Random thoughts and questions

Speaking of trains (again), tonight a woman was standing next to me (I was seated, since everything was A-OK this evening and my station was not jammed full of humanity) and she was holding on with one hand and holding an ereader in the other. To change the page on her ereader she would tap the screen with her nose.

Who the fuck decided drawstrings should be used on sweatpants rather then an elastic waist? Seriouslly, spend the extra nickel. Or better yet, remove the fucking elastic at the end of each leg and put it into the waist.

Jesus, I swear total morons run these companies.

What the hell is going on with my hair dryer that makes it only function when plugged into the kitchen outlets?

I do not want to be drying my hair in the kitchen! It's unsanitary! Not to mention cluttered!

Borrowing my mom's laptop to finish a programming project for some company AND THE GODDAMN LEFT ARROW KEY DOES NOT WORK.

What did you dooo mother what did you dooooooooooo?!

It's like I'm being shot in the face over and over and over again.

edit: GOD DAMN IT YOU CAN'T DOCK PROGRAMS AGAINST THE SIDE IN VISTA WTFFFFFF

Older house? It could be that it has shit wiring, but it was upgraded in the kitchen because of the large appliances.

Glad I'm staying home for Thanksgiving.

Try plugging a vacuum cleaner or a wire heater into those outlets. If those don't work it's probably an issue with amp draw. Also try plugging in a curling iron or, er, I don't know any other stuff ladies use in the bathroom, something that is or should be GFCI protected and see if it works. If it doesn't, you could have a fault or a bad GFCI receptacle but the GFCI is still indicating good. Either of those are "notify maintenance" situations. (Unless, of course, this is an apartment unit that is vintage and hasn't been remodeled recently and therefore doesn't meet any newer NEC code and you still have two prong outlets, in which case: ABANDON SHIP. Not really, but I hate that shit.)

If both of those tests pass then your hair dryer might just not work anymore. You could probably buy a lower wattage one and limp along if you have electrical issues, but, eh, apartment, they should fix them.

Similar question: We have a 1980 house. When I used a hair dryer in the bathroom, and the computers were on, the lights noticably dim. (We've fortuitously solved this by moving the computers to another area for unrelated reasons.) Apparently our 1980 wiring is not up to 2012 electrical demands.

Our light bulbs, including the fancy $12 "last forever" bulbs, burn out regularly. No idea if these problems are connected.

Any ideas why this would happen, whether it may be related to the first problem, or how we would fix either or both of these? We own the house so calling the landlord isn't an option. I imagine getting the house rewired would be.... pricey. But I suppose it needs to go on the ever-lengthening "when we have spare money" list along with repainting the exterior, yanking out the decaying wooden planter boxes that are better anchored than our fence, replacing our fence, and so much more.

That's almost definitely the case. Older homes may have 10A circuits (which will flip instantly with a hair dryer on them) or oversubscribed 15A circuits. Kitchens are less likely to have issues because they're the most commonly remodeled rooms, and during remodeling new, dedicated circuits are often brought in. In addition kitchens require higher amperage circuits (fridges, microwaves and electric stoves consume a lot of current) and code now stipulates that many devices have a dedicated circuit.

Net effect is that a kitchen will have fewer shared circuits, and those circuits will be beefier than what you see in the rest of a typical house.

There's a thread dedicated to this over here, btw.

Your specific issue could be too many devices on a single circuit or not enough feed to the house. Post in the other thread if you want a more comprehensive answer. /threadcop =)

I actually have no idea how old this apartment is, but I'll check the remaining outlets with the vacuum. (The hair dryer is brand-new, so I dearly hope it's not that part.) When we moved in, we discovered at least three outlets where only one socket works, so I'm assuming the wiring has entirely gone to shit, if it wasn't shit in the first place. Thanks, all!

Thanks! forgot about that thread! I think I might have even posted there before. <3

also very interesting point about kitchen remodels!

I just watched the video for Mr. Roboto for the first time in many years and reflexively felt embarrassed for everyone involved in the making of it.

A plate of stuffing and a glass of red wine make a fantastic and much needed end to Thanksgiving.

Why do I know nothing, nothing about Korean history between 1560 and 1910? (i.e. the bit inbetween the Japanese invasions)

Seriously, it is like a black hole of history. What was Korea doing (or not doing) for 350 years that means it has left no impression on me? Just about anywhere else, I could at least come up with something, but Korea? Nope.

Domo arigato.

That whole album turned me off Styx forever.

Nibbles, a starter and a main course for seven people is fecking expensive. Them bollixes better at least bring me a bottle of booze.

So I'm watching movies while working on shit. 90% of them are the following plot:

"some dude does a thing and then a woman has sex with him"

BUT NOT SPARTACUS!

plot of spartacus:

"dude does a thing and then he and his friends are crucified for trolling another dude"

Spartacus totally had sex in there somewhere. His wife had a baby and showed Baby Spartacus his crucified father.

Cuz, y'know, be proud and stuff.

"That's what I did to your father because he did the least amount of domestic work in Europe; maybe you should remember that growing up."

"well if you say so internet!"

OH MAN.
Took dog to vet the same day I made my post.
Got him ear creams, learned that it's seasonal (which explains why the last time this happened, it was in Spring. The doctor gave him a shot for it back then, but it apparently didn't stick) and that he has ears that produce a bit more wax than usual.
Now he is fine. No more scratching.
He's 100% a-okay.

UPDATE.

The realization that PS3 has a Hulu+ app means that my XBox Live account will go null for the first time in ten years come December 18th.

I feel so liberated!

You're like, months behind on this. It's also got an Amazon app.

But no HBO Go, thus I must find a deal on a 12-month Xbox Live subscription before December 15th.

I had a year long subscription. Canceling it earlier wouldn't have gotten me $20 back or something. I had no reason to check and see if they'd added Hulu+ to PS3 until now. So no, I'm zero months behind on this.

Why stuffing?

There was at least one 12-month XBL Gold deal posted on slickdeals.net today.

Video game motion sickness is kind of the suck. #fwp

I get that for Portal 2. Which is a shame; everyone says it's this great game, but I can't do the first puzzle without feeling sick to my stomach.

/sympathy like n' hug. :<

I lasted about three hours in Portal 1; ten minutes in Thief (didn't even make it out of the intro); and an hour for Amnesia. So far TF2 has been okay for about an hour, but I can feel that this too will have to stop soon.

I'm so sorry. D:
What helps for me is if I'm not playing it as much as watching it, if that makes sense. For instance, I could sit through an LP of Portal just fine. Something about actually playing it is just the root.

Actually, watching Amnesia is what made me sick. I don't really understand it, but thankfully I'm not much of an FPS gamer. :)

Well that's good. I-I think?
There are plenty of amazing non-FPS games! AMAZING.

When else are you going to gorge on savory bird pudding?

A bottle of merlot and a slice of boysenberry pie make for a first rate dessert, as I have just discovered.

So you beat the game?

I get migraines from certain video games. It's not much fun, either.

I remember going to a friend's house and watching him play a bit of Portal 1. After a few levels I had a powerful headache and felt close to throwing up. I've played through both Portals since then so something must have changed - the FoV perhaps - but yes, when it hits you it's not fun at all.