clunky

[darkoshi]

I don't like the sound of pianos. Or at least, I often find myself not liking songs which have a regular acoustic piano (or a digital recreation of that sound) as the main musical instrument. I'm not sure why; the sound of the keys sounds sort of unpleasant to me. Clunky. Muted. Old-fashioned. The sound of each key decays too fast.

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It seems that ucky isn't a word? Hmm. To me, yucky conveys bad-tasting food. Icky conveys dirt or contamination. Ucky conveys some other general unpleasantness. I suppose I should use the word 'unpleasant' instead.

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Nearly every time I use the self-checkout at Kroger, I have my 2 cloth bags with me. After swiping my Kroger card, I always select the option to "Use my own bags", and I always put them on the top shelf. They always weigh the same. Considering that, you'd think that their system could be smart enough to remember that about me, and allow me to continue checking out, rather than EVERY SINGLE TIME giving me the "Someone will assist you shortly" message and making me wait for an attendant to come and verify that my bags are really empty, and I'm not trying to steal anything. Grr.

Several times during each check-out, I also get that "Please remove the unscanned item from the bagging area. Remember to always scan each item" message, even though I *do* make sure that each item has scanned successfully before placing it in my bag. I also get "Please put back the item you removed from the bagging area" fairly often, even though I haven't removed anything. I ignore these nagging messages, and continue scanning.

Yeah, Kroger's computers think I'm a crook. Whatever. It doesn't stop them from sending me coupons.

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SC Congressman-Elect Joe Cunningham Clenches an Historic Win

The Charleston attorney and ocean engineer narrowly defeated first term state house representative Katie Arrington, making him the first democrat the first congressional district has sent to congress in nearly 40 years.
...
One of the key issues Cunningham’s camp was able to capitalize on is offshore drilling. He made it clear he was against it while pointing out Arrington supported the president’s decision to lift the ban. The first congressional district runs along the coast from Charleston to Hilton Head and several republican mayors endorsed Cunningham over Arrington on that issue alone.

Here in my district 6, the Democrat incumbent (since 1993) Jim Clyburn won re-election with 70% of the vote.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

How do you feel about harpsichord? It's almost the opposite of clunky.
Our King Soopers (Kroger's) checkout system does the same thing every time. It's infuriating.

[darkoshi]

Harpsichord sounds better. But it has a lot of high pitch, which bothers me too after a while.

[charcoalfeathers]

In concept I like self checkouts, because I like not having to interact with people unless I just have a hankering. In practice, I find it to be so much more frustrating and so much more difficult that I just wait in line at one of the 2 open human checkout lines next to the 30 closed ones. I guess I console myself with the notion that I'm helping to keep someone employed.

Other related things have been a lot more successful for me. E.g. one reason I actually like going to McDonald's (yes, I said it...) is that they have these ordering kiosks now. Everything is clearly and cleanly laid out, all of the available options are presented up front, and I don't have to talk to a person at all. It's how I learned that you can sub in real cheddar on things, or that e.g. they sell two-packs of hash browns. The only real lack I've found with their system is that you can't upsize your orange juice on breakfast meals. You have to order the individual items and make one of them a larger OJ.

[darkoshi]

In the beginning, it was so frustrating that I often went to the human checkouts instead, too. I'm not sure when exactly that changed for me.

Two of the things I prefer about self-checkout is that doing the bagging myself, I can often fit it all into my own cloth bags without needing to take extra plastic bags*, whereas the employees err on the side of safety and tend to put less in each bag. If I try to bag the items myself while the cashier is swiping them, it goes so fast that I can't pay attention to the prices at the same time. That's the other thing - I like to hear each price to be sure that I'm not being overcharged, especially for items that were marked as being on sale.

I haven't seen the McDonalds ordering kiosks yet, but I haven't even been in a McDonalds in years.

*I use the plastic bags for bagging my trash at home, but even with only the plastic bags that Q brings home from his shopping, there are more than I need.

[fayanora]

I don't like the sound of pianos. Or at least, I often find myself not liking songs which have a regular acoustic piano (or a digital recreation of that sound) as the main musical instrument. I'm not sure why; the sound of the keys sounds sort of unpleasant to me. Clunky. Muted. Old-fashioned. The sound of each key decays too fast.

Can't say I have that issue, but... well, my new favorite instrument is the hurdy-gurdy, and yet as much as I like it, some hurdy gurdies have a clack to their keys that's sometimes mildly annoying. (But other times, I enjoy the sound. I am full of contradictions.)

PS, the video that got me loving the hurdy-gurdy was this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypuaJLHK_LQ

It seems that ucky isn't a word? Hmm. To me, yucky conveys bad-tasting food. Icky conveys dirt or contamination. Ucky conveys some other general unpleasantness. I suppose I should use the word 'unpleasant' instead.

I haven't heard that one before. To me, yucky and icky mean the same thing. What I use to mean dirt/contamination is "gick" (with a hard G). Though I most often use "gick" for things far worse than regular dirt or contamination. Like mold, slimy gross stuff, and so on. Because "gick" is the sound I make when I touch things like that; so I made it a word.

What you use "ucky" for, I use "blech" (pronounced "bleck") instead.

Nearly every time I use the self-checkout at Kroger, I have my 2 cloth bags with me. After swiping my Kroger card, I always select the option to "Use my own bags", and I always put them on the top shelf. They always weigh the same. Considering that, you'd think that their system could be smart enough to remember that about me, and allow me to continue checking out, rather than EVERY SINGLE TIME giving me the "Someone will assist you shortly" message and making me wait for an attendant to come and verify that my bags are really empty, and I'm not trying to steal anything. Grr.

Expecting a computer like that to remember how much your bag weighs when it processes hundreds of people every day and has no way of identifying you is kind of silly. That said, it IS a pretty stupid programming oversight; what's the point of having an "I brought my own bags" button if the machine thinks the bag weighs too much to be a bag?

Several times during each check-out, I also get that "Please remove the unscanned item from the bagging area. Remember to always scan each item" message, even though I *do* make sure that each item has scanned successfully before placing it in my bag. I also get "Please put back the item you removed from the bagging area" fairly often, even though I haven't removed anything. I ignore these nagging messages, and continue scanning.

Yeah, Kroger's computers think I'm a crook. Whatever. It doesn't stop them from sending me coupons.

Nah, the computers' equipment is just wonky. When I use self check out, it's always either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Sometimes it can't tell when I've put something scanned into the bagging area, and other times it thinks whatever I've scanned is too heavy to be what it thinks is there. I blame the people programming the bloody things, because of course the people programming the constantly shifting and changing list of items they sell into those machines are most likely just store employees that aren't really trained for that sort of thing, or else are overworked and underpaid.

The worst is the places where their self check out things lock up during incidents like that, and have to be unlocked by an attendant. Like... what's the point of having a self check out if you have to have an attendant there to keep unlocking the damned things when they lock up?

Funny thing is... I've heard from a friend that when they do use those self check out things to steal, by putting in the wrong number on the bulk items to get a cheaper price on some of the ridiculously expensive items, the machine can't tell the difference. So those anti-theft measures aren't even effective!

[darkoshi]

I love the hurdy-gurdy sound too! I hadn't heard the one you posted, but I like it.
Have you listened to any of Patty Gurdy's videos? I discovered her through her "Sweet Dreams" cover.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSEOK9G-A2oCyZwdGesCpIg

> Expecting a computer like that to remember how much your bag weighs when it processes hundreds of people every day and has no way of identifying you is kind of silly.

But I scan my Kroger card first, which is linked to me. So it should be possible for them to keep track of things like that, even if they don't currently. They already keep track of everything I buy, and send me customized coupons based on that, so they may as well keep track of my bag usage too. Maybe someday. Yeah, I hate it when they lock up in the middle of scanning too. But they don't do that to me as often anymore, even though I still get the other nagging messages.

[fayanora]

Yes! Patty is awesome! I am subscribed to her YouTube account.

I have a YouTube playlist for hurdy gurdy music: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXxKfrm1TCTN2edPWL6LxeOv-ET711HKq

But I scan my Kroger card first, which is linked to me. So it should be possible for them to keep track of things like that, even if they don't currently. They already keep track of everything I buy, and send me customized coupons based on that, so they may as well keep track of my bag usage too. Maybe someday. Yeah, I hate it when they lock up in the middle of scanning too. But they don't do that to me as often anymore, even though I still get the other nagging messages.

When you put it that way, that's an excellent point.