Randomness XVII: The Madness of the Quorum

[ManvsMini 16014]

2 hours ago, haldir said:

5 hours ago, ManvsMini said:

 

That's one of the dumbest reasons for not selling a product I have ever heard. Especially when there is demand for the said product. I wonder if the USA labels have Spanish on them. Will check next time I am in the basement.

 

All English.

 

Not on my can. Just looked, has both English and Spanish. Again, to Testors/Rustoleum/whatever-Sith-Lord-is-behind-this, I say "Shenanigans!"

 

3 minutes ago, Cranky Dog said:

Not willing to label in multiple languages is very silly. Especially when we're talking about only a few paragraphs of text.

 

Agreed.

[Cranky Dog 31961]

24 minutes ago, OneBoot said:

@Jasper_the_2nd I laugh-emojied because I found it amusing that you wrote your post in both languages.

 

I really wish I were bilingual; never have I wanted more to speak Spanish than working at my current job. I can cobble together "Un momento por favor" while I find someone who does, or else "Los siento, hablo poquito Español. Call back in thirty minutes? Trienta minutos, si?" and they usually get the idea and call back later.

 

My semi-remembered high school Spanish vocabulary and pronunciation has come in handy surprisingly often, though I'm not very solid on numbers. I finally signed up yesterday for Babel, a language-learning app, so I can at least communicate enough to find out why they're calling and take a message. 

 

Huzzah! 

--OneBoot :D 

Being bilingual (or more) is great *IF* you have the occasion to practice it, or regularly listen or read it. Then it really opens up new cultures, ideas and points of views.

[Jasper_the_2nd 30228]

41 minutes ago, OneBoot said:

@Jasper_the_2nd I laugh-emojied because I found it amusing that you wrote your post in both languages.

 

I really wish I were bilingual; never have I wanted more to speak Spanish than working at my current job. I can cobble together "Un momento por favor" while I find someone who does, or else "Los siento, hablo poquito Español. Call back in thirty minutes? Trienta minutos, si?" and they usually get the idea and call back later.

 

My semi-remembered high school Spanish vocabulary and pronunciation has come in handy surprisingly often, though I'm not very solid on numbers. I finally signed up yesterday for Babel, a language-learning app, so I can at least communicate enough to find out why they're calling and take a message. 

 

Huzzah! 

--OneBoot :D 

I wish I was bilingual, but I actually just used google translate 

I have 5 years of middle and high school French, plus a year of University French, but it just won't stick.  I think most real languages have too many inconsistencies for my brain.  I learned English when I was young so could handle them "(inflammable means flammable?") but new ones are a problem.  Nice consistent programing languages I can pick up easily, but then they don't have tenses and all the other wackiness of naturally occurring languages. 

 

The younger kid is officially bilingual, and my wife is pretty fluent in French.  I can mostly read it (verbs are the tricky part) and follow it spoken if they aren't took fast, but can't write or speak much.

 

FYI, New Brunswick (where I live) is officially a bilingual province so all our road signs are in both languages, which causes the poor google maps voice a lot of trouble....

 

[Lord of the Dish Pit 23628]

Ok, so now that it's been conformed that Canada isn't getting dullcote either because of idiocy or because of the machinations of Kraft, this leaves us with an important question....

Just what would be the profit margin in smuggling dullcote into Canada? Is there enough of a demand that a decent sized trunk load of it would be worth someone's time and effort?

Also, would the Canadian border agents try to seize it? I don't recall dullcote being any kind of prohibited item, but on the other hand I don't know what weird bylaws there may be covering this sort of thing. 

[haldir 46082]

31 minutes ago, ManvsMini said:

 

Not on my can. Just looked, has both English and Spanish. Again, to Testors/Rustoleum/whatever-Sith-Lord-is-behind-this, I say "Shenanigans!"

 

Yah my label is older then the blue & white one. It's been awhile since I've bought a new can, thou with my newfound joy of model building again, I'm gonna need a can soon.

[Kangaroorex 37308]

12 hours ago, Jasper_the_2nd said:

I've had the same issue.  I have way too many books and not enough shelves. But I don't know if any used books stores are actually taking books....(and I'm lazy so haven't checked......)

 

And I've put off selling any of my extra game stuff cause that's a lot of work. So many boxes of RPG books.

I was moving my INWO: One with Everything box the other day, which has never even been played (I played the CCG) and made the mistake of checking ebay to see how much they were going for.... now I have to decide if I want to put it up for sale, since if I get the average price they are selling for it'd cover my Bone 6 pledge (next year or whenever).

My copy may need to find itself a new home...

 

6 hours ago, ManvsMini said:

 

That's one of the dumbest reasons for not selling a product I have ever heard. Especially when there is demand for the said product. I wonder if the USA labels have Spanish on them. Will check next time I am in the basement.

Very common though, especially in eastern Canada.  We have some customers in Ontario who only sell to US customers because they dont want to encourage the independence of Qubec or give them any more power. (their words, not mine) so they incur higher freight costs and pass business on to competitors.  I would say very strange except that i have seen weirder on both sides of the border.

 

 

21 minutes ago, Lord of the Dish Pit said:

Ok, so now that it's been conformed that Canada isn't getting dullcote either because of idiocy or because of the machinations of Kraft, this leaves us with an important question....

Just what would be the profit margin in smuggling dullcote into Canada? Is there enough of a demand that a decent sized trunk load of it would be worth someone's time and effort?

Also, would the Canadian border agents try to seize it? I don't recall dullcote being any kind of prohibited item, but on the other hand I don't know what weird bylaws there may be covering this sort of thing. 

 

Sometimes I think this is a pitch thing.  if marketing says "if we put the labels in french we will be able to sell to a large new audience" the board gets dollars in their eyes and cant wait to make the changes.  If, instead, the legal team says "we have to put french labels on our products to comply with the law" the response is how dare they tell us how to run a business! we will never do this, even if we lose customers!

 

it seems really arbitrary sometimes.

[Lord of the Dish Pit 23628]

13 minutes ago, Kangaroorex said:

Sometimes I think this is a pitch thing.  if marketing says "if we put the labels in french we will be able to sell to a large new audience" the board gets dollars in their eyes and cant wait to make the changes.  If, instead, the legal team says "we have to put french labels on our products to comply with the law" the response is how dare they tell us how to run a business! we will never do this, even if we lose customers!

 

it seems really arbitrary sometimes.

This sounds accurate enough. 

Between dullcote and the new Heroquest, I am starting to seriously wonder if this may be the tip of the iceberg of a Canadian drought in hobby supplies. Since I haven't been able to get a time machine up and operational in order to get in on the rumrunning during the 1930s, I want to get in on the ground floor if "blackmarket" hobby supply smuggling is the trend of the 2030s. Would be like fulfilling a childhood dream, hopefully would pay more than kitchen work, and would give me an excuse to break out the pinstripe suit more often.

[TheAuldGrump 49671]

Sometimes it just feels right to attack the party with a swarm of kobolds.

 

Four were level 1 rogues, the rest level 1 warriors.

 

No one in the party speaks Kobolderkin. (Not Draconic kobolds have their own language, though their spellcasters do often know the tongue of dragons.)

 

The four rogues all concentrated on Megan's witch, and were using saps, and had ropes. It looks like it was meant to be a kidnapping - but whether it was because Megan is playing a gnome, a witch, or that she was just the most portable member of the party...?

 

So, having knocked most of the kobolds out - including all four rogues, the party is turning to the only person they think speaks Kobolderkin... Captain Casey.

 

We left off when the kobolds were presented to the captain, and literally soiled themselves, falling on their knees and groveling, pleading for their lives.

 

Unfortunately, the PCs were wrong - Casey doesn't speak Kobolderkin either.

 

*EDIT* Inspired by these guys -

These are not funny kobolds - and the weapons used by the warriors were smeared with... something. (Can you say Filth Fever? So can they.)

 

The Auld Grump

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by TheAuldGrump

[Green Eyed Monster 39188]

1 hour ago, Lord of the Dish Pit said:

Ok, so now that it's been conformed that Canada isn't getting dullcote either because of idiocy or because of the machinations of Kraft, this leaves us with an important question....

Just what would be the profit margin in smuggling dullcote into Canada? Is there enough of a demand that a decent sized trunk load of it would be worth someone's time and effort?

Also, would the Canadian border agents try to seize it? I don't recall dullcote being any kind of prohibited item, but on the other hand I don't know what weird bylaws there may be covering this sort of thing. 

Mayhaps the remedy is going to be to buy it on the Bay of EEE.

GEM

8 minutes ago, Green Eyed Monster said:

Mayhaps the remedy is going to be to buy it on the Bay of EEE.

GEM

Addendum:  I occasionally get modeling supplies from Nock which is a German Company.

The labeling is in German as I'm buying from a German Vendor.

No problem at all getting it into the USA,

Any of our Canadian Forumites have a similar experience?

If so, there shouldn't be any problems with mono-language labeling for English Only products.

GEM

Edited September 27, 2020 by Green Eyed Monster
tentacles

[Zink 29727]

26 minutes ago, Green Eyed Monster said:

Mayhaps the remedy is going to be to buy it on the Bay of EEE.

GEM

Addendum:  I occasionally get modeling supplies from Nock which is a German Company.

The labeling is in German as I'm buying from a German Vendor.

No problem at all getting it into the USA,

Any of our Canadian Forumites have a similar experience?

If so, there shouldn't be any problems with mono-language labeling for English Only products.

GEM

 

As far as I know it's fine to buy improperly labelled items for your own use. The law is that if it's for resale here then it needs both languages. Honestly there's a lot of things in the stores that have half a dozen languages on them now. Ordering from the USA or elsewhere isn't a problem except for the high shipping costs. Always irritates me when what I'm looking for is available everywhere in the US with free shipping but either not available here or way higher priced and often with shipping on top. Sometimes I suck it up and pay, sometimes I just go without.

[Green Eyed Monster 39188]

43 minutes ago, Zink said:

 

As far as I know it's fine to buy improperly labelled items for your own use. The law is that if it's for resale here then it needs both languages. Honestly there's a lot of things in the stores that have half a dozen languages on them now. Ordering from the USA or elsewhere isn't a problem except for the high shipping costs. Always irritates me when what I'm looking for is available everywhere in the US with free shipping but either not available here or way higher priced and often with shipping on top. Sometimes I suck it up and pay, sometimes I just go without.

I understand about the high shipping/tariff problem.

Seems to me one possible solution would be to form local "hobby co-ops" that can place big enough orders to save on shipping for hard/impossible to obtain items.

GEM

[ManvsMini 16014]

1 hour ago, Lord of the Dish Pit said:

Since I haven't been able to get a time machine up and operational in order to get in on the rumrunning during the 1930s, I want to get in on the ground floor if "blackmarket" hobby supply smuggling is the trend of the 2030s. Would be like fulfilling a childhood dream, hopefully would pay more than kitchen work, and would give me an excuse to break out the pinstripe suit more often.

 

Which design of time machine are you going for? DeLorean, vintage blue British police box, phone booth, or hot tub?

 

If such an event were to occur that involves the pinstripe suit, please promise you'll say "Myeah, see" at the beginning of each sentence?

[SparrowMarie 26352]

So for a while I've been really wanting to go back to school. I've finally decided on a thing I want to do. I want to be a food anthropologist. From everything I've seen I probably just need a generic anthropology degree and then after I have a bachelor's degree I can move into a more focused master's program. Ultimately, and unfortunately, it looks like I'm going to have to start over and get another AA in anthropology and go from there. I've already got ~20k in student loans from the culinary and pastry arts degrees. Lots to consider but I really feel like I need to be doing...something related to what I really wanted to do but now can't due to disability.

 

ETA: it helps if I finish my sentences.

Edited September 27, 2020 by SparrowMarie

[Marvin 41488]

Associates credits usually transfer over pretty well if they're from an accredited school. If it's a culinary institute or whatnot might be some hangups, I'unno. Girl to whom I was engaged once upon a time was doing the latter around the time our relationship imploded*; she later went on and changed gears and became a social worker or something, but I don't recall how much backtracking she did at the time.

 

Do you know what you want to do with an anthropology degree? Unless you want to teach that can be one of those tricky sorts of studies to justify the price tag of the sheepskin over finding entry into the field at a less academic level**.

 

 

*Actually how I ended up in Louisville to finish my undergrad, following her like a puppy lol.

 

**He said, having learned from the brutal experience of paying for an MFA. I don't mean particularly to discourage, the experience was great and all, but, if the money angle concerns you, I found that to be the big downside to following my dreams in the humanities. It was either teach or sod off, and I sodded. tbf tho I guess I'd have been just as broke and indebted either way.

[WhiteWulfe 42143]

3 hours ago, Lord of the Dish Pit said:

This sounds accurate enough. 

Between dullcote and the new Heroquest, I am starting to seriously wonder if this may be the tip of the iceberg of a Canadian drought in hobby supplies. Since I haven't been able to get a time machine up and operational in order to get in on the rumrunning during the 1930s, I want to get in on the ground floor if "blackmarket" hobby supply smuggling is the trend of the 2030s. Would be like fulfilling a childhood dream, hopefully would pay more than kitchen work, and would give me an excuse to break out the pinstripe suit more often.

I dunno, Sunward Hobbies just got in like two or three crates of Ammo by MIG stuff, and will be putting it up for sale later this week if I remember correctly...   But it depends on what kind of supplies we're talking about... 

 

 

~~

Unrelated note, I'm joining the "can we get a redo on or just skip 2020 crew" - lost another family member today. We won't find out why until Transport Canada is done investigating and publishes their findings...  All we know is something went wrong, and went catastrophically wrong, at the worst possible time. 

 

...And I now have a paint scheme in mind for the F18 I want to build and paint... 

 

Airshow pilots are supposed to die of old age, not during a regular approach...