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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
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Now, as you've probably noticed I've been taking a lot of pictures with my S22 Ultra. Not enough, really, I'll have to take more, but there are the issues of housing and vehicles to be dealt with first.
So, the screen protector I had on it finally cracked, then split, then got water underneath it and in the interest of protecting my investment I peeled it off and headed out to get another.
This screen protector, it was $20 at the local electronics place. Plastic. I thought it was sapphire glass, or something, but it wasn't, just plastic. Imagine my disdain then when it cracked and peeled off and I threw it away.
Anyways, got to have it, I've broken too many phones and there are too many payments left on this baby.
So back to the local electronics place, only they're out of them. Down to the mall. There's a guy, his own little shop, nothing but cell phone cases and screen protectors.
And so I get one there. He puts a generic piece of plastic in a template cutter, which sizes it, then cleans up my phone and puts it on, smoothing it with what appears to be a credit card. He then talks me into putting another piece of protective plastic on the back of the phone, same procedure, smooths it on with a credit card. He makes a great show of cleaning it and smoothing it on. Then he talks me into getting a lens protector as well. Why didn't I think of that?
If I was buying a car I'd be called a "rollover".
When he's done I get the bill. With discount, because I got the works, $117.00. WTF?
For what could be no more than 35 cents worth of plastic and half an hour smoothing it on to my phone with a credit card.
"Rest assured..." I'm told "It comes with a 1 week warranty...".
Bloody hell, when it's time to leave the service industry I know what I'm going to do...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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The petty frustration of paper straws at 7-11, served in your Slurpee, the straw always so deteriorated by the time you reach bottom it's function as a spoon is destroyed, the straw unraveled, falling limply into bits to spill bits of frozen ice and sugar all over your shirt and pants.
The cup - plastic, embossed with a tiny recycle logo. The dome lid, as well, plastic. Why are not the straws plastic? That's right, because they're bad for the environment.
Here's an idea, why not emboss a tiny recycle logo onto the straw as well?
***
Look around any 7-11, all of them, there's no place to recycle your cups or lids. It's presumed that once you drink your Slurpee you'll pitch it in the trash. The recycle logo, it's to put the blame on you - if you don't recycle it, take it home and loving scrub it out before putting it the recycle bin, well, then, it's because you're a shitty person, not because they're a shitty company, see, they gave you a paper straw, didn't they?
***
And so it goes. Like with the 'reusable' bags every grocery/liquor/boutique store wants to sell you, or travel mugs, that only ever see a fraction of the uses they'd need to be superior to their disposable counterparts. This greenwashing, it's the new "Emperor's New Clothes', a social hypocrisy that pretends to address and solve a problem that itself created and is in fact exacerbating.
I'm so fucking done with it all ... I want a plastic straw.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
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And, while I've nothing against the diversity of sexual expression, I can't help but wonder at all this "normalizing" of LGBTQ.
I think it's important to accept people regardless of their sexual orientation, don't get me wrong. But to "normalize" it? Meh. And why should - really - anyone's sexual orientation or predilection be any of my business?
It used to be we "normalized" things like owning a house, having a job, children. And we accepted people who chose differently. But it seems that as this becomes less and less of a possibility we've come to embrace "the alternatives" as the new normal - which they are not, they are compromises to an increasing fractured and divisive economy and society. Which - to an extent - might explain the rise of the far right in the USA and elsewhere.
Wanting to own a house, settle down, have children? This is the new "perversion".
And - note - it's in every wealthy persons interest to "normalize" settling for less - lower wages, higher prices - anything that brings money into their pocket has to be legitimized and regarded as "normal".
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Seeing it juxtaposed with Confederate flags, Nazi flags, American Flags, flying off the back of trucks, always trucks, the worst sorts of people...
Honking, yelling, drawing attention to "Their Cause", not a single participant could articulate with any certitude what, exactly, their cause is, vocal about their own freedoms, but they seem to take everybody else's freedom as an affront, a challenge to their own...
It's becoming less a point of pride (was it ever?) than a point of shame. Maybe it's time to come up with a new flag, that right-minded people can display without embarrassment.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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This age, era, it lakes an appropriate title.
By which I mean "Holocene" or "Anthropocene" are fine, but they don't define the culture. There was the Renaissance, there's been Modernism, and Post-Modernism, there have been any number of movements that specifically try and describe the culture that we live in.
For the moment, there is nothing. And so I propose we call it the "Post-Satire". By which I mean that any Satire - no matter how outlandish, preposterous, or ridiculous - is outstripped by the reality of the time we live in and the principle players.
Think of "Space Force" - perhaps funny - a satire on the ambitions of the former President Trump - but - somehow - not so funny. Because no matter how hard it tried, if you were following the news you knew that the reality was far more absurd and preposterous. Or the latest movie "hit" - "Don't Look Up" - which (I haven't seen to be fair) - fails because it comes too close to home. This isn't a dumbed down version of the world we live in - it's a world in which we somehow portray everyone in power as having the faintest glimmer of intelligence that's somehow overruled by self-interest.
You can't make fun of this, and you shouldn't be trying. It's long overdue we started to take things seriously, because - indeed - things are about to take a very serious turn.