Category: Geeky Stuff

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So I’ve had the Digital Driver’s License for about a year…

Thus far I’ve not been anywhere that had the facilities for me to use my mobile driver’s license.

I’d kind of forgotten it was even on my phone. It’s there in the Apple Wallet, and I’ve gone “familiarity blind to it,” I see it, but don’t see it. Maybe that’s a guy thing?

Anyhoo, I recently got the DL license renewal form. (2 pages) which encouraged me to  use the DMV renewal web portal.

I didn’t. 

I’ve got a little problem with the DMV charging me an extra (and in my opinion excessive,) “convenience fee”. Convenient for who? Me, or California?

I don’t mind writing a check. I know that my choosing to handle stuff like this via paper, and checks is more difficult, and labor intensive a.k.a. inconvenient for California. As an aside, I deal with the Feds, the same way.

It is no more or less convenient for me to write a check and put a stamp on an envelope. 

Maybe they should discount renewals and the like on the DMV website to encourage folks like me to give them our debit card numbers and allow California to collect their cash instantly.

I’m not overly concerned about using technology but I’ll be damned if they’re going to hit me with another fee for making their job easier.

I digress. 

I woke up this morning to the usual notifications from my bank about transactions that had cleared. However this morning, there was an additional notification. This one was from the digital / mobile driver’s license. 

The notification said my license had been updated. “That’s new,” I thought. I tapped on the notification and was informed that the expiration date had changed and my license had a new expiration date.

I logged into the DMV website and confirmed that yes, my license has been renewed and all I’m waiting for now is the hard copy.

Hmmm. That’s kind of neat. 

From what I understand, you’ll get similar notices when you’ve used the digital license at the TSA or other venues for identification. I’m curious to understand more about the digital IDs, much of what I’ve read seems a lot like vapor ware. The use cases and specifications sound a little “over the top”.

As I’ve stated elsewhere, I think digital ID’s have great potential. I also think they have a really dark potential downside.

The upside is that they could be used in places like Doctor’s offices. It would be nice to only transmit the necessary information instead of everything. We’ve all had the office administrator photocopy our license for insurance purposes, then attach it to our file. Going digital would make things a tad more secure, especially since we’ve all received notices or seen on the news that hardcopies of our medical files have been found in dumpsters. 

That’s scary since those files contain our ID, Social Security Number, address, date of birth, and a ton of other personal information.

If the data was only in computers and those computers had a field like “ID verified Yes/No” then in theory, it would close off a pathway for identity theft. As the records stand right now, with either the hard copy or the digital copies, medical records are valuable to criminals because they have everything someone would need to commit ID theft.

I could see using digital IDs for voting. Wave your phone at a reader and get your ballot. That would help cut down on fraudulent votes, and also raise a red flag if someone had used a stolen ID to vote in your place. It probably wouldn’t help in that election, but it would allow you to report the problem to authorities.

The biometric aspect of digital IDs means that in theory only you can use your ID, so there’s better security built in. At least that’s the theory.

If all stores that sold items like liquor, and cigarettes, used digital ID, then you could have a lot of convenience making those purchases. The register could ping the ID for age verification as part of the transaction process and not allow the sale to complete if someone were underage.

Even with in-person banking transactions or at an ATM it’s theoretically possible to do away with the physical debit card, and just use the phone to access the account and verify ID so PIN numbers could be a thing of the past.

I personally prefer using my phone at gas pumps and convenience stores. Why? Because those places are notorious for having card skimmers and the phone option with biometrics cuts that shit right off. At least for the time being. 

If every sales transaction was linked to biometric ID verification on a personal device then theft and fraud could be a thing of the past.

All of this is of course, predicated on a government that can be trusted, and highly secure data.

Unfortunately, neither is true.

Data breaches happen every day all day. Trusting the government? Uh, NOPE!

The dark side of all of this would be the government being able to turn off your digital ID. They wouldn’t have to touch bank accounts, they’d be able to simply not verify your ID. The bank and ATM would then cease to function. As would every other transaction that verified your ID.

In a cashless society that means you have no access to money, food, fuel, or anything else. If the government wanted you they’d know exactly where you are and they’d know you probably weren’t going to get very far away from the last transaction terminal you accessed.

Purchasing guns or ammunition for example suddenly becomes a matter of record and the government could, at a whim make it impossible. PayPal and other Credit processors have already implemented blocks on sales of firearms, firearm accessories, gambling and some items of a sexual nature. It’s written into the agreements.

The government turning off a Digital ID makes verbiage in the credit agreements redundant.

Talk about the ultimate gun control and passive gun registration. An overbearing government could in theory, disarm the entire populace in very short order.

Even if members of the populace had guns, the government could stop sales of ammunition, then all that’s left is stopping the sales of precursor materials.

Think about not being able to buy lead, brass, primers, or gunpowder. (No more reloading.) Then since people are creative and clever, the government could stop sales of materials like carbon, sulfur, potassium, and nitrate materials. Meaning people couldn’t even begin to make gunpowder.

Large quantities of fertilizer are already monitored in the US, after the Oklahoma City bombing.

In the aftermath of January 6 2020 The Bank of America released transaction records to the United States Government on suspects. The FBI knew exactly what those people had for breakfast.

So it’s not much of a stretch.

A bad government could, by turning off an individual’s digital ID prevent them from voting, buying or selling cars, homes, or renting an apartment. That same bad government could turn off access to public assistance and retirement funds. A bad government could control literally anything they didn’t want people to have.

Down that path lies dystopian nightmares.

It’s already happening in China, and honestly the UK isn’t far behind.

Last week, Apple announced that they were going to allow addition of passports to Apple Wallet. 

Hmmm. That might be really cool, especially if the passport in Apple Wallet acts like the Passport card. The Passport Card now allows travel between Canada, Mexico, and some of the Caribbean islands. Imagine the possibilities. Breezing through TSA and later Customs just by waving your phone at a reader.

Sounds neat, or does it?

I’m not sure that I’m comfortable with an all digital ID or cashless future. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love the convenience.

That being said, I’m increasingly concerned about the potential misuse. Especially after COVID, the vaccine passports, COVID digital contact tracing, seeing how quickly people complied, and worse how quickly those in power began to abuse their power.

In an idealized perfect world, I’d love digital IDs and a cashless society.

We don’t live in that world.

My California mobile ID will continue to live in my Apple Wallet. I’ll probably not notice it by next week. Knowing me, If I’m asked for my ID I’ll hand over my new drivers license even if the party asking for ID can read the digital version.

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Here we are again! Power is out.

Edison claims they’re replacing power poles.

The power will be out until 4PM but Edison being Edison, means it will probably be out longer.

I powered everything down this morning prior to them turning the power off. The power doesn’t just go off. There’s this weird dribble effect. It’s like someone is rubbing two bare wires together but not holding them still.

I don’t think that’s what is actually happening. I suspect, it’s all the solar panels on the houses around here. I’m betting that their switching systems aren’t all detecting the power outage the same way, and are allowing the various panels to feed power into the grid for a minute after the power is gone.

Technically, that shouldn’t happen, all the systems should switch over to either battery, or disconnect the panels from the grid instantly, that may not be happenig as designed. I don’t even know if my panels switch off properly because I wasn’t here when the installers were doing the final inspection.

The dribble effect is interesting because the alarm on the stove grumbles to itself until the power is completely gone.

I’ve got the HAM rig running on battery, I’m listening to a country music station out of Las Vegas. Which means my Ham Rig is a very expensive FM radio at the moment. Oh well…

I can broadcast on battery, I just don’t want to talk to anyone. It’s times like this when I do wish I had the bluetooth mic but obviously I don’t want it bad enough to have spent the money on it. I could lose the whole day playing on the radio.

When the power is off, all the usual interference is gone and I can hear, and talk to folks a lot further away, even with my shitty little antenna.

I’d planned to get a nice “Permanent Antenna” and mount it in the back yard. But there’s not much point in doing that if I’m gonna move. I could do some kind of portable long wire solution but I don’t need another distraction. I other words, if I could screw around all day on the radio I would. I’d get nothing done! Looking stuff up on the computer is bad enough. I swear I’ll try to look up one little thing to help with cleaning or fixing stuff. Then I look up & 2 hours have gotten by me.

Nah, I’ll wait on antennas, and radio gear till I get fully settled, either here, off the mountain, or in another state.

I’ve been doing chores around here, those that don’t require power. I’d reached a point of annoyance / frustration with one chore and decided to take a break to finish my coffee before it got cold.

Time to walk the pup.

Have a great day.

Update: They didn’t get the power back on until 6:15 PM or so. Gee Thanks Edison!

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When I was young, and my life was an open book…

I’ve lived a few places. I’ve spent way too much time in California. I ended up in the California town I live in for two reasons. 

1) It was where my love, wanted to live.
2) It was, 30 some odd years ago a compromise. Living here allowed me to stay in California without losing my mind, be able to work. & provide for my love.

In truth way back in the day, I was on my way out of California. I got sidetracked for 30+ years. Oops!

I visited this little town originally because I was gonna get laid and figured it would be a fun diversion for a weekend. Strangely, a relationship bloomed. We dated for 3 or 4 years, then I moved up to this picturesque mountain town.

When I first got here, we had a police substation, the fire department, a general /hardware store, grocery store, several bars, more churches than I thought reasonable for the size of the town, and an odd collection of shops & services.

It was the hardware store that always caught my attention. It reminded me of the general stores of my childhood. There were always older men sitting in front of those stores smoking pipes or cigars discussing the events of the day. 

This hardware store often had similar older men sitting on a bench chatting although they weren’t usually smoking.

At the time, this hardware store sold ammo, and snake rounds. They sold hunting slingshots, a couple brands of arrows, & I think one model of recurve bow.

Wandering around the town in those first few months, I felt at home. I told my love, “This is country enough for me,” and it was.

We built a good life here.

Now that I’m older… Okay much older, I find myself thinking about those older men from my youth sitting and chatting amiably in front of the old country store.

They knew everyone coming & going, the rare stranger to whom they’d provide accurate directions. (It might take a while, if there was a discussion about which landmark was best to turn left or right at.)

Cows grazing.It was quiet at the country store, sometimes the men would sit contemplatively lost in their thoughts, looking out on green fields with cows lowing in the distance.

At the time, I didn’t understand them. Now, I begin to, and wonder if they were looking at the fields, or out over the years of their lives, recollecting and thinking what they’d might have done differently. While appreciating the luck or divine intervention that informed the parts of their lives they’d not change.

I’m not ready for the chair in front of the general store quite yet. I do however want a country store close at hand. It’d be nice if that store had a “guest chair” that I could try on.

My town still has a hardware store that’s a lot like a general store. They no longer have a porch with benches or chairs.

Times have changed, even in this little town. We have homeless people, they’ll create makeshift camps in odd places. They’ll sleep on benches or stairs here just like they do everywhere else in California and perhaps other states as well.

The response is to remove the benches and put gates over vestibules to encourage homeless people, vagrants, and drug addicts to move along. I don’t think this response is a good one. I think a more proactive approach is needed. Unfortunately, I know that my little town will never adopt one.

Over the years, my little town which used to be very conservative, has become a pretty liberal enclave. Now it’s about using the “Approved” names for things. Homeless should now be called “Unhoused” and that sort of thing.

278975855 Arrogance.More power to them!

None of their Neo-progressive crap is of any interest to me at this stage of my life. I’m looking for a country store.

I’m looking towards shedding this California persona I created to blend in. Due to my Southern accent, Californians treated me like a moron when I first got here. Well I was smart enough to see the problem and correct it, you arrogant pricks. Most of the people I dealt with in my career never knew I was from (gasp!) a flyover state in the South… 

I know, scandalous!

Now in the years that I was hoping would be calmer which have turned out to be more contentious than the Vietnam era, I’m longing for a little country store like those I remember from my youth. 

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

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Houston, We have a problem

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed or not.

There’ve been several blips on X about AI’s over the past couple of days. I also noticed Breitbart had two articles about problems with AI’s.

Apparently one AI malfunctioned so badly that it started spewing complete gibberish and then told a few users it was in the room with them. That freaked a few people out.

Another AI was asked to draw a representation of itself and damned if it didn’t draw something the looked a lot like a Grey Alien. Wild!

Yet another bit of AI strangeness is Google’s AI completely eliminating White folks from historical renditions of the founding fathers. I’m keeping the rendition where all the Nazis were non white people. That one is coming out when BLM starts rioting again. 

Woke AI German Soldiers.Maybe it’s just me, but this is really problematic.

Too many people believe without question what a Google search or Wikipedia tells them is true.

This phenomena is not new, for years the phrase, “The Computer says…” has been one of my hot buttons. 

The fucking Computer said nothing. The data the computer contained and presented to the idiot telling me what the computer said was entered incorrectly, I might add, by a human being somewhere.

With the advent of AI, coupled with the tendency of humans to follow orders, especially if those orders come from what the humans perceive as an omnipotent source, well… Now the computer really can “Say” and a very large percentage of humans will comply without question.

Wear a mask, Don’t wear a mask. UV light kills the virus but don’t go outside in the sunshine. Sure, the sun produces UV light but it’s not the right kind.  Wuhan didn’t make the virus. The vaccine is safe and effective so make sure you’re getting boosted.

Well the vaccine will make sure you’re not going to get as sick.

Woke AI revolution.How can that last statement be true? By what measure can it be proven that an individual doesn’t get as sick? There is literally no way to know this. If the person got the vaccine, then got sick there’s one data point. If the person got sick without the vaccine, then recovered there’s another data point. However, the two data points cannot be compared because in either case the initial condition in the individual is different. For an individual you can’t even compare levels of relative sickness. Once their body has antibodies for a particular virus, the initial state is lost. 

Ohhhh, suddenly anecdotal evidence is okay for Dr Fauci to accept…. Hmmmm.

That by the way is but just a few of the reasons I was really suspicious of the whole vaccine thing for COVID 19. Irrational statements, changes in messaging, and censorship of Doctors and researchers that worked in the field.

Humans are far too willing to do as they’re told, to accept fictitious handwaving and ceremony rather than simple verifiable facts.

Woke AI Lincoln.This is one of the reasons that I honestly wonder sometimes if humans weren’t created by an Alien species from space who needed a slave labor force.

I digress.

I think AI’s are flat out dangerous.

They have the capacity to corrupt all the information stored on the internet. This wouldn’t be a big deal if we still relied upon actual printed books and papers. But increasingly, we don’t.

An online History book could be modified in just a few milliseconds by an AI to present a completely fictitious representation of human history.

Science books could suffer the same fate.

We’ve already seen how easy it is for information to be suppressed or outright removed from the internet thanks to the Covid pandemic, What happens if someone starts using an AI to produce some fiction that is deadly.

Woke AI Founding Fathers.It could be done with something like supplements. “Hey Guys… take this supplement at 1000 times the dosage, and you’ll be immune from Disease X.”

So a bunch of the sheep take the supplement, then when they come back to the internet to ask why they feel sick, the AI says, “This is normal, it’s part of the healing process and building your immunity. Don’t drink too much water during this time even if you’re terribly thirsty.”

Meanwhile the AI is being told to suppress all information of a warning nature. The information that can’t be suppressed like live broadcasts on TV and radio,  the AI labels as misinformation.

It is theoretically possible to commit mass suicide like this.

A large percentage of people would take an Iron supplement for example, in toxic levels. Their logic would be It’s just a vitamin, it’s natural, it’s not a drug, etc.

If they were told taking whatever it was, would only work if they didn’t drink water, which as an aside, might help their bodies flush the toxic levels of the supplement out of their systems…

Woke AI Founding Fathers 2.I’m sad to tell you, a rather significant portion of humanity that would follow what the computer says… Right to their death.

In theory, an AI could rinse and repeat until only the smartest, or the unconnected would remain. Even then the AI could pit the survivors against each other by saying all the Redheads carry a virus that’s going to destroy the world.

If you think it can’t happen…

Remember the Tide Pod Challenge? The Water Drinking challenge? In both, people taking the “Challenge” died.

Yep, believe it or not drinking too much water can kill you. I think the mechanism of death is too much water just dilutes the chemical processes in your body to the point that they aren’t sustainable. Simple! (I’m not totally sure I remember the mechanism of death correctly. I don know that drinking too much water too fast is fatal.)

Honestly, I think that a lot of the stupidity we’ve seen in the past few years has been a test to see just how stupid the people in Western countries have become. Some of the stupid shit may just have been serendipity, but overall I think some global entity or government has been testing all humanity to determine if we’re stupid enough for conquest.

I think up to recently this experimentation has required massive resources in terms of manpower & technology, and the reach has been limited to smaller areas or demographics. With the spread of social media, the reach was magnified but facts tended to overwhelm and limit stupid or detrimental fictions presented as truth.

With AI, I think the danger is exponentially increased. The messages may not be different, but the resources necessary to spread the messages will be significantly reduced. AI will be faster and more efficient at making sure the false information presented appears to be real, ubiquitous, and even stand up to the scrutiny of fact checking. Hell, another AI might be doing the fact checking.

The images throughout this post are from an AI Malfunction. But what happens if the AI was commanded to do this sort of thing to support a particular version of history or political agenda? 

I’ve actually seen a couple of articles (which I dismissed out of hand,) where Black folks were supposedly claiming all our modern technology came from Africa.

Skimming one article, the Black man speaking was asked why Africa wasn’t more developed.

His response was The White people took all our stuff and destroyed our high technology cities 400 years ago.

Ummm, let me get this straight. Ya’ll had high technology, and primitives in small wooden boats with crews no larger than 20-30 men, walked into forests they’d never been in, then into your cities, stole your shit, murdered or enslaved everyone then burned your high technology cities to the ground…

That’s what you’re claiming??? 

Okay, let’s look at what happens when a higher technology culture meets a lower technology culture shall we?

We have an example in the United States. The Europeans, decimated the Native Americans in less than 100 years. Why didn’t your African ancestors simply put an end to the small bands of primitive low technology white men from little wooden boats?

Here’s another thought… If in fact the primitive white men walked into your house and stole your shit, then used your technology to decimate the Native Americans, It seems like the African descendants owe the Native Americans reparations for allowing African technology to be stolen and misused.

After all, that’s the basis for law suits against gun manufacturers isn’t it?

Today there are beautiful modern cities in Africa. In the past there have been amazing sophisticated empires that stretched across large parts of Africa, these empires were different from the Egyptians.

But Africa isn’t Wakanda. Africa has never been Wakanda no matter how much African Americans want to rewrite world history to vilify white people.

An AI though, could rewrite and create a bulletproof narrative misrepresenting archeological information that made this illogic appear to be true. Then that narrative could be used to further divide the country. 

My point is this. 

We in this country, and in the West in general are at an inflection point. Our educational standards have dropped to the point that not only are “Facts” not being taught, but logical and critical thinking have been completely abandoned.

This creates a situation where “I saw it on YouTube” is a valid rebuttal to a challenge of veracity about almost anything.

With generative AI it’s possible to create a video and supporting documentation that says, “We went to the moon, Neil Armstrong was an African American, he was a cousin to Lois Armstrong the Jazz Musician. NASA sent a black man to the moon because he was disposable and they didn’t expect him to be coming back. When Apollo came back they substituted a white man because they couldn’t have a black hero.”

You want to talk about misinformation? You want to worry about corruption of data? Are you worried about history being erased? You haven’t seen anything yet!

Fahrenheit 451 might come to be reality. Burning all the printed books is the only way to make sure that there is not, and can not, ever be a counter narrative to the digital one.

I could literally see the “Great Reset” being nothing more than most, or all, of the planet’s dominant sentient species going back to the cave.

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One of those nights…

I was winding down for sleep, then boom! I’m wide awake again.

I finally saw “Bros” today. It’s a cute movie, a somewhat predictable romantic comedy. But I like Luke Macfarlane as an actor. I’ve liked him since KillJoys and it was nice to see him playing something other than one of the Jaqobis boys.

He’s done a shit load of movies but Bros is the first one I’ve seen.

I looked up the website of the SCUBA trip organizer I traveled with in 2008. They’re still at it, and they’re heading to Bonaire in October. That’s a tempting get away. It’s unlikely I’ll go because there may simply be too much to deal with this coming year. That being said Bonaire is someplace that I enjoyed. I suppose my going, or not is going to depend a lot on finances and living situation. I could really use some tropical time, and some SCUBA time.

It’s been literally years since I got wet. I should plan on a refresher course and I need a new dive computer. Yes the Apple Watch Ultra has the ability to act as a dive computer, but honestly the way the sensors and algorithms get changed via software, I won’t bet my life on my Apple Watch.

My Apple Watch has too often behaved in arbitrary ways after software updates. I’m leaning more toward an air integrated single purpose dive computer. Let’s have the life support equipment focus on being life support equipment.

Perhaps I’ve been sitting in front of screens too much lately. Perhaps I’m spinning a little toward the manic and that’s why I can’t sleep. I’m trying 2 fingers of Jack, jotting down some story notes, and trying like hell to find the insomniac net on the Ham radio. Sometimes the late night “nets” are interesting, I might have the wrong night or… it’s not late enough yet.

I’ve been having some interesting thoughts about life, moving, starting over, and what happens next. Maybe these thoughts are just dealing with such monumental questions and worries that my poor addled brain is spinning up, instead of spinning down.

Jesse has gone out to the couch which is odd because usually he’s sleeping on the bed whether I’m there or not. On these late nights, I have to work my way into the bed and find space around him. Once he’s out, he’s dead and grumpy weight to move.

It’s raining now, we might see a little bit of snow but at this altitude it’s probably going to be more rain than anything. I’m hoping for rain that is strong enough to make that thrumming sound on the roof that I like. I’m not sure I’d hear it though because there’re still large patches of snow piled on the roof.

Right now It’s Phutureprimative Mind’s Eye playing while I sip my bourbon, and try to clear my head. I think Mind’s Eye may be one of Phutureprimative’s best albums. Check it out if you can.

I see that the weekly backup of my computer is running. That’s estimated to complete in an hour or so. Right now there’s not enough change on a daily basis to justify backing up to the server hourly. The server spend most of its time in sleep mode. That’s probably just as well since the drives spin down and stay spun down sometimes days at a time.

I think part of that is that on my computer there’s 2 TB of disk, so I’m never going to be fighting for space. Typically if I’m transferring to the server, it’s a huge block of files all at once for archival purposes instead of tons of transfers during the day. 

Jerry was always transferring stuff to the server. 

I’m beginning to envision a future. It’s funny, that wasn’t ever a problem when I was young. I had absolute faith that I could regenerate, rising like a Phoenix from the ashes and that I’d be okay. I could recreate myself with ease.

After the house burned, I realized that it was a lot harder to rise. As time went on, I found that I just didn’t have the energy. I was able to create an apartment life in San Diego. But that was an extension of my home here. If shit went sideways, I knew I always had a place to retreat. Selling and moving is a much different proposition. There’s no anchor, no retreat. I’ll be floating raw, naked, with no tethers and whatever I do, must work flawlessly.

Or mostly flawlessly. I can recover from imperfection… I’ve done it before, to do so requires only the application of money. Since money is finite and also in short supply I’d like to avoid as much imperfection as possible and thereby unnecessary expense.

I’m still spinning. I’ve been refraining from firing up the PlayStation for a few rounds of Call of Duty. That would probably amp me up more.

Not that I mind shooting bad guys, I could see myself joining an online game and really getting amped up because the avatars I’d be shooting are representations of real humans. When they respawn, they tend to have a bit of a grudge. I’m a shitty player… even I get lucky from time to time. Most of the time I’m taking a dirt nap waiting to respawn.

I miss having the friends from my Military Contractor Job to play with. We trash talked each other and played brutally. I used to be able to take my boss down in the game without fear… Well, until he respawned and came hunting me. We laughed a lot, swore at each other and had a ton of fun.

I noticed when I activated my PS5 there were all kinds of rules and regulations against trash talking each other. It’s a pity that so many people are that thin skinned or that so many people abused the shit out of communications.

All our trash talk at each other was nothing more than male bonding. I guess that’s something a lot of gay people and especially female to male transgenders simply wouldn’t understand.

There was nothing more gratifying than shooting my boss in the game and having him say “FUCK!!! I’m coming for you when I respawn!” 

I’d reply, “Yeah, but you have to find my ass first boss!”

The next morning at work we’d all be laughing and talking about the awesome shots we’d taken, or why it was we were dancing in one spot against a wall.

We all used to teabag each other in Halo. Imagine… teabagging your boss and him not being pissed about it the next morning.

Well, here we are at 2 AM. The weekly backup is complete.

Now what?

2nd glass of Jack hasn’t really hit. 

Games? Bust a Nut? Or just go climb between the sheets and hope the warm bed takes me to dreamland.