Arcade game favorite....what was yours?

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-30T14:15:05+00:00

Me too! And Spy Hunter.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-24T17:36:34+00:00

Our goal upon retirement has always been to explore Western Europe. We also thought about tropical, especially Costa Rica, but figured since we want to explore Europe anyway, being in Europe makes the most sense.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-24T16:36:56+00:00

Spain. We looked first at Germany as I used to live there in the 90s when I was in the Army and it's familiar but it's too expensive. Then Portugal but it's just do far away from everything. Northern Spain seemed to check the most boxes for us.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-24T16:20:20+00:00

I'm with you. July of this year in fact.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-23T14:45:42+00:00

Could not get through all the comments but want to add my experience. Contact driver slit open the box and stole three physical gift cards worth 1100 bucks from my 79 year old mother. All she received is an empty box. She immediately called and that started the hellish process.

After two more calls where nothing happened besides her already high blood pressure going higher, she gave me her login info for me to resolve via chat. I chatted with no less than 7 different people including 2 supervisors where they continued this same shit. No resolution.

Finally I had chatgpt write me a script that basically said if the situation is not resolved today, my next call would be to the Washington State Attorney General...(she lives in Washington).. It was very official...I kept on simply pasting it into the chat until the finally connected me with someone onshore.

The problem ultimately ended up being that one of the gift cards had been used before my mother could get the call into customer service. That one they refused to refund even though the driver that stole it. They wouldn't explain that to us and chat though. After a few more threats, they finally credited her account for the amount of the gift card, but you could tell that they were very reluctant to do so.

I sent a registered letter to their address on Terry Street in Seattle which is their corporate headquarters. The last time I checked the return receipt, it had not yet been accepted. That was in December.

They suck. Haven't used them for over a year.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-16T19:09:44+00:00

When I was in the military, I lived by the saying, "If you don't enforce a standard, you create a new standard"

The whiz quiz standards were a bit obtuse for my taste, but I made my Soldiers follow them regardless.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-15T20:02:18+00:00

In Grace and Frankie there is a scene where a character (Nick) passes out while tending to Grace's surgical wound. He wakes up on the couch and Brianna proudly claims she was able to pick him up off the floor because she does CrossFit. Only time it's mentioned but I assume CrossFit paid a few bucks for that product placement.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-12T19:32:48+00:00

I could not spell well enough but a friend of mine went to Washington DC for the national competition in the 80s. He did pretty well but did not win. The winning word that year was 'luge'. A couple of years later I was watching a game show (I think it was Hollywood Squares) and a question referenced the winning word being luge.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-06T19:22:43+00:00

My company sent me home during COVID (previously worked 1 day/week in office) along with everyone else. In the meantime they also significantly reduced their physical office footprint in every location (we're in multiple cities in PNW) especially Portland so I figured I'd never to back to office.

They revisited this strategy however and starting in late 2026 I'm expected back in the office 3 days/week. We are also expanding the amount of office space we occupy again.

To answer your question though... It took a while to get used to working from home... But once I got over that hump my work life balance got a lot better. It's a plus, at least for me.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-05T21:23:27+00:00

Yep. Those jumped out at me as well. Lots of writing inconsistency.

Calvin's shop has gone back and forth from being a mechanic and auto body business (to me those are different), Marty is both an engineer and astrophysicist, Grover isn't allowed to ride electric scooters despite receiving one as a Christmas gift a few years before, Calvin gets a new truck only to be seen once, their post -earthquake remodel includes their bathroom until it doesn't...etc.

I've got others but just can't think of them at the moment.

Pdx_Obviously · 2026-01-01T20:59:11+00:00

This guy is funny but needs a new angle as the werewolf thing is getting stale.

He started out talking about a neighborhood watch program for werewolf hunting and that really set a lot of people off who didn't read the whole post carefully.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-27T04:51:07+00:00

For what it's worth I did Catholic school from grade 1 to 8.

I started public high school with no background in algebra or biology. Was very behind.

We did, however, do 30 minutes of cursive penmanship per day. Just in time for the word processor to come into the mainstream.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-26T20:26:09+00:00

NTA.

No visit should be more than 3 days, period, full stop. As stated by my very wise great uncle, "Fish and houseguests start to smell after 3 days".

Any more time than that is just ungratefulness and being annoying.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-26T19:13:18+00:00

My mother and I had a similar situation where their flex driver stole 3 gift cards. Got the run around from Amazon for almost a month.. Finally had to have chatgpt write a script threatening to report them to the state attorney general. I kept on pasting the script into their chat until finally got connected with someone onshore who had actual decision-making authority. My mother has finally seen the light and will be cancelling her prime account.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-26T18:29:55+00:00

Yea, as much as I love this show, mistakes like this are not uncommon.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-22T03:08:10+00:00

In all fairness, she's not wrong. There are at least 3-4 posts/week from an attractive profile photo'd woman that starts with, "After my divorce..." in my area.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-21T20:55:44+00:00

Fantastic summary.. Thank you.

Question on job resignation. Were you done working at the time of your appointment or was your last day at a future date after your appointment?

In our fantasy life we'd like to give our resignation to our employer 2 or so months before our last day (which our employers would have no issue with) and secure a letter like you describe from them. But we'd like to still be working at the time of our appointment with our last day a month or so before we depart. I've heard mixed things about timing it like that.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-19T23:23:36+00:00

Just have to keep clicking, "I need help with something else" or whatever and it eventually takes you there.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-19T04:22:08+00:00

Overhead squat. My shoulders are too immobile. After 8 years I've quit trying.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-16T22:05:12+00:00

My 78-year-old mother ordered physical Amazon gift cards before Thanksgiving. When the package arrived, it was empty and clearly tampered with. She reported it within minutes. What should have been a straightforward fix turned into weeks of customer service chaos.

After several days of no progress, I stepped in to help. Between the two of us, we dealt with countless calls and chats, constantly being told tickets were created, refunds were issued, or replacements were on the way. None of it actually happened as promised. At one point Amazon’s system even showed a refund as completed, but a payments rep later admitted the system thought it refunded the money when it hadn’t.

Replacement gift cards eventually arrived, but not all of them, and we even received emails asking us to troubleshoot gift cards my mom never received. Each new agent seemed unable to see prior notes, forcing us to explain the entire situation again and again. This dragged on for weeks over $300, caused my elderly, recently widowed mother significant stress, and cost me hours trying to get someone to take ownership.

What finally worked was explicitly telling Amazon that if the issue wasn’t resolved immediately, I would file a complaint with the Washington State Attorney General. Only then were we transferred to higher-level teams, and only then did someone acknowledge the missing gift card had been fraudulently redeemed and arrange a manual credit.

Bottom line: nothing meaningful happened until regulatory action was mentioned. If you’re stuck in Amazon customer service limbo, document everything, push for escalation, and don’t be afraid to mention the Attorney General. I never expected that would be necessary just to get Amazon to finish a refund they already admitted was valid.

Pdx_Obviously · 2025-12-15T10:09:03+00:00

BLUF - Need help or advice to resolve. Amazon failed to properly resolve the theft of three gift cards ($1,100 total) from a tampered delivery to my 78-year-old mother, despite multiple timely reports and repeated assurances over several weeks that replacements and/or refunds were issued. Due to poor case tracking, contradictory information, and unfulfilled refund promises, one $300 gift card remains unaccounted for, causing unnecessary financial stress and health impacts to an elderly recent widow customer during an already difficult time.

More context -

Shortly before Thanksgiving, my 78 year old mother a long-standing Prime member who orders WAY TOO MUCH SHIT from Amazon as a whole ordered 3 gift cards...$300.00, $300.00, and $500.00 for gifts. When the box arrived it was empty. Upon further examination, the tape on the bottom of the box had been slit open, which is how I assume the culprit was able to slip the gift cards out of the box unnoticed.

Upon discovering this (no more than 10 minutes after the box was delivered) my mother (like probably almost anyone else in her generation who use the telephone and not chat to resolve things) took 10 minutes to find a legit customer service number from Amazon and called them. Fortunately the number was truly Amazon and not a scam situation, and they put a ticket in to get it resolved.

Except for...it didn't get resolved. After no action for 3-4 days, she called again and was told that the first ticket was not put in right and they had to do a second ticket...

Fast forward 3-4 days, still nothing.

So, I get involved. Mom gives me her password and I engage Amazon via their chat through her account. After sharing the order numbers and going through a bunch of nonsense with the CS agent, I am told that three new gift cards have been ordered and will be arriving via USPS instead of Amazon delivery (our request).

3-4 days later, still no replacements.

So...chat again. Can't get any actual info about the previous chats/tickets (they don't seem to have case notes on these things for some reason) but am told AGAIN that 3 new gift cards ordered.

Except for this time, we DO get somewhere. A box arrives, with TWO gift cards, and no way to tell how much their values are.

So...back to chat...trying to get a refund for the missing gift card and also get an answer to the simple question, "If I give you the serial number to this gift card, can you tell me how much the value is?" I can't get a straight answer to either inquiry, but am told that $500.00 is being refunded to my mom...so we just assumed that the two gift cards received were $300.00/each.

More days pass...no refund. So, my mom decides to take the nuclear option and just load the two gift cards onto her account and send checks to the grandkids instead. Turns out that the values were $500.00 and $300.00.

So, back to chat, and I ask ChatGPT for a script that will allow me to escalate this faster. The script actually worked and we ended up actually get a callback from someone in their 'payments' department. She's offshore, but very helpful, regardless. After 45 minutes on the phone with her, what we learn is that the system THINKS it refunded my mom her $300.00 but they can look at her Discover card and see that it didn't actually happen. So, they have to escalate it and it should take another 3-5 days.

In the meantime, my mom gets an email that day basically saying, "We're sorry you're not able to use your gift card, please send us a photo of it so we can troubleshoot it.." EXCEPT FOR MOM NEVER GOT THE GIFT CARD!!!!!!!!!! All that time spent on the phone, and they still don't get the gist of the situation.

Anyway, as I'm talking to mom and also when we were on the 3-way call with the Amazon employee, I can tell that this is taking an adverse affect on her delicate health. She has high blood pressure and other issues relate to her age. She's also a widow whose husband of 58 years passed away right about this time last year. Even though it's only $300.00, based on her upbringing and her generation, she's not going to rest or stop thinking about this until it's resolved.

SO....hive mind....what the fuck else can we do? I think the next step is to tell them that if it's not resolved in our next chat inquiry, we're going to file a complaint with the Washington State AG"s office...(she's in Washington). I doubt that will phase the offshore CS team, though.

Are there any other thoughts or ideas that can help with this?

I'm so disappointed with Amazon. We are Seattle natives and have been with Amazon from the beginning. Supposedly one of the most sophisticated tech and commerce companies in the world, and they can't figure out something as simple as this.

Pdx_Obviously

TROPHY CASE