Tag: Annoyances

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The difference between the young morons and us older morons.

Dogs…

Let me tell you a story. I’m out walking my dog on his “retracto” leash and we’re having a really good walk.

Up ahead, I see a human. The human is maybe 1/4 of a mile away, and I can see that the human is facing me due to the reflection of light on its face. I can’t tell at this distance if the human is Male or Female because they’re moving in and out of shadows cast by the trees along the trail.

Suspecting they may have a dog, and wishing to avoid my dog attempting to drag me at top speed toward the human at the very least and the potential dog, I choose another path. The new trail intersects the trail I’m on, at approximately where the human walking toward me, is at this moment.

My dog hasn’t noticed the human at this point, so I count myself lucky and think that we humans will pass well out of reach of each other. Potential dog entanglements will also be avoided.

Jesse and I continue on and he’s having a blast sniffing along the trail that we don’t usually take.

Rounding the last bend, guess what?

The human is still there. Yep they haven’t moved, and goodie! They have a full blooded husky about Jesse’s size and age who is off leash, and slowly approaching from the concealment of a thicket.

So now we have one dog on leash, and one off leash, Jesse wants to go sniff and do all the dog things, but I don’t know this dog. Will the dog be aggressive? Are we trespassing in territory that this dog considered his? How will Jesse react?

Oh and let’s not forget that part of this walking regimen for me is rehabilitation on my knees which have both been troublesome for 2 years. It’s only been in the last year that I’ve been able to really walk any distance without pain.

So I’m trying to hold Jesse back and the other dog is advancing. Jesse has his ears laid back but is still slowly wagging his tail. (Mixed Signals!)

Then things advance, now there is jumping and circling, I’m being dragged over uneven terrain, and trying to keep from becoming entangled in the leash. I hear growling beginning.

At this point the other human moseys on over to regain control of their dog.

“He’s just wanting to play,”

I have fire in my left knee. And I have .8 miles going uphill to get home. Truthfully going uphill is easier than going downhill.

Walking home, Jesse is very sweet he’s not rushing, or dragging me. He knows something is wrong with daddy’s knee.

He’s been checking on me since we got home. I’ve got the ice pack on my knee. I’m using it without the usual fabric cover because I don’t want to put a pair of shorts on. This way my sweat pants are taking the place of the cover. That’s the good news, the bad news is that I have nothing to keep it in place.

I digress…

All of the above brings me to the differences between my generation and this most current crop of “adults”.

We were taught to fucking think!

Let’s evaluate the situation shall we?

Had a Boomer been the Human approaching us on the main trail, they would have continued walking because they’d have accepted, for reasons known only to me, that I was trying to avoid them. They wouldn’t have taken it personally. The assumption would have been that I perhaps know my dog, and my physical condition better than they do, and that would have been fine.

A Boomer upon realizing that my dog was on a leash would have perhaps thought, “Maybe His dog is aggressive, Perhaps his dog isn’t off leash trained.” Either way another Boomer would have put their fucking dog on a leash, you know, the one they were carrying. Just to avoid any potential injury to either dog or humans.

Another Boomer would have thought, “If our dogs try to get to know each other, that guy is going to be fighting to not get tangled up.” And they’d have put their dog on the fucking leash in their hand.

Another Boomer seeing the obvious white beard on my face would have thought, “ You know, that guy looks a tad older, maybe it’s not going to be good for him to be at the heart of dog play or a dog fight.” Another Boomer would have put their dog on the leash as a simple courtesy.

But the other human approaching Jesse & I, was not a “Boomer”.

He was a young adult in his late 20s or early 30s and therefore completely bereft of the ability to think ahead, courtesy, or common sense.

I know youngsters think Courtesy and Common Sense are antiquated notions.

I would instruct all you children thusly.

Courtesy is an outgrowth of conflict avoidance.

If one is courteous then typically there is no conflict. If there is no conflict, then one or more people do not end up with broadswords sticking out of their chests. Barmaids are also happier because getting bloodstains out of rough hewn wooden floors is a real bitch of a job.

Courtesy goes further though.

Courtesy is an acknowledgment that no one can know all the factors at play in any encounter with another person.
Did that person have a fight with their spouse?
Did that person just get out of surgery?
Is that person grieving a loss?
Is the person trying to rebuild strength after an injury?
Does that other person have health insurance?
If they’re injured out in this rural area will paramedics be able to get to them?
What happens in the case of the unexpected?
Is the person prone to heart attacks?

These are just a few of the potential issues.

Being courteous allows you to avoid these and many other possibilities and allows you to absolve yourself of all responsibility for what happens next, to the person your’e being courteous to.

If you’re a young person who wants no responsibility…

Being courteous allows you to turn your back leave with your dog on a leash, and ignore the “Thud” you hear from behind and never look back. After all you were courteous and whatever that noise was… It’s none of your business.

See courtesy can be fun!

Just as an aside, I may have the underpinnings for courtesy all wrong, but thinking of courteous behavior this way has allowed me to implement courtesy in my daily life rather than beat or insult the living shit out of every dumbass I’ve encountered.

It’s kept me from saying things like;

“Does your whole family have the same intelligence level as you? It does? Wow, there’s a family tree that needs to be chopped down!”

“You’re a load your daddy should have jacked down the toilet, oh wait, right… your mother is a cum dump of a toilet!”

“You’re in favor of abortion? So am I… Retroactive Abortion! Here, let me put this plastic bag over your head. Now breathe deep, it will all be over soon! It’s for the planet, there, there, sleep.”

These are just a few of the things that go through my mind dealing with people. Without courtesy, imagine all the sad little snowflakes I’d have traumatized through the years.

Courtesy is a mobile safe space, it’s like a vaccine that protects us all…

 

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Hmm… NewsMax is going behind a paywall

Newsmax logo 2022 origThat’s kind of a bummer.

I enjoyed the shows, There were a couple of commentators that I especially enjoyed. Retired SEALS, and Marine pilots… Funny how that works!!!

I like and appreciate those kinds of guys in my normal life, I suppose it’s no surprise that I’d appreciate hearing guys like that report on, and express their take on the news of the day.

They are no less unbiased in their reporting than MSNBC, ABC, CBS, or CNN. But at least the way they come to their conclusions follows a logic that I can understand, whether I agree with their conclusions or not.

All of the SEALS and Marine folks I know are super pragmatic and their logic follows familiar patterns which are a very similar to the lessons I was raised around. Chief among these is that there are rules. Rules must be obeyed. Rules apply to everyone.

So when these NewsMax guys start asking, “Why is it that XYZ is treated different than ABC?” I get why they’re asking the question and see their point.

Unlike what I have going on in my head listening to Jake Tapper. My brain reboots at least 6 times an hour watching his show.

To be fair, I’m sure that Super indoctrinated Democrats like my Stepfather just sit there nodding their head hanging on every word that drops from Jake Tappers lips. Were my Stepfather to attempt to watch NewMax his head would probably explode.

I get it, and honestly, I still believe that the left and right are both needed, and should work together. Ideally, when they work together they come up with a course of action that’s generally centrist and beneficial for the largest number of people.

I don’t really like other “conservative” news feeds because they’re often a bit too conspiracy theory prone. That being said, I’m not going to pay for a NewsMax subscription.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

First and foremost is that NewsMax played a lot of commercials and I think that should have been sufficient.

Second, I don’t like a subscription model especially for the “Non-Mainstream” news sources. I believe sure as shit, there will be a data breach and the customer list will end up in the hands of someone with authoritarian tendencies.

The last thing I want to deal with is someone looking for dirt on me or my family. Just because I happen to like more conservative news reporting.

I may reconsider my position in time. Especially if I kill off Hulu which I’m not watching much anyway. Maybe I’ll just spend the same money on a different subscription. But there’s still that worry about data breaches.

I hate that I feel like I have to be paranoid.

I guess years watching BLM, ANTIFA, The January 6th commission, and now hoards of Antisemitic Pro Palestine protestors, or leftist judges stripping rights from citizens because the judge doesn’t like the citizens political views, has made me start wondering if this is the way things began in Germany prior to WWII, or Russia prior to their revolution.

I don’t think any of these groups (except the government) can hurt me. Being DOXED would be annoying, having thousands of emails blasting into my in box would be really annoying but the latter is already happening and has been for the better part of a year.

Hmm it just hit me. The Pro Palestine protests actually look a lot like the BLM/ANTIFA/ABORTION/TRANS Protests. I wonder how many people from one set of idiots also exist in the second set of idiots.

Perhaps we can get Kamala to come up with a VIN diagram to answer that question.

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Good Golly! I Hate Passwords!

Ihate Passwords 2Got a message this morning on my phone, maybe from my phone, that I confirmed on my computer.

Some Passwords Compromised! 

I’ve seen the message before, and like most folks I ignored it!

For some reason, this morning I actually looked at the message and the passwords that it claimed were compromised.

A lot of the compromised passwords have come about because I’ve merged the other half’s passwords into my passwords. It makes keeping things running a lot easier to have it all on one computer rather than bouncing between two machines.

The list was long… Some of it was easy to negotiate because there were duplicate logins. Once those were sorted out, then it was down to the business of changing compromised passwords. And here’s where things just go right off the damn rails!

I log into a site. Figure out where the hell the site has hidden change password. Account, Profiles, Client Access, security, or whatever other clever euphemism the company chose to use. It’s mildly annoying but navigable. 

I get to the change password option and things get super annoying! Enter the old password, then enter the new desired password, twice. 

“WRONG! You didn’t include the right kinds of characters, or the right number of special characters, or not enough upper case characters, or numeric characters, the password isn’t as long as War and Peace, that password is too long, 4 characters in the entered password have been used before on this account, or, or, or, or…”

The annoying thing about this is there is almost never any description of what these assholes want, prior to making the first mistake.

I’ve gotten to the point that I’ll hit the submit button just to generate the error that describes what format is necessary for a password.

Because I’m so often annoyed by this irritating bullshit, I use the internal password generator provided by Apple. The down side to this is sometimes even the Apple system can’t generate something useable, but it stores what it generates almost instantly. Meaning that if the generated password is rejected, you may have a bad password stored in the autofill system and then you get to fight with both the password manager AND the asinine website.

This is how I end up with passwords or pass phrases that would make Marines blush.

This morning I was entirely surprised when I ended up in one of these circular password situations and resorted to using an obscenity.

Low and behold, the website told me that such words were offensive and couldn’t be used as passwords.

WTF?

Who the hell are you to tell me what words I can and can’t use for passwords? Furthermore what does it matter? The passwords aren’t supposed to be stored on the site in plain text. They’re supposed to be encrypted. No human is supposed to be able to read the passwords and therefore no human risks being offended. Are we dealing with computers now being offended?

I’d rail and complain except I find myself caring less & less. This particular vendor, service provider, will not matter to me soon. Once I’m out of California I’ll be purging a ton of passwords, and phone numbers from my systems.

I’m actually looking forward to that. I’m looking forward to having a new phone number and a new address. 

I’m also rethinking the whole web access thing, across the board. I’d prefer to have everything mailed to my address. I’d like to get things in my mailbox. Maybe , I’ll be able to step back 50 years. I might start writing checks and mailing them to utilities. Then I won’t have to deal with passwords, PINS, and poorly designed websites.

Who knows? I might even have the Sunday paper tossed on my porch instead of reading it on my pad.

Is this a function of age? Or is this my rejection of increasing complexity to do the simplest things?

Perhaps it’s both!

There’s a lot to be said for de-computerization. You’d have to really know me or be looking at that sentence through my eyes to grasp the full irony.

I wonder if the Amish would be willing to teach me how to live simply?

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I love early morning Heart Attacks!

Digital manufacturingThis morning I got up as usual. I let the dog out, got a cup of coffee, and woke the computer to check email.

Up to this point everything is normal. I’m not feeling all that great, and I was thinking that it would be nice to take the laptop out to the living room where there’s some cuddle space and the dog would likely curl up beside me. 

Before doing that, I checked the backupstatus, because I’ve got the laptop plugged into a hub that provides an ethernet connection. If you disconnect, it makes the next backup have to clean up the files that were interrupted and it doesn’t take that long to let the machine finish its task.

That’s when I discovered that there hadn’t been any backup since yesterday at 4PM. Then, since inquiring minds want to know, I asked why. The computer said there’s no backup disk.

Hmm. I know there is a backup disk so somebody’s got some splaining to do. 

I go check on the NAS device in the closet. It’s running, but the drive indications are all wrong. There’s no error or warning per se, but the NAS is hammering on 2 drives and not responding to commands. The NAS is also not appearing at the address that it’s supposed to for me to access its control interface. 

I try a “soft” power down the NAS appears to accept that command but never completes the execution of the command. I do a hard power down. Knowing full well that whatever is going on is probably bad.

I power the NAS back up and now I’m greeted with all the drives being normal but there’s a little flashing status light. That light is usually solid. I go back to the computer and find that the NAS is still not at the address it’s supposed to be, nor is it broadcasting that it’s available. After scanning a bit I found an IP address that appeared to be the NAS. I logged in to the control console only to find that the NAS thought I’d moved drives from another NAS, and that I would have to update the NAS software to accomplish this.

Ahh I’m beginning to see the likely problem. The NAS tried to update its software and the update went horribly wrong. I guess I’m lucky that the machine still had some clue what it was, but what about my 10TB of data? What about the Porn?!?

Well there’s no path around, I must go forward. I tell the NAS that the 5 drives contain data and they are to be preserved. Then I tell the NAS it can update to the latest version of software. I didn’t want to do this… I’ve been holding off on updating to the latest (read that as completely redesigned) version of the NAS software because I just didn’t feel like working my way through the headache.

I’ve got data from the other half on that NAS that I’m still sorting through and there is no need to complicate matters with a completely different NAS operating system where I’ll have to rework permissions, connections, and applications.

My plan was to do this update when I was done with the other halfs business. 

However, since I have no choice, I click “Proceed” 

The next screen from the NAS says, “Formatting system volume” OH SHIT!!!!!

Does that mean the area that the NAS uses to store the OS, OR did I just flush all my data?

Well the helpful countdown to completion said I’d know in 9 minutes.

For the next 9 very long minutes I used the time honored prayer of IT workers everywhere.

“SHIT SHIT SHIT FUCK SHIT FUCK SHIT FUCK FUCK FUCK!”

After 10 minutes the NAS came back online with a brand new OS and as an added bonus all the user accounts and been wiped. Yea! But the data appears to have remained intact.

So apparently my IT Prayer was heard, and answered, by a benevolent AI somewhere.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that I get to reconfigure the NAS and work my way through a new operating system where everything is moved and some features are gone entirely.

Yea! 

I’ve fired up a set of utilities designed to ensure drive integrity to make sure my data is in good shape. I’ll have to configure around the utilities doing their job to reconnect my NonAdmin account to the data. Oh look, the User Accounts, Groups, and Permissions controls are all different… Greeaaattt!

I have a headache that would stop Godzilla, I think I’ve got some sinus thing happening and I really may not have the patience for this…

 

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There’s no place else to go.

CherI saw Cher spewed some comment about leaving the USA if Trump was to be re-elected. See YA!

I’m not trying to be mean about it but I recall a lot of Hollywood saying they’d leave the USA if Trump was elected in the first place. They’re all still here so I suspect either they’re a bunch of liars (Possible & Likely…) OR a lot of these loud mouths figured out that there’s no-place else to go. 

No-where on the planet would they be as free to act the way they act here. Most other places wouldn’t allow them to shoot their mouths off about the leaders of the nation, and most wouldn’t allow these Hollywood types to indulge in their various vices either.

Where are you gonna go Cher?? Really?

I too have wrestled with this question. Not over Trump, but over Obama!

About half way through Obama’s first term I concluded that the Hope and Change he’d promised wasn’t actually making things any better. I felt we’d only handed the reins of power over to someone else who was more about the power than the people.

I was very disappointed. I had high hopes that Obama could and would make changes that benefited everyone. I thought this was probable because of Obama’s upbringing. I was wrong…

That’s when I really began to feel very alienated. It wasn’t about his race it was about the way others responded to his race. All I wanted was someone to bring the government to heel, I honestly didn’t care about the person’s color or gender all I wanted was better, smaller, government. Boy, did I bet on the wrong damn horse!

I started looking for places to move. I tried to convince my other half that we’d be better off someplace else. I was thinking other countries. I was looking for someplace where the law was in fact the law. Where rules meant something, A place where no-one gave a shit about your race, gender, sexuality, or whatever. The only criteria that mattered was what you as an individual brought to the table to contribute.

My other half being much wiser than me said, “When you find a place, babe we’ll discuss it.” He knew I’d never find a place that met my criteria. Because he knew intimately the failures of humanity and the best and most redeeming qualities as well. He saw people through a lens of religion at their best and worst.

He wasn’t a Saint, but I’d say he could give a lot of folks in the running for sainthood, some stiff competition. 

For all the fucked up mess that we’ve allowed to become the norm in this country, The USA is still the best option. Aside from the fact that you’re double taxed if you’re a citizen living abroad, and that if you choose to give up your US citizenship the USA makes you buy your way out… Both situations I REALLY am opposed to!

Being in another country may not be the best way to go. There’s a cultural context that is hard to get around. We Americans are loud, we’re bossy, we’re arrogant, and it’s not that we’re trying to be any of these things, it’s that we are used to having so much, that when we’re confronted with any limitations, we get obnoxious. Some might say childish.

In my travels outside the USA I’ve witnessed more Americans than not, being assholes unintentionally. It’s usually been due to something fundamental in the culture of the country we were visiting, that my fellow Americans or I missed.

Magnify those social faux pas by thousands and you not “getting” why things are done a particular way in another country and over time, you’re going to feel not at home. Sure you’ll adapt to a lot of things, but you’ll never “get” it all.

It’s tough to feel like you never really belong. Oh, at first you don’t really notice that you don’t belong, you think over time you’ll blend in. To some extent that is true. But the more different the culture or local beliefs the less you’re likely to really blend in and feel comfortable and at home.

I feel that, in California. I’ve been here 40 years or longer. I function here, but between the basic differences in the way California has always done things, and the accumulation of more radical changes over time, I’ve become less and less comfortable here. This fact was slammed home to me when I noticed my blood pressure dropped 10 points on trips outside California. Imagine waking up in a strange hotel after driving all day long, not eating right, fast food, too much salt, and your bp is 10 points lower than when you wake up in your own house.

Where Will You GoI was on my way out of California 35-36 years ago. My plan got derailed because I fell in love.

My plan’s derailment was made less difficult because when we met, he lived in a little mountain town that was a lot like where I came from. When we moved in together, I moved to that mountain town and was actually pretty comfortable. Over time, my comfort level has diminished because the town has changed right along with California. By California standards we’re a redneck town. Comparing the town today, to the town when I first moved up here, My little town is a lot like what California was 40 years ago. 

I saw the changes in California overall, and in my little town in particular. I stayed because of my other half. Now that he’s gone, I find myself reconsidering the original plan to go back to an area of the country where I am culturally compatible.

My desire to move to another country entirely has abated somewhat. I do still like the thought of a small house overlooking a Fjord, miles from anyone else. This is horribly impractical at my age and while it’s a nice fantasy, perhaps even a bucket list item for a vacation, it’s not something I can see as a permanent residence.

What I can see, is a place in this country where I don’t feel like an alien. I’d like to be someplace where speaking my mind isn’t fraught with the high likelihood that I’ll be involved in an altercation.

As a kid, I was surrounded several times by black kids who tended to bully other smaller kids. They behaved like a pack surrounding their prey then throwing punches when the prey’s back was turned. Since you were trapped in a circle there was no way you weren’t going to get hurt. This led to my not being comfortable in crowds for most of my life. I really need to have space around me and most people notice I’m always scanning the area. My looking past you isn’t meant as an insult, It’s a safety measure. One I was taught at the brutal hands of black bullies who thought it was fun or funny to hurt people smaller than they were. They only stopped bullying me when they thought I’d lost my mind, I started hunting the leaders of “The Pack” and attacking them when they were alone. You cause damage to a bully, and make them fear you then suddenly they stop bullying you.

I’ve been seeing more of this “pack” behavior across the nation, It’s not limited to any particular racial group, it’s become commonplace in larger cities and it seems to be more prevalent in large liberal populations than in places that are more conservative leaning. Of course that’s not a hard fast rule but it’s a general guide. I’m sure that beating the fuck out of the leaders of these “New Packs” would be as effective today as it was when I was in school. I’d prefer to void the problem entirely. One way to do that is to move someplace where the majority of people feel and think like I do.

It’s kind of like the Starbucks rule. If you’re looking at moving into a particular neighborhood, count how many Starbucks shops there are. The more affluent and crime free the neighborhood, the more Starbucks you’ll find. The exception to this rule might be Seattle. The last time I was there, Starbucks shops were on every corner, including four shops in one shopping plaza.

I fully understand that this actually leads to polarization. There was a time when I’d have thought that was a bad thing, but now… Not so much. I’d be happy if the place I choose to live is about a 50/50 mix. But I’m looking for a place that’s more like a 60/40 mix, Conservative / Liberal. 70/30 and I’d be ecstatic.

This is in part driven by the fact that I don’t understand a lot of the rules in play in California anymore. I’m looking to go back to places where most of the rules I was raised with are still in force. I don’t want to have to deal with a pack of humans rampaging, I don’t want to be trapped in a Starbucks by BLM protestors demanding compliance and adherence to their beliefs ever again. I didn’t like that I couldn’t leave, I had no weapons but my fists, and so many other people in the place were effectively saying “Yes Massa”.

I want to be in a place where I can carry a weapon but that it’s unlikely I’ll need to. That’s a funny equation, in places where constitutional carry exists, there are a lot of folks who don’t carry a gun because they know they don’t need to. It’s actually funny because that’s sort of the description of herd immunity. Not everyone has to be inoculated because enough of the population are, that disease transmission is nil.

I want to live in a place where kindness and courtesy are valued. I’d like to live someplace where I know my neighbors and interact with them in beneficial ways.

I decided that no asshole President was going to make me leave my country. They’re only in office 8 years max, so who cares? Obama, Trump, Biden, Bush, Clinton, Nixon, they all came and went but the country remained.

People like Cher should be way more concerned with Congress. Those shitty hacks stay in office long enough to really cause changes and honestly, those changes are a lot more long lasting and dangerous than what the President does.

If she and others like her want to move someplace, Maybe they should consider moving to places in the USA where folks think more like they do. Cher is in California, maybe she should stay here. Soon she’s going to have one less conservative leaning Californian to contend with. I won’t be cancelling her vote for President Dumbass in the next election.

Now, If I could get off this planet entirely… That’s gonna be another story!