Piss and Moan

Word up

Posted on January 11, 2021 by backuphill

I didn’t know this word existed and I actually thought maybe I was making it up, until I Googled it. So much for being original…

Manctuary.

What is that? Well, it is basically another way to discribe a “man cave.” Urban Dictionary had a good definition, of course, but I think it really goes beyond the man cave.

I guess I see a man cave as something a bit less sophisticated and more about being loud and using tools and working on some sort of automobile. I know that isn’t probably the best description or working idea, but that is how I see it in my head. I see it more of a cross between an auto-shop and a bar, which I am sure is appealing to a lot of guys. But not me.

I see a manctuary as something a little more on the “den” (3) or “study” (3) side.

I don’t think a manctuary has to all high brow (high-back leather chairs, smoking jackets, monocles, etc.) but I think it can include some class. It should be, however, a place a man can go for some solitude. Space. A place to enjoy time away from others, pursuing things he enjoys, highlighting his collection of things he is proud of, and the like.

All this to say, I need a manctuary. No, I desire a manctuary.

Whatever the case, I want a space to call my own. Sure, the garage is a place of refuge to some degree. But my garage is more a place of storage than a place to hang out. It isn’t a place I seek to go, other than when I really need a place to get away. It isn’t built for comfort or cozy. It doesn’t have all the amenities of a manctuary. It doesn’t say “this is my space” like a manctuary would.

Am I being selfish? Do I really NEED a place such as this? Do guys REALLY need this kind of space?

What do you think? Any of my readers out there have anything like what I am describing, man cave or manctuary? How did you make it happen? Did you regret it once you had it?

Turtle

Posted on January 8, 2021 by backuphill

Pull your arms, legs, and head into your shell. No cares. No worries. Oblivious to everyone and everything.

That’s the life.

I want it.

I am so exhausted from everything that has taken place over the last day…week…month…year…decade? Seriously. I am tired of all people.

Anyone else just wanna throw up your hands and just say, “Screw it! I am doing my own thing now and everyone else can bite me.”?

If only it were just so and things would be that easy.

Interacting with social media, the “news,” friends, and even family (in some cases) has been like molasses in sub-zero temps. Pointless.

Exercises in frustration. Conversations similar to running your knuckles over a cheesegrater. Needles to the eyeball. Whatever you do, you’re just tired of it all.

So, life of a turtle, not so bad. I can see why hermits become hermits. Is it possible, at this juncture, to find a remote uninhabited tropical island and just live there?

I’ll take it.

Idiocy

Posted on January 7, 2021 by backuphill

I hate to say it, but America (the land that I love and still think is better than anywhere else in the world) has become the land of idiocy. Yesterday, as well as the events of the last…well, pick a time frame…either way, this stupidity has been going on for a long while. A LONG while. Yesterday, and many events over the last year, are just coming to a head of ultimate stupidity.

Let’s be clear, the events of yesterday and storming the Capitol building are unacceptable. It should have never happened and I hope that it never happens again.

History has shown us (our own history) that displeasure with the government isn’t all that unusual and leads people to do things they would not normally do. Our Founding Fathers led a rebellion against a king and a government they found to be unjust. Those who supported the king and did extreme things in their support of the king likely found some actions despicable when the “other side” did them. Those who supported the colonies and eventually a free nation likely found the “other side” despicable when they did some of the same extreme things. Heck, even during our Civil War, both sides did despicable things to each other. Vietnam era protests? Yep, still some ugly things happening even then.

The difference between now and then?

Increased, instantaneous communication. It exists now, it didn’t at any time in the past.

How does that play a part in all this? Well, it literally takes no time for a rumor, opinion, or thought to spread far and wide. In an instant “information” can be disseminated to any number of people at one time. That’s a problem. It could be a good thing, but for the most part I think we see more problems with it than we see positives for it. Why?

It eliminates the possibility for someone to evaluate information and immediately creates an emotional response. There is little time for an individual to consider the information, process it, and then evaluate a response. Instead, people have devolved into an instantaneous, emotional response. They don’t think. They let their idiocy take over.

Instead of thoughtfully considering a response, or thinking clearly about their actions, they just respond. No forethought. No consideration. No evaluation. No wait. No weighing of consequences. No evidence. No proof. No nothing. Just response.

That, folks, is a terrible thing.

Social media has killed our ability to thoughtfully consider, to evaluate response, and restrict our own actions. Instead, we feed our need of immediacy, our need of instant gratification, with regrettable words and actions. We don’t wait for facts. We don’t consider another’s point of view. We don’t tolerate those who are different from us, think different from us, or believe different than us. We just don’t. We are not better off because of this.

We are actually becoming unrecognizable.

We are no longer a bastion of freedom, tolerance, and opportunity.

We have divided ourselves into camps of this or that. We have let ourselves be divided into those camps. We are not what our Founding Fathers believed we could become. And the direction we are currently headed won’t get us there either.

This idiocy can’t continue. We are in trouble if we continue to let it happen.

Arbitrary

Posted on January 6, 2021 by backuphill

No rhyme. No reason. Definitely not science. Just arbitrary rule making and enforcement. That’s just where things have been and are when it comes to a government that is willing to grab power and the ability to make decisions from the people.

A local establishment has caught the wrath of the government because it’s “outdoor dining” doesn’t quite fit the same description as “outdoor dining” that others are doing. No common sense enforcement, just arbitrary wielding of power because some of the local “Karens” have decided the business doesn’t fit, in their judgement, the safety standards set out by the government. Oh, and there isn’t any science to support the enforcement, just opinion and personal preference.

The restaurant in question has five giant garage doors that it can open up to elements. FIVE. Essentially, these are removable walls and is a trend in many other places around the country (dare I say, world?). Difference is that in many places the weather is warm and a nice cross breeze can be generated with the doors open. Here in the Northwest it isn’t warm but when the doors are open at this place there is one hell of a cross breeze, along with some sideways rain, or mist, or general damp air.

In WA, the rules right now say that “outdoor dining” can only take place in a temporary structure with, for all intents and purposes, one open side so there is adequate air flow.

The establishment above, according to the state, doesn’t qualify because it is a permanent structure. Doesn’t matter that two of the major walls of the structure are virtually non-existent then when the doors are open. It doesn’t take a lot of common sense to realize that the walls of the structure are open, regardless of the roof over one’s head being permanent, and there is air flowing through the room like the breeze blowing through a deck or park gazebo.

Hell, there is less air flowing through and airplane but we are allowed to do that? See what I mean? Arbitrary.

So, I know where I’ll be ordering food from this week.

Get out there and support those local businesses you want to see stay open. Hell, get out there and support any local business, because in the end they are your family, friends, and neighbors that working there. Don’t be arbitrary about that support. Be very intentional and very targeted.

Doorknob

Posted on January 5, 2021 by backuphill

WTF? Who is this doorknob and who the hell let him pray? An utter embarrassment to himself, to those who listen to him, to those he represents, and to all people of faith in general.

Leave it to the Democrats to make a circus out of something so basic.

“Amen and awoman“? You gotta see it to even believe it.

I am stumbling all over myself at the stupidity of this. It’s hard to even put into words how uneducated and unnecessary something like this is. It doesn’t take much research to know that “amen” means “so be it”. It has nothing to do with gender.

But this doorknob has to make an issue out of a word he clearly doesn’t know the meaning of. Actually, I believe there were quite a few words in his “prayer” that he didn’t know the meaning of. Not because he is ignorant (actually, he might be), but more because his speech writer likely used a thesaurus to write the speech. It sounded a lot like the essays I would get from my high school students who were trying to fill space by using words that made them sound smarter than they were and sometimes didn’t even fit in the sentence correctly. Whatever is going on there, it was a piss poor display of speech writing and intelligence.

Please, sir, never pray again. You obviously don’t actually know what it means, understand how it is done, or have a concept of where a prayer comes from – the heart. It isn’t a political tool, or stunt.

Screeching

Posted on January 4, 2021 by backuphill

Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy on Pexels.com

The Christmas break for schools is over and that can only mean a screeching halt to the quiet days at work. Also, that means a screeching halt to anything that resembled my days off.

I had three days in a row last week where I got more than 8 hours of sleep, and I must say that felt really nice. The time off for the holidays was both relaxing and productive, if that makes sense.

There is a lot of screeching going on today.

Now, the clients are back to screeching in our ears about the endless issues they seem to have, all related to the fact that each month they have the same issues in completing their job tasks as they had the month previous. How many times do we have to help people do their jobs?

People screeching about the election (still).

People screeching about covid (still).

People screeching about the weather (always).

People screech about their sports team and whether they are in or out.

People screeching about their health.

People screeching about a stimulus they don’t really deserve (or need).

The media screeching about some crisis they want us to pay attention to so they can generate clicks and money by being concerned about the next thing they want us to be concerned about.

People on social media screeching about some perceived injustice so it can be the flavor of the month for something that isn’t really an issue until they decided to make it an issue.

People screeching about WHATEVER.

Can you all just shut up now?

I prefer the peace and quiet of what were four days off of nothing. That was the ticket. I need more of that.

End of

Posted on December 31, 2020 by backuphill

End of the year brings lots of thoughts, usually. I am not going to waste your time on mine and I likely won’t read any of yours. Truth be told, there are better things to be doing today than sitting in front of a computer.

Tomorrow starts a new day. A new month. A new year. There will be new challenges, but there will be a lot of the same old ones too.

Looking back over this last year of challenges only brings frustration. But, looking ahead brings stress because there isn’t a way to know what is ahead.

So, take it day by day and keep your head down.

Cheers.

Wait times…

Posted on December 30, 2020 by backuphill

Photo by cheptu00e9 cormani on Pexels.com

“Wait times maybe be longer than usual due to higher than anticipated call volumes.”

We’re all familiar with that little phrase, right? We have all be stuck on hold with companies that play this over and over while you sit and wait for someone that isn’t a robot recording to pick up the actual phone and talk to you. In times of an emergency or in times when your system isn’t working as designed, I can see a legitimate reason for getting this message.

What is irritating is that you don’t have the ability to answer a high call volume should it happen or you have purposely caused your system to be overloaded because you caused it to be by your actions.

Case in point:

You send an email to all your subscribers with an offer to add something to their account for free for a limited time.

BUT, in order to take advantage of this offer you have to have your customers actually call you, thus clogging up your phone system.

NOT, make it available to be done on your website with a special code to make the discount apply when it would normally be done there in the first place.

Yeah, that’s good marketing!

Who came up with this idea? Why would you require an action be done over the phone when said action could be done on the website you have for doing said action? Makes no sense.

Irritating and takes advantage of your customer’s time.

Streaming

Posted on December 29, 2020 by backuphill

So, this article was kind of interesting and made me think, “Say what? Clearly I am not in the right business.”

What do I need to do to sign up for this racket? Not that it is illegal. It is all above board, but the it is definitely a racket.

It seems that most top streamers don’t reveal exactly how much they make while doing it. This article was written based on one of them making a mistake and revealing the earnings inadvertently. As such, we get a glimpse behind the curtain and see that this top streamer is pulling down somewhere around $170k a month. That is some serious coin.

Throw in some sponsorships and other contracts and there is a serious flood of cash getting deposited into accounts across the globe.

All from creating content by streaming games and other stuff for people to watch. People watch.

Interesting.

I wonder how hard it is to get started. Obviously, the key is to getting people to follow you and watch you. Anyone know of an instruction manual to get set up?

Are you Sears-ious?

Posted on December 28, 2020 by backuphill

You’re gonna like this! No seriously, I am telling you to like it. But whatever you do, don’t expose yourself to free thinking. It’s bad for you. No seriously, it’s bad. Bad for some, that is.

If you haven’t encountered one of J.P. Sears’ videos, well, you just haven’t been on social media. They are everywhere! YouTube, Facebook, … you know, everywhere! No seriously, you will like these because they’re everywhere. I mean it.

Anyway, the man has been busy and is producing videos that just make you wanna sit back and think. No, seriously, think.

Is he serious, or is it comedy? Is it satire or is it truth? I’ll let you decide (provided you haven’t seen any of these already). These direct links to the videos are very specific, but if you click on that link up above, you’ll be taken to his channel where you can view all the stuff he has done. You can thank me later for this deep dive and lost afternoon of work, sleep, leisure, or whatever else you were planning on doing.

Socialist Media – The New Rules

How To Raise Weak Children During Lockdowns

My Apology to Facebook

A Communist Christmas

Instagram’s New Terms of Service – Not Sketchy at All!

Wanna be angry about something? Wanna be fearful and obedient? Wanna be controlled? Then don’t watch the videos, because they might enlighten you and no one wants that. That’s why Facebook has threatened him with de-platforming.

It takes brave people to standup and shout against the mainstream. I suggest you support this creator when you can.