Long Time Away!

 It has been a long time since I last posted here.

Some of it is lack of motivation.  Some of it is concern over modern cancel culture where you can be in serious trouble if you say anything a specific mob doesn't like.  They are quite vocal and will hound you to if you do not think and write in ways they approve of.

I may or may not write more in the future.  Much has happened in my life since I last posted.  I know I have ideas and input that could benefit others, but I am not sure anyone really cares to listen.

Horrid OP Event at Comic Asylum in Richardson, TX - ANOTHER UPDATE

No response from WizKids after the initial feedback and no response from the store (of course).  Poor customer service reigns supreme!

Boo WizKids for allowing things like this!

Avoid Vizio Products

I bought a Vizio TV years ago when they were just getting in the market.  It was a workhorse for many years and is still doing fairly well.

Last Christmas I gave in and upgrade that 42 inch set to a discounted 60 inch "Internet Ready" one at WalMart.  The color was good and the size increase was nice in our great room.

I have since moved into a new house and evidently did something wrong and I now have an ugly set of lines on the left side of the screen.

I got in contact with Vizio support and after a fair bit of jumping through hoops they decided that something had been "thrown at the TV" and they would not pay for any repairs, even though it is less than 6 months old.

The formal solid Vizio TV and engineering seems to have been replaced replaced by a much less reliable one that they used to make.

I would highly recommend you avoid Vizio products due to this change in philosophy on their part.  You may mitigate it by purchasing the extended warranties I normally avoid, but just avoiding their products is likely the best solution since so many good products are available.

Companies really need to watch things like this in the age of social media.

Avoid Vizio!!!!

Pictures of the failure on my dead TV below.  Vizio just responds to tweets and such to assert it is "not covered by the warranty.  I wonder what is ever covered by the warranty in that case.  Nice product, unless you use it.

$700-800 down the drain.  Hope they think the poor press and customer loss is worth it.

Horrid OP Event at Comic Asylum in Richardson, TX - UPDATE

I got a surprisingly quick response call from WizKids this morning.  The individual I spoke with recognized the name of the venue and was going to check with them, though I don't expect much from that.  I believe I will get a good response from them and wanted to publicly note that as well.

Definite Plus for WizKids!

Horrid OP Event at Comic Asylum in Richardson, TX

I went to a D&D Attack Wing event tonight.  I am not really into fantasy, but I figured it could be fun and I may have a good shot winning the White Dragon prize.

I was an hour late due to some things happening.  I bought a Green Dragon as the entry fee and played the only other player to show up.  Lost, but learned a lot.

Came time to get the "prize" only to find out that the owner (not present) had told the judge to not give the prize out if less than 4 people played in the event.  No warning was given about this ahead of time nor was that noted in the WizKidsEvent system.

I am going to try and report this to WizKids.  It may not matter, but it is another nail in their coffin if it doesn't.

The other player said he came 70+ miles for the event, which sounded likely.

Looks like the owner just wanted some things to sell on eBay.  I would have saved my evening for other things had I known about this scummy practice, though I now recall reading some bad things about this shop in the past.

I am going to post this comment anyplace I can to warn others.

This hurts other FLGS because it shows me that spending more money locally for things has no value when such scum run things.

Saving Wildlife by Killing It

I don't know if it is possible to beat the idiocy of modern society.  I am sure stupid things were done in the past and I have read about many, but the modern state seems to have magnified stupidity.

Armed government agents raid animal shelter to euthanize baby deer

I can understand some of the reasons we don't want people keeping wildlife, especially carnivores as personal pets, but isn't this a bit ridiculous?  Why was the equivalent of a SWAT team needed to kill off a fawn at an animal shelter?

When will we grow up and realize that giving government too much power to protect also enables even more power to abuse.  I see no good that came out of this situation.

Intolerant People

I read in many different places on the Internet and it never seems to fail that the most intolerant people are the ones who claim to have the most tolerance for differences.  They may accept this that or the other, but they will jump on you in a second if you dare disagree with them. 

This shows me that they are just as intolerant as any they oppose, perhaps even more so, since deviating from their self-proclaimed tolerant line is sufficient justification in their own minds for them to call you any sort of name and supposedly completely ignore you.

Most of those who supposedly hold intolerant views mostly just want to be left alone.  Why are the intolerant compelled to shove into their lives?

They Know Where You Are

I was listening to a podcast that was advocating using location information from phones to pre-fill in forms and such on smart phones.  This is a great idea as a way to simplify the lives of potential users since they do not need to enter information that is already known.  I personally find cell phone interfaces tough to work with because I have big fingers and a tougher time seeing small text.

This is scary however in that the phone and hence those who track it know exactly where I am at all times.  Many applications already prompt to know location information on my Android phone and it is generally not possible to adjust that and still use the app.

So we may get flexibility and a lot less privacy....