A whole lot of frustration….

So, three weeks ago, I ordered an HDMI cable from Newegg specifically to connect my Win11 tower to my 55” TV. As of this morning it was still in California. There were several red flags that I’ve seen with this purchase. Normally Newegg ships brown. And they normally ship it they day after I order it. This case was no exception. It was shipped the day after I ordered it. But in this case it was dropped off at the UPS store (with as much shipping that Newegg does, one would assume they would do some sort of trailer drop). But there wasn’t much I could do. Just check the tracking number and wait. And wait. And wait. Apparently somewhere in California it got delayed. And then I realized there was no way to contact a live person at Newegg. It was all chat-bots and AI. Which is really disrespectful to your customers. Anyway found there support handle on Twitter/X, and I let them have it. They can now consider me to be a former customer. It wasn’t the sipping issues. It was being forced to use AI and chat-bots. I don’t really care about getting my money back. I do care about being treated like a person.

And later on this morning, I went to make a payment on my Worst Buy card. And they decided while logging in to my Best Buy credit card account to re-enroll me in My Best Buy. And I decided it was enough. I destroyed the card 8 years ago. I stopped shopping there back then, too. So today, I finally deleted my Best Buy account. Once upon a time, it served a purpose. Through the years, I had purchased 1 tower, one laptop, helped my boss at Mrs Fields buy a laptop there (which was eventually sold to me after he switched to a Mac) a video card, a cd burner, 2 dvd burners, a couple of hard drives, a bunch of dvd’s, way too many mouses and keyboards, and way too many cans of Grape NOS….

If you remember….

If you remember last January, I tried ordering from Uber Eats, only to have the driver drop it off at the wrong apartment, and then blow me off when I tried to call. I was able to get the cost of the food refunded, but I had to eat the loss on the tip. That was enough. I deleted the app from my phone, and that was the last time I ordered delivery through Uber.

Fast forward to this past week, when I decided I wanted a Whopper again. Redownloaded the app, and started to order from Burger King. And then I looked at the total. And promptly noped my way out of the app, and deleted it again. Monday night, I tried it again through Grubhub, and still 2 Whoppers and 2 Chicken Sandwiches were going to be over $50 before the tip (yes, I’ll tip on delivery orders out of respect for the gig economy and those who have to work it).

So I ended up ordering pizza again. Props to Dominos. And it was in fact cheaper than Burger King, too.

Yes, I’ll need a Whopper fix eventually. But not right now….

The Purge From Behind The TV….

So my 55” set is a Vizio flat panel. 10+ years old. But it still works. The previous TV was a 55” Sony projection TV. It was HUGE. Fortunately, I was able to have SBK Recycling pick it up (wasn't cheap either). Anyway, the Sony came with a stand, which I still use. The space behind the current TV is where my laptop is (just because it’s out of the way until I decide I was to play with Linux). And through the years, crap has accumulated. I experimented with an antenna (no signal, abandoned in place). And there where quite few HDMI cables. And one DVI-HDMI cable, too (can’t use it anymore as my current card doesn’t have a DVI port anymore0. And there was my old Echo (Christmas present from my brother many years ago before I decided I don’t need an always on microphone in my room). So, I’ve gone through and grabbed all the loose cable I could find and I’ve filled up my garbage can again.

My second computer, after the Gateway had heat issues. Finally, I took the side off the tower, and put my night stand fan down there to blow on the processor while I was using to keep the temps down (this was a Pentium 4 on a socket 775 chipset, mind you). Eventually it gave up the ghost, and I replaced it with my first HP. Never had any heat issues with it, and the fan was abandoned in place. It’s still down there,  Not anymore.

So when the HDMI cable I ordered in my previous post arrives, I’ll that opprtunity to try and tame the rat’s nest behind my tower….

Going Full Circle…..

Since spring of 2001, my computer(s) have always a TV tuner in them, starting with my All-In-Wonder Radeon back in the day. Even today, I have a Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2255 in my tower. I really don’t use it that much, but I appreciate the ability. I even have a USB tuner for my laptop. Hardly used, but it’s there. And the reason why I hardly use them is that I have a 55” HD TV hooked up to my cable box through the HDMI cable. And all my TV cards still only connect via coax. But still I can watch TV without have to strain my neck, and I have a backup if the TV ever goes down (because I definitely can not afford to replace it right now).

So what has happened of late is that for some reason, my box can’t keep WillowTV tuned. It’s always dropping the connection. So, to watch the IPL, I now have to stream it on my Tower. So, I’ve just had to order a longer HDMI cable to plug in to my 55” TV. It’s come full circle. First it was cable box to TV and/or computer. Now it’s from the computer to the TV….

I think there’ll a purge behind my TV shortly…..

Just another night off….

Tax refund finally arrived a couple of weeks ago. Really couldn’t sleep this afternoon, but oh well. I can just nap while my co-workers are working. Got up early enough to watch the Mariners game (they’re home vs. the A’s tonight). And applying the lessons learned from previous attempts to watch The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) and ensuing hypoglycemic episodes, I ordered the pizza a before I tuned the game. Cable boxen decided to act up, so I’m streaming it on my second monitor while I write this.

Begin the weekend, I guess….

The turning of the seasons….

Seasons change. Yesterday, I went to bed and dozed around half asleep for 3 hours and then got back up because my room was too warm. It’s funny how things like that happen when you have a western facing windows on a sunny day.

And seeing the forecast for next week, it had to happen. I’ve set up my AC this morning….

A retirement of sorts….

So Sunday night, I retired a pair of shoes. My Skechers slip-ons that I pretty much wore exclusively since last summer. They were comfortable and easy to put on (yes, you could literally step into them). I still have 3 other pairs of shoes, all of which fit and don’t give my feet any grief. But I just liked that one pair….

Anyway, my order from Famous Footwear arrived on Sunday. So I retired one pair, and replaced it with two pairs….

Also yesterday my new ID arrived, so I was able to complete the verification process with the IRS, so I could update my checking account number and get my tax refund. Hooray.

It was opening day last week. Major League Rugby, the Indian Premier League, the Pakistan Super League, and The New World Order (Mind-Control Division) all started last week. T-Mobile for one their Tuesday perks promotions had a free season of MLB.tv. And I do like some baseball on occasion. I just have to make sure I’m wearing my tin-foil hat and keep my blinds drawn so the Black Helicopters don’t see me.

I was going to order pizza last night. It’s a semi-tradition for Monday nights for me. It didn’t happen for reasons (i was watching the Mariners game), then I realized I was tired. So I decided it was nap time. Unfortunately, I had already taken an insulin shot in anticipation of the forthcoming pizza, and I decided to take a nap when in fact my blood sugar was low. A handful of gummy worms on my nightstand helped out with that, even if I wasn’t aware of it. I just ate them. I didn’t realize that I was having a hypoglycemic episode until I woke up at 2 am and realized that I didn’t order pizza that day. So I go out to do my adulting this morning, take a look at my finances, and I realized I probably couldn’t have afforded it anyway. But still, this wasn’t the first time I’ve had a low blood sugar when watching the Mariners. New rule, do not tune to the Mariners channel unless I already have a plate of something in front of me….

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No, not really. But it is my night off. Ordered pizza when I woke up. Slept late. Like I should when I have the day off….

Still don’t have my tax refund yet. Waiting for the new ID to arrive and then I’ll be able to login and correct the account number. But the shoes will no longer have to wait. I check of my finances revealed that I could afford them at the junction, so I’ve gone ahead and ordered them. Next up will be new pants and boxers….