Month: December 2019

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One of those dreams that you wake up from with chills

Iearth.jpgn the dream I’m sitting at my computer wandering down an unfamiliar data pathway on the ‘net.

My screen freezes then starts showing random characters.

The characters resolve into a message:

After careful observation and consideration. It’s been determined this civilization will not achieve Kardashev Type 1 status.

Therefore the warning message transmitted from Buoys in the Oort cloud has been modified and will broadcast for another thousand cycles.

New Message Reads, “Warning – Do not approach the third planet. Primitive species, extremely dangerous and warlike. Minimal spacial abilities with crude atomic weapons. End Message”

Message is being transmitted on all frequencies and in all known languages. Additionally system wide cradle defense batteries have been deactivated. This world is of no further interest to our people, and no longer under our protection.

Humans will have to fend for themselves. We will no longer provide protection from Slaver or Raiding species. Nor will we provide any protection from asteroid impact.

Orders are as follow: Evacuate. Collect any genetic material of interest, finalize reports, back up all cultural databases for subsequent study on Phoenixie Prime. destroy all bases and fall back to our ships. As we exit the system we will destroy all of our technology except warning buoys to prevent potential misuse.

Ten thousand years has been more than enough time for a civilization to evolve. Most do it in four thousand years. We’ve been too lenient and allowed our love of this species to stay our hand.

Report to your assigned ships for evacuation no later than 90 days from today.

Signed,

Commander Sol 3 Joint Annunaki / Phonexie Research Expedition.

Then the screen scrambled again and my computer rebooted.

I woke up in one of those Who, What, Where, things you have when you wake up from a nightmare.

As I collected my wits, I realized that a message like this appearing on every display device across our planet would at once confirm the existence of extraterrestrials, and just how disappointed they were with us as a species.

The ensuing chaos would be epic and imagine the wonder and sadness the world would feel as space craft suddenly appeared and left in very unsubtle ways. 

Then it occurred to me. I don’t think there’s been a significant meteor impact (meaning really damaging) for about 8 to 10 thousand years.

Now you have some insight into the weirdness of my mind.

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Abracadabra Alakazam Your online security is all a Big ‘Ol Sham

Just like the TSA waving their hands and muttering incantations when you try to board a plane.

10 years ago, I moved my checking and savings accounts away from Wells Fargo.

Recently I had need to speak with them and got the usual “you can get faster service by going to our web site”

During the course of the conversation, the representative, a lovely lady from Virginia told me that my records were very out of date. (I rarely have need to do business with them.) 

I told the lady that I knew that. And then told her that the reason for my call was that I couldn’t do what I needed to do online because the online system wouldn’t let me update the account profile.

The reason is this, I needed to change the phone number and the email address, but in order to do that I had to have access to one or both. Since I have access to neither, the system wouldn’t allow a change.

This was compounded by the fact that they didn’t have a cell phone number on file with which to send me a verification code.

Okay say I, “Since I’ve given you all the verification information and was able to tell you what the old number was, can you just make the changes? And can we proceed from there?”

Her answer is yes, “but we’ll have to add your cellphone number and then you’ll have to wait for us to send you an email telling you your number has been accepted, so that when you call us back to actually do what you needed to do, we can send you a verification text, so that we know it’s you…”

This somehow seemed totally logical to her.

She followed up by telling me it was for my security.

Sigh…

If I were a nefarious person, I could just as easily play along with this game, having changed the cellphone and email addresses, and I’d have access to do what I was trying to do in the first place, It would only take me keeping track of stuff for 24 hours and then calling back.

What exactly does the bank think is going on? Do they think that criminals have some kind of short attention span?  Are they thinking a criminal is going to forget about the score they were working on, over the course of 24 hours?

By the way this is the sort of thing that has turned me off traditional banks. Credit Unions seem to be a little more direct about getting the job done. 

The banking and insurance systems seem intent on making things so secure… That ONLY criminals will be able to access our data, because they have the time to commit to accessing the accounts.

40 minutes on the phone, and I still have not accomplished what I set out to accomplish.

So now I’m waiting on an email… 

I’m thinking that it’s not worth it. A far more direct method would be to keep my money in my mattress and eschew traditional banking institutions altogether. The problem is that  gold is heavy, and hard to store or move. Diamonds on the other hand are small, light, and easy.

Hummm I wonder…

Perhaps it’s time to close this last bit of business with Wells Fargo. To do that I’ll have to be in a bank branch sooo that’s on my TODO list.

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Okay, I had an interesting blog post…

Or so I thought, but as I wrote it, everything became muddy and disjointed.

Sigh…

Apparently it’s one of those days!

I was thinking about laws, rules, regulations and how intrusive Law & Lawyers have become in our daily lives.

As I wrote, I realized that I’m someone who wants to do the right thing and obey the law. At the same time, I find myself feeling overly burdened and find myself wanting to stop obeying.

There’s lots of evidence that suggests rules & laws can in fact be broken with no consequence, it isn’t even a matter of scale.

This left me wondering why I don’t break more rules and why I’m not more of a scofflaw. 

Then the following thoughts went through my head;

To play it straight, is automatically more expensive. To play the game loose and fast, keeps money in your pocket, and gets you to your goal faster.

Being a stand up guy means you’re going to get screwed. Nice guys don’t get shit except being shat upon, and honest people increasingly are being seen as fools.

 

After that…

Well, the whole piece just fell apart.

So there it is. The reason there’s nothing interesting or clever in the blog today is that my brain has gone to kind of a dark place. 

I can’t even tell you what started me down this rather dark thought path.

Maybe it’s just Monday.

I’ll not inflict this darkness on you.

Like my parents used to say, “If you’ve got nothing to say, don’t prove it by opening your mouth.”

I suppose there are a lot of politicians, newscasters, and celebrities that could benefit from applying the same rule.

Until next time…