All Purpose Rant Away Thread - 3.2.1 GO!

[Ciel]

Facebook rant-today it seems whenever I access a public FB page (I don't have a FB acct myself) for a store or company (to check for contest updates), I'm seeing a lower-third of screen grey-black message to sign up for Facebook updates. If I scroll up or down, the message goes to 2/3 of screen then fills it, at which point a tiny x in the upper right corner appears.
I've typed in the Captcha code to just see a FB page but this update screen tactic is making me angry. Does anyone know what this is about?
No issues yesterday with seeing posts on FB on such pages but today...

[Ciel]

it's not just the message within the card (i try to avoid anything that has a religious undertone in general especially since kidlet usually does cards for the kids in her class), it's also who exactly do you address the card to (the names of the people, the "smith" Family), then on the inside can you get away with writing adults names "and family" or just "the smith" family..... or everyone's names, then there's the in spelling of the names! with the popularity of making a name original theres 4 different ways to spell Brandon, and that doesn't even consider the different names... lets just say i probably spent an hour last night trolling facebook to get name spellings (had to figure out the real/full spelling of a kid's name, they always put the shortened version.. i finally found the full spelling on a 2011 post!) i'm not even considering my niece, she's a teenager and i still don't know how to spell her name correctly (in writing she was always referred to her by her nickname but in speaking they call her by her real name-though as you can tell we're not all that close and the name itself isn't a common name but you can spell it a handful of different ways) fortunately i don't have to send them a card (to be honest we haven't heard from them in more then a year and even before that it was minimal)

and ofcourse.. lets not forget the addresses themselves... i don't have an address book for the family...so i've been looking up all the addresses on white pages then you gotta figure out if the info is correct or outdated, and working with the few i have taped up inside my cupboard (when someone sends me something with a return address, if it's a notable address i keep the return address and tape it up inside my cupboard for safe keeping.. or else i'll lose it lol), most these people are family that i see over the summer or family friends which wouldn't be an issue if we lived in the same town but we don't (i used to just send the cards to my mom's and she would see all of them over christmas but she no longer lives up there)

i don't think i'm doing christmas cards next year lol

Think many of us no longer have a complete list of who is where, let alone complete addresses with postal codes. I do the same thing as you-when a mailed envelope has someone's address that is new to me, I put it into Mom's address book. Otherwise, we'd not know that distant relation's exact address. Ditto if an invitation has a phone number (landline or cell), the numbers go into the book.

[Natalka]

Finding out somebody in Nigeria went wild with your credit card, nearly 6k later....
fml

Oy, hope it's already fixed for you. Nigeria is popular apparently, got one of my older sister's CCs recently as well.

[Midnightly]

Think many of us no longer have a complete list of who is where, let alone complete addresses with postal codes. I do the same thing as you-when a mailed envelope has someone's address that is new to me, I put it into Mom's address book. Otherwise, we'd not know that distant relation's exact address. Ditto if an invitation has a phone number (landline or cell), the numbers go into the book.

and people move more often now, or atleast it seems that way, older generations are retiring, downgrading homes and moving into something smaller(my parents did this a year ago), many in the younger generation are moving out of their parents home and rent so they can change addresses every year (my BIL has moved atleast 3x after the third move i stopped keeping track)

i'll admit i don't keep as close in touch with the family as i probably should, i'm just not a wildly social person who would call someone to "catch up" so there's a bit of distance there..

[Midnightly]

i think a part of it is i'm just not feeling christmas this year... i'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed, i do 1 thing and 3 more pop up on the list, i haven't finished christmas shopping yet and normally i'm done by Dec 1st, everyone out in the world is releasing their yearly allotment of crazy so traffic is bad people are everywhere grumpiness if flowing(i'll admit hubby isn't helping much with that), and for the life of me i can't seem to get this place cleaned and organized to function

[couponingtosurvive]

Midnightly... can you scale back your list to the things that make you/your family happy (there are no expectations except what we put or let others put on us... be free girl)? The rest can wait or just not happen (promise from experience that most things are not even missed). Christmas is too special to let the stress take over. A big one for me was Christmas baking. Always did it... filled a small freezer full of many many varieties to share with everyone/put out dazzling array on a plate when entertaining. Used to love it. Then life became busier. Then it was stress. Said frig it. Now I ask each child which cookie they want, and we bake it together. They may not all be done at once, but every child feels special and has that happy memory (with a happy Mom). Have been doing similar scale backs with a lot of holiday things/keeping only our favourites and Christmas is again fun. Just because we are the grown ups doesn't mean we can't have some of the fun too! Pour yourself a well deserved drink, shove your hubby under the mistletoe for a smooch that will melt all crankiness away and then put your feet up and watch the lights twinkle!

[couponingtosurvive]

Back to back school concerts... children in both halves. School asking everyone get up and leave after first half and then come back to sit and watch (want to give everyone chance for seat). I get that, but wow it is going to be NUTS... parents filing in while parents are filing out only to refile back in. And you just know the level of cranky will be at an all time high during all this. lol. And we were told only 2 people per family allowed to attend. Bit of a problem there... have more than that in our immediate family that attend the school. Is it inappropriate to have a festive beverage during the concert? Kidding. Sort of. Wish me luck.

[morningrose]

I have 2 of $5 Almay coupons so thought to go to SDM.In the route first comes bed bath and beyond store, then immediately I changed my mind and went into it ,used 20% off coupons and bought simply Calphalon 1 quart sauce pan and shower curtain totalling $55 with taxes.Spend two hours there and it was 3 pm by then then rushed home as kids would be coming shortly without going to SDM. Now I am feeling bad thought of spending some cents after coupons and spent $55.
I decided I should not have gone to BBB because its addicting me.

[Candini]

OMG that's terrible!

Sure is. Good timing eh? Two weeks before Christmas.

How Candini? A few days ago i was trying to pay my telus bill online and it was not going through. We thought there was a mistake in our telus account or whatever... but long story short we couldnt pay our telus bill online.
later that night we (tried to) use our card at timmies. Didnt go through. We called PCF and found out that our card has been locked because of some fraudulent activity. (That's why we were unable to pay our telus bill).

Now i dont remember which country was it where fraudsters were trying to use my card but good thing is that bank's system caught it right away and all the fraudulent transactions were declined aur card was cancelled right away.

And it has happened to me a couple more times. But fraudsters were never able to successfully use the card.

Did you talk to your bank? Are they going to reimburse the money to you? What did they say?

I would LOVE to know how. This happened to my debit card years ago (Shame on me for using a seedy ATM) so I`ve been super cautious since with any plastic where I use it. But it was only a couple hundred dollars.

I called the bank they said the transactions were made today. 3 X $1800.00. For bath incorporated or something. They cancelled the card, will transfer everything to a new card and that will be mailed shortly.

However the actual fraud part I have to deal when the actual transaction part is posted over the weekend. I only noticed today because the balance and credit limit were waaay off. Bank says they will do the investigation then.

So stressful. Few hundred bucks is one thing - I`ve heard they just sweep it away. However anything over a grand let alone sixfold.. I want to cry.

[morningrose]

Candini,way too much amount,so stressful I know, hope it gets solved soon.

[Midnightly]

Midnightly... can you scale back your list to the things that make you/your family happy (there are no expectations except what we put or let others put on us... be free girl)? The rest can wait or just not happen (promise from experience that most things are not even missed). Christmas is too special to let the stress take over. A big one for me was Christmas baking. Always did it... filled a small freezer full of many many varieties to share with everyone/put out dazzling array on a plate when entertaining. Used to love it. Then life became busier. Then it was stress. Said frig it. Now I ask each child which cookie they want, and we bake it together. They may not all be done at once, but every child feels special and has that happy memory (with a happy Mom). Have been doing similar scale backs with a lot of holiday things/keeping only our favourites and Christmas is again fun. Just because we are the grown ups doesn't mean we can't have some of the fun too! Pour yourself a well deserved drink, shove your hubby under the mistletoe for a smooch that will melt all crankiness away and then put your feet up and watch the lights twinkle!

i have scaled back this year because i'm just not feeling it... my kidlet is only getting about half the stuff she usually gets, same with hubby... i got out of the gate late this year which i think is a huge part of it(usually i start in august with the shopping and finish before december starts this year i had pretty much nothing purchased at the end of November) pretty much things have snowballed since before thanksgiving(between thanksgiving, halloween(add in multiple costume making) her birthday party, her actual birthday then right into family visiting, then christmas kick off...).... then it seems every weekend there's something to do and there things that you don't really want to miss (santa parade, lighted truck parade, this weekend it's double with christmas at the village-kidlet's been looking forward to it for months especially since we didn't do halloween in the village this year, and then saturday buchart gardens-my first time going!) and last weekend inlaws sent a check for Christmas so i need to do more shopping there (so kid has something under the tree from grandparents) it's one thing after the other... i just need to get address info from my mom then i can send off these cards on Friday

[Midnightly]

Back to back school concerts... children in both halves. School asking everyone get up and leave after first half and then come back to sit and watch (want to give everyone chance for seat). I get that, but wow it is going to be NUTS... parents filing in while parents are filing out only to refile back in. And you just know the level of cranky will be at an all time high during all this. lol. And we were told only 2 people per family allowed to attend. Bit of a problem there... have more than that in our immediate family that attend the school. Is it inappropriate to have a festive beverage during the concert? Kidding. Sort of. Wish me luck.

i wish you great luck and patience.

my daughter had hers today, the gym was packed with people, the vice principal kept telling everyone to be quiet while the classes were shifting between songs (it felt she was lecturing all the adults for talking) the woman sitting behind me had a snotty kid so the recording of my kid singing starts with a kid saying "noo not another song" what a great thing to remember (i'm feeling the scrooge creeping up on me)

[momof3heathens]

That sucks about the concert Midnightly.

Once at my youngest dd concert a woman sat at the back talking on her cell complaining about how lame the concert was. Too bad death glares don't work. Parents and teachers were just seething. Thankfully the kids on stage couldn't hear but I imagine some older siblings did.

[Darth Penguin]

re school concerts as well as all the parents pushing to see thier offspring, holding cameras in your way and siblings fighting/crying running around..I also get to watch the brood's in French..

[Momof3girlies]

My girls' school took the Christmas concert away this year, I was looking forward on seeing them singing their little hearts out. I think this has something to do with the English school board teachers strike. so lame.