What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[samsonlonghair]

:evil: A few nights ago some asshole slashed my bike tire! It was between 10pm and 6am.

There was one time I went to leave for work and noticed I had a flat. So I pulled back in my driveway to plug it real fast, and then I noticed... IT WASN'T MY TIRE! Some dirt bag got a flat and thought it would be funny to swap their tire out with one of mine. It happened in the middle of the night. I was a little upset on the basis of feeling violated and "in front of my own house!" and all that jazz, but I was more pissed about the tire they traded to me. I had 4 matching tires, and they were relatively new. They gave me a different brand, but it was also clearly at the point of needing to be replaced.

So after that incident I bought myself a set of wheel locks. Now how's this for irony? My car was burgled and among the things that were stolen was the key for the wheel lock! A group of low life H-head teenagers burgled something like 50 to 60 cars in my neighborhood over the course of 2 or 3 nights. My car was one of the ones they hit. I had a small zip lock bag in the center console that had a cell phone charger and the wheel lock inside of it. I put the wheel lock there because I figured it would be easy to locate it if I ever needed to change a tire in a pinch. I suppose they were grabbing anything remotely electronic-ish, so in their haste they grabbed my charger which unfortunately included the wheel lock key. They also grabbed my CD deck face plate, which I use to detach but put in the glove box. My reasoning was if anyone looked into my car they would see that they faceplate was removed and maybe not break into it in the first place. The kicker though is that they stole a faceplace to a deck, a cell phone charger, and a wheel lock key. All stuff that is completely useless and and without value to them. So they didn't even steel anything that would net them some cash, but massively inconvenienced me.

I was pissed about the faceplate because that deck was a high school graduation gift to me from my parents. Luckily I was able to get a replacement off eBay. Of course, the first one I bought was damaged in shipping because the seller didn't pack it well enough (just to add to my frustration) but the second one I bought arrived in good condition. The wheel locks were a huge pain in the ass to get off, trust me on that.

The ironic part being that I put wheel locks on because someone stole a wheel off my car, but then someone stole my fucking wheel lock key! After that I had Viper alarm installed.

That stinks, man!

Next thing: somebody is going to steal the electronic key fob you need to disable your car alarm.

[Ziggy]

Ha, that would suck! I would just give up at that point.

I once went with a friend in his car to a house party. He got pushed into the pool with his close on, and that wrecked his alarm keypad. Luckily he had a spare at home.

I have a spare at home as well, but I think about it sometimes if I park next to a sewer grate. Like, what if I drop my keys down there? I'd have to have someone bring my spare set, but I live kind of far from work.

Funny enough, I once saw someone drop their keys into a sewer grate in a parking lot before. It was back when I use to work at the supermarket. There were a couple of young adults that just got out of the car and were walking up to the store. One threw the keys to the other, but he missed catching it and they went straight into the sewer! The look on their faces was priceless. And to make it worse, it was the main center sewer that all the other grates fed in to. Just this enormous dry well, must have been at least 25 feet down. Maybe more? I don't know, it's hard to tell. But my co-workers and I actually helped them get the keys back. We tried fishing a garden hose with a hook taped on the end, but that wasn't working. So we got a spool of string and lowered it with a magnet tied on the end. That actually worked like a charm.

Thinking of that... I keep a spool or string in my trunk. I should keep a magnet as well!

[REPO Man]

Things have been slowing down at both my jobs and this week (and next week) I'm only working 26 hours at Food Lion (three 4-hour shifts and two 7-hour shifts) and four days at Duck Donuts. Last week I was working 35 hours at Food Lion down from 40. And when I asked one of the managers about it, I was told it was because we made $47,000 less (iirc) than we did the previous week. And meanwhile I bet the corporate jackasses made the same amount of money without change.

Meanwhile I've only received three of my refunds (federal from 2018 and one of the previous years and one of my two state returns). Between my drop in income and how long it's taking I'm just hoping I can get the money in time. Worst case scenario I just go up with two months' rent instead of three, seeing as all the places I've looked at only ask for two anyway. That'd drop my budget down to $2300, which is much more manageable.

My sink is still leaking. I figured out how to get my faucet to stop dripping, but only because I just go under the sink and shut off the hot tap, which also saves electricity. But whenever I run the water to wash my dishes it floods underneath the sink.

My brother stayed here last week and when I headed off to Duck Donuts I asked him to lock the door behind me, literally the only thing I ask him to do when he's crashing on my couch. And what happens? He apparently went back to sleep WITH THE DOOR UNLOCKED!! My uncle's fiancee stopped by to drop off some laundry and she said the door was unlocked and my brother didn't even recognize her. So when I tell him about this he basically acts like no one's gonna steal my stuff. Basically saying stuff like "oh, people are more likely to steal from a rental cottage" or "oh, no one even knows this is a house" (it was originally a shed that the landlord converted into an apartment) or "oh, you're too far out of the way for people to come over and steal your stuff during the day". Basically if it's an excuse to NOT lock the door he gave it. And I'm sorry but that's just fucked up! When someone lets you crash at your place and gives you only one rule that doesn't violate your personal rights, you FOLLOW THAT RULE!!! I don't ask for money or that he do chores or anything like that. But it's just a complete sign of disrespect, especially coming from someone who doesn't have their own place right now and literally depends of everyone else. But then again, being disrespected by my own family seems to be a recurring theme.

Installed a CFW onto my Vita and got an SD2VITA card. Still adjusting to it, especially since my current CFW resets after I reboot or shut down my device and I have to reactivate it just to use my card, which has a 128GB microSD card (a MAJOR upgrade to my 16GB Memory Card).

[MrPopo]

And meanwhile I bet the corporate jackasses made the same amount of money without change.

I would expect all the salaried employees to make the same amount regardless of how you do on a month to month basis. So all the accountants, HR people, logistics provisioners, marketing people, business analytics, etc. Oh, and the actual people at the C-level as well.

[Jagosaurus]

Been MIA for a few weeks. Checking in here to let everyone know all is good

Made Me Smile:
Started my new role at a different IT integration firm in June so been buried, but in a good way. It was a proactive move on my part and an upstream shift career-wise. Without getting too into the weeds, I'm actually honing in on what was half my role at the previous IT firm I was with. I'm also learning a lot of new (to me) solutions I've historically gone up against. Been interesting to swap sides there. In addition to all the life changes that come along with a job shift, I'm studying for 3 IT certifications. 1 of which is a 14 month program. Been strapped with little free time between all of that and family time. Wanted to drop in to say hello and let everyone know all is well. I'll start coming back by as things level off.

Hope all is well my RB brethren.

[marurun]

That's great news. Glad your upward job move is working out.

[Jagosaurus]

That's great news. Glad your upward job move is working out.

Appreciate that.

Hoping to have 1 of the certs wrapped up over the next week. That'll be a nice box checked. Not high level by any means in my world, but gets me up to speed on an area/solution stack new to me. If I'm learning the curriculum, might as well sit for the exam & get the offical resume credit.

As I mentioned, 1 of these is a 14 month program. This is through my new job & Cisco. Looking forward to completing. It's a newer offering & apparently I'll 1 of the first 30 people in the US to compete this program.

The other (3rd cert) is self-paced, free time learning on my own accord.

All that said, I just brought in my 1st new client to this firm within my new role. It was a fairly transferable role from my previous company, but we're all excited I got rolling so quick.

Hope to see you all more soon.

[PartridgeSenpai]

I finished FF3 this morning! An end to my Final Fantasy marathon (as I now have fun out of ones I can play on the consoles I own )

I got so caught up in trying to finish FF3 this morning I totally forgot about Pierrot's stream and missed the end of After Armageddon. Was really kicking myself for that all day after I saw the stream announcement email in my inbox like 6 hours after it'd been sent XP

[pierrot]

Aw, it's cool Partridge. You were playing a game I potentially would have been more interested in, too. Also, I'm not quite finished with it. I've got the final bosses left, and a bunch of grinding before that. I am hoping to have it done tonight, though. It's cool, but I've kind of had enough.

[samsonlonghair]

Been MIA for a few weeks. Checking in here to let everyone know all is good

Made Me Smile:
Started my new role at a different IT integration firm in June so been buried, but in a good way. It was a proactive move on my part and an upstream shift career-wise. Without getting too into the weeds, I'm actually honing in on what was half my role at the previous IT firm I was with. I'm also learning a lot of new (to me) solutions I've historically gone up against. Been interesting to swap sides there. In addition to all the life changes that come along with a job shift, I'm studying for 3 IT certifications. 1 of which is a 14 month program. Been strapped with little free time between all of that and family time. Wanted to drop in to say hello and let everyone know all is well. I'll start coming back by as things level off.

Hope all is well my RB brethren.

Congratulations, Jag! Keep on keeping on. I believe in you!