Random Rants

[Hilda]

We finished the file review at 5 pm. I was the first lawyer in, and the last lawyer out. Typical. And my little child man boss is leaving on the 17th for a month in Japan.

Fook "Mi" and Fook "Yu".

I had to run a reverse image search to identify these two ladies. I'm familiar with Austin Powers by name only, so it's little wonder that I didn't recognize this scene. At first I thought Mi + Yu = Miyu and Yu + Mi = Yumi, both girls' names. I completely missed the "Fook" part. Overthinking, as usual.

[Pornhubby]

My bad habit of quoting movies that no one under 60 has ever heard of. Fook Mi.

[purpleshoes]

I freely confess that I am paranoid about technology. Now that I've put that out there, let me tell you what happened at my house last night.

First, some background. My (adult) granddaughter gave me a digital picture frame for Christmas last December. It connects to my wifi and there's an app that allows me to add pictures to it from my phone. The frame sits on a shelf just above my computer screen.

Until the middle of May, it only displayed the photos, rotating them every 20 minutes. Some time before June started, I noticed that there was now a display in the upper right-hand corner, the time and outside temperature.

The temperature was Celsius, and when I opened the app, looking at the options, I found no way to choose between ℃ and ℉. So I got used to seeing it showing a temp of between 12 and 29℃. Although I'm used to Fahrenheit temps, I know that's a range of about 54 to 85℉, which is about the norm for this part of the country at this time of year.

Last night my (adult) daughter was over, using my computer to fill out some online forms. She looked at the frame and asked why it said it was 22 degrees outside. I told her that was the Celsius temperature and added that I hadn't been able to change the display from ℃ to ℉.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. Two hours later when I looked at the frame, it showed a temp of 55℉, which is still the current temperature outside. When I texted that to my daughter, she texted back that it was somewhere between spooky and scary.

So, who can explain to me how, after I've been looking at Celsius temperatures for 3½ months, it suddenly changed on its own, two hours after we had a conversation about not being able to change it from Celsius to Fahrenheit?

Coincidence? I don't think so.

(I have since learned that it is possible to toggle between the two scales on the frame itself, just not from the app. And it's been weeks, if not months, since anyone has touched it.)

Are you hearing the Twilight Zone theme yet?

[ObiDongKenobi]

[Dons tinfoil hat]

 It's got a hidden microphone and speech analyzer, heard you talking and switched the setting. 

[/Dons tinfoil hat]

[Pornhubby]

There are no coincidences.

Nothing to be overly paranoid about, unless there is something hugely illegal going on in your house.

We are all monitored 24/7 365. Only people over 50 seemed to be alarmed by this. Orwell predicted it 75 years ago. “Big Brother is watching you.”

[msslave]

Orwell thought it would be Big Brother. He never envisioned Alexa and Siri.

[Shiela_M]

I think my google home screen and nest whisper to me in my sleep causing all my impulse purchases

[Hilda]

We are all monitored 24/7 365. Only people over 50 seemed to be alarmed by this. Orwell predicted it 75 years ago. “Big Brother is watching you.”

A couple of Orwell fans once asked me to drive them around West London in a quest for places associated with the writer. One of them was a school in which he taught. In Uxbridge, if I remember correctly. The place was deserted because of the summer vacation, but a friendly teacher showed us around. Another was a house in Rickmansworth. I can't remember what connection it had with Orwell.

[MintJulie]

An IOS17 feature in update coming next week

"Personal Voice.
You can clone your voice by reading 150 randomized phrases aloud. Why do this? If you develop a condition that puts your ability to speak at risk, you can create a replica of your voice before you lose it. Others will hear it when you type words though a separate Live Speech iOS 17 feature. Privacy protections are built in."

20 years late Apple.  But thank you for doing this. 

[Pornhubby]

Cool and scary, all at the same time.

[Shiela_M]

Kitchen shears will cause me to have a nervous breakdown. I use these dman things all the time, and as long as I pick them up the right way, I'm ok, but the second I don't wrong, they are going to open and come apart, and the end of the world happens.

They fall apart so easily, yet I need a fecking engineering degree to get the fecking thing back together again. I know how it should go, but it just doesn't go. Why doesnt it go?? It's right fecking there and it should go!  So fecking go already!!!

Screw it, I'm getting a knife.

[Writers Bloque]

Kitchen shears will cause me to have a nervous breakdown. I use these dman things all the time, and as long as I pick them up the right way, I'm ok, but the second I don't wrong, they are going to open and come apart, and the end of the world happens.

They fall apart so easily, yet I need a fecking engineering degree to get the fecking thing back together again. I know how it should go, but it just doesn't go. Why doesnt it go?? It's right fecking there and it should go!  So fecking go already!!!

Screw it, I'm getting a knife.

No worries. I was the same way with finer paint brushes. to lightly and it does not look right, and too hard it messes up. I was never used to delicate tools or things. Being oft described as a grotesque bull in a china shop.

(People use the adjective Grotesque wrong, it does not mean ugly, but describing something as unusual, not of the norm. The noun version refers to an ancient italian/Roman art style of people and fantasy like creatures entwined with vines, fruits and flowers.)

[msslave]

So, was in a long line at a stop light. Car in front of me was blocking the side street with one car waiting to enter the main street. When the light changed, traffic started moving and I paused to let the other car in.

My thoughtfulness got me honked at by the car behind me. He then proceeded to speed past me and cut in in front of me. Wow, he gained a.car link and showed me.

What a day for me to leave my other car home with the James Bond type machine guns.
 

PS, That car was a Dodge Ram SUV... just saying.

[MintJulie]

Kitchen shears will cause me to have a nervous breakdown. I use these dman things all the time, and as long as I pick them up the right way, I'm ok, but the second I don't wrong, they are going to open and come apart, and the end of the world happens.

They fall apart so easily, yet I need a fecking engineering degree to get the fecking thing back together again. I know how it should go, but it just doesn't go. Why doesnt it go?? It's right fecking there and it should go!  So fecking go already!!!

Screw it, I'm getting a knife.

I had that kind.  And one day I just threw them out,   A couple of days later , I'm in Sam's Club and they had a 5 pack of nice scissors.  It felt like Xmas morning in my kitchen.  I use them for everything also. 



Bob, people are stupid.  Wizards first rule.   

[ObiDongKenobi]

So, was in a long line at a stop light. Car in front of me was blocking the side street with one car waiting to enter the main street. When the light changed, traffic started moving and I paused to let the other car in.

My thoughtfulness got me honked at by the car behind me. He then proceeded to speed past me and cut in in front of me. Wow, he gained a.car link and showed me.

What a day for me to leave my other car home with the James Bond type machine guns.
 

PS, That car was a Dodge Ram SUV... just saying.

Arseholes Assholes like that have jumped me after I've slowed and pulled over to let a police car/ambulance/fire engine truck through.

[Pornhubby]

There’s a lot of incivility on the roads that did not exist 30 or 40 years ago. In Texas they call it “checking.“ When an asshole, who believes he’s been offended, cuts in front of you and slams on the brakes. I say “he” because it is almost always a man child.  That’s why a lot of people have installed dash cams.

[Pornhubby]

My young boss is back from his fourth month-long vacation of the year. He is grumpy.

Fortunately he hasn’t been on my back, but I feel sorry for everyone else. He has a trial setting coming up on a case he sunk a LOT of money into. So he’s betting the farm on a good outcome. Not much good happens at the courthouse. You don’t try good cases, those all settle. So my Spidey senses tell me we could be in for trouble.

[Pornhubby]

My law firm calendar app made me upgrade to iOS 16. Now Chrome makes me log in anytime I visit KB. Just adds another few clicks and a face screen every fucking time I return to the site. I want my flying car.