My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on June 16, 2020

Like a lot of people during COVID19, we have gravitated even more to Amazon and online ordering for our “stuff.” We have not ordered groceries online yet, but are definitely doing more online shopping than ever before.

I mentioned having issues with Amazon a few times before (1, 2, 3) during stay-at-home orders and find myself selecting Amazon even when the price is a few bucks higher … THINKING they are more dependable. Who knows if they can monitor their vendors and seller now that they are so large?  Once upon a time, deliveries with PRIME shipping was impressive and pretty consistent. Unfortunately just when depending on something, as I was with a fuel pump, they let me down.

This time it was a couple kitchen items  from the grocery list. I noticed were out of kitchen trash bags and down to the last few dishwasher detergent pucks. So while placing my grill order, added a few other items to the cart on 6/4. Two days seemed reasonable and the price wasn’t really all that much higher than our local grocery store.

Unfortunately the order did not arrive and still has not … as of the 15th (11 days is not 2 days). We’re now out of garbage bags, so Brenda bought them at the grocery store which was cheaper than online anyway. I’ll then pull up the Amazon app and clicked the cancel button – nope, can’t do that (see above email). Now the frustrating “on hold or call-you-back phone call” or maybe 5-10 minute chat with a rep?

But before that, Amazon wants to try and automate with a chat-bot … so let’s see how it works (below)? Still no refund but it looks like it “may” now process my request – something tells me the order is lost again? (I’ll bet Alexa will be doing this before too long?)

Category: Business, Shopping, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: amazon, bags, bots, cancel, chat, complaints, coronavirus, covid19, customer service, dishwasher, e-commerce, garbage, grocery, kitchen, online, prime, refund, Shopping

Posted By RichC on June 15, 2020

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Category: Music | No Comments »
Tags: classics, into the mystic, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, tupelo honey, van morrison

Posted By RichC on June 14, 2020

Ok … I’ve decided that most of the outrage (see 1, 2 & 3) in our country happening is politically motivated and it is being fanned and fueled by political operatives and left-wing ideologues as we approach the 2020 election. Considering we’ve been through racial outrage before, the latest looks to me to be a way for radicals to unite disgruntled socialist-leaning people behind a cause (believing government controlled socialism must be better than liberty and capitalism). 

It is also pretty obvious to me that Democrats and the political left who have an unhealthy dislike for President Trump, also control much of the way in which we communicate in 2020. They noticeably are tilting news and open-exchange platforms in favor of the the left and openly oppose views and commentary from conservatives (NYTimes v Sen Tom Cotton Editorial). The social media giants have appointed handpick censors who represent their left-leaning ideology and mores in order to silence views they disagree with, particularly those of a political party they oppose. Social media has been dealing with this for a a while now, but one of the more recent steps comes from Apple who controls what apps are install on the iPhone. They have frozen updates due to the social app Parler not policing the users of their platform. Many conservatives left Twitter after they became more aggressive speech-policing against users who posted offensive views (their censor’s opinion), comments or content. They either booted them off the platform or tagged their posts as they did for the President of the United States.

This may be all appropriate, but those MANY who are equally offensive have not been policed, tagged  or suspended … and very few world leaders or notables on the left receive the same censure (quite the double standard).

Now to the Parler app … where many on the right (farther right) have gone. It is a social networking platform who does not to aggressively police content, but now they are being targeted by Apple because they aren’t making judgmental decisions and censoring speech. I suspect that means removing the users and content Apple dislikes? (Are we to sift everything through the colander of those looking at this from left-leaning Silicon Valley … just as we approach the election?)

Back to controlling the “megaphone” …

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Category: History, News, Politics, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 60 minutes, apple, blm, editorial, election, megaphone, mike wallace, morgan freeman, mp4, msm, nytimes, opinion, parler, police, politicians, reparations, slavery, social media, thomas sowell, trump, twitter, video

Posted By RichC on June 13, 2020

It is officially time for me to start wearing the “grumpy old man” cap (or “GOM” as my “poke the bear” friend Jeff refers to it). I can’t believe the things our country is now divided over. Tomorrow I’ll detail a little more on the serious items, but today its the ridiculous attack on everything associated with law enforcement and the police.

Since there is “uniform” dismay (an inappropriate pun) at the bad cop’s actions that triggered the Minneapolis, MN protests and ensuing riots  … those desiring to tear down civil society are now attempting to paint all 900,000 in law enforcement with the same very wide brush. From anarchists taking over 6 blocks and a police station in Seattle, to protestors toppling of statues and destroying property, they are all operating under a mob mentality. They alone have decided what needs to go. No civil debate or democratic rule and very little pushback from those in power. Those continuing to destroy and demand are acting like spoil brats; they are doing it because they want to and are responding as if “you can’t (won’t) stop me.” So far they are right … and those that tell them to stop currently aren’t willing to make them stop. I assume those going beyond peaceful protesting didn’t have parents who agreed with Proverbs 13:24?

Perhaps acting ALONE isn’t exactly correct .. since the media and elected officials have all but given the okay. Go ahead, take over the city. Here’s the police station, city hall and go ahead say anything you want to those wearing the blue uniform (we won’t call that inciting or bullying … and agree they deserve it). “We know you are just upset and can’t help yourselves.” 

Ridiculous! But it doesn’t stop there. Once they get on a roll, the radical left finds a lot more targets. How about getting rid of movies, law enforcement TV shows, Lego sets with police themes … and even those cartoons for children designed to promote positive relationships with those we hire to “serve and protect.” It is sickening.

‘Paw Patrol’ And Chase The Police Dog Are Good Examples Of ‘To Protect And Serve’

Good cop portrayals like Chase the police dog are absolutely necessary because our society and nation need admirable examples of public servants for kids and adults to look up to.

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If you think that removing “good” cop shows, tearing down statues, and renaming Disneyland rides is going to solve racism, you’re wrong. Racism was not created in a day and isn’t going to leave when things get canceled or removed.

Instead of lobbying for Chase the police dog to be euthanized, why don’t we instead focus on the ways he models how police can assist communities by protecting and serving.

LINK

Category: News, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: civil society, government, law enforcement, legos, paw patrol, police, protests, ridiculous, riots

Posted By RichC on June 12, 2020

Regular readers have likely noticed a few “hopefully” discrete ads running on My Desultory Blog. It is a way for me to experiment with ways to help my customers choose or forgo the use advertising services like Google Ads on their sites. For the most part it has been relatively painless (although nothing to retire on to be sure in my case).

Last week, Google “bots” (or a complaint?) flagged an old post from 2011 referencing my background in photography and photojournalism and the “what not to do” when composing/framing photos. Nowadays it is an even bigger deal with all the photo manipulation and deepfakes. My point was that “tweaking photos” was done even before digital Photoshopping became a thing. Often it is used to “better compose” a photo as I cited with the iconic 1970 Vietnam War protest photo on the campus of Kent State University. It was  a darkroom manipulated photo for Life Magazine of Mary Ann Vecchio and removed a fence post. Still a “no-no” in the photojournalism world.

Obviously recent events and sensitively by Google (and others) regarding content or in my case photos depicting “acts of violence” or “gruesome, graphic, or disgusting accounts of imagery” are no longer acceptable. I’ve disputed the flagging of my site and content as historic photos are posted on websites (including Google’s own) everyday. This one isn’t posted to glorify violence but as photojournalism instruction.

What should be done: Should I just remove the offending post and photo, bending to the will of the tech giant or resist their pressure to clean up what they determine to be offensive? It sure seems like Big Tech’s policing has a lot of cleaning up to do considering they seem to be targeting the low hanging fruit (my personal blog).

Category: Blogs, Financial, Personal, Photography, Photos, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: 1970, adsense, big tech, deepfakes, google, kent state, life magazine, manipulation, mydesultoryblog, photo, photojournalism, photoshopped, riot, tech friday, techfriday, violation

Posted By RichC on June 11, 2020

Dorothy Jean Gerber passed away peacefully at her home on May 30, 2020, in Twinsburg at the age of 93. Jean, as the name she went by, was born August 2, 1926 in Moran, Kansas to Reverend Roy and Bessie Truesdale. After graduating from McPherson High School in Kansas, she went on to attend Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas, then Northwestern Oklahoma State in Alva, Oklahoma, and graduated from Oklahoma State College in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 1948 with a teaching degree. She married Earl Evans Gerber, the love of her life, in 1948 and they were married for 65 years. Earl passed away 7 years ago.

After their marriage, they moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and happily raised their children, Janet, Joyce, and Gary. Jean worked as the head teacher at Pepper Pike Preschool at Lander Circle for 18 years and loved children. The family lived in Moreland Hills for over 30 years. Jean was very popular with many of the preschool parents and remained friends with them throughout her life.
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Category: Obituary | No Comments »
Tags: family, jean gerber, obit, Obituary

Posted By RichC on June 11, 2020

After listening to the loudest protestors from around the U.S. seemingly unite around the “defund and dismantle the police” manta, it is natural for people to ponder the questions regarding how this movement of angry people intend to “keep the peace.” As some point laws aren’t going to be followed, gangs and thugs will intimidate residents – someone will have to keep order?

While “police reform” has been a process that has been in place for my entire lifetime (and likely will be after I’m gone), we are not really any closer to a completely infallible person or robot (yikes) handling law enforcement duties (trigger thoughts of robots and a new for us Netflix movie pick for this weekend: Chappie). No doubt Boston Dynamic type robots will be in our future … and thankfully they are not here yet. So in my opinion, it make the most sense to continue police reforms with better training and trying to eliminate those who aren’t disciplined enough to do the job without racial or any other bias. I can’t imagine living or doing business in a high crime area without some kind of law enforcement … and certainly can’t support something as radical as “defund and dismantle” before there is a realistic plan “to protect and serve” society.

 
The advancements in robotics is frightening – Boston Dynamics

So the question is, how realistic is for some cities to eliminate police, at least as we know them. Is it political or serious? It sounds like there is a growing movement in response to the latest George Floyd incident and ensuing chaos. Politicians like Lisa Bender of Minneapolis (CNN segment below) will very likely hurt more people by eliminating the police if she gets her way. She sounds thoughtful and educated and not like the anarchists, ANTIFA or many in the BLM movement who use violence and promote destroying businesses, cities or harming police. To me, it makes more sense to improve police training and work with their unions to weed out the bad apples (no surprise there are a few considering 900,000 people work in law enforcement).

This discussion reminded me of a Mike Rowe podcast “A Novel Hero” we just listened to that ends by him sharing his thoughts on “Safety being the highest priority.” Years ago he commented that it would make more sense for companies to agree to “Safety 3rd” since every  business has risk and each profession faces it everyday. We take precautions but eventually we live with a certain amount of risk. His comment was in reference to shutting down the country from the coronavirus until it is safe. The comment of New York’s Governor Cuomo set him off in reference that “even one life saved is worth keeping the state closed for whatever amount of time it takes.” That’s crazy … we mitigate risk, but refuse to live in a bubble. When it comes to policing, you may say that its my “privilege” that has me thinking this way, but the statistically those who face the police where lethal force is necessary are nearly always criminals who are using guns … and even in those cases, “a police officers is 18.5% more likely to be killed by a black male than an unarmed black male is by a police officer.”  LINK

Something to ponder if you support “defunding and dismantling” the police.

Category: Movies, News, Politics, Technology, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: boston dynamics, chappie, cnn, coronavirus, covid19, defund, dismantle, george floyd, lisa bender, mike rowe, minneapolis, podcast, police, prager, protests, riots, robots, safety

Posted By RichC on June 10, 2020

Wishing my son a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY today. I know he is getting older, but I don’t think he is THIS old yet. Yikes!

A couple weeks ago Taylor sent a FaceApp photo with his college friends (a post from when they were backpacking together in Kauai). It is frightening how technology can add a few years to your looks nowadays … but interesting enough to archive on MyDesultoryBlog.com. Have a great birthday Taylor.

Category: Friends, Personal, Photography, Photos, Software, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: aging, backpacking, birthday, faceapp, hawaii, kauai, photo, taylor, Technology

Posted By RichC on June 9, 2020

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Category: Archive, Books, Personal, Photos, Video | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, brenda, drew, ellerie, family, grilling, katelyn, megan, pool, richc, taylor, waldo, yard

Posted By RichC on June 8, 2020

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Category: Entertainment, Music, Video | No Comments »
Tags: ballerina, move on up, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, van morrison, youtube