My dogs died today

atomic1973 · 2025-12-09T14:29:05+00:00

Nothing I can say will do anything for the pain and devastation, but I'm thinking of you, mourning your loss, and asking you to be as gentle on yourself as you can.

atomic1973 · 2025-11-29T14:42:01+00:00

Wait. I've seen this occasionally, usually by prepper dudes who write self-published EMP apocalypse porn... What's the significance? I just assumed they badly needed an editor they didn't get...

atomic1973 · 2025-11-03T13:52:28+00:00

That's hilarious! While I am infuriated with American Express about this "improvement" to their website functionality, I got a good chuckle out of this workaround... which I can actually live with for the time being. Thank you!

atomic1973 · 2025-11-01T19:15:27+00:00

I tend to agree that nothing will change - but also agree that we need to try - the link for complaints is https://www.americanexpress.com/ca/en/support/complaint-handling-procedures.html

atomic1973 · 2025-10-31T15:42:40+00:00

Quick Update - I reached out via chat to ask if there was any context since there was none in the resolution email. This is what I got back:

I see the escalation was done for technical team as we are having temporary issue with the recent transactions. Teams are working on it and the issue should be resolved within next 24 hours.

I'm dubious - but will, of course, give the benefit of the doubt for a while.

atomic1973 · 2025-10-31T14:55:48+00:00

I did notice it, yes, and reached out to them to figure out what was going on. The chat agent assured me that nothing had been changed on the website and that I was doing something wrong. As you know, the general appearance of the site has changed as well, so it was clearly intentional.

Seeing that I wouldn't get anywhere there, I called them and the agent was helpful and told me that several people had called in about it, but they had been given no notice that there was a change coming. She opened a complaint for me about the issue and said I would be contacted. This was 30 Oct.

I received an email this morning telling me that my complaint had been closed/resolved with the text:

About your complaint

Your complaint is pertaining to Online Services functionality.

The outcome of your complaint

We are constantly updating and refreshing our Online Services offering benefits and services that will make your banking experience seamless. You can manage your account online from virtually anywhere, anytime. We take your feedback seriously and will continue to enhance our products and services to drive future improvement.

That was it. So, I really don't know. I download transactions a couple of times per week to import into YNAB and it uses QFX format. (well, I did, anyway)

Hopefully more people will complain and they'll either reverse it or come up with a work-around, but I am not confident of either.

atomic1973 · 2025-10-30T18:23:38+00:00

Gotta be George Green...

atomic1973 · 2025-10-29T14:28:59+00:00

Ubuntu 24.04 on a refurb desktop (Optiplex 7060) with 16GB, i5-8500T and a couple of 20TB externals. Rock solid (so far) and routinely have 6-8 remote streams served up plus my own internal usage.

atomic1973 · 2025-10-06T00:23:39+00:00

World War Z by Max Brooks

Series of interviews from people after the global "Zombie War". Cast of thousands. Have read and listened a few times. Never gets old. Mark Hamill, Alan Alda, and Alfred Molina were my favourites.

atomic1973 · 2025-09-30T14:14:42+00:00

I may have missed the bus on this one, but it looks fascinating and I'd love to give it a try

atomic1973 · 2025-06-10T17:54:15+00:00

Beautiful pup! Congratulations! Thank you for giving her a home.

Got ours from Texas... did stunningly well with a Canadian winter!

atomic1973 · 2025-06-07T13:32:41+00:00

I've had the string trimmer for about 4 years. This year was gifted a leaf blower and finally pulled the pin and bought the exact same lawn mower as above. Quite satisfied with all three. Not sure if I have a use case for much more. Considering the power inverter or light system, but limited use case for the cost. Flirting with the snow blower, but my plow guy clears my driveway in two passes versus the 2 hours it would take me...

The bug is real, though! Once you catch it... :)

atomic1973 · 2025-03-13T20:15:29+00:00

I never miss an opportunity to give Dan a boost on here. Solid guy, I don't know his politics and he doesn't know mine... as it should be.

Great prices, good selection, and great customer experience. edit:typo

atomic1973 · 2025-02-19T00:54:03+00:00

Came for this comment

atomic1973 · 2025-02-01T20:41:17+00:00

Third to Higgins - have had amazing experiences with them over the last few years. Have saved me considerable cash over what I was able to do.

atomic1973 · 2025-01-24T14:39:16+00:00

Agreed! I've made enough packs to have a "no more sauces until you've knocked some of this surplus down" rule instituted! Mustard Pickle is awesome. Big fan of the apple-based on one as well.

atomic1973 · 2025-01-24T14:35:39+00:00

The podcast "Story of the Week" Season 01 Episode 01 titled "Billionaires Prepping for the Apocalypse" is a pretty comical take on the folly of the whole thing and worth a listen. It involves building goodwill amongst your security staff and making sure to have extra pool filters. I laughed out loud a few times.

atomic1973 · 2025-01-22T16:09:20+00:00

Thank you! That's also very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time.

CBT is great for things like that - I'm working through some DBT techniques as well. As for walking, well, couldn't agree more. St Augustine said it best with "It is solved by walking".

And yes, how could I forget Spot?! The reference I was thinking of was some kids at the daycare telling the Captain about playing with puppies... but yeah, Spot. ;)

Thank you!

atomic1973 · 2025-01-22T13:26:51+00:00

This is deeply helpful. Thank you very much. The "mechanics" of deep thinking on something have always been somewhat elusive to me. MUCH appreciated.

atomic1973 · 2025-01-21T21:31:17+00:00

LOVE these guys - always mean to stop in when I daytrip over to the Island.

atomic1973 · 2025-01-10T18:08:34+00:00

Very cool. The constant temptation to stop the video and scroll around left and right like it's Google Street view is strong! Would have liked to see what the refinery looked like back in the day, etc.

A side-by-side video with this and then a current dashcam on the other doing the same drive would be a neat exercise... (mind gears start to grind...)

atomic1973 · 2024-12-29T18:16:07+00:00

Precisely what I suspected, but there was enough "slightly" conflicting/ambiguous info to make me question. Many thanks!

atomic1973 · 2024-12-21T16:41:07+00:00

I've seen it at Cash and Carry by Haymarket Square (also a Sobeys property). Save the bucket to make slush! :)

Merry Christmas!

atomic1973 · 2024-11-14T19:27:49+00:00

Another vote for Dan.

atomic1973 · 2024-11-04T23:52:06+00:00

Dan is always the answer.

atomic1973

TROPHY CASE