Petty Vents

[dragnlaw]

My "smart" TV which is barely 6 years old has died... so I'm watching Netflix on my laptop which...
... is barely 3 years old is also in the process of gasping and about to die...

Between my stove dying last year, the humidex giving me a problem, the heat exchanger was grumbling, the propane fireplace (barely a year and my main source of home heat) is still not working properly...

I truly believe someone/thing is out to get me... I'm not just being a little paranoid, am I????

 

[Addie]

My "smart" TV which is barely 6 years old has died... so I'm watching Netflix on my laptop which...
... is barely 3 years old is also in the process of gasping and about to die...

Between my stove dying last year, the humidex giving me a problem, the heat exchanger was grumbling, the propane fireplace (barely a year and my main source of home heat) is still not working properly...

I truly believe someone/thing is out to get me... I'm not just being a little paranoid, am I????

Of course not! I swore, every time I entered my kitchen, I would have to stop what I was doing and make a fast run to the bathroom. I just knew my kitchen was haunted. Then I got a couple of pieces of mail for a "Margaret Sullivan." Same apt. number. Aha! I knew it. It was Margaret that was haunting my kitchen. My kids thought I was losing it. But then Pirate noted the same thing to be happening to him.

Well to speed the story up, we now along with Spike, talk to Margaret. Sometimes we yell at her, sometimes we ask her how today is going to be. Since we have more or less adopted her into our family, she stays out of the kitchen more and more. She does so like sitting back and watching TV while I cook up a fast snack.

 

[caseydog]

So right Andy. Think of a pro photographer. The always have the light source in front of you or just slightly overhead in front of the subject. That picture you posted, needs to be removed from the camera. All it does is show how dumb the taker is. And it is using up storage space.

Thanks for thinking about us! And please hire us!!!

That is definitely a bad photo, but we pros actually don't always light subjects one way. In fact, food is most often lit from behind. It gives food dimension. Slightly overhead and in front makes the food look "flat."

Below is my basic food set-up. It is the starting point. I add more reflectors as needed, but the primary light source is behind the food.

Oh BTW, my living room is a photo studio, with a 24-foot ceiling and no furniture. It is also next to my kitchen. Anyone want to co-publish a cook book?

CD

.

 

[taxlady]

I discovered, on my Android smart phone, that I can "tell the camera" where to look. If I tap something on the screen, it will assume that is what you want to concentrate on in the photo. It will focus there and adjust speed and aperture. I discovered it while taking this picture. I wanted that gorgeous pink in the sky, but the sun made it wash out in pix. I decided to try to make the camera focus on a bit of sky away from the sun and noticed that it changed the apparent brightness of the rest of the sky.

 

[dragnlaw]

Whoa! that's interesting Taxy... I'll have to give it a try. Thanks!

 

[GotGarlic]

Thanks for thinking about us! And please hire us!!! [emoji2]

That is definitely a bad photo, but we pros actually don't always light subjects one way. In fact, food is most often lit from behind. It gives food dimension. Slightly overhead and in front makes the food look "flat."

Below is my basic food set-up. It is the starting point. I add more reflectors as needed, but the primary light source is behind the food.

Oh BTW, my living room is a photo studio, with a 24-foot ceiling and no furniture. It is also next to my kitchen. Anyone want to co-publish a cook book?

CD

.

I am an excellent editor [emoji2]. And not a bad photographer. I did have a show in a coffee shop once. Sold one photo, to the owner.

 

[GotGarlic]

I discovered, on my Android smart phone, that I can "tell the camera" where to look. If I tap something on the screen, it will assume that is what you want to concentrate on in the photo. It will focus there and adjust speed and aperture. I discovered it while taking this picture. I wanted that gorgeous pink in the sky, but the sun made it wash out in pix. I decided to try to make the camera focus on a bit of sky away from the sun and noticed that it changed the apparent brightness of the rest of the sky.

That feature has been around for a long time. The photographer where I used to work showed me that several years ago.

Digital cameras have lots of cool features. Mine has a setting where I can give it a voice command and it will take the picture, so I don't have to fiddle with finding the right spot on the screen.

"Say cheese!"

 

[roadfix]

Last night we got mail delivered after 9pm. I noticed this trend a few months ago when mail delivery started getting progressively late in the afternoon.
Same thing at work too. Deliveries around 6pm now. We close shop at 6, and like most businesses, we don't have a mail slot. What's going on with the USPS?

 

[Andy M.]

Beats me. I think they've been going downhill too.

We live in a condo complex. We have a mail house with 500+ mail slots in it. A postal employee is there all day stuffing boxes. First with junk mail then first class when it's ready. It's the softest job in the PO. Indoors with heat and air. Currently we have a loser there who is a goof off milking the job. The postmaster often has to send helpers to finish the first class. We often get mail a day or two later than should happen.

 

[CakePoet]

I am just pissed off with people making fun of my language and not it not dead yet, we are 10 miljon speaking it.

 

[GotGarlic]

I am just pissed off with people making fun of my language and not it not dead yet, we are 10 miljon speaking it.

Try not to let it get to you. Some people are apparently easily amused by potty language, like middle-schoolers (think 12-13-year-old boys).

 

[CakePoet]

It just so annoying for people not understanding that my langauage is actaully dear to me and many who speak it.

This is a friend , 2 weeks in Sweden learning Swedish by us Swedes. There serveral lessons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66fULfwb2X4

 

[roadfix]

Beats me. I think they've been going downhill too.

We live in a condo complex. We have a mail house with 500+ mail slots in it. A postal employee is there all day stuffing boxes. First with junk mail then first class when it's ready. It's the softest job in the PO. Indoors with heat and air. Currently we have a loser there who is a goof off milking the job. The postmaster often has to send helpers to finish the first class. We often get mail a day or two later than should happen.

Speaking of junk mail, my parents live in a large townhouse complex and I can't believe the amount of junk mail they receive each day. I visit them often and pick up their mail. The mail person spends hours in the mail room sorting out mostly junk mail, seems like.

 

[caseydog]

Last night we got mail delivered after 9pm. I noticed this trend a few months ago when mail delivery started getting progressively late in the afternoon.
Same thing at work too. Deliveries around 6pm now. We close shop at 6, and like most businesses, we don't have a mail slot. What's going on with the USPS?

Two words, budget cuts. I am lucky to have an outstanding mail carrier in my neighborhood. All of us in the hood hope we never lose him. He and I chat from time to time -- he's a car nut, too.

The USPS has been hurt for income by the major shift from snail mail to email, for one thing. They depend on junk mail for survival. The USPS is also a favorite whipping boy for politicians. Not as low on the totem pole as AMTRAK, but not much above it.

Like the rest of us, the USPS is having to adapt to a changing world.

BTW, I use USPS Click-n-Ship and Priority Mail Flat Rate shipping a lot for my business. Great service, and dirt cheap compared to FedEx and UPS.

CD

 

[medtran49]

Well, I try to avoid USPS as much as possible. I sent a very important document Express mail (overnight) and it ended up setting in Miami for 3 days and was late because of that. It was addressed correctly. They just failed for whatever reason. When I went to complain and get a refund at my local P.O., I had to wait 30+ minutes for the post-mistress to make multiple calls to figure out what happened. Frankly I didn't give a #*$% about what happened. They failed royally and I wanted my money back, not to stand there while she futzed around with something that, at that point, had absolutely nothing to do with me. I was livid by the time she finally showed her face back at the counter and let her know it. The 1 clerk on duty refused to go get her when I complained, guess she was afraid she'd go off on her from what she said. Well, I certainly went off on her.

 

[taxlady]

It just so annoying for people not understanding that my langauage is actaully dear to me and many who speak it.

This is a friend , 2 weeks in Sweden learning Swedish by us Swedes. There serveral lessons.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66fULfwb2X4

No disrespect intended, but that video is an example of what's weird and funny about Swedish. They didn't even try to get someone to say the Swedish for "seven hundred and seventy-seven sea sick sailors".

 

[caseydog]

Well, I try to avoid USPS as much as possible. I sent a very important document Express mail (overnight) and it ended up setting in Miami for 3 days and was late because of that. It was addressed correctly. They just failed for whatever reason. When I went to complain and get a refund at my local P.O., I had to wait 30+ minutes for the post-mistress to make multiple calls to figure out what happened. Frankly I didn't give a #*$% about what happened. They failed royally and I wanted my money back, not to stand there while she futzed around with something that, at that point, had absolutely nothing to do with me. I was livid by the time she finally showed her face back at the counter and let her know it. The 1 clerk on duty refused to go get her when I complained, guess she was afraid she'd go off on her from what she said. Well, I certainly went off on her.

I took a very important package to the FedEx Office to ship overnight to my best customer. I printed the label from my online account, and paid around fifty bucks for it. I took it to a FedEx office to make sure I could hand it to a human, not stuff it in a drop box.

My customer didn't get the package, and FedEx INSISTED that they never got the package from me. I actually handed the package to a FedEx Office employee. But, I didn't ask for a receipt. BIG mistake. They would not budge. In their view, I was a liar, and never turned a package over to them. My word against theirs.

CD

 

[Addie]

We had a mailman named Bob for a number. Everyone in the building loved him and he gave great service. Then they transferred him to a different route. In his place we got a girl. Below our bank of locked boxes, is our mailbox. She refused to pick up the mail. Her reason?

The Union said she did not have to bend over if she didn't want to. Nearly every person in the building called her supervisor. Needless to say, she no longer has to bend over at any time. She was sent on her way without her mailbag or truck.

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but street mailboxes on the corner are far and few between. For anyone in this building to find a corner mailbox, they would have to drive to the post office which is about 3/4 of a mile away. Or stand in the lobby and wait for the mailman to arrive and hand it to him. And our new mailman does collect the mail from the box that is below our boxes.

 

[caseydog]

I don't know if any of you have noticed, but street mailboxes on the corner are far and few between. For anyone in this building to find a corner mailbox, they would have to drive to the post office which is about 3/4 of a mile away. Or stand in the lobby and wait for the mailman to arrive and hand it to him. And our new mailman does collect the mail from the box that is below our boxes.

I live in the North Dallas burbs. We have individual street mailboxes, which I believe used to be called "rural" mailboxes. Our carrier drives a mail truck, that mush be at least 20 years old, and delivers AND picks up every day.

His biggest gripe is people parking cars in front of the mailboxes. The rules say he doesn't have to deliver mail to blocked mailboxes, but he does it, anyway. I was gathering mail for one of my neighbors while she was in Canada for a month last summer, and one of her neighbors parked his Honda Ridgeline in front of here mailbox -- right up against the mailbox. He was told multiple times to stop doing it, but didn't care. The mail man got out and made his delivery. I made sure to slam my friends mailbox door into the butthole's Ridgeline when I collected the mail. I was hoping he'd hear it and come out, but he never did. Scratched the heck out of his truck.

My mailman is great! I give him a bottle of CaboWabo tequila at Christmas.

BTW, if you do have a good mail carrier, tell them you appreciate them, and tip them at Christmas, whether with an envelope with cash, a gift card, or like me, some top-shelf tequila.

CD

 

[Addie]

There are rules in the mail folks contract. They are there to help prevent them from being hurt on the job. Such as they don't have to deliver the mail if the following applies"

A known dog that bites is running loose on the property
A known dog that bites is running loose on the street
If your sidewalk or steps have not been shoveled
If your rural mailbox is too low or too high. It should be at the height of reachability from the window of his truck.
If you don't have a mailbox or slot for your mail
If a package is too heavy
If the mailbox is blocked
Even if you don't have your name on your box
There are many more rules.

They are also trained to notice if an elderly person lives in the home. If their mail is piling up, they then call the police so they can make a "wellness call."

That 'not having to bend' rule was being carried to the most foolish end. She ended up losing a great paying job over it. How many times have I heard the Temp Christmas help state, "I wish I could get on at the post office permanently."