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Posted
1 hour ago, Armybrat said:

Happy pooping, amigo.

Wait...did you get an advanced preview of our Christmas card this year?  Because that's our Christmas wish for friends and family.  It's the little things that make life worth living.

Posted

IMG_1468.thumb.jpeg.8de14985870f6f89a9f82e0f52cd44e9.jpegIMG_1467.thumb.jpeg.5995a441dcf36919e98e7508cd81f312.jpeg

IMG_1469.thumb.jpeg.be08516e5b71fc118184cce5784c190a.jpeg

I would like to punch two men in the face. Although I have no proof, I’m confident both are TAMU engineers. 

First, the guy who designed the Christmas light strings in which a tiny wire is required to contact another tiny wire in an insert to complete a circuit, which is required to make all the lights on the string work. If just one of the lights on the tree gets slightly twisted, or disturbed, or looked at in a cruel manner, the circuit is interrupted and the whole string is dead, until you go light-by-light, pulling the damn things out, figuring out which filament isn’t making contact. I would like to punch that guy in the face. 

I’m no electrical engineer, but it seems to me that it would be incredibly easy to design a string of lights in which the circuit functions regardless of whether any individual light is functional, is seated correctly, or is even present in its seat  

Second, the guy who decided to use that design of light strings to tie into pre-lit artificial Christmas trees. Inevitably one or more of the strings on the tree will go bad. Then the user is required to go light-by-light on a light string that’s tightly wrapped around the branches in a completely random way. Doing so means getting one’s hands and wrists repeatedly abraded by the artificial branches and needles, and it’s almost impossible to find the offending light because the lights are all tucked in among the branches. 
 

Screw those guys. 

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Posted
1 hour ago, nnm said:

IMG_1468.thumb.jpeg.8de14985870f6f89a9f82e0f52cd44e9.jpegIMG_1467.thumb.jpeg.5995a441dcf36919e98e7508cd81f312.jpeg

IMG_1469.thumb.jpeg.be08516e5b71fc118184cce5784c190a.jpeg

I would like to punch two men in the face. Although I have no proof, I’m confident both are TAMU engineers. 

First, the guy who designed the Christmas light strings in which a tiny wire is required to contact another tiny wire in an insert to complete a circuit, which is required to make all the lights on the string work. If just one of the lights on the tree gets slightly twisted, or disturbed, or looked at in a cruel manner, the circuit is interrupted and the whole string is dead, until you go light-by-light, pulling the damn things out, figuring out which filament isn’t making contact. I would like to punch that guy in the face. 

I’m no electrical engineer, but it seems to me that it would be incredibly easy to design a string of lights in which the circuit functions regardless of whether any individual light is functional, is seated correctly, or is even present in its seat  

Second, the guy who decided to use that design of light strings to tie into pre-lit artificial Christmas trees. Inevitably one or more of the strings on the tree will go bad. Then the user is required to go light-by-light on a light string that’s tightly wrapped around the branches in a completely random way. Doing so means getting one’s hands and wrists repeatedly abraded by the artificial branches and needles, and it’s almost impossible to find the offending light because the lights are all tucked in among the branches. 
 

Screw those guys. 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/LightKeeper-Pro-Lightkeeper-Pro-1203-CD/100686478

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Posted
4 hours ago, nnm said:

IMG_1468.thumb.jpeg.8de14985870f6f89a9f82e0f52cd44e9.jpegIMG_1467.thumb.jpeg.5995a441dcf36919e98e7508cd81f312.jpeg

IMG_1469.thumb.jpeg.be08516e5b71fc118184cce5784c190a.jpeg

I would like to punch two men in the face. Although I have no proof, I’m confident both are TAMU engineers. 

First, the guy who designed the Christmas light strings in which a tiny wire is required to contact another tiny wire in an insert to complete a circuit, which is required to make all the lights on the string work. If just one of the lights on the tree gets slightly twisted, or disturbed, or looked at in a cruel manner, the circuit is interrupted and the whole string is dead, until you go light-by-light, pulling the damn things out, figuring out which filament isn’t making contact. I would like to punch that guy in the face. 

I’m no electrical engineer, but it seems to me that it would be incredibly easy to design a string of lights in which the circuit functions regardless of whether any individual light is functional, is seated correctly, or is even present in its seat  

Second, the guy who decided to use that design of light strings to tie into pre-lit artificial Christmas trees. Inevitably one or more of the strings on the tree will go bad. Then the user is required to go light-by-light on a light string that’s tightly wrapped around the branches in a completely random way. Doing so means getting one’s hands and wrists repeatedly abraded by the artificial branches and needles, and it’s almost impossible to find the offending light because the lights are all tucked in among the branches. 
 

Screw those guys. 

I just did this yesterday. Man do I feel you.

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Posted
10 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

When you’re walking barefoot in your house and your pinky toe catches a piece of furniture and you collapse and want to die. 

Slammed my finger in the truck door a week and a half ago.  Pretty sure it broke it, but not bad enough to go to the hospital.  The initial 5 minutes or so, the pain was so bad I forgot how to breathe.  I'll take stubbing the pinky toe over that any day.

Posted

G7R8L5paYAAPavH?format=jpg&name=small

This was mentioned upthread, but why the hell can't printer manufacturers develop a printer interface that is simple and bulletproof?  I recently jettisoned my HP printer because it constantly refused to communicate with the home network, despite being 3" from the router.  I did some research, and bought a Canon ImageClass laser printer because it was supposed to be the best at stability of connection with a home network.

It's not.  I recently had to spend 3 hours on the phone with Canon support to get this stupid thing to work.  I have a basic home network with a mesh router and everything connected to that. It should be simple.  It's not.

I'm not technically illiterate.  But this is a regular problem, and it absolutely drives me insane.  After that 3-hour call with Canon, and supposedly getting everything worked out, I had to reset everything again yesterday to print something for Mrs. NNM.

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Posted

I’m screaming sick of phone menus allowing commercial businesses to get by without employees. For example, my primary care physician has a very nice office, conveniently located and friendly, professional staff.  It is literally impossible for one of us to communicate with the other by any means other than in person, face to face or by phone having an audio-only conversation.  In the past year, she has scheduled no less  than three FaceTime conferences for which I expected to be on call at specific times.  So far, we have actually accomplished 90 seconds of one call, which ended abruptly and completely, without warning. None of the others worked at all. Tech is 90% bullshit 90% of the time. It makes me surly.

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Posted
On 12/1/2025 at 11:50 AM, nnm said:

IMG_1468.thumb.jpeg.8de14985870f6f89a9f82e0f52cd44e9.jpegIMG_1467.thumb.jpeg.5995a441dcf36919e98e7508cd81f312.jpeg

IMG_1469.thumb.jpeg.be08516e5b71fc118184cce5784c190a.jpeg



I’m no electrical engineer, but it seems to me that it would be incredibly easy to design a string of lights in which the circuit functions regardless of whether any individual light is functional, is seated correctly, or is even present in its seat  

 

 

 

Do you even in parallel bro?

 

How Do Holiday Lights Work? | Department of Energy

 

 

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Posted
8 hours ago, Bama Llama said:

I’m screaming sick of phone menus allowing commercial businesses to get by without employees. For example, my primary care physician has a very nice office, conveniently located and friendly, professional staff.  It is literally impossible for one of us to communicate with the other by any means other than in person, face to face or by phone having an audio-only conversation.  In the past year, she has scheduled no less  than three FaceTime conferences for which I expected to be on call at specific times.  So far, we have actually accomplished 90 seconds of one call, which ended abruptly and completely, without warning. None of the others worked at all. Tech is 90% bullshit 90% of the time. It makes me surly.

Couldn't agree more. 

I often think to myself that I was born about 20 years too late, at least insofar as my disdain and frustration towards technology. 

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Posted
18 hours ago, nnm said:

G7R8L5paYAAPavH?format=jpg&name=small

This was mentioned upthread, but why the hell can't printer manufacturers develop a printer interface that is simple and bulletproof?  I recently jettisoned my HP printer because it constantly refused to communicate with the home network, despite being 3" from the router.  I did some research, and bought a Canon ImageClass laser printer because it was supposed to be the best at stability of connection with a home network.

It's not.  I recently had to spend 3 hours on the phone with Canon support to get this stupid thing to work.  I have a basic home network with a mesh router and everything connected to that. It should be simple.  It's not.

I'm not technically illiterate.  But this is a regular problem, and it absolutely drives me insane.  After that 3-hour call with Canon, and supposedly getting everything worked out, I had to reset everything again yesterday to print something for Mrs. NNM.

No one sells printers anymore they sell printer ink and subscriptions to print services. 

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Posted

Someone hung a 5 foot tall wreath in the hallway at my office. Whenever I leave to go to the bathroom or something, I see this thing in the corner of my eye and it looks like there's a guy, leaning against the wall like some 50's hoodlum. There's not a lot of traffic in this hallway, so it catches me off guard. Like, how did this MF get in? And then I realize it's that fucking wreath.

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Posted

The other day I watched Castaway. The overriding thought I kept having was how nice it must be to not have to create an account, log in, remember a password, enter 2FA code, and have a membership TO DO ANYTHING AT ALL IN LIFE ANYMORE!
 

Goddamn. 

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Posted

Niece wants La La land Kind Cafe gift card.  Can't just buy one on the webpage.  Forced to download an app, create an account, add a payment method just to buy a gift card.

Spoiler: Gift card never received, no receipt sent to me but app shows the purchase as does my bank.  Zero customer service support for 15 days even with multiple emails and requests through the app and web page.  No numbers to call.

Fuck this stupid place

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Posted
6 minutes ago, ChickenSandwich said:

Niece wants La La land Kind Cafe gift card.  Can't just buy one on the webpage.  Forced to download an app, create an account, add a payment method just to buy a gift card.

Spoiler: Gift card never received, no receipt sent to me but app shows the purchase as does my bank.  Zero customer service support for 15 days even with multiple emails and requests through the app and web page.  No numbers to call.

Fuck this stupid place

My mom's friend wanted an Apple gift card from the US, because some technical mumbo jumbo.

I mailed it to my parents on 09/17. It still hadn't arrived by end of October, so we waited some more. It FINALLY arrived on 11/27.

5-7 business days is bullshit. Thanks a lot Obama.

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Posted

If a game is being broadcast on an OTA channel, why the fuck to I have to have a cable subscription in order to watch the stream online??? They still show the fucking commercials in the stream. They still plaster ads all over their page. GTFOH with that shit.

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Posted (edited)
On 12/9/2025 at 4:18 PM, elfenix said:

My headphones turn off when I plug them in to charge

My beard trimmer does. It also doesn't have a screen that tells you how much batter life is left. So if it dies halfway through, you're fucked.

 

Edited by Jameslaw121
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Posted
On 12/11/2025 at 5:29 PM, tbone_ said:

The other day I watched Castaway. The overriding thought I kept having was how nice it must be to not have to create an account, log in, remember a password, enter 2FA code, and have a membership TO DO ANYTHING AT ALL IN LIFE ANYMORE!
 

Goddamn. 

I almost lost my shit when I had to get a 2FA code to order chipotle the other day. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Jameslaw121 said:

My bear trimmer does. It also doesn't have a screen that tells you how much batter life is left. So if it dies halfway through, you're fucked.

6681850971b91f603dc9629e_Image-3-2024-Favorites-Large-1024x682.thumb.jpeg.c935180e8a81a5e66ae561cf19723446.jpeg

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Posted

Fucking coat hangers! They always "mingle" with the hanger next to them making it impossible to remove a single hanger from the rod, and nine times out of ten, one or the other falls to the floor. I could always just toss the item over the back of a chair but I'm trying to be a grown up. "Adulting" as the youngsters say. Fucking coat hangers!

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Posted
20 minutes ago, Not that Bob said:

Fucking coat hangers! They always "mingle" with the hanger next to them making it impossible to remove a single hanger from the rod, and nine times out of ten, one or the other falls to the floor. I could always just toss the item over the back of a chair but I'm trying to be a grown up. "Adulting" as the youngsters say. Fucking coat hangers!

There's a level of hell where you have to fight with coat hangers for all eternity. 

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Posted
3 hours ago, Not that Bob said:

Fucking coat hangers! They always "mingle" with the hanger next to them making it impossible to remove a single hanger from the rod, and nine times out of ten, one or the other falls to the floor. I could always just toss the item over the back of a chair but I'm trying to be a grown up. "Adulting" as the youngsters say. Fucking coat hangers!

Buy better hangers. I’ve switched to wood hangers. IKEA sells them and they aren’t that expensive.

Also. Don’t hang empty hangers next to each other. Move one of the empty ones to the end of the closet rod. Problem solved. 

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Posted
10 hours ago, Superhero said:

Buy better hangers. I’ve switched to wood hangers. IKEA sells them and they aren’t that expensive.

Also. Don’t hang empty hangers next to each other. Move one of the empty ones to the end of the closet rod. Problem solved. 

Wondering how many pieces those sumbeeches come in...

and tightening hex-insert screws throughout their lifetimes to keep the hooks on or some shit.

Posted
14 hours ago, Not that Bob said:

Fucking coat hangers! They always "mingle" with the hanger next to them making it impossible to remove a single hanger from the rod, and nine times out of ten, one or the other falls to the floor. I could always just toss the item over the back of a chair but I'm trying to be a grown up. "Adulting" as the youngsters say. Fucking coat hangers!

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/proman-kascade-hangers-review/

Posted
Fucking coat hangers! They always "mingle" with the hanger next to them making it impossible to remove a single hanger from the rod, and nine times out of ten, one or the other falls to the floor. I could always just toss the item over the back of a chair but I'm trying to be a grown up. "Adulting" as the youngsters say. Fucking coat hangers!


That's ONE way of saying you don't have a treamldmill.
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Posted

Wife has been dealing with some health struggles. Nagging nausea, insomnia, etc etc - it's been a whole journey that landed on gallstones. She had her gallbladder out Wednesday. Hopefully that solves the main problem. On Friday afternoon, we were at our 2 year old's preschool Christmas pageant. Obviously wfie is still a bit fragile two days out of surgery. Before it all kicks off, she starts talking about her chest hurting, it feels like something is sitting on her chest, she's having difficulty breathing, at this point I'm walking her to the front of this church where this thing is happening and noticing where the defibrillators and dialing 911. Soon there's a firetruck in front of the church with lights flashing, wife is still struggling on the couch with paramedics all around her working on her, I'm kinda pacing around on the periphery thinking through all the problems I need to head off or whatever they might need or information that may be missing etc, and then a church lady appears on my periphery doing the kinda "hey i'm being polite but let me get your attention" movement. I look at her and she asks 
 

"Is everything OK?"

2IFrnhskwtJSEK1rprJD5m8beCVqcfPTdaZmLY57

 

wife is fine, in the hospital, things will be ok, probably a stone got loose or her liver got knicked or something, my weekend has sucked, I know that this lady was trying to be helpful and is surely a nice person but fuck if I had laser eyes she'd be a pile of ash. I think I just said "No" and gestured at the evidence.

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Posted
6 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Wife has been dealing with some health struggles. Nagging nausea, insomnia, etc etc - it's been a whole journey that landed on gallstones. She had her gallbladder out Wednesday. Hopefully that solves the main problem. On Friday afternoon, we were at our 2 year old's preschool Christmas pageant. Obviously wfie is still a bit fragile two days out of surgery. Before it all kicks off, she starts talking about her chest hurting, it feels like something is sitting on her chest, she's having difficulty breathing, at this point I'm walking her to the front of this church where this thing is happening and noticing where the defibrillators and dialing 911. Soon there's a firetruck in front of the church with lights flashing, wife is still struggling on the couch with paramedics all around her working on her, I'm kinda pacing around on the periphery thinking through all the problems I need to head off or whatever they might need or information that may be missing etc, and then a church lady appears on my periphery doing the kinda "hey i'm being polite but let me get your attention" movement. I look at her and she asks 
 

"Is everything OK?"

2IFrnhskwtJSEK1rprJD5m8beCVqcfPTdaZmLY57

 

wife is fine, in the hospital, things will be ok, probably a stone got loose or her liver got knicked or something, my weekend has sucked, I know that this lady was trying to be helpful and is surely a nice person but fuck if I had laser eyes she'd be a pile of ash. I think I just said "No" and gestured at the evidence.

Wife had something similar in that gallbladder "colic" persisted after removal.

The answer for her was sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.  The test and "cure" is an ERCP, which is a pretty specialized scoping of the bile duct.  A lot of GI docs were reluctant to perform the procedure because it is delicate, requires skill, and can cause pancreatitis all by itself.

We/I found a doc at Baylor (Scott White Dallas) that specializes in them, had no fear, scheduled her for the procedure and she was "fixed" in 12 hours.

 

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Posted
3 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Wife had something similar in that gallbladder "colic" persisted after removal.

The answer for her was sphincter of Oddi dysfunction.  The test and "cure" is an ERCP, which is a pretty specialized scoping of the bile duct.  A lot of GI docs were reluctant to perform the procedure because it is delicate, requires skill, and can cause pancreatitis all by itself.

We/I found a doc at Baylor (Scott White Dallas) that specializes in them, had no fear, scheduled her for the procedure and she was "fixed" in 12 hours.

 

Interesting - to make sure I'm understanding, she had her gallbladder removed and then continued to have symptoms afterwards which turned out to be this sphincter of oddi dysfunction thing? I'm reaaaaally hoping that the gallbladder removal (and once whatever is happening right now) takes care of her stuff but she was going a little crazy just not being able to get a doctor to figure out what was wrong with her for so long.

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Posted (edited)
7 minutes ago, Celery Man said:

Interesting - to make sure I'm understanding, she had her gallbladder removed and then continued to have symptoms afterwards which turned out to be this sphincter of oddi dysfunction thing? I'm reaaaaally hoping that the gallbladder removal (and once whatever is happening right now) takes care of her stuff but she was going a little crazy just not being able to get a doctor to figure out what was wrong with her for so long.

Yes.  The pain was virtually identical to the gallstones.  The sphincter (say what?) is one of the mechanisms that controls release of bile into the digestive tract and it "spasms," closes, and you get the same bile backup that you get from gallstones and the same pain.

This was 10, nearly 15 years ago and it seems like a less obscure problem and solution now.

And yeah, for a year or more prior to the situation becoming acute, wifey had sort of non-specific abdominal pain, particularly after certain meals, but not "reliably," so sometimes happened sometimes not.  When it started becoming acute, it basically put her on the floor.  By that time, she had several largish and medium gallstones and a bunch of gallstone sludge in her bile duct.

 

Edited by TwiceHorn
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Posted (edited)
On 12/13/2025 at 12:03 PM, Not that Bob said:

Fucking coat hangers! They always "mingle" with the hanger next to them making it impossible to remove a single hanger from the rod, and nine times out of ten, one or the other falls to the floor. I could always just toss the item over the back of a chair but I'm trying to be a grown up. "Adulting" as the youngsters say. Fucking coat hangers!

 

Stop using wire hangars

 

 

 

 

Edited by High Plains Drifter

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