@KitFox at the mall? or Newbury st like the Apple store?

One is near Braintree, the other near Framingham. I was just looking it up, debating taking the kids for a trip.

That's just convincing me to buy online.

South Shore Plaza.

We'd never be able to leave.

Lego for the afternoon...Rainforest Cafe for dinner.

There's one on the Northshore too.

feels cross I can't believe i never knew this.

yeah braintree is another hour across town.

But see... you found that out with google...just like you could buy them.

presses lips together

Sometimes the Lego store doesn't have the best prices compared to other retailers.

When I was in Manhatten, FAO Schwarz had better prices than the Lego store at Rockefeller Center.

I'm thinking of selection, but in reality, probably any box store that's more than 200 miles from here would have a better selection.

It would just be a fun trip.

Like going to the liquor store in New Hampshire.

@KitFox The one in the Natick Mall (near Framingham) is tiny, but awesome!

I need to eat something. What should I have for lunch? And then bath or video game?

if I lived in the US I would totally be ordering lego from Amazon all the time. the prices there are the best. But then, I love getting packages.

I think I should have a cup of tea, probably.

Cheese and crackers!

stomach rumbles

Maybe that's just what I'm thinking of eating.

I was thinking of scones to go with the tea, but I haven't any.

@KitFox you should have tea with your lunch.

Cheese and crackers might suffice.

peanut butter crackers.

Wow, Gravity wins many Academy awards, go watch it!

celery with peanut butter.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I do order from Amazon all the time. Not LEGO anywhere near as much as I want, though. More like boring stuff like subscribe-and-save dishwasher tablets.

@JasperLoy that's a non sequitur. You should go watch it anyway. Always look in the background to see if you can see your own town.

@Mitch Anyway, I watched it last November, lol.

@aediaλ You're a responsible, home-owning adult now! You should be ordering at least 6 lego kits/year.

and if your husband also likes lego, 12/year.

@JasperLoy did you see your hometown?

@aediaλ I have ordered 14 books from amazon so far!

@Mitch No, I didn't, lol.

I ordered shoes from Amazon. Is that bad?

I won't order shoes from amazon, because I would need to try them on first.

Think of all the special occasions you're not ordering lego for! Christmas. Valentine's day. Birthdays. Anniversaries. Father's day, Mother's day. MLK day. Thanksgiving. Monsoon day. Talk like a pirate day.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 and order them for all the other days!

I wanted to say that lego, like iPad, is for kids only, lol.

I think if I lived in the US, my marriage would be in danger on account of all the Lego ordering.

Also on account of me being in the US.

Haha.

But there is cheap shipment, and there is also amazon.ca.

@JasperLoy amazon.com won't ship lego to Canada and neither will most of their vendors. And amazon.ca has different vendors and prices and the prices are shit.

Luckily, they ship books here, or my life is meaningless...

I won't lie, the LEGO is constantly tempting me, but there have been so many other things we and the house have needed that I can't spend toooo much on stuff mostly for myself.

We finally got a comfy couch and I sat on it and sorted so much old LEGO though. That was awesome.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 We could probably arrange something...

And I got the Back to the Future DeLorean for my birthday!

@JasperLoy I used to love going through used bookstores, seeing what books they had. With Amazon, you have to know what you want first, and you can't flip through the book easily.

@aediaλ sweet! Does it have a spelling mistake on one of the printed tiles?

@KitFox If one day, amazon doesn't ship books here anymore, maybe I will try to arrange something with you...

@KitFox It's tempting but the shipping costs for any person in the US shipping lego to Canada would probably kill the savings.

It seems that they charge tax if the order exceeds 400USD, and they ship for free here if over 125USD, so I keep my order between the 2.

@aediaλ Eee!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, but if we are meeting up in Lake George anyway.

amazon.in is very very cheap, but no shipping anywhere else, lol.

@KitFox lol, are we? But then I'd probably want to stop on the way in buffalo or rochester and shop myself.

But thanks for the offer :)

@KitFox "Lego smuggling ring across Canada-US border under investigation"

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't know. It's sort of middleish for some of us.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You know, I haven't looked that closely. I'll check tonight when I finish it. It's about 3/4 assembled so most of the printed tiles are on, but I was building while watching Mythbusters the other night and the explosions kept distracting me.

@Mitch Geezis.

@KitFox half-way between you and me is montreal. Half-way between me and aedia is Syracuse.

So halfway between all three is Lake George, I think.

@aediaλ The early sets have an error. They've since fixed it and will ship you a free replacement.

Halfway between anyone else and me is I dunno where.

I used a very sophisticated algorithm.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Authorities have been dispatched. Expect a knock on the door any moment.

Once amazon shipped a week earlier than predicted, so their estimate is not always accurate.

I was wondering what they would do if there was no one at home, luckily they left it at the nearest post office for me to collect.

@JasperLoy Dang it! they sent it too early! You can't depend on those guys!

Where is @Matt today?

But I read somewhere online that sometimes they leave it at the door or with your neighbour!

@KitFox Have not seen him the whole day.

I hope he is OK.

@KitFox If we're going to let aedia skimp on travel time, we might as well meet at her place.

(@aediaλ hope you don't mind if we invite ourselves over)

By the way, they used the carrier i-parcel in my case, not DHL, Fedex, etc.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I hadn't thought of that. I'd say Montreal then, but that place is such an armpit.

If there is free shipping, some books are even cheaper through amazon than if I go to the bookstore!

@JasperLoy I'm almost never near the door when my packages come and they just put 'em on the porch. But when I lived in a city, we seldom ordered stuff online because if we weren't home to get it we would have to go pick packages up from the post office or FedEx depot. I was always trying to order with post office shipping so I could walk there instead of driving out of the city to fetch my stuff.

So yeah. I bet aedia's got a nice porch to sit on and drink wine, like we used to when you were that other person.

@KitFox ... really? you don't like Montreal? we're actually going there on a vacation in may

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't mind!

awkward silence

Mahnax has not been coming to this chat. Strange that his interest changed from math to chemistry.

@aediaλ yeah I hate how FedEx, UPS, et al make it super annoying to pick up parcels you missed.

Luckily I can walk to my nearest post office!

@KitFox If the snow ever melts...

I hated it when they would leave you a note that they would try again, and you'd be like "Damn it! I'm not going to be there then either!" and then you'd get another note...

And then they threaten that your stuff will go back and you're like NOOOOO

Just leave the package! Or take it back to the place I can pick it up!

@KitFox Yeah, they should give you a number to call and arrange.

So now you begin to understand why I hate the whole package thing.

I have 5 working days to pick up from the post office, or it will go back to the sender.

I have 2 days or they blow it up on the tarmac for safety reasons.

Also, I like how they usually don't stick the price tag on the books.

@KitFox yeah. In that case I'd probably aim to have it shipped to my work.

but now I work from home, so it's all good.

Yay!

Does anyone here know anything about Wordpress plug-ins?

@KitFox Everywhere else I lived I was always paranoid that the sticker had fallen down and now I missed the last delivery and my stuff was going back. Now it's amazing because the carriers will actually just leave my stuff.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Sure, Montreal is great. There are armpitty areas I suppose. Don't go to those.

@KitFox so what parts don't you like?

@KitFox But this has changed?

A few years ago, we got the ability to pick which post office to send it to, what time frame they would deliver it, or to not have it delivered at all but picked up at the post office.

And they now have mini-post offices in supermarkets.

@Mitch It was fun for visiting when I was young and bohemian.

@Cerberus They're slowly closing small posts offices here in the US.

I watched La Bohemia the opera.

@KitFox but now not?

Now it seems dirty and pornographic.

@JasperLoy She dies at the end, am I right?

@Mitch Yes, I think so, can't really recall, lol.

@Mitch They're closing them here as well, but instituting what amounts to pick-up locations at supermarkets and other shops instead.

Which is fine with me.

There's the beginnings of the LEGO room at our house.

jealous

Whoops.

That was a secret code haha.

I feel like The Hunter now.

@KitFox Wow, a room for LEGO! Your house must be huge.

Who is The Hunter?

@JasperLoy It is pretty big, but this will someday have the woodstove and two reading chairs, and that's about all that will fit. The lego will have to go elsewhere then.

Oh @Reg, I forgot this one:

!!lego 75032

brickset.com/detail/?Set=75032-1

Cute little thing.

You'll probably hate it.

Artoo!

We watched Star Wars yesterday.

Again.

Which the eldest calls A New Hope and he gives me a look every time I say Star Wars.

I am waiting for Star Wars 7, even though I never watched the three newer movies.

I think 6 are enough. If they make a 7, maybe they will make 8 and 9, lol.

It's really hot here, has not rained for a few weeks.

@RegDwigнt Genau.

So now the real question, bath or video games?

@KitFox Yes.

considers

Greetings.

@KitFox why would I hate it, these are awesome. Two of them are on my must-have list, including this one.

It has quite a few all-new parts not available in any other set.

Lousy movie Gravity wins seven Oscars? What's wrong with these people?

@KitFox ha ha. I thought that was the new post office pick-up that Cerb was talking about.

@GlenTheUdderboat Light headed.

@Cerberus Did you see the "65% cholesterol" ad?

Hi.

No, sorry, I don't look at ads.

Should I?

Hmm, no.

Do you have a TV?

No?

Is the advertisement scandalous?

@GlenTheUdderboat Hey, I got a very important e-mail today from my bank, did you get it?

@Cerberus: I hope you followed their instructions very carefully!

@oerkelens I did!

:D

I entered my PIN on the website (ngi.nl).

Hope you didn;t have too much on that account :P

My life's savings, why?

They keep trying - I guess it means that there are still people falling for it :(

In my case my life savings aren't even worth stealing :D

The theory is that they make the e-mails stupid on purpose, in order to cull only the stupidest people; correspondence with anyone else is a waste of time for them eventually, because they won't pay up in the end.

@Cerberus The ad compares 1) not taking the elevator if you'd know that with a 65% chance you'd get stuck and 2) stepping into the lottery shop if you'd know that you'd have a 65% chance of winning the jackpot, with 3) taking a cholesterol test if you know that 65% of the population has "increased" cholesterol.

@oerkelens I call them my life's debts, rather.

@Cerberus That's my favourite theory as well.

@GlenTheUdderboat Ah, that sounds like utter bullshit, indeed.

@GlenTheUdderboat Great!

@Cerberus I tell this theory to everybody who cares to listen, but I just get blank stares in return.

Really?

I get nods.

@Cerberus Maybe you tell it better.

Hah.

@Cerberus But I really think it is a great theory and I'd love to see it confirmed.

Maybe something for Skeptics SE.

The incentives assumed by the theory are no doubt correct.

I'm not sure how we could find out more...

It does make sense. The two properties that conmen like: stupidity and greed.

Hey, do you guys know anything about Wordpress?

@Cerberus Nothing.

I have a page that I need to edit, but I can only open it, not find it!

@GlenTheUdderboat OK noted.

So you write a stupidly written email offering someone a lot of money. If they react they are stupid and greedy. And you're in the game.

Exactly.

@oerkelens But the question is: Is this indeed the intended strategy?

Well, the going for greed I have seen confirmed in interviews with most famous Dutch conman ever.

He was smart enough not to depend on stupidity though

He liked smart victims

Van Meegeren?

Heer Olivier

Oh. Never read those.

nopes, not the cartoons

Ari Olivier

Managed to sell non-existing diamond mines in a non-existing country to the Belgian government

He was offered a book contract for his memoirs, he even conned the publisher

Nice.

Hmm.

My mother once had a client who had sold the Eiffel Tower to an American tourist, I believe.

mmmm

Or it was probably some building in Amsterdam.

As long as the tourist is happy with it

:D

He accosted people in the street, he was very well dressed, apparently.

Well, if you sell some buildings you can afford a nice suit

The tourist was happy until he found out he had, instead of the Paleis op de Dam, a worthless piece of paper.

:D

What happened to the guy who was selling the moon?

Brilliant, it's still happening :)

moonestates.com/?gclid=CMGFzbGe97wCFQkUwwodlrsAQw

Weren't there claims/shares to the North Pole once? In the 90s I think.

Ah, that guy.

Maybe more recent.

@oerkelens There are no typos there. How could it work?

The guy claimed the moon. Simple

Internationally (UN I think) it was decided that no country could claim the moon

So the guy claimed it as an individual

Filed his claim with the US, USSR and the UN

They never denied his claim

So as such, it's valid :D

I would not say so, but sure!

As long as nobody challenges his claim, he owns the moon

Calls himself the Big Cheese :D

@oerkelens Good for him. Does he pay tax on it?

Good question. I assume not.

Then again, the question rises where he should pay tax...

@oerkelens Usually, where he lives. Not on the moon, or...?

I haven't the foggiest

As opposed to Gravity, I do like conman movies.

Would be interesting if you buy some moon and then ask payment from whoever wants to drive their lunar vehicle over it.

I haven't seen Gravity, and I hardly heard about it

till today

@oerkelens Is there anything driving on the Moon now?

But movie + conman, first thing that comes to mind is the Sting

Right now, I'm not sure

The Chinese maybe?

Or were they still testing

I believe there's some traffic on Mars. Taking selfies and such. But the Moon, not sure at all.

They should do that with more people that are fond of taking selfies

Send them to Mars

Though it would get quite busy there

I propose that we expel this man to his claimed country.