Saturday: 1e12 easier.

Ages ago, I should have applied for Pre-Check or something, and for at least the past 18 months, Julie has been saying I should get Global Entry, which is basically the same price and also makes international travel easier.  Today I finally completed all the hoops for that.

Although I initially had to schedule my interview in San Francisco, on December 28th, because they are totally random with how they do interview things.  After two reschedules, I was able to get today at 2:15, in Honolulu.  I printed out and brought all the documents and papers and everything that the webpage said, and then checked yelp, because apparently yelp is where the government assumes information on how to get to their offices will be located.  Luckily, Jamila was there to do that, telling me where to drive like it feels like you're not supposed to, and where to park.  I went in, gave my passport to them, waited like two minutes, went in to do the interview that basically was "Are you a criminal?  Do you still live where you said you live." And that was it.  No video (maybe they don't do that anymore?), and by the time I was home I'd received the "yeah, you're in the program" confirmation email.  So hopefully that means not having to bother with the slow airport security crap.

Followed by a celebration burger.

Then, since I was there, Target, and then, since I wasn't there, a long drive back to town via H-3.

Where I was informed by Colby that he'd caught a legendary Pokemon.

Pokemon Go has been broken since this last major update.  Gyms don't turn over as much as they used to here, and it doesn't feel like it's worth bothering unless there's a big group to play with, so you can stomp on the full gym and fill it completely with your team.  This effectively means all gyms are full, and it's a pain to try and do anything about it.

Plus, my Go Plus just doesn't work anymore.  It associates ok (sometimes), but doesn't do anything.  It doesn't notice stops, it doesn't notice Pokemon, it sometimes does the long red buzz of "I'm worthless," sometimes trying it a few times before disassociating again.  This makes going for walks less fun, because instead of being able to pay attention to walking, I have to actively play the game again.

So, when I was returning home, I saw a massive crowd of people at the park down the street.  There's a gym there now.  I started the app up when I got home:

Damn it.

I had to try, I guess.  Besides, there was a huge crowd of people when I drove past.  There was less of a giant crowd when I got there.  I waited until someone said, "who wants to join?" and then joined.  Unfortunately, that was with only like 20s left in the countdown timer, so I had to quickly spend it replacing the worst auto-selected garbage from my team.  I don't think my CP400 Wobbuffet is going to be much help.

And due to the other people, was able to actually beat the raid.

I didn't capture the stupid thing, though, because that would make the game too much actual fun to play.  You have to find a gym, find people to battle with, beat the stupid thing, and then you have a chance to catch it.  Plus, you can't try things again once you beat it.  I don't understand how they could have earned more than a billion dollars, and still not know what they're doing.

• I mean, JFC.  You plan big catch thing, and you don't schedule additional cell coverage?  Or set up wifi?  Or actually plan how to handle that many people?
• When I saw this story, I thought, "hey, it's cool that they have a place where people who really like trains can go pretend to run trains.  People should be able to do whatever they think is fun."
• Then my brain immediately flashed to a meme from late last year of Icarus saying, "I'm going to fuck the Sun," and immediately added "within reason."
• The sea otter.
• Dog, we both know that you're technically following the rules, but come on.

Oh, also I got dinner at the place down the street because I could walk there, but it actually probably would have been faster to drive to Hawaii Kai for Jersey Mike's because they're really slow.

Why is this so complicated?

My upstairs neighbor has again switched wifi channels to the same fucking one I use.  This, of course, completely fucks with my wifi throughput.  All of this, despite the fact that she has an N channel that I expect she actually uses for things, since that's faster.  This makes her use of the G channel that I use essentially just interference.

So I thought, "I should just get a wifi card that supports N, so I can switch to that, as that space is largely empty."  I look online, amazon has a decent card for a decent price.  I then think about looking to see if I can just pick one up tomorrow someplace locally.

Dear every store that has an actual physical store I could go to,

I don't care what you can ship me.  Amazon can ship me everything in existence.  If I want something shipped, I'm buying it from them.  They're going to beat you on price, and they're certainly going to beat you on hassle.  If I'm on your webpage, I want to know if you have a thing in a store, so I can plan to go to your store to buy it.  Don't bring up bullshit like, "ship it to the store!"  That's stupid.  You're stupid for even suggesting that.  Yes.  Let me give you more money, spend more time futzing with shit, and then have to drive to your store to pick up the thing.  That's far nicer than just having the thing show up in my mailbox.

I mean, is there anyone in retail management who isn't a fucking moron?  Don't try to copy amazon, because you're going to do it poorly.  You have actual stores.  Have your webpage be completely tied in to your inventory systems.  That is the thing you have on your side.  Inventory close to where I currently am.  Anything that doesn't leverage that actual shit, in an actual store, is missing your only fucking advantage.

Let's talk about the only companies that I can think of that seem to realize this.  Grocery stores.  What's at Safeway?  Food.  A bunch of fucking food.  If I want food, I can be confident I will find some there.  What do I see if I look at the Safeway webpage?  Some fucking ads about what they've got.  Here's a little play.

Me:  Hey Safeway, what's going on?
Safeway: We've got a bunch of fucking shrimp this week!  Want some fucking shrimp?  Like $10/pound.
Me:  Wow, I kind of want some shrimp now!
Safeway:  Damn right you do.  We've got peaches too.  Ready to be fooled into thinking you like peaches before being disappointed how fucking messy they are to actually eat?
Me: And how!
Safeway: How about chips?
Me: I have chips.
Safeway: Do you have cheddar and sour cream lays?
Me: Like ruffles?
Safeway: Nope, the regular thin ones.  Fuck.  Even I didn't know they made those.
Me: So I can get that gross "just ate cheddar/sour cream chips" mouth-feel without paying the ruffles premium?
Safeway:  $2.99 each when you buy four of a set that was apparently put together by a lunatic.
Me: Why am I not buying food right now?
Safeway: Fuck if I know.

See?  Safeway is telling me what they have at their store right now.  They're not telling me that they can deliver bananas on Tuesday, or if I'd like, I can get some plantains from their "marketplace resellers."

This isn't hard to understand, so why isn't it clear to everyone who doesn't have to throw their products into the trash if they don't sell them fast enough?