What Irked You Today?

[Snake45]

21 minutes ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Yeah, all the above. And scrambling common words is rampant, with few folks apparently knowing (or caring about) the difference between to, too and two, its and it's, who's and whose, there, their, and they're, roll and role (I read a car "journalist" the other day rabbiting on about the "roll of the driver"), bowl and boll (someone selling sheets going on about "cotton bowls"), sight and site and cite (how many times I see "web sight" written is beyond belief), pair, pare and pear, and I even saw somebody who obviously meant "kudos" writing "coodles to you". Lotsa folks using apostrophes for plurals too: car's for more than one.

And the words "sank" and "shrank" have almost completely disappeared, replaced by "sunk" and "shrunk" used incorrectly. 

And don't even get me started on persona pronouns. "They gave he and I a hard time about it." 

[Danno]

12 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Yeah, all the above. And scrambling common words is rampant, with few folks apparently knowing (or caring about) the difference between to, too and two, its and it's, who's and whose, there, their, and they're, roll and role (I read a car "journalist" the other day rabbiting on about the "roll of the driver"), bowl and boll (someone selling sheets going on about "cotton bowls"), sight and site and cite (how many times I see "web sight" written is beyond belief), pair, pare and pear, and I even saw somebody who obviously meant "kudos" writing "coodles to you". Lotsa folks using apostrophes for plurals too: car's for more than one.

I don't know how you can get out of grade school without knowing this stuff, or being able to read and understand written instructions...or ANYTHING...but say something about it, you're the grammar police. Communicating accurately USED to be a sign of having had a decent education, and was part of the ticket to well-paying work. Now it's becoming a lost art. Thing is though, it's not hard, and it helps keep one from instantly seeming to be an idiot.

Funny thing on the web a while back, a young office employee got her knickers all wadded up and went home crying to mommy because her boss had the audacity to correct her spelling on a document. In business, it's generally considered advisable to have your written communications reflect a certain level of professionalism, but this girl started screaming her creativity was being "oppressed" by the patriarchy, and that HER way of spelling was as valid as anyone else's. OK. Next.

And then there's fractions, percentages, figuring a tip or making change without an app...

AMEN, Brother Bill!!!

Literacy is literally dying if not already dead.  The dumbing-down process began with the huggy-feelie, if-it-feels-good-do-it, participation trophy, snowflake concepts that took root in the 70’s and have grown rampantly since. 

One need look for the murder weapon of literacy no further than the vast number of “teachers” (of our children and grandchildren) who themselves are illiterate. My skin crawls when I hear “educators” themselves spewing horrid grammar and syntax.

During the ‘red for ed’ demonstrations for huge pay raises last year, it wasn’t uncommon to see “teachers” interviewed on TV news saying things like, “Me and her ain’t teaching no more classes until we get the raises we deserve.” Personally, I thought that was evidence some of our “educators” were already paid more than they deserved. 

It’s no wonder literacy has become nearly extinct. 

 

Soapbox stowed.

[Snake45]

27 minutes ago, Danno said:

Literacy is literally dying...

[Bugatti Fan]

Unfortunately, bad grammar and spelling seem to be becoming the norm. Even in the media we see crass mistakes time and again. I worked at a school as an Engineering CAD Technician for a few years just before I retired and was quite appalled by the poor spelling skills of some of the teaching staff who were themselves kids when the dumbing down process was in full swing. When I was a school pupil aged 14 to 15 way back in the late 50's one of my projects was to make a coffee table from mahogany complete with mortice and tenon joints. I could not believe how teaching  practical workshop skills have almost completely collapsed in the school system here in the UK since then. The poor little mites are becoming more and more risk averse as schools are afraid that the parents will see some ready cash through ambulance chasing lawyers. No wonder we are witnessing a 'Snowflake' generation, great at playing computer games but not doing much else! We have seen less and less vocational education and more being encouraged to go to university (of which there are now far too many as opposed to technical colleges in the UK) and take 'Mickey Mouse' degrees that are of no use to anyone except to keep university lecturers in a job! The engineering and science graduates will be the ones getting highly paid jobs whereas the majority of average arts graduates will end up saying 'Would you like fries with that?'.

Edited December 18, 2019 by Bugatti Fan

[Tom Geiger]

Odd day here...  my wife woke me up early and said there was a raccoon on the deck acting odd.  Sure enough, he bopped around the backyard for hours, acting drunk and dazed. He was up on the deck a dozen times and covered the same ground over and over. He wasn't phased by people but wasn't vicious either.  I called the town and they sent out two police officers.  They told me that they had multiple calls on him in the past two days but he had disappeared before animal control arrived.  So the three of us kept tabs on him, and eventually one of the officers was able to pretty much walk up  and drop a trash can over him.  

Animal control showed up.  They said he didn't have  rabies, but probably had distemper.  Animal control took him away.  We'd never seen a raccoon so close up in the 10 years we have lived here.

[Ace-Garageguy]

15 minutes ago, Tom Geiger said:

...We'd never seen a raccoon so close up in the 10 years we have lived here.

Looks like a very young one. There are a lot of 'em around here. They're cute and smart and greedy and extremely destructive. They'll kill kittens and raid bird's nests for eggs and young. They have strong forelegs and sharp claws, are excellent climbers, and will rip and shred wood, insulation, and anything else around to make their homes. They did thousands of dollars worth of damage to my last house before I even realized they were living in the attic and between the cathedral ceiling and the roof skin. They've become a serious problem in Buddhist temples in Japan, where they were popular pets for some time. Buddhists try not to kill animals, even pests, and some of the ancient temples have been heavily damaged. They're moving back into urban areas in the US, and have adapted to living quite well out of dumpsters...so well in fact, that the ones in some parts of Chicago are so overweight, they're developing the same kinds of health problems fat lazy humans get. Last but not least, their feces can transmit a nasty parasite, raccoon roundworms (Baylisascaris procyonis), that can cause blindness and brain damage in humans. Raccoons are cute, smart, and kinda not great to have around.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170724142035.htm

[High octane]

I also had coon damage a few years back and after calling a pest control company, they took care of the problem and never had another since, which is a good thing.

[slusher]

5 hours ago, Tom Geiger said:

Odd day here...  my wife woke me up early and said there was a raccoon on the deck acting odd.  Sure enough, he bopped around the backyard for hours, acting drunk and dazed. He was up on the deck a dozen times and covered the same ground over and over. He wasn't phased by people but wasn't vicious either.  I called the town and they sent out two police officers.  They told me that they had multiple calls on him in the past two days but he had disappeared before animal control arrived.  So the three of us kept tabs on him, and eventually one of the officers was able to pretty much walk up  and drop a trash can over him.  

Animal control showed up.  They said he didn't have  rabies, but probably had distemper.  Animal control took him away.  We'd never seen a raccoon so close up in the 10 years we have lived here.

Tom,  are they going to treat the problem or put him to sleep?  I believe what Bill, commented on and Nick. My brother has one that eats cat food he puts out somewhere in the yard an he watches when she brings her babies up when they can eat food. No one hunts them anymore and hunting has really declined i the last 5 years.

[Tom Geiger]

7 hours ago, slusher said:

Tom,  are they going to treat the problem or put him to sleep? 

There is no cure for distemper so they  put him down.  Distemper is highly contagious to both humans and dogs so they couldn't leave him loose.

Edited December 19, 2019 by Tom Geiger

[Snake45]

We had a near-zero cold snap this morning. My car blew up on the way to work. (It never stopped running, but the temp gauge spiked. Same thing happened last year in a severe cold snap and it cost several hundred dollars to get fixed.) Luckily I was going by a gas station just as I noticed the gauge. (Wasn't just the gauge--the heater was blowing only cold air, which also happened last year when this happened.) 

Even more lucky, there just happened to be a tow truck there dropping off another car. I asked the guy how much to tow me to my mechanic/dealer, and he quoted me a reasonable (I thought) $60, so I said let's go. He dropped the car off and then took me home. I paid the guy cash and told the guy to put the money in his pocket if he wanted. He sure saved me a buttload of time and aggravation, and Merry Christmas to him! 

Waiting to hear from my shop when they can get it done. 

[espo]

You really don't want to mess with a Racoon. They may try and get away but they will stand their ground and can be very aggressive if cornered. I had a neighbor who went on vacation for a week and left the doggy door into their garage unlocked. Their little dog wasn't much bigger than a Racoon so these guys had no problem getting into the garage. After they damaged just about everything in the garage they could chu on they started chu their way into the house. They went through the wall board and insulation right into the kitchen. They got into just about every cabinet in the kitchen and ran sacked everything. Like I said, you don't want to mess with these little guys. 

[mikemodeler]

I guess what irked me (not necessarily today but recently) is when a forum member negotiates a deal for something but then doesn't respond to PMs to complete the deal. I had a couple of interactions with this person before and should have known they would flake out, but you try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Needless to say, this person will be on my ever growing list of people to NOT do business with, regardless of what is involved, because of their inability to conduct themselves in an adult, business like manner.

The shrinking number of people in this hobby that conduct business in a decent way makes it harder for me to participate in trades. I have done significantly less trading and dealing with people here this year and am at the point where I am better off selling or trading at shows instead of online.

[OldTrucker]

On 12/17/2019 at 9:10 PM, Snake45 said:

 

And don't even get me started on persona pronouns. "They gave he and I a hard time about it." 

I just use us !LOL

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

On 12/17/2019 at 10:10 PM, Snake45 said:

...And don't even get me started on personal pronouns...

Mine are "he, him".  

[SfanGoch]

On 12/19/2019 at 1:12 AM, slusher said:

My brother has one that eats cat food

Raccoons can develop gout from eating cat food. That'll learn'em.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 21, 2019 by SfanGoch

[slusher]

11 hours ago, SfanGoch said:

Raccoons can develop gout from eating cat food. That'll learn'em.

 

So far she seems ok and the opossum also.  Kind of his pets.....LoL

[NYLIBUD]

It hasn’t happened yet.But I swear I’am NOT going to watch one episode of A 24 hour of A Christmas Story.Not one time.Its a great movie, but no more, it’s getting irritating now.???☠️Ahhhaaaaa

[cobraman]

We normally have it playing ( low volume ) while we open gifts.

[Tom Geiger]

I watched it while babysitting at my daughter’s house. Didn’t realize it was a marathon, but I did notice it started over!

[Renegade]

On 12/21/2019 at 8:49 AM, mikemodeler said:

I guess what irked me (not necessarily today but recently) is when a forum member negotiates a deal for something but then doesn't respond to PMs to complete the deal. I had a couple of interactions with this person before and should have known they would flake out, but you try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Needless to say, this person will be on my ever growing list of people to NOT do business with, regardless of what is involved, because of their inability to conduct themselves in an adult, business like manner.

The shrinking number of people in this hobby that conduct business in a decent way makes it harder for me to participate in trades. I have done significantly less trading and dealing with people here this year and am at the point where I am better off selling or trading at shows instead of online.

As I am on SS at $800.00 a month I don't have a large modeling budget. I have been burned a couple of times. With the loss of kits and postage and time it hurts. I always let the person who I am trading with when I will ship and have no problem with them waiting till I can ship. I always send a tracking number. Unfortunately, a few scammers on here, but most are stand up guys and will work with you to fix any problems.

[NYLIBUD]

Finding out that NY morning DJ Don Imus passed away yesterday,I believe, at age 79.RIP?

[Classicgas]

I think it's stupid that die casts are segregated here. A model is a model. I see segregating types of vehicles but not mediums.

[peteski]

2 hours ago, Classicgas said:

I think it's stupid that die casts are segregated here. A model is a model. I see segregating types of vehicles but not mediums.

I agree that a "model kit" is a "model", regardless of the mediums. Polystyrene/ABS plastic, Urethane Resin, Metal, 3D acrylic resin, etc.  As long as the kit was was assembled and painted by the modeler, all those should all be treated equally.  If a factory-assembled and  painted model is stripped and rebuilt by the models, it should also be treated on equal footing with model kits.  But if someone just collects factory-assembled models, then they belong in the diecast sections.

Edited January 4, 2020 by peteski

[Snake45]

2 hours ago, Classicgas said:

I think it's stupid that die casts are segregated here. A model is a model. I see segregating types of vehicles but not mediums.

I have no idea why some diecasts are allowed to stand in the Under Glass section and others get shuffled off to Diecast Ghetto. You painted your Comet, which requires real modeling work--perhaps moreso in the case of diecasts--so should be allowed to stand as a built model. 

9 minutes ago, peteski said:

I agree that a "model kit" is a "model", regardless of the mediums. Polystyrene/ABS plastic, Urethane Resin, Metal, 3D acrylic resin, etc.  As long as the kit was was assembled and painted by the modeler, all those should all be treated equally.  If a factory-assembled and  painted model is stripped and rebuilt by the models, it should also be treated on equal footing with model kits.  But if someone just collects factory-assembled models, then they belong in the diecast sections.

Agree with you completly. And I can't remember the last time (if EVER) I saw a resin-bodied model in the "Diecast & Resin" section. Resin bodies seem to be just fine Under Glass, but not metal-bodied ones. 

[NYLIBUD]

I Had to drive a friends daughter to the ER cause she was really high on pills.And her father showed up 2 hours later, as his daughter had to be strapped to the bed, and I had to sit there and watch her foaming at the mouth.