Venting Too Much
Not me. Them.
I bought some Pentel Felt Pens about 4 years ago. I love those pens, I used them as a teen, and as a young adult, and they were good pens. Familiar in my hands, predictable, easy to get a good line.
The new ones were great. Nice and slick, they just let the ink flow.
I colored in one of those complicated coloring book pages. Just to get the feel of the pens again, it had been a long time.
Next I did a simple one, with lots of water, and very little white space left. I was beginning to work on refining my style. Felt pen has always been something I understood once I originally got the hang of interlining to blend.
Then I undertook a major work. An arrangement of poppy blossoms, very complex. Right toward the end, the Blue pen started to run dry. Barely enough to finish. Three works, and the pen was running dry! I was appalled. How could an artist afford to work if pens had to be replaced after just three works? And the first one hadn’t even USED that much blue, and the second had used OTHER colors of blue!
I did another, and ran out both of my most used green pens.
About then I made a discovery.
The caps on the pens had AIR VENTS in them! Seriously! The caps were vented to make the pens dry out! Pentel, a formerly reputable company just slid into the realm of worthless crooked cheats! $30 for a set of professional art pens recognized the world over as the standard for serious artists. And they do THAT!
Well, I spent about an hour patiently sealing those vents with Shoe Goo. One uses what one has, after all.
Then I put the pens away. I was afraid to start a work with them, for fear something I needed would run out. And so it is.
I can’t buy Pentels again. And I can’t find another brand that is just a regular traditional felt pen, they’ve all gone to something trendy that doesn’t work as well, or which has a tip that gets beaten down faster.
Finally, I have to have felt pens. There is this subject that begs to be rendered by my own personal hand. I must do it. Pens I must have.
I troll the shops online. Nothing appeals. Nothing is what I need it to be.
I finally end up at Hobby Lobby across town, one day, in desperation. They have nothing like what I want either. I finally settle for a carton of pens of two types I do not want, both in the same box. But I think maybe I can make them work until I can find something better.
I get them home, and put them aside while I finish a new work in colored pencil. Then I get the pens out and get my work area set up for the new work.
It is then that I notice the caps on the brand new pens.
I can’t believe my eyes. They are also VENTED! The same type of venting in the caps. (The venting is concealed in the design of the top of the cap – it has slits in it, and they go all the way through).
One thing is sure, I will NEVER be taken in by that again!
I spend 45 minutes sealing both ends of the pen – dual caps. These are easier to do.
We take a trip off to Walmart and Michaels just to see if there are other options.
Not really.
But we do find that the majority of felt pens at Michaels also have vented caps.
I get a package of permanent markers at Walmart, in 50 colors. Tips are too large, but I can do some works in broad tipped pen, so they are worth the purchase. Caps are completely sealed. I made sure before I bought.
This is not the only product we have found that is fatally flawed by some kind of fraud. For fraud this is! But to find it in my favorite pen, and then in so many others is pretty distressing.
So beware. Look things over well before you buy, even some of the brands in the big leagues are derailing.
TIP: Hold the cap up to the light and look through the top of it. If you can see light, it is vented.
If It Is Artificial It Can’t Be Intelligent
AI is just a boondoggle. Start to finish. Gimme a minute. I’ll prove it.
First off, we don’t want to call it “AI”. That means “Artificial Insemination”, which is something that actually CAN be done, and which has owned the abbreviation far longer.
Second, there is no NEW innovation or technology, nor application of existing technology which has any increased function or capacity. It is just OLD tech that is being given a face lift by naming it something that the namers hope will impress the world. (Look at what they are actually SELLING… It is the same old thing, only generally more limited.)
It isn’t anything at all. In fact, it is LESS than, not more than, the tech and progress of former years.
We are LOSING technology, not gaining it.
The web is dying, software systems are so exploited that embezzlement is rife (we encounter it regularly in our lives), and software LOSES features and functions on a monthly or more frequent basis.
Your software and computer does LESS work today than it did 10 years ago, and it is MORE TROUBLESOME to get the work done. Your CAR is less reliable, takes MORE gas, and the electronics break way too fast, plus the engine and transmission won’t even make 50k miles on many brands (due to the use of computer systems to configure metallurgy with no comprehension by the designers of the differences). Appliances must be replaced within 5 years instead of 20, and small appliances are even worse. Lawn mowers have aluminum blades, and paper filters because PEOPLE don’t understand the technical differences. Not only that, CAPACITY is declining, oven stovetops have smaller burners with lighter weight elements, and the oven has a lighter weight element that does not heat as fast. Electronic panels have built in fails where heavy loads are put on inadequate traces which burn out far too fast. Pick a thing. Bet it is WORSE, not better.
If that is “Artificial Intelligence”, then we don’t want it. Because it is RETARDED!
Mostly, what they are referring to as Artificial Intelligence is simply Knowledge Bases and the standard reminder and scheduling systems. But they try to rope in ANYTHING with an electronic panel, including Appliances, Cars, Machinery, etc, and they want to USE it to replace the common sense of a human brain. So I’m not off base… this is IT.
This is an attempt to do two things:
1. To persuade the public that the decline in technology isn’t relevant, and in fact, the things we had 20 years ago are good enough to rename to imitate progress. They want you to PAY MORE for LESS. If your phone no longer has the included apps that kept you working productively, you notice, and you don’t want to buy a new one. But they call the new one “Equipped with Artificial Intelligence”, and you rush out to buy, hoping it really IS better. But all it does now, is give you a second camera (or third), and includes even more online games that you cannot remove (malware anyone?). Everything else is LESS functional.
2. To develop a platform that they can charge for, that will let the computer do all the real work. This is again, partly knowledge base type applications, so that professionals can charge a fee without having to even ENGAGE with the client. Ideally, they want to charge you for the computer menu system access, AND then charge you for an appointment. At the design and engineering desk, they want the computer to do it all, so they can push a few buttons and never have to APPLY any higher reasoning or intellectual functions from their own brains.
Greed is rampant. Of course, they want to pay as little as possible for this stuff, so they reuse… and programmers double the price on anything they need to add.
A knowledgeable software engineer that I know tells me that there are COSTS involved. He says $4000 to build a foundational platform from scratch (without all the exploits that have been heaped upon existing platforms), and then another $6000 for a programmer to develop the interactive database system that allows professional “advice” to be handed out in a functional manner. And that PRESUMES the programmer is HONEST, and it presumes that the Question and Answer Database ALREADY EXISTS.
If the programmer is NOT Honest, a company has to shell out approximately 50 times that much money. Or more. This is why the government required 6 million to build an insurance marketplace that had an actual work required pricetag of about $5000. No, we are not overlooking the kickbacks and other graft surrounding that particular swindle.
Hardware is built on existing chips. If you need to do something you are LIMITED to the hard coded chips that EXIST. You can’t find ANY COMPANY anymore that will custom design a chip that works differently or performs a new function. They will TELL you they will, and then just cobble together existing chips into a substandard “solution”. And this is EXTREMELY COSTLY, because it IS NOT HONEST. Yeah, dishonesty always costs more. It is anywhere from $10k to $150k, and the lower end of that is NOT innovation, it is simply taking an existing solution entire, and passing it off as custom.
The software arena developed, with a pretty good base, and then exploiters came in and bloated the code (this hides things better), bloated the billing (they worked on embedding their own exploits rather than on the project they were hired for), and they destroyed essential functions (this keeps them employed “fixing” them). It grew to a point, and then just got twitchy because too many greedy criminals got on board and derailed the progress train.
If you weren’t involved in the software development arena, you may not have SEEN this as anything other than an increase in bugs in your software. I WAS involved from the inside in many capacities, and I SEE things the average person does not, because I know what certain things mean. Our company DID develop software, and we adapted and troubleshooted software regularly. So my perspective is INSIDE, and I interpret differently.
For example, BUGS are not accidental. They are MEANT. Reasons are listed above, just apply them. Someone did it on purpose. But the entire industry shrugs and says, “These things happen”, and we buy it. I don’t anymore. Because what I see are problems so big they can’t have happened on accident. Someone DID it.
And now, there’s a little bit of a resurgence in the arena – we see this in computer Specs. 5 years ago they hit a low that was disgraceful. We should have been into laptops with 64 GB of RAM and 4 TB of SS Hard Drive Capacity. Instead it declined to 2-4 GB on many systems, and Hard Drives under 200 GB, and this at PRICES we were seeing for far more functional units just 5 years previous to that. We are finally seeing them with 8-16 GB of RAM again, but hard drives are still pretty messed up, and pricing is still WAY OUT.
Someone tried to push everything onto the Cloud (can you say “Microsoft”?). They want you to have to keep all your files there (that never works – you lose them, we know that, we don’t buy into that if we are smart), and they want you to have to login online to use shared software for all your major work projects (can you say “Adobe:?). THAT never works, you just can’t work fast enough, or function within the fractured workspace and bandwidth. Greed again. Why let people buy their own when you can charge them a subscription forever? Like we are going to be happy with that, or even functionally productive.
But there ISN’T anything new right now, other than a great push to make you believe that a COMPUTER can take the place of a QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL. Not that all the professionals out there ARE Qualified (which is partly why they are willing to just set up a set of questions and canned answers and tell you that’s as good as it gets).
Not only has SOFTWARE declined, but we are losing KNOWLEDGE (I actually have a book in progress about that). Partly because of bullying by the “misinformation” police. Partly because there’s a real agenda behind that, to MAKE you purchase their solution to the false problem.
But mostly because we have several entire GENERATIONS of people in this world who are USERS of software, that have NO CLUE about how to troubleshoot it, or even use it beyond the simplistic things they’ve been lead to believe are the ONLY things they need to do with it.
Software (and much hardware) has been demoted from TOOLS, to TOYS, in the effort to make it essential for every single person in the world. And now, those who need serious TOOLS, find themselves confronted with TOYS pretending to be those tools.
We also have people who have been taught that if they have been to college and have a degree in an industry for which they have NOT BEEN GIVEN EXPERIENCE in that education, that they are JUST AS QUALIFIED as someone who HAS experience. These people are also DETERMINED that they shall never HAVE to gain the experience, because they spend their workdays trying to AVOID the work, rather than trying to MASTER the work. And these people control FAR TOO MANY positions of power and direction.
There are other factors, too complex for this post, which heave their influence into the decline of knowledge and functionality.
But there is no Artificial Intelligence. It is a contradiction in terms from the outset, and the base upon which such a thing could exist, even AS described by technobabble, does not exist anymore – it DID, but it is being systematically destroyed instead of built upon wisely.
AI just means Artificial Insemination. So watch out for what they are Inseminating into our contemporary understanding of technology, and don’t get taken in by the Boondoggle.
Wow That Did Not Look Good
I entered the doors at WalMart and there was a couple there. She was pouting. Genuinely pouting. She’d obviously been practicing it a long time, her version was quite dramatic.
In all my life I’ve not seen a more unattractive picture of a woman trying to persuade her significant other to see things her way. I think she really should have found another manner of expressing herself.
She’s young, and slim, with long hair, and a not unlovely face. Until she pouts.
Her body inclined, her shoulders dropped in dejection, and her face slumped in an exaggeration of distress (it actually got longer). And she heaved a great sigh. And pouted. Only not the classical protruding lower lip, no… Her ENTIRE BODY AND FACE pouted.
I wanted to tell her to not do that again, it was just really SOOOO Unatractive!
But I didn’t.
I went into the store. So did she. She was hanging around the produce, waiting for him, apparently.
Kevin had dropped me at the door so I’d not have to walk so far (my hip socket is acting up again). So I was there when Kevin came in… and when the significant other came in again.
He came in carrying her purse. I know immediately what the pouting was for, she’s trying to get him to go get it, and he doesn’t want to. She won. He’s conditioned, apparently. He doesn’t know how to get her to persuade him in a more beguiling way. She’d probably think that was manipulative…
Sure, I’ve done it. Forgot my purse in the car, and had to ask Kevin to go get it because he could move faster than I could. But GEEZ! There’s a nicer way than to put on THAT kind of face and pose!
My former Bishop says there’s a nicer way to ask for a favor than to put a guilt trip on the other person. I agree.
So if you’re out there and it gets back to you, don’t do that again. Someone might take a picture of you and want to dress up like you for Halloween. There’s a perfectly lovely alternative to that unpleasant drama queen act.
Just smile and ask Please.
Olive Garden For Breakfast
Leftovers for breakfast. Yeah… (Can you feel the delicious satisfaction?)
It is a family tradition. At least on my side. My children inherited it from me. My husband did not.
He looks at me weird if I eat potato soup for breakfast, even if it has bacon in it. Or meatloaf sandwich (hey, there’s egg in there). Or even Yorkshire Pudding. I often eat them cold.
And then there is Pizza. Cold Pizza is a thing. A really tasty thing. Pietro’s. That’s the one it started with (the actual original Pietro’s Pizza on Industrial Way in Longview Washington). Before the days when frozen Pizzas were considered normal. We didn’t eat out for Pizza often. A couple times a year maybe until we were teens and could buy our own. But leftovers for breakfast happened as often as we could mooch them.
Tuna sandwiches were pretty great also, on the way out the door to the school bus at the end of the lane. You could saunter down that long lane and have time to eat the whole sandwich before you got to the bus stop.
My children naturally adopted the habit. Macaroni and Cheese, Stew, Burritos, Mexican Lasagna, Tuna Casserole, or anything else hearty left from the day before.
Kevin has come around to cold Pizza finally. And cold chicken. No idea why it took him so long, but he will eat either one for lunch at work now. I haven’t persuaded him to Cold Spaghetti or Sloppy Joes for lunch, nor have I persuaded him to Pasta Salad for breakfast. He’s just not that daring yet.
He wasn’t here when I ate the leftover Seafood Alfredo this morning, with one reheated breadstick. He would have LOOKED at me… Like THAT, if he had been here.
But it was good. I heated it first. It is the sort of thing you DO heat if you can.
But if I had not been in a kitchen with a microwave oven, I WOULD have eaten it cold. And I would still have LIKED it.





