YOUR HOME – According to local astrologists, the planet Mercury hates your guts and is coming to kill you and everyone you love. “What your friends and family want you to do and what you need to do don’t always align,” your horoscope reads today. “But don’t sweat the small stuff too much, because an […]
So eh ... you're gonna be glad you came down to the old corral today because you know what? We got a real guest! We do, yeah. He's not a cowboy or anything. He's got all sorts of things going for him! #CowboyWho
eBay can suck to use. I have bought a bunch of comic books recently from many sellers. On August 13 I bought many books and all but one shipped within days. Then on August 26-31 I bought a fair number more and again all shipped within days.
About two weeks and receiving no shipping notifications about the one August 13 book, I initiated a request to cancel the order through the eBay system. The seller refused. An automated response said it was "too late" to cancel the order. Too late? the book has not even had a shipping label printed for it! I then sent a message to him in eBay Messages on August 28 asking when my book would be shipped, no response.
On his listing it says "ships within 5-30 business days." I did not look hard enough at the listing at the time I was buying. eBay lets sellers put a vacation notification on their listings but this seller did not have one. Even so, 30 business days to ship a single issue comic book is a ridiculous amount of time in this day and age but eBay permits it. Then on September 6 I sent him another message stating that the 30th business day would be September 24, I would hold him to his words and file a complaint with eBay on the 25th if he had not shipped it by then. He shipped it on September 9, via USPS media mail, 27 days after my order. (Shipped is when you put a package into the hands of the carrier, not when you print a shipping label).
After receiving the book on the 11th, today I left neutral feedback for this seller, (after debating whether to leave negative), writing that the book was well packaged and in good condition but the seller was uncommunicative and was absurdly slow in shipping. The seller does not live in a rural area and there is a post office within walking distance of his return address. I might observe that a single $9.00 purchase (including shipping) may not be terribly motivating to get a seller who runs a comic book selling business to the post office promptly. Within minutes of posting the feedback the seller contacted me for the first time on eBay messages to say he would be getting it removed. After a few minutes it was and he said as much and added me to the blocked list. I responded that I would never buy from him again anyway and it is sellers like him that makes eBay suck to use sometimes.
26 other eBay sellers managed to ship and deliver comic books to me before him since August 13. Most of them had them in the mail within 1-3 days after placing the order. Some of the other orders were for heavy trade paperbacks or from longer distances, this was for a single issue one state over. The longest to ship other than this seller was 7 days and I certainly did not ask to cancel that order.
How was the seller able to remove my neutral feedback so quickly? eBay has a feedback policy where it removes "neutral/negative feedback when we can see that: The buyer asked to cancel after placing their order". I think this is a bad policy to apply automatically when the seller refuses to cancel the order. I could not remember the last time I left negative feedback for a seller, I apparently have left only one since 1998. This seller still has 30 other neutral and 5 negative feedbacks that he cannot remove and will likely accumulate more if this is how he runs his business. He of course must know the eBay policies very well. Has he been able to stifle criticism of other buyers who have made the same mistake?
The moral of this story is to be patient and do not try to cancel items if you want to be able to leave honest feedback. Ask the seller through messages first if he is willing to cancel but it is better to steer clear of any seller which puts something like "ships within 5-30 business days" in their description. Fortunately I have had my fill of buying comic books for a while. Still, eBay has laid a trap for the unwary buyer by providing them with an automated system for buyers to request cancellation but not warning them that they give up their right to leave permanent neutral/negative feedback if the seller refuses to cancel. I do not recall seeing any such warning with the system. There are many bad reasons why buyers cancel but also some good ones. I believe my request was reasonable after waiting for two weeks for a seller to put the book in the mail or at least contact me to tell me why it would be delayed. The automatic ability to remove the feedback is my quarrel with the policy. A company which actually cares about customer service should at least have a human being consider the situation before removing the feedback.
A man was arrested in Atlanta for allegedly stealing hard drives containing Beyoncé’s unreleased music and other tour-materials, which were taken from a vehicle used by her crew. What do you think?
“Jay-Z knows he can just ask, right?”
Leo Bandholz, Systems Analyst
“God forbid a fan want to get a jump on learning the choreography.”
Katherine Periat, Report Generator
“He’s just lucky the police got to him before her fanbase did.”
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office also responded to two calls at a Cypress home that public records list as owned by d4vd’s family. Both calls were false alarms.
The Pentagon implemented stricter grooming standards, requiring male service members to be “clean shaven and neat in presentation for a proper military appearance.” What do you think?
“Good luck getting military personnel to follow orders.”
Damien Linskey, Elbow Specialist
“Just let them wear beard nets while on duty.”
Cory Lafont, Citation Writer
“The sinks at Fort Bragg are going to be disgusting tomorrow.”
1. “And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God… unless of course that rich man makes over $10 million a year, in which case his wealth will create jobs in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 19:24)
2. “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. Oh wait, is she trying to get an abortion? Give me that stone.” (John 8:7)
3. “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second commandment is ‘Don’t let trans people compete in women’s sports.’” (Matthew 22:37–40)
4. “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. But especially blessed are those who launch preemptive strikes in the Middle East, for that definitely won’t end badly.” (Matthew 5:9)
5. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. In fact, the judicial branch really shouldn’t be telling the president what to do at all.” (Matthew 7:1)
6. “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people who had paid their premium on time.” (Matthew 9:35)
7. “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. Where two or three thousand gather, that’s a riot waiting to happen. Send in the Marines.” (Matthew 18:20)
8. “Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Why does he do it? I do not know. The welfare state has completely destroyed the fowl family.” (Matthew 6:26)
9. “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. The people who nailed me to this cross are just a few bad apples with mental health issues. The majority of people who own crosses only have them for protection.” (Luke 23:34)
10. “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him… GOOD. Tell your brother to get a job.” (1 John 3:17)
11. “But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. You shall be repaid at tax time, when you deduct the feast.” (Luke 14:13)
12. “If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. If they slap you again, that’s a violation of stand-your-ground laws, and you can shoot them with your AR-15.” (Matthew 5:38–39)
13. “Jesus wept, because of all the immigrants.” (John 11:35)
OTTAWA – U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has vowed to improve anti-American sentiment he sees in Canada, no matter how many illegal tariffs, forced annexations, or literal bombs it takes to do it. “I’m disappointed that I came to Canada,” Hoekstra said during a public event in Halifax. “A Canada that it would be very easy […]
This week on Party Politics, co-hosts Brandon Rottinghaus and Jeronimo Cortina break down the latest developments in Texas and national politics. TEXAS TOPICS: The legacy of Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo amid her decision to not run for another term. Congressman Michael McCaul and Morgan Luttrell announce they won't seek reelection. Andrew White enters the […]
Junk journaling, a hobby that involves using materials like receipts and ticket stubs to create a keepsake journal, has taken off among arts and crafts enthusiasts. The Onion shares tips for creating a junk journal of your own.
Always be ready to petulantly explain why it’s not exactly the same as scrapbooking.
Visit a local landfill for inspiration.
See if there is a way you can do it while still staring at a screen.
Think of it as something your children will roll their eyes at one day before throwing away.
Pick a theme like “the 2020s” or “my descent into madness.”
Scan TikTok for advice, get overwhelmed, and abandon this project like you do everything else.
Create memories of all your amazing meals by gluing in a lunch meat scrap from every sandwich you eat.
Just paste some shit into a notebook. It’s really not hard.
Hello dear readers. Daring Fireball has been silent for the last week. I realize how unusual it is for the site to go un-updated any week of the year, let alone this particular week of the year. I’m so sorry about that, and also sorry about not being able to write this note to you sooner.
I have been dealing with — and working through — a very personal situation for the past week. It’s OK. I’m going to be OK. But it has kept me offline for some time. Given the one-man nature of this site, that has meant that nothing has been published.
I look forward to getting back to writing very soon. I can feel it: I will be back soon. I’m itching to go. I mean, jiminy, it’s new iPhones week. But it’ll be a few more days before I get those reviews out. In the meantime, I so profoundly appreciate your patience and understanding.
The three-day event that starts Friday will feature pub crawls on The Strand, a pirate-themed festival at Seawolf Park and tours of the 1877 Tall Ship Elissa and other vessels.
WASHINGTON—Flipping through all of the options for the sixth time in a row as the clock approached 1 a.m., a bored President Donald Trump reportedly spent Thursday night channel surfing for new shows to cancel. “It feels like I’ve already canceled everything on here, or it’s from so long ago that it’s no longer worth the trouble,” said the president, growing increasingly frustrated after getting through three minutes of The New Girl only to realize that the final episode aired in 2018. “Has The Munsters been canceled yet? There’s a lot of diversity on there, and they seem like losers. How about Zoloft? Oh, that was just a commercial. Survivor might be an option, as we all know that program is the mouthpiece of antifa. Now here’s SpongeBob SquarePants. They’re saying horrible things about the crab, horrible things. You know what, SpongeBob? You’re gone.” Trump continued his channel-surfing marathon by asking his son Barron to turn on Netflix so he could find something to cancel there.
