Chapter 61 and Chapter 62
Author: Claire
Loud parties all over the neighborhood yesterday. Well, it’s Carnival. One loud week a year, no problem. A Fourth of July that goes on for two weeks, no problem. But the neighborhood of my new-old house is beginning to get me down. Badly. You buy in a poor neighborhood, you expect some stuff. And hey, I’m the person who once told a real estate agent I’d rather live next to tar-paper shacks than the McMansions he insisted on showing me. But on top of the Notorious Neighbor from Hell, the quality of living here has deteriorated in the last year…
Since joining Twitter (which, seriously, does have some uses) I’ve been following a new-but-prolific blog The Tireless Agorist. I’ve just added it to the Living Freedom blogroll under two categories. I’d have done this in any case because “Agorist Don” writes himself one good blog. But it doesn’t hurt at all that today’s entry is about Hardyville.
I read this on Friday and have been mulling (okay, grousing about) it ever since. Dan Rowinski is mad-mad-mad at the online companies who, one after another, steal users’ data, then (inevitably) go, “Whoops. Oh, it was just an accident! We’ll fix that now.” He’s sick of the repeted abuse. Sick of the lies. Sick of being used. Sick of having to be on alert all the time. Sick even of hearing about it. Yes, Rowinski is mad-mad-mad. So what’s he going to do to combat that data rape or protect himself? … I say screw it. Screw the companies…
Saturday, March 24, 2012. Stickied. Scroll down for newer posts. A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Sweetie, a deaf Australian cattle dog (blue heeler) in need of a home. Unfortunately, she’s had two homes since then — and seven since November. None have worked out. An ACD expert here in the northwest (where the breed is more common) says behavior problems that are mysterious and frightening to people unfamiliar with this very special dog are just normal, though unfortunate, reactions of an ACD neglected and under stress. The more she gets rejected, the worse Sweetie’s stress becomes. So.…
“Pigeon: Impossible.” 🙂 How companies learn your secrets. The bit about the pregnant women (pages 6 & 7) is the creepiest. Hint: aside from not giving ’em any personal data (e.g. pay cash, never participate in a survey, etc.), don’t be a creature of habit. Oh, those tidy Swiss. Now they’re set to clean up outer space. How the brain responds to disaster. This specifically pertains to earthquakes, but I know from experience that it applies more broadly. (Tip o’ hat to PT.) Long feared, now here: microchips you swallow with your meds to report your body’s doings. This is…
Now the gummint wants to predict the future. Given their fear of us, I suspect surveillance of us will play a large part. And their “predictions” will be just as wrong as their pernicious assumptions. Yep, I’d say that collection agency got just a tad bit out of hand. Hope that old lady beats the &^%$# out of ’em. “Spirit of a Racer in a Dog’s Blood” Oh, so this is where all those Downfall videos come from! Cubicleism: a new school of art. 🙂 (Actually, this guy does all these copies of classics on a white board. With dry-erase…
Don’t forget to show your appreciation to Starbucks, if you’ve got one near you. (NOTE: Replaced original link with a better one received this morning in email.)
There’s something to be learned about freedom from all that. But what, exactly? 1. Individual action and adrenaline go together. -S pointed this out in the comments. If we’re ever going to get past the completely ineffectual “call the police or call the landlady” stage with the Neighbor from Hell, we’re going to have to put ourselves on the line in some way large or small. The same is true if we intend to halt the police state. It can’t be done nicely or “within the system.” Most people don’t like putting themselves on the line. So as -S says,…