It's been goat having you (July 2025 Scapegoat Blame Thread)
10I wasn’t late; you were late. Prove it.
Oh hey, it’s July! Half of 2025 is already gone. It somehow feels like three years since January, and at the same time, it was just yesterday. Time paradox aside, @Rowsdower held the hot seat for a full month and is now free to graze with the rest of the ex-scapegoats, burden-free. Big thanks for that.
Moving right along, it looks like @Pony has been saddled with the responsibility for July. The “victory” was narrow, but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
- 21 comments, 55 replies
- Comment
Welcome, @Pony! From my experience, July is a good month to have, because Meh’s birthday gets so much attention that the goat can coast a little … although I hope you do something fun with your month if you’re up for it!
@Kyeh Thanks, and sorry in advance. I’ll try to do some stuff, but I’m pretty dull. July is probably the worst month for me, actually, because I have a houseguest for ten days or so every year to help with the farm chores while my husband attends a work function in California. This year it’s going to be two people, so I will be distracted by all that. But I’ll try.
@Kyeh @Pony Not to worry, the mere fact that you’ve responded at all puts you ahead of some recent honorees.
@Kyeh @Pony @werehatrack I’m a little late/been distracted but I’d have totally been down for some “today on the farm we did x” Maybe a “Have a horse/animal/plant/whatever pic”
but obviously not a priority when you’re busy
Doesn’t take much/we are easy lol. I just introduced cats. Does your farm need any? Lol.
Idk that “dull” is really a thing. Slice of life is. Nice
@ExtraMedium Thanks… I think. I escaped it for many years, so I guess it’s just my time. Sorry for everything.
@Pony That’s the spirit!
On one paw, blame:
https://forums.woot.com/t/goodbye-fitted-t-shirts-it-was-good-while-it-lasted/2094101/
On a different paw, I’ll be buying less in the future, so unblame.
@narfcake Sorry not sorry?
@Pony Yes.
Hey let start it off. I want to Blame @Pony for all this blistering Heat then follow up that with the Gully washer Downpours/ Thunderstorms!..
@mycya4me Oops… sorry!
@mycya4me @Pony And I want to blame her for having to drive 1000+ miles in that, including a gully washer where no one could see the side of the road or the tail lights of the car in front of us all while driving 23 miles in a construction zone with few and far between shoulder areas someone could pull off the road on. Oh yeah. And in the dark to top it off.
@Kidsandliz @mycya4me Sorry about that!
I blame @Pony for @ExtraMedium not anchoring this thread on top for a while…
@Kidsandliz Whoops! Sorry!
BLAME-been going over some of the tax law changes in the new law and they are a nightmare for both tax preparers and tax software companies. Not because of the tax change themselves but because each change has different implementation dates as well as sunset dates. For example the EV credit for purchasing a new or used car expires at the end of September of this year while other are retroactive to the beginning of this year and some start with the 2026 and 2027 tax year and run for a set number of years.
Still inconsequential compared to those millions who will lose Medicaid and SNAP benefits in the near future.
@Felton10 Damn. Sorry about that.
BLAME continued-Never underestimate the ability of people to jump on something to try to make as much money as soon as possible. Just got an e-mail yesterday about two new CPE (continuing professional education) courses next week about the tax law changes-one re individuals the other about business).
Hasn’t planned to sign up for my CPE 4 to 5 months from now so that the year subscription expired closer to my next CPA cert renewal date but since as I mentioned some provision of the new law apply to 2025 and already had some clients call with questions-better get up-to-date on how they apply and the whom ASAP.
@Felton10 Well I can answer one question for you. Student loan discharges and 1099-C’s. This would likely affect some of the people on meh too.
The pause ending Dec 31, 2025 on no 1099-C for student loan discharges for everyone means starting Jan 1, 2026 the “old rules” are reinstated and many will now get 1099-C’s when their student loan is discharged. The ones that didn’t get a 1099-C before the pause (public service, teach, etc. discharges) still won’t get one.
NEW There will be no 1099-C ever again for student loans if they were discharged due to death of the student or total and permanent disability of the student. This is permanently in the law and has no end date.
This only affects federal taxes. If their state requires state taxes to be paid on that (as around 10 do, and this has been the case even during the pause) they’d still have to report it to the state and pay state taxes. Now… considering there’d be no 1099-C and nothing in the bill requires reporting the write off to any state agency or any federal database outside of the student loan one… I am not sure how a state would find out this happened.
BLAME - Yesterday my 3d printer started printing spaghetti blobs every time I tried to print something. Two days before everything was printing perfectly. Worked on it yesterday and today for a bunch of hours and after far too much time adjusting temperatures, retraction and Z-axis settings, and putting in a new nozzle, finally a test print worked. Now I’ve started a 17-hour print job and so far all is well. It’s the left half of a protective cage for one of my ham radios. Assuming it works, tomorrow morning I’ll start the right half.
@ItalianScallion But spaghetti is delicious… um, I mean sorry. Yeah. Sorry.
@ItalianScallion I just updated the firmware on my Carbon X1 and it’s a completely different interface. Running the new diags now. It’s been so humid here and I’ve had a few things get stringy recently. I keep filament in a giant tub with tons of desiccant, but it can still go sideways when it feels like it’s been raining for two weeks straight
I have a project I want to do with TPU but I’m going to wait to until things seem to have normalized again.
@capnjb I know what you mean about the humidity… same here. I store my filament in vacuum sealed bags with the little do-not-eat dessicant packs. (I got a kit with the bags, dessicant packs, and vacuum pump.) Nevertheless, maybe humidity was the problem when I couldn’t stop the spaghetti-ing, even though I have an air conditioner in my home office. As for firmware, I have a Creality Ender V2 Neo and I’m not aware of any firmware updates I’m not keen on updating to non-Creality firmware for fear of bricking the printer. I did manage to complete a project recently consisting of two eight-hour parts, one of which I had to do over.
Blame - it’s so quiet here on Saturday; I guess everyone else is busy living lives but how can I continue to avoid doing my yardwork without anything entertaining to read here on Meh?
@Kyeh Here you go - something to read
@Kidsandliz Thanks!
@Kidsandliz That’s way too plausible.
@Kyeh And another one for you…
Blame because I put a can of soda in the freezer last week and forgot to take it out. Went in today to take out something for dinner and it had EXPLODED everywhere. Sigh…
Spent my lunch break cleaning up the mess
@tinamarie1974 Oh no - I’ve done that - with a glass bottle!!!
Also one winter I stupidly left 2 gallon jugs of apple cider in my car and then the temps went below freezing - luckily it was my barebones VW bug so no luxury carpet or anything. The car smelled nice for a while, though!
@Kyeh @tinamarie1974 Been there, done that with a couple of bottles of wine on the floor in the back seat of my car during the winter. Fortunately the bag held the slush when it forced the cork out of one of them. The cork was pushed only half way out on the other. I drank the wine anyway. It wasn’t terrible.
@tinamarie1974 ive super never done that… And ended up cleaning out the freezer side.
Psst if you *add" sufficient alocohol you’re good. Freezer distilling is also an inefficient but workable thing
@ItalianScallion @tinamarie1974 @unksol It’s a lot less of a pain if there’s no broken glass involved.
@ItalianScallion @Kyeh @tinamarie1974 yes… Broken glass and alcohol tend to be regrettable… regardless of the cause
Blame-My six year old house keeps on giving and by that I mean it keeps giving me a pain in the ass with how shitty it was built. Three months ago the garage door that came lose from garage door opener and clipped my car as I was pulling out of the garage. After I was shown the two screws that attached the door to the opener, it was obvious that this was a disaster waiting to happen.
Now a leak in the roof which damaged the ceiling in the master bath is the issue. Leaks in two vents turned out the problem. Turns out they attached one of the vents in the cheapest way they could which was bound to leak way before its time and one which probably did leak when they installed it and put so much putty around the vent it covered up the problem and got it past the two year guarantee period. Both will be fixed tomorrow to the tune of $ 3,600.
If you ever are in a position to buy a new or used home built by Taylor-Morrison run don’t walk away from it.
@Felton10 I hope it came with a 10 year new house warranty.
I just watched a reporter say
“This is not the DRONES they are looking for”
Not talking about a drone. Just documents. This is very wrong for two reasons. It’s someone’s fault
BLAME - sometimes I agree to do things that take WAY TOO MUCH TIME!!! I volunteer at a food bank once a week. If there is excess food I am given it to take to a senior hud. Well this last Wed there were 11 boxes of food left and around a half a pallet of nectarines (all Sams Club stuff) and some other misc junk (minivan with no seats was full - and there was even more I could have taken had I able to fit it in, ironically the week before we had 4 more cars than boxes. What we get each week and how much is a crap shoot). OMG it took me 5 HOURS I did not have to get it handed out and clean up afterwards (because why would anyone who takes any of this food help clean up? Most of them are not disabled and a good chunk who take food are in their 60’s). I did not have time for that on Wednesday.
And the petty squabbling that can go on surprises me. These are adults and not 5 year olds. One week 2 people, each who lived alone, were bickering over a tray of 84 Sam’s Club cookies. Like there wasn’t enough to share? I finally told them they had ten seconds to sort it out or neither of them was getting any. Phone buzzer went off and I walked out the door with the tray (this was the last item left). They chased after me and told me they had agreed to share. I told them too late, their 10 seconds was already up and I was taking the tray to my PCP’s office (that just popped out of my mouth where I was taking them without thinking about it).
Unblame - took the cookies to his office and his face lit up telling me everyone was so discouraged that day; that this will cheer them up; and he loves cookies. I told him at my next visit (which was 2 days later) that by accepting the junk food for his office he forfeited any future right to lecture me about my diet.
Un-blame: I actually played a 30 minute basketball game with friends in their driveway this week. The weather was lovely and I can’t remember the last time I got to chuck a ball.
Blame: Everything everywhere hurts today.
Heat index yesterday (and maybe the day before - I forget) 115. Heat index today 115. Heat index tomorrow 115. Heat index the day after tomorrow - afraid to look. My phone is blowing up with extreme heat index warnings.
My tried and true Epson 810 color inkjet printer finally bit the dust. When I check back it looks like it is probably about 15 years old! In that time it has printed a metric s*** ton of documents. Only trouble I ever had with it was several years ago when they pushed out a firmware update and it borked the printer for use with my non Epson OEM cartridges. I was able to roll back the firmware and have rocked on with non OEM tanks since.
Came back from a recent trip out west and the thing will not power on. I suspected maybe it was a power surge while we were gone, though it was on a UPS so not sure about that. Nothing else seems to been affected if there was one. More than likely it just finally gave up the ghost.
Have a black and white laser printer at my disposal, but, I’d like to be able to do color every now and then. If I can find one at a reasonable price rate will probably go to color laser this time since then I won’t have to worry about cartridges drying out from non-use. I don’t print photo quality stuff anymore so don’t need to worry about that part. One of the reasons that 810 was great was its ability to print directly on CD-R & DVD-R media. Since I don’t do that anymore I don’t need to worry about that either. If I really need a picture printed I can get it from the local Walmart or CVS.
Probably looking for an all-in-one as I do occasionally have to scan documents, definitely want duplex printing as well as duplex scanning,
TL DR: Current printer crapped out. Anybody have a good suggestion on a reasonably Q_color laser?
@chienfou If you can afford one, many of the Brother color lasers have an excellent reputation. (We have one, it’s on the house network, with the name Daryl.)
@chienfou I have a Brother black and white laser printer (and scanner) and I agree with @werehatrack about the brand. I like them. They seem to be one of the few big brands that don’t restrict print cartridges to only their brand.
And a note to printer owners, especially of ink jet printers: NEVER accept a software/firmware upgrade to your printer. That’s how my mom’s HP ink jet printer stopped taking third party cartridges.
@ItalianScallion
I currently have two Brother black and whites. One of which I bought for my parents forever ago when it became obvious that they were not using their inkjet often enough that it wouldn’t dry out in between uses. That one is still in service after well over 15 years. I’m currently looking for something with color capability and will probably lean towards the Brother line as well.
And yes you’re absolutely right about the firmware. That was how my Epson almost got borked 10 years ago. I was able to roll back that firmware update, turn off the auto updates, and never had any problems with it afterwards. Seriously considered putting a 3rd party CIS tank system on it at one point as I had had one on a prior Epson and loved it but never got around to it. Found that I could buy placement cartridges cheap enough that I would get the $2 back at office Depot when I recycle them and break even.
Must admit I loved that printer (Epson 810) but I don’t need a lot of the capabilities on it anymore since I don’t print directly on CDs and DVDs, and rarely make photo quality pictures anymore.
Thanks for the input and vote of confidence in Brother’s equipment. Have any specific (color) models that you recommend?
@chienfou @ItalianScallion I am still using a 1990’s apple laser printer that my department was tossing as the paper tray was broken (so I prop it up with some books). It is still going fine.
@chienfou @ItalianScallion @werehatrack i bought a brother all in one BW laser printer. It may have even been refurbished. In 2004 when going to college. It wasn’t THAT much to me considering the experience I had working on the LED/laser printers at high school. And the experience I had trying to fix my parents cheap Compaq and my better Epson inkjet.
MFC 7420 and I did use the fax sometimes cause the dark ages. She still… Works but double feeds paper. But 20 year old rubber rollers.
Still scanning fine. I still am on the original toner I think. Unless I replaced it a decade ago. Didn’t end up printing as much as anticipated.
Not really any reason to expect their tech to get worse… But can’t vouch for new stuff since mine is old
@chienfou @ItalianScallion @werehatrack maybe worth noting for the old ones their drivers/software still works on Windows 11… FFS it’s 2025. But I can still override the warnings and install it on a new Windows 11 machine.
@chienfou to just address the original problem. I would disassemble the power supply and check the DC capacitors. Or other obviously blown parts. Capacitors of that era had a tendency to fail/pop the top a little and soldering in a new one isn’t hard
Just to be clear for anyone. These are low voltage capacitors. Don’t mess with a high voltage one. If you have to ask if it’s high voltage… Probably just don’t? At least till you know what you’re dealing with
Blame-Car has been in the shop for 30 days now and insurance paid rental ended today so now car rental costs are on my dime. Cringed when I found out GEiCO had written two checks totaling over $ 9,600 to the collision place so far. Was told final part is still not in and will take another 2-3 weeks before I get the car back. All in all with the roof leak, it has been a pretty shitty month. Can’t end fast enough for me.
@Felton10 machine shop has had my block and head for three weeks and were supposed to call me in the first place. And haven’t. Very different situations… Especially on price.
Then again I handed them parts that to me can’t be replaced. But I can also wait for cause they are busy
Lack of communication always sucks… In general
If they can’t get a part for 3 weeks and are charging a “storage fee” per day in their lot. Maybe just tow it home. Tow it back when they have it
That may not matter at all for your insurance company. My car’s are so cheap I just carry PLPDA
So sorry for all of the everythings!
Unblame. Meh sent me a tacklife robot vacuum in an irk. Probably at least two years ago. I had it sitting in a box the whole time because after my dumb one died.
And the cats started having more problems. And reasons
Apparently why they are in irks was because aukey got kicked off Amazon which is how sidedeals got them. Then Google Play dropped the app.
Except you can just download the APK and sideload it. Absolutely still works.
So thanks whoever returned it and whoever irked them
This was sick
@unksol Wow, congratulations!
@unksol
@unksol Whoever sent it to you wanted your floorplan. Mission accomplished.
@zhicks1987 well meh.com sent it to me in an irk.
Yes Internet of things. I would always advise being careful about what you put on your network. For much more important reasons. I clearly chose to volunteer a potential floorplan of my home to you. Publicly
But if you know anything about how government works you would know that you can go to a GIS website and they will have an exact position of your property and a layout of your home for tax purposes as public information.
So if anyone knows where you live they likely can look this up. If anyone wants to kill you they can.
What prevents that is law enforcement which we have decided to defund for ICE to wage a war of terror
Should anyone try. My ghost of a floor plan doesn’t detail where I sleep our how close my guns are. And also they would be a murder so… What’s your point
@unksol Where exactly did you download the app from (I didn’t even know it needed an app as I haven’t opened the box)? I was sent that too in an irk but live in such a small space with so much junk and so much cat hair it isn’t worth it. Was finally getting my shit together to try to sell it when the city gets run over again with college students coming next month.
@Kidsandliz
So. There is entirely too much cat hair here. But it is a large (hardwood) space so I was able to pick up all the stuff and run it a few times to get all the bits.
And mop some in front of or behind it… after a few runs with the mopping pad. It’s better. I’d not share photos of how it was. Cause. Embarrassing but helped with the cleaning kick.
Second you don’t have to connect it to anything. You can just hit the go button. It will do something. It was extremely dumb the first time but I also couldn’t get what it was doing
For the apk as far as I know they are ok. But they do that thing where they obfuscate the download link/try to get you to download their installer. So make sure what you’re clicking. Obviously have to have developer mode on and then install from unknown sources
https://apkpure.com/tacklife/tacklife.com
Have to dodge all that then be ready to sideload. Then set up an account with a Chinese company. Which is very eh. But also if you bought stuff on Amazon like Anker/govee/aukey… This was an aukey brand and… They aren’t going to gain anything spying on my floor plan . I’m not reusing passwords. They aren’t parking a van outside my house to read my wifi .
Also everyone else’s vacuums are made in China. My point was more… This older tech did a very good job. And helped me deal with some shit
Fyi here is the sidedeals link. I think the IOS app is still up but not Android
Works fine on android 15 but you do have to be willing to sideload it
@Kidsandliz and just to be clear I’m not recommending anyone do this. Also getting it to sync the first time correctly was a PlA. Also no carpet here but it would aggressively get on rugs.
It did help clean and seeing the path once you ran it a few times was cool. And things are cleaner and I feel… better… For once. So. A thank you was warranted. It does work with some effort
The cats running in front/swatting at it did throw it off a few times but now it’s just climbing over their mice.
It’s getting awfully close to the end of July and I haven’t seen an August goat nominations topic started yet. I’d start it myself, but it looks like a Meh staffer starts them. I have a nomination ready to go when the thread appears.
@ItalianScallion meh generally opens them but nothing stops you from trying. It’s probably on someone’s Monday to do list… We got a couple days left
@ItalianScallion @unksol Traditionally it’s @narfcake who initiates the vote.
@ItalianScallion @Kyeh @narfcake @unksol I did it once when it seemed like the process was running late, but I wasn’t anywhere near as amusing with what I posted as what we get from the usual suspects.
@ItalianScallion @Kyeh @narfcake @unksol @werehatrack
CALLING @extramedium - read above.
Also unblame
/youtube kitten snake
@unksol
Thanks for that. It’s highly entertaining AND I learned things! My sister had some ferrets for a while; they were enchanting, but they smell strange. Not the way other animals smell; almost more like a kind of weird cleaning product or something.
@Onionsoup, you’d like the second half of this especially.
@Kyeh @OnionSoup lol this is not new and my cousins had a ferrit. Who was cool. but the delivery is very good. And I just like “kitten snake”
@OnionSoup @unksol New to me! And I like “kitten snake” too.
@Kyeh @unksol absolutely! Badgers are the greatest
… And Otters, stoats, etc aren’t far behind.
Meh should sell concrete statues of them
@OnionSoup @unksol Otter statues are easier to find than badger ones:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1504665272/otter-garden-statue-concrete-otter
@Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol Badger statue you say!!
@Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol @yakkoTDI That badger statue is a little creepy.
@ItalianScallion @Kyeh @OnionSoup @unksol @yakkoTDI I think it’s the logo that’s not positioned or edited properly
@ItalianScallion @Kyeh @OnionSoup @pakopako @yakkoTDI pangolins are not badgers. Or any of this.
But they are very cute and endangered. “Kulu’s Journey” is on Netflix if nature stuff is sometimes your jam.
/image pangolin
/NotAI (fake tag I really wish was a thing)
@pony
/giphy dismissed
@chienfou
Thank you for your service…