And a new thing I've noticed, at the convenience store, or the liquor store, picking up cigarettes or vodka, clerks that complete the entire transaction without letting go of their phone or speaking to you, you speak, tell them what you want, they get it, ring it up, take your money and make change, all while gibbering in a foreign language to the invisible, irrelevant other. I catch the eye of another older gentleman, he's thinking the same thing:
"Unbelieveable, isn't it?" he tells me. I only nod, I don't want to interrupt the clerk...
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Finish work, 9:30, an early night, the sun's been down about half an hour. The jeep, parked beside the restaurant, rear passenger window smashed, stolen, my pair of skates (I was getting rather fond of them), they left the friend's pair, they won't fit me, and some glowsticks on the floor. That's it. $500 damage for well under a hundred dollars worth of stolen goods that probably won't fit...
Fuck, I gotta get out of this town. And everywhere on the ride home, cops issuing tickets, photo-radar, in Calgary this is "Policing" or "Detective Work", the half-wits version of Scotland Yard, anything above and beyond issuing traffic tickets or photo-radar is completely beyond their scope and ability...
...and your income, half of what it was formerly, fuck, I'm lucky to have a job, but the cops, they're working overtime issuing tickets, it's a fucked economy where everybody pays but the snivel servants...
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Now, bought the 7.99 London Drugs Cassette Adapter. And looking at moving some music onto my Samsung Galaxy Touch pad so I can have some tunes while I'm on the road.
Only the Micro SD Card with Adapter isn't recognized by my computer. HP Elitebook 2540p. I've been here before...
In a demonstration of Passive Aggressive Genius the computer doesn't even detect my new SD Card. No recognition whatsoever. Nothing. The Cut Indirect.
"(2) The cut indirect, to look another way, and pretend not to see him."
I've dealt with this before, invested a minimal of time searching for answers, downloads, drivers & cures online. It's a Windows thing. Windows doesn't play well with others.
Like a fucking little Autistic squib in the playground, it barely recognizes it's own spawn and progeny, so busy is it with scanning, reflecting, diagnosing, upgrading itself...
The Nikon Camera. Windows didn't even slightly recognize. Acknowledge. Plug it in, download drivers, reboot, etc, repeat, again and again, never did it recognize Nikon. Solution, finally, move Nikon files to Linux machine, upload to Google Images.
This is how Windows fixes a lot of it's shit, relying on the user to come up with creative and elaborate workarounds to their shitty and proprietary coding.
Follow this with Android - Samsung Galaxy phone. Attempts to transfer files on phone were met with countless suggestions to update, download new drivers, never arriving at a real solution. The final solution, of course, was to upload files to Google Drive or Images, and download again to PC. Actually, here I jest, the real final solution would be to hunt down the lead developer at Windows and kill him, but we still have some prejudices against this...give it a few more years and you'll see the light...
(1) The cut direct is to stare an acquaintance in the face and pretend not to know him.
The same with the Tablet, any attempts to directly sync with Tablet (damned Android, Galaxy, Samsung again!) result in the suggestion of countless downloads and drivers that squander time, memory and resources to no effect. Like Donald Trump, or Every White Supremacist you've ever met, Windows does not play well with others. The solution will always be the same, find another, non-proprietary unit, non-windows, move files there (the friendly OS, Linux, Even sounds friendly, like Linus from Charlie Brown...), move files there, upload to server, download to Windows, and I'm thinking of skipping a step, what step to skip, what's the common denominator here? and always, the one that doesn't play well with others is Windows.
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I'm tired of putting myself through the commercial radio stations. Can't do it, forever scanning the airwaves looking for something decent to listen to, trying to imagine my life on the road, prospecting, 8, 12, 16 hours a day driving, listening to this shit, lucky if you catch even just one good song an hour...
"...You can call my on my cell phone..". Fucking hell. Buddy, if I called you on your cell phone ass hole it'd be to find out where you were so I could track you down and shoot you. You've done for music what Donald Trump has done for politics.
Anyways, I've decided this will end, I have a perfectly great car stereo left over from the Jetta, but no time to install it (or no son, he's in Victoria...). And so I pop by Westbrook Mall to find some options. Into the Source...formerly Radio Shack, they have what I'm looking for. NextTech, the offbrand of offbrands, kinda like V-Tech and other anonymous tech names that no educated consumer would touch with a ten-foot pole. It's $39.99. Seems a bit pricey, maybe I should shop around a bit, I never go shopping for new shit, I'm a pretty bad consumer...
Not worth my time, I buy it, with tax it comes to 41.99. The salesman looks at me with dead eyes, tries to upsell me a ten years supply of value priced off-brand AA batteries. I must look like a real pervert. I politely decline. He asks if I'd like to, for an extra $8.00, purchase their extended warranty, these particular cassette adapters have a known issue with the plug breaking off, for an extra $8.00 they'll replace the plug, twice, over 3 years, no questions asked...
This is the lamest thing ever. And I've experience with the Source's Extended Warranty program...it's fucking shit. I decline. He offers to take my email, put me on their spam mailing list. Is everyone that shops here such a sucker, I wonder? No thanks.
$41.99 later and I have a vaguely uneasy feeling and my cassette adapter, now to find an MP3 player. Nothing great, just something that takes batteries (I don't wanna be charging it) and holds a lot of music. The Source has nothing, and so I shop around...bad quality MP3 players, designed to look like Ipods, $30, $40 bucks a pop, more even, for a lousy 2 or 4 GB memory, this is the gift the saddest kid on the block got at Christmas, I can hear him screaming just looking at it..."I asked for an IPHONE!!!", name's like "Hip Street" and "Cool Tunes" tell you just how uncool they are...
I head to London Drugs, and their MP3 players, like everywhere else, hold nothing, don't take batteries, $50, $100, WTF? Why not just buy a Tablet? Laptop? I mean, for the price...bloody hell...
But they do have a cassette adapter. $7.99. Unbelievable.
Now, a dollar or two, three, five, ten even, I'd swallow the loss, shoulda shopped around. But this boils my blood...
...Back to the Source, $5.00 Gas, this is their strategy, hopefully it's just not worth the suckers time to return it, it's not worth mine but they're not getting my money, fuckers, return cassette adapter, the manager assists me, asking innocuously why I'm returning it...
"Because I found it for $8.00 at London Drugs." I reply. I'm visibly not impressed. He's got no reply, then, after collecting a load of irrelevant data tells me:
"Well, you know, the quality isn't all the same, if you decide you need a better one...". It's the best he can do, I get it, he's gotta try. But really, I could buy 3 of them, use up my extended warranty, for half the price they're selling them for.
My new slogan for "The Source" - "The Source of Dollarama Shit at Holt Renfrew Prices..." Really guys, get a fucking life. And get it together. When you finally close your doors forever don't blame the internet, blame yourselves for your fucked up exploitative pricing.
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- Category: Rants