Tag Archives: rant

3 trips

On the weekend I spent some time putting water fed solar panels up on our roof. I thought 50 feet of flexible piping would be enough, but that only covered getting the water to and from the low garage roof, and not taking care of the piping also needed to get the water from the pool to the pump and filter.

Yesterday after work I bought more piping from a pool & hot tub store and then went to the hardware store to buy more connectors than I needed so that I wouldn’t have to make another trip.

Then I made another trip to the hardware store… and then another. I finally had all the proper connection pieces, but only after assembling 3 pieces together to replace one piece that was there previously. Without going into details, the small pump currently attached to the pool, which is too small to pump water up onto the garage roof, is attached by parts unique to the pump and so the transition from the pool to the new pump was not as simple as I thought it would be.

So, I continued my tradition of always having to go to the hardware store more than once whenever I do any kind of handy work. I’m glad it’s a short drive, but when I have to go a third time, it’s really frustrating. I ended up re-hooking up the old pump after dark, and will put everything together later this week, but probably not until the weekend, with a very busy after school schedule until then.

‘Measure twice cut once’ is a phrase you often here tradespeople say. Well, it seems mine should be ‘measure twice, visit the hardware store once’… but no matter how much I measure, how much I think I’ve prepared, I end up not realizing I needed another item, or buying the wrong item, or running into an unforeseen issue. Chalk up one each for those reasons last night.

The day I am able to visit a hardware store just once, and complete a full repair of project will be a day of celebration for me. But last night was not that night. Last night it took 3 trips to the hardware store. And now the task that I had hoped to be completed must wait longer to be done (again).

Waiting in Limbo

I’ve gotten terribly tired of waiting. I want to stomp my feet, and scrunch up my face, and whine like a petulant child until I get my vaccine. When is it my turn? How much longer? What about me?

Oh, I know that the protocols will still be there; restaurants will still only be takeout; I won’t be suddenly having friends over; and, I’ll still be wearing a mask for some time. I know my day-to-day life won’t change much after my first shot. But getting that shot can’t happen fast enough for me.

It’s the next step forward. Its movement away from a year-plus-long state of limbo, and towards the promise of normalcy… even if we are still far away from things going back to normal.

It’s getting closer to happening but it feels like each day is exponentially longer as I wait my turn. It makes me feel impatient, frustrated, and melancholy. I know that’s all in my head. I know that thinking about it stretches my perception of the days before it happens even longer. That doesn’t seem to matter. What matters is that I’m still waiting. And yes, I’m still being cautious, I’m still trying to stay positive, I’m still taking my Vitamin D… and I’m still waiting.

Is it just me?

I know I’ve been writing a lot recently about QAnon, anti-makers, and anti-vaxxers. I’m going to continue that today with a bit of a rant:

Is it just me that thinks these conspiracy theory spinners are just idiots? I mean one crazy idea leads to another, which leads to another. They tie so many BS ideas together that you can’t keep track. And when one idea is debunked or one deadline for catastrophe is missed, it doesn’t diminish their fervour for the next conspiracy… debunking one idea does not phase their beliefs on the topic or any other topic, despite the fact that they are the ones making the connections. What’s worse, they seem to always want evidence, but refuse to believe any evidence provided is real.

Is it just me that thinks police should take water guns filled with blue food colouring to anti-mask protests and spray it all over them? If protesters are going to endanger themselves, let’s paint their faces blue for a couple weeks so that we can keep our distance from them when they return to normal society. That way when they come back from the protest and put masks on, and we usually can’t tell they were participating in risky behaviour, we would still know to keep very clear from them.

Is it just me that thinks we should enforce travel bans on people that refuse the vaccine? And while we are at it, if they end up in a hospital with expensive covid related issues after refusing the vaccine, they should have to pay medical bills for being stupid and adding an unnecessary burden to the Canadian economy.

Is it just me that wonders how in an age of unlimited information, stupidity can travel faster than intelligence? What is it about the human brain that makes not just dimwits, but also otherwise smart people too, believe that every government leader can be absolutely corrupt and yet only a single whistleblower is brave enough to come forward? The news is filled with scandals all the time. Humans don’t know how to keep a secret, but somehow there are cabals filled with rich people who live lives surrounded by servants, who can keep global conspiracies a secret for decades.

Is it just me that wonders if the threat of terrorism is greater from within our borders than from outside? That anti-common sense, extreme nationalist, and hate groups pose more of a threat to our societies than fundamentalist religious wing-nuts? The internal threat of stupidity is greater than the external threat of tyranny.

Is it just me that is fed up with cliff jumping lemmings calling me a sheep? I feel like I’m calling out the morons the same way they call out people who actually care about things like actual research and scientific facts. I know that this little rant won’t change anyone’s ridiculous beliefs in conspiracy theories, and will do nothing more than convince these delusional idiots that I’m somehow lost, or blind to some fantasy land reality they live in. But I feel good getting this little rant off my chest, and I’ll work on more convincing arguments again after today.

Here is the thing… it feels good to rant sometimes, but is it just me that thinks dialogue is the only way forward? That we actually have to engage and try to convince people that their loony ideas are wrong? Am I the only one that thinks it’s not good enough to roll your eyes and let these people believe their baseless theories without providing counter arguments? The answer to the spread of bad ideas is to counter them with good ideas. It’s painful to engage, but if we don’t have dialogue, if we don’t provide counter arguments, then we really are sheep, or lemmings… Then we are allowing a small group of small minded people to influence and engage with more people likely to follow them down a path of poor thinking. Is it just me that thinks this?

Decades behind where we should be

I have been on Alexa with my in-laws for over an hour trying to help them set up a wireless printer. We just got disconnected after they tried to take Alexa over to the router. This is way harder than it should be. It’s worse than trying to load disks and follow the instructions, so that I could access the internet through AOL… back in the late 80’s!

I just reconnected with my in-laws and they’ve had enough for the night. I’m not sure if they are truly done or if they just feel that they are taking too much of my time… they aren’t but I’m guessing that’s playing on their minds anyway.

Here’s the thing, none of this is easy and I’d probably struggle a bit even if I was there. It wasn’t just me trying to help them navigate a simple menu, it was a confusing set-up. The tiny keyboard gave limited buttons that my in-laws struggled with, having to hit the 1/2 button twice for 2 and the 3/4 button twice for the number 4. It’s a complicated 10-digit password on the wifi that is the default set-up. It’s the printer asking for a PIN rather than Wifi Password as the default, with PIN instructions buried somewhere in the tiny font instructions.

It’s not just this printer. I recently spent an hour and half helping my daughter switch to a new iPhone. I couldn’t load a purchased app on my TV to let it screen share easily from our Apple products. I spent about 30 minutes trying to sync two bluetooth speakers that have a ‘friendly’ app to help me.

How is it that in this day and age of connectivity, nothing likes talking to each other and every connection takes so much effort?

‪Incessant reminders are an annoyance, not a service.‬

I’m sure that I’m not the only Apple user fed up with the repeated ‘invitations’ to use iCloud for backup.

I know I’m not the only one that opens an app and gets the request to rate it, and the choices are to rate it or click ‘Not Now’ only to have to face this question again in the near future.

These ‘reminders’ and ‘invitations’ are annoying when they keep coming up. I understand an initial invitation for feedback. I’d be ok if I got another one 6 months later, after I’ve used the app for a while. But the window of time before the next time I’m asked is too short… Well here is a solution I just found after starting to write this little rant:

You can go into the iPhone settings under ‘iTunes and App Stores‘, scroll down and toggle the ‘In-App Rating and Reviews‘ radial button off.

This won’t stop the annoying iCloud reminders but it will go a long way in making my app user experience better!

If you are an app developer, or someone that is creating a service, remember that asking for feedback or selling a product are interruptions, so use these sparingly. Or, imbed these options in a way that isn’t a pop-up that forces a break in the flow of using the app. For example, 3 highlighted features/buttons to click to use features, and 2-3 more that are greyed out, but still work, taking you to a page to upgrade to use these features. (Take note Apple iCloud.)

Incessant reminders are an annoyance, not a service.‬

Not-so-motivational quotes

I saw this ‘motivational quote’ on Twitter this morning,

STRIVE
for what you
BELIEVE IN
and you will
GET THERE
in no time

What a dumb load of crap! There are many things to strive for that, no matter how hard you strive, will take a long time to get to. Striving doesn’t make the target magically get closer. Striving needs to happen on those days when the target seems farther away, when things aren’t going in your favour, and when others believe you can’t do it. Believing you’ll get there ‘in no time’ is discouraging when things are going slowly despite your efforts.

Here is another one:

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.

Wow, I had no idea it was that simple! 🤣

This on actually sends the wrong message about success:

There are two rules for success…

1. Never reveal everything you know

The most successful people I know have been overly generous in their sharing.

This is just a little rant about some of the not-so-motivational quotes that seem to circulate on social media, disguising themselves as useful content. Posterized words on images meant to inspire, but not on target, littering my social media timelines. I’m just surprised how many I’ve been seeing lately.