Category Archives: Random Reflections

Random Reflections

Have things gone too far?

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I went to look at Pinterest this morning. They won’t let me. They want my birthday.

Why do they need my birthday? It will not, no matter what they claim, help them make my search experience any better since I input directly what I am interested in.

I figure it’s a desire for more advertising revenue. It could help them sell targeted advertising at me…Like I need more of that in my life. I get plenty from other sources.

At least, before, Pinterest had to figure out ads related to sewing, cooking, and photography, not assume that, because I am “une femme d’un certain age”, that I need a barrage of ads for incontinence products or unpronounceable medications. (If I hear “Sometimes I get bladder leaks” one more time I might scream!).

I used to like Pinterest.

They gave me access to posts that weren’t necessarily visible in the Google-y/Bing-y world, where posts are listed first by who is paying them to advertise, followed by who might be induced to pay them for ads, then by the big ticket clickers, after which the listings just fall apart and become random and irrelevant. They are unable, although I suspect that it is really unwilling, to give any visibility to people who are just posting about their own experiences.

Side note: this is one of my greatest concerns about AI. It’s just one more manipulator in this system “optimized” to repeat the messages that are already out there. If it really had any merit you could find interesting material on page two of a search.

In Pinterest it was easy to search on obscure ingredients, like aquafaba or lemon balm, and find out how they can be used; craft ideas, like adding pockets, or cutting out cool snowflakes; and out-of-the-way travel locations.

Drawing a line

How old I am is none of their business, and it is one more point of vulnerability for scammers and hackers to get a hold of information that might endanger me. So I deleted the app from my phone.

Back in the day…

Can you remember when a search took you from your known area of interest out into a world of new ideas? Like when you opened the encyclopedia to look something up and saw a new term linked only by the first few letters that led you on a path of discovery? Internet searches used to be like that.

Now…

Now you type in the name of a city and you get an entire page trying to sell you places to stay and/or flights. Expedia, Hotels.com, Trip Adviser….

At the very bottom of the page you might get one Wikipedia or tourist board listing that actually tells you a little about the place. Page two is generally random nonsense derived from the idea that you clearly didn’t know what you wanted to learn about and/or misspelled the name of a more well known place.

Random Reflections, Uncategorized

Melancholy

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I haven’t been very active on this blog lately. It was the holidays, but also something more…or, more accurately, less. I haven’t been taking many photos of late. It’s too dark and it seems like everything is dead. Nothing looks good.

Melancholy is an old fashioned word that sounds a bit like the feeling. I don’t feel sad, or depressed. Those words have an ugly edge to them. Also, the definition of melancholy includes gloom.

This winter has been dark and gray, and I can’t seem to strike a spark, let alone get a fire started.

Little items from our past Christmas’s and Grandma’s cache.

I put up the Christmas decorations, and for the past few days I’m taking them down, slowly. It doesn’t feel like there’s any rush, because there isn’t a next coming along.

There’s nothing really wrong. It’s just winter, and spring feels a long way off. Many winters we don’t have a complete die off. As early as now we might see buds, even a few precocious blossoms.

Last January 12th.

But the cold snaps, snow, freezing rain and wind storms have chased the natural world into hibernation more thoroughly than most years.

January 2020, rumors of a strange illness were just starting on the Chinese message boards.

January 30th marks 3 years since we bid our son farewell in Auckland, as he headed back to China for work…but, as it turned out, lock down, opening up, then lock down, again and again. After enough bouts of disappointed optimism, I am beginning to wonder if we will ever see him again. Nothing dramatic: he is alive and healthy, we didn’t have a fight and now hate each other, but it feels like things are never going to work out.

A small dog bravely preparing to cross a creek that is big by comparison.
A cheerful little dog undaunted by a big world.

Yesterday morning when we awoke our little dog, Asta, had passed away sometime in the night. She was a cheerful, and cheering, little soul, and it’s one more downer.

I just wanted you to know why I’m only half here right now. The days are getting longer now, so maybe things will become less gloomy soon.

Random Reflections, Uncategorized

Provoking a lack of thought

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This post is a response to Fandango of This, That and the Other’s Provocative Question: Whether or not you have a Twitter account, how do you feel about Musk’s takeover of Twitter and the changes he’s made so far. Do you care one way or the other? If you currently are on Twitter, do you plan to continue actively using it?

I’m more than a little sick and tired of hearing about Twitter and Musk, as well as being annoyed that it probably does matter.

I do not now, nor have I ever had, a Twitter account. I cannot foresee any circumstance that would change that.

In the beginning…

When Twitter first started I thought: “what a bad idea! It’s sole purpose is to make people write little provocative blurbs. Way to kill thoughtful discourse!”

A while ago I wrote a post on a similar subject: This is not a Tweet. It was before the takeover. In it I point out that the whole “public square” idea is marketing, not reality. And that decisions would be made to optimize people staring slack jawed at the screen.

Since the takeover…

In a way I was wrong: Mr. Musk hasn’t been very business-like.

Continue reading Provoking a lack of thought →
Random Reflections

Another thought to add

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Last weekend I had a few seemingly discrepant thoughts that my brain connected (Connecting the thoughts). This video came out a few days later and it also connected.

Especially to the foxtail.

Even if you don’t use TikTok the methods used by social media and discussion in this video are worthwhile to watch.

I am neither a Luddite nor a social media master user. I don’t think we shouldn’t use social media…But I think we sometimes need to step back and consider the bigger picture.

To stop and ask ourselves: Am I getting anything from these interactions? How do they make me feel? Who is benefiting from this? and why?

We need to remember that technology should be there to serve us, not serve us up on a platter.

Random Reflections

Connecting the thoughts

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Foxtails

Close up of the seed with its hook and feathers.

I picked a foxtail seed off of our outside dog bed this morning. If you don’t know, foxtails are a kind of grass. They are dangerous for dogs.

Foxtails travel. Moving relentlessly forward, never back, they can migrate from inside your dog’s nose to its brain. They can dig through skin or be inhaled into — and then perforate — a lung.

Web MD
Continue reading Connecting the thoughts →
Random Reflections

Communications these days…

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The timing of Fandango’s Provocative Question this week:

Do you have a preference with respect to the length of blog posts you read? Does the number of words in a post affect how you read it or even if you will read it? What is your average post length?

…is interesting because I recently decided that I would try to write a longer post on an issue of our times every week, or two…or three.

This is one of them. I answer Fandango’s question, but I also explore some thoughts related to why along the way…because I think they might affect most every communication these days.

Engagement not length

How long a post should be, in my opinion, is as long as is needed to express one’s thought.

If something catches my imagination or gets me thinking It can be pretty long. I don’t like rambling, but some thoughts take more explanation than others. And I never look at or think about word count.

and yet…

Continue reading Communications these days… →
Random Reflections

Nowhere to go

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A recent morning’s New York Times newsletter had a piece about homelessness. This is a hot topic these days. We have a local problem with it and I’ve seen a lot of pieces about it here and there over the past few years. so, since our local paper hadn’t arrived yet, I spent a little time cogitating on homelessness.

Sitting on my little deck on a beautiful summer morning, I couldn’t help but feel empathy (I was almost in tears!) for those who don’t have a place to be. Most days I only leave my house and yard to walk the dogs, it is hard to wrap my mind around not having a safe place to be.

I do not have answers. Also, I look upon those who have answers, especially simple ones, with suspicion. This post is just an exploration, a reflection on experiences and things I have learned.

My rambling thoughts on homelessness

They started with this quote from the New York Times piece:

“Housing researchers use the example of musical chairs: Imagine there are 10 people for nine chairs. One person, weighed down by poor health, does not make it to a chair. Is the problem the person’s health or the lack of chairs?”

That struck me, because my first thought was both. But, upon further reflection, I realized someone would always be out of a seat, and there would always be a reason to rationalize that. The game is rigged to keep someone out. Even if everyone is healthy and wealthy, someone winds up without a house.

Continue reading Nowhere to go →
Random Reflections

Simple answers: it sucks and pablum

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I’ve never done a Truthful Tuesday before, but after reading Fandango’s What’s News? and thinking a bit, I decided I have a few thoughts to add to a discussion on this topic:

What is your honest opinion of the news and how it is shared right now? 
Are we being informed or fed Pablum designed to keep us uninformed and in the dark?

Complex discussion:

Continue reading Simple answers: it sucks and pablum →
Random Reflections

This is not a Tweet.

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I shouldn’t have to care about Twits and Musk.

I don’t have a Twitter account and barely knew that Mr. Musk had some involvement with Tesla, had the brilliant (?) idea of launching a car into space, and periodically says something stupid that causes the stock markets to react.

Over the last few days I have felt bombarded with references to them. This morning’s paper had two articles about it in the business section, Mr. Maher’s New Rule was about how we should up our BS meters to learn to live with a lack of censorship. I agree, in a way.

We do need to tune up our BS meters. No question about that.

Let us start with the BS that Twitter is either a town square or about “free speech”.

Continue reading This is not a Tweet. →