Spooky Scary Scapegoat (October 2024 scapegoat blame thread)

@Kyeh look below, I told you that I would post one

@lonocat Oh, that’s a lovely one. Looks nice and warm!

and more!

@lonocat Is this the month for Catshirts Only month?

@narfcake I don’t know about Catshirts Only, but it may be National BlackCat Month!

@lonocat @narfcake oh not the lovable black cats! Seriously a friend was I think offering me this cat (and another one that goes with it I haven’t seen yet)

Still haven’t figured out correct way to get a single image from a video since apparently we can’t post the cute 21 second video here.

@lonocat good luck during the Spooky month!

@lonocat Some years ago that picture (cat with goat hat/jacket) was posted on here… very cute.

@lonocat @narfcake @pmarin To post video - not the most efficient way - is to upload it to a youtube account. Make new one just for here if you don’t want your personal one public. Then post the url to that video. There may be another way but then again I am not a computer nerd.

@lonocat @narfcake @pmarin So are you going to adopt those cats? As an aside in one house I lived in I had those in floor heat vents. Trust me, and I should likely have posted this to the cat bed thread except I have no photos of this as it was pre cell phone, one of my cats thought that was his own, personal, cold weather heated bed. Him covering the entire vent for hours at a time made the livingroom, that had a ton of windows, even colder.

@pmarin I see a pair of eyes peering out from the void. (Black cats make any place more ethereal.)

@Kidsandliz @lonocat @narfcake @pmarin My brother’s cat has a bed under a cabinet in the living room right next to one of those outlets. She spends most of the day there in the winter months. He lies on the floor with his head under that cabinet smooching her and patting her. She’s such a princess!

@pmarin Welcome to the upside down.

@capnjb @pmarin welcome from ALL the past goats!

@capnjb @pmarin Definitely preferable to the inside out.

@capnjb @macromeh @pmarin
Dead Goat Society member as well.

@mycya4me you can’t blame me for where you live, that was your doing.
I live in the desert where we rarely get any rain.

@lonocat @mycya4me You can be blamed for whatever someone wants to blame you for even if it is their fault. That’s in the goat job description. That is why you are the SCAPE goat.

@lonocat I already tried that when I was the GOAT! I was told that is NO excuse, You are the GOA, you accept the Blame no matter where they live/ do or weather event! But for me this past Big wind/rain event did not really bother me, For me it was just Spring/ Summer shower that last nearly the entire day!

@mycya4me I was just jealous of someone getting rain

@lonocat @mycya4me Argh, me too. Fire danger is always a concern …

@lonocat We did not get much rain. Nearly everyone else really got it, Some Towns get washed away!

@Kidsandliz @lonocat @mycya4me I mean. Can’t blame them for EVERYTHING. I think the cut off has always been at a personal level, today sucked because… We all know it’s just a way to vent/share.

@narfcake yay! Cat pics for everyone! Huzzah!

@werehatrack That is Aewsome, Please tell them Happy Birthday! Mine is a rescue, that is nearly 2 years old! He has become quite spoiled & a watch Cat! I open an end door that has a outer door that is all Glass.

@lonocat No worries, Swansea are Premier League.

@lonocat Blame to you that TV is full of football instead of something more interesting.

@Kidsandliz @lonocat I agree with you! So I will be streaming a lot. Also right now catching up on Season 11 of Dr Who.

/showme a Dog that really likes LOTS of cats & kittens

@mediocrebot that is too many cats.

trust me bro

@unksol Never too many if it’s a shirt, though, no?

https://teeturtle.com/products/needs-more-cats

@narfcake i think that’s a leaf pile and that black kitty up front looks like bearing the weight. But I like it. Also can’t count it all

@unksol Let’s see if AI can outdo TT’s staff artists, though:
/showme a shirt that needs more cats

@narfcake I mostly meant that that was literally too many cats to manage.

You’ve… You’ve triggered some sort of silent hill of cats… I’m going to try and unsee that…

@narfcake the tan guys joined in the middle. Then there’s just a butt. Other stuff. Unnerving

@mediocrebot @unksol HAHAHA. I have ONLY 1 fixed male, that has become quite spoiled.

@mediocrebot Wow! Spectacular job, bot! Way better than I expected!

@Kyeh @narfcake @Ionocat

Nice. But shouldn’t that be NekkoNomMiceon?

@macromeh @narfcake
Actually I’m embarrassed to realize that I misspelled “neko!” I’ve known that word all my life, what was I thinking?!
/showme nekonomicon

@mediocrebot No, not nearly as good.

@Kyeh @macromeh
/showme NekoNomMiceOn

@Kyeh @macromeh Nom nom the mice indeed. Let’s try the nekonomicon again now meow:
/showme nekonomicon

@Kyeh @macromeh @narfcake 5 claws top left/bottom right.

4 the opposite corners.

Odd choice

@Kyeh @macromeh @narfcake if you don’t get why this is interesting… Yes cats normally have 18 toes. But it’s 5 up front and 4 on the back. And this arrangement just. Makes no sense. And it’s obviously wrong to a human just on basic instinct.

The AI decided symmetrical on a diagonal. Maybe?

Admittedly I have a large local sample size… But this kind of shit is constant. “AI” is just allowing computers to make inferences from stolen language and then farming humans to trim it back.

The original plan was just to load them with verified correct data. Now it’s. “Guess and correct later” and they think they have the “guess” close enough they can market it.

@Kyeh @macromeh @narfcake or mice which are the reverse 4 up front and 5 on the back. Assuming googles AI search isn’t lying.

Maybe it things it’s a dual sealed book with a mouse as big as a cat?

It halucinated a cat and giant mouse of the dead, over seeing the book of the dead? Ok I might watch that cartoon. But. Come on

@macromeh @narfcake @unksol Well, the “Neekonomicon” has a winged cat with 5 paws, and a mauve cat with a third eye.

@Kyeh @macromeh @narfcake but I assume the wings are simetrical. Or it can’t fly. Third eye. Is it in the middle?

@macromeh @narfcake @unksol Yes, on the forehead.

@lonocat

(Naturally, there’s a r/CatsOnPizza subreddit already – because of course there is.)

@lonocat @narfcake I definitely never sneak a piece of sausage to who ever is in range but won’t alert EVERYONE.

Even when I roast or braised an entire chicken trying to make sure everyone gets tossed bite and time to eat is a pain in the ass

@lonocat @narfcake @unksol Giving them table food only increases the begging. My very first 2 cats i had to teach them “mine” to get them to back off. The current bunch really doesn’t beg as I haven’t given them table scraps except on a cat dish by their cat food.

@Kidsandliz @lonocat @narfcake well this assumes you eat at a table instead of the coffee table. But I generally shoo them off that/not really a problem.

There is no way to keep them off the counter short of mass scat pads and maybe air deterrents and they use it to get on top of the cabinets. I’m. There’s just going to be hair. Hair every where. Foot prints. Other things. There’s no way around it. I’m. Kinda over it other than the occasional yelling which they don’t understand. Resigned to my fate lol

@phendrick At most, I suspect that it will result in a short-term drop in calls placed from US-based spammers by US-located callers not using VoIP point of origin obfuscation techniques and calling number spoofing. We won’t see a real drop in the volume until the FCC requires operators of VoIP exit interfaces to record the IP address of the point of origin of the calls going out onto the local systems, and verify that it is actually a valid origin point or reject the call. This is a nontrivially complex issue, but can be made solvable if there is sufficient resolve to do so.

Right now, I think that what you are seeing is a spammer holiday brought on by the fact that there are so many political calls happening that their call-accept rate is near zero nationwide…

@phendrick I hope all telemarkers and phone scammers burn in hell and have a slow, painful death. I feel no obligation to be polite to them if they don’t immediately hang up after I tell them I am on the no call list. What I do then is use the grossest language and verbal imaging I can come up with (much of it stolen from the adjudicated youth I took canoeing across the state of Florida many years ago. Many of them had, um, very colorful mouths on them). I also remind them again I am on the no call list - not that this has done any good in the past. - especially with the ones from India and the Philippines, etc. I used to have an air horn I’d blast in the phone as well if they especially irritated me in the very short conversation we’d have before I’d tell them to fuck off and hang up. As I said, especially with scammers, I feel no compunction to be polite, civil or respectful. Too bad for them.

@werehatrack On my end, I’ve had zero political calls so far this election cycle, which I thought was strange since early voting has begun. Just the calls from the regular scammers. Lately I keep checking my phone to make sure it’s still working and not off-hook.

@phendrick People who regularly vote in all of the primaries, runoffs, and general elections tend to get fewer phone calls because the campaigns want to focus on getting people to the polls who are registered but seldom show up.

@Kidsandliz Gots to practice being mean sometimes, or you can lose the knack.

My opinion is that the touted no-call list is pretty toothless and not realistically enforceable. My calls went up after I signed up, even after allowing a couple months for the list to promulgate.

My favorite tactics for spam callers are to either act as old and senile as possible until they give up or to tell them I’ll get the person they need to talk to and just put the phone down. One was still on 20 minutes later when I went to hang up.

@Kidsandliz @phendrick I just immediately block them as spam. Android suggests it and i assume
ios would have to also. And never answer except for what I know are work related or personal. Granted the reason I know they are work related is because our automated notification system texts me about 60-120 seconds before they call and I’m already dealing with it.

Or the people are sane enough to text.

Not ever answering or giving out my number seems to keep them down. There was a rash a few years ago but that seemed to stop them.

It’s like someone ringing your doorbell. If you didn’t text me first why are you here/don’t expect me to answer.

But you should check what else the FTC has been up to too. Doing aot of good stuff in that department

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @unksol Now if we can get the FCC to lean hard on the telcos to make international telespamming easier to block (and make number spoofing at least next to impossible) we might have a chance of regaining the usefulness of phone directories. Remember those? Remember when there was a thing called “the yellow pages” that made it easy to locate a business actually in your area that supplied what you were looking for? “The Web” is a piss-poor substitute for that, and Google Maps’ search function is only a half-assed substitute. Maybe not even sixteenth-assed. I would dearly love to be able to flip a setting in my phone and tell it to block all calls originating outside the US.

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @werehatrack I bet that would be on her agenda if it’s within her sphere. Not sure cause international calls and US companies. Also I think I prefer her cracking monopoly BS. But they have a page.

https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @werehatrack also the FCC report page. IDK if they’ve been doing anything.
FTC vs FCC. The acronyms…
https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @werehatrack
/youtube Brian Tyler Cohen lina Khan

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @werehatrack in guess that wasn’t the one I was wanting. But the newest interview directly has a question about offshore spam calls. You can find that too

And I have to say I hate the way he titles thinks. But. Regardless of where you watch. Lina Kahn is on point.

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @werehatrack I can’t spell. Google Lina Khan ftc. She’s doing shit

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @unksol YooToob apparently often clickbait-retitles the videos from popular submitters. I have seen some pointed gripes about this elsewhere, but it reportedly is hard to prevent. I know that some of the titles are grossly misleading, and some particularly egregious content-thieves absolutely revel in it.

@Kidsandliz @phendrick @werehatrack

I mean some accounts just post a random woman with her tits or butt hanging out as the thumbnail. That has nothing to do with it so. Meh

@lonocat If I did that I’d miss calls I need. I have a burner phone that is $5/mo and I put that number down for anything that requires a number that might remotely turn in to spam calls. Cuts back significantly on the spam calls and text messages to my real phone. I don’t answer that phone when it rings and have the ringer turned off. I use that phone to make calls that might result in spam as well. It has very limited minutes but since I only use it for that kind of stuff it doesn’t matter as the minutes roll over and so I have never come close to running out. If they actually need me and it isn’t spam they can always leave a message.

@CharlieDoggo You sure have been unlucky with all the things that have happened to you recently. Hope things get better soon.

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz me too, I think he has had more than his fair share this year!

@CharlieDoggo I hope you’re feeling better SOON!

@CharlieDoggo @Kyeh @kidsandliz

Charlie got fancy privacy panels on the fence today. He was so excited to go outside without a leash he was running and jumping for a few minutes.

I still bring the mace out just incase. Especially since I caught the neighbor wife on my property again today w one of their dogs. They are so pushy.

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 On your property?! WTH? Don’t they have a yard of their own? Or are they hoping their dogs will take a dump in your yard instead of theirs?!

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @Kyeh each lot is at least a half acre, so yeah they have a yard. They insist on walking both of their reactive dogs multiple times a day vs leaving them in their fenced yard. This was the second time since the incident she was caught on my property after Ive clearly asked them to stay away.

@CharlieDoggo @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 Can you then charge them with trespassing? of course that would just increase neighbor issues. And I’d imagine fencing our entire back yard is too expensive.

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @Kyeh I can and if they keep it up, it will happen. I am trying really hard not to go there but I am about out of patience. I also made sure my statement to Animal Control memtioned that I have informed them that they or their animals are not welcome on my property so there is a paper trail.

Also, they fenced their back yard after they got them…they fenced roughly 1/4+ acre but for some reason they think these agressive dogs still require walks. They absolutely can run in the yard and get exercise. I mean that is what Charlie has had to do the last few years because it is not safe for him to be out if they decide to take their animals out for a walk.

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 Have other neighbors had problems with them too? It would be good if you had some allies in this!

@CharlieDoggo @Kidsandliz @Kyeh literally no one in the cul-de-sac likes them or their dogs. Im just thr only one willing to speak my mind.

@tinamarie1974 hoping that all goes well with Charlie, and hopefully AC can do something about those irresponsible parents of the ruffians in the neighborhood

@lonocat they had to shave some hair off his cheek and did find where an abrasion occurred and there was dried blood in the hair around it. The good news is it was scabbing over nicely and looked very healthy. No meds, salves, etc required.

Bad news is that of course since it has been a few weeks the vet could not say it was absolutely from the attack, even though it was located in the area w swelling. So she wrote a narritive that it is absolutelt possible, but not conclusive.

I sent it to Animal Control w a picture of the wound. We will see what happens.

@lonocat @tinamarie1974 Sheesh I hope something is done about that dog that did this to him!!!

@Kidsandliz someone in my subdivision has one, I cannot imagine why they wanted it. So ugly and any press Ive heard about them is not appealing.

@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 I first saw one IRL a few weeks ago, my first impression was, why the heck would you design something so ugly. Now I am of the opinion that it was a drunken bet, that they could put wheels on a dumpster and sell it for a small fortune; and that people would buy it, thinking it as a “false “ social status!

@Kidsandliz See this thread: https://meh.com/forum/topics/are-you-mocking-me

@Kidsandliz @lonocat The more you know, the worse they get. The inside rear view mirror might as well be absent, you can’t see anything via it anyway. The pickup bed is a joke, Igloo makes coolers it can’t hold, and carting some plywood home is next to impossible. The list of shortcomings makes the Yugo or Vega seem well-planned by comparison.

@Kidsandliz @werehatrack at least the Vega wasn’t bad looking

@werehatrack good luck on your surgery, hoping for a speedy recovery

@werehatrack Good luck on your surgery. Hope it turns out well.

@Kidsandliz @lonocat I’ll be in the hospital for five days (and maybe six), and it will be decreasingly “uncomfortable” (the medical term for ofuckthathurts) for up to six weeks after, according to the standard literature. I expect that it will not be as annoying as they forecast for as long as they warn it could take. In any event, for at least a week, I’m going to be boredboredbored.

@Kidsandliz @lonocat @werehatrack BTW I was in for an endoscopy outpatient procedure this week, and when the nurse came in with the IV bag I said good, you still have those. She said their supply was OK so far.

@pmarin
Doing a PRN shift next Sunday so I guess I’ll find out how it looks at our local hospital. Just another “unintended consequence” of Helene’s landfall.

@werehatrack
Simple solution. Back off some of the things you’re doing. Prioritize. Make time for yourself.

@chienfou Not An Option unless I want to trash the plans entirely and set back the big item for another damn six to seven months.

@chienfou Says the “retired” guy who still goes to work regularly.

@macromeh
So far I’m averaging <2 days a month … But I’ve also traveled away from home for well over a month in the last three!
My first place to cut back was actually being on this forum! I was using it as something to keep my mind occupied between patients especially on nights when we weren’t busy in the ER. Now I find it harder to carve out blocks of time to be posting here. It’s a bittersweet trade-off.

@werehatrack

Not An Option unless I want to trash the plans entirely and set back the big item for another damn six to seven months.

Keep the big item.
Backfill with the other things in order of priorities.
Stop when your calendar is full.
Don’t take on (unnecessary) new tasks.
Done!

@chienfou @werehatrack Umm… get more time by not moderating the meh forum?