What is your pet peeve of the day?

[John Galt III]

Here's a good one. When watching golf on my 10 year old perfectly good 25 inch TV, about half the time, while they are showing players on the green, you can't see the player taking the putt! Or you can't see the ball as it is rolling toward the cup. It's as though the producers have cropped out the edges of the scene. Why? Maybe they have formatted it for large flat screens? And the print on the screen is now microscopic. Again, maybe something to do with formatting it for huge screens?

[REWahoo]

Have you checked your TV settings? That would be the first place I looked.

[John Galt III]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Have you checked your TV settings? That would be the first place I looked.

No, I have not. Will try it. Hope the instructions aren't hopelessly ambiguous.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Galt III Here's a good one. When watching golf on my 10 year old perfectly good 25 inch TV, about half the time, while they are showing players on the green, you can't see the player taking the putt! Or you can't see the ball as it is rolling toward the cup. It's as though the producers have cropped out the edges of the scene. Why? Maybe they have formatted it for large flat screens? And the print on the screen is now microscopic. Again, maybe something to do with formatting it for huge screens?

Yes, I think most broadcast nowadays is formatted for HD TVs. If you are watching on an SD (Standard Def) screen, some will be cropped, and they now make the fine print barely readable on an HD, so it is just a blur on SD.

-ERD50

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo Have you checked your TV settings? That would be the first place I looked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Galt III No, I have not. Will try it. Hope the instructions aren't hopelessly ambiguous.

No, that won't help:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCcdr4O-3gE

Quote:

" There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. ... We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to — The Outer Limits. — Opening narration, The Control Voice, 1960s "

-ERD50

[Derslickmeister]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Galt III Why? Maybe they have formatted it for large flat screens? And the print on the screen is now microscopic. Again, maybe something to do with formatting it for huge screens?

Yes, you have answered your own question. Broadcasting in HD 1080i and 16:9 aspect ratio. You need a newer, bigger TV.

[JoeWras]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud Update on my Discount Tire saga... Wrote to the company and complained... got a call this morning from the manager who said that is not what is supposed to happen... Scheduled me for 11:30... I arrived at that time, got me in when the bay was empty, did the work and I was out of there in less than 20 minutes... This is how an appointment is supposed to work!!! But, just found out that my 90,000 mile Michelins are almost ready to be replaced at 30,000 miles... the manager said that Michelin is aware of the problem and I would get back a credit... said I got one more rotation and then will have to replace them... If it ain't one thing it is another.....

I don't want to sound like a cheerleader, but I love Discount Tire. Here in Raleigh, NC, they are pretty good with appointments. I've never had a wait.

I'll also say this: my friend's son works there and they provide a good opportunity for young people to make a decent wage in a responsible job. We need more employers like this.

All that said, I blew them off for many years because their shops looked cheesy, and so did their ads. A co-worker suggested I try them, and now I'm a regular customer.

[Car-Guy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nafddur1 Why not just rotate them yourself? In a little more than the time it took to type this post, I do my own tire rotations in my driveway (or garage if it's raining out. Of course then, I usually just wait for the next sunny day). Life's way too short to waste time driving to a tire store, waiting for them to get to my car, doing the `work,' listening to their spiel about how much unnecessary work I need done, and then returning home. Then again, I feel the same way about oil changes which I also like (actually, prefer) doing myself. I guess to each their own.

+1 Even though I've been happy with Discount Tires, I still do my own tire rotations. (Besides, it's two hour round trip to the nearest Discount Tire shop)

[John Galt III]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 Yes, I think most broadcast nowadays is formatted for HD TVs. If you are watching on an SD (Standard Def) screen, some will be cropped, and they now make the fine print barely readable on an HD, so it is just a blur on SD. -ERD50

Aha! I guessed right. I just have to get with the program and buy an expensive new TV! No, I suppose I can live with the cropping. It may be happening on all programs, but I only notice it on sports shows, and I'm not a huge sports fan.

[pb4uski]

Quote:

Originally Posted by splitwdw Stopped at a food store on the way home and saw 2 women (50ish) in the produce department eating cherries out of the packages. I was shocked and said "you can't eat those without paying for them, it's stealing." They said "no it wasn't that everyone does it." ...

It would have been tempted to say 'No, I'm pretty sure it is stealing. Let's get the store manager and we can ask for his/her opinion."

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by pb4uski It would have been tempted to say 'No, I'm pretty sure it is stealing. Let's get the store manager and we can ask for his/her opinion."

Standing there munching on cherries and not buying the rest of the bag is certainly not "testing" and shorting the person who eventually buys the bag. I sometimes test grapes in the store before I buy the product because we have bought some that were downright sour and past their prime. But I don't "test" just to nibble because I feel like eating a few grapes.

Plus, if the store manager wanted potential customers to try the cherries before buying, he would have set up a test kiosk with an employee there to hand out cherries.

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoeWras I don't want to sound like a cheerleader, but I love Discount Tire. Here in Raleigh, NC, they are pretty good with appointments. I've never had a wait. I'll also say this: my friend's son works there and they provide a good opportunity for young people to make a decent wage in a responsible job. We need more employers like this. All that said, I blew them off for many years because their shops looked cheesy, and so did their ads. A co-worker suggested I try them, and now I'm a regular customer.

I do too... I have been going for probably more than 30 years... I normally go in when there are not that many people there... but do not drive by them as often as I used to so decided to set an appointment..

If you read my last email, the manager called and worked it out in the end...

[mystang52]

I'm sure this has been mentioned before in one way or the other, on this or another post. But what drives me crazy are all those supposed expert analysts who can, ahem, "expertly" explain the sharp drops and increases in the stock market - after it's happened.
Heck, I can do that. As far as I'm concerned, no different than the after-the-fact claims from the Psychic Network.

[Walt34]

Even if you're not Comcast's customer they still won't miss an opportunity to mess things up. The new next-door neighbor was getting Comcast cable installed, and that's fine. Of course while doing that they cut my cable and phone line even though the locations of the cables had been marked.

Then they botched up the repair on the phone line, tried to fix it for two hours, then admitted that he had no idea how to fix it so I ended up calling Frontier. They had it straightened out in a couple of hours.

[travelover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Walt34 Even if you're not Comcast's customer they still won't miss an opportunity to mess things up. ........

I don't have Comcast either, but their cable line was knocked down in my (very large) backyard and it took months for me to get them to raise it back off the ground and even then they left the cable from the old line laying on the ground. I finally got disgusted and rolled up the steel cable myself and sold it for scrap.

[Chuckanut]

With this market hysteria everywhere, my pet peeve is that there is no good replacement for Luis Rukeyser and Wall Street Week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFn1G2goDQw

[pb4uski]

+1 He was great!

[tulak]

I'll add that my pet peeve is the hype around the market drop. The media loves the 1000 point dow drop, since it's been the biggest. But percentage wise, not even close. And then they mention it was "scary."

We should all be very scared, but don't forget to put in the buy orders!

[ls99]

Kind of sad story. And a peeve about sloth.

About 20 minutes into my warmup this morning, a boy about 8 or 10 comes into the large area where I do my workouts, nice rubberized floor about 50x35 foot area. It is free time in the area for about 4 hours in the mornings for whatever.

The kid picks up a ball carries it to a row of chairs against the wall, sits down, puts one foot on the ball, whips out an electronic gizmo of some sort. Places it on his now raised knee. Proceeds to tapping away at it, all hunched over for around 15 minutes, the leaves. I could not help noticing it while continuing with my workout.

45 minutes or so later when I was done, heading to the dressing room, passed another area which has interactive exercise stuff, with video screens, saw the same kid with another boy sitting on their butts poking away at the aforementioned hand held video devices.

He and the other kid were both a bit pudgy, presume they'll be a fat asses in no time at all.

[irishgal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ls99 Kind of sad story. And a peeve about sloth. About 20 minutes into my warmup this morning, a boy about 8 or 10 comes into the large area where I do my workouts, nice rubberized floor about 50x35 foot area. It is free time in the area for about 4 hours in the mornings for whatever. The kid picks up a ball carries it to a row of chairs against the wall, sits down, puts one foot on the ball, whips out an electronic gizmo of some sort. Places it on his now raised knee. Proceeds to tapping away at it, all hunched over for around 15 minutes, the leaves. I could not help noticing it while continuing with my workout. 45 minutes or so later when I was done, heading to the dressing room, passed another area which has interactive exercise stuff, with video screens, saw the same kid with another boy sitting on their butts poking away at the aforementioned hand held video devices. He and the other kid were both a bit pudgy, presume they'll be a fat asses in no time at all.

Scary.


Wild Irish Rogue