Even More Delicious Off-Topic Goodness

[Zobovor]

It's been a while since I ranted about non-Transformery type stuff, and the people who would have complained about such things are long gone. So, without further ado, I don't mind if I do...

1) I have a very old cat, a female Siamese named Banshee. She was a stray that I adopted back in 2002, and I'm sure I've mentioned her here, on and off, for the last 14 years. Who knows how old she was when I found her! You can definitely tell she has more days behind her than ahead of her. She's mostly blind, walks into walls, can't find the litterbox, and head-butts me with her face when I'm trying to sleep. I do love her so and I will be sad when she's gone, but holy crap she can be annoying. I've never had a longer relationship with any living creature that I'm not related to by blood, though, so there's that.

2) Is telephone courtesy a completely dead art? More and more lately, somebody will call me at work, ask if we carry something, and when I give my response (either in the negative or the affirmative), they just hang up. No "thank you," no "okay, great," no nothing. Just a click. It used to be that hanging up on somebody was the rudest thing you could do over the phone. I get that in this age of texting and tweeting, we've turned electronic communication into a kind of shorthand (nobody starts a text with "excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me with something...") but I feel like we're really losing something. There's a complete lack of courtesy. I guess the pendulum is swinging in the other direction, because there was a time when society was super-civilized and we were all required to curtsey and bow and say how-do-you-do. I'm kind of waiting for it to swing back the other way, honestly.

3) I have this love-hate relationship with my armpits. Obviously, because I am a socially conditioned animal and don't want to offend people, I wear deodorant every day. However, my armpits and their sweat glands actually serve a function and purpose. It's super hot at work during the summer, and any time I do any kind of physical labor during these months, I sweat like crazy. If I'm wearing antiperspirant, my armpits cannot do the job they're designed to, so the sweat glands everywhere else have to work overtime just to cool me down. I've actually done experiments where I skipped the deodorant for a day and the difference was astounding. Yes, I didn't smell too great at the end of the day, but I wasn't constantly wiping sweat off my forehead and face, either. I'm not really sure what a viable long-term solution is, except maybe to exit the retail industry and get a job as a construction worker or some career where it's okay to be a human male who smells like a human male.

4) I'm beginning to think the animal takeover has begun. It seems like every day lately, I read about people getting attacked by gorillas or alligators or mountain lions. The other day, an elephant picked up a rock with its trunk and threw it right into a little girl's head. You can't tell me that wasn't on purpose. I bet that elephant had been practicing for months. That elephant was a crack shot. I keep adding to this mental list of all the places I never want to take my kids (the zoo, roller coasters, water slides, Disneyland) and pretty soon we'll just be stuck inside 24/7, wishing that more places besides Burger King and Jimmy John's actually delivered food.

5) Crystal Pepsi is back. It's about damn time. A few years ago I decided not to drink any of the brown-colored sodas because I don't want to stain my teeth. I will guzzle Mountain Dew Voltage (it's the exact same color as Windex) and strawberry Fanta if I'm in the mood for all the corn syrup with none of the caffeine, but that's about it. The fact that they can make a completely see-through, water-colored soda pop that tastes exactly like normal Pepsi begs the question: What the hell are they putting in regular Pepsi to make it that mucky brown color in the first place?!

6) This space intentionally left blank.

7) I love The Walking Dead (I basically never watch TV, so for me to get hooked on a show is really significant) but I am growing to actively dislike Fear the Walking Dead, the spin-off series. I just can't be bothered to care about any of the characters. Not a single one of them interests me. You'd think that a spin-off series would have been a chance to do bold and daring and envelope-pushing things that they wouldn't dare do on the "regular" series (which is based on a comic book and is therefore somewhat limited in terms of where they can go with the story) but instead it's just been "zombies on a boat" and now, in the current season, "not zombies on a boat anymore." I'm dangerously close to just giving up on it altogether. (Other shows I have binged-watched and loved to death: Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad, and the American version of Wilfred).

8) I never collected any of the Muppets toys produced by Palisades before the company went bankrupt, but I was really looking forward to their planned Sesame Street toy line. I understand that all toy companies that are not Hasbro and Mattel and LEGO must eventually leave us, but why wasn't somebody else able to pick up the license? Sesame Street was a huge formative part of my childhood and it bothers me that there have never been action figures of any of the characters. Pretty much all the official merchandise is plush toys or tiny figurines. (I would only buy toys of the classic characters from the 1960's and 1970's, of course. To me, Telly Monster and Elmo are "new" characters.)

9) Every time our power goes out, my Nintendo Wii will not come back on simply by turning it back on. I have to unplug it from the power strip, plug it directly into the wall, unplug the other end from the recharging base, and plug it directly into the back of the console... because apparently the PLUG is smart enough to detect whether it's being plugged into an unofficial, unlicensed third-party electronic add-on. You know, like a power strip. So annoying.


Zob (that's all, folks)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Monday, August 29, 2016 at 12:22:18 AM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> It's been a while since I ranted about non-Transformery type stuff, and the people who would have complained about such things are long gone. So, without further ado, I don't mind if I do...
>
> 1) I have a very old cat, a female Siamese named Banshee. She was a stray that I adopted back in 2002, and I'm sure I've mentioned her here, on and off, for the last 14 years. Who knows how old she was when I found her! You can definitely tell she has more days behind her than ahead of her. She's mostly blind, walks into walls, can't find the litterbox, and head-butts me with her face when I'm trying to sleep. I do love her so and I will be sad when she's gone, but holy crap she can be annoying. I've never had a longer relationship with any living creature that I'm not related to by blood, though, so there's that.
>

One of my cats died Christmas morning due to health reasons. My other ct has been so lonely she would how in the middle of the night.I got a friend for her two weeks ago. Now there is fighting in the middle of the night.

> 2) Is telephone courtesy a completely dead art? More and more lately, somebody will call me at work, ask if we carry something, and when I give my response (either in the negative or the affirmative), they just hang up. No "thank you," no "okay, great," no nothing. Just a click. It used to be that hanging up on somebody was the rudest thing you could do over the phone. I get that in this age of texting and tweeting, we've turned electronic communication into a kind of shorthand (nobody starts a text with "excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me with something...") but I feel like we're really losing something. There's a complete lack of courtesy. I guess the pendulum is swinging in the other direction, because there was a time when society was super-civilized and we were all required to curtsey and bow and say how-do-you-do. I'm kind of waiting for it to swing back the other way, honestly.
>

I get constantly bombarded by telemarketers and my own healthcare company, or my internet company. Always trying to sell me something, even if I'm aleready buying their product. I hate conversaitons on the phone.

> 3) I have this love-hate relationship with my armpits. Obviously, because I am a socially conditioned animal and don't want to offend people, I wear deodorant every day. However, my armpits and their sweat glands actually serve a function and purpose. It's super hot at work during the summer, and any time I do any kind of physical labor during these months, I sweat like crazy. If I'm wearing antiperspirant, my armpits cannot do the job they're designed to, so the sweat glands everywhere else have to work overtime just to cool me down. I've actually done experiments where I skipped the deodorant for a day and the difference was astounding. Yes, I didn't smell too great at the end of the day, but I wasn't constantly wiping sweat off my forehead and face, either. I'm not really sure what a viable long-term solution is, except maybe to exit the retail industry and get a job as a construction worker or some career where it's okay to be a human male who smells like a human male.
>

One of the stores I go in to for work has not had working air-conditioning in 3/4ths of the building all summer. The 1/4th up by the front register is all that counts according to corporate apparently. It's 96 degrees in the warehouse when it's 78 degrees outside, but for security reasons we can't open any doors back there to let the heat out.
I have to wash everything I wear into that store much more than any other clothes.
I think when I sweat with my antiperspirant (It never wins out, I always sweat through it) it smells worse than just my sweat. The antiperspirant just gives me 2 hours before that happens, which isn't much on a 10 hour workday.

> 4) I'm beginning to think the animal takeover has begun. It seems like every day lately, I read about people getting attacked by gorillas or alligators or mountain lions. The other day, an elephant picked up a rock with its trunk and threw it right into a little girl's head. You can't tell me that wasn't on purpose. I bet that elephant had been practicing for months. That elephant was a crack shot. I keep adding to this mental list of all the places I never want to take my kids (the zoo, roller coasters, water slides, Disneyland) and pretty soon we'll just be stuck inside 24/7, wishing that more places besides Burger King and Jimmy John's actually delivered food.
>

How do you get Burger King to deliver? I live 1.62 miles from Jimmy John's, so they won't deliver to me. Pickleman's is better anyway. Not as fast, but the food is better.

> 5) Crystal Pepsi is back. It's about damn time. A few years ago I decided not to drink any of the brown-colored sodas because I don't want to stain my teeth. I will guzzle Mountain Dew Voltage (it's the exact same color as Windex) and strawberry Fanta if I'm in the mood for all the corn syrup with none of the caffeine, but that's about it. The fact that they can make a completely see-through, water-colored soda pop that tastes exactly like normal Pepsi begs the question: What the hell are they putting in regular Pepsi to make it that mucky brown color in the first place?!
>

Used to be molasses. I've never tried Crystal Pepsi. I dont care when the Mcrib is in town. I'm not paying $6 for a single can of Surge

> 6) This space intentionally left blank.
>

Damn cost cutting.

> 7) I love The Walking Dead (I basically never watch TV, so for me to get hooked on a show is really significant) but I am growing to actively dislike Fear the Walking Dead, the spin-off series. I just can't be bothered to care about any of the characters. Not a single one of them interests me. You'd think that a spin-off series would have been a chance to do bold and daring and envelope-pushing things that they wouldn't dare do on the "regular" series (which is based on a comic book and is therefore somewhat limited in terms of where they can go with the story) but instead it's just been "zombies on a boat" and now, in the current season, "not zombies on a boat anymore." I'm dangerously close to just giving up on it altogether. (Other shows I have binged-watched and loved to death: Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad, and the American version of Wilfred).
>

I watch TWD with my parents on Sunday Nights. The beginning of every episode of FTWD I beg for them to kill Nick or Travis. They're all so annoying.

> 8) I never collected any of the Muppets toys produced by Palisades before the company went bankrupt, but I was really looking forward to their planned Sesame Street toy line. I understand that all toy companies that are not Hasbro and Mattel and LEGO must eventually leave us, but why wasn't somebody else able to pick up the license? Sesame Street was a huge formative part of my childhood and it bothers me that there have never been action figures of any of the characters. Pretty much all the official merchandise is plush toys or tiny figurines. (I would only buy toys of the classic characters from the 1960's and 1970's, of course. To me, Telly Monster and Elmo are "new" characters.)
>

It bothers e that HBO Bought Sesame Street. The things I loved as a kid are just too corporate now. It's all about the business, the branding, and ratings. I had hoped Sesame Street was allowed a free pass for being good influence on kids.

> 9) Every time our power goes out, my Nintendo Wii will not come back on simply by turning it back on. I have to unplug it from the power strip, plug it directly into the wall, unplug the other end from the recharging base, and plug it directly into the back of the console... because apparently the PLUG is smart enough to detect whether it's being plugged into an unofficial, unlicensed third-party electronic add-on. You know, like a power strip. So annoying.
>

I live on hospital power grid. My power has been down for a combined total of 11 minutes over 6 years.

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Monday, August 29, 2016 at 12:09:41 AM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
> On Monday, August 29, 2016 at 12:22:18 AM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> > It's been a while since I ranted about non-Transformery type stuff, and the people who would have complained about such things are long gone. So, without further ado, I don't mind if I do...
> >

> One of my cats died Christmas morning due to health reasons. My other ct has been so lonely she would how in the middle of the night.I got a friend for her two weeks ago. Now there is fighting in the middle of the night.

After my beloved ancient 21 year old cat died, the other cat (the spare cat, the cat I got her to keep her company), got pathetically lonely so I got her a friend.

The spare cat now hates the new cat so much she has stress related problems, like puking.

> > I guess the pendulum is swinging in the other direction, because there was a time when society was super-civilized and we were all required to curtsey and bow and say how-do-you-do. I'm kind of waiting for it to swing back the other way, honestly.

Also vests and pocket watches.

> I get constantly bombarded by telemarketers and my own healthcare company, or my internet company. Always trying to sell me something, even if I'm aleready buying their product. I hate conversaitons on the phone.

My default ringtone on my cell phone is silence.

> > 3) armpits.

> One of the stores I go in to for work has not had working air-conditioning in 3/4ths of the building all summer. The 1/4th up by the front register is all that counts according to corporate apparently. It's 96 degrees in the warehouse when it's 78 degrees outside, but for security reasons we can't open any doors back there to let the heat out.

There is no OSHA requirements on temperature, unfortunately. However, if it is a union shop, talk to the shop steward -- there might be something in the contract.

This is disgusting and abusive.

> > 5) Crystal Pepsi is back. It's about damn time. A few years ago I decided not to drink any of the brown-colored sodas because I don't want to stain my teeth. I will guzzle Mountain Dew Voltage (it's the exact same color as Windex) and strawberry Fanta if I'm in the mood for all the corn syrup with none of the caffeine, but that's about it. The fact that they can make a completely see-through, water-colored soda pop that tastes exactly like normal Pepsi begs the question: What the hell are they putting in regular Pepsi to make it that mucky brown color in the first place?!
> >
>
> Used to be molasses. I've never tried Crystal Pepsi. I dont care when the Mcrib is in town. I'm not paying $6 for a single can of Surge

Carmel coloring -- and I swear it has a flavor, and I can tell Crystal from Normal Pepsi while blindfolded. Snapple used to make a Clear Cola that was delicious.

> > 7) I love The Walking Dead (I basically never watch TV, so for me to get hooked on a show is really significant) but I am growing to actively dislike Fear the Walking Dead, the spin-off series. I just can't be bothered to care about any of the characters. Not a single one of them interests me. You'd think that a spin-off series would have been a chance to do bold and daring and envelope-pushing things that they wouldn't dare do on the "regular" series (which is based on a comic book and is therefore somewhat limited in terms of where they can go with the story) but instead it's just been "zombies on a boat" and now, in the current season, "not zombies on a boat anymore." I'm dangerously close to just giving up on it altogether. (Other shows I have binged-watched and loved to death: Orange is the New Black, Breaking Bad, and the American version of Wilfred).
> >
>
> I watch TWD with my parents on Sunday Nights. The beginning of every episode of FTWD I beg for them to kill Nick or Travis. They're all so annoying.

TWD lost me at some point -- I just stopped caring who lived or died, or remembering the various backstories. I think I am a season behind, and just uninspired to watch that season.

> > 8) I never collected any of the Muppets toys produced by Palisades before the company went bankrupt, but I was really looking forward to their planned Sesame Street toy line. I understand that all toy companies that are not Hasbro and Mattel and LEGO must eventually leave us, but why wasn't somebody else able to pick up the license? Sesame Street was a huge formative part of my childhood and it bothers me that there have never been action figures of any of the characters. Pretty much all the official merchandise is plush toys or tiny figurines. (I would only buy toys of the classic characters from the 1960's and 1970's, of course. To me, Telly Monster and Elmo are "new" characters.)

I was bothered when everyone could see Snuffoluffogus (sp?). Sure, sure, we don't want to teach children that if they go to their parents with some story of wooly mammoths or abuse that the parents won't believe them, but still.

> > 9) Every time our power goes out, my Nintendo Wii will not come back on simply by turning it back on. I have to unplug it from the power strip, plug it directly into the wall, unplug the other end from the recharging base, and plug it directly into the back of the console... because apparently the PLUG is smart enough to detect whether it's being plugged into an unofficial, unlicensed third-party electronic add-on. You know, like a power strip. So annoying.
> >
>
> I live on hospital power grid. My power has been down for a combined total of 11 minutes over 6 years.

37,000 people in Seattle lost power because of a raccoon in May.

[Zobovor]

On Monday, August 29, 2016 at 1:09:41 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> One of my cats died Christmas morning due to health reasons. My other cat has
> been so lonely she would howl in the middle of the night.I got a friend for

> her two weeks ago. Now there is fighting in the middle of the night.

Belated condolences for your loss. The so-called experts say animals don't have emotions, but obviously that's not the case. The fighting is normal (they have to establish the chain of command!) and will subside in a couple of decades.

> I get constantly bombarded by telemarketers and my own healthcare company, or
> my internet company. Always trying to sell me something, even if I'm aleready
> buying their product. I hate conversaitons on the phone.

The main reason we cancelled our landline a few years ago because literally the only calls we got were bill collectors looking for my ex-wife (who never lived here) and people trying to order from the local Chinese restaurant.

I also hate phone conversations. I talked for hours on the phone as a teenager so I think perhaps I just used up my lifetime's entire quota. (It doesn't help that my children, who are eight and four, came equipped with special sensors to detect when a call is being placed. They are required by law to be as loud as possible any time I have a phone to my ear.)

> I think when I sweat with my antiperspirant (It never wins out, I always
> sweat through it) it smells worse than just my sweat. The antiperspirant just
> gives me 2 hours before that happens, which isn't much on a 10 hour workday.

We're just conditioned to think that natural body odor is really offensive. I wonder if there would be so many dating websites, relationship advice columns, marriage how-to books, etc. if we just let our natural pheromones actually attract each other instead of trying desperately to pretend we're not animals with scent glands (and then spraying perfume that's made from OTHER animals' scent glands).

Natural body odor usually isn't offensive to me unless it's a person who clearly hasn't washed in many days. Some time ago there was a woman shopping in the store of some exotic nationality, and I could tell that her scent was all natural. Not only was it not offensive, but it actually tripped some kind of primitive olfactory switches in my brain that had probably never been tripped before. I liked it.

I agree with you, though, that body odor mixed with antiperspirant is much worse. It's a toxic chemical smell that I actively dislike.

> How do you get Burger King to deliver? I live 1.62 miles from Jimmy John's,
> so they won't deliver to me. Pickleman's is better anyway. Not as fast, but
> the food is better.

I've never heard of Pickleman's. Apparently there are not many Burger King locations that deliver (they must be still test marketing the program). They only do it in nine states in the USA. There are only two places in Utah that do it, and I just happen to live a few blocks from one that does. (It comes in handy when I'm home with the kids and my wife has the car!)

> I watch TWD with my parents on Sunday Nights. The beginning of every episode
> of FTWD I beg for them to kill Nick or Travis. They're all so annoying.

See, they could theoretically do that with any of the Fear the Walking Dead characters because the show doesn't have the same stigmas that the original show does. Fans would riot if they killed Rick or Daryl at this point. (I was mad when they got rid of Shane and Lori. I really liked the triumvirate and I couldn't believe they got rid of two of the three main characters.)

> It bothers me that HBO bought Sesame Street. The things I loved as a kid are

> just too corporate now. It's all about the business, the branding, and

> ratings. I had hoped Sesame Street was allowed a free pass for being a good
> influence on kids.

What I heard was that PBS just couldn't afford to keep the show running, so selling it to HBO was a necessity. There is a precedent of sorts, since Jim Henson arranged for Fraggle Rock to air on HBO back in the 1980's.

The biggest thing that bothers me about Sesame Street is Elmo. It bothers me that he dominated the show. It bothers me that the toy manufacturers captured lightning in a bottle once in 1996 with the first Tickle Me Elmo doll, and they've been trying every year, unsuccessfully, to make lightning strike twice. It bothers me that Kevin Clash got kicked out. Not because he did anything wrong, but just because allegations existed. That's a horrible reason to get fired, especially since he was, and is, such an amazingly talented puppeteer who was teaching the intricacies and subtleties of the craft to the new generation of Muppet performers.

> I live on hospital power grid. My power has been down for a combined total of
> 11 minutes over 6 years.

Lucky! Usually, our power just flickers when there are too many people running their air conditioners at once (or, in the winter, too many people plugging in their Christmas trees, I guess). Unfortunately, that flicker is all it takes to make my computer reboot, make me reprogram all the clocks in the house...


Zob (except for the kitchen clock, of course, which takes an "AA" battery that I probably haven't changed since 2005)

[Zobovor]

On Monday, August 29, 2016 at 12:46:32 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> The spare cat now hates the new cat so much she has stress related problems,
> like puking.

I recently adopted an orange cat named Blue. He throws up several times a week, but I think it's because he's wolfing food down like crazy because he's afraid the other cats will chase him away.

I've found that putting food in various other spots (the downstairs den, the kitchen counter) helps him. Not sure if it will work in your case. When I let the emergency back-up food dishes run dry, the puking starts again. Can't be a coincidence.

> Also vests and pocket watches.

Millennials pull their phones out of their pockets to check the time. Clearly, the age of the pocket watch has already returned!

> I was bothered when everyone could see Snuffoluffogus (sp?). Sure, sure, we
> don't want to teach children that if they go to their parents with some story
> of wooly mammoths or abuse that the parents won't believe them, but still.

I must have stopped watching the show by that point. My little sister was five years younger than I am, so I was vaguely aware of some of the developments from the show after I stopped watching (like Elmo and other characters) but for the most part, I'm only interested in the episodes I grew up with. If it happened after about 1980, I don't care. (I feel the same way about the Muppet films. The Muppet Movie is, of course, the best, and The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhatten, well, they exist. The rest, I couldn't care less about for the most part.)

You have no idea how happy I was when C-3PO and R2-D2 made appearances on the Sesame Street. It was like my two favoritest things in the whole world, fused together in yummy crossover goodness!

> 37,000 people in Seattle lost power because of a raccoon in May.

You and your banjo song lyrics!


Zob (seriously, you need to write a song that starts with that line)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Monday, August 29, 2016 at 7:27:02 PM UTC-5, Zobovor wrote:
> On Monday, August 29, 2016 at 1:09:41 AM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
>
> > One of my cats died Christmas morning due to health reasons. My other cat has
> > been so lonely she would howl in the middle of the night.I got a friend for
> > her two weeks ago. Now there is fighting in the middle of the night.
>
> Belated condolences for your loss. The so-called experts say animals don't have emotions, but obviously that's not the case. The fighting is normal (they have to establish the chain of command!) and will subside in a couple of decades.
>
> > I get constantly bombarded by telemarketers and my own healthcare company, or
> > my internet company. Always trying to sell me something, even if I'm aleready
> > buying their product. I hate conversaitons on the phone.
>
> The main reason we cancelled our landline a few years ago because literally the only calls we got were bill collectors looking for my ex-wife (who never lived here) and people trying to order from the local Chinese restaurant.
>
> I also hate phone conversations. I talked for hours on the phone as a teenager so I think perhaps I just used up my lifetime's entire quota. (It doesn't help that my children, who are eight and four, came equipped with special sensors to detect when a call is being placed. They are required by law to be as loud as possible any time I have a phone to my ear.)
>

I pretend that my phone was off when coworkers call me because I know they're going to have some obscure question that they don't want to google.

> > I think when I sweat with my antiperspirant (It never wins out, I always
> > sweat through it) it smells worse than just my sweat. The antiperspirant just
> > gives me 2 hours before that happens, which isn't much on a 10 hour workday.
>
> We're just conditioned to think that natural body odor is really offensive. I wonder if there would be so many dating websites, relationship advice columns, marriage how-to books, etc. if we just let our natural pheromones actually attract each other instead of trying desperately to pretend we're not animals with scent glands (and then spraying perfume that's made from OTHER animals' scent glands).
>
> Natural body odor usually isn't offensive to me unless it's a person who clearly hasn't washed in many days. Some time ago there was a woman shopping in the store of some exotic nationality, and I could tell that her scent was all natural. Not only was it not offensive, but it actually tripped some kind of primitive olfactory switches in my brain that had probably never been tripped before. I liked it.
>
> I agree with you, though, that body odor mixed with antiperspirant is much worse. It's a toxic chemical smell that I actively dislike.
>
> > How do you get Burger King to deliver? I live 1.62 miles from Jimmy John's,
> > so they won't deliver to me. Pickleman's is better anyway. Not as fast, but
> > the food is better.
>
> I've never heard of Pickleman's. Apparently there are not many Burger King locations that deliver (they must be still test marketing the program). They only do it in nine states in the USA. There are only two places in Utah that do it, and I just happen to live a few blocks from one that does. (It comes in handy when I'm home with the kids and my wife has the car!)
>

I eat too much Burger King as it is.

> > I watch TWD with my parents on Sunday Nights. The beginning of every episode
> > of FTWD I beg for them to kill Nick or Travis. They're all so annoying.
>
> See, they could theoretically do that with any of the Fear the Walking Dead characters because the show doesn't have the same stigmas that the original show does. Fans would riot if they killed Rick or Daryl at this point. (I was mad when they got rid of Shane and Lori. I really liked the triumvirate and I couldn't believe they got rid of two of the three main characters.)
>

Glen, Maggie, Daryl, the only ones I care about. At this point I'd be fine with them killing Rick. How the hell has Carl lived so long?

As for FTWD, any of them can die, I just actively want them to kill Travis because he's more of a smug ass.

> > It bothers me that HBO bought Sesame Street. The things I loved as a kid are
> > just too corporate now. It's all about the business, the branding, and
> > ratings. I had hoped Sesame Street was allowed a free pass for being a good
> > influence on kids.
>
> What I heard was that PBS just couldn't afford to keep the show running, so selling it to HBO was a necessity. There is a precedent of sorts, since Jim Henson arranged for Fraggle Rock to air on HBO back in the 1980's.
>

But it is sponsored by the number three, the letter E, and viewers like me! Seriously they've had the same sets and puppets for decades as far as I knew. They have never struck me as a high budget operation.

> The biggest thing that bothers me about Sesame Street is Elmo. It bothers me that he dominated the show. It bothers me that the toy manufacturers captured lightning in a bottle once in 1996 with the first Tickle Me Elmo doll, and they've been trying every year, unsuccessfully, to make lightning strike twice. It bothers me that Kevin Clash got kicked out. Not because he did anything wrong, but just because allegations existed. That's a horrible reason to get fired, especially since he was, and is, such an amazingly talented puppeteer who was teaching the intricacies and subtleties of the craft to the new generation of Muppet performers.
>
> > I live on hospital power grid. My power has been down for a combined total of
> > 11 minutes over 6 years.
>
> Lucky! Usually, our power just flickers when there are too many people running their air conditioners at once (or, in the winter, too many people plugging in their Christmas trees, I guess). Unfortunately, that flicker is all it takes to make my computer reboot, make me reprogram all the clocks in the house...
>
>
> Zob (except for the kitchen clock, of course, which takes an "AA" battery that I probably haven't changed since 2005)

It's a little annoying, family members always make me store their food so I don't have any room when their power is out.

[No One In Particular]

On 8/29/2016 7:27 PM, Zobovor wrote:

> The biggest thing that bothers me about Sesame Street is Elmo. It bothers me
>that he dominated the show. It bothers me that the toy manufacturers captured
>lightning in a bottle once in 1996 with the first Tickle Me Elmo doll, and they've
>been trying every year, unsuccessfully, to make lightning strike twice.
>
>

> Zob (except for the kitchen clock, of course, which takes an "AA" battery that I probably haven't changed since 2005)
>

So...Elmo is the Wolverine of Sesame Street then? Or the Grimlock?

Brian

[banzait...@gmail.com]

Where is alt.toys.transformers.moderated when you need it.

> 2) Is telephone courtesy a completely dead art? More and more lately, somebody will call me at work, ask if we carry something, and when I give my response (either in the negative or the affirmative), they just hang up. No "thank you," no "okay, great," no nothing. Just a click. It used to be that hanging up on somebody was the rudest thing you could do over the phone. I get that in this age of texting and tweeting, we've turned electronic communication into a kind of shorthand (nobody starts a text with "excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me with something...") but I feel like we're really losing something. There's a complete lack of courtesy. I guess the pendulum is swinging in the other direction, because there was a time when society was super-civilized and we were all required to curtsey and bow and say how-do-you-do. I'm kind of waiting for it to swing back the other way, honestly.

Holy shit this made me lol. Are people that big of assholes?? Even when I get the scumsucking telemarketer call, I will interrupt them with "No thank you, I'm not interested" and hang up before they can get a word in. I figure they are people too who just happen to have a really crappy job. If you don't know why this is happening, you need to watch idiocracy. It will answer a lot of questions about society for you. "Goaway! Baiten'!"

>
> 3) I have this love-hate relationship with my armpits. Obviously, because I am a socially conditioned animal and don't want to offend people, I wear deodorant every day. However, my armpits and their sweat glands actually serve a function and purpose. It's super hot at work during the summer, and any time I do any kind of physical labor during these months, I sweat like crazy. If I'm wearing antiperspirant, my armpits cannot do the job they're designed to, so the sweat glands everywhere else have to work overtime just to cool me down. I've actually done experiments where I skipped the deodorant for a day and the difference was astounding. Yes, I didn't smell too great at the end of the day, but I wasn't constantly wiping sweat off my forehead and face, either. I'm not really sure what a viable long-term solution is, except maybe to exit the retail industry and get a job as a construction worker or some career where it's okay to be a human male who smells like a human male.
>

TMI dude. Again, where is the moderator

> 4) I'm beginning to think the animal takeover has begun. It seems like every day lately, I read about people getting attacked by gorillas or alligators or mountain lions. The other day, an elephant picked up a rock with its trunk and threw it right into a little girl's head. You can't tell me that wasn't on purpose. I bet that elephant had been practicing for months. That elephant was a crack shot. I keep adding to this mental list of all the places I never want to take my kids (the zoo, roller coasters, water slides, Disneyland) and pretty soon we'll just be stuck inside 24/7, wishing that more places besides Burger King and Jimmy John's actually delivered food.

I didn't think there were drugs in Salt Lake City, just Mormons and beautiful scenery.

> 5) Crystal Pepsi is back. It's about damn time. A few years ago I decided not to drink any of the brown-colored sodas because I don't want to stain my teeth. I will guzzle Mountain Dew Voltage (it's the exact same color as Windex) and strawberry Fanta if I'm in the mood for all the corn syrup with none of the caffeine, but that's about it. The fact that they can make a completely see-through, water-colored soda pop that tastes exactly like normal Pepsi begs the question: What the hell are they putting in regular Pepsi to make it that mucky brown color in the first place?!

So, caramel coloring (E89) is a huge scandal in Scotch Whisky. Many distillers (some exceptionally reputable ones) use it to "maintain color consistency" from batch to batch, bottle to bottle. However, most consumers recognize that this is largely BS, and it's done because consumers associate a darker colored whisky with an older one, and hence a better whisky. (None of these stereotypes are necessarily accurate.) Also, the laws protect the distiller from having to disclose if they use coloring. With that said, there have been several legitimately conducted blind scientific studies to see if the most skilled human palate can detect the presence of E89. All of the studies have found that there is no impact on taste. So, there really is no reason to have dark pepsi.

> 9) Every time our power goes out, my Nintendo Wii will not come back on simply by turning it back on. I have to unplug it from the power strip, plug it directly into the wall, unplug the other end from the recharging base, and plug it directly into the back of the console... because apparently the PLUG is smart enough to detect whether it's being plugged into an unofficial, unlicensed third-party electronic add-on. You know, like a power strip. So annoying.

Have you tried reversing polarities?

> Zob (that's all, folks)

Let's hope so...

-Banzaitron