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So I bought a new electric toothbrush a few weeks ago, the old one, it was pooched, wouldn't charge, power on, it was done.
I was a little annoyed as I didn't feel I'd gotten my money's worth. It didn't live nearly as long as the warranty promised it would, the warranty that I threw away upon buying because who keeps that stuff anyways...
Anyways, no sooner than I get the new toothbrush home and up and running than the old one begins working again.
At first, it's just on for a 2 minute cycle, no turning it off. And as I'm fastidious about using things right up I put the new toothbrush away and use the old one. After a couple of weeks it begins to allow me to turn it off as well as on, and it would seem to be as good as new.
Yesterday it needed charging. I threw it on the charger, and from the bathroom all night it played a variety of tunes, beeps, chirps, like R2-D2, this morning, took it off the charger (heard it beeping for attention) - it wasn't charged, put it back on, it was charged, light turns green. I go in to the bathroom a few minutes later to find it fully on and brushing an imaginary set of teeth...
It's as if it belonged to the internet of things, useless items that need to go online like fridges and thermostats and light bulbs, and had been taken over by a playful Russian Hacker. My haunted electric toothbrush...
***
I tried to brush my teeth before work. It wouldn't start. And so I chucked it away, time, overdue, piece-of-shit toothbrush.
And ever since then I've heard it powering on, off, on, off, beeping out Xmas Carols, in my garbage.
Time to take out the trash...
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Friday night, after I had went to bed and read about it all over Facebook on Saturday.
A power outage, lasting perhaps a couple of hours. During which some of our more unhoused residents took it upon themselves to build a fire in a park just outside of the 24 hour cafe recently opened to honour the memory of one of Nelson's more popular street people.
You knew it would go like this, never anyone has a good idea to benefit the unhoused then they find a way to turn it upon themselves. So this fire, illegal, is called into the fire department, and a local resident is on hand to film the ensuing interaction, identifying the main party through a freeze-frame CSI-styled dropdown of his rap-sheet - which includes manufacturing of a controlled substance, distribution of said substance, death threats, etc, etc.
I know him to see him, he's always been pleasant to me, but tonight he's not behaving...
They're going on about it being a "State of Emergency" and all sorts of other free men on the land nonsense. The neighbours to this cafe, they can't be too impressed...
Meanwhile, across town, in front of city hall a local has charged police officers with a concealed weapon (knife). He was tased, shots were fired, and he was taken into custody, previously he'd been convicted a couple of years prior to stabbing somebody in the neck at Shambala. It's a big deal, city hall is cordoned off, police tape, everyone's asking questions...
***
The local resident, he's a bit of a commentator, he describes the nights events succinctly and with clarity. It's better than the news. And of course I have my own take, but I wasn't there (I watched his video) - he's reasonable in his criticisms, mostly of the flavour that "Something needs be done" and "We know these people are threats and yet still they're allowed to walk around...", and he's not wrong, but looking at all the comments and the audience he's reaching, well, this challenges my thinking. It's by-and-largely the more opinionated hand-wringing moral imbeciles taking affront to the idea of extending any sort of assistance to these people or grossly generalizing that all of them are the same. The good thing is, reading who's in agreement forces one to rethink one's own point of view on the subject...
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Watching a lot of inane YouTube videos, true crime style docs in the style of JCS that use real bodycam and interrogation footage to go deep into the psychology of criminals.
And, as of late, with the increase in these technologies, there's a lot. I mean, a mind-buggering shit-tonne of sociopaths, from 91 year old grandpas that kill their adult children, to carefree gangs, murderous husbands/wives/mothers/fathers/serial killers/etc.
And the most terrifying thing is how well they fit in, how - not precisely plausible, but if you didn't ask the right questions, or - as in our current state of surveilled society, with internet, dashcam, security camera footage, phone records, gps data - might well go unsolved. Also remarkable and still - despite mountains of evidence to the contrary - how many women are up to the same murderous antics. 20 years ago they wouldn't have believed it - look at Karla Homolka & Paul Bernardo - but now there's more than enough evidence to say equality - at least in the low end of human nature - has certainly been reached.
The better ones use real interrogation footage. The worse ones use stock footage and simply voiceover the events. There is a difference. Anyways, one particular one - I'll save you watching the entire thing - a quick summary might be as follows:
Young successful married professional (engineer) does a "Thrill Killing" and gets caught. It's just a murder because he can and thinks it will be fun.
Anyways, following his capture he has these conversations with his wife, which are quite probably the most sublime(?), ridiculous and at the same time terrifying thing you've ever heard.
Link YouTube; conversation only
Which should give you an idea of how completely alien these people's mindset is. I mean, I can imagine a lot of heinous things, but this, well, this argues (like a lot of them) for very swift and merciless Capitol Punishment.
****
Clear my YouTube history, you can too deep down these rabbit holes and eventually it'll keep you up at night. What is most terrifying is that I've met (we all have, I'm sure) more than a few of these people, and that if only circumstance were different we'd as well be prey.
***
From that to work, where the Sushi Chef has been writing his rap lyrics in the slower periods. He shows me a few of his videos.
I actually search for "Sushi Chef Rapper" on YouTube and discover it's a fucking thing.
And somehow it gets my mind turning...
I start listening to Eminem - "Not Afraid" and "Love the way you lie". Maybe I've heard them before, but this is the first time I've listened to them, proper.
I'd excuse myself, the whole hip-hop rapper culture, toxic masculinity, posturing, racism, ghetto, misogyny, well, it's not my scene, not my themes. But I get how they resonate, don't admire but I can appreciate. (and yeah, I could actually rap that...)
I'm more an Aesop Rock sort of guy.
...but these tunes, well, the beats hit, the lyrics, well, they're to the purpose, I don't think they're the best but I admire the dense machine-gun imagery, the metaphors, the mixed beats and tunes and so I listen to them over and over, getting a feel for the rhythm and I think that I have some ideas for a new Sushi Chef in town...
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Meanwhile, in other news, scrolling Facebook, news that H.H., the only person I 'follow' on Facebook, has died, his death (not named) in the Nelson Star today, (Port Alberni, unidentified male), you could tell from his posts - a long media dump of every treasure he'd ever found - that this was coming.
Always a tragedy but a train wreck you could see coming from a mile away. And how to prevent it?
Winters, here, BC, it's Kootenay Survivor.
***
News, that the Healthcare exec Assassin was captured, another shame, I'd hoped for a little more professionalism, that somehow he'd remain uncaught and send all the rest of the cockroaches scurrying for their bunkers. The media coverage has been entertaining, to say the least, and gets one's mind off the more serious dismantling of progress and democracy already well underway south of the border. The less said about that the better.
On a related note I'll leave you with this:
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_swGiAHhbQ
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Today, grey and snowing. Maybe 20% daylight, low clouds, rain turning to snow.
Wake up, have some coffee, breakfast, get a few groceries, go back to bed.
Dream that I'm ...
Strange dreams, anyways, filled with unlikely and unwanted personages.
Wake up, go and search for cigarettes, the lowering grey sky and weather, the shop, cash only, interac down, and so I'll just smoke a little less. The day, outside, so dismal, another brief nap, and while I should make some lunch I'm not starving or inspired, and with the windows pulled full wide it's still a dark apartment, dark day, work will be a brief relief from this, there are things to be done but I'm not getting started, not now anyways, time to get changed and head to work where - if I'm unproductive at least I'm making money...