July | 2021 | Piss and Moan

Hard choices

Posted on July 28, 2021 by backuphill

Today this blog is about hard choices. Really hard choices. The type of choices that might cause you to look back and think, “Dang, I totally made the wrong choice. I should have gone the other way.”

Today’s hard choice? Deciding what to have for lunch.

Choice #1 – a ham sandwich with bacon on a pretzel bagel

Choice #2 – leftover bbq’d chicken and homemade white bread.

I make hundreds, maybe even thousands, of decisions every day. Why is what to have for lunch such a difficult one?

I mean, they are both great options. Either one of them I could be happy with. But, there is always that nagging question in the back of the head saying, “You probably should have had the other one. It was probably a better choice.”

Ugh.

There here kind of decisions make or break a person’s day. Am I right? Make the wrong choice and things could go downhill quickly from here. Or make the right choice and everything after just seems to fall into place. There is potential for big success or massive failure. These are serious kinds of decisions…

So, what do you think? What sounds good to you?

Fear and control

Posted on July 27, 2021 by backuphill

Here we go again…

Totally predictable.

Fear and control were waning, so they need another variant to blast over the airwaves. Still too many people haven’t subjugated themselves to the shot and no amount of fearmongering will control them, so let’s go back to masking…first we’ll recommend it but eventually we are going to have to force them again.

Good grief, this is all so stupid.

The thin veneer they are operating under is so transparent. Now you have states telling people they have no choice to get the shot or submit to continual testing? Police state much?

Frogs in a slow boiling pot. You’ll are frogs.

Not sheep.

Life will never be back to “normal” if you keep letting them take it from you.

Anyone really care?

Posted on July 23, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Frans Van Heerden on Pexels.com

So, there is supposedly one of the biggest sporting spectacles on Earth starting today (really is started a couple days ago with a soccer game) and I have to admit, I could care less. Like, I won’t even go out of my way one iota to see what is going on with the competition.

Does anyone really care about the Tokyo Olympics?

I mean, obviously, the athletes do but beyond that is there anyone left that really cares all that much?

I used to love the Olympics when I was younger and I can’t completely put my finger on the reason I don’t care about it now, but maybe it is because there is just too much attention paid to the athletes themselves and their only concern is really on themselves rather than representing the country for which they compete. I know for sure I could care not a lick for the politics and social agenda being injected into the sports.

Or maybe it’s the fact that the cities/countries that host the games are expected to spend HUGE amounts of money to build modern, spectacular facilities and new infrastructure to support the games. The spending has gotten ridiculous – money that could be spent elsewhere – all for the sake of impressing the world for a short period of time. After the Olympics are over, some of the facilities are converted for public use and others are just abandoned.

There is no luster left in the competition, despite the Olympic committee trying to generate it. At least, there isn’t any for me.

I am curious then, who is still interested (let alone excited) for the Olympics? If it still gets your attention, why? If you are no longer interested like me, what was it that caused you to practically ignore that it was even taking place?

It’s cold

Posted on July 21, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Download a pic Donate a buck! ^ on Pexels.com

It’s cold in the house, and I am not talking about the actual temp.

Cold shoulder.

Silence.

Contempt.

Avoidance.

I know the reason, though I don’t agree and it certainly isn’t fair.

This isn’t a coldness that a blanket or a jacket can cover up. There is no bundling up against this kind of cold.

It cuts to the bone and straight to the heart.

Winter has set in during the middle of summer.

Some days

Posted on July 20, 2021 by backuphill

There is an old saying, “Some days you’re the bug and other days you’re the windshield.” Heard that one before?

Well, these days I am feeling more like the bug.

Life comes at your awful fast and there is just so much crap going on. The “windshields” of life are coming faster and more furious and avoiding them is getting harder and harder. Actually, avoiding them is next to impossible at this point. It seems I am bouncing from one to another…

Pleasing anyone and everyone seems to be impossible and there are people in my life that are supposed to be rooting for me who just aren’t. Instead, they have become the windshield and there is no pleasing them and no relief from their scrutiny or criticism. I can do nothing correct in their eyes.

It’s frustrating. It’s tiring. It’s relentless. It’s making me just want to hunker down and avoid everyone (more so than usual). The problem is I can’t avoid them since they are here, around me, all the time.

So, instead of just hiding, I stagger from failure to failure, always being told that I have yet again done something that doesn’t meet with approval or at expectation. Words of praise or acceptance? Absent. Non-existent.

Today is no different. Feeling defeated.

Predictable intrusion

Posted on July 19, 2021 by backuphill

You didn’t have to be a fortune teller to see this stuff coming.

Those people who predicted that Animal Farm or 1984 would come true (you know, the ones labeled as conspiracy theorists) apparently weren’t so far off, as the government has, and continues, to be in close contact with social media giants in order to “control narratives,” direct information, kill truth, and thus subjugate the population as it continues it’s bent on thought control. Obviously, the media itself has been in on the whole thing too, but then we already knew that.

The Biden administration confirmed that they are indeed coming after your free thought, the ability to ask questions and be skeptical, and truth in general as they seek to bury anything that doesn’t fit with their narrative. It even doubled down on Friday by saying, essentially, that your freedom of speech and free thought didn’t matter if it didn’t fit with the information they want you to have.

I have seen that the government is exploring the possibility of injecting themselves (see what I did there?) into your private text conversations to also combat misinformation. Though they deny that is really the intention, it can’t be too far off if they are battling people making choices of their own free will to not get the vaccine.

Soon, there will be people showing up at your door (if you aren’t vaccinated) to lecture you on the need to get vaccinated. As the Biden admin and Dr. Fauci state, it’s not the government doing this but “trusted” community activists who will be at your door to harass you. No, they aren’t government goons yet, but that could be down the road when you choose not to follow the silly government restrictions for operating your business or whatever.

I supposed life will continue to get uncomfortable for those who like to think skeptically and for themselves. The effort being put forth to control where you go, what you do, how you do it, and when you do it OR what you say, when you say it, how you say it, and where you say it is totally unprecedented in our history.

If you believe that the government (no matter who is in control) has your best interest in mind, your are sadly mistaken.

Only YOU have your best interest in mind and if you are letting others control what you believe and how to believe it, then you will lose your ability to have your best interest in mind.

You are giving up control and you won’t get it back.

Follow up – Authentication frustration

Posted on July 16, 2021 by backuphill

Alright, for those of you who give a rat’s ass and want to know what’s going on over here at the blog, I have a follow up about the last post – Authentication frustration. I doubt that many of you really care whether you get an update but just in case you are interested or simply run into the issue yourself, here is the info you might need.

Two-factor authentication is a royal pain in the ass. It is unfortunate that it is even needed, but that is the state of society these days. There’s a whole bunch of really stupid, bad people out there.

While Instagram and Facebook have the ability to set up two factor authentication, I would recommend NOT using it and just having a really, really strong password. The unfortunate truth is that this social media giant has a process that is broken, meaning you may or may not be able to access your account if you ever need to use it. Based on scouring the internet, I would say there are a large number of people who have lost their accounts due to the fact that the text message for the two factor authenticator never gets generated or sent (not sure which, but either way nothing shows up in your messages). Thus, leaving people stuck and locked out of their accounts.

I’ll tell you what, it was a couple of frustrating and worrisome days trying to get back into my accounts.

Yes, you read that right. I WAS able to get back into both of my Instagram accounts. But it wasn’t without a lot of hassle and frustration.

The “help” documentation provided by Instagram is annoying, poorly written, and ultimately doesn’t really help. There is no clear way to contact customer support if none of their suggestions work. It is just a mind numbing maze of FAQs that don’t really point you in a clear direction if you ultimately still need assistance. It would have been especially helpful if along with the “How to set up two factor authentication” FAQ there was also a FAQ for “What do I do if two factor authentication isn’t working as it should?” A “click here” link to fill out a support ticket would have been just awesome.

As it turns out, I somehow stumbled upon a place to submit a “help ticket” in the app and eventually got a response via email. The place I filled out the form said I would receive an email from Instagram. Low and behold, I got a rather suspicious looking email from Facebook. This email was signed by “The Instagram Team” and outlined steps to begin the recovery process. Luckily, I had seen and read a blog post by someone else that outlined the process they went through to recover their account. The email they described sounded very similar to the one I received so I wasn’t as suspicious as I would normally be.

“Please reply to the message and attach a photo of yourself holding a hand-written copy of the code below: XXXXXXXXX”

Then followed other instructions about how to submit the photo. I followed the instructions and replied to the email. About 30 minutes later I got another response with more steps to take for account verification. I followed those steps and then another email arrived. Within two hours I was back into my account and turned off two factor authentication.

What a freaking hassle!

Anyway, after all is said and done, the world has been set right again. I know you might not be all that keen on dealing with social media and whatnot, but truth be told – those that use it have memories stored there and have distant family access there. In the case of one account, I have a huge number of hours in creation and curation of posts there. It’s an investment, whether we like to admit it or not. Losing access to a social media account can be stressful.

I seriously hope you never have to deal with this.

Authentication frustration

Posted on July 14, 2021 by backuphill

Frustration level has reached CRITICAL. I am having a hard time balancing the internal coolants and I just might blow a top, a gasket, a lid, a …

So, yesterday I upgraded my phone from an iPhone 8 Plus to an iPhone 12 Pro. That part isn’t the frustrating part.

The frustrating part is all the apps that have to be logged back into and set back up and all that jazz that goes with having a new device. BUT, there is one big issue that has been caused by doing this and it is creating a huge roadblock!

The issue – two factor authentication.

Good lord, what a nightmare!

I have two work apps that are used for two factor authentication. Both have to be set back up on the new device. The guy who does the usual setup is on vacation until next week, meaning I am going to have to wait to get help with the setup and I’ll have some limited access to things that are part of my job until it is done. Obviously, that’s an issue.

Also, I am now locked out of my Instagram account…because of two factor authentication. I have two factor authentication set up on my account to keep from being hacked, but what Instagram doesn’t tell you when you set it up is that it MAY or MAY NOT work as it should. What it is supposed to do is send a text message to the phone number used to set up the account. So, when you go to log in, it shows you the number it is sending to but the text message is never sent. I have tried over and over and I get all kinds of other two factor authentications via text, so why it isn’t working is beyond me. Included in that two factor authentication set up is the ability to get recovery codes for when the text message doesn’t work. Great, except the codes don’t work either. I have 5 unused codes from when set it up and none of them have managed to get me back into my account.

Even more frustrating, try finding a place to get “tech support” for these issues. That’s a freaking circus in and of itself! The website is of little help. There is no help in the “reset password” email (especially if it takes you right back to the two factor authentication screen).

I am telling you, two factor authentication is a pain in the ass.

I have finally managed to file a support ticket/report with Instagram/Facebook, but it was tough finding the place to do it. So far, it has produced no results as I go through the process.

Let me tell you, if I get back into my account, I am turning that two factor thing off ASAP. What a freaking nightmare…

Totally makes you rethink upgrading your devices now…

Hypocritical complaints

Posted on July 13, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Adrienne Andersen on Pexels.com

I am know I am guilty of it. I am not exempt from it. I’ll admit it. I’ve got some hypocritical complaints about family members. It’s just really rich when someone will point them out to me, but not recognize that they themselves are doing exactly the same thing.

As you can imagine, blended families are a challenge. Actually, challenge may be the wrong word. It’s actually a special kind of hell, really. It’s a love and hate relationship x100. It’s unbearable and maybe survivable. It’s an age old story, but typically you don’t treat your non-biological children the same as you do your biological ones. It’s terrible.

Anyway, the youngest (my bio kid) just moved in after her graduation from high school. The relationship between her and step-mom is strained (at best). Of course, you can imagine all the reasons why…many of the same reasons why my relationship with my non-bios is strained. She can see the obvious differences between how she gets treated and how they get treated.

So, someone last night had the gall to complain about a “missed laundry day” and what we should tell her if she wants to do laundry outside of her designated day. Mind you, two of the three locally living non-bios do laundry at our house on a fairly regular basis even though they don’t actually reside in the house. The suggestion was that she should be told to go to a laundry mat to do her laundry…you can imagine that I pointed out that she does actually live here and that if she chose to do laundry at a time no one else was using the machines and did it in a timely manner so that it didn’t interfere with anyone else, I didn’t see a problem if there was a legitimate reason for missing her designated day.

I caught hell for that.

Heaven forbid that I mention anything about the non-bios and their status of being adults and lived outside the home for more than two years.

Never mind the fact that someone is secretly paying the leftover bills of another non-bio and his family who just moved out of state.

So, hypocritical complaints? Yeah. We have them. I bite my tongue on most of them until I can’t do it any longer.

It’s just laundry. It’s not a bad financial choice that will leave her asking for help years down the road, on a continual basis.

Give it a rest and me a break…

The CDC recommends…

Posted on July 9, 2021 by backuphill

I am sure you are starting to dread what comes next, after those words, “The CDC recommends…”. It seems the recommendations are about as based in science as they are in absurdity.

So, it should come as no surprise that there will be a higher than usual demand for full body condoms and personal breathing apparatuses (after all, it’s hard to breath in a rubber sack).

The CDC has now recommended that everyone over the age of 12 should wear a full body condom while in public, anywhere, all the time. This of course will prevent you from getting or giving the coronavirus, the flu,, and nearly all other transmissible diseases. There. We have finally gotten to the whole “living in a bubble” idea. Besides, it is also much faster to hose yourself down with bleach (or other preferred chemical) when you return home.

I have no idea why the CDC recommends getting the vaccine. It sure doesn’t meet with common sense if people are still recommended to social distance of at least three feet AND where a mask. I mean, is there really a point if you still have to do those things?

Look, people get the flu shot every year and they still have the possibility of getting the flu. If you get the covid vaccine then you still have a chance of getting covid. I get it. But, much like the flu, the severity of symptoms is minimized. That’s why they recommend getting the flu shot. So, the logic behind all of this is completely counter to what has happened in the past.

If someone doesn’t want to get the vaccine, they shouldn’t have to wear the “Scarlet U” of a facemask. Those who are vaccinated are technically protected against covid. Those who remain unvaccinated know the risk they are taking and for those who took an unproven vaccine knew the risks they were taking.

There are lots of things out there the CDC now recommends. If you want a laugh, do a search….or read the headlines. Either way works.

Piss and Moan

Because there ain't no making me happy

Month: July 2021