Just sitting waiting for the Live stream of Machida vs. Anders.
Looking at different news stories, the FISA memo, current politics... I remember the late 70's and early 80's, and I really do see some differences.
Where I grew up, I could ride my Kawasaki 100 (hahaha) endure for 20 or 30 minutes, and just see a few farms. Now, many of those fields are filled with houses. Not suburbs yet, but houses anyway. The woods I played in now have driveways leading into them, kids cant go there anymore, it's someone's large, wooded yard. The nearby prison got a Max Wing, and the state put in family housing, and that changed the largest nearby town. The Steel Mill and Stanley and National Tool were all booming when I was a kid, now those factories are miles of rusting building shells, and weed filled parking lots.
We had wall phones, rotary dial, and sure there were rumors that if you said the wrong words into them, maybe someone would hear? But people had an expectation of privacy, and if there was a phone tap, it required a warrant, the police needed a REASON for that. Otherwise, no one was listening to every phone call. Now? Everything is watched, listened to 24/7/365. And people have smart phones that literally track them all the time. For "safety" or whatever. I use email, even though I know everything I say is legally the property of Google. They keep my emails, forever. Facebook? You cant delete your profile. You can take it offline, but it never goes away. Facebook keeps all that stuff to feed into some ultimate advertising algorithm, it truly amazes me sometimes.
Advertising. I remember TV commercials during I LOVE LUCY, one in the middle, and a sponsor ad at the end. That was it. Commercials got longer and longer, and more of them. TV channels (used to be free, just a TV and an antennae) became non stop advertising streams, that you have to pay to watch. Pay to be advertised to. I haven't had cable or satellite or traditional tv in... wow going on 18 years now? Holy smokes, lol.
I wonder what my lack of constant mainstream, TV approved messaging has done to me. Has it, even slightly, removed me a step from someone who watches TV 4 to 6 hours a day, every day? If the goal of Facebook, and advertising, and social media, is to drive a product, or mindset, it has to follow that by not having access to that, I am not being driven in the same direction. Probably something else driving me, and I don't even know it.
Even the billboards along the roads here. There is one that always make me wonder, its a guy with a confused look on his face, and the caption says "was I just raped?" I always think you should know, because either you are dead or the other person is. I just don't get it, like society has to hunt for problems to solve. Everywhere.
My kids all work, and buy phones. $400 to $600 dollars! Before a phone plan, and they act like they are free because they don't pay upfront. Then bitch if they change carriers and suddenly there is a $400 dollar fee to drop the carrier. Can you imagine it? A fee to STOP BUYING a service, its incredible. "Oh you don't want to buy this anymore? Well, here is what you owe me to get me to allow you to stop paying me." Its mind boggling.
It's hard to remember a time before the internet. I walked a lot more, just walking around out of boredom. I also drank more and engaged in other destructive behavior, probably out of boredom as well. Hard to say though, maybe it was a phase. Still, if the internet conked out as I am typing right now, I wouldn't cry about it. I would get more stuff done around the condo, that's for sure, lol.
The big changes to me are in the Government, it just seems like it is... more out in the open now. Constant leaks, he said she said, ex CIA officer says "blah blah blah". Didn't those guys used to keep their mouths shut forever? What changed?
Interesting times, anyway. A lot of talk about Artificial Intelligence, and how it is going to change so much. I hope I am living somewhere that I can be reading about the effects and not living in the results. It is pretty tempting to take a year and just tune it all out. What does the "News" do for me? I have no idea any more.
I'm not reaching any kind of epiphany here, just kind of musing on how much has changed, I'm not that old for Pete's sake.
Looking at different news stories, the FISA memo, current politics... I remember the late 70's and early 80's, and I really do see some differences.
Where I grew up, I could ride my Kawasaki 100 (hahaha) endure for 20 or 30 minutes, and just see a few farms. Now, many of those fields are filled with houses. Not suburbs yet, but houses anyway. The woods I played in now have driveways leading into them, kids cant go there anymore, it's someone's large, wooded yard. The nearby prison got a Max Wing, and the state put in family housing, and that changed the largest nearby town. The Steel Mill and Stanley and National Tool were all booming when I was a kid, now those factories are miles of rusting building shells, and weed filled parking lots.
We had wall phones, rotary dial, and sure there were rumors that if you said the wrong words into them, maybe someone would hear? But people had an expectation of privacy, and if there was a phone tap, it required a warrant, the police needed a REASON for that. Otherwise, no one was listening to every phone call. Now? Everything is watched, listened to 24/7/365. And people have smart phones that literally track them all the time. For "safety" or whatever. I use email, even though I know everything I say is legally the property of Google. They keep my emails, forever. Facebook? You cant delete your profile. You can take it offline, but it never goes away. Facebook keeps all that stuff to feed into some ultimate advertising algorithm, it truly amazes me sometimes.
Advertising. I remember TV commercials during I LOVE LUCY, one in the middle, and a sponsor ad at the end. That was it. Commercials got longer and longer, and more of them. TV channels (used to be free, just a TV and an antennae) became non stop advertising streams, that you have to pay to watch. Pay to be advertised to. I haven't had cable or satellite or traditional tv in... wow going on 18 years now? Holy smokes, lol.
I wonder what my lack of constant mainstream, TV approved messaging has done to me. Has it, even slightly, removed me a step from someone who watches TV 4 to 6 hours a day, every day? If the goal of Facebook, and advertising, and social media, is to drive a product, or mindset, it has to follow that by not having access to that, I am not being driven in the same direction. Probably something else driving me, and I don't even know it.
Even the billboards along the roads here. There is one that always make me wonder, its a guy with a confused look on his face, and the caption says "was I just raped?" I always think you should know, because either you are dead or the other person is. I just don't get it, like society has to hunt for problems to solve. Everywhere.
My kids all work, and buy phones. $400 to $600 dollars! Before a phone plan, and they act like they are free because they don't pay upfront. Then bitch if they change carriers and suddenly there is a $400 dollar fee to drop the carrier. Can you imagine it? A fee to STOP BUYING a service, its incredible. "Oh you don't want to buy this anymore? Well, here is what you owe me to get me to allow you to stop paying me." Its mind boggling.
It's hard to remember a time before the internet. I walked a lot more, just walking around out of boredom. I also drank more and engaged in other destructive behavior, probably out of boredom as well. Hard to say though, maybe it was a phase. Still, if the internet conked out as I am typing right now, I wouldn't cry about it. I would get more stuff done around the condo, that's for sure, lol.
The big changes to me are in the Government, it just seems like it is... more out in the open now. Constant leaks, he said she said, ex CIA officer says "blah blah blah". Didn't those guys used to keep their mouths shut forever? What changed?
Interesting times, anyway. A lot of talk about Artificial Intelligence, and how it is going to change so much. I hope I am living somewhere that I can be reading about the effects and not living in the results. It is pretty tempting to take a year and just tune it all out. What does the "News" do for me? I have no idea any more.
I'm not reaching any kind of epiphany here, just kind of musing on how much has changed, I'm not that old for Pete's sake.
