Why am I on a soapbox so much lately?

E commerce, E banking, E bill pay, E what ever involving money bothers me. Certainly I do a fair amount of this only because it is sometimes the only way to get the things that I want, for example my paycheck. In both of my current places of employment I no longer have an option to have a physical check handed to me as payment for my work, even less likely would be to have actual currency given to me. There is no choice in the matter. More and more banks are controlling everything we do via computers and the internet, which is more than a little scary. Now you may say the amount of transactions which are completed every single day without issue are enormous compared to the problems which exist. Sure one needle in a haystack isn’t a problem unless you are the farm animal that has to eat that haystack. There is not a single day that goes by where I don’t read, see or hear about someone being hacked, defrauded or missing money because computers are being used to attack people. Our police are woefully ill equipped to investigate these crimes and good luck getting someone to even take a complaint because of jurisdictional issues. Our legislative bodies are worse because 99% of those in power have no clue how computers work enough to do anything at all on one let alone make laws which are effective at governing the use of computers to prevent crime. To paraphrase Shakespeare, “computers crimes are thievery most foul.” There is little way for the victim to know that they have even been attacked and if they are attacked they have to prove that they are not actually the offender. I am all for progress, however the banking industry and commerce industry have to really make things safer for the public to use them electronically. The banks and businesses simply do not care because it isn’t their money; it’s your money that is being taken. Law makers and law enforcement agencies need to step up their game in dealing with these problems. Until people start to feel the sting of this wrong doing, it will continue to grow and grow because there is little or no chance that they will be caught and if they are they will not have to pay any money back and will unlikely see any jail time. Do what you can to protect yourself, however eventually you will find the needle in the haystack and most of the time it will not be a pleasant experience and will probably end up costing you a lot of time and some of your hard earned money. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

1984 4891

Perhaps it is time to read 1984 again and really look at what was said by Mr. Orwell and if you can’t see the correlation between what happens in the book to what is happening now, how do I put this lightly, if you have a position of authority and you don’t get it you should probably; retire, resign or otherwise vacate your seat. If you do see it and you think things are fine. Well I just don’t know what to say to you because I don’t think we can be friends because things are not fine. I will not spell out all the similarities and things that are going on in our version of Oceania that make me want to leave society and I would were it not for my love of coffee, sidewalks and video games. I am caught in the rat trap but at least I see the bars of the cage. The thing that should alarm every single one of you is the same thing we supported when it was going on in other places around the world. Why are our government officials, employees, agents and other persons in authority afraid of a person with a cell phone camera or video device? No one likes to have someone watching over their shoulder as they do their job but if you are doing your job correctly then why do you care if you are recorded, the only thing it will do is support your side of the story in an unbiased medium. We would certainly be very unhappy if we were monitored every minute and would complain if this were happening on our jobs. I am not saying this to defend the officials who are upset about being recorded, just as a point of empathy that they are flawed humans too. They have the same problems we all have; bills to pay and a paycheck which is just big enough but barely, relationship roller coasters, dreams unfulfilled, and the list of problems goes on. That said while on the job it is important to put aside your personal thoughts and opinions. It isn’t easy to call someone sir or ma’am when they are calling you an idiot or something or other which is less than polite. The thing that is missed is that the two sides are caught up in the web of people above them. Other people telling you that this is the way it is, people who do not have to go and do what you do. I’m not talking about your boss or supervisor. It is probably someone you haven’t even met and would not give a rat’s ass about you if you ever did meet them. Because you and even the official do not matter to them, to the person behind the scenes each person, oppressed or oppressor, are just pieces on a board. Both sides salute some version of the party line, and I am not sure which is sadder the “proles”* who are being stepped on by the boot of the official or the person wearing the boot who can not see they are just as controlled as the person they are standing on and in some cases even more than the “prole”*. The issue does not matter both sides are playing the part which they are supposed to play and what “They” are most afraid of is that the “proles”* will stop fighting over the issue of the day, and they will rally together and stand up and no longer follow along. The video camera / cell phone camera/ social media allows a platform for us “proles”* to come together but it is also being used against us to keep all the “proles”* fighting amongst themselves rather than focusing on the people holding the strings. You are a puppet to the party and so am I. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday * Prole – the masses from Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-four Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

We let our battles choose us...

We let our battles choose us Bad choices, I have made more than my share whilst on the mud ball. Perhaps you are no stranger to the lingering questions that remain following a questionable choice in your life. Whether that choice was, I’ll just play one more round of this game (three hours later) or, hey I think I’ll take my 9 year old to shoot an Uzi today. The consequences of these bad choices range from the burning eyeballs brought on by lack of sleep to in the case of the latter explaining to the child no honey it isn’t your fault the man died from the weapon you were shooting. Not to make light of someone’s death or to make fun, but bad choices have consequences. Sometimes an apology isn’t enough to make up for the lack of forethought into the things we do. “Hey you all watch me do this” or some variation of this so called rally cry of the stupid is uttered all while filming our bad choices to be posted later on the world wide web. That is to say your bad choices, not mine. I have no way to film mine, unless you count surveillance camera footage which is not in nearly as a many places as you might think. The owners of the cameras are also not usually willing to let you borrow the footage for your own purposes. Don’t ask. Helpful hint; it is always a good idea to check and look in the trees for cameras, people are sneaky bastards and are hiding them there. It can pay to know who is knocking on your front door, especially after a bad choice or five. The point is everything we do has a consequence. It isn’t even that hard to be prepared in elementary school science class they teach cause and effect. Something you do causes something else to happen. Like you put water in a freezer you get ice. You hit your friend with a brick they bleed. You bring a ratchet home you end up with a fair amount of your high dollar stuff missing or a new roommate who doesn’t pay bills and drinks all of your beer. I won’t go for the obvious follow through about the kid. No, not that kid, the kid with the fully automatic submachine gun, you have to pay attention here. Certainly you can’t account for every eventually when you do something and if you don’t think before hand you won’t account for any of them. Still it is amazing the reaction that most of these non thinkers have when something goes wrong and it is something like, “well I guess I should have known” or “I thought something like this might happen.” Really???? You thought something like this might happen. Option one that is a most likely a lie because I doubt seriously that you thought of anything beyond, “Hey, you know what will be cool”… fill in the bad choice of the moment, or option two. Option two being that you did somehow manage to think of something that might go wrong and then though ah firetruck it I’ll do it anyway. If option two is the actual answer, then you are a bigger idiot than the idiot in option one. At the very least in option one you have the excuse I didn’t think. Indeed captain obvious you did not think or you wouldn’t have done said stupid shit. All you have in option two is mea culpa, mea culpa but as I mentioned before apologies don’t clean up all the consequences. You have the right to be as stupid as you want; you also have the responsibility to own your own bad choices once they come back around to bite you on the ass or someone else. It’s fine to remove yourself from the collective gene pool but leave the rest of us to our own bad choices. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Today’s title: Lyrics from Glory and Gore by Lorde Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Hope bites the dust behind all the closed doors

The one thing that makes me tired of all the connectedness and not just being connected 24 seven, is just other people in general. Everyone thinks they are right all of the time, without any discussion or presentation of fact. They are right and you are wrong. No one bothers to listen or give anyone a chance to speak or explain. They talk over, ridicule, steer the conversation off topic if you can even call it a conversation, bad mouth, scream, rant, rave, they will do almost anything but hear what the other person has to say. It is like our ears have atrophied from lack of use. So much of what I see out there are problems of all or nothing thinking. Someone draws a line and unless you bend 100 percent to their way of seeing things nothing productive happens. They are inflexible, even in the face of reason, rational discourse, fact, and scientific proof, they will argue to opposite just to be objectionable, just because, and for no other reason than to be the thorn in the side of the other person. If I can not get what I want completely, well I will make you regret ever trying to get anything. I’m not immune, no one is, every person, has a vested interest in their own success. Every problem ultimately will require you to do something. You can choose to do nothing, which ultimately will cause something to happen, perhaps what you don’t want to happen. How did compromise become such a bad thing? Argument for the sake of argument is fine in a philosophical debate where the consequences are not real and no one is ultimately affected by a poor choice. Debate is useful and even enlightening. However it does require a skill we seem to ignore. That is listening to the other side of the argument. We can see where pit falls may occur but there does come a time when debates have to end and progress has to occur. This isn’t just a person to person level problem whole governments have this problem. Our government has it on every level, and around the world, 3 entire governments were dissolved this week. Why? The simple inability and unwillingness to listen, to communicate, or to compromise, to a point where those in leadership were left with no other option than to say, well this is just not working, you are all fired, we are starting over. Sadly though the same people are likely to be elected right back into office and nothing will happen again. Stubbornness can be a virtue when it means that you are unwilling to stop trying to improve yourself. However doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results and not seeing why you are failing isn’t stubbornness it is insanity. Every good manager, leader, chief, or person in charge worth a damn in my life has had the exact same thing in common. They would listen to what you had to say and if you had a gripe, bitch, or complaint about anything they all said the same thing. What can we do differently? If you had a plan they would listen, they would debate, and they would try to sink your idea. Not to be shitty about it, but to used debate and experience to see if it would unravel the idea. Very few times was a logical alternative that would work or make things better was ever turned down. When it was it was because resources were not available to make the plan happen but those good leaders took the ideas to the next level and tried to make them work. We need to have more discussion, open and transparent, with no hidden agendas, real cooperative progress, that makes a difference for both sides of the discussion. All or nothing usually ends with nothing for either side in the end. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Today’s title: lyrics from “Rat Trap” The Boomtown Rats Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

ALS Challenge

Being that I am lacking in technological gadgetry and other expensive recording devices, I am at a crossroads in my life. How often do we find ourselves in a situation of wanting to please others? We want desperately, or not so desperately, to show those who have made a request of us that we would indeed fulfill what is being asked of us however we are unable to meet that request. It is a maddening place to be. Wanting to do the “whatever” which has been asked and not being able to do the whatever. Worried that others will look on our failure to meet said request as something bad, that they may make a negative judgment or that they will think you are insensitive to the request and many other unpleasant things. You may be wondering what is going on that has me so perplexed. Simply put it is the ALS ice bucket challenge. As much as I would truly love to record a bucket of ice water being poured on my head. I say that without any sarcasm at all, I don’t have a gift for that style of speaking or writing and because there is not a font for that type of language. I have a bucket. I don’t really have ice though. The ice maker in my fridge broke and Stunt boy and I don’t really put ice in our drinks. So I would have to buy ice which isn’t terribly expensive or drastically all that far away either. But it complicates the effort just a bit. The bigger thing as I mentioned earlier is that I don’t have a way to record video of me doing the challenge and that is rather costly. Now I do have a camera and I could photograph the event. One of the bucket of ice and water Then one of me wet or some stage of not dry Then another of an empty bucket. You wouldn’t really know if I had just dumped the water out and then got into a nice warm shower then tramped down the stairs back outside and then took the wet picture. I’m smart enough to dumb the water and ice where I would be standing and to take my shirt into the shower too to get it wet. Because I’m not taking any photos shirtless. You’re welcome. However my camera isn’t charged so there is that and time is running out. So not pictures either. So with no way to really fulfill this challenge in some meaningful way or at least in some way that people will fully believe what I’m writing to you in this issue of my blog, journal, note, whatever this “this” is to fulfill my not one, not two but three requests that I am aware of to do this ALS ice bucket challenge. I am still under the clock on all three of them as I did not become aware of any of these until about 10:00 p.m. last night but all three of these challenges were several hours old once I saw them, one of them a full day old. But as I was not aware of said challenge I can’t really be held accountable as I did not get a phone call saying I was nominated So those of you who are reading I have been nominated by 1. KL USAF 50th Security Police – he challenged me as I was stationed with him at Hahn AB along with every other member of the 50th SPS who has also been challenged. 2. The Peacemaker – my brother who challenged me along with my other brother and a few others. 3. City Manager – who is the city manager of the City of Roanoke and I’m not clear if he challenged all citizens of Roanoke or all City Employees. Either way I fall into his request 4. Any challenges for which I have been named and as of yet I am unaware As far as you know the following is true Beside me right now is a bucket of water with ice floating around in it and some dirt, probably should have cleaned the bucket but I didn’t. It’s a blue plastic bucket rectangular in shape and holds about three gallons of liquid. Mainly it holds water but it is a multipurpose bucket I could put nearly any liquid in it and it would remain in the bucket. Now I’m going to go outside and dump the contents of this bucket on my head. I’m sure it will be refreshing. Be right back. Pause for water dousing Okay, I’m back. Miss me? I have to say really cold water wakes you up and takes your breath away. Kind of thrilling and painful the dog did not think this was very smart. Fortunately the neighbors weren’t watching me do something which is really rather odd. Now for the ALS part of the challenge I have gone to the ALS website and I have made my donation. I have donated for my son who misunderstood the challenge and while he did have a bucket of ice water dumped on his head, well mostly the water missed him, but none the less he was somewhat wet. I am also donating for myself and on behalf of my daughter. Who as far as I know has not been challenged or randomly dumped ice water on her head. So the money bit is taken care of Now on to the challenge part. In the interest of saving time I’m only going to make two nominations. 1. My daughter because I love her and I already paid the money so go. I would nominate other family members but they either have been nominated already or fall in to the next group of people. 2. Anyone who lives on the planet earth regardless of nation, age, gender or any other demographic qualifier you want to put in here I nominate all humans who live on the earth to donate what you can to a charity or research organization of your choice. If you donate to ALS, great, if it is another charity or research organization that is great too. The point is to give and to raise awareness of these issues which are under funded for a lot of reasons, which I will not get into right now. Give what you can. I won’t specify any amount because maybe all you can afford is 5 dollars. Maybe you can’t afford that. Give your time volunteering or pay it forward by doing something for someone who needs help. Feed someone how is homeless or something else. Whatever you do, do something that makes the world a little better. Not because you will feel better about it, or you can post something on social media to say hey I did this or you will make some money but because it will help someone else. You have the rest of your lives to do something good hopefully you choose to do something every 24 hours that makes the world better. Not because it pays well, not because it feels good, not because you’ll get something back. Just because you can, so go… the world is waiting for you to do something amazing. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

A thousand years in one piece of silver

School starts anew already for some and coming very soon for others. Stunt boy returned this week for his final year of high school. Hardly seems possible and that Doodle, his sister, just started school not so long ago the day after he was born and now my son is a senior. Next fall he will most likely be off to college and on the first legs of his life away from home. Empty nest syndrome has been something that I’ve gotten to experience a bit in that my kids have split their time with me and with their mother over the last bunch of years. I have an empty house, then I don’t, then I do, then I don’t and on it has gone. Soon that will stop and they will be gone. Doodle has been out there on her own and not without a bump or two along the way for a while now. I see her like I see my mother, special occasions and holidays. Stunt boy will start that soon, far too soon for my liking and probably not soon enough from his point of view. I remember being in their place finishing high school leaving home and familiar things behind and striking out on my own, falling down only to get back up dust myself off and try again. I don’t think I ever really looked back and thought how it must be from the point of view of my parents. Or if I did I didn’t really understand what it was they may have been feeling. Probably was easier when I left because my brothers were still at home, until they weren’t, just as it was easier for me when Doodle left because Stunt boy was still at home. Now soon he won’t be either and it makes her absence more evident. As much as I lament their leaving the “nest” I am happy for them and try to separate my role in their life as parent and provider to parent and adviser. They are my adult children. Their lives are theirs and no matter what I’ve imagined would be their lives. Their dreams are now their road map and it is their life to choose the paths they will walk, even if they aren’t the ones I would pick. They will fall down and I will be here if they need me to help them, what ever that means. I have to be okay if that help is only to stand by and be silent as they dust themselves off and try again. It’s a hard shift to make at least for me and I’m sure many others. I don’t know if I really like the new role I’m in but I still have a year to get used to the change and I’ve been thinking too about what I’ll do next year, now that I finally got stunt boy to mow the grass only to have to take it back up again next year. A year off is better than none. I won’t have to give up the big TV for him to play Xbox when I really want to play on the Play Station. I can’t really say, “But I want to play my video game” and still sound like a parent. I mean I have said that and used the dad trump of, “I pay the bills for the electric and such, so un-ass the machine son” when he complained. I feel a bit odd doing that so mainly I don’t but sometimes I do. It’s good to be the king, but soon I will be the king of an empty kingdom. Well except for being the King of the Bastards but that is something entirely different. I mean the cats will still be here but they really think this is their house and I’m the hired help. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Today’s title: Lyrics “A punk” Vampire Weekend Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015

Mother Nature thinks you are an idiot; I'm reserving judgement for now

When ever I read something about someone meeting their end out in the wild, I have to wonder is this just some accident or did the person not really know what they were doing in the first place. I don’t like reading about people dying, no matter what you may have heard about me. Well I do like Game of Thrones/ Song of Ice and Fire series so there is an argument that I do enjoy reading about death. However those are fictional deaths and not the real dead. It seems there are more and more of these adventure type deaths occurring all the time. Which leads me to thinking many people have lost sight of the fact that Mother Nature doesn’t like people, it isn’t just you in particular she hates us all. No matter how nice you are to all the fuzzy little critters or how much you recycle, Mother Nature does not care if you live or not. She doesn’t get all weepy about anyone she kills, she is a mean old bitty and you best not get on her bad side. There is no sign at the edge of the forest that says you must be this tall to ride this ride. Just because you can buy a jet ski, speed boat, climbing gear, GPS and camping gear, or whatever gadgets that are available at hey you all watch me do this dot com. Most likely you don’t know how to use the stuff you just spent too much on, you are not as fit as you think you are, you have no idea what is out there or have a plan for what to do if Mother Nature decides that she is in a really bad mood and you just happen to be in the vicinity. What baffles me is these same people will just walk right up to wild animals. And not the little furry cute ones, oh no they walk up the ones which weight several hundred pounds more than any person. Animals that if you hit them with a car might look at you with disgust and head butt your car and saunter on into the forest. The great wide world is not an amusement park where if you buy the gear you have an all day ride pass and can do what ever you feel like doing. Launching rescue efforts to save your dumb ass puts the lives of people who do know what they are doing at risk. It wastes money and resources. And worst of all you have probably dumped a bunch of trash and toxic crap out in the wild which will cause other problems. However, this is becoming not just an out there in the middle of nowhere problem either. No sadly, this species of human, (homo headuptheirassious) is bringing the all idiot road show right to our neighborhoods, in to parks and recreational areas. Now not only are these tour-ons a hazard to themselves they are bringing it to others. Free for the viewing but not so much on the clean up. I don’t even know how many times I’ve seen someone crashing some sort of recreational something; bike, boat, other vehicle into people or things, or worse yet not operating them in a safe manner. It isn’t that I lack any sympathy for the people who have died or become severely injured. The thing is when you read the follow up on these folks. They were not experienced enough to do what they were doing, they had no training at all, were perhaps under the influence of something. Makes me want to move far, far away from people, but I don’t because I don’t have the necessary skills to live so far away from sidewalks, grocery stores and indoor plumbing. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015