What's bugging you? **2025**

[Zad Fnark]

My half year update.

I'm off to Froedtert in 2.5 weeks for an echo-cardiogram and  CT scan, as a follow-up to my aortic dissection last year.  I still have an aortic aneurysm which they're watching.  Last year they were content to wait a year before checking again.

Both my parents died from aortic aneurysms -- Dad four years ago and Mom two years since.  As a result, I've been a bit uneasy about the whole affair.

If anything comes of it, I hope they work on it this year, since I blew away my deductible early this year with my hospital stay.  I'm hoping I'm still okay, for awhile at least.  They said it'll definitely have to be dealt with eventually.  It could be as easy as putting a stent in, or, worst case, A full blown surgery like my mom went through after Dad died.

Well see...

[homer]

2 hours ago, Zad Fnark said:

My half year update.

I'm off to Froedtert in 2.5 weeks for an echo-cardiogram and  CT scan, as a follow-up to my aortic dissection last year.  I still have an aortic aneurysm which they're watching.  Last year they were content to wait a year before checking again.

Both my parents died from aortic aneurysms -- Dad four years ago and Mom two years since.  As a result, I've been a bit uneasy about the whole affair.

If anything comes of it, I hope they work on it this year, since I blew away my deductible early this year with my hospital stay.  I'm hoping I'm still okay, for awhile at least.  They said it'll definitely have to be dealt with eventually.  It could be as easy as putting a stent in, or, worst case, A full blown surgery like my mom went through after Dad died.

Well see...

Best of luck!

[Zad Fnark]

On 9/30/2025 at 6:05 PM, homer said:

Best of luck!

Thanks.  🙂

[nate82]

Uggg I hate the word game changer.  It is so over used and misused. It is now starting to be a corporate buzzword which makes me hate it even more. 

[AKCheesehead]

All the devastation to the communities in the area I live due to Typhoon Halong.  I barely missed being in Kipnuk for the storm, I got out Friday afternoon.  Many of the people there have lost everything.  Winter will be here well before there are any solutions.  It is heartbreaking. 

[AKCheesehead]

Yesterday I flew out to Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. The devastation was unreal. The homes that were on highest ground/pilings remained. The rest had moved and some moved far. Houses everywhere, some came to rest 10 miles or so away I’d guess. It is amazing that more lives were not lost. 

[LouisEly]

3 hours ago, AKCheesehead said:

Yesterday I flew out to Kipnuk and Kwigillingok. The devastation was unreal. The homes that were on highest ground/pilings remained. The rest had moved and some moved far. Houses everywhere, some came to rest 10 miles or so away I’d guess. It is amazing that more lives were not lost. 

It would be nice if the networks stopped covering politics nonstop and actually covered some real news like this.

[nate82]

52 minutes ago, LouisEly said:

It would be nice if the networks stopped covering politics nonstop and actually covered some real news like this.

Rage is far easier to sell.  

[AKCheesehead]

18 hours ago, LouisEly said:

It would be nice if the networks stopped covering politics nonstop and actually covered some real news like this.

I agree with you categorically on that.  Especially in this case, as the coverage would presumably result in increased donations to the aid and relief causes to help the many people whose lives have been uprooted.  

[TURBO]

Our society is deadlocked in hate.  The dems hate the republicans (actually TRUMP) and the republicans hate the dems.  There is very little middle ground these days, you are either one or the other or you just don't care, or even bother to pay attention.

So sick of politics taking over every faction of our lives, it's disturbing, and a bit sickening.

[GAME05]

At work I'm pretty spoiled. I don't have anywhere near the number of law enforcement issues others do, nor the crowds of people, nor the need to do multiple educational programs every day (I'm good at them but it's exhausting) and the biggest negative is boredom, which I recognize is a pretty good negative to have.

At home everything is about 45 minutes away, I don't enjoy my church but I'm out of options on that, and I live alone but can only get 1.5mb internet speed.

I simultaneously want to transfer to work in an area with more going on, but also don't want to leave and make my worklife much more stressful. Since I have about ten years to retirement and likely will go back to Wisconsin, right now I figure it's better to stay.

[homer]

People who watch videos on their phone on a plane or a train or a bus or a waiting room or a coffee shop without ear buds or headphones. Invest in technology.

[LouisEly]

37 minutes ago, homer said:

People who watch videos on their phone on a plane or a train or a bus or a waiting room or a coffee shop without ear buds or headphones. Invest in technology.

Yeah, but freedom of speech/expression/or whatever they think their rights are to do whatever they want!!!

[LouisEly]

Have a loaner while my vehicle is in the shop.  It's the redesigned 2025 model of my 2019 Nautilus, wanted to get a chance to test drive one and see what it's like as I don't particularly care for the new body shape/style which makes it look more and more like a station wagon.

No native navigation system, have to use Android Auto.  Ugh.  I HATE Android Auto, specifically Google Maps.  They do an absolutely TERRIBLE job with street names.  First, you can't read them - black text on a gray road, yeah, great contrast there.  Second, they letters are too damn small.  Third, they never use names for roads that are also highways.  Yeah, NOBODY refers to Colorado Boulevard as Hwy 2.  And then fourth, I have to acknowledge Incognito mode whenever I start the vehicle.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  TIME.

On top of that, it runs on your phone, so how much data is it going to use?  If I have to get an unlimited data plan, that's an extra $30/month.  

Useless.  Meanwhile, Google is laying off UX researchers.  Great idea.

[zurch1818]

8 hours ago, LouisEly said:

On top of that, it runs on your phone, so how much data is it going to use?  If I have to get an unlimited data plan, that's an extra $30/month.  

One thing to try to use offline maps to save on data. I usually use this whenever we vacation in the sticks where there is no data.

I hear your gripes about names being off. My favorite one was rather than turning onto County Hwy K, I had to turn onto County Hwy Potassium. The last time I did that drive, Google fix it.

I will say the one thing that Waze police data integration into Google Maps has been really nice on road trips. Not that I'm not a rage speeder, but it has been nice.

It's untested for me...but maybe you could try the Waze app on Android Auto? Some people on Reddit seem to like it more. Android Auto is basically a way to use your phone on a big screen.

[hawing]

4 hours ago, zurch1818 said:

My favorite one was rather than turning onto County Hwy K, I had to turn onto County Hwy Potassium.

I'm a longtime language nerd and this is marvelous. 😂

[AKCheesehead]

5 hours ago, zurch1818 said:

I will say the one thing that Waze police data integration into Google Maps has been really nice on road trips. Not that I'm not a rage speeder, but it has been nice.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about that one.  This summer was the first time I noticed this feature in Google maps, I was driving through BC on the way back to AK, on an unfamiliar route so had maps on.  There were 3 or 4 times where the traffic ahead of me started abruptly braking hard.  When I got to that point, maps chirped at me about police (which were not even running radar, just removing debris, helping someone, etc) so I can only guess they (the people ahead of me) had maps going in their vehicles too.  It was a bit of an annoyance.

[homer]

Because of this discussion, I learned that MapQuest is still around.

[GAME05]

On 10/22/2025 at 9:38 PM, LouisEly said:

And then fourth, I have to acknowledge Incognito mode whenever I start the vehicle.  EVERY.  SINGLE.  TIME.

My work truck has Android Auto and I turned it off. The maps feature would be nice when I rarely need it, but I'm not much interested in adding a routine every time I start up the truck. Especially so as someone who has to stop-start-stop all day. Who are these designers who think we want to customize a driving experience for ourselves every time we start the vehicle instead of just get in and drive off?

The truck (F150) also has that idle shut-off feature which is fine, except you can't permanently turn it off. Instead it's another thing you have to manually turn off every time I start up the truck. Whenever I stop to talk to people and the truck turns back on to idle I feel like I'm being so rude, like I'm starting it up in order to end the conversation.

It also bugs me that when a new popup commercial appears here that it throws your cursor out of the text box and you have to click back on it to keep typing.

Maybe there's a call for a Toyota 2.0 car company. Give us something ugly, ultra-reliable and cheap. No more designed obsolescence, no more electronic gadetry making repairs expensive, no heated seats and do-dads, heck even bring back crank windows. Let me hit 200,000 miles without having had to rebuild the engine part by part to get there. Make only three models: A sedan, a mildly nicer coupe and a truck. No more of the 50 different models of vehicle to choose from. And every year it's not some huge re-design, but simply making more reliable the one thing most often reported to break. A car that says "I'm tired, I drink gas station coffee and I'm just trying to get to work."

[LouisEly]

1 hour ago, GAME05 said:

The truck (F150) also has that idle shut-off feature which is fine, except you can't permanently turn it off. Instead it's another thing you have to manually turn off every time I start up the truck.

Pro tip - when you put the vehicle in park, the idle shut-off disengages.  Whenever I get to a stop light I put my vehicle in park.  Not only does it disengage the idle shut off, but it also allows me to rest my foot/leg.

[LouisEly]

On 10/23/2025 at 4:50 AM, zurch1818 said:

One thing to try to use offline maps to save on data. I usually use this whenever we vacation in the sticks where there is no data.

Unfortunately you have to be signed in to Google and Google Maps in order to download maps and use them offline.  I don't want to sign in and have it remember everywhere I go.  

[GAME05]

Hey, here's a whole bunch of cheap departure flights! Now if you'll just go ahead and choose your return flight, all of which will cost you another $400.........That's just great. Now in order to check you out, we're going to force you to view every single optional extra-priced feature we have---and we have a lot!---and manually decline each one before we finally charge you. I hope you noticed the $22 option for us to return your bag to you promptly if we lose it, and please don't consider that this means we wouldn't have otherwise done so.

[wallus]

Wives, please stop sending your clueless husbands to pick stuff up for you. If you want something, get it yourself.

Had yet another terrible transaction because of this 

[Jim French Stepstool]

On 10/23/2025 at 3:50 AM, zurch1818 said:

One thing to try to use offline maps to save on data. I usually use this whenever we vacation in the sticks where there is no data.

 

We did this on a road trip down to central IL this summer. It worked out fine & was much more enjoyable figuring out where to go & how to get there, instead of having it mandated by technology. As long as you can read a map & aren't a slave to the clock it's always my preference.

[LouisEly]

I have some type of schmutz on the inside of my windshield.  Now that the sun is low in the sky it is very noticeable.  

Tried to clean it with glass cleaner.  Hardly did anything except swirl the schmutz around.  Thought it might be my cut-up-t-shirt rags, so I went to paper towel and also used an all-purpose cleaner followed by glass cleaner again.  Helped, but still quite a bit of it left.  Went to a higher quality paper towel and despite 3 rounds of that on the drivers side and 2 rounds on the passenger side, still about 15% left on drivers side and 30% left on passenger's side.  

I have no idea what this is.  I seem to recall perhaps taking it to a full-service wash and saw it on there afterwards, as they may not have used clean towels to wipe the interior.  Could it be liquid wax that was transferred from the towel the person at the car wash used if they wiped the exterior first with that towel?

But my shoulders sure are getting sore as it is not super easy to wipe down the interior of a windshield that is significantly sloping down away from you.