Thing is, if it only happens a few times or once in a while that’s exactly how they treat it. But if the restaurants or drivers in your area are shitty and you’re constantly missing one item then your choices are to suck it up and pay for it or you can’t get delivery after a short while.

Go on now, git! Didn’t nobody ask you 'bout no logic!

Imagine what a gaming company with a $1billion budget for the game itself (and execs who stay the fuck out of the way instead of repeatedly changing direction…cough…EA…cough) and a marketing budget for whatever they actually spent on the game. We could have had Cyberpunk 4154 with a bit left over.

My feeling, which is all I can base this on, is that they want the folks who aren’t following the process because they don’t have to pay them as much. If someone is following the process they have to pay minimum wage. If someone hops the fence they get paid less, under the table, no benefits, and with the threat of ICE if they aren’t working themselves to death.

All of the formerly food delivery apps are like that. I hate it. And if you don’t get your stuff often enough or if the restaurant gets your order wrong too often they’ll tell you that you’re not allowed to get your money back anymore. And if you do a chargeback they won’t let you order until you pay them.

And that’s fine with me because I stopped using them a few years ago except once in a very great while. But I feel sorry for the people who rely on food delivery because they’re disabled or have time constraints due to working half a dozen jobs to make ends meet. I’ve got a buddy who can’t use Uber eats anymore because of this. He’s taking care of two kids and holding down a job that has him working far more than he should and he has no executive function and very little time left over.

But many years before it’s set. Checkmate!

Actually, that is a fun fact. I have no idea if I’ll ever use it but I feel happier knowing it.

It’s loosely based on the lies of grifters Ed and Lorraine Warren. I have a strong aversion to anything dealing with them.

To be fair, I watched The Conjuring before I knew about their connection and didn’t like it. It wasn’t my style and I can’t imagine the other films in that universe are either. And I don’t judge others for not caring that they were involved, especially since they’re both dead now.

My buddy searched for a specific horror movie for years that he only saw a piece of when he was a kid. I watched a bunch as a teen, then we were in the Navy together he hosted bad movie day where a bunch of us would get together and watch 3 or 4 depending on the length of the movies. Worst movie that week won. 90% or more were horror.

Those were good times. He introduced me to Troma, The Granny, a bunch of movies with evil toys, weird shit you can’t tell people you watched without them looking at you like you might be a murderer, Killer Klown and tomatoes, and nearly every off brand slasher the 80s had to offer. I’ve kept watching ever since.

And I have no idea if he found out what the movie was. He hadn’t by the time we stopped doing movie day.

I stand by the fact that it’s a bad movie and that I love it. And the majority of the sequels. And the Demonic Toys crossover movie.

If you don’t believe it’s a bad movie then all I have to say is that I support your right to feel that way.

Finally, a subject I know about! I have watched a lot of really bad movies over the years. Many of them included that particular trope.

Demonic Toys. Puppet Master (sort of). M3gan. Annabelle (I guess, I didn’t see this one on moral grounds). Dolls. One of the Krampus movies. If you’re willing to stretch your meaning of the word toy there’s also The Hug. The Goosebumps TV show had a puppet. Loads of others.

“They’re believers, Mr. Howard. Pentecostalist dispensationalists—they are saved, but they are surrounded by the unsaved, and they think their master is returning imminently, and anyone who isn’t saved by the time of his arrival is doomed. So they intend to save everyone whether or not they want to be saved…”

–Charles Stross, The Apocalypse Codex

I trailed off that quote because it’s a spoiler.

It’s an Eiffel Tower without the high five.

Not necessarily. Could be a stolen car. Balance of probabilities says you’re right and they know exactly who they’re looking for. Maybe they’re bad actors, maybe they’re trying not to have another Reddit “Mission Accomplished” moment, or maybe they’re incompetent.

But they saw him, they have a car, and presumably they caught him on body cam so they can compare his image to the image on the driver’s license the car is registered to. Maybe they’re taking those steps, but I doubt it. But it’s funny that they had descriptions of who they believe to be Luigi up pretty quickly but this remains a mystery man and they’re urging people not to go to the No Kings protest. A cynical person would say it’s a cop that did the shootings under orders to get rid of the one seat majority and quell the protest all in one blow.

Good thing I’m just a drunk and have never had thoughts like that.

ETA: they’ve released an identity. Cynics (definitely not harmless drunks like me) may have jumped the gun. But I’m sure that if they were here they would not apologize for what totally doesn’t look like a two birds with one stone issue.

Music project 6 (final) (actual final) (for real this time) (demo).wav

I did it but it took a lot of work. Step one is that I filled disputes on anything past due. I knocked several off that my ex had taken out in my name because it literally wasn’t me. Step two was a secured credit card. Step three was a “loan” where all I really did was pop money into an account that I got back (minus a small fee) at the end of the loan term. There are a few companies that do this. Then came letters and emails for anyone who showed even one late payment with a sob story about how I was trying to buy a house and only had that one spot on my record and could they please remove it. I got all of them removed eventually, but it did take multiple emails (not just disputes) but all you need is one yes. Once your score improves get a couple of cards that you use and pay off every month. Not too many, just one more than the secured one (which you can eventually flip). Once your credit starts going up, get higher limit cards with good perks and game their system. Then stop getting cards. It’ll crawl up.

I was cleaned up in just about 3 years from the high 400s-low 500s up to 800ish depending on the bureau.

Don’t take out any consumer loans (affirm, klarna, afterpay) because sometimes they report and they look bad even with a pristine payment history because historically the people getting them weren’t reliable enough for a real loan.

Alternatively you could wait 7 years. Most of it just disappears at that point.

I’m not so sure about number 3. He gets made fun of a lot. Well, he got made fun of a lot then everyone seemed to forget him. Even people with ridiculous accents made fun of his accent (of which I am one).

The people who believe him are obviously out there. But I’d like to think that most people realize that his show was (is? I don’t know) just Jerry Springer with fewer chairs being thrown and less honesty about what they’re there for.

On the other hand, I have no good explanation about why they think it would work at all without what you said. So maybe?

Yep, depending on exactly what you’re doing there are a few ways. Unless you’re VERY well off or have a fleet of cars it’s almost never worth it.

Surety bonds are one way, and you’re talking about self insurance. Many states offer one or both, and the self insurance route can be anything between 10k and 127k depending on state law.

But I’m sure that guy is talking about some paperwork you can file to make other people pay when you rear end someone without a driver’s license.