What's Making You Happy Today?

M
20250929-123933-d5bd5b4e-2.jpg


25c. Sun.


Stranger Stalking GIF
 
Please don’t say that when the cops pick you up!
There are two blokes in speedos. The one with the two pack ab is wearing yellow. Will that make it better when my mobile is confiscated?
 
I'm making a 4 course Italian dinner for my 89 year old uncle.
 
So many people this year using Merry Christmas or Happy Christmas in person, at stores, on signage, in public transit, by television anchors, call centre, etc.

For years I persisted saying Christmas even during peak woke and cancel culture.

Finally we won’t have an article published today from some immigrant or refugee who says I came to this country and why is everything closed early Christmas Eve and during Christmas Day for Christians without consideration for their personal ease of access and their solitude and in general their sad existence over the next 48 hours.
 
Creeper bikini background shot for Fwifs tomorrow, but for today this isn’t a bad way to spend Xmas …

IMG_8762.webp
 
Was having lunch at a bar and the bar cleared out after the lunch rush. Trying to get the bartender’s attention to get my cheque. I said I didn’t want to interrupt her very serious conversation with a kitchen staff getting off shift so ring me up and continue. She said they were talking about roommates and she asked if I was living with any. She has 2. One a girl she has known since grade 5 and the other since uni. Her roommates are the best ever.

I guess I should be flattered I look like I am still in the roommate game.

The bloke having lunch with me wanted to leave because he felt like he was in the way of my conversation with her.
 
I went to the pasticceria that sells the Nutella bombolini that my brother's kid likes. Usually they have one Italian staff behind the bar. From their age they look like a student but you can tell from their English.

Sometimes it's this black girl. Today I saw black girl talking to a customer in Italian. I was in the queue and she said she was born in Paris and ten years later lived in Italy. She asked the other lady she is not sure she is really Italian like the lady. The white lady then said she was born here in Canada. Then they said it was a pleasure meeting you. We'll see you. Ciao. Her English is flawless so she's quite unique if she knows French, Italian and English.

I was surprised I could follow the majority of the conversation.
 
I went to the pasticceria that sells the Nutella bombolini that my brother's kid likes. Usually they have one Italian staff behind the bar. From their age they look like a student but you can tell from their English.

Sometimes it's this black girl. Today I saw black girl talking to a customer in Italian. I was in the queue and she said she was born in Paris and ten years later lived in Italy. She asked the other lady she is not sure she is really Italian like the lady. The white lady then said she was born here in Canada. Then they said it was a pleasure meeting you. We'll see you. Ciao. Her English is flawless so she's quite unique if she knows French, Italian and English.

I was surprised I could follow the majority of the conversation.

IMG_9522.webp
 
A pretty young goth girl chatted me up in the bookstore today. She complimented me on my boots and when I started to embarrassingly mumble that they are made by Sagara, an Indonesian MTO outfit she smiled and said ‘I know who you mean’. All very harmless, but it made my day nonetheless
 
IMG_20260214_162327_HDR.webp


Rigoletto.

La donna è mobile, qual piuma al vento, muta d'accento e di pensiero

Why do the bad guys sometimes get the best arias? Rigoletto is pretty despicable. Like Don Giovanni light.

For some reason the conductor started with the national anthem and people stood and sung. Is this new for the season? I never saw that before.
 
Last edited:
Random compliment on my boots today in the bookstore. This seems to be a pattern (though this time it was a middle-aged dude).
 
It's been a while since I had a chance to compliment anyone on their fashion choices. It felt fun to do when I was younger. But now that I'm a middle aged guy I wonder if it would even be seen as a compliment or just an eye roll.
 
Attracting all ages and genders
A middle aged black lady said ‘love the boots and jeans’ as I walked past her today. My regular Saturday afternoon compliment at the bookshop. Of course I’m insecure enough that these compliments from strangers make me happy, but I’m also surprised at who they are coming from.
 
IMG_20260320_192336_HDR.webp


Puccini - Gianni Schicchi and Rossini - La cambiale di matrimonio. Double header.
 
F*ck I might actually be able to get myself out of this eBay hole.

If anyone ever offers a deal, always take the cash. Instead of thinking you're like the second coming of Shylock and you're going to turn hard goods into cash.
 
Got the funds back from my Macbook air sale on eBay. Almost feel like using some of this to harass or small claims court sue the bloke but anyway - still have another bunch of my father's old electronics to list.
 
Not a week goes by that I don’t get a compliment on what I’m wearing. Just random people stopping me n the street to pay respect. Which is odd, because it’s usually just boots, jeans, a tshirt and maybe a leather jacket (albeit very nice ones). But the range of people is what really surprises me: rando middle aged dads, a hot young goth girl, a black mum with several kids, an attractive young female lawyer in a nice suit to the grease monkey at the car dealership.
 
Got the funds back from my Macbook air sale on eBay. Almost feel like using some of this to harass or small claims court sue the bloke but anyway - still have another bunch of my father's old electronics to list.
Does that mean that they are the loss or recovered the funds from the scammer? It was essentially down to your word versus his, right? I’m just curious how this stuff works
 
Not a week goes by that I don’t get a compliment on what I’m wearing. Just random people stopping me n the street to pay respect. Which is odd, because it’s usually just boots, jeans, a tshirt and maybe a leather jacket (albeit very nice ones). But the range of people is what really surprises me: rando middle aged dads, a hot young goth girl, a black mum with several kids, an attractive young female lawyer in a nice suit to the grease monkey at the car dealership.

All I got from this is you find goth and ultra professional women attractive. What would psychoanalysis say.
 
Does that mean that they are the loss or recovered the funds from the scammer? It was essentially down to your word versus his, right? I’m just curious how this stuff works

No, they just take it from the fees they collect from the sellers on each sale. There's a sort of self insurance with their Seller Protection program if you qualify.

The whole story is the guy got it. I should have put mandatory signature but expedited shipping with a photograph of the delivery by Canada Post was the same price so I opted for it in the kindness of my heart. He claimed it was rocks after delivery by opening a dispute. I disputed his dispute that it was rubbish. Then my dispute was dropped and eBay asked me to purchase a return label. I could have purchased it like other sellers and got sent rocks although it would take awhile for that guy to figure out to send exactly 2.5kg and try to squish the rock into a Macbook Air box.

I then opened another dispute. By this time I had already got the money and banked it. Following some guidance I got from Copilot, I opened a police case with Toronto (where I sent it) with the receiver's area (was RCMP, they don't have their own provincial police in that province), the anti-fraud federal agency and basically pasted the timeline, the activities, the photograph and the fact I purchased a label for 2.5kg, it was registered at Canada Post drop off as 2.5kg and made its way with the somewhat cut off photograph from the postman at the bloke's side door. I cited some of these in the xxx character second dispute.

eBay sided with the buyer in the end and said I didn't buy the label and facilitate the return so they refunded it to the buyer. The guy has 0 purchases or sales on eBay. I was asked to open an appeal.
Once you get to the appeal you can upload 10 pieces of evidence so I did mostly screenshots of the post office, the drop off photograph from the postman, some unaltered/uncropped photographs of the computer, and PDFs of the police report. I had more than 10 things to upload. Again, being guided by Copilot I put exactly 250 characters to say I never got anything returned, you had some automated decision making that sided in the buyer's favour. I should at least get the rocks returned if you are going to grant an automated decision.

After that I called in and some level 1 support lady in the US said she will "submit my appeal" - not sure what that means. I ran all the calls through Copilot to see what trigger words in the chat bot would trigger which call back and which queue. Eventually on Good Friday after 4 1/2 hours I got to a payments guy who basically said I'm in the right department. I don't technically need to prove fraud and go to eBay Trust & Safety where I would sign an affidavit vouching for my evidence and my side of the story. Because the eBay system refunded without any return, it's more a payment problem.

Many many calls later, that's exactly what happened - but they also took a look at my evidence.

In essence there were a few routes:

1. Tier 1 guys tell me to work it out with the buyer to get my computer back. I could technically get it back with the return label and if it's damaged ding the buyer for f*cking it up. Some people did get the rocks back and ended up in the same situation as me. Alternatively they told me to file for mail fraud but in Canada it just goes to one federal agency that vacuums up all types of fraud across all Crown corporations and federal agencies.

2. Trust & Safety and signing an affidavit. That would mean an investigation into fraud, possible suspension of the buyer's account, and then refunding my money. This would be a longer route since it's looking into the 10 pieces of evidence. For the record, the buyer never bothered to respond after they got their money back.

3. Payments error. Taking advantage of the fact that really the case should have been on hold and the buyer can't claim buyer protection if he never returns anything. It's a technicality but this was the fastest way for me to get my money back.

4. Executive seller protection. Basically you make enough of a fire on social media or TV or something that this branch comes in and reverses everything back in your favour.

I used Copilot because I got frustrated searching Reddit, eBay forums, social media, etc. of the many people who were stuck in the same situation. But ultimately it worked out to my favour.

My hometown police had no interest pursuing it. They said they would file it to see if there was a pattern of this bloke doing the same type of thing. The recipient's New Brunswick RCMP offered to do something (the guy who phoned me said this looks like a double dip) but their threshold to do anything was I think 5K or more and the computer was max 1.5K.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom