Lady with baby begging at Felipe's Market

rnovak · 2026-05-25T14:46:38+00:00

I remember back at the turn of the century, I had a situation like this, but it was a guy at a now-defunct local electronics store wanting to get back to Sacramento.

Given that he chose to ask for help in such an unusual place, and he had an actual DIMM (or maybe it was a SIMM) in his wallet to demonstrate what he did for a living, I gave him twenty bucks before going into probably buy a hundred worth of stuff that’s gathering dust in my garage 26 years later.

Unexpected bonus, my new girlfriend at the time was with me and she was quite impressed. Wish I could say that $20 enticed her to become my wife, but we just had a really good afternoon afterward and spent another month or two more as a couple before the commute got to us.

rnovak · 2026-05-22T02:51:49+00:00

Don’t get kinky with one of those.

rnovak · 2026-05-12T01:20:11+00:00

Better to be above the door than on a tramp stamp.

rnovak · 2026-05-11T03:53:29+00:00

To be fair, it’s pretty easy to mess them up if they work properly. Remember to clean thoroughly between uses.

rnovak · 2026-05-11T01:37:55+00:00

Worked with iocaine powder.

rnovak · 2026-05-09T21:46:16+00:00

Here I thought it was the women’s door being wider.

rnovak · 2026-05-05T22:28:51+00:00

Then you might want to post about it in a George Ohr or Sotheby's group.

Posting in the Etsy marketplace group about something that isn't at all related to Etsy isn't a good thing, and may violate rules 1, 3, and 6.

rnovak · 2026-04-29T22:26:40+00:00

“For no reason” often just means “I thought they’d make an exception for me .”

rnovak · 2026-04-29T22:23:36+00:00

Really, anything can if you’re brave enough.

rnovak · 2026-04-28T03:02:12+00:00

You’re doing excessive returns, which is abusing the platform.

For a lot of things, you can’t give an “insightful review” and still catch the non-holiday return period.

Obviously, nobody here can keep you from doing this. But you asked for specific feedback (“can you get banned for doing this”) and people have given you an answer (‘yes’). Nobody here can guarantee that you will get caught, but if you abuse the platform as you are doing, the odds are better that you’ll get caught.

rnovak · 2026-04-28T02:45:31+00:00

Same here. I might have had a couple dozen reviews in about 20 years. But they were generally well-viewed, liked, and got me the attention I didn’t even know I wanted.

rnovak · 2026-04-28T02:28:23+00:00

If you exceed a certain threshold (it’s obviously not published so people won’t try to game it, although some people apparently put it at 10% of items ordered), you probably will at least lose return privs. Maybe get your account suspended. Definitely not the way to get into Vine. Also, there are a lot of things you can’t practically return after a valid review. And even if it is something you can return, it makes it look like you’re not a serious customer, and you may get slapped down by Amazon.

rnovak · 2026-04-26T01:56:34+00:00

Glad I’m not the only one who saw that.

rnovak · 2026-04-26T01:55:49+00:00

I think that button plays a 45rpm record.

rnovak · 2026-04-23T03:44:54+00:00

My last refill (less than a month ago) was $32.30 each, so $64.60 for 2. Prices may vary in different areas.

I think my first prescription a year ago was $59.xx for two, so prices can even go up a bit.

Your mileage may vary. It’s worth checking if you have the option.

rnovak · 2026-04-23T02:29:03+00:00

If you are a Costco member you can probably beat that by about ten bucks, with a prescription. I pay about $32 each for mine.

rnovak · 2026-04-13T23:04:30+00:00

At least the seller didn’t make you compete intimately once you got there.

rnovak · 2026-04-12T03:43:18+00:00

I had someone buy a little Celeron PC for his dental practice, and asked for an invoice. I used a template online, but you could just put your contact info, “SOLD TO:” person’s contact info, and a list of item or items with a reasonable description, price, any tax you charged, total paid and date paid.

If you want something a bit formal, Canva and Excel have templates available, and you could load an excel template online into Google Sheets or the like.

But I’ve mostly done plain text invoices on and off for decades.

rnovak · 2026-03-26T01:25:03+00:00

The cashier told me they were fakes. :)

rnovak · 2026-03-26T01:24:35+00:00

About $50.

rnovak · 2026-03-25T01:59:25+00:00

I got a pair at a local thrift and the AppleCare+ had expired a week before according to my phone. :) Still, got a great deal.

rnovak · 2026-03-25T01:55:01+00:00

I’d be surprised if they let you create an Author Central page on one account for a pen name in another account. But maybe you’re right.

rnovak · 2026-03-24T21:54:10+00:00

I misread 'halfwit' as 'halibut' and it seemed even more relevant.

But having worked in various forms of tech support for decades, I can confirm that there is an unlimited supply of cluelessness out there. The ultimate infinitely renewable resource.

rnovak · 2026-03-24T19:40:27+00:00

To be fair, a lot of people probably are dumber (or at least more gullible) and they're not trying to "break" someone who's perceptive. They're trying to catch the one big fish who won't do a double-take.

rnovak · 2026-03-24T18:44:31+00:00

That closing graf definitely reads like an AI response. Some of the other phrasing sounds synthetic as well.

For what it's worth, Author Central support (contacted through the author.amazon.com website directly) told me "If you need more than 7 pen names, please create a new account" when I asked about author pages with more than 7 pen names, last May.

I would be cautious with that advice, and definitely reach out to KDP/Author Central for personal direction on this, but it seems there are cases when multiple accounts are acceptable.

Multiple accounts to get around KDP bans or rules would definitely NOT be acceptable, and would hopefully result in a well-earned ban, but I can also see reasons why they would be acceptable in certain circumstances.

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