Category: Rants

When funny is not funny – 1/3/2020

I hate laugh tracks. I am not a television watcher. If I am home alone, it never gets turned on. If hubby is home, it is background noise even if he is reading, on his computer, or his smartphone. If it is on and I am in the same room, I either have on headphones listening to pod casts or music, or I am knitting, spinning, or weaving not paying much attention to it.

For the past several years, I have noticed a hearing difficulty in noisy environments and in October, it was confirmed as fairly significant hearing loss in my right ear, slight loss at high frequencies in my left. The loss in my right ear was significant enough that we took the major budget hit to get me a single hearing aid. It has helped considerably though it is still not set to full functioning, that will occur Monday morning, but one difficulty I have noted is directionality of sound. I guess if we had been willing to fork up twice as much budget money, I would have more directional microphones, but I have what I have.

Our house is a log home with heavy timber roofing system, so if I stand in the living room, the main support beam is way up in the air, well more than 20 feet. Behind the living room is an open kitchen and dining area, but it has an 8 foot ceiling and above that ceiling is the loft. The loft is our “den,” our sitting area where my craft tools are, where hubby’s flat screen TV is mounted, and where our comfy chairs are.

Often when I am in the kitchen, below the loft and he is in the loft with the TV on, I hear the voice sounds, often not distinguishable as conversation, but the annoying laugh track comes through clearly. Some shows vary the track a little, others such as some older sitcom reruns use the same excessive, repetitive track until I want to run screaming from the house. If I am in the room with the TV, and a line is spoken that is funny, I will laugh, often a line is spoken that lacks any level of humor and the laugh track is played. I don’t need to be cued to laugh when something is funny, nor will I laugh just because of their cue if it is not. Fortunately, movies don’t have laugh tracks.

Facebook Rant – 11/6/2019

For those of you who follow this blog on Facebook, you should take advantage of the subscription link on this page. As you know, I have a small from home craft shop with the registered name Cabin Crafted. This shop can be found on Etsy by going here Cabincraftedshop.com. In order to promote the shop, I decided to start a page on Facebook. I went through the entire process and when it posted, it posted with the name “1947.” I did not choose that,but I don’t know why Facebook came up with it. I had requested Cabin Crafted, obviously. I submitted a page name change and they instantly denied it. I appealed the request with the explanation that I did not choose that name, that my friends and customers knew Cabin Crafted, and the appeal was denied. I have tried one more time. If they again deny the name change, that page and my profile from Facebook will be deleted and you will only be able to get to my shop through this blog or Etsy or in person at events. You will only be able to read my blog by subscribing to it. You will still be able to reach me by commenting on the blog, by email, phone or text if you are a phone friend.

I am about done with Facebook. I know that they have rules, many of which seem arbitrary or fueled by interest groups, but too many of my shepherd friends have be blocked from selling their fleeces because of the rules. A young relative posted a rant because she was not allowed to post a link to a legitimate medical site because of the rules. Yet offensive posts, political or otherwise pop up constantly.

This may be the last post from this blog that appears on Facebook. I know I have said it before, but I think I can do without them in my life.

Big Brother is Watching – 10/2/2019

I think I have blogged on this topic in the past, but this week has been extremely irritating with “Big Brother.” We have two very old, high mileage cars that we are struggling to keep on the road, but fearing that another major repair bill might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back, so we have both been looking at reviews and stats on various options for replacement, hoping we won’t need one. At the same time, it is approaching time for us to have a vacation, so we started looking at winter cruises and other options. It took Facebook no time to start tossing up ads for new cars and cruise lines. We didn’t use Facebook to do the searches, but they obviously are watching our online activity, hopefully can’t see our online bill paying and banking.

To add to this irritant, I had a medical appointment and an audiology test last week. The Doctor and the Hearing Clinic are separate but joined at the hip so to speak. I had hardly gotten in the car to come home until I received a text message asking for me to rate my visit. This was followed by an email asking for my opinion and when I didn’t offer it, I have been emailed two more times. Both from the doctor’s office and from the Hearing Clinic. Monday we had our HVAC system twice yearly servicing done and the technician did the invoice on a tablet. His truck wasn’t even turned around in our driveway before I got a text asking to rate his visit. Yesterday was errand day and a couple purchases were done with the debit card, and you guessed it. Emails asking how my visit with their establishment went.

On the other hand, we visited a chain Asian fast food place for lunch yesterday and as seems to be the case more often than not, they lacked the entree I wanted and haven’t had black tea brewed or bottled but once in the past year. We didn’t even get a paper receipt so I could tell them what I think of their restaurant.

I guess the only way to have privacy is to use cash and stay off the internet, but this morning’s news had an article that ATM usage fees may rise to $4 a transaction and it had become difficult to deposit cash, so I guess “they” don’t want a cash society.