Month: June 2022

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A short PSA

Technology does exactly what you tell it to!

I was recently reminded of this by my email filters.

A while ago, I was being inundated by messages claiming to be from FedEx. There were sometimes 10 a day demanding immediate action, my package was missing, payment was due, Your package has been found, etc. etc. etc.

The problem was, at the time I hadn’t ordered anything. I hadn’t ordered anything to be delivered via FedEx for years.

So, rather than having my phone beeping incessantly while I was at work, I created a filter. At first the filter was specific to the one or two offending email addresses.

But the scammers kept changing their email addresses and so in a short time, my phone was beeping and booping again telling me that I had some business with FedEx.

Being clever, I changed the filter to simply look for FedEx, FEDEX, FedEX and several other variations in the From or Subject fields.

Blissful silence!

Then like most of us, I forgot those filters were still active. Even if I’d recalled that little detail, I’d have probably left them in place because as a rule I don’t use FedEx.

Flash forward to yesterday and, well, I was hoisted by my own petard.

Unfortunately, I am having to deal with FedEx over the computer that they’ve lost. Yesterday I filed the claim to have them pay for the unit.

This morning, in an idle moment I wondered where the emails a nice gentleman at FedEx told me I was supposed to get were.

Suddenly, I remembered email filters. I vaguely remembered something about FedEx scams and decided to check the email filtering system.

Sure enough, the FedEx filter was still there and running.

OOOOPPPSS!

I was fortunate that I hadn’t told the filter to delete the messages entirely. I’d only told it to put them in the trash, and since the trash deletes messages that are greater than 30 days old I was able to recover the claim notification I was looking for.

I’ve deleted the FedEx filter.

This brings me to scammers, hackers, and other miscreants.

They do more damage, than just steal little old ladies retirements. That alone is cause enough for me to believe that scammers should be castrated with a rusty butter knife and an injection of something that enhances the pain response.

Hey, I want them to feel every exquisite bit of agony as that rusty butter knife saws through their scrotum. I also want to make sure that they don’t contaminate the gene pool any further. Hence the castration.

Scammers more far reaching disruptions are subtle. Even for those of us that don’t fall for the scam, we take steps to protect ourselves from the irritation and disruption their ploys inflict on us.

In doing so, we often experience disruption of legitimate business.

So as a PSA, Remember to check your blocked phone lists and your email filters on a regular basis. Usually the scam plays out and the scammers aren’t sending bogus emails after a few months. At that point you can delete your filters and be reasonably sure that the incoming FedEx or UPS email is legitimate.

Just Sayin…

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Conservatives, It’s not enough…

It’s not enough to whinge and complain.

The question is, how will we address the issues we’re complaining about?

It’s not enough to sit behind keyboards making nasty comments about liberals or Democrats.

In doing this we’re no better than the liberals or Democrats that do the same on Twitter.

It’s not enough to boycott this company, or that.

Are we brave enough, to not only boycott the company who’s offended, but to boycott their parent company? Are we strong enough to boycott the other companies who share board members with the company we’re boycotting?

It’s not enough to say the election was stolen, or Trump 2024 or DeSantis 2024.

Have we actually done the research to validate the assertion or political choice, or simply repeating what we’ve been told, casting votes for the person the Republican Party says to?

It’s not enough to watch conservative curated snippets of the Jan 6th hearing.

Watching curated snippets that cast the hearing in a negative light, is no different than those watching the hearing and swallowing the snippets the committee has curated and says is true.

I think for myself. I’ve looked at the available information and made choices. They weren’t always the correct choices, or even the best choices. But I own them. For better or worse, they’re mine.

I look at the time and effort spent endlessly commenting on Twitter, Gab, Truth Social, Facebook, News articles, American Thinker, Breitbart, and the myriad other conservative outlets, and I have to ask.

Is this all we’ve got?

An upvote?
A snarky comment?
A meme?
An online argument?
A ‘share’ with followers?

Really?

Obviously we all have computers. How about spending all that energy, time and resource to figure a way out of this mess?

If, as so many of you say, the ship is sinking, it’s no matter who’s right and who’s wrong. The water is rising, we’ll all drown. Whatever differences we had will be settled in silence.

Will we go the route of Melville:

“To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee; For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee.”

Or will we put aside our differences, bridge the gap, and demonstrate what we’ve said we stand for.

Work!

Doing what needs to be done, because it needs doing.

Not for fame, not for riches, or clicks, or accolades. But because the survival of our country is in our best interest. Implicitly demonstrating that Capitalism is what ultimately drives societies forward to better futures.

So what if there will be those whose asses undeservedly get pulled from the water?

They, will stand as witnesses to the abject failure of marxism, socialism, or communism. Their survival and shame will haunt them all the days of their wretched lives. Because they will know they live by our largess, not by the sweat of their brow or the work of their own hand.

So Conservatives, and our more middle of the road friends…

Let’s get to work.

Put the phone down, push back from your keyboards, stop feeding the beast of the media, and self indulgent click bait.

Assess your skills and knowledge then direct it at the problems at hand.

How do we get this country’s supply chain moving?

Retired Truckers, Longshoremen, material handlers, shippers, planners? It’s time for you to take the stage.

How do we stop more and more people climbing onto a sinking lifeboat?

Retired diplomats, ambassadors, immigration professionals, Any thoughts?

What do we have to do to be energy independent?

Retired oil producers, roughnecks, drilling crews, coal miners, power plant workers, Nuclear engineers, This is your bailiwick.

How do we peacefully, yet undeniably make our voices heard in the halls of power?

Children of the ’50s, ’60s, 70’s 80’s. We were really good at making Washington listen. It’s time for us to decorate our walkers, dust off our signs, create easily remembered slogans, songs, and present clear and unified messages. It’s time to march once again.

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

I know us old farts wanted to leave the issues to the young. We wanted to go fishing, put our feet up, watch the sunset, and pass peacefully from this mortal coil.

Unfortunately, our Nation, our Home isn’t done with us yet. “Once more into the breach dear friends…”

It sucks! But it is what it is.

Perhaps we can enjoy fishing and the sunset for a while after we help set things right.

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Frustrations

Lately, it seems that no matter what I choose to do, or what direction I choose to move, there is always something, some one, or some major previously unknown precursor event that must be addressed before continuing.

Essentially, I find myself neatly boxed in.

It’s harshing my buzz… slowing me down… pissing me off!

Even the simplest of things have become maddeningly obstructed.

I’ve always tried to live by a simple rule.

Pick a direction, ANY direction!

When I’ve had a tough time deciding a course of action, I’ve found that often simply moving, changes my perspective enough that I can see an optimal path forward.

This has worked very well for me because even if I’m moving in the wrong direction, I can see that it’s wrong and correct my course.

Lately, however I’m obstructed from taking the first step.This leads to a maddening inability to do anything except remain frustratedly still.

I’m going to have to go back to wearing a mouth guard when I sleep! I’m grinding my teeth all the time now!