opinion | Piss and Moan

Internet spies

Posted on March 9, 2022 by backuphill

Have you noticed that the internet is spying on you? We joke about it, but have you been met with ads on social media shortly after you were talking about something, something that you haven’t ever looked at or shopped for previously?

Have you noticed that your electronic devices seem to be listening even when you aren’t using them? We’ve seen or heard examples where the “assistant” we willingly allowed in our homes have responded without prompting.

Freak you out a little?

How do airlines know to send me an email reminder about booking a flight I have looked at on their webiste but didn’t actually log into the website? I was just browsing for curiousity sake. Dreaming. But not 30 minutes after looking I receive an email asking or reminding me about booking the flight. Weird?

The fact is, any sense of privacy we have these days is an illusion. We like to assume we have privacy but in reality we don’t. We are beind spied on everywhere we go. Our phones track us. Our apps track us. Our computers track us. Our watches track us. Our tvs, appliances, gaming systems, streaming services, security cameras, cars, etc etc etc track us. Our spending is tracked. Our health is tracked. Our eating is tracked. Our exercise (or lack thereof, in my case) is tracked.

Can you name something that isn’t tracked? I bet you have a difficult coming up with a list of things that are free of tracking these days.

Sure, we allow it. We invite it onto our bodies, into our homes. We have asked for it to a degree. But at what point do we look at all of it and say enough is enough?

We trade privacy for convenience. Plain and simple.

Our assumption is that we have privacy and we have to blindly trust that it won’t be violated by the things we allow into our lives. We all know it is being violated though. We all know they’re lying to us.

So why do we keep doing it?

Internal combustion

Posted on March 7, 2022 by backuphill

There are a lot of things going on right now in the world and I suppose this little title could apply to the the various technologies that use fuel and internal combustion to run them. Damn, gas is getting expensive! This post is about a totally different subject, but what reason in hell were we buying Russian oil for when we could completely rely on our own source of oil but refuse to tap into it?

Anyway…

The internal combustion I am referring to is actually inside of me.

Someone said the other day said that they thought something was going on inside of me that maybe I hadn’t recognized or identified yet. They had noticed that my usual level of grumpiness had increased to a level I might not be aware of but that others were noticing. It was mentioned that perhaps it was my newfound age of 50, or maybe it was something at work, or maybe it was…nothing else was pointed out.

I said that I didn’t think that I was all that grumpy, at least not that I was aware of. It was news to me if people thought I was grumpier than normal.

As I thought about it a bit more through the day, I thought that maybe there was something going on. I don’t know if I have really put a finger on it yet. As I am thinking of where I am in life at the moment and current circumstances, I can see (or feel) that I am unsettled. I am finding myself frustrated with everything that has to do with my current situation. Daily life has become a chore and finding joy in places that one would think it could be found just isn’t providing it. Instead, those places are kinda killing the joy.

As such, there may be a little internal combustion going on as I am trying to keep a lid on the unhappiness, the joylessness, the irritability, the frustration, the distaste for my current state. It’s not that I want to tear everything down, torch it to the ground, or start completely over. It’s just when I look around me, I don’t know how I got here and I didn’t envision myself here, and I don’t want to really stay here. Does that make sense?

Call it a mid-life crisis? Nah, I don’t think so. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. I don’t think it is.

The internal combustion inside of me is keeping me moving (hopefully in a positive direction) but the fire in me sometimes gets rather dim when I am tired of being the rather responsible one. It gets tiring being the one who carries everything on his shoulders and keeps the plates spinning and keeps the wagon train headed in the correct direction. The one who hold it all together, all the time, every time.

Maybe I am just burned out on life right now.

My engine isn’t running at it’s prime, that’s for sure.

Perhaps I am just one cycle from failure, explosion, or implosion.

Flip-flopping away…

Posted on March 2, 2022 by backuphill

Did you see that? No, really, did you see that theater by the President last night? I am not even sure Biden was serious last night or if it was really intended to be a comedy show because there were so many obvious, moments of pandering and flip-flopping that I had to keep manually closing my jaw as it seemed it was frozen open last night.

I don’t really look for much when it comes to the State of the Union address. It typically is a clap-fest for whichever party is in control and there is a bunch of vague plans with grandios goals. There is almost never any substance and the political pandering to the party base is sickening.

I hope Biden is actually OK this morning because he must have strained his back or his neck or maybe some leg or arm muscles after all that flip-flopping he did regarding issues the independents and Republicans have been screaming about for two years. I haven’t seen fish do more flip-flopping than that.

Now he wants to protect our borders?

Now he wants to fund to the police?

Can you say playing to the crowd?

Well, some of the crowd. Remember that mask mandate? Suddenly dropped – science hasn’t magically changed. Remember that forced vaccination mandate? Remember all those people who lost their jobs and livelihoods. Suddenly all is supposed to be forgiven as he makes a few promises that will actually never be realized?

It was quite the show. As it always is…

Laughably true

Posted on March 1, 2022 by backuphill

I don’t know who made this but I saw it come across a social media feed this morning and all I could think was how laughably true this meme was, and how truly it puts leadership and circumstances into perspective.

Anyone else seen this running around the web? What do you think?

Check back

Posted on February 25, 2022 by backuphill

Yesterday the invasion and subjagation of Ukraine began. The Soviets, er, I mean Russian government is up to it’s old tricks. There was no doubt that it was going to happen. The writing on the wall started well before the last administration. Not to say that the previous administration could have stopped it either, but there shouldn’t have been any surprise that it was only a matter of time.

I listened to Mr. President’s speech and then Q & A after. One thing really stuck out to me.

“Let’s check back in a month and see how the sanctions are working on Russia…” or something to that effect. I can’t remember the exact wording but I was like, “Do you really think the Ukrainian people have a month? This is all going to be over in a month.”

Ukraine is vastly out manned, out gunned, and honestly there are no good options for providing aid to them. We live in a world where the spectre of a nuclear war (if not just a limited, tactical one) hangs over our heads when dealing with Russia or China. But, in this case, Putin is almost sure the Americans will do not much of anything to stop him.

Sanctions aren’t the answer and it can’t be the only answer.

Sanctions take a LONG time to have any effect and almost always it is the people of a country that is harmed by them, not the government or the elite. It’s not like Putin is going to wake up one morning, head to the ATM, and get the “Funds Denied” message so he decides the war with and invasion of Ukraine isn’t worth it. Let’s be real.

I don’t want war, but I am not sure what would convince Putin to stand down. He knows the American people don’t have the stomach for more war (after 20+ years in Afghanistan and the fiasco of a withdrawal there). Most Americans likely will rattle the sabers, talk big, even attend rallies protesting Putin’s actions, but when it comes time to actually get out of their comfort zones and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING or SACRIFICE SOMETHNG they will balk.

So, we are left with “check back in a month”.

I feel sorry for Ukraine and the lack of action that they really needed from the West to keep it from happening.

I feel sorry for my children and grandchildren as we enter a new Cold War era…

Marry Me

Posted on February 24, 2022 by backuphill

A movie review. What the heck am I doing while the world burns around us…? I don’t do many of these and I am trying to clean out my “drafts” folder.

I recently watched “Marry Me” on Peacock, because it was free (at least to me). Why not watch a free theatrical release instead of paying too much at the theater? Boy, am I glad I didn’t pay to see it in the theater, not that I would have but you know what I mean.

The movie stars Jennifer Lopez and Owen Wilson. If you don’t know anything about it, check out the trailer on your preferred search engine. I am not going to do a whole synopsis, but basically it was a Hallmark movie but not on Hallmark. Love, break up, new love, break up, happy ending. Blah blah blah…

What really stuck out to me about this movie wasn’t really the plot line. It was pretty generic and formulaic. What stuck out what the total and complete, blatant, product placement. It was like watching a commercial without watching a commercial!

First and foremost, the movie was basically a two hour music video for JLo’s (latest?) music. She pretty much plays herself, except that she goes by a different name. LOL The glamour, the glitz, the celebrity. All highlighted. Then there was the product placement throughout the movie. It seemed like every 5-10 minutes you were blatantly confronted with a well known product by a company that was using the movie as an advertisement. The characters fawned over the products, played pitch-people for the products on social media, learned about the product from another character, sent or gave products to other characters.

Maybe I’m weird, but I was really distracted by the commercialization in the movie. I kept saying, “There’s another one” and “Wow, that was obvious product placement!” It’s probably a good thing I was watching this at home because the theater likely would have kicked me out because I couldn’t stop talking about how the movie was being used. Obviously, this movie was paid for by a lot of corporate sponsors who all had their brands used directly in the script.

Is the future of movies? Blatant commercials DURING the movie? I have noticed this more and more in TV shows too. We can’t escape any longer.

I hope I didn’t ruin your movie or TV experience by making you more aware of the advertising. I still enjoy both forms of entertainment. This one just struck me with how obscenely obvious it was.

Subtlety has been lost.

Misplaced blame

Posted on February 22, 2022 by backuphill

The Sandy Hook and Remington settlement is bad news for gun makers, sets a horrible precedent, and is a total and complete case of misplaced blame by the Left.

Democrats and Progressives have tried to tie gun crimes to guns and gun makers for years and years. In this settlement, they have finally achieved their goal. Demonize the tool and not the criminal. In fact, they have gotten more successful in that direction as a whole.

The Left is decriminalizing all kinds of things that have been crimes in the past because they blame the “system” for failures. This is totally off topic for this post, but of course it isn’t the “system” that has failed – except that they keep making the “system” bigger so the blame could be placed directly in their lap again. Less government, less “system.”

Anyway, the settlement with the gun maker isn’t a solution. The blame should be placed squarely on the individual who committed the crime. The gun (and the gun maker) didn’t commit the crime. The gun is a tool, and when used incorrectly it obviously can have devastating and tragic consequences.

But let’s get realistic though. Are you going to blame a knife and knife maker for a mass stabbing? Are you going to blame a hammer and hammer maker for a mass bludgeoning? A car and car maker for someone who plows through a crowd of people?

You can’t blame the tool or the tool maker. The action comes from the person on the end of the tool causing tool to either fulfill it’s purpose or to misuse it from it’s purpose.

The person is the only person who can take the blame. The person provides the impetus, the motive, the intent, the action. Otherwise, the tool sits there – useless.

The Left needs to think about the true cause of the crime. It isn’t the tool. It’s the person wielding the tool. The heart of the person. The mind of the person. There is the true cause. Until they recognize this and actually do something about making a difference in people’s lives that ACTUALLY makes a difference, they are just addressing the symptom, not the cause.

Stop misplacing the blame and start addressing the heart and mind issues.

New decade

Posted on February 14, 2022 by backuphill

It’s a milestone I guess. Or maybe a millstone. Eh, let’s go with milestone.

I am entering a new decade as of today.

50.

Nothing seems different, yet it does. Today is really the same as it was yesterday. I am not sure how I feel about it.

When I turned 40 I didn’t think it was all that big a deal. Now that I am 50, as of today, I would like to think it isn’t that big a deal yet there is something in the back of my head that makes me feel like its a big deal. Guess its hard to explain.

I know that my brain doesn’t feel 50. My brain tells me all the time that I am not old and I can do all kinds of things that I did when I was a lot younger. However, my body keeps telling me something different. My brain says, “Do it! You still got it!” My body says, “Go ahead, punk. Do you feel lucky?”

As an example, this week leading up to the big day there were close calls that made me think this old thing could get really old really fast…I was on a two step stool putting at canvas print on the mantle above the fireplace. I had just balanced it and was starting back down the stool steps and suddenly the canvas tipped and clocked me on the top of the head. Obviously, I wasn’t prepared for this so the surprise of being struck in the head was enough of a distraction that I missed the middle step and landed directly on the floor. Again, this was a surprise on the other end of the body and my knee didn’t like that so it promptly hyper-extended as celebration for finding the floor earlier than expected. I was hobbled for a day or two.

Is this what getting old feels like all the time? Minor aches and pains suddenly become something bigger and more concerning? The aches and pains happen more often and more quickly?

Well, cheers to getting older and hello AARP…

Shadow banned?

Posted on February 9, 2022 by backuphill

Anyone else kinda feel like when they talk about certain topics that they are getting shadow banned? I am starting to get a bit suspicious of WordPress.

For those who don’t know what a “shadow ban” is, you can read more about it in lots of different places. You hear about this taking place on lots of different social media platforms & accounts these days – mostly in regards to topics related to events, facts, data, and personalities of significance over the last 2+ years.

I don’t know if there is a way to really tell on the WP service, but I have noticed that certain topics definitely get fewer clicks/views than other topics. Maybe it’s because people are bored with the topics. Maybe people aren’t stimulated by certain subjects any longer. Maybe people are just to overly apathetic so the disinterest wins out. I don’t know.

Could it be the Categories I am using, or the tags? Is it the actual subject matter? I haven’t a clue. I guess I could try reposting a blog with different tags and categories and see if there is any different response.

Anyone else feel like they don’t get as much interest when it comes to certain “controversial” issues?

Oh Canada…

Posted on February 8, 2022 by backuphill

Photo by Social Soup Social Media on Pexels.com

*SIGH*

The once liberal bastion of freedom is anything but that these days.

Oh, and I say liberal in the political sense, not really the “anything goes” sense. It’s actually more progressive that liberal, but you know what I mean. They proclaim one thing, but do another – at least if you are following along with “their” viewpoint. If you don’t, well, they’ll just make you a criminal.

Pastors get arrested for holding religious services. Sure, there is a lockdown and a pandemic, but your religious freedom stops when the State determines that your freedom is risky.

People delivering food and fuel get arrested for supporting “terrorists” in Ottawa because, well, the truckers are causing a disturbance and have made life difficult for those who follow the State’s heavy handed handling of the pandemic and health”care.”

Honk your horn? Yeah, that’ll get you arrested too. Why? Well, again, you and your horn are an inconvenient reminder that freedom and choice are a right and not something to be taken lightly. I guess some would call it “noise pollution.” Never mind that the peace and freedom loving kind of people can’t pollute the silence of blind obedience and compliance, but the State can mandate pollution of your body because it says it can.

Oh Canada…perhaps you should rethink that national anthem. The lyrics don’t fit the situation any longer.