Just a quick note for safety's sake; Saudi Arabia has announced that it will sue anyone who compares its government to ISIS:
If You Keep Saying Saudi Arabia is Like the Islamic State, You Might Get Sued

I know that everyone here always avoids being disagreeable to anyone, so certainly we shall all comply by not saying anything negative on the internet. Got that? Now go out onto the web & avoid comparing Saudi Arabia to ISIS as much as you possibly can. Thank you.
p.s. Never say anything critical of Israel either.

sauromatian wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Just a quick note for safety's sake; Saudi Arabia has announced that it will sue anyone who compares its government to ISIS:
If You Keep Saying Saudi Arabia is Like the Islamic State, You Might Get Sued

I know that everyone here always avoids being disagreeable to anyone, so certainly we shall all comply by not saying anything negative on the internet. Got that? Now go out onto the web & avoid comparing Saudi Arabia to ISIS as much as you possibly can. Thank you.
p.s. Never say anything critical of Israel either.

As far as Saudi Arabia goes, you know, the country that funds Wahhabist Saudi Mosques that breed terror, well no... God forbid we say anything bad about Islamic countries who are our "friends"... You know,  the ones who 19 of the 9/11 hijackers came from.... According to Mr. Bush and Mr. Obama, the Saudis are our friends.  Never mind the honor killings, never mind the terrorist funding, never mind ANY other pertinent fact we raise....  After all, according to those demagogues, I am just an "Islamophobe"...  Israel, on the other hand, that is the one true democracy in the Middle East.  My statements are not necessarily an endorsement on all their government policies, however, I would much rather support them than a multitude of countries who wish to obliterate us.  

I really don't care which government official wishes to placate us or which talk show host wishes to humor us, Democrap, or Republicrap on this issue.  In my view they are all CRAP.  Liars all....  Anyone can walk into a Half Price books looking for an RPG game, pick up a Qu'ran for a buck, then read it and see the vitriolic statements against us and see what is really happening.

Just my 2 coppers which in light of political correctness have been devalued to nothingness...

SimperingToad wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Didn't think this was worthy of a new thread...

Anybody else having trouble with photos showing on EBay auctions the last couple of days? It looks like their database or something is screwed.

I listed about 20 items yesterday and have already listed several new items today with no problems.  

benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:

SimperingToad wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Didn't think this was worthy of a new thread...

Anybody else having trouble with photos showing on EBay auctions the last couple of days? It looks like their database or something is screwed.

I listed about 20 items yesterday and have already listed several new items today with no problems.  

It's been very spotty. Yesterday, for instance, it started fine for about a half hour, then the photos went away the rest of the time. At other times, it's been a case of some showed up, others did not. Today, it's working so far. But, who knows for how long? Guess I should put up some stuff while I can.

Of note, I just had some correspondence with a seller today who is also having some issues, though he did not specify exactly what they were.

Agent Cooper wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:

Badmike wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:
Nothing political here, but FYI, the worst sale I had in years was to Saudi earlier this year; long story short, item took about 3 months to arrive (priority) and then the seller refused delivery; I refused his refused delivery so he got stuck with the item and paypal didn't refund him.

Mike B.

OK, just out of curiosity what item did you ship there?  Because I'm thinking you'd literally be burned at the stake for playing D&D anywhere in sharia funland.

Not a gaming item, but a mystery novel!  I don't know if the guy got it from another source faster, or what, but since the time limit had passed for the buyer to protest the sale, I stuck him with it rather than either eat the cost or have him try to mail it back...

Mike B.

throwi wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Rant to subscription services...

Is it too much to expect from a company that when I sign up for a subscription service and choose the option "1 Month Subscription" (in a list of several choices, including 3, 6, and 1 Year subscriptions), that I want just 1 month, 1 shipment to try?  Why is it up to ME to cancel after the 1 month, when I only wanted that 1 freaking month to begin with?  I don't care if your fine print says I'll get billed again.  If I choose 1 month, it means I want 1 month.  Only 1 month.  If I wanted more months, I would have chosen one of the other options in the list that YOU gave me. If you want me to buy more than the 1 month I signed up for, entice me to so somehow.  Not sneakily charging my card and then blaming me for your auto-renewal...

Now to go through the hassle of getting credited.

~throwi

I hear you.  The problem is, it's good business for the service, whatever it is, to put the onus on you to cancel.  Out of all their clients, a certain percentage are going to either forget to cancel, or like the product enough to forget about cancelling.  That's money in their pocket.

Having said that, I recently had a near shouting match with Norton and cancelled all my Norton antivirus accounts because of THEIR non-canx policies.

Apparently if you buy Norton, they will renew your protection every year automatically and charge your cc.  In my case, without ever consulting me.   For computers that I didn't even own anymore.  And will then absolutely REFUSE to credit you back when you call and explain this.  

I had to call my CC company and file a complaint to get the charges off my card.

Now I will never use Norton again.

Jerks.

benjoshua wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Yeah, it's a week before the new Star Wars movie is released, and they've now released the new international trailer.  It's the longest trailer I've seen, and it appears to give away over half the plot.  So, if you like surprises, you may not want to watch.  

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Official International Trailer #2 (2015) [1080p] - YouTube

Which led me to another YouTube video of plot speculations, containing the following spoilers in the comments by someone with the username Obscure Entertainment:

"The film begins with Han Solo and Luke Skywalker having a lightsaber battle on top of a collapsing building. Four years later, Leia and Lando Calrissian are happily married with two children. One night, Leia has a dream where she is visited by the ghost of Han who accuses Lando of betraying and murdering him. Leia wakes up and chokes Lando in his sleep. Leia then orders C3PO to dispose of Lando's body. The next morning, Leia is having breakfast when she has a vision of C3PO helping Lando escape rather than disposing of his body. Leia then murders C3PO by pushing him off a balcony and into a river. Later In the day, Leia is visited by Luke's force ghost and he tells her that Han Solo is using her to get revenge on all the people that annoyed him in life. Luke also tells Leia that Han is a sith lord who plans to take over the galaxy by possessing the bodies of powerful political figures. Leia then starts having visions of Han who commands her to kill Luke. Leia chases Luke with a kitchen knife and eventually stabs him in the back, killing him. Leia tries to fight back against Han but she can no longer control her actions. In a last desperate attempt to destroy Han, Leia jumps out of a window and falls down a long flight of steps below. As Leia slowly dies, the spirit of Han leaves her and she becomes a force ghost with her brother and father....."

Just returned home from seeing The Force Awakens, and I was quite pleased.  I was thinking there was no way this film was going to live up to mine, or anyone else's, expectations, but it was a fun ride.  I won't provide any spoilers here in case you are wondering.  I will recommend you see it.  I went ahead and paid for the IMAX experience, and this film has enough moments when you will be glad you splurged.  I am already looking forward to Episode VIII.

I was in the theater for two and a half hours from the start of the previews until the credits finished.  There were previews for the upcoming Star Trek movie, the Captain America: Civil War movie, the Divergent series ( ) movie, the new Independence Day movie, and one or two other previews.  People in the theater clapped when the movie started.     There are no additional or blooper scenes after the credits.  May the force be with you.  

Checks google maps for quickest way to Ontario...