Really trivial stuff that bugs you

[Solfe]

The only "package film" not available on Disney+ is also the only one I don't own on DVD.

They are missing quite a few films and some of them seem totally random. One of the Muppet films is missing. There were a few I couldn't find on launch day, but now they are there. I wonder if they have a search glitch where they have them, but you can't get to them? I had trouble watching a few videos on the second day.

[grant hutchison]

It was a little strange that she had some information, but not a lot of information like what my numbers were.

That would be fairly typical in these parts, at least. The secretary needs to know enough to provide context for their call, but if they provided numbers or diagnoses, that can raise anxieties they don't have enough knowledge to address.
Of course, a website with free access to test data creates the same potential problem. I've known doctors who were sent into a complete panic spiral by accessing their own data without the necessary context from a colleague.

Grant Hutchison

[Extravoice]

Of course, a website with free access to test data creates the same potential problem.

My doctor recently ordered some blood tests as due diligence, as I potentially had some minor exposure to lead in the drinking water at work.
I visited the lab on Friday morning, and got an automated email from the doctor’s office that the results were available that evening (well after closing hours).
I’m pretty sure that the doctor had not yet seen the results*. If they were anomalous, I could imagine experiencing serious anxiety over the weekend.

Efficiency is great, but the system should have a gatekeeper for release.

*I guess it is possible she did see them and she released them without comment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Noclevername]

Of course, a website with free access to test data creates the same potential problem.

Like Dr. Google self diagnosis = It's always cancer.

[Gillianren]

They are missing quite a few films and some of them seem totally random. One of the Muppet films is missing. There were a few I couldn't find on launch day, but now they are there. I wonder if they have a search glitch where they have them, but you can't get to them? I had trouble watching a few videos on the second day.

I know some of the stuff it's missing is due to streaming agreements with Netflix, but some of it is just . . . not there. I'm given to understand that some of the Muppets issues are to do with rights, too, because while Disney's contracts tend to be ironclad and include things like "release in future formats," the Henson ones weren't so comprehensive.

[Solfe]

I know some of the stuff it's missing is due to streaming agreements with Netflix, but some of it is just . . . not there. I'm given to understand that some of the Muppets issues are to do with rights, too, because while Disney's contracts tend to be ironclad and include things like "release in future formats," the Henson ones weren't so comprehensive.

Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land is missing, too. I'm just glad they have my favorite Doland Duck movie - The Three Caballeros. I don't know why I like that one so much.

[Gillianren]

It's just funny to me how often people say, "I can't believe [thing] is missing!" when it's something I own on DVD. A friend was lamenting the absence of The North Avenue Irregulars, and he lives in town--I offered to loan it to him. Not my fault his DVD player isn't hooked up! Another friend posted something about how they've got "every movie and TV show Disney ever made," and I said enough is missing so that it's probably going to be Friday's Disney Byways article.

[Trebuchet]

We will probably be doing Thanksgiving Dinner early, next weekend; so yesterday I went into town to procure a turkey. At the supermarket, there was an almost complete absence of birds over 9 pounds but less than 22. I finally found the one and only 15 pounder they had. That bugged me.
This morning I realized that I was shopping on Sunday afternoon and the supply was naturally depleted. So this morning I had a look when I went in to drop off a prescription and yup, plenty of turkeys. No one to be bugged at but myself.

[Gillianren]

Simon's teacher sends all paperwork home on Mondays. Which is fine, except that means she artificially cut several days off the school's fundraising length, as the paperwork for that was sent home to other classes last Wednesday. Also, I asked Simon to find out his teacher's favourite colour so I can make her a Christmas tree ornament, which is our household's traditional teacher gift for the holidays. (It's small, it usually doesn't cost me anything as I have the supplies I need already, it takes about an afternoon of work, and it's easy for him to carry to school.) He's decided I should make them for his entire class, and he's not processing that that is not happening.

[Trebuchet]

1. This stupid utility pole in front of my sunset. Then again, it's feeding me my electricity, TV, phone, and Internet.


2. And the fact that when I went out to take a picture, my Samsung phone suddenly decided to take 100 of them without being told to take any.

[Hornblower]

1. This stupid utility pole in front of my sunset. Then again, it's feeding me my electricity, TV, phone, and Internet.


2. And the fact that when I went out to take a picture, my Samsung phone suddenly decided to take 100 of them without being told to take any.

Our church secretary had a similar issue with poles and wires in an otherwise beautiful view of the church with a rainbow arching over it. She painted them out with her artwork software and used the retouched image in the website home page.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Just finishing one book and can't think of the title of a book it reminded me of, I know I read years ago and the plot and I think the author.

[Jim]

Our church secretary had a similar issue with poles and wires in an otherwise beautiful view of the church with a rainbow arching over it. She painted them out with her artwork software and used the retouched image in the website home page.

Yeah, I was thinking "axe" but software was probably a better choice.

[Gillianren]

As it happens, buried cables make more sense for a lot of reasons anyway!

[PetersCreek]

As it happens, buried cables make more sense for a lot of reasons anyway!

I know I like them where they work well. The line to our house is buried and I'm pleased we don't have poles on our neighborhood roads, except for the occasional light pole. But I've lived in locales where it wasn't practical. They had buried lines where I lived in Florida but during periods of heavy rain, they had to pump nitrogen into them to keep them working. I remember seeing gas bottles at seemingly every access hole in the wet seasons. It must've been quite expensive.

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Walking to get the mail and all there are three flyers, on for a tractor company, one for a fast place and another for car dealership having a sale. (can't afford two out of three and other maybe go once a week.)

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Just finishing one book and can't think of the title of a book it reminded me of, I know I read years ago and the plot and I think the author.

Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson, found by looking for cover art on the internet. It did bug me I couldn't think of the title.

[Gillianren]

I know I like them where they work well. The line to our house is buried and I'm pleased we don't have poles on our neighborhood roads, except for the occasional light pole. But I've lived in locales where it wasn't practical. They had buried lines where I lived in Florida but during periods of heavy rain, they had to pump nitrogen into them to keep them working. I remember seeing gas bottles at seemingly every access hole in the wet seasons. It must've been quite expensive.

There's a supplemental Twin Peaks book that includes a sequence set in a basement deep under Florida, and as soon as I read it, I messaged my friend from there and was like, "Um?" His response was, "Yeah, that killed my suspension of disbelief, too."

[PetersCreek]

I wish I could have a basement but it's for that reason that I can't. I watched a crew install our new septic tank a couple of years ago and discovered just how high our water table is. They guy down in the pit looked like he was walking on a water bed before they stabilized it. Very odd to see soil undulate like that.

[DonM435]

Walking to get the mail and all there are three flyers, on for a tractor company, one for a fast place and another for car dealership having a sale. (can't afford two out of three and other maybe go once a week.)

Fast place? Is that a restaurant where you don't eat?

Watch out for fast people there. I was warned about 'em.!

[The Backroad Astronomer]

Sorry, meant fast food place.

[DonM435]

Oh, I guessed that, but couldn't very well resist responding that way.

[jamesabrown]

No basements in my neck of the woods either. But here it's because if you dig down about three feet you hit rock.

I should say, few basements, because it can cost as much to dig out a basement as it costs to build the above-ground house.

Needless to say, storage units are a big business around here.

[grant hutchison]

So I guess you guys don't do attics much? Attics are a big thing hereabouts; cellars (=basements) not so much. If I lift my floorboards I look down about a foot on to rock.

Grant Hutchison

[Swift]

So I guess you guys don't do attics much? Attics are a big thing hereabouts; cellars (=basements) not so much. If I lift my floorboards I look down about a foot on to rock.

Grant Hutchison

If I had to come up with a response for the US, I would say attics (ones that could at least be used for storage, if not for living space) are much more common in older houses (older than at least 50 years), and are rare in more recent construction. Our current house and our previous one were both built in the 1970s and have some sort of attic, but neither was easily accessible (you had to get a ladder to get into them) and were only about a meter and a half in height. At best you might use them for long-term storage of boxes.

Cellars/basements are very dependent on region of the US and local geology. In Ohio they are quite common. Sometimes they are rather "unfinished" - a dirt or concrete floor and just the stones/bricks/blocks/concrete of the foundation for walls (those are often also not heated). At the other end, they are as finished as the rest of your house. Our old house had a completely finished basement, with carpeting and individual rooms; our current one is only partially finished.

[Hornblower]

Here in greater Washington we are seeing retro-styled "McMansions" with tall gable roofs that are purely ornamental. I could see the truss work in some of them before they were enclosed, and I could tell they would be useless for any kind of occupancy. Some of them have dummy dormers.

[grant hutchison]

I wonder if there are regional variations in where the spooky horrors are encountered - attic or basement, according to the writer's family home.

When we moved into our current place, the attic had been wired and hung with a huge rectangular billiard-table light. No table. Presumably at some point they realized they weren't going to get a full size slate-bed up an enclosed spiral staircase, and drew the line at removing a section of the roof and lowering it in sideways between the rafters with a twenty-metre crane.

Grant Hutchison

[The Backroad Astronomer]

The price of office chairs.

[ozduck]

Here basements are virtually unknown. They would be very easy to build as most of of our soil is basically beach sand. However, most houses are built on a concrete pad that is just laid 'flat' on the ground and then double layer brickwork built up. The only people I know who have a basement designed the house themselves and had a wine cellar/entertainment room built in. This was a very expensive house. The old wooden house I was bought up in had once had a basement but it had been filled in before I was born. It had started life as a small maternity "home" run by a nurse so it was different to most other places.

With regards to attics the majority of houses in Western Australia are single storey with a relatively low pitched roof line. Even the bigger double story "McMansions" rarely have attic space. The most obvious reason for this is that the attic space in house when the temperature is above 40 C is unbearably hot and hard to use even to store items. Plus a lot of the roof space is used to run air conditioning ductwork etc. Generally houses have a shed outside and those built on a smaller block sometimes have a small storage room, accessible only from the outside, built in.

[Gillianren]

I grew up in a house that had both a full attic and a full basement--extremely unusual for California in general and LA in particular. But I remain disappointed that we have yet to look at a house for sale in the Olympia area that has a basement and would meet our needs, because I'd love to be able to have Graham do up a mural of some sort suggesting which way guests should go to find the Amontillado . . . .