August 2020
HDWGH – Story 6 – Carwash Shenanigans
From the How Did We Get Here Series
Now: A young lady walks out of an automatic carwash nude. A couple of employees, a mix of male and females look confused but otherwise seem disinterested.
Before: Erica always wanted to try leaving her car as it begins its journey through the local carwash. The 16 year old had no real good reason for wanting to do so. She finally got up enough courage and decided to try it today. To save her shoes, Erica decided to remove them before she leaves her car. As the car begins to roll through the carwash, she jumps out of the vehicle and tries to navigate through the machinery as rollers spin and water shoots from everywhere. As she gets near the end of the carwash, a roller catches a loose piece of her sundress and in an instant, rips the dress from her body leaving her completely nude.
I Say This A Lot
Ok so I ate too much candy and now I am not well 🍫 😂
— iJustine (@ijustine) August 24, 2020
HDWGH – Story 5 – Watch Your Step!
— From the How Did We Get Here Series —
Now: Young boy standing on a sidewalk. He is crying as urine streams down his pant leg.
Before: Boy starts to step out into the street. Boy nearly gets run over by a speeding car. He pees himself. He starts to cry because he pees himself and doesn’t look forward to explaining it to his mother. Yep. That is pretty much all that happened here.
Very Happy Ending
Found this and think it is a great story. It is a real life Brady Bunch.
Way back in 1992, Janet Fenner and Gregory Dabice stood side by side at Montclair State University’s football stadium. It was the real high school experience, being crowned homecoming queen and king, complete with scepters and tiaras.
Little did they know it would be over two decades, before they’d be reunited–and in love.
This week, 28 years later, they held another ceremony in that very same spot–their wedding.
You can read the whole story here.
HDWGH – Story 4 – Locked Out
— From the How Did We Get Here Series —
Now: Young man sits in his apartment in handcuffs. Police are confiscating his laptop. Girlfriend is sitting on the couch with her head in her hands and crying.
Before: Jim couldn’t believe his luck. He was an out of work computer programmer who hacked occasionally on the side to pick up some extra money. While at a small coffee shop the previous day, he was approached by a young lady who seemed to know his credentials asking Jim if he could help move some computer files around. It was quick easy money so Jim was quick to agree. As Jim sat down at his computer the next day, he tried to log into the primary account that was going to transfer this lady’s money only to see a pop-up window that said “Incorrect Username/Password combination – Please try again.” Well, he did try again…three times. Behind the scenes, the account was locked out, the police alerted, and poor Jim arrested.
Even More Detail: The girl who gave Jim the website to visit couldn’t have been more pleased. The first time he tried to log in, her program went into action as it drained every dime from Jim’s bank account. The small conversation they had in the coffee shop was enough for her to glean the needed information she required for the heist. So, while Jim thought he was doing one thing she was doing another. Jim’s girlfriend is on the couch crying because she wanted to drain his bank account that morning and leave him that evening but when she logged into it the account was already empty.
Image from Cheezburger.com
Drive By Thought
At what age does your inner monologue become your outer monologue?
Pretty sure it whatever age I happen to be.
Blockchain – Big Bullshit
I have personally felt that there was something just a bit off about the whole Bitcoin craze. While I am usually hesitant to jump on bandwagons anyway, I couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong with blockchain in general.
It seems I am not the only one.
I happened across a great story from the Netherlands on this very topic. The author explains…
That’s why I wrote this article. I can tell you upfront, it’s a bizarre journey to nowhere. I’ve never seen so much incomprehensible jargon to describe so little. I’ve never seen so much bloated bombast fall so flat on closer inspection. And I’ve never seen so many people searching so hard for a problem to go with their solution.
…and this exactly describes my problems with it. I didn’t do the research this guy did but I just had a feeling.
I guess someday a problem will come along and someone will dust off the blockchain box and say “oh yeah! I got the solution for that right here!”
HDWGH – Story 3 – Drawing the Line
— From the How Did We Get Here Series —
Now: A small group of people surround a young woman who is laying on the ground outside of a Steak and Shake screaming and crying. She is in a fetal position.
Before: Emily has always been about…Emily. So, she saw the announcement on the news about a new Steak and Shake opening nearby and she just couldn’t resist. Emily wanted to be the first person in line. Emily arrives and immediate moves to the front of the line directly in front of a smaller younger girl. Shortly thereafter she experiences an immense pain as she is yanked by her pony tail and brought quickly to the ground. A knee presses into her neck and the smaller younger girl explains how life for Emily at this very moment is a gift that should be enjoyed elsewhere.
Note: This story is actually based on true events. I took liberty with the victims name but I think it might have been slutty Amy or something like that. Names. Words. Whatever.
HDWGH – Story 2 – Ain’t That Some Shit?
— From the How Did We Get Here Series —
Now: Beautiful woman wearing a very light and revealing sundress is standing next to an apartment door. Beneath her dress on the floor is a small pile of fresh fecal matter. If you look at the pile just right, you can see the heat emanating from it.
Setup: The middle aged woman goes to a nearby Dairy Queen for a banana split knowing that she is completely lactose intolerant. Her husband just left her so she has decided to bury her sorrows in a nice ice cream sundae.
The problem begins about 30 minutes later as the woman is trying to get to her apartment after the pains in her stomach begin. She has just enough time to kick off her flip flops before the warm liquid leaves her ass and deposits on the Welcome mat beneath her bare feet. Her apartment key is in her hand but never makes it to the lock.
A young man sees the beautiful woman and decides to walk over to her and start a conversation. He gets within a few feet of her and smells the shit beneath her dress. He quickly grabs his nose and walks away in the opposite direction. No words spoken. Woman horrified. Reputation earned. Nickname acquired.
You Don’t Say…
Article here.
Analogy time: This is what I think of when I see that schools want to open.
Me: I realize the room is full of toxic gases but there is a cute girl in there and I just want to say “Hi” to her.
Friend: You DO realize that the room is full of dangerous gases and you will probably die.
Me: Isn’t she so cute!
Friend: Again. Gases, danger, boom. Hello?
Me: I’ll be right back.
Friend: No. No you will not.
From the Newspaper…
Can’t say I am upset about it. During a pandemic, sports should be the least of our problems.
HDWGH – Story 1 – Exposed
– From the How Did We Get Here Series —
Now: An old man is standing outside naked holding the daily newspaper in his hand. Next door, an old lady screams in horror.
Before: First, a fact. The older you get the less you like wearing clothes. The old man in this story is not wearing clothes. He was wondering around his flat naked when he realized that he forgot to run outside and get the newspaper. So, he simply walks outside to get it. An old lady sees him and claims that he is outside flashing people. While a true statement, the old man is just getting his newspaper. The old lady is just collateral damage.
Indiana Extortion
I have absolutely no trouble in calling out extortion. Excess taxes and fees are simply extortion. The money doesn’t really belong to you. You aren’t in actual possession of it but someone else has it and you decide that you want it. So, through various manipulations including but not limited to taxes and fees you gain money that wasn’t yours to begin with. That is extortion. Wikipedia has a pretty good page on the subject.
Must be learning it from the Europeans.
Google on Patrol
I’m not sure how I feel about this one.
Google may have shared identifying information of certain users with law enforcement, according to a report from The Guardian. Leaked documents indicate that the company’s CyberCrime Investigation Group (CIG) has been forwarding data like real names, street addresses, credit card numbers, Gmail and recovery emails, as well as IP addresses from recent logins. In some cases, the CIG reportedly also included copies of comments made on Google’s platforms like YouTube, which include threats of racist and terrorist violence.
I like the idea of weeding these types of bad actors out but it comes with a price. The price is the perceived idea of personal privacy but the internet is not a private place.
If you don’t want someone to know something about you, don’t post it anywhere on the internet. It is literally that simple.
Uber’s One Finger Salute to California
I love the fact that Uber appears to be refusing to be bullied.
This all started last fall, when California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the state’s Assembly Bill 5 labor law. The legislation was meant to fix the gig economy by reclassifying workers as employees, but companies like Uber and Postmates quickly filed lawsuits calling the move unconstitutional.
Assembly Bill 5 was supposed to go into effect on January 1st, 2020. While Uber says it made changes and believes it’s in compliance, the state feels otherwise. Earlier this week, California won a preliminary injunction against Uber and Lyft. The court order could block the companies from classifying drivers as independent contractors. Uber and Lyft were given 10 days to appeal the ruling, and if things do not go in their favor, Khosrowshahi says Uber will temporarily suspend service in the state.
The whole story can be found here.
Fun Facts – Landslide Elections
This is a post for fun reasons. I always remember the 1984 landslide of the Ronald Reagan era but I recently discovered that wasn’t the biggest landslide election in history.
The biggest occurred in the election of 1936 involving FDR (Franklin Delano Roosevelt). Additionally, FDR was so popular that he is the reason they created a presidential term limit.
This is Reagan in 1984.
This is Roosevelt in 1936,
Alf Landon won 2 states but the electoral votes added up to less than what Walter Mondale got in 1984.
Details are over at willrabbe.com
Noise Pollution – Its a Thing
The sheer number of cars that pass my house on a daily basis is staggering. Most of them are relatively quiet but a bunch of them are downright loud.
Whether the noise is the engine or the loud music playing in the car the decibel meter gets pegged.
I have a problem with this when that noise makes it into my house. I don’t have single pane glass windows. I have triple pane windows and the noise still gets in. There was a car that passed by this morning with music so loud, you’d swear I was playing it myself inside my house.
NPR and WITF have an article about this very thing.
When I was 16, noisy cars were cool. Now that I am older, noisy cars make me dream of a personal EMP gun that you can aim at a vehicle and well, it dies. Something like this but bigger.