The Old Folks Home

[microchick]

The weather is miserable here today. High is only in the 50s there isn't one dribble of sunshine and it's wet/drizzly/rainy. We had a dry winter and a dry spring until last night. The only thing growing in my garden are the weeds The chickens are droopy, I'm droopy. I need....NEED....75 and sunny. This just feels like an extension of early March. Grumble Grumble.

As for Facebook. Absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt REFUSE to do facebook, twitter, anything that even remotely sniffs of a site that is going to be gathering data on me and my daily habits. Bad enough that google is doing it even as I type. As it is they know how many chickens I own, what breeds they are, what I feed them and what I like to watch on YouTube. My IP always is wrong thank goodness. At the moment it says I am in Monroeville, Alabama with is fine with me. The way I see it, I'll decide what I want out there as public information and what I'm doing at the moment.

I talked on the phone and dealt with the public for most of my professional career. I avoid the phone like it was poison now that I'm retired. I love writing emails though and invite all my friends to contact me that way.....gotta give Google something to monitor......

Grumble grumble grumble.......

 

[Alaskan]

Yeah...

Tin foil hat I am too.

 

[Beer can]

@microchick I always said the same and still don't do twittersewer. I got on facecrap one day just to get a message to DW, cell tower was down and I happen to have the secret code to jack maintenance dept Wi-Fi at work
Then I got all sorts of friend requests... I don't want to be on Facebook... Ohh well, guess I am now. Half the stuff on it is garbage, some good for a laugh.
I kinda keep in touch with family and friends now that I don't talk to often if ever. Some of them in different states. Yeah it'd be better face to face, or even pick up a phone, but I wasn't and wouldn't. Same with DW.
So I now figure Facebook contact is better than none, and that is what it's been for yrs basically none.
And if it gives hackers or the Govt easier access to me, well I ain't got anything anyway

Now I can see how my nieces and nephews are doing playing sports. My aunt in SC happy with her new boyfriend. Uncle in PA and his Harley biker gang (Christian Motorcycle Association, Lol).
Buddy down in TN dealing with the wildfires last yr, lives right near DollyWood.
New babies, family/friends passing. Etc etc.
I wouldn't know or hear any of this if it wasn't for Facebook, I don't keep in touch with family unless I happen to run into them.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I hate politics with a passion and all the crap the last 12 years makes my stomach turn
I cannot be labeled a party as I never did fit into one I have cousins galore over 250 last
count as we are 8 generations strong here in America but still strong in Germany and Austria
we do chat through facebook boost aka Sprint that my phone is through does not charge me to call them but
theirs does through the nose even when I initiate the calls

this last election was the worst for sane people to act like 2 yr olds didn't chime into
FB for 4 months then

 

[getaclue]

We took my cell phone into the appropriate cell phone store yesterday. For the past few months, the thing would drop calls like crazy. I could sit in one spot, and within a couple minutes, the call would drop. I didn't dare try moving from one place to another in the house. It got to the point that it would drop the call at least 3 times during a 10 min. conversation. Trying to schedule things with the doctors, or hospital resulted in the call dropping at least twice. I was really tempted to hurl it against a wall, more than once.

The problem was diagnosed as being a sim card problem, or the antennae wire came loose. They replaced the sim card, and no luck. We ended up getting me a new cell phone. I got the new Samsung Galaxy S8+. Last night, I called my MIL, and walked all over the house while talking, and it didn't drop the call. I've spent a lot of time getting all the settings the way I want them, but I really think I'm going to like this phone.

 

[maddysmamaw]

We took my cell phone into the appropriate cell phone store yesterday.  For the past few months, the thing would drop calls like crazy.  I could sit in one spot, and within a couple minutes, the call would drop.  I didn't dare try moving from one place to another in the house.  It got to the point that it would drop the call at least 3 times during a 10 min. conversation.  Trying to schedule things with the doctors, or hospital resulted in the call dropping at least twice.  I was really tempted to hurl it against a wall, more than once. 

The problem was diagnosed as being a sim card problem, or the antennae wire came loose.  They replaced the sim card, and no luck.  We ended up getting me a new cell phone.  I got the new Samsung Galaxy S8+.  Last night, I called my MIL, and walked all over the house while talking, and it didn't drop the call.  I've spent a lot of time getting all the settings the way I want them, but I really think I'm going to like this phone. 

DH got me the new iPhone 7+ for my birthday and I love it. I use it for everything. I love that I can update the grocery list and it will update it on all of our iPhones. Then they can pick up what I need when they are out.

 

[chickadoodles]

Congrats Alaskan on the cranes arriving! Soon spring will arive!

 

[microchick]

Don't get me wrong, I fully respect and support people using social media if they want to, it just isn't right for me. The whole data gathering thing is way over the top IMHO and the longer people think, well, it's only facebook or twitter, what harm is it? are basically giving the data collectors permission to turn their inch of harmless monitoring into a mile of sticking their noses in where they don't belong.

Our every day lives are so under the microscope now that it isn't funny. Our movements in cities are captured on cameras inconspicuously mounted on stop lights, or on buildings. Police cars are scanning our license plates and emails are filtered so that key words in your correspondence are triggering ads to pop up on your server. Our purchases are monitored in stores either by our credit card companies or by the stores themselves. It won't be long before we have cameras watching us in our bathrooms so they can gather information on what toilet paper we are using....oh, wait! Use your cell phone while using the porcelain throne? Don't have your phone camera taped over along with your microphone pick up? They already know!

The advent of the internet and the world wide web heralded a new era for humanity. No longer does a person have to travel to the library to do research on a subject of interest or even read a book. It's all at the tips of our fingers, literally. You can keep in touch with friends, Christmas shop, shop for fun, watch a movie, all from the comfort of your own home. There is something to be said for that and I'm willing to trade off a little privacy for that convenience especially as I grow older, but ya gotta draw the line somewhere in the sand and for me that is with the social medias.

Now I gotta go put on my tinfoil hat with the rain brim and slog out to gather eggs and lock up the bird brains. I wonder if chickens eat tinfoil.....

 

[Beer can]

Don't blame ya microchick, that's pretty much how I've always felt. I don't think most people even realize to the extent our info is retained by the Govt, they pretty much spy on our every move, phone calls, e-mails, internet. Data mining.
I've only been on FB for maybe six months now. Always told my mom who thought I should get on it, you know FB and social media has made it so easy for hackers/thieves. What used to take a long time, consist of digging through your garbage, stealing your mail, crooks get all info they need now easy. Kids names, pets names, birthdates, etc, many use them for their passwords to bank accounts and such.
Heck I've had my info possibly stolen three times now, before FB. Once from work, was hacked they had to monitor for a yr. Once from a grocery store that someone hacked credit card info. Worst was our bank. Tried to use debit card to pay for gas, didn't work, didn't work in their ATM either, luckily they knew me at the store and the bank was in that town so I drove over to the bank. Put the card in their drive through ATM and it sucked it in and kept it!!! Lucky again the bank was open. They said their computer system was breached so everyone's cards were immediately frozen, we sent a letter in the mail and you should get a new card in a couple days.......

IDK, we're probably all screwed, all this stuff making life 'easier' going to bite us in the behind eventually.
We do draw the line at paying bills, banking, none of that done online.

Ohh, and I'm pretty sure they're removing all libraries from schools, don't use them anymore anyway...

 

[maddysmamaw]

I know Maddy's school has a good library. She's in advance reading so she's required to read so many books every month. We read a lot. We're making our way through the Little House books right now. It's our bedtime ritual. SIL even sent us a Little House cookbook. Next series is the Boxcar Children. Other SIL sent Maddy the box set for Christmas.