Here we go again….

Yet another weekend. Pulled out my laptop. The one that I hadn’t turned on since November 2025. It still booted Windows 10, But after having not even been powered on for 9+ months, it was slower than molasses because everything had to update, all at once. And I’ve been wanting to toy around with Linux again. So I nuked it for OpenSuSE Tumbleweed. Who knows how long it’ll last before I decide to go back to Windows 10?. But then again, I can mess with Linux, and still leave my main tower intact…..

So I did jury duty last week…..

A few week ago, I got a blue postcard in the mail. It has instructions to go to a website and answer some questions. I am a US Citizen. I live in Pierce County, WA. I am not convicted of a felony. So I was eligible. They made it formal a week and a half later with the proper jury summons. I was due in the courthouse at 7:30 am, when I’m normally off work at 7:00. Boss told me to call out for jury duty the night before, and I would be paid for it (per company policy)….

So, the day comes and I show up. There were 3 trials scheduled: 2 district court and 1 superior court. I was selected for the pool for the superior court trial. Then we went to the court room for voir dire. I actually made it to the jury box, but ultimately I wasn’t selected for the jury. I’m not commenting on the case as I wasn’t on the jury, and I didn’t hear the evidence…. Anway, I was sent home for the day after that. I was ‘on call’ for the rest of the week. But I wasn’t needed.

Now this is where it went south: I printed out an attendance report on the day when I  had to report, and I gave to my (new) boss (pervious boss had retired between me receiving my summons and me reporting to court).During last week, I noticed that the jury duty pay hadn’t showed up when I thought it should, so I reminded my boss again. And then finally, I put a request in for 8 hours of my vacation time to cover the shift I missed. And then Sunday night I checked my attendance and my absence was unexcused. And I was about to be fired for it. Another conversation with a different manager cleared things up.

Now suppose I got fired over this. The company’s own policy for jury duty said my absence would be paid and excused. And I did everything on my end by the book. Maybe I should’ve let them fire me. Something the courts take a very dim view of. Like managers get arrested over. Especially when the company’s written policies explicitly say otherwise. I’ll be wondering which manager would’ve been arrested over this forever….

'Murica! F*ck Yeah!

 Happy Fourth People. America as now 250. I really can't celebrate it this year, owing to work. Namely I have to. So happy Saturday night everyone.....

Here’s To Procrastination!

Day off today. Normally, it’s laundry day as well. But there is an issue. They’re painting my apartment building. It’s been going on for over a month (starting with a full exterior pressure wash). And this morning, they’re staining the walkway right in front of my front door, so I cant get out to the laundry room…

I think I can go another week without laundry, and stay out of the painters’ way. Here to procrastination…

When We Last Left Our Hero

When we last left our hero (see the previous post), I had ripped Newegg a new one over an HDMI cable that had been stuck in California for about 3 weeks. Well, they read my message, and refunded me right away. And then they filed a claim with UPS, who paid it. So essentially UPS lost it.

But I still needed an HDMI cable. So I bought one at Wally World. It was actually 2 feet longer than the one I had originally ordered. And it fits. Just barely. Though I’d prefer a little more slack in it, so I can route to wear it’s not a tripping hazard. Now let’s see if Newegg can ship the extension cable I ordered. But I can now connect my tv to the computer, and stream to it. Which is a good backup if the TV service flakes out in major sporting events (like Monday Night Football). And with this, I’ve also relearned how to route a specific app’s sound to the TV instead of my computer speakers….

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…..