Even worse imho is that many private residences now have cameras that record the whole street and other homes. No, they aren’t technically allowed to, but they all do. I have a neighbor across from me who just put up a ring doorbell that fully monitors my entire property (small town lot directly across). They now essentially create records of every time I come and go from my own house. And Amazon, and likely whomever else wants it, has full access to that information.

Not cool. These should be flat out banned. I don’t care if you want to have an overhead camera pointed only on your property, but that’s not what these things do at all.

No you weren’t being unreasonable. They absolutely weren’t trying to help you out of the kindness of their heart, they were trying to seamlessly get your info by just keeping the conversation moving, and not asking if you -want- to sign up, to which yes or no are the only answers. When they ask for your number it’s weird to answer as though they asked a yes or no question, and that’s intentional.

I’ve worked retail, I was trained on canvassing sales (just trained, I quit before I started because it was super shady tactics I wasn’t comfortable with), that tactic is 100% intentional to get the info without you thinking about it. Some places even give bonuses if the employees sign up a certain number of people. Nothing altruistic about any of it.

When you don’t follow their script they get confused… because it’s a script. Not because they think you are mad; they don’t care about you as long as you don’t yell at them. You are just nameless face #545 of the day.

Whenever someone asks for my number or email I smile and tell them “oh, I don’t have an account with you, and I really don’t want one, but thank you all the same.” It’s direct and maybe a bit rude to some people, but they typically apply whatever discount anyway, and if they don’t, meh.

If they ask for zip code or address, I tell them they don’t need it, and with those I will get rude if I get pushback. This includes when I call for product support or something and just have a question. “No, you don’t need to know anything about me to answer my questions, and I won’t be providing it unless I feel you need it, regardless what you think or what your system says.”

There was some legit talk among the wealthy a while back about how to control their slaves servants… and the idea of bomb collars was floated…

I can’t find the article at the moment (I’ll edit when I do because I’m still looking but my app tends to crash if I wait), but this is all totally on the up and up and it’s really fucking depressing that there are so many articles now about doomsday bunkers for the ultra wealthy… like they could have just pumped that money into fixing things but they don’t want to… sociopaths.

Edit- found it faster than I thought!

https://archive.ph/l3Djh

It can change, mostly related to health. For example viruses and diseases can alter iris color.

If it’s cloudy and dull it may also be early stage of clouding of your lenses (cataract).

If you haven’t seen an optometrist recently, you may want to get checked, just to be safe, they can rule out any ongoing problems :)

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-eye-color-change

Can you drop me there first, please?

I promise to be suitably wowed. Also, I’ll film them for you. Sacrifices for the greater good or whatever.

I’m familiar with thither from the phrase “hither and thither”, which is a stupid-sounding phrase I read as a kid, and why I remember it. (Similar to knowing what “yon” means from “hither and yon(der)”)

I wouldn’t ever use either word, because I don’t see a need for pretentious pomposity, but perhaps he does. :)

I did used to have a friend who would use words correctly, but obscurely, and while he was smart and just enjoyed flexing his vocab, it was obnoxious af for everyone around him because even someone on the same intellectual level is going to go “what…??” Like, a lot… (basically, it is literally impossible for two people to know all the same things, so it’s just a “look I’m smart!” Flex). It’s just a bad way to communicate. Good way to be a poet, though.

Or just know how to enable lockdown mode. On iOS that’s 5 rapid clicks of the power button, screen on or off, and it vibrates to let you know you got it without looking. Dunno what it might be for android, or if it varies by model.

It ends up like a newly rebooted phone; requires a typed passcode. It also provides quick links to medical ID info and the sos emergency call thing. It may, if you have an ID set up, also have a link to that, but I don’t have that configured so not super sure.

I do this with my spider plant pups 💜 one of the flower stalk things almost reached my counter, so dangly!

And I give people cuttings of my Mini Tradescantia whenever I have enough rooted to pot them. “Here have a cute easy plant! Water it every other week, and turn it regularly, maybe fertilize it someday, cuz it’s planted in coco coir, but doesn’t seem to care that much… No it doesn’t really seem to matter how much light it gets, tho the brighter, the more pink…”

Street dealing is desperation, a symptom, almost always socially inflicted.

If telegram is keeping the streets clean, that says a lot about the society in which it functions.

:)

(Every country has its own illicit market, it’s just where that takes place and what is restricted that matters… no legislation is ever going to rid the illicit market. Ever. It exists for a reason, whatever reason. Just make the majority of it (self-harm drugs and the like) legal and the illegal rings for other stuff are a lot easier to spot. Those will be the things that should be illegal, not drugs which primarily harm adults able to consent to doing them. Let’s do the Portugal method of decrim and social support. Even if it isn’t perfect, it’s good.)

I’d pay that subscription. 100%.

I like drugs. I guess I should install telegram. Do the dealers just populate themselves as a service or what?

Thanks, random netizen, for telling me about a method to obtain drugs of which I was unaware!

(Jk, it’s not popular enough here for that, but if it was… I’d still just use signal ;) )

I used to have an Xperia pro, the one with the physical keyboard. It was my last keyboard phone. I absolutely loved it.

Flashed a different OS, cyanogenmod I believe, which broke the governor chip (irreparable; known issue but super buried, would have done the same with any OS of that version number, including stock) so it would read as a dead battery if not on the charger.

Never touched Sony phones again. Don’t trust them at all.

I just say the following every time:

“Your mother would be so disappointed in you if she really understood what you were doing, wouldn’t she?

Ruining the lives of little old ladies, just like mama. She’s probably not well off either, right Mr scammer? I feel for you. Really I do. I’ve lived in poverty my whole life too, and it’s been a huge struggle just to get by. But me? I wouldn’t shame my family by scamming people just like us out of what little they have. My mamma raised me better than that. I’m sure yours did, too.”

I always get a reply meaning it definitely strikes a nerve, usually get some sort of bravado about how mama is proud because they bring home the money, and I just respond “if you tell yourself that enough maybe you’ll believe it someday, too!”.

But I don’t want to be totally heartless because a lot of them don’t have meaningful options, and I get that, and I’m not the ragey sort generally. Or at least I try not to be.

I said the exact same thing months ago when I saw that video. I don’t even use a toaster.