The ground level - in and out

[flighter]

Afternoon

[Elyris]

Tuesday already - jeez, I'm tired.

[Nawmtirea]

'Morning.

Finally had time to log in to say hi. Got a co-worker going on vacation next week so I've been learning how to do his show. Each show has a specific workflow.

It's been several years since I've regularly carried cash with me. I used to always carry a few dollars because Tim Hortons (coffee shop - actual coffee, not those Netherlands "coffee shops" ) only took cash and credit, but when they finally started accepting debit several years ago, there was no need to carry cash any more. I only carry cash if I'm going to a vendor's market, and even then, most vendors (us included when we do conventions) have "Square", which is a little device that connects to your phone via bluetooth and allows us to take credit cards and debit tap from anywhere. I rarely set foot in a bank any more, and my local branch actually converted to a "cash free" location. The only cash they carry is in their bank machines. We do 99% of our banking and bill payments right from our phones.

[Kiyevanie]

Morning

[Nawmtirea]

Morning.

[Kiyevanie]

Morning

[Elyris]

Thursday. I really need some sleep by now.

Hey Nawm. Well - you'd have to seriously threated me to get myself this naked in public. But I am well aware that 1. things are already way over board in other countries and 2. most people simply do not care at all.

I've read a news header the other day - about how the big sharks of silicon valley are already working on connecting brains with chips. It will come, people will use it, they few complaining about the direction this takes or talking about the risks will be laughed off and soon be so few they are more like a circus attraction than anything else and then close toe everyone capable of buying it will use it. The same went on with smartphones. People are so dependent on those things by now it's horrifying. I had to buy a new phone about 2 years ago because my old flip phone finally stopped working, but like before I only use it as a telephone. Those normal people around me always try to convince me of how great everything is with all those functions .. short messages, internet, calendar organisation ... and all I hear it "Come to the dark site - we have cookies!".

In other words - I really don't like such nonsense. It doesn't really make your life any better, but you are glass.

[Kiyevanie]

Morning

I think that's somehting everyone has to decide for themselves. I wouldn't wanna live without my smartphone anymore. Not that I'm online with that thing all the time, but it's good to know that the internet is just at reach. For example the day my car got stuck in the parking lot cause something was wrong with the ticket. I could go, look for the number of the owner online and call them to let me out.
I still would draw a line at a chip in my head... that's a more than scary thought.

[flighter]

My smartphone saved my a$$ a couple of times. For example, by reminding me of a major online meeting with my top boss, or enabling me to transfer money from one account to the other (which was empty but linked to my debit card) so I can actually pay and take with me bunch of stuff I picked at the supermarket etc. What I don't like about it is that I can't claim to not be avaialable because everybody knows I am online 24/7/365

In other words, there are pros and cons to it.

[Kiyevanie]

Morning

TGIF... and that's probably my last working day for this Summer. Next week's vacation, then the week after surgery again - same as April, I'm back to start here, meaning I'll be out of order for another four weeks afterwards.

[Elyris]

Monday

1. - have a nice vacation
2. - ouch, that doesn't sound good


Well - I guess I'm just old-fashioned. I never liked the thought of making myself so very dependent on such fickle technologies, as that's what it is. One little emp, one power outage that goes on for a day or so and the world would collapse. We managed to make ourselved incapable of existing as actual living beings. Everybodys well on their way to becoming a full-on tech zombie. I can literally sensethe day on the horizon when people would've forgot how to do the most basic of every-day life tasks, as there would be some kind of machinery to do it for them. And eywa knows how much I would like to pull the plug then.
I repeat: I wish I could live fo another 1000 years or so (by youth, health and the permanent luck of keeping out of trouble) to see how this goes down - as it will. It already is liek watching a very big train derail in slow motion. It's astonishing, fascinating, a bit horrible, but overall rather entertaining.
Sure - if people want to be used by tech, I wont stop them. But I feel more an more that I am not given a choice anymore. It's the same everywhere by now: you are told you are free and free to decide, when in reality it only really counts when you decide for the same thing as anybody else.
When I said I don't do online-banking one day at work half of my co-workers looked at me like I just cofessed to eat puppies on a monthly basis or so. Perr-pressure is odd and cruel and luckily I am rather immune to it by now. I look around every day and can't help but to be horrified by how people are.
When did it come to all of that insanity?

[Elyris]

Morning

It's getting darker again.

[Elyris]

Morning ... it's Bergfest.

[flighter]

Hey how is everyone doing?

[Elyris]

Morning

I'm very tired, have belly aches and can't even manage to get the most important stuff done (at least at home). Work is grinding. Time is running like water. And nothing good in sight.
In other words: Not good, but I am never doing actually good.

And you?

[flighter]

Ah, could be better, but I won't complain at all, not this time. Some more sleep would be good, but hey... I will sleep later

[Elyris]

Morning

Or die. Severe lack of sleep can kill you very fast. And answering a question isn't complaining. I always wondered about that .... why do people ask you how you are when they don't want an answer, but rather a phrase? It baffles me. Some might say it's usual social exchange, but to me it's simply lying - from both sides. The one questioning lies by pretending to give a shat in the first place and the one answering lies as the answer is always "Good, thank you", no matter the actual truth. I don't like that.

I have a great who also often asks "And - work fun?" and I dedicated myself to be truthful here, so I always answer "No." or "Of course not." and then she usually says "Oh? But it has to!"
Say what? I wonder how the world would look like if people would simply stop forcing themsleves into molds others showed them - "Don't say this!" , "You shouldn't/can't think like this!" , "But you should feel this instead of that." also "Don't talks about it in that way, it makes you feel bas - talk about it in a different way, it'll make you feel better!" What? How can stuff like this even work?

The older I get the more I realise that a´everything I thought it would be like to grow up was a lie. Adults are just old high schoolers and they are just old kindergarten children. No one gets any wiser. No one wants to to talk about anything substantial. People lie, cheat, pretend and keep themselves very 'private' (aka - I went to Universtiy with people for years, saw the mevery day and still knew next to nothing about them - same with every darn job I had) - makes you wonder how couples can forn under those circumstances .. no one every says anything about their inner thoughts or might only be teaserign the liefe outside of work.
How unhealthy.

[Elyris]

Morning .Monday again

[Elyris]

Morning

Back hurts quite a bit.

[Elyris]

Morning

[flighter]

Good morn... ah, I mean afternoon!

[Elyris]

Morning

I've got blockades in my idisacral joints - it's not really fun.

And as we are all old people around here now: how is your health (or lack thereof) holding up?

[Elyris]

Morning

[flighter]

Mine? Well... I don't see as well as I did 20 years ago. I am beginning to pay the price for tens of thousands of hours in front of the computer. I have slightly elevated blood pressure, few kidney calcifications (like stones but inside the tissue), and that is about it.

[Elyris]

I had been better - it had been better already. The pain going away, my ability to move like I should be capable of reutrning over the last week. And then: today. Today's grandpas birthday and it was decided that we would go out and have lunch and later coffee somewhere. Which meant sitting on not really confy chairs for hours and in narrow conditions. It lso didn't help that the temperatures reaches 32°C today.
I was fine when I came home, a bot exhausted, but fine. Got out of the car (I could already feel some pain coming back, but it hadn't been for too long and I thought it would go away over the evening), started the washing machine quickly, took a shower .... and when getting out of the bathtub the pain came back big time. I barely manged to get half-dressed before the pain grew so intense(in such a short time) that I nearly passed out. Somehow managed to take some painkillers and for the next 45mins or so I was basically a pile on my couch, concentrating of not loosing consciousness.
My circulation seems to slowly get back on track now, but the pain is still rather searing (waiting for the second round of painkillers to kick in - hopefully). I though I could go back to work tomorrow (as originally planned) but at this state I see myself hurrying to the doc early tomorrow, asking for a painkiller shot and maybe an x-ray (because by now I slowly get worried, that something is really kaputt down there).
Screw joint-pain. Like: really.