Topic: The Chit-Chat Thread

@Ralizah Once seen......... Sorry, T.

OMG, this really says it. I came back to that browser tab and found this:

It's in freaking Engrish. The people that want me to fax my SS card to an anonymous number are running on an Engrish website..... Not a chance.

Is there any part of this world that's not horrendously unlivably broken?

(In between sessions at my conference, so again I'm on a reply-only basis)

@HobbitGamer Hmm. Never have heard of Armor For Sleep. Thanks! I'll look into them.

@ThanosReXXX Yes, an ocean of music indeed! I understand that people have a ton of different tastes; though I may not care for a genre, I don't do much bashing other than some of the light-hearted sort with people I know well. My brother, for example, likes a lot of modern Country. Dad blames a cousin of mine since he was personally always into classic rock.

I'm already familiar with both Within Temptation (I LOVE a lot of their music, particularly The Howling, What Have You Done, and In the Middle of the Night) and some of Nightwish's music. You were pretty spot on with those recommendations!

Apologies for unintentionally bringing the Eurodance discussion back. XD

@NEStalgia To be fair, I only tend to like Nickelback's songs from a particular timeframe; some became old hat since the radio stations spammed them to death. Some of their newer stuff hasn't been bad (Feed The Machine is decent IMO), but the rest of it has been hit or miss for me.

@Tyranexx Oh no you don't, there's nothing you can do to backpedal that. You said you like Nickelback. On the internet. The blackmail capability is now on permanent record.

Never heard of anything like that, @NEStalgia .... Fax machines haven't been much used for quite awhile here I'm sure there are still some things going that way but it's almost all emails or actual letters for any documents here

@BruceCM Leave it to Verizon..... It's the most bizzarre requirement for a phone company credit check I've ever heard of. They didn't do it to me for the internet service. It sounds from what I see online like a "random" or "because something in your application raised a flag" type thing. Requiring a fax is bizzarre enough (no I'm not using my office fax machine to fax personal documents to a telephone compnay.) And the whole reason for signing up is the phone company refuses to fix the copper line service, is forcing upgrades to fiber, and I already have fiber under a different account and refuse to let them mess with my perfectly working internet. So I figured I'd switch it to cellular. SO I can't fax unless I use some public fax....and I'm not faxing, or using any public fax of my SS card for a telephone.

I can see the desire for an id to be faxed....or emailed. That's not uncommon for credit applications...but this is a phone application, and they want a card even the government almost never asks for. And it's a mix of documents that can lead to the worst id theft possible.

To get a phone line.

Problem is this means Verizon is out....Tmo has known issues porting land line numbers....and AT&T wants to force me to buy a data plan just to port it to the tune of $80/mo. I'm not faxing my SS card to anyone including the SS Admin. So that means let Verizon (the incompetent people) mess with my internet, or losing the phone number I've had for over 30 years that virtually everything critical is tied to. And they gave me a 6 week notice 3.5 weeks ago.

@NEStalgia I'm pretty unfazed by what the internet may or may not think about my past, present, and future musical tastes. Besides, in my humble opinion, there's MUCH worse out there than Nickelback....

For all we know, in ten years I'll be listening to 100% retro polka.

Glad I'm not really familiar with that company, @NEStalgia .... Hope you find some solutions soon

@BruceCM Sadly, I'm not counting on much, but thanks!

Big telecom here is an infamous mess. But it just gets worse rather than better. Dealing with any of them is less fun than extracting your eyelids. AT&T & Verizon will just send you in pass-the-trash phone call loops forever and ever, and every time you call you get different answers. TMobile/Sprint just ignores you and lies to your face outright. All of them have broken websites. Actually AT&T has a working website, high prices, and terrible signal on their cell towers....

@Anti-Matter - Happy birthday dude, I hope it’s a great day, and a great year for you. Now get to work on Calendar Project 2020 before you fall asleep!

@NEStalgia - Fax is quite a step back in time. How are you supposed to fax without a phone line anyway? Move to Indiana. We’ll welcome you. You can choose between big city, medium city, or rural. If you have NY real estate to sell, you can pay cash for your place here. If you’re paying rent, your mortgage payment will be a fraction of that payment. We have jobs. Your neighbors will be annoyingly friendly if you choose to have them. There’s hillbillies, but they’re mostly scared of the cities. You have to drive everywhere, but it’s nothing like up where you’re at. You’re a Hoosier at heart. Just accept it and come home.

@bimmy-lee Yeah, not only have I never heard of having to give a copy of your SS card to ANYONE, let alone a telephone company, the fact that they want it faxed is absurd, and the fact that they want it faxed while the reason I'm buying it is because they won't fix my fax capable phone line that doesn't work is even more absurd.

But seriously, the only time I've had to use my SS card for anything was for a state ID. It would need it for a passport as well. And they did not take a copy, they just looked at it. The fact that the phone company requires a hard copy of the most sensitive of documents to get a telephone while the government does not, to get an ID and permission to leave and re-eenter the country....something is wrong. I have little choice in the matter on one hand, and yet I'm absolutely not comfortable with it on any other hand. In the words of their own support forums "it's not standard, but it's not uncommon" that they require that.

That I'm already a customer for land internet service with my SS # on file yet they suddenly doubt I'm me at the same address with the same info on the wireless side is more baffling.

This is the same company that 4 years ago told me the problem with the copper wasn't on their end, it was in the house. He wasn't scheduled to come for another day. I tried to reschedule, so they slated someone for 2 days after that. Meanwhile at the original scheduled time, someone ELSE came out and determined the problem was on their end and fixed it. Then the third guy came out and determined it was working fine. So for one scheduled call they sent 3 guys out, one before the schedule, one after the schedule, and the second one fixed the problem the first one said wasn't their problem at all. This is normal for Ma Bell, no matter what it names itself for a given area and decade. They remain the only company that ever had full federal permission to invade homes on a whim and inspect the number of phones. I'm not even sure the Stasi had that level of permission....

Only problem with Indiana....I HATE HATE HATE HATE HATE winter, cold, and snow. I'm probably downplaying it a little.....despite how mild it sounds, I truly hate it.

Of course here I get both, but I don't want to exchange both for a worse version of one of the problems. Otherwise it sounds lovely...

I think what I really need is a time machine set to the mid-70's. I'd be happy there.

@ThanosReXXX LOL! Pun points for you!

I can't believe AlphaDream went bankrupt.
I remember when Cing went bankrupt back in 2010. Miss them a lot.

@ThanosReXXX Corona is my beer of choice too. Though I've grown to like most Japanese beers too. Interesting thing about beer in Japan, despite being hugely popular and sold almost everywhere (even fast food places!), it's almost 100% light beer. Some of my coworkers didn't even know about dark beer when I asked them about it. I had to show them a picture on my phone.

@Anti-Matter Nice little customization there. Do you still like the Hori case though? I have a couple but I replaced them because it always feels like I have to pull or push too hard to get the games in or out. I'm worried about breaking them.

@Heavyarms55
I choose HORI card case because it has a little depth on the cover to paste my custom picture on it and the depth is fit for one Art paper 210 gram thickness.

@Tyranexx For the Nickelback pun?

@Heavyarms55 Ha, that's kinda funny, although on the other hand probably also very much a Western expectation/assumption thing, where we sometimes almost subconsciously seem to think that just because something is normal to us, that it must then automatically also be known or at the very least been heard of by others...

So, did they initially mistake it for ice coffee, or something?

@Anti-Matter Oh, by the way, almost forgot: Happy Birthday.

@Heavyarms55 - I love Asahi Super Dry. That’s one of the last dry beers I find readily available. A shame there’s not more variety in that category. It makes for a good session beer. I enjoy plum wines, and Japanese restaurants usually have some of my favorite mixed drinks. I enjoy a saki session as well, and I like mine unfiltered with a hint of sweetness.

@ThanosReXXX
Thanks. 😀

@ThanosReXXX They thought it was like a whiskey and coke or something like that. I try to avoid assuming things like that, but I figured, since beer is popular in general, that people were at least aware of the different varieties. Doesn't bother me as I'm not a fan of dark beer very much but I had expected that to be a good conversation topic at work parties. Since we are all drinking anyway. (Japanese work parties are a lot of fun, by the way!)

@Anti-Matter Ah, I know what you're talking about. Good thinking, makes it look a little nicer.

@bimmy-lee yeah that stuff is pretty good. Here in Japan it's like Japanese Bud-light in that it's basically the most common beer you can find. I tend to get it when I'm on a late night train ride. (Totally legal to drink in public in Japan, legal and socially acceptable too. Or, if not acceptable, tolerated anyway. XD )

Though I tend to prefer Kirin over Asahi when the choice is there.