It’s A’s birthday tomorrow. She is turning 10. As she was getting ready for bed I said “I am not ready for a 10 year old” to A.
Her response was “you have 12 hours to get ready”. That is my girl. Brutal honest truth!
What Is Today?
Today, if I ask someone, what today is I would get varying responses such as:
In American I would get “Thanksgiving” or “Turkey Day” or “gobble gobble”.
People in the UK on the other hand would answer likely “Ummm, Thursday”.
The Story of my Technology Stress Dream
In the summer of 2019 I woke up to wrote down the details of a crazy stress dream I had. In the dream, I was working for the leader of a country that was just a bit unstable. Everyone around them seemed pretty out of it and I was trying to be reasonable and rationalise my working there.
Then I woke up. For a minute I was really confused and was not really sure why in the world I had a dream like that. Then I told M about it. And as I was talking to her it dawned on me. The night before I had purchased a SIM card from Google-Fi for our trip to New York that summer. Now it was not as difficult as you might think to associate working for an almost dictator and buying a Google-Fi.SIM card. I actually fretted over the SIM card purchase. I had spent many months previously ridding myself of all direct usage of Google services. Now here I am buying their phone service that inevitably was tracking me in ways that if I fully understood I would probably be very concerned. Then I rationalised the purchase because it was inexpensive compared to most other options and gave me a US number for our trip.
If I’m honest with myself I subconsciously associated buying Fi mobile service with going to work for an evil dictator. It’s not however I should have gone with my initial instinct and stayed away from their services. I know that they harvest data from my information and that’s okay if you know that and are okay with it. I’m not ok with it. I typically try to avoid it for my privacy. I’m also happy to encourage others not to do it. That doesn’t mean that Google is a horrible company. They really aren’t. I have friends that work there that love it. I even went to several interviews with them years ago and seriously contemplated working there.
I found it fascinating that I had that particular stress stream the day after I. made that purchase. I did use the service for the month we were in New York. I then cancelled it and have no intention of getting it again. Besides whatever data collection they do when you have the service it actually was pretty good service. And that is the problem. Not many people say google doesn’t offer nice stuff. it is the true cost that I am not ok with.
Is This Tech Snobbery?
Is it wrong to be tech biased against businesses (by not using them) in 2023 that still say email us and they give a Hotmail address?
Replace Hotmail with AOL and it’s the same question.
If you said ok to the first question do I assume the same is true if a merchants website looks like it originally was on geocities? Points for you if my last sentance makes any sense and you know what Geocities was!
Gold Shirts or Red Shirts? Halloween Costume Decisions
Last year my Halloween costume was a Star Trek the Original Series (TOS, yes I use the short codes to denote the different versions) Gold Command shirt. It was all I could get at short short notice. I would have preferred the Next Generation Red command shirt. They did not have it in stock.
This year I again wanted to get a next generation style shirt. The big question was what color to get? Do I get Red for command? Or Gold for Security? If I used my real world job to sort me I am in Security so Gold. Yet I am in and have been in leadership positions for a while so Red for command? I was torn at what to do. Availability or lack of the red command. Shirts dictated that I purchased one of the gold security shirts. That means I can be either an original series commander or next generation security.
This year I will go with the Next Generation Security Gold. After that I am not sure what I will do. Do I go get a Red command shirt or keep the Gold Security? Or go Gold command from the original series.
Questions like that and Bounty vs Kit Kat are going through my mind at the moment.
If you are reading this and don’t know Star Trek very well, you might’ve noticed that I mentioned the original series, gold command and next generation red command colors. In the original series, it was gold for command, red for security and engineering, and blue for medical. In the next generation and all other series, after that they change the colours where red was command and gold was security and engineering.
Maybe I have a Hoarding Problem
So saving one or maybe 3 of something “just in case” is ok. Having 15 micro SD to SD card adapters is likely past the point of being considered a hoarder.
If having 15 was borderline hoarder then realizing I did not even have a slot on my computer to use the SD card adapters most likely put me over the top.
Classic Text to Speech Voices
I do not know why I find it funny every time I hear the automated announcements from Amtrak or the LIRR for that matter too. It’s 2023 (almost 2024). In the age of Siri and Google Assistant sounding almost like real people, Amtrak is sticking with a voice that reminds me of (because it’s the exact voice) a text to speech voice used in bad (and good) YouTube video voice overs from 2009.
London or all of England Train announcements are made by real people or pre recorded by people. Amtrak is at least trying to be modern with a full text to speech system. Or cheap, since they don’t have to hire voice actors. I think this particular voice was so widely used because it was free.
So what sounds more modern the old school person recordings or the synthetic one that is literally used in cheap cartoons?
Why Do We Always Have to Choose Between Convenience and Privacy?
It was a bit disturbing how fast using Global Entry got me through Passport Control at JFK today. I did not show my passport at all. I just had my picture taken and then walked by a guy at a terminal and he said my name as I walked by saying I was good to go. Entire process was maybe 2 minutes including the one minute for a kiosk to open up to let me take my photo.
In one way that entire process was right out of several movies. So cool us. On the other hand is having a US government agency have my facial recognition profile on file for a few minutes quicker passport control? I am struggling to answer that after looking at the passport control line as I walked briskly to the exit.
Spoilers, I am in New York for 3 days this weekend. Surprise everyone I did not mention that to. That is not the focus of this post but kind of a tip off that I am in the states going through Global Entry. This trip may spawn some other posts especially since I may have time to write while further traveling.
40 Year Old Ice Cream Anyone?
The title says it all. This is a bag of 40 year old astronaut ice cream I got when we went to Cape Kennedy around 1983. Recently I did notice that bag is not vacuum sealed like it was when purchased. I am thinking it needs to go into a hermetically sealed container. I am afraid of the world ending bacteria that may be in it after 40 years.
Still it is a piece of my childhood so I did not toss it out. Yet….
W Sisters Short on Cleaning Up
I was checking with M about when/if the girls were going to put their bikes away. They were in our entry hallway and it was a bit crowded. Her response was that if the girls clean their room they would be able to go biking later when the rain stopped. Thus the bikes were still out and not in the shed. M continued that the girls previously said they cleaned their room. She mentioned she would go check in a bit.
A heard M say that from the other room. A then stops what she’s doing and said “I need to go up to my room for a minute to check on something.” I am pretty sure that was slightly transparent code for let me finish tidying up some books.
Full disclosure I find this funnier since I wrote it circa 2019 and never published it. Still funny though.