Diamonds Are Forever My girlfriend and I have been dating for over four years now and she recently opened up the discussion of getting engaged. Not the first time we've talked about it, but it was a little more serious now. Now one of the things on my mind now is a ring. Some people think you should spend the equivalent of three months' salary on it, while others support the market for cubic zirconium. Focus: Engagement rings. What's your story? How did you get yours? What would you do differently?
The Current Events Thread Instead of starting separate threads for things like the Olympics, Crimea, the missing plane, etc, discuss world events here in a running thread.
How do you spend your rainy day? It sucks. It's rainy outside, and all plans are canceled. Or maybe it's snowing or hurricaning. Focus: What's your protocol? Make manhattans and paint? Do some boring work shit? Recreate artistic works painstainkinly on grains of rice? Drink yourself to stupidity on mid-level scotch? Bone the nearest opposite sex until you forget your true reality? Post on a pseudo-anonymous messageboard until you feel social validation? Fall asleep without a true meal because it's easier? Put in after-work hours to validate your self-preserved image of importance? Watch TV because it's mindless? Watch your stocks because off hours trading is still important? Cook an elaborate meal because it's fun?
Maybe its possible to have a craft beer and liquor thread. Maybe place it in the permanent threads. Might not be a bad idea considering how many of us enjoy a fine craft brew every now and then.
Perhaps the existing Home Brew Thread could be expanded to cover those topics? Seems a bit daft to have more than one tread for craft alcohol, beer and home brews.
Could it be that there's an actual, honest-to-god alcohol thread that's probably on the second page that exists precisely to discuss these things? Nawww...
Caption Contest Caption this horrifying 14 foot statue of David Hasselhof going up for auction. "Sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that Hasselhof, he looks right into you. Right into your eyes. You know the thing about The Hoff, he's got lifeless eyes, like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those blue eyes roll over white."
Cutting the Cord Directv keeps fucking up auto-pay, overdrawing my bank account and cutting my service off for non-payment. Between me and my wife we must have talked to them ten fucking times about this problem and it never gets fixed. Even they agree the problem is on their end yet they are constantly showing us behind when we are not. We cut our package down to the bare minimum and still we are still paying 120.00+ a month. No bundles. No extras. The equipment is great but the rest sucks sweaty gorilla balls. So, for over a week now we have been going without cable. Aside from a little withdrawal from a bad cable addiction, I’m finding more choices for way less money. We’ve had a Roku stick for a while but have only recently discovered just how useful it is. For basic TV we are using a small indoor antenna and getting pretty good channel numbers and a better HD picture – I read something about cable companies compressing the signal causing a loss in picture quality, and I noticed it was clearer over the antenna right away. We aren’t getting enough channels to make it worth it so I’m getting a large multi-directional antenna for the roof with a 70+ mile range that should pull in nearly everything that covers a Basic cable package. We plan on picking up a TiVo Bolt tomorrow to be able to record our shows on the broadcast channels that come in perfectly. For the cable withdrawal and fear of missing Better Call Saul I’m using the Sling app on my Roku and for 25 bucks a month I get all the cable channels I need. There are a few that are missing but not enough to cry over. It also has apps for Android and iOS devices. The Android version is really nice and functions perfectly. I also found a program called Playon that seems to turn a computer into a DVR. I looks like it gathers all the online content into one GUI and lets you record it to your hard drive and cast to your Roku. Not sure if it’s worth the 60.00 for lifetime use, but it has commercial skip and a few other good features. This also has Android and iOS apps that work beautifully. We already have Netflix and are toying with the idea of an Amazon subscription. We're two weeks into a 30 day free trial and Amazon is pretty much all we've watched in that time. Focus: Anyone have experience or advice on cutting the cord? Am I missing anything? Alt Focus: What are your electronics addictions? Alt Alt Focus: Ever experienced crappy cable provider customer service or crappy customer service in general?