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Guess we know where that severance pay is going now.
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Oct 17, 2012 19:03
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tuyop posted:Also, I just want to say that the last couple of pages have been full of amazing advice and I'm very grateful that you guys are taking time out of your lives to help me for free. Thanks. I hope you realise that we do this because: a) we think you deserve a nice life and b) we think you are capable of getting through this rough time and getting your life back on track.
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Oct 17, 2012 20:37
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spog posted:I hope you realise that we do this because: With goons, you can never discout option c: Neckbeards in their parent's basement living vicariously through tuyop. 
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Oct 17, 2012 21:34
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I don't know about the rest of you, but I compulsively hand out free advice because it reinforces my self-image as a smart and wise person who helps people with good advice. I also enjoy showing off to other goons how smart I am, because I crave social validation and this is the place I get it the most. Solving other people's problems by taking ten minutes to type things is also much easier than the amount of effort and dedication required to solve my own problems, so I get a sense of accomplishment for a minimal investment. e. Oh yeah also, schadenfreude is a real thing and so I also kind of enjoy when someone ignores my advice and then bad things happen to them, because even though I believe wishing misfortune on others is petty, I simultaneously (and inconsistently with that belief) love getting to say "I told you so." I think it's because when I give someone advice, and then they succeed, I can't honestly take full credit for their success (because they obviously had to make most of the effort, even if they were just doing what I told them to do). But if I give someone advice, they don't follow it, and then they fail, I can conflate their failure to follow my advice with their tendency to fail generally: e.g., "he didn't take my advice because he's fundamentally a fuckup," which leads to the conclusion that one would have to be a fuckup to not take my advice. E.g., my advice is good and I am a good person for giving it. So even there, it's all about self-validation, but in a format that is socially acceptable (giving good advice for free). Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 23:27 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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Oct 17, 2012 23:21
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Leperflesh posted:I don't know about the rest of you... I think most of us here feel the same way Spog does. We always see the possible good ending for the OP even if he/she doesn't. Goons, myself included, definitely get emotionally invested in threads so we want to see the OP succeed. Nether Postlude fucked around with this message at 00:41 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 00:39
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Yeah, experience says that I should assume people are going to take that post seriously, even though I kind of hoped nobody would.
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Oct 18, 2012 00:43
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Alright, so I’m going to give you a glimpse at the unluckiness in progress. This is the story of one man's epic quest to get internet access in Ontario in 2012: Chapter 1: Circumstances I moved into a new apartment with toeshoes on September 29. We decided that we would get internet. She already has internet with Rogers and she’s pretty satisfied so we were just going to move the account over. Unfortunately, they couldn’t help us until Monday. Chapter 2: The tuyoping begins We live on a rural highway next to a golf course/resort. There’s currently a cable coming out of our wall and also a phone jack. This means, to me, that we have cable and telephone service and the internet can be had through both of those things! So we called Rogers. Rogers doesn’t believe that our house exists. Eventually, after toeshoes spent a couple of hours on the phone with them somehow, they determined that they don’t offer service at our house. That’s fine, we’ll just go with a DSL competitor. Bell offers DSL service here in Ontario. But they can’t find our house either and their packages are like 70 dollars for 3mbps down and 60 gb of bandwidth. It’s loving insane. They also want to charge 50 bucks for some weird fee if they can find the house at all. I decide to try Satellite internet and one of those LTE home network hub things. The LTE home network thing is super wicked fast, but caps out at 6 gb of data. It’s only 45 for those 6 gigs, but still, no go. The satellite internet is the funniest thing ever. It’s 99 dollars a month for 1 mbps down and 3 gigs of data. Plus a 199 installation fee and 150 for modem purchase. Hahaha. Meanwhile I leveraged my expiring contract with Telus to have my data increased to 6 gb for no charge, so we could have internet for a week or so. Then, I found a local DSL provider that will give me 6 mbps down with unlimited bandwidth for 50 dollars a month. Perfect! And they know that my house exists. Wonderful. They can’t install it for 6 more days. Fine. So, at this point I just want to give someone money to have the internet in my apartment. I take responsibility for not researching the service areas of the cable providers, or knowing about the local ISPs sooner. My bad, it just cost me a week of service and saved me like 15 bucks I guess. Chapter 3: The Tuyop Effect. I don’t have a modem, so I ordered one to rent because I’m only going to need it for six months. It’s four dollars a month. The tech arrived (after scheduling me for 8-5 on a Tuesday. What’s up with that?) and installed the phone line magic that we needed. Then he got up to leave. I asked him, “So do you have a modem for me?” and he said, “No, you didn’t order a modem.” “Oh.” I said. “I would still like one though, because I want the internet. Don’t you have like a stack of them in your truck?” “Nope, I only have what you ordered. You’ve got to call the ISP.” So I called the ISP, even the same lady I ordered from. I said, “Hey I ordered a modem and you didn’t give me a modem.” She said, “We didn’t charge you for one!” “But I told you, I want internet. I even said that I have nothing that I need for the internet so I need like the whole deal and I want to rent a modem.” “I’m sorry sir, I don’t have any record of that. But you can buy one for 80 dollars!” “No thanks.” I checked Kijiji (Canadian craigslist) and found a modem for 30 bucks nearby. When I called, the person on the other end hung up after hello like they were frightened and wouldn’t answer their phone again, or their email. Ok then. I went to the Best Buy website and they had a DSL modem that would work on the network for 26 dollars. I drove to the Best Buy and they didn’t have it in stock, you have to order it to your house. So I did that. All was well, it was now Friday and I expected the modem to arrive on Monday. Toeshoes and I settled down for a weekend of reading and watching Anchorman over and over on my computer. When the modem didn’t arrive by Tuesday, I checked the tracking information. It was returned to sender because my address doesn’t exist. I called Best Buy and, after a long dental procedure with the customer service dude, figured out that I’d just have to order another one to a better address. They won’t ship to my office. After work, the housemates ambushed us on the way to the door and told us that our address had been wrong for the past two weeks and gave me a piece of paper with the new, correct address on it. Now we have to re-sign the lease with the correct address and I had to change all my addresses AGAIN. When I changed my credit card address, I left out a B somewhere, so when I reordered the modem, the order was rejected by Best Buy. Despite calling customer service again and asking them to just make it charge my card now that I’d changed the address, they told me it would take 24-48 hours for this to occur. I’ve now found a new, 35 dollar modem on kijiji a 45 minute drive away. I want to just cancel the order and gently caress Best Buy and go buy this modem from the guy tomorrow. But it’s 90 minutes of driving for spite, and it’s 5 dollars more expensive. Also, it turns out that my service can’t be prorated from when I actually start using it and data starts flowing. It’s just on and charging me this whole time. I’ve been spending two dollars a day on this loving headache. Epilogue: TL;DR I tried to give several companies money for internet access. They didn’t offer me service because I live in buttfuck nowhere. When I found a company that would take my money, they hosed up my order and forgot the modem. When I tried to buy a modem, my address was hosed up so the modem didn’t arrive. When I tried to change my address, I missed a digit, so that when I tried to order a new modem it rejected me and now it will take one or two days to accept me. Meanwhile, hope looms in the form of a local dude from darkest Millwood who is selling a modem for five dollars more, which I could have TOMORROW. I’m just going to cancel my Best Buy order and get this used/new modem despite the driving.
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Oct 18, 2012 01:41
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The funniest part is that the big telcos couldn't find your house because you gave them the wrong address. I don't even understand how that's possible.
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Oct 18, 2012 01:51
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1. None of the cable companies offered you service because your address literally didn't exist because your landlord gave you a non-existent address. So possibly they all actually offer you service. 2. You are right that metered internet is bullshit and so is bandwidth cap. 3. Not all DSL is the same, so I do hope you're getting a compatible DSL modem. Perhaps it is ADSL 2.0+B or something like that (that is a made up designation). I would definitely buy a modem from someplace you can loving return it, though, rather than some random guy on Kijiji, because there's an excellent chance that even if the guy on the phone assured you it would work, it will wind up not working. 4. It's bullshit your ISP wouldn't package a modem with your service, because uh, it sure is nice to have the installer configure the modem and make sure it's working before he leaves. You are right to be indignant about that and it sounds like the "local DSL outfit" has a bit of that local-itis incompetence going on that really climbs up my rear end whenever I encounter it. 5. You are not paying for your computer downloading Internet; you're paying for a hosepipe of internet to be installed and turned on. Which it is. Your ISP may be shite for not selling you a modem, but they're not shite for charging you for your service being there even if you're unable to use it due to lacking equipment. That said, if they were awesome, they'd pro-rate you for the a couple of days due to the "misunderstanding" of them not selling or renting you a modem. 6. Satellite internet sucks. It's sold to rural people whose phone lines are so distant from the nearest telco office that DSL cannot work, and also they have no cable available. Each satellite up in space has to beam out every single packet for every single subscriber pointed at that satellite simultaneously, which really limits how much bandwidth they can offer you. Uploading is even worse because the satellite in space has to listen for all data coming from all subscribers which is being broadcast by some dinky little low-power consumer-grade dish and radio. And you know, satellites are pretty goddamn expensive and it's not like they can just upgrade them every year or two. You gotta buy a goddamn rocket and launch that poo poo into space, you know? It is the last-resort option for people who just can't get anything else, and that's why it's both expensive and crap. If it's any consolation, I spent the better part of six months fighting with three different companies (one of which was amazing in terms of customer service and support) before I could finally get internet at my house that didn't randomly stop working at random times of the day for 30 to 60 seconds at a time over and over and over for absolutely no detectable reason. This poo poo just happens sometimes and we are all victims to inadequate infrastructure. Leperflesh fucked around with this message at 01:56 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 01:54
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Leperflesh posted:2. You are right that metered internet is bullshit and so is bandwidth cap. I've never had Internet in Canada that didn't have a bandwidth cap.  Well, ok, excluding dialup. Seriously, telecom here is so expensive, it's retarded.
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Oct 18, 2012 01:57
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/\/\ and yeah, the landlord originally gave us an address that is literally in the wrong town, and fictional. And then he took our mailbox. I don't know where our mail goes now. FrozenVent posted:I've never had Internet in Canada that didn't have a bandwidth cap. I've never encountered a data cap until now. It's horrible. Back out east (maritimes what) there are no data caps (at least recently). And we wear shorts in January and it's foggy every day. :woot:
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Oct 18, 2012 02:14
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tuyop posted:/\/\ and yeah, the landlord originally gave us an address that is literally in the wrong town, and fictional. And then he took our mailbox. I don't know where our mail goes now. Please tells me he has a twirly moustache and wears a top hat. Seriously, that's that level of hosed up.
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Oct 18, 2012 02:36
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tuyop posted:/\/\ and yeah, the landlord originally gave us an address that is literally in the wrong town, and fictional. maybe you were living in the wrong house
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Oct 18, 2012 05:00
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Tuyop, what the hell man. Have you thought about an exorcist or something?
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Oct 18, 2012 05:22
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quaint bucket posted:Tuyop, what the hell man. Seriously. God drat, tuyop. I don't understand how this keeps happening to you. Just make sure to consult us before paying for the exorcism. We just want you to find the best deal.
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Oct 18, 2012 05:41
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The Cajun's came from New Brunswick, right? Maybe you got some bayou voodoo poo poo cast on you or something?
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Oct 18, 2012 06:30
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In Australia I was paying $80 a month for a 50GB cap. Things could be worse. Still, I agree that all the telcos should include the modem. Hell, my Telus modem blew up in a power outage last week and the guy gave me a reference number to go pick a new one from the Telus store, it was a five minute process and completely free!
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Oct 18, 2012 07:56
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tuyop posted:I've never encountered a data cap until now. It's horrible. Back out east (maritimes what) there are no data caps (at least recently). I've had a 250GB/month cap now for two years with Eastlink. But their service is pretty excellent and it sucks that they don't operate in Ontario.
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Oct 18, 2012 08:13
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Oh man, our landlord scares the poo poo out of me. His name is Lou. ("I'm fuckin' Lou!") Lou — everyone calls him mister B — is a very successful Italian local businessman who owns the resort next door and some stores and sewage companies and stuff. He has a wikipedia page. The real estate agent/property manager who rented us the place told us that he usually doesn't rent apartments, but he helped Mr. B "with some transactions in another line of work, in another life..." and Mr. B asked him to manage the property as a favor. I read this as our property manager is a loving fixer! Everyone involved is slightly shady, but they seem nice and they're fairly accommodating and prompt about most things we've needed so far. And it's cookstown Ontario. I'm sure there isn't any organized crime here. But what would be a more perfect money laundering operation? 
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Oct 18, 2012 12:09
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tuyop posted:And it's cookstown Ontario. I'm sure there isn't any organized crime here. But what would be a more perfect money laundering operation? Well, you're only about an hour and a half from Hamilton, one of the last bastions of the mafia in Canada. Seriously, though - now that you've landed in Southern Ontario, I am turning your rear end in to Gail Vaz-Oxlade. She'll sort you out. Don't fight it.
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Oct 18, 2012 13:52
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Giant Goats posted:Well, you're only about an hour and a half from Hamilton, one of the last bastions of the mafia in Canada. That show is loving awesome. So guys, I found out that a personal trainer certification distance course is only around $550 dollars. Should I be considering taking one of these courses? I might be able to have it subsidized by the military. But it would probably be a thing for the new year if we can cut it and have to pay. I'm not having any luck with the part time job search, except for night shift at an electronics recycling facility (oh yeah), so getting a, hopefully free, certification may be what I need.
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Oct 18, 2012 20:16
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Will your injury be an issue in pursuing the certification?
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Oct 18, 2012 20:22
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quaint bucket posted:Will your injury be an issue in pursuing the certification? It's a distance learning thing, so it looks like I won't be required to do any lifts that I have trouble with or anything, no. The local community college in Barrie also offers a certification, and I called the education reimbursement people here. As long as I come out of the college with a certificate (not a shady ISSA online certificate), they'll probably fund it. 351 dollars not including text, starting in January on weekends and Tuesday nights. Oh man!
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Oct 18, 2012 20:31
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How much thought have you put into this? It sounds like an impulse purchase, sweetened by the idea that "free money" is somehow involved. What makes you sure this something you want to do? Given your injury, will you be able to function well as a personal trainer?
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Oct 18, 2012 20:36
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If something goes horribly wrong with this, I won't even know what to say. Except advise you to sell the production rights to Bad Luck Tuyop. Like that movie, which i do not remember the plot to, Good Luck Chuck. Was it about luck? I don't even knowwww.
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Oct 18, 2012 20:38
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Do you even want to be a personal trainer? Honestly, your career options would be "working at a place for the rest of your life where the equipment could possibly exacerbate a bad injury you've already got." This does sound like another impulse thing that isn't planned out at all. You're also not going to get a lot of customers if you can't show them how to do a deadlift without dying.
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Oct 18, 2012 20:40
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Edit: this is for part-time work and also to maybe teach extra-curricular high school weightlifting in the future. There's no purchasing happening right now. I'm in the research and get excited stage. Steps that I'll take before spending a dime: Check out if I even need a certification for this poo poo to work in gyms. The military qualifies you to run and design PT plans on CAP, which I did in 2008, maybe that's enough? Talk with toeshoes to see if it's alright. We have an appointment with a financial planner too, because we want to get some professional input now that we're living together permanently, so I'll bring it up with the planner there. Check with canfitpro to confirm the certification process, because they seem to be in charge of that around here. Get my CPR qualification updated through the military. Save, and apply for reimbursement through the military if possible. This is just step one, asking the goons. Me being me, I would want to get some kind of liability insurance so that some retard doesn't legally destroy me when he folds himself in half somehow. So what do you guys think? I think the injury causes some problems with some exercises, but I don't necessarily have to do something to teach it. Right? I can sort of lift a broomstick overhead to demonstrate shoulder press form... tuyop fucked around with this message at 20:52 on Oct 18, 2012 |
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Oct 18, 2012 20:47
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Oh it's canfitpro? I can talk to my wife about that. She got it covered through work for free because why not. From what I remember, it can only be used in the gym while working for the gym. None of that working on your own. You will definitely have to go in for a test.
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Oct 18, 2012 21:05
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quote:this is for part-time work and also to maybe teach extra-curricular high school weightlifting in the future. And for part time work, see below. tuyop posted:Talk with toeshoes to see if it's alright. We have an appointment with a financial planner too, because we want to get some professional input now that we're living together permanently, so I'll bring it up with the planner there. You don't need a financial planner, honestly. All he will do is try to convince you to buy mutual funds that he gets a commission for selling you. You need to spend as little as you can and bring down your debt. Seriously, you're very far from the only person to ever start living with a significant other. I'd wager 90% of the posters in this thread have done it (including me) and can answer any questions you have. This is definitely not "financial planner" material. quote:This is just step one, asking the goons. Me being me, I would want to get some kind of liability insurance so that some retard doesn't legally destroy me when he folds himself in half somehow. So what do you guys think? I think the injury causes some problems with some exercises, but I don't necessarily have to do something to teach it. Right? I can sort of lift a broomstick overhead to demonstrate shoulder press form... You do need to demonstrate something to teach it. You will have ZERO credibility otherwise. When your fat, out of shape clients can do an exercise and you, as their personal trainer, cannot, they won't respect you and they won't hire you. Not to mention that they're going to wonder why you can't do things, and they will almost certainly assume that you hurt yourself exercising, and that they might get hurt if you teach them.
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Oct 18, 2012 21:16
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HookShot posted:No high school is going to let you do extra curricular high school weight lifting. There's so many issues to go along with it, there's a reason why only teachers teach extra curriculars. Sorry dude, but they're just not going to let you. He wants to be a teacher down the road.
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Oct 18, 2012 21:29
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Do you have a customer base that will be willing to pay you to teach them to work out? Are you the kind of person who can sell yourself, and stay motivated to keep getting new clients? Are you willing to work odd hours to fit other people's schedules? Do you really want to be in a gym all day, every day? These are questions you need to answer to yourself, honestly.
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Oct 18, 2012 21:44
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quaint bucket posted:He wants to be a teacher down the road. Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I thought he meant volunteering, sorry Tuyop, my bad.
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Oct 18, 2012 21:45
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It's ok. It's totally understandable because that was like 20-30 pages ago. Memory like a steelyard.
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Oct 18, 2012 21:51
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Oh and my laptop just died. NOW we know where that severance pay is going.  Don't worry guys, I'm going to save up and get a nice used laptop. I don't need one right now.
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Oct 18, 2012 23:40
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A nice used laptop? A $349 USD Acer will give you quad core, 4 gigs of ram, 500gb hd, and HDMI out. And a warranty. What else would you need?
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Oct 18, 2012 23:43
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Guess you don't need the internet anymore!
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Oct 18, 2012 23:44
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juche mane posted:A nice used laptop? A $349 USD Acer will give you quad core, 4 gigs of ram, 500gb hd, and HDMI out. And a warranty. What else would you need? Yeah seriously, in this day and age, don't buy a used computer. Just get a cheap one.
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Oct 18, 2012 23:45
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FrozenVent posted:Yeah seriously, in this day and age, don't buy a used computer. I'm just trying to be as Mustachian as possible and buy used if I can.
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Oct 18, 2012 23:51
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Laptops get beaten up. They get transported in backpacks full of crumbs and dust, used at the beach, dropped, kicked, bumped, and scraped. Nobody should buy a used laptop. I mean, unless you can get a quite recent one for like $50 and treat it as a disposable object, I guess? If you also have a desktop, then yeah, you don't need a laptop at all. If you must have a laptop, but you have a very low budget, then buy a very cheap new one. It'll be less likely to crap out on you than pretty much any used laptop.
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Oct 19, 2012 00:33
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quaint bucket posted:It's ok. It's totally understandable because that was like 20-30 pages ago. Tuyop, I agree, don't buy a used laptop. You can find cheap ones for under $400, and if this is some weird thing where you're punishing yourself well a) don't do it b) if you really insist on doing it, at least get a refurbished laptop. They're as little as $279 at Futureshop.
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Oct 19, 2012 00:45
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