March 11, 2020

Yesteryear
One year ago today: March 11, 2019, the real freedom is choice.
Five years ago today: March 11, 2015, but while you’re stopped . . .
Nine years ago today: March 11, 2011, my top clientele, then.
Random years ago today: March 11, 2008, Bill vs. Charter.

           Just for looks, here’s a pic of some Tennessee shoes, I call them. They were in the thrift last day, I don’t think they are movie props. I found Jack Nicholson’s, “The Pledge” on DVD so I was finally able to see the ending. Dang, he never did catch the bad guy, or discover if it was the bad guy who died in the fire on the way to the picnic ground. I’d found it an great murder mystery and that ending disappointed me.

           The solo act is coming along, I’ve found it to be as much hard work as expected. Right now, the challenge is those harmony vocals. I find it best to set down the bass and go over the entire set memorizing the notes to sing. Yes, it is very time consuming because it takes real time. A four hour set requires four hours to practice. There are no shortcuts for me, if I lose a note on stage, I lose it for the rest of the tune.

           Here’s a current list of my top pics from the AssholeDesign gallery. Keep in mind that site is subject to fake news and l ike all Reddit, suffers badly from low-effort content. However, pay atten because this is the mentality of the bunch that will soon be electing each other into power.

                      A. Agency ads that claim jobs paying higher than any amount you type in.
                      B. Hulu won’t run unless you turn off your VPN.
                      C. Product sites require you create an account to read reviews.
                      D. New cell phones put advertising watermark on every photo.
                      E. Gas pumps slowed down to match display ad timing.
                      F. The cancellation X does not appear until ad is finished.
                      G. Muting ads causes the video to pause. (Unconfirmed.)
                      H. Adobe XD free trial will not close unless you sign up and pay.
                      I. Fake skip ad buttons.
                      J. Deleting your cloud files blacklists you.
                      K. Fake shoelaces stitched on new shoes.
                      L. Video games require you buy each character separately.
                      M. Advertising inside fortune cookies.

           You see, let me explains something about “network think”. The world is not one big happy family that just needs a little shove to all get along. These nickle-and-dime ideas only work for a short while. For clarity, these are asshole ideas that only work until everybody else starts doing the same thing. If you want to experience a society where everybody is a small-scale rip-off artist and everybody has to spend all their time protected themselves from being ripped off, visit India or Pakistan. And ask them how well the concept has worked out for them over the last 2,000 years.
           Network think is my own term, I’m sure there are others. That’s where a group of people convince themselves all the big ideas are already taken, so if you only steal 1/10th of a cent at a time, it’s not really stealing an nobody will notice. Then steal if from a million people. Again, it works only until everybody starts doing it. There is nothing new about the idea, what is new is the computer makes it easy and anonymous. For now.

Picture of the day.
Democrat voting district.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           I had a conversation with an art student y’day. She was around 23, a bit old to still be in college. She was my type in that she came over, sat down, and asked what I was writing. I told her it was a chicken coop design, which was kind of true. We talked for a half hour anyway, she was taken aback that I knew enough about computers to relate to what she was saying. And she was openly shocked about some warnings I mentioned about what not to do. She had always suspected much of the goings-on but told me she had never heard anyone spell it out before. And that she had been shy to mention it amongst her peers.

           Here’s Chloe next to the empty cat pellet can. Yes, an armored can. No leaving any dry food in the bags it comes in. Not with the pet line-up in this household. Cat lovers are invited to swoon at this photo, since cat pictures just are not that easy to pose. It was a tad on the chilly side so the dogs and I cut short the walk and went to Wal*Mart, who were out of the exactly and only the brand of automatic transmission fluid that I need. And the post office was out of international stamps. I had to overpay 15¢ each letter as the closest combination of regular stamps they had. It’s scary the ever-increasing frequency of how often this happens.

ADDENDUM
           This is interesting to me. Google has cracked down on ad fraud. That is, ads that promise one thing and do others you didn't ask for. Prime example is the fake PDF converter (as reported by BuzzFeed, no link). It installs malicious adware on your computer, but of course, anyone who uses cloud services or any app that uploads your file and hands it back has to have rocks in their head in the first place. What got me was not Google’s action, but its presentation as a humanitarian or pro-consumer action.
           That is complete and utter bullshit. One of the worst malware distributors is Google itself, with Chrome at the top of the list. Under no circumstances did Google ever do anything for anybody but itself. So I’m wondering what the true motive was. I’ll say it again. Uploading any file for somebody else’s manipulation is the stupid idea of the century. If you can’t do it in-house, find some nice older gentleman who can. And don't worry what he thinks of your ignorance. Trust me, he's not going to even try to smarten you up. But if you are a 23 y.o. college babe, he'll talk to you.

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