Things That Annoy Me – Part 23

107.) Easy Tear Packing Tape

Is it me, or is this stuff only easy to tear when you don’t actually WANT it to tear?

Try as I may, it won’t rip when I want it to. But break in half when I’m trying to peel it (causing the waste of an inch or so as I again re-align the tap as a whole) . . . an almost inevitability!

Fuck you, easy tear packing tape.

108.) Useless Voicemails

Few things drive me more bonkers than when someone feels it pertinent enough to call me and leave a voicemail, but they don’t actually tell me why they are calling.

“Hey _______, can you give me a call? I really need to talk to you. Thanks.”

Okay, talk to me about what? Something I need to do right away? Or something that can sit at the back of the priorities pile until further notice?

Since the people that engage in this behaviour tend to fancy themselves as self-important, I tend to end up placing these requests at the back of the to-do pile anyway. Another reason for this is that it is never ever about helping me out (“I have the money I owe you!”). It is ALWAYS something to be done for them (“Can you lend me $10?”). 

If your gonna call me about something pertinent, tell me WHY it is pertinent. I don’t have the time or the patience to stroke your ego when all you want is $20.

This leads nicely to my next entry.

109.) Unnecessarily Lengthy Phonecalls

I phoned you to ask a question or otherwise complete some task that should not take over 5 minutes (often much less). I should not have to block out 45 minutes or more just because you don’t grasp the concept of other people having a limited amount of time to chat. This ties nicely into the last one because it is often the same people that do this.

In all honesty, I hate phone calls to start with. Considering how much time I spent tieing up the landline as a teenager, this is a relatively new development. Nonetheless, there is a much more efficient method available for the communication of minor bits and pieces of information than the telephone call . . . it’s called texting. Or Facebook messenger.

That I now have to set aside 45 minutes to reply to a voicemail is thus highly irritating. Which serves as a nice segway to the next gripe. 

110.) Complete Disregard For Your Time

 Sometimes after receiving a completely useless voicemail and finding a block of 45 minutes to set aside for such a conversation, you are faced with the probing conversation highlights and questions.

“You don’t normally call back the same day, is everything all right? What did you do today? Were you working? Were you out with your dad? Are you sure there is nothing wrong because it seemed a bit like you were avoiding me”

We all have to accept that everyone has flaws (as they must also do so for us). But for the love of nothing, enough with the questions just because I didn’t drop everything and immediately prioritize whatever the hell you called about.
Maybe there were other matters to attend to. Maybe I was not in the headspace to muster the amount of energy required to deal with the situation. Loved one or not, some people (mainly older types who seem to think that they are owed the world) seem completely incapable of fathoming how much strain they often put on people around them without a second thought.

Many might be prone to call that the typical rantings of a weak snowflake millennial.

To that I say, some of you old fogies REALLY have no concept of how much leeway and privilege the world has given you. And I’m not just talking about money and wealth, either. I’m talking about the freedom to continually spew and spread all manner of false, outdated and otherwise wrong information without remorse.
Whether it’s refusing to listen to my advice that you should NOT fully discharge your iPhone every time (battery technology has changed, making that process VERY BAD for the batteries long term health!), dead-naming transgender individuals or spewing racially tinged rhetoric about some other race, conversing with you ageing boomers can sometimes take A LOT of energy. For a cohort that can’t seem to shut up about Cancel Culture, they sure don’t seem to have any hesitation with saying anything that comes to mind.

Then there is the drop-in. Sometimes the problem is so important that they can’t wait for you to set aside a timeslot for them to see you, and they instead show up at your front door. Though I can categorize the rest of the annoying dealings of this cohort into it is what it is category and move on with my day, the drop-in tends to flat out piss me off. Though I know that the person sees nothing wrong with the gesture:

1.) As a quite introverted personality, even the sound of a ringing telephone is often intrusive, let alone the sound of an unexpected knock at the door or ring of the doorbell.

2.) Showing up at my door tells me that you don’t care what is or isn’t going on in my life at that moment, because your inquiry/problem is more important.

As much irritation as these certain sets of folks cause me in life, I doubt they will ever change. Because I doubt that either of these people could wrap their head around the fact that there is even a problem with this behaviour, let alone that they ought to lay off. I suspect it to be the ways of a different era and generation, despite the younger ones doing things differently.

111.) Covidiots and Vaccine Hesitation

I already wrote about this topic years ago after some previously well-controlled eradicated contagions began making a comeback in anti-vaccinated circles. This one really rubbed me the wrong way since the worst effects of the diseases were often being seen in the unvaccinated children of often times vaccinated parents. Say what I will about the previous generation in other areas, at least most of their children grew up immune to measles and whooping cough. Even if a segment of their kids would grow up to listen to the god-awful nonsense of Janny Mcarthy, Robert F Kenedy Jr and other anti-vax windbags.

112.) Facebook Goes Meta

Recently, Facebook Incorporated decided to rebrand and restructure itself. Instead of just being Facebook, owner of Instagram, WhatsUp and a handful of other apps that are increasingly gaining a sullied reputation, we now have Meta. Just as Google was spun off into a subsidiary of the parent company Alphabet some years ago, this is what Facebook has also done with its brands. Complete with a douchy name.

Companies tend to rename themselves for a select few reasons. Sometimes a name change reflects new business ambitions, as when Apple released the iPhone and stopped calling itself Apple Computer. Other times, it signals a corporate restructuring, as when Google renamed itself Alphabet; Larry Page became the CEO of Alphabet, not Google, clarifying his leadership beyond just search. Other times, a company seeks to distance itself from a sullied brand, as when cigarette-maker Philip Morris renamed itself Altria in 2001.

Facebook’s rechristening as Meta has some elements of all three. The company wants to define itself as a “metaverse” company, not just a maker of social media products. And Zuckerberg wants more of a hand in those new pursuits, rather than overseeing the Facebook app. The company also seeks a way out of the past few years of everyone dunking on Facebook, a name that’s become synonymous with mistrust and skepticism (not to mention conspiracy theories and genocide).

https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-name-change-meta/

 

Speaking of douchy . . . what in the fuck is a metaverse company?!

Metaverse is a speculative future iteration of the Internet part of shared virtual reality, often as a form of social media.^[1] The metaverse in a broader sense may not only refer to virtual worlds operated by social media companies but the entire spectrum of augmented reality.^[2] The term arose in the early 1990s, and has come to be criticised as a method of public relations building using a purely speculative yet still “over-hyped”^[3] concept based on existing technology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse

There is nothing like seeing black mirror episodes slowly come to life in the most painfully benign way possible.

Then again, such is the way of existence, isn’t it?

We all live in fear of the big IT that will spell the end. The asteroid, the virus, the EMP knocking out the continental electrical grid, the nuclear war. When in reality, the shift is far more gradual than sudden. Today, Facebook is threaded into the fabric of online life for most of us. In a decade, Meta might be a big part of whatever comes to constitute life as we will then know it.

Meta. Alphabet. Odeo. Tencent. Bytedance. Advance Publications. Snap Incorporated.

You may not know many (or ANY) of the companies above, but you can be certain that most of them know at least a little something about you. And that is just social media.

Amazon. Microsoft.  ContextLogic Incorporated. Alibaba Group Holding Limited.

As a single cog, I am but a ripple in this tumultuous sea of evil. A raindrop in the ocean, if you will. Even this blog can’t escape, being hosted on a platform that plays host to a huge number of the internet’s websites (455 million, or over 62%). This monstrosity of content is known to the business world as Automattic.

Either way, the road to totalitarianism by corporate takeover is WAY too boring. At least Sam Esmail of Mr. Robot fame had the right idea in basing the show’s antagonist corporate entity E-corp (aka Evil Corp) loosely on the infamous Enron. Since it’s much easier to sell a huge cyber battle with Evil Corp than it would be to sell one with Alphabet, Tencent, Amazon or Meta.

Meta . . . more like Beta.

113.) Enough With The Legal Weed Limitations

The last time I put one of these multiple-choice rants together, I told employers who expect employees who push brooms, tap on keyboards or otherwise mindlessly toil away for WAY too little pay to go fuck themselves if they demand said employees to pass a drug test. I mean, imagine how controlling and narcissistic you have to be to pay a pittance and still think you own an employee for the entire duration of their employment.

I hope these managers sit on a cactus. After all, it would at least provide a reason for being such a prick. A thorn up the ass!

Todays rant, however, lays with the politicians. Not just the politicians, though. Also, doctors, police officers, guidance councillors, parole officers and everyone else whose largely uninformed opinions are bottlenecking the implementation of the legal cannabis market in this nation (Canada). After all, who else but the “What a terrible idea! Do you realize how POWERFUL today’s cannabis is?!” crowd would think that a 30 gram daily limit on cannabis was necessary. This, whilst a minor can purchase 216mg’s of caffeine through energy drink 6 packs at any convenience store or supermarket.

The sooner dumb and easily manipulated boomers are not in control of this stuff, the better.

Things That Annoy Me – Part 22

104.) Drug Testing For Menial Shitty Unskilled Labour Jobs

Here you are, on a Saturday evening or a Tuesday morning, looking up job postings. You could be doing anything else, but lack of employment (or shitty employment) has you contemplating square 1 once more.

And there you see it. A new job that may well be up your alley and within your skillset. But for one single conflict based around an activity, you participated in outside of work hours in your own home.

Maybe it is not immediately obvious to you, in which case I will specify.

Mandatory Drug And Alcohol Test

With all due respect, boss and owner of this cleaning outfit . . .GET FUCKED!

Imagine employing a crew of unskilled people to do some of the most boring and monotonous work possible, and then thinking that you have the right to also control every minute of their life. Just because it is easier not to have employees do drugs at all than to worry about babysitting them on the job site, everyone must suffer and conform.
Even though I would technically not have any issue with applying for that position (contrary to recent interests, I would still pass that test!), I still would not on principle. Other businesses have already solved this problem by forbidding drug and alcohol use and intoxication during work time. If people fall afoul of this rule, take what actions are deemed necessary.

I am not entirely against drug tests for all positions. When people are in charge of operating dangerous and/or sensitive equipment (such as large factory machinery), the compromise is understandable (and the worker is likely well compensated for the compromise). Though this may also overlap with the previous category, jobs with a large amount of responsibility to passengers or bystanders (such as airline pilots, train captains and even bus drivers) should also qualify for such testing if their employer so desires.

People operating a vacuum cleaner, mop or a washrag, however?

Not so much.

Maybe this company was burned at some point by a misbehaving employee which could have cost them a cleaning contract. Maybe the owner just wants to avoid any issues right off the bat. No matter what the reasoning, I still consider it an unjust overreach into someone’s life just because they choose to join your cleaning company (out of a selection of others).
And considering that this isn’t the only janitorial outfit that I’ve seen advertise with this stipulation in their job post (particularly after marijuana was legalized here in Canada), it’s an unfortunate trend that is taking hold.

Hopefully not a trend that starts to take hold in other shitty job sectors (like retail, fast food and elsewhere in the service industry). Because if that were to happen, it may be time to start pushing for fairness in free time legislation. 

 

105.) Sanitation Theater / Covid Fatigue

Working in retail during this pandemic of Covid 19 has been quite the shit show of a year. It’s almost hilarious to think about it, really.

First was the great purge. That is the great purge of toilet paper and paper towels from every single store in the universe. Then the great purge of the grocery stores in general as everyone for some reason felt the need to buy 10 years’ worth of supplies all at the same time. Then came the washing and sanitizing of every square inch of the earth’s surface. And then, for the first time ever, most people suddenly realized the most obvious thing ever . . . if all the employees at the hospitals, grocery stores, liquor stores etc left their posts and torched the facilities as they went, they would be SCREWED. Society would become 2005 New Orleans in 2 days flat.

Though being highly regarded was nice at first, it would not take long before it was all back to normal once more. Except, not quite normal. Because customers were not their normal selves, they were all bitchy because there is still no tuna and hockey and shit is cancelled and they are bored out of their minds. Having all the creativity beaten out of them by our consumer culture, they now fester in boredom as all that is available to consume is quickly used up.

Don’t get me wrong, I do empathize with people that can not work because of this pandemic. Though working at a carnival or a theatre is likely not a great job, it’s still a job. And if the governing bodies in charge where you live don’t care about your well-being, this problem is exaggerated even more.

But having said that, having had a year to figure something out, I’m losing patients with people that still can not fathom life without gyms, restaurants and other amenities of normal times. If it’s not arguments about losing freedom and liberty, it’s virtue signalling worthwhile subjects for strictly selfish reasons.

Take one fellow I know who advocated the exemption of gyms from the closing measures since they have a place in maintaining mental health. We no longer talk since he took issue with my argument that was gyms were a privilege for those that can afford them, and thus (like restaurants) should NOT get such an exemption.

Then there was another follow who suddenly became aware of the rising suicide rate (not to mention the rates of drug addiction and other maladies) that have been associated with the lockdown. They care about mental health and the suicide rate NOW, when it’s shockingly high enough to be setting off alarm bells. However, their solution is having all the young and not all that adversely affected roam free, while the highly susceptible stay in their homes and isolate.

Brilliant solution. Aside from seemingly missing the obvious flaw in this, the suicide rate being what it is now is a direct implication of the mental health care system being in shambles even before Covid 19. I would love to think that people like this fellow would keep on being concerned about mental health once this disease becomes a distant memory. But I highly doubt it. They are already sentencing the immunocompromised to a stay-at-home prison sentence!

Adults, in general, are ridiculously oblivious and obtuse to all things Covid related. While many fingers used to be pointed at the young running around like idiots last year (sometimes rightfully. Like the spring break jackasses), it has been the adults that have been the most idiotic in my experience. From watching the news (Sturgis 2020, anyone?!), to watching customers and people locally, to every single adult in my inner circle.  
Despite being in the most high-risk age groups, I still see them running multiple times a day to coffee shops, inviting friends inside, sometimes even running back and forth out of town (even out of province!) without a second thought. Even when the laws forbid gathering in order to lesson transmission, they continue to act as though nothing is happening.

Since my province is now making headlines as far away as New York City on account of this behaviour crippling our healthcare system, I almost wish that governments would start writing fines in the thousands of dollars. Just as many children are punished by losing their allowance, do the same to the children running around in adult bodies. Stop fucking around threatening to add more restrictions and actually focus on compliance.

If an adult in my life ends up paying thousands because they didn’t follow the rules . . . so be it. No one is above the law.

Switching back to employment, another irritating aspect of COVID 19 has been (is!) the sanitation theatre that has taken hold since the spring of 2020. Though most stores in the grocery sector were happy to hire on (or schedule) extra help for cleaning during the early (and very profitable!) part of the pandemic, as the sales slowed, so to did this interest in cleaning and sanitation. The problem was it had already been mandated (or at the very least, recommended) by health authorities, so stores were now stuck with the task no matter what.

The result of this, at least in my experience, turned what was once a 15 to 20-minute endeavour (cart collection) into a 30 to 45-minute endeavour (depending on what help you had. Often times none. I’m not even going to get into that). Keeping handles clean and wiping high traffic areas also became an every 2 hour 30 to 45-minute task involving a rotating crew of people that didn’t have time to start with. So was the start of the managerial solution that is write it and forget it. 

Put a name on the board, and done.

Bulk food self-dispensers are now open again? Write a reminder on the board that all 20 or 30 of those handles have to be cleaned along with the other 40+ door handles and other areas, and done. Problem solved!

All of this, while the science of the spread of COVID has pretty much stated that it’s the droplets that matter. What you breathe in and out matters a lot more than what you touch on a shopping cart or a freezer door handle. Because most people don’t lick their hands immediately after handling a door handle, shopping cart or other publicly shared objects!

Yet despite all this concern about the surfaces, there is little concern about face coverings. Management isn’t worried about gators or other cloth masks that have been proven less effective than other types. They are not worried about masks JUST over the nose so that it’s hidden, but you can see that no seal exists on top. They don’t worry about masks looped around the ears so as to form a big ole pathway for droplets to enter and escape on BOTH sides of the mouth. Until recently, they didn’t even care about people using face shields in lieu of masks.

It makes me wonder if there would be so much dismissiveness of this virus if it had the same transmissibility, but shared the same symptoms as say . . .  Ebola Zaire.

106.) Idiotically Implemented Virtual Phone Systems

Maybe this entry shows that I’m getting old. Or, maybe some of these setups are completely asinine to the point of incomprehension. Translation . . . it’s old yeller time for the jackass who thought this was a brilliant idea.

I suppose I should give you the reason why I am so hot under the collar.

Back in 2017, I switched from one of Canada’s big 5 national banks over to a credit union. At the time, the transition was mainly one of convenience (I found myself around shared Credit Union ATMs far more than my big banks ATM’s). However, it was also partly based around the then well-reported fact that life working within many Canadian banking institutions could be hellish. Though I don’t think that my then bank has ever fraudulently signed me up for any accounts or cards, I was certainly upsold a lot of things.

One memorable engagement came when I was contacted by a financial advisor about some ways that I could adjust my services in order to streamline my costs a bit. I agree to it all and went on my way. Only to be contacted by the same financial adviser some months later upselling me on the very products that she had advised against last time. I don’t know if she knew what she was doing at the time (or if customers are just a pesky impediment to a monthly quota), but I certainly came away from that conversation very differently than I did from the first. And she didn’t make her quota with my help!

Needless to say, many people know the story. They can’t do enough for you until you say you are leaving, at which point they stop giving a damn. Such was the feeling on my departure. It felt nice to hand back my now-defunct debit card and say “Nah. Just shred it” when the person told me to keep it just in case I wanted to reopen my account.

My new bank has better customer relations and even more networked ATMs than your entire bank’s national network. So I’ll be just fine, thank you very much! 

So it has been for some 4 ish years. I rarely interact with banks in person anyway, but what has been missing are the cold calls upselling stuff. I don’t miss that.

As such, imagine my surprise when my newly minted Visa Debit card arrives in the mail today from ex big bank. Being attached to a savings account that no longer exists, I call the activation line thinking that the path to cancelling it was there. While I managed to activate it and get hung up on by that machine, I moved onto the big banks regular line.

There, I call in and end up talking to their newly implemented male-voiced virtual assistant. I press zero because all automated systems that are built to be customer friendly have this option to allow the elderly, the tech illiterate or the edge cases to proceed to a human without friction. Upon this not working, I am asked to speak an option, even though they always end in me needing an account number that I don’t have. I know . . .

“Guess you should have kept that debit card, JACKASS!”

Trying to appease the man in the machine, I give it the virtual Visa card number. The tone of the reply was oddly akin to:

“That’s a credit card number, you silly goose! I need a debit card number!”

***

“I don’t have a debit card! Representative!”

***

“I’m sorry. Please call back when you have your debit card number. Goodbye!”

*click*

***

“YOU MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF MOTHERFUCKING SHIT!!”

 

Needless to say, I was starting to get JUST a little irked after that last engagement. As the poor soul in charge of monitoring the recordings for quality control and satisfaction may well discover lol. By the end, I was running out of patience with the headway I was making without using the word fucking in a query, so what was there left to lose?

No, I don’t normally swear at machines. But HOLY FUCKING MONKEY BALLS. . . even Canada’s first and second-largest cell carriers by size (translation: Evil Red and his slightly less evil sister Blue) have better automation systems. I have called both as not a customer for different reasons, and always been able to speak to a rep with little friction.

But it is now evening, and as such all the people behind the scenes at big bank are now gone home. And I still have not solved my problem. Though I could call and swear at the machine some more, I’ll leave it till tomorrow. If I have to go to a real branch and have them show me the way, so be it. 

An no, I won’t swear at them in real life. I’m not that much of an asshole 😉 .

Things That Annoy Me #21

101.) Caffeinated Shampoos And Body Washes

I have to first admit that posting this rant runs me the risk of looking like a total jackass slash hypocrite considering something I chastized Dr. Oz for on this blog years ago. But such is the life of a mortal human. So here goes.

Some time ago, I received a coupon in a mailer for any variety of shampoo, so I grabbed one on a store promo. As for the body wash, the brand was on promo in an app I use, so I matched it with a store promo to maximize my cash. There is nothing like saving $$ on something you need (as well as trying out products you may not otherwise buy!) by way of combining store, app and coupon promos. My favourites involve all at the same time.

What can I say. I’m a cheap scape.

What spawns this rant is how I come to realize that these products were caffeinated. That is, by way of the labelling being at eye level due to storing my showing bottles on a shelf hung from the showerhead. Though I can’t say that both products DO NOT have the caffeine clearly labelled, it’s just not the first thing that one sees at first glance of the packaging.
With the shampoo, the first thing I saw was Thickening and Shampoo (I don’t want nor need conditioner). The body wash is a little better labelled in its name (Recharge) and in its description (revitalizing body wash), but again, my eyes are not drawn to the bottom grey section of the bottle. They stay exactly where the designers slash marketers want them to remain (3 in 1!). In my defence, though, revitalizing is how every body wash with a strong sent it marketed (mainly to women). And as for recharge . . .  again, throw in some menthol and some scrubbing beads and you could make a similar claim. 

As for why it annoys me . . . it’s not because of the caffeine content. I enjoy a good cup of coffee or 2 in the morning. It is more because of the possibility that I could have conceivably used these products without ever realizing the caffeine content. This being concerning due to not knowing how much caffeine may or may not be being absorbed into the skin while using these products (particularly the body wash). Not to mention that adding even more caffeine to the cocktail of drugs already polluting the world’s water bodies isn’t exactly a good thing either.

As for WHY caffeine would be in shampoo, I can answer that.

 

Caffeine shampoo is a hair loss treatment designed to stimulate hair growth using caffeine extract. It can be found in high street pharmacies and supermarkets.

The best known caffeine shampoo is Alpecin, a German product which emerged from a study in 2007. The study showed that caffeine stimulated hair follicles to regrow in a laboratory dish. Researchers developed a shampoo that aimed to repeat this effect on the human scalp.

Does caffeine shampoo work?

It is unclear. Whilst the study above showed that caffeine does stimulate hair growth in a laboratory dish; there is not enough evidence to prove it works with hair on the scalp.

There is a lot of debate surrounding whether caffeine shampoos can actually match the success of this initial study to prevent hair loss. Generally speaking, caffeine shampoos are not endorsed by the medical community to treat hair loss.  Instead, most UK doctors recommend medical treatments such as finasteride or minoxidil, which have been proven in clinical trials.

* * *

Clinical evidence for caffeine shampoos

Currently, there is no clinically viable evidence that caffeine shampoos have a long-lasting effect on male pattern baldness. This type of hair loss occurs in men who have a sensitivity to the hormone DHT (a form of testosterone), which causes the hair follicles in the scalp to weaken and shrink. Caffeine shampoo has not been proven to negate the effects of DHT in the long term.

https://onlinedoctor.lloydspharmacy.com/uk/hair-loss/what-is-caffeine-shampoo

 

Well, that settles that.

For the record, I didn’t buy thickening shampoo for the purpose of thickening my hair (it does that naturally without help!). I just bought it because it smelled good. But if that IS why you are buying (or maybe influenced to buy) such shampoo, now you know.

As for body washes (well, skincare products):

 

“The studies that have been done on caffeine have been relatively mixed, [with] some showing an effect and some not,” John G. Zampella, M.D., assistant professor in the Ronald O. Perelman department of dermatology at NYU Langone Health, tells SELF. In practice, caffeine-containing products have proven to be effective in some situations and ineffective or even detrimental in others.

For instance, if you’re dealing with dark eyes caused by puffiness, caffeine could be a good choice—but maybe not so much if they’re caused by something else. “I wish there was a really great cure for under-eye circles, but not everybody’s are caused by puffiness,” Suzan Obagi, M.D., UPMC dermatologist and associate professor of dermatology and plastic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh, tells SELF. “[Caffeine’s] only gonna help if your issue is puffiness.” (And, tbh, even that data isn’t particularly convincing.)

* * *

As for cellulite, caffeine might help a little. Maybe. In this case, the mechanism is slightly different: In addition to restricting blood vessels, some experts think that caffeine is capable of stimulating the enzymes that break down fat. It’s plausible that this could lead to a reduction in cellulite, and in fact a very small 2015 study in the Annals of Dermatology observed just that.

For the study, researchers had 15 participants apply a caffeine-containing cellulite cream to their thighs and inner upper arms twice a day for six weeks. After that time, 12 of the 15 participants reported that their cellulite had improved. On average, the circumference of their thighs decreased by 0.7 cm and their upper arms decreased by 0.8 cm over those six weeks. But there were some obvious limitations here, including the small sample size and lack of placebo control.

* * *

One thing to keep in mind is that caffeine products aimed at reducing redness can actually cause a temporary increase called rebound redness. Why? Blood vessels that are regularly constricted can go into hyperdrive without their usual dose of caffeine.

“Let’s say you drink coffee every day…then one day you forget to drink your coffee or someone switches it for a decaf, and you get a raging headache,” Dr. Obagi says. “You’re getting that throbbing in your head [because] those [blood] vessels have dilated even more.”

* * *

We know that caffeine is generally pretty good at penetrating the skin barrier and getting absorbed into the bloodstream. So theoretically too much topical caffeine could cause caffeine toxicity, which can be deadly and is mainly associated with powder and other highly concentrated caffeine products.

https://www.self.com/story/caffeine-skin-care

 

That last 2 paragraphs are interesting and worth keeping in mind. Though none of it touches on the existence of caffeinated body washes, I think I’m comfortable in saying that most are probably just a gimmick and a cash grab. While it is questionable how much caffeine these products contain (the body wash bottle I bought does not even have an amount listed!), it may be something to take into consideration if you are already a heavy caffeine consumer.

_____________________________________________________

 

I mentioned earlier that this post may well showcase me as a hypocritical jackass in light of a previous Dr. Oz rant of mine. I’ll let you decide for yourself.

Years ago, he did a segment on his show which started with his concern about a few unexplained sleepless nights he was having. After a few days, he figured out that a flavour of vitamin water that he had been purchasing was the culprit due to its allegedly ambiguously listed caffeine content (MY words. Not his). While I don’t remember the whole segment, I remember finding it funny that he was so ANGRY despite the fact that he, Dr. Oz MD, didn’t read the label.

While it was never made clear what product he was targeting, I’ve suspected for years that it was Glaceau’s Energy (tropical citris) variety. I suspect this since as far as I know, this was the only caffeinated variety of bottled water one could buy. Granted, the American market may vary from the Canadian market.

I am familiar with the beverage because I enjoy having one every so often. I don’t drink it for any health benefits (I don’t have to read the label to know that the sugar content is going to be through the roof). I drink it because it tastes good. Though I am not beyond the occasional energy drink, this is certainly a great alternative. And when I don’t need a boost, Mega C and XXX are a nice thirst quencher.

While this vitamin water can certainly be seen as deceptive in terms of the health claim invoked in the mind by the name (in the advertising world, this is known as puffery), what it is not deceptive about is the caffeine content. The contrasting colour of the word compared to the backdrop jumps out at you, and the amount can easily be found on the other side of the label. A very different way of labelling too the shampoo and body washes I bought.

In my travels, I recently spotted a new variety of Glaceau caffeinated vitamin water-containing ginseng (that isn’t even on the website yet). I have not tried it yet. But more importantly, is America’s favourite heart surgeon going to do another angry segment?

Note: No, this is not an ad for Coca-Cola or its intellectual properties.  I just enjoy trashing praised and respected sellouts more than I care about being seen as one myself.

 

102.) Anti-Maskers / Anti-vaxxers

As this pandemic stretches on past the year-long mark, I’ve come to wonder if early predictions of many waves of infection (were talking 8 or more!) spread over the course of 2 to 3 years may indeed become our reality. I say this not because I am particularly fond of the idea. I say it more because as time goes on, people seem to be less and less willing to sacrifice (properly mask) to keep the infection rate down.

In the last while, its starting to show up in the form of either masks under noses, or though face shields with my masks at all. Though these sheilders tend to come in couples, the party refusing to properly mask is almost always male. And another thing I’ve noticed . . . many males can’t even wait until they are out the door to literally rip the mask off their face.
 
And these men also probably consider themselves the brawn of the couple! LOL

While most of this activity seems to be limited to groups one would consider most vulnerable to the symptoms of COVID 19, it’s starting to spread. And at least where I live, retailers and regulators seem unwilling to clamp down.

This is unfortunate since I thought everyone was about ready for normalcy right about now. Movies and restaurants and sports and shit. I see it on social media all the time. But then again, I also see shit like this:

 

 

If I were to guess, this is likely one of many meme campaigns originating from some foreign-based shit disturbers trying to cause trouble in the world’s liberal democratic nations for the sake of their own nation-state’s economic benefit. Considering that many people will repost almost anything triggering or fitting to their narrative that scrolls past them, it’s akin to shooting fish in a barrel. South Koreans float balloons with pamphlets and thumb drives over the demilitarized zone to reach North Koreans, and enemies of western nations use social media.

The more people that are vaccinated, the closer we get as a global society to herd immunity. However, the more people that refuse the vaccine for any reason (be it legitimate or stupid), the longer that the variants of the original virus are going to continue wreaking havoc on peoples health, on peoples lives, and on the world economy.

I hope I am not going to be wearing a mask for 8 hours a day for the next 2 to 3 more years. But if early indications are indicative of anything, it’s that a few sheep among us may well stretch this pandemic out LONG past what it theoretically had to have been.
Though I blame Trump for the bungled initially American response, the change in leadership (and contrastingly rapid response in getting the vaccination program ramped up to the point of beating Canada’s current response!) has now put the ball in us citizens court.

I am planning on getting my poke. So should you.

 

103.) The Art of Hoarding / The Artists Dilemma

2020 was an interesting year for the best of us. The aforementioned disease of the last entry kept many people at home. It was a test of the coping skills of everyone involved, and the sooner we can get back to normal, the better.

For me, it was (for the most part) far less unpredictable. And not only was it unpredictable, it was also a time of embracing new activities that I never thought I would EVER embrace. One of them is drawing, but the most notable being painting.

I’ve found that painting creates a new challenge I didn’t see coming, however. It has nothing to do with the challenge of perfecting the art or any of that (my goal isn’t perfecting my art. I’m a writer, after all!). And it’s not even coming up with ideas, either (the world is full of inspiration). The problem I’ve come to face is . . . I only have so many square feet of wall to hang these things!

A family member will not let me throw away any of my first pieces, though they don’t mean all that much to me (they didn’t take much time to create). But as I use bigger canvases and paint more intricate creations, the amount of time spent on each detail (and each painting) now can rival that of a productive writing session. We’re talking 3 to 4 hours.

By the time one finishes one of these projects, you have invested a fair bit of time and energy. As such, you don’t really have the desire to purge any of the old stuff, because it feels akin to grabbing a several thousand-word essay or novel project you have poured countless hours into, and shredding it.

It’s a peculiar dilemma, isn’t it. The inspiration comes, and I have to get the ideas on canvas. But once the inspiration has been realized, I realize that I have yet another one to deal with.

It makes me wonder if the art market was created for the sole purpose of clearing the garages, closets and pantries of artists drowning in their own manifested creations.

104.) Bill Maher

I don’t know if Bill Maher has always been a millennial hating jackass (well, at least in the past 5 to 10 years) or if I’ve just started noticing it upon my increased appreciation of Gen Z (and my relaxation of my annoyance with my own millennial place in this pecking order), but holy man . . .

It’s hard to believe that I once subscribed to HBO just for the privilege of watching his weekly panel. Now, I don’t even always keep up with the youtube segments he puts out on a weekly basis. As for the One Pass that my tivo (and all my previous DVR’s) once had for his show . . . long gone.

Never change, Bill. I am not here to order people into compliance (as seems to be the accepted tone of my generation). But at the same time . . . FUCK YOU. Say what you want about the Snowflake generations post Boomer . . . your cohort raised us. Your cohort cashed in on our shared planet, our shared resources, and now our attention spans. And now, you dare point a finger in mockery and contempt . .  .

Sit on this!

Fine, this is more a rant at an ageing cohort than it is a rant towards Bill Maher himself. But I can’t help that he hits the part almost perfectly.

 

Things That Annoy Me – Part 20

It’s been a while since I last put out an entry in this re-occurring segment of this blog, so here goes.

92.) Athletes Are “Not Needed By Anyone”

 

a.) Bullshit.

A good chunk of the first part of the pandemic has been dominated by millions of sports fans trying to figure out what to do with themselves without their chosen form of athletic pablum. I covered it in a post earlier this year. Well, I also went in a different direction with that one, but I actually felt bad for many of these people for a while. Conditioned and regimented by a lifestyle of regimented routine and consumption for a lifetime, then told that they could no longer engage in such activities in the span of a day.

I felt kind of bad for them. Victims of a system that thrives by beating the creative instincts out of all but the strongest willed persons. Because you don’t need original thoughts or creative instincts to run a machine, or do manual labour. You don’t need to worry about keeping the mind occupied with sports, movies and all other manor of distractions galore.
Well, unless there is a catastrophic event that tips this entire status quo on its head.

Fortunately, the pandemic is a temporary aspect of life which will eventually be in the rearview. Whilst the jobs that people so desperately miss (despite many not liking them to begin with!) will be around for a little while longer, many will go away. Though there will be sports and Hollywood distractions, all the pop culture in the world won’t keep a population that was conditioned into the virtues of hard work from running amuck when they find themselves made permanently obsolete.

There I go again . . .

How things have changed in under 4 months. We have gone from missing the games we love in all their often CTE inducing glory, to “Why THE FUCK are Athletes considered to be so important?! What do that contribute to society at large!! They are not DOCTORS!! I don’t NEED them!!”.

Okay. If such activities are truly unimportant, its time for some long-awaited changes.

I hereby recommend the permanent ban of all sports which have proven but ignored negative affects to their player’s continued overall health and wellness over time. This includes football, hockey, wrestling. MMA and any other quit literally mind-altering organized sporting event. After all, we’re not ancient Rome!
In the name of Unity (why did I capitalize that?! I’m not Cannonical!), I also declare that all remaining sports enterprises that operate in a North America centred fashion shall open themselves up to the competition on a worldwide scale. Those that refuse shall be abolished.

And speaking of things to abolish, it is time for the Olympics to go.

Whilst it gives a small handful of athletes worldwide a chance at international glory (and a front-row seat to much debauchery. May as well just change the Olympic logo to that of 5 condoms!), the value is neither worth the cost to each of us monetarily, nor is it worth the natural resources expended in making all this happen. Not to mention how the Olympics tends to serve as an indicator of troubled economic waters ahead. Not unlike the completion of skyscrapers.

It’s time for this international orgy of spending to come to an end.

Either way, it’s amazing how quickly fans turn on sports teams when their players decide to take a stand against injustice in the world.

Remember athletes, your place is not in defending fellow human beings against racial inequalities. Your place is on the court, helping me to forget how much I detest how my life has turned out! Or in the case of 2020, helping me forget that it’s 2020!

Well, I ain’t payin you so well to sit on the sidelines! Dance for me, peasants!

We all know what you are saying between the lines.

 

93.) People Citing 1984 In The Context Of Real Life

It has been a very long time since the last time I have heard terms like INGSOC, Newspeak (as opposed to old speak aka modern English) or Big Brother used in the context of real life. I suspect this being on account to my decision to cut off (in terms of social media) the main source of that type of speech.

This person is a former co-worker of mine (and now a former friend, unfortunately) who applied all of the traits of The Party to radical feminism and overall viewed the power structure (something that he called the femtriarchy) as being female-dominated instead of male-dominated. Having watched The Red Pill and coming quite close to drinking that Koolaid myself, I understand the appeal. Particularly for males that are not in an optimal spot financially, males that have been through a divorce or abusive relationship with a female partner, or even both. I need to look no closer than some of the people in my own orbit to pick out several anecdotes that would seem to prove this hypothesis of Cassie Jaye and others.

Fortunately, the wisdom of the philosopher-kings eventually allowed me to become aware of the problems imposed by the bias of anecdotes. Really, of the problems imposed by personal bias and bias imposed by black box social media algorithms. Not to mention the extremely toxic turn that this entire area of conversation seems to have taken in the last few years.

Time to ruffle some feathers.

*sips beer*

Okay . . .

I am NOT saying that The Red Pill, Cassie Jaye, or any other contributors of the Men’s Rights Movement directly had a hand in what metastasized in what we now know as the Incel movement. The Red Pill would never have had the effect that it almost had on me if there was no problem to be had. I don’t know what is driving males into these dangerous and self-destructive cycles, but there is OBVIOUSLY something wrong there. Whilst MRA’s may well have a part helping to identify these characteristics leading to incel-dom (it just stands to reason . . . most other people simply view them through a lens of mockery or contempt), the answer is not in demonizing females. Nor is the answer in misreading statistics into a reality that doesn’t exist.

I know . . . “Spoken like a true sycophant of The Party!”

Interestingly, though I have heard about it (and heard the references!) for my entire life, I have never read 1984 until now. I read Animal Farm sometime in my school days, and that one is still my favourite of Orwells 2 most famous works. In this context, it’s amusing that I once used that book in the context of real life. I once had 2 extremely herd working co-workers that I equated to Boxer.

They ought to be careful cause if they get injured, it’s off to the glue factory!

* * *

When it comes to how my old friend used 1984 in the context of his delusions . . . at least he had his focus correct. Though I questioned how Justin Trudeau and SJW’s were somehow pulling all the strings behind the scenes in the femtriarchy as he coined it, I don’t doubt that he understood the book he was quoting. Though I get that femtriarchy was likely to highlight the role of feminism in this conspiracy, the word Matriarchy would have sufficed. 

Either way, such use of 1984 is fairly uncommon.

If you live in a society like the United Kingdom, China or any other location where one’s movements outside the confines of their home are moderately to closely monitored (be they by surveillance cameras or internet activity tracking!), the comparison is not all that far off. If we’re talking about Social media, online tracking or otherwise, however . . . that is a different animal altogether. Potentially a far scarier animal since you have no idea how this information being hoovered up by corporate data minors is going to be used.

Consider services that utilize DNA as a means of retrieving one’s family history. Though such services were harvesting consumer DNA into ever-growing databases long before any obvious downside appeared, I was always apprehensive to give a corporation such a valuable part of myself. Even if there was no market or obvious use for such information back then, banking on that in this constantly evolving world seemed delusional.

And sure enough . . . enter the court orders. Though many DNA harvesting companies are actively fighting law enforcements attempt at gaining open access to their massive databases (the Apple Approach), the whole of the process is still very murky.

Fine. . . this is a very pedantic argument for someone that isn’t even particularly fond of these works of George Orwell. If 1984 is anything, it is long-winded. Whilst one can use the short attention span of the average millennial to explain away this critique, I’m sure I’m not the only one that had trouble keeping pace with some events of the first chapter. Now we’re here, now we’re there, now we’re sleeping, now it’s time for the 5 minutes of hate and uncontrolled screeching . . . WHAT?!

Don’t be annoying. Find some other cultural reference indicator than one that history rendered obsolete some 75 years ago.

Note: NOT the Matrix!

I’ve about had my fill of every sexist, racist, xenophobic or otherwise nuance crippled dipshit with a crackpot theory ruining that cultural reference for the rest of us.

Here is a red pill for you . . . THE SPECIES IS FUCKED!

 

 

94.) Cancel Culture Meets Cancel Culture / Conservatives

Here we have the story of the era. Poor, disgruntled and silenced conservatives using a tool that they supposedly despise when the opportunity of advancing their narrative shows itself. The names differ, but the pablum is the same.

It is always amusing to see the most well-funded side of the political spectrum bitch and moan about this, again and again. Whilst online personal freedoms and privacy are being eroded both directly and indirectly by things like EARN IT and POTUS Cheeto proclamations, this audience continues to demonstrate that the only speech that they care about is their own. The unfretted ability to tweet unadulterated bullshit as freely as the whisky flows in the Tennessee hills.

It’s all a banquet of bullshit. And I can’t wait until the zoomers vote in high enough numbers to finally kick these self-absorbed sacks of dung out to the curb where they rightfully belong. I just hope that they don’t put us on an irrecoverable path to an extinction event before that wonderful day.  

 

95.) Reefer Madness

The folks running the show at Hazelden Betty Ford understand drugs and alcohol. Ask the many people who’ve recovered in their care. The folks running the show at Hazelden Betty Ford research drugs and alcohol. Ask the many people who’ve written using their data.

The other day, that international outfit released one of its reports about marijuana–more precisely, driving under the influence of it. While public shaming and education efforts have led to a decrease in drunk driving over the years, driving while high is on the rise, dude.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/sep/06/highs-and-lows/

I haven’t actually checked (because I don’t really give a shit), but I could almost certainly hazard that we are dealing with a boomer here. Partly based around the fact that the author fails to register “shaming and education efforts have led to a decrease in drunk driving over the years” and “driving while high is on the rise“.

1.) Increasingly legalized marijuana has not been a norm for years yet at this point, so you are comparing apples to oranges.

Moron.

2.) A certain segment of the population has always been driving high, long before legalization finally came on the horizon in the mid-2010s. That you didn’t feel the need to worry about this back then makes you look like just another reactionary idiot without any knowledge of what you are talking about. Well, that is aside from what the self-labelled faux-experts have to say about the subject.

” , dude.”

Quintisential Boomer, here.

I am over debunking these narrow-minded dipshits. Get your shit together and stop supporting an antiquated and racially driven policy that has never helped a single person and has cost us all so much (in every way that one can measure).

https://www.businessinsider.com/nixon-adviser-ehrlichman-anti-left-anti-black-war-on-drugs-2019-7

 

96.) “Do Your Own Research And Come To Your Own Conclusions”

Please don’t do this. The world does not need any more Tom Grants harassing Cortney Love’s that just want to move on. Nor does the world need more Sandy Hook deniers harassing that segment of victims of American exceptionalism gone horribly wrong.

The world is filled with hard to comprehend problems based around a vacuum of information. Not everything can be explained away. It’s not always an easy reality to accept, but frankly, it is what it is.

 

97.) #BANBOOMERS From Facebook! Mandated Media Literacy Training Before Re-entry To Social Media!

Fine . . . considering that I just did my own retraction of a bad take on the Naive American situation, I’m skating on a thin layer of ice here. But still . . .

Indian residential schools were a thing in Canada right up until 1996. I was alive at the time and had just entered the school not long before. That I was alive during this time makes this argument truly idiotic.

But of course, they are not talking about that. They are just sick of having white privilege thrown in their faces all the time. Because it’s illegal, because it’s long in the past, and because . . . OBAMA!

Oh yeah . . . wrong country.

I used to make this argument. I also used to think I was arguing from a place of perfectly rational footing. But then, I read stuff.

https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/minorities-who-whiten-job-resumes-get-more-interviews

I didn’t just read about this stuff, either. I began to pick up on the various unchallenged ways in which those around me (and at times, myself) reacted to different kinds of people. Am I having this reaction because the person truly looks suspect in the hoody, or is there another reason?

While every argument has it’s fringe elements, I suspect that most Native Americans have accepted that the whole “give us our land!” mantra is a non-starter. But I don’t speak for them.

 

98.) Minimalists

If you asked someone to sum up their style in just a few words, “modern-bohemian” or “contemporary-organic” sound like suitable answers. But “minimalist”? 

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/6-decluttering-strategies-minimalists-swear-by?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Frankly, all of the aforementioned terms are pretentious.

If someone were to ask me what my decoration philosophy was, I would likely reply either “Ikea-charcoal” (since most of my furniture is black, and much of it started in an Ikea box), “Naturally Spiritual” (I have 4 dreamcatchers on the wall which go well with the brown panelling, which goes with the wood and particleboard of the Ikea), or “Fuck if I know!”.

In much the same way that people who lacked the experience of getting laid regularly never used to have a label, nor did people that don’t like to have clutter around them have a term. Nor do they need another term short of “organized”.

Enough with the douchiness.

 

99.) People Calling Me On The Phone

Typing this could not help but garner a chuckle on account to Weird Al’s lyrical list as dropped in mid-2014. 

But seriously, peoples, don’t call me.

When my phone rings, it’s a bit like a salesman ceaselessly knocking on my door whilst I tear my eyes open and force on a pair of knickers in an attempt at seeing what the problem is that needs my attention so badly. Like the rest of the world with enough privilege to own a cell-phone, I have call display. I know you called, I will get back to you if I care enough. Feel free to leave a message if it’s that important. 

Further telephone ground rules:

1.) One call is all that is necessary.

One call blaring a ringtone in my ears is bad enough when I hands deep in dishwater is bad enough. A follow call ensures that I will be bordering on throwing a dish at you next I see you. LET ME LISTEN TO MY PODCAST IN PEACE!

Once we start getting into phone calls number 3 and 4 in 1-day, now I am livid and in NO WAY want to talk to you.

2.) Just because I have a landline does not mean you should call it if I don’t answer my cellphone. I have a landline because I don’t live alone.

a.) There is about a 50 percent chance that I won’t be home when you call. Thus, calling my landline as a means to get me is dumb.

LEAVE A MOTHER FUCKING MESSAGE AND I MAY GET BACK TO YOU IF I TRULY GIVE A FUCK!

b.) Remember how annoyed I got with more than 1 phonecall ratcheting my attention away from what I was doing and onto whatever the fuck you wanted me to care about? The same applies here.

I don’t care that you are a boomer that has always carried themselves as though you are the most important jerkoff that has ever set foot on this earth, OR that you are my family . . . you are testing my patients. Get THE FUCK out of my space.

3.) Keep it short FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY!

If I see you in person at least once a month, I shouldn’t need to find a 30 to 75 minute block of my week just to make a phone call asking a simple question.

100.) Youtube Bullshit

I didn’t have a problem with the Carlin video, so WHY IS THIS ONE DOING THAT ?!

It’s all bullshit, I tell ya.

Things That Annoy Me – Part 19

90.) Local EVERYTHING!

Beer. Tomatoes. Restaurants. Coffee.
Local is everywhere (everything is indeed LOCAL, somewhere). Local is everything. If you don’t shop local, you’re an ASSHOLE!

First off . . . I get it. Local IS the way of the future. In a world of declining readily available fossil fuels, linens made in China and Tomatoes long-hauled to Winnipeg from California (in JUNE!) will no longer be economically feasible. It’s the Red Pill to dwarf all Red Pills in a culture that loves the allure of the cinema in describing everyday life. Or more, a culture that often needs a dichotomy to in order to excuse some dumb (and often horribly biased) observation.

Bitches be walking all over the rights of MEN, with him having no right to due process. It’s not the patriarchy anymore, it’s the FEMTRIARCHY! 

Need I say more?

Anyway . . . local. I don’t have a problem with the concept. And I don’t doubt that the future is ultimately going to be in becoming much less dependant on lengthy, wasteful and ultimately fragile supply chains.
Now, this is not to say that ALL trade is bad.  There will always be nation states that do certain items better, and there will always be environmental constraints (for example, the lack of a tropical climate in places like Canada and Norway for growing things like coffee and citrus fruit). We just shouldn’t (well, can’t AFFORD to) be stupid about it anymore. 

Which brings me to the growing issue of the Local craze. It’s not a fad. Like Organic, gluten-free, non-GMO, and whatever other bullshit that manufacturers can rope in the gullible with. It’s the future.

It’s more than a flashy marketing tactic to make pretentious restaurants seem more worldly or a buzzword for stores filled with imported goods to slap on imported reusable shopping bags. But I suppose this is what happens when one attempts to use the capitalist system as a path to a solution.

More of the same, just with a different label. 

91.) Lotteries

It’s something we likely have all heard at some point.

You can’t win if you don’t buy a ticket!

This is when I usually suggest they grab a $5 bill and flush it down the toilet. Which generally begets a baffled reaction, and then a retreat right back into their cozy little world.
What I COULD have said was:

If I DON’T buy a ticket, then I will still have my $5 if I DON’T beat the odds. Making the odds of me keeping my $5, or of me getting hit by a 737 Max, much greater than the odds of you winning the lottory

Fine, I could have left the last part out. It indeed comes across as insensitive to anyone in any way connected to the situation(s). None the less, it is somewhat related. The more I read coming out about the Boeing/FAA certification process of the aircraft, the more it seemed that both took a gamble. A BIG gamble, with innocent lives as collateral. And like the McDonnell Douglas DC 10 gamble back in the ’70s, everyone lost big. In far more ways than financially.

And on that dark note, is where I return to lotteries.

When most of us think of lotteries, we generally don’t go to a negative place. In fact, lottery advertising almost assures that the word brings us to cloud 9.
You don’t see the lives ruined by gambling addictions. You don’t see the very real phenomenon that is lives ruined by lottery winnings.  You don’t see the man or women that spent their last dollar on some lottery product.  But you will hear their story on the evening news if they win.

Guaranteed.

Some time ago, I heard a comedian say something along the lines of “Lotteries are a tax on the stupid“. And like my reaction to many things years ago, I eagerly and uncritically agreed. As most fanboys tend to do.
These days, I sort of agree. I can list off anecdotes of people that are living lives of abundance and privilege, but they still buy these tickets as though it’s some kind of future planning exercise. Imagine the nest egg one would have if they diverted every penny they currently spend on lotto products into a savings account. It might not be multiples of millions, but it is money saved. As opposed to money flushed down the toilet. 

However, deluded and greedy (let’s be honest) middle and upper-middle-class individuals are only part of the picture. For others, the lotto represents something far more tantalizing than a bigger house or a new car. It represents something that is in short supply pretty much anywhere poverty has a strong foothold.

Hope.

There is also a saying that lotteries tend to be a tax on the poor. Whilst also problematic (people are not forced to buy lottery products), there is apparently some validity to the statement in the numbers.

1) Most lottery tickets are bought in poor neighborhoods

People in wealthy neighborhoods don’t buy lottery tickets — at least not for the daily games. People in poor neighborhoods play much more frequently. Here’s how median incomes in Connecticut zip codes compare with how often people in those zip codes win.

Nationwide, people who make less than $10,000 spend on average $597 on lottery tickets — about 6 percent of their income.

Sure, part of this is likely because poorer neighborhoods tend to be located closer to urban areas, where there are more package stores. But even in Connecticut, where there are plenty of poor neighborhoods in the suburbs and wealthy ones in the cities, it’s the poorer areas that produce the most winning tickets — and whose residents, therefore, are playing most often.

4) A lot of people in financial trouble think it’s the only way to accumulate money

One in five Americans believe the lottery is the only way they can accumulate a significant amount of savings.

This might indicate that people are bad at math, but it’s also a sign of desperation.

During the Great Recession, more than half the states in the US saw growth in lottery sales. Of the 42 states with lotteries, 25 saw a spike in instant and daily games.

In addition, one study found that 15 percent of millennials say the lottery is their retirement plan. It’s easy to mock, but the authors of the study wrote that there are several very real challenges millennials say they face. One is that they’ll have to care for their parents financially. Another is that they feel Social Security will provide them no meaningful income by the time they retire. Last, the survey found 28 percent believed they wouldn’t be able to retire when they want — and another 28 percent believe they will never be able to retire.

In short, the lottery preys on vulnerable people

Think of the lottery this way: A lot of people voluntarily put money into a pot, and it is redistributed, at random, to just a few people. But if you’re already desperate and unable to afford even the most basic needs, then that tiny probability of digging yourself out of a hole is better than nothing.

It’s like a Hail Mary. It probably won’t work, but you feel like it’s your only option.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/1/13/10763268/lottery-poor-prey

The Millenials bit was interesting, considering that I read an article in the National Post that observed lottery corporations in many Canadian provinces starting to have stagnant revenues due to millennials not gambling as much as their parents did. A stat that didn’t surprise me, considering the trajectory of the generation (along with up and coming Gen Z) so far. For those in Canada, I think it boils down to a combination of a lack of disposable income to spend, and wisdom (partly from growing up connected to the wild west that is the internet today) which is inherently antithetical to lotto gaming. We’re inherently less inclined to piss away money we don’t have, and we’re not as easily seduced by extraordinarily long odds.

This is not to say that American millennials (who seemingly are trending in the opposite direction) don’t have that wisdom. They likely still know better than their parents. It’s a necessity (the downtrodden generally can’t afford the aloofly ignorant life of the privileged). None the less, however, I suspect most American millennials are even worse off than us Canadians in the same cohort. I’m not quoting stats (admittedly), but all one needs to know is how different the financial responsibilities are on both sides of the border. Not only was the United States unprepared for the 2008 crash (nor are they prepared for the next big dip), residents also have to worry about health insurance by law. Whilst working 3 or 4 different jobs trying to pay rent, food and the basics, they also have to allocate thousands a month toward barley any coverage. 

American Millenials know. But they are just like everyone else left behind by the modern day serf economy. A situation that can be summed up with “What else can I do?!“.

Lotteries are something I’ve dabbled in before. A fair amount when I was 18 and didn’t give long-form thought to much of anything. Significantly less in my later years because I know better. But, I wasn’t immune to purchasing a $1 scratch card here or a $6 lottery ticket there (generally after winning the money on a scratch card). But after this, I think I’m going to stop participating entirely. And overall, it dosesn’t matter that I’ve never touched a VLT (Video lotto terminal) or played in a casino. It’s all statistical nonsense subsidized by the hopeless and the afflicted. 

I have to say, however, that the governing body of Canadian lotteries has a lot to do with my current stance on all this nonsense. It was them that changed one of Canada’s 2 national lottery games from $3 to $5 a pop. Thus making me realize how high the jackpots ALWAYS were on account of the increased price. And how this high jackpot was like catnip to lottery players everywhere. And so the vicious cycle continues.

Often times, enabled by the evening news.

Rape, murder, stabbing, murder, drive-by targeting a school, corrupt politician caught, arts & entertainment, the stock market, do you have your ticket?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things That Annoy Me – Part 18

83.) Canadian Conservatives In The Era Of Justin Trudeau

+

84.) The Canadian Tarsands Oil Delusion

Since Harpers ousting from the prime ministerial position back in 2015, Canada has not been the same.

We’re deeper in debt than ever before. Too many immigrants coming over the border, all of which get free room and board at MY expense. There are help and assistance programs available for every class but MINE, the hard working. We’re already paying out the ass for everything, and now we get this carbon tax thrust on us too! And the pipeline bullshit. . . our economy NEEDS a pipeline!

If Trudeau wins in October, this country is BANKRUPT.

It has never been a worse time to be a middle class conservative Canadian of means. In the digital realm and the physical realm, from sea to shining sea, the agonized cries of the downtrodden rightwingers is impossible to avoid. Short of moving to Alert, Nunavut.

Being a millennial, I’ve only been on this rock for 30 years worth of politics, only 12 to 13 of them in which I actually paid attention. Most of that time was under conservative leadership, though I do remember a bit of Chrétien. What I don’t remember, however, is this level of partisanship ever being against one leader.
But Pierre Trudeau wasn’t a popular man in these parts. It’s, therefore, no surprise that many of his detractor’s parents seem to be following suit. It would seem, in lockstep.

At work. Out with friends. With people I know. Hell, even with random people I meet. I haven’t met ONE Trudeau criticism that didn’t seem ripped straight out of a social media meme. Frankly, a meme that very possibly may not have even originated in Canada. They aren’t just targeting The US and Brexit, after all. It’s EVERYONE.

Given that the generation I am speaking of grew up without any ability to critically filter incoming information, this result is unsurprising.

Having said that, however, STILL not even ONE non-regurgitated critique? Really?

So much for the wisdom of our elders.

I myself, am not 100% pro-Trudeau. The man has followed his word in some respects (like marijuana legislation), but in others, he has been just…idiotic. One of those decisions being the purchase of the trans-mountain pipeline. At a time when all economic signs are showing worldwide petroleum driven companies and economies transitioning to more renewable (or diverse) investment mixes, the time to bet on tar is NOT now.

No, NOT oil. It’s TAR.

It has to be processed even before it can enter a pipeline or tanker, then AGAIN at the receivers end. Canadian petroleum isn’t just limited by its inability to reach so-called Asian customers. . . it’s limited because it’s GARBAGE.

Places like Texas and other sweet crude producers can get top dollar because they have a good product. From the ground, it can be refined into pretty much any petrochemical derivative. Very little money spent getting it to market. As opposed to the costs of first separating the tar and sand, then shipment. And of course, the discount is given to the customer because. . . it’s garbage.

My explanation is painfully brief. It’s without reference to source material. It’s like, pretty much every anti-Trudeau argument I’ve come across.

I didn’t show my work, how I am coming to this VERY controversial conclusion. However, it is based around various observations of worldwide happenings. The biggest developing nations advancing renewables at a rapid and expanding pace. Electric vehicles making HUGE gains (and therefore shedding cost) in 2017 and 2018 consecutively. Traditionally fossil fuel invested economies and companies diversifying into tourism, and electric utilities.

Dubai. Abu Dhabi.

These are not just cities built on the riches of petroleum. They are an investment. An attempt to establish a series of Las Vagas-esk destinations to turn the middle east into a tourist playground.

The only places on earth that seem to have not gotten the memo on this are the coal supporting Southern States of the US, and Alberta. And the only bitumen supporters that don’t seem to have a view built on pablum and propaganda, are industry insiders and bay street investors! People that exist in a bubble as a matter of putting food on the table, and people that can’t see past the next quarter.

It’s a pipe dream (oh the irony). And the longer Alberta and Canada continues throwing all their eggs into one single basket whilst falsely claiming it to be the only path to a better, more sustainable Canada, the worse off the crunch will be.

There is still activity happening in the industry. New facilities are coming online, and current players are continuing operations. However, since the window between securing funds and breaking ground is generally around 5 to 7 years, it will take a few years for the stagnation to become apparent. The industry isn’t going away instantly (investors have to make good on their investments). However, new development is getting scarce. And old development is starting to pull out, little by little.

Of course, many will likely point to the lack of access to a market argument as a reason for this. Possibly. However, any company with a board of directors that has any sense of the direction of world innovation can see where the winds are blowing. And as production facilities and refineries start to age to the point of being money pits of obsolescence, you will see even more pull out.

It will take more than that to falter the Canadian producers (the delusion is strong, from bottom to boardroom). However, a world economy increasingly rejecting their product in favour of easier to work with varieties of cheaper and cheaper sweet(er) crude will be a sign that NO ONE will be able to ignore, for long. It’s not going to happen overnight. But I have no doubt that this is EXACTLY where we are headed.

In a sense, the province of Alberta has become Canada’s equivalent to that annoying child who keeps screaming at their parent for not buying them a toy that they want. Only rather than giving a stern “NO!” answer and proposing something more healthy to the entirety of the nation, most of us collectively just. . . listen. Listen as people thrown out of work by a worldwide oil price drop (bitumen costs money to process and thus needs price inflation to be profitable. Was this REALLY the best long term strategy for an entire regions economy?) complain about being cast aside by economic cycles. YES, it’s happened before.
Some Albertans even dangle in the face of other Canadians the fact that Alberta is a Have province, essentially arguing that they are like the hardworking taxpayer supporting the other welfare queen provinces of the Canadian federation.

It’s easy to say that now, from their perspective. However, 25, 35, 40 years from now, I can foresee a WHOLE lot of abandoned and rotting former tarsands infrastructure that the Alberta (and Canadian!) taxpayers are going to be stuck with dealing with. Because when companies go bankrupt, they aren’t liable for the mess they leave behind. The fictional corporate entity simply disappears, with a few well-placed entities getting invested cash back, but most walking away empty handed. Leaving governments (socialism!) to clean up the expensive, toxic mess.

As much as Canada’s provincial equivalent to Donald Trump annoys me, I don’t WANT Alberta to become a gigantic toxic combination of Detroit and Appalachia. However, it comes with the territory of allowing a giant economic entity to bring riches to your region. If they restructure or fold, YOU clean up the mess. YOU are stuck with the inevitable social erosion of a community filled with obsolete workers.

Back to Trudeau.

While we all know how much this country hates the guy, it’s the perfect post to take a parent stance on idiots and the reactionary public.

Get your heads out of your collective asses and listen!

Massive spending on renewables, level 3 charging stations from coast to coast, subsidies for the sale and manufacture of EV’s in Canada. We don’t need your stagnant and ultimately bad for job creation abortion to future generations to pave the way to a better tomorrow!

But of course, that won’t happen. Because he is in the corporate status quo too. Why he bought trans-mountain. And why he’s currently entangled in the SNC Lavalin mess that may cost him the election in October.

I’m not a huge Trudeau supporter anymore, because he seems more neo-liberal than anything else. Credit I will give for bringing marijuana out of the realm of stupid and into the realm of personal freedom. However, he’s not been without his fair share of disappointments.

Having said that though, I may well vote for him just on the chance that he may well GET re-elected. While the NDP might have promise, they generally don’t have a hope in hell of gaining the PMO position. And since Andrew Scheer offers NOTHING but boomer pablum to a generation that will be gone in 20 to 30 years, such a seemingly silly vote is not so silly after all.

85.) People That Add Faith To Their Name On Social Media

Julie Faith Lee-Chalmers.

Give me a break. As though all the annoying and judgy memes didn’t already give it away.

Here’s a tip. . . stop telling us, and start ACTING THE PART. Yes, it’s a strawman. But in my anecdotal experience, the loudest Jesus freaks tended to also be the most full of shit.

86.) Bureaucrats Who Complain About Problems They Helped Create

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/cannabis-beer-fielding-1.5042722

The legal sale of cannabis has vaporized more than $6 million worth of provincial beer sales, Manitoba’s finance minister claimed as he continued to predict no net revenue from recreational weed.

Almost six months after Canada legalized the sale of recreational cannabis, Manitoba is not expecting to make a profit off the new industry, Finance Minister Scott Fielding said Monday.

We knew this was coming. Hell, it was news around THE WORLD that Canada was legalizing marijuana. The private sector saw the opportunity and begun preparing YEARS ahead of the legislation date. The biggest hurdles were with bureaucratic red tape.
Provinces that ran with the change were more or less ready for the legislation, so they are now doing fairly well. The provinces that choose to apparently hope this fad just went away,  are now WAY behind. Causing shortages in supply that may take years to overcome, and a bottleneck in the ability to get the product to market. Because many of the outlets STILL aren’t ready!

Expenditures related to legal cannabis will outpace revenue from its sale for years, said Fielding, who declined to say whether the province will make any cannabis revenue projections in the provincial budget expected on Thursday.

He also suggested any cannabis profits could be offset by reduced beer sales, based on Colorado’s experience following legalization.

“When cannabis is introduced to a marketplace, what actually happens is beer sales goes down. We anticipate that our beer sales are going to go down by upwards of $6 million dollars,” Fielding told reporters at the Manitoba legislative building.

It would seem that a good time to be dealing with all of these expenses would be when we’re still dealing with maximum cash flow. Whilst we’re still selling beer, get this taken care of. So the hit in the balls when people transition from one to the other isn’t so pronounced.

Or . . . bitch and complain when the obvious happens.

What are conservatives good for if not crying about problems they themselves helped spearhead.

*cough*

TARSANDS!

87.) Password Managers & Incompetent Web Admins

I’ve been online long enough to see the increased sophistication in terms of the ways in which people are unwittingly getting bitten by security vulnerabilities. From unlawfully obtained data dumps to good ole brute force tactics, simple (and most importantly, SHARED!) passwords are no longer effective. One may as well just use a single or double character password for the amount of protection one is getting from password or 123456. Hell, single, double, or triples may be even MORE SECURE than the above, because no one could possibly be dumb enough to use use as their password, surely!

In reality, passwords should have been left in the dust a LONG time ago. A relic of a bygone era wherein everyone logged into dumb terminals, which relied on a networked host computer for anything outside of data inputs.
I learned this from Steve Gibson, host of the fascinating, terrifying and altogether complex (at least for those outside of the realm of IT) podcast called Security Now. He also is in the process (and has nearly completed) a potential replacement to the password called SQRL. Since I’m not confident that I can boil down the entire process, I’ll let Steve do the explaining.

• The QR code presented near the login prompt contains the URL of the authentication service for the site. The URL includes a securely generated long random number so that every presentation of the login page displays a different QR code. (In crypto circles this long random number is known as a “nonce.”)

• The smartphone’s SQRL authentication app cryptographically hashes the domain name of the site keyed by the user’s master key to produce a site-specific public key pair.

• The app cryptographically signs the entire URL contained in the QR code using the site-specific private key. Since the URL includes a secure long random number (the nonce), the signature is unique for that site and QR code.

• The app issues a secure HTTPS POST query to the QR code’s URL, which is the authentication service for the site. The POST provides the site-specific public key and the matching cryptographic signature of the QR code’s URL.

• The authenticating web site receives and acknowledges the POST query by returning a standard HTTP “200 OK” with no other content. The SQRL app acknowledges the successful submission of the user-signed QR code.

• The authenticating site has the URL containing the nonce which came back from the login page via the user’s smartphone. It also has a cryptographic signature of that URL, and the user’s site-specific public key. It uses the public key to verify that the signature is valid for the URL. This confirms that the user who produced the signature used the private key corresponding to the public key. After verifying the signature, the authenticating site recognizes the now-authenticated user by their site-specific public key.

  https://www.grc.com/sqrl/sqrl.htm

Like everything else in the tech realm, the behind the scenes stuff is beyond the grasp of most, but the actual experience is smooth and simple. Otherwise known as, completely the opposite experience to ANY password manager I’ve ever used so far.

Since I do this (a blog about all kinds of topics that tend to get under peoples skin), and just because of the increasingly hostile online world that we live in, I figured that strong passwords were the way to go. I started with the simple but effective method that is having 3 hard copies (written, not typed, and thus kicking around in my machine’s memory somewhere) stored in safe places. I would update (change passwords) every 5 or 6 months. Then I graduated to the password manager Keeper, which stored all my passwords (and self-generated stronger ones) for $30 a year. I later found LastPass which had a free version which has all of this functionality without the cost.

With both, you store your passwords in a vault which is decrypted by your master password (the only password you have to remember). I don’t have any issue with that. However, the apps and add-ons for your various devices which store the passwords in your vault locally (enabling the auto-filling of password fields) are notoriously unsynced.
For Keeper, changing passwords on the laptop never seemed to transfer to vaults in other devices. Which seen me have login issues EVERY SINGLE TIME. LastPass I thought was better, but it seems to be the issue in reverse. Since I’m just starting out in Windows again (and was previously inputting from Android devices into LastPass), now the local Windows app doesn’t have all the passwords!

It is recommended and more secure to use the local vault instead of remotely accessing the vault online. And that method is certainly handier. If only it were as smooth an experience in practice as it is in theory.

Users and representatives of both products named here, am I doing something wrong? Feel free to comment below.

The next set of issues has nothing to do with password managers themselves. It is strictly on the administrators of websites.

The first is having websites disable the paste option in form fields. While it gives the illusion of better security for its users (it’s not as easy to cut and paste copied data), it makes the use of password managers a gigantic pain in the ass. Fortunately, it’s easy enough to get around this in both Firefox and Chrome (switching a setting in Firefox and downloading an extension in chrome). And yet another thing that functional password managers SHOULD eliminate.

Another bane of my digital existence are websites that have stupidly annoying password policies.

• maximum length (often painfully short)
• a single number allowed
• a single symbol allowed
• maximum length requirement, but is undisclosed

Thankfully, most of the biggest platforms one is likely to use on a daily basis will accept whatever long string of soup you throw at them. Unfortunately, the worst offenders for this nonsense also tend to be the services that you want to keep the tightest grip on. Banking, credit cards, telecommunications and others. Places where good security standards need to be PARAMOUNT, also don’t make this an easy task to accomplish.

This rant is in a category called Things That Annoy Me. In reality, though, this issue actually pisses me off. The incentive should NOT be geared towards making people say “Fuck it! Who would want to hack me anyway?”. Whilst password choice DOES indeed fall on the individual, most of the players involved don’t make doing the right thing easy.
Would mandated legislation regarding passwords and security promotion help bring a more manageable standard? Would the thought of it scare enough platforms into compliance without the need for regulation?

One thing is for sure…SQRL cannot be finished soon enough. If its as good a protocol as the people around Steve seem to think it is, then I can’t wait for mass deployment. I should note that such permeation is at current, akin to wishful thinking. But I have to keep my fingers crossed.

Because the alternative is FUCKING GARBAGE!

88.) People Who Think I Over Analyze Everything

It was an innocent enough conversation. I, in true ME fashion, was mocking the so-called stated values of the company for which I am employed. I don’t remember what they are off the top of my head, but integrity is one of them. Which is a real laugh, even without the other 3. Naturally, one of my good co-workers mentioned that I’m just over analyzing things. It’s been years, but it’s nothing I haven’t heard before.

Though this is the mindset of the average person (going with the flow is the easy option), imagine the trajectory of human innovation if we all followed the same logic. The first obvious thing to note is that it is NOT a good status quo for business. Particularly in these changing times.
In fact, I give my current workplace about 5 years. It’s run seemingly without considering the impact of inefficiency or current competition (let alone what the future will bring). Given that a similar store to mine has been driven under in a similar market to this one, it’s not a concern without merit. My company may offer an excellent pension plan, but what good is that if the outlet won’t last that long?!

My location operates like this. The regional division of the company I work for operates like this. The national parent company of mine operates in this way. Hell, given the mass support in the Western provinces that Alberta has amassed for a pipeline, a huge chunk of the country operates like this.

This can be condensed down to essentially baby boomer logic. Which seems to equate “This is how it’s always been done, so this is the best path forward”. From corporate boards to governments, this mentality still reigns supreme. And as long as these minds still have influence, this mentality will continue infecting up and coming generations as well. Kids that are guilty of simply following the old adage that is respect and listen to your elders. Despite the fact that doing so may well spell the end of life as we know it. Lights out.

How convenient that most of these elders have maybe 25 to 30 years left. If they are wrong, it dosesn’t matter!

This blog is filled with posts concluding with predictions (given current trends of the time), and even alternative conclusions to the current accepted context. Things that I had written about back in 2013,2014, 2015 often have started to show up in the mainstream, though often times as WAY bigger issues than I had imagined.
My fear that an overly micromanaged digital existence may be causing people to develop false perceptions of reality manifested in the 2016 electoral fiasco’s. It wasn’t just a potential problem, it was a zero-day.

It’s not a matter of me over analyzing things. It’s a matter of YOU people not being analytical enough. Given the trajectory of our path as a species, this nonsense had BETTER stop soon. Or no one is going to be mindlessly dragging their feet into any form of tomorrow (let alone a better tomorrow).

89.) Laundromat Logic

I don’t know about in other cities around Canada (and the world), but the logic of laundromats here perplexes me. Every single one in town has more washing machines than dryers. The difference ranges from one or two to 10+ more. Not a problem that anyone thinks about until the day they happen upon 2 families that do laundry once a decade. Or as happened today, when one family takes up every dryer but takes fucking forever to unload and fold up their shit. Even after my 2 loads were done after 45 minutes, they were STILL folding their stuff one at a time. Completely oblivious to the fact that they were holding all the dryers AND the hampers hostage.

I guess the moral of the story is this . . .

If you decide to do all your laundry at once at a busy laundromat when you only do laundry twice a year, you’re an asshole.

Things That Annoy Me – Part 17

81.) Critical Thinking

A hit and a miss. Better luck next time!

82.) Baby Boomers

For many years, millennials annoyed me.  Looking back, all the way to high school really. I didn’t know the name of the generation (MY generation) at the time, but I knew that they annoyed me. If I recall, it was mostly the conformity and cluelessness that bugged me.
As I transitioned into the world of working and employment, it was the laziness and immaturity that got me. It seemed that I was always cleaning up or fixing the issues of some inept youngin.

And then I pulled my head out of my ass.

To be fair, I wasn’t entirely wrong. When it comes to the assumptions of my teens, we can dismiss those. It was also a time when I thought that everyone who did drugs was bad people. A false notion that adulthood experience quickly smashed.
And I have (and DO) spend a whole lot f time cleaning up the messes of others. But not just the young. Much like stupid or irrationally biased people (racist, sexist, homophobic, whatever), lazy workers come in all forms.

A big part of it came early in my career, at my very first fast food job.  One manager, in particular, was always pushing you to think ahead. If you finish this task, then what is the next step.
Another manager had EXTREMELY high cleaning standards, and I SWEAR stopped just short of inspecting the dining room and the washrooms with a magnifying glass. Cleaning for him was annoying as hell because there was always something. Until there was nothing one time, to my surprise.
Another aspect of this story is my brain. Even before being turned onto philosophy and otherwise sampling the world of academia from the outside, I have had a strong sense of logic and an annoying inability to just close my eyes and leave it be. It’s helped me come to realizations about atheism, my former flair. But it has also made life difficult to navigate in the real world.

From a productivity perspective, this tends to be good for whatever faceless entity happens to be profiting from the fruits of my labor. When in an assinine environment, short of the idiocy being put right in your face, I’ve generally learned that keeping yourself occupied helps.
Spending the majority of life engaging in pointless work is a cross of its own to bear. Add in boredom, and you soon find yourself amplifying whatever macro emotion is present. Almost certainly frustration, but sometimes depression. Though that also tends to swing towards frustration as well.
And so, I try and keep busy. Keep occupied. Attempt to keep the ignorant idiocy of the machine at bay by, doing something.

From a young age, young people tended to annoy me. Given some time, this seems a somewhat unfair comparison being that I have always been apart from them. Not above them, just on a different path than much of the status quo. I am not brilliant or outstanding in comparison. I am just, different in many ways. Rather than a benchmark for all to measure up to, I am just another fish in the sea.

Which begs the question, where did this attitude come from?

Certainly, false bravado and anecdotal life experience played no small part (neither of which I was cogent enough of to realize for most of my life). None the less, it would be foolish to deny that the culture in which we live, with its saturation of contempt towards the young and rebellious, didn’t have any influence. Even if it just boiled down to me unknowingly committing Argumentum Ad Populum, influences are influences.

Which brings us to the subject of this annoyance and the main purveyors of this bias towards the young. The Baby boomers.

Generally speaking, I can think of no cohort that wields more control and influence in pretty much every area of both the private and public sectors. No cohort comes close to the entitlement behaviors as displayed by this generation (though, they love projecting this onto the millennials). Nor does any cohort come anywhere even NEAR the fragility of this generations collective emotional psyche. Dare I say once more that Donald Trump is not an exception, he is a mirror.

Life is, and so far always has been, based on a trajectory set by the baby boomers. It is a trajectory and destructive existence that threatens our very survival as a / the conscious and sentient species. But it is a trajectory that we are so far sticking to because there is still power and profit to be retained by this cohort.
To put it simply, the young being sacrificed for the comfort and spoils of the old.

This is what I think when I hear willfully downtrodden yet otherwise able-bodied white men ask questions like “What has this government ever done for me?!”. This is what I think of when I have to dutifully execute some idiotic task as designated by some empty vessel in a position over me, in any employment environment. This is what I think of when I look at almost any political conversation in any nation. And this is what I think of when I see attacks, smearing, and eventually flat-out frustration aimed at a bunch of Florida teens (and an ever-growing audience) that no longer feels obligated to swallow the same old bullshit.

In fact, much ado is commonly made because of younger generations in a sense, not swallowing the shit that appeased their parents. Think of the ever-growing list of Millenials are killing ______ items that even legitimate publications can’t resist mirroring. Such lists are amusing to me because they generally boil down to the mediocre, the unaffordable, and the obsolete.

My generation is killing the landline because we carry around this little portable device that serves the same purpose, and then some. The landline is our telegraph.
Millenials are killing cable TV because many have embraced a new platform that is both far easier on the personal time budget AND the pocketbook. Even 5 seconds spent skipping advertisements on a signal that you already paid for is 5 seconds you won’t get back.
Millenials are killing all manner of mediocre restaurant chains, beers and all manner of fodder that I like to call boomer pablum. This likely due to the young having different tastes to the old, or just not having the same disposable income that their parents had.

And millennials are killing home ownership because . . . who the fuck can afford a home these days?!

One of my relations (guess which generation they are a part of!) managed to purchase a home with his career and kept it even after unfortunate circumstances brought an end to that career a decade before their set retirement. Despite other setbacks, they still had a personal piece of property to call their own. But due to their choice in embracing self-pity over everything else (including taking even a LITTLE responsibility for their own actions), that home was squandered. What was a fixer-upper some 25 years ago, is now essentially trash. Just a future plot of land to build another 4 plex.

Bill Maher once remarked on his show that the only acceptable form of discrimination left in the public sphere is ageism. Hillarious, coming from someone that it seems can’t go 2 episodes without saying something stupid about millennials. Either way, if such is the case, then I suppose that I am guilty as charged. An agist asshole.

What can I say . . . I can’t help myself.

The very well that we all need to drink from, is permanently polluted with your piss.

 

Things That Anoy Me- Part 16

76.) Tragedy Of The Sheeple

I miss the days when it took more than getting fired over sharing a genuinely biased message to get attention from the public. You know, those days when you needed more than charisma in order to have your opinions on societies biggest problems taken seriously.

Back in my days as a child, the “You can’t believe everything you see on TV!” mantra was drilled into at least my brain.
But as an adult, I rarley (if ever) see the same stance being taught to children (let alone embraced by most anyone else!) in the context of social media and the internet. Which is a HUGE disservice to not only our children, but the whole of society itself. When in combination with things like content tayloring algrighyms, one can only HOPE that this huge educational gap is not resulting in to much mental anguish due to percieved confirmation bias (at the micro level), or enabling the whole sale destablization of whole societies (at the macro level).

But I suspect that we will continue to have this phenomenon of idiots in the spotlight (many cashing in on crowd sourcing, of course!) for as long as we do not teach people anything beyond HOW to use the internet.
Learning how to operate the machine is important. But since it is essentially the wild west of the 21st century, failing to warn people that some areas of the internet are akin to entering lawless southwestern towns a century ago is only asking for trouble.

77.) Christmas Creep

http://www.cbc.ca/news/move-over-pumpkin-spice-latte-safeway-offering-eggnog-in-september-1.4292312 

Aside from aiding and abetting the whole news advertising phenomenon of late (really CBC?!), we have another reason to hate capitalism.  I am not sure when this piece will be published, but yes, the date on the article is correct.

September. Late September, granted. But still . . . September.

Yeah, it’s everyone’s pet peeve.  The build-up to the ultimate mediocre event becomes more and more drawn out with each passing year. But to be fair to Empire (masters of Safeway and Sobeys in Canada), this is not the earliest I have seen Christmas deployed.  It was only a year or 2 ago that I saw brits mixed reactions to holiday shops opening in August, and Christmas cakes with expiration dates BEFORE Christmas itself. At least Safeway held out until Thanksgiving was at least in sight.

But I suppose it is official . . . that time of the year has officially arrived. That period between September and back to school, and New Years. Holiday hell.

For the retail worker writer of this blog, it means more traffic. More people (often with their obnoxious spawn in toe) gathering up every unhealthy and sugar-laden thing they can get their hands on, making an unholy mess that could rival Irma in their wake.  And as the holidays get closer (first Thanksgiving, then the hellish culmination that is Christmas), people will behave with less and less holiday cheer.

“Merry Christmas”? “Happy Holidays”?

More like “Go fuck yourself and get the fuck out of my way!”.

After Halloween is over, the remembrance day sheep will voice their disdain for stores and people that DARE to decorate in holiday garb before the sacred day that is remembrance day has passed. Though many of these poppy wearing twats will have no issue crowding stores and shops 1 second after 1pm. When they are legally allowed to reopen for business.

SHOW SOME RESPECT!

Just don’t fuck with my ability to buy bread, butter, or 10 cans of tomatos because they are a dollar. Those brave men and women DIED for our right to buy cheap tomatoes!

Once past the remebrance day mark, October and November eventually slide into December. The whole marketing machine will kick into high gear, once more.

The Christmas First brigade will make itself visible once more. Be it pins, Facebook memes and posts or some other way, they will shove the dick of Christ right into our societal holiday traditions. All the while claiming persecution and becoming triggered little snowflakes at the sight of a world taking a less THEM oriented stance in a multicultural world.

Its gonna be a blast.

I can’t wait for the holiday retail playlist to make its yearly appearance!

78.) Cries Of The Chronically Obsolete

http://business.financialpost.com/technology/gaming/pewdiepies-casual-racism-is-scary-but-even-more-terrifying-are-the-millions-of-fans-who-still-support-him

First off, I don’t give much of a shit about Pewdiepie, or the incident. Well, either this one or the previous one. The first one, where he paid for hire consultants to say something overtly racist (aparently just to see if they would actually do it). At least some did, as you probably guessed. And the 2ed incident being his calling someone that annoyed him in a video game session the N word (I heard the audio).

Given the context, its arguably not the first word that would come to mind. Maybe its common in his private group of companians, and slipped out in the public forum.
Shit happens. I am not going to play the part of the launguage police, tearing someone down just because of a lapse in judgement.
Particularly since the old gaurd of media is likley trawling though every terabyte of non-traditional popular content on youtube, looking for something else to villinize.

But now, the tactic changes. From trying to shame the source, to trying to shame the so called supporters.

The freedom of the Internet is fantastic and all, but there really is something to be said for the standards and controls enforced by traditional media.

We were all reminded of this again last week when YouTube star Felix Kjellberg – better known by his online handle, PewDiePie – let loose a nasty racial slur in a clip of him playing the popular online battle royale shooter PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. It was too harsh for publication in a family newspaper, but suffice to say it involved an F-bomb plus that most controversial of racial epithets. And it was brought on simply because he was having a hard time shooting a random player from a distance. He doesn’t even seem to notice what he’s said until a few seconds later, when his expression changes slightly and he adds, chuckling, “I don’t mean that in a bad way.” Whatever that means.

Whatever that means.

I could be wrong. But it sounds like an inside word from an internal group that accidently slipped out at the wrong time. In a way, even less pertinent than Bill Maher’s brush with the N word earlier this year.

But it was too late. It was out there. And social media did what it does in situations like this. The highest paid YouTuber of 2016 – he now has an estimated net worth of about $20 million – was raked over the coals by gamers and non-gamers alike, many of whom were already fed up with his questionable behaviour in past videos, including a post earlier this year in which viewers saw his reaction to a pair of men holding a sign with an anti-Semitic slogan (which eventually cost him a lucrative partnership with Disney). Already notorious within mainstream media, dozens of sites – including The Guardian, CBS, Wired, and Variety – reported on this latest outburst.

Imagine that. And I bet that none of them loaded the reports with advertisments, so as to prove that their agenda in this was purly selfless.

But it’s his fans that are perhaps the most troubling part of all of this. Despite his continued offences, Kjellberg’s subscriber numbers have grown by millions this year alone, now sitting well over 57 million. His channel still has the most subscribers of any on YouTube. And each new video he produces is still receiving millions of views. He continues to be, by any meaningful measure, YouTube’s biggest original star.

Its almost like many people don’t give a fuck about manufactured outrage. As if up and coming generations have less interest in the typical pablum formula that worked so well on the boomers that came before them.

Imagine that. Something else that the young have killed.

This tacit decision by millions of people to simply overlook his unacceptable behaviour is kind of terrifying – though perhaps not all that surprising, given the recent rise of far-right movements around the world. His subscribers can’t even use the separate-the-art-from-the-artist defence – as some have tried with writer Orson Scott Card and filmmaker Mel Gibson – because, in the case of Kjellberg, the art is the artist. What we see in his videos – especially videos of him simply playing a game – is not an act. It’s just Kjellberg being Kjellberg. People who still watch and support him despite his bigotry are implicitly buying into casual racism.

And as long as millions continue to do so, they won’t consider themselves outliers. The strength of numbers will make them confident that the rest of the world is just overreacting, making a big deal out of something that ought not be much of an issue. Put simply, Kjellberg’s legions of loyal fans are actively normalizing his behaviour.

First off, subscribers do not necessarily mean viewers. Many people have subscriptions to many channels that they may not even pay much attention to anymore. I did up until recently (I got fed up with them clogging up my feed).
As for the others, chances are they pay more attention to the litterally thousands of hours worth of video in which he is NOT casually racist. A bit like the millions of hours of television aired on various networks that accidently carried Janet Jacksons titty for a split second.

Normalization of this behavier? One can’t write off the concept, I supose. But I worry far more about President Trump doing that. Even the most prominent Youtube face dosen’t have THAT big of a platform.

Though he does still have viewership numbers that would make many traditional media company wet in the trousers.

So what’s to be done? Probably not much. YouTube has taken punitive action against Kjellberg in the past, removing him from Google Preferred and axing his original series Scare PewDiePie, but the online video giant is unlikely to go so far as to ban him.

Dare I say . . . GOOD!

First off, thanks for feeding into the Orwellian Free Speech hype machine. Its bad enough having whole cohorts droning on and on about a topic they don’t know FUCK ALL about in depth without shit like this only enabling them further.

To take the libratarian approach, Youtube COULD ban him if they wanted. Private ownership comes with that power.

But I would hope they woudn’t, because I leave the job of the deciders of content to the consumers. Its not like were dealing with David Duke. If people are that off put by it, they will go away. If not, then so be it.

As the top channel on the service, removing him would be akin to HBO cancelling Game of Thrones, or ESPN giving up Monday Night Football. It’s just not going to happen.

Thank goodness for capitalism!

And, despite his apology, it’s probably too much to ask that Kjellberg actually learns from his mistake this time and makes meaningful amends not just through a change in behaviour but also engaging in activism and awareness campaigns, as any good PR professional would surely recommend to him right about now.

So, engage in needless self promotion in the name of making amends for a slip of the tounge?

Why not.

More likely, we’ll simply need to continue to rely on the conscience of social media to keep tabs on him, and hope the message that antics like these are unacceptable slowly sinks in for those who continue to watch and support him. It’s a sad state of affairs, but it’s where we are.

I have my doubts that it will happen again. If it does, I still won’t care really.I will consider him to be one of the biggest dumbasses ever for getting caught in the same trap yet again.

But thats pretty much it. To me, he is irrelevant.

Does he hold views that I think a dangorous, however?

Yes.

One thing I will say . . . love the headphones.

That aside, THIS SHIT is far more dangorous than his casual rasism. I hesitate to label him a flat out climate denier because he never explicitly says it (climate skeptic?). But if I can watch this and come to that conclusion, its safe to say that many others will to. Which is a terrible use of this giant megaphone.

To wrap it up, the traditional media can play these games all they want. But we see though the smokescreen, and were not falling for it.

79.) I Hate Baby Boomers

There was once a time when my attitude was quite typical. If I were to list one generation as one that annoys me, I would more than likely have said millenials. Despite being one myself (on the head end of the group), I would have likley used the same reasonings as many older people do now. They are underachievers, they are overly distracted by technology, and they are to weak to sucseed. And they are KILLING many traditional forms of . . . everything!

From entertainment, to banking, to food and beverage.  Fucking kids, man!

So common is this attitude amoung the older generation that someone like Bill Maher can shit on millenials litterally at the drop of a dime. And no one bats an eyelash.

You can find it at the tail end of the following clip (5:25). Maher bringing up the so called fragile nature of the millenial generation. As though what amounts to a vocal minority in a hyper media saturated world is representative of an entire generational cohort. As though the VAST majority of millenials are not to busy struggling though daily peasant life to give much of a fuck if he or Milo douche canoe Yiannopoulos speak at Berkley.

This, coming from a man that claims that agism is the only acceptable form of bigotry and bias left in this era. Yeah, okay. Sorry for making you feel so triggered you fragile snowflake.
Or, very astute observation! Depending how you look at it.

Isn’t it nice to be a baby boomer that has made it? Isn’t it nice to have had your fun with the planet (to paraphrase him)?
Naturally, all that is left is to look down at the young people with disdain.

Maher is generally on the right side of things, to be fair. In fact, when it comes to the idiotic notion that is moving from this increasingly voletile planet to Mars (or somewhere beyond), he was pretty much the only person with a large platform that I seen come out AGAINST this. Credit where credit is due.

But, enough with shitting on the youngsters (be they millenials, or beyond). While a privilaged few may be making waves by taking various so called SJW ideologies WAY to the extreme, the vast majority don’t even have the option of higher education. They are stuck inhabbiting the broken econamy left for them by the previous generations excesses.

That is pretty much the story of every post boomer generation. Were stuck with what remains. The shitty service econamy with the lack of a living wage as a RULE, the pollution and increasing ecological degredation and instability. The scary fact that the world that our children (and US!) may see as a reality could well be VERY diffrent than the one that our predesessors abused and trashed.

Often completly oblivious to this enormous degree of destruction being left in their wake, these fat and stupid morons continue to talk down to the young, and post moronic shit like this all over social media.

 

To stupid to realize that they are freely doing the bidding of fossil fuel companies and glorifed petrol states like Saskatchewan and Alberta, they pollute our feeds and our brains with this shit.

I supose that I shoudn’t be surprised that a generation that grew up on a diet of one directional cable news would be so quick to spew without thought. But it is still unacceptable in an age where looking things up can be done with a simple tap or click.

Millenials used to annoy me. When I took my cues from people like Bill Maher, its no wonder I came to this conclusion! Everyday life is filled with examples of the typical millenial. And yet, everyday life is also filled with the typical entitled boomer. In fact, being in retail, I have noted that the millenials (and beyond) tend to be FAR more considerate than their elders. Unsurprisingly.

Why should an entitled ruling class give 2 shits about the peasants?

So yeah, there you have it. I have contempt for my elders, mostly Boomers. Their continued arrogance and refusal to give enen a LITTLE of the reins to the up and comers ticks me off. And I hope that future generations survive their unparalleled and continued assult on this cosmic rock that we call home.

George Carlin was right to call you assholes out. Bunch of fucking sellouts.

80.) Working Class Stupidity

Having grown up with a parent that was on social assistance by nesessity, I can assure you that our refrigerator and pantry NEVER EVER looked like that. In fact, both tend to be extremes. Though my fridge at current (and as a child) looks/looked more like the one on the right in the days before payday, its hardly a good indicator. If anything, it might tell us that this middle class family either has yet to go shopping, or does a lot of eating out. One of the first things Gail Vaz-Oxlade checks when helping a family with their finances is their refrigrator. Lots of condiments and little else tends to indicate that a lot of food money is allocated away from groceries.

Then again, this is hardly even worth going into indepth since those sharing this don’t put ANY thought into it.

I am reminded of an aquaintence complaining about not having much left of an around $80,000 a year salary because of taxes, expenses and other facts of life. You made a good life for yourself. You further ahead than likley millions of middle class Americans. So shut the fuck up and enjoy what you have.

The working classes assumption that it is the POOR that is fucking them is always a real hoot. It’s not those above you throwing your attention away from their antics by using essentially dog whistle tactics. Nope!

Nope!

It’s the poor. The poor that often would LOVE gainful employment, but instead settle for accepting whatever pittance they can get their hands on. All the while getting looked down upon, of course.

1.) If less money meant more stuff, then everyone would jump on the welfare train. Is that not logical?

2.) If you can compfortably own a $200,000 and up home, 2 vehicles, have 2 or more kids and have some cash left over for pleasure at the end of it all, I don’t feel sorry for you.

Workers of Canada and the world . . . stop being stupid parrots.

Things That Annoy Me – Part 15

72.) Performance Evaluations / Appraisals

If there is one part of typical jobs that has always annoyed me, it is this yearly bullshit session. The appraisal.

You sit down with your boss (whether they are likeable, tolerable or a downright fuck face) and you go through your work life. Everything you may or may not be doing. Every way that you may or may not be conforming to company policy. And of course, they dissect your general appearance. You are told how you are doing, but more importantly, what can be improved.

Personally, with all of these, I tune out. Because I just don’t give a shit. At present, I have a boss that is worthwhile. Someone that respects me and everyone else that he oversees. I return the gesture. But I still feel the same way about appraisals.

It is one thing in an ideal world, with competence at all levels. In fact, if people of intellect suited to their placement on the corporate ladder was a thing, I might feel very differently about these things. But as it stands, that is not generally the case. From the local boss to the suits in some far off boardroom, more often than not, you take your cues from some clueless hack with a high wage.  It might not make sense, or always even be executable outside the realm of on paper.

Even so, you better get it right, or so help you . . . you will not get a good appraisal! And if you don’t get a good appraisal, it will also more than likely be reflected in your pay. If not worse.
It does come off as the complaints of someone of whom more than likely gets shit grades in such situations, I admit. Which is unfortunate, since I tend to ace these things in almost every way. Time and again.

But I still hate the system. So long as my actions are being evaluated by some busy idiot that demands respect based solely on job title, I will not take it seriously. It might not be popular (or advancing) stance, but people earn my respect, PERIOD. I don’t give a fuck if you are a co-worker of seniority or the head of the organization. My respect is earned, not automatic.

* * *
On a slightly related note, is manager stress.

Managers telling their employee’s things like “It must be great for you guys to just come in, work your day, then go home. No stress”. As though I (or any other employee) should feel guilty about not wanting to do much beyond what is expected of them.

Yes, the buck stops at the manager, understandable. What doesn’t get done (or is neglected) has to be done by someone. Along with the duties that are entailed by being a manager . . . anywhere.

Having said that, however . . . cry me a river.

You made the choice to take on the responsibilities when you opted into the higher pay associated with the position. No one put a gun to your head. It was voluntary. While I don’t dismiss your stress, I also don’t feel guilty about someone else’s personal choice.

There is a reason why I never took any of my employers up on so called opportunities for advancement. I evaluated the situation in each case and realized that I didn’t want to deal with the bullshit. And looking back, in pretty much EVERY single case, my foresight was right.

A time may come where an upward advance feels like the right move. But until then, to those that do make that choice . . . piss off.

 

73.) Go Fuck Off

I really hate crowd funding sites.

I will admit that they have their good points. People afflicted by illness can sometimes use a helping hand. A hand not available even 5 years ago, but a hand that I now have no real problem with. And crowd funding can fund and help promote all manner of innovation that would otherwise go unnoticed or underfunded. Something that is critical in these scary days of booming population numbers and ecological instability.

Yet, as much as crowd funding is a savior, it is also a scourge.

Supporting innovations that more than likely have no future in reality (supporters and developers just often refuse to accept this truth). Enabling scam artists to easily make a small fortune. Or just enabling the entitled lazies to pawn personal responsibility off onto the rest of us.

Like the above campaign.

I don’t know the people involved. I do not know their financial situation. I do not even know of their youtube channel. But from reading the description, I can glean that they are not really in dire straights.
The old computer flunked out. So between eating, living in something other than a cardboard box, bills, and a new baby on the way, replacing the computer is out of the question (at least in the short term). Very inconvenient for a youtube creator. Particularly if they are earning any kind of revenue off of the material.

My reaction to that being . . . tough shit.

In life, we all have to find a way to make it all balance. Rob Peter to pay Paul if the need arises. And as for bringing a child into the equation . . . well, good for you for making the choice and commitment. But like I said to managers and supervisors previously . . . it was YOUR choice. There are financial consequences to children, one of which is not having as much disposable income to throw around. But that is YOUR problem, NOT mine (nor the rest of the worlds).

My old laptop conked out 2 years ago. It was highly inconvenient, being that I love to write and research things online. I got by with a smartphone and a tablet, but it was not at all the same. Shit happens, so you deal with it.
I now have a new machine with which to research and type to my heart’s content. A machine that I figured out that I could afford by putting money aside.

Each payday, $50 of my earnings goes into a savings account. There it sits, growing every 2 weeks (and earning a bit of interest to boot). Forming a nice little nest egg that allows some financial freedom in case of disaster or want.
As such, I never have to borrow money from people (not that I would anyway). In fact, I can even lend a helping hand should a friend ever need one. I have some options.

Now, I know that not everyone has $50 bucks to put aside each week. But most of us have something. My bank recommended $25 a week when I opened the TFSA (Tax-Free Savings Account. It’s a Canadian thing), but I upped the amount since it speeds up the process. But even $5 or $10 is better than nothing.

You see. I do not criticize just for the sake of crapping on so called e-beggers. I criticize because the solution to the money problem is often available to us all. You just need to be patient.

When the generous are more responsible for their donations, and the receivers are more responsible for their own well being, real charities benefiting often FAR MORE IMPORTANT causes do not have to get the short end of the stick.

74.) Democrats

This is what you are up against (barring circumstances don’t change in the next 3 years). THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE UP AGAINST. A fool.

But at this rate, you guys once again will be run over like fools.

I am not always a fan of Kyle Kulinski (host of daily podcast Secular Talk). But his absolute anger and disillusion towards the Democrats are well placed. By failing to mount a legitimate opposition run against the clown show that is the GOP, they are letting down the citizens of the United States of which they are supposed to be serving. And by extension, the citizens of the world (since actions of some nations have consequences for us all. Like climate inaction).

I hope the Justice Democrats run them pricks right the fuck out of Washington once and for all (even if that is almost a pipe dream, at this point in time).

75.) Individualist Sheep

They are everywhere. They go by a wide variety of names. They think they are witty and clever. But they bore me.

Self-critique and evaluation is ALL the rage these days. Almost everyone is wrong, and no one is beyond reproach. That is the general rule anyway. Until you take up the offer anyway.

If you do take the challenge, expect to be diagnosed, regarded as such, and flooded by a sea of rational buzzwords.
Logic. Rational. Reason. Nuance. All of those things that are obvious but for when they come from the horse’s mouth.

There was a time when I enjoyed being the opposition, the contrarian. But I am not a teenager anymore. And all of this prescribed individuality that permeates the fringes of social media isn’t exciting or engaging. It’s just boring. And oh so disappointing.

Why are people so disappointing?

How do the formerly wise become so painfully ordinary?

Am I the moron?

Am I but an island in a vast sea?

Am I delusional?

How would I know?

Things That Annoy Me – Part 14

66.) The Red Pill

Enough with this shit already!

I don’t care what context with which you are coming from. You almost certainly have NO IDEA what it is like to “swallow the red pill”. Its far more world changing and all encompassing than 1 (and often esoteric!) ideological stance.

67.) . . . You Might Be A Redneck

Replace daughter and him with son and her. Is it still a hilarious truth of parenting?

If not, stop posting this shit and quit fostering this outdated and sexist cultural meme.

68.) “I’m A Cuck, You’re A Cuck . . . 

There is an obvious problem with this, as presented.

If “Cuck!” is your first response, than I want to thank you. I now know that you are far to simple minded to bother wasting anymore time with.

69.) Lauren Southern

In a slightly related rant (the word cuck is involved), I come to Lauren Southern. In particular, her description of Canadian politics as explained a recent interview with Dave Rubin (the relevant stuff starts at 12:39, but I recommend listening from the beginning).

In it, she labels all Canadians as Cucks. Who cares (I have been called worse things than some trendy insult of the times we live). She also proceeds to say that all Canadians are essentially spoiled brats, and have recently elected a VERY spoiled one to run our nation. Again, who cares. Its an opinion.

I have my fair share of opinions about Canadian culture. Words like “sheep” come to the forefront of the mind. And I would even dare to say that Canadians may well be even MORE patriotic than Americans, just in different ways. Rather than guns, flag and bibles, its more hockey, Tims and The Hip.
One word that did not occur to me in regards to Canada however, was spoiled. But I am comparing 2 anecdotes. I have never experienced the world of Lauren Southern, and she more than likley has never experienced my world. While anecdotes can help in building a bigger picture, they are NOT the bigger picture.

With this in mind, think of the clip you just seen.

While I have an opinion on many things, I usually tag it as the anecdotal or opinionated viewpoint that it is. I try not to talk for anyone, or showcase myself as fluent on anything that may well be . . . beyond me. Including the culture of my nation that I try to isolate myself from.
Southern does no such thing. Its”Oh, Canadians are such cucks and spoiled brats!”, then on to something else.

The first thing that comes to mind is, when it comes to nations electing spoiled brats for leaders . . . Canada didn’t even crack the top 10. I can only think of 1 nation actually. And even without actually saying it, I bet everyone reading this knows EXACTLY which one I am talking about.

With that out of the way, yes, what Lauren said was her opinion, and should be treated as such. Viewers of the clip in Canada (or those that have connections to Canadian culture) will likley know the bigger picture. However, millions do not have such connections. One would hope they will take it for the anecdote that it is, but in all honesty . . . I doubt a great many do. Having read many a comment section, having seen people like Lauren and Milo regarded as intellectuals in some cases, I have no such faith in the people.

While the example used here is Lauren Southern, my gripe is not entirely with her. She said something I deem is stupid. Her types would likley see my values as stupid. Who gives a fuck.

What annoys me more, is anyone that watches this stuff without actually questioning it. While the format may not exactly be friendly to that sort of thing (a criticism I have begun to have with this sort of format), it shouldn’t be an excuse.

70.) Apple Madness

Long ago,  I wrote a fluff piece about iOS, after having used it for a short time. Im not sure if I ever followed up with that, but I ended up falling out of love with the OS after an update turned my year old formly very usable phone (a 4S) into an unstable pain in the ass. I know its not the hardware because:

A.) it worked perfectly fine before

B.) after the OS update, the device was left with barely any memory for anything else (its no wonder the thing became barley usable!)

Knowing how people are with aging  devices (and taking into consideration that this model is now 2 behind the lasest one), it made sense. Anyone that has been using an older device for years that begins to act up will likley assume it to be on the way out, and upgrade (typicly to a new Apple device). Obsolescence by design.

Though one can not really prove that allegation, the company has done other things to foster its reputation of forming a monopoly on its devices. First came the proprietary chargers. Then the bricked iphone 6’s (if not repaired by authorized apple personnel). Now this , a move that could eliminate the possibility of 3ed party repairs, PERIOD. Even for a screen replacement!

Update

I would later learn (though a wikileaks revelation, if memory serves) that many Apple device shipments had been intercepted (and presumably in some way compromised) by the CIA (I would assume at a firmware level). A friend of mine (of whom works in the tech industry) claims this to be at very least, a major reason for the change (despite the massive loss in jobs that it will create).

It could be. But really . . . I don’t trust Apple. I don’t trust any of them really. I don’t doubt that there is a security component to this. But I suspect that if the public were less aware of these shadowy activities, all of these companies (Apple included) would not give these privacy issues even HALF the attention that they give now.

Corporations are not altruistic, only self serving. Though the 2 are not always incompatible.

71.) Insanity @ 2.4Ghz

Oh Yes. I am talking about 2.4ghz wifi. Again.

I have talked about it before, albeit from a largely layman perspective.

I understood (well, understand) the very basic of wifi interaction and interference. The more networks on a given channel, the lower the performance will be for each one given the self policed nature of the technology. Even if many devices are attempting to use the spectrum, no one device will talk over one another. For context, imagine a meeting or large conversation with many participants. Everyone gets a turn (though the wait times will increase depending on how many devices sharing the space, and how much traffic they are generating).

The techies call that co  channel interference. Though using an empty channel is always the ideal option, co channel interference is always preferable to its counterpart, adjacent channel interference.

Unfortunately for me, co channel interference is not what I am dealing with. At this point, its barley even an option anymore on 2.4ghz.

First off, some technical stuff. Even though your router is parked on a given channel (can be 1 though 11 in North America), it always overlaps up to 3 channels around it. This type of interference is known as adjacent channel interference.
A good way to contextualize this (adjacent channel interference) would be trying to converse at a concert or in a loud bar. Due to the large amount of background noise, your group has to raise its voice in order to be heard over the din. Which just ads to it further.
Due to this, the recommended 2.4Ghz channels to choose are 1,6 and 11, since they are the only 3 in the spectrum that do not step on one another.

The next thing I need to explain is something called channel bonding.
Each wifi channel (be it on the 2.4 or 5 Ghz side) is 20 mhz wide. However, recent advances in wireless technology driven by need (some internet connections are faster than the technology would permit) now allow the bonding of 2 or more channels to make one big channel.
You can bond 2 channels to make a 40mhz channel in the 2.4ghz spectrum. On the 5ghz, you have even more options, with 40, 80, possibly even 100 mhz wide channels (though this is mostly just applicable to enterprise).
Think of it as a pipe. The bigger the pipe, the more data you can move at the same time.

Now, back to my neighborhood. A story that began with a printer.

I have known that 2.4ghz was a gong show for awhile now, which was why I transitioned my network entirely to 5ghz. Though there are a few networks around, the vast amount of spectrum available ensures much open space to utilize even a 40mhz channel easily. Despite all this available space, checking in a far corner of my apartment exposes no less than 4 80mhz wide channels all sharing the spectrum around 155. All from  telco AP’s (go figure!).

Either way, though my smartphone and laptop happily operate on 5Ghz, my older printer does not. Go figure (its always something . . . ). This I had solved by adding my old 2.4Ghz router as an access point, connecting the printer that way (as I had done with an old tablet). Which worked initially, but not over time. My guess being that the interference around here kept breaking the connection.

Mildly annoying, but still workable. Being that my phone could easily work around this by connecting and printing directly (wifi direct), it wasn’t to much extra hassle (paste into dropbox). However, I noticed that even THIS was getting problematic quite recently.

So I checked Wifi Analyzer once more. Both my printer and my 2.4Ghz AP were on channel 11. Good (the printer picks its own channel, but I choose the AP one based on everything between 1 and 6 being a mess). There are some other networks using 11, a few weak ones between 6 and 11. Annoying, but previously not a problem. However, I noticed at least 2 new 40mhz networks, both based around channel 9. Which would explain a lot.

Part of my problem is rooted in my location. I live on the 2ed floor of an apartment house in a fairly densely populated central area. Many apartment houses on all sides with 2 to 3 apartments means (at minimum!) twice the number of neighboring AP’s as one may see in an area of single family homes. And that is just routers, not printers (like mine), mobile hot spots, streaming boxes, gaming devices and who knows how many other consumer devices that create a LAN for whatever purpose. Not to mention that 2.4ghz is the operating spectrum for Bluetooth, baby monitures, older cordless phones, and tends to be stepped on by operation of microwave ovens.

While I have not checked the interference levels in my area outside of wifi sources (have not paid into obtaining the required programs yet), what I see on even the basic analyzers is telling enough. Though channel 11 does come with some cross traffic, its apparent that the single and bonded channels adjacent to it are the bigger problem. My 2.4Ghz situation is equivalent to holding a meeting involving 5 or 6 people in a conference room  right beside another that has rock concert occurring. No wonder it took my phone almost 15 minutes to print 10 pages on a laser printer.

THIS FUCKING ANNOYS ME!

Sure, a first world problem. If I wanted, I could print VIA USB. Yeah I know.

However, look at the bigger picture. ISP’s are flooding markets EVERYWHERE with equipment that sets itself up (channel-wise), it seems ANYWHERE. The area could have people that are careful to limit the adjacent channel interference, but it only takes one, two, tree (typically more!) To ruin it. And then NO ONE can get full performance!

And since few know much about wifi technology aside from the very basics, they will more often than not be completely oblivious to the most likley suspect keeping them off of (or slowing their access to)  YouTube or facebook. They will call up their ISP, which will likley do some trouble shooting. After which they will identify interference due to congestion of the airwaves, and likley offer to rent you a dual band router for a small fee each month.

They are basically the SOLE CAUSE of a problem that they then sell you the solution to.

And guess what? Despite the larger open space available on 5Ghz, THESE THINGS STILL OFTEN STEP ON ONE ANOTHER!
Give it a few years. With newer routers setting up 80Mhz networks BY DEFAULT, and routers otherwise not being careful of their cross channel footprint, its only a matter of time before that spectrum is overrun.
There is talk about more spectrum being opened to wireless and communications use. But even THIS will be prone to the same problems.

I can see this as a fairly easy problem to solve. Rather than hundreds of units all operating individually, I can envision them being in communication. Rather than having a default OR a person choose, each unit could talk to machines around it and decide how to activate based on that organization.  I can envision this as a way to both utilize the entirety of even the 2.4Ghz spectrum (ALL channels!), and possibly even fit in wide networks without much fuss to those nearby. Though I think those are still more at home on 5ghz, a spectrum of which we can also stretch greatly with organized utility.

Don’t kid yourself, this is not happening anytime soon. It MIGHT be possible to introduce such technology into current installations VIA a firmware update (firmware are basically the programs that run your devices at the hardware level). But I don’t see that kind of logic coming to the industry anytime soon.

72.) Snowflake Culture

If you hang around in online circles for the past few years, you have likley heard the term. First it was used to describe the lefties that can’t take a joke or a Milo speech. Then it was used to describe the right wing people that behave in a similar manor.

Frankly, you are all idiots. Enough with these stupid terms that get so overused with trendiness that they no longer mean anything.

Yes, some millennials are more prone adopting a PC culture that Marilyn Manson once battled coming from their parents than is healthy. And many on the right have not yet given up that dream.

All of that aside . . . enough with the snowflake crap. Same with Cuck. And all past, present, and future adjectives of idiocy.