frying pan, stove element on high for at least 5 min.

oven pre-heated to 500°f

prep the steak … (all I do is oil, salt and pepper)

when everything is up to temp, place the steak in the dry frying pan, 30 sec each side, then into the oven for 2min each side …. depending on the thickness add or subtract time (in the oven) for the degree of doneness you want …

a bit longer on the stove top each side for more crust …

like I said, if using a grill ignore the above

wbjones wrote: I don't know what method you use for cooking steak … (if you do it on a grill, please ignore this info) cast iron frying pan, stove element on high for at least 5 min. oven pre-heated to 500°f prep the steak … (all I do is oil, salt and pepper) when everything is up to temp, place the steak in the dry frying pan, 30 sec each side, then into the oven for 2min each side …. depending on the thickness add or subtract time (in the oven) for the degree of doneness you want … a bit longer on the stove top each side for more crust … like I said, if using a grill ignore the above

I use a grill.

Turn on the grill (usually both sides since we tend to grill some form of vegetable at the same time) on high and let it heat up.

Brush steak lightly with olive oil and season- ideally let it sit out at room temp for a little while.

Leaving the grill on high, toss on the steak to sear it, flipping about a minute or so on each side before dropping the heat down to med-high.

(here's where I screwed up last night...)

For our traditional steak, after flipping it the final time, smear basil paste on the top and cover with grated parmesan/romano cheese mix and let melt over the steak as it cooks. Last night I was worrying about other things (the steak we had gotten was about half the thickness of what we usually have so I was paranoid about overcooking it...) and forgot this step.

Grill until the steak is about 145F, remove and enjoy.

I realized my mistake shortly after getting back into the house with the steak and quickly put the basil & cheese on it and dropped it back on the grill to try and melt the cheese, but it just didn't turn out nearly as good as usual.

We tend to grill about 10 months out of the year, as long as the temps aren't down in the low-20's or below since the grill just doesn't get as hot and cook as well.

Picked the boy up from his "summer camp" for the first time today. Walked in, the nice young lady asked whom I was picking up, I said my sons name. She called for him on the radio and he appeared. And we just walked out. No one once asked me who I was. Or, asked for ID or verified I was on the approved pick up list.

I explained to my wife what happened. The woman who absolutely will not let a seven year old play alone in our six foot tall privacy fenced backyard without an adult with him. The woman who will not let him ride his bike to the community park that is literally less than a block away.

Her response? "Oh, well he only has a week left anyway before school starts"

so I pinched a nerve in my good shoulder last week. Felt pain in the left arm when moved in certain ways.. but that is gone now. My thumb, pointer, and middle finger were numb for three days, then they started to come back.. still missing the tip of the pointer and it is really starting to annoy me

Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote: Picked the boy up from his "summer camp" for the first time today. Walked in, the nice young lady asked whom I was picking up, I said my sons name. She called for him on the radio and he appeared. And we just walked out. No one once asked me who I was. Or, asked for ID or verified I was on the approved pick up list. I explained to my wife what happened. The woman who absolutely will not let a seven year old play alone in our six foot tall privacy fenced backyard without an adult with him. The woman who will not let him ride his bike to the community park that is literally less than a block away. Her response? "Oh, well he only has a week left anyway before school starts"

Weird. I've done my time working for summer camps and at all of them it was always standard procedure to check ID and then check that against a list of who was approved to pick up the kid.

How do kids make it through the last week before they go off to college without their parents killing them?!?!?!?!

Rant: At my new job we are using the new version of a web service for lesson planning/gradebook/attendance/etc. Seems like it should work well except it won't work right with Firefox and the version of Safari that I have. Apparently my trusty macbook is (just barely) too old to run the updated operating system necessary to get the updated Safari web browser.

So basically I have to buy a new laptop with $$ that I don't have so I can put my lesson plans on the internet.

I like my old laptop. It runs well, plays my music, the battery isn't terrible and it has cool SCCA and Pelican Parts stickers on it. I don't want a new one.

Hemorrhoids suck.

Having a piece of your injection needle break off in your quad sucks.

Have to shave my head as well so them can remove a mole on my head next week.

I would really like to sleep as well, been in and out of the office for something like 32 days so far.

How bad could it be to move to costa rica and just drink myself to death at 50 over the next 16 years?

12 hours in an office where one of my subordinates plays bro-county nonstop

MAKE IT STOP, PLEASE FSM, MAKE IT STOP

Bro-country lyric generator

BlueInGreen44 wrote:

Nick (Not-Stig) Comstock wrote: Picked the boy up from his "summer camp" for the first time today. Walked in, the nice young lady asked whom I was picking up, I said my sons name. She called for him on the radio and he appeared. And we just walked out. No one once asked me who I was. Or, asked for ID or verified I was on the approved pick up list. I explained to my wife what happened. The woman who absolutely will not let a seven year old play alone in our six foot tall privacy fenced backyard without an adult with him. The woman who will not let him ride his bike to the community park that is literally less than a block away. Her response? "Oh, well he only has a week left anyway before school starts"

Weird. I've done my time working for summer camps and at all of them it was always standard procedure to check ID and then check that against a list of who was approved to pick up the kid.

There was a conversation about it this morning. There were some excuses and the director explained that a couple of key people had off this week and they had to bring some fill in people in. The wife reported they asked for her ID this evening even though they all know her.

Hassle of out of town PPIs and fear of thousands of dollars of preventative maintenance AFTER spending four times my current high score have me more apprehensive than excited about buying a 'real' car.
berkeley.

I've been working in an internship type engineering role for a great tire company this summer (2nd semester I've worked here) and it comes to an end this week. Right in the middle of a few projects that I'm having a tough time dropping. Have to move back to school Friday afternoon so I can participate in rush all weekend and start classes again on Monday. I also bought way too much crap for my truck while I was here A's moving it back might take 2 trips. 3 hours each way if no traffic. Berkeley. Everything always has to happen at once. Out of the frying pan and into the fire it feels like.

stanger_missle wrote: 12 hours in an office where one of my subordinates plays bro-county nonstop MAKE IT STOP, PLEASE FSM, MAKE IT STOP

Wow, man, I feel your pain on that one. Seriously. Luckily I am, more or less by default, in charge of music for our office. Today it's a big block of Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age. Yesterday it was a trip through the classics - Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, some Rachmaninoff symphonies, Grieg's Peer Gynt, Ravel's Bolero, Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition and Night On Bald Mountain, winding up with Dvořák's symphony From The New World.

When I play country music, I play REAL country - Merle Haggard, Hank Sr., Bill Monroe, Lefty Frizell, George and Tammy, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Pride, Buck Owens and Roy Clark, Jerry Reed. Maybe some Lucinda Williams, Wayne Hancock, Junior Brown, or Jimmie Dale Gilmore to keep it more current.

I've never been unhappy that none of the offices I've worked in have allowed people to play music beyond with headphones on.

Suppose I should rant about something... Garfiend hates Mondays- I hate Thursdays. I have meetings from 9-9:30 and 10-10:30, both of which have a bad habit (especially the first one) of running long, meaning I'm usually stuck in meetings for the first 2 hours of the day. Given I make and eat my breakfast here at work, that means unless I get here about half an hour or more earlier than usual (typically get in about quarter of 9) I'm not getting any breakfast- or often even tea- until after 11.

After staying up late to try and watch the Persieds with SWMBO last night, I overslept and didn't get in until just before the first meeting- which meant that not only did I not get caffeine or breakfast before the meeting, I also didn't have time to change out of my biking clothes until the short break between the two meetings.

Also discovered yesterday that the cancer in the floor of the El Camino extends beyond what the new panels that came with the car will cover- so I'm going to have to find a better-condition G-body in a nearby junkyard and cut out some sections to weld in to fix it.

Its a gbody. Beat the patches out of flat stock to general shape and weld in. Carpet will hide the sins.