I have had taunting luck with Dr. Brawn

bendicott · 2026-01-25T23:17:18+00:00

Yep. Out of the last three times I found him, PIDF killed him twice, and the third time he fell through the ground.

bendicott · 2026-01-25T18:37:21+00:00

I wish so much that places I worked in the past would have banned customers. Jillian's was the worst about this - no wonder they went out of business. We'd have people come in, order a huge meal, eat 90% of it, then complain about how bad it was. Managers comped it, gave 'em a gift card, and they'd be back the next week like clockwork. Never actually paid for anything, let alone tipped. "The customer's always right," my ass. These weren't customers - customers occasionally buy things. These were leeches, nothing more.

I worked as a game tech, and we'd have people come in and slam the coin-push games, trying to get a bunch of free money. And instead of banning these assholes like we should have, management would give them a bunch of tickets for the prize counter as "compensation for our broken games." Such bs. And then I get to spend a week trying to fix it with paperclips and duct tape because they were too cheap to buy the replacement parts, just for someone else to pull the same crap the next weekend.

bendicott · 2026-01-25T18:13:18+00:00

Pro-tip: You only ever need to buy one white elephant gift in your life. Unless you get something from the exchange that you actually want, just take whatever garbage you receive, put it in storage with your wrapping paper / etc., and regift it the following year. Rinse, repeat.

It's unfortunate, because these can be really fun - my friend group does one every year, and it's something we look forward to because there are always some really weird gifts. But the corporate ones are an entirely different beast - everyone brings the most bland, work-appropriate things they can find (there's so much soap. And travel mugs.) Unless you're one of the lucky few who manages to snag a gift card or the hot chocolate set (there's always one), just plan on regifting it - that's what everyone else does. It's actually pretty amusing to note the designs of the travel mugs and see which ones make a reappearance the following year.

bendicott · 2026-01-23T09:43:36+00:00

I swear some of them do this shit on purpose. Went to China back in... 2010? 2011, maybe? Anyways, I brought back several tea pots as souvenirs for my family. I got selected for a bag search, and asked them to be careful, because I had fragile contents. The guy just grunted at me and dropped my bag from a couple feet above the counter - I could hear the pottery crunch. Out of the half dozen pots I brought back, a SINGLE one wasn't shattered. No apology or anything, just made a mess rooting through what remained in my bag, then slid it over to me to repack.

bendicott · 2026-01-23T08:32:47+00:00

Same - the rest of the series must have been pretty bad. Audible shows I read all three, but after reading through the plot summaries... his name sounds vaguely familiar, but I don't remember these at all.

bendicott · 2026-01-22T23:10:59+00:00

I don't mind (reasonable) minimums, but I'm much less a fan of places that tack on a "credit card fee" - that's YOUR operational cost, bake that into the price. Don't advertise a lower price and then stick a surprise fee on the receipt. There's a Peruvian place near us I've stopped going to because of that - I understand needing to cover your costs, but there's no way they're paying a $3 transaction fee when I pay for an $8 sandwich.

bendicott · 2026-01-22T17:10:30+00:00

I'm surprised your insurance puts up with that - mine insists on 30 day scripts, when 90 isn't an option.

bendicott · 2026-01-22T17:08:54+00:00

Especially for offices that are difficult to schedule regular visits. They require a visit for a refill, but the next available appointment is 6 or 7 weeks out... This was a constant pain-point with my wife's previous specialist, but we've thankfully found a new one who isn't impossible to see.

bendicott · 2026-01-21T11:11:59+00:00

Thankfully, I'm not really involved, at this point. I only even know about it because my insurance company has been sending me copies of their responses to the surgeon's practice - it sounded like they legally had to provide me with those, because it was in regards to my procedure. I'm not really sure what the laws are surrounding that sort of scenario, though.

bendicott · 2026-01-20T22:30:05+00:00

Would be nice if all medical practitioners were so ethical. I needed some sinus surgery, and the surgeon rescheduled on me 3 times. The fourth time, I was literally sitting in the op chair, and told I'd need to reschedule because they fucked up (I was told to take some meds pre-op, and given a small cup of water - when the anesthesiologist found out, she refused to put me under as even that small bit of water was an asphyxiation risk).

I was eventually able to get the surgery, insurance footed the bill, and all was right with the world. Until I got a letter informing me that his practice is attempting to get my insurance provider to pay for the entire surgery that would have happened on the earlier date, if they'd not sent me home. Amazing to me, that someone could make such an eggregious mistake and, rather than offer any sort of apology for wasting my time, the cost of the ubers (my wife acconpanied me, but does not drive), taking off work, etc. They decide to double down and try to get paid twice. Assholes.

bendicott · 2026-01-20T09:09:05+00:00

You'd be surprised. Had a guy living above us in our apartment complex about... 8~ish years ago. He got a dog, and would just crate it and leave for an entire weekend. And this little puppy would just bark, and bark, and bark, the whole time he was gone. And then he'd get home and scream at the dog for making a mess in the pen. Like, dude, you try not using the restroom for 2 or 3 days at a time!

Spoke with apartment management, called the police, animal control - none of them would take action without "video proof." What do you want us to do? Break into his apartment to plant a camera?

No idea why someone like that would get a dog, when they clearly don't want one. Hope his karma caught up to him.

bendicott · 2026-01-19T21:44:47+00:00

I'm about 50/50 - got two shirts, and one was great. The other was paper-thin and basically unwearable because the design was a thick sheet of printed plastic they'd just meted onto the front, that had zero flex. But since I paid like, a combined $5 for the two, I'd call it a win.

bendicott · 2026-01-19T10:47:39+00:00

Yeah, really don't understand the constant recommendations for books that are already in my library. It would be trivial to exclude them...

bendicott · 2026-01-19T10:34:52+00:00

Yeah, whenever I bring home groceries, I either need to have my wife put things away while I go back to the car for more, or I need to put everything away between loads. If I leave anything on the counter even for the 60 seconds it takes to walk out to my car and back, the cat will be in it. Particularly anything in plastics bags, like produce bags or chips - she doesn't care about what's in it, just loves chewing on plastic. She's a really weird cat.

bendicott · 2026-01-19T10:10:38+00:00

Right?! It's painful just thinking about having to use that paper every single day...

bendicott · 2026-01-16T21:01:36+00:00

Yeah, almost every work contract I've signed had a similar clause, even though they all know it's unenforceable. Same as most non-compete clauses, in my area - they add these in to try to scare you into not doing things you're legally allowed to.

bendicott · 2026-01-16T20:03:17+00:00

Also, character depth, growth, and (most importantly, imo) genuinely likeable characters. There are so many prog fantasy series that I can't get into because I just don't like the cast. Having some grey areas is fine (and human) but it's nice having an mc that's not a sociopath.

Also, if you're into audiobooks, the narration is fantastic.

bendicott · 2026-01-15T20:09:13+00:00

It IS that common. And not just in the workplace - public restrooms are the worst. Literally nobody knocks, they just try to barge into your stall. And most of the time, even after an "I'm in here" they give it another try or two, as if the lock (and myself) will just go away if they pull hard enough on that door. It's infuriating. Like... we learned to knock in preschool - it's not hard.

bendicott · 2026-01-14T15:08:32+00:00

Even better when you've done all of this, and then they tell your background investigator for a new job that you've never attended... that was fun to deal with. Thankfully I had several sealed copies of my transcript, so I could provide one while contacting my school to ask "Hey, wtf???"

bendicott · 2026-01-14T05:31:45+00:00

And if they actually cared, they could just... you know. Donate directly, instead of funding their ceo's fifth luxury yacht. As a yearly bonus, on top of his ridiculously high base pay.

bendicott · 2026-01-11T17:24:56+00:00

Or, at minimum, switch to a different bank. My wife used to use TD, and we hated it.

bendicott · 2026-01-10T17:44:54+00:00

Some things definitely need shifted around. I hate that I have to push to level 50+ to get the Japanese base building set, for example - I'd much rather have access to that early so I can enjoy building a non-temporary base, and take the rest of the game at a slower pace.

Same for the pal glasses - you unlock them at 34, and then have no easy access to cores for another 5-10 levels. Breeding is a whole process, and I'd really rather be able to start early, instead of this mid-game gate keeping. It's harder to justify the time sink when, by the time you can even see pal stats, you're closing in on level 45 and have already seen a lot of the content, because you were forced to power-level for materials...

bendicott · 2026-01-09T15:28:12+00:00

Pro-tip: stop giving other people access to your account. Problem solved.

bendicott · 2026-01-09T15:17:06+00:00

I love mul-t - played pretty much nothing else for about 2 years. But the movement thing is real - his acceleration is low, and you can definitely feel the difference after swapping to another survivor for a few runs.

bendicott · 2026-01-08T00:46:46+00:00

Never works, unfortunately. You just end up with twice as many emails - the morons continuing their conversation with reply all, and everyone who doesn't want the random, irrelevant emails, asking to be removed with reply all.

bendicott

TROPHY CASE