The Vent and Rant Thread

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by samhy

Kindlekitten and Hitch, I feel for you guys

thanks. this particular incident IS getting better for me

Originally Posted by Hitch

Thanks, Samhy, but I was fortunate; after some determined holding (2 hours) that day that the money was seized, 2 more hours working through all the documents with the (nice) IRS agent, and then another 2 hours talking to the bank the following day, I had my money back by Wednesday, after it had been stolen--oh, sorry, SEIZED unlawfully--the Monday. I was able to make payroll and all that by week's end.

I do have monies squirreled away--rainy day and all that--but I had all sorts of automatic payments for various and sundry business expenses slated (for SAS, Cloud services, etc.) and I was pretty freaked out about the idea of bouncing a check (effectively) to the project management SAS service I use, or the Desk CSR software, Amazon S3, Dropboxes, etc., as that could literally shut down my business. And let's face it, for an Internet biz--that would be bad, bad, bad. ;-)

Thanks for your kind words.

Hitch

you did much better than me, but your situation and mine, and my bank fraud are warning words. I don't think the general public is aware of what happens i either situation

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

thanks. this particular incident IS getting better for me

I'm glad to hear it.

you did much better than me, but your situation and mine, and my bank fraud are warning words. I don't think the general public is aware of what happens i either situation

No, I am quite sure that they aren't, or they never, NEVER would have agreed to have these folks monitor/enforce/seize money for/ the ACA. NEVER. And I know that most people have no idea what it's like to wake up one morning and find every penny in their accounts GONE--we have both had that sensation, and man, it's literally an adrenaline jolt of fear.

When this all first happened to me--the bit with the mislaid dough--I called them, and called them, and called them. Total time, BEFORE the seizure? Over 7 hours (actually, 7 hours and 39 minutes, precisely--we time-track here, so I happen to know) wasted in time on hold, during which I never reached a living person. I mean...can you imagine? (Well, actually, KK, in your case, given the harassing-you-for-years scenario, you probably can.) Over 7 hours. Oh, PLUS the four hours of time spent on the day of the seizure, so nearly 12 hours, total.

Un-fudging-believable.

Hitch

[Rumpelteazer]

Telling tall tales is an artform the owner of the lingerie store next door has down very well. After over 10 months since the fire she finally reopened her store on Tuesday, she managed to get an interview in the newspaper and a lot of the things she said are just not true.

First of all that she lost "thousands of bras". Even taking into account that she means pieces (so also knickers, bathing suits, bikinis, etc) she hasn't even got the space for thousands. I don't think she has hundreds of her very exclusive and very expensive pieces of underwear and swimwear.

Second, she says that on tv she saw "the flames shooting out of the roof". I don't know what footage she saw, but that clearly wasn't the right fire! Yes, flames were shooting out of a coal shute but that was street level. She also tells that the fire "severely damaged the building from basement to attic". The fire severely damaged the basement and her store. The two apartments upstairs only had minor smoke/soot damage. The landlord could have just done a minimal restoration upstairs but decided on a full on renovation instead.

One small mistake I can chalk up to a reporter getting it wrong but these are all such overstatements that I don't believe that.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Telling tall tales is an artform the owner of the lingerie store next door has down very well. After over 10 months since the fire she finally reopened her store on Tuesday, she managed to get an interview in the newspaper and a lot of the things she said are just not true.

First of all that she lost "thousands of bras". Even taking into account that she means pieces (so also knickers, bathing suits, bikinis, etc) she hasn't even got the space for thousands. I don't think she has hundreds of her very exclusive and very expensive pieces of underwear and swimwear.

Second, she says that on tv she saw "the flames shooting out of the roof". I don't know what footage she saw, but that clearly wasn't the right fire! Yes, flames were shooting out of a coal shute but that was street level. She also tells that the fire "severely damaged the building from basement to attic". The fire severely damaged the basement and her store. The two apartments upstairs only had minor smoke/soot damage. The landlord could have just done a minimal restoration upstairs but decided on a full on renovation instead.

One small mistake I can chalk up to a reporter getting it wrong but these are all such overstatements that I don't believe that.

It sounds like she's getting as much free advertising as she can. Maybe she should rename the store to "Smokin' Hot Lingerie"

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Barcey

It sounds like she's getting as much free advertising as she can. Maybe she should rename the store to "Smokin' Hot Lingerie"

Or she was counting by the ta-ta, not the bra. That's a freebie double right there. Add in the pads that most of today's bras have and it's a quadruple (two cups, two pads = 4). ;-)

Meh, y'know, 15 minutes of fame and all that. Get sympathy from female watchers so they come in and buy their next batch of lingerie. Although, I would say that it's amazing how many bras a lingerie store can fit on an average rack! And if they have silk or spandex bandeau-types, you really can put hundreds of those alone on a very small table.

Hitch

[covingtoncat73]

Auto-play videos that blare when you are just trying to read a news article are the devil.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by covingtoncat73

Auto-play videos that blare when you are just trying to read a news article are the devil.

+1,000.

Hitch

ETA: Ditto all those annoying auto-looping vids and gifs on FB, Google+, and the like. Satan-spawn. If I want to watch something more than once, I know how to click a button!!!

[cromag]

NoScript and similar add-ons stop most of them.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

One small mistake I can chalk up to a reporter getting it wrong but these are all such overstatements that I don't believe that.

It can still be the reporter, fattening up the tale to make it a more sensational read.

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

Telling tall tales is an artform the owner of the lingerie store next door has down very well. After over 10 months since the fire she finally reopened her store on Tuesday, she managed to get an interview in the newspaper and a lot of the things she said are just not true.

First of all that she lost "thousands of bras". Even taking into account that she means pieces (so also knickers, bathing suits, bikinis, etc) she hasn't even got the space for thousands. I don't think she has hundreds of her very exclusive and very expensive pieces of underwear and swimwear.

Second, she says that on tv she saw "the flames shooting out of the roof". I don't know what footage she saw, but that clearly wasn't the right fire! Yes, flames were shooting out of a coal shute but that was street level. She also tells that the fire "severely damaged the building from basement to attic". The fire severely damaged the basement and her store. The two apartments upstairs only had minor smoke/soot damage. The landlord could have just done a minimal restoration upstairs but decided on a full on renovation instead.

One small mistake I can chalk up to a reporter getting it wrong but these are all such overstatements that I don't believe that.

Sounds like padding for the Insurance Company... I've witnessed fire-damaged shops where the owners threw old non-moving merchandise down into the pools of water left by the fire fighters so they could claim them in their insurance reports. The Insurance companies have no idea of where stock would have been located, so it makes sense to them that this stuff must have been damaged by the water. Getting the information into the newspapers just provides more 'proof' for their claims.

Stitchawl

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Barcey

It sounds like she's getting as much free advertising as she can. Maybe she should rename the store to "Smokin' Hot Lingerie"

Originally Posted by Hitch

Or she was counting by the ta-ta, not the bra. That's a freebie double right there. Add in the pads that most of today's bras have and it's a quadruple (two cups, two pads = 4). ;-)

Meh, y'know, 15 minutes of fame and all that. Get sympathy from female watchers so they come in and buy their next batch of lingerie. Although, I would say that it's amazing how many bras a lingerie store can fit on an average rack! And if they have silk or spandex bandeau-types, you really can put hundreds of those alone on a very small table.

Hitch

Originally Posted by Katsunami

It can still be the reporter, fattening up the tale to make it a more sensational read.

One thing's for sure: she hasn't made herself popular in the neighbourhood. She wasn't exactly well-loved before, because of her snooty behaviour, but now she's laughing stock. She has always been very nice to us, but she needs us because a real woman doesn't know how to change a lightbulb or set the clock when time changes.

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Sounds like padding for the Insurance Company... I've witnessed fire-damaged shops where the owners threw old non-moving merchandise down into the pools of water left by the fire fighters so they could claim them in their insurance reports. The Insurance companies have no idea of where stock would have been located, so it makes sense to them that this stuff must have been damaged by the water. Getting the information into the newspapers just provides more 'proof' for their claims.

Stitchawl

That was our first reaction. She prides herself on her exclusivity, that she's only got one piece of everything.

She still says the fire was caused by a short circuit in our part of the basement. Which simply isn't true, the electricity in our part of the basement was off completely (automatic system due to former employees leaving on the light 24/7 in the basement). The area where the fire started was underneath an open venting gap at street level, she had stuffed that with potting soil days before the fire (because she was afraid of fire). Google the terms potting soil and fire and you'll find it isn't a good combination. We think someone threw away their cigarette without stamping it out, it rolled against the potting soil, which started smouldering. Underneath the venting gap were boxed up lightbulbs. A spark or a bit of smouldering ground must have fallen onto the boxes which set it alight. So the only person to really blame is the smoker and maybe, a little bit, herself for using potting soil instead of voicing her concerns to the landlord.

[Angst]

Originally Posted by cromag

NoScript and similar add-ons stop most of them.

Flash block

[Stitchawl]

I want to know why the Media is doing such a rotten job of reporting what's going on in S.E. Asia! For weeks they made it appear that all of Bangkok was under siege, when in fact it was just a few isolated pockets of protest, yet at the same time, completely ignored what has been going on in southern Thailand.

I just received this emergency alert from the US Consulate here in Chiang Mai:
US Embassy Bangkok, Thailand
Security Message
Friday, April 11, 2014
Security in the South of Thailand

This is to alert U.S. citizens of a recent rise of violence in the south of Thailand in the border provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala. Last month, at least 50 violent incidents killed over 30 people and injured almost 40 others. There is the possibility that foreigners, including westerners, may be targeted in this region.........
The U.S. Embassy prohibits its personnel from traveling to the south of Thailand without prior approval, and Embassy personnel may go there only on work-essential travel. U.S. Embassy and Consulate personnel must provide advance notification of travel to Songkhla province, and they are advised to use hotels outside Hat Yai’s central business district. The Department of State urges you to defer non-emergency travel to these areas. If you must travel to these areas, you should exercise special caution and remain vigilant with regard to your personal security. You should be aware that Thai authorities have on occasion instituted special security measures in affected areas, such as curfews, military patrols, or random searches.

Little of this has been reported in International media. Why?

Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

And locally as well?

[ProfCrash]

You just got that? I have been following Thailand since you moved there and the papers are pretty clear that there is a lot going on there. I figured you were ok since you keep posting and don't comment on it.