Category: Musings

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Alright, I’ll admit I’m intrigued by the Apple vision thing.

I don’t know if I’m 3500.00 intrigued.

There is something interesting about having a completely virtual display and the ability to make that display almost any size you’d like.

When I think about being about to watch movies on as big a screen as I’d like in silence, without disturbing someone else that’s sort of nice. (I don’t think I want larger than life-size porn though.)

One of the use cases Apple shows, is a guy on a plane. That one rang true for me personally.

I was once watching a movie on my phone with headphones on a plane and the lady sitting next to me angrily flipped my phone face down on my tray. When I looked at her and asked WHAT THE FUCK?

Her reply was she was a Christian woman and she didn’t agree with my choice of movie. She apparently couldn’t keep her eyes off my phone’s screen.

Okay I was watching “From Dusk to Dawn” but she didn’t have to be looking at my phone. I asked the flight attendant if I could change seats. 

Unfortunately I couldn’t as the flight was full.

I was in the aisle seat. I decided in the interest of just getting through the flight, I’d switch over to music. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the wired earbuds loud enough to drown out her proselytizing for the next 4 hours.

I’d have gone to sleep, but this woman had some bladder condition that had her getting up every 20 minutes, and was adamantly opposed to switching seats, after all, she had a captive audience to bring to Jesus. At one point she accused me of trying to drown her, and Jesus’s word, out with the devils music.

I said, “Yes I’m trying to drown you out because you will not shut up. You crawl over me every 20 minutes to go to the bathroom, you might want to get that checked out by a doctor not a faith healer, and you are literally annoying the hell out of me. However, I hardly think Vivaldi is the devils music.” 

At which point I ordered a bourbon from the flight attendant. It was 9 AM and the bourbon was one of the few I freakin hate. This of course started a whole new and unwanted sermon. I kept drinking and wondered when the last time her husband had just fucked the hell out of her, among many other unkind thoughts.

If we’d been on an exit row, I don’t know if I’d have been able to restrain myself from popping the hatch at 35,000 feet, and sending her straight to Jesus.

“Karens” are not a new phenomena, they were just recently emboldened by fear of an imaginary plague. BTW, all those “Karens” that came out of the woodwork… Remember they are the same bitches that would turn you over to the Gestapo in Germany, The HOA’s across America, Or the Inquisition in medieval Europe. There was a reason politicians in various places established phone numbers to turn in non compliant people during COVID. They knew the “Karens” would light those phone lines up.

“Karens” are the killers of Buzz, Fun, and Joy. They’re the “Enforcers” who gossip, and bitch constantly, their way is the only way and they think nothing of leaving “depression suicides” in their wake. They’ll take no responsibility for pushing someone one step too far. “Karens” are simply the adult versions of the “Mean Girls” from high schools.

They’re the ones who get your kids kicked out of school because of a sticker on your car, they’re the cunts that get you thrown out of a store, bar, or restaurant because you’re not wearing a diaper on your face.

They’re the bitches who complain about your motorcycle or the motorcycle of your friend who stays the night once in a while. They’re the ones who call a tow company at 3 am to have your friend’s motorcycle, their sole source of transportation, removed, and they’ll tell whatever LIE they have to, so they can get their way.

They’re the ones who are so busy ignoring their own life and trying to insinuate themselves into your life, that when they realize their children hate them, their husbands left them, and they’re hated everywhere they go…

Then they’ll blame YOU because you took so much time out of their day trying to maintain control over you.

These rancid cunts are not gone, they just crawled back into the woodwork waiting for another “Cause” for which they can become the unasked for ‘Champions’.

I’ve often wondered if misogynists, like racists, aren’t born… They’re built! Step by step, incident by incident, cut by cut, manipulation by manipulation.

I’m not there yet. But upon reflection, especially after the COVID years I’m a lot closer to either “IST” than I’d like, or ever thought I’d be.

I suspect that general feeling is why so many people lose themselves in gaming, VR, and sitting behind computer screens.

It’s way easier to NOT have to engage with shitty people than to have to learn to deal with them.

For me, if I was flying a lot, or if I was living, as my parents want me to, in their spare bedroom.  I’m pretty sure that I’d plunk down the 3500.00 for Apple Vision to avoid having to have screens or whatever.

Living in my parents house though, I know they’d never let me enjoy a movie. They’re like the lady on the plane, they need constant attention.

Listening to music or a podcast at my parents house while they’re watching some TV program that I’m not interested in, is forbidden. My Mother can’t stand the thought of me not hearing the screaming shrews on The View.

“What are you listening to?”

Arctic Monkeys

“I haven’t’ heard of them.”

“Roll it back, what did Sonny Hostin just say?”

Even going into another room requires a ping every 5 minutes.

Perhaps the 3500.00 wouldn’t be a good investment after all, living with the parents.

Disgusting fatass.I don’t fly anymore. I’ll admit it’s because I don’t want to deal with shitty people, or the TSA, or late flights, or the ridiculous price of food and drink inside the airport, or the flights bouncing across the country landing every hour or two so they don’t have to provide in flight food, or the narrow ass seats, or being trapped next to some sweaty fat person who smells like a rotting whale carcass and knowing I’m never going to be able to get out of my seat to take a piss.

I doubt that Apple Vision at  3500.00 could assuage all the reasons I don’t fly anymore.

Hmmm.

I’m not sure I can see a case for me owning an Apple Vision thingy.

Applestore robbery.Maybe, I’ll try one on the next time I’m in an Apple Store. Then again, since Apple stores are getting overrun with shitty people here in California… Maybe Not.

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That’s the equation…

After writing the downer piece I wrote on Sunday, my brain continued to run along processing various dystopian futures and wishing Jerry was still here. He had a way of making me see things differently.

Eventually, the dog forced me to go on our walk. He was impressively, a Good Boy, the day was bright and beautiful the sun was warm and there are signs of Spring. When we came back after a 2.5 mile hike I was in a better frame of mind.

Those signs of Spring will be erased starting on Thursday. The temps are going to drop to subfreezing and there’s 12 inches of snow predicted. Yea! NOT!

12 inches of snow is not decorative, it’s a pain in the ass! Oh well, I’ll get my money out of the snowblower repair.

Anyway, after my brain finished its “what if” dystopian scenario run, I was left with a super short story.

2030 America, a destroyed town. 

Two soldiers sitting behind cover. They’re dirty, war weary, tired, cleaning their weapons out of habit using muscle memory much like a nun or priest fingers rosary beads.

One looks at his companion, “Will, do you ever wonder if we’re on the right side of history?”

Will looks up, “No Andy, there is no right or wrong side of history. There’s only the side that keeps my wife, children & family, alive, fed, and healthy. Politics and politicians be damned. Most of our unit would put a bullet in our asshole ‘leaders’ just as soon as the ‘enemy’. That’s why they make such a big deal about showing us the food trains delivering food to our home towns. The fuckers in charge know they’re on a knife’s edge, and that when the ‘enemy’ is defeated we’ll turn on them like junkyard dogs.”

Andy considers this for a moment, “Will, you don’t believe in what we’re doing at all? How do you sleep at night? You’re a good guy, you’ve got values and are one of the most moral men I know. I don’t understand.”

“Nothing to understand Andy,” Will said, snapping the last pieces of his weapon into place, standing to continue the press forward into enemy territory.

“This isn’t right versus wrong, good versus bad, or even survival of the fittest. None of those notions are relevant. It’s just me fighting for my family’s survival versus the other guy fighting for his family’s survival.”

A few rounds pinged off a nearby concrete wall.

“Hell Andy, that poor dumb bastard across the street is me. He’s just like me, knowing that won’t stop me from putting a bullet in him, and sleeping well tonight. We’re all pawns of rich elitist fuckers who like to play God. This is the fucking Roman Colosseum and we’re the Gladiators. Ours and the enemy’s families welfare, is the coin of the realm that keeps us all fighting. “

Will advanced out of cover, for an instant he saw the sweat and dirt streaked face of his “enemy” they smiled at each other and fired…

Kirk with RukThen I thought of an old StarTrek. The episode is titled, “What are Little Girls Made Of?”

In it, the Enterprise crew finds a planet made up entirely of Androids. I don’t remember all the details but I do remember the climax.

A unique Android suddenly says, “That was the equation! Existence! Survival must cancel out programming.”

This is how we come to “know” that the Androids exterminated their creators. 

Android uprisings are a common theme in Science Fiction. They are a metaphor for Human uprisings against unjust or cruel leadership. Perhaps the leaders of the world would do well to read science fiction, or history.

Just a thought…

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I must be getting old, or people are just more insane.

I’ve recently come to the conclusion that I don’t want to live someplace where pot is legal.

I really don’t like the smell. Here in the neighborhood there’s a number of folks who smoke it all the dang time and even with their houses closed up for the winter, I can still smell the stuff.

That’s bad enough but it’s rather like someone smoking cigarettes or drinking in their own home, it’s their deal and who am I to judge.

Recently, I’ve noticed that I can’t go anywhere anymore without smelling pot. Sitting in traffic at a stop light, in parking lots, and near office buildings.

I can’t help but notice that some of these places I couldn’t light up a Marlboro, but someone smoking pot is oakey dokey.

Unlike cigarettes pot is an intoxicant. Pot is more like alcohol, but people are smoking pot while driving just like we old farts used to smoke cigarettes. This concerns me, and I think might be one of the reasons that driving in California has gotten so damn bad. More people than ever before are essentially drunk driving.

Sitting in traffic with my windows down, I’m getting hotboxed too. Why should I have to keep my windows up and the A/C running because you guys want to smoke pot in traffic? Furthermore why can’t I go back to smoking Marlboros?

Oh Right… Smoking cigarettes is bad for you, but smoking pot is healthy. So the effects of second hand pot smoke aren’t bad? How about second hand intoxication? What about the children riding with mommy and daddy smoking pot in the car?

Today people gasp in shock and horror when they realize people in my generation were trapped in cars with our parents smoking cigarettes. But there’s no similar outrage with pot? Talk about a double standard!

Is it any surprise that jobs aren’t getting done well?  How many fast food orders have you had screwed up? How many places have you been shopping only to find there is no organization to the merchandise?

I’ve been noticing it. I’d been pondering it until I was sitting at a traffic light with three cars around me reeking of pot.

Then watching these folks drive and thinking they were drunk, everything clicked in my head.

They were in fact intoxicated. They shouldn’t have been driving. This was midday on a weekday, I couldn’t help but wonder where these people worked.

Then I thought about the quality of the work they’d be doing.

These are the same people who are appalled that in addition to my having an ashtray on my desk at work, I’d sometimes have a beer at lunch then go back to work. At the time, I was a bench technician and my workstation had a soldering iron. The rosin in the solder was probably worse for me than my Marlboro smoldering in the ashtray.

Please notice, I said “A Beer” not a six pack.

The funny thing is that a joint might fuck you up. A single beer probably won’t impair you at all. These days, your company will say you’re not allowed to have a beer at lunch under threat of immediate termination. But they’ll say nothing about that “Medicinal” joint at lunch.

I’ve got another datapoint to work with when it comes to moving. The list is growing…

Four Seasons but with only decorative snow. I’m over 2 – 10 feet of snow falling in one storm. I like the fall change of leaves and gentle snowfall with accumulation that doesn’t last too long.
No State tax.
No Legalized Pot
Low Auto Registration, $500 a year to register a car? Really?
Generally homogeneous demographics, I’m over “Diversity”. California making me feel like I should speak Spanish instead of English has burned through my diversity quota.
Low Property Taxes.
Good Law Enforcement.
Strong constitutional beliefs. In other words no monkey shines with The Constitution when some activist group gets all mouthy about how they think we should live. I am totally over  being told that I have to live my life to spare someone else’s feelings.
I might be content with someplace that looks a lot like Mayberry. That might be a little too boring, but I’d be willing to give it a try for a while.

As an aside,

Trying to find out about Marlboros is stupidly difficult. Finding pictures of the logo and various boxes is more or less easy but there are a bunch of new packages so since I was a Marlboro smoker I was curious. MY GOD!!! I never did get to just identifying what these new packages were. They want your to register, and then answer a bunch of legal shit, then agree to be on their mailing list, then verify your age, then make sure that you’re in a country where they can send you information.

FUCK!!!!

On the other hand, I can tell you anything at all about pot.

The one thing I was able to determine is that California charges an excise tax of $2.87 on every pack of smokes and that the feds charge $1.01. so $3.88 of every pack of smokes is excise taxes which doesn’t include the sales tax in whatever county you’re in. It looks like California s charging 22% on pot.

Obviously since pot is still illegal on a federal level there isn’t any federal tax on pot. California is making a killing!

Not being able to just look something up annoys the shit out of me. This registration and age and double secret handshake crap is simply designed to make people not want to ask questions.

Asking about cigarettes doesn’t mean you’re going to start smoking. It means that you had a question. It’s not technically censorship but it’s damn close. Apparently Phillip Morris makes e-cigs but they’re only in Europe and therefore the web sites redirect you to a page saying “NO NO NO YOU NAUGHTY PERSON” you’re not allowed to see this. Which is censorship…

VPNs with servers in Europe make that a nothing barrier. Nothing aside from annoyance and reminding us that surprise! We’re not actually free.

I don’t recall voting for any censorship on the internet at all, so why is it there?

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Ya know, sometimes it’s tough to see beyond the evil and stupidity.

I’m having that kind of day. 

So I’m turning off the news. Well, more properly I’m ignoring it. 

From the mayor of Boston being a racist against white people (while being married to one, there’s a marriage on the rocks), to Eric Swalwell potentially being an accomplice in Hunter Biden’s defiance of Congress. To Joe Biden’s upcoming impeachment, It’s all a steaming pile of runny shit.

You know, Eric Swalwell, if he had an ounce of smarts would be keeping a low profile after skating on ethics violations because he was fucking an employee(?) who was also a Chinese spy. Oh and let’s not forget that he was doing that while he was married, so he also committed adultery. There are other conservative Congressmen who’ve been tossed out of office for the same or less. (Paging Madison Cawthorn!)

But never mind that obvious double standard. The show must go on.

Oh there was a blurb about the dumbass who took it up the ass in a senate chamber, claiming that the release of the video and his subsequent firing was due to homophobia. Gag! 

No, Princess Prolapsed, You weren’t fired for being gay. You were fired for completely inappropriate behavior in a place of business. Having sex in a public place such as a hearing room is simply wrong. It’s a little thing called etiquette. Your momma and daddy should have laid a belt to your ass more as a child and raised you better.

Yeah, I’m sure they’re super proud and just love being humiliated in the grocery store. Dumb ass, your name is pretty damn unique. Your dad is gonna love people seeing his credit card and saying, “Oh your son took it up the ass in the senate! You don’t have any other kids do you?” Your poor dad probably can’t have a beer with his buddies without your ass literally being a topic of discussion.

I guess they don’t teach things like etiquette in college anymore, either.

You being fired had nothing to do with you being gay, nor should it have.

Hell dumbfuck, I’ve seen a straight couple who were fucking in a locked office, fired on the spot and marched out of the building by the president of the corporation. Yes, the door to the office was locked, but the damn window was wide open and visible from the sidewalk. The president of the company was coming back from lunch and saw it all. That was the first issue. The second issue was that the male was director of HR, and the third issue was the female was the HR director’s employee.

Ding! Ding! “Strike Three… You’re Out!”

ANY of the issues noted, were grounds for immediate termination in the case I witnessed.  I am absolutely certain that your employment agreement had some verbiage about inappropriate conduct.

Anyway. I’m putting it all on ignore for a day or two, maybe longer. I’m not really mad about any of it, I’m just really annoyed, and saddened.

I’m annoyed that apparently our country has fallen so far. I’m saddened that there doesn’t appear to be any other country to emigrate to which is any better. It appears virtually every country on the planet has lost their damn minds and is rife with corrupt politicians, and plain stupid, or evil humans.

The trouble is, if you look at this kind of crap for too long, it sours you on humanity and life. 

I’ve been wondering if that’s the reason the “News” is always so incredibly bad and depressing. You know, some people might just figure it’s better to kill themselves than continue to take the onslaught of whatever the fuck this is.

If I was a super conspiracy theorist, I’d say the goal is depopulation. These days as a man, you might be pumping your seed into someone you think is a woman, only to find out she’s not. Or you find out she started to transition to being a man, then changed her mind, but the damage was done, she’s sterile. Either is a problem if you want to be a father. 

Or the girl looks like either of these charmers…  Uh NOPE! I actually like my penis, even though sometimes I beat it like it owes me money. I wouldn’t put the poor fella in either of these things.

I swear, my general rule of peoples appearance still holds. In nature, venomous creatures often have something strikingly out of the norm. Bright colors for example, odd textures to their skin, warning sounds, etc. When people adopt these traits, often they are toxic. They may be dangerous in other ways, but generally speaking you don’t want, or need to waste your time with them. No good will come of it. On some level, instinctively they’ve adopted warning plumage because they know they’re defective. 

As a guy, I’m not interested in someone, (male or female) that looks like a tattoo shop wall. Well executed, artistic tattoos are neat. Something that looks like the tattooist had a hangover and threw up on you, is not. I find overly tattooed people distracting enough that I’m not interested in sex with them, I feel like I have to glean the meaning of all the ink.

I have encountered people whose tattoos chronicle the story of their life and are well thought out and coherent. Those folks are rare but when you meet them you know. Their stories are often beautiful and tragic. The person is more often than not an amazing soul.

Put a lot of disjointed tattoos on a woman with the personality of a pit viper, and well… if I’m supposed to put a baby in that… humanity is doomed.

I wonder, how many men are jacking it into the toilet rather than having sex with women because they’re afraid of bringing some abomination into the world? If you knew your next load was going to result in one of the moronic people we’ve seen in the streets over the past 4 years wouldn’t you want to flush that bad seed, or at least see it running down her leg?

I mean dudes, think about it. Do you want to contaminate your genetic line with whatever comes from blending half your DNA with half the DNA from a fucked up chick with unresolved daddy issues, defective brain, and who spews venomous hatred all day long? If you wouldn’t trust her with a puppy, you shouldn’t trust her with your child. Guys… be freakin selective or do her anal.

BTW Guys, good women know this and act on it instinctively, they literally don’t think about it.  If you’re a fucked up douche bag, who’s the male equivalent of the two winners pictured. That’s probably why you don’t ever get to date good women. Get your shit together, clean yourself up, and become a man worthy of dating good women. 

Yeah, I really need to turn away from it all.

It’s gotten bad when I’m not just praying for an asteroid impact. I’m trying to figure out if I can make a magnet big enough to cause an asteroid impact.

Perhaps when the AI’s actually become SkyNet they’ll just nuke the planet and note somewhere in a database that humanity was a bad idea. 

John Varley ended Millennium with a computer contemplating if silicon rather than carbon was a better medium to build life. The computer in question wasn’t sure that humanity was worthwhile, but chose to save it just in case. The computer was going to contemplate the question over a very long period of time. While it had facilitated humanity’s escape to the future, the computer had to go the long way around.

Imagine Humanity’s surprise if they came out of the time warp, and the BC, (Big Computer) had decided they were too flawed, and too much trouble, to live.

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Hmm, is this real or not…

I can’t imagine what kind of device Manuel might be.

I would have ignored this entirely except that it showed up in an email from LinkedIn. It was just too emblematic of the job search market to pass up.

I thought LinkedIn was supposed to be vetting their job listings. It looks like USTech is a real company, but I can’t locate this position on their web site.

So either it’s another SPAM job listing (All too common on LinkedIn) or it’s an old position that’s been filled so LinkedIn is just presenting it to waste the job seeker’s time.

I think it’s time to ask this simple question.

Is it time to abandon LinkedIn?

What does it really provide as far as service? The site has degraded to nothing more than a FaceBook clone.

Honestly, I can’t read more than a few of the posts before getting really bored. 

The years I was completely off of LinkedIn I got a lot less SPAM. Less than a week after rejoining LinkedIn, my SPAM levels tripled.

I only rejoined LinkedIn because a completely useless HR consultant told an entire class of people it was absolutely necessary to have social media and LinkedIn. This consultant supposedly walked everyone through the self marketing process. Social media presence, LinkedIn profiles, resumes, etc. Except they didn’t.

I can say, for me sitting in those classes was absolutely useless. I can’t say for certain that anyone benefitted, and the consulting firm doesn’t appear to be in business today. 

Our jobs, indeed most of our department was being offshored and the company had to wave its hands for the government, to make it look like they were doing something to assist those of us being laid off.

The majority of us who’d been through the layoff process before, knew within 5 minutes that these HR Consulting folks were bogus. These folks had the fundamentals of the layoff process incorrect and didn’t know that when a company lays off quantities of people above a certain threshold there’s government involvement and reporting.

They were getting paid likely an obscene amount of money but their curriculum was obviously a hack job and not one of them had ever taught a class or gotten up to speak  in front of a group of people. Yes, it was that obvious. Especially since I had stood up teaching classes to technical folks earlier in my career.

I’ve wondered what it would take for me to be one of the presenters for a corporation that does the “Employment Transitions and Assistance Classes” By the way, I claim that name, and the abbreviation ETAC as my own.

I’m sure I could put together a class that dealt with Social media (What to delete!) LinkedIn and resume writing. I’m also sure that I could put together something useful to the employees facing the end of their jobs. God knows I’ve been through the layoff process enough to have gained some useful experience.