More First-World Grievances

Welcome to August, everyone!  The bulk of the summer is over, so we can look forward to days where our actions are not restricted by proximity to an air conditioner.  It hardly gets more first-world than that!

Not here! We will be at 90* and under an air quality alert which means the kids at daycare can't go outside. Ugh!

Unfortunately here in Houston it will be October before it will be even remotely pleasant to step outside. :-(

August is typically the hottest month for those in the Northern Hemisphere (just like February is often the coldest.) This is described in the Wikipedia article on Seasonal lag.

Yes, it's been so dang hot the a/c for my office hasn't been able to keep up. Getting better though, going from 90-95F on average to 80-88 avg, which is something. Our black lab does not appreciate it either way.

I'd say you all should be happy to live in a region where you actually need airco :) I'd like it if the weather out here would be a bit better and warmer. And less rainy. And more sunny... Really, sometimes it's like it isn't summer at all :/

I've lived in both North Dakota (Grand Forks) and Texas (Houston). I think I prefer North Dakota's climate. Warm is one thing: excessively hot and humid with evacution level hurricanes is quite another! And while I don't mind air conditioning in summer, having to depend on it from February to October is a little much for me. :-)

Here in Minnesota July was the second hottest month in recorded history.

Here in Holland July was cool and especially very rainy... Guess you guys got all the sun ;)

Just saying that the bulk of summer is over and that we're closer to autumn.  That is all. :(

I'm sorry, Rozak, didn't mean to get us on a downer conversation! I am happy that we're getting closer to autumn!

It's all good!  I'm sorry that there's still so much heat to go through.  My plants are soaking it all in, but my delicate human skin isn't the happiest about it.  If I don't water the garden in the morning, I have to wait until around 5pm to get to it, and there are some days when it needs a watering in the morning and evening.

My FWG is that I have to go to work to teach a 9am class when I'd rather have a sleep-in. Oh the agonizing pain of it all! *hand to forehead*

^13, I hear you! Because my commute is pretty lengthy, I'm constantly complaining about the 12-hour days it takes to work my 8-hour job. But then I remember I should be glad I have a job! And grateful I can get a lot of reading done on that commute (I take the bus and the light rail). But wow, I'd love to get a little more sleep!

My FWG of the day: Statistics.

Oh, that's definately a grievance... I feel for you foggidawn.
Also, I would like to add: Calculus.

FWG? We're researching next year's summer vacation. There's a HUGE sporting event going on next July, right where we have our cabin - an influx of 40.000 ppl in a 20.000 town will not feel like vacation to us.

Anyway, it's early August 2012 and we plan on going early July 2013. Son has been nagging us about going back to Thailand and while there are lots of other places we'd like to see son having fun will take precedence; if he's not happy our vacation will be crappy, wherever we go.

The astonishing thing is EVERYTHING!!! (that looks OK, that is) is booked up already! I only want to check prices but everywhere I get the same return - booked full already.

Damn! What happened to just go somewhere, find a hotel and walk up to the desk?!

#17 - :) Even our little po-dunk hotel in the middle of nowhere gets booked up. It all depends on when you go!

But a year in advance?!?!

The problem here is the hotels I'm looking at are resort-style places - son want a swimming pool, and we'd prefer a hotel catering to families so son can find a playmate. Also, we have to go when EVERYONE in Sweden goes, and Thailand is almost a Swedish-speaking country during July :(

If it was just the two of us we wouldn't have this problem.

*sigh*

Oh well, we'll solve this in some way :)

My cat keeps coughing up hairballs. Euuggghhh.

# 19 - I wonder if a Travel Agent could help? Some hotels block their online bookings so they can upsell their rooms on the busiest days.

I know what you mean...I just looked into reserving rooms near my son's college for graduation next May, and all the local hotels are already sold out for the weekend. Eek! Fortunately there's a nice hotel about 25 minutes away that I was able to get rooms in, but wow!

Hi Guys!
Just bookmarking-
have to go to work tomorrow
That's not really a grievance though as 1) where would we be without the responsibility of PAID (now that I think of it, even volunteer) work , and 2) My retirement job is BY FAR more enjoyable than my 'career' job!

(oh shoot- maybe I should have put this on the GN/BN thread)

OH WAIT...

MAJOR FWG

There is a radio simulcast of a TV newsmagazine on Sunday night at 7PM. During Baseball season it is pre-empted
by a stupid baseball game if that team has one schedualed at that time. But I guess that radio stations gotta make as much as they can...

#18 - That, and the package tour operators. There's a high probability that if you just go to the place it will be relatively easy to find a decent place to stay. But searching for a room isn't how we want to top off a 12-hour flight...

I'm sure we'll find a way.

I broke a branch while shuffling a couple of tomato pots.  I'm not completely dependent on these plants for food, but I'm still sad that I broke it. :(

Rozax- We lost half our tomatoes to the heat and blight, including almost all our regular tomatoes. Thankfully the cherry tomatoes did fine. We are not dependent on them either but it stinks to watch work and preparation literally go to rot.

My FWG is the glut of political adds on TV here in North Carolina. This is not to start or invite a discussion of politics or politicians! Just aggravated because there are already so many and we are 3 months from the election still. It'd be different if they were informative our helpful, but they are not, just angry and fear-filled. Doesn't matter who it's for, dang adds make me mad in the middle of my favorite shows.

Last time we had an election I recorded all my favourite shows so I could fast forward through the election ads. I hate most ads but election ads make me the stabbitiest.

I have the problem solved...In 1999 I gave up TV!

(but you should see my DVD collection {(less than Half of which is on LT})!

You put your DVDs on LT? hmmmm

never thought of that...

yeah, initially; never got around to adding later ones, though.

Some other folks have their collections up and some still keep them as a separate account as they were done before Tim did the "Collections' feature.

Used bookstores need to have a kick-ass ventilation system.  I'm sneezing up a storm whilst organizing the biographies.  And I swear, many of these biographies are so self-serving.

A few months ago my store got hit with the conversion to the new time clock/payroll system the company's been rolling out. Ever since, there's been some problems with it. I just discovered a MAJOR one (as in not getting paid at all for a week) may have hit me. (There's been a "minor" problem that's been going on for weeks and is SUPPOSEDLY being worked on.) I have to go to the local branch of my bank in a little while to verify whether or not the direct deposit for that week was made and if not, get a printout of activity since the last statement end date, then I can bring it in to work to prove the screw up happened.

I'm pretty sure the sardines I bought for grilling this evening haven't been emptied, the employees of *this* fishstall are all but proactive in asking if customers want it done and I forgot about asking, as usual *sigh*

33:  I typically forget to tell servers that I don't want ice in my beverages.

Hey Roz-

in 31, didn't you mean autobiographies?

35:  True!  And now that I think about it, some of the biographies are self-serving.  You have great and/or energetic figures memorialized by subpar writers.  Three Cups of Tea comes to mind.

I haven't seen this movie in a few years, but I find that I'm at a point in my life when I can sympathize with this clip:

Roz-

Maybe I have the wrong idea or am naieve in this area, but since biographies are about other people and autobiographies about oneself, how can a biography be self serving?

and

What was the movie in 36? Something in it seems familiar

Sigh. I'm being a very good wife. Our family computer, which is the one my husband uses, died a sad and sudden death. Now I'm sharing my Netbook with him until we decide what to replace it with. Sigh.

MrsLee:
if it's any help. I use a Dell. That company has a good remote monitoring and periodic testing program, which is entirely optional. The machines are all Windows and you can get upgrades; for example I got this machine with Win7 Home Premium but upgraded to Win 7 Professional (both 64 bit).

#39 - Thanks, I am more puzzled about what type of machine to buy. I think my husband doesn't need much more than a Netbook, like I have, but I hate the thought of not having "real" computer in the house. What I want to do, is to buy him a netbook, and buy a desktop for my office for photos and documents.
AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just remembered something I lost if my son can't recover the hard drive. I spent a weekend making a spreadsheet of my DVDs and Bluerays. Sigh. I have no one to blame but myself. I know to do backups, but do I? *head desk*

@chg1:
The movie is Disney's take on Notre Dame de Paris.
Oh, how lovely...the touch-stone is in English, but it won't give me THAT touchstone unless I write it in French.
Makes sense...

As for biographies, a lame writer can, for instance, boast, "I wrote James Earl Jones official biography!"  Just an example, seeing as I don't know if James Earl Jones even has an official biography, nor am I familiar with the quality of writer.  The author of Three Cups of Tea is a journalist; that doesn't make one a viable novelist.

Example, page 86:  "But ahead of him, through the windshield, with its spidery web- work of fissures, he saw the sixteen-thousand-foot-high panorama of the Karakoram’s foothills tearing at a blameless blue sky with its fear- some assortment of brown, broken teeth, and felt unaccountably happy."

Now, that might not be the best example from the book, but it's the one that always sticks out for me, because it's the first time while reading that I realized how very flowery the writing is.  It's probably great for journalism, in which you have mere pages or paragraphs to convey an idea, but when you're writing a full novel, sometimes it's okay to just let us know that the windshield is cracked.  For this reason, I direct everyone to the easy-reader.

MrsLee:

If your son can't recover the stuff from the HD and you don't feel like spending another weekend attempting to duplicate your spreadsheet, there are, or at least were, data recovery services; do a web search on those. The ethical ones won't charge if they can't get the data.

Roz-

The style of artwork in that snippet reminds me of Disney movies from the late 50's/early 60's and the setting reminds me of a "King's Quest" computer game of the 90's, that is probably why it looked vaguely familiar; and yes, I'm at about the same point.....

I don't have the interest to sit down and read a novel-barely to read a short story; I'll lose track of who's who and who did what to whom and am only interested in the theme, plot and synopsis ...Probably the best I'd want to do at this stage of the game is Monarch, Cliff or Spark notes! This is the same with movies...so I have to use a DVD or VCR so I can back up to find out where I got lost!!!!

When you wrote journalism, I thought of a newspaper, where space is limited; not as in a diary where there is no such limit; but I see what you mean. It IS overreaching.

#40 - Argh! on the data loss :(
On the loss of the computer too. It's never easy to decide on a new one. Plus the expense, of course. Always too many of those, imho.

42 - I'll look into that. I know a lot of people say a desktop isn't necessary anymore, that a laptop will do it all, so I'll be looking at that possibility. Like you said, Busifer, many choices and lots of cash flow!

I agree with those who says a laptop will do - takes up less space, if nothing else, and is mobile if needed.

That said my dad bought a MacBook Pro as a replacement for his old desktop Mac and he often regrets it - "it has such a small screen and anyway I don't move it around!". But he's a perfectionist who do typeface design on his, so I can understand his frustration - a huge screen is essential when tweaking those delicate micrometers. Not so much so when what you do is surf the web, write some documents, shop online or check your email...

#45 -- I replaced my old desktop with a laptop last fall, and do not regret it at all!

FWG: I took myself out to lunch, and spent a little more than I intended. I let myself get talked into having dessert. It seems like desserts are almost as expensive as the entrees, nowadays.

>47 foggidawn: You need to watch out who you hang around with, eh? ;)

Re computers--yes, if you do any design work, a desktop is best...but you can hook a laptop up to a large desktop screen if necessary.

My reason for still having a desktop is that they're still more reliable (IMHO) than laptops. I'm forever having laptops overheating, breaking, etc., and a single component breaking can be a big problem. With a desktop, it's easier to replace a single part, and they overheat less because there's more space for airflow.

My very first world grievance is that I have a package to pick up, which is great, but I have to go all the way to the post office to pick it up. *sigh*

(I love being able to whinge about things I know aren't that bad).

In my research I discovered that desk tops are cheaper to repair. I also have discovered that my Macbook Air does not have a disc drive. I did not know that before I bought it. Otherwise, I love it and so far have not been too frustrated with the learning curve.

I use a desktop . It is difficult for it to grow legs: it can't easily be misplaced or stolen, I have a larger and more reliable keyboard (I still use an IBM all mechanical {vs. membrane-mechanical or membrane keyboard} with a PS-2 adapter), and like Maggie wrote, they are cheaper to repair..

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT-

check out post#55 in the August thread. Idid after posting this....

Another reason NOT to get a laptop!

#50:  More and more software is being put on pen drives, so we're probably going to see disk drives phased out.  You're ahead of the curve.

I'm probably going to get a desktop, we have a lovely large monitor and I would hate for it to go to waste. I just have to convince my husband that we need one. :) I do want the ability to work with my photos easily, and my eyes are not getting any younger. Frequently I cannot see graphics on my netbook.

MrsLee-

You don't need the eyestrain anyway...none of us do.

More re computers: At work they think I'm crazy (OK, they know I am) - not because I have a huge external screen but because of the external extended keyboard, and a mouse, I have hooked up to my laptop.
Also frequently hook up that same laptop (because it has a graphics card from outer space) to the TV, to watch live sports, or films.

Only to say that you can still use your screen (I can't understand why my dad got rid of his), whether you get a laptop or a desktop.

(BTW, I can't remember if "whether" was included among the words John McWhorter pronounced as old-fashioned, out of use. I know for sure "hence" was one of them, and "whence". I don't often use "whence" but both "hence" and "whether" gets to see the daylight often enough. He had a reason for this - many languages have the equivalents of these words as natural parts of them, while English has simplified it's word use. If you think I use an ancient vocabulary now you know the reason, lol.)

'Whether' isn't archaic like whence and hence. 'Wither/hither/thither' is probably the one you're thinking of. I'll still use hence, but my students have gotten confused a little by my use of some words. 'Whence' is archaic enough that most people won't know how to use it 'correctly', and might not know precisely what it means (they'll only have a general idea).

I love all those words! I guess I, too, am becoming archaic!

This is not a grievance, at least, I haven't actually tried it yet, so it may become one, but it isn't now. Right now it is a happy jelly baby feeling.

I bought the USB tardis port from ThinkGeek for my computer at work. The dumb thing only has one USB slot, so I have to unplug the printer when I want to plug in my phone to upload photos. Oh, there's a grievance, I just put the solution first! Can't wait to plug it in and hear the whooshy sound. My co-workers will be confirmed in their idea that something is "not quite right with that girl's head."

Thanks everyone for the reminder to back up my files!

Returned to work last week to find they installed wifi everywhere. Only the newest computers and laptops are able to access but it gives the kids access with their own devices. For the first few days back, no internet at all. When it came back, I had to reinstall my email, favorites had been wiped, no printer connections! Tech guy came back early and is working from a priority list. No telling where the library is on the list!

>56 Choreocrat: & >55 Busifer:

Whence came thou?
Whither thou goest?
Hence my Queries.

60, 57 - We're a pretty educated crowd here. I'm not surprised if many of *us* know the words.

From whence hast thou come?

Where do I complain about spam being posted to my profile page? Anyone know to whom I should mention this reprehensible behavior? Any one else getting something offering free ipad or something..

here... I copied it... Posted 6X

"Get $100 Starbucks giftcard, only for library thing users! :D http://j.mp/NoSYj6
posted by ipadwinwin at 8:05 pm (EST) on Aug 11, 2012 | reply | archive | delete"

Never mind! Spammer has already been suspended. Good riddance to bad....

yeah, me too....
It IS a violation of the TOS.
My pet name for that Co. has the "B" replaced with 6th letter of the English alphabet.
FYI-to complain about anything go to the Zeitgeist page, page down to the very bottom, find & click on "contact". A list containing e-mail addresses of anyone who can do anything on LT and their position will come up.

Ah. That would explain the invisible "new comment" on my profile page. Thank you, Karen, for solving that one.

Same here. Happy I didn't need to see it.

>66 hfglen:
Do you have LT send you a notification of "New Comments"?

reading the comment sender header in e-mail, I immediately saw that it was spam. Knowing the TOS and possibly having contributed to an expulsion a few years ago, the dud notice on profile wasn't at all mysterious.

It comes up as black text on a yellow ground on my profile page, all by itself, when I log in. Always has done.

Hugh-

yes it does that also, but on your preferences page (hit the edit button on the upper right hand corner of your user profile), you are asked if you want to be notified by e-mail of any messages.

>63 maggie1944: and >66 hfglen:

In the SPAM FIGHTERS GROUP this was reported and fixed on the 'spam reporting thread #15'.

#70 Thanks, chg. I actually don't want e-mail notification, as for me e-mail and LT are very different places.

Took my car into Toyota yesterday for service and MOT (in UK required every year for older cars.) I take it in at 9.30am - they have my mobile and I wait all day to be rung about any issues (expecting tyres). They finally ring me at 4.30pm (when I was in a meeting - grr) to say yes I need new tyres but there are also major brake issues that need to be fixed and they need to keep it for another day. It's blatantly obvious that they haven't looked at the car until then. Luckily I'm not in work this week so don't need my car - but 99% of time I would have needed it to go to work. I'm annoyed because this is not the first time - last year I left my car all day and went back at 5pm to pick it up, only to end up waiting 90 mins for them to finish it. And it wasn't even cleaned then.
If you don't have enough staff to complete work booked, then DON'T accept more bookings. And they have the nerve to keep ringing me to flog something else.
Thinking about writing to complain about this as it is obviously becoming a big issue at the garage.

Finally got my car back but just to add insult to injury it cost me nearly £400 (about 690 US dollars). So not only do I have spend 2 weeks in work a year to pay for the petrol so I can go to work, but that's another week in work for that. I am very far from liking my job that much!

Moan over ;)

I'm about to go pick up my car -- and pay $1900 -- ack! And that's AFTER I take one of the cats to a semi-emergency vet visit!

Our washer stopped working and it has taken two weeks to get it fixed. It is under warranty, but I think that means we get dumped to the bottom of the repair list because we aren't paying out of pocket. We have 3 kids, 3 and under, plus our stuff. There is no laundromat nearby so we have taken to hand-washing and rinsing clothes in the tub before throwing it in the dryer. Good times, good times...

>76 Madcow299: The horror, the horror! I had a broken washer for a while and went to the laundromat (fortunately close) and consoled myself that at least you get all your loads done at the same time. But I still much prefer having a working washer at home, thanks!

My grievance: I really need a new laptop. Mine is six years old and the DVD/CD drive doesn't work any more, two keys came off entirely (but still work when I press down), it's running out of memory, and it's slooowwww. Wah.

Pursuant to the earlier discussion of this topic, I don't miss the desktop at all and am more than willing to get a new laptop. But I want one with a 16- or 17-inch screen this time.

And a related grievance: I need surgery for carpal tunnel. I've been wearing a wrist brace at night for months and it's getting worse, not better. But I really can't afford to take 4-6 weeks off to recover, either.

^78, if you only have one wrist done at a time, do you need to take the entire 4-6 weeks off work? Could you work with the other hand in a limited capacity?

P.S. Or is it driving to work that's the main issue? Sorry, didn't think of that at first.

ejj, I think that's a real grievance my friend. :) You can legitimately complain about surgery, particularly if it doesn't work right! Hope you feel better soon!

>77 ejj1955:

Did you ever try to wear the brace during the day? The wrist needs to be largely immobile for the swelling to go down I had carpel tunnel first in the left and then in the right wrist in the late 1990's. I wore wrist braces on both for several months sometimes 24/7!
My chiropractor also treated it with ultrasound. I also do hatha yoga on and off as well as wrist exercises. I also do a lot of stuff nutritionally and stay ACTIVE!

Best of luck in recovering ejj!

My husband got a raise, but he didn't tell me when he got it.  Since we're sitting pretty enough (definitely not rich, but comfortable enough), he didn't see why it was important to tell me.  I'm not sure how to explain it to him.

Ask him if he could be kind enough to not try to read your mind and determine, without your input, what is important to you. Strikes me that his not seeing why it was important to you could be a "bogus" excuse, covering for the real reason which is he did not want to tell you because he liked keeping the extra money for his use. He may be feeling some need for extra "power".

Of course, I am no expert so these could all be the ravings of someone who is totally out of the picture.

>83 justjukka:

You've been together a long time; just lay it out.

84: No worries, my husband is nothing like that.

83: Yeah, I laid it out right on the spot.  We share a bank account, so he figured I'd just notice.  We aren't going to spend any differently with a little extra money, so "it isn't going to change anything", so he doesn't see why it was important to bring it up.  We aren't extravagant spenders.  He'll tell me next time because I want to know ("That's a perfectly good reason for me to tell you!"), but unless he takes a pay cut, he can't see why I'd need to know.  The best I can come up with is, "I use it!  I should know when it changes!" but I don't know if that's reason enough in his book for why I'd need to know.  His mind can be a very infuriating place.

86 - Oddly enough, I can understand that reasoning, but I'd have been excited about getting the raise, so I'd have mentioned it just because of that.

Well, at least you two have a great honest relationship where you can talk it out without it being a fight. That's a good marriage you got there. :)

My husband and I have a joke that the way I found out when/where his next business trip will be is that we go out to dinner with friends. He starts to tell them "And next month I'm going to Japan....", then gets a stricken look on his face, turns to me, and says "Um, did I tell you that next month I'm going to Japan?" I can't tell you how many times this has happened! It's mainly that he has so many trips that he can't remember which ones he told me about and which ones he didn't.

I got a one-time performance award at work for which I'll get a $50 Visa gift card. I definitely told my husband about that, just because I knew he'd be pleased for me. Of course, then when he told me what his bonus for work would be, my little gift card looked pretty paltry! (But we were both still pleased about it!)

#89 But I'm assuming that his bonus goes into the communal pot whereas the only thing you can really do with a gift card is spend it! Sometimes the very fact that it's not much can work as an advantage.

#90, there is that! ;-) In fact, because I find Visa gift cards problematic from time to time (some merchants can split a transaction to two different payment methods, others cannot), I may use that as an excuse to just convert that gift card to an Amazon certificate..... Just added two books to my Amazon wishlist today, as it happens!

I just got a gift card for a book but not just anywhere but at a service specialised in company gifts for employees. And the choice is just INANE. Blaha-blaha crime novels, celebrity memoirs and self-help books.
Bah humbug!

You might as well use CASH (now-a-day, is that a novelty????)

In Sweden it is illegal for corporations to give cash as gifts. The IRS treats it as bribes ;-)

So school started again and the usual technology hiccups were worse than usual.
First there was no Internet (no shared drives, no email, no printing). Then that got fixed but all of the printer addresses were changed so we had to wait until that got fixed. A darling tech guy came in and gave me printers on three computers but then they went and changed the addresses again (?!?!?) so we had to wait for someone to come around and fix that! I've had everything going well for a couple of days now and the cute tech guy said he would search for a driver for my receipt printer which was lost when my hard drive crashed last year. If it's not one thing, it's another!

No great loss without some small gain. At least the tech guy is cute.

M.M., If I was younger I might consider doing serious damage to my computer in the hope he might be back to fix it. He is a very bright part of the District's tech dept. Our site tech guy is not as young or as cute.

*argh* Grounds crew is doing maintenance, and it's very noisy.

I know that I'm getting paid to work and all. I really do understand that. But it is definitely frustrating that three things have to be done *now* (on top of the ordinaries). No amount of preplanning would have avoided this.

Will-

At least those 3 things don't have to be done Yesterday...

(just do your best)

That's true.

In one week, I get to fly home to the USA and see the love of my life for the first time in 6 months.

The First World Grievance? I WANT IT NOW!

102 - Well, that just made my newer FWG even more FW. I'm flying down in a week to see my love, too, but it's only been 6 weeks (and that's hard enough!).

J's Shepard Pie has just over flowed and leaked over the oven bottom. So now he has to clean the oven tonight

A self-cleaning oven, I hope?

This reminds me.  I didn't run the dishwasher last night, so the baking sheet I stuck in there yesterday needs to be soaked.

FWG: The accounting program designed and coded in the pits of Hades is at it AGAIN!!!!! The accountant asked why employee X still had a deduction on his check that he had cancelled. I KNOW I cancelled that deduction, but sure enough, there it was and I hadn't caught it before checks went out. The reason I didn't catch it? I cancelled it before the last payroll, not the current one. And I checked the reports--it was cancelled on the last payroll. BUT THE ^#*&%@)!#%&%$@!#%*&^(*@#@ PROGRAM DECIDED TO START DEDUCTING IT AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't check it because it was right LAST TIME!!! WHY?????????

This program will drive me to the funny farm and lock me up. I don't need this program making mistakes on its own; I do my own mistakes quite nicely.

And I spent my crocheting time yesterday ripping this cardigan back for the THIRD time. I did a gauge swatch, I checked it, changd hooks, redid the swatch, etc. until I had a hook that produced the correct size of swatch. Yet, when I had crocheted from the neck to just below the armholes, I tried it on, and it was too small. As in the armholes were cutting my shoulders apart. So I ripped it back and am going at it with a larger hook. It's a gorgeous silver gray yarn and the pattern is lovely, but it's turning into a monster.

For some reason, it took my browser over an hour to find and get into LT this morning! *addict twitching*

It is impossible to find unsweetened bottled iced tea. I do not want sweet tea, flavored sweetened tea, tea sweetened with real sugar or artificial sweetener. I want a bottle of unsweet tea. I realize that Texas is the heart of sweet tea, so sweet it makes your teeth hurt, but I don't like it. Also, you cannot find the mixes (like Crystal Light) that go into bottled water...all of the tea flavors are also sweet.

On the same tea subject...this is the first school I've worked for that iced tea is not made available to teachers. Hence, the above gripe.

108-

maggie-

when you have that problem wait a little and then either hit "reload" or click on the address bar again. Unless there is a serious problem that should speed things up.
I occasionally have the same situation and find that effective..

^109, I'm at least grateful that most (but not all) restaurants in Houston serve unsweet iced tea. Although it took me a while to get used to the fact that iced tea was the default beverage at every banquet meal. The ""yes, you paid for this banquet but we're cheap and all you get to drink is water or iced tea" default.....

My oven is taking forever to heat up to 325℉.

No phone, again.
This time it started as it was some SIM card error but that has been ruled out.
Now I'm doing some software gymnastics before I take a trip to the workshop :(

109 - Twinings makes teabags of tea which brew in cold water. They have an online site, and my favorite is Lady Grey. You might order some of those to keep in your purse? I am with you on the gripe of no bottled plain tea.

Talk to your grocery store management. I know there are brands which bottle unsweetened ice tea!

Lipton does. It can be hard to find though.

I settled for Country Time lemonade mix, the packets that go in bottled water. Don't really like it. I'm thinking water will be my beverage of choice for lunch this year. Better for me anyway.

I feel badly that you are not able to find an easy, convenient beverage for your work days. Anyone who works in schools needs every bit of small comforts they can pack into their days. I hope some easy, simple drinks find their way into your life, soon.

I went to see the Paralympic torch relay today, but had to leave to get to work before the actual flame arrived. I got a few photos of the people who were waiting to take over the relay, but mostly the official photographers were in the way. Booo.

My library has only 20 Terry Pratchett novels as audiobooks, and of those only 8 are unabridged. Bah. I've discovered I prefer listening to Pratchett's books rather than eye-balling them. I seem to get the humour better.

I like listening to audiobooks because then I can "read" while I'm doing other stuff.  Alas, I cannot do this for Steve Jobs' biography.  There are too many negative reviews for the audiobook.  I wonder how one signs up for making audiobooks.  I do believe I have a tolerable speaking voice.

I do dispatch for a charity that does local transport for seniors, disabled and those with low-income. I was calling around trying to find a driver for a ride tomorrow. I made about 18 calls, 6 of them went to voice mail but I didn't leave a message as timing was urgent. I didn't have time to wait for people to call me back. I had to move on to call the next person on the list. I've had TWO people so far call me back anyway using caller ID.

Listen, people. If I call you and don't leave a message, that means I don't need you to call me back. Sheesh.

I have to work on Labor Day.

I hope you at least get pay and a half!

Tomorrow is my day off, but I have to go to a meeting with my manager. :(

Also, is there a rule that the one and only washing machine at a hotel has to break on the Saturday of a three day weekend when said hotel is fully booked? Really? Cause, it seems to happen frequently. If not the washer, then something else as crucial. We ran out of coffee because our occupancy has been higher than normal what with all the firemen in the northstate fighting the numerous fires, and the fact that said firemen drink A LOT of coffee, and of course the company which provides said coffee is not working this weekend (solved by a trip to Safeway). Anyway, today was a day of fruitless phone calls.

I'm hunting for a purple steering wheel cover for my new car, I found a perfect one online with dragonflies (I love dragonflies) - but its no longer manufactured :(

Isn't it pretty:


*sigh*

Ebay?

#126 - pinterest? etsy? I thought of you the other night, Seanie. I chose the desktop and colors for my husband's new laptop and I picked the Koala photo and purple colors. :)

I hunted ebay to no avail - plenty of animal print purples which I'm a bit unsure about, lol...

But I found a custom place & have ordered:

Cost a bit more than they should (especially once shipping was added) but I think they'll be cute & I really do need some purple for inside my car :)

Yay for your husband's laptop being Seanie'fied, lol :)

I had two days off work this week, and while I was gone, the IT department have upgraded us from Windows XP to Windows 7. So far I am not impressed.

#130 Believe me, if you'd been one of us who were previously stuck with the execrable abhorrence that was Vista you'd love Windows 7 ;-)

I have experienced Vista and feel your pain. I am truly thankful that it was not inflicted on us at work.

In 2008 I left my previous employment where Windows 7 was the standard OS and arrived in my current company to find a desktop upgrade in progress. They were upgrading to "Vista".

Arrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

#133 Now 'upgrading to Vista' must be the perfect oxymoron (or maybe I'm spending too much time in Pedants' Corner).

#134, No, I think you got it just right.

Windows 7 has been out THAT long???? I bought a new machine, after the cmos battery leaked (the display on the screen looked positively psychedelic!) a couple of years ago with Win 7 Home Premium and upgraded it to 7 Pro.

I understand Win 8 has a completely different desktop with connections for all types of mobile gadgets and NO start menu (which I rarely use anyhow). I don't even USE mobile gadgets!

Phone survey people, we have gotten at least 10 calls in the last week from blocked numbers that start with "Have you decided who to vote for?" or "Can I speak to a male/female voter in the house for a survey?" or "Would you consider voting for (insert presidential candidate)?"

No, to all of the above!! Stop calling and take me off your list!! Gah!!!! This is the first election we have a land line. Considering the reason we got it is never the reason we use it. I am about ready to toss it all together!

I do not answer my land line. If it important they will leave a message and I can chose whether to return the call.

Usually I screen my calls also,but if I hear and recognize the caller (e.g. sister, mom or co-worker) I'll answer.
If it is a political or other survey, I will tell them politely but firmly to remove my name from the list as I don't like surveys. If it is one of those annoying robocalls, I'll just delete it as I've already registered on the Federal "Do not call" list; and yes, if a recorded call is important enough I'll return it. I do not use a cell phone, to me they are unnecessary and superfluous (as is a "tablet", etc.)

When I was living in Wisconsin, we had someone call our landline (was staying at the in-laws' at the time) during the fiasco where the democrats fled the state. "Tell them to come back and do their job."  Oh, how I wish I'd saved it...but it wasn't my machine. *le sigh*

(Win7 wasn't in production until mid-2009; anyone running it prior to that was on some beta variant... and big corporation IT departments just don't do that.)

My FWG is that I have to go up 4:30 AM tomorrow, for a day in Gothenburg. Or, to be more precise - a day on the train. And I'm not yet 100% free from the flu.
Oh well.

I have two degrees (a Bachelor of Arts and an Associates of Applied Science), and I'm currently using neither of them.  I've also posted this under the Depression Support group, because I am feeling lousy over it.  I'm not too proud to accept input.  You don't have to be nice, but please be fair.

I have a degree in Criminal Justice. I am now an ordained pastor. There was some time and another degree between those two and I felt like crap about it. Honestly, years later I still sometimes feel a little regretful about it, but it's not nearly as bad and very rare. So, in short, it gets better, it really does. They may come in handy down the line, you never know.

Exercise, fresh air, physical exertion of some kind, makes a huge difference. Also, therapy from professionals is always an option. Good luck.

I did respond to the two degrees issue on the other thread but I have one other comment, "I made the best decisions I could, at the time, knowing what I knew then."

I have a BS in Meteorology and Oceanography. Have I ever been asked to forecast the weather or chart an ocean bottom? No. I work in a library - completely unrelated to my degree. However, I am a firm believer that the work has given me confidence to take on just about anything. I would not have had this confidence if I didn't have a degree. My best friend has no degree and feels it is too late to pursue it now and regrets it. Please, everyone, do not feel that you have wasted time and money getting a degree.

142 - By using it, do you mean applying the content you learned directly? My understanding of the role of a BA is that it's partly about learning a specific set of knowledge, but equally importantly, it's about demonstrating that you know how to learn new things, research, think critically and express an argument logically. If your work requires you to do a combination of those things, you're using your BA.

My students, in first-year (or freshman year, if you will), aren't necessarily good at thinking logically about things. At first, when I ask them a question about new content, they panic and don't answer because the whole thing's confusing. So I teach them to work out the things that they *do* know, and then use that knowledge to work out the rest. On the surface, I'm teaching them about the structures of language (which is very important for their career development), but I'm also teaching them how to approach a complex problem that seems too difficult.

By the end of their degree, students are much better at approaching a new and unfamiliar problem, because now they know how to start: What do I know, what do I need to know and how do I work it out? That's an essential skill that will work well for them, even if they decide they want to change their specialisation completely.

Edit: That said, I can understand your frustration. There was a long time where I was convinced I'd never get a job that had anything to do with my major. As it is, I'm half out of it, but it's enough. Is there a way you can use your previous major(s) in your current position with extras. If you were working in a library, perhaps a themed area or workshop about your area of expertise would be appropriate.

143:  I definitely need exercise!  I worked out all the time my freshman and sophomore year, but garbage put a halt on that, and I've been struggling ever since.

The BA definitely helps with working in a bookstore.  A high schooler came in looking for a book with social commentary.  I asked about the perameters, saw the list, and asked her if she had to choose something form that list.  She did not, so I handed her a copy of Ender's Game and Seventh Son, explaining how she might use either of those, if she were so inclined.

I've just been feeling guilty about the AAS in massage therapy when I'm not using it.  I struck gold with my first MT job, and now I can't find anything that fits my personality.  This adds to my guilt because many will say, "A job is a job; swallow your pride!"  Granted, as @maggie1944 pointed out, it was the best decision I could make at the time, given what I knew.  I couldn't know that, a year and a half later, my husband would be contacted for an awesome job of his own.  I was planning on being the main bread winner while he gained steam doing what he enjoys, so I'm at a serious loss since the roles have been reversed.

A job is a job; swallow your pride!

This is a polite pub; otherwise, my comment would involve round, bouncy things. There is also such a thing as a square peg in a round hole. But it sounds as if the bookstore may be made to fit your talents better than you know.

Thank you, @hfglen.

Here's one round, bouncy thing. :)

(I'm expecting music to start, so I can sing along).

*SEXIST, PROFILING, POLITICALLY INCORRECT COMMENTS BELOW, PLEASE SKIP IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED, I AM VENTING STEAM* Also, I am a woman with three children who was a homemaker and homeschooler for years and has now gone back to work so her husband can retire, so understand, this really is tongue-in-cheek.

I'm kinda tired with craziness at work. Silly girls having babies, getting married and wanting better jobs. The nerve! Now I have one on maternity leave, two getting married in October. The one I hired to fill in for the one on maternity leave just got hired at her dream job to fill in for another woman who is going on maternity leave. This was all supposed to happen the end of October when mine came back from maternity leave, but the other one went on leave a month early, so my fill-in can't fill in long enough. Meanwhile the other one getting married plans on starting a family right away. I really do understand why companies used (?) to discriminate against hiring young women. This is insanity. Please understand I do not begrudge any of these women their joy, I am happy for them, and I will continue to hire the best person for the job regardless of age, sex, religion, race or what have you.

That is all.

I hear your pain and stress, MrsLee. But that is "why they pay you the BIG BUCKS" - right? (sarcasm, with a big grin) Hopefully, some young man will come along and be very highly qualified for the position of roving "fill-in" person for everyone's jobs. Sort of like a Substitute Teacher, who can, as we know, do everything as well or better than the regular teacher.

Good luck, friend.

Unless you live "off the grid", one of the things we all have is running water. Well, for at least the fourth time since I've moved into my apartment a year ago, there's trouble with the water lines that have to be fixed. Not going to have any water today from about 9AM until an ANTICIPATED finish time of 4PM. Have several pails filled with water to use for flushing. AT least it's not winter. We had no heat either during those shutdowns.

#151 MrsLee, you remind me of a phase in my life when I had to go from Pretoria to monthly meetings in Johannesburg -- 35 miles on the map but 2 hours of gridlock each way. Anyhoo, the publisher in Jhb had a PA (*rolls eyes*) who was sweet, but whose eyes lit up when the sunlight fell on her ear. So one day the PA phoned me saying her boss wanted to know about somebody a tree was named after. Without thinking I slipped into my best Peter Sellers accent and started "He voss a Cherman ...". When I finished this bright young thing said "And what company did you say he was chairman of?" Oy vay.
Shortly after the gang enjoyed this gaffe to the full, she got herself pregnant, dumped her boyfriend and quit her job, in that order. Sounds like one of yours.

#153 I live in a fairly upmarket suburb of an allegedly civilised city. The water lines were put in about 50 years ago. It is only in the last 2 or 3 years that they have been fixed in such a way that stopping one leak doesn't cause them to burst immediately somewhere else. So what you describe was almost a weekly occurrence. (Though it must be admitted that Durban City Council were organized enough to send a tanker round for residents to fill up from every time it happened.)

And by the way, due to the lie of the land, most of Durban runs on septic tanks rather than municipal sewerage. That can go spectacularly wrong, too.

#153 - That sounds like the campus apartment I lived in; the water main wigged out a few times a year, and it burst at least once (which did happen in the winter!).&nsbp; Fast-forward about five years: Aside from the toilet, the business I work for hasn't had water for a couple of days due to renovations.&nsbp; We're small and have friendly neighbors, so it hasn't been terrible, and once the renovations are finished, it'll be a thousand times better.  It's just a pain, in the meantime.

#151 - Irony of ironies, I was just discussing this with someone elsewhere.  Basically how young couples decide to start having children so soon while they're still trying to launch their career, and how unfair the whole thing is on so many levels.  The bulk of the conversation was very unapologetic; just "here's the situation" and "here are the contributing factors" and "here's what we'd have to compromise to fix it".  A major factor was rethinking how we do families.  I'll just leave it at that, because we'd need a knew thread just for that conversation alone.

#151 - Now that I'm teaching into an extremely female-dominated profession, I went to the local meeting for people who work across the region (about 20 people representing 120-150 people) where they discuss recent resource acquisitions, job changes, open positions, etc. About half of the meeting was discussing who was taking over for who for marriages and maternity leave. Most people employed in the area are women aged 20-35, so it's no surprise, but it did make me wonder how frustrating it must be to work out all of the maternity leave. It's pretty much a given that a new employee will have maternity leave within the first 5 years. (And do you think management budgets for that? Why would they think of budgeting for maternity leave when 90% of their employees - nurses, physios, occupational therapists, speech therapists, admin staff, etc. - are young women).

#155 This was just within my apartment complex, so it only affected about 50 units. But this time around it was twice as many as the earlier problems. Other than saying "Sorry for the inconvenience", the apartment management didn't seem too concerned about the residents. After all, it was a time of day when most people probably wouldn't be home anyway, and if anyone in the sections involved needed to do wash, we could just go to the laundry rooms in sections that still had water.

#156 As far as I know we haven't had any of the mains serving the complex burst. Except for one incident involving just the hot water, we've gotten advance warning on all the shut offs. Two incidents tho were bad enough that I saw them digging up pipes to work on them.

Heh, well, to be fair, boys/men bring their own set of issues to a job. It just happens right now that they are all women. :) Not that the boys/men are women, but the people having issues are women. ;)

Hugh, our hotel maintenance man would empathize about the pipes, stopping one leak makes others burst out. It is our biggest nightmare right now. I'm trying to get the company to put new pipes in before the most excellent maintenance man we've ever had quits in frustration. Not to mention the repeated damage to the hotel and its reputation. sigh.

Our building, a 16 story co-op, was opened in the early 60's and so we have issues with the old piping/equipment. The water has to be shut off from time to time partly or totally, depending on the circumstance, but we are given plenty of notice.
During real cold weather there IS a danger of pipes bursting. Several years ago during a particularly frigid winter, on a Sunday, a pipe burst in a unit on my floor at the other end of the hall. I was totally unaware of it until noticing a lot of stuff in the hallway. The property manager and a maintainence worker were busily leaning up the water/ trying to dry it out

Leaning up the water???

(Earlier this evening, I caught myself thinking about the apple cobbler "pattern" I'll be making for Saturday's knitting circle.)

oops,somehow the "c" got lost...

"Leaning up the water" reminded me of the chap who bought some water skis and spent the whole summer looking for a lake with a slope.

"c"...,sea.......see? (si!)

pgmcc - You are making me laugh tonight, thank you!

165

I am glad to be of service, MrsLee.

The network printer here at work is pretty awesome...it prints copies from teachers' computers; it's also a copy machine, which will collate and staple. Probably does some other neat tricks I don't yet know about. BUT...it defaults to "2 sided". For most of my print jobs, I need 1 sided, which has been the default on every other printer I've ever used. I am constantly forgetting to change the properties, and have to redo my print jobs.

On another technology FWG: the new library program is pretty easy to use, and has some really nifty things I like (MARC record go right into the collection, no saving and importing, yay!) BUT...I can't find any way to keep the computer from charging students library fines. School policy says we don't charge fines, but the computer says we do. And even though I've told teachers and students to ignore the fines on their overdue notices, students either try to pay the fine, or parents are upset b/c their child has a fine. So I have to spend time blacking out the fine on the overdue notices.

You should be able to change the fines in the settings of your program. We use Destiny and we can set different fines for different user profiles in the Library Policies section. Poke around a little to see if you can find it.

I have poked and repoked, and I can't figure it out. It's Follett Destiny (web). I know there's got to be a way to do it, though. Not today. School is done, and so am I. :)

On Destiny page - click on Back Office tab.
Select Library Policies.
Now you should have all the different patron types with the number of books they can check out, for how long, etc.
Click on the Edit button (little note pad with pencil) then change the field you want.
If you do not get these screens, you can request your Destiny administrator to make the changes for you.
Hope this helps.

Just encountered a wretched barista in my local Starbucks who seems to believe it is beneath her to both bag my purchase and provide me with a receipt. Wanted so bad to smack her and remind her that these are standard service levels in most retail environments. Crappy entitlement attitude!

>171 jillmwo:: A lot of Starbucks-type franchises here have a policy that the staff must give a receipt or the cost of your purchase is refunded to you. So yes, I think it's standard service too. Sounds as though that barista is in the wrong job!

don't patronize that place, so can't say.
If it is company policy and an employee acts otherwise it can reported to management.

In some countries you are not allowed to leave the premises of any place that sell you an object without carrying a receipt. And in general when places don't give them voluntarily tax evasion/black market money can be suspected.

In Italy Guardia di Finanza have been known to ambush customers leaving coffee shops, as a way to check if a place is involved with mob money. I'm sure that isn't the case with that Starbuck's place - just reflecting on cultural differences ;-)

#173 don't patronize that place

In your own charming way, I think you just did ;-)

Maybe it's not so much large-scale criminal activity as small: maybe the barista isn't ringing up the sale or is under-ringing it so as to pocket some money. Not that I would have had that thought if Busifer hadn't mentioned the mob!

...but agree that it IS a possibility?! Not that unusual, either, I suspect.

I've learned that some people don't mind ripping off big corporations, but they're perfectly respectful of small, locally owned businesses.

My latest FWG:  I haven't had much time to visit LT.

#178 - Almost no one mind ripping off big corporations and the reason is everybody know big corp's get their money from ripping customers and employees both off.
If I'm a low wage employee in a mega-corp working my a** off for them without getting any respect getting a few extras only feel just. Kind of.
But the usual case, at least where I am, is that no receipt means the shop owner is ducking their tax. The employee have other ways to get their stuff...

*heh* I accidentally stole shoelaces once, since I was too lazy to get a cart when I was carrying ~$30 worth of stuff.  I'd forgotten they were in my pocket.  And I've learned that, if you have small children, you might be aiding in theft without realizing it.  A couple families for whom I baby sat were horrified to discover that their toddlers had grabbed and consumed bags of candy from the checkout counter without anyone noticing! XD

>181 justjukka: lol they also help in aiding you in inadvertent theft. Yeah I was at Meijer's with twin 2yr olds, no cart as I was only intending on getting a couple things, and of course they kept acting up, so I stuck one thing inside another to keep my hands freer to keep rounding them up, and forgot about it by the time I got to the register. Whoops!

>175 Booksloth:

How do you figure??

I wanted to take a bath this morning, but discovered that the sides of the tub are scuzzy, so I have to scrub it first.  How does this happen?  Doesn't the tub get rinsed at least every other night when I shower?? :p

170--that's it! Finally had a few moments today to change the settings. I never noticed that little edit button. However, I had to run the overdue notices 3 times today...first, I forgot to click on the "homeroom" button, then I forgot to change the &*(!% default to 1 sided. Third time I finally got it right.

There is simply no end to the knowledge to be gained from fellow LT'ers, is there?!

I ambled into work this morning, fired up the register, and the til was practically empty! o_O
Got that sorted out with the boss as quickly as possible, but it would have made for an interesting day, to say the least.

#186 - I was just thinking the same thing!

#186, 188 Dragoneers in particular :-)

185 - I ran notices on Friday and was having problems with the printer. It would run part of the job, then stop partway through, then start from the beginning again. I changed the toner cartridge and then stood there fanning the machine in case it was overheating. I finally got them printed. I, too, have forgotten to ask it print in order of the homeroom and then spend twice as long sorting them out.

oh, the terror that those machines have over us

copy machines which wrinkle the originals

printers which run out of ink in the middle of the run

sorters which collate backwards (or is that an operator error?)

AND NOW we have a WIN 8 That to me IS A TOTAL REJECT!!!!

I installed the screen reader Jaws today, for demonstration purposes, and it changed the colour scheme of my desktop.

As Jaws is assistive tech targeted at blind people I can see why colour schemes are low priority. To me, however... etc ;-)

The story of the printer continues...
Remember this is a high school, full of patient and logical students.
Even though the printer is in the same room, for some reason the print job goes off on a round the world trip (several times) before finally printing. Our students, in their infinite wisdom, think that hitting "Print" again and again will rectify the problem. And of course, the more overdue the project, the more times they hit print.
Eventually the computer decides to do its job and spews job after job after job.
Hopefully we have told the student to return later. More often than not they don't get the message and the papers sit there dejected and not paid for.

This reminds me of the time a student complained that his computer was locked up. A glance at the toolbar on the bottom of the screen showed no less than 79 browser windows open!

Absolutely Brilliant

God bless the developed nations!

If my townhouse were properly insulated, I would never need to worry about heating.  Alas, it is not properly insulated and the windows leak like sives, so I'm given the choice of getting the pilot light lit (which will make my house smell funny for several hours) so I can run the heater, or getting thick curtains to go over my windows, which will mean I need to turn the lights on earlier.  There's also a clear space under my front door that allows air to seep in/out.  I could also seal the windows with window cling, but there are days where, even in winter, the house needs some fresh air, so a window needs to be opened.

Does that sound first-worldy enough?  I was going for partial pompousness, but I am also irritated with the misuse of materials.  And I need to learn how to crochet so my new little ones won't be cold.

196 - We have that problem in Australia, too. Although some parts of Australia are tropical paradises (like where I live now), other parts (like where I used to live) is like living barely south of DC - everything but snow. For some reason, that hasn't occurred to the people who want to build houses for as little money as possible so they can sell it for more money, so they build them with single brick, no double glazing, breezy doors and windows that don't close in the bathroom, despite temperatures that are regularly below freezing in winter. Oh, and central heating is considered a big luxury. Yes, FWG and all that, but still - there's evidently no pre-planning going on.

I turn on the hot water and it comes gushing out cold.  As it warms up, it reduces to a mere trickle.  Anyone else have this problem?

I only have that problem, Rozax, when someone else turns on the cold water while I'm in the shower.

198 - I have a similar problem, but its coz I have a solar hot water system... In the shower I have to have the hot tap turned on full & only just nudge the cold tab (so I dont get scalded), but the pressure is pretty bad, makes washing long hair a pain!!!

I've reached my LT limit to catalog for free...my husband is at a meeting and I have no idea what his PayPal account is...I have 5 new books to catalog...

>201 theretiredlibrarian:

When that was about to happen, I either e-mailed or checked the LT info page, sent a check to the address in Maine and got an e-mail back from Abby (then LT librarian) saying that I was now official. I will NOT do any internet financial transactions, the old way is infinitely more secure and reliable

I am a biker and I ride the train to work.  There is one station between the one on my end and the one near the shop.  That's only 3 stations out of 30.  There are people who get on first thing in the morning on the first train at the first station, and park themselves in the bike car.  Why do they do this?  While they are sitting there in the bike car, while there is plenty of time for them to seat themselves elsewhere, I must stand by my bike, thus getting in the way of others who are boarding and stowing their own bikes.  I understand "first come, first serve", but honestly, let's think this through!

#202 - So, scribblings on a piece of printed paper, put in the mail and up for grabs, is more secure than encrypted ones and zeroes up for grabs? ;)

Honestly, in Sweden I think it has been at least 10 years since the system with checks went out of use. I certainly haven't seen a check since 1982. (I take it you mean the check book kind of check.)

Next Thursday I'll speak at a local World Usability Day event, and Brett King will be the main speaker. He's on about Banking 2.0 and he usually has a schtick about how ridiculous the check account idea is to modern kids. Will not raise an eyebrow here, for sure - there will be people in the audience who will not understand of what he speaks.

Mind you, I do understand your concern. When I bought my first book from Amazon, back in 1995 or so (back when their customers still got Christmas gifts mailed to them, personally signed by Jeff Bezos) I emailed half of my credit card number, sending the other half over fax.
I still doesn't understand how I dared.

I still use checks which I write personally and I like them because there are very few eyes on them. No government necessarily will be able to see them, easily. I know there are copies available, but sometimes it just feels like being a little bit off the grid, which has advantages. Plus since I've spent the majority of my adult life writing checks it gives me an intuitive take on how much money I've spent, and how much I have left in the checking account. That "sense of the amount" does not arrive in my intuition if everything I buy or pay for is done on credit cards, and all the records are in the cloud. I know this makes me very old fashioned, but I think there is value in it.

>204 Busifer:

The server can get wiped out, the power statiom could get wiped out, hackers could break in and empty your bank account (regardless of the alleged "security").
Suppose there were a massive blackout like hat happened ion the east coast of the USA in 1965 or the one that happened in, I think, the 1990's. I wasn't affected by that one, it was mostly New York, but the '65 one affected the entire Northeast for at least 3 days; it was due to a power relay switch failure at Niagra Falls. I happened to be at a boarding school at the time and recall vividly while studying , the wall light flickering and then everything plunging into darkness.

There is still going to be a lot of back-and-fourth, pro and con and there is a lot beyond the few points above but I'll stick with the convenience of paper as long as I can.

;) I never intended to speak pro or con one or the other - I only wanted to point out that neither way is safe.
The banks doesn't store anyhing on paper, it's all computers. So if the bank gets hacked or electricity is down it doesn't matter what type of account you have. What matter then is if you have cash. And that very few has today, at least where I live.

Yeah, I'm with @Busifer here. Any large retailer is completely secure online, just as much as sending a check through the mail is. Any hacker that breaks into a bank is insane. The penalty for such an offense is massive, and they would be caught. It just doesn't happen. Hackers break into regular websites, but they target regular sites to try and get email & password info so that they can then use that to try and get other stuff. As long as you keep unique "strong" passwords everywhere, you have very little to worry about. Not to mention that all banks & credit card companies have programs that watch spending and report anything they feel is "unusual" immediately, and they will all remove/reimburse disputed charges if something happened before being noticed.

Witness how one of my cards got revoked recently only because I had used it at a hotel that might - MIGHT - had been involved in some card fraud; more accurately I think a card holder whose card had been nicked had stayed at the same place, so altogether incidental.
These things can get extremely expensive for the banks, at least in Sweden they reimburse the card holder no matter what, to keep the customer, and they rather evade that expense by some proactive footwork (security measures, transaction analysis, et al).

I tend to be more annoyed that the banks are overprotective (for my own benefit) when it comes to that. OH and I have both had our cards frozen for online transactions that were potentially dangerous. It makes me feel pretty confident that the bank has my back in this (even if they'll screw me backwards twice from Sunday in fees and charges given the chance).

>210 by @Choreocrat, I know, it irritates me also. I live overseas (shhh!) so several times they've dinged me as Oh no! Fraudulent! Americans can't possibly travel! Or use non-American companies! But at least I know I should be safe were anything real to ever actually happen.

I like keeping cash around. Regularly. In places where no house thief would look

I really get annoyed when stores look at me like I'm crazy to offer them cash. Regardless of how cashless the banks want us to be, it is legal tender. And I don't like being told by banks what I should be doing. Rebellious little thing, aren't I?

haha Maggie, you should live in Europe instead. In the US, for some strange reason, it's become incredibly atypical for people to use cash. Tons of people don't even carry any on them! Everything is credit/debit cards. But Europeans very rarely use credit cards, many don't even have them at all. Sometimes people will use their bank cards (which have a chip - they don't swipe, and need PINs - no pretending it's a "regular" credit card & using it w/o the PIN), but I'd say at least a good 65% or more is cash. I even see people using hundred note bills with a relative amount of frequency. In the States you rarely ever see that, and a number of places won't even accept them!

207-

Part of what I meant was leaving a paper trail, some of which is bank generated, some of which is self generated..
Look at the people in Lower Manhattan or Staten Island, NY, or the Jersey coast. NO POWER! Yet these same people have severe flooding issues: How many have COMPLETELY lost everything, especially paper, due to the 'Frankenstorm?
Nothing in this life experience 100%, regardless of what some may want or wish (and no, I refuse to use that overworn and threadbare cliche).

Good point: the one thing you can count on - Change

things always change

In case of a severe earthquake (which is my local biggest disaster threat) - I have a stash of important stuff near my door. Grab and go! But sometimes, even the best planning and stashing will do no good. And then it is one more big life challenge to live through.

#213 - Well, that depends on nation. In Sweden cash is becoming unusual and really, debit cards are the most common method of payment. I am not the least unusual in that I have one debit and one credit card - in fact many have even more cards than that, though they are not issued by a traditional bank. If you try to buy gas cash you'll get eyed and many public transport systems don't do cash at all, due to the robbery risk - the unions or the national labour safety agency will close the service down else.

My mum, though, only pay with cash, and have no mobile phone. Because she doesn't want Big Brother watching her. But it is becoming increasingly hard for her to conduct business and she manages mainly because she haven't ever taken a bank loan (and never will).

Well, I've traveled around over a dozen countries in Europe, including Sweden (3yrs ago), and we paid strictly with cash for anything we did there (and everywhere else). And it was certainly not outside the norm.

No, because you're not from here it is accepted, and all shops still do cash. But the difference from only three years ago is huge - I'd say the situation is vastly changed from only a year and a half and in for example Stockholm you will not be allowed to pay cash on public transport. If you don't have a bus pass you have to pay using your mobile (huge controversy over this).

Can you buy a bus pass for cash? And really public transportation is a special case and most will understand. Back in the good old days you would buy Transit Tokens. That way you pay cash, in a sense, and the robbery is not a big threat. What would you do with a jar full of Transit Tokens?

Well here you can only use cash for public transit tickets. For the longer passes you could probably use a bank card also, since you'd have to go to a person in one of the special kiosk-like things, but we paid in cash the first two times, and the next two they sent the papers in the mail for renewing (the first time we only received one instead of two) so a money transfer was done directly then by going online & using the info from the form. But for a single ride, or for a 10-ride ticket, cash only. And that's what I've experienced everywhere I've been. You have to pay for those things in cash.

Yeah, same here in Minnesota, US. Public transportation is cash or tickets. You can buy tickets online or in a store with whatever you want - cash, debit/credit, check - but to actually get on a bus/train you need cash or ticket only.

same in Connecticut

I don't know about the places where all of you live, obviously, but I have the impression that at least in the US public transport generally is not that widespread?
It is the same in parts of Sweden but in the big city regions it is a common way of transportation, whether you're low income or high. So, being cash or pass or ticket would make sense. Not in Stockholm, though. It is possible to pay tickets or passes with cash but only at selected outlets. Which is insane, given the wide use public transport has.
Frankly, it is the fastest and most reliable way to get from A to B on time.

Edited, because it is so hard to write on the phone ;)

That matches the Hong Kong style - all public transport is done with an Octopus Card. You can't use cash, except as a way to top it up (and most people don't seem to do that - they'll just transfer direct from the bank), and you can use it in a whole lot of small supermarkets and corner stores as well. They encourage you to only keep a relatively small amount on there, though, just like you wouldn't carry around a lot of cash in person. I really liked it. I have my octopus card from when I was there. That reminds me, I should see if I can put a little money on it so it stays valid.

Nope, public transport isn't that prevalent in the US. It's big place and so most people live in small towns or cities where it's very limited. I'd have to walk miles to catch a bus.

Yeah it's quite limited in the US except in the few largest cities, but even there it's not remotely how it is in Europe. Sad. And just for the record, I live in Belgium.

And @Choreocrat, as I was just saying above, in many countries most people do carry plenty of cash on them, as it's the standard means of payment.

I crossed the line into politics with 227 so I decided to throw it into the circular file. Sorry.

OK, we now have the little green arrow so It is time...