Category: Entertainment

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Wow! That was more difficult than I thought it would be.

I’ve been thinking about buying a pair of nice bluetooth over the ear headphones.

I’ve got a set of AirPod Pros 2nd Gen and while I like them very much, I don’t like that my ears get annoyed with me if I wear them for more than a couple of hours at a time.

Were it not for that, I’d have them in all the time.

It would be so much easier than listening to the crazy lady screaming about whatever she screams about, or hearing her fella, yelling at the yappy dogs, while grinding away on some piece of metal, driving or “Fixing” a vehicle that’s on it’s last legs.

What he needs to do, is stay out from under the hoods of the various vehicles he’s destroyed (5? I think at last count,) and leave it to a professional. His version of a properly running engine is very different from mine! 3 of 8 cylinders firing, punctuated by 5 consecutive backfires is not proper operation! There’s also the thrilling sound of him running a chain saw at 10 PM. I’m not kidding, I’ll turn the lights off and he’ll start the chainsaw. That motor is also on it’s last legs! One can only hope that when It dies we’ll be spared the restful sounds of him cutting whatever he’s cutting.

Don’t ask…

All I can say is this used to be a quiet neighborhood. This is what happens when you let riff raff move into nice places!

I’ve been in hollers in Tennessee, and Kentucky where folks were dirt poor, and not school educated but they weren’t this kind of white gutter trash.

It’s funny in a way, California can’t even do white trash or rednecks right.

You can see why I might be looking for noise cancelling headphones, that are comfortable in the long term.

There are literally times when I can’t watch TV in my living room due to the noise coming from that white trash. I like having the windows open this time of year, I like the fresh mountain air (even when it is full of pollen).

So I’m faced with, turning up the volume to unbearable levels, closing the windows, not bothering to try to live my life and watch a movie or TV show in my house, or a set of headphones.

I know there are those of you saying, “Why don’t you call the police?”

Hahahahahaha! Where the hell have you people been living? Police? Helpful? Responding to a noise complaint? The police can’t even arrest and hold her for more than 8 hours after she assaults someone. Which she’s done 3 more times since she assaulted me last year.

BTW, if I lived in one of those “Fly Over” redneck places… Let’s just say this whole thing wouldn’t be a problem. Folks go missing in hollers all the time…

I digress, I was considering the Apple AirPods Max. They’re expensive! But I can also buy them from Costco and save $70. I saved $50 on my AirPod Pros at Costco. My concern there is that the Max is generation one and come fall Apple may be releasing a replacement version.

This led me down a rabbit hole of reviews and firmware versions for both the AirPod Max and my AirPod Pros. That’s when I discovered something interesting and strange. I did a search for “Latest AirPod Pro Gen 2 Firmware” then I got articles from last year through this year. I told the browser to limit the results to only this year. You’d think that would narrow your search but oddly it didn’t by much.

I was still seeing articles listing last years firmware as current and it was clear from context, the article had been written last year but the date was today’s date. I looked at several similar articles thinking perhaps there was a current update but there wasn’t.

There was however a shit ton (Technical Term) of ads.

Then it dawned on me, these outdated articles are monkeying with the dates to appear current so they can serve these shitty ads.

This reduces the usefulness of the internet and honestly makes me discount the validity or accuracy of publications MacWorld and 9 to 5 Mac I’m looking right at you!

It occurs to me that because of folks doing stuff like this to keep serving the same 5 ads over and over again, overall the internet is becoming less useful all the time. If the filtering doesn’t work, then the user is faced with a wave of outdated and current information with no ability to determine what is real, and what is useless.

Imagine writing an article about Trump when he was President, packing that article with shitty ads, then updating the date.

A query like “Who is President of the United States” could return Trump, Biden, Obama and Bush. How would someone know? If they had to turn on the TV to figure out who the president is, then the internet would be kind of useless.

All this ad crap and targeted marketing was a bad idea to begin with, and it’s only gotten worse.

I come again to a question I’ve asked myself a lot over the past few years.

“Is the internet’s usefulness eclipsed by having to filter through all the crap to get valid information?”

I’m really wondering. I guess I’ll know when I see an article saying, “Australian farmers pig has piglets with wings, Farmer Stunned!” I’d bet that at least 25% of folks on the internet would read the article, and a lot of them would believe it.

I fell for one the other night, some bullshit about a mystery in some dudes backyard. It was written like some reality show script. A paragraph that said essentially nothing, then a commercial, and another paragraph then commercial. It went on and on, but it was putting ads in front of everyone that was curious late at night.

Spoiler Alert: The guy bought a house built in the late 50s, the “Mystery” was that someone who owned the house had put in a fallout shelter. Over time, other owners had added soil and landscaping that buried the hatch. Then the shelter had gotten forgotten about except as a dim rumor. The guy found the original blueprints at the county records office and decided to investigate. The shelter was in pretty good shape so the guy renovated the space. It was pretty cool. The article could have covered everything in maybe 4 well written paragraphs with photos. Instead they took almost 100 paragraphs all of which were poorly written.

I finally went to Apple for the answer. I’d not gone to them in the first place because often asking a simple question in Apple’s support section, does not provide a single Byte of data. You’re still going to have to sort through a ton data that’s not relevant.

By the way, as of 6/28/2023 the current AirPod Pro Gen 2 firmware is 5E135.

I still haven’t decided if I’m going to drop the hammer on headphones…

This is how I lose entire days…

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What a Surprise!

Hunter Biden is being given a plea deal. Well who the heck could have seen that coming?

There’s an article in The Hill this morning. Here’s the link if you want to read it.

The Biden family’s breathtaking corruption never ceases to amaze. As a TV show, it would be great entertainment. As reality, it’s just sickening.

And these people laugh all the way to the bank.

The administration is hoping that by serving up Hunter, it will appease the mob and prevent the White House Press Secretary from dealing with distracting headlines.

They’re missing the point. Karine Jean-Pierre creates a lot of distracting headlines all by herself with her mind boggling answers or more precisely non-answers to questions. I didn’t think it possible, but the Biden White House found someone worse than Jen Psaki.

Jean-Pierre, checks all the boxes save one, She’s cute, She’s black, She’s a lesbian, She’s a woman, (although sadly not Trans,) and with all that going for her, she’s dumb as a bag of rocks. Wait, maybe she does check all the boxes after all.

I’d imagine it’s easier to lie with a straight face if you are unable to actually think about what you’re saying.

That was Psaki’s downfall. She wasn’t quite dumb enough. You could tell she was lying because she still had a flicker of intelligence and hadn’t quite managed to extinguish all of her morality. It showed in her face. Interestingly, she kept looking more and more haggard through her tenure. I guess lying that much would be exhausting.

Well we know how this story ends. All the charges against Hunter will vanish. The corruption investigation into the Biden family will drag on & on until everyone is so tired of it no-one is paying attention anymore.

Then it will either vanish, or turn into a cushy job for the favored of Washington elites where tens of millions of dollars go in and nothing of use comes out.

This is one of the reasons the founding fathers were in favor of small government with limited powers. They’d studied how monarchies began, grew, aged, and fell.

There’s a very predictable and discernible pattern. All governments near their end undergo a period of massive corruption followed by putrefaction and then they’re plowed under by something claiming to be new or better.

“Better” is entirely subjective. Better for whom is a more appropriate question.

The Biden administration is simply an erupting pustule denoting the corruption extant within our government. What is impossible to determine at the moment is; are we in the latter stages of our government’s death or are we actually in the putrefaction stage?

Biden himself might be the perfect poster child if our form of government is in the last days of life. Doddering, Senile, Mercurial, and Lost.

None of these things are good with a nuclear armed country or person with launch codes.

On the plus side, we’ll have the reality TV show known as Trump.

Will Donald have to go to prison? Will he be President? Will he be President While in Prison? For the answers to these questions, and more tune in next week. Same time, same channel. This show brought to you by Pfizer and now a word about health from St Fauci.

It’s sickening top to bottom. It’s been said, “When rape is inevitable, try to enjoy it.” That may be the only choice any of us are left with.

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It’s been with some amusement that I’ve been hearing about the BudLight Boycott.

It’s been characterized as a boycott in many of the media reports.

I think that overstates what’s going on.

A Boycott suggests that there’s an organizing group. Folks with an agenda, newsletter, signs, and protesters.

I think this is far more organic and not organized. I think this is individual people saying they’re tired of a particular aspect of American life and are choosing individually to avoid a product.

I didn’t talk to anyone about my decision to avoid BudLight. Indeed, I was very disappointed to discover that my beloved Corona was owned by Anheuser-Busch. I thought Modello was still an independent company.

It’s not a problem, I like Blue Moon just as well. For me, Corona versus Blue Moon is more often a matter of pricing. Given that I don’t drink a lot of beer I guess it’s a nonissue because a 12 pack lasts me more than a month. I like a beer sometimes with lunch and sometimes it’s nice to have a beer after I’ve been out doing yard work.

Next beer run, I’ll be buying Blue Moon.

I’ve not talked to anyone about boycotting. I don’t much care what other people are doing. I chose to distance myself from Anheuser-Busch because I personally am weary of the Trans Shit.

I’m also weary of corporate America and politicians pandering to the latest fad. The only way to register my annoyance with companies is not to use their products, so Anheuser-Busch, among others, doesn’t get my dollar.

I suspect that the rest of normal folks like me, make similar choices all the time. I know Jewish folks who will not buy BMW, Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, or Mercedes. I’d hope you don’t need an explanation, if you do, you can look it up. I also know American folks who will not buy a Japanese car. Neither of these groups are racist, nor are they boycotting, they just have a very long memory, and a plethora of other options.

Where Target is concerned It’s not as easy. I really like the Super Target. I like being able to go one place and get what I need. If I hit the Super Target early enough I don’t even have to deal with a bunch of people. Wouldn’t be surprised to find a lot of people in the same boat.

That being said, I’m planning to give Costco a whirl for groceries this week. The problem is the portion size and subsequent storage of items. I might be back at the Super Target, or I’ll just go to a regular grocery store.

The point is I’m not actively boycotting Target, I’m choosing not to patronize them when / if it’s convenient to do so.

I’m doing that with a lot of products.

I’d bet that from a marketing standpoint that’s a whole lot tougher to deal with, or correct.

How do you combat apathy that is a result of your customer base not being really angry at you, rather they’re just not interested in your virtue signaling, and therefore your company’s products.

Worse, I’d bet that once a corporation has become known for virtue signaling and pandering, they will have a tough time coming back from it. Almost any advertising campaign would be viewed through the same lens.

I recently loaded up on Apple Products. I was replacing worn out devices and preserving a software investment. I actually didn’t enjoy going to the Apple Store.

In the back of my mind was the thought, “I wish Apple would just sell Technology and avoid politics,” And then I was helped by a jittery blue haired young lady who almost scolded me for not making a shopping appointment. It was the epitome of what I found distasteful about putting money in Apple’s pocket.

Will I purchase other Apple Products? Probably. Will I be excited about those purchases? Probably no more than being excited about a visit to the dentist. I’ll have to do it, I know it’s gonna be expensive, and that’s just the way it is. If I’m not the only customer to feel that way, then Apple isn’t going to do much growing.

They’re not the only company who may be facing this kind of issue, but they’re one of the largest and most visible.

NorthFace is another company that is well known but perhaps a bit more niche than Apple. Their most recent ad might have reduced their annual sales for much the same reasons.

Why buy NorthFace which is arguably an expensive brand when you can buy Mountain Hardwear, or Patagonia, or Osprey.

NorthFace is a company that should have put the money they spent on a crappy ad, into improving quality. I had a NorthFace 3 season jacket that was 12 years old. It had held up well but needed to be retired.

I went to a store that handled NorthFace and found that similar jackets were badly made, more expensive, seemed to use cheap materials, (they felt cheap,) the zippers were awful, and were overall less flexible.

I ended up buying 2 Costco jackets for a total of $40 that have taken the place of the 3 season I had.

The pity is I’d gone back to a store explicitly to purchase another NorthFace 3 season jacket.

When I bought my jacket I paid something like $400 for it and didn’t blink. The quality was great and the versatility was worth every penny. I even bought another one for my other half.

I’m not boycotting NorthFace, I just won’t look at their products. That shitty ad with a genderfuck drag queen did nothing but fully take NorthFace off my radar. If that ad turned me off what did it do to the rest of America?

I don’t really think there is any boycott against any company in particular. I think it’s just an overall tiredness of average everyday folks with everything woke.

Honestly, this whole woke thing might be finally coming to an end. If it is, good riddance to bad rubbish.